Wounds

Wounds are cards given out that represent an injury, curse or other affliction. The wound has a description on the front of what the wound is and how it affects you, both mechanically and in terms of roleplaying. The wound will also have a method of treatment.

Some wounds are "mortal" wounds, and are the means by which your character can eventually become terminally wounded and die.

Mortal Wounds and Terminal

Characters have a limited number of Mortal Wounds they can sustain before dying.

• PCs and resilient NPCs will become Terminal once they take 4 mortal wounds
• Most other NPCs will die immediately after taking 2 mortal wounds.
• Not all wounds are mortal wounds. Wounds that aren't mortal don't contribute to your death track.

Mortal wounds are generally given out with the WOUND call. If you have, and need to ask for, more mortal wounds than you are capable of sustaining, then you immediately become Terminal. If you take your final WOUND as a result of performing a skill (such as a ritual causing fallout) the skill still works and if applicable you can deliver its effect before becoming terminal.

While Terminal you should act as though dying, and can’t take any actions unless it's an ability explicitly usable while terminal. You can't be healed from this state by any normal means. You can move slowly, or can move at normal speed if assisted, or can be restrained by another character with continuous appropriate roleplay. You will die at a dramatically appropriate time of your OC choice before the end of the next interactive you attend, unless you can find some way to avert your fate.

Most NPCs will die immediately when they receive their second mortal wound rather than becoming Terminal. This means an otherwise healthy NPC should survive simple incapacitation with a wound to commemorate their defeat, but will die if wounded further.

Suppression and Treatment

• Wounds can be temporarily suppressed on linears with skills such as Patch Up.
• Wounds can be treated only in an interactive.
• Treated wounds expire at the end of the event.
• Untreated mortal wounds become non-mortal at the end of the event, unless they were gained very near the end of it.

Wounds have fairly potent mechanical effects and having fresh wounds will severely limit your effectiveness. Suppressing or treating a wound severely diminishes the mechanical drawback but leaves a lingering effect. A lingering mortal wound still counts towards your death track until the end of the event, when it expires or becomes non-mortal.

All wounds need to be treated by a surgeon or other relevant expert in an interactive before they can heal properly. The requirements for the wound treatment are on the wound card. Once the wound has been treated, it will expire at the end of the event.

Not all wounds are mortal, and those that aren’t don’t count towards your death track. Wounds given out as a result of ritual mishaps (that aren’t fallout) will usually not be mortal wounds. Non-mortal wounds can also happen at dramatic points in combat, either given out ad hoc or with the CURSE call.

Elemental Stress

Several abilities such as elemental touches and thaumaturgic enchantments reduce your ability to endure mortal wounds by causing "elemental stress". These are mortal wounds that have only roleplaying effects. In the case of elemental touches they can't be healed while you have the elemental touch.