# Training and Keeping *The Stable, Mounts, Barding, and Mounted Combat for Exodus NDS. Source: https://exodusnds.com/sourcebooks/the-stable/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.