Chapter 2: The Wall & The GiftIn those days, two thousand years before the Andals brought steeland the secret of writing to Westeros, the First Men did not keep writtenrecords, having no letters but the simple runes they carved. Thoseaccounts that do exist were written thousands of years later by Andalscholars, doing little more than recounting the legends and tales of thegreat heroes. The best record that survives is the Wall itself, but neitherit nor the ancient histories say anything of how Bran the Builder constructedthe greatest edifice in all of Westeros.The legends say also that the Wall is not merely a barrier of ice, butthat Brandon wove great spells into the foundation stones to hedge outthe horrors of the Long Night. The magics that lent their strength andpotency to the Wall were long lost by the time of the Andal invasion.Even among the Night’s <strong>Watch</strong> the story of their origin has been muddledby the passage of millennia. Some said the Children of the Foresttaught Brandon the spells to bar the Others, that the gods of the FirstMen spoke to him through the weirwoods, or that he had rediscoveredancient secrets his kin had brought with them when they crossed theland bridge and claimed Westeros for their home.The effects of these enchantments are speculated upon just as widelyas their origins. There are tales in the histories stored beneath CastleBlack that tell of Others being swallowed by the Wall, their icy fleshabsorbed into the great blocks. There are tales, too, of Others burstinginto cold blue flame as they try to cross, or shattering into glittering dustlike fine snow. And then there is the story of the Night’s King, oncethe Lord Commander of the Night’s <strong>Watch</strong>, who took a woman of theOthers to wife and ruled, with her as his queen, from the Night Fortfor thirteen years before the King in the North and Joramun, Kingbeyond-the-Wall,joined forces to destroy him. Whatever the meansor the mechanism, the Wall has stood for eight millenia, and in all thattime none of the Others has yet ventured south of the Gift.PresentTo many in these days though, that is evidence of nothing. Southerners,to whom winter is little more than a word that means longer nights andbigger fires, widely believe that the Others, if indeed there ever weresuch fanciful creatures, have departed the world just as dragons have.The Wall is but a farce drummed up by ignorant northerners, and theNight’s <strong>Watch</strong> is a piss-pot suitable for little more than collecting thedregs of the citizenry more easily exiled than executed.For most of its history, the Lords Commander of the Night’s <strong>Watch</strong>took great pride in seeing that they leave the Wall higher than they cameto it. The past century, unfortunately, has seen the end of that tradition.As the <strong>Watch</strong>’s prestige has waned, their capabilities have diminishedtoo. As their numbers dwindled, the black brothers began to abandonthose portions of the Wall that were simply too difficult to man. At itsheight, the <strong>Watch</strong> held nineteen castles. Castle Black housed some fivethousand sworn Brothers. Now the whole of the watch only numbersone-fifth of that, and those few are spread thin between the three castlesthat remain in use.There is no thought to building—there simply aren’t enough men toraise the Wall. It is all that the Builders can do to patch the holes andfill the cracks. Teams ride from castle to castle, mending the Wall wherethey can, while the towers and keeps in its shadow crumble. Every yearthere are more cracks, deeper fissures, and fewer men to heal them. Itdoesn’t take a maester to see what will happen if nothing changes: therewill be a hole. A breach. The Wall will fall and the truth of the legendswill be put to the test.Are the Others just a legend? A tale devised to give the <strong>Watch</strong> apurpose? Or do the White Walkers wait for the day when they can onceagain pass the Wall and bring with them a winter everlasting? Menboth pious and profane pray they never find out.Assaulting the WallHow do you lay siege to a wall seven-hundred-feet high?The Kings-beyond-the-Wall have spent thousands of years tryingto figure that out to little avail. But now, with the <strong>Watch</strong>’s numbersso desperately low, there’s little need for making a breach in the Wall.Raiding parties need only find a way over, under, or through it, withenough luck to avoid the few patrols the <strong>Watch</strong> mounts. Luckily forthe Night’s <strong>Watch</strong>, finding a way past a seven-hundred-foot wall of iceis no small task.Going OverThe first, easiest way to get past a wall is generally to go over it. Whenthe obstacle you’re trying to climb is twenty feet high, it’s a simple matterto put a ladder against it and climb. When the climb is more thantwo hundred yards, matters get a bit more complicated.Brandon the Builder was wise in selecting the course of the Wall.All along its length, the Wall stands on the highest ground available.Climbers will have no help from close-leaning hills or cliffs. Trees areprecious little aid, either. Until recently, the Stewards diligently cutdown every tree within a half-mile of the Wall. This still holds true inthe vicinity of the inhabited castles. But even where the wood growsclose, the tallest trees only rise a scant third as high as the Wall itself,leaving more than a hundred yards of sheer and treacherous ice to surmountbefore reaching the summit.Generally, a climb like this would be mechanically simple. For purposesof determining Climbing difficulty, the Wall is a rough surfacewith few handholds requiring a Hard (15) Climbing roll. As per thestandard Athletics rules, success on this roll would mean the charactermoves 1 yard per degree of success to a maximum of the character’smovement rate. A single degree of failure would indicate no progress,and failure greater than one degree means the character falls fromwhatever height they’ve achieved.At that rate, climbing the Wall could very well require over twohundred die rolls. Instead, we suggest requiring climbing rolls every 30yards for a total of 8 successes necessary to reach the summit.To reflect the grueling task of climbing a wall of ice, an additionalFormidable (12) Endurance test is required after every other Climbingtest.Failing a Climbing test has the same consequences as any other. Asingle degree of failure means the climber makes no progress. Any degreeof failure beyond the first and the climber falls. However, as anoptional rule, the Narrator can allow the climbers to take a point ofFatigue to convert a Critical failure to a Marginal failure.Failing an Endurance test also incurs a point of Fatigue. NormalFatigue rules apply in all cases—characters may not accumulate moreFatigue points than they have ranks in the Endurance ability. Charac-43
Chapter 2: The Wall & the GiftScaling the WallClimbing the Wall is a dangerous endeavor at the best of times, and conditions north of the Wall are rarely ideal. Characters that attempt ittake their lives into their own hands and should be prepared to face the consequences. It’s not a job for novices.That being said, SIFRP is a game of heroic adventure whose goal is to be fun for all involved—and arbitrary character death is rarelyfun for anyone.While entirely in theme for the novels on which the game is based, lethal ice falls and sudden, unforeseeable (and unavoidable death) aresimply unfair in the context of the game. Don’t inflict them on your players or you just might find yourself playing alone!ters that exceed their Endurance rank fall from whatever height they’veattained and suffer damage (and probable death) accordingly.All of the rules described previously assume near-ideal conditionsfor making the climb: temperatures a little below freezing, no wind,and time to climb without distraction. They also assume the characteris climbing barehanded.Using climbing tools adds a number of bonus dice to the Athleticstest based on the quality of the tools. Horn or bone spikes add +1B tothe test pool. Iron spikes add +2B. Characters wearing spiked boots gainan additional +1B to their test pool.Should one or another of a group of characters manage to climb thewall with a rope long enough to stretch to the ground again, they mayanchor it to aid those behind them. The Wildlings often make ladders ofhempen rope as well. If these tools are employed, reduce the difficulty ofthe Athletics (Climbing) test appropriately, but climbers must still makethe very same Endurance tests along with every other Athletics test.Going AroundAfter going over a wall, the next easiest option is to go around it. Whenthe wall is three hundred miles from end to end, this option is reallyonly feasible to those who begin near one end or another, and even thenthe trip is anything but easy.In the west, the wildlings of the Frostfangs creep through themaze of box canyons and razor sharp rocks of the Gorge under coverof night to slip past the Shadow Tower and raid the coastal landsbeyond. Just getting into the Gorge is a dangerous ordeal and manyof have fallen to their deaths from the steep cliffs and narrow trailsthat lead down into it. Once there the raiders must navigate thelabyrinth of gullies, canyons, and ravines, avoiding dangerous pitfallsand avalanches, and all that under cover of darkness if they hopeto avoid notice by the sentinels of the Night’s <strong>Watch</strong> stationed onhidden ledges along the east wall of the Gorge. Those that make itthrough the Gorge and past the <strong>Watch</strong> without being noticed stillmust climb the other side again.In the east, the wildlings build boats of hide stretched over woodenframes or dugout canoes to skirt the waters below Eastwatch-by-the-Sea and raid the lands below the Wall. They have a choice: sail at nightin darkness and risk smashing themselves against the rocks along thebeaches that edge the Bay of Seals, or sail by day and risk Cotter Pyke’sblack ships that prowl the bay like wolves in search of wildling prey.Night or day, raiders must also brave the cold, black waters betweenSkagos and the mainland. Many a would-be raider has become a mealfor the fishes, thinking the passage would be easy.Narrators running scenarios involving the eastern and western passagesshould feel free to make them as difficult, or easy as necessary fortheir story. Passing through the Gorge should tests of Athletics, Stealth,and Survival. Remember, too, that the Night’s <strong>Watch</strong> have kept watchover the Gorge and the Bay of Seals for thousands of years. They knowthe paths through near as well as the wildlings do. Those who choosean easy path will have to be that much stealthier to slip past the sentinels;those who choose to avoid the watchers will find the climbs farmore perilous, the seas and rocks more deadly. Adjust your difficultiesaccordingly.Going UnderIf you can’t go over, and you can’t go around, there are only two optionsleft. In the south, armies employ skilled and experienced engineers todig tunnels under the walls of their enemies’ castles, but these are rarelyfor purposes of opening underground passages, but rather to underminethe walls themselves, collapsing the tunnels and thus the walls above44
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