6.1 Followers

Traveling alone through the wilds of Storm World is not an easy feat. Luckily, you are not always going to have to brave the elements of Storm World without help. You will be able to "contract" with henchmen and other followers to assist your adventuring.

Most cities, and even some sub-locations, have a list of mercenaries who are willing to hire out their services. To enlist their help, you issue the CONSCRIPT action with the realm character identifier (RCID) of the mercenary in question. If you are of sufficient experience (your combined total of Intellectual, Physical, and Mystical strength must equal or exceed the mercenary's total), the henchmen will join your entourage, and his/her RCID will immediately change to represent his/her employer. For example, if your realm character has an RCID of "R90010", and you have no current followers, then when a mercenary is conscripted, their RCID will change to "R90011". Therefore, when submitting actions, remember that the RCID will change.

The mercenary will always follow the realm character that contracted with him/her. This means that followers cannot be traded between realm characters, because they only contracted with the original RC. Note also that mercenaries are only "contracted", not owned. Therefore, if the realm character begins to abuse the relationship, or if the mercenary is not happy with the situation, the contract may be abandoned and the mercenary will seek work elsewhere.

This is a rare event, and is always preceded with a warning several turns in advance. When contracted, the personality of the mercenary will be available. This gives the idea of how the mercenary will react to certain events (such as lack of combat, morally compromising actions, and danger level comfort). At any given point, you can dismiss a mercenary by issuing the DISCHARGE action.

Henchmen (not mounts nor controlled creatures) always take 1 share of all gold treasure from all combats they are involved. Therefore, if you have 1 henchman, your RC gets 50% of all gold from an encounter, and the henchman gets the rest. All treasure (non-gold loot from an encounter) always goes to the realm character. However, you can arm the henchman with those items if you wish with the EQUIP action.

You are allowed a maximum of 3 henchmen (including mounts) and 3 controlled creatures (such as elementals, golems, or genies). This is limited by your skills, so consult your Skills report to find out how many you can control. Having a better Leadership knowledge will actually increase your followers' combat abilities.

Note that when a Henchman dies, they have the same rules in place as your realm caracter does. He/She will remain grouped with you for up to 10 turns. Once the 10th turn elapses (assuming the henchman is not resurrected), the henchman disappears from your entourage and all of his belongings go into your vault. All non-mount henchmen are raised as status level 1 (see Resurrection rules in Chapter 10). Mounts are raised as a status level equal to their mount level.

6.2 Mounts

Mounts are a special kind of henchman. Mounts are treated as henchmen, but have several differences which are noteworthy. First, Mounts allow you to carry more items (effectively adding their Physical Strength score to yours to have a cumulative effect). For example, if you have a Physical Strength of 5, you are normally limited to carry only 50 individual items. However, with a mount that has a Physical Strength of 10, you can add another 100 items. Note that if you have multiple mounts, the sum of all Physical Strength is used (allowing you to carry a large amount of items).

Second, mounts do not take a share of your gold treasure. To be a mount, a creature must be classified as an animal or similar creature, so gold is not a concern for them.

Third, mounts may help your movement abilities. If a mount flies, you may be able to fly over water terrain or mountains easily. This may not be beneficial if others in your entourage would not be able to traverse such terrain though.

Fourth, you do not CONSCRIPT a mount, you purchase one. Therefore, they are not subject to leave their owners, and the total of their strength scores is no relevant to gaining their services. Instead they all have a mount level which must be equaled or exceeded to get them. For example, when you start the game, you can only purchase level 1 mounts (such as Horses), so do not try to purchase a Griffon (level 3 required).

Note, however, that mounts do not increase their abilities. Unlike normal henchmen, they do not learn from their experiences and therefore stay the same as time passes by.

6.3 Controlled Creatures

Controlled creatures are a separate category of follower. Like henchmen, you can control up to 3 of them at a time (limited by your skills however). Controlled creatures include golems, elementals, some monsters and undead. In other words, this category includes both enchanted creatures as well as summoned ones and animals which have been trained. You could lead Fire Elementals, Stone Golems, Flying Snakes and even Undead. None of these creatures gain experience or skill as henchmen do, and none of them assist you in carrying items like mounts do. They too do not take a share in gold.

Note that it is possible for an enchantment or power which may suppress or in some way eliminate the controlled follower from participating in a battle. For example, in a location which may have an enchantment which blocks all fire-related attacks, it may prevent your fire elementals from joining in the fight. They are not destroyed, in fact they will rejoin you when you win the battle, but they are unable to assist during the battle.

Animals and monsters can be healed normally (with healing spells or potions), but undead and enchanted creatures cannot without special skills. A rare few enchanted creatures "heal" naturally over time.

6.4 Henchman Skills

As your henchmen gain experience, they too can increase their skill levels in most of the same areas that your realm characters can. Below is a listing of what benefits can be had from increasing their knowledge levels in the indicated skill group...

Languages: Currently, this does not grant any additional value.

Environmental: With a higher knowledge level in the Environmental skill group, your realm character's success at those skills increase. This results in either a greater chance of success (Foraging) or a greater return on each action (Gathering, Hunting and Fishing).

Mariner: Henchmen suffer penalties when attacking creatures at sea as the realm characters do. This knowledge helps to reduce that penalty, or actually grants bonuses once a certain "break even" level is reached. Also, they can better assist the realm character when the ship is subjected to capsizing or other major damage.

Merchant: Henchmen can better assist a realm character in building structures within a stronghold, as well as building the stronghold itself. The specific skill noted though (Entertainer, weaponsmith, etc.) is irrelevant.

Combat: Henchmen gain the benefits of having a higher combat skill group level, just like realm characters do.

Stealth: Henchmen gain the benefits of having a higher stealth skill group level, just like realm characters do. In addition, this can help when reacting to or initiating surprise. Plus it increases results from burglary.

Sorcery: When available, they can gain in magical strength as RCs do.

Psionics: When available, they can gain in psionic strength as RCs do.