All Along A reinaction scenario TFT module for 2 (experienced) to 4 (beginner) figures. Underway The party has been riding to the watchtower of the marches, inland off the coastal wastes, on a report of a harvest- time Misrule festivity gotten out of hand. Before breaking cover of the woodline, their horses are spooked by a savage cry from a bowed tree limb. 1 Bearcat male bear- legged choleric: ST 16, DX 12, IQ 5, MA 10, DA Mauling =the lower 2D of a 3D roll; or the higher 2D in HTH, HA Shag 2; Can't be reduced to adjST <-1 except by silver weapons; At the end of a turn it began alive then on alternate turns until killed or healed it regains +1 lost pST not caused by silver weapons. It prepares for a pounce; waiting to see the results of the riders' Panic checks. So, the party gets its first turn of Actions free, before the bearcat is given next turn's initiative to pounce at any uncontrolled mount, or else move so as to rear up on its bruin haunches to engage. Riding Horse: ST 22, DX 12, IQ 5, MA 24, DA Kick 1D +1. Refer to Mounted Combat. To prevent their mounts Panicking, check the riders' IQ in their chosen order, with each passed save adding +2 to any follower's saving roll. Pressing on, the party notices that the area's creatures are unusually active and seem to be stirred up by the keening of an intensifying gusty wind. This wind is locally termed a dragon sond, and puts even the horses in a skittish mood. As the terrain opens, the tower looms into view. In crossing the surrounding fields toward the town precincts, the party runs into an outburst of peasant unrest from d3 angry plowmen, backed by an individual outlaw band agitator. This crew, though appearing somewhat unsure, rails at the party to turn back and take their snooty interference elsewhere. A modifiable RR would gauge their reply if the holdup is addressed by parley, or in the event the party makes any perceptible false moves, or for deterrence of a desultory parting swipe or shot. Plowman/ Townsfolk/ Servant (2/ 6 female) Human serf/ varlet pool: adjST 7 +d3, DX 7 +d4, IQ 7 +d2, MA 10, DA Quarterstaff 1D +2 (ready) Belt Knife 1D -d2 (slung). One's quarterstaff disarm attempt is made on the higher of adjST or adjDX, optionally as an Aimed shot at the Weapon Arm of an unshielded opponent. Defend allows 1 rebuff attack if any attacking hit roll's 3 low dice'd miss, at DA 2D -(11 -adjST as rolled). Outlaw/ Bodyguard/ Trooper (1/ 6 female) Human gangster pool: ST 9 +d3, DX 10 +d4, IQ 7 +d2, MA 10, DA Small Axe 1D +2 (ready), Bow per ST (slung). One with IQ 9 will have a Missile Weapons talent skill bonus of +d3. Carrying $(d6) in coin. A favorable RR in negotiations with one may lead to gaining info on the situation in town, mostly phrased as a veiled threat. Upon entrance to town, the mounted party forges its way through a celebratory scene, and may choose to explore the market fair, or move into the town square, or pass on to the tower lair's grounds. At any of these three locations they'd initially either ride, dismount to lead, or post one party member to mind the horses; with each figure declaring what gear is being carried or shifted to horseback. When leaving a location, either of the other two locations may be ventured into. The market fair's stalls are being appropriated by some rowdy celebrants as bases for ambush food fights in which most anything might be thrown. A temporary fenced shelter from the fray can be gained where a collection of businessmen with their bodyguards is nominally safeguarding the wine stores. These merchants would subject the party to a cautious survey in order to judge their interests. Average the best 2D of three probing 1D RRs for the shopkeepers' possible limited sponsorship of requested supplies. In the end, they'd propose that the prince be rescued from his perceived confinement in the tower's observatory, as the likeliest means to end the current troubling disorder with its reactionary undercurrent. Should the party appear agreeable to the rescue idea, the merchants will also tell about the unfortunate demise of the appointed Lord of Misrule, who'd been found drunken to death. If, in reply to the suggestion, a party member proposes to take up the Lordling's mantle, an opposing challenge would be issued by two sibling bodyguards desirous of the office on their own behalf. The contention would need to be resolved by a group melee, with starting positions for the party versus the opponent pair at either end of the open swath separating the market stalls. One of these two has a Slots Arrowhead, adaptable to any such projectile, that's been enchanted to variably Curse or Bless a struck figure: rolling 1D -4 for the number of penalty or bonus points when hit. Upon the outcome of such a contest for succession, the merchants would usher in the throng to witness and toast the new Lordling's coronation. That figure would still be able to wear any armor under its motley robes, but not bear a shield in taking the scepter of vanity. When changing locations, the party's horses could be stabled here under the merchants' care. However, there's a 1 in 6 chance that any horse left with them will have been stolen when the party returns. The town square is a whirl of confusion; much of it now stoked by a gadabout faun lured into the crowded lanes by all the commotion, partly prompted by its having unwisely eaten a Berserker Mushroom. 1 Faun (masculine) goat- legged bucolic: ST 11, DX 14 (+1), IQ 9, MA 12, DA Hooves, hornpipe & horn stubs 1D +2 (Its attacking capability is as though it were wielding a pair of Nunchuks), HA Its adjDX won't be reduced by wounds. Its shoulder- slung pouch holds d3 time- delayed, mildly Hallucinogenic Healing draughts; by one of which all a figure's physical damage feels restored, but actually becomes exhaustion to be recovered as usual, with maybe a chance at the rated intervals, even without resting. While the party occupies the square, make a RR plus a bonus if a party figure entertains the crowd, or is acting as the Lordling, to find or be directed to the following posting of lately- enacted "Fool's Rules" peculiar laws, listing: "Pride of place: Only those of the true russet hair color may publicly blazon their arms." "Right of way: None may impose or stand athwart our own Prince Porker's perambulations." "Turn of phrase: All allusions to our exalted personage shall rightly be attended by the speaker's making an honorific leg or curtsey." Infractions might be initially laughed off, but later take a serious turn when pointed out to the slated townsfolk regulators; with or around whom is usually a Pickpocket, perhaps made Invisible. Onsite Close by the tower, the aggressiveness of the resistance faction percolating under the surface revelry of the townsfolk becomes more marked. A RR here gets -1 for the frenzy effect of exposure to the galling wind that howls about the tower walls, but an offset bonus +2 if the Lordling's with the party. A hostile reaction would result in mixing it up with 3.. 5 of the peasant townsfolk, who might be provoked into using the Pulling A Rider From His Mount rules. If it seems instead as though the party wants to make common cause with these rioters, a watch of 2.. 3 guard troopers would step in to menace the lot with drawn bows at a distance of 3 MH. The mob might shrink from the watchmen's presence, but would support the party's leadership. A figure happening to be mortally wounded or disabled here may be turned over to the watch and so restored whole when the party ends the adventure. One of the self- important garrison troopers, taking graft from the local thieves, is on guard behind the broken- in tower gateway. If he's lured out and/ or subdued, the party would gain entrance into the tower's outer holding chamber. In so doing, the assistance of some 2D women(towns-)folk who've been sequestered or penned up inside comes to hand: leading to the party's being noticed by a winsome siren among them. 1 Siren (feminine) bird- legged exotic: ST 10, DX 13, IQ 10, MA 8, DA Taloned Feet 2D -dice delta (ie subtract the absolute difference in the two dice's values from their sum), HA none. Once a day it can chant an incantation of 5 stanzas, with each causing one of all (male) hearers' attributes' basic values to be incrementally raised or lowered at random for a day. Passing a voluntary SV 3D: IQ after a stanza allows a subject to ignore any further effects. The attendant women are protective of the siren to the extent that while any of them are adjacent to the siren's figure, attacks against the siren are treated as capable of causing only half damage, as with the pulled blows of Taking Prisoners. These townswomen now seem content to remain here, and will tend any horses led in to stable upon the tower's ground floor. They may also relate an impression of who would represent the good or bad guys in the GM's view, or leave it as an open question. Their RR would likely be penalized by the presence of the Lordling figure, or an all- male party; and they're inclined to fight against the departure of the prince from the tower in any case. The party then reequips prior to passing through to the tower guardroom's staircase and so on upward. In control of these areas are the two prime movers who're encouraging all the local mayhem: the fakir and the chief. Fakir male Half- Elf zealot charlatan: ST 13 (-3), DX 14, IQ 11 (-2), MA 12, Talents= Priest (2) Has immunity to Fires cast by himself, Spells= Far Vision, Fire, Great Voice, Image, Look Your Best, Minor Medicament, Persuasiveness, Rope, Staff; Staff as charred stave adds its occult damage to a Fire upon casting in his front hex at no extra cost, HA none. Obscure cultist figurehead who goads the crowds. His basic DX 13 and IQ 11 have been revised by the Siren's song fx, so he can't presently use spells of IQ 10 or 11. He keeps a Physicker’s Kit, but can't truly use it to practical effect. Chief male Human underworld boss: ST 12, DX 13, IQ 10, MA 10, Talents= Literacy, Quick- Draw (Sword), Shield Expertise, Streetwise, Thief, DA Sword Cane (as Main- Gauche, ready), Shortsword (belt scabbard), HA none. Ex- pirate illicit gambling ringleader who heads the local moneylending Thieves' Guild. The Prince's IOU for $(4Dx100) is kept on his person. This pair detains the prince in the high observatory, while the servants they've subverted occupy the two lower levels. The chief may descend to aid in a perceived defensive action; retreating again if overmatched. The tower's interior guardroom houses three of the chief's servants engaged in turtling under a Tower Shield to form a man- chain as for a Chinese dragon. They have spears in place of staves, and two, as phalanx hoplites, would turn the shield sidewise to compose a 2- hex, side- facing counter, with its individual figures at adjDX -1. Missiles directed at the multihex counter's shielded hexsides gain the adjDX +1 to hit, but have a random 1 of 3 chance to impact either figure or the shield alone. In the tower's middle level, with its ascending & descending stairway, two of the fakir's servants are standing in partial cover alongside a propped up faux dragon skin. They're practicing the showy variety of fire- breathing using torches tied onto their staves. Each of them can make one special melee attack to strike and ignite a small oil reserve, as in an adjacent molotail throw with a 1- hex scatter on a nonautomatic miss, affecting just a burst hex with no splash radius. Entering the tower observatory, the party would be accosted and engaged by the prince, who's unrestrained yet held in thrall as a debtor to the chief. The prince tries to divert and disarm the party, and would reluctantly go with them if they insist on taking him away. Note that the party's interchange early on with the plowmen in the fields may have been overseen from the tower, though the fakir couldn't have used detailed Far Vision. He may even have been seen to show himself at that point, for later credibility of his Image duplicate. The room is furnished with a 3- hex bed of hot coals (3/ ST to halve Fire hex fx), buried in which is a Maintain Image effigy. The fakir can place himself or his image dupe with these hexes protecting his back. When the siren's inhibiting fx of yesterday wears off, the fakir expects to make a tower- top magical display as a signal for full- out public revolt. To help motivate the irate populace, a symbiont in the form of their mockup dragon for the downtrodden is to be released against those of the established order. The prince would at that time be finally expelled from the tower in ridicule. And the hour's growing late. Once kicked off, the planned revolt would be deemed successful on a 3D roll resulting in 9 or more; modified by -1 if the siren is still active, +1 if the faun is active, +1 if the chief is active either in or out of the tower, and +1 if the prince'd already been taken from the tower. Treasure: If no revolt prevails, the prince opens a secret panel to bestow a High Hall Medal (worth $20) on each party member, entitling the bearer to exchange it for admittance and lodging aid at most any castle fief. If a revolt succeeds, the party may avail itself of the town Guild's bookies (smugglers- cum- brokers), who'll sell them one chosen item at half price having a 1 in 6 chance of breakage per attempted use. Players’ Actions Lose a horse: -10 XP. Assume Lord of Misrule role: +20 XP. Upon just the Chief or the Prince, but not both, actively occupying the watchtower: every party member gains a one- time +30 XP.