Sickle Regular Army
The Sickle Regular Army, formerly known as the Sickle Militia, is the official (internal) name of the military forces operated by the Sickle. It is also known as the Regulars (internal), the mundanes (internal; can be used derogatorily) or the Leathers (colloquial). The Sickle Regulars is a standing army is comparable to that of a small kingdom in terms of muscle power.
The mage guild's armed forces are well trained, well paid, and well motivated in its task of protecting Magi from the gentiles and gentiles from untrained gifted. Its main task is to act as a deterrent to keep ordinary people from acting on their superstition and fears, trying try to kill or harm Magi, which it does by providing an intimidating appearance and the numbers it boasts about, which is over one thousand men (including a few women).
The secondary tasks of the Regulars include security within the Spire and find-and-gather operations where individual officers identify untrained gifted and bring them in to the Spire for training or they neutralise them. These officers also investigate gentiles' claims of supernatural crimes and neutralise these as well (though, most commonly, they do nothing as most claims turn out false).
Ranks
The highest rank within the Sickle mundane forces is the Marshal, who coordinates all military commitments as well as most specialist commitments. The rank is slightly above the Courier, who is the highest rank for the Regulars' specialists. The two people holding these positions need to be able to cooperate (or appear to be able to do so).
- Marshal - Ultimately in charge for all mundane forces
- Senior Army Adviser - 2-3 additional staff members for the Marshal who technically does not have operative powers
- Army Adviser - 3-5 additional staff members
- Army Ranks - Almost exclusively takes order from the Marshal's administration
- Brigadeer - In charge of 100-200 soldiers and advisor to the Marshal
- Vintenar - In charge of twenty soldiers
- Seargant - Group leader of five
- Regular - Soldier
- Recruit - Soldier in training
- Specialists - Generally takes orders from high-up appointed magi
- Courier - In charge of all specialist activities
- Liquidator - Deals with find-and-kill missions (harder missions)
- Porter - Deals with find-and-gather missions (more finesse; sometimes not)
- Investigator - Assists Magi in investigations or deals with lower day-to-day investigations
- Junio Investigator - Assists where needed; in training; usually recruited from bright Regulars (or, rarely, Recruits)
Missions
Specialist forces have three main types of missions:
- Lucubrate - Or just "investigation"
- Investigating claims of magic use by the local populace and similar "low-priority" wading through information or interviewing people; often evening work
- Acquisition - Also known as "find-and-gather".
- Includes finding and collecting individuals to register with Sickle or subduing/kidnapping to be dealt with at the Spire. A "quarry".
- Counter - Also known as "find-and-nullify" or "neutralise".
- Finding a quarry and applying a null sign on the spot, usually with force.
- Extirpation - Also known as "find-and-kill" or "liquidation".
- Finding a "mark" and to end its existence, by any means necessary.
Characters
- Capitoleum
- Helman Benson - Sargent (one-off)
- Arman - Sickle Leather from Sandwish. Recruited by Helman. (one-off)
- Gilan Brook - Sickle Leather from Western Northbrook. Invited by Maristos. (one-off)
- Prato (IPO L55)
- Other
- Richard - Specialist (IPO L23)
Tactics
Very well trained for many different occuring scenarios, straight-forward combat usually does the trick for a Sickle Regular. In some cases, specialists use advanced tactics such as a Darkstone to negate any percieved advantage by the foe. Trained for fighting blind and using an Assault Stick that only requires the soldier to touch the quarry, this is very efficient. Some specialists even have a Nighteye that mostly will end a struggle immediately.
A Snarepack can also be used in conjunction with the darkness tactic, if the target is simply running away.
Equipment
The standard equipment of Regulars include:
- Assault Stick
- Longword
- Shield (usually not worn)
- Black Leather war coat
It usually also include an requisitioned horse as well as mission kits, depending on missions.
Other commonly used items:
- Snarepack
- Darkstone
- Nighteye
- Lie detection / Low DC on magic items
- Medallion of Thoughts
- RULE: Magic items produce spells or spell-like effects. For a saving throw against a spell or spell-like effect from a magic item, the DC is 10 + the level of the spell or effect + the ability modifier of the minimum ability score needed to cast that level of spell.
- RULE SHORT: DC 10 + slvl + min ability modifier
- Suggestion: At GM discretion you could always follow the supernatural ability DC format where you instead go 10+half levels/HD+Attribute, this would make it gradually harder to resist, kind of a way of representing the character getting greater mastery over it.
- Exempel:
- Hat of Disguise is CL 1, head slot item, that replicates the effects of Disguise Self (a level 1 spell) upon the use of a command word for 1,800 gp.
- Looking at Table: Estimating Magic Item Gold Piece Values, we see that a magic item that replicates a spell effect with a command word is worth Spell level x Caster Level x 1,800 gp. This fits in with the listed price and stats of a Hat of Disguise - level 1 spell x caster level 1 x 1,800 = 1,800.
- Now here's the thing, the save is set (DC 11), but all other variables are CL dependent, including how long the effect lasts since it's not a continuous effect. Since Hat of Disguise is CL 1 and based off Disguise Self (which lasts 10 min/level), it's effect lasts for 10 minutes. By increasing the CL of a Hat of Disguise, you can increase the duration of the effect at the expense of making the item more cost more. This means if you set the CL to 3, the Hat of Disguise's effect will last 30 minutes per use rather than 10, but it'll cost 5,400 gp to buy (three times as much).
- House rule: +2 CL to spell items?
- AND allow Heighten Magic to increase slvl (and clvl)
- Perhaps a 1000gp one-off +1 DC in price?
- Add +1 DC by adding type of casting (command-activated = 1800)
- bonus * bonus * 500 (/250/300)
- 500 - 2000 - 4500 - 8000
- 250 - 1000 - 2250 - 4000
- 300 - 1200 - 2700 - 4800 - 7500
- Judge's Wig
- Candle of Truth
- Elixir of Truth
- Inquisitor's Monocle
- Medallion of Thoughts
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