Gambler

Players of illicit games of chance or cheaters at legitimate ones.

Cardcounter

The best gamblers in the Red Grith use the magic of numbers to count cards or use numerological powers to change the cards.

Cardcounters use basic counting to determine the odds on a risk when it comes to card games. They often also use their mathematical skills when it comes to other games of chance or gambling operations. But their skill in numerology allows them to alter the odds as well. The Red Grith recruits those who learn to do this, but rarely trains gamblers themselves.

When numbers change, so does reality. If a cardcounter has the right names, they can make almost anything happen, but they are more skilled at it than an amolast. However, their focus is betting, and they don't often go up against other people. They focus on the subject of their betting. They can change the value of cards, the speed of a horse, the sharpness of a dog's teeth, the strength of an athlete. But they have to do so subtly and well-timed, for if they do so where someone notices, they will face repercussions (usually violence or arrest).

The method of this is to take the name of their target - common name or True Name, though the latter is much more powerful and harder to find - and convert them alphanumerically. The Red Grith uses a special alphanumeric formula that is modulo 13, using a 30 letter alphabet. Within base 13, everything is cyclical, so these effects may return to their original state in time.
Letter Alphanumeric Our Number Effect
A 0 0 Returns all things to their natural order
B 1 1 Catalyst
C 2 2 Combination
Ch 3 3 Amplification
D 4 4 Death or endings
E 5 5 Help
F 6 6 Harm
G 7 7 Good luck
H 8 8 Positive emotion
I 9 9 Transformation
J ! 10 Circular
K @ 11 Magic
L # 12 Alignment
M 10 13 Cyclical
N 11 14 Analysis
O 12 15 Division
P 13 16 Movement
Q 14 17 Negative emotion
R 15 18 Change
S 16 19 Strength
Sh 17 20 Thought or memory
T 18 21 Creation
Th 19 22 Identification
U 1! 23 Hard barrier
V 1@ 24 Bad luck
W 1# 25 Reflection
X 20 26 Growth
Y 21 27 Reversal
Z 22 28 Neutral luck
Zh 23 29 Destruction
       
If a cardcounter has a name, they convert it alphanumerically (add up the letters via the code above). Then, they take the original name (the alphabetical name) and inscribe it into their abacus. They must insert the calculated value onto their abacus, made of borov wood with sacratempite sapphires as the beads and provided by the Grith, then use the counting beads to alter the values to reach the effects they wish to inflict above. If their magic is strong enough, the inscribed alphabetical name will change accordingly, causing the changes they wish. The abacus must be attuned to the cardcounter by being kept in a state of alphanumeric resonance with the cardcounter's name (i.e., the alphanumeric value of their name must be calculated on it and left there) when not in use.

Because cardcounters aren't fully trained numerologers, they use a handful of equations they know will help them in different situations.

Mechanically, the amolast rolls numerological skill against the difficulty of their spell, which is calculated by how many points different from the original name they have changed (i.e., if the alphanumerical value of the original name is 100 and they changed it to 107, the difficulty is 7; if the original name is 100 and they changed it to 90, the difficulty is 10). They then roll the power of their abacus (usually a 14, if they are n using a Grith-provided abacus) against an appropriate base stat of the target person (if the target is a person) or against the existential value of the target (determined by the digits of their alphanumeric name added together). If any number being rolled (by the amolast or the target) from is prime, the roll gets a +1, +2, +3, or +5 if and only if that will get the value to another prime.

The "name" of inanimate objects is always an difficult to ascertain, but with cards, dice, or other implements of chance, cardcounters rely on proximity to let generic names hit their targets. This sometimes means collateral damage when the Ace of Spades becomes the Two of Clubs at every table near them, but so be it. When you live a life of risk, you live a life of risk. Animals (such as horses, dogs, or chickens, which are often bet upon) usually have a name publicly posted, as do athletes. Other targets of betting vary.

Many gamblers in the Red Grith are skilled with pistols.

They cannot perform their magic without their abacuses, but if someone takes their abacus, they can alter the name on it to harm the cardcounter.

PRO +1 ATH +1 STR -1 AWA +3 WIL -1 PRS +2 STH +1

Olutayo

Members of the Green Grith do not attune like others might to the winds of fortune, but they do sometimes command actual winds, and this allows some of them to manipulate games of chance.

An olutayo is a gambler who knows how to temporarily capture the wind in order to use it to help them cheat at games of chance. To capture the wind, they need a special satchel made of magical materials, usually hippogriff leather, the skin of a flying whale, or the feathers of a rukh. These are deeply rare and provided by the Green Grith if they think someone has potential.

To grab the wind in the satchel, they must hold open the satchel toward a natural wind, then trick it into staying within long enough to seal it. To trick the wind, they must know what kind of wind they are capturing (a breeze, a gust, a gale, a whirlwind, etc.), and they must know from which direction it blows (north, south, east, west, southwest, northwest, southeast, northeast, north-northeast, south-southeast, east-northeast, east-southeast, etc.). This will tell them what kind of lie to tell the wind - the north wind is the least easily tricked, the fickle west-southwest wind the most. Knowing the right lies to tell is something their mentors in the Green Grith will share, but they can't use the same lie twice in the same year.

Every satchel has its own magical strength, and some winds are too powerful for certain satchels.

Once captured, a wind can be released to wield its power. The olutayo must keep the wind sealed long enough to forget it was tricked (ranges from a day to a year and a day), and then they must convince the wind once released to help them. This usually requires asking it a riddle, giving it an offering, or simply asking it nicely, depending on the wind:
Wind Price Gust strength
North Soul offering 22
South Heart offering 22
East Mind offering 18
West Body offering 18
Northeast Riddle 15
Southeast Riddle 15
Northwest Riddle 15
Southwest Riddle 15
NNW Simple ask 11
NNE Deception 11
WNW Honesty 11
ENE Simple ask 11
SSW Simple ask 11
SSE Honesty 11
ESE Simple ask 11
WSW Deception 11
Unlike peregrins or wind mages, olutayos use their wind magic in a very specific, very precise way. The ways they train to use it include the following:
  • Light puff: a soft puff of air moves a die, a card, or other gambling device slightly to benefit the olutayo.
  • Subtle lift: a very slight wind steals a small object - a die, a card, a piece of bone, a chip - from someone within 5' of the olutayo.
  • Careful flip: an object is carefully flipped over with the slightest pop of air.
  • Quiet breeze: a gentle breeze carries away a word or three from someone's mouth, altering what they said, to change the nature of a bet.
  • Whispering wind: the wind whispers something in someone's ear within 10' of the olutayo, giving them +3 to persuading that person of something.
Other subtle uses may be possible. Consult the GM.

Olutayos work for the Green Grith, raising funds via gambling or seeing to it that industrialists or other target lose money or even property.

PRO +1 ATH +1 STR -1 AWA +2 WIL / PRS +2 STH +1

Rambler

The winds of fortune are directed not by natural law, not by the powers of heaven or hell, but by the lore, and ramblers and gamblers of the Violet Grith can sense them and take advantage of them when they blow their way.

Fortune is an energy that cannot be controlled, but it can be nudged. Tweaked. Maybe. If you're lucky. And it can be sensed. Ramblers can sense the winds of fortune. Like anything to do with fortune, this ability develops by chance, usually when they are young, and it comes with a price. How they sense the winds varies - each rambler has a different way of interpreting it, and it is not unusual for them to have it slightly wrong. Being able to sense the winds is called "being touched".

Those who can sense and choose to follow the winds of fortune become subject to the whims of those winds, meaning they risk falling on hard times. For ramblers, those hard times often leave them adrift in the world, hence their name. This is determined by the classic set up of triple rolls. A triple roll will alter the rambler's luck:
  • Triple 1s: luck lowers by one level
  • Triple 2s: luck lowers by two levels
  • Triple 3s: luck raises by three levels
  • Triple 4s: luck lowers by three levels
  • Triple 5s: luck raises by one level
  • Triple 6s: luck bottoms out
  • Triple 7s: luck tops out
  • Triple 8s: luck lowers by four levels
  • Triple 9s: luck raises by two levels
  • Triple 10s: luck raises by four levels
The levels of luck are as follows:
  1. Calamity
  2. Very bad luck
  3. Bad luck
  4. Neutral
  5. Good luck
  6. Very good luck
  7. Miraculous
A person with calamitous luck will be unable to succeed at any roll and horrible things will happen to them. A person with miraculous luck will be unable to fail at any roll and amazing things will happen to them. With very bad luck, they will always take the low die on rolls and bad things will happen to them, while a person with very good luck will always take the high die and good things will happen to them. With bad luck, they will always take the low die, but no narrated bad things will happen to them. A person with good luck will always take the high die, but no narrated good things will happen to them. A person wtih neutral luck takes the middle die and has no narrated effects upon them.

Calamitous luck cannot be escaped except by tripling out. Miraculous luck will go away very quickly. The more extreme the luck, in either direction, the more improbable events become around them.

Following the winds of fortune also means they are driven to wander. Ramblers see the world as full of opportunities. They seek to find them.

A rambler's primary occupation is gambling. While they use the typical skills of all gamblers - reading people, assessing the odds, the occasional cheating - they rely far more on luck than others.

A tell for a gambler is some quirk, some action, some common gesture that informs them what another person is about to do. But for a rambler, tells are also what informs them of the nature of the winds of fortune. It's how they sense the winds. This varies for every rambler. For some, it might be the feeling of breath upon the back of their necks. For others, it's a twinge in their knee. For some, it's when a clock strikes seven when it's not actually seven. For others, it's when something narrowly misses them. The variation is extreme, and sometimes, the ramblers are wrong about their tells.

Ramblers believe they can nudge the winds of fortune through a variety of superstitions. If they have seen a tell, they believe the winds of fortune are flowing their way - that they have good luck - and that this can be embraced if they do certain things. The most famous of these is blowing on dice before rolling them, but these superstitions vary greatly. It can be something more broad, such as not sleeping with your head on a pillow for a week after seeing a tell, so as to maintain good luck, or crossing yourself twice before making a bet, or even something completely unseen, like counting to seven seven times before each hand. Most revolve around acts of gambling, but some are less specific. These will, if they work, temporarily boost their luck up to three levels if their luck is good or lower. If their luck is very good or miraculous, these will instead simply cause narrated good things to happen. If their luck is calamitous, these will not work unless they roll a triple to get out of calamitous luck.

For all ramblers everywhere, the number seven is lucky. Doing something seven times will bring luck. Seeing or engaging with the number seven will always indicate a positive shift in luck.

If a rambler makes a bet, their luck will control it more than anything else. Placing any bet, no matter how big, no matter how small, engages the winds of fortune (unless other energies are already at play). Once a bet has been made, the rambler's sense of the winds will heighten as well, and they will know they have a short window to engage one of their superstitions (if not already applied).

Escalating the risks on a bet will heightened the winds of fortune even more, raising them to extremes and pushing luck either to calamitous or miraculous if done enough. Ramblers use this recklessly sometimes.

Like anyone touched by the winds of fortune, ramblers have insights and intutions they cannot explain, brought on by straight rolls and some variants:
  • 012 roll: flicker - rambler knows something important has happened or will happen, but not what.
  • 050 roll: major intuition.
  • 123 roll: mild intution
  • 234 roll: vague insight.
  • 246 roll: major intuition.
  • 345 roll: same as last straight.
  • 369 roll: clear insight.
  • 456 roll: vague insight.
  • 567 roll: mild intuition.
  • 678 roll: moment of distress - wild misunderstanding.
  • 789 roll: thunderbolt moment - perfect understanding.
  • 890 roll: clear insight.
Note on 0 rolls: a roll of 0 is a roll of 10, but because the classic d10 shows 0 as a zero, these can be interpreted as such when it comes to straights. A roll of 050 is not actually calculated for gameplay purposeds as 0, 5, 10, but still 5, 10, 10. However, it will still be considered a straight.

An insight is a clear understanding. An intuition is a certainty without understanding.

Slot machines are always rigged with misfortune. Always. Therefore, no amount of superstition or other luck-tweaking can affect them.

PRO / ATH +1 STR -1 AWA +2 WIL -2 STH +2 PRS +2

Taeflere

There are few who engage in illegal betting within the Blue Grith, but those who do do so to help others or bring in money for the Blue Grith's work.

The winds of fortune are fickle and powerful, but some rare gamblers who use their keen senses to follow those winds use their abilities to help others. These gamblers gain the ability to sense moments of serendipity, using them to grant good luck to others.

Called taefleres, they gain the power to sense the winds of fortune by careful study of those who win and those who lose at games of chance, then moving on to study when random events benefit the less fortunate in the world. They learned to distinguish between random chance and problems brought on by oppression, exploitation, abuse, manipulation, and cheating. They learn to distinguish between chaos and order.

Once this is clear, they must then seek the source of the winds of fortune, of chaos. To do this, they must find a moment of it, then intentionally focus and bear witness, carrying it in their mind and soul for seven days and six. Upon the end of the thirteenth day, they must look to where the winds blow, and they must follow them until they stop, walking against the current. When they reach the place where it stops, they must burn something, anything they own that represents order, oppression, exploitation, manipulation, cheating, or abuse. Something that represents their place in those systems, whether victim or perpetrator, and then burn themself in the resultant fire.

If their intentions are sincere, the fire will not harm them, but instead, fill their eyes, ears, mouth, and nose. For a moment, they will feel lighter than air, lifted by the winds of fortune, and they will come to seven miles and six away, aware now of the constant flow of serendipity in the world.

A true user of serendipity will only use it for others. Sometimes this means using their awareness of it to nudge someone to the right place at the right time, and sometimes this means using it on gambling so they can gain money or materials to give away. But they must never use it for their own personal gain, using no gains from it for anything more than a meal or a roof over their head.

Part of the Commitee for Support.

PRO / ATH / STR / AWA +2 WIL +1 PRS +1 STH +1
Topic revision: r1 - 07 Jun 2025, SallyJaneBlack
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