Aes Sedai often bemoan the fact that so much knowledge has been lost since the Age of Legends. What once was commonplace is now unheard of. But more than knowledge was lost during the Breaking of the World - many angreal have been lost over time.
Angreal increase the amount of the One Power
that a channeler can channel. Some angreal
are quite small, almost appearing to have been made as gifts, while others give
the user more substantial gains.
Again illustrating the differences between saidar and saidin, the angreal which work for men do nothing for women and vice versa. A woman holding an angreal attuned to a woman feels a sort of warmth from the angreal. The same woman holding a male angreal will feel nothing.
Angreal are extremely valuable; the White
Tower, for example, is extremely careful about who uses the angreal they
possess and record where the items are at all times.
Aes Sedai warbands, Asha’man warbands and Black Sisters from Friends of the Dark warbands all have access to angreal. Only channelers may use angreal. When you create your warband, or during the campaign phase after a game, you may choose to borrow an angreal from your warband’s ‘sources’ (i.e. the White Tower, the Black Tower, the Heads of the Black Ajah, or perhaps even the Forsaken!).
An angreal provides the channeler who is carrying it with an extra amount of channeling points which are added to his/her own basic amount. Different angreal provide varying amounts of extra power that the channeler can safely channel; for the purposes of this game the strength of angreal range from 1 to 5 extra channeling points each. Note that it is possible to combine the effects of multiple angreal, but each model may have no more than 6 cp extra each (too much of the One Power and the channeler would burn themselves out!). These additional channeling points provided by angreal work exactly like the channelers own channeling points. See the channeling rules section for details.
As these items are quite rare and precious, borrowing any angreal for a substantial period of time can prove quite a drain on your warband’s resources. The costs represent the time and money spent by your warband working the right connections to get hold of and keep angreal.
When you borrow an angreal, you must pay for its corresponding initial cost. Subsequently, after each game (including the first) you must pay an extended cost if you wish to make use of the angreal in your next game. Both the initial and extended costs for each angreal are displayed in the Angreal Table. The money paid for each angreal comes from the warband’s treasury in the same way as buying new weapons or recruiting more warriors. If you don’t have enough gold to pay for the angreal, or you want to spend it on other things, then the angreal is sent back from whence it came.
|
Angreal Power (channeling points) |
Initial Cost |
Extended Cost |
Reward Value |
||||
|
1
cp |
20
gm |
10
gm |
10
+ 2D6 gm |
||||
|
2
cp |
40
gm |
20
gm |
30
+ 2D6 gm |
||||
|
3
cp |
60
gm |
30
gm |
50
+ 2D6 gm |
||||
|
4
cp |
80
gm |
40
gm |
70
+ 2D6 gm |
||||
|
5
cp |
100
gm |
50
gm |
90
+ 2D6 gm |
||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
||||
If an angreal is gained through some
other method (e.g. through a result on an exploration chart, by taking the
belongings of a captured warrior etc) no initial or extended costs need to be
paid. Instead, you may choose to keep the
angreal or to send it to someone who may reward your find. Such rewards may come from the White Tower,
the Black Tower, the Heads of the Black Ajah, the Forsaken, Shaido Wise Ones,
High Lords of Tear etc. The list could
go on, but what is basically being said here is that angreal are in very
high demand and that many would reward the finder handsomely.
The amount of gold rewarded for your find is shown as the Reward Value
in the Angreal Table. The strength of
the angreal greatly determines the Reward Value, with an angreal
of 1 cp being the least well rewarded and a powerful angreal of 5 cp
being generously rewarded. You may
choose to ‘cash in’ your angreal in the campaign phase after any game in
your warband’s campaign. If a warrior
carrying an angreal rolls up a ‘dead’ or ‘robbed’ result when rolling on
the serious injuries table, it is lost with everything else.
Note that most angreal are either only usable by male or female channelers; angreal able to be used by both sexes are very rare indeed. For the purposes of this game, any angreal that is found or borrowed by your warband can be used by your warband’s channeler. The only exception to this is when your warband comes across an angreal previously used by a channeler of the opposite sex of your own channeler. In this case the angreal may not be used by your warband’s channeler, but you may still be rewarded for your find.