EDRulebook: 14 Building Your Legend

TALLYING LEGEND POINTS

Each time the gamemaster awards your character Legend Points, record the number in the Current Legend Points space on your Character Record Sheet. You must have enough Legend Points available to pay the full cost for any of the previously described improvements. You cannot pay Legend Points in installments.

CURRENT LEGEND POINTS

As you spend the Legend Points your character earns, keep a running total of how many points remain. For example, if your character has earned 1,000 Legend Points, and spends 300 of them to increase one of your talent ranks, your character has 700 Legend Points remaining. Each time you spend Legend Points, update your character’s Legend Point total by subtracting the points spent from the total. Record your character’s running total of Legend Points in the Current Legend Points space on the Character Record Sheet.

TOTAL LEGEND POINTS

In addition to keeping a running total, which will rise and fall as you earn and spend Legend Points, you should also keep a grand total of all the Legend Points your character has ever earned. Record this number in the Total Legend Points space on your Character Record Sheet. Your character’s Total Legend Points determine his Legendary Status.

Thom Hammerblade just returned home from his most recent successful adventure. He earned 1,200 Legend Points for this venture into the unknown. Before this adventure, Thom had a running total of 300 Current Legend Points and a grand total of 2,000 Total Legend Points. By adding the 1,200 points he just earned to both totals, Thom now has 1,500 Current Legend Points and 3,200 Total Legend Points. If Thom’s player decides to spend 500 points to increase the rank of one of Thom’s talents, his Current Legend Points would drop to 1,000, but his Total Legend Points would remain at 3,200.

ADVANCING TO HIGHER CIRCLES

There is only one way for a character to advance to the next higher Circle of his discipline: he must reach a certain level of achievement in his current abilities. In other words, characters who improve the right number of talents to high enough ranks can advance to the next Circle of their Discipline. Such advancement allows characters to purchase new talents. For example, a Wizard who reaches Second Circle can spend Legend Points to purchase ranks in his Second Circle talents: Durability, Evidence Analysis, and Spell Matrix. Beginning at Fourth Circle, most Disciplines also automatically improve one or more of a character’s Characteristics (see Disciplines; see also Determine Characteristics of Creating A Character).

[An Obsidiman Meditates]

CONDITIONS FOR ADVANCEMENT

A character must fulfill three conditions in order to advance to his next Discipline Circle. The character must have a certain number of talents, which must be at certain ranks, and at least one of those minimum-ranked talents must come from his current Circle. If necessary, the character can substitute skills of the required rank for talents. The Circle Advancement Table below provides the specific parameters for advancing through the Circles. The necessary elements for advancement listed on the table are described below.

Minimum Number of Talents: The character must have a certain number of talents to advance to a given Circle. The table below shows that a Third Circle character must have at least 7 talents before advancing to Fourth Circle.

Minimum Rank: The character must hold a certain rank in each talent. According to the table below, each of a Third Circle character’s 7 minimum talents must be at least Rank 4 in order for that character to advance to Fourth Circle.

Single Talent from Circle Number: The character must have at least one talent from his current Circle at the minimum rank listed on the table. For example, the table shows that to go from Third Circle to Fourth Circle, at least one of the character’s Rank 4 talents must be from Third Circle.

CIRCLE ADVANCEMENT TABLE

New Circle	Minimum # of Talents	Minimum Rank	Single Talent from Circle #
2	5	2	1
3	6	3	2
4	7	4	3
5	8	5	4
6	9	6	5
7	10	7	6
8	11	8	7
9	12	9	8
10	13	10	9
11	14	11	10
12	15	11	11
13	16	12	12
14	17	12	13
15	18	13	14

TRAINING

In addition to meeting the talent rank and number requirements to advance to a new Circle, characters must also seek training. Characters can train for a higher Circle in three ways: paying for training by another member of the Discipline, taking the Training Pledge, or summoning a Ghost Master.

Paying For Training

To advance one Circle, a character must train under the guidance of a member of his Discipline of a Circle equal to or higher than the Circle the character wishes to attain. For example, a character trying to become a Third Circle Troubadour must train with a Troubadour of Third Circle or higher. The character must train for 40 hours within a three-week period. If the character does not complete 40 hours of training within that time, he loses the benefits of the training and must start all over again. Naturally, he must also pay again for his trainer’s time. The averages suggested in the table below offer players a guideline for determining likely training costs, though most instructors are willing to negotiate their fees. For example, a character who performed a substantial favor for an instructor might have his fee cut by 25 percent. On the other hand, an instructor who dislikes the trainee might raise his fee by 25 percent, or simply refuse to train the character.

TRAINING COST TABLE

Instructor’s Circle	Cost
2	200
3	300
4	500
5	800
6	1,000
7	1,500
8	2,000
9	2,500
10	3,500
11	5,000
12	7,500
13	10,000
14	15,000
15	20,000
Note: Training Costs are in silver pieces.

The Training Pledge

A character may meet the qualifications to advance one Circle but lack the silver needed to purchase training. For example, a character who finds himself ready to advance while in the company of a qualified instructor may realize that he just cashed in his latest loot and sent the silver off to his mother. Unable to pay for training, such a character may decide to take the Training Pledge.

An oath requiring blood magic, the Training Pledge allows a character to request training from an instructor whom he pays not with money, but with commitment. The prospective trainee must ask to take the Training Pledge; no instructor may encourage a character to take the oath. A character cannot ask to take the Training Pledge with an instructor who has shown him hostility, or toward whom he has been hostile (see Gamemaster Characters in Gamemastering Earthdawn). Because the Training Pledge also requires a commitment from the instructor, and because he receives no money for his time, an instructor can ask a trainee to revoke his request, but must honor the request for the Training Pledge if the trainee persists. The character who takes the Training Pledge may continue to train with that instructor without either renewing his Pledge or paying in silver, provided that the instructor is of a sufficiently high Circle and the character meets the requirements to advance to a new Circle.

The Training Pledge uses an enchanted orichalcum piece called the Pledge Coin. The instructor lets 7 drops of his blood fall on the coin, and the trainee lets fall 5 drops of blood. The two characters meditate together until the blood dries. The instructor then meditates alone for 1 hour, until the magic in the coin absorbs the blood. At the end of the hour, the instructor gives the Pledge Coin to the trainee as the trainee repeats the following oath:

"I shall see the wisdom of my Discipline as my instructor sees it. I shall practice the wisdom of my Discipline as my instructor practices it. I shall teach the wisdom of my Discipline as my instructor taught me."

Having taken the pledge, the instructor and trainee then begin the standard training process. The Circle at which the trainee takes the pledge becomes his Pledge Circle; keep track of this Circle by noting it on the Character Record Sheet.

The character who trains for and advances to the next Circle of his Discipline by taking the Training Pledge must abide by the following three conditions:

He must never ask a trainee to take the Training Pledge from him once he has reached his next Circle. Such a request must always come from the trainee.
He must honor the Training Pledge whenever another character of his Discipline requests it. However, a character need not accept a Training Pledge from characters not of his Discipline. For example, a Weaponsmith need not accept a Training Pledge from an Archer who wishes to become a Weaponsmith.
He may only give up his Pledge Coin by passing it on to another trainee making a Training Pledge. If the character spends or loses the Pledge Coin, or someone steals it from him, he has 7 days to retrieve the coin before the blood enchantment invokes the penalty described below for breaking the conditions of the Pledge. If the coin loses its enchantment while in his possession, the character immediately suffers the penalty for oath breaking.

A character who breaks any one of these conditions loses all talent ranks gained in Circles higher than his Pledge Circle. For example, if a Sixth Circle Swordmaster who took the Training Pledge at Third Circle is stripped of all his possessions by a vindictive river pirate (and thus loses the Pledge Coin), he must retrieve the coin within 7 days or lose all ranks in his Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth Circle talents. He keeps any talent ranks gained in First, Second, or Third Circle talents and reverts to a Third Circle character, possessing only the talents, characteristics, and so on available to that Circle. To advance to higher Circles, he must start over again from Third Circle by purchasing training, taking the Training Pledge, or training with a Ghost Master.

Ghost Masters

Characters may also use the unusual method of training for a higher Discipline Circle through a Ghost Master. Ghost Masters are deceased Adepts who achieved a certain mastery of a Discipline before dying. In centuries past, Nethermancers learned to contact the spirits of Discipline masters who had passed on, and to bargain with these dead masters for instruction in their Discipline. Over time, the ritual of the Ghost Masters spread to other Disciplines, and now all Disciplines have access to Ghost Masters.

In order to train with a Ghost Master, a character must first learn the name of a Ghost Master whose Circle at least equals the Circle to which the character wants to advance. Most known names remain secret, kept so by high-ranking members of each Discipline. Other names remain locked away in kaers and citadels, awaiting discovery by lucky adventurers. Learning a Ghost Master’s name often proves the most difficult part of training with one. Finding the name, or a person who knows the name, may be an adventure in itself. Characters who know a Ghost Master’s name rarely reveal such valuable information for free - and the payment they ask may not be in silver.

To train with a Ghost Master, a character must have an orichalcum coin free of any enchantments, and must learn the proper summoning ritual. The Ritual of the Ghost Master described below is a modified nethermantic ritual available as a talent at Fifth Circle; any character of Fifth Circle or greater can learn this ritual. Each Discipline has a variant of the ritual, and a character must learn the ritual from another character.

To summon a Ghost Master, the character must perform the ritual at night. He begins by drawing a circle around himself on the ground and spends 1 hour within the circle, mimicking the use of each of his talents. At the end of the hour, the character closes his eyes and speaks the name of the Ghost Master he wishes to summon. He then makes a Ritual of the Ghost Master Test using the Ghost Master’s Spell Defense as the Difficulty Number. On a successful test result, the Ghost Master appears. If the test result is less than the Difficulty Number but equals 5 or more, the Ghost Master does not appear, but the character has opened a portal to astral space that remains for a number of rounds equal to the Ritual Test result. The character has no control over the portal; other entities or Horrors may pass through the opening in astral space. If the test result is 4 or less, the ritual has no effect.

The first time the character summons a Ghost Master, he must hand the master the orichalcum coin. After accepting the coin, the Ghost Master returns to his own world. After three or more nights have elapsed, the character resummons the Ghost Master. When the Ghost Master reappears, the character enters into a Training Pledge with him by taking back the orichalcum coin, enchanted by the master to serve as a Pledge Coin. The Ghost Master trains the character whenever summoned, but fades away at daybreak. As with any other training process, the character learning from a Ghost Master must complete 40 hours of training within three weeks of accepting the Pledge Coin. If he does not finish his training within that time, he must begin again. The character can continue to train with the same Ghost Master each time he meets the requirements to advance to a new Circle, as long as the Ghost Master is of a sufficiently high Circle. The Training Pledge taken with a Ghost Master carries the same obligations as the standard Training Pledge, except that a character cannot train other characters as a Ghost Master.

A character may perform the Ritual of the Ghost Master as a talent only once per day. See Talents for an explanation of the following talent description.

Ritual of the Ghost Master

Step: Rank + Percpetion Step

Action: Yes Skill Use: No
Requires Karma: Yes Strain: 2
Discipline Talent: All

REACHING THE NEXT CIRCLE

Once a character meets the talent and rank requirements and completes the necessary training, he advances to the next Circle of his Discipline. This move entitles him to use Legend Points to purchase any talents available at the new Circle. On the Character Record Sheet, the player notes any improvements to his character’s Characteristics granted at the new Circle. (See Disciplines for a list of improvements to Characteristics).