Propagación artificial

Black Crosses have the resources of the Order at their disposal while completing a mission. To request aid above and beyond the normal funds for a mission, the Knight must make a Resource Roll. This is done by rolling two unexploding dice and adding their total together. The TN is determined by the sort of aid being requested (see below). Naturally, Knights who have proven themselves are more likely to have their petitions granted, so the Knight may add 1 to the Resource Roll for every five missions he has successfully completed for the Order, up to a maximum of +15 to the Roll. However, he must also subtract 2 from the roll for each item on the Bag of Tricks chart that he was expected to return and did not.

For example, a Knight has been on 47 successful missions, but he lost a pair of sounding beads on one of those missions. His total bonus is 9–2, or +7. If he is rolling against a TN 16, he rolls two unexploding dice, adds them together, and then adds 7 to that. If the total is equal to or greater than 16, his request is granted.

Requesting More Money

This is the most common request within the Order. Money is requested in multiples of 50G and the TN is 3 for every

Secrecy

50G. Thus, a Knight who was requesting an extra 250G would need to roll a 15 or higher on his Resource Roll. This may be attempted only once per mission. This money comes from the yearly income of the local sanctuary, so Knights should not abuse it, lest they find these funds exhausted when they need them the most.

Calling on Laymen of the Order

Sometimes a Knight needs a skill that he doesn’t have in order to complete a mission. In these instances, he may call upon one of the Laymen of the Order, who have all sorts of useful talents. The Knight chooses one Knack that the Layman will have, the desired Rank of the Knack, and the Rank of the appropriate Trait. Looking below, he adds the TN from the Trait Rank to the TN for the Knack Rank and makes a Resource Roll against the total. If successful, there is a Layman in the area who can help, and he can be contacted in one day. If not, he may try again, but must lower both the Trait and Knack by at least one Rank, and it takes an additional day to contact the Layman.

Laymen who are specifically named and mentioned in Chapter 1 (under Laymen of the Order) have the TN to contact them lowered by 5, since they are so well known in the Order. This is already reflected in the TN listed next to their name. Trait TN 0 1 1 3 2 5 3 10 4 15 5 20 Knack TN 0 1 1 2 2 4 3 6 4 8 5 10

For instance, if a Knight has need of someone to pick a lock for him, he would choose Lockpicking as the Knack, a Trait of 3 (it’s a tough lock), and a Knack of 4 (a really tough lock). He adds the two TNs together (10+8) for a TN of 18. Rolling, he gets only a 16, so there’s no one around that skilled. He decides to try again, but he must reduce both the Knack and Trait by at least one Rank to do so. He tries for a 2 Trait and a 3 Knack, which is a TN 11. He succeeds, and it takes him two days to find his lockpicking Layman. Had he failed, he could have tried again, but only by lowering the Knack and Trait another Rank each, which might not have been worth his time at all.

Borrowing Major Artifacts

Each major artifact described in this chapter has a TN associated with it. In order to borrow an artifact for a mission, the mission must be of critical importance to the Order. If the GM feels the mission is sufficiently important, the Knight may make a Resource Roll against the TN of the artifact he wishes to borrow. Only one can be borrowed at a time except under extraordinary circumstances. Artifacts must always be returned after the mission — if a major artifact is lost or destroyed by the Knight during his mission, he must thereafter subtract 5 from his Resource Rolls for each major artifact he’s lost.

For example, a Knight wants to borrow one of the Cloaks of Shadows and the mission is important to the Order, so he rolls against its TN of 22 and succeeds (he’s been on many successful missions in the past). Unfortunately for him, the Cloak is destroyed on the mission. From now on, all his Resource Rolls will suffer a penalty of –5.

Calling on Other Knights

A Knight may ask other Knights to assist him on a mission, but this should be decided entirely by the GM. Since the Knights are typically full Heroes except for the Acolytes, allowing one or more to assist a player can be unbalancing if the GM hasn’t planned for that contingency. GMs should also consider whether or not the Knight could tag along with the rest of the party without drawing too much attention or detracting from the skills and contributions of the other players.