Theodora kept the factor’s ledgers for three seasons and never lost him a letter. When she left for the road, he told her she could always come to him. Now one of the baron’s men is dead at a ford, her brother did it, and she is at the counting-house door after dark.
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THEODORA
KOSTAS
THEODORACharm Remarkable · Persuasion Skilled, with Reasoned Argument
KOSTAS MELASGuild Factor, merchants’ guild of Karstathos · Trusted, +1 · wants profit, an edge in information, and people who solve problems quietly. What he asks back is work.
The ladder: Bound +3, Trusted +1, Neutral +0, Wary −1, Fraying −3, Burned. Asking is a Relationship Check, 2d6 + Charm + the state, against the boon’s mark: a Minor Favor 8, a Costly Favor 10, a Serious Obligation 12, a Life Debt 14. The state moves one step at a time, on what she does.
WINTER · SHE ASKS, A MINOR FAVOR
A bed, a meal, and no word to anyone that she is here. He is moving the ledgers off the second chair before she has finished asking.
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THEODORA
KOSTAS · NO ROLL
THEODORAthe check3 + 4 = 7 +1 Charm +1 Trusted9
THE MARKA night’s shelter: a Minor Favor. She can reach him, he credits it, and he has the means.8
Nine exceeds eight. Granted. A tie would have been a refusal.
The Contact does not roll. His side of the bond is the state, and the state is already in her total.
THEODORA a bed over the saltKOSTAS Trusted · +1
WINTER · HE ASKS, AND SHE DECLINES
Ten days on, his word comes to the loft. A runner of his has been taken by the baron’s men, and the boy will give names by morning. He asks her to go to the quay and get the boy out, quietly, before he does. She is leaving for the reed beds tonight, where her brother is, and she cannot turn back. She sends word that she cannot.
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THEODORA · NO ROLL
KOSTAS · ASKING
THEODORANo dice. He asks, she answers, and the GM moves the state on what she does.
THE RULEA Contact who has spent on you comes looking for a return. Refuse a reasonable ask and the state drops a step.
Trusted to Neutral. He does not swear revenge. He stops answering as quickly, and every favor after this is colder.
THEODORA on the road to the reedsKOSTAS Neutral · +0 · ◆ A STEP DOWN
SPRING · SHE ASKS, AND FAILS BY FOUR
Her brother is still in the reeds. The ferryman who will take him over wants silver she does not have. She comes back to the counting-house and asks for credit against nothing but her word, and makes her case: a clerk who vanished the week a man died is a clerk he will be asked about either way.
THE MARKCredit on her word alone: a Costly Favor. Her case is reasoning, so her Persuasion and one Rhetoric Acumen come in.10
Six fails ten by four. Denied, and failed by four or more, the state drops a step: Neutral to Wary.
Failed by less than four, it would have been denied and nothing else. No second attempt at the same boon. A different boon, another day.
THEODORA no silver · her brother in the reedsKOSTAS Wary · −1 · ◆ A STEP DOWN
SUMMER · HE ASKS, AND SHE GOES
His word comes again, colder than before. Carts have been stopped on the Kalz road and a cargo of his goes out on the sixth day. He asks her to ride with it and see it through. Three days on a road where the baron’s men are stopping carts, with a face they are looking for. She goes.
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THEODORA · NO ROLL
KOSTAS · ASKING
THEODORANo dice. The cart gets through, and so does she.
THE RULEA risk taken on the Contact’s behalf moves the state up a step.
Wary to Neutral. One step at a time. The GM moves it, and she could see it coming.
THEODORA back from the Kalz roadKOSTAS Neutral · +0 · ◆ A STEP UP
AUTUMN · A DEBT NOBODY CALLED IN
The runner she would not go for in the winter is in the baron’s cells again. Nobody asks her this time. She walks into the gatehouse and puts it to the sergeant that the boy is a guild runner, that the guild will pay his fine by morning, and that holding him costs the sergeant a day of questions for nothing.
THE MARKA Skill Check, not a Relationship Check. The sergeant is a man in her way, and the GM counts the mark to 10, out loud.10
Twelve exceeds ten. The boy walks out behind her.
Neutral to Trusted. An obligation honored moves the state up a step. Two deeds, two steps, and she is where she began.
THEODORA the boy outKOSTAS Trusted · +1 · ◆ TRUSTED AGAIN
WINTER AGAIN · THE FORD, AND AFTER
She goes to bring her brother over herself, and the baron’s men are at the ford. She does not come back from it. At the table, the player proposes Kostas Melas.
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KOSTAS · NOT YET THROWN
THE BARON’S MEN
THE PLAYERMay propose a Contact at Trusted or Bound. He is Trusted. The GM weighs the state, the politics, the risk to him and how she died, and agrees.
KOSTAS MELASBegins as a newly made character: a Guild Factor’s Station, his own skills, none of her mastery and none of her network.
What carries over is consequence. The baron’s men who wanted her, the brother in the reeds, the guild’s questions about a clerk who vanished the week a man died. All of it comes with the name.
Kit passes to whoever is standing nearest when the body is found. A name passes only to somebody who knew it.
KOSTAS a new sheet · her debtsTHE BARON’S MEN still asking after the name
