Horse
| Stats | HD 3 (12) BR 4 Size 10' Weight 90# Max. Load 60# Run 50' |
| Group | Solo / 2d6 herd / 3d6 × 10 cavalry |
| Desc. | A tall, sleek animal with a glossy coat, long muscled legs, and large dark eyes that miss nothing. Its ears swivel independently, tracking every sound. When alarmed it snorts explosively and stamps — a warning that carries across any camp. A good horse knows its rider's mood better than the rider does. |
| Wants | Grass, water, the herd. A rider who knows what they're doing. |
| Intellect | Reads emotion and intent. Can be trained extensively but panics easily. |
| Morality | Flight before fight. Loyal to those who treat them well. |
- Hooves (Natural Weapon): 5 Physical.
House Beacon cavalry is renowned across the Inner Sea. The war has made a horse precious; every faction raids for them. Injured horses are eaten rather than healed — the calculus of scarcity leaves no room for sentiment.
Untrained horses always flee anything that seems dangerous. A trained warhorse is an entirely different animal: steady under fire, responsive to knee pressure alone, and capable of fighting even after its rider has fallen.
A horse's worth is measured not in coin but in what it enables. A lord with a stable of warhorses commands a different kind of respect than one without. Cavalry raids, messenger relays, rapid redeployment — the horse is the engine of Glassian warfare, second only to the harpy in strategic importance.
Treasure: None.
Lean and slightly sweet, with a texture somewhere between beef and venison. The meat darkens considerably when cooked and takes marinades well.
A horse is worth vastly more alive than as meat. Eating one is an act of desperation — or a deliberate statement. Cavalry units consider it a betrayal of the worst kind. Roll 1d6: on a 1, the eater gains the horse's memory of its last rider (the GM provides one relevant secret). On a 2–6, no special effect.
| d6 | Horse Variants |
|---|---|
| 1–2 | Draft horse. HD 4, Weight 150#, Max. Load 100#, Run 35'. Always flees from combat. |
| 3–4 | Warhorse. HD 4, Weight 120#, Max. Load 80#. Trained for combat; immune to Panic. |
| 5–6 | Steppe horse. HD 3, Weight 60#, Max. Load 40#. Can survive on steppe grass alone. |
| d6 | Why Is This Horse Alone? |
|---|---|
| 1 | Rider killed nearby. Body within 100'. Ambush possibly still present. |
| 2 | Escaped from bandits/army camp. Branded. Someone wants it back. |
| 3 | Wild mountain herd horse. Unbroken. Will flee. |
| 4 | Draft horse slipped its harness and hid. Overturned cart nearby. Owner searching. |
| 5 | Messenger horse whose rider vanished en route. Saddlebags contain important secrets from a presently-relevant Faction. |
| 6 | Decoy. Trained to lure horse-thieves into ambush. |