Death & Danger

Wounds are the countdown. The injury tables are what a wound costs you.

Out of Vitality: Wounds & Second Wind

What Happens

Running out of Vitality does not drop you. A hit that would push you past 0 Vitality inflicts a wound instead: a rolled lasting injury (below). You catch a Second Wind and stay conscious and fighting, coming back up with your Vitality and your Vigor both restored to full. The rest of that hit is negated. Your wound capacity is your Tier, counted from your active lasting injuries.

This is what makes a KING character hard to put down: a Tier 3 hero has three more full sets of pools behind the one you can see, and each one costs a permanent injury to buy.

When you would take a wound and have none left to spend, you die.

There is no dying state, no death timer, and no death saves. Your wounds are the countdown, and everyone at the table can see it: a Tier 3 hero carrying three wounds is one bad hit from the end, and they knew it when they took the third.

NPCs never take wounds: a Major NPC out of Vigor and Vitality simply dies, and a Minor flees at 0 Vigor or dies at twice its Tier in total damage (Part 7B).

Staying Alive

Because there is no dying state to be rescued from, everything that keeps you alive has to happen before the killing blow:

• Heal the pools. Vitality and Vigor restored before a hit lands mean fewer hits that reach past 0 in the first place.
• Remove a wound. Wound-removal magic and the Treatment column give back capacity, and capacity is life. See the Treatment entries on each injury table.
• Do not be there. Disengage, Step, cover, and range are how a wounded character survives; at capacity there is no cushion left.

Lasting Injuries

A wound IS a lasting injury. Vitality is battle damage that returns on a Rest; a wound is what a hit costs you when it would push you past 0 Vitality (you are maimed but standing, and both pools refill: see Second Wind above). Roll d4 + your Tier on the table below; the GM chooses which table based on what caused the hit, or rolls randomly if the source was mixed. The GM may skip the roll if it is narratively inappropriate. You can carry wounds equal to your Tier; with no wound left to spend, you die. Wounds persist through Rest and heal only via their Treatment column or wound-removal magic.

Injury Critical Failures

Each injury is tagged with an injury die and an activity. When you make a check related to that activity, roll your injury die alongside your check dice. If the injury die comes up 1, the injury severely hampers your efforts: the result is worse than normal failure. The GM describes how the injury made things go wrong.

This only applies to ability checks. Saving throws, attack rolls, spellcasting checks, and disruption checks do not trigger injury critical failures.

Lower dice = more severe (d3 is worse than d20). Broader activities = more severe (affects more types of checks).

Result 1 on each table has no die; it's cosmetic and fades naturally.

Wound Injuries (Blades, Claws, Arrows, Teeth)

Trauma Injuries (Falls, Blunt Force, Crushing, Explosions)

Burn Injuries (Fire, Acid, Cold, Lightning, Energy)

Corruption Injuries (Poison, Necrotic, Psychic, Magical)

Disease Table

When exposed to illness or as a result of certain injuries, roll to determine the affliction.

Treatment Guide

Reading the Treatment Column:

• Rest X = X months of complete rest (no adventuring)
• Medicine X+ = Roll X or higher on the Medicine/Healing downtime table
• Litany: Name = Requires that specific prophet litany

Treatment Options:

• Rest: Safe but slow. Character must avoid strenuous activity.
• Medicine/Healing Downtime: Seek a physician or healer. Higher rolls = better equipment, more skilled practitioners.
• Litanies: Divine intervention. Requires finding a prophet with the appropriate litany and convincing them to help.

Litanies Used for Treatment:

• Cure the Afflicted (Tier 1) - Cures disease and poison
• Restore Hope (Tier 1) - Cures supernatural despair, nightmares, intrusive thoughts
• Seal Wounds (Tier 1) - Closes serious wounds, heals internal damage
• Restore Sight (Tier 2) - Restores blindness from any cause
• Restore the Maimed (Tier 2) - Regrows lost limbs and organs, restores severe damage
• Break Great Curse (Tier 2) - Breaks curses, magical corruption, soul damage
• Cure Plague (Tier 2) - Required for actual plague

Poison

Poison

Application:

• Poisoned weapons
• Ingested poison
• Contact poison
• Inhaled poison

Saving: Body save vs poison DC

• Success: No effect (or reduced effect)
• Failure: Full effect

Effects:

• Immediate Vitality loss
• Vigor stripped each round (damage over time)
• Stat penalties
• Conditions (paralyzed, unconscious, etc.)

Treatment:

• Antidotes (instant cure)
• Healing magic (varies by spell)
• Time (poison runs its course)

Death

How Characters Die

A character dies the moment they would take a wound and have none left to spend. There is no dying state, no death timer, and no stabilization: the wound track IS the countdown, and it is visible to everyone at the table.

What this means in play:

• Help has to arrive before the killing blow, not after it
• Clearing a wound (Treatment or wound-removal magic) gives back a slot, and a slot is a life
• A character at capacity should be played like it: they are one hit past 0 Vitality from the end

Resurrection

When Characters Die:

Low Levels (1-4):

• Death is usually final
• Resurrection magic is rare
• May require quest to find resurrection

High Levels (5-10):

• Resurrection spells become available
• High-tier clerics can resurrect
• Expensive and costly

Resurrection Limits:

• Some deaths can't be reversed (disintegration, consumed by demons, etc.)
• Each resurrection takes a toll (stat loss, corruption, etc.)
• Multiple resurrections become harder

Resurrection Costs:

• Expensive material components
• Divine favor or intervention
• Personal sacrifice
• Time and recovery

Permadeath

When Resurrection Doesn't Work:

• Body completely destroyed
• Soul trapped or consumed
• Divine intervention prevented
• Player chooses final death

Making a New Character:

• Start at appropriate level for party
• Inherit some wealth/resources
• Integration into story

Combat Reference Tables

Damage Resistance & Immunity