Retainers

Retainers are 1st level characters, who have between 1-3 life points, and never make an XP roll. Except for merchants, who are armed only with a knife (light slashing hand weapon) and have no armor, all retainers come with (1) a crushing or slashing hand weapon, and (2) light armor and shield. Your paladin does not pay for a room at an inn for retainers – they look after themselves or sleep in the stable, as appropriate for their rank.

Term of Employment. It costs 10gp to initially hire a retainer. Re-employing a retainer costs 5gp every time your paladin arrives at a new inn. Retainers are only employed from one inn to the next. Before hiring new retainers, you must decide whether you want to keep your existing retainers, they do not have to be re-employed.

Look for New Retainers. To see whether there are any new retainers available, roll a d6. Deduct from that number the retainers you already have, and adjust with any Inn Table (2) modifiers. If the final result is a positive number, that is the number of new retainers available for hire. As an example: You have two retainers. You roll a 5 and deduct 2, that means there are three new retainers available.

Retainer Classes. For each retainer available, roll a d6 to determine their class (see the Available Classes (d6) table). The classes are described below. Other abilities will show up on the various tables. Modifiers on tables do not stack if you have more than one of the same class of retainer.

• Brute: This skilled mercenary fighter has +1 to attack rolls, 3 life points and +1 morale.
• Hunter: A skilled forester with a bow, who can shoot first even if surprised. Do this after the minions reaction is rolled, and he will forgo his next attack to change weapons and ready his shield. Has 2 life points and +0 morale.
• Merchant: Has great knowledge of locations as well as many contacts. Has 1 life point and -2 morale.
• Streetwise: A fast thinker and good talker, who adds +2 to rumor rolls, and deducts -1 from reaction rolls in encounters with human minions. Has 2 life points and -1 morale.

Retainer Morale. Some enemy may force your retainers into a morale test to see whether they continue to fight loyally at your side or flee. They pass on a 4+ after modifiers. Retainers must also individually test morale if one of them dies in combat. When they flee, no free attack is rolled against them, just remove the retainer from the fight. If your paladin survives the encounter, the retainers who fled will come back from their hiding spot at the end of that encounter.

Money Spent on Retainers. Any additional money spent on retainers (e.g. to buy them better armor, equipment, or bandages), is treated as a gift to them, and is not returnable. The wage paid to them is not recoverable, even if they die.