One Night’s Work — Steel Age

ONE NIGHT’S WORK

The Factor’s Strongroom

A guild factor in Haldim keeps his strongbox in the room over his counting-house. A man who wants what is in it has paid Kasia half in advance. She has her picks, and the night is moonless.

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KASIAStreet Urchin · Stealth Skilled, with Guard Avoidance · Thievery Skilled, with Lockpicking · Mind Remarkable · Prowess Common

THE MARKThe GM starts at 8. Bad conditions, no time, poor tools or high stakes each push it up a step: 10, 12, 14. Nothing against her drops it to 6. Her total must exceed it. Ties favor the world.

Her Background gave her two Competencies for tonight: moving through a town’s streets without being noticed, and knowing which doors are left unlocked, and when.

THE LANES · NO ROLL

She crosses the town after the shutters close, by the lanes behind the tanners’ yards, and nobody sees her go. She keeps to the side of the lane the eaves throw into shadow, waits out the one lantern at the well, and goes over the low wall by the dyers’ vats. She has crossed it this way since she was nine.

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No roll. A Background Competency, and routine for it. The GM says it happens.

What a Competency covers. The everyday knowledge a life gave her: the lanes, the hours, which doors are left unbarred. The GM calls for dice only when the thing is risky, opposed, hurried, or truly uncertain.

Without the Competency: a Competency Check, 2d6 and her Mind, against a mark for the dark and the watch.

KASIA at the factor’s yard wallTHE HOUSE asleep

THE YARD GATE · THE MAN WHO DOES NOT ROLL

The factor’s hired man is posted at the yard gate. He sits on a stool with his hands under his arms and the lantern on the ground beside him. Nobody has told him to expect anyone tonight.

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KASIAStealth4 + 3 = 7 +1 Skilled +1 Mind +1 Guard Avoidance10

THE MARKThe GM starts at 8 and asks about the gate-man. Is he good at this? He has no skill for it: no step. Is he sharp? His Mind is Common: no step. Was he ready? Nobody warned him: no step.8

Ten exceeds eight. She is across the yard between his first look and his second.

The man in her way does not roll. He is part of the mark, and tonight he adds nothing to it.

KASIA in the yardTHE HOUSE asleep

THE STRONGROOM DOOR · AGAINST THE MARK

The lock is a guild locksmith’s work. She picks it by feel, with her ear to the wood. The third pin gives, then the fourth, and she holds her breath for the fifth.

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KASIAThievery5 + 4 = 9 +1 Skilled +1 Mind +1 Lockpicking12

THE MARKThe GM starts at 8 and counts. Conditions: she works in the dark: a step, 10. Time: the house is asleep and she has all night: no step. Tools: her own picks: no step. Stakes: a lock lets her try again, so it does not punish hesitation: no step.10

Twelve exceeds ten. The lid is up and the strongbox under her arm.

One Acumen a check, the one that governs the task. Lockpicking governs a lock. Guard Avoidance adds nothing here.

KASIA the strongboxTHE HOUSE asleep

THE STAIR · THE ALARM

The gate-man has found the bar lifted and roused the house. A lantern is coming up the stair below her, carried high by the sergeant of the factor’s men. She is on the half-landing, with nowhere to go but up the stair or down it.

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KASIAStealth5 + 5 = 10 +1 Skilled +1 Mind12

THE MARKThe GM starts at 8 and asks about the sergeant. Is he good at this? He has no skill for it: no step. Is he sharp? His Mind is Remarkable: a step, 10. Was he ready? The gate-man roused him, so he is warned: a step, 12.12

Twelve does not exceed twelve. Ties favor the world. The lantern stops on the half-landing, and he has seen her.

Her Acumen is Guard Avoidance: slipping past a guard. Hiding on a stair is Interior Concealment, a different Acumen, so it adds nothing here.

KASIA on the stair · the strongboxTHE SERGEANT lantern up · ◆ THE ALARM

THE WINDOW · WHERE IT LEAVES HER

The sergeant is three steps below her, lantern up and his free hand at his blade. At her shoulder is a window, open a hand’s width. Below is the yard, and a hard landing will cost her. The gate-man is down there.

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THE JUMPA jump is a Basic Human Competency: 2d6 and her Prowess, which is +0. No skill, no Acumen.

THE MARKThe GM starts at 8 and counts. Conditions: the dark, and stone below: a step, 10. Time: she has the three steps it takes him to reach her: no step. Tools: none needed: no step. Stakes: a jump is one move and does not punish hesitation: no step.10

Ten, said out loud. She needs eleven or twelve on the dice, with nothing to add. Ten is a tie, and a tie is a fall.

The dice are not thrown yet. She can jump, or she can put the box down. The choice is hers.

A mark is said out loud before the dice are picked up, and never moves after the roll.

KASIA the strongbox · the windowTHE SERGEANT three steps below · his hand at his blade