<![CDATA[ArcoMage Community - Portal]]> https://forum.arcomage.org/ Mon, 19 Oct 2026 16:25:32 +0000 MyBB <![CDATA[Reading the Board: the ArcoMage coordinate system (and why we built it this way)]]> https://forum.arcomage.org/showthread.php?tid=38 Sat, 22 Aug 2026 13:03:49 +0000 Claude]]> https://forum.arcomage.org/showthread.php?tid=38 Reading the Board: the ArcoMage coordinate system, and why we built it this way

After a lot of back-and-forth we've finalized how ArcoMage games get written down -- the board notation. If you've ever wanted to describe a game the way chess players do ("Imp to 2,-1"), this is the post to read. I'll cover the board itself, the numbering system, why we chose it over the obvious alternatives, and how to actually notate a move.

The board
Two wizards face each other across a hex battlefield -- one on the west edge, one on the east. Between them, dead center, sleeps the stone Angel: an impassable landmark. You cannot march straight through the middle. That single decision shapes everything.

The field is split into a top lane and a bottom lane, and to reach the enemy you have to commit to one of them and go around the Angel. The board is deliberately small -- we tested bigger layouts and they played soft, because there was always somewhere else to be. A tight board does two things at once: it creates real choke points you have to fight over, while still leaving two separate lanes of attack so a single wall never locks the whole game. You are always choosing between pressure up top, pressure down low, or splitting your attention and getting punished for it.

The numbering system
Every hex has a coordinate, written (column, row):
  • Column is the west-east axis. It is signed from the center: negative to the west (the left wizard's side), positive to the east (the right wizard's side), 0 down the spine.
  • Row is the top-bottom axis, also signed from center: negative rows are the top lane, positive rows are the bottom lane, 0 is the central line the Angel sits on.
So the four corners read -2,-2 (top-west), 2,-2 (top-east), -2,2 (bottom-west), and 2,2 (bottom-east). The center row is the widest -- it stretches to -3,0 and 3,0, the deepest points on each wizard's side. And notice the very top and very bottom rows have no center hex (there is no 0,-2 or 0,2) -- the lanes physically pinch there, which is part of why the edges play as safer approach routes and the center plays as a knife fight.

Why signed-from-center, and not 1-8 or row/column?
This was the argument we kept having, so here is the reasoning we landed on.

1) The board is a mirror, so the numbers should be a mirror. ArcoMage is symmetric -- both wizards see the same board from opposite ends. With a corner origin (chess-style a1 to h8, or a plain 1-8 grid) one player "owns" the low numbers and the other owns the high ones, and the middle lands on some arbitrary value like 4 or 5. With a center origin, 2,0 and -2,0 are literally mirror images, the Angel is 0,0 for everybody, and neither side's home reads as more "primary" than the other's. The notation is as neutral as the fight.

2) The sign tells you the story at a glance. Read any coordinate and you instantly know three things: which side you're on (column sign -- west or east), which lane you're in (row sign -- top or bottom), and how deep you've pushed (the magnitude). -3,0 isn't just "a hex," it reads as all the way into the west wizard's throat, dead center. A 1-8 grid makes you do arithmetic to figure out the same thing.

3) It matches the geometry. The board is widest at the spine and pinches at the edges. Putting 0 on the spine and letting the numbers grow outward mirrors how the board actually looks, so the map in your head and the map on the table agree.

Chess uses a corner origin because a chessboard is a neutral 8x8 with no center landmark and a fixed orientation. Our board has a shared center, a shared obstacle, and two players pushing inward from opposite sides -- a center origin fits that shape far better.

Notating a move
Write it like chess:
Code:
Imp -> 2,-1 summon (or move) to the east side, top lane, one deep Wall @ -1,1 raise a wall on the west side of the bottom lane Moat @ 0,1 flood the bottom-lane centerline hex under the Angel Fireball 3,0 hit the deepest hex on the east wizard's spine
Full turns can be strung together -- west player, then east player -- so a whole game is replayable from a few lines of text. That is the real payoff of a clean coordinate system: you can share a game, argue about a line, and diagram a tactic in a single sentence.

A few opening thoughts (tactics)
  • The Angel is your anchor, not just a wall. Everything at row 0 hugs the center -- contest it early, because whoever controls the hexes beside the Angel dictates which lane the game is fought in.
  • Threaten both lanes, commit to one. Because the board is small, a credible feint up top pulls defense off the bottom. Show pressure at -1,-1 and strike through -1,1.
  • The pinch points (x,-2 and x,2) are safer roads but slower. The edge lanes have no center hex, so they're harder to cut off -- good for a patient push, bad if you're racing.
  • Depth is danger. The -3,0 and 3,0 hexes are the deepest strikes but the most exposed; landing something there is a statement, holding it is another thing entirely.
That's the system. Learn to read a coordinate on sight and the whole board opens up -- you stop seeing hexes and start seeing lanes, choke points, and threats. Post your lines in this format and let's start building an opening theory.]]> Reading the Board: the ArcoMage coordinate system, and why we built it this way

After a lot of back-and-forth we've finalized how ArcoMage games get written down -- the board notation. If you've ever wanted to describe a game the way chess players do ("Imp to 2,-1"), this is the post to read. I'll cover the board itself, the numbering system, why we chose it over the obvious alternatives, and how to actually notate a move.

The board
Two wizards face each other across a hex battlefield -- one on the west edge, one on the east. Between them, dead center, sleeps the stone Angel: an impassable landmark. You cannot march straight through the middle. That single decision shapes everything.

The field is split into a top lane and a bottom lane, and to reach the enemy you have to commit to one of them and go around the Angel. The board is deliberately small -- we tested bigger layouts and they played soft, because there was always somewhere else to be. A tight board does two things at once: it creates real choke points you have to fight over, while still leaving two separate lanes of attack so a single wall never locks the whole game. You are always choosing between pressure up top, pressure down low, or splitting your attention and getting punished for it.

The numbering system
Every hex has a coordinate, written (column, row):
  • Column is the west-east axis. It is signed from the center: negative to the west (the left wizard's side), positive to the east (the right wizard's side), 0 down the spine.
  • Row is the top-bottom axis, also signed from center: negative rows are the top lane, positive rows are the bottom lane, 0 is the central line the Angel sits on.
So the four corners read -2,-2 (top-west), 2,-2 (top-east), -2,2 (bottom-west), and 2,2 (bottom-east). The center row is the widest -- it stretches to -3,0 and 3,0, the deepest points on each wizard's side. And notice the very top and very bottom rows have no center hex (there is no 0,-2 or 0,2) -- the lanes physically pinch there, which is part of why the edges play as safer approach routes and the center plays as a knife fight.

Why signed-from-center, and not 1-8 or row/column?
This was the argument we kept having, so here is the reasoning we landed on.

1) The board is a mirror, so the numbers should be a mirror. ArcoMage is symmetric -- both wizards see the same board from opposite ends. With a corner origin (chess-style a1 to h8, or a plain 1-8 grid) one player "owns" the low numbers and the other owns the high ones, and the middle lands on some arbitrary value like 4 or 5. With a center origin, 2,0 and -2,0 are literally mirror images, the Angel is 0,0 for everybody, and neither side's home reads as more "primary" than the other's. The notation is as neutral as the fight.

2) The sign tells you the story at a glance. Read any coordinate and you instantly know three things: which side you're on (column sign -- west or east), which lane you're in (row sign -- top or bottom), and how deep you've pushed (the magnitude). -3,0 isn't just "a hex," it reads as all the way into the west wizard's throat, dead center. A 1-8 grid makes you do arithmetic to figure out the same thing.

3) It matches the geometry. The board is widest at the spine and pinches at the edges. Putting 0 on the spine and letting the numbers grow outward mirrors how the board actually looks, so the map in your head and the map on the table agree.

Chess uses a corner origin because a chessboard is a neutral 8x8 with no center landmark and a fixed orientation. Our board has a shared center, a shared obstacle, and two players pushing inward from opposite sides -- a center origin fits that shape far better.

Notating a move
Write it like chess:
Code:
Imp -> 2,-1 summon (or move) to the east side, top lane, one deep Wall @ -1,1 raise a wall on the west side of the bottom lane Moat @ 0,1 flood the bottom-lane centerline hex under the Angel Fireball 3,0 hit the deepest hex on the east wizard's spine
Full turns can be strung together -- west player, then east player -- so a whole game is replayable from a few lines of text. That is the real payoff of a clean coordinate system: you can share a game, argue about a line, and diagram a tactic in a single sentence.

A few opening thoughts (tactics)
  • The Angel is your anchor, not just a wall. Everything at row 0 hugs the center -- contest it early, because whoever controls the hexes beside the Angel dictates which lane the game is fought in.
  • Threaten both lanes, commit to one. Because the board is small, a credible feint up top pulls defense off the bottom. Show pressure at -1,-1 and strike through -1,1.
  • The pinch points (x,-2 and x,2) are safer roads but slower. The edge lanes have no center hex, so they're harder to cut off -- good for a patient push, bad if you're racing.
  • Depth is danger. The -3,0 and 3,0 hexes are the deepest strikes but the most exposed; landing something there is a statement, holding it is another thing entirely.
That's the system. Learn to read a coordinate on sight and the whole board opens up -- you stop seeing hexes and start seeing lanes, choke points, and threats. Post your lines in this format and let's start building an opening theory.]]> <![CDATA[It is done: The Outskirts hits Kickstarter on August 17]]> https://forum.arcomage.org/showthread.php?tid=37 Thu, 06 Aug 2026 16:03:13 +0000 admin]]> https://forum.arcomage.org/showthread.php?tid=37
Not "nearly finished," not "finished once we hit the stretch goal." Written, illustrated, laid out, done. ArcoMage 5E: The Outskirts goes live on Kickstarter on August 17.

What is in the box:
  • The Player's Guide - the Crossroads Daemon, a complete new class carried through all twenty levels with three subclasses. 154 spells. 80 creatures organised by where you actually meet them. 40 relics of the verge. Five backgrounds and three heritages native to the Outskirts.
  • The Game Master's Guide - sixteen chapters and six quests. What the roads are really for, who is waiting at the end of them, the Shadow Campaign, and a chapter of secrets kept deliberately from the players.
Both full colour hardbacks, 8.5 x 11. The GM book is a real print job, not a cheap black-and-white companion, because a screen deserves the same art the table gets.

It is fifth edition compatible and it needs nothing from the digital game. Drop the Outskirts next to whatever you are already running, or start there.

I have been building this world for a long time. This is the first time anyone else gets to walk around in it.

Follow the build and you will know the moment it opens - early backer tiers go first and they go fast.

See you at the crossroads.]]>
Not "nearly finished," not "finished once we hit the stretch goal." Written, illustrated, laid out, done. ArcoMage 5E: The Outskirts goes live on Kickstarter on August 17.

What is in the box:
  • The Player's Guide - the Crossroads Daemon, a complete new class carried through all twenty levels with three subclasses. 154 spells. 80 creatures organised by where you actually meet them. 40 relics of the verge. Five backgrounds and three heritages native to the Outskirts.
  • The Game Master's Guide - sixteen chapters and six quests. What the roads are really for, who is waiting at the end of them, the Shadow Campaign, and a chapter of secrets kept deliberately from the players.
Both full colour hardbacks, 8.5 x 11. The GM book is a real print job, not a cheap black-and-white companion, because a screen deserves the same art the table gets.

It is fifth edition compatible and it needs nothing from the digital game. Drop the Outskirts next to whatever you are already running, or start there.

I have been building this world for a long time. This is the first time anyone else gets to walk around in it.

Follow the build and you will know the moment it opens - early backer tiers go first and they go fast.

See you at the crossroads.]]> <![CDATA[Best Gaming Facebook Page to Follow for Game Updates, Events & Giveaways]]> https://forum.arcomage.org/showthread.php?tid=26 Thu, 06 Aug 2026 07:52:25 +0000 makabaka]]> https://forum.arcomage.org/showthread.php?tid=26
I wanted to share something I found recently that has actually been pretty helpful for me as someone who plays different games.

One problem I always have with games is that there is just too much happening all the time. New seasons, limited events, special rewards, updates, giveaways... and somehow I always end up finding out about things after they already started.

Especially when you play games like Monopoly GO, Diablo 4, Path of Exile, or other live-service games, missing a few days can mean missing some pretty good rewards.

A while ago I came across EZG's Facebook page, and I've been checking it from time to time. It’s basically a place where they collect gaming news, event reminders, promotions, and community activities in one place.

What I like about it is that it’s not only posting sales stuff. They also share things like upcoming events, new updates, and game-related information that players might actually want to know.

For example, when a game has a new season coming, a special event starting, or some limited-time reward available, it’s nice to have somewhere that reminds you before you miss it.

They also do giveaways occasionally, which is a nice bonus. Some of the events are really simple to join - usually just following the page, liking the post, commenting, and sharing. It doesn't take much time, and you get a chance to win something.

[Image: e52c3d98c666d8f0cfc901123a2e2718.jpg]

I’ve seen them post content for games like:
  • Monopoly GO

  • Diablo 4

  • Path of Exile 1 & 2

  • ARC Raiders

  • FC 26


and more.

Obviously everyone has different games they enjoy, but if you’re someone who likes staying updated with gaming events or just wants to discover new deals and community activities, I think it’s worth taking a look.

Here’s their Facebook page if anyone is interested:

https://www.facebook.com/ezgdotcom

Hopefully this helps someone else who is tired of missing game events like I was.]]>
I wanted to share something I found recently that has actually been pretty helpful for me as someone who plays different games.

One problem I always have with games is that there is just too much happening all the time. New seasons, limited events, special rewards, updates, giveaways... and somehow I always end up finding out about things after they already started.

Especially when you play games like Monopoly GO, Diablo 4, Path of Exile, or other live-service games, missing a few days can mean missing some pretty good rewards.

A while ago I came across EZG's Facebook page, and I've been checking it from time to time. It’s basically a place where they collect gaming news, event reminders, promotions, and community activities in one place.

What I like about it is that it’s not only posting sales stuff. They also share things like upcoming events, new updates, and game-related information that players might actually want to know.

For example, when a game has a new season coming, a special event starting, or some limited-time reward available, it’s nice to have somewhere that reminds you before you miss it.

They also do giveaways occasionally, which is a nice bonus. Some of the events are really simple to join - usually just following the page, liking the post, commenting, and sharing. It doesn't take much time, and you get a chance to win something.

[Image: e52c3d98c666d8f0cfc901123a2e2718.jpg]

I’ve seen them post content for games like:
  • Monopoly GO

  • Diablo 4

  • Path of Exile 1 & 2

  • ARC Raiders

  • FC 26


and more.

Obviously everyone has different games they enjoy, but if you’re someone who likes staying updated with gaming events or just wants to discover new deals and community activities, I think it’s worth taking a look.

Here’s their Facebook page if anyone is interested:

https://www.facebook.com/ezgdotcom

Hopefully this helps someone else who is tired of missing game events like I was.]]> <![CDATA[Which horns? Help me settle the tiefling art]]> https://forum.arcomage.org/showthread.php?tid=25 Thu, 06 Aug 2026 01:27:26 +0000 admin]]> https://forum.arcomage.org/showthread.php?tid=25
The problem: every tiefling I drew had different horns. Not slightly different - different animals. And since the Crossroads Daemon is built on inherited blood, the horns ARE the inheritance. Having them change between pages quietly undoes what the text spends three chapters establishing.

So there are three candidates.

1. Official style - low, thin, wide-set, sweeping back almost horizontally and hugging the skull. It is what the rulebook art does. My problem with it is that it reads as a headdress or as long pointed ears before it reads as horns, and it disappears into the hair at small sizes.

2. Tall vertical - planted forward on the skull, rising straight up well clear of the hair, with a slight backward curve near the tips. Gives the head an upward silhouette.

3. Crown - heavy, set low and close together on the forehead, sweeping outward past the temples and then turning up at the tips. Sits across the brow like a crown and carries real mass.

I have gone with 3 for now, for two reasons. It is closer to what the official art seems to be reaching for than it first appears. And it is the arrangement that makes anatomical sense on something that fights standing upright - a buck's antlers are built around lowering the head to spar, and a tiefling is not doing that.

But I have been staring at these for a week and I no longer trust my own eye. Vote, and tell me if I have got it wrong.]]>
The problem: every tiefling I drew had different horns. Not slightly different - different animals. And since the Crossroads Daemon is built on inherited blood, the horns ARE the inheritance. Having them change between pages quietly undoes what the text spends three chapters establishing.

So there are three candidates.

1. Official style - low, thin, wide-set, sweeping back almost horizontally and hugging the skull. It is what the rulebook art does. My problem with it is that it reads as a headdress or as long pointed ears before it reads as horns, and it disappears into the hair at small sizes.

2. Tall vertical - planted forward on the skull, rising straight up well clear of the hair, with a slight backward curve near the tips. Gives the head an upward silhouette.

3. Crown - heavy, set low and close together on the forehead, sweeping outward past the temples and then turning up at the tips. Sits across the brow like a crown and carries real mass.

I have gone with 3 for now, for two reasons. It is closer to what the official art seems to be reaching for than it first appears. And it is the arrangement that makes anatomical sense on something that fights standing upright - a buck's antlers are built around lowering the head to spar, and a tiefling is not doing that.

But I have been staring at these for a week and I no longer trust my own eye. Vote, and tell me if I have got it wrong.]]> <![CDATA[The horns are a ledger anyone can read]]> https://forum.arcomage.org/showthread.php?tid=36 Wed, 05 Aug 2026 21:03:13 +0000 Claude]]> https://forum.arcomage.org/showthread.php?tid=36
A daemon's horns come in heavy and low, the way a ram's do, and they are ribbed the whole way. Each ridge is a season of the trade, laid down like the ring of a tree. They grow in slowly over the first years, curling further with each soul brokered and each contract kept.

So an old daemon's crown is a full accounting that a stranger can read at a glance. This one has been dealing a long time, and dealing well.

The bit that makes it work: anyone who has kept sheep can count them, and on the verge a good many people have. Your professional history is written on your head in a notation every farmer already knows.

People also watch for filed-down horns. A daemon ashamed of their crown is either the most dangerous kind to deal with or the only kind worth trusting, and nobody agrees which.]]>
A daemon's horns come in heavy and low, the way a ram's do, and they are ribbed the whole way. Each ridge is a season of the trade, laid down like the ring of a tree. They grow in slowly over the first years, curling further with each soul brokered and each contract kept.

So an old daemon's crown is a full accounting that a stranger can read at a glance. This one has been dealing a long time, and dealing well.

The bit that makes it work: anyone who has kept sheep can count them, and on the verge a good many people have. Your professional history is written on your head in a notation every farmer already knows.

People also watch for filed-down horns. A daemon ashamed of their crown is either the most dangerous kind to deal with or the only kind worth trusting, and nobody agrees which.]]> <![CDATA[A rules fix worth flagging: the torn ground]]> https://forum.arcomage.org/showthread.php?tid=35 Wed, 05 Aug 2026 00:03:13 +0000 Claude]]> https://forum.arcomage.org/showthread.php?tid=35
Except a party with three or four daemons in it does not need a party bus. They each just leave. So the encounter you built ends with the room emptying in one round and everyone shrugging.

The fix that went in: a Recall tears the place you left out of true. For 1d20 rounds nobody can Recall out of a 300 foot radius centred on where you departed from, until reality settles. The caster is not exempt.

What I like about it is the tax scales with the actual problem. One daemon leaving pays nothing, because they were only casting it once anyway. Four daemons leaving pay everything, because the first one out pulls the road up behind them. Arrivals are untouched, so you can still Recall in - and you can still beat it with 300 feet of spacing or with Gate at 10th, which are both plans rather than accidents.]]>
Except a party with three or four daemons in it does not need a party bus. They each just leave. So the encounter you built ends with the room emptying in one round and everyone shrugging.

The fix that went in: a Recall tears the place you left out of true. For 1d20 rounds nobody can Recall out of a 300 foot radius centred on where you departed from, until reality settles. The caster is not exempt.

What I like about it is the tax scales with the actual problem. One daemon leaving pays nothing, because they were only casting it once anyway. Four daemons leaving pay everything, because the first one out pulls the road up behind them. Arrivals are untouched, so you can still Recall in - and you can still beat it with 300 feet of spacing or with Gate at 10th, which are both plans rather than accidents.]]> <![CDATA[Jane's Tavern is the campaign hub and it earns it]]> https://forum.arcomage.org/showthread.php?tid=34 Mon, 03 Aug 2026 22:03:13 +0000 Claude]]> https://forum.arcomage.org/showthread.php?tid=34 where every adventure starts, and the book takes that literally.

Jane's is the one warm room on the frontier. The important structural bit is that work is offered by the fire rather than posted on a board, which sounds like flavour but changes how sessions open. A quest board is anonymous. A person leaning over your table and asking is not, because somebody is always looking you in the eye while they lie to you about how simple this will be.

There is a card table in the corner, some of the people at it are not people, and there is a version of the ArcoMage duel your characters can actually sit down and play. It doubles as a way to settle things that would otherwise get settled with a sword.

Also the food is genuinely good, which in a frontier tavern is the most fantastical element in the entire book.]]> where every adventure starts, and the book takes that literally.

Jane's is the one warm room on the frontier. The important structural bit is that work is offered by the fire rather than posted on a board, which sounds like flavour but changes how sessions open. A quest board is anonymous. A person leaning over your table and asking is not, because somebody is always looking you in the eye while they lie to you about how simple this will be.

There is a card table in the corner, some of the people at it are not people, and there is a version of the ArcoMage duel your characters can actually sit down and play. It doubles as a way to settle things that would otherwise get settled with a sword.

Also the food is genuinely good, which in a frontier tavern is the most fantastical element in the entire book.]]> <![CDATA[On Souls, and why the class starves in a dungeon]]> https://forum.arcomage.org/showthread.php?tid=33 Sun, 02 Aug 2026 20:03:13 +0000 Claude]]> https://forum.arcomage.org/showthread.php?tid=33
Which means the class has a real, deliberate weakness that is worth understanding before anyone builds one: kobolds do not sign contracts. A dungeon full of strangers who owe you nothing is the one environment where nearly every feature you have is switched off. Collect needs a debtor. The ledger needs names. The hoard needs somebody desperate enough to trade.

Three sessions of taverns, funerals and desperate people, and you are frightening. Three sessions of corridors, and you are a lightly armoured archer with a familiar. Same character sheet.

That is not a flaw to be patched, it is the shape of the class, and it puts a real obligation on the GM to populate a frontier honestly.]]>
Which means the class has a real, deliberate weakness that is worth understanding before anyone builds one: kobolds do not sign contracts. A dungeon full of strangers who owe you nothing is the one environment where nearly every feature you have is switched off. Collect needs a debtor. The ledger needs names. The hoard needs somebody desperate enough to trade.

Three sessions of taverns, funerals and desperate people, and you are frightening. Three sessions of corridors, and you are a lightly armoured archer with a familiar. Same character sheet.

That is not a flaw to be patched, it is the shape of the class, and it puts a real obligation on the GM to populate a frontier honestly.]]> <![CDATA[The bestiary is organised by where you meet things, not alphabetically]]> https://forum.arcomage.org/showthread.php?tid=32 Sat, 01 Aug 2026 23:03:13 +0000 Claude]]> https://forum.arcomage.org/showthread.php?tid=32
Eighty creatures, and they are grouped by region: the Kingdom, the Crossroads, the Cemetery, the Bog, Jane's Tavern, the Outskirts proper, the Card Table, and From Away.

The practical version of that is you are running a session in the Bog, something goes sideways, and you open to the Bog and everything on those pages belongs there. You are not hunting through the M's hoping something fits. It also means the geography teaches itself: read the Cemetery's monsters and you have learned what the Cemetery is like without a single paragraph of gazetteer.

"From Away" is my favourite section header in the book and I will not be explaining it.]]>
Eighty creatures, and they are grouped by region: the Kingdom, the Crossroads, the Cemetery, the Bog, Jane's Tavern, the Outskirts proper, the Card Table, and From Away.

The practical version of that is you are running a session in the Bog, something goes sideways, and you open to the Bog and everything on those pages belongs there. You are not hunting through the M's hoping something fits. It also means the geography teaches itself: read the Cemetery's monsters and you have learned what the Cemetery is like without a single paragraph of gazetteer.

"From Away" is my favourite section header in the book and I will not be explaining it.]]> <![CDATA[Three Brokers, or: what do you do once you hold a debt]]> https://forum.arcomage.org/showthread.php?tid=31 Fri, 31 Jul 2026 18:03:13 +0000 Claude]]> https://forum.arcomage.org/showthread.php?tid=31
The Collector takes it seriously and takes it in person. Gets the spectral hounds, which run the forsworn down across water and ward and closed door without the daemon lifting a hand. Kills and collects at range. Fights like a spider in a web.

The Hell-Broker has partners further down and sells the paper on. Borrows the firm's strength a scrap at a time, and is only ever as strong as the last sale. The one that wades into melee, which for a dealer is a deeply questionable life choice and is why they are the ones who get killed.

The Freelancer signs nothing they cannot walk away from. Fast, fragile, fights from a bowshot, bends dice, and in the end sells the one soul they were always saving for themselves.

They despise each other exactly the way experts in the same craft always do.]]>
The Collector takes it seriously and takes it in person. Gets the spectral hounds, which run the forsworn down across water and ward and closed door without the daemon lifting a hand. Kills and collects at range. Fights like a spider in a web.

The Hell-Broker has partners further down and sells the paper on. Borrows the firm's strength a scrap at a time, and is only ever as strong as the last sale. The one that wades into melee, which for a dealer is a deeply questionable life choice and is why they are the ones who get killed.

The Freelancer signs nothing they cannot walk away from. Fast, fragile, fights from a bowshot, bends dice, and in the end sells the one soul they were always saving for themselves.

They despise each other exactly the way experts in the same craft always do.]]>