Lady

Character Type Description

A Lady is a female noblewoman or gentlewoman.

She is brave, resourceful and has highly-developed abilities in the social arena.

Subtypes and Crosstypes

The subtypes of the Lady are as follows:

The crosstypes of the Lady are as follows:

Names

Refer to the Chart of Noble Names. When initially encountered, the lady may be described by where she is from.

Abilities and Secrets

Closed Abilities

These abilities are restricted to the Lady character type. Nobody who is not a Lady can take these abilities.

ANY?

Abilities on the chart will include:

• Cooking (C)
• Create (C)
• Clerk (A)
• First Aid (A)
• Melee Weapons: Dagger (V)
• Stealth (C)
• Aim (V)
• Acrobatics (V)
• Woodscraft (A)
• Animal Ken (A)
• Riding (V)
• Discern Truth (C)
• Sway (C)
• Savoir-Faire (C)
• Deceit (C)
• Disguise (C)

Etiquette is an automatic ability.

Closed Secrets

These secrets are restricted to the Lady character type. Nobody who is not a Lady can take these secrets.

Secret of Provision Your character thinks ahead about what may be needed and ensures that it is available. A character with Provision can always produce on demand any portable, everyday item that could reasonably have been expected to be needed, such as a coil of rope, a sewing kit or a flint and steel; in addition, with a character who has the Secret of Provision in your group, you will only run out of food if stranded unexpectedly in a situation which prevents you from obtaining food for a period of at least two weeks, or if robbed of your provisions. On a successful Woodscraft ability check, a character with the Secret of Provision can also find nutritious food in the forest or wilderness, sufficient for all members of the group.

Secrets on the chart will include:

• Provision
• Animal Speech
• Flying Leap
• Herbal Health
• Horsemanship
• Unwalked Path
• Disarm
• Distraction
• Diplomacy
• Inner Meaning
• Slenderness
• Disturbing

Initial Attitude

An encountered lady will usually be, or at least appear, initially friendly and well-disposed to you.

A Dark Lady, however, will always be hostile to you and will remain so, unless won over to a reform of her life.

Retainers and Companions

A lady may, at the Tenens’ option, have the following types of retainers/companions, who may or may not be with them when they first appear:

Squires, pages, men-at-arms and ladies-in-waiting are not designed to be fully realized characters, and have no pools. If a Squire or a Lady in Waiting needs to become significant to the story, he or she should be made up as a Knight or Lady with lower abilities.

Complete Worked Examples TO ADAPT FROM KNIGHT VERSIONS WHEN SYSTEM MORE SETTLED

Example 1: Black Knight (JH, 5S, 2C)

Choose a name for your Black Knight from the Noble Names Table if you like. We will refer to him simply as the Black Knight for this example.

The Black Knight’s pools are:

• Valour: Encounter card (Hearts) = 4 points (with Knight’s Valour bonus).
• Courtesie: Tens card (Spades) = 0 points.
• Artes: Ones card (Clubs) = 1 point.

His abilities are:

• Hearts and Spades, Jousting (Master).
• Spades and Clubs, Sword (Journeyman).
• Hearts and Clubs, Battle (Journeyman).
• Spades and Hearts, Sense Danger (Apprentice).
• Clubs and Spades, Aim (Apprentice).
• Clubs and Hearts, Sway (Apprentice).

He has the Secret of Knightly Discipline and no other Secrets.

His encounter card is a Jack, so his Key is the Key of Bloodlust.

He is hostile to you, because he is a Black Knight.

Example 2: Church Knight (QC, 10C, 5D)

Let’s call our Church Knight Sir Jaufre of the Sorrowful Countenance.

Sir Jaufre’s pools are:

• Valour: Encounter card (Clubs) = 2 points, with the Knight bonus.
• Courtesie: Tens card (Clubs) = 1 point.
• Artes: Ones card (Diamonds) = 2 points.

His abilities are:

• Clubs and Clubs, Battleaxe(Master).
• Clubs and Diamonds, First Aid (Journeyman).
• Clubs and Diamonds, First Aid (boosts ability to Master).
• Clubs and Clubs, Battleaxe (boosts ability to Grand Master).
• Diamonds and Clubs, Mace (Apprentice).
• Diamonds and Clubs, Mace (boosts ability to Journeyman).

His Secrets are:

• Secret of Knightly Discipline.
• Secret of Knockback (club, club, diamond).

His encounter card is a Queen, so his Key is the Key of Charity.

As a (non-evil) Knight he is friendly towards all comers.

Errantry copyright 2006 by Mike Reeves-McMillan. Released under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License(approve sites).

These are notes for a work in progress. Don’t expect everything to be consistent or make sense.