Aftermath

[Geoffrey]

Would jumping the guard when his back is turned be unknightly?

[GM Craig]

Not at all. You're unarmed, against a (presumably) armed and armoured opponent.

[Geoffrey]

Need a bit of clarification on something.

Rodric has a passion of Hate Saxons of 15 and a Merciful/Cruel trait of 11/9.

The man is out of the fight, so killing him isn't necessary, but we need to make sure he can't alert anyone.

Would I roll vs the passion, then roll vs the Merciful/cruel trait and if both are successful then the higher of the two dictates what action he would take?  Or is there no success or failure, it's whichever roll is the highest is the direction he would take?

[GM Craig]

Since the passion is below 16, you're free to take whatever action you wish. It is once your traits rise to 16 or higher that they can start dictating your answers. However, your actions may earn you a check against the trait or passion in question during the winter phase.

But to play out your example, if you had a passion Hate (Saxons) of 16 or higher, and wanted to be merciful, you would need to roll a check against the passion to avoid killing him. If the passion wins, you kill him even though you might not want to.

Either way, killing him might earn you a check against Cruel.

[GM Craig]

Having said that, you can chose to let your passion guide you, and choose to roll against the passion. Since it is under 16, you are not required, but you can always choose to do so. There's some benefits to you for making your passion roll, like bonuses in the upcoming combat. But failure brings penalties, so there's a risk / benefit calculation to make.

[Cedwyn]

But we are prisoners...leaving them alive allows us to be found out faster...

[Geoffrey]

How so?  When they don't come back from feeding us or someone else comes by to check, whether the two guards are unconscious or dead, they're still going to know we've escaped.

[Cedwyn]

Good point...

[Cedwyn]

That said...there are Saxons and Cedwyn really hates them. On top of that, they do serve a witch...which was a big no-no IRL back then. Unless the Briton Christianity is much more tolerant than reality...

[GM Craig]

Ok, if Cedwyn was motivated by his hatred for Saxons, then he'll get a check for that instead of cruel.

It wasn't clear to me what motivated Cedwyn's actions.

Sound fair?

[Geoffrey]

Sounds fair to me.

[Cedwyn]

Me too. They did just kill his dad...so he's out for blood.

[Geoffrey]

What would be the 'base' skill rank for fighting with an axe?  I'm thinking it would be 10 but want to double check before rolling.

[GM Craig]

If you're not trained. it's zero. However, there are some mitigating circumstances. Without armour, all combat skills are at +5, and there's something else going on that gives you a +5.

[Geoffrey]

Yikes, failure on a passion roll is pretty severe.