Year One, Autumn: The Gabe Gothard Family

Gabe left the village of Ayre one cool morning early in Autumn, with his grandchildren waving goodbye at the gate. He hiked up into the Woodcutter’s Forest, over the hills, and into the Ayre river valley. In the Vale, he avoided the roads and crossed the bridges at night. He passed the Abbey at Saint Lorien, and kept going. Finally, he reached a hut by a stream in the mountains, which was deserted. Gabe collapsed, exhausted, on a pile of straw in the corner.

The next morning, he realized what a beautiful place he had found. It overlooked a small valley that looked uninhabited. Gabe collected fire wood, nuts, berries, and began to fish in the stream.

That night, Gabe relaxed and looked around. It was not a bad place to hide out, although he missed his family terribly. Especially Hadley. How he longed to play a game with his granddaughter.

The next morning, Gabe again gathered wood, nuts, and berries, but it was unseasonably warm, and he began to feel faint. He stopped his work to drink some water.

Gabe felt he was going to pass out.

Next thing he knew, he was on the ground, and a nun was approaching him.

“I must have hit my head,” he said to the nun, thinking she might help him into the house.

The next thing he knew, Gabe opened his eyes, and he was in a prison cell.

All through the rest of the Autumn, Gabe stayed in the cell, and food was passed in to him by the guard, Seth. Seth told him he was awaiting the completion of his trial, and sentencing. He was being held in the Tower, in Ayre.

It was hard for Gabe to cope with loneliness in his cell. He had food, water, and the bed was fine, but how desperately he needed the company of another person. One day, in mid to late autumn, the jailer told Gabe that his daughter, Daralis, had died of plague. Daralis had been the primary witness, and primary evidence, of his theft of the royal treasury. The jailer said there was talk that with his daughter’s death, perhaps Gabe would be released.

Eventually, the trees he could see from his cell window dropped their leaves, and cold winds howled around the Tower walls at night. Seth told him it was winter time. Seth told him that despite his daughter’s death, the Squire had testified, and Gabe had been convicted of theft of the royal treasury. The Squire had requested leniency, and a jail sentence, but the Lord Stirwuard pushed for a death sentence. And still, Gabe waited in the Tower.

Gameplay Notes:

Gabe went to the Vale as an outlaw. According to the Warwickshire Challenge & Playstyle, if a sim is living as an outlaw, the player has to roll daily to see if they are discovered, and if discovered, they are returned to prison. The odds for days 1-3 in the forest are 11/20. For days 4-5, the odds are 9/20. I determined that if I rolled 1-11, he was caught. 12-20 meant he was safe.

One day 1, I rolled a 20, so Gabe got to stay in the forest.

One day 2, I rolled an 8. Gabe was “discovered.” Joasia, from the Abbey, walked by, and I decided to use that as his “discovery.” But before she walked by, he had passed out from heatstroke. I thought she might help revive him but she did not. Then I saved, exited, and opened the Tower lot. I used the simological prison token to imprison Gabe in a cell there and finished the season with him in the cell.

I used the Warwickshire guide on page 132 and following to determine Gabe’s competency, the “event score” for the theft, and whether he was discovered and convicted.

Criminal Record (from Warwickshire, p 132)

Competency was determined using the description on p. 133. Gabe’s greatest strengths were his body skill of 4. His Competency subtotal was pretty low, a 6, giving him almost no chance of pulling off the theft. Of course, since the theft was a wild card from his criminal career, he was going to “pull it off” but I wanted to see what the outcome of the process would be and the event score is also used to figure whether a sim is convicted of a crime.

Determining Event Score:

Random Number Generator

Gabe’s career wild card event resulted in a net $800 from theft. According to the Warwickshire, the Event Score for Class I theft of property (valued from $50 to $1000) is 25-50, for stealing from nobility (armed vehicle). The event score range was lowered to 2-50 because of three (theoretical) modifiers that made it “easier.” The three modifiers were 1) guard asleep -5 , 2) Time, 11 P – 5A, -3, and 3) Open approach on 3 sides, -15 for a total reduction of event score threshold to of -23 yield an event score range of 2-50. I rolled a 6, so Gabe was successful, which is what his career card said too.

Evidence & Conviction of Crime, p 147.

Fortune crimes are investigated for up to five days (each day, a number generator is used within the ranges as determined by the chart). The event score influences how easy it is for investigators to solve the crime. I am following this process in retrospect, since I did not do it during the summer, when he actually got the career chance card.

Crime outcome was the event score of 6, a very low score in a crime that normally requires 25-50 to succeed.

Gabe’s starting point with an event score of 6, was a random roll of a number between -10 and +15. A negative number means evidence was not produced, which a positive number means evidence was produced.

Roll #1 – 7 – Yes, evidence was produced. Storywise, this happens to correspond to Daralis having turned in the gold to the Squire.

Roll #2 – (moving up on the chart, since evidence was produced.) 9- evidence produced.

Roll #3 – -2, no evidence produced. To me this, and Roll #4, which was -6, for no evidence, corresponds to the death of Daralis from plague.

Roll #5, a positive roll of 13, was the final blow. Gabe is convicted of theft from the royal treasury armored vehicle in the summer. This is the point at which (theoretically) the Squire testifies that Daralis turned in the money and pleads for leniency for Gabe in his sentencing.

Lord Stirwuard will decide how to punish him. He is a strict man and I am leaning towards thinking he would decide on a capital sentence. Gabe will be sentenced in winter.