TEXT: SACRED
  SACRED
  SACRED
  STEEL
  MILESTONE 1+ RELEASE
  
  CREDITS & ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
  LEAD HIPPY ...............................................................NEIL DE CARTERET
  WEBSITE DESIGN & SENIOR TYPO WRANGLER ..................... STUART FERGUSON
  ARTISTIC GENIUS & PIMP DADDY ........................... DAVE “BANZAI” KIRWIN
  ARTISTIC GENIUS ......................................................DARREN LEE EVANS 
   ................................................(HTTP://DAMAGECONTROL.ORG.UK/GALLERY/)
  ARTISTIC GENIUS ...........................................................GAZ J. FINDLAY
  HUNGOVER PLAYTESTING & HUGE WORD LIST ............................ SCOTT LE PAGE
  NOT COMING UP WITH AN ENCUMBERANCE SYSTEM ........................BEN FALLAIZE
  DECIDING WE DIDN’T NEED ONE AT ALL .....................................NICK PASCALL
  ALE & WENCHES FONT ..............................................................BLAMBOT
   ................................................................ (HTTP://WWW.BLAMBOT.COM/)
  TOMBATS FONTS ............................................................. TOM MURPHY 7
   ...................................................................(HTTP://FONTS.TOM7.COM/)
  SENDING NED A GMAIL INVITE ...................................... GUNTHER SCHMIDL
  FREE ROLE PLAYING GAME
  Sacred Steel is a free roleplaying game. Th at means you can visit our website and download 
  the latest version, free of charge any time you want. You can make copies for your friends. You 
  can give copies away for free. You can even make new games based on this one. To encourage 
  sharing, we use the GNU Free Documentation Licence. What that means is that Sacred Steel 
  will remain Free for everyone, regardless of anything.
  Projects like this depend on people getting involved. If you have ideas about what would make 
  Sacred Steel better, or if you’ve written something for your campaign, then bring it back to the 
  community: come to the website, chat,  discuss, contribute:
   
  HTTP://SACREDSTEEL.ORG/
  COPYRIGHT
  Sacred Steel is copyright © 2004 Neil de Carteret except where noted. All illustrations 
  are the property of the artist. Illustrations marked with the 
   symbol are copyright © 
  2004 Dave “Banzai” Kirwin.
  Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms 
  of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or any later version published by 
  the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no 
  Back-Cover Texts. A copy of the license is included in the section entitled “GNU Free 
  Documentation License”.
  
  CONTENTS
  PART THE ZEROTH: START HERE .......................... 2
  PART THE FIRST: THE BASICS ............................. 4
  PART THE SECOND: COMBAT ............................... 12
  PART THE THIRD: CHARACTERS ........................... 26
  PART THE FOURTH: MAGIC ................................48
  PART THE FIFTH: EQUIPMENT .............................66
  PART THE SIXTH: THE LANDS .............................78
  78
  7
  PART THE SEVENTH: THE LEGENDS ........................88
  PART THE EIGHTH: GMS ................................102
  GNU FREE DOCUMENTATION LICENSE ...................114
  114
  11
  
  SACRED STEEL  -  INTRODUCTION
  2
  Th is is a Free fantasy roleplaying game. It’s not just free 
  like a free leaﬂ et, it’s Free, with a capital F, as in liberated. 
  You can do anything with it. While the original authors 
  and artists hold the copyright, we give you or anyone else 
  permission to do absolutely anything you like with it, as 
  long as you give people the same permission on anything 
  you make with it.
  We can do that because it’s a non-proﬁ t project. We’re 
  not trying to make a proﬁ t, except maybe a warm glow of 
  satisfaction from having made something good.
  But this isn’t just another homebrew system shoved on the 
  web. We want quality here: good writing, imagination and 
  artwork. Th is is a professionally executed project, but all 
  done for Free.
  And you can be part of it. Can you write? Can you draw? 
  Can you have a good idea occasionally, even if you can’t 
  write it up nicely? Th is is the game where your work doesn’t 
  have to be just “fan material”: bring it over to our forums 
  and share it. Get it polished up and when it’s ready, it’ll go 
  into the next version of this book. Th at’s how Sacred Steel 
  works.
  What you are holding in your hands (or reading on a 
  screen) right now is our “Milestone 1” release, which 
  means we have rules for tasks, combat, magic and character 
  generation, along with scene-setting ﬁ ction and a little bit 
  of background info. Our next big push is for “Milestone 
  2” which will include a fully-ﬂ eshed out setting. Th e next 
  leg is “Milestone 3”, where we ﬁ ll in things for GMs, like 
  GMing advice, magic items to give the players, monsters 
  and NPCs.
  All this isn’t going to happen on its own, so if you haven’t 
  already visited the website, go there now:
  http://sacredsteel.org/
  And join in the discussion. See you there!
  OBLIGATORY INTRODUCTION 
  TO ROLEPLAYING
  Not many cookery books start by explaining what cookery 
  is, but it seems like most role-playing game books start by 
  explaining what role-play is.
  It works like this: you and a bunch of friends sit round a 
  table with some paper and some snacks, and in the case 
  of this game, some cards. Each player has a “character” 
  - a ﬁ ctitious person that they play. One of the players is 
  nominated “Game Master”, and it’s his job to tell the others 
  about the ﬁ ctitious world that their characters live in. Th en 
  they respond by telling the GM what their characters are 
  doing. And it goes back and forth for a few hours, with 
  the “Player Characters” interacting with the “Non-Player 
  Characters” (the other people living in the fantasy world, 
  played by the GM) and doing all sorts of crazy stuﬀ , and a 
  story is told.
  EXAMPLE
  Here’s an example. Germaine, Alf, Bob, Celia and Dave 
  are the ﬁ ve players. Germaine is the GM. Th e others are 
  playing characters called (in order) Arathorn, Basher, 
  Cloud and D’zyrkol. Notice how their character’s names 
  PART THE ZEROTH:
  START HERE
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  INTRODUCTION  -  SACRED STEEL 
  3
  are conveniently letter-coded to their own names. You don’t 
  have to do that yourself. Th e four Player Characters (PCs) 
  are various types of hero, in a fantasy setting a bit like those 
  books by J. R. R. Tolkien.
  Germaine:  You’ve just arrived outside the town of Torbuna, 
  Germaine:  You’ve just arrived outside the town of Torbuna, 
  Germaine:  
  where you hope to ﬁ nd clues about the legendary 
  Dragon Sword. It’s dusk, nearly night, and you can 
  see the light of a few ﬂ ickering ﬁ res over the wooden 
  town walls. A lone guard is standing next to a blazing 
  torch, but the gates aren’t closed.
  Alf:  We’re not expecting trouble here, are we?
  Alf:  We’re not expecting trouble here, are we?
  Alf:  
  Germaine:  No. It’s a peaceful town, mostly crop farming.
  Bob:  Let’s head in, then.
  Celia:  Yep.
  Dave:  ‘Kay.
  Germaine:  Th e guard hears you tramping along the road...
  Germaine:  Th e guard hears you tramping along the road...
  Germaine:  
  Dave:  I was sneaking! D’zyrkol always sneaks!
  Germaine:  Your ﬂ at-footed friends gave away your location. 
  Germaine:  Your ﬂ at-footed friends gave away your location. 
  Germaine:  
  Th e Guard holds his torch over his head and shouts, 
  “Who goes there?”
  Alf:  (In character) “Four travellers! Is there an inn here?”
  Bob:  Ask him about the sword.
  Bob:  Ask him about the sword.
  Bob:  
  Alf:   He’s a guard, what’s he going to know about legendary 
  artefacts?
  Dave:  Plus it would look well dodgy. Let’s just get some 
  kip.
  Germaine:  “Aye, ask at the tavern. Th ey have a couple of 
  rooms. What’s your business in Torbuna?”
  Bob:  “We’re looking for a...”
  Celia:  “Place to stay!” Stow it, Bob, you’ll make us look 
  dead suspect.
  Bob:  It’s my character. He does that.
  Germaine:  Th e guard looks at you strangely but stands 
  Germaine:  Th e guard looks at you strangely but stands 
  Germaine:  
  aside to let you pass.
  Th at completes a little story, the tale of how four people 
  approached and entered a town. But now this happens:
  Dave:  As we bustle past him, I’m going to see if he’s got 
  Dave:  As we bustle past him, I’m going to see if he’s got 
  Dave:  
  anything worth lifting.
  Alf:  Aw, don’t get us in trouble.
  Alf:  Aw, don’t get us in trouble.
  Alf:  
  Germaine:  Th ere’s a small pouch on his belt, might have 
  Germaine:  Th ere’s a small pouch on his belt, might have 
  Germaine:  
  some coins in it. You want to try it?
  Dave:  Yes.
  Dave:  Yes.
  Dave:  
  What’s this? D’zyrkol is trying something a bit risky, a bit 
  diﬃ  cult. If he isn’t a good enough pickpocket, this whole 
  tale will change direction dramatically. Th is is where rules 
  come in. Th e game is governed not only by the GM and the 
  player’s will, but also by some numbers and some cards. 
  Germaine:  (Draws some cards out of sight of the players) You 
  need two successes.
  Dave:  (Draws some cards and inspects the results) Oops. Sorry 
  guys.
  Using the rules, Germaine has told Dave how hard it’s 
  going to be to successfully pick the guard’s pocket. Dave’s 
  character D’zyrkol is a pretty good thief but this time he’s 
  muﬀ ed it. 
  Alf, Bob and Celia:  (Together) Bugger bugger bugger
  Germaine:  “Oi!” shouts the guard, grabbing your hand.
  Alf:  I’ll punch him out. Quickly.
  Bob:  And me.
  Bob:  And me.
  Bob:  
  And indeed, the story has changed direction. Now the 
  players have a small ﬁ ght on their hands, and getting 
  information about the sword could be much harder. On the 
  other hand, if D’zyrkol had succeeded, they’d be on their 
  way to the tavern a few coins richer.
  ABOUT THESE RULES
  Everything here is meant to give you a fast game, with 
  only simple maths needed, and good ol’ ﬂ uke-laden skill 
  resolution system.  Th ese rules are set up for a swords & 
  sorcery type of game,  but they could be made to work with 
  just about anything.
  All you need is some printed and cut out cards, a pencil and 
  paper and some snack food (optional). 
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  SACRED STEEL  -  THE BASICS
  4
  THE DECK OF CARDS
  Th e only extra thing you need apart from these rules is a 
  set of cards. A printable sheet of 12 cards is available as 
  a seperate PDF download from the website. Each sheet 
  is “balanced”, i.e. there’s the same number of each 
  type of card on it. You’ll probably want a bit 
  more than twelve cards to play, so 
  remember to add the same 
  number of red cards and 
  green cards.
  THE BASIC 
  DRAW TO SEE 
  HOW WELL 
  YOU DID
  Th is is how you determine whether 
  your character succeeds when he tries 
  something diﬃ  cult:
  Shuﬄ  e your deck of Sacred Steel cards. Put it face 
  down on the table and draw a card oﬀ  the top. If it’s a 
  happy face with a big greeen tick, you’ve succeeded. 
  Hooray. If it’s a sad face with a big red cross, you’ve 
  failed. Boo.
  Bit simple, eh? Frankly, that’s enough to start a game. Just 
  start telling the epic tale, and any time your character tries 
  something hard, a green tick is success and red cross is 
  failure. Right now, oﬀ  with you. Get playing.
  EPIC FEATS AND MIGHTY 
  HEROES
  Still here?
  Okay, there’s a few 
  more things you can do. 
  For one thing, drawing 
  just one card means your 
  character isn’t very good at 
  whatever it is he’s trying.
  Characters 
  who 
  are 
  better at doing certain 
  things get to draw more 
  cards. If any of them are a 
  any of them are a 
  any
  green tick, it’s a success.
  So a particularly strong, well-built 
  chap trying to climb a rock face might get to draw ﬁ ve 
  cards. Th ere’s a very good chance that at least one of them 
  will be a green tick. But there is still that outside chance of 
  a failure, and that’s where the fun is.
  Th e ﬂ ip side of being good at something is trying even 
  harder tasks.
  Harder tasks require two or more green ticks in the 
  draw.
  type of card on it. You’ll probably want a bit 
  more than twelve cards to play, so 
  DRAW TO SEE 
  Th is is how you determine whether 
  
  E
  E
  E
  E
  
  A
  HEROES
  just one card means your 
  character isn’t very good at 
  whatever it is he’s trying.
  Characters 
  who 
  are 
  better at doing certain 
  things get to draw more 
  cards. If 
  green tick, it’s a success.
  So a particularly strong, well-built 
  
  A
  
  E
  E
  A three-card draw, getting two successes
  PART THE FIRST:
  THE BASICS
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  NUMBER OF SUCCESSES NEEDED (DIFFICULTY)
  NUMBER OF CARDS (SKILL)
  1
  2
  3
  4
  5
  6
  7
  8
  9
  10
  1
  50%
   0%
   0%
   0%
   0%
   0%
   0%
   0%
   0%
   0%
  2
  75%
  25%
   0%
   0%
   0%
   0%
   0%
   0%
   0%
   0%
  3
  87%
  50%
  12%
   0%
   0%
   0%
   0%
   0%
   0%
   0%
  4
  93%
  68%
  31%
   6%
   0%
   0%
   0%
   0%
   0%
   0%
  5
  96%
  81%
  50%
  18%
   3%
   0%
   0%
   0%
   0%
   0%
  6
  98%
  89%
  65%
  34%
  10%
   1%
   0%
   0%
   0%
   0%
  7
  99%
  93%
  77%
  50%
  22%
   6%
   0%
   0%
   0%
   0%
  8
  99%
  96%
  85%
  63%
  36%
  14%
   3%
   0%
   0%
   0%
  9
  99%
  98%
  91%
  74%
  50%
  25%
   8%
   1%
   0%
   0%
  You don’t need to know this: the rough percentage chances of making a roll based on skill and diﬃ  culty
  THE BASICS  -  SACRED STEEL 
  5
  Tasks which demand just one tick are “easy”. A more 
  challenging job may demand two ticks. Our nominal 
  ﬁ ve-card rock  climber might try an even harder rock face, 
  one that requires three successes, and still have a chance of 
  succeeding.
  Congratulations. You’ve just learnt all the basics.
  MEASURING HOW GOOD 
  YOU ARE AT THINGS
  So how do you tell how many cards you get to draw? Th at’s 
  the job of skills. 
  All characters have ﬁ ve skills, called Awareness, 
  Physique, Combat, Learning and Interaction.
  In our slightly cartoonish world, these ﬁ ve skills determine 
  almost everything about what sort of talents a character 
  has. Yes, there are other things, but we’ll get to them later. 
  Th ese are the important ones.
  Okay, so how does this tell you how many cards to draw? 
  Well:
  Each character has a score, usually between 2 and 
  6, for each skill. And that’s how many cards you 
  draw when you use that skill.
  Having just one point in a particular skill means you’re 
  fairly useless at it. Th ree points is deemed “average”, and 
  anything above three is talented. Six points is an elite 
  example, among the best. 
  Th ose skills again:
  Th e Awareness skill represents a character’s ability 
  to understand the immediate world around them.
  Spotting traps before you place your size twelve in them, 
  noticing hidden rooms, and being able to hide well are all 
  aspects of the Awareness skill.
  Th e Physique skill is used for anything purely 
  physical.
  Like lifting treasure chests, playing darts and climbing 
  walls. Not simultaneously.
  Th e Combat skill represents experience of 
  ﬁ ghting.
  It often goes hand-in-hand with Physique, but is also 
  used alone. For example evaluating opponents or choosing 
  weapons. 
  Learning is general knowledge and book-learning.
  How good a character is at stuﬃ  ng information into his 
  head is represented by Learning. Any time that a character 
  wants to try and remember something that he might know, 
  a Learning check is called for.
  Interaction is used for dealing with other people. 
  Th is skill says nothing about what type of personality you 
  have, just how good you are at using it. Characters with 
  low Interaction scores are bad at gauging reaction, making 
  friends or impressing people. It doen’t matter if you’re eight 
  feet tall and built like a brick commode, if your Interaction 
  score is low, you’ll look like a thick lunkhead.
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  SACRED STEEL  -  THE BASICS
  6
  MAGIC
  Th ere is a sixth skill: Depth.
  Depth is a measure of how deeply a character has 
  become involved in a magical art, and thus how 
  much power they have with it.
  Most characters will have no magical ability, so their Depth 
  remains at zero. Unlike the other skills, it is not crippling to 
  have no magic—it just means you don’t do spells. Magic is 
  covered fully later on.
  OPPOSED CHECKS
  Th ere’s also a way for two 
  characters to test their skills 
  directly against each other. Th is is 
  called an Opposed Check.
  In an opposed check, a player 
  and the GM (or two players) 
  both draw cards according to 
  their skill. Whoever gets the 
  most green ticks wins.
  Th is would happen in cases like 
  arm wrestling (opposed Physique 
  checks) or two people trying 
  to persuade a third one to do 
  totally opposite things (opposed 
  Interaction checks).
  Opposed checks that tie keep the status quo as far 
  as possible.
  Th at is, the task probably fails, but no negative consequences 
  occur either. It’s as if the attempt never happened, although 
  “target” characters for theft, stealth etc. may become 
  cautious.
  DELAYED CHECKS
  Sometimes a character will want to use a skill, the results of 
  which will only be known later. Examples include setting 
  a trap (you won’t know how well you hid it until someone 
  approaches it) or barricading a door (you won’t know if it’s 
  strong enough until someone tries to break it down).
  In a delayed check, the draw is made as normal but 
  the result is noted and not used. It can then be used 
  as the diﬃ  culty for future counter-checks, a bit like 
  an opposed check.
  In other words, if you’re trying to hide something, you 
  make the draw, note down how well  you did, and then 
  when a NPC comes looking for it, that’s his diﬃ  culty in 
  ﬁ nding it.
  HIDDEN DIFFICULTY
  Th e GM doesn’t always 
  need to tell the players 
  a speciﬁ c diﬃ  culty for a 
  task. 
  Sometimes 
  there’s 
  no particular “failure”, just 
  varying degrees of success, 
  and sometimes the character 
  wouldn’t 
  know 
  if 
  they’ve 
  succeeded or not.
  When a character is dealing 
  with an unknown quantity, 
  the GM may opt to 
  simply hear the result of 
  a draw and tell the player 
  an outcome, rather than 
  whether it worked or not.
  Th e classic example is when a player asks to look round 
  the area for something. It may be there, it may be not. Th e 
  check goes ahead as normal, the GM will decide ahead of 
  time whether there’s anything to be found, and will say, 
  based on the result, “You didn’t ﬁ nd anything” or, “You 
  found something”. 
  You can’t “fail” to look round a room. You might fail to ﬁ nd 
  something hidden in it, but you couldn’t possibly be aware 
  that it was there and you failed to ﬁ nd it.
  Players should role-play hidden checks as best they can. 
  Remember that RPGs are for fun, not for victory. 
  
  A
  
  A
  A
  
  
  A
  
  A
  
  E
  E
  Dave is none too happy when he gets this draw
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  THE BASICS  -  SACRED STEEL 
  7
  WAIVING CHECKS
  You don’t need to draw cards for every little thing. 
  Sometimes it just makes sense that a character can complete 
  a certain action without risk of failure, especially if they’re 
  not rushed or stressed while trying.
  Th e GM can waive a check in cases where failure 
  would make no sense.
  Note that it’s not compulsory - the luck of the cards can 
  also be used to represent the hidden diﬃ  culty of a task, e.g. 
  a character failing something that they would expect to be 
  able to do simply means that something made it harder 
  right at that moment.
  BONUSES & PENALTIES
  Often, circumstances will make things easier for a 
  character. 
  Circumstantial bonuses mean a player may be 
  allowed to draw extra cards for a particular task. 
  Th is may be a ﬁ xed bonus number of cards, or the 
  player may be allowed to draw double or triple his 
  normal amount.
  How do bonuses play against diﬃ  culty—wouldn’t it be 
  simpler to just reduce the diﬃ  culty?  Play it by ear, but 
  as a rule of thumb you should change the diﬃ  culty only 
  when the task has fundamentally changed—in other cases, 
  the GM should just award bonus cards. Also bear in mind 
  that bonus cards are the only way to modify the odds in an 
  opposed check.
  Characters can also have penalties on their actions. Th e 
  most common type is wounding, which we’ll get to in the 
  next chapter, but the GM may enforce any others he feels 
  are appropriate.
  BONUSES FOR INVENTIVE PLAY
  Th e GM can encourage the players to really describe what 
  they’re doing, using the scenery and being inventive, by 
  awarding bonus cards. Th e bonus should not throw the draw 
  completely—one or two cards is good. It adds immersion 
  because the rules bend toward a good story.
  HELPING
  Two or more people can work on one task. As a rule of 
  thumb, the most highly skilled person should make the 
  draw,  and they get one extra card per helper. Th e GM 
  should use discretion in how many characters can usefully 
  “help”.
  EXAMPLE
  Let’s carry on the example from the introduction. It’s a few 
  minutes later. Th e four characters have just punched out a 
  guard and are standing next to a town gate as dusk turns 
  into night.
  Germaine:  Th e guard collapses.
  Germaine:  Th e guard collapses.
  Germaine:  
  Celia:  What a great start. I’ll tie the guard up. I’ve got some 
  Celia:  What a great start. I’ll tie the guard up. I’ve got some 
  Celia:  
  rope. And I’ll drag him out of view.
  Germaine:  Physique check, please. One success.
  Celia:  (Has three cards in Physique, and they come up )
  Two. I did it.
  Alf:  Did anyone hear the ﬁ ght?
  Germaine:  (Decides that Arathorn couldn’t be totally sure 
  whether they were heard, so this will be a Hidden 
  Diﬃ  culty check. In fact, she’s already decided that there 
  was another guard in a hut just inside the gate, but it 
  would be really diﬃ  cult to notice him - maybe a shadow 
  cast by a dim candle) Awareness check.
  Alf:  (Has three cards in awareness, but they come up ) 
  ) 
  
  Um. Only one.
  Germaine:  You don’t think anyone heard. In fact, you can’t 
  Germaine:  You don’t think anyone heard. In fact, you can’t 
  Germaine:  
  see anyone at all.
  Bob:  Let’s keep moving. Head for the tavern. See if we can 
  get some info there before someone ﬁ nds the guard.
  Dave:  Better idea - we wake the guard up and give him a 
  few coins to keep his mouth shut.
  Alf:  Your coins, I assume.
  Alf:  Your coins, I assume.
  Alf:  
  Dave:  Whatever. I’ll go and shake the guard to wake him 
  Dave:  Whatever. I’ll go and shake the guard to wake him 
  Dave:  
  up. 
  Germaine:  He wakes up and groans, then focuses on you 
  and yells.
  Dave:  “Shh! Shh! Look, we don’t want any trouble. I’m 
  really sorry about what happened before, would you 
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  SACRED STEEL  -  THE BASICS
  8
  take some coins to keep quiet about it? Look, a gold 
  coin!”
  Celia:  I’ll go and smile sweetly at him too.
  Germaine:  Th e guy is not only scared stiﬀ  of you lot, 
  Germaine:  Th e guy is not only scared stiﬀ  of you lot, 
  Germaine:  
  but now also totally confused. I’d like a two-plus 
  Interaction check to convince him. You can have a 
  bonus card because Cloud is helping.
  Dave:  (Has two cards in Interaction, and with his bonus card 
  draws )
  )
   . Hooray! I’ll give him the coin.
  Germaine:  Th e guy is clearly not happy but greed gets the 
  Germaine:  Th e guy is clearly not happy but greed gets the 
  Germaine:  
  better of him. “Alright, I haven’t seen you. Just get 
  into the town.”
  D’zyrkol:  We ﬂ uked that nicely. Don’t worry, I’ll do better 
  D’zyrkol:  We ﬂ uked that nicely. Don’t worry, I’ll do better 
  D’zyrkol:  
  on the next one.
  Alf:  Next
  Alf:  Next
  Alf:  
   one?
  Next one?
  Next
  Celia:  Let’s get to that tavern. 
  Germaine:  You walk up the main track, heading for the 
  Germaine:  You walk up the main track, heading for the 
  Germaine:  
  small church steeple.
  Bob:  Steeple?
  Germaine:  Th e pub is always next to the church in this 
  Germaine:  Th e pub is always next to the church in this 
  Germaine:  
  sort of town. Your characters would have known that 
  so I waived the check. Th e buildings are mostly low 
  wooden huts with thatched rooves, and occasional bits 
  of stone work. Th e tavern and the church, almost next 
  door to each other, are the only all-stone buildings 
  you can see. You see the tavern’s sign, a crossed sickle 
  and sword, and push the door open. Th e air smells of 
  stale rough beer, and most of the tables are occupied 
  with locals drinking and relaxing.
  Celia:  Cloud feels so out of place here. 
  Dave:  Pﬀ t. So does my character, but what are these yokels 
  going to do about it? Actually, I know, they’re going 
  to give me some money.
  Bob:  You are joking, right?
  Bob:  You are joking, right?
  Bob:  
  Dave:  No.
  Alf:  Wait outside. Don’t start anything. I’m going to head 
  Alf:  Wait outside. Don’t start anything. I’m going to head 
  Alf:  
  for the bar.
  Germaine:  (Knows that another group of out-of-towners 
  have just turned up. Th ey’ve given the barman a coin to 
  keep quiet about them, but when a second group shows 
  up, he starts to wonder what’s going on. Arathorn will 
  be given an awareness check to spot two members of the 
  other group still standing near the bar. It’s an opposed 
  check, against the other group’s ability to blend in (they 
  don’t want to be spotted). Th is is their Interaction skill, 
  averaged at 3 for simplicity, plus a bonus card for being 
  in a crowd. Germaine draws four cards and gets , 
  so Alf needs to beat 2 successes to spot them.) Th e barman 
  is sharing some hilarious joke with a local, and looks 
  at you sideways as you approach. Awareness check. 
  Alf:  Umm... okay (Draws his three cards for ) 
  ) 
   Th ree!
  Germaine:  Standing over at the other end of the bar are 
  two other people who obviously aren’t local. Th ere’s 
  an older woman, wearing a tattered but expensive-
  looking robe, and a well-built man, probably a ﬁ ghter, 
  next to her.
  Alf:  Okay... I’ll ignore them for the minute and try to get 
  the barman’s attention.
  Germaine:  He comes over. “Yes sir, what can I do for 
  you?”
  Alf:  “Four pints, please. And we need a room for the 
  night.”
  Germaine:  He starts drawing the pints from a keg. “Ah... 
  we can’t do you a room at the moment. All full.”
  Alf:  “Come on... how many travellers do you get in a place 
  like this?”
  Germaine:  “Bit of a rush at the moment, see, sir, some 
  locals out of their homes. Sir. Flooding, see?”
  Alf:  “Hmm.” I’ll pay for the pints and hand them round. 
  And tell the others about the two strangers.
  Celia:  Th ere might be a hayloft or something. I’ll go and 
  Celia:  Th ere might be a hayloft or something. I’ll go and 
  Celia:  
  ask.
  Dave:  I am so not outside. I’m going to shadow Celia to the 
  bar and wait till I see someone checking her out, and 
  go for their purse.
  Germaine:  Yep, there’s a dupe eyeing her.
  Germaine:  Yep, there’s a dupe eyeing her.
  Germaine:  
  Dave:  I wait till he checks out Celia’s arse as she passes and 
  then cut his purse () 2 successes...
  Germaine:  ( – tied!) Okay, he leans back for a better 
  tied!) Okay, he leans back for a better 
  tied!
  view as you get close and bumps into you. He turns 
  around and looks down at his purse, then back up to 
  you.
  Dave:  Does he see my knife?
  Germaine:  No, you palmed it as he looked down. He is 
  watching you though. 
  Dave:  I’ll leave it. 
  Germaine:  Celia, the barman is talking to the older woman 
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  THE BASICS  -  SACRED STEEL 
  9
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  SACRED STEEL  -  THE BASICS
  10
  as you approach. She glances in your direction and 
  then  moves back into the crowd. “Yes ma’am?”
  Celia:  “Look, we know your rooms are all full, but is there 
  a hayloft or something we could stay in?”
  Germaine:  “I’m sorry ma’am, we’re all out. Nothing at all. 
  You could try one of the farms. But you’ll need to 
  start out now, because they won’t open their doors 
  late at night.”
  Bob:  He’s really trying to get rid of us, isn’t he?
  Dave:  I don’t like this pair at all. I’m going to saunter over 
  their way and see what I can overhear.
  Germaine:  Staying out of their sight, or just trying to 
  blend in?
  Dave:  Avoiding their line of sight 
  Dave:  Avoiding their line of sight 
  Dave:  
  (Knows it’s going to be an 
  Awareness check, so draws his four cards, getting )
  )
   . 
  Um. One.
  Germaine:  (Feeling generous, gives only the woman a check, 
  on the grounds that they’re facing opposite directions. She 
  has three cards in Awareness, and gets , so D’zyrkol 
  is okay). You maneuver within range of them, and 
  start listening. Meanwhile, what’s Cloud doing?
  Celia:  I’ll try a bit of good old ﬂ attery.
  Bob:  I think ﬂ irtery would work better.
  Celia:  “Please, I’ve been walking all day – surely a large 
  tavern like this would have somewhere for me to 
  sleep?”
  Germaine:  Normally he’d be no match for you. But it looks 
  like his conscience is struggling with something. 
  Interaction check, with a bonus card, and I want two 
  successes.
  Celia:  (Her normal interaction is four cards, so she draws ﬁ ve 
  and gets )
  )
    Four.
  Germaine:  He’s taken a real shine to you. “Well... there is 
  the stores I suppose. No rats. But you’d have to be 
  gone by dawn.”
  Celia:  “Oh, thank you! Th ank you so much!”
  Bob:  See? I was right. 
  Dave:  So, what am I hearing from our two friends?
  Germaine:  (Adopts a stage whisper) Th e old woman is saying, 
  “I should have known they’d be here too. We’ll have 
  to start early to get to Makravon ﬁ rst.”. Th en the 
  man says, “We could just get rid of them. You know, 
  ﬁ nd out where they’re staying and...”. Th e woman 
  hisses, “No! You and your bloodshed. Th ey might not 
  even know about Makravon. We’ll just be quicker 
  than them.” Th e man seems to acquiesce. “Okay. We 
  should turn in then. You’ll be safe overnight with the 
  worg.” Th en they move towards the stairs.
  DOUBLING
  Occasionally, an awesome set of bonuses and skills will 
  mean you ﬁ nd yourself drawing a huge number of cards at 
  once. Feel  free. Th at’s the idea behind using cards, that you 
  can have epic skill checks fairly easily. On the other hand, 
  you might ﬁ nd that you’re getting clumsy and drawing 
  eighteen cards is becoming awkward. 
  For large draws, you can use doubling - draw half 
  the number of cards, and double the number of 
  successes.
  Probability-wise, extreme results are more likely when you 
  double.  So if you want to work the system, use doubling 
  when you’re trying something hard, and avoid it on easy 
  tasks.
  It’s up to GMs when doubling can and can’t be used, but as 
  a guide, it shouldn’t be allowed unless a player is drawing 
  eight or more cards.
  USING DICE OR COINS 
  OR WHATEVER
  Th e Sacred Steel cards are not the only option. All they do 
  is present a 50-50 chance on each draw of success or failure. 
  If you can’t be bothered printing and cutting out cards, you 
  can use dice, and treat high rolls (4–6) as successes and 
  low rolls (1–3) as failures. Th e results have the same range 
  probability.
  Likewise, anything that can come up “true” or “false”, like 
  ﬂ ipping coins, or two-sided counters can be used.
  Th e only thing that won’t work is collapsing the whole draw 
  down into one die roll and applying arithmetic to it—the 
  value of the Sacred Steel system is that no matter how good 
  you are, there is always the possibility of drawing nothing 
  but ’s.
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  THE BASICS  -  SACRED STEEL 
  11
  SHUFFLING
  Th e great thing about cards, as opposed to dice, is that if 
  you work your way through the deck discarding drawn 
  cards until you run out, your luck is pretty much guaranteed 
  to average out. Th at is, if you get halfway through the deck 
  having nothing but bad draws, you know that there will be 
  lots of nice green cards waiting for you in the other half. 
  To prevent people abusing the numbers, you should stick to 
  these two guidelines:
  Always draw the full number of cards oﬀ  the deck, 
  even if you can see from the ﬁ rst few that you can’t 
  succeed.
  Always work your way through the entire deck 
  before shuﬄ  ing.
  Decks with 40+ cards work best to prevent “card counting”. 
  But don’t worry about letting your knowledge of the deck 
  aﬀ ect your actions. If you’ve had several bad draws and you 
  know the rest of the deck should be quite good, go for it. 
  Be conﬁ dent. It’ll be that much funnier when you pull out 
  the last ﬁ ve crosses.
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  SACRED STEEL  -  COMBAT
  12
  PART THE SECOND:
  COMBAT
  Being a big old fantasy game, Sacred Steel has special rules 
  for dealing with moments of combat.
  THE TRIGGER
  Th e ﬁ rst thing that happens in a ﬁ ght is the trigger. Th e 
  ﬁ rst punch thrown in anger is the classic trigger for most 
  pub ﬁ ghts. In military actions, it might be the moment 
  when one guy spots an enemy and the commander issues 
  the order to ﬁ re.
  If the other side wants to avoid combat at this point, they 
  may, at the GM’s discretion, have an opportunity to duck 
  out. For example, the guy getting a bunch of ﬁ ves in the 
  bar ﬁ ght might manage to say something to calm things 
  down. On the other hand, the victims may be completely 
  unprepared. 
  Th e aggressors may try get to a surprise attack by 
  making an opposed Combat Training draw against 
  the defenders. 
  Th e Combat Leader of each side may draw on behalf of his 
  entire side. If the defenders were armed, ready and aware 
  of the aggressors, there is no chance of a surprise attack. 
  Bonuses apply as follows:
  THE FLOW
  Here’s roughly how ﬁ ghting works:
  1
  Something starts a ﬁ ght - a weapon 
  gets drawn, a command is issued, a ﬁ st 
  is swung or an ambush is triggered.
  2
  Th e side starting the ﬁ ght may get 
  a Surprise Attack if they’re quick 
  or well-prepared enough.
  3
  Th e participants may (optionally) manoeuvre 
  and “team oﬀ ”, to form smaller melee groups.
  4
  Once the ﬁ ght is underway, you deal with 
  time in ﬁ ve-second chunks called “rounds”. 
  All the events of a round are played out 
  fully before moving on to the next one.
  5
  Everybody taking part in melee keeps 
  track of a “combat score” against each of 
  the people they’re directly ﬁ ghting.
  6
  Each round, people taking part in melee 
  make a draw, and divide the number 
  of successes as they see ﬁ t between all 
  the combat scores they’re tracking. 
  7
  At the end of a turn, you can choose to 
  make a strike if your combat score against 
  an enemy is higher than the enemy’s against 
  you. Making a strike cancels out the combat 
  scores so far, so it’s worth doing when a 
  decent advantage has been built up.
  8
  Ranged weapons can aim, ﬁ re or 
  ﬁ re several times per round depend-
  ing on the ﬁ rer’s luck and skill.
  9
  Combatants may also attempt other 
  actions during the round, incurring vari-
  ous penalties on their combat scores.
  10
  Combat ends when one side surrenders 
  or gets wiped oﬀ  the face of the land.
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  COMBAT  -  SACRED STEEL 
  13
  SITUATION
  BONUS
  Defenders were unaware of aggres-
  sors before the trigger, i.e. ambush
  Aggressors 
  draw double
  Aggressors need to ma-
  noeuvre to start ﬁ ght
  Defenders get 
  +1 or more 
  cards depending 
  on distance
  Th e defenders never get a surprise attack, obviously - their 
  draw is to avoid allowing the enemy one.
  Creatures which rely on animal cunning may be permitted 
  to use their Physique for surprise rolls.
  TEAMING
  Teaming is where individual melees form, as ﬁ ghters move 
  toe–to–toe with their chosen opponent. It’s worth keeping 
  a diagram on the table showing who is ﬁ ghting what.
  Th ere’s a convenient printable/photocopiable form in the 
  back of the book, and also available as a separate PDF from 
  the website, for GMs to keep track of combat. It’s rather 
  enigmatically called the Combat Tracker.
  CUT’N’THRUST
   Once combat teams are sorted, time is dealt with in ﬁ ve-
  second “rounds”. 
  Each round, every character involved in melee 
  makes a Combat Draw based on the average of their 
  Physique and Combat Training, plus any special 
  weapon bonuses or specialities (covered later).
  Make the draws in a clockwise direction round the table 
  starting with the player on the GM’s left. Th e GM goes 
  last.
   In the case of a surprise attack, the aggressors get to draw 
  twice in the ﬁ rst round.
  Your score in this draw gets added on to the 
  “Combat Score”, which is a running tally of how 
  well you’re doing in the ﬁ ght.
   You will also be aware of the enemy’s Combat Score against 
  you. Th e relative values of combat scores show which 
  side is doing better in the ﬁ ght: the diﬀ erence between 
  the Combat Scores is called the Combat Advantage, so 
  whoever has the higher Combat Score is the one winning 
  the ﬁ ght. A character’s combat advantage cannot normally 
  exceed their Combat Draw.
  MULTIPLE OPPONENTS
  Th e chances of a clean ﬁ ght, where both sides have the same 
  numbers, is pretty slim. More often you’ll ﬁ nd yourself 
  outnumbered by, or outnumbering, the enemy.
  When a ﬁ ght is unbalanced, the outnumbered side 
  must divide their cards between all the opponents 
  and keep a seperate Combat Score for each one.
  You can split the cards how you like. You could overpower 
  one enemy while leaving yourself vulnerable to the others, 
  or keep them all occupied and hope for a ﬂ uke.
  OTHER ACTIONS
  A combatant may move a short distance during ﬁ ghting 
  with no penalties. Other actions incur a certainly penalty 
  on the number of cards drawn. If the penalty is higher than 
  the number of cards the character draws, they draw no 
  cards. Well, you wouldn’t change weapon mid-ﬁ ght unless 
  you were really good, would you?
  THE STRIKE
  After all the Combat Draws for a the round are done, you 
  can look at the advantage you have over an enemy - it’s 
  called the “Combat Advantage”. If your combat score is 
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  SACRED STEEL  -  COMBAT
  14
  one point higher than the enemy’s, you have a one point 
  Combat Advantage. If his Combat Score is two points 
  higher he has a two point Combat Advantage. If you 
  have a high enough Combat  Advantage, you can make 
  a Strike, i.e., convert your advantage in the ﬁ ght into an 
  actual connecting hit. Th e size of Advantage you need to 
  make a strike is based on your weapon, and is often (but not 
  always) the same as the Strike Bonus. See the equipment 
  chapter for more details.
  You draw as many cards as the advantage you have, 
  plus the Strike Bonus for the type of weapon you 
  are using.  Th is is your Strike Draw. Th en the target 
  gets to draw a certain number of cards based on the 
  armour they are wearing, if any. Th is is called their 
  Armour Save Draw.
  It’s like an opposed check. If the your draw wins, the 
  amount you win by is the size of wound you have scored 
  on the target. Extra gory details are available in the “Strike 
  draw versus Armour Defense draw results” table.
  Attempting a strike resets the combat scores of each side 
  to zero.
  ARMOUR
  You can mix and match the armour your character wears 
  by choosing one type of armour for the body, one for 
  the limbs, a helmet and a shield. Add up all the Armour 
  Defense bonuses of all the parts of your armour to ﬁ nd out 
  your ﬁ nal Armour Save.
  For example, a character wearing a chainmail vest (+2) with 
  leather greaves (+1) and a small shield (+1) has an Armour 
  Save of 4.
  Th e heavier your armour, the harder it is to be subtle in your 
  actions. Th e GM may enforce the use of the Stealth Penalty 
  for various armour types, which is a penalty applied to all 
  attempts to be stealthy or quiet.
  DEFENSIVE FIGHTING 
  (OPTIONAL)
  A character can surrender the right to strike, but 
  draw double the normal number of cards. 
  Th is is called “defensive ﬁ ghting” and is only a good idea if 
  you have some fantastic follow-up plan. 
  Defensive ﬁ ghting must be declared before making your 
  combat draw and is assumed to continue until you declare 
  otherwise. If you decide to revert to normal ﬁ ghting, you 
  lose any advantage you had.
  Maths-wise, the doubling is applied before any injury or 
  action penalties. Wouldn’t be fair otherwise.
  SPECIAL MOVE: 
  HEROIC ATTACK
  Because Combat Advantage cannot normally exceed 
  Combat Draw, there’s a limit on how devastating one 
  single strike can be. Th e Heroic Attack special move allows 
  a character to temporarily raise that ceiling.
  To make a heroic Attack, a character must spend one round 
  “winding up”. He does not get to make any combat draw 
  during this round, and if anyone else strikes him and causes 
  a wound, the Heroic Attack is over.
  In the next round, he can draw double his normal Combat 
  Draw, plus one card per rank of Heroic Attack special 
  move. Assuming he ends the round with the advantage, he 
  can strike without limitation on Combat Advantage.
  In the round following the attack, the character must 
  recover his composure and makes no Combat Draw.
  SPECIAL MOVE: LEFT-
  HANDED BACKSTAB
  Th e left-handed backstab relies on turning an opponent’s 
  attack against them. You can only attempt a Left-Handed 
  Backstab when another character is about to strike you, 
  i.e. at the end of the round when they have the Combat 
  Advantage and have announced a Strike. 
  At this moment, both characters make opposed Combat 
  Training Draws.  the character attempting the LHBS get 1 
  extra card per rank in the LHBS special move.
  If the original striker wins, then the amount he wins by 
  is added on to his Combat Advantage and the strike goes 
  ahead as normal. If the character attempting the LHBS 
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  COMBAT  -  SACRED STEEL 
  15
  STRIKE DRAW 
  MINUS ARMOUR 
  DEFENSE DRAW
  WOUND
  0 OR LESS
  No wound. Th e strike bounces oﬀ  the target’s armour.
  1
  Flesh wound. Hurts, bleeds, prob-
  ably not life-threatening
  2  
  Bad ﬂ esh wound. Hurts a lot, may cause 
  eventual death through blood loss
  3
  Serious injury. Massive pain, will 
  need professional treatment.
  4
  Major injury. Unbelievable pain. Parts are 
  on show that should not be visible.
  5
  Critical injury. Transcends pain and enters 
  a new realm of suﬀ ering. Internal organs 
  ﬂ y away from body in surprise.
  6 OR MORE
  Devastating blow. A shower of red bits 
  decorate the area to mark the event.
  Strike Draw vs. Armour Defense draw results
  ARMOUR
  ARMOUR DEFENSE BONUS STEALTH PENALTY
  AWARENESS PENALTY
  Leather vest
  +1
  -1
  0
  Leather arms & legs
  +1
  -1
  0
  Chainmail vest
  +2
  -2
  0
  Chainmail arms & legs
  +2
  -2
  0
  Chest plate
  +3
  -3
  0
  Arm & leg plates
  +3
  -3
  0
  Small shield
  +1 against one enemy
  -1
  0
  Medium shield
  +2 against one enemy
  -2
  0
  Large shield
  +3 against one enemy
  -3
  0
  Half helmet
  +1
  0
  -1
  Full helmet
  -3
  Bonuses and penalties for various armour types
  WEAPON
  STRIKE BONUS / MINIMUM 
  ADVANTAGE NEEDED
  Dagger
  +1
  Shortsword, handaxe 
  +2
  Longsword, battleaxe
  +3
  Greatsword, Kerg Axe
  +4
  Example strike bonuses — see Equipment chapter
  ACTION
  DRAW PENALTY
  Dropping a weapon and 
  drawing a diﬀ erent one
  –4
  Moving at a walking speed
  –1
  Turning and running
  –2, and no strike allowed. 
  Cannot be combined 
  with defensive ﬁ ghting.
  Actions in Combat
  ATTACK TABLES
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  SACRED STEEL  -  COMBAT
  16
  wins, then he can make a strike with a Combat Advantage 
  equal to the amount he won by, and the original strike 
  misses.
  CHARGING
  If a character charges into combat (yelling, running 
  etc.), he can add his Combat Training to his Combat 
  Draw in the ﬁ rst round of combat. Th e downside is, 
  so can the person being charged. 
  So the ﬁ rst round of combat after a charge will be fairly 
  high-stakes, and it’s quite likely that either the charger 
  will get an advantage and cause some major injury, or the 
  person receiving the charge will manage to deﬂ ect it and 
  use the charger’s own momentum against them.
  MOUNTED COMBAT
  For added blood and guts when charging, there are some 
  modiﬁ ers you can apply:
  Characters charging on horse (Ta-ra ta-ra!) get two extra 
  cards on their Combat Draw  because horses are big 
  cards on their Combat Draw  because horses are big 
  cards on their Combat Draw 
  and heavy and fast.
  Characters using a Polearm to receive a charge get one 
  extra card on their Combat Draw  because polearms 
  extra card on their Combat Draw  because polearms 
  extra card on their Combat Draw 
  are long and pointy and a bad thing to charge into.
  Characters who spend the round before the charge 
  “setting” their weapon get one extra card on their 
  Combat Draw  because they can aim right for the 
  Combat Draw  because they can aim right for the 
  Combat Draw 
  other guy’s heart.
   WOUNDS
  After a strike has landed and any armour save has been 
  drawn, a wound may have been scored. Th e severity of the 
  wound acts as a penalty on all skill checks and Combat 
  Draws by the victim. In other words, if you take a three-
  point wound (“Serious Injury” on the table), the shock and 
  pain mean that you lose three cards from every draw you 
  make. 
  Wounds do not apply to Strike Draws.
  When you lose more cards due to injury than you were 
  drawing to begin with, you are Out Of Action. Th at’s 
  right—if you were only drawing three cards and you take 
  a three point injury, you stop ﬁ ghting. You don’t get to 
  draw any more. Th e agony lancing through your nerves has 
  fried your coordination. You’d better hope your opponent 
  is happy to see you collapse rather than wanting to put 
  another blow in. You may be able to use Defensive Fighting 
  (see above) to stay vertical for a bit longer.
  DEATH
  In this game death is a plot device, not a random result.
  As a rule of thumb, nameless bad guys can be considered 
  dead forever when they take a single wound that is worse 
  than their Physique score. If they simply take more injuries 
  than they can cope with, they may be healed and live to 
  tell tales.
  Player characters and important non-player characters 
  have a bit more leeway. Permanent physical death occurs 
  when the story dictates that the character has no chance of 
  survival, e.g. a massive wound and left outside in the snow 
  with a pack of hungry dogs. As a guideline, any wound that 
  is worse than the character’s Physique score is considered 
  terminal and will eventually cause the character to snuﬀ  it 
  unless they receive expert healing. If the only wounds taken 
  are less than the character’s Physique, they will eventually 
  heal naturally.
  HEALING
  Characters heal one point of injury every time they sleep. 
  Characters can also attempt to heal each other by making a 
  Learning draw: the target diﬃ  culty is the amount of wound 
  points the patient has, and every point over that amount 
  that you draw means that one wound point is healed. Two 
  people can collaborate on a healing attempt.
  Example: I have a Learning skill of 5. Th e ﬁ ghter in our 
  group has taken 3 wound points, which means he really 
  can’t ﬁ ght very well at the moment. During a break in the 
  action, I try to bandage up his wounds. A 3 point wound is 
  really nasty, so I rope in some help from another guy in the 
  group so I get a bonus card. Between us, we make an 6-card 
  Learning draw, and get 5 successes. Th is means that we’ve 
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  COMBAT  -  SACRED STEEL 
  healed 2 of the ﬁ ghter’s wound points (5 successes minus 3 
  wounds), so now he only has 1 wound point. Hooray, he’s 
  almost good as new.
  COUP DE GRACE
  When a character is “Out Of Action” or otherwise stationary, 
  it is easy for other characters to deliver fatal blows. Outside 
  combat, this is an automatic success. When the ﬁ ght is still 
  raging, attackers may double any points they apply to the 
  Combat Score against an Out Of Action target. Armour 
  Defense still applies in this case.
  EXAMPLE
  Lets put all this together. Following on from the previous 
  example, our heroes have bedded down for the night in the 
  tavern’s store room. Arathorn has decided to sit watch, and 
  D’zyrkol has snuck oﬀ  to spy on the tavern’s other guests. 
  He has tiptoed up to the ﬁ rst ﬂ oor and is listening at doors. 
  Behind the door he is currently listening at the old woman 
  from downstairs is sleeping, protected by a type of trained 
  wolf called a worg.
  Dave:  Do I hear anything?
  Germaine:  Some quiet breathing… make an awareness 
  check.
  Dave:  (Draws ) Two?
  Germaine:  You reckon there are probably two people 
  Germaine:  You reckon there are probably two people 
  Germaine:  
  asleep in there.
  Dave:  I’ll get my dagger out—just in case—and try to open 
  the door. Quietly.
  Germaine:   Awareness, again. No hearing bonus.
  Germaine:   Awareness, again. No hearing bonus.
  Germaine:   
  Dave:  (Draws ) One?
  Germaine:  (Draws for the worg, gets . Worgs are 
  handy pets.) Th e door moves open, but just as you’re 
  able to peer into the room there’s a vicious snarl and 
  something leaps at you. (Th is is a Combat Trigger)
  Dave:  Slam the door!
  Germaine:  Physique roll. (Draws for the worg: .)
  Dave:  (Draws )
  )
    Bugger.
  Germaine:  He’s on you. Combat draws for round one. 
  (Draws for the worg: )
  )
    Th e worg gets three.
  Dave:  (Draws ) Aww... two.
  Germaine:  Th ree plays two. Round two. 
  Germaine:  Th ree plays two. Round two. 
  Germaine:  
  (Draws for worg: 
  )
  )
    Worg is up to six.
  Dave:  (Draws ) Gnngh... one!
  Germaine:  Six plays three. Th e worg strikes. It’s teeth count 
  as a plus-one weapon, so... (draws four cards, which is 
  the sum of the worg’s 3-point advantage plus one for its 
  teeth, and gets )
  )
   . Armour defense?
  Dave:  Leather bloody jerkin. (Draws one armour defense 
  card: ) Owwy.
  Germaine:  Th at’s a two point injury.
  Germaine:  Th at’s a two point injury.
  Germaine:  
  Dave:  I want to scream and run away. Um... defensive 
  ﬁ ghting. Should have done that sooner.
  
  E
  E
  E
  E
  
  A
  A
  
  E
  E
  
  
  
  A
  Th ree-point Advantage...
  Plus three bonus cards for 
  using a longsword...
  ...equals a four point wound
  Strike draw example: Arathorn’s 
  killing blow on the worg:
  DEVELOPMENT COPY
  DEVELOPMENT COPY
  
  SACRED STEEL  -  COMBAT
  18
  Germaine:  Round three. Th e worg gets... (draws ) 
  one.
  Dave:  Okay. I’d normally draw four, but I’m defensive, so 
  I double it to eight. But I have a two point injury 
  so it drops to six. And I’m trying to move for the 
  stairs, so it drops to ﬁ ve. (Draws and starts 
  to suspect someone had diddle his deck of cards) One... 
  same as wolﬁ e.
  Germaine:  You’re at the stairs. One plays one. Round four. 
  Germaine:  You’re at the stairs. One plays one. Round four. 
  Germaine:  
  Th e worg gets... (draws ) three.
  Dave:  Still defensive, but I’ll stop moving and shout my 
  head oﬀ . So... um... four, times two... minus two... I 
  get to draw six. (draws )
  )
    two.
  Germaine:  Four plays three. Th e worg doesn’t strike. Alf, 
  Arathorn can hear D’zyrkol yelling.
  Alf:  Ha ha. I suppose I’d better start running. Longsword 
  ready.
  Germaine:  It’ll take you three rounds to sprint along the 
  corridor and up the stairs.
  Alf:  Stick to that defensive style Dave, I’ll be right there.
  Germaine:  Round ﬁ ve. Th e worg gets... (draws )
  three.
  Dave:  Same as last time: (draws )
  )
    Oh no. One.
  Germaine:  Seven plays four. Th e worg strikes. (draws four 
  cards, like last time, the advantage plus one for the teeth, 
  gets )  One. Draw armour defense.
  Dave:  (Kisses deck of cards, oﬀ ers a small prayer and draws )
  )
  
  Yes! Eat that, doggy!
  Germaine:  Th e worg bites out a chunk of your armour but 
  Germaine:  Th e worg bites out a chunk of your armour but 
  Germaine:  
  doesn’t connect with ﬂ esh. Round six, and the worg 
  opens with... (draws )
  )
    one.
  Dave:  (draws ) Two!
  Germaine:  One plays two. Round seven... worg gets (draws 
  )
  )
    three.
  Dave:  Um... (draws ) one. Seriously guys, has 
  someone been playing about with these cards?
  Germaine:  Four plays three. No strike. Round eight...
  Alf:  Am I here now?
  Alf:  Am I here now?
  Alf:  
  Germaine:  Yes!
  Germaine:  Yes!
  Germaine:  
  Alf:  I’m making wolf kebabs.
  Germaine:  Th e worg gets... 
  Germaine:  Th e worg gets... 
  Germaine:  
  (draws ). Two, both 
  points on D’zyrkol.
  Alf:  Awesome. I’ll hit him for... 
  Alf:  Awesome. I’ll hit him for... 
  Alf:  
  (draws , because 
  he’s ‘ard) three. And strike.
  Germaine:  Okay, lets ﬁ nish Dave’s draw.
  Dave:  (draws )
  )
    Two.
  Germaine:  Six plays ﬁ ve, no strike. Now, Alf, your strike. 
  Th ree plays zero. 
  Alf:  Longsword gives me three extra (draws )
  Th ats three. Is this thing armoured?
  Germaine:  Nope. Th at’s a three-point injury, cutting a nice 
  slash across the worg’s face and chest.
  Alf:  Woohoo!
  Alf:  Woohoo!
  Alf:  
  Germaine:  Th e worg is trying to scamper oﬀ . Round nine, 
  Germaine:  Th e worg is trying to scamper oﬀ . Round nine, 
  Germaine:  
  it gets no cards because of its wound and the two-
  point penalty for ﬂ eeing.
  Alf:  (draws ) Th ree. Another strike please.
  Germaine:  Go for it.
  Alf:  (draws )
  )
    Four. Take it, dawg!
  Germaine:  Your blade smashes into the dog’s spine and 
  Germaine:  Your blade smashes into the dog’s spine and 
  Germaine:  
  sends it crashing down to the ground in a limp, 
  broken heap.
  Th at ﬁ ght took nine rounds, or 45 seconds in game-world 
  time.
  ARCHERY
  Ranged attacks are a bit diﬀ erent from melee attacks 
  because there is no back-and-forth parrying and dodging. 
  In ranged combat, the archer is allowed a certain 
  number of shots per round based on the weapon 
  and his Combat Training. 
  Each shot is made using the archer’s full Combat 
  Draw. Th e target draws his Combat Training to 
  attempt to dodge the shot. If the shot ties or loses 
  against the dodge, it misses. If it beats the dodge, 
  it hits.
  Damage is worked out as normal, based on the damage 
  rating of the weapon, and the target gets an armour save 
  as normal.
  To calculate a character’s rate of ﬁ re (ROF) with a particular 
  weapon, check the Bows table. Th e ﬁ rst three columns are 
  the Combat Draws necessary to ﬁ re the weapon once per 
  DEVELOPMENT COPY
  DEVELOPMENT COPY
  
  COMBAT  -  SACRED STEEL 
  19
  turn, twice per turn and three times per turn respectively. If 
  your Combat Draw isn’t high enough to ﬁ re a weapon once 
  per turn, you can’t ﬁ re it at all.
  CROSSBOWS
  Crossbows allow characters with less skill to ﬁ re some fairly 
  heavy ordinance. Th e down side is their slow reloading: the 
  rate of ﬁ re for a crossbow is either “alternating” or “once”. 
  “Alternating” means that the crossbow can be ﬁ red once 
  every other turn. “Once” means it can be ﬁ red every turn. 
  Normal crossbows can never be ﬁ red more than once per 
  turn.
  OTHER FACTORS
  Archers are fairly lethal close-up, so the GM should give 
  targets bonus dodge cards based on range and visibility. SS is 
  not a tactics game, so exact ranges are irrelevant. In general, 
  longbows can ﬁ re further than horsebows, horsebows can 
  ﬁ re further than shortbows.
  FACTOR
  BONUS DODGE CARDS
  Medium range
  2
  Long range
  6
  Dusk
  3
  Darkness
  loads
  Cover
  1 to 10, depending
  Firing into a melee
  2 per person in the melee
  HORSEBACK
  Firing from horseback is hard: by default, archers on a 
  galloping horse get a -6 accuracy penalty. Th e “Horseback 
  archery” special move counteracts this penalty, one card per 
  rank. Th e full set of 
  FACTOR
  BONUS DODGE CARDS
  Firing from a...
  ...standing horse
  1
  ...walking horse
  2
  ...trotting horse
  4
  ...gallopping horse
  6
  Using a...
  ...crossbow on horseback
  6
  ...longbow on horseback
  10
  Firing behind on horseback
  6
  So in theory, someone with a “horseback archery” rank of 
  22 could ﬁ re a longbow backwards oﬀ  a galloping horse 
  with no penalty.
  Also crossbow rates of ﬁ re are halved when on horseback 
  because you can’t use the stirrup properly etc. Th at may 
  mean that a crossbow that you can happily use on the 
  ground, ﬁ ring every other turn, you can’t use on horseback.
  STATIONARY TARGETS
  Stationary targets are deemed to have a dodge draw of 1, 
  plus whatever other factors may apply.
  MARKSMANSHIP (SPECIAL MOVE)
  Th e Marksmanship special move allows an archer to make 
  a slow, careful, sniping shot.
  To make a sniping shot, skip one shot and then add 
  your Marksmanship rank onto your Combat Draw 
  for the next shot. 
  SOFT TARGET (SPECIAL MOVE)
  Th e Soft Target special move represents the ability of a 
  skilled archer to place his shot on unarmoured or sensitive 
  parts of the target; the downside to this technique is that 
  because the archer is aiming oﬀ -centre, it’s harder to hit.
  To make a soft target shot, double the target’s 
  dodge draw. If you still hit, apply your Soft Target 
  rank as bonus damage cards .
  Soft Target shots work well in conjunction with sniping 
  shots.
  DEVELOPMENT COPY
  DEVELOPMENT COPY
  
  SACRED STEEL  -  COMBAT
  FIRING INTO MELEE (OPTIONAL)
  Th ere’s an obvious risk involved in ﬁ ring a bow at a target 
  that’s very close to one of your friends. For this reason, 
  there’s an optional rule: if you get nothing but ’s on your 
  shot draw while ﬁ ring at someone who is in melee with 
  your own side, you’ve not only missed your target but 
  accidentally hit the opposite side of the ﬁ ght, which is 
  probably one of your mates.
  FIRING WHILE IN MELEE
  If you insist on trying to make ranged shots while people 
  are trying to engage you in melee, you are treated as a 
  stationary victim—see the coup de grace rules.
  If you want to use a bow as a stick to fend oﬀ  would-be 
  attackers, it’s counted as a staﬀ .
  If you want to shoot someone who is going toe-to-toe with 
  you, you make a normal combat draw, but can not make a 
  normal combat strike—instead, you make ranged combat 
  rolls as normal based on a target diﬃ  culty of 3 (normal 
  range and movement costs are ignored).
  STUN ATTACKS
  If you want to disable rather than kill your opponent, you 
  can try to cause stun damage—e.g., using the ﬂ at of an axe 
  or the pommel of a sword rather than the cutting edge.
  Th e  Combat Draws are made as normal, and you build 
  up a Combat Score as normal. Th e strike draws are a bit 
  diﬀ erent: the target adds his Physique to his Armour 
  Defense draw, so it’s generally harder to cause damage 
  against armoured targets. If you cause a “wound” it works 
  as normal for penalizing the victim’s draws, but it is actually 
  stun damage and will wear oﬀ  after a few minutes. But 
  every fourth point of stun damage gets converted into an 
  Actual Wound—you can’t break someone’s nose oﬀ  their 
  face and not expect them to bleed a little.  If you want extra 
  gory details, there’s a stun damage table.
  Recovering from stun damage: every minute (twelve 
  rounds) you can make a physique draw, penalised by Actual 
  Wounds. You shrug oﬀ  as many points of stun damage as 
  you get successes in the draw.
  BOXING
  If you’re unarmed, you can always resort to throwing 
  punches. Attacks are considered Stun Attacks (see above), 
  STRIKE DRAW MINUS ARMOUR 
  DEFENSE AND PHYSIQUE DRAW
  WOUND
  0 OR LESS
  Some air moves past the target’s chin. No damage.
  1
  Th ump. Vision shaken and head rings, but 
  not too serious. 1 stun damage.
  2  
  Bash. Staggers a bit, reeling from the blow. 2 stun damage.
  3
  Glass jaw. Leaves the victim wondering where the 
  wagon that ran him over has gone. 3 stun damage.
  4
  Snap. An unpleasant sensation of something break-
  ing. 3 stun damage, 1 actual wound.
  5
  Ram. A bone breaks and gets pushed into places no bone 
  should ever go. 4 stun damage and 1 actual wound.
  6 OR MORE
  Pulverise. Agonising feelings of things tearing loose inside, 
  and possibly poking out in unlikely places. Every fourth point 
  is converted into an actual wound, the rest is stun damage.
  Stun Attacks
  STUN ATTACKS
  DEVELOPMENT COPY
  DEVELOPMENT COPY
  
  COMBAT  -  SACRED STEEL 
  21
  HANDBOWS
  ONCE
  TWICE
  THRICE
  DAMAGE
  ACCURACY
  Training Bow
  1
  2
  n/a
  1
  0
  Shortbow
  2
  4
  n/a
  2
  0
  Heavy Shortbow
  3
  6
  n/a
  3
  -1
  Horsebow
  4
  8
  12
  4
  -1
  Heavy Horsebow
  5
  10
  15
  5
  -1
  X-Heavy Horsebow
  7
  14
  21
  7
  -2
  Longbow
  6
  12
  n/a
  6
  -3
  Heavy Longbow
  8
  16
  n/a
  8
  -3
  X-Heavy Longbow
  12
  24
  n/a
  12
  -4
  Handbows
  TARGET IS...
  DIFFICULTY
  Completely still
  +1
  Moving on the spot (e.g. in melee)
  +2
  Moving at a walking speed
  +3
  Moving at a running speed
  +4
  Moving almost directly towards / away ﬁ rer
  -2
  In melee with you (no movement or range costs)
  +3
  Short range
  +0
  Medium range
  +1
  Long range
  +2
  Extreme range
  +3
  Small dog, rabbit sized
  +2
  Large dog sized
  +1
  Man sized
  +0
  Twice man-size
  – 1
  Hit “costs” for ranged targets
  RANGED ATTACK 
  TABLES
  CROSSBOWS
  ALTERNATING
  ONCE
  DAMAGE
  ACCURACY
  Concealed Crossbow
  2
  4
  2
  0
  Light Crossbow
  3
  6
  4
  -1
  Medium Crossbow
  4
  8
  6
  -1
  Heavy Crossbow
  6
  12
  8
  -2
  X-Heavy Crossbow
  8
  16
  12
  -2
  Crossbows
  DEVELOPMENT COPY
  DEVELOPMENT COPY
  
  SACRED STEEL  -  COMBAT
  22
  and you do not get a weapon bonus. “Boxing” here is any 
  kind of hard martial art that focuses on powerful strikes 
  against weak spots. Other examples include kick boxing 
  and karate. Th e exact way your character ﬁ ghts is a matter 
  between you and your GM.
  WRESTLING
  Th e other way of ﬁ ghting unarmed is to wrestle. Th is could 
  be any of the “soft” martial arts, the ones that focus on 
  grappling and holds.
  Wrestling is a two-phase system—you start with normal 
  normal Combat draws as you try to begin the wrestle, but 
  instead of making a Strike Draw, you make a Grapple 
  Draw.
  Grapple Draws are just like Strike Draws, but 
  there is no weapon bonus and your opponent gets 
  to draw his Combat Draw in defense. 
  Armour doesn’t help.
  If you tie or lose, nothing happens. Combat Scores reset to 
  zero like after a strike.
  If you win, you have grappled the enemy. On the next and 
  subsequent rounds, continue to make normal Combat 
  Draws against your enemy. 
  Any time the person being held gets an advantage, 
  he has broken the hold and Combat Scores reset to 
  zero.
  Any time the holder gets an advantage, he can make 
  a Hold Draw, which is like a Strike Draw but  the 
  victim draws his Physique in defense. Wounds are 
  inﬂ icted as Stun Wounds.
  Th e scary bit about Holds, though, is that:
  After a Hold Draw, your Combat Score doesn’t 
  reset.
   Which means that unless the Combat Draws remove your 
  advantage, you can make another Hold Roll on the round 
  after, and the round after that, and the round after that, 
  until your opponent is a broken, unconscious rag-doll.
  Hold Rolls are optional —you can choose to just restrain 
  an enemy.
  When you are wrestling, you can’t apply Combat Draw 
  points to any score except the one against the guy you’re 
  wrestling. So it’s a bad, bad idea to wrestle when you’re 
  outnumbered.
  FIRE AND HEAT
  Fire and heat damage is dealt with pretty much as you’d 
  expect: any source of ﬁ re will have a Fire Rating which 
  represents how hot/painful it is. Every round that a 
  character is in contact with the ﬁ re, the GM draws that 
  many ﬁ re damage cards against them. Th e character is 
  allowed an Armour Saving Draw. If the ﬁ re damage gets 
  through it is treated just like regular damage.
  EXAMPLE
  Quick recap: the thief D’zyrkol has managed to upset the 
  guard dog of one of the tavern’s other guests. He’s taken a 
  nasty bite, but managed to hold on until Arathorn could 
  hear him shouting and came to help. Trouble is, between 
  his shouting, the worg’s barking, and Arathorn’s war cries 
  the whole tavern is awake.
  Germaine:  Quick, what now?
  Alf:  Has anyone else appeared?
  Dave:  I’m running back down the stairs.
  Germaine:  Not yet, but you hear a schwink noise.
  Alf:  Schwink?
  Germaine:  Like a sword being unsheathed.
  Alf:  I’m following D’zyrkol down the stairs. “Basher! 
  Cloud! Wake up!”
  Germaine:  Half running, half jumping, down the stairs. You 
  crash through the door into the store room and wake 
  the others up. Right then, a ﬁ gure appears behind 
  you and tries to stab you. Draw to avoid surprise.
  Alf:  Umm... what’s that on?
  Germaine:  Combat Training (draws for the thug, who has 
  Combat Training 3: ). One to beat.
  Alf:  (Draws ) Just! One.
  Germaine:  Combat draws for round one... the thug gets 
  (draws ) two.
  Alf:  () Th ree.
  DEVELOPMENT COPY
  DEVELOPMENT COPY
  
  COMBAT  -  SACRED STEEL 
  23
  Bob:  Can I ﬁ ght?
  Germaine:  Yes, but it’ll take you two rounds to get your 
  Germaine:  Yes, but it’ll take you two rounds to get your 
  Germaine:  
  sword out and unsheathe it.
  Bob:  Stuﬀ  it, I’ll just punch this guy.
  Celia:  How big is this room?
  Germaine:  About thirty feet square.
  Germaine:  About thirty feet square.
  Germaine:  
  Celia:  I’ll grab my bow and look for some cover.
  Germaine:  Okay. Alf and Bob: Th ree plays two. Round 
  two, and the thug gets () three. He puts one 
  point against Basher and two against Arathorn.
  Alf:  ()  Five!
  Bob:  ()  Two.
  Germaine:  So it’s eight plays four, Alf ’s favour, and two 
  plays one, Bob’s favour. Strikes?
  Alf:  Yep. Four point lead, three points for the longsword... 
  Alf:  Yep. Four point lead, three points for the longsword... 
  Alf:  
  () Only two?
  Germaine:  (Draws armour defense ) He takes a one 
  point wound. Round three... () he stands there 
  like a lemon.
  Alf:  () One.
  Bob:  ()  Four.
  Germaine:  So it’s one plays nil, Alf ’s favour, and six plays 
  one, Bob’s favour. Strikes?
  Bob:  Me! Me! Umm.. what do I need to draw?
  Germaine:  Well, you’re boxing so you don’t get a weapon 
  Germaine:  Well, you’re boxing so you don’t get a weapon 
  Germaine:  
  bonus. You just draw as many cards as your advantage. 
  And the thug gets to defend with his Physique.
  Bob:  Okay. Six plays one, so ﬁ ve cards... () Th ree.
  Germaine:  He has a physique of three, not aﬀ ected by 
  wounds, () it’s not his night at all. Basher’s 
  bag-of-spanners-like ﬁ st crashes into the side of the 
  thug’s head, knocking him out cold. Celia, you can see 
  another thug just outside in the corridor. It’s the same 
  one you all saw in the bar earlier. He’s just stepping 
  into the room but you can have an unobstructed shot 
  at him this round. 
  Celia:  How hard is he to hit?
  Germaine:  Umm... Walking, three, but towards you, so 
  only one.
  Celia:  Great. I have four cards, so I’ll take just take two 
  shots, because I’m short on arrows () Two hits. 
  Shortbow, broadhead arrows, so two cards damage 
  on each ( and ) One and two.
  Germaine:  Armour saves... (
  Germaine:  Armour saves... (
  Germaine:  
   and ) Nothing and 
  two. So he takes a one-point wound. Okay, round 
  ﬁ ve. Basher and Arathorn can now enage him.
  Alf:  Yep. (
  Alf:  Yep. (
  Alf:  
  )  Two.
  Bob:  Okay ()  One.
  Germaine:  With his wound... (
  Germaine:  With his wound... (
  Germaine:  
  ) One. He defends 
  against Arathorn. Celia? You can ﬁ re but it’ll be into 
  a melee. Diﬃ  culty two.
  Celia:  Yeah, I’ll take one shot with all four cards... (
  Celia:  Yeah, I’ll take one shot with all four cards... (
  Celia:  
  ) 
  Oh dear.
  Germaine:  It would be a real shame to shoot one of your 
  friends in the back at a time like this. You get a 
  Combat Training draw to avoid that. Diﬃ  culty two, 
  same as the shot.
  Celia:  Ulp... () Phew.
  Alf:  Nice shooting, Ceel. Okay, two plays one, one plays 
  nothing. Bob, you could make a one-point punch if 
  you want?
  Bob:  No ta.
  Germaine:  Next round. Th e thugs gets... () Two, one 
  point on each of you.
  Alf:  () Four. Heh heh heh.
  Bob:  ()  One. What’s wrong with this deck?
  Germaine:  Six plays two, two plays one. Strike, anyone?
  Alf:  Cleave! ()  Four! In your face, thuggy boy!
  Germaine:  () His paper-like armour fails to stop your 
  longsword plunging into his heart and poking out 
  the back. 
  Celia:  Any more?
  Celia:  Any more?
  Celia:  
  Germaine:  No, it’s gone quiet.
  Dave:  (Finishes a tin of drink) Hey, where am I?
  Germaine:  Hiding further down the corridor trying not to 
  bleed to death. 
  Dave:  Chewing blackleaves, I hasten to add (Blackleaves 
  are a herbal narcotic that characters can use to ignore 
  the eﬀ ects of wounds. Short-lived and addictive, but 
  perfect for characters like D’zyrkol).
  Germaine:  So you’re hiding, and a bit high. In fact, you’re 
  just there when you see the old woman in the main bar. 
  She must have used a secret passage or something.
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  SACRED STEEL  -  COMBAT
  24
  Dave:  I’ll scream for the guys, and run at her.
  Bob:  Don’t kill her!
  Germaine:  You catch up with her just as she reaches 
  Germaine:  You catch up with her just as she reaches 
  Germaine:  
  the front door. Th e rest of you will be here in two 
  rounds.
  Dave:  I’ll try to rugby tackle her.
  Celia:  Good grief, she’s just an old woman!
  Dave:  I don’t trust her. At all.
  Germaine:  Okay, combat draws. She gets... () Nada.
  Dave:  () Th ree!
  Germaine:  Th ree plays zero—nice draw by the way—you 
  Germaine:  Th ree plays zero—nice draw by the way—you 
  Germaine:  
  can make your grapple roll.
  Dave:  () Two.
  Germaine:  () One. You are now grappled. Round two.
  Dave:  ()  Two. Again.
  Germaine:  Two plays one, you can try to use the roll.
  Germaine:  Two plays one, you can try to use the roll.
  Germaine:  
  Dave:  Heck yeah.
  Alf:  Dave! I can’t believe you’re beating up an old woman!
  Dave:  She’s pretty spry, you know. Th at hold draw: () 
  One.
  Germaine:  ()  Zero. She screams as you bring her elbow 
  into contact with her back.
  Dave:  I’ll shout in her earhole, “Give up?”
  Germaine:  She nods feebly. At that moment the rest of 
  you come thundering in.
  Dave:  I think it’s safe to let go. 
  Germaine:  She stands nursing her shoulder and muttering 
  swearwords under her breath. Celia - have a Learning 
  draw.
  Celia:  ()  Two?
  Germaine:  You suddenly realise she’s not swearing—she’s 
  Germaine:  You suddenly realise she’s not swearing—she’s 
  Germaine:  
  reciting the words to a spell.
  Celia:  I’ll slap her!
  Germaine:  As you raise your hand, she looks you in the 
  Germaine:  As you raise your hand, she looks you in the 
  Germaine:  
  eye, and vanishes.
  CHOOSING EQUIPMENT
  Th e idea with a lot of these rules is to present a trade-oﬀ , 
  an option when choosing what equipment your character 
  should carry. It shouldn’t be automatically better to have, 
  say, a two-handed sword than a shortsword. If there was 
  no trade-oﬀ , everyone would carry a two-handed sword as 
  soon as they could ﬁ nd one, and that doesn’t feel right. 
  So it goes like this: for close combat weapons, you have 
  the minimum advantage needed, which is usually the 
  same as the strike bonus. So to use a weapon with a high 
  strike bonus, you have to be conﬁ dent that you’re going 
  to be getting the appropriate Combat Advantage over 
  most enemies. In a ﬁ ght between two evenly matched 
  unarmoured people, the guy with the little dagger may have 
  an advantage on the guy with the longsword—not because 
  he does more damage, but because he can get more little 
  jabs in. Every time he gets a one point Advantage, he can 
  have a go at a strike. Eventually, the guy with the longsword 
  will be peppered with little wounds, unable to strike back 
  because he never achieves a three point advantage.
  Bringing armour into the equation changes things a bit. 
  Now, the dagger’s one-point injuries become irrelevant 
  because they hardly ever get through, and the longsword, 
  which is pulling a minimum of six cards oﬀ  the deck every 
  time it strikes, becomes a lot more potent because it can 
  cause injuries right through leather and chainmail.
  Th e choice is similar for bow weapons. Longbows and 
  crossbows can punch their arrows through most armour. 
  Shortbows, on the other hand, have a lot less power behind 
  them. So why would anyone pick a shortbow? Because at 
  short range, the shortbowman can unleash an insane volley 
  of arrows while the longbowman is still bracing for his 
  second shot and the crossbowman is frantically winding up 
  for his ﬁ rst. Also, longbows are typically 6' long, while short 
  bows are less than 5', often much less. Imagine holding a 
  longbow indoors. You have to tip it forwards to go through 
  doors. You have to cant it over at unlikely angles to ﬁ re 
  it, because the top keeps hitting the ceiling (especially in 
  low-roofed medieval buildings). So whilst the longbow is a 
  more powerful weapon on paper, the shortbow is far more 
  practical. Historically, longbows were only used for hunting 
  and on big, open battleﬁ elds. Horseback archers like the 
  Mongols never tried to develop larger bows because they 
  would have been impossible to ﬁ re while riding. Instead, 
  they developed the recurve bow, which oﬀ ered many of the 
  advantages of the longbow in a more compact form. 
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  COMBAT  -  SACRED STEEL 
  25
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  SACRED STEEL  -  PLAYER CHARACTERS
  SACRED STEEL  -  PLAYER CHARACTERS
  26
  PART THE THIRD:
  CHARACTERS
  To start playing Sacred Steel, you’ll need to create a Player 
  Character. Th e process is relatively simple—you start with 
  an outline of how you see your character (there are some 
  example outlines to get you started), then translate that 
  into skills. Th en you add specialities, and pick equipment.
  You may ﬁ nd the process easier using the Character Work-
  Up sheet at the back of the book.
  Th e basics steps to create a character are:
  1.Th ink up an idea for your character
  2: Pick a race
  3: (Optional) Apply racial skill changes
  4: Add 3 skill points anywhere as you see ﬁ t
  5: (Optional) Move one point from one skill to another
  6: (Optional) Shave oﬀ  points to add to Depth
  7: Pick three specialities
  8: (Optional) Extra magic goodies if you took step (6)
  9: Work out your Combat Draw
  10: Buy your starting equipment
  11: Fill out your character sheet
  CHARACTER IDEAS
  Describe to yourself how you see your character. Remember 
  that starting characters have not had a great career of 
  heroing—they are greenhorns, just starting out beyond the 
  conﬁ nes of their home village.
  What is their purpose in the group—what do they 
  contribute? 
  How do they like to work? Do they have any favourite tools 
  or weapons?
  What gender and race are they?
  What do they look like?
  Why are they heroing around instead of getting a proper 
  job?
  So Bob, from our examples earlier, might have dreamt 
  up his character something like this: “Umm.. okay. He’s a 
  ﬁ ghter. He defends the rest of the group. He carries a mace 
  but also has a ﬁ st like a sack full of iron bolts. He’s pretty 
  tall and well-built, but kind of brutish... actually, I guess 
  he’s an Orc. And... uh... he like hitting things. And he’s at 
  a loose end. Okay?”
  With your outline, you could begin roleplaying immediately. 
  Everything else is just ﬂ eshing-out.
  Here are some more ideas:
  Th e ex-militia soldier:  a ﬁ ghter, prefers tactics and 
  preparation to raw strength. He has a severe look and 
  short black hair. From a large city, he got bored with 
  never seeing any proper action.
  Th e cutpurse:  a petty thief, pickpocket and trickster. Trouble 
  is, although she’s got talent she lacks experience and 
  she’s got herself into trouble in too many places, so 
  now she’s on the road.
  Th e thug:  Worked as hired muscle in his home town but 
  realised it was a dead end job, in more ways than one. 
  Bought a sword and started out on the road to ﬁ nd 
  fame and wealth.
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  PLAYER CHARACTERS  -  SACRED STEEL 
  PLAYER CHARACTERS  -  SACRED STEEL 
  27
  SKILL LEVEL
  PHYSIQUE
  COMBAT
  LEARNING
  1
  Disadvan-
  taged
  Extremely weak and poorly 
  coordinated. Never attempts 
  anything challenging. Manual 
  labour is out of the question.
  Has never fought, except maybe 
  with little sister. And lost.
  Uneducated; may be able to 
  recognise a few simple words but 
  otherwise unable to read. Can count 
  out loud, but gets stuck somewhere 
  between eleven and a hundred.
  2 A bit below 
  average
  Below average physical skills. 
  Can join in with sports etc. but 
  does not expect to win. Can 
  do physical work when needed 
  but better in other roles.
  Has fought in maybe a few bar 
  ﬁ ghts; knows how to look after him/
  herself but has no formal training.
  Probably literate but poorly read. 
  Largely ignorant of everything 
  except their immediate lifestyle. 
  Can count and do basic sums.
  3
  Average
  Average strength, ﬁ tness 
  etc. Probably has a favourite 
  sport or two, and can do a 
  fair share of manual labour.
  Trained to ﬁ ght by a profes-
  sional. Can exercise tactics in 
  a ﬁ ght and evaluate situation 
  without panicking. Will usually 
  only know one style of ﬁ ghting.
  Literate. Has a good memory and 
  learns quickly. Good local and 
  general knowledge. Understand 
  arithmetic and simple fractions 
  like “half ”, “quarter” etc.
  5
  Good
  Above average. Happily 
  takes part in sports, manual 
  labour is not a problem.
  A trained ﬁ ghter, extremely 
  dangerous to the untrained. Knows 
  a few diﬀ erent styles of combat.
  A good learner. Often ends up 
  being the brains in peer groups. 
  Can work out any arithmetic.
  7
  Very Good
  Fit, strong, good coordina-
  tion, prides him/herself 
  on ﬁ tness. Exceptionally 
  good at physical labour.
  A professional ﬁ ghter, always 
  with one eye out for danger. Can 
  take on several lesser foes and 
  understands a range of techniques.
  Very bright, likes to ﬁ nd out about 
  things and keep abreast of any news. 
  Very possibly will also have done 
  some more advanced mathematics.
  10
  Excellent
  Highly athletic, usually wins 
  at everything. Takes on jobs 
  singlehanded that would 
  normally take a team.
  A champion. In his hometown, 
  famous for never losing a ﬁ ght.
  A true intellectual. Takes inspiration 
  from learning and applying knowl-
  edge. Loves any mental exercise.
  SKILL LEVEL
  AWARENESS
  INTERACTION
  DEPTH
  1
  Disadvan-
  taged
  Constantly daydreaming, 
  terrible perception. Would 
  have trouble spotting the 
  backside on a horse.
  Socially inept, completely unable to gauge 
  other people’s emotions and reactions.
  Unschooled; has learnt some 
  party tricks but nothing more.
  2 A bit below 
  average
  Tends to miss obvious 
  things, doesn’t notice 
  friends walking by.
  Can behave appropriately in most 
  situations, but often says or does the 
  wrong thing. Subtle hints and displays 
  of emotion are lost on him/her. 
  Initiated. Has accepted the 
  powers of magic, but has yet 
  to reach any real power.
  3
  Average
  Spots things of interest, will 
  notice out-of-the-ordinary 
  things in most situations
  Can get along in most circles. Picks 
  up cues and can make jokes/threats 
  etc. without looking stupid.
  Adept. Knows a few 
  tricks fairly well.
  5
  Good
  Sharp; will spot things that 
  have been hurriedly hidden.
  Good at steering people’s reactions. 
  Makes friends easily, can be persuasive.
  Expert. Has a good 
  grasp of the ﬁ eld.
  7
  Very Good
  A keen observer. Picks up small 
  clues and can make inferences 
  that baﬄ  e most people.
  Possibly a professional performer or 
  charismatic leader, very skilled at swaying 
  people.  Can motivate the unwilling, de-
  liver threats that sound like they’re meant.
  Scholar. Very skilled. 
  10
  Excellent
  Eagle-eyed. Reads vast 
  quantities of information from 
  seemingly mundane sitautions.
  A masterful leader. Boundless 
  charisma, able to stir people to his 
  bidding. Loved and remembered.
  Master. Has achieved a 
  remarkable level of power, 
  and uses it in daily life
  skills between 1 and 6)
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  SACRED STEEL  -  PLAYER CHARACTERS
  SACRED STEEL  -  PLAYER CHARACTERS
  28
  Th e traveller:  Her family were travellers, too, but something 
  happened—maybe raiders killed them, or she got 
  kicked out for something. Either way, she doesn’t like 
  to talk about it. She gets by with her sharp observation 
  and good looks.
  Th e bard:  He’s just ﬁ nished his apprenticeship with a 
  group of travelling minstrels, but he’s yearning for 
  real adventure. He’s also remarkably skilled in magic, 
  and uses little illusions to get him out of trouble.
  Go crazy, think up new ideas, or combine some of these 
  ideas. If you’re really stuck, here’s one sure-ﬁ re way to get an 
  interesting character: think of the last thing you watched 
  on TV. Pick a character from it. Drop that character into 
  a fantasy setting (if they weren’t already). Easy as that. You 
  can always round oﬀ  the rough edges later.
  RACE
  Everybody is from somewhere. It can colour your outlook as 
  well as your skin. Races in Sacred Steel are very important. 
  Th ere are no “plain humans”; everyone is part of one of the 
  races. On the other hand, you mustn’t feel that your race 
  should deﬁ ne your character—any of the races can adapt 
  to any role. 
  Th e races of Sacred Steel are:
  Elves:  Graceful, airy types. Th e elven homeland in the 
  southwest is one big forest, where they all live in 
  mazes of wooden buildings among the treetops. 
  Th ey’re very big on religion, and can be a bit aloof 
  with the other races. Elven illusionists are some of 
  the ﬁ nest anywhere, but they will never touch ﬁ re 
  magic, for ancient reasons (and practical reasons, i.e. 
  living in exclusively wooden structures).
  Drelves:  Th e cursed oﬀ spring of the Elves. Th ey have the 
  same light bodies and sharp features, but with small, 
  sharp horns jutting out from their foreheads. Th ey 
  have a far more practical (or cynical, depending how 
  you see it) attitude to life and make good merchants. 
  Most of the big caravans are headed and run by 
  Drelves.
  Orcs:  Ugly, ungainly but tough-looking people. Th ey live 
  in the frozen mountains north of the Elves, farming 
  what they can and occasionally getting into border 
  squabbles with the four lands that they neigbour. 
  Orcs are usually hired as ﬁ ghters and guards.
  Highlanders:  Th e eastern extent of the same mountain 
  range that the Orcs live in is occupied by a race of 
  tough, dour warriors. Th ey are loyal to their clans, their 
  lands, and their friends and they wear their tartan 
  with pride. Like the Orcs, their harsh upbringing 
  often makes them good ﬁ ghters.
  Plainsmen:  Down in the southeast is the huge, mostly 
  ﬂ at area called the Plains, home to many tribes of 
  wandering nomads. Th ey sometimes paint their skin 
  or wear dyed feathers. Life is a mixture of hunting and 
  trading, and some tribes even turn to banditry. Th ey 
  often ﬁ nd jobs as scouts when they leave home.
  Realmsmen:  In the center of the land is a fragment from the 
  days of the last empire. Seven huge cities, protected 
  by well-trained armies and tall stone walls. Life here 
  is more sophisticated than elsewhere, and the people, 
  while not being physically diﬀ erent like Elves or 
  Orcs, are often seen as being soft or pampered. Th ey, 
  on the other hand, know that they are the keepers of 
  learning and art.
  Deathlings:  A vast but arcane cult. Th e Deathlings are not 
  a race in the normal sense, but they live so diﬀ erently 
  that they may as well be. Th ey are devotees of Death 
  Magic who entice children to join their ranks at an 
  early age and train them in necromancy. Deathlings 
  are encouraged to travel and spread the word when 
  they come of age. A deathling can be a member of 
  any of the other races, and can apply Deathling skill 
  changes as well as normal skill changes.
  SKILLS
  Th e Character Work-Up sheet has ﬁ ve blanks for the 
  ﬁ ve main skills, Physique, Combat Training, Learning, 
  Awareness and Interaction. Th e Basics chapter describes 
  what they all do, and there’s a  comparative table to give 
  you some idea what the scores mean. Th e skills of brand 
  new characters do not diﬀ er wildly. At this point, nothing 
  your character does will be of epic proportions.
  You’ll see that they all start with the number 3 next to them. 
  3 represents the average for the normal human population. 
  So if you did nothing else, you’d be exactly average.
  Based on your race, you can choose to apply some racial 
  skill changes. You can ignore these if you want to, and just 
  use the default numbers.
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  PLAYER CHARACTERS  -  SACRED STEEL 
  PLAYER CHARACTERS  -  SACRED STEEL 
  Secondly you get three extra points to put wherever you 
  like. Th is point is what makes your character better than the 
  average joe—it means he has an advantage in something.
  Last, you may (optionally) apply a one-point correction. 
  Th at is, drop any skill by 1 and raise another by 1.
  MAGIC
  At this point, if you want your character to have magical 
  skills you can scrape points from anywhere oﬀ  your Skills 
  and put them on your Depth. Realise that losing more than 
  one or two points from Skills in this way will give you a 
  seriously subnormal character.
  Read the Magic chapter if you want a magic-using 
  character—you get extra freebies as well.
  SPECIALITIES
  Specialities are what deﬁ ne your character’s favourite 
  techniques and styles. A speciality should cover one 
  particular ﬁ eld. 
  We’ve listed some specialities here that should cover most 
  stuations, but go ahead and make up your own if you want 
  (if you’re a player, clear it with your GM ﬁ rst).
  Each speciality gives the character a 1 card bonus when 
  making relevant draws. You may give your character up to 3 
  specialities, but they cannot stack at this point—you cannot 
  give a starting character a +2 or +3 speciality. Th ey can stack 
  later in play, but we’ll get there in due course.
  Specialities are listed in groups according to which Skill 
  they would normally work with, but they can be used 
  with other skills. For example, Horseriding is listed under 
  “Physique”, but could be used with Learning when trying 
  to identify something about a horse.
  PHYSIQUE SPECIALITIES
  Climbing:  Th e character is particularly adept at climbing, 
  be it trees, stone walls etc. Useful for burglars and 
  inﬁ ltrators.
  Endurance:  Tasks that require a sustained eﬀ ort, like 
  walking or running a long distance, or carrying 
  something a long way.
  Feats of Strength:  Th e character specialises in sudden 
  bursts of strength, for lifting heavy items, breaking 
  down doors etc.
  Gymnastics:  Carefully judged jumps, graceful landings 
  from high up etc.
  Horseriding:  (or other mounted animal) Riding without 
  using your hands, standing in the saddle, aiming a 
  bow while galloping.
  Reactions:  Sudden impulsive reactions, like slamming the 
  door you’ve just opened when a worg leaps at you.
  Sprinting:  Bursts of speed, good for catching up with a 
  ﬂ eeing enemy.
  COMBAT TRAINING SPECIALITIES
  Boxing:  Th e character is skilled in a hard martial art, and 
  can use it to paste opponents bareﬁ st. +1 on Strike 
  draws when unarmed.
  Crossbow:  Trained with the crossbow, able to load and ﬁ re 
  faster or better than normal.
  RACE OPTIONAL SKILL CHANGES
  NOTES
  ELV
  +1 Awareness, -1 Learning
  Deep forest elves, used to living a very simple lifestyle
  DRELV
  + Interaction, -1 Physique
  Lightly built but skilled bargainers
  ORC
  +1 Physique, -1 Learning
  Tough but not too quick on the uptake
  HIGHLANDER
  +1 Physique, -1 Interaction
  Hardened, dour types
  PLAINSMAN
  +1 Combat Training, -1 Learning
  Low-tech lifestyle where skirmish is commonplace
  REALMSMAN
  +1 Learning, -1 Combat Training
  Very cultured, but ﬁ ghting is not a survival skill
  DEATHLING
  +1 Depth, -1 Physique
  Doctrine emphasises magic over muscle
  Racial skill changes - all optional
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  SACRED STEEL  -  PLAYER CHARACTERS
  SACRED STEEL  -  PLAYER CHARACTERS
  30
  Dagger:  You are trained in a ﬁ ghting style that accentuates 
  the speed and versatility of the dagger, giving you +1 
  card on Combat Draws when using a dagger.
  Defensive ﬁ ghting:  Improved ability to avoid injury in 
  melee, regardless of weapon. Gives the character +4 
  cards when ﬁ ghting defensively (a normal weapon 
  speciality would give you +2, being your +1 bonus 
  doubled). 
  Greatsword:  You are trained with the mighty two-handed 
  sword and can judge its momentum better.
  Longbow:  You’ve practiced with the enormous longbow 
  and can control a 100lbs pull at 36˝.
  Longsword:  Th e general-purpose favourite of ﬁ ghters—
  you’ve focused on training with this weapon.
  Shortbow:  Horseback, indoors, outdoors, you’ve practiced 
  using the versatile shortbow everywhere. 
  Shortsword:  You’re especially adept with shortswords.
  Surprise:  Th e governing factor of so many battles—you 
  can organise ambushes, and avoid them. +1 card on 
  Surprise draws, whether you are the initiator or the 
  recipient.
  Wrestling:  You have learnt a soft martial art—one that 
  emphaises leverage, grips and messily broken bones. 
  +1 card on Combat Draws when attempting to 
  grapple, and when attempting a hold.
  Other Weapons:  You can have a speciality in any kind of 
  weapon not already listed here.
  LEARNING SPECIALITIES
  Languages:  Listening to travellers and reading books, you 
  have picked up a few words of many languages and 
  can try and bluﬀ  your way through in almost any 
  tongue.
  Lore:  You have studied folk tales and mythology, and the 
  history around them.
  Medicine:  You have learnt some basics of medicine, 
  including bandaging, splints and tourniquets. You 
  have steered clear of serious herbal medicine, because 
  it looks a bit like magic.
  Survival:  You can spot edible plants and tell if any 
  dangerous animals live in the area. Living outdoors 
  is no bother to you.
  Appraisal:  Identifying and valuing things you’ve found. 
  For example, determining the age of a sword found 
  in a crypt.
  Lockpicking:  A general familiarity with lots of types of 
  lock, and the ability to use skeleton keys.
  SKILL SPECIALITY
  PHYSIQUE
  Feats of strength
  Gymnastics
  Horseriding
  Sprinting
  Endurance
  Reactions
  Climbing
  COMBAT TRAINING
  Dagger
  Shortsword
  Longsword
  Greatsword
  Shortbow
  Longbow
  Crossbow
  Boxing
  Wrestling
  Defensive ﬁ ghting
  Surprise
  LEARNING
  Lore
  Languages
  Survival
  Appraisal
  Lockpicking
  Medicine
  AWARENESS
  Stealth
  Hearing
  Sleight of hand
  Spotting
  INTERACTION 
  Haggle
  Intimidation
  Persuasion
  Music
  Impersonation
  Command
  Specialities
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  PLAYER CHARACTERS  -  SACRED STEEL 
  PLAYER CHARACTERS  -  SACRED STEEL 
  31
  AWARENESS SPECIALITIES
  Hearing:  You have acute hearing; +1 card when listening 
  out for something or checking for an audible clue.
  Sleight of hand:  You have learnt some tricks of performance 
  magic and can palm objects. +1 card when trying to 
  pull this sort of trick.
  Spotting:  People trust you on watch because you notice the 
  slightest thing wrong. You also pick up on visual cues. 
  +1 card on vision based Awareness draws.
  Stealth:  Sneaking and hiding. You have a good feel for the 
  best places to move and stand to avoid detection. +1 
  card when being stealthy.
  INTERACTION SPECIALITIES
  Command:  You’re good at leading, getting people to accept 
  Command:  You’re good at leading, getting people to accept 
  Command:  
  your orders.
  Haggle:  Maybe you’ve worked in a market or as a trader—
  you’re good at back-and-forth price-bargaining.
  Impersonation:  You can learn voices and mannerisms, and 
  try to pass yourself oﬀ  as someone else. 
  Intimidation:  You can make people take notice of you and 
  deliver threats that sound like you mean it.
  Music:  You can play an instrument or sing. You can use 
  music to rouse people for a ﬁ ght, to be funny, or to 
  calm a tense situation.
  Persuasion:  You can sell people on an idea, make your 
  proposal sound like they thought of it themselves.
  DEPTH SPECIALITIES
  To take any Depth Specialities, you must have 
  some points in your Depth Skill. You must also be 
  entitled to the appropriate ﬁ eld of magic. 
  See the Magic chapter for details.
  Fire Magic:  You like ﬁ re and heat and have extra skill with 
  ﬁ re magic.
  Death Magic:  You feel a connection to Th e Other Side 
  and are better at Death Magic.
  Mind Magic:  A student of the mind, you love to understand 
  how people think, and twist them to your will.
  Witchcraft:  Practical magic, the magic of the people—your 
  skill lies here.
  COMBAT DRAW
  One quick bit of maths—your Combat Draw is the average 
  of your Physique and Combat Training, rounded up. 
  EQUIPMENT
  Lastly, you decide what kit your character will start with. 
  Th e basic unit of currency in Sacred Steel is the generic 
  penny, which is roughly the daily earning of a labourer.
  You start with 100 generic pennies You can spend as much 
  or as little as you like, and keep the excess in your purse.
  Most characters will need a weapon, and possibly some 
  armour. You should think about professional tools, too, 
  like lockpicks for a thief. It’s probably a good idea to save 
  some cash for the mundane things like tents and food. 
  Equipment listings are in their own chapter.
  EXAMPLES
  ALF, AND HIS CHARACTER ARATHORN
  Alf has decided to play a fairly combat-oriented character, 
  so he ﬁ lls out the ﬁ rst bit of the character work up sheet 
  like this:
  What is his/her role in the group?  A warrior
  What is his/her favourite piece of equipment or weapon? 
  Longsword
  Why is he/she leaving home to be an adventurer?  Wrongly 
  dishonoured, needs to repair reputation.
  At this point Alf reads the race stories and descriptions and 
  decides the best match for his idea is the Plainsman.
  What race is he/she?  Plainsman
  What does he/she look like and wear?  Tall, wiry, withdrawn 
  expression.
  So now Alf has a framework to hang everything else on.
  He decides to take the racial Skill option for Plainsmen (-1 
  Learning, +1 Combat Training), and divides his free points 
  by putting two in Physique and one in Combat Training. 
  He toys with the idea of using his optional point shift to 
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  32
  drop his Interaction by 1 and increase his Physique again, 
  but decides he’d rather not have that disadvantage.
  Physique:   3 
   3  5
  Combat Training:   3 4 
   3 4  5
  Learning:   3 
   3  2
  Awareness:   3
  Interaction:   3
  Interaction:   3
  Interaction:   
  So now he can work out his Combat Draw by averaging 
  his Physique and Combat Training, which is nice and easy 
  for him:
  Combat Draw:  5
  Combat Draw:  5
  Combat Draw:  
  Now he gets to pick his specialities. Based on his role and 
  background, he goes for:
  Longsword
  Shortbow
  Horseriding
  He can ignore the options for magic users because he didn’t 
  take any Depth score. Now he can pick equipment and 
  spend his 100gp starting cash:
  Leather chest and greaves (10gp + 10 gp)
  Longsword (30gp)
  Recurve bow (40gp)
  ...leaving him 10gp to buy tents, food etc. once play has 
  started.
  BOB, AND HIS CHARACTER BASHER
  Bob wants to play a ﬁ ghter, too, but he pictures something 
  a bit more barbarian than Arathorn. He starts his work-up 
  sheet:
  What is his/her role in the group?  A hulking great 
  bruiser
  What is his/her favourite piece of equipment or weapon? 
  Mace
  Why is he/she leaving home to be an adventurer?  See the 
  world, hit it.
  Given the description so far, he really has to pick the Orc 
  race. He could have taken any of the others, though—the 
  rules won’t penalise him.
  What race is he/she?  Orc.
  What does he/she look like and wear?  Lumpy and tough, 
  even for an Orc.
  For his skills, he deﬁ nitely wants to take the racial option 
  (+1 Physique, -1 Learning). He also plonks 2 extra points in 
  Physique and 1 in Awareness, and then drops his Interaction 
  by 1 to increase Physique even further.
  Physique:   3 4 
   3 4  7
  Combat Training:   3
  Learning:  3 3  2
  Awareness:   3 
   3  4
  Interaction:   3 
    3 
    3  2
  Well, he’s kinda one-dimensional but it ﬁ ts his idea.
  His combat draw is the average of 7 and 3, which is 5. 
  Notice how it comes out the same as Arathorn’s (above) 
  even though he has wildly diﬀ erent skills.
  Combat Draw:  5
  Combat Draw:  5
  Combat Draw:  
  His specialities go along these lines too:
  Mace
  Feats of Strength
  Intimidation
  It’s worth pointing out at this stage that the speciality in 
  Intimidation only puts him level with most people in that 
  area, because he dropped a point from Interaction earlier.
  His shopping list is similarly easy:
  Chain chest and greaves (30gp + 30 gp)
  Mace (20gp)
  Working dog (10gp)
  So again, he has 10gp spare.
  DAVE, AND HIS CHARACTER D’ZYRKOL
  Dave wants to go for something a bit diﬀ erent, like a 
  stealthy thief-type character, but with all-round skills.
  What is his/her role in the group?  Scout/thief
  What is his/her favourite piece of equipment or weapon? 
  Shortsword
  Why is he/she leaving home to be an adventurer? 
  Avoiding the heat after a bad job.
  What race is he/she?  Drelv.
  What does he/she look like and wear?  Shadowy.
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  33
  Although he’s a Drelv, Dave doesn’t want his character to 
  be the normal silver-tongued trader type, so he doesn’t take 
  the racial skill option. Instead, he actually takes a point out 
  of Interaction to Increase his Awareness, then splits his 
  remaining points between Physique, Combat Training and 
  Learning.
  Physique:  3 3  4
  Combat Training: 3 3  4
  Learning:  3 3  4
  Awareness:   3 
   3  4
  Interaction:  3
  Interaction:  3
  Interaction:  3  2
  His specialities reﬂ ect his stealthy nature:
  Shortsword
  Stealth
  Hearing
  He spends his money like this:
  Leather chest (10gp)
  Shortsword (20gp)
  Recurve bow (40gp)
  Leaving him 30gp for the start of play.
  DEVELOPING YOUR CHARACTER
  As your character completes jobs and moves through his 
  heroic life, the GM will award Experience Points. 
  Keep a running total on your character sheet of  experience.
  Whenever you receive experience, add the amount onto the 
  total.
  You can spend experience points to improve your character. 
  Th ings you can “buy” with experience are skill improvements, 
  speciality improvements and special moves.
  IMPROVING SKILLS
  You can improve one of your ﬁ ve main skills—Physique, 
  Combat Training, Interaction, Awareness and Learning—
  by 1 point at a cost of 20 experience points. If you improve 
  your Physique or Combat Training, remember to update 
  your Combat Draw.
  IMPROVING SPECIALITIES
  You can improve an existing speciality, or start a new one 
  (at rank 1) for 10 experience points.
  SPECIAL MOVES
  Special Moves are various tricks and abilities that you can 
  add to your character. Each rank in a special ability costs 10 
  experience points.
  HEROIC ATTACK
  Allows your character to wind up a single extremely 
  powerful strike, although they will be vulnerable before and 
  after the attack. See “Combat” chapter.
  BACKSTAB
  Gives your character the ability to sneakily stick a knife in 
  when someone tries to strike. See “Combat” chapter.
  MARKSMANSHIP
  Improves accuracy with ranged weapons. See “Combat” 
  chapter.
  SOFT TARGET
  Improves the damage that can be caused with ranged 
  weapons. See “Combat” chapter.
  FAST CAST
  Allows a spell caster to warm up a spell much faster, 
  although with a risk of negative eﬀ ects afterwards. See 
  “Magic” chapter.
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  SACRED STEEL  -  RACES
  34
  ELV
  Belithralia Eldendra picked up her jacket. It was a man’s jacket, 
  with armoured plates to stop you bashing your elbows when 
  hunting. It wasn’t hers, not really—she’d stolen it from one of 
  her brothers years before, when he was the size she was now. She 
  needed it because she was a better archer than he was, and she 
  wanted to practice. But being female, and sole daughter of the 
  only tree-priestess for miles around, no-one took her seriously. 
  She was expected to follow her mother into the sistership, 
  and when people saw her carrying a bow they made stupid 
  patronising comments.
  She felt guilty now about stealing the coat. Th en, as she put 
  her archer’s mitt on, she felt guilty about stealing that, too. Her 
  bow, at least, was hers. She’d made it herself, although she’d 
  had to borrow the tools, but still, she felt a bit guilty about it 
  just to be on the safe side. She put the 
  jacket on, slung the bow across her back, 
  and slipped out of the hatch into the 
  branches below her family’s home. At 
  that moment she realised that all this 
  guilt was slightly pointless, because 
  she was, after all, running away from 
  home without a word of warning to anyone. And she didn’t feel 
  guilty about that at all.
  It would have been easier to use the walkways between the 
  houses, but she wanted to stay out of sight. So she climbed down 
  the trunk of a nearby redwood, using a route she’d known since 
  childhood. When she had started down, dawn was just rising; 
  although it was ten minutes later now, she found herself in 
  almost total darkness on the forest ﬂ oor, shadowed by the leaf 
  canopy. Still, there was very little undergrowth this deep in the 
  forest, so she started walking, hoping she was going the right 
  way.
  She walked south all morning until she came to the main 
  road  east to Aerbridge, which was where she wanted to go. At 
  lunchtime, with the forest ﬂ oor faintly lit through the leaves, 
  she unlimbered her bow and bagged a couple of hares. In the 
  evening she cooked them over an open ﬁ re and slept in a hollow 
  tree trunk. And she carried on like that for a week, until 
  suddenly the trees ended and she was looking out over a huge 
  sunlit expanse of land. In the far distance, she was sure she could 
  make out the sea, shimmering into the horizon.
  Now she was in Drelv land. She’d met Drelves before, usually 
  trying to sell things. Her parents had never liked them and 
  refused to buy anything, but then they were traditionalists. Th at 
  whole war thing was ancient history now and the Drelves were 
  polite and brought exciting things from far places.
  Travelling was much easier on the ﬁ rm, straight road to 
  Aerbridge, and a few days later she saw the city outskirts. Huge! 
  From atop a hill she could see a sprawling mass of what looked 
  like tents pitched either side of the road, and the city itself, tall 
  and dark, beyond that. 
  Th e trouble started as soon as one of 
  the tent-dwellers saw her and wolf-
  whistled. In no time she was in the 
  middle of a chorus of shouting and 
  whistling, mostly from men, although 
  some strange looking Drelv women with very short hair were 
  joining in too. Most of it seemed to be compliments (of one sort 
  or another) and some of them were even kind enough to oﬀ er 
  her board and lodging. At least, that’s what Belithralia decided 
  they were oﬀ ering.
  Th e problem, she worked out, was that in these parts the women 
  all wore long skirts or even britches. She, on the other hand, was 
  still wearing nothing below the waist except her britchcloth and 
  sandal boots. And she had no money to buy anything.
  She found a middle-aged Drelv with not much hair sitting 
  alone next to a tall cart with a sign planted in the ground next 
  to him saying “Hiring”. He had looked at her as she approached, 
  but had not said anything, which made him seem a good deal 
  safer than most of the people here.
  “Excuse me, sir”, she started politely, “what are you hiring for?”
  She was still wearing 
  nothing below the waist 
  except her britchcloth
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  35
  Belithralia Eldendra, causing a scene
  “A half bar a week, plus food.”
  “No, I mean, what would I need to do?”
  “What do you want to do?”
  “Buy some trousers.”
  “You’re hired. Here’s your ﬁ rst quarter bar in advance. Go and 
  “You’re hired. Here’s your ﬁ rst quarter bar in advance. Go and 
  buy some britches before something inappropriate happens. Th en 
  buy some britches before something inappropriate happens. Th en 
  come back here and help me recruit. And if you run oﬀ  with that 
  come back here and help me recruit. And if you run oﬀ  with that 
  quarter I’ll have you hunted down and killed.”
  “Yes sir! Th ankyou sir! Wouldn’t dream of it! But... I don’t really 
  “Yes sir! Th ankyou sir! Wouldn’t dream of it! But... I don’t really 
  know anything about recruiting.”
  “Good thing I do, then. I’ve been sat here for three days 
  “Good thing I do, then. I’ve been sat here for three days 
  with no bugger turning up, and I can tell you that with 
  with no bugger turning up, and I can tell you that with 
  you stood here we’ll suddenly be the most popular caravan 
  you stood here we’ll suddenly be the most popular caravan 
  in Aerbridge.”
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  SACRED STEEL  -  RACES
  36
  DRELV
  Azander Wyler leant casually on the side of an unattended stall, 
  staying in the shade. He was broke, but as usual it was not his 
  fault—the fence who had promised to take a bundle of expensive 
  paintings had disappeared, forcing him to dump the works of 
  art into the river Aer at midnight. Now he was going to have to 
  ﬁ nd some honest work, preferably the sort that would take him 
  out of the city, until the heat died down.
  He scanned the people on the bustling market track. Th ere were 
  a few caravans assembling, taking on help, but he recognised 
  most of the wagonmasters and knew that they would never give 
  him work. His gazed stopped on an odd-looking pair next to a 
  solitary cart: a slightly overweight guy with his horns polished 
  as brightly as the top of his head, and next to him, a blonde Elv 
  girl wearing a colourful elven jacket and a pair of badly-ﬁ tting 
  khaki britches.
  Smoothing his hair, untangling a few loose strands from his 
  horns, and putting his best smile on, he walked up to the pair 
  and introduced himself:
  “ ‘Zander Wyler, scout and swordsman at you service!”
  “What, all four of you?” asked the girl.
  Th e bald guy smiled. “See, it’s working” 
  he said to the Elv. Turning to the 
  newcomer, he said “Eadric Batholmeir, 
  wagonmaster. Th is is Bel. A half bar 
  a week, plus food. Ever worked on a 
  caravan before?”
  Azander mulled this over in his head for a second. He’d worked
  a caravan before, but never really worked on one. “Oh yes, 
  several times. But only as... ah... quartermaster.”
  “Good enough for me. You’re hired.” He caught Azander looking 
  oddly at Bel. “And keep your hands of anything you haven’t been 
  given permission to handle.”
  By the evening of that day three more drelv workers had signed 
  up, all of them experienced caravenners. Eadric stood up out of 
  his chair and stretched.
  “I think that’s our lot. Right, ladies and gentlemen! You two,” 
  he indicated two of the new hires, “hitch the horses. Bel and 
  Zander, pay attention and see how it’s done.” he folded up his 
  chair and his sign and threw them into the cart.
  Th ey were ready to roll a few minutes later. Eadric climbed onto 
  the cart and announced that they were going to fetch the wagons. 
  He twitched the reins, the horses started to plod forwards, and 
  the hires fell into ﬁ le behind it.
  Azander maneuvered himself next to Bel as they walked.
  “Come to see the big wide world, then?”
  “Yes, that sort of thing. Get a job, make myself useful. What 
  about you?”
  “Me? Oh, a bit of this, a bit of that, you know.”
  “No, I don’t. Are you local? What do you normally do?”
  “I... collect things for people. A bit like a courier.”
  “Um... these things you collect... are the owners always happy 
  they’ve been ‘collected’ ” ?
  Azander was wishing he’d never started the conversation, but 
  this girl was too smart to be fobbed 
  oﬀ . “Look, just between you and me, 
  my collection service is exactly why 
  I’m signing up to leave town. Th ere 
  was a bit of a misunderstanding and 
  I need to be Not Here for a while.”
  Bel’s eyes were wide. Wider than normal. A real life professional 
  thief! Tact was called for...
  “You’re a professional thief! How exciting!”
  “Gnnch! Shush-shush-shush.” Azander cast a look round the 
  other caravanners. Either they hadn’t heard or were sensibly 
  ignoring it. “You’ve got to learn to think before you open your 
  mouth, Bel. You can get yourself in trouble if you don’t.”
  “Oh, I’m sorry, ‘Zander. Your secret’s safe with me. I’m running 
  away too.”
  “You? What from?”
  “You’re a professional 
  thief! How exciting!”
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  RACES  -  SACRED STEEL 
  37
  Azander Wyler, scheming
  “Mossy Gate township. Th ey wanted me to be a priestess.”
  “Oh, right. Celibacy and all that.”
  “Oh, no, not really celibacy. In fact every year at midsommers, 
  “Oh, no, not really celibacy. In fact every year at midsommers, 
  they...”
  “Th inking ﬁ rst, Bel.”
  “Oh yes, right. Anyway, I didn’t want to be a priestess. And they 
  “Oh yes, right. Anyway, I didn’t want to be a priestess. And they 
  wouldn’t let me use my bow.”
  “I saw that bow. Any good with it?”
  “Yes. Th anks for asking. Back home people just assumed it was 
  “Yes. Th anks for asking. Back home people just assumed it was 
  for show.”
  By this point they had reached the city proper, and entered a 
  By this point they had reached the city proper, and entered a 
  narrow alley with six covered wagons. Eadric the wagonmaster 
  narrow alley with six covered wagons. Eadric the wagonmaster 
  started bustling people about, setting jobs to get the wagons 
  started bustling people about, setting jobs to get the wagons 
  ready. “It’ll be getting dark soon, but we’re going to set out today 
  ready. “It’ll be getting dark soon, but we’re going to set out today 
  regardless. ‘Zander, check the coverings and chase out any rats 
  regardless. ‘Zander, check the coverings and chase out any rats 
  if you ﬁ nd them. Little buggers always ﬁ nd their way into an 
  if you ﬁ nd them. Little buggers always ﬁ nd their way into an 
  unused wagon.”
  Hey ho, thought Azander. Chasing rats was several rungs down 
  Hey ho, thought Azander. Chasing rats was several rungs down 
  the heroism ladder from where he felt he ought to be, but it beat 
  the heroism ladder from where he felt he ought to be, but it beat 
  hanging round the city.
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  SACRED STEEL  -  RACES
  38
  ORC
  A windy cliﬀ , overlooking a green plain. Up on the cliﬀ , the air 
  is cold and the ground, treacherous at the best of times, is also 
  covered in patchy snow. Down below, it looks sunny and warm. 
  It also looks full of Drelves, which makes it unappealing to the 
  ﬁ gure standing at the cliﬀ ’s edge.
  From his vantage point, Padash Dragonhater the Orc could  see 
  the Elv Road, cutting back and forth precariously up the sheer 
  slope. Th at road had been carved a long time ago, before the Orcs 
  became the only inhabitants of the west mountains. It was now 
  connected to the Drelv lands, just east of Freepool. Caravans 
  sometimes struggled up the road to swap goods, but only if they 
  were well defended. And there was one coming now.
  Padash straightened the faded blue cloak he wore over his 
  animal hides. Th e cloak had been purchased from a trader many 
  years ago in exchange for some pebbles with funny-looking 
  insects trapped in them. It was Padash’s favourite posession. He 
  swept it over his lumpy, asymmetrical shoulders, narrowed his 
  eyes into the wind and started walking to get back to Oburg 
  Cross before the caravan.
  Th e Cross was a tiny village, constucted in the shelter of the rocks 
  where there was a natural four-way cutting. Th e Elv Road 
  lead in from one direction, the Cliﬀ  Road from the other. If you 
  followed the North Road out, you’d eventually come to Tohalon, 
  the mighty volcano fortress, with its elaborate network of 
  caverns and tunnels. But the Cross was not any kind of fortress. 
  Th e inhabitants lived on the tiny amount of rock pigs they could 
  farm, plus donations from passers-through. Th ere was a small 
  smithy, but it never had enough metal. Th e winters had been 
  getting worse, and the pigs scrawnier. In fact, the Elv road was 
  now the only reason this place still existed. It was also, Padash 
  had decided, the only reason he still existed. Th e road would 
  carry him out so he could see the land, earn some glory and come 
  back a hero. He did not want to spend the rest of his life barely 
  scratching out a living and begging from Drelv merchantmen.
  He stood in the road south of the town, his Kerg axe in hand, 
  and awaited the wagons. Th ey arrived. It was a small caravan, 
  just six wagons. Th ey were all covered though, which meant they 
  were full of things to trade. Th e driver of the ﬁ rst wagon was 
  a weathered Drelv. He reined in his tired horses some distance 
  away from Padash and shouted, “Eadric Batholmeir, wagon 
  master. What is your business in stopping us?”
  “I am not stopping you, lowlander”, shouted Padash back. “But 
  these are dangerous roads. You should be protected. By a body 
  guard. I oﬀ er my axe at your side.” He ﬂ ourished the Kerg.
  Bel and Azander were taking an interest by this point. Bel 
  walked up to Eadric’s wagon. He leant down and whispered 
  to her. “Ages old ploy, this. He joins up with us, then some of 
  his mates, then some more. And without realising it, we’re 
  travelling with more Orcs than Drelvs. Or, er, Elves, pardon 
  me. Th en they kill everyone and nick the merchandise. Or they 
  order everyone oﬀ  the wagons, which is as good as killing you 
  in these parts.” He stood up in the wagon and shouted back to 
  Padash, “I’ve been through Oburg Cross many times before, 
  Orc, and I’ve never needed help. Turn round and head back to 
  the village.”.
  Th is was not what Padash had planned for. Hurt and confused, 
  he yelled back, “Please! I oﬀ er my services for free!” Had had 
  wanted to be paid, of course, but desperation was kicking in.
  “Yes, you always do.” said Eadric. “Now run along and leave 
  us alone”.
  Padash sighed. He now had no option but to stay in Oburg until 
  another wagon came through, and with the winter closing in, it 
  could be months. He turned away from the caravan and started 
  trudging back to the village. He’d be the laughing stock now.
  “Hup!” Eadric moved his horses on. Bel and Azander jogged 
  back to their own wagons and moved oﬀ . Up ahead, they could 
  see the crestfallen Orc walking as they entered the gulch.
  Padash was gloomily wondering what to say to his family when 
  a pebble bounced oﬀ  his right ankle. It had rolled down the side 
  of the gulch. Not unusual, but it alarmed him for some reason. 
  He carried on a minute longer, until the wagon was at the point 
  where the pebble had hit him. With icy certainty, he saw what 
  was about to happen. Archers on both sides of the ravine stood 
  up. He yelled, not words but an animal warning cry, the kind 
  of sound that means “Danger!” in any language. 
  Eadric looked up in irritation. Azander started in surprise. Bel, 
  though, new the sound well and in a second looked around for 
  attackers. And there they were, moments away from ﬁ ring at 
  them. Padash’s scream had put some of them oﬀ , but the rest 
  were ready. Th ere was no time to explain things to the others. 
  She grabbed her own bow, which never left her side, nocked an 
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  RACES  -  SACRED STEEL 
  39
  Padash Dragonhater, leaning on a looted greataxe 
  with his old Kerg axe in the other hand 
  arrow and ﬁ red at the nearest attacker. Her arrow passed several 
  others in mid-air, but luckily the Orcs were poorly trained and 
  their shots scattered harmlessly on the ground. Hers, though, hit, 
  dropping one Orc who squealed and rolled down the slope. 
  Eadric, Azander and the other wagonhands collected their 
  weapons. Th e bandits dropped the bows and came charging 
  down the slope. Padash hesitated only for a second; he 
  down the slope. Padash hesitated only for a second; he 
  wanted to leave the village, and although these bandits 
  wanted to leave the village, and although these bandits 
  were his own people, they were attacking his ride out. 
  were his own people, they were attacking his ride out. 
  He lifted the Kerg and charged at the bandits.
  He lifted the Kerg and charged at the bandits.
  Unfortunately, by the time he got closer, that meant 
  Unfortunately, by the time he got closer, that meant 
  he was kind of charging at the caravan. He saw Eadric 
  he was kind of charging at the caravan. He saw Eadric 
  unhook a halberd from the wagon and set it 
  unhook a halberd from the wagon and set it 
  against the ground to block his charge. 
  against the ground to block his charge. 
  “Not me! Not me!” Padash shouted.
  “Not me! Not me!” Padash shouted.
  Funny kind of war cry, Eadric 
  thought, and suddenly whipped 
  the halberd round to the right, 
  just in time for a bandit Orc to 
  impale itself on the pointy end.
  Th e wagonhands fought back-to back. Th ey had 
  Th e wagonhands fought back-to back. Th ey had 
  been in situations like this before.
  been in situations like this before.
  Bel balanced on the roof of her wagon. A few 
  Bel balanced on the roof of her wagon. A few 
  Orcs tried to climb up to her but they couldn’t 
  Orcs tried to climb up to her but they couldn’t 
  stand on the stretched cloth and toppled over; she 
  stand on the stretched cloth and toppled over; she 
  picked them oﬀ  one by one as they came.
  picked them oﬀ  one by one as they came.
  Azander was on the ground, ﬁ ghting three Orcs 
  Azander was on the ground, ﬁ ghting three Orcs 
  but losing ground. Every thrust he made left 
  but losing ground. Every thrust he made left 
  him dangerously open. Suddenly one of them 
  him dangerously open. Suddenly one of them 
  screamed and lurched back. In that moment, 
  screamed and lurched back. In that moment, 
  Azander had the chance to impale one of the 
  Azander had the chance to impale one of the 
  others. As the two bodies fell, Azander saw 
  others. As the two bodies fell, Azander saw 
  the orc they had ignored earlier, with blood 
  the orc they had ignored earlier, with blood 
  on his crude-looking axe. Th e last of the three 
  on his crude-looking axe. Th e last of the three 
  bandits turned to face the newcomer. Padash and 
  bandits turned to face the newcomer. Padash and 
  Azander together ﬁ nished him.
  Padash pointed down the caravan to where the 
  Padash pointed down the caravan to where the 
  wagonhands were losing ground; two were 
  wagonhands were losing ground; two were 
  injured, with only one Orc out of the ﬁ ght. 
  injured, with only one Orc out of the ﬁ ght. 
  Th ey ran up to help, and Eadric joined them. 
  Th ey ran up to help, and Eadric joined them. 
  Bel hopped from wagontop to wagontop until 
  Bel hopped from wagontop to wagontop until 
  she could ﬁ re clear shots at the orcs. In no time the 
  she could ﬁ re clear shots at the orcs. In no time the 
  remaining bandits worked out that they had lost, 
  remaining bandits worked out that they had lost, 
  and ran. 
  Padash stood silently, not knowing what to say. Th e 
  Padash stood silently, not knowing what to say. Th e 
  Drelves looked at him, likewise speechless. Without 
  a word, he lifted the Kerg and thrust it straight at Bel’s feet. 
  She jumped. It would have been too slow, but the blade went 
  between where her feet had been and made contact with 
  the face of one last Orc who had managed to climb up the 
  wagon.
  “Now you owe me.” said Padash. It seemed like a good, 
  honest thing to say.
  “Yes” sighed Eadric. “Yes, Orc, we do. What do you 
  want? We have hardly any gold, and only our own 
  personal weapons. Besides, they’d all be too small for 
  personal weapons. Besides, they’d all be too small for 
  you.”
  “I want to come with you. Like I said.”
  “What, you mean you actually want to come 
   want to come 
  actually want to come 
  actually
  with us?”
  “Um. Yes.”
  “Oh well. In that case, put down that 
  “Oh well. In that case, put down that 
  ridiculous bronze cleaver and take one 
  ridiculous bronze cleaver and take one 
  of the proper axes your friends dropped. 
  What should we call you?”
  “I am Padash Dragonhater. And my 
  “I am Padash Dragonhater. And my 
  Kerg is a proper axe.” said Padash. 
  But he picked up a nice steel greataxe on 
  the way past anyway.
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  SACRED STEEL  -  RACES
  40
  HIGHLANDER
  Tavish Mac Ahearn took one long look over the stone parapet 
  of the fearann Ahearn, stooped to pick up his pack and started 
  walking down the stone steps into the courtyard. He was 
  supposed to have left days ago, before the new lord arrived, 
  but something kept him near his family home. Th e thought of 
  someone other than his father having control of the relics in the 
  castle’s keep made him sick, but the staﬀ  were in the pay of the 
  new guy, and he wasn’t allowed anywhere except the gatehouse 
  and the courtyard. It was kind enough of them to not simply 
  throw him out.
  A guard in one of the towers, wearing no colours so as not to 
  oﬀ end the new lord, shouted down into the courtyard, “He’s 
  here! Make ready!” Th e majordomo, the guard captain and a 
  few other senior staﬀ  trotted out of the gate and stood either side 
  of the path ready to salute Beagann as he arrived. Tavish stood 
  oﬀ  to one side, watching. One of the servants urged him to get 
  out of sight, and he idly moved into the cover of the buttresses 
  either side of the gates.
  An ornate carriage pulled by four shiny black horses rolled in. 
  Th e doors carried the crest of the Beagann clan. Behind, three 
  imposing horsemen provided escort.
  Gair Beagann, new lord of the fearann, climbed out. He was a 
  short, bitter-looking man. His tall, bitter-looking wife climbed 
  out after him. He nodded once to the majordomo and made as 
  if to walk towards the doors of the keep, but just then one of the 
  guards saw Tavish standing next to the gate. “Ho! Intruder!”, 
  he shouted.
  Meanwhile a small caravan was slowly grinding its way along 
  the snowy, rough road to the fearann. 
  Th e wagons were steered by a collection of ﬁ gures wrapped up in 
  heavy furs bought in the Orc mountains. In fact, the only ﬁ gure 
  not disguised as a furball was the orc Padash, who was used to 
  the cold. He had taken over the lead caravan from Eadric, who 
  in turn had relieved Azander, who was now inside one of the 
  wagons shivering.
  Th e sight of the stone walls was a blessed thing to Eadric, who 
  had been here many times before. He looked for the mighty 
  banner that had always hung over the keep and was surprised 
  not to see it. Instead, he saw the young Tavish struggling with 
  three soldiers.
  “Ahoy! Let go of the young Mac Ahearn or you’ll answer to me 
  and my men!”
  Beagann turned slowly and observed the newcomers.
  “Mac Ahearn? Th is is the fearann Beagann, and I am the 
  Beagann of Beagann. And who in the name of all the frozen 
  corpses in the highlands are you?”
  “Let go of the young heir and we’ll talk.”
  “Heir to nothing. Th is is my castle.” Beagann gestured to the 
  guards. “Get them out of here. But keep their wagons, might be 
  something good in there.”
  Two of the guards detached from the squabble with Tavish 
  and marched over to the wagons. Tavish stopped ﬁ ghting for a 
  moment as the one guard left pinned him to the ground; then 
  suddenly sprang up, throwing the guard oﬀ , and ran into the 
  doors of the keep. Th e guards dashed in after him.
  “Well, they let go of the snotling. How about telling me who you 
  are now?” said Beagann.
  “Eadric Batholmeir, wagonmaster and friend of the Mac 
  Ahearns.” said Eadric striding up to him. He stopped inches 
  from his face. “And what makes you think this is your castle?”
  “Royal charter. In recognition of my valiant service. Since the 
  old Mac Ahearn passed... ahem... away, and the bairn is barely 
  old enough to shave, the whole fearann is now mine. And I say 
  you are not welcome on it.”
  Beagann was saved from a broken nose by shouting from the 
  keep; a second later Tavish Mac Ahearn dashed out carrying a 
  wooden box under his arm, pursued by two of the three guards.
  “Help! Eadric, help!”
  “Not a problem,” grinned Eadric, and motioned at his colleagues. 
  “People, help the wee man!”
  In a moment Bel was ready with her bow, aiming up on the 
  foul little Beagann, while Azander had snuck out of the wagon 
  he was in and tiptoed round behind Beagann’s wife. Th e other 
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  RACES  -  SACRED STEEL 
  41
  Tavish Mac Ahearn, surveying the site of a battle
  wagonhands drew weapons and formed a wall as Tavish ran 
  past. Th e guards pulled up short.
  “Okay. Easy does it now, lads,” said Eadric. “Everyone on the 
  wagons. Bel, stay at the back and keep your eye on these monkeys 
  as we leave.”
  Th e caravan rolled slowly out of the courtyard.
  A few hours later the caravan had pulled up in a sheltered valley 
  A few hours later the caravan had pulled up in a sheltered valley 
  to overnight. It was the ﬁ rst chance they’d all had to talk since 
  to overnight. It was the ﬁ rst chance they’d all had to talk since 
  leaving the fearann. Azander was certainly curious , 
  leaving the fearann. Azander was certainly curious , 
  but it was Bel who broke the silence and asked 
  but it was Bel who broke the silence and asked 
  Tavish what was in the box he’d taken from 
  Tavish what was in the box he’d taken from 
  the keep.
  “Oh, just a little keepsake. My da had quite 
  “Oh, just a little keepsake. My da had quite 
  a collection of old things—”
  a collection of old things—”
  “Magic old things?” Azander butted in.
  Magic old things?” Azander butted in.
  “Magic old things?” Azander butted in.
  “
  “Aye, magic old things. Th is is 
  “Aye, magic old things. Th is is 
  just one of them, but it’s one 
  just one of them, but it’s one 
  that the bastard Beagann 
  that the bastard Beagann 
  will be sad to lose. It was 
  will be sad to lose. It was 
  worth staying there that 
  worth staying there that 
  long. I thought I’d be able 
  long. I thought I’d be able 
  to get in when the servants 
  to get in when the servants 
  came outside. Th ey’ve been 
  came outside. Th ey’ve been 
  guarding the collection for fear 
  guarding the collection for fear 
  that someone would take a swipe 
  that someone would take a swipe 
  at it while there was no lord. Ha, 
  at it while there was no lord. Ha, 
  they didnae think it would be 
  they didnae think it would be 
  me.” He paused, loooking at 
  me.” He paused, loooking at 
  the box. “So who are yous 
  the box. “So who are yous 
  lot, anyway?”
  lot, anyway?”
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  SACRED STEEL  -  RACES
  42
  PLAINSMAN
  Picture the scene from the point of view of an eagle. To the 
  north are the Highland mountains. Th e harsh, snowy peaks 
  gradually soften and give way to the grassy Plains. Coming 
  down a mountainside path is a caravan, headed by a weathered 
  Drelv. On the next wagon, a pretty young elv girl sits talking 
  to a proud-looking highland boy, roughly the same age as her. 
  Further back, an angular-faced drelv dressed in black is sitting 
  next to an Orc. Th e Orc is talking fervently about something, 
  but the Drelv’s attention keeps returning to the Elv girl up 
  ahead. Th e other wagons are manned by experienced-looking 
  Drelv wagonhands.
  To the east, a Plains tribe called the Tar’Touk are returning 
  from the steppe before the winter closes in. Th ey are followed 
  by a procession of young horses that they have caught or reared, 
  which they will sell when they reach the town of Midway.
  To the South is Midway itself, and heading north from there 
  is a bandit tribe called the Tar’Khali. Th e Tar’Khali have spent 
  the last month spending their money in Midway and they are 
  looking to replenish supplies.
  All three groups arrive at the same spot at almost the same 
  moment, an unmarked well on the route from the Highlands 
  to Midway.
  Eadric’s caravan was there ﬁ rst. He had used this well before, as 
  had his wagonhands. It was early evening when they stopped, 
  and barely a moment later Bel, standing watch from the roof of 
  a wagon, squeaked in surprise. “Th ere’s someone coming!”
  Eadric concentrated on the horizon. He could see the slow-
  moving group. “It’s alright. Th ey look like desert nomads. I 
  expect they’re just heading out of harm’s way for the winter. We 
  might even be able to trade with them”.
  Despite the plodding progress, it didn’t take the Tar’Touk long 
  to reach the well. Eadric exchanged greetings with the Tar’Touk 
  chief and they mutually agreed to swap goods.
  As he helped to open up a wagon, Tavish (who knew something 
  of Plains lifestyle) noticed what the Tar’Touk people were doing 
  with their own wagons. He collared Eadric. “Th ey’re circling 
  the wagons, Eady. We ought to do the same”.
  “No need, Tav. We’re in the middle of nowhere here, no-one will 
  ever...”. He was cut short by Bel squeaking again. “Th at girl! 
  She’s been on a knife-edge ever since we reached the mountains. 
  Yes, Miss Eldendra, what can you see now?”
  “More people! And they… umm… look diﬀ erent.”
  One of the Tar’Touk men lifted himself up on the side of the 
  wagon. “Tar’Khali! Th e Tar’Khali have seen us! We must 
  defend!”
  Th e area was suddenly ablaze with frantic movement. Th e 
  nomads were digging out weapons that look like they hadn’t 
  seen the light of day for years. Eadric and his men were hastily 
  shoving everything back into to the wagons, but there were 
  still things lying around as the horsemen of the Tar’Khali 
  horde thundered around them. A single arrow was ﬁ red from 
  one horseman, hitting a wagon’s crossbrace with a sort of dull 
  “sponk” noise.
  “Th ey wait for us to leave of our own will,” explained the 
  Tar’Touk chief. “But we will not.”
  One horseman blew a horn and the ﬁ ght errupted. In seconds the 
  area around the well was full of sword-blades and horses. Th e 
  recruits formed a defensive line with the Tar’Touk warriors. 
  Padash and Azander felt the young Tar’Touk who had been 
  standing between them slip past and walk straight at the 
  enemy. Th ere was no time to stop him because right then one 
  particularly hotblooded Tar’Khali was charging at them.
  Th e youngster dropped his sword on the ground and appeared to 
  be drinking something.
  Padash tried to shout at him, but he had his Kerg axe braced 
  and knew that if he moved, the sheer impact of the charging 
  horseman would ﬂ atten him—and then the horse suddenly 
  reared up, throwing its rider several yards away, its eyes wide 
  in terror and screaming. It bolted from the group, crashing 
  through the ranks of the Tar’Khali. Th e dismounted rider was 
  stranded on the ground, staring in horror. 
  Th e young Tar’Touk man approached him. Th e raider was 
  terriﬁ ed of him, yelling and gibbering, “Th ey have demons! 
  Run!”
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  RACES  -  SACRED STEEL 
  43
  Yurukhan Orbei Tar’Touk, posturing
  Stunned, Azander and the others looked to Eadric for ideas. 
  Eadric, though, was busy. It looked like he too was going to 
  have a drink because he was ﬁ ddling with a small ﬂ ask. He 
  had a faint smile on his lips as he poured some liquid from the 
  ﬂ ask into the cap and ﬂ icked a ﬂ int wheel. Th e young Tar’Touk 
  recovered his sword and moved back. Eadric shouted “Th is 
  won’t last long—so for the love of pie
  won’t last long—so for the love of pie,
  won’t last long—so for the love of pie,
  won’t last long—so for the love of pie  ﬁ ght!” and ﬂ ung a glob 
   ﬁ ght!” and ﬂ ung a glob 
  of ﬂ aming liquid towards the Tar’Khali. It burst spectacularly, 
  of ﬂ aming liquid towards the Tar’Khali. It burst spectacularly, 
  scattering horses and people.
  scattering horses and people.
  Th e raiders had lost their momentum. Th e runaway horses were 
  Th e raiders had lost their momentum. Th e runaway horses were 
  leaving a trail of destruction, and the guy on the ground, one 
  leaving a trail of destruction, and the guy on the ground, one 
  of their best warriors, was clearly a ruined man. Th ose who 
  of their best warriors, was clearly a ruined man. Th ose who 
  could collect their wits were urging their horses away from the 
  could collect their wits were urging their horses away from the 
  wagons; the remainder were confused and easily encircled. 
  wagons; the remainder were confused and easily encircled. 
  As quickly as it had begun, the ﬁ ght was over.
  As quickly as it had begun, the ﬁ ght was over.
  Th e recruits were okay, barring bruises and nerves, but the 
  Th e recruits were okay, barring bruises and nerves, but the 
  wagon hands, along with many Tar’Touk, were dead. 
  wagon hands, along with many Tar’Touk, were dead. 
  Bel looked at Eadric, eyes shining. “What was that? Why 
  Bel looked at Eadric, eyes shining. “What was that? Why 
  did they get scared? And what was that ﬁ ery thing?”
  did they get scared? And what was that ﬁ ery thing?”
  “Magic.” said Azander, ﬂ atly. “Fire magic. He can make 
  “Magic.” said Azander, ﬂ atly. “Fire magic. He can make 
  that foul-smelling liquid do whatever he wants, I bet. 
  that foul-smelling liquid do whatever he wants, I bet. 
  When were you going to tell us about that little trick, 
  When were you going to tell us about that little trick, 
  Eadric? Never mind. As for our young friend 
  Eadric? Never mind. As for our young friend 
  here, he seems to be a mind magician. 
  here, he seems to be a mind magician. 
  He takes some of that 
  potion, and suddenly 
  dragons spring up out 
  of nowhere.”
  “It was a skerritch demon, in fact, 
  “It was a skerritch demon, in fact, 
  but you’re basically right,”  said the man. 
  but you’re basically right,”  said the man. 
  “Th ey brew the elixir in Hawl City, far south of 
  “Th ey brew the elixir in Hawl City, far south of 
  here.”
  Th e Tar’Touk chieftan joined them.
  Th e Tar’Touk chieftan joined them.
  “My friend Eadric, you won the ﬁ ght for us. We owe 
  “My friend Eadric, you won the ﬁ ght for us. We owe 
  you everything.”
  “Keep it. We haven’t got room for everything. Just give 
  “Keep it. We haven’t got room for everything. Just give 
  us a hand getting to Midway and we’ll call it quits.”
  us a hand getting to Midway and we’ll call it quits.”
  “I insist you must be rewarded; and I have the solution. 
  “I insist you must be rewarded; and I have the solution. 
  My son here is keen to travel. He is good with a sword 
  My son here is keen to travel. He is good with a sword 
  and a bow, and he knows some magic, too.”
  and a bow, and he knows some magic, too.”
  Th e young man nodded.
  “I am Yurukhan Orbei Tar’Touk. If you would 
  “I am Yurukhan Orbei Tar’Touk. If you would 
  have me, I am yours to command.”
  have me, I am yours to command.”
  “Wait,” said Eadric, “we help you win the ﬁ ght and now we 
  have to babysit your kids?”
  Tavish leant in and muttered in his ear. “Eady... we are a bit 
  short handed. And I think they know that.”
  Eadric realised that his wagon hands were not there. 
  “Buggerem!” He looked Yuru up and down. 
  “Buggerem!” He looked Yuru up and down. 
  “Okay, you’re in. But I don’t want to see you 
  “Okay, you’re in. But I don’t want to see you 
  swigging elixir until you need it, and you’re a 
  swigging elixir until you need it, and you’re a 
  wagon recruit now, like everyone else.”
  wagon recruit now, like everyone else.”
  Yuru smiled and bowed.
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  DEVELOPMENT COPY
  
  SACRED STEEL  -  RACES
  44
  REALMSMAN
  REALMSMAN
  R
  “I’m just saying, is all.” said Azander glumly as they rode along. 
  “We’ve picked up a succession of strays and waifs and no-one 
  except you and I knows how to run a caravan.”
  Eadric snorted. “You know about running caravans now, do 
  you? I seem to recall you were something of a stray when we 
  picked you up in Aerbridge.”
  “Th at was diﬀ erent! At least you didn’t hire me just because I 
  wasn’t wearing any trousers.”
  Th e both fell silent for a minute.
  Azander continued. “We’ll be in Roughmarsh soon, and then we 
  can press north to Temple Haven. Th ere’ll be loads of jobbing 
  caravanners, we can get our numbers back up. Maybe dilute the 
  atmosphere a bit. Get rid of the stupid pantomime that Paddy, 
  Tav and Yuru start playing whenever Bel’s around.”
  Eadric changed the subject. “Look, you can just see the lights of 
  Roughmarsh from here.”
  He was right. Roughmarsh was not a lovely place, built 
  precariously in a low-lying wetlands area where the ﬂ oods 
  threatened to wash the entire town away every year. But it was 
  the ﬁ rst sign of civilization the caravan had seen since leaving 
  Midway.
  Th e caravan rolled through the always-open gates of Roughmarsh 
  mid-afternoon on an unseasonably warm day, and came to a 
  halt on one side of the main square. Th e recruits started their 
  usual clown act as they tried to unpack the wagons. Eadric stood 
  apart from them, shielding the sun from his eyes and scanning 
  the crowd. Azander came up to him.
  “See anyone likely?”
  “Yeah, one guy. With the pantaloons and beret, standing by the 
  bell tower. See him?”
  “Him? Looks like he’d take oﬀ  in a light breeze.”
  “He’ll do ﬁ ne. You all will, I think.”
  “Th anks, I mean... what?”
  But Eadric had already started oﬀ  across the paving. Azander 
  watched as they negotiated, and then Eadric led the new guy 
  back to the wagons.
  “Everyone! Th is is Warren Clarke the third. He’ll be joining us 
  on the next leg of our journey.”
  “Hi Warren.”
  “Hello Warren.”
  “Greeting, Warren Clarke the... pﬀ t...”
  “Th ankyou everyone. I am honoured to be able to work with 
  you, and I hope I will be able to represent my city well as I carry 
  out my responsibilities.”
  “Good grief, he just gets better. Sorry chum, carry on.”
  “Th ankyou, er...”
  “‘Zander. I’m honoured to be able to be... to something something. 
  Whatever. What do you actually do?”
  “I am a scholar of history. And I have also been trained at the 
  military academy here. Hence the beret, you see.”
  “A scholar? You mean like a monk or something?”
  “Ha ha, no not a monk, sir. Ha ha, no. Do people have to become 
  monks to study in your lands? Here children have to go to school 
  as soon as they can walk, but I’ve heard that things are diﬀ erent 
  elsewhere.”
  “Yeah, well, you know.” Azander felt he wasn’t getting the 
  upper hand in the conversation so he was glad when Padash 
  joined in.
  “Do all your soldiers have to wear hats that look like knitted 
  dead chickens?”
  Warren touched his beret nervously. “Well, it’s a mark of rank, 
  you see. Th e feather lets people know I’ve been trained in the art 
  of war. Look,” he pointed across the square. “Th ere’s a detachment 
  of the Eighth Noble Heavy Brigade. Th ey’re going to ring the 
  bell.”
  A troop of soldiers in brightly coloured uniforms marched across 
  the square with gleaming halberds on their shoulders. Th ey 
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  RACES  -  SACRED STEEL 
  45
  Warren Clarke III being bright-eyed and bushy-tailed
  stopped next to the bell tower, and one of them could be heard 
  stopped next to the bell tower, and one of them could be heard 
  barking instructions according to some timing. Th e soldiers 
  barking instructions according to some timing. Th e soldiers 
  formed a circle around the towers and did something complicated 
  formed a circle around the towers and did something complicated 
  with their halberds that involved all of them bringing the blunt 
  with their halberds that involved all of them bringing the blunt 
  ends down heavily on the paving simultaneously, making an 
  ends down heavily on the paving simultaneously, making an 
  impressively loud crunch. Th e captain continued to shout orders 
  impressively loud crunch. Th e captain continued to shout orders 
  as two soldiers left the ranks and proceeded to the door of the 
  as two soldiers left the ranks and proceeded to the door of the 
  tower. Working like clockwork, they unlocked the door and 
  tower. Working like clockwork, they unlocked the door and 
  marched inside. After a carefully timed delay, the bell rang four 
  marched inside. After a carefully timed delay, the bell rang four 
  times. Th e soldiers repeated their moves in reverse, locking 
  times. Th e soldiers repeated their moves in reverse, locking 
  the tower and joining the ranks, and then the lot of them 
  the tower and joining the ranks, and then the lot of them 
  formed back up into a unit and marched out of the square 
  formed back up into a unit and marched out of the square 
  again.
  “Gosh” said Bel.
  “A ﬁ ne example of military precision. Every hour, 
  “A ﬁ ne example of military precision. Every hour, 
  on the hour. I may join up with them one day.” 
  on the hour. I may join up with them one day.” 
  said Warren.
  “An entire unit just to ring a bell? Wouldn’t it be 
  “An entire unit just to ring a bell? Wouldn’t it be 
  easier to, oh, I don’t know, have a bloke go in and 
  easier to, oh, I don’t know, have a bloke go in and 
  pull the rope?”, said Azander.
  “You’ve got no sense of pride, ‘Zander”, said Tavish. “Th at was 
  “You’ve got no sense of pride, ‘Zander”, said Tavish. “Th at was 
  a good bit of pageantry. I like that. Th ese guys have proper pride 
  a good bit of pageantry. I like that. Th ese guys have proper pride 
  in their city.”
  “It’s true.” added Yuru. “You never see anyone being proud 
  “It’s true.” added Yuru. “You never see anyone being proud 
  of Midway. It’s more like an accidental city, like a bunch of 
  of Midway. It’s more like an accidental city, like a bunch of 
  people stopped there for the night and forgot to leave again in 
  people stopped there for the night and forgot to leave again in 
  the morning. But here—they actually want to place to be the 
  the morning. But here—they actually want to place to be the 
  best it can.”
  “Even though it is a half-ﬂ ooded, mosquito infested hole” said 
  “Even though it is a half-ﬂ ooded, mosquito infested hole” said 
  Azander.
  “I’m still here, Azander. But you’ve got it right in one. It 
  “I’m still here, Azander. But you’ve got it right in one. It 
  wouldn’t really matter where we were. Th is is our city, and we 
  wouldn’t really matter where we were. Th is is our city, and we 
  have one of the ﬁ nest militias in the Realms, and we’re proud of 
  have one of the ﬁ nest militias in the Realms, and we’re proud of 
  it. But I can see you want to head out, so in the morning I think 
  it. But I can see you want to head out, so in the morning I think 
  we should go to Temple Haven. You’ll like that a lot more.”
  we should go to Temple Haven. You’ll like that a lot more.”
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  SACRED STEEL  -  RACES
  46
  DEATHLING
  Th is is Temple Haven, the largest city in the Realms. Th e temple 
  complex itself looms up from the centre of the sprawling mass of 
  buildings and makes the palace visible for miles around. 
  Th e monks move around carrying our their duties. Th e Temple of 
  Plenty is one of the busiest parts of the complex. Here, rich people 
  can pay to be blessed by the monks and the poor are allowed to 
  come in and oﬀ er prayers. Th e steps outside are always busy with 
  peddlers looking for a quick coin from those desperate enough to 
  travel here to pray.
  Crouching in the gutter between two adjoining roofs, overlooking 
  the steps, is Saza Finn. She is tucked into the shadows, and 
  no-one is aware of her. She’s watching the people down below, 
  and although she doesn’t yet know who she’s looking for, she’s 
  conﬁ dent she’ll recognise them when they arrive.
  She’s right. Her last spell told her only that they’d all be from 
  diﬀ erent places—and here they come. Th e leader is a Drelv, 
  same as one of the others. Th e rest are an Elv girl, still wearing 
  her woods clothing; an Orc, carrrying his big kerg axe; a 
  Highlander wearing his now fairly grubby and torn tartans; 
  a Plainsman looking serious and strong; and a Realmsman, 
  from  Roughmarsh by his colours, smiling enthusiastically at 
  everything.
  Eadric turned and halted the group. “Th is is it! Th e biggest of 
  them all. Admire it, there’s nothing else like it anywhere, not 
  even in Founding City. And when you’ve done that, I’ll tell you 
  why I brought you here.”
  Saza looked on. Th is is it, she thought, he’s going to let them all 
  in on it.
  “Look, I haven’t been entirely level with you all. You’ve been 
  great as wagonhands, we’ve had a hectic trip and you’re all still 
  here, and I’m happy I’ve made the right choice. You see, I’ve been 
  recruiting you for something else. Th e wagon was a reason to 
  bring you together, but the truth is that inside this temple...”
  A ﬁ gure ﬂ itted down the steps and stabbed a wicked curved 
  blade through Eadric’s back so hard the tip stuck out of his shirt 
  at the front.
  “Bugger,” croaked Eadric. “Didn’t see that coming.” He fell 
  forward down the steps. 
  Padash was already chasing after the assassin, but the crowds 
  closed in and he was gone. Bel was trying to rouse Eadric, but 
  his blood was washing away down the dry stone steps and 
  there was no sign of life. Tavish was looking at the wound, 
  dumbfaced.
  Saza froze for a second while a chill ran down her spine. She 
  hadn’t known that was going to happen, either. Th en she moved 
  away from the edge and quickly climbed down the drainpipe 
  she’d used to get up there and ran over to the bleeding body.
  Warren saw the gaunt, pale girl weaving towards Eadric. 
  “You’re not welcome, Deathling!” he snapped at her.
  Saza stopped, suddenly very self-conscious about her skull-
  themed jewellery and black dress. “It’s okay, I saw everything.” 
  she said, lamely.
  Bel looked at the girl. “Deathling? You do death magic?”
  Before she could answer, Warren butted in. “Vermin. Th ey infest 
  the cities, taking corpses and brainwashing kids for their dark 
  magic.”
  “Hey!” said Saza. “I’m not brainwashed. And I’ve never a taken 
  any corpses. Well, only the ones I was entitled to. Look, I can 
  help. I can still talk to him. I can ﬁ nd out what he was about 
  to say.”
  Bel stammered slighlty, “But... I thought that only worked on 
  dead people. I’m sorry, I’ve never met a... I mean, I don’t know 
  much about...”
  Tavish put his hands on her shoulders and moved her away 
  from the body. “Bel, he is dead. And as for the deathling, I’m 
  prepared to let her have a go. I’m no fan, but if you can ever 
  help, now is the moment. I would have liked a deathling there 
  when they found my da dead in the stables.”
  Warren nodded.
  Saza knelt down by the body, touching the wound with her 
  ﬁ ngertips. “Oh... he’s so close! I can nearly hear him... he’s 
  saying... he came here to take a magical orc from the temple. 
  Orb! Sorry, orb, not orc. Right. Th e monks have been inﬁ ltrated 
  by a dark order that are going to use it raise some barmy undead. 
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  RACES  -  SACRED STEEL 
  47
  Or an army of undead, maybe. Probably. He says that’s why I 
  was sent here. I’m the last member of the group.”
  Padash glared at her. “How do we know you’re not lying?”
  Saza sighed, and then smiled. “He says that he trusted you 
  enough to let you join the caravan and that you should share 
  some of that trust. Bel, is that your name?”
  Bel nodded.
  “He says... for the love of pie, start wearing those trousers we 
  bought you in Aerbridge before somebody gets the wrong idea. 
  Tav... he says... he’ll say hi to your da when he sees him. Yuru 
  and Warren, he says he’s sorry he didn’t get to know you better. 
  And now he says we need to get inside and ﬁ nd that orb because 
  any minute now the place will be crawling with those assassins. 
  Padash—that’s you, right?” she asked the Orc. “Please, bring 
  Padash—that’s you, right?” she asked the Orc. “Please, bring 
  his body.” 
  She stood, and the others followed. Padash hefted the 
  She stood, and the others followed. Padash hefted the 
  bleeding corpse onto his shoulder as they moved inside the 
  bleeding corpse onto his shoulder as they moved inside the 
  main doors amongst the throng of people. Monks standing 
  main doors amongst the throng of people. Monks standing 
  around saw them, but assumed they had come to pray for 
  around saw them, but assumed they had come to pray for 
  an injured colleague. 
  “Th rough to the back. Th e orb is in a  special room, 
  “Th rough to the back. Th e orb is in a  special room, 
  apparently.”
  Th ey moved through the crowd and through 
  Th ey moved through the crowd and through 
  doors at the back, down passages and 
  doors at the back, down passages and 
  across courtyards. Th ere were a few 
  scuﬄ  es, but they were learning to ﬁ ght 
  well together and with Yuru’s illusions 
  and Bel’s arrows keeping the enemy at 
  bay they kept moving.
  Th ey came to a halt outside some impressively strong-
  Th ey came to a halt outside some impressively strong-
  looking oak doors. Saza beckoned them out of sight while 
  looking oak doors. Saza beckoned them out of sight while 
  Yuru spoke to a passing guard, who miraculously unlocked 
  Yuru spoke to a passing guard, who miraculously unlocked 
  and opened the doors for them. Having done that he rubbed 
  and opened the doors for them. Having done that he rubbed 
  his forehead in confusion, but the pommel of Tavish’s sword 
  his forehead in confusion, but the pommel of Tavish’s sword 
  put him to sleep before he could work out what he’d just 
  put him to sleep before he could work out what he’d just 
  done. 
  Saza knelt down by Eadric’s body again. “Please don’t be 
  Saza knelt down by Eadric’s body again. “Please don’t be 
  upset,” she whispered. “He wants me to do this. It will 
  upset,” she whispered. “He wants me to do this. It will 
  get us to the orb”.
  Eadric’s body sat up jerkily, face slack and 
  Eadric’s body sat up jerkily, face slack and 
  expressionless.
  “Smile.” said Saza. “And stand up.”
  Th e body did both. And following her orders, it walked 
  Th e body did both. And following her orders, it walked 
  through the oak doors. From outside, the group could 
  through the oak doors. From outside, the group could 
  hear Eadric, or at least Eadric’s voice, saying “Death 
  does not slow me, deﬁ lers. I am more powerful than an assassin’s 
  knife. Back! I come only for the Orb of Grey, and you will give 
  it to me.”
  Other voices were shouting “Revenant! He’s back! You didn’t 
  kill him properly! Aargh!”
  After a moment, Saza said, “Go! Grab the orb!”.
  Th e group ran in. Terriﬁ ed monks were scattered around a 
  circular room. In the middle was a dais, with a sort of altar on 
  it, on which rested a brightly glowing ball with white ﬂ ames 
  dancing around it. Th e ﬁ ghters kept the monks at bay while 
  Azander dashed to the dais and grabbed the orb. 
  Saza let go of her spell and Eadric’s body collapsed, for the last 
  time. Azander juggled the orb, making ooh-ah sounds. “Th row 
  it to me!” shouted Saza, and she caught and held 
  it to me!” shouted Saza, and she caught and held 
  it with no problem.
  Th ey backed out of the room and retraced 
  Th ey backed out of the room and retraced 
  their steps out of the temple, ducking into 
  their steps out of the temple, ducking into 
  doorways and using Yuru’s illusions to 
  doorways and using Yuru’s illusions to 
  cover their retreat.
  cover their retreat.
  Hours later they sat behind the wagons 
  Hours later they sat behind the wagons 
  waiting for the searching monks from the 
  waiting for the searching monks from the 
  temple to give up. Saza spoke what was on 
  temple to give up. Saza spoke what was on 
  eveyone’s mind.
  “So... what do we do now?”
  “So... what do we do now?”
  Saza Finn 
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  SACRED STEEL  -  MAGIC
  48
  PART THE FOURTH:
  MAGIC
  Magic cast by player characters in Sacred Steel is the art 
  of making the unexpected happen; it cannot make the 
  impossible happen, but it can play with the odds. Water 
  cannot catch ﬁ re, but a bail of hay can; a good enough 
  magician could take one tiny spark and make that bail of 
  hay catch ﬁ re in a sudden incandescent blaze.
  Th ere are ﬁ ve ﬁ elds of low magic. Each ﬁ eld of spells is 
  based on what it aﬀ ects—for example, ﬁ re magic aﬀ ects 
  ﬁ re and mind magic aﬀ ects minds. Most spells also have a 
  fuel. Th e fuel is the real-world substance that must be used 
  to make the magic happen. Lastly, all magic has a price; the 
  eﬀ ect that long-term exposure to magic has, the way it has 
  of warping and changing the magician.
  Th ese are called the low magics. Anyone can learn them, 
  given enough time and patience. Th ey can appear wondrous 
  and terrifying and they can turn the tide of battle.
  But they are nothing compared to the high magics. Th ese 
  ancient and arcane talents are regularly practiced only by 
  a select few, and when they are unleashed, there is always 
  a lasting wound. Th e creation of the Orcs was one of the 
  most memorable feats of high magic. Sometimes, enough 
  workers of low magic can join together and cast a spell of 
  high magic, such as when the Elven witches and warlocks 
  cursed the Drelves.
  High magic cannot be scripted or have rules made for it; 
  it simply is, and it will sometimes rear its ancient head and 
  devour a piece of history.
  Th ink of the diﬀ erence between low and high magic like 
  this: high magic is taking a pair of tailor’s shears to the 
  fabric of reality and cutting it into a new shape. Low magic 
  is pulling on the knicker elastic of reality, changing its shape 
  just for a moment.
  Reality does not like to have her knicker elastic pulled. And 
  if you try to stretch it further than you’re really capable of, 
  you’ll feel it slipping out of your ﬁ ngers, snapping back and 
  surprising Reality, who will suddenly notice you and shout 
  “STOP PULLING ON MY KNICKER ELASTIC, PATHETIC LITTLE 
  MAGICIAN!” before smiting you. Be warned.
  Th is phenomenon is called Snapback, because by all 
  accounts it feels like the spell, as it slips away from you, 
  bounces back and delivers its force onto you instead of 
  whatever you intended.
  WORKING LOW MAGIC
  From earlier chapters, we’ve seen the Depth skill, which 
  represents how deeply attuned with magical arts a character 
  is. Specialities are simply individual disciplines, like ﬁ re 
  magic or mind magic, and work like normal specialities, 
  adding on to Depth when using magic of that discipline.
  Th ere are ﬁ ve common ﬁ elds of magic. One of them, 
  hiddlins, is open to anyone with a Depth score. Th e others 
  (ﬁ re magic, death magic, mind magic and witchcraft) have 
  to be learnt one at a time, one per point of depth. So if you 
  start your character with a Depth skill of 4, you get all the 
  ﬁ elds; if you start with Depth 3, you have to leave one out 
  and so on.
  Magic in combat works like this: you decide what spell you 
  want to cast, and what level of magic you need, based on the 
  description of the spell (bigger eﬀ ects and worse conditions 
  make the level higher).
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  MAGIC  -  SACRED STEEL 
  49
  Th en, each turn, you make a Depth draw (with a ﬁ eld 
  speciality if you have one). But reality is pulling back, and 
  the harder the spell is, the harder reality resists - so the spell 
  itself (played by the GM) gets to make a draw of as many 
  cards as the level of the spell.
  It’s like melee: you’re looking to get a big enough 
  advantage over the spell to make it cast. Th e 
  advantage you need is: the level of the spell. So to 
  cast a level 3 spell, you need a 3 point advantage, 
  and every turn the spell gets to draw 3 cards against 
  you. To cast a level 6 spell, you need a 6 point 
  advantage, and every turn the spell gets to draw 6 
  cards against you.
  When you reach the target advantage (which might 
  be the ﬁ rst turn, if it’s a low-level spell, or the tenth 
  turn if it’s a hard spell) the spell goes oﬀ  and has 
  whatever eﬀ ect was desired.
  But what happens if the spell starts winning? 
  Snapback. If the spell ever gets enough advantage 
  over the caster (the same amount of advantage that 
  the caster would have needed to cast, i.e. the level 
  of the spell), it gets ﬁ red back directly at the caster. 
  Th e speciﬁ cs depend on the spell and level, but it’s 
  never a good thing.
  Th e caster can choose to let go at any point, and 
  only take  snapback eﬀ ects at whatever level of 
  advantage the spell had at that moment. 
  Unless noted diﬀ erently, spells require the 
  spellcaster to be able to concentrate, speak and use 
  their hands for 1 round (ﬁ ve seconds) to cast. Th e 
  eﬀ ects of the spell happen on the next round.
  UNLIKE “OTHER” 
  SYSTEMS...
  If you’ve played other role-playing games that have 
  magic in, you may be a bit lost by Sacred Steel’s 
  system. Th ere are no per-day limits on the number 
  or type of spells that can be cast. Nor is there a 
  system of points for you to run out of at inconvenient 
  moments. Th e only limitation is having the materials on 
  hand that are needed, and if you’ve got those, you can cast 
  away.
  What about the old fantasy staple of the exhausted mage 
  who’s used up all his power/mana/spell slots? Sure, feel 
  free to roleplay it. Just the same as a ﬁ ghter who has been 
  swinging a sword all day, a magician who has been hurling 
  ﬁ reballs all day will feel pretty tired. But they can always 
  pull themselves together and cast one more spell if they 
  have to.
  Th e other thing that might worry you is the limited 
  number of spells. Well, don’t worry. Most magicians 
  can cast any of the spells listed (only starting 
  characters and characters who have magical skills 
  as a side-line have to make any choices). Also, each 
  spell can be cast at any level. Th e eﬀ ects of the 
  spell scale with the level, so the “Fiery Aura” you 
  cast with a brand new character will be quite a bit 
  diﬀ erent to the one you cast after a few months of 
  earning experience.
  And if you’re desperate and think there’s something 
  left out, write out a spell description and use it. Better 
  yet, bring it back to the Sacred Steel website and it 
  might get included in the game or a supplement.
  THE FIELDS OF 
  LOW MAGIC
  HIDDLINS
  Hiddlins is an old word that simply means “secrets”. 
  It’s all the little spells that ﬁ rst-time magic users 
  learn. Most people won’t earn a living from the 
  Hiddlins, but maybe it’ll help them in whatever 
  else they do.
  FIRE MAGIC
  Th e ﬁ re magician can control ﬂ ames and sparks, 
  making them burn faster or slower than normal, 
  making them travel under the power of their own 
  combustion.
  Fire magic needs burnable fuel, like wood, hay, cloth, 
  oil or alcohol—the easier or hotter the fuel would 
  burn normally, the better the eﬀ ects of magic. Th ere is also 
  a specially distilled substance called Pyrean, which is made 
  speciﬁ cally for ﬁ re magicians. It comes in very strong ﬂ asks, 
  costs a lot, and because of its otherworldly properties it can 
  be used to throw ﬁ reballs. A ﬂ ask of Pyrean transforms a 
  ﬁ re magician into a fearsome battleﬁ eld unit.
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  SACRED STEEL  -  MAGIC
  50
  Long-term users of ﬁ re magic suﬀ er physical scarring from 
  heat. Even if they never actually burn themselves with their 
  magic, the heat builds up in them. At early levels, it’s barely 
  noticeable. After a while (combined Depth+ﬁ re magic 
  speciality of 8 or more) they will develop reddened, leathery 
  skin. Later on, blisters will appear at random on their body 
  and eventually, huge blackened patches will break out on 
  the face and hands. None of this actually hurts the user; the 
  greatest practitioners of ﬁ re magic look like they have been 
  burned alive, but to them it is no more than natural and 
  they wear the mark of ﬁ re with pride.
  DEATH MAGIC
  Although frowned upon in many places, death magic has 
  turned more battles than anyone can remember.
  Death magicians can sense the dead, listen to them, 
  and speak to them. Th e most potent power of the death 
  magician is to coax spirits back into their bodies for a short 
  while. Although ultimately these zombies will collapse, the 
  sight of an army of undead is terrifying.
  Death magicians can also speak to the spirits of the dead 
  and ask questions of them, although the answers are 
  often confused by the viewpoint of the spirit who has no 
  connection to the living.
  Bodies are the link to the dead; as the mortal resting 
  place of the spirit, they are what the 
  magician needs to work his spells. He 
  can’t summon a dead person’s spirit 
  to inhabit a tree or a suit of armour. 
  Eventually, the spirit is drawn back 
  to where it should be, and it leaves 
  the body forever. 
  Death magicians develop an unhealthy fascination with the 
  dead. Early on, it will manifest simply as a lack of concern 
  about dead bodies or the smell of rotting, and they will 
  handle corpses without squeamishness, like any undertaker. 
  Later, they will actively seek the company of corpses, ﬁ nding 
  a link with other worlds there that they cannot ﬁ nd with 
  the living. In time, this will turn to obsession; a powerful 
  death magician’s home will be lined with skeletons, skulls 
  and even decaying corpses so the magician can study the 
  progress of decomposition. Th e most powerful disciples of 
  death magic turn to necrophilia and wearing unembalmed 
  skins to connect them with the realm of death.
  MIND MAGIC
  Conjurers, illusionists, enchanters—they are all about 
  making you see or believe something that is not true. Th e 
  more plausible the lie, the easier the spell. But the greatest 
  workers of mind magic can make you see your closest 
  friends as deadly enemies and themselves as your greatest 
  friend.
  Mind magic used on the stage is also good as an alternative 
  source of income.
  All these acts require suspension of disbelief, and work only 
  when the magician can make himself, even for a moment, 
  believe the lie as well. For this reason, mind magicians use 
  herbs and drugs to alter their state of mind. Often they will 
  develop a daily habit of some low-grade narcotic that keeps 
  them on an elevated level, and then use a stronger herb to 
  give them the hallucinations they need to “see” the magic. 
  Th e favourite and most reliable substance is Miranoch’s 
  Elixir. 
  Hard drugs are bad, even in Sacred Steel. Mind magicians 
  start to lose their connection with the real world. In the 
  early stages, mind magicians will be distant and aloof, and 
  behave patronisingly towards those that can’t see what they 
  can. After a while, the physical things seem to be nothing 
  more than a thin veil over the world of possibilities that 
  they constantly imagine. Eventually they will cease to have 
  anything to do with reality until 
  they consciously chose to, having 
  to force moments of clarity upon 
  themselves to perform even simple 
  tasks.
  WITCHCRAFT
  Th is area of magic goes by many names in diﬀ erent 
  places, but it is essentially the magic of country folk, using 
  (mostly) peaceful methods to help people go about their 
  daily business.
  Two of the spells of witchcraft, Blessing and Healing, are 
  very closely linked. Th ey’re about empowering people, either 
  to work and ﬁ ght, or recover. Th is is an essential part of 
  Witchcraft, because it’s how the practioner (witch, shaman, 
  warlock) ﬁ nds a role in a community. Th ey also tend to be 
  practically-minded people, able to oﬀ er hands-on medicine 
  and assitance as well as magic.
  The most powerful 
  disciples of death magic 
  turn to necrophilia
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  MAGIC  -  SACRED STEEL 
  51
  SPELL OVERVIEW
  HIDDLINS
  Light:  Illuminate your surroundings
  Shock:  Zap people. Like lightning, at higher levels
  Second Sight:  See magic
  Curse:  Visit vengeance on people
  FIRE MAGIC
  Control ﬁ re:  Make ﬂ ames advance, die back or leap 
  out
  Resist Heat:  Protection from ﬁ re and heat
  Fiery Aura:  Covers your body in ﬂ ames
  Fireball:  Fling gobs of burning fuel which explode
  DEATH MAGIC
  Raising:  Create zombies to help you
  Communion:  Talk to the dead
  Fear:  Create terror 
  Overload:  Make nearly-dead bodies explode
  MIND MAGIC
  Illusions:  Make people see things which aren’t there
  Enchantment:  Make people believe your lies
  Reading:  Pick up on people’s emotions
  Defense:  Protect yourself from other Mind Magic
  WITCHCRAFT
  Binding:  Restrain enemies with tentacles, vines, etc.
  Blessing:  Give people a boost
  Healing:  Fix injuries
  Weather:  Manipulate the weather in your area
  Th e long-term eﬀ ects of Witchcraft are, thankfully, fairly 
  limited. Old  witches and shamans tend to be quiet, reserved 
  and long for solitude where they can simply appreciate the 
  connectedness of nature without having to be personally 
  involved.
  MAKING SPELLCASTING 
  CHARACTERS
  To make a magic-capable character, you need to put some 
  points into their Depth score. As soon as you’ve done that, 
  your character knows Magic.
  And you get some freebies. Access to the ﬁ elds of magic is 
  restricted at early levels. If you look at the Caracter Work-
  Up Sheet or the Character Sheet, you’ll see that Hiddlins 
  already has a tick under the “Entitled?” column. Th at’s 
  because everyone gets to use the Hiddlins. You can also put 
  down ticks next to as many other ﬁ elds as you have points 
  in Depth. If you only put one point in, you only get to pick 
  one ﬁ eld. If you put four points in (the maximum for most 
  new characters), you can tick all the ﬁ elds. Lucky you.
  Th en, you also get some free specialities to add to ﬁ elds 
  of magic. You get as many as your Depth score (again) 
  and unlike the regular three start-up specialities, these can 
  stack.
  As your character develops and earns experience, Depth 
  and magical specialities can be improved at the normal rate. 
  You don’t get extra specialities every time your Depth score 
  improves.
  SPECIAL MOVE: FAST CAST
  Th e Fast Cast special move allows a caster to cast spells 
  faster than normal, but with an increased risk of snapback.
  When attempting a Fast Cast, the caster can draw double 
  and get one extra card on the casting draw per rank of Fast 
  Cast. For example, a character with a Depth of 5 and rank 
  3 Fast Cast would draw 13 cards per round. Once the spell 
  has cast (or snapped back!) the caster is frozen, battling 
  back the wave of power they used to supercharge the spell. 
  Th ey spend as long frozen like this as it took to cast the 
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  SACRED STEEL  -  MAGIC
  52
  spell. Each round they get to draw their normal Depth (nor 
  doubled) + Fast Cast rank against the spell level, as though 
  they were casting again. If the spell is winning at the end of 
  the period, snapback eﬀ ects occur at whatever level it was 
  winning by.
  IMPROVISING
  For each of the disciplines, there are a few spells that cover 
  common situations—but, GMs, be prepared to allow 
  the players to think up alternative uses for their magic. 
  Th ere’s no spell description for ﬁ re magic used for boiling 
  saucepans. Why? Because it’s unlikely to appear in your 
  role-playing story, it probably wouldn’t be very hard, and 
  anyway, who cares? So show some creativity. Th ese spells 
  are not oﬀ -the-shelf special powers—they are general areas 
  of talent.
  Of course, you might ﬁ nd that there’s something that you 
  or your players keep doing that merits having its own spell. 
  Go ahead and write it out. Remember that each spell needs 
  variable levels and fuel consumption, and a description of 
  fuel qualities. And no spell should totally discolour the 
  game, it should just ﬁ t in and fulﬁ ll a niche.
  Th ese ﬁ ve ﬁ elds aren’t the only kinds of low magic. Th ere’s 
  water magic, and plant magic, and all sorts of smaller 
  disciplines that most people have never heard of. If you 
  want a truly unique character, come up with some all-new 
  spells (with your GM’s agreement) and see how they play. 
  PLAYING HIGH MAGIC
  High Magic should be a plot device in Sacred Steel. It may 
  take sacriﬁ ces, quests and collaboration with higher powers 
  to achieve, but you should never feel that High Magic 
  simply never happens. It’s just that it happens much less 
  often than Low Magic.
  MAGIC-USING CHARACTER 
  GENERATION EXAMPLE: CELIA 
  AND HER CHARACTER CLOUD
  Celia wants to play a sort of mystic, powerful-but-graceful 
  type:
  What is his/her role in the group?  Healer and magician
  What is his/her favourite piece of equipment or weapon? 
  Magic
  Why is he/she leaving home to be an adventurer?  Holy 
  orders / vocation.
  What race is he/she?  Elv.
  What does he/she look like and wear?  Tall, elegant.
  She doesn’t want the racial option, because she sees her 
  character as being quite well educated. She divides her 
  free cards by putting 1 in Interaction and the other two in 
  depth. Th is how she gets some magical ability.
  Physique:  3  
  Physique:  3  
  Physique:  
  Combat Training:   3
  Learning:   3
   Awareness:  3
   Awareness:  3
   Awareness:  3
  Interaction:   3 
    3 
    3  4 
  Depth:  2
  So her combat draw is...
  Combat Draw:  3
  Combat Draw:  3
  Combat Draw:  
  She uses one of her specialities to improve her magical 
  ability.
  Shortbow
  Languages
  Witchcraft
  Now she gets all her magical goodies. First up, she gets two 
  entitlements, which she spends on Witchcraft and Mind 
  Magic. Given that she’d already spent a regular speciality in 
  Witchcraft, she had to entitle herself to it, and the coice of 
  Mind Magic as the other one seemed to make sense.
  Th en she gets two free magical specialities, which she puts 
  in Witchcraft again. 
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  MAGIC  -  SACRED STEEL 
  53
  HIDDLINS: LIGHT
  Th is is the ﬁ rst spell most magicians ever learn. It creates a 
  ball of light that illuminates the area and follows the caster 
  around. It can also travel some way from the caster.
  Per level, a light spell:
  Illuminates an area 10 in diameter
  Can travel up to 20 from the caster
  A light spell can be ﬂ ashed up to dazzle people in dark 
  places. Th e dazzlees can make an awareness draw against 
  the level of the spell to shut their eyes in time. If they fail, 
  they have a 1–3 card penalty on all actions involving sight. 
  Alternatively, the spell can be kept going, but everybody 
  gets penalised.
  Th e type of light created can vary depending on the magical 
  speciality of the caster. Fire magicians tend to make ﬂ ame-
  like, warm ﬂ ickering light, while Death magicians create a 
  kind of washed-out, unhealthy looking light.
  SNAPBACK EFFECTS
  A snapback Light spell dazzles everyone in the area as 
  described above.
  HIDDLINS: SHOCK
  Shock is a general purpose defensive spell. Th e caster builds 
  up a charge of power, and then releases at a target. if it hits, 
  it causes stun damage. Th e charge can be held indeﬁ nitely.
  Per level, a shock spell:
  Causes 1 card of stun damage
  Has a range of one foot
  At ranges of three feet or less, the attack is considered a 
  melee strike, which must be made normally against the 
  target. Th e charge can be delivered through a metal weapon 
  if the caster uses one. Th e stun damage is drawn seperately 
  from the normal damage of the attack because it has to be 
  treated diﬀ erently (see the combat chapter for details, but 
  basically three quarters of stun damage wears oﬀ ).
  At ranges over three feet, a ranged attack draw must be made. 
  Th e caster must use their Combat Draw with specialities 
  (well, theoretically you could take a specialization in 
  “Firing Shock Spells” but I guess most people won’t). Th e 
  ranges are: short range: 3 yards; medium range: 6 yards; 
  long range: 30 yards. 
  At higher levels the Shock spell looks like lightning.
  Th e spell can also be used defensively, triggered by someone 
  touching the caster. 
  SNAPBACK EFFECTS
  Hardly a surprise, but the failed Shock spell delivers its 
  damage to the caster.
  HIDDLINS: SECOND SIGHT
  Before learning to manipulate reality, a magician must learn 
  to see in a way that normal people cannot. It is described 
  as seeing deeply; hence, the idea of depth as a measure of a 
  magician’s power.
  Second Sight allows a magician to see and even feel the 
  presence of magic. Th e lingering after-eﬀ ects of a spell 
  might show up as a dull glow over an area; a spirit or ghost 
  haunting an area would leave a feeling or aura.
  Sometimes things will be able to communicate with a 
  spellcaster through their second sight, like a ghost who 
  wants to be released reenacting their own death to show 
  the caster what happened.
  Second Sight is a free skill, and no draw is necessary. Th e 
  only limitation is that when a spellcaster wishes to hide 
  the presence of their magic, it will be only be seen by other 
  magicians with a higher Depth skill.
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  SACRED STEEL  -  MAGIC
  54
  HIDDLINS: CURSE
  One of the most basic spells, and also one of the most 
  diverse. Curses are so powerful that they sometimes happen 
  by accident, brought on by a non-spellcaster making 
  embittered oaths.
  Experienced magicians treat cursing very seriously, 
  especially reports of curses by laypeople.
  Th e reason is this: a curse is carried out by a demon. You 
  make the curse, name the subject and explain why they 
  deserve it. If a demon spirit is listening, and likes the sound 
  of it, and agrees with your reasons, they go and carry out 
  the curse. Th at’s why people can do it by accident—if they 
  are emotional enough, if they put enough bile into their 
  oaths, they can cause enough of a ripple to attract attention 
  from the other side.
  But the demon doesn’t have to like your reasons. Th ey may 
  decide to take the curse for a while and make you think 
  its worked, but then suddenly visit it back on you. Maybe 
  they’ll get to know the subject, and decide to change their 
  mind. Maybe they’ll just get bored. 
  Th e demon is a loose cannon, and you 
  better be sure of what you’re doing.
  In general, the greater the level of spell 
  used for the curse, the more powerful 
  the demon summoned, and thus the 
  stronger the eﬀ ects of the curse.
  Examples:
  At level 1, curses are relatively minor,  like a wart or an 
  ingrowing toenail.
  At level 4, the curse might aﬀ ect the subject on a daily 
  basis,  like a tic or a skin complaint.
  At level 7, the curse could bring about some serious 
  illness  including some ongoing penalty to all actions 
  the subject makes. Examples include syphillis and/or 
  madness.
  At level 10, the curse can seriously enfeeble the subject. 
  Maybe their limbs start to shrivel, or they have 
  permanent delusions about their identity.
  Curses take a while. Generally, about one hour per level, 
  although sometimes much less. After the spell is cast, it 
  does not take instant eﬀ ect. It will start over the course of 
  the next few days, sometimes so subtly that the subject is 
  unaware that something is wrong. 
  Th e caster also needs a token, something that the subject 
  will carry with them, like a necklace (given as a gift), or 
  a tattoo. Th e token signals the subjects out to the demon 
  who will eﬀ ect the curse. If the token is lost or removed the 
  demon may give up, or follow it to its new owner, if there 
  is one.
  Curses last indeﬁ nitely. Th ere are three ways to remove a 
  curse:
  Get the caster to revoke it.  Th is may displease the demon 
  in various unpredicatble ways, especially if the curse 
  was only recently cast.
  Th e death of the caster.  In this case the demon will accept 
  defeat and depart. Also a good reason to keep your 
  identity secret or you body well protected if you curse 
  someone who’s good with a sword.
  Getting another demon to remove the curse.  Th is is 
  seriously deep magic, and generally the demon will 
  want something signiﬁ cant in return.
  Incidentally, casting a curse back at someone who just 
  cursed you is almost guaranteed to fail. Why? Th e demons 
  who do this work want to do it, 
  it’s their purpose in existence. Th e 
  only reason to counter-curse is 
  to negotiate a cancellation of the 
  ﬁ rst curse, and no curse demon 
  would see that as a good thing. 
  Th e only way you might get away 
  with it is to make a clause of your curse that you will agree 
  to live with the original curse forever: even if the person 
  who cast it dies, it would be picked up by the demon who 
  answered your own spell.
  SNAPBACK EFFECTS
  Obvious, really: the demon summoned to carry out the 
  curse will ignore the subject and visit the curse on the 
  caster. Th ey might also get imaginative and twist the curse 
  into something that amuses them.
  Curses are so powerful 
  that they sometimes 
  happen by accident 
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  56
  FIRE MAGIC: CONTROL FIRE
  Th e essential ﬁ re magic is to make ﬂ ames obey your 
  commands. Th e ﬁ re magician cannot bring ﬂ ames out of 
  nothing, there must be something burning beforehand to 
  work with. For this reason ﬁ re magicians tend to be well-
  equipped with tinderboxes, ﬂ ints and oils.
  Fire magicians can control ﬂ ames within one yard per point 
  of depth.
  Small eﬀ ects, like making a candle burn bright or 
  encouraging tinder to catch are free, and require no check.
  “Plume of ﬁ re” eﬀ ects, such as might be used to spread a ﬁ re 
  or in combat etc., are worked out on the following basis:
  Th e spell needs one level per foot in diameter of the 
  plume.  So surprising someone with a little one-foot 
  plume from the top of their torch would be a level one 
  spell; a ball of ﬂ ame big enough to engulf someone 
  head-to-foot would be a level six spell.
  Th e spell also needs one level per point of Fire Rating. 
  Th is bit is optional - you can make a showy but not 
  particularly hot ﬁ reball. Example: a two-foot diamater 
  plume of ﬁ re that causes three cards of damage would 
  be a level ﬁ ve spell. See the rules for ﬁ re damage for 
  details.
  Th e level is also increased by having poor-quality fuel. 
  Highly ﬂ ammable fuels (tinder, oil, wax, paper) are 
  free; burnable but less volatile things like wood or 
  stacks of cloth add one level. Damp fuel makes the 
  spell two levels harder. Sopping wet fuel makes it ﬁ ve 
  levels harder.
  Fuel is consumed at the same rate as you would have 
  needed to burn to get the same amount of heat. Use your 
  imagination.
  Fire control can also be used to slow or extinguish a ﬁ re. 
  Th is is one spell level per foot diameter of burning material 
  to be put out. Also made harder by the fuel that’s burning: 
  hot, heavy fuels like coal and logs make the spell three levels 
  harder, kindling and light wood make it one level harder.
  SNAPBACK EFFECTS
  A plume of ﬁ re going wrong generally ﬁ res itself straight 
  at the caster from the nearest point of the original ﬁ re. It 
  will “use up” as many of its levels as needed to get near the 
  caster, and anything else goes into damage.
  FIRE MAGIC: RESIST HEAT
  Any ﬁ re magician who wants to live will learn to protect 
  themself before playing with ﬁ reballs and the like. Using 
  this talent, magicians can walk through ﬂ ames, across ﬁ res 
  and move burning objects with their hands.
  Per level, the spell:
  Lasts for one minute
  Protects the caster from one point of Fire Rating
  Th e spell directly counteracts Fire Rating. For example, a 
  level 3 spell would completely protect you from any ﬁ re 
  less than Fire Rating 3, for 3 minutes. So you could hold a 
  torch by the wrong end or something. If you jumped into 
  a Fire Rating 5 bonﬁ re, it would work like a Fire Rating 2 
  campﬁ re.
  But it’s low magic, remember. Th e ﬁ re doesn’t just go away. 
  Th e caster just holds onto it for a bit, and makes it burn 
  somewhere else. So this spell works a bit diﬀ erently from 
  most, because the fuel gets consumed afterwards. Once the 
  spell has ﬁ nished, the caster needs to ﬁ nd something to 
  release all the absorbed heat into. It needs to be something 
  that could burn, but big enough that it isn’t completely 
  destroyed. So if you’ve just spent ﬁ ve minutes walking 
  around a burning house, a tree in the garden would be 
  suitable, but a small chair wouldn’t. 
  Th e timeframe for ﬁ nding something suitable is roughly 
  one minute per point of Depth of the caster. During 
  this time, their skin will become hot to the touch, until 
  eventually their clothes catch ﬁ re and ground burns under 
  their feet. 
  If the time runs out, the caster takes all the damage that 
  they protected themselves from, instantly. Which will make 
  quite a good light show.
  SNAPBACK EFFECTS
  Snapback on this spell is tricky. Th e caster will become a 
  ﬁ re magnet, as though nature had suddenly noticed that 
  someone was trying to cheat it and decided to play nasty 
  in return.
  All damage from ﬁ re is doubled for the duration that the 
  spell was supposed to last for. If the caster tries another 
  Resist Heat spell during that time, it will work as normal 
  (assuming it doesn’t snapback as well) but the “stored” heat 
  will be doubled.
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  FIRE MAGIC: FIERY AURA
  Be the Envy of your Friends! Or, more likely, Be the Terror 
  of your Enemies! with this ﬁ ery, whole-body-covering layer 
  of magical ﬂ ame. Your foes will hurt themselves when they 
  try to attack you! Your simplest melee attacks will have an 
  added element of burning!
  Per level, the aura:
  Lasts for one round of combat
  Has a Fire Rating of 1
  Consumes one phial of Pyrean
  So a level 5 spell would last for 5 combat rounds (25 seconds) 
  and cause 5 cards of Fire Rating.
  Th e heat damage is added to any successful melee strikes 
  the caster makes. It can also burn people who try to attack 
  the caster with bare hands or dagger-sized weapons.
  SNAPBACK EFFECTS
  If the spell snaps back, the aura appears alright, at whatever 
  level it snapped back - and does damage to the caster. It 
  only lasts for one round, but damage level is equal to the 
  level of the spell. So if you snapped back a level eight Fiery 
  Aura, you’d take eight points of heat for one round.
  FIRE MAGIC: FIREBALL
  Fireballs are the ultimate showy spell. It’s what people 
  expect when they think of wizards doing battle.
  Th e caster throws a glob of burning Pyrean at the target. It 
  ﬂ ies in a dead-straight line, propelled by its own heat and 
  explodes onto the target, splashing them with the burning 
  fuel.
  Per level, the ﬁ reball:
  Can ﬂ y up to 2 yards
  Has a burst diameter of 1 yard
  Has a Fire Rating of 1
  Consumes one phial of Pyrean
  So a level 2 ﬁ reball would have a maximum range of 4m, 
  a burst diameter of 2m (just enough to get two people 
  ﬁ ghting side-by-side) and a Fire rating of 2.
  Th e caster can optionally reduce the range (obviously not 
  so much that they get caught in the blast) but not the 
  diameter or damage.
  SNAPBACK EFFECTS
  You can tell when a magician has just snapped back a 
  ﬁ reball because you’ll hear a distinctive noise. It sounds 
  like “Oh sh—”, and is rapidly followed by the whoomph of 
  some phials of Pyrean all going oﬀ  at once and, sometimes, 
  some screaming.
  Th e hapless magician who manages to snap back a ﬁ reball 
  takes the ﬁ reball in the face at whatever level it went oﬀ . 
  Friends standing nearby may get caught up in it, too.
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  MAGIC  -  SACRED STEEL 
  59
  DEATH MAGIC: COMMUNION
  Death Magic’s basic skill is Communion—talking to the 
  dead. Th e caster needs to be able to touch the corpse of 
  the subject, although sometimes an important personal 
  posession will do. In extremes, being near the gravesite can 
  also be enough to make some link to the departed spirit.
  Th e caster can try to ask questions when communing. 
  Th e spirit will respond with mental images or feelings of 
  emotion—only very rarely with actual words. Th e answer 
  can be as cryptic or as plain as the GM feels.
  Th e level of spell needed to communicate with a spirit is 
  based on:
  1 level per day since the death, rounded up 
  Plus 1 or more levels if the subject was hostile to the 
  caster in life
  Minus 1 or more levels if the spirit actually wants to 
  communicate
  Many things can aﬀ ect the results of a communion spell. 
  Th ose who were particularly strong-willed in life may have 
  enough “self ” left in death to communicate with words, or 
  to be aware of the living world through the caster’s eyes 
  during the communion.
  People who died with unﬁ nished business may stay very 
  close to their graves, or the spot where they died. Th e 
  diﬃ  culty of contacting them may not increase with time, 
  until whatever troubled them has been resolved.
  SNAPBACK EFFECTS
  An attempt to commune that has gone awry sends loud 
  warning signals through the planes of the afterlife. 
  Absolutely anything might come to ﬁ nd out what caused it. 
  It might be an evil spirit which will posess the body of the 
  subject (even if it’s dead and buried). Or maybe something 
  will come to haunt the caster. If the subject was hostile (see 
  the level guide), they might get a chance to do something 
  nasty to the caster.
  DEATH MAGIC: FEAR
  Death Magicians have a heightened awareness of death. 
  Th ey see it in everything, they see mortality the same way 
  most people see light. And it doesn’t bother them. You 
  have to give up being squeamish the ﬁ rst time you try a 
  communion, because it’s that or give up Death Magic. 
  Most people, though, aren’t like that. Most people, when 
  you get right down to it, are scared of death. Th ey may 
  say they aren’t, they may say they accept death as part of a 
  natural cycle. Th ey may even say they are looking forward 
  to it, for ethical or personal reasons. 
  But still. No-one wants to actually open that door that 
  they’ve seen friends and relatives walk through in the past 
  and ﬁ nd out what’s on the other side.
  Th e Death Magician can open that door and forcibly show 
  people glimpses of what lies beyond. It has a seriously 
  demoralising eﬀ ect on the living. 
  Th e eﬀ ect of the spell works in a roughly 90° cone shape 
  extending outwards from the caster, up to 1m per spell level. 
  Any living target in range will be aﬀ ected.
  Aﬀ ected targets can make a draw based on their highest 
  mental skill (Learning, Interaction or Awareness). If they 
  equal or beat the spell level, then they are shaken but can 
  function normally. If they get less than the spell level, then 
  they are stricken with mortal fear and will freeze or try 
  to run away for as many rounds as they lost by. If they are 
  forced to ﬁ ght or take any other action during this time, 
  they are penalised by as many cards as they lost by. 
  Th e GM may award bonuses to the draw in certain cases. 
  For example, a large group of people will be more conﬁ dent 
  than a solitary target and thus get some bonus on their 
  draw. Also, people who have been briefed and prepared 
  about facing a death magician will get a bonus.
  Magicians may add their Depth and any speciality ranks in 
  Death Magic onto their draw to avoid fear.
  SNAPBACK EFFECTS
  It’s not true that Death Magicians don’t fear death; it’s just 
  that they are used to seeing it. If a Fear spell snaps back, 
  some evil spirit from the other side who is fed up being 
  used as a show-and-tell will take the cone of eﬀ ect and ﬁ re 
  it straight back at the caster and their friends. Th e caster 
  does not get to use their Depth and Death Magic speciality 
  as a bonus in this case.
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  DEATH MAGIC: RAISING
  Th e iconic spell of death magic is the raising of zombies. 
  It works best in a group—as the ﬁ ghters drop enemies, the 
  Death Magician coaxes animation back into the corpses, 
  swaying the numbers in the ﬁ ght until it’s all over.
  A raised zombie is a short-lived thing, and once it has 
  expired, it cannot be raised again.
  A zombie can never be better than the living being it was 
  made from. Its skill levels are either the skills it had in life, 
  or the spell level used to raise it, whichever is lower.
  Per spell level, the raised zombie:
  Will last for one minute
  Will have one point in each of its skills  (up to a maximum 
  of its living skills)
  Multiple zombies may be raised simultaneously. Th e spell 
  level to do this is simply the sum of the spell levels applied 
  to each corpse.
  Examples: Let’s say that mid-way through a ﬁ ght, your side 
  has managed to drop two regular thugs (3 in all skills) and 
  a captain (5 in all skills). Using a level 3 raising spell, you 
  could raise one of the thugs. He’d last for 3 minutes, and 
  work at full power. You could also do the exact same thing 
  with the captain, but it would be a waste, because you could 
  use a level 5 spell on him and get a better zombie. 
  Alternatively, you could use the level three spell to raise all 
  three of them for one minute with one point in each skill. 
  Th ey’re not going to win the ﬁ ght for you on their own, but 
  with three of them stumbling round groaning “braaiiins...” 
  they are going to distract the remaining enemies and make 
  them split their attacks.
  Th e zombies act under their own will, but guided by 
  instructions from the caster. Th ey can communicate 
  telepathically with the caster, but at lower levels they will 
  have little or no initiative.
  SNAPBACK EFFECTS
  Failed raising spells always work the same way: the zombies 
  attack the caster. Th ey are raised with just enough memory 
  of life to know that they ought to be dead, and that a few 
  minutes servitude with no heartbeat is not the same as 
  resurrection.
  DEATH MAGIC: OVERLOAD
  Overload is frowned upon by many magicians, even Death 
  Magicians. Th e spell’s nickname is “exploding corpses”, 
  which should give you some idea what it looks like in 
  practice. It’s not an accurate nickname, though, because 
  what this spell is all about is taking the bodies of those who 
  are near death, unconscious, slipping away but not quite 
  dead yet, and yanking them so forcefully to the Other Side 
  that a vacuum is left in their body, which then implodes in 
  a rather horrible way.
  Eligible bodies must have taken more wounds in total than 
  their Physique (thus unconscious or unable to move) but 
  no single wound greater than their Physique (which would 
  instantly kill them).
  “Named” characters (player characters and important 
  NPCs) of course do not automatically die when they 
  recieve a mortal wound (greater than their Physique). Th ey 
  just start slipping away, so they remain eligible for Overload 
  for some time.
  Th e level of spell applied to a body can never be higher than 
  the body’s Physique was in life. Th us, bigger targets make 
  better bombs.
  Per spell level, Overload:
  Has a burst radius of one foot around the body
  Does one card of damage to people inside the radius
  So if your group was ﬁ ghting a bunch of regular guards 
  (Physique 3) and one of them was felled, a Death Magician 
  could cast a level 3 Overload on the body. It would burst 
  up to three feet from the body, and cause three cards of 
  damage to people that it caught, which might be two more 
  of the guards.
  SNAPBACK EFFECTS
  Whatever dark force was called upon to tear the victim 
  away from their body relies upon the caster to guide them 
  to the target. If the caster screws up, the same dark force will 
  still come, but it will pick a target at random. It could pick 
  one of the caster’s friends. Worse, if the choice is limited, 
  it might try to pick on the caster and give them horrible 
  internal wounds up to the level of the snapback.
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  MIND MAGIC: ILLUSION
  You don’t need ﬁ reballs, zombies, or any of that hocus-pocus 
  if you can pull this stunt: illusions. It’s easy: you think up 
  what you want people to see. Visualise it. Visualise it hard. 
  And suddenly everyone’s seeing the same thing as you. 
  Th ere’s just two problems. 
  First, what you see in your head isn’t usually an exact picture 
  of something, it’s just the big recogniseable features. Lets 
  pretend you know all about horses, and you ask me to think 
  about a horse. I imagine a big black destrier, stamping its 
  hooves. Th en somehow we burn an exact image of what’s 
  in my head onto a piece of paper. You’ll look at that picture 
  and say, yes, it does kind of look like a horse, but why does 
  most of it look all cartoony? And those hooves are all 
  wrong, they’re far too small.
  Th e reason is that’s all I know about horses. All I can think 
  up is what the word “horse” means to me. And people are 
  very focused creatures, belive it or not. We see a little of a 
  thing at a time, and rely on our short term memory to tell 
  us what the rest looked like.
  Secondly, people are very good at seeing what they expect. 
  Magicking up a full tankard of ale in a tavern is easy, because 
  it ﬁ ts. Magicking up a tankard full of baby dragons—well, 
  that’s a lot harder.
  Th e illusionist must make himself see an entire, detailed 
  scene in his own head, even if it’s only a small illusion. 
  Which is why mind magicians use Miranoch’s Elixir, which 
  unfocuses the mind so it can see more.
  Th e level of spell needed to pull oﬀ  an illusion is based on 
  a few things:
  Size. Small illusions, the size of a drinking pot or 
  less, cost one level; up to man sized costs two levels; 
  up to horse sized is three levels, and so on.
  Plausibility. Th ings which would be obvious in 
  context are free; anything else will cost one or more 
  levels, at the GMs discretion.
  Audience. Every person watching after the ﬁ rst 
  costs an extra level.
  Quality. Every time someone concentrates on an 
  illusion, they have a chance of seeing through it. 
  Th e illusionist can penalise their draw by adding 
  levels to the spell.
  Also, the caster needs to take one dose of Miranoch’s Elixir 
  per level of spell.
  To try and bust an illusion, anyone staring at it can make 
  an easy (one success) Awareness draw. Th ey can attempt 
  the draw every round (ﬁ ve seconds) until they give up. Th e 
  draw is made harder by every extra level put into the spell 
  (see above). If someone the subject trusts or has reason to 
  believe tells them it’s an illusion, they will make the next 
  draw automatically.
  Illusions last for as long as the illusionist is 
  concentrating. 
  He can do simple tasks, including talking and moving, but 
  not cast any other spell or make any complicated actions 
  like ﬁ ghting.
  Illusions cannot hide things. Th e subject’s eyes still 
  see whatever is behind an illusion.
  An illusion is just a play on someone’s senses, and it does 
  not cancel out normal sight and hearing. Trying to make an 
  illusion of a curtain to hide the assassin in the corner of a 
  room would be useless—the subject would see the curtain 
  but also be aware of the person behind it. Th e confusing 
  images from their eyes would immediately break the spell.
  Illusions can only add, not subtract.
  An illusion must be of an object. It cannot make something 
  invisible (see above). 
  SNAPBACK EFFECTS
  Snapback illusions prey on the openness of the illusionist’s 
  mind when under the eﬀ ects of Miranoch’s Elixir. Th ey will 
  immediately start to believe the illusion, whatever it entails. 
  Even though they “know” that they just cast the spell, it 
  becomes real in their mind and they must act appropriately. 
  Th e eﬀ ects wear oﬀ  after ﬁ ve minutes per level of spell.
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  MAGIC  -  SACRED STEEL 
  63
  MIND MAGIC: READING
  While learning to fool people’s minds, a magician learns 
  to understand them as well. Th rought the Reading spell, a 
  Mind Magician can discover people’s emotions and states 
  of mind.
  With a willing subject,  Reading is a free spell and requires 
  no draw.
  Against someone who is unaware that they are being 
  read,  the caster must ﬁ rst cast the spell, then make 
  an opposed draw against the subject’s Awareness or 
  Interaction (whichever is higher). If the caster wins, 
  they can read; if the subject wins or ties, the spell fails 
  and the subject is alerted to the attempt.
  Against an actively unwilling subject,  the procedure is 
  the same but the subject is assumed to have drawn 
  all-successes.
  Th e results of a successful Reading are feeling and emotions 
  but not word-for-word thoughts. Sometimes (i.e. when the 
  GM dictates it) the caster will simply pick up on obvious 
  things, like feeling hungry or sleepy.
  SNAPBACK EFFECTS
  Th e trouble with getting into people’s heads is that they can 
  be rather contagious. If a magician snaps back a Reading 
  spell, they do pick up on the subject’s emotions—but they 
  also start to feel them. However irrational it may be, they 
  will feel those emotions for half an hour per spell level.
  MIND MAGIC: DEFENCE
  Mind Magicians can defend themselves from Mind Magic, 
  to some degree. A defence spell will give the caster a bonus 
  on draws to see though illusions, break enchantments and 
  avoid reading. Th e bonus is a number of cards equal to the 
  level of the spell.
  Th e spell lasts indeﬁ nitely but the caster may not use any 
  other magic while it is running.
  SNAPBACK EFFECTS
  A failed attempt at defence means that the caster may not 
  make any draws against illusion, enchantment or reading 
  for ﬁ ve minutes per spell level.
  MIND MAGIC: ENCHANTMENT
  If Illusion is the stage show, Enchantment is the private 
  performance. It’s about making one person forget the truth 
  for a while, and believe something else instead. It can be a 
  simple thing, like making the barman think he’s promised 
  you a free drink. Or maybe a bit more pushy, like making 
  a doorman think he’s seen you before and you’re allowed 
  through.
  Per level, an enchantment,
  Lasts for one hour
  Is one point harder for the subject to see through.
  Th e spell’s subject is allowed to make an Awareness or 
  Learning draw once per minute, and also any time the 
  topic of the enchantment is spoken about or brought to 
  his attention. Th e diﬃ  culty of the draw is based on the 
  plausibility of the enchantment, at the GMs discretion. 
  Each spell level makes the draw harder.
  SNAPBACK EFFECTS
  Th e subject is aware that someone is playing with his head, 
  and may even start to belive the exact opposite of the 
  intended spell. E.g. instead of turning a neutral character 
  into a friend, he becomes a mortal enemy.
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  SACRED STEEL  -  MAGIC
  64
  WITCHCRAFT: BINDING
  Binding is a defensive ability. Th e subject gets assaulted 
  by any nearby objects that can tangle them up, like ropes, 
  vines or sheets. Th e binding spell does not seek to cause 
  harm, but an immobilised target is easier to hit with regular 
  weapons.
  To cast the spell, the subject must be standing near 
  something that can be used to bind them. Th e maximum 
  level of the spell is aﬀ ected by the materials on hand:
  A small heap of clothes  would limit the spell to level 1
  A large heap of clothes or sheets  would limit to spell to 
  level 4
  Th e contents of a wardrobe or linen cupboard, or  a good 
  length of rope  would limit the spell to level 7
  Chains, or lots of strong rope,  would limit the spell to 
  level 10
  Th e spell is maintained as long as the caster is concentrating 
  on it. Th ey can move and speak during this time but not 
  cast any other spell, ﬁ ght etc.
  Each round, the spell caster should make a draw based on 
  the level of the spell. Th e subject is then penalised by the 
  amount drawn on all physical actions for that round.
  If he concentrates on escaping, the subject can make an 
  opposed draw against the level of the spell (drawn by the 
  caster). If he succeeds, he can act without hinderance for 
  the next two rounds (ten seconds). Th is would normally be 
  a good time to throw something at the caster to break their 
  concentration. Th e binding materials cannot travel to reach 
  their target, so if he uses the time to get away, he’ll be safe.
  Binding can be cast against multiple targets simultaneously. 
  Th e combined spell level is simply the sum of the spell 
  levels being cast against each target.
  A binding spell weakens the materials used: clothes will 
  become thin and tear easily, rope will snap and chain will 
  rust. Use with caution.
  SNAPBACK EFFECTS
  Th e magic will latch onto the binding material, but it will 
  ﬁ xate on a randomly chosen target, probably the caster or 
  one of their friends. Th e spell will last for one round per 
  level.
  WITCHCRAFT: BLESSING
  Blessing is the act of conferring the favour of a friendly 
  spirit on a person. Sometimes it’s done for show,  to give 
  people hope and encouragement, and sometimes its done 
  with real magic.
  A Bless spell is cast over a group of people, no 
  larger than the level of the spell. Th ey then get one 
  extra card on as many subsequent draws as the level 
  of the spell.
  For example, with a level 5 Blessing, you could bless 5 
  people. Th ey would then get 1 extra card on their next 5 
  draws.
  If there aren’t enough people, the “spare” cards are lost, not 
  shared out. No-one ever gets more than one card per draw 
  from blessing; even if two or more people bless the same 
  subject, only the highest-level bless takes eﬀ ect.
  Casting a bless spell takes one round (ﬁ ve seconds) per 
  level. Th e eﬀ ects also wear oﬀ  after ﬁ ve minutes per level, 
  whether or not the extra cards have been used up.
  SNAPBACK EFFECTS
  If the caster is overambitious with a Blessing, no friendly 
  spirits will come. Instead, something else will pay a visit. If 
  the bless was right before a ﬁ ght, it will give the other side 
  the eﬀ ects of blessing; otherwise, it will penalise the actions 
  of the intended recipients for a while.
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  65
  WITCHCRAFT: HEALING
  Magical healing is as much about practical medicine as it is 
  about mysticism. When the magic stops the blood ﬂ owing, 
  the healer must be able to back it up with bandages and 
  splints.
  Per spell level, healing:
  Cures one point of injury to the subject
  Takes one hour
  Uses one lot of healing supplies
  Th e scars will still need time to heal, and the player should 
  role-play their character’s need for some R&R as soon as 
  they can get it.
  Only one magical healing attempt can be made on a 
  character per day. It is also deemed to include normal 
  medical practices, so counts as a normal healing treatment 
  in that respect.
  Healing doesn’t just have to be for battle wounds—most 
  of the things a witch or shaman will treat will be normal, 
  day-to-day injuries. People will always be hammering their 
  thumbs, slipping with a woodaxe and falling oﬀ  things.
  SNAPBACK EFFECTS
  Failed attempts at healing delay the patient’s natural 
  recovery for as many days as the snapback level. During 
  that time, no magical or normal healing will have any eﬀ ect 
  (other than to comfort the injured).
  WITCHCRAFT: WEATHER
  Natural magics connect the spellcaster to their environment. 
  In time, that gives them the ability to steer the weather, to 
  bring rain or sunshine as needed.
  Per level, a Weather spell:
  Lasts for one hour
  Has a diameter of 100 yards
  Can change the weather up or down by one line of the 
  following scale:
  1  
  Baking hot, cloudless sky
  2  
  Sunny, a few clouds
  3  
  Patchy cloud
  4  
  Overcast
  5  
  Rainy
  6  
  Heavy rain
  7  
  Torrential rain
  7  
  Torrential rain
  7 
  8  
  Hail and sleet
  9  
  Snow
  10  
  Blizzard
  Oﬀ  the ends of the scale, the eﬀ ects get more extereme.
  Th e downside is that the weather will want to release its 
  energy eventually. When the spell wears oﬀ , the weather 
  rapidly swings back the opposite way, the same amount, for 
  the same length of time.
  SNAPBACK EFFECTS
  A snapback Weather spell simply inverts the eﬀ ects. It will 
  start with the opposite of the eﬀ ect desired, then eventually 
  swing back to what it should have been.
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  SACRED STEEL  -  EQUIPMENT
  66
  PART THE FIFTH:
  EQUIPMENT
  Choosing hardware is half the fun of generating a RPG 
  character. Th ere are more details about choosing weapons 
  and armour in the Combat chapter, so here we’ll concentrate 
  on describing equipment from a role playing point of 
  view.
  CURRENCY
  Currency varies from one place to the next: you might ﬁ nd 
  that your impressive haul of silver coins is worth much 
  less when you travel to somewhere that silver ore can be 
  picked up oﬀ  the ground. For this reason, Sacred Steel 
  prices are listed in “generic pennies”, which represent a 
  kind of uniform money that might be gold discs in one 
  town, bronze rods in the next town and polished pebbles 
  somewhere else. Generic pennies are abbreviated to “gp”. 
  Yes, really.
  WEAPONS
  HAND WEAPONS
  Sacred Steel is not a number-counting game. In our world, 
  there are two kinds of weapon: regular and doombringer.
  Okay, there’s a bit more to it than that, but the thing is 
  we’re not at all interested in the combat dynamics of swords 
  versus axes, or how warhammers work better against certain 
  types of armour than others. Th e truth is that historically, 
  almost all weapons started out as an improvisation based 
  on the tools that were lying around when a ﬁ ght broke 
  out. Gradually the designs were improved, turned into 
  specialised ﬁ ghting tools rather than farming and smithing 
  tools, but one rule held constant: Th e bigger the blade, the 
  more it hurts.
  If you’re having trouble choosing a weapon, here’s how 
  to do it: go for the sword family, they’re the most general 
  purpose. If your physique is 1, go for the dagger. It’s all your 
  puny little hands can hold. If your physique is 2 or three, 
  take the shortsword, a good weapon for people who don’t 
  specialise in ﬁ ghting. If your physique is four or ﬁ ve, take the 
  longsword, the classic hero weapon. If you’re a doublehard 
  physique six-plus type, take the greatsword. Now go and 
  cleave something.
  DAGGER
  People have been ﬁ ghting each other with pointy things 
  since they learned to break bits of ﬂ int. Th e dagger is an 
  ancient weapon in that respect, because it’s really just a 
  special name for “big knife”. A standard dagger will have 
  a steel blade six to twelve inches in length, double edged, 
  with a small crossguard and leather-bound or wooden hilt.
  Popular variations on the theme of daggers are the 
  Popular variations on the theme of daggers are the 
  highlander dirk, with a narrower blade, usually with small 
  or no crossguard and the ballock knife, which is really a 
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  utility knife but has a guard made by carving the wooden 
  grip into two lobes where it meets the blade. Yeah, you can 
  picture it, can’t you?
  Weapon
  Min. to hit
  Strike+
  Price
  Dagger
  1
  +1
  10gp
  SHORTSWORD
  A natural progression for the dagger was to make it longer, 
  and thus heavier and more useful in combat. A typical 
  shortsword has a two or three-foot blade, usually fairly 
  wide with a very pointy end, but also sometimes made with 
  sharp edges. Shortswords are often carried as a backup 
  weapon, or by those whose primary job is not hand-to-
  hand ﬁ ghting.
  Weapon
  Min. to hit
  Strike+
  Price
  Shortsword
  2
  +2
  20gp
  LONGSWORD
  “Longsword” is really a generic term for any medium-sized 
  sword designed to be wielded by a trained swordsman. Th e 
  typical example has a thick double-edged blade about four 
  feet long, with a decent crossguard and a one-handed hilt. 
  In the hands of a good ﬁ ghter, it can kill in a single strike.
  A lot of larger longswords are not sharpened much—they 
  rely on the sheer weight of metal crashing into the victim 
  to score injuries. Among beeﬁ er ﬁ ghters, the bastard sword 
  is a popular choice, because it can be used one-handed like 
  a normal longsword, or two-handed like a greatsword.
  Weapon
  Min. to hit
  Strike+
  Price
  40gp
  GREATSWORD
  Th e motherlode of big hurty things! Th e greatsword is 
  a huge length of metal, often six feet from guard to tip 
  designed to be held with both hands and swung down on 
  enemies, crushing armour and bone. Like larger examples 
  of longswords, the edges are not usually very sharp.
  Th e claymore, the iconic greatsword of the Highlanders, is 
  one of the largest close-combat weapons you’re ever likely 
  to see. Th e blade is as wide as a man’s ﬁ st at the crossguard 
  and tapers only slightly along its length. Th ey also have 
  distinctive downward-slanting quillions (parts of the 
  crossguard).
  Weapon 
  Min. to hit
  Strike+
  Price
  Greatsword
  4
  +4
  60gp
  GOBLIN CLEAVER
  Goblins love terror. Th ey also love big hurty swords. Th at’s 
  why they developed the Cleaver—a massive two-handed 
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  68
  sword with huge ﬂ esh-ripping serrations down the lower 
  half of the blade. Th e cleaver is a dangerous weapon, to be 
  sure, but it’s also hard to weild. Its real power is in terrorising 
  those who see it coming for them.
  Cleavers are only made by goblin smiths. 
  Weapon
  Min. to hit
  Strike+
  Price
  Goblin Cleaver 7
  +5
  100gp (to non-
  goblins)
  HANDAXE
  A classic improvised weapon—at the outbreak of war, people 
  grab the most dangerous looking thing they can ﬁ nd and 
  use it as a weapon. It often turns out to be an axe: after all, 
  a heavy, sharp piece of metal on the end of a stick is a good 
  place to start if you’re building a weapon. Between one ﬁ ght 
  and the next it gets developed and reﬁ ned until it becomes 
  a reasonable ﬁ ghting tool. Th e handaxe, as sold for combat, 
  is still very closely related to its wood-chopping ancestor 
  meaning that most people can use it without diﬃ  culty. 
  Th e head will be reasonably small and single-sided and the 
  shaft will be no more than two feet in length.
  An alternative heavy, sharp piece of metal on the end of 
  a stick is the adze, which is more for carving wood than 
  chopping it. Th e head is mounted the other way round 
  to an axe, and usually has a narrower cutting surface but 
  heavier construction.
  Weapon
  Min. to hit
  Strike+
  Price
  Handaxe
  2
  +2
  20gp
  BATTLEAXE
  Once the handaxe has been used in few ﬁ ghts, the user wants 
  something altogether bigger and scarier. Th e battleaxe has a 
  three or four foot reinforced haft and often a double head.
  Weapon
  Min. to hit
  Strike+
  Price
  Battleaxe
  3
  +3
  40gp
  GREATAXE
  As big as a greatsword, the greataxe features a similar 
  quantity of pointy metal, but mounted at the end of a four 
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  69
  or ﬁ ve foot haft. Although slow and diﬃ  cult to use, it can 
  be devastating in combat.
  Weapon
  Min. to hit
  Strike+
  Price
  Greataxe
  6
  +5
  60gp
  KERG AXE
  A crude but eﬀ ective weapon made by Orc blacksmiths. 
  Th e head is single-sided and extremely thick, not unlike 
  an Orc head.
     
  Weapon
  Min. to hit
  Strike+
  Price
  Kerg Axe
  4
  CLUB
  Th e original weapon; the one that started it all, even before 
  people got the idea about breaking bits of ﬂ int. Clubs will 
  always be in use, as improvised weapons or for people 
  who don’t want a sharp weapon lying around. Maces and 
  hammers may provide better dynamics, but you can’t beat a 
  Weapon
  Min. to hit
  Strike+
  Price
  Small club
  1
  +0
  2gp
  Large club
  2
  +1
  5gp
  MACE
  Basically a club with a heavier metal end, sometimes shaped 
  into spikes or ﬂ anges. Th e mace is still a very simple weapon, 
  so it is easy to use, but it also generates a lot of kinetic 
  energy which improves its performance against armoured 
  targets. Outside of the battleﬁ eld, maces are often used as 
  ceremonial weapons by leaders who would rather not be 
  seen as warlike sword-wielders, hence the invention of the 
  sceptre.
  Some warriors, suﬀ ering from a failure of imagination, have 
  had outsized two-handed maces created. While having a 
  huge weight behind them, they are particulary hard to use 
  and tend to be more for show than anything else.
  Weapon
  Min. to hit
  Strike+
  Price
  Mace
  2
  +2
  20gp
  Heavy Mace
  6
  +4
  30gp
  STAFF
  A simple weapon, like the club and mace, but one with an 
  ancient history of skill behind it. Combat staves are long 
  and heavy and are usually used in a double-ended style.
  Weapon
  Min. to hit
  Strike+
  Price
  Staﬀ 
  20gp
  WARHAMMER
  A surprisingly vicious weapon, most often used on horseback. 
  Th e head of the hammer, although not particularly huge, is 
  swung on a three or four foot haft in the direction the horse 
  is travelling in, striking passing targets at a ridiculously 
  high combined speed. It’s the same technique that gave rise 
  to the sport of Polo. 
  Hammers can also be used on foot. Th e head is often made 
  with a pick-like spike on the other side which can punch 
  through armour.
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  Weapon
  Min. to hit
  Strike+
  Price
  Warhammer
  3
  +3
  40gp
  FLAIL & MORNINGSTAR
  So maces and hammers deliver a serious punch by putting 
  a lump of weight on the end of a haft—the next step is 
  to put some chain in between the haft and the weight so 
  that it swings even further and faster. Th e ﬂ ail is a general 
  category of weapons made this way. Often there were three 
  weighted rods on the end of six inch or so chains; that is the 
  “classic ﬂ ail” and it gives the user a decent chance of hitting 
  with what is becoming a fairly unweildy weapon. 
  Th e other classic variant is the ball-and-chain or 
  morningstar, which puts a single ball head on the chain. 
  Th e morningstar always has a spiked ball, hence the name. 
  It’s not an easy weapon to use, but it is awesome.
  Weapon
  Min. to hit
  Strike+
  Price
  Flail
  3
  +3
  40gp
  Morningstar
  5
  +4
  30gp
  MAUL
  Okay, so the warhammer has a small, heavy, pick-like head, 
  but what’s the classic image of the “warhammer” with an 
  enormous cylindrical head like an outsized mallet all about? 
  Th at’s the maul. It’s another member of the noble family of 
  improvised weapons, and it is basically just an enormous 
  wooden hammer for driving wedges into rock (for mining 
  and quarrying) or putting tent-pegs in. Th e sheer weight of 
  the thing means it needs two hands to be used, and it’s slow 
  as anything. But if it can drive wedges into granite, it will 
  probably do something nasty to a living target. 
  Mauls customized for war often have spikes on the striking 
  faces and metal bands reinforcing the haft and  around the 
  Weapon
  Min. to hit
  Strike+
  Price
  Maul
  30gp
  POLEARMS
  Polearms are a big subject. Obviously spears have been 
  around for a long time, but inventive smiths have added 
  extra blades, shorter and longer hafts, spikes, blades, hooks 
  and ﬂ anges in an attempt to create even better weapons. 
  Th ere are literally hundreds of recognised polearm designs.
  Th e spear, as the original polearm, has given rise to many 
  variants: most famously the super-long pike, but also any of 
  the many designs that ﬁ nish with a long spike at the end.
  Th e other main thrust of development was in axes,  leading 
  to cutting-and-chopping designs like the lochaber axe and 
  poleaxes like the halberd.
  Th e scythe is also included here. Although originally a 
  farmer’s tool, its long reach deﬁ nitely makes it an honourary 
  member of the group.
  Weapon
  Min. to hit
  Strike+
  Price
  Spear
  2
  +2
  20gp
  Pike
  3
  +3
  40gp
  Halberd
  4
  +4
  60gp
  Scythe
  4
  +3
  25gp
  OPTIONAL RULES FOR POLEARMS
  You can see above that polearms just have standard stats that 
  make them light, medium or heavy. If you want a slightly 
  better representation of polearm combat, try this: raise all 
  the “min. to hit” numbers by one, but also raise the “min. to 
  hit” number for anyone attacking against a polearm by one. 
  Th is represents the idea that although it can be hard to get 
  a strike in with a long weapon, it also keeps enemies at bay; 
  they need to get inside the weapon’s radius before they can 
  strike. You could even increase the penalties for pikes and 
  other really long weapons.
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  If you want to disappear up your own backside with realism, 
  you could also give polearms bonuses when attacking from 
  horseback or against mounted targets (because that’s what 
  they are often designed for), and give enemies penalties 
  whan attacking massed ranks of polearms.
  BOW WEAPONS
  TRAINING BOW
  Th is lightweight bow is made for children and people who 
  have never ﬁ red a bow before. Its range and power are 
  hardly enough to use in combat.
  Combat draw to ﬁ re...
  Damage
  Accuracy
  Weapon
  Once
  Twice
  Th rice
  Price
  Training Bow
  1
  2
  n/a
  1
  0
  5gp
  SHORTBOW
  Th is is the simplest handbow. It’s made from a single piece 
  of  ﬂ exible wood and a twine string. Th ese weapons are easy 
  to use and cheap to make, but they are not very powerful.
  Combat draw to ﬁ re...
  Damage
  Accuracy
  Weapon
  Once
  Twice
  Th rice
  Price
  Shortbow
  Heavy Shortbow
  3
  6
  n/a
  3
  -1
  15gp
  HORSEBOW
  If you live out on the Plains, you live by the shortbow. Th at’s 
  why the Plains tribes have developed bowmaking to an art 
  form. Th e standard Plains bow is a composite recurve bow: 
  Th e back is made from sections of bone ﬁ tted together, 
  which is much stronger than wood and also a better spring. 
  And the shape is distinctive, too, because the ends of the 
  bow curl back the other way (“recurve”), sometimes into a 
  complete loop.
  Combat draw to ﬁ re...
  Damage
  Accuracy
  Weapon
  Once
  Twice
  Th rice
  Price
  Horsebow
  4
  8
  12
  4
  -1
  25gp
  Heavy Horsebow
  5
  10
  15
  5
  -1
  35gp
  X-Heavy Horsebow
  7
  14
  21
  7
  -2
  45gp
  LONGBOW
  Th e longbow is the biggest handbow you can get. It’s about 
  as tall as the ﬁ rer and uses enormous arrows which put a lot 
  of weight into the shot. Th e downside is that it’s a handful 
  to carry around—most people sling it diagonally across 
  their back.
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  Combat draw to ﬁ re...
  Damage
  Accuracy
  Weapon
  Once
  Twice
  Th rice
  Price
  Longbow
  6
  12
  n/a
  6
  -3
  30gp
  Heavy Longbow
  8
  16
  n/a
  8
  -3
  45gp
  X-Heavy Longbow
  12
  24
  n/a
  12
  -4
  60gp
  CROSSBOWS
  Th e basic idea behind the crossbow is that you have a long 
  block of wood with a groove in it for the bolt to lie in. Th at 
  means you can also have a latch and trigger, so you can 
  tension it and keep it ready, instead of having to pull right 
  before ﬁ ring like with a handbow. And that means you can 
  that means you can 
  that
  have a sytem for cranking the tension right up: a standard 
  set-up is to have a stirrup on the front of the bow that you 
  tread in to hold it down while you pull up on the string. 
  Some crossbows have a big lever to give you a mechanical 
  advantage, too. Obviously all this takes time. Crossbows are 
  deadly, but very slow ﬁ ring compared to handbows.
  Combat draw to ﬁ re...
  Damage
  Accuracy
  Weapon
  Alternating
  Once
  Price
  Concealed Crossbow
  2
  4
  2
  0
  40gp
  Light crossbow
  3
  6
  4
  -1
  60gp
  Medium crossbow
  4
  8
  6
  -1
  80gp
  Heavy crossbow
  6
  12
  8
  -2
  120gp
  X-heavy crossbow
  8
  16
  12
  -2
  160gp
  BOLTS AND ARROWS
  Th e standard Sacred Steel quiver holds twelve arrows. Th e 
  weight and cost of one quiver are included in the weight 
  of the bow.
  Item
  Price
  12 arrows for shortbow or horsebow
  5gp
  12 arrows for longbow
  10gp
  12 bolts for crossbow
  10gp
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  73
  ARMOUR
  Armour types are listed here in two parts—one for the 
  main body armour and one for “greaves”, which cover your 
  arms and legs. You can mix and match as you see ﬁ t: chain 
  armour with leather greaves is fairly popular.
  LEATHER
  Leather armour is toughened and hardened by boiling and 
  then being pressed into shape. It’s thick enough to stop 
  small weapons, and maybe slow down bigger ones. It’s 
  worn in plates, and often has to be ﬁ tted to the user by the 
  tanner who makes it.
  Item
  Armour+
  Price
  Leather armour
  10gp
  Leather greaves
  1
  10gp
  CHAIN
  Th ere are lots of diﬀ erent types of ﬂ exible metal armour. 
  Chain mail is the most famous—it’s a mesh of tiny 
  interlinking rings that gives you pretty good protection 
  while still being quite easy to wear. A standard variant is 
  brigandine or scale mail, which is made from tiny metal 
  plates.
  Item
  Armour+
  Price
  Chain armour
  Chain greaves
  2
  50gp
  PLATE
  Plate armour is the most protective kind. It may be made 
  from large bands or sections, or just individual plates that 
  ﬁ t over parts of the body. It’s heavy and cumbersome and 
  has to be ﬁ tted to the wearer by an armourer.
  Item
  Armour+
  Price
  Plate armour
  Plate greaves
  3
  50gp
  HALF HELMET
  Th e half helmet covers your scalp and maybe the back of 
  your head. It gives you a bit more peace of mind without 
  being too claustrophobic.
  Item
  Armour+
  Price
  Half helmet
  10gp
  FULL HELMET
  Th e full helmet covers right down to your neck and over 
  some of your face. It may even have a visor.
  Item
  Armour+
  Price
  Full helmet
  30gp
  BUCKLER SHIELD
  Bucklers are small leather and wood shields that are 
  strapped to your oﬀ  arm. It works almost like a second 
  weapon: you use it to actively parry the enemy, or even hit 
  him in the face with it. Slightly larger ones are known as 
  target shields (because you try to make it the target instead 
  of you) but they work the same way.
  Item
  Armour+
  Price
  Buckler
  BODY SHIELD
  Th e body shield is a big plate, usually metal that reaches 
  from your knees to your shoulders when you’re carrying it. 
  It gives you excellent protection but it’s also cumbersome.
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  74
  Item
  Armour+
  Price
  Body shield
  3
  30gp
  SERVICES
  INNS
  Camping works okay for a while, but when you’re in a 
  town you need somewhere secure to put your head down. 
  A variety of inns can be bought depending on your coin 
  purse.
  Item
  Price
  Notes
  1gp / night
  Shared rooms, straw cots. 
  Probably vermin too.
  Moderate
  5gp / night
  Double rooms, may have 
  linen on the beds.
  Luxury
  20gp / night
  Double or single rooms, 
  clean linen beds.
  CAMPING EQUIPMENT
  Travelling cross-country takes time, even with a good 
  horse. Even on the bigger trails, you’ll ﬁ nd yourself halfway 
  between two places as dusk falls and need to rough it for a 
  night.  A prepared traveller will have cooking equipment, a 
  tent or shelter and blankets to sleep under.
  Th e simplest kind of tent is a single sheet, pegged down on 
  one side and propped up on poles on the other side. You 
  put it up with the pegged end facing into the wind and curl 
  up under it, and hope the wind doesn’t change during the 
  night (you can also put it up against a cliﬀ  face or bank, 
  protecting you from two directions). Th ese are called lean-
  to shelters because of their shape, even though they do not 
  strictly have to lean against anything.
  Th e two sided equivalent of the lean-to is the classic wedge 
  tent, with a pole in the middle at each end and pegged 
  down on two sides. Th ese can normally sleep two. Th is is 
  the correct type of tent for being woken up in the small 
  hours and seeing some sort of monstrous shadow being 
  cast on the side.
  Th e wall tent is like a lengthened and widened wedge, but 
  with “walls” that drop down from the roof on both sides to 
  improve headroom and cut down on wasted material. 
  Lastly, the pavillion is a classic larger design with a fairly 
  tall circular wall and a conical roof. It makes an impressive 
  space inside.
  Firepits (tripod equipment and cooking bowl) and decent 
  bedding are also must-haves for more than one night’s 
  camping.
  Th e choice of nobles and high-ranking oﬃ  cers, wooden 
  camp beds are much more comfortable than regular 
  bedding, but they weigh a ton compared to a blanket roll. 
  Of course, if you’re in the market for one you probably have 
  someone to carry it for you...
  Item
  Price
  Lean-to shelter
  5gp
  Two-man wedge
  10gp
  Four-man wall tent
  15gp
  Eight-man pavillion
  30gp
  Firepit
  5gp
  Bedding
  5gp
  Camp bed
  20gp
  ANIMALS
  Trained animals are great: they can do all the jobs that you 
  don’t want to like walking and carrying.
  Dogs are useful companions, keeping watch over night  and 
  retrieving game animals you have hunted. 
  Hunting dogs can be a vital part of the hunter’s trade, 
  because they can track prey by smell, and often catch 
  birds or rabbits on their own. A well-trained hound helps 
  characters attempting survival.
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  75
  Working dogs (a.k.a. shepherd dogs) are not as fast or keen 
  as hounds, but generally they’re much smarter. Th ey need 
  to be, to keep herds of beligerent sheep in check. Th ey also 
  make great guard dogs, because of their alertness.
  Other kinds of dog (terriers, spaniels) exist too, but they’re 
  of less use to a Sacred Steel character.
  Dog
  Price
  Notes
  Hunting
  10gp
  Physique 3, Combat 3, Learn-
  ing 0, Awareness 4, Interaction 
  3 (in a doggy kind of way). 
  +1 speciality in “biting”. 
  Characters get +2 cards on 
  hunting or survival draws when 
  accompanied by a hound.
  Working
  10gp
  Physique 3, Combat 3, Learn-
  ing 0, Awareness 6, Interaction 
  3 (in a doggy kind of way). 
  Despite low “learning”, can 
  often recognise when people 
  are in trouble and get help.
  Th e horse family also has many uses. 
  Packmules are a reasonably cheap way of carrying vastly 
  more kit than you could on your own back, while horses 
  provide the quickest form of transport across land. 
  Destriers are big horses used in mounted combat. Th ey are 
  thick-boned, tall and heavy and their weight alone puts a 
  lot of momentum behind a mounted attack.
  Th e palfrey is a gentler, easier horse bred for regular and 
  long-distance riding. It can happily take two riders.
  Th e courser is bred for speed. It is happiest with only one 
  rider but can gallop over great distances while the destrier 
  and the palfrey are trotting to catch up.
  Animal
  Price
  Notes
  30gp
  Combat 1, 
  Learning 0, Awareness 2, 
  Interaction 2 (beligerent). 
  Can carry a weight of 150lb.
  Destrier
  100gp
  Physique 12, Combat 8, Learn-
  ing 0, Awareness 4, Interaction 
  3 (placid). Can carry 400lb.
  Palfrey
  50gp
  Physique 8, Combat 1, Learn-
  ing 0, Awareness 4, Interaction 
  3 (patient). Can carry 350lb.
  Courser
  80gp
  Physique 12, Combat 1, Learn-
  ing 0, Awareness 4, Interaction 
  1 (skittish). Can carry 200 lb.
  STORAGE
  Safe places to keep and carry your loot.
  Item
  Price
  Small pack
  2gp
  Rucksack
  5gp
  Small chest
  20gp
  Strong chest
  50gp
  HEALING
  Medicine in Sacred Steel is not very advanced, but a good 
  healer will always be necessary. General medical supplies 
  are bought “per use” although the healer’s kit might contain 
  many diﬀ erent ointments, bandages etc. A healer’s bag 
  would contain all sorts of tasty dried herbs like cloves 
  (antiseptic and painkiller), coriander (against fevers), ginger 
  (for stomach problems) and mint (for cleaning wounds).
  Item
  Price
  Healer’s Equipment (per use)
  10gp
  Th ere are also various useful herbs in Sacred Steel which 
  can be brewed, smoked or swallowed to produce an instant 
  eﬀ ect.
  Item
  Price
  Notes
  Blackleaf
  20gp
  Chewed or smoked. 
  Negates up to 3 points of 
  wound-based penalties in 
  combat for a few hours.
  Bloodseeds
  20gp
  Swallowed or brewed. Gives 
  healers +2 cards when 
  treating critical wounds.
  Giantseeds
  20gp
  Swallowed. Makes the 
  user feel strong: +2 phy-
  sique for a few hours.
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  76
  EQUIPMENT SUMMARY
  ITEM
  PRICE
  NOTES
  Inn, cheap
  1gp/night
  Shared rooms, straw cots. Probably vermin too.
  Inn, moderate
  5gp/night
  Double rooms, may have linen on the beds.
  Inn, luxury
  20gp/night
  Double or single rooms, clean linen.
  Tent, lean-to shelter
  5gp
  Sleeps one
  Tent, wedge
  10gp
  Sleeps two
  Tent, wall tent
  15gp
  Sleeps four
  Tent, pavillion
  30gp
  Sleeps eight
  Firepit
  5gp
  Bedding
  5gp
  Camp bed
  20gp
  Dog, hunting
  10gp
  Dog, working
  10gp
  Packmule
  30gp
  Horse, destrier
  100gp
  Warhorse
  Horse, palfrey
  50gp
  General purpose horse
  Horse, courser
  80gp
  Fast horse
  Small pack
  2gp
  Rucksack
  5gp
  Small chest
  20gp
  Strong chest
  50gp
  Equipment
  ITEM
  PRICE
  NOTES
  Blackleaf
  20gp/dose
  Pain killer
  Bloodseeds
  20gp/dose
  Helps healing
  Giantseeds
  20gp/dose
  Enhances strength
  Pyrean
  50gp/ﬂ ask
  10 shots; used 
  for ﬁ re magic
  Miranoch’s Elixir
  5gp/phial
  Used for mind 
  magic
  Lockpicks
  30gp
  High-quality lockpicks
  70gp
  +1 card on lock-
  picking attempts
  Quiver , short / recurve bow
  5gp
  12 arrows
  Quiver for longbow
  10gp
  12 arrows
  Quiver for crossbow
  10gp
  12 bolts
  Quiver for arbalest
  20gp
  12 bolts
  Equipment
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  77
  BOW WEAPON SUMMARY
  HANDBOWS
  ONCE
  TWICE
  THRICE
  DAMAGE
  ACCURACY
  Training Bow
  1
  2
  n/a
  1
  0
  Shortbow
  2
  4
  n/a
  2
  0
  Heavy Shortbow
  3
  6
  n/a
  3
  -1
  Horsebow
  4
  8
  12
  4
  -1
  Heavy Horsebow
  5
  10
  15
  5
  -1
  X-Heavy Horsebow
  7
  14
  21
  7
  -2
  Longbow
  6
  12
  n/a
  6
  -3
  Heavy Longbow
  8
  16
  n/a
  8
  -3
  X-Heavy Longbow
  12
  24
  n/a
  12
  -4
  Handbows
  CROSSBOWS
  ALTERNATING
  ONCE
  DAMAGE
  ACCURACY
  Concealed Crossbow
  2
  4
  2
  0
  Light Crossbow
  3
  6
  4
  -1
  Medium Crossbow
  4
  8
  6
  -1
  Heavy Crossbow
  6
  12
  8
  -2
  X-Heavy Crossbow
  12
  -2
  Crossbows
  ARMOUR SUMMARY
  ITEM
  ARMOUR BONUS
  PRICE
  NOTES
  Leather chest
  1
  10gp
  Torso
  Leather greaves
  1
  10gp
  Arms+legs
  Chain chest
  2
  30gp
  Torso
  Chain greaves
  2
  30gp
  Arms+legs
  Plate chest
  3
  50gp
  Torso
  Plate greaves
  3
  50gp
  Arms+legs
  Half helmet
  1
  10gp
  Th e original tin lid
  Full helmet
  2
  30gp
  Covers your nose and your neck
  Buckler shield
  1
  10gp
  Used to actively parry
  Body shield
  3
  Big, covers you from shoulder to knee
  Armour
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  78
  MELEE WEAPON SUMMARY
  ITEM
  MIN. TO HIT STRIKE BONUS
  PRICE
  NOTES
  Dagger
  1
  1
  10gp
  Shortsword
  2
  2
  20gp
  Longsword
  3
  3
  30gp
  Greatsword
  4
  4
  60gp
  Goblin Cleaver
  7
  5
  100gp
  Intimidating
  Handaxe
  2
  2
  20gp
  Battleaxe
  3
  3
  30gp
  Greataxe
  6
  5
  60gp
  Unweildy
  Kerg Axe
  4
  4
  60gp
  Small club
  1
  0
  2gp
  Cheap and simple. It’s a stick.
  Large club
  2
  1
  5gp
  Unweildy
  Mace
  2
  2
  20gp
  Heavy mace
  6
  4
  30gp
  Unweildy
  Staﬀ 
  2
  2
  10gp
  Warhammer
  3
  3
  40gp
  Flail
  3
  3
  40gp
  Morningstar
  5
  4
  30gp
  Unweildy
  Maul
  7
  5
  30gp
  Very unweildy
  Spear
  2
  2
  20gp
  Pike
  3
  3
  30gp
  Halberd
  3
  3
  30gp
  Scythe
  4
  25gp
  Melee Weapons
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  SACRED STEEL  -  THE LANDS
  80
  PART THE SIXTH:
  THE LANDS
  THE SOUTHERN CITIES
  XXX
  BEYOND THE TORN MOUNTAINS 
  XXX
  THE GREAT FOREST
  XXX
  THE EAST MOUNTAINS
  XXX
  THE WEST MOUNTAINS
  XXX
  THE PLAINS
  XXX
  THE NORTHERN REALMS
  XXX
  THE DRELV COUNTRY
  XXX
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  81
  THE UNDEAD
  XXX
  DUNGEON ECOLOGY
  XXX
  DRAGON SOCIETY
  XXX
  GOBLINS
  XXX
  POLITICS
  XXX
  RELIGION
  XXX
  PLANES
  XXX
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  SACRED STEEL  -  THE LEGENDS
  90
  PART THE SEVENTH:
  THE LEGENDS
  Once upon a time, the Land was much bigger than it is 
  now. You could, it is said, walk all the way around the coast 
  of the Land, and end up where you started, like on an 
  island. Nowadays you can only so far north before you reach 
  the Torn Mountains, and nobody 
  has ever journeyed into them and 
  returned. How the change happened 
  is something we’ll get to later. For 
  now, we’ll just say it had something 
  to do with dragons.
  Most things have something to do 
  dragons. Th ey’re like the steady bass 
  rhythm in the music of history: you 
  don’t always notice it, but it wouldn’t 
  sound right without it. 
  Dragons are everywhere. Some live 
  among people, taking humanoid 
  form and keeping their true nature 
  secret. Some rarely stray from their 
  massive, terrifying natural form, and 
  live in caves in the wilderness. One 
  thing that binds them, though, is 
  power, and that’s where we see the 
  rift between the two great classes of 
  dragon.
  On the one hand, we have the metal 
  dragons. Th eir bodies are adapted to a 
  certain type of metal, and by eating the 
  ores of that metal their skin becomes 
  as hard as armour and their bones as 
  strong as stone. Th e metal dragons 
  tend to think and work much like the 
  smaller races do: they are as greedy, 
  selﬁ sh, passionate and violent as anyone else. Some use 
  their power to acquire vast wealth or positions of authority, 
  while others feel obliged to “do good”. Whichever, it is 
  usually safe to treat them the same way you would treat 
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  91
  anyone who can transform into a giant ﬁ re-breating ﬂ ying 
  lizard with immense magical talent.
  On the other hand, there are the elemental dragons. Th ese 
  are extremely magical creatures, with less physical might 
  than the metallics. Th ey rarely ﬁ ght, and when they do 
  it is with spells and cunning rather than claws and ﬁ re. 
  Each elemental dragon is bound to a substance, and that 
  substance gives them their strength. Unlike the metallics, 
  they don’t need to eat the substance, or even to be near 
  it, although they may enjoy it. Common examples are 
  Smoke dragons, Fire dragons, and Blood dragons, although 
  there are many more. Th ey regard their element like a clan 
  aﬃ  liation, which is why it is common to use a capital letter 
  when describing elemental dragons. Th e elementals behave 
  oddly, by most standards. Th ey don’t assemble armies of 
  followers like the metallics do; they don’t seek wealth or 
  fame or power. Instead, they steer. Th ey exert inﬂ uence. 
  Although no elemental dragon would ever explain his 
  motives to a lesser being, it seems they are the agents of 
  forces even older and greater than dragons: the beings who 
  are only ever known as Th e Powers Th at Be.
  ELEMENTALISM
  Th e elemental dragons bring us onto the subject of 
  elementalism.
  Some worlds have developed scientiﬁ c principles based on 
  four elements (usually earth, air, ﬁ re and water) and some 
  have developed a more profound 
  understanding based on microscopic 
  examination of matter.
  Th e people of Sacred Steel know the 
  truth, though. Th ere is no ﬁ nite list 
  of elements, and to try to draw one 
  up would be futile. Everything that 
  is, is composed of matter, which in 
  its raw form is shapeless, invisible and exists only in the void. 
  Th e elements are the sparks of existence; the descriptions 
  of How To Be. When matter is combined with element, 
  something enters the world. A bone, for example, is a bone 
  not just because it looks like one; it’s a bone because it has 
  the element of bone within it. Th e element tells it how to 
  be a bone. Blood is not just a red liquid; it has to have the 
  element of blood. And a person is not just a mishmash of 
  bones and blood and ﬂ esh inside a skin bag; you also need 
  the element of life.
  Th e more complicated something is, the more elements 
  it contains; and for everything that can be, there is an 
  associated element.
  THE ALLOY DRAGONS
  Right, now that’s out of the way, let’s explore a bit of 
  history.
  So there’s a potentially inﬁ nite number of elements, but 
  each elemental dragon is bound to one of them. And while 
  there are probably a ﬁ nite number of raw metals, new alloys 
  appear every so often. So what happens? Does a new species 
  of dragon magically appear when a new alloy is discovered? 
  Yes, exactly. See, coupling between dragons of two diﬀ erent 
  metals or elements is rare, and coupling between a metallic 
  and an elemental dragon is even rarer. And when it does 
  happen, the oﬀ spring will follow one side of the family or 
  the other in looks and temperament, even though they may 
  carry the blood of both parents. But every so often—say, 
  once in a thousand years—a new type of dragon is born: 
  an alloy dragon.
  Th e alloy dragons cannot have children of their own, so the 
  line is short-lived, but they are born with the knowledge 
  of how to create their own alloy. By attracting followers, as 
  all metal dragons tend to do, and teaching them the secret 
  of the new metal, they can build extremely well-equipped 
  armies. And as time moves on, the secret is let out, and the 
  new metal becomes commonplace.
  Th e ﬁ rst alloy dragon in recorded 
  history was the Bronze dragon, born 
  9,000 years ago following the union 
  between a Copper bull dragon and 
  his Tin dragon mate. Th e Bronze 
  dragon, called Lotocanthys, lead a 
  huge army equipped with sharper 
  and stronger weapons than any 
  enemy. 
  THE BRONZE EMPIRE
  When Lotocanthys was born, the entire northern half of 
  the Land was the sole preserve of Elemental Dragons. 
  Th ere were no humanoids there. 
  Does a new species of 
  dragon magically appear 
  when a new alloy is 
  discovered? Yes, exactly. 
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  Lotocanthys grew his empire quickly. In the south he was 
  aided by the spread of news: for every kingdom that he 
  conquered, another would subjugate to his rule even before 
  his borders touched theirs. Once the south was in his grip, 
  he pushed north through the Spine Mountains and started 
  to occupy the land of the Elemental Dragons.
  Th e Bronze Empire was the largest that had ever been seen 
  at that time, encompassing the land from coast to coast in 
  every direction, barrring the Black Jungle and the Dankreef 
  peninsula in the north, and the Great Forest in the south. 
  It lasted for a peacful 2,000 years without threat, which is a 
  long time for an empire. 
  Th en the goblins started to appear. First, they came charging 
  out from the Black Jungle, raiding the farms along its border. 
  Th en they climbed out of the sea around Dankreef  and 
  moved inland. Lastly they started to appear in the middle 
  of the empire’s lands. Lotocanthys was slow to respond, 
  and even if he’d been a bit more lively, his empire was soft 
  from nearly two millenia of peace. 
  A few territories had engaged in minor warfare with their 
  neighbours, so they had something resembling an army. 
  Th ey could not aﬀ ord to wait for orders or help from on 
  high and had to ﬁ ght the goblin menace alone. Over the 
  next 4,000 years the empire fractured along its borders as 
  territories declared independence 
  and goblins swarmed over every 
  land that wasn’t well defended. 
  Th at 4,000 year period is known 
  as the second dark age (the ﬁ rst 
  being the period before the 
  coming of the metal dragons).
  Lotocanthys was pushed further 
  and further south and his “empire” shrank down to nothing 
  more than his home territories in the south and the 
  nominally-still-loyal northern province. Th e ﬁ nal act of the 
  Bronze Empire was to construct a massive stone wall across 
  a section of the southern peninsula, defended with magic 
  and huge ballistae, and retreat behind it. Th is was the origin 
  of the area known now as the “Southern Cities”, an area 
  which is still closed to all traﬃ  c.
  Th e Bronze Empire’s legacy was powerful, though, because 
  it had spread civilisation over nearly the whole land and 
  cancelled out the north/south divide of previous ages.
  THE STEEL DRAGON
  Th e most recent alloy dragon was the Steel dragon, 
  Canocanthys. He was born to Aldranth, a venerable Iron 
  dragon, and the Air dragon Aethys, who apparently courted 
  Aldranth for several years before he ﬁ nally consented to 
  mate with her. 
  Th at’s a lot of dragon names. Th e only one you need to 
  bother with is Canocanthys himself, because he’s the 
  one people might actually talk about. He was physically 
  massive, even by dragon standards, towering over both his 
  parents long before he’d ﬁ nished growing. He consumed 
  iron ore like his father, but his mother’s blood puriﬁ ed it 
  and changed the way it appeared on his skin: he was grey-
  blue all over, with just the slightest hint of oxidisation on 
  his extremities. Aldranth, on the other hand, had been 
  rust-brown like most Iron dragons. 
  Some versions of history say that Aldranth feared his son 
  and wanted to kill him before he came of age, and that 
  Aethys killed him instead, to protect her son. Other versions 
  say that Canocanthys killed Aldranth because he wanted 
  his power. Regardless, Aldranth died, Aethys dissappeared 
  back to wherever she had come from, and Canocanthys 
  took over his father’s army.
  Aldranth 
  had 
  lead 
  an 
  impressive army of devotees 
  even  before Canocanthys 
  was born, and with the 
  secret of steel forging, people 
  ﬂ ocked to join. His lair was 
  in the high plains south of 
  the mountains, and the great 
  city of Canotharis grew up around it. His army had steel-
  tipped arrows, steel swords and steel armour. Th ey were 
  almost impervious to the soft bronze weapons of their 
  enemies (yes, other alloy dragons had come and gone in the 
  mean time but bronze was still the predominant metal for 
  weaponmaking).
  Canocanthys shone brightly. Some dragons subjugated 
  themselves to him and served in his army. Th ose that did 
  not were hunted and slain, or forced into hiding. Like 
  Lotocanthys’s Bronze Empire before, the Steel Supremacy 
  stretched from shore to shore. Loyalists in conquered lands 
  could expect elevated status and a comfy life. Rebels could 
  expect short, painful lives.
  Paintings and writings from those days generally depict the 
  Supremacy as a place where the sun shone all day, people 
  Huge stony peaks exploded, 
  and out of the chaos crawled 
  some very ancient, and very 
  angry, stone dragons.
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  worked happily, protected by dragons, with Canocanthys 
  watching benevolently from the top. Th at’s because in those 
  days, anyone caught depicting the wholesale upheaval of 
  centuries-old settlements, the brutal and relentless hunts 
  for dragons who refused to bow to the Steel King, the 
  slaughter of those who could not aﬀ ord their tithes, would 
  be killed, and their works burned.
  But despite Canocanthys’s attempts to control the history 
  books, there was an underground. It was ﬁ lled with 
  metal dragons who had been stripped of their power and 
  following, men and women who had been forcibly moved 
  from their lands to make room for some general’s estate, 
  and, most incredibly, many elemental dragons.
  Remember that the elementals don’t usually get involved in 
  day-to-day aﬀ airs. Th ey might touch history here and there, 
  and they might guide events when they need to, but joining 
  an underground resistance as fully paid-up, card-carrying, 
  passionate members is out of character for them, by all 
  standards. Th e fact that they did suggests that dethroning 
  Canocanthys must have been of paramount importance to 
  them.
  Th e Steel Supremacy lasted for several generations, and 
  so did the resistance. Th e original humans were succeeded 
  by their children, who could not rejoin the ranks of the 
  empire even if they wanted to because if their ancestry was 
  discovered, they were executed. All this time, the dragons 
  of the resistance were planning, formulating, gathering 
  power.
  It seems the elementals were bargaining with the higher 
  powers, and eventually they struck a deal. On the night 
  now known as Tearing Night, the mountain ranges north 
  of where the Orcs and Highlanders now live erupted in 
  a storm of gravel and ﬂ ying boulders. Huge stony peaks 
  exploded, and out of the chaos crawled some very ancient, 
  and very angry, Stone dragons. One by one they lifted their 
  improbable weight into the air and began to ﬂ y south to 
  Canocanthys’s stronghold. And as the shattered earth fell 
  back down across the mountains, magma started to leak 
  into the craters, forming huge pools from which glowing, 
  serpentine Lava dragons arose.
  Th e entire ﬂ ight of ancient elemental dragons descended 
  on Canocanthys in the dead of night, clashing head on 
  with an army of loyal metal dragons. At the same time, 
  the resistance were waging a ground war, storming the 
  towns and cities of the steel supremacy which were now 
  defenseless while their dragons fought in the air.
  Nobody saw which dragon killed Canocanthys. His body 
  was found by the light of dawn the following morning, lying 
  smashed and blistered not far from his lair. Th e Stone and 
  Lava dragons ﬂ ew back to the wreckage of the land they 
  had burst from, and the survivors—dragon and human, 
  loyalist and resistance alike—blinked in amazement at the 
  end of the steel supremacy.
  THE SACRED STEEL
  With the death of the Steel dragon, the empire had nothing 
  to hold it together. Provinces once again became countries 
  and the dragons resumed their former role as masters of 
  society.
  Th e remains of Canocanthys’s core loyalists were left 
  with a wasteland of rubble where their city had been. A 
  government of sorts was established and new towns were 
  built around the outskirts. Some people salvaged building 
  materials, but most people who lingered in the old city after 
  dark reported dark spirits, ghosts of those who had died 
  on Tearing Night, ﬂ itting around the ruins, taunting and 
  distracting the living. To this day, the ruins of Canotharis 
  are largely untouched and unexplored, forming a dark crater 
  in the middle of the city of Keelchurch.
  One group did manage to survive inside the ruins. A 
  group of Canocanthys’s most loyal knights and scholars, 
  accompanied by workers and hangers-on from both sides 
  pressed into the darklands until they found the corpse of 
  the great beast himself. His skin was still rich in powerfully 
  magical steel—so powerful, in fact, that when they rendered 
  it down the tools and weapons made from it were sharper, 
  harder and faster than anything that any craftsman could 
  have built. Suddenly people of the area had a new focus. 
  Th e old King’s Way, an avenue built in Canotharis wide 
  enough for Canocanthys to walk down in dragon form, 
  was cleared up and became almost completely safe to walk 
  along as people ﬂ ocked in to get their hands on some of 
  this Sacred Steel. Smithies set up in the shelter of the 
  stripped skeleton, selling Sacred Steel weapons, armour 
  and jewellery, although much of it was diluted with regular 
  iron to make it go further.
  Th e loyalists realised that their beloved leader’s body was 
  being turned into trinkets, so they assembled together one 
  night (when everyone had returned to the safety of the 
  outskirts) and fortiﬁ ed the skeleton. Th e next morning, 
  people were refused access unless they swore loyalty to the 
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  newly-formed Church of Steel. Anyone caught trying to 
  leave the area with any steel objects was publically hanged.
  Th ey cleaned the massive steel skeleton and used it, in 
  place, to build a temple to Canocanthys’s memory. Th e 
  temple rises out of the grim ruins of Canotharis and is the 
  headquarters of the Church of Steel still.
  THE TORN MOUNTAINS
  Tearing Night was the end of more than just the steel 
  supremacy. It marked the seperation of North from South, 
  a situation that hadn’t existed since Lotocanthys took 
  his armies north to conquer the land of the Elemental 
  Dragons. Th e shattered landscape left after the tearing 
  has never smoothed over and is impassable on foot. It is 
  freezing cold; it contains no ﬂ at surfaces so you have to 
  climb everywhere; and it’s treacherous—even if you are 
  hardy enough to climb through it, you will lose your grip 
  and plummet into a ravine before long. Some dragons have 
  tried to ﬂ y north over the torn mountains, but they never 
  return. Th ere are stories that there is now a violent, stormy 
  sea between the lands, and folk wisdom has it that the 
  stone dragons are still around, watching for intruders.
  See, I said it had something to do with dragons.
  DATES
  Prior to Tearing Night, dates were measured in terms 
  Lotocanthys’s age (even during the Steel Supremacy). 
  Tearing Night happened in the year 7011L. Although some 
  places still use that system, the Realms and most other 
  places decided to begin the count from scratch, making 
  Tearing Night the year 0T. On this basis, Sacred Steel is 
  set in the year 2000T.
  THE REST OF THE REALMS
  Th ings have levelled out a bit since the days of the steel 
  supremacy, but Canocanthys’s capital city and the level of 
  civilisation raised around it have left that whole area of land 
  with an elevated status. Th e modern city of Keelchurch, 
  built in a ring-shape around Canotharis is an incredible, 
  resplendent monument of sophistication and the other 
  cities aren’t far behind it. 
  Temple Haven was Canocanthys’s unﬁ nished masterpiece, 
  a massive city-sized temple complex north of the capital. 
  Much of it was levelled on Tearing Night, but what was 
  left was repaired and inhabited in the years afterwards. Th e 
  temple complex is a center of worship to the powers.
  Even further north, amongst the foothills of what would 
  later be the Highlander mountains, Duke’s Hill was 
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  a training fort for the steel army. It was run by one of 
  Canocanthys’s few human generals, Alexander Buckley. He 
  was rewarded with a dukedom late in life, which is how the 
  fort gained its name. Th e town that grew up around the fort 
  now sprawls down the sides of the hill, with the keep, up on 
  the top, visible for miles around on a good day.
  Down in the south, the cities of Rockfax and Roughmarsh 
  were built on deposits of iron and gold ore respectively. 
  While rockfax was fairly productive and grew up into a 
  large mining city, Roughmarsh suﬀ ered from being in a 
  low-lying swampy area. Th e open cast pits ﬂ ooded regularly 
  making it a dangerous places to work, but 
  the rewards were worth it for the workers 
  who migrated here during Canocanthys’s 
  reign and ever since.
  Oakbury and Rushﬁ eld, over in the west, 
  were built later on, more as boundary 
  markers against the Orcs and Drelves than 
  anything else.
  THE PLAINS
  We’ll travel back in time a bit here. 
  Way before Canocanthys, way before 
  Lotocanthys, in fact way before ant kind 
  of organised empire, life was simple. 
  People banded together to catch food and 
  protect each other. When an area was all 
  hunted out, they’d pick up their stuﬀ  and 
  move elsewhere. Th ey’d mill round for 
  generation, sometimes coming back to 
  where they’d been once it had recovered, 
  sometimes migrating huge distances. Th en 
  some bright spark invented farming, and 
  then people didn’t need to keep moving 
  around. And then stonemasonry became 
  a practical idea, and big, solid, permanent 
  cities sprang up in the wilderness, which 
  ceased to be wilderness and became 
  civilisation.
  Kingdoms come and kingdoms go. And 
  somehow, the area now simply known as 
  “Th e Plains” hardly seems to have changed 
  in thousands of years. While the other 
  races settled down, and in some cases even 
  went and founded their own territories, 
  the plainspeople just carried on doing what they had always 
  done, roaming the land, hunting, following the weather 
  and training horses. Sure, there have been Kingdoms on 
  the Plains (Lotocanthys was based there, for one), and sure, 
  there are some cities now—people from other territories 
  have moved in and, well, they’re kind of soft and need 
  places to stay. And it’s kind of handy to have towns where 
  you can stop and trade. But basically, it’s nomadic business 
  as normal. And after all this time, they’ve got pretty good 
  at it.
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  Your average plains tribe looks like this: three or four 
  hundred people (men, women, adults and children) with 
  around a thousand horses and ﬁ fty carts. 
  Th e men hunt and ﬁ ght. Th ey have at least three horses 
  each, in case they get injured or tired. Th ey are trained to 
  ﬁ re a recurve bow from horseback from as soon as they can 
  stand. Th eir job is to provide for everyone else.
  Th e women have all the other jobs, like woodworking, 
  metalworking, and keeping the horses. Sexist as hell? Only 
  a bit. Plains society (if you can call it that) is matriarchal, 
  meaning the women are in charge. Th ey organise the men, 
  they vote on tribal matters, they decide when to move and 
  when to stay put.
  Some tribes are content with just this kind of subsistence-
  level living, but a many also engage in trade. Th ere’s a big 
  ingustry in horses and related goods. Out on the plains, 
  horses roam free and live quite a lot like the tribes do. A 
  team of horsecatchers can intercept a herd and have them 
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  roped and broken in a couple of days. Th en all they have 
  to do is lead them to a town or city and sell them. Plains 
  horses are widely accepted as being the best coursers and 
  palfreys available. Th en there’s the secondary goods, like 
  horse-leather, compound bows (made from horse bone and 
  sinew) and horse meat (an aquired taste).
  Had enough anthropology 
  for now? Th ought so. Let’s 
  talk about the Khasar Eagles 
  instead. Th ey’re pretty cool, in 
  an evil way.
  King Khasar was the self-
  appointed ruler of Hawl City, 
  down on the south coast of 
  the plains, about two hundred years ago. “Self appointed”, 
  because before him, there hadn’t been any kings on the 
  plains. He made himself rich through trading, then richer 
  still through hiring out mercenaries from amongst his 
  tribe. He settled in Hawl City, which was little more than 
  a town in those days and let other people bring him food 
  instead of hunting it himself. Eventually, he was so rich 
  that he was the de facto ruler of the city. He lent money, 
  adjudicated disputes and dealt with crime. Th e allegedly-
  democratically-elected town council were all in his pay, but 
  everyone was happy. Hawl was a good place to be.
  All this do-gooding was costing him money, though. While 
  he was happy to keep making Hawl the strongest place it 
  could be, he could see the population rapidly outstripping 
  his ability to look after them based solely on his personal 
  fortune. So did an unprecedented thing on Plains: he 
  charged gate tax. If you wanted to enter the city, you paid 
  for every person, horse and cart that came in. If you wanted 
  to trade in the market, you paid for every square foot of 
  space you used. In return, Khasar assembled the Plains’ ﬁ rst 
  militia, modelled after the Northern Realms, where he had 
  once visited and been impressed with their pageantry. Th e 
  militia defended the city against bandits outside the city 
  walls and dealt with crime inside them.
  King Khasar’s oldest son took the name “Khasar Bujir”, 
  even though it had been a given name, because people 
  recognised it. He should strictly have been called “Bujir, 
  son of Khasar”. Th e trend continued for several generations, 
  until the word “Khasar” had become more like a title than a 
  name. Th e real proof of this change was the recent ascension 
  of Lord Udrun to the throne. He was not a member of the 
  royal family, but he was extremely wealthy and important in 
  his own right, and through his marriage to the king’s eldest 
  daughter he put himself fourth in line for the throne.
  You can seee where this going, can’t you? One Khasar after 
  another died or abdicated until Udrun was left with no 
  challengers. Of course rumours ﬂ ew about assassination 
  and blackmail, and some people even suggested that Udrun 
  was a dragon. But his lineage was provable and his claim 
  to the throne was uncontested. He was crowned Khasar 
  Udrun ﬁ fty years ago. 
  Khasar 
  Udrun 
  took 
  the 
  principles 
  demonstrated 
  by 
  King Khasar and expanded 
  upon them. Where taxes had 
  originally been levied to pay for 
  the running of the city, Udrun 
  squeezed every drop he could 
  get out of his citizens. He was 
  careful, though. He knew the money would only ﬂ ow so 
  long as the city was a good place to be, so there were lots 
  of attractions and entertainments. Petty crime and violent 
  crime was dealt with harshly, while grand theft and fraud 
  were mostly ignored because it meant the rich bandit lords 
  would visit the city and pay taxes.
  Udrun made no secret of his motives. He described 
  cities as “the chokepoints of civilization”, and legislated 
  accordingly.
  Th e story which will probably go down in history as his 
  shrewdest but most vile act is the story of Midway. Up in 
  the north of the plains there were very few settlements, 
  and most of them were on the east coast. Th is meant that 
  visitors from the Realms of the Highlands had to travel a 
  long way to do trade. Or alternatively, tribal caravans had 
  to cross the border into this lands. Either way a lot of time 
  was being wasted in travel, and it seemed like a good idea 
  to all concerned to build a trading town somewhere more 
  accessible, where caravanners could take their goods, and 
  people could buy whatever they wanted.
  With the help of the Northern Realm’s cities, Khasar 
  Udrun constructed Midway on the site of a fallen city 
  from the days of the Bronze Empire. Th e Realms paid for 
  a huge central marketplace made out of stone quarried in 
  the mountains, while the locals built all the surrounding 
  and supporting buildings, generously paid for out of the 
  Khasar’s own wealth. Th e gates were open, with no taxes to 
  enter or leave. And it all seemed good for about ten years. 
  Midway became the only place to go to do trade in the area. 
  And just then, when everyone was used having this happy, 
  bustling place, Udrun clamped down on taxes. He charged 
  one gold bar per head, plus two per horse and three per cart, 
  to enter the city. It was an unheard of amount, many times 
  It starts with two small 
  children, called Shenge 
  and Pya. They are 
  brother and sister.
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  higher than what he charged in Hawl city or Eastport or 
  Westport. But cleverly, he didn’t charge outsiders. People 
  from the Realms were allowed in and out freely, and only 
  his own people had to cough up. So they were trapped. Th e 
  Realmsmen weren’t going go elsewhere to trade, because it 
  was free and convenient, so if the caravans wanted to sell, 
  they had to grit their teeth and pay up.
  Khasar Udrun is widely hated, but his wealth means he can 
  aﬀ ord to pay well and keep a loyal staﬀ . 
  CREATION
  Whoa! We’re going all the way back from Khasar Udrun 
  (who’s still alive) to How Th e World Was Made.
  All the cultures of Sacred Steel have some verison of the 
  same creation story. It starts 
  with two small children, called 
  Shenge and Pya. Th ey are 
  brother and sister. And they 
  are playing a game on a big 
  rectangular board. Shenge’s 
  pieces are small and coloured 
  in various shades from pink to 
  brown. He has lots of pieces all on his side of the board. 
  Pya has very pieces, but they’re huge creatures which can 
  breathe ﬁ re.
  Th ey start oﬀ  playing nicely, as might be expected. But 
  then, as might be expected, one of them gets bored. It varies 
  depending on who’s telling the story, but in most human 
  lands it’s Pya who starts it oﬀ . She’s bored because her 
  dragons are stupid. Shenge’s little people are running rings 
  around her and she’s getting frustrated, so she says that her 
  dragons have intelligence. And now, instead of just being 
  big scray water monsters or tree monsters or whatever, 
  they’re clever, cunning monsters who also happen to have 
  special powers associated with their element. Pya takes over 
  the game, knocking over Shenge’s pieces and plopping her 
  dragons down all over the board.
  As you might imagine, this doesn’t impress Shenge much, 
  so he makes some new pieces of his own that are just like 
  Pya’s dragons, but they are shiny and have skin made of 
  metal. And the two children keep grumpily playing for a 
  bit with their new armies, but now Shenge is thinking to 
  himself that what he really needs is an even better dragon. 
  So he makes one. It’s made of bronze, and it’s twice the size 
  of all the others.
  “You can’t do that!” yells Pya. “Where did you get bronze 
  from anyway? Your little people don’t know about smelting 
  yet!”
  Shenge responds by having his bronze dragon teach his 
  people about alloying when he puts him on the board. Th ey 
  run round with their little bronze weapons, wearing their 
  little bronze armour. Th e bronze dragon is really great. He 
  ties all the little peices together in one big army that fairly 
  soon covers almost the whole board. As soon as Pya tries 
  to play one of her dragons, its surrounded by a swarm of 
  bronze-clad warriors. She just doesn’t have the numbers.
  Pya fumes quietly for a bit while Shenge runs rampage over 
  the board. Th en she sits up and says “Right! If you can have 
  dragons, I’m having little people!”. And she up-ends a box 
  full of tiny green pieces onto her end of the board. Th e little 
  goblins break the bronze empire apart as Pya starts ﬂ icking 
  Shenge’s metal dragons oﬀ  the board with her thumb and 
  ﬁ nger. 
  Th ey’re both nearly in tears by 
  this point. Shenge thought he 
  was winning, and although he 
  tries, he can’t think up anything 
  except yet another huge dragon. 
  So he makes one, and this time 
  it’s made of steel. He plonks it 
  down, and starts putting the board back under his control. 
  “Ha! What are you going to do about that then?” he sneers 
  at his sister.
  Pya is crying with rage. “Even... bigger... dragons!” she says, 
  hurriedly making some huge beasts out of stone.
  “No!” shouts Shenge, realising he’s about to be out-done, 
  and grabs his end of the board to drag it away from Pya. 
  She grabs her end and the two of them tug on it and scream 
  at each other until it suddenly rips down the middle and 
  both of them go ﬂ ying. Pya picks up her stone dragons and 
  starts throwing them at Shenge’s scattered pieces until  she’s 
  satisﬁ ed that the stupid steel one is irretrievably smashed, 
  then runs oﬀ  crying. Shenge stamps really hard on Pya’s 
  end of the board and stomps away to sulk.
  Well, that’s one way of telling it. Monks and scholars tend 
  to make it sound more impressive, but that’s what it usually 
  boils down to. According to most versions, the pieces (i.e. 
  the inhabitants of the world) were left to get on with things 
  without Shenge and Pya, although there is always the 
  possibilty of ther return.
  ...a bloody exodus through 
  the goblin hordes until 
  they reached the safety 
  of the treeline.
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  And that’s why the Lands are split into Shengea (the south, 
  whre Sacred Steel is set) and Pyea (the north, which has 
  been seperated from Shengea for the last 2,000 years).
  ELVES
  Th e Elven nation was born during the late glory years of 
  the Bronze Empire. Lotocanthys had joined most areas of 
  the land together under his rule, but the original kingdoms 
  were allowed to keep their identity for administrative 
  reasons. One such kingdom was the Faraam province, 
  occupying a strip of land in the west of Shengea. 
  Th e army of Faraam was under the control of a philosopher 
  monk called Bruh. He had developed an extensive training 
  methodology that taught focus and centeredness as well as 
  the normal skills of ﬁ tness and speed.
  So, when the goblin invasions started to threaten Shengea 
  around 3,190L, Th e army of Faraam was the only decent-
  sized one in that area. Bruh had word of the goblin menace 
  over the mountains in Pyea and begged the queen for 
  permission to take the army there and meet the threat. Th e 
  Queen, Tahilla denied his request. After a few years the 
  goblins were seeping through the mountains and coming 
  south. Still Tahilla denied Bruh’s desires to face the enemy.
  She had no choice when the goblins hit the borders of 
  Faraam. Th e army was prepared, though. Th e borders more 
  or less held for a few years, while all the lands around 
  seemed to dissappear under a sea of green skin. Refugees 
  from neigbouring counties sought sanctuary in Faraam, and 
  the cities started getting crowded. 
  Th e dam burst in 3,198L when 
  the goblins laid seige to Faraam’s 
  capital city and catapulted dead 
  animals and corpses over the walls. 
  Disease sprang up instantly. Tahilla fell ill and Bruh took 
  control (although refusing coronation). 
  His ﬁ rst act was to evacuate Faraam city. Th e army staged 
  numerous reprise attacks on the beseigers while the 
  populace left the city walls and headed west towards the 
  Great Forest. Th e army caught up with the civilians after a 
  few days and they began the Green Walk, a bloody exodus 
  through the goblin hordes until they reached the safety of 
  the treeline. 
  “Safety” is a relative term here. Th e reason that humans had 
  never inhabited the forest before was that there was already 
  a population. Th e branches of the forest were occupied by 
  the ettercaps and their packs of trained giant spiders. Th e 
  forest ﬂ oor was the home of the mould pygmies, which 
  while individually weak could become almost invisible in 
  the undergrowth and ambush at any time. 
  Th e move was a success over all. Th ey lost a lot of people, but 
  there were enough left to start building a new community 
  among the trees. Th e Ettercaps were scared oﬀ  by a few 
  ﬁ rebrands, the pygmies didn’t climb the tree and most most 
  importantly of all, the goblins gave up at the treeline and 
  didn’t chase them any further into the forest. 
  By 3,220L the new “Forest Elv” community was strong 
  enough to launch its ﬁ rst crusade. Bruh personally led a 
  thousand of his best troops out of the forest and back along 
  the Green Walk to Faraam City, where they wailed mightily 
  on the occupying goblins and returned to the forest with 
  armfuls of recovered equipment and treasure.
  Although that ﬁ rst crusade was over quickly, it encouraged 
  the elves to be more ambitious. Th ere were twenty elven 
  crusades led by countless descendants of Bruh over the next 
  two thousand years, and for that time the Elves were the 
  best thing that humans had going for them.
  Th e twenty-ﬁ rst eleven crusade, marking the year 5000L, 
  was the last. Fewer and fewer people had been returning 
  from the previous crusades, and hardly anyone had returned 
  from the twenty-ﬁ rst. Th ey had bumped into the Orcs.
  ORCS
  By the year 4,800L the people of 
  Shengea had done a lot to push 
  back the goblin invasion, and although attacks were still 
  common, the kingdoms could reestablish their borders 
  and get on with life as normal — which basically meant 
  squabbling over land and gold.
  Somewhere north of where Faraam used to lie, there were 
  two very small countries nestling against the mountains. 
  Th ey were called Pentadaniir and Ostadaniir. Th e king of 
  Pentadaniir and the Queen of Ostadaniir both claimed to 
  be descended from the monarchs of the old country that 
  had occupied the land before the goblins came. Neither 
  would back down, so the land was split. Th ey would stage 
  “Idiot. Blinder than 
  your father.”
  DEVELOPMENT COPY
  DEVELOPMENT COPY
  
  SACRED STEEL  -  THE LEGENDS
  100
  occasional border ding-dongs but never a full-scale war, 
  although both claimants desperately wanted it.
  So one day, King Laon of Pentadaniir received a visit from 
  a sorceress called Fly. She claimed she could use her magic 
  to turn normal men into unstoppable monsters. She oﬀ ered 
  to “turn” Laon’s entire army, and all she wanted in return 
  was a share of gold when Ostadaniir was conquered.
  Now, obviously Laon can’t have been too smart because 
  he didn’t stop to ask any questions. He just immediately 
  assigned a troop of men to Fly, who dissappeared into the 
  mountains with them, promising to return in a week.
  And she did. She’d taken twenty men, and only returned 
  with ten, but they were a horror to behold—taller, wider 
  and nastier than they had been, with leathery, tough skin 
  and a mouthful of jagged teeth. Fly said that they were to 
  be called “Durok”. Laon was terriﬁ ed but impressed, and 
  sent a further hundred men oﬀ  with Fly to be treated. 
  Now it happened that Laon had a son, a guy called Meron, 
  but was not proud of him. Laon thought that his son should 
  be a warrior, a mighty ﬁ gure who could command the army 
  when he had passed away. Instead, Meron was a thin chap, 
  fairly aﬀ able but not commanding, and an academic, not 
  a ﬁ ghter. Prince Meron was allowed to live in the palace, 
  but only so long as he didn’t show up at public functions 
  or attempt to use his authority in any way. Which was ﬁ ne 
  by him. He had his friends among the court, and studied 
  magic in his chambers.
  Meron caught wind of the plans, and arranged to meet one 
  of the Durok. Unlike his father, he was naturally cautious 
  and had a well-developed sense of magic. So when he met 
  the Durok, he knew that something was wrong. Th ere was 
  something he vaguely remembered reading, some pictures 
  from an old tome that tickled his memory.
  When the next batch of Durok arrived at the palace, 
  he followed Fly and the next group of men up into the 
  mountains, and found where they were going. It was a huge 
  cavern with just one small opening halfway up the side of 
  a moutain. Fly marched up the harsh slope eﬀ ortlessly, the 
  men behind her keeping up but exhausted by the time the 
  stopped. Meron lurked around the entrance and watched as 
  a squad of Durok came outside and frogmarched the new 
  arrivals inside. 
  He used his mind magic to slip past the Duroks left on 
  guard and followed them in, where he witnessed Fly stretch 
  her arms, sigh and transform into a glistening dark-red 
  Blood Dragon. Around the perimeter of the cavern, Durok 
  were setting up cruciﬁ xes. Th e new arrivals were stripped 
  and manhandled onto the crosses, being viciously whipped 
  if they tried to resist. Right at the back was a stone pool. 
  Fly-the-dragon stood over it and vomited a stinking, black 
  rancid blood into it. Th e Durok dipped buckets into the 
  pool, and set about painting runes on the helpless recruits, 
  who screamed as the shapes burned into their ﬂ esh and 
  their bodies started to twist and stretch in completely 
  unnatural ways, turning them into Durok within minutes. 
  Th eir unconscious bodies were cut down from the crosses 
  and dragged to the side of the cavern to rest.
  Meron’s next action was bold by anyone’s standards. He 
  waited, hidden, until all the recruits had been doused, until 
  the Durok were out of the way, until Fly had settled down 
  to sleep. Th en he crept up to the pool, choking down the 
  gag reﬂ ex from the awful liquid, cut his arm with his pocket 
  knife and bled into the pool, polluting Fly’s blood with his 
  own.
  For weeks he kept doing this, heading up to the cavern and 
  adding his own blood to the pool. Th e Durok from the 
  polluted batches were diﬀ erent to the others—more human, 
  less monster, but Fly seemed unconcerned. King Laon kept 
  his Durok army a secret, even though it meant drastically 
  diminishing his active forces. Luckily the Ostadaniir army 
  was also looking fairly thin.
  Eventually Laon and Fly decided that enough men had 
  been turned and they organised a grand unveiling ceremony. 
  Laon was taken up to the cavern for the ﬁ rst time, along 
  with an entourage of court nobles. Most surprisingly, he 
  insisted that Meron should come.
  Th e King and his court were appalled at the cavern, but 
  Laon was too proud of his army to let it show, and the rest 
  of the court followed suit. Th e stood around attentively as 
  though they were watching a nice bit of pageantry while 
  Laon showed oﬀ  his durok warriors to them. Finally, he 
  summoned Meron to join him. And to the horror of the 
  assembled people, Meron was stripped down, tied to a 
  cross and painted with the black ﬂ uid from the back of the 
  cavern.
  Th e transformation happened to Meron as it had to the 
  other Durok; the burning, tearing feeling; the strength, 
  the bile. But Meron was being painted with his own blood 
  as well as the dragon’s. He awoke only minutes after the 
  change to see Fly holding his father by the scruﬀ  of the 
  neck and announcing her accession to the throne—now 
  that the entire army was under her control alone. Laon 
  could barely understand what had happened. And it only 
  made it worse that as she laughed in his face, Fly slowly 
  transformed into a dragon. 
  DEVELOPMENT COPY
  DEVELOPMENT COPY
  
  THE LEGENDS  -  SACRED STEEL 
  101
  Meron tore free from the cross. He could feel a link to the 
  minds the Durok who he had tainted with his own blood, 
  presumably the same link that Fly had with the other 
  Durok. With an unspoken understanding, both sides of 
  Durok clashed in chaotic battle. Th e nobles of the court ran 
  screaming down the mountainside. Fly thrashed about in 
  the middle of the cavern trying to restore order, ﬂ attening 
  as many of her own men as those under Meron’s magic.
  In the middle of it all, Meron took a sword from a fallen 
  Durok and used it to stab Fly in the throat. She fell heavily. 
  Her Durok were broken by her death, and Meron’s side 
  were victorious. Just. Only a fraction of the number that 
  had started the ﬁ ght were still standing, and most of them 
  were badly wounded. Fly hissed her last words at Meron.
  “Idiot. Blinder than your father. I’ve been working the same 
  spell in Ostadaniir, and now they have a full army of Durok, 
  while you have half an army of halfbreeds.  Th ey’ll be here 
  before you can blink, and instead of my triumphal reign 
  over the lot of you, they’ll conquer you and you’ll die.”
  Meron didn’t wait to ﬁ nd out if she was right. He led his 
  men out of the cavern, but instead of going back down to 
  the Kingdom, he took them higher up the slopes and into 
  the mountain ranges, where they settled and survived as 
  best they could.
  Which actually turned out to be quite well. Th ey could cope 
  with the cold better than mere humans, and in time they 
  learnt to farm the tough animals that lived up there. Th ey 
  heard that Pentadaniir had been peacefully conquered by 
  Ostadaniir. Generations came and went. Th e site of Meron’s 
  grave became Tohalon, the capital of the growing territory. 
  Th e word “Durok” was shortened to the monosyllabic “Orc” 
  and as it turned out, they have outlasted the Kingdom of 
  Ostadaniir by several thousand years and counting. 
  DEVELOPMENT COPY
  DEVELOPMENT COPY
  
  SACRED STEEL  -  THE LEGENDS
  102
  DRELVES
  Th e twenty-ﬁ rst and last elven crusade began in 5,000L. 
  Its priest-in-command, Tebla Annanouriel, had intended 
  to push through the western end of the Spine Mountains 
  and ﬁ nd out what was left of the Bronze Empire to the 
  north. Instead, he found the now 200-year-old Orc race. 
  Mistaking them for some kind of goblin variant he attacked, 
  and lost spectacularly. Th e Orcs knew the mountains and 
  weren’t aﬀ ected by the cold. Th e Elves, on the other hand, 
  kept freezing to death and falling oﬀ  things. Th e few who 
  survived the battle ﬂ ed back down the mountains towards 
  the forest, many more of them dying along the way for 
  want of supplies. 
  It has been said (though not usually within earshot of Orcs 
  or Elves) that if Annanouriel had approached the Orcs 
  peacefully the two races might not have ended up ﬁ ghting 
  bitterly for thousands of years.
  Th e disaster of that last crusade turned the Elves inwards for 
  a long time. Th e land seemed to be recovering; the Bronze 
  Empire had been beaten to a pulp but little kingdoms were 
  springing up here and there; and being roundly thrashed 
  by the Orcs generally made them feel that if the outside 
  world didn’t want them, well, then, they didn’t want the 
  outside world.
  Th e era was fairly crassly called “Th e Age of Th ought” at the 
  time, as though previous generations had got from day to 
  day by pointing and hooting. Bruh had left a lot of writing, 
  from notes he made when he was a young commander in 
  Faraam all the way through to the vast treatises he wrote 
  on his deathbed, and now these works were being picked 
  up and studied. Without the wars to focus on, the Elves 
  dedicated themselves to perfecting their understanding of 
  Bruh’s philosophy.
  Trouble is, they treated it like a religion. Th ey assumed that 
  Bruh was so clever and knowledgeable that he could not 
  possibly have made any mistakes. But he had, in the sense 
  that what he wrote when he was 25 was not exactly the 
  same message as what he wrote when he was 80. Some 
  of it even directly contradicted other bits. Th e priests held 
  lengthy discussions about the true meaning of Bruhism, 
  and when they couldn’t ﬁ nd a mutually acceptable answer, 
  they formed their own little cults of Bruhism to follow the 
  teachings their own way.
  Which led to a divided society: early-Bruhism vs late-
  Bruhism; pro-war vs. anti-war; seperatists vs. unionists. 
  Factions started to break oﬀ  and form their own 
  communities, occupying new parts of the forest. 
  Skip forward a bit more and you have some very insular 
  groups bitching with each other about “true” Bruhism. And 
  it doesn’t take long for the bitching, religion, sectarianism, 
  conﬂ ict and stagnation to lead the elven population straight 
  back to war—this time, amongst themselves.
  By 5,700L the forest was a mess of small and large settlements 
  allying, breaking up, arguing and ﬁ ghting. Treetop warfare 
  had become an artform. Th e oldest settlement, the original 
  village at Arawill, was the home of the largest army, but 
  it was generally outnumbered on all sides. Th e interesting 
  story, though, starts in a tiny little settlement, barely more 
  than 50,000 people all told.
  It’s called Anuvill. Th e high priest of Anuvill has 
  successfully conquered the neighbouring settlement to the 
  north (Barvill), and taken most of the army oﬀ  to attack 
  the next one north (Cyrawill), leaving a priest called Th etax 
  in charge of the home turf with a tiny skeleton army. 
  Predictably, enemies on both side close in on the battered 
  and undefended Barvill, seperating Anuvill from its army, 
  which was busy ﬁ ghting in Cyrawill. 
  Anuvill starts getting battered fairly quickly. Th e thing it 
  has going for it is that its almost too small to worry about, 
  so instead of people attacking it, they attack through 
  it—armies on all sides use Anuvill like a neutral zone. 
  Th ios starts to annoy Th etax, who was always dangerously 
  pragmatic and was never quite sure what all the ﬁ ghting 
  was for anyway.
  Now, up until this point there has been one golden, 
  unbreakable rule in the ﬁ ghting: No Fire. No Matter How 
  Bad Th ings Look, Don’t Use Flames, It’ll Burn Down Th e 
  Whole Damn Forest, Especially With All Th is Warm 
  Weather We’ve Been Having.
  So Th etax, never one to let tradition get in the way of a 
  good plan, starts to train up ﬁ re archers. Th ey extract tar oil 
  from the forest ﬂ oor (it’s there, if you know where to look) 
  and make up arrowheads wrapped in tar-soaked rags.
  Th etax himself dissappears for a few days, leaving his 
  trusted commanders to coordinate preparations. Most 
  of the population don’t know what’s happening, just that 
  they need to be ready to move when the word goes out. 
  When the day comes, Th etax comes back, looking grim but 
  rock steady. Th e day wears on. Some soldiers from other 
  settlements move through Anuvill and are surprised to ﬁ nd 
  no resistance. Dusk falls, then night. If you were standing 
  in the high branches of a tree near the borders of Anuvill 
  DEVELOPMENT COPY
  DEVELOPMENT COPY
  
  THE LEGENDS  -  SACRED STEEL 
  103
  that evening, you might have fancied 
  that you saw some menacing, serpentine 
  shapes coiled up around the treetops. You 
  might even fancy that you accasionally 
  saw a pair of red eyes glance at you, then 
  glance away again. You might fancy all 
  that, but in truth no-one knew what was 
  going to happen except Th etax.
  One lone ﬂ aming arrow shot up from 
  the center of Anuvill, which was a rare 
  enough sight in itself. Th e commanders 
  got their men ready, and waited for the 
  second signal.
  Th e treetops burst into light as hundreds 
  of Fire Dragons covered themselves in 
  ﬂ ame and took ﬂ ight, breathing ﬂ ames 
  that were sometimes so hot they were 
  invisible. Th ey swooped down into 
  the territories to the east, immolating 
  anything their path.
  Th at was the second signal, then. Th etax 
  and his people left their homes, cimbing 
  down through the forest to the ﬂ oor and 
  beginning the long walk to the open 
  land. Th e way was clear enough; their 
  enemies were preoccupied with burning 
  to death or ﬂ eeing a sheet of shimmering 
  air so hot that it  vapourised its victims. 
  Any enemies that tried to get in the way 
  found themselves surrounded by ﬂ ames from the archers.
  Th e former inhabitants of Anuvill walked for a week until 
  they found the start of the old Green Walk, and followed 
  it along until they came to the old ruins of Faraam city, 
  long ago abandoned by the goblins. Th ey didn’t stop there 
  though—they kept moving until they reached the south 
  coast. Th en they stopped. Th ere were no people for hundreds 
  of miles around, truly uncontested space. Th etax planted his 
  bow in the ground and founded a new home there.
  Back in the forest, the elven battle-priests had been 
  devastated by Th etax’s departure. All around Anuvill was a 
  smoking crater, still to hot to pass. Anuvill itself had caught 
  light, but they couldn’t get to it, even if they’d wanted to. 
  Th e whole time that Th etax was heading south, Anuvill was 
  slowly burning, lighting up the sky over the forest at night 
  and ﬁ lling it with smoke by day.
  Th e war priests assembled at Arawill to work out what 
  should be done, abandoning former hostilities for duration. 
  What they settled on was to warm up the biggest curse they 
  could think of. Th ey pooled their power, channelling the 
  grief and rage of the previous days and focused on scarring 
  the evildoers forever.
  Th etax’s Elves were working busily down in the south. Th ey 
  woke one morning to ﬁ nd they had started to grow horns. 
  Vicious ivory ram’s horns for some, short red bull’s horns 
  for others, and many in-between. Th ey were intended as a 
  brand, a visible curse thet would remind the ﬁ re-users of 
  their evil.
  It didn’t have that eﬀ ect. Th etax already knew that his land 
  was going to be very diﬀ erent to the old Elv ways, and this 
  “curse” just made the diﬀ erence physical. In a speech which 
  was written down and carried around the entire ﬂ edgling 
  city, he told the people not to fear the horns, but to be 
  proud of them. He gave them the name Drelves, crowned 
  himself King Th etax I and led them to becoming a full size 
  nation within his own lifetime.
  DEVELOPMENT COPY
  DEVELOPMENT COPY
  
  SACRED STEEL  -  THE LEGENDS
  104
  HIGHLANDERS
  Around the time of the Tearing, there were a few tribes that 
  had not been subjugated by the Steel Supremacy. One such 
  was the Tarran clan, which had moved over the years to 
  avoid the Steel armies and eventually found a stable home 
  in the Spine Mountains. 
  Th ey were tough, adventurous people, so their habitation 
  spread from the northern edge of the mountains, heading 
  west towards the Orc territories and south towards the 
  Plains. 
  When the Tearing came, the Tarran people living in the 
  southern half of the mountains were well established, with 
  a wall around their territory and a full-time watch against 
  Orc raiders. Th ey swapped goods with their tribesmen 
  to the north and generally stayed out of the way of the 
  plainsfolk. Th e Tearing left them isolated from their only 
  allies.
  In the following years they had to learn how to survive 
  without their homelands to trade with. Th ey opened up 
  trading posts to exchange goods with the newly-liberated 
  Northern Realms and the Plains, and even, to a lesser 
  degree, with the Orcs.
  DEATHLINGS
  XXX
  DRAGONERS
  XXX
  ---
  do a proper timeline based on the SXC version
  DEVELOPMENT COPY
  DEVELOPMENT COPY
  
  THE LEGENDS  -  SACRED STEEL 
  105
  DEVELOPMENT COPY
  DEVELOPMENT COPY
  
  SACRED STEEL  -  GMS' CHAPTER
  106
  PART THE EIGHTH:
  GMS
  M3
  This chapter is not complete! 
  It will stay incomplete until we start the M3 phase, which will be all the GM-
  goodies: stuff about running campaigns, how to flex the rules, monsters, bad 
  guys, treasure etc. In other waords, all the cool stuff that you can make up as 
  you go along until the chapter arrives.
  Come and see how work is progressing at the Sacred Steel website: 
  (http://sacredsteel.org) and chip in your own ideas.
  DEVELOPMENT COPY
  DEVELOPMENT COPY
  
  GMS' CHAPTER  -  SACRED STEEL 
  107
  History: Middle Ages, mostly early (Dark Ages). 500-
  800AD, Holy Roman Empire maybe. But also elements 
  from later on (heavy plate etc.)
  DEVELOPMENT COPY
  DEVELOPMENT COPY
  
  SACRED STEEL  -  GMS' CHAPTER
  108
  DEVELOPMENT COPY
  DEVELOPMENT COPY
  
  GMS' CHAPTER  -  SACRED STEEL 
  109
  DEVELOPMENT COPY
  DEVELOPMENT COPY
  
  PHYSIQUE
  COMBAT TRAINING
  AWARENESS
  SACRED
  STEEL
  NAME
  RACE
  OCCUPATION
  WEAPON
  CHARACTER SHEET
  COMBAT DRAW
  LEARNING
  INTERACTION
  SKILLS
  MAGIC
  DEPTH
  EQUIPMENT
  SPECIALITIES 
  & SPECIAL MOVES
  NAME
  RANK
  WEAPONS
  NOCK / LOAD
  PENALTY
  STRIKE BONUS
  -OR-
  DAMAGE
  ARMOUR
  MAIN
  GREAVES
  HELMET
  SHIELD
  ARMOUR+
  TOTAL ARMOUR SAVE
  COINS
  EXPERIENCE
  COMBAT DRAW
  MIN. TO HIT
  -OR-
  MAX SHOT
  FIELD
  SPECIALITY RANKS
  ENTITLED?
  FIRE
  DEATH
  HIDDLINS
  WITCHCRAFT
  MIND
  
  PHYSIQUE
  COMBAT TRAINING
  AWARENESS
  SACRED
  STEEL
  NAME
  RACE
  OCCUPATION
  WEAPON
  CHARACTER SHEET
  COMBAT DRAW
  LEARNING
  INTERACTION
  SKILLS
  MAGIC
  DEPTH
  EQUIPMENT
  SPECIALITIES 
  & SPECIAL MOVES
  NAME
  RANK
  WEAPONS
  NOCK / LOAD
  PENALTY
  STRIKE BONUS
  -OR-
  DAMAGE
  ARMOUR
  MAIN
  GREAVES
  HELMET
  SHIELD
  ARMOUR+
  TOTAL ARMOUR SAVE
  COINS
  EXPERIENCE
  COMBAT DRAW
  MIN. TO HIT
  -OR-
  MAX SHOT
  FIELD
  SPECIALITY RANKS
  ENTITLED?
  FIRE
  DEATH
  HIDDLINS
  WITCHCRAFT
  MIND
  Leluma
  Elv
  Archer
  Archer
  4
  5
  2
  4
  3
  5
  Longbow
  AME
  Longbow
  AME
  Longbow
  1
  Longsword
  Longsword
  1
  Chain
  2
  2
  Longbow
  Longbow
  Longbow
  Longsword
  Longsword
  Longsword
  10
  3
  3
  5
  3
  Survival
  1
  6
  6
  Wedge Tent
  Wedge Tent
  Wedge Tent
  2
  -
  
  CHARACTER WORK-UP SHEET
  Copyright 2004 Neil de Carteret. Permission is granted to reproduce and redistribute this page for non-commercial purposes.
  3
  1) DESCRIBE YOUR CHARACTER 
  WHAT IS HIS/HER ROLE IN THE GROUP?
  WHAT IS HIS/HER FAVOURITE PIECE OF EQUIPMENT OR TYPE OF WEAPON?
  WHY IS HE/SHE LEAVING HOME TO BE AN ADVENTURER?
  WHAT RACE IS HE/SHE?
  WHAT DOES HE/SHE LOOK LIKE AND WEAR?
  2) SKILLS
  PHYSIQUE
  COMBAT TRAINING
  DEPTH
  INTERACTION
  AWARENESS
  LEARNING
  3
  3
  3
  3
  0
  3) SPECIALITIES
  COMBAT DRAW (AV. PHYS + COMBAT TRAINING)
  5) MONEY & EQUIPMENT
  COINS
  100GP
  PURCHASES
  USE SINGLE WORDS IF YOU WANT, BUT 
  TRY TO PUT SOMETHING ON EACH LINE. 
  IT WILL HELP TO DEVELOP YOUR 
  CHARACTER AND GIVE THEM SOME 
  PERSONALITY. 
  ALL YOUR SKILLS, APART FROM DEPTH, 
  START AT 3. THE RACE YOU CHOSE 
  MAY GIVE YOU THE OPTION OF APPLY-
  ING SOME MODIFIERS HERE. AFTER 
  THAT, YOU HAVE THREE POINTS TO 
  SPEND ANYWHERE YOU LIKE, AND IF 
  YOU’RE STILL NOT HAPPY, YOU CAN 
  MOVE ONE POINT FROM ONE SKILL TO 
  ANOTHER.
  LASTLY, WORK OUT YOUR COMBAT 
  DRAW BY AVERAGING YOUR PHYSIQUE 
  AND COMBAT TRAINING.
  YOUR THREE SPECIALITIES ARE 
  THINGS THAT YOUR CHARACTER IS 
  PARTICULARLY GOOD AT. THERE’S A 
  LIST OF THINGS IN THE BOOK, LIKE 
  TRADES AND WEAPONS, OR YOU CAN 
  MAKE UP YOUR OWN. PICK THREE.
  SPENDING SPREE! REMEMBER YOU’LL 
  PROBABLY WANT AT LEAST ONE WEAPON 
  AND SOME ARMOUR. YOU MAY ALSO 
  WANT EQUIPMENT LIKE HEALING 
  HERBS, TENTS, AND SOMETHING TO 
  CARRY IT ALL IN.
  SACRED
  STEEL
  4) MAGIC (OPTIONAL)
  IF YOU PUT ANY SKILL POINTS INTO DEPTH, YOU NOW 
  GET TO PICK YOUR MAGICAL SKILLS. FOR EVERY POINT 
  YOU HAVE IN DEPTH, YOU CAN ACCESS A NEW FIELD OF 
  MAGIC. PUT TICKS NEXT TO WHICHEVER FIELDS YOU 
  WANT (YOU GET “HIDDLINS” FOR FREE). YOU ALSO GET A 
  FREE MAGIC SPECIALITY PER POINT OF DEPTH. UNLIKE 
  THE SPECIALITIES IN STEP 3, THESE CAN STACK, SO YOU 
  CAN PUT ALL OF THEM IN ONE FIELD IF YOU WANT.
  HIDDLINS
  WITCHCRAFT
  MIND MAGIC
  DEATH MAGIC
  FIRE MAGIC
  ENTITLED?
  SPECIALITY POINTS
  
  CHARACTER WORK-UP SHEET
  Copyright 2004 Neil de Carteret. Permission is granted to reproduce and redistribute this page for non-commercial purposes.
  3
  1) DESCRIBE YOUR CHARACTER 
  WHAT IS HIS/HER ROLE IN THE GROUP?
  WHAT IS HIS/HER FAVOURITE PIECE OF EQUIPMENT OR TYPE OF WEAPON?
  WHY IS HE/SHE LEAVING HOME TO BE AN ADVENTURER?
  WHAT RACE IS HE/SHE?
  WHAT DOES HE/SHE LOOK LIKE AND WEAR?
  2) SKILLS
  PHYSIQUE
  COMBAT TRAINING
  DEPTH
  INTERACTION
  AWARENESS
  LEARNING
  3
  3
  3
  3
  0
  3) SPECIALITIES
  COMBAT DRAW (AV. PHYS + COMBAT TRAINING)
  5) MONEY & EQUIPMENT
  COINS
  100GP
  PURCHASES
  USE SINGLE WORDS IF YOU WANT, BUT 
  TRY TO PUT SOMETHING ON EACH LINE. 
  IT WILL HELP TO DEVELOP YOUR 
  CHARACTER AND GIVE THEM SOME 
  PERSONALITY. 
  ALL YOUR SKILLS, APART FROM DEPTH, 
  START AT 3. THE RACE YOU CHOSE 
  MAY GIVE YOU THE OPTION OF APPLY-
  ING SOME MODIFIERS HERE. AFTER 
  THAT, YOU HAVE THREE POINTS TO 
  SPEND ANYWHERE YOU LIKE, AND IF 
  YOU’RE STILL NOT HAPPY, YOU CAN 
  MOVE ONE POINT FROM ONE SKILL TO 
  ANOTHER.
  LASTLY, WORK OUT YOUR COMBAT 
  DRAW BY AVERAGING YOUR PHYSIQUE 
  AND COMBAT TRAINING.
  YOUR THREE SPECIALITIES ARE 
  THINGS THAT YOUR CHARACTER IS 
  PARTICULARLY GOOD AT. THERE’S A 
  LIST OF THINGS IN THE BOOK, LIKE 
  TRADES AND WEAPONS, OR YOU CAN 
  MAKE UP YOUR OWN. PICK THREE.
  SPENDING SPREE! REMEMBER YOU’LL 
  PROBABLY WANT AT LEAST ONE WEAPON 
  AND SOME ARMOUR. YOU MAY ALSO 
  WANT EQUIPMENT LIKE HEALING 
  HERBS, TENTS, AND SOMETHING TO 
  CARRY IT ALL IN.
  SACRED
  STEEL
  4) MAGIC (OPTIONAL)
  IF YOU PUT ANY SKILL POINTS INTO DEPTH, YOU NOW 
  GET TO PICK YOUR MAGICAL SKILLS. FOR EVERY POINT 
  YOU HAVE IN DEPTH, YOU CAN ACCESS A NEW FIELD OF 
  MAGIC. PUT TICKS NEXT TO WHICHEVER FIELDS YOU 
  WANT (YOU GET “HIDDLINS” FOR FREE). YOU ALSO GET A 
  FREE MAGIC SPECIALITY PER POINT OF DEPTH. UNLIKE 
  THE SPECIALITIES IN STEP 3, THESE CAN STACK, SO YOU 
  CAN PUT ALL OF THEM IN ONE FIELD IF YOU WANT.
  HIDDLINS
  WITCHCRAFT
  MIND MAGIC
  DEATH MAGIC
  FIRE MAGIC
  ENTITLED?
  SPECIALITY POINTS
  FIghter / Archer
  /
  FIghter / Archer
  /
  FIghter / Archer
  Longbow
  Longbow
  Orphaned
  Orphaned
  Elv
  Elv colours, chainmail, long red hair
  Elv colours, chainmail, long red hair
  2
  4
  5
  4
  5
  /3/3
  /3/3
  /3/3
  /3/3
  Longbow
  Longbow
  Longsword
  Longsword
  Survival
  Longbow (20gp), Longsword (40gp),
  Longbow (20gp), Longsword (40gp),
  Longbow (20gp), Longsword (40gp),
  URCHASES
  Longbow (20gp), Longsword (40gp),
  URCHASES
  URCHASES
  Longbow (20gp), Longsword (40gp),
  URCHASES
  Longbow (20gp), Longsword (40gp),
  Chainmail armour (30gp)
  Chainmail armour (30gp)
  Chainmail armour (30gp)
  Chainmail armour (30gp)
  10gp
  10gp
  100
  100GP
  GP
  (...hope someone else bought me a tent)
  (...hope someone else bought me a tent)
  (...hope someone else bought me a tent)
  (...hope someone else bought me a tent)
  
  SACRED
  STEEL
  COMBAT TRACKER
  Copyright 2004 Neil de Carteret. Permission is granted to reproduce and redistribute this page for non-commercial purposes.
  PLAYER CHARACTERS
  NON-PLAYER CHARACTERS
  GRID
  FILL IN THE PCS ON THE RIGHT AND KEEP 
  TRACK OF THEIR WOUNDS IN THE BIG BOXES; 
  FILL IN THE BAD GUYS BELOW. USE THE BIG 
  OPEN AREA TO WRITE CHARACTER NAMES, 
  CONNECTED BY LINES TO SHOW WHO’S FIGHTING 
  WHO, AND WRITE COMBAT SCORES AT EACH END 
  OF THE LINES TO TRACK ADVANTAGE. CROSS 
  CHARACTERS OFF THE GRID WHEN THEY DIE.
  
  SACRED
  STEEL
  COMBAT TRACKER
  Copyright 2004 Neil de Carteret. Permission is granted to reproduce and redistribute this page for non-commercial purposes.
  PLAYER CHARACTERS
  NON-PLAYER CHARACTERS
  GRID
  FILL IN THE PCS ON THE RIGHT AND KEEP 
  TRACK OF THEIR WOUNDS IN THE BIG BOXES; 
  FILL IN THE BAD GUYS BELOW. USE THE BIG 
  OPEN AREA TO WRITE CHARACTER NAMES, 
  CONNECTED BY LINES TO SHOW WHO’S FIGHTING 
  WHO, AND WRITE COMBAT SCORES AT EACH END 
  OF THE LINES TO TRACK ADVANTAGE. CROSS 
  CHARACTERS OFF THE GRID WHEN THEY DIE.
  Ferdinand
  Bokash
  Palimon
  Palimon
  -1
  -2
  -2
  0
  Orc 1
  Orc 2
  Orc 3
  Orc Captain
  Orc Captain
  Orc Captain
  Orc Captain
  -1
  -1
  0
  0
  X
  -1X
  -1
  -2X
  -2
  Ferdinand
  Bokash
  Bokash
  Palimon
  Palimon
  (using longbow)
  (using longbow)
  Orc 1
  Orc 2
  Orc 3
  Orc Captain
  (using x-bow)
  3
  0
  1
  2
  2
  5
  2
  6
  2
  2
  2
  X3X3
  3
  1
  0
  1
  1
  X
  Orc 2
  X
  Orc 2
  X
  X1X1
  X2X2
  X5X5 X2X2
  X1X1
  X2X2
  X6X6
  X2X2
  5X5X5
  X1X1
  X3X3
  X1X1
  X2X2
  X0X0
  1
  4
  0X0X
  5
  3
  X5X5
  X3X3
  2
  
  SACRED
  STEEL
  CHARACTER TRACKER
  Copyright 2004 Neil de Carteret. Permission is granted to reproduce and redistribute this page for non-commercial purposes.
  USE THIS SHEET TO KEEP TRACK OF YOUR CHARACTER IN PLAY. 
  TRACK WOUNDS, STUN WOUNDS AND LUCK IN THE BOXES PROVIDED.
  THE CONSUMABLE EQUIPMENT TRACKER LISTS VARIOUS COMMON ITEMS. CIRCLE THE ONE 
  APPROPRIATE AND SHADE OUT CIRCLES FROM THE RIGHT TO MAKE THE LINE THE RIGHT LENGTH. 
  THERE ARE TWELVE CIRCLES, ENOUGH FOR ONE QUIVER. 
  SIMPLY TAKE A NEW SHEET WHEN YOU NEED IT.
  WOUNDS
  TEMPORARY EQUIPMENT / NOTES
  STUN WOUNDS
  LUCK
  CHARACTER OR PLAYER:
  SHORTBOW / LONGBOW / CROSSBOW / ARBALEST / PYREAN / MIRANOCH’S ELIXIR
  / BLACKLEAF / HEALER’S KIT /
  SHORTBOW / LONGBOW / CROSSBOW / ARBALEST / PYREAN / MIRANOCH’S ELIXIR
  / BLACKLEAF / HEALER’S KIT /
  SHORTBOW / LONGBOW / CROSSBOW / ARBALEST / PYREAN / MIRANOCH’S ELIXIR
  / BLACKLEAF / HEALER’S KIT /
  SHORTBOW / LONGBOW / CROSSBOW / ARBALEST / PYREAN / MIRANOCH’S ELIXIR
  / BLACKLEAF / HEALER’S KIT /
  SHORTBOW / LONGBOW / CROSSBOW / ARBALEST / PYREAN / MIRANOCH’S ELIXIR
  / BLACKLEAF / HEALER’S KIT /
  SHORTBOW / LONGBOW / CROSSBOW / ARBALEST / PYREAN / MIRANOCH’S ELIXIR
  / BLACKLEAF / HEALER’S KIT /
  SHORTBOW / LONGBOW / CROSSBOW / ARBALEST / PYREAN / MIRANOCH’S ELIXIR
  / BLACKLEAF / HEALER’S KIT /
  SHORTBOW / LONGBOW / CROSSBOW / ARBALEST / PYREAN / MIRANOCH’S ELIXIR
  / BLACKLEAF / HEALER’S KIT /
  SHORTBOW / LONGBOW / CROSSBOW / ARBALEST / PYREAN / MIRANOCH’S ELIXIR
  / BLACKLEAF / HEALER’S KIT /
  SHORTBOW / LONGBOW / CROSSBOW / ARBALEST / PYREAN / MIRANOCH’S ELIXIR
  / BLACKLEAF / HEALER’S KIT /
  CONSUMABLES
  
  SACRED
  STEEL
  CHARACTER TRACKER
  Copyright 2004 Neil de Carteret. Permission is granted to reproduce and redistribute this page for non-commercial purposes.
  USE THIS SHEET TO KEEP TRACK OF YOUR CHARACTER IN PLAY. 
  TRACK WOUNDS, STUN WOUNDS AND LUCK IN THE BOXES PROVIDED.
  THE CONSUMABLE EQUIPMENT TRACKER LISTS VARIOUS COMMON ITEMS. CIRCLE THE ONE 
  APPROPRIATE AND SHADE OUT CIRCLES FROM THE RIGHT TO MAKE THE LINE THE RIGHT LENGTH. 
  THERE ARE TWELVE CIRCLES, ENOUGH FOR ONE QUIVER. 
  SIMPLY TAKE A NEW SHEET WHEN YOU NEED IT.
  WOUNDS
  TEMPORARY EQUIPMENT / NOTES
  STUN WOUNDS
  LUCK
  CHARACTER OR PLAYER:
  SHORTBOW / LONGBOW / CROSSBOW / ARBALEST / PYREAN / MIRANOCH’S ELIXIR
  / BLACKLEAF / HEALER’S KIT /
  SHORTBOW / LONGBOW / CROSSBOW / ARBALEST / PYREAN / MIRANOCH’S ELIXIR
  / BLACKLEAF / HEALER’S KIT /
  SHORTBOW / LONGBOW / CROSSBOW / ARBALEST / PYREAN / MIRANOCH’S ELIXIR
  / BLACKLEAF / HEALER’S KIT /
  SHORTBOW / LONGBOW / CROSSBOW / ARBALEST / PYREAN / MIRANOCH’S ELIXIR
  / BLACKLEAF / HEALER’S KIT /
  SHORTBOW / LONGBOW / CROSSBOW / ARBALEST / PYREAN / MIRANOCH’S ELIXIR
  / BLACKLEAF / HEALER’S KIT /
  SHORTBOW / LONGBOW / CROSSBOW / ARBALEST / PYREAN / MIRANOCH’S ELIXIR
  / BLACKLEAF / HEALER’S KIT /
  SHORTBOW / LONGBOW / CROSSBOW / ARBALEST / PYREAN / MIRANOCH’S ELIXIR
  / BLACKLEAF / HEALER’S KIT /
  SHORTBOW / LONGBOW / CROSSBOW / ARBALEST / PYREAN / MIRANOCH’S ELIXIR
  / BLACKLEAF / HEALER’S KIT /
  SHORTBOW / LONGBOW / CROSSBOW / ARBALEST / PYREAN / MIRANOCH’S ELIXIR
  / BLACKLEAF / HEALER’S KIT /
  SHORTBOW / LONGBOW / CROSSBOW / ARBALEST / PYREAN / MIRANOCH’S ELIXIR
  / BLACKLEAF / HEALER’S KIT /
  CONSUMABLES
  Archie the mad monk
   / L
  / BLACKLEAF
   / P
   / M
   / P
   / M
   / P
   / P
   / M
  HORTBOW / L
  / B
   / H
  S
   / L
  / BLACKLEAF
   / L
  / BLACKLEAF
  2  3  1 0
  5  4  3
  5  4  3
  Gold shiny thing?
  /2  3  1 0
  /2  3  1 0
  /
  2  3  1 0
  /
  2  3  1 0
  /
  2  3  1 0
  /
  2  3  1 0
  /5  4  3
  /5  4  3
  5  4  3
  /5  4  3
  /
  5  4  3
  /
  5  4  3
  Broken goblet from the temple
  
  SACRED STEEL  -  GNU FREE DOCUMENTATION LICENSE
  118
  GNU Free Documentation License
  Version 1.2, November 2002
  Copyright (C) 2000,2001,2002  Free Software Foundation, Inc.
  59 Temple Place, Suite 330, Boston, MA  02111-1307  USA
   Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies
  of this license document, but changing it is not allowed.
  0. PREAMBLE
  The purpose of this License is to make a manual, textbook, or other
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  We have designed this License in order to use it for manuals for free
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  principally for works whose purpose is instruction or reference.
  1. APPLICABILITY AND DEFINITIONS
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  2. VERBATIM COPYING
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  Document’s license notice requires Cover Texts, you must enclose the
  DEVELOPMENT COPY
  DEVELOPMENT COPY
  
  GNU FREE DOCUMENTATION LICENSE  -  SACRED STEEL 
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  copies in covers that carry, clearly and legibly, all these Cover
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  6. COLLECTIONS OF DOCUMENTS
  DEVELOPMENT COPY
  DEVELOPMENT COPY
  
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  You may make a collection consisting of the Document and other 
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  following the terms and conditions either of that specified version or
  of any later version that has been published (not as a draft) by the
  Free Software Foundation.  If the Document does not specify a version
  number of this License, you may choose any version ever published (not
  as a draft) by the Free Software Foundation.
  DEVELOPMENT COPY
  DEVELOPMENT COPY
  
  GNU FREE DOCUMENTATION LICENSE  -  SACRED STEEL 
  121
  COLOPHON
  Th is book was written and layed out using Adobe InDesign 
  CS 3.0. Th e Illustrations were made in Adobe Illustrator 
  CS 11.0 and Adobe Photoshop CS 8.0 and 7.0.
  Th e heading font is Ale and Wenches, by Blambot 
  (http://www.blambot.com/) and is used under the license 
  agreement for free fonts as a non-proﬁ t / independently 
  published project. It is used at 18pt., 14pt. and 10pt.
  Th e body text is Adobe Caslon Pro at 10pt. with 13pt. 
  leading.
  Th e handwriting font for examples is Bradley Hand ITC, 
  in various sizes.
  Th e funny faces on the cards and in a few other places are 
  from the Tombats series of fonts by Tom7 (http://fonts.
  tom7.com/).
  DEVELOPMENT COPY
  DEVELOPMENT COPY
  
SOURCE: textdata/thevault/Sacred Steel/Sacred Steel - Corebook.pdf