The Tower of Magnatious Tarbell | OpenRPG Adventures

Overview

Read aloud

The common room in Harford is thick with grain dust and low voices. Between talk of weather and tithe, one story passes more often than the rest: a ruined watchtower deep in Thornskull Forest.

They say it once belonged to a man named Magnatious Tarbell, a warden of the Church, or the crown, depending on who you ask, who vanished there generations ago.

A local factor now offers coin to any who will find the place, learn what became of it, and return with proof. Few who have gone looking have come back. Fewer still speak of what they saw.

A forgotten reliquary still holds its last warden. Magnatious Tarbell, once sworn to the Eternal Flame, bound himself to the Starlight Reliquary, a relic that grants glimpses of what may come. Sustained by its visions and burdened by what he has seen, he endures in isolation. To free him is to return a living witness of the past… and a man who may yet guide those willing to bear the weight of foresight.

Built for players who like the mechanics and like to play out what the dice say: every chapter asks for named checks (skills, opposed checks, raw attribute and sense rolls), and the adventure walks a party through traps, imbuements and attunement, consequences and fatigue, combat, and the money system. Four Level 1 characters; one long session or two short ones.

Setting

Thornskull Forest lies two days' travel northwest of Harford, where the land rises and the trees grow close. Black pine and thorn-oak crowd the remnants of an old watchtower, its stonework split and sinking into the earth.

Charcoal burners still work the outer woods, their smoke drifting low between the trunks. Few of them go near the ruin.

What remains is half-swallowed by moss and root: worn steps leading downward, cold flagstones underfoot, and the hidden workings of an older design, iron levers set into hearthstone and wall. Below, a sealed vault endures, its air close and still, as if something within has not yet finished its purpose.

The Tower of Magnatious Tarbell

Player aid

The one-page handout for players. It prints on one page.

Print one per player.

Rolling. Say what you want to do. The GM names the skill (or the attribute) and the tier. Read your target for that tier from your sheet and roll d100: over the target succeeds. Your chance is 100 minus the target.

What the tiers mean (chances for a skill total of 45, an average trained character):

Tier	Target	Chance	Feels like
Routine	30	70%	ordinary work for someone trained
Simple	40	60%	straightforward if you're prepared
Easy	50	50%	favourable, still needs attention
Moderate	66	34%	the usual real challenge
Hard	77	23%	risky, pressured or opposed
Very Hard	86	14%	severe opposition or awful conditions
Improbable	91	9%	at the edge of what's possible

Raw attribute rolls (senses, Faith, Strength, Discipline, Memory) use three quarters of the attribute (rounded down) as the total. An attribute of 30 gives 22: Easy 34%, Moderate 19%. Spotting a trap is a sense roll; dealing with one is Trapcraft.

The bands.

You roll	Result	At the table
96–100	Critical Success	Big hit: it works, with something extra
Over the target	Full Success	Hit: it works
At the target, or less than 20 under	Partial Success	Close: progress, with a cost
20 or more under	Partial Failure	Miss: no progress
01–05	Critical Failure	Disaster: trouble gets worse

In combat there is no Partial. An attack or a defence needs a Full Success or better. A Partial Success is a miss, or a failed defence. Partial still counts everywhere else.

Opposed checks. Your chance is your total ÷ (your total + theirs). Example: 45 against 45 is 50%.

Helping. Say how you help. If your help check is a Full Success, the leader gets +5; a Partial Success still gives +5, with a cost. Two helpers at most.

Modifiers change your total or move the tier. Nothing is added to the die. Ethnicity, profession and religion bonuses (+10 primary, +5 secondary, +1 tertiary, to attributes and skills) are already on your sheet.

Fatigue. Your pool is on your sheet.

State	When	Effect
Fresh	under 40% of your pool spent	none
Winded	40% or more	−5 to physical skill totals
Taxed	70% or more	−10 to physical skill totals
Exhausted	pool empty	−20 to physical skill totals, and pushing on risks being Downed

Costs: an imbuement 1, a sprint or charge 1, each round of climbing 1, a forced march 2 an hour. A short rest (10 minutes) gives back 2–3; a long rest (8 hours, safe) gives back everything.

Hit points. After a night's rest, someone trained in First Aid or Herb Lore (or a paid healer) can tend your wounds: a check at Easy, or Moderate without bandages or a healer's kit. Full Success: all lost HP back. Partial Success: half, rounded up. Failure, or no one tends you: 1 HP a night.

Statuses you might meet.

Status	What it does	How it ends
Prone	Melee and defence −20	a main action to stand
Grappled	Melee and defence −20, no two-handed weapons	win an opposed Strength check (main action)
Dazed	Wits −20, defence −10	1d3 rounds
Bleeding	Endurance −2 each round	First Aid
Leg Impaired	Balance −20, defence −20, half movement	a short rest after the fight
Combat Shock	Discipline −20, Wits −10	1d3 rounds, or a talk and time
Downed	unconscious, no actions	First Aid
Exposed	Endurance −2 an hour, Discipline −10	shelter
Disoriented	Navigation −15, half movement	a landmark, a guide or a good roll
Resource-Depleted	the thing you're out of: related checks −20	resupply or forage
Off-Footing	your next social check −10	the scene ends
Rattled	Discipline −10 on social checks	the scene ends
Distrusted	social checks with that person −20	prove yourself
Shamed	social checks in that community −15	vindication

Money. 1 Silver Boar = 10 Copper Skarns. 1 Gold Stag = 10 Boars. Prices are in Boars. You start with 200.

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