You are trusted knights and followers of the noble and valiant Sir Bedivere Grayson, Baron of Tyntern.
He asked you to urgently deliver a missive to the northernmost outpost of his fief: a solitary stone tower on the top of a rocky peak always burdened by fierce icy winds, called the Tower of Hellwinter, after the ancient name of that small and secluded mountain region. The tower, however, enjoys an excellent view of the borders between Grayson’s Barony and the lands of his treacherous cousin: the Duke Mornay.
Every season’s change, one of the Baron’s loyal knights volunteers to reach Hellwinter and guard the borderlands by himself.
It’s a harsh and lonely task which, unsurprisingly, has gained for the solitary outpost a gloomy fame…
Now, almost three months have passed since Sir Gallaharn Kairn, one of the bravest Baron’s knights, took on his duty, and he still hasn’t sent any news to Sir Bedivere, as he was supposed to do on a weekly basis. Thus, the Baron has decided to send a group of Heroes to check whether something bad has happened.


This adventure follows the Advanced Fighting Fantasy 2e ruleset and is for three to five noble adventurers. They will be in majority humans, but one of them could be of another race, like elf or dwarf, and in majority sword-fighting types (knights), although for example in the group there could be some wizard, or archer, or priest (Telak, probably), etc.
If you don't have the full ruleset, you can follow the Quickstart Guide, that is freely available here: http://www.drivethrurpg.com/pr...src=hottest_filtered
The main omissions in the Quickstart guide are limited options with magic and no character generation guide. The magic options available are actually suitable for this adventure, as Wizardry is presented, and the pre-rolled characters can be a good starting point to create your character (I will help you if you are in doubt, don't worry).
You won't miss anything critical by using the Quickstart Guide.

There will be one major house rule: while melee attacks require opposed rolls (as per standard ruleset), ranged attacks require rolls against a standard target (that is always 15), after adding or subtracting the relevant bomuses or penalties. Once hit, of course armour protection will be deducted.

As you are noble Knights and Heroes, at character creation you are allowed to add one extra characteristic point wherever you want.

In these lands the currency is the Golden Crown (GC) and its tenth part, the Silver
Schilling (SS). You will start this adventure with 20 GC in your pocket: they should be more than enough for anything you should need on the road.


If you want to join, these are my requirements:
1) At least one post a day. If you have occasional issues with this, I expect you give me a notice. I can understand that issues can sometimes happen, but if you can't keep with this pace I will not wait for your posts and in the short term I will manage your character in order not to stop the flow of the adventure. If over ten days pass without notice, I will remove you from the game.
2) I need you committment to participate until the end of the adveture. This is a single adventure and won't take years to finish. If anyway you want to drop out, don't disappear, but let me know. I will appreciate it.
This message was last edited by the GM at 02:24, Sat 25 Nov 2017.

The following notes will help character creation for players using only the Quickstart Guide. Detail around the nuber of spells allowed can be useful for everybody.


Characteristics
Every novice adventurer starts with the following values in their Characteristics:
SKILL 4
STAMINA 8
LUCK 8
MAGIC 0

those starting Characteristics are then increased from a pool of 8 points, with the following caveats:
SKILL: maximum 3 points can be added
STAMINA: maximum 4 points can be added, but each point added increases STAMINA by 2
LUCK: maximum 3 points can be added
MAGIC: maximum 7 points can be added

After adding up the Characteristic points as mentioned above, you can add their Racial modifiers:
Humans: +1 LUCK
Dwarves: +2 STAMINA
Elves: +1 MAGIC
If you are interested on other races, just let me know and I'll find out the appropriate racial modifier.

Talents
You can choose one Talent.
Below you can find some option:
Crack Shot: +1 to all damage rolls using ranged weapons
Dark Seeing: allows to see in the dark (monochrome, 20 m) - not available to Humans
Lucky: may re-roll a failed LUCK test per day without deducting any extra LUCK point - available only to Humans
Fleet Footed: allows faster movement for a short time (such as during a fight, when trying to escape, etc.)
Hawkeye: +3 to all Awareness tests involving vision
Silvertongued: +3 to any test of Con, Bargain, Etiquette or Leadership

Special Skills
You can normally choose two Special Skills at (2) and four Special Skills at (1).
Below you can find some option:
Axes
Bows
Brawling
Clubs
Polearms
Staves
Swords
Thrown
Armour
Acrobatics
Climb
Jump
Swim
Awareness
Disguise
Locks
Sleigh of Hand
Sneaking
Trap Knowledge
Con
Etiquette
Healing
Magic - Wizardry
Lores and Knowledges (to be tailored to specific areas, such ss Forest Lore, Blacksmith Knowledge, Runes Lore, etc.)
We will use a common language for all civilized areas and you won't need to use a Special Skill slot for it. You will need it only if you want to command more exotic languages, such as Runic (the ancient language of these lands), Elvish, Dwarven, etc. In this case the Special Skill will be instead at (4), i.e. you can read and speak that language fluently.

Magic - Wizardry Spells
If you have chosen Magic - Wizardry Special Skill, you know the spells described at page 16 of the Quickstart Guide.
Your MAGIC POINTS are equal to twice your MAGIC Characteristic + Magic Wizardry Special Skill score.
Spellcasting is quite like any characteristic test only using your MAGIC score instead of your SKILL and in general will use a daily reserve of MAGIC POINTS.
Hector casts a Fire-Bolt (a sell that he previously learnt) at a GOBLIN. Hector has a MAGIC score of 8 and Magic-Wizardy of 2 meaning he has to 10 or under on a roll of 2d6 to successfully cast his spell. He roll a 4 and a 5 so he makes it. It also means that he has a daily reserve of 20 MAGIC POINTS.
A spell whether successfully cast or not drains Magic Points from the caster equal to the value of the spell (in the case of Fire-Bolt, 1 Magic Point.)
Spellcasting rolls that come up double 6 mean something has gone seriously wrong; the spell fails and the wizard rolls 3d6 on the Oops Spell Failure table (it can go DRAMATICALLY wrong...).
The roll can be improved by preparing and concentrating for few rounds before casting (+2 per each round), if the surrounding is quiet (+3), but can be penalized if the caster is target of a melee attack (-2) or even just by a ranged attack (-1).
If the wizard wears an armour, then additional MAGIC POINTS must be expended for each spell cast. For example a leather cuirass will require an extra MAGIC POINT and heavier armour will require progressively more and more.

If you have chosen Magic - Wizardry, you can have a spell point for each MAGIC (main characteristic) point. For example, "Breathe" will cost you two spell points in this calcualtion.
If you have chosen Magic - Minor you can choose five cantrips.
Please contact me if you have chosen a different magic style.

Armour
Armour is essential for many adventurers, protecting against arrows, , swords, claws and other hazards. Armour is heavy and cumbersome, can be difficult to use and can interfere with the effectiveness of some magic, allthough most heroes will wear the best armour they can use and afford.
The table below identifies the level of protection provided by each type of armour, however the hero must be trained in wearing the armour, or will suffer penalties. The hero should compare his Armour Special Skill total (Armour Special Skill + SKILL characteristic) to the listed values:


If a hero has an insufficient total to comfortably wear that armour, but wears it anyway, then the difference between the required total and that hero's actual total is deducted from all physical SKILL tests, including combat.
If a shield is used, then the protection provided for that particular result should be added to that provided to the armour worn. Only one armour roll is done whether a shield is used or not.


This message was last edited by the GM at 21:23, Sun 26 Nov 2017.

The experience points earnt adventuring can be "invested" in the following improvements (time and teachers will be required to turn experience in personal improvements).

Increase SKILL
 Costs 20x new score in experience points

Increase MAGIC or LUCK
 Costs 15x new score in experience points

Increase STAMINA
 Costs 5x new score in experience points

Increase Special Skill
 Costs 10x new score in experience points

Increase Magic Points
 Costs 5x new score in experience points, Magic Points can not exceed (MAGIC + Magic, Wizardry) x 2

Learn new Special Skill
 Costs 20 experience points
To learn a new Special Skill requires a teacher with at least 3 points in that Special Skill

Acquire new Wizardy Spell
 Costs 20x Magical Point cost
To learn a new Wizardy Spell requires a teacher who knows it

Gain new Talent
 Costs 200 experience points
Subject to Director's approval

One Hero may not have more than 12 SKILL, MAGIC or LUCK and STAMINA may not exceed 24, regardless of race. Special Skills may not exceed 6 and may not be higher than half the characteristic ther refer to (rounded down).
Once you have sufficient Experience Points, improving your characteristics will take approx a tenday for each point improved, three tendays for getting a Talent. Please double check this with the Director every time you spend your XPs on improvements as times may change or you may need to find (or hire) a teacher, especially when you approach higher levels or you choos to learn e a rare discipline.