The Messenger

Combat stats tap a row for its sources

• Attack6

  6.79 initial = 6.79

  The plain force your creatures strike with when you send them into a ritual.

  Treasure from won fights, where it is the cheapest of the nine to raise. Worn weapons lend it, and some shop and reward items grant it.

  Damage is your attack less the target's defence, and most abilities start their sum from it. Your total is shared out across the creatures in your ritual, so the same attack goes further in a ritual of two than in a ritual of six.

• Defence5

  5.67 initial = 5.67

  How much of a blow your creatures shrug off before it touches their vitality.

  Treasure from won fights, at three and a half times the cost of attack. Worn armour lends it, and some shop and reward items grant it.

  It is subtracted from nearly every incoming blow, so a defence above the enemy's attack leaves them doing the minimum of one damage. Like the rest, your total is shared out across the creatures in your ritual.

• Power4

  4.14 initial = 4.14

  The strength behind everything your creatures do that is not a plain blow.

  Treasure from won fights, the second cheapest of the nine to raise. Worn gear lends it, and some shop and reward items grant it.

  Healing, protecting, stealing life and poisoning all measure themselves against power and ignore attack entirely. Stealing life is capped at 20 percent of a creature, and an aimed hit at 25.

• Initiative1

  1.70 initial = 1.70

  How early your creatures move when a round opens.

  Treasure from won fights, at five times the cost of attack. Worn gear lends it, and some shop and reward items grant it.

  The whole field acts in order of initiative, highest first, so it decides whether you land a killing blow before the other side answers or after.

• Briskness2

  2.46 initial = 2.46

  How readily the realm's heat answers to you, in a fight and on the road.

  Treasure from won fights, and one of the dearer of the nine. Worn gear lends it, and some shop and reward items grant it.

  It is added to the heat you get for a fight you start, and a quarter of it is added to the heat of every step on your own land, or on any land while you belong to none.

• Luck0

  0.52 initial = 0.52

  The realm's willingness to tilt a moment your way, or against you.

  Treasure from won fights, but only on about one win in eight, so it grows in jumps rather than steadily. Clickables in the lands hand it out, and worn gear lends it.

  On roughly one scene in three, luck finds you Winertia; luck below zero loses it instead. In a fight, luck on either side can double an effect or cancel it outright.

• Regeneration2

  2.12 initial = 2.12

  How readily your vitality comes back to you.

  Treasure from won fights, and by far the dearest of the nine to raise. Worn gear lends it, and some shop and reward items grant it.

  It swells the vitality your house pays you on every refresh, by up to half again, with half of that reached at 2,000. After a fight, every creature you sent is brought back up to at least its regeneration as a percentage of its maximum vitality. Your regeneration is shared out among them like the other stats.

• Trade sense3

  3.95 initial = 3.95

  Your nose for a price, and how hard you are to overcharge.

  Treasure from won fights, at one of the higher costs of the nine. Worn gear lends it.

  It takes up to 25 percent off a dwelling, a weapon and your house rent. The discount climbs fast at first and then flattens, reaching half its maximum at 750 and never quite the whole 25. It is the one of the nine the fight engine never reads.

• Energetic immunity8

  8.53 initial = 8.53

  How well you hold together while crossing land that is not yours.

  Treasure from won fights, at one of the higher costs of the nine. Worn helms and shields lend it.

  Stepping into another house's territory costs you vitality, and your energetic immunity cancels that percentage of the loss. At 100 the crossing costs nothing at all.

initialweaponsterritoryalliancemagicillusion

Skills that only grow

• Volition0

  0.24 initial = 0.24

  The weight of your own will, built by going where the realm pushes back.

  Every scene you enter that costs action points. Going in above the viscosity minimum pays more than going in below it. The secured day streak pays as well.

  Your share of a forge wish. There are five bands, from a tenth to a half.

• Plasticity80

  80 initial = 80.00

  How far your character can still be reshaped. It starts at 80 for everyone and is only ever spent.

  Nothing raises it yet. Every card you take by converting permanent stats lowers it by one.

  The price of your next card. At 80 a card costs 10 points; each point of plasticity you lose makes the next card dearer (59, then 69, then 81 ...), and each point above 80 makes it cheaper, down to a floor of one.