The Stable · Chapter 6
Training and Keeping
Grades of Training
| Grade | What the animal does | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Unbroken | Nothing. It has never worn a saddle | One third |
| Saddle-trained | Carries a rider and obeys. Every listed price is for this grade | As listed |
| Battle-Trained | Ignores Temper in a fight, attacks on command, and charges | Three times, where the entry does not already have the trait |
| Air-schooled or water-schooled | A flyer or swimmer that accepts a harness and holds an elevation or a depth on command | Included in the listed price |
Training an Animal
Training takes time and one check at the end of each period.
| Step | Time | Check |
|---|---|---|
| Break an unbroken animal to the saddle | One month | Average Survival |
| School a saddle-trained animal for war | Three months | Hard Riding |
| Raise a Bonded Only animal from the egg or the cub | One year, and it is then saddle-trained to that person alone | Hard Survival |
Add the animal's Temper as Bane Dice. On a failure the time is spent and the step is tried again. On a Calamity the animal is ruined for that purpose: it is sold as it stands.
A trainer may work with four animals at once. A hired trainer charges the difference in price.
The Bond
A rider who has ridden and cared for one mount for a season has a bond with it. A mount with Bonded needs half that time.
A bonded mount:
- Comes when its rider calls or whistles, from as far as it can hear.
- Does not need a control check for anything short of fire, a Fear rating, or its own wounds.
- Will stand over a fallen rider, and a Battle-Trained one will fight there.
A rider has a bond with one mount at a time. When a bonded mount dies, the GM may ask for a Hard check of will, as the Universe handles grief, or simply let the scene be what it is.
Quality
| Quality | Effect | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Poor | 2 fewer Wounds, Travel 5 less, and Temper 1 higher | Half |
| Sound | As listed | As listed |
| Fine | 2 more Wounds, and 1 Boon Die to Riding checks in a chase | Three times |
| Exceptional | As Fine, with one characteristic 1 higher. It has a name and a pedigree, and people know whose it is | Ten times |
Judging an animal before buying it is an Average Survival check, or Hard if the seller is hiding something.
Upkeep
| Scale | Feed and care, a day | With a stable |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | 2 |
| 2 | 2 | 4 |
| 3 | 10 | 20 |
| 4 | 40 | — |
Prices are in twentieths of the unit the animals are priced in: silver, where the price is in gold.
Grazing. A grass-eater turned out on good grazing for four hours costs nothing that day. In a day spent travelling that is four hours not on the road: its Travel is three quarters. On poor grazing only a Hardy animal manages.
Meat-Eaters cost three times as much and cannot graze.
Water. A mount of Scale 2 drinks as much as eight people. In dry country that is the thing to plan for.
Shoes. A horse on roads is shod monthly.
Without upkeep for a day, a mount adds 1 Bane Die to all its checks and its rider's Riding checks, cumulative each day. At 3 it will not be ridden.
Healing
A mount recovers Wounds with rest as a person does. A Survival check takes the place of Medicine for an animal, and a Medicine check may be used at one difficulty step harder.
A lame mount recovers with one full day of rest, or an Average Survival check and an hour's work with a hoof pick, a poultice, and patience.
Hired Help
| Hand | Wage a day | Does |
|---|---|---|
| Stable boy or girl | 4 | Feeds, waters, and watches up to six animals |
| Groom | 10 | As above, and saddles, doctors, and exercises them |
| Teamster or drover | 12 | Drives a team or a string of twenty pack animals |
| Trainer | 20 | Trains, as above |
| Mahout or beast-master | 30 | Drives one animal of Scale 3 or more and is the only person it fully obeys |
Wages are in the same twentieths as upkeep.
