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Supernatural Afflictions Skills

Supernatural Afflictions Skills

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Basic Revenant (20xp)
Requires: Must be achieved in play.
Required for: Undead Power 1; Undead Power 2;

When a PC becomes a Revenant they get the basic Revenant package (below), going into XP debt if necessary. They may then purchase up to two additional levels of Undead Power if they wish at a later point.

Instead of being raised as a Revenant, the player may choose to have their character die. This is specifically an OC choice made by the player.

Minimum Phys-Rep:
Dark rings around eyes.

You are now undead of rank equal to your character level and respond to miracles and other effects on this basis. You respond to Rec Undead as a Revenant.
You cannot be affected by alchemical healing.
You don’t need to breathe or eat.
Physical sensations such as pain and pleasure are much more muted than they were while alive.
You do not need to sleep, but most revenants go into a daily extended trance-like state to conserve their spiritual energy.
Plants and small animals in areas around revenants or the locations where they reform tend to wither and die as the revenant naturally and (usually) unconsciously drains them of vitality in order to prolong its unlife.
You may conceal your dark eye-rings with Disguise I.
All your body locations are destroyed immediately upon their reaching zero hits (you have no bleed timer).
If you reach 0 hits on a critical location your body dematerialises, leaving all your IC valuables behind but taking your mundane clothing with it.
If you were not killed by SPIRIT damage you will reform at an appropriate location (chosen by the refs) at the next New Moon.
If you were killed by SPIRIT damage, you also leave a small pile of ash behind which counts as a critical location.
If you are a priest you may be cut off from your god as per spirit wracking depending on your deity’s relationship with the god whose miracle was used to create you and their opinion of undead in general. This is a ref decision made over downtime.

Undead Power 1 (15xp)
Requires: Basic Revenant
Required for: Undead Power 2;

You gain a 1/day ability to cast one miracle of equal or lower than your character level that is in the domains of the god you were raised by. You choose this miracle when you take this power and it does not change afterwards.

Undead Power 2 (10xp)
Requires: Basic Revenant; Undead Power 1; Character of level 6 or higher

You gain the ability to cast DEATH WARD targeting yourself once per day as a miracle with an eight word vocal calling on your own undead power.

Vampire (60xp)
Requires: Uptime Rite; Character must be Willing
Required for: Vampiric Flight; Vampiric Mist Form;

Automatic gain; go into XP debt.

You can only become a vampire if you are dead and your spirit is still present.
When you die, all previous spiritual & alchemical effects end (e.g. Beguile, Elixir of Affection).
You must be turned in uptime by another vampire through it feeding you some of its blood in a deliberate attempt to turn you. If your spirit is unwilling to become a vampire then you remain dead and the rite fails. This choice cannot be affected through mind control or similar means.
You may not take this package as a starting character.

Certain species are incompatible with vampirism, such as Trolls and Elemental Elves, and will be unable to survive the rite to become a vampire. A ref must be in attendance to oversee the vampirism process. Once you have been turned into a vampire, you are immune to the Resurrection miracle and must call “No Effect”.

Phys-rep Requirement: none.
If you fail to drink the required amount of blood (see below), you gain the phys-rep requirement of: Red horizontal stripe across face, usually across eyes. If you are playing a race which already has a horizontal stripe physrep and wish to use a stripe in the same location for your vampire physrep as well, you should have your stripe be half red and half the appropriate other colour. The way you divide this does not matter, but both colours should be distinct and present.

Physical

  • You are an undead of Rank 6 or your character level, whichever is higher. You respond to Rec Undead as a Vampire.
  • You feel intense discomfort in direct sunlight – it causes no mechanical damage, but you feel constant pain. You may not transform while in direct sunlight, and you may not be healed (though effects like Death Ward and Regeneration will work).
  • You do not need to eat or breathe, and do not feel pain from injuries. You do suffer from Vampiric Thirst (see below).
  • You gain the ability to transform into the forms of a rat, a bat, and a wolf (see below).

Spiritual

  • You can call Spirit Single as per the Brawling skill. This call may not be increased or reduced by any means (e.g. Berserk, Cause Disease, the Feebleness skill, etc.), but may be channelled through a Crafted or better quality weapon. You may not suppress the spiritual nature of this damage.
  • You gain the ability to add Spirit to your usual damage by melee weapon.
  • With a five word vocal calling on your power as a vampire, you can cast “Greater Dominate Undead” without expending any spirit. This functions exactly as the Dominate Undead Necromancy miracle, except that it will work if an undead is already under the effects of Dominate Undead. Only one person may have control of an undead at one time.
  • If you are devoted to anyone but Vivamort, you lose your original Devotion and gain Devotion: Vivamort. You must reallocate XP from your previous miracle domains in order to buy Vivamortian miracles as per a standard Vivamortian priest. If you are already a Vivamortian priest, you cannot be spirit-wracked. If you think you have broken a Vivamortian stricture as a vampire, tell a ref.
  • You are completely under the control of your Sire, the vampire who created you. This is a mind control effect: you are spiritually forced to obey any commands they give you. If created through geomancy, you are under the control of Vivamort. This effect cannot be blocked by Mental Shield.
  • You gain Beguile at will by ten seconds’ eye contact with the target.
  • You gain the ability to create (and control) other vampires by feeding your blood to the recently-dead. Vivamort will only accept the use of this ability if the person was worthy of being a vampire and the action was not rash. If the target is unwilling to be turned into a vampire, then they die during the rite. The soul must still be present in order to create a vampire. A ref should be present during this rite. If you do this, whether the target accepts becoming a vampire or not, you do one degree less damage by melee weapon until you next drink 3 hits’ worth of blood, just as if you had not drunk the required amount of blood for a week.

Health and Survival

  • You gain the ability to create a Vampiric Coffin (see below).
  • You cannot be affected by alchemical healing.
  • All your body locations are destroyed immediately upon reaching zero hits (you have no bleed timer).
  • You halve all incoming damage against you. This functions as per the Refract spell, though is not magical and may not be Dispelled. It does not stack with Refract. This effect does not remove any other effects which that attack may have.
  • If a critical location is reduced to 0 hits, your body immediately disappears, leaving your IC valuables behind and taking your mundane clothing with it. If a critical location was reduced to 0 hits by Spirit damage, you permanently die.
  • If you were killed by any other means, you reform in your coffin (see below) over the course of one week. Any limbs which were destroyed when you were killed return on full hits when you reform. If you are Staked while reforming at your coffin, you die permanently. You can be Staked with any safe melee weapon physrep and appropriate roleplay.

Special: Vampiric Coffins

Every vampire has a coffin, which they return to periodically in order to rest. A coffin need not be a literal coffin, and some vampires employ luxurious beds or simple chairs for the same purpose. In practice, any item or demarcated area sufficiently large to allow a vampire to lie or sit upon it may function as a vampiric coffin. A vampire may select a new coffin by performing an appropriate five-minute rite to sanctify the new coffin, involving calling on their vampiric power. This also works if a vampiric coffin has been destroyed. Vampiric coffins respond to Rec. Undead with the rank of the vampire who created them as a Vampiric Coffin.
When a vampire’s body is destroyed, its spirit returns to the coffin in order to reform over a period of a few weeks. This is the source of a vampire’s immortality. If a vampire does not have a coffin when it dies, its spirit cannot reform, and will be sent on to Vivamort.
While a vampire is reforming, rats, bats and wolves in the local area are drawn towards the coffin. This can make it very easy for those who are aware of this to determine where a vampire is reforming.
While a vampire is reforming, it may take no actions and is not aware of the world around it. This provides the perfect time to permanently kill such a creature. Driving a stake or similar object into the partially-formed vampire’s chest disrupts the spiritual reformation process and permanently kills the vampire.
When you become a vampire, you must choose a location for your coffin. The refs must be aware of this location, and it must be located within the city of Durholme.
If a vampiric coffin is destroyed, the vampire will feel compelled to create a new coffin as soon as possible. It is not possible to have more than one coffin at once – creating a new coffin automatically supersedes any old ones.
As a minor downtime action, a vampire may rest in their coffin. This restores any limbs lost by the vampire to full hits.

Special: Transformation

All vampires have the ability to turn into the holy animals of Vivamort: the rat; the bat; and the wolf. It takes five seconds to transform into or out of animal form. While in direct sunlight, you may not transform – you are stuck in whatever form you were in when you entered the sunlight. When re-forming from an animal form, any locations which were destroyed when you transformed remain destroyed when you reform. Your transformed forms respond to Spirit Sight, Rec Undead, Recognise Nature of Creature, Dismiss Undead, and similar calls as you would while in vampiric form. You may transform into or out of animal forms while you are being Dismissed, but remain rooted in place.
While transformed, you may not speak or use any skills which require vocals, the ability to speak, or manual dexterity (and you are not affected by Feebleness or Frailty). Any IC valuable items you were carrying or wearing are dropped unless the transformed form could also carry them, e.g. amulets, holy symbols, etc. Your mundane clothes transform along with you.
If you are reduced to 0 hits in your transformed form, you die, disappear, and attempt to reform in exactly the same way as a non-transformed vampire would under the circumstances.
Any hits lost and not healed in a transformed form remain lost until the vampire transforms back into their vampire form, at which point they are refreshed. You may only transform into a particular form once per 5 minutes.
Phys-Rep Standards and Combat:
For Rat and Bat forms, the Vampire player should provide a suitable phys-rep for the animal and use the “Hand in Air” signal while controlling the phys-rep. The phys-rep should be treated as non-combatant, and players wishing to initiate melee combat with a Rat- or Bat-form vampire should approach the player controlling it and declare “OC: I am attacking you”, and may then call their damage, e.g. “Double”. This does not allow players to target vampire-bats flying higher than the attacker can reach. If using ranged attacks, players should call them as normal against the vampire.
In the case of a Wolf-form vampire, the player should call TIME FREEZE upon transforming, and should don an appropriate costume (e.g. a wolf mask) before calling TIME IN. The Wolf form is then treated as having the same combat status as the vampire’s player.
Rat: In Rat form, you have 2 global hits and 2 DAC. You may not call damage (though may still drink blood from unresisting targets). In Rat form you always count as using Hide & Sneak, and do not need to “throw the horns” to do so.
Bat: In Bat form, you have 2 global hits and 2 DAC. You may not call damage (though may still drink blood from unresisting targets). You may fly as per the Fly (self) spell, though this has no duration, may not be Dispelled, and does not count as a magical effect.
Wolf: In Wolf form, you have 10 global hits. You can do Spirit Single by ambidexed claws/18″ weapons, and may use your default melee damage if this is higher.

Special: Vampiric Thirst

As a vampire, you are empowered directly by Vivamort’s spirits through your blood. To sustain this connection and their power, you must feed on the blood of living sentient beings.
You gain a Vampiric Thirst for blood: you must drink 3 hits’ worth of fresh blood directly from a living being with a full spirit each week. To do this, you must roleplay biting an unresisting living target. The bite does a Spirit Single every 10 seconds, i.e. 3 hits requires 30 seconds’ worth of biting. When you drink blood, the target does one degree less damage with weapons for five minutes. This effect does not stack with itself.
If you fail to drink the required amount of blood, you gain a red stripe across your eyes. If you are playing a race which already has an eye-stripe physrep, you should have your stripe be half red and half the appropriate other colour. The way you divide this does not matter, but both colours should be distinct and present. These effects lasts until you drink a week’s worth of blood.
If you fail to drink the required amount of blood for 2 consecutive weeks, you also you do one degree less damage with weapons, and may not transform into animal forms or turn into mist. These effects last until you drink a week’s worth of blood.
If you fail to drink the required amount of blood for 3 consecutive weeks, you begin to crave blood. If you do not drink a week’s worth of blood within half an hour of the event starting, you begin attacking everything and feeding until you have drunk a week’s worth of blood or until 10 minutes are up. In the latter case, you immediately permanently die, and cannot reform at your coffin.
You may drink this blood in downtime, in which case it will usually take a minor action.

Summary:

  • You are an undead of Rank 6 or your character level, whichever is higher, and respond to Rec Undead as a Vampire.
  • You may not be healed while in direct sunlight (and feel intense discomfort).
  • You do not need to eat or breathe, and do not feel pain from injuries.
  • You cannot be affected by alchemical healing.
  • You halve all incoming damage against you (as per the Refract spell).
  • All your body locations are destroyed immediately upon reaching zero hits (you have no bleed timer).
  • If a core location was destroyed by non-spiritual damage, you drop your IC valuables and reform in your coffin over a week (see details).
  • If a core location is destroyed by Spirit damage, you die permanently.
  • You suffer from Vampiric Thirst and must drink blood (see details).
  • You gain the ability to transform into the forms of a rat, a bat, and a wolf (see details) unless you are in direct sunlight.
  • You may call SPIRIT SINGLE as per Brawling, or through a crafted or better-quality weapon. You may add SPIRIT to your usual melee damage call.
  • With a five-word vocal, you may cast ‘Greater Dominate Undead’ (see details).
  • If you are a Vivamortian priest, you cannot be spirit-wracked (but should tell a ref if you think you have broken any strictures).
  • You are completely under the control of your Sire, the vampire who created you (see details).
  • You gain Beguile at will by ten seconds’ eye contact with the target.
  • You gain the ability to create (and control) other vampires (see details).
  • You gain the ability to create a Vampiric Coffin and to rest in it (see details).

Vampiric Flight (20xp) [Root Skill]
Requires: Vampire

  • By giving in to your baser vampiric urges, you gain the power of flight and a closer connection to the holy animals of Vivamort. You may Fly as per the Fly (self) spell, though this has no duration, may not be Dispelled, and does not count as a magical effect. You may not do this in direct sunlight.
  • You gain the ability to Speak Wolf, Speak Bat, and Speak Rat, both in the relevant transformed forms and in your vampiric form.
  • Your Vampiric Thirst increases to 6 hits of blood (or 2 peasants, 1 if drained to death).

Vampiric Mist Form (20xp) [Root Skill]
Requires: Vampire

  • You gain the ability to turn yourself and all your worn and carried items into mist once per 24 hours. You may not do this in direct sunlight. While in mist form, you are immune to all physical damage (you should respond “NO EFFECT” to all physical damage). The mist form may not be separated. You may not talk, use any skills, or do anything other than move around and transform into animal or vampiric form. If Dismissed in mist form, or if you enter direct sunlight, you are forced to transform back into a corporeal, non-mist form.

Lycanthropy (0xp)
Requires: Being reduced to 0 hits on a core location by a werewolf’s bite or claw attacks. This stat package is gained automatically.
Required for: Werewolf

You respond “Lycanthropy” to Rec Afflictions. Lycanthropy cannot be removed by Restoration miracles.

A character with Lycanthropy will automatically gain the Werewolf skill at the next full moon. If you do not have sufficient XP for that skill, the skill gain occurs anyway, and you enter XP debt.

If you are a species which cannot take Spiritual Favour 1 (e.g. Trolls, Elemental Elves), you do not gain Werewolf at the next full moon and instead die. The character will die approximately one hour after the start of the next full moon interactive. If the character is not being played at the appropriate moment during that interactive, they also die. This cannot be prevented by effects such as Death Ward and Spirit Defence, and you cannot be resurrected by any means. If you leave a corpse when you die in this way, this corpse does not contain a spirit.

Undead cannot gain this skill. An individual with this skill may be raised as an undead, but loses this skill and any other Werewolf skills.

It is possible to discover methods to remove this skill.

Werewolf (40xp)
Requires: Lycanthropy
Required for: Full Moon Werewolf; New Moon Werewolf

Upon gaining this skill, you no longer respond to Rec Afflictions with Lycanthropy, as the disease has run its transformative course. You now have two forms: Base Form, in which you appear as a normal member of your species, and Wolf Form, in which you appear wolf-like and grow in strength and agility.

This package is used by PC Werewolves. NPC Werewolves may have different stats, and are more likely to Enrage than PC Werewolves.

Base Form:

  • May call SPIRIT SINGLE by bite, as per the Brawling skill.
    • You cannot suppress the SPIRIT modifier, and thus cannot call SUBDUE damage by bite.
    • Reducing another character to 0 hits or below on a core location in this way will infect them with Lycanthropy.
  • If a non-critical location is reduced to -3 hits by damage other than types which cannot be regenerated in Wolf Form, it will fully regrow and heal between events. Otherwise, it will be destroyed as normal.
    • If a critical location is reduced to -3 hits, you will die as normal.
  • You experience an uncomfortable, burning sensation on contact with silver, though this does no damage.
  • Animals are afraid of you – they show this in various ways depending on the animal, for example by cowering away from you or through increased aggression.
  • You respond to Detect Scents and to Rec Nature of Creature as a normal member of your species would – your responses only change in Wolf Form.
  • You may transform into your Wolf Form once an hour. Call TIME FREEZE to allow yourself to don phys-reps.
  • If your Base Form species is a Dwarf, you are in constant pain.

Minimum Phys-Rep: No additional requirements in Base Form.

Wolf Form:

  • You gain +1 hit/loc and 2 DAC. The hits gained in this form are lost before base form hits.
  • You regenerate 1 hit/loc every 5 minutes.
    • You cannot regenerate FLAMING, SPIRIT or SILVER damage – this damage can be healed by other means. 
    • You cannot regenerate damage taken which cannot normally be healed, e.g. damage from Overcasting. 
    • You cannot regenerate VENOM damage without receiving an appropriate antivenom, however VENOM damage cannot kill you in this form.
  • Your locations are not permanently crippled when reduced to -3 hits, unless this was done by damage which cannot be regenerated.
    • If a critical location is reduced to -3 hits by damage which cannot be regenerated, you die.
    • If a non-critical location is reduced to -3 hits by damage which cannot be regenerated, it is permanently destroyed.
  • You may call SPIRIT SINGLE by ambidex 18″ claws. If you have skills which alter your damage call in Base Form, your damage in Wolf Form will match this accordingly (e.g. a character with Melee VII would be able to call SPIRIT DOUBLE by ambidex 18″ claws). You may also call SPIRIT SINGLE by bite, as per the Brawling skill.
    • Your claws do not count as weapons, and thus are not affected by spells and miracles such as Enhancement, Shatter and Berserk.
    • You cannot suppress the SPIRIT modifier, and thus cannot call SUBDUE damage. 
    • The Feebleness skill does not change your default Wolf Form damage call to SPIRIT NOTHING – it remains SPIRIT SINGLE. 
    • Additional effects which alter your damage, such as Weakness, Cause Disease or Ghastly Purgative, will alter your damage call as normal. 
    • Reducing another character to 0 hits or below on a core location with your Werewolf attacks will infect them with Lycanthropy.
  • You take +1 degree of damage from SILVER.
    • Contact with silver objects causes an uncomfortable, burning sensation, though this does no damage unless you are attacked with the object.
  • You may not use abilities which require speaking (such as casting) or manual dexterity (such as Knot Tying or using weapons). See a ref to confirm which abilities you can use in this form.
    • You still understand any languages you can speak in Base Form. If you are targeted by the Talk to Sentient spell, you may communicate with the caster normally.
  • Animals are afraid of you – they show this in various ways depending on the animal, for example by cowering away from you or through increased aggression.
    • You may communicate with dogs and wolves as per the Talk to Animals spell, and Werewolves as per the Talk to Sentient spell, at any time.
  • You gain Mass Detect Scent Wolf. 
  • You PING to MASS DETECT SCENT WOLF, and respond “[Base Species] Werewolf” to Recognise Nature of Creature.
  • You may transform into your Base Form at will, if you are not Enraged. Call TIME FREEZE to allow yourself to doff phys-reps.
  • If your Base Form species is a Dwarf, you are in constant pain.

Minimum Phys-Rep: Ambidex 18″ weapons to represent claws. Appropriate costuming, such as furs, wolf face paint, or a wolf mask.

Enraged
During the week of the full moon, you will become Enraged for 5 minutes if you are attacked. You do not need to have lost hits from this attack for the Enraged condition to trigger. You may also choose to become Enraged for 5 minutes if your character experiences significant emotional distress during the week of the Full Moon – this is self-reffed.

While Enraged:

  • Gain +1 degree of damage by bite and claw.
  • Take +1 degree of damage from SILVER.
  • Your locations remain functional, and you remain conscious, until the location is reduced to -2. 
  • Upon Enraging:
    • You immediately shift into Wolf Form if you are in Base Form, regardless of whether you have done this in the past hour.
    • You should call MASS DETECT SCENT WOLF.
    • You are compelled to attack the nearest conscious living target. You will ignore anything that pings to MASS DETECT SCENT WOLF, unless it attacks you.
  • An Enraged Werewolf will stop ignoring anything that pings to MASS DETECT SCENT WOLF when targeted by the Berserk miracle.

Full Moon Werewolf (40xp)
Requires: Werewolf; Cannot be taken with New Moon Werewolf

Full Moon Werewolves are a rare subset of Werewolves who have fully harnessed the strength of their spiritual affliction. They are far stronger than ordinary Werewolves, and have learned to recognise small groups of people as “pack members” to avoid attacking them when Enraged. This allows them to fully operate in small groups, though full integration into large groups remains out of reach.

Your Base Form is changed in the following ways:

  • You regenerate 1 hit/loc every 5 minutes.
  • You take +1 degree of damage from SILVER.
  • You may communicate with dogs, wolves and Werewolves as per the Talk to Animals spell at any time.

Your Wolf Form is changed in the following ways:

  • You gain an additional +2 hits/loc and +1 DAC (for a total of +3 hits/loc and +3 DAC).
  • You may call +1 degree of damage by bite and claw.
  • You take +2 degrees of damage from SILVER (for a total of +3 degrees of damage).
  • You regenerate 1 hit/loc every 30 seconds.
  • You may act as though you have Track of equal rank to your level.

You now also Enrage if you are hit by SILVER damage, regardless of the moon phase.

Pack:
By spending a Minor Action in Downtime familiarising yourself with a person’s scent, you may assign them to your Pack. You will not attack your Pack when Enraged, unless they attack you first. You may have a maximum of 5 people in your Pack. You may remove a person from your Pack at any time. You should notify the refs of your current Pack in your Downtimes.

New Moon Werewolf (40xp)
Requires: Werewolf; Ref Approval; Cannot be taken with Full Moon Werewolf

Even rarer than Full Moon Werewolves, New Moon Werewolves have asserted complete control over their spiritual affliction. Whilst stronger than standard Werewolves, they have sacrificed the enhanced strength of the Full Moon to instead learn to completely control their Werewolf urge to Enrage. Whilst holding themselves to their self-enforced Codes, they are able to retain full control, allowing them to live in large communities much as any ordinary person would.

Your Wolf Form is changed in the following ways:

  • You gain an additional +1 hit/loc (for a total of +2 hits/loc).

You no longer become Enraged due to attacks or emotional distress during the full moon. You will instead become Enraged for 5 minutes if you break your Code – see below. A New Moon werewolf who breaks their code loses their immunity to Enrage until the end of the next full moon and acts as a regular werewolf until that time. They still retain the +1/loc in wolf form.

Code:
Through significant effort, you have developed a Code which you hold yourself to in order to prevent becoming Enraged. 

  • Your Code should contain 3 separate rules.
  • Your Code should not contain any Divine Strictures or Druidic Oaths, though it is acceptable to use these as inspiration.
  • The rules of your Code should be clear, and easy to know if broken.
  • Your Code should be developed in tandem with the refs.

This skill requires an appropriate adventure or significant uptime action, as approved by the refs, to learn.