Difference between revisions of "Death Powers (FiD)"
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Death creatures are undead of all sorts. | Death creatures are undead of all sorts. | ||
Study can call apparition that can communicate but not act. | Study can call apparition that can communicate but not act. | ||
| − | Attune can call ghosts that scare and some poltergeist activities at and undead spirits can be called to inhabit corpses as zombies and skeletons. | + | Attune can call ghosts that scare and some poltergeist activities at and undead [[Spirit (FiD)|spirits]] can be called to inhabit corpses as zombies and skeletons. |
At mid to high tiers, spirits can be called to possess stronger things, such as an undead knight or a powerful mummy, or as incorporeal undead that can walk thru walls and are invulnerable to mundane weapons. | At mid to high tiers, spirits can be called to possess stronger things, such as an undead knight or a powerful mummy, or as incorporeal undead that can walk thru walls and are invulnerable to mundane weapons. | ||
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|- | |- | ||
|align="left" valign="top" | '''Attune''' | |align="left" valign="top" | '''Attune''' | ||
| − | |valign="top"| '''Soul Sense''' | + | |valign="top"| '''Soul Sense''' <br> Detect Death. |
| − | |valign="top"| '''Soul Shroud''' | + | |valign="top"| '''Soul Shroud''' <br> Dismiss Death. |
| − | |valign="top"| '''Soul Summons''' | + | |valign="top"| '''Soul Summons''' <br> Summon undead. |
| − | |valign="top"| '''Soul Sojourn''' | + | |valign="top"| '''Soul Sojourn''' <br> Create a portal to the plane of death. |
|- | |- | ||
|align="left" valign="top" | '''Command''' | |align="left" valign="top" | '''Command''' | ||
| − | |valign="top"| '''Wraith's Whispers''' <br> Intimidate with Death. | + | |valign="top"| '''Wraith's Whispers''' <br> Intimidate with Death. |
| − | |valign="top"| '''Wraith's Words''' | + | |valign="top"| '''Wraith's Words''' <br> Message undead. |
| − | |valign="top"| '''Wraith's Will''' | + | |valign="top"| '''Wraith's Will''' <br> Command undead. |
| − | |valign="top"| '''Wraith's Writ''' | + | |valign="top"| '''Wraith's Writ''' <br> Bind undead. |
|- | |- | ||
|align="left" valign="top" | '''Consort''' | |align="left" valign="top" | '''Consort''' | ||
| − | |valign="top"| '''Pallid Presence''' | + | |valign="top"| '''Pallid Presence''' <br> Make clothes and accessories rotten but functional when used by you and [[#Undead|undead]] creatures. |
| − | |valign="top"| '''Pallid Persona''' | + | |valign="top"| '''Pallid Persona''' <br> Assume the form of an undead. |
| − | |valign="top"| '''Pallid Proxy''' | + | |valign="top"| '''Pallid Proxy''' <br> Turn others into undead. |
| − | |valign="top"| '''Pallid Procession''' <br> | + | |valign="top"| '''Pallid Procession''' <br> Turn a host into undead. |
|- | |- | ||
|align="left" valign="top" | '''Finesse''' | |align="left" valign="top" | '''Finesse''' | ||
| − | |valign="top"| '''Harrowing Hearse''' <br> Ride | + | |valign="top"| '''Harrowing Hearse''' <br> Ride the dead. |
| − | |valign="top"| '''Harrowing Hack''' | + | |valign="top"| '''Harrowing Hack''' <br> Fine and Potent attack. |
| − | |valign="top"| '''Harrowing Husk''' | + | |valign="top"| '''Harrowing Husk''' <br> Animate a dead ride. |
| − | |valign="top"| '''Harrowing Horde''' | + | |valign="top"| '''Harrowing Horde''' <br> Create a crew of undead. |
|- | |- | ||
|align="left" valign="top" | '''Hunt''' | |align="left" valign="top" | '''Hunt''' | ||
|valign="top"| '''Arrow Approach''' <br> Track and pursue Death. | |valign="top"| '''Arrow Approach''' <br> Track and pursue Death. | ||
| − | |valign="top"| '''Arrow Aim''' | + | |valign="top"| '''Arrow Aim''' <br> Fine and Potent snipe. |
| − | |valign="top"| '''Arrow Ash''' | + | |valign="top"| '''Arrow Ash''' <br> Create signs of haunting. |
| − | |valign="top"| '''Arrow Ague''' | + | |valign="top"| '''Arrow Ague''' <br> Burst of Death. |
|- | |- | ||
|align="left" valign="top" | '''Prowl''' | |align="left" valign="top" | '''Prowl''' | ||
| − | |valign="top"| '''Haunt Hide''' | + | |valign="top"| '''Haunt Hide''' <br> Hide among Death. |
| − | |valign="top"| '''Haunt Hop''' | + | |valign="top"| '''Haunt Hop''' <br> Move through Death. |
| − | |valign="top"| '''Haunt Huddle''' <br> | + | |valign="top"| '''Haunt Huddle''' <br> Crew Haunt Hide and Hop. |
| − | |valign="top"| '''Haunt Hallow''' <br> | + | |valign="top"| '''Haunt Hallow''' <br> Escape from graves. |
|- | |- | ||
|align="left" valign="top" | '''Skirmish''' | |align="left" valign="top" | '''Skirmish''' | ||
| − | |valign="top"| '''Dance of Deflection''' | + | |valign="top"| '''Dance of Deflection''' <br> Block Death Harm. |
| − | |valign="top"| '''Dance of Decay''' | + | |valign="top"| '''Dance of Decay''' <br> Fine and Potent attack. |
|valign="top"| '''Dance of Distraction''' <br> Prevent Scale. | |valign="top"| '''Dance of Distraction''' <br> Prevent Scale. | ||
| − | |valign="top"| '''Dance of Death''' | + | |valign="top"| '''Dance of Death''' <br> Attack all enemies in an area. |
|- | |- | ||
|align="left" valign="top" | '''Study''' | |align="left" valign="top" | '''Study''' | ||
| − | |valign="top"| '''Obituary Outline''' | + | |valign="top"| '''Obituary Outline''' <br> Identify death. |
| − | |valign="top"| '''Obituary Oracle''' | + | |valign="top"| '''Obituary Oracle''' <br> Analyze Death. |
| − | |valign="top"| '''Obituary Orison''' | + | |valign="top"| '''Obituary Orison''' <br> Necromantic seance. |
| − | |valign="top"| '''Obituary Omniscience''' <br> Wide-range | + | |valign="top"| '''Obituary Omniscience''' <br> Wide-range seance. |
|- | |- | ||
|align="left" valign="top" | '''Survey''' | |align="left" valign="top" | '''Survey''' | ||
|valign="top"| '''Grave Glimpse''' <br> Sense Death. | |valign="top"| '''Grave Glimpse''' <br> Sense Death. | ||
| − | |valign="top"| '''Grave Gaze''' | + | |valign="top"| '''Grave Gaze''' <br> See through Death. |
| − | |valign="top"| '''Grave Vigil''' | + | |valign="top"| '''Grave Vigil''' <br> Spy through Death. |
| − | |valign="top"| '''Grave Horizon''' <br> | + | |valign="top"| '''Grave Horizon''' <br> Synthesis of Death. |
|- | |- | ||
|align="left" valign="top" | '''Sway''' | |align="left" valign="top" | '''Sway''' | ||
| − | |valign="top"| '''Inquiring Eulogy''' <br> | + | |valign="top"| '''Inquiring Eulogy''' <br> Death communication. |
| − | |valign="top"| '''Enticing Eulogy''' | + | |valign="top"| '''Enticing Eulogy''' <br> Emote the dead. |
| − | |valign="top"| '''Edict Eulogy''' | + | |valign="top"| '''Edict Eulogy''' <br> Suggest the undead. |
| − | |valign="top"| '''Enshrine Eulogy''' | + | |valign="top"| '''Enshrine Eulogy''' <br> Permanently convince undead. |
|- | |- | ||
|align="left" valign="top" | '''Tinker''' | |align="left" valign="top" | '''Tinker''' | ||
|valign="top"| '''Funerary Fashioning''' <br> Craft Death. | |valign="top"| '''Funerary Fashioning''' <br> Craft Death. | ||
| − | |valign="top"| '''Funerary Forging''' | + | |valign="top"| '''Funerary Forging''' <br> Shape Death. |
| − | |valign="top"| '''Funerary Fusing''' | + | |valign="top"| '''Funerary Fusing''' <br> Transmute Death. |
| − | |valign="top"| '''Funerary Foundry''' | + | |valign="top"| '''Funerary Foundry''' <br> Fabricate Death. |
|- | |- | ||
|align="left" valign="top" | '''Wreck''' | |align="left" valign="top" | '''Wreck''' | ||
| − | |valign="top"| '''Rot Rend''' | + | |valign="top"| '''Rot Rend''' <br> Rot the living and the dead. |
| − | |valign="top"| '''Rot Ruin''' | + | |valign="top"| '''Rot Ruin''' <br> Stronger rot. |
| − | |valign="top"| '''Rot Raze''' | + | |valign="top"| '''Rot Raze''' <br> Silent Rot. |
| − | |valign="top"| '''Rot Reaping''' <br> Area | + | |valign="top"| '''Rot Reaping''' <br> Area Rot. |
|} | |} | ||
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Create a crew of undead. | Create a crew of undead. | ||
| − | + | Animuses (lesser spirits) of the dead rise to assist you with a task. | |
The horde can only provide Scale and Assist, it cannot act on its own. | The horde can only provide Scale and Assist, it cannot act on its own. | ||
The most obvious use is to give you Scale for a task or fight against an opposing crew, but Harrowing Host can also act as a crew on a ship, a parade, laborers, or in other tasks that require a large but unskilled crew. | The most obvious use is to give you Scale for a task or fight against an opposing crew, but Harrowing Host can also act as a crew on a ship, a parade, laborers, or in other tasks that require a large but unskilled crew. | ||
| Line 394: | Line 394: | ||
A personal object can also do, as well as a close friend or relative of the deceased. | A personal object can also do, as well as a close friend or relative of the deceased. | ||
| − | You summon a powerless apparition of a dead person. This can be a ghostly image or voice, or a manifestation on something like a Ouija board or tarot reading. The | + | You summon a powerless apparition of a dead person. This can be a ghostly image or voice, or a manifestation on something like a Ouija board or tarot reading. The lesser spirits of the dead can tell you about things that happened in its lifetime. Most apparitions are vain and eager to speak about their lives and the wrongs they suffered, especially to people close to them. They retain habits from life, particularly negative ones like suspicion, greed, and lust for vengeance. |
An apparition is unable to speak of its continued existence after death. | An apparition is unable to speak of its continued existence after death. | ||
Revision as of 21:21, 28 January 2026
| Starfox's Blades in the Dark fan page |
| Starfox's Blades in the Dark Powers |
Death and disease are powerful forces. Action and motivation need not cease with death. Characters can use the powers of the dead, learn their secrets, and even reanimate them as undead.
Death attacks are made with phlegm and ectoplasm that inflict disease. Paradoxically this means that death attacks incapacitate, but don't immediately kill. Instead they take their time as disease and infection kills you, and such harm is extremely hard to cure. Death attacks can weaken and corrupt objects, but again this is slow.
Undead
Death creatures are undead of all sorts. Study can call apparition that can communicate but not act. Attune can call ghosts that scare and some poltergeist activities at and undead spirits can be called to inhabit corpses as zombies and skeletons. At mid to high tiers, spirits can be called to possess stronger things, such as an undead knight or a powerful mummy, or as incorporeal undead that can walk thru walls and are invulnerable to mundane weapons.
Death Abilities
| Action | Basic | Advanced | Master | Apex |
| Dice | — | Minimum 2d | Minimum 4d | Minimum 6d |
| Stress | Avoid fumble (2+). | Succeed (4+). | Full success (6). | Critical (2 sixes). |
| Attune | Soul Sense Detect Death. |
Soul Shroud Dismiss Death. |
Soul Summons Summon undead. |
Soul Sojourn Create a portal to the plane of death. |
| Command | Wraith's Whispers Intimidate with Death. |
Wraith's Words Message undead. |
Wraith's Will Command undead. |
Wraith's Writ Bind undead. |
| Consort | Pallid Presence Make clothes and accessories rotten but functional when used by you and undead creatures. |
Pallid Persona Assume the form of an undead. |
Pallid Proxy Turn others into undead. |
Pallid Procession Turn a host into undead. |
| Finesse | Harrowing Hearse Ride the dead. |
Harrowing Hack Fine and Potent attack. |
Harrowing Husk Animate a dead ride. |
Harrowing Horde Create a crew of undead. |
| Hunt | Arrow Approach Track and pursue Death. |
Arrow Aim Fine and Potent snipe. |
Arrow Ash Create signs of haunting. |
Arrow Ague Burst of Death. |
| Prowl | Haunt Hide Hide among Death. |
Haunt Hop Move through Death. |
Haunt Huddle Crew Haunt Hide and Hop. |
Haunt Hallow Escape from graves. |
| Skirmish | Dance of Deflection Block Death Harm. |
Dance of Decay Fine and Potent attack. |
Dance of Distraction Prevent Scale. |
Dance of Death Attack all enemies in an area. |
| Study | Obituary Outline Identify death. |
Obituary Oracle Analyze Death. |
Obituary Orison Necromantic seance. |
Obituary Omniscience Wide-range seance. |
| Survey | Grave Glimpse Sense Death. |
Grave Gaze See through Death. |
Grave Vigil Spy through Death. |
Grave Horizon Synthesis of Death. |
| Sway | Inquiring Eulogy Death communication. |
Enticing Eulogy Emote the dead. |
Edict Eulogy Suggest the undead. |
Enshrine Eulogy Permanently convince undead. |
| Tinker | Funerary Fashioning Craft Death. |
Funerary Forging Shape Death. |
Funerary Fusing Transmute Death. |
Funerary Foundry Fabricate Death. |
| Wreck | Rot Rend Rot the living and the dead. |
Rot Ruin Stronger rot. |
Rot Raze Silent Rot. |
Rot Reaping Area Rot. |
Expanded Death Abilities
Attune
Harness the power of Attune to perceive and manipulate supernatural energies, allowing you to detect and interact with beings and phenomena of Death or from the land of the dead.
Soul Sense
Detect Death.
This is usually done to spot a spirit or a disguised creature. It can also help identify a creature's connection to powers, providing valuable insights into their nature. If you know several different powers, you can scan for all of them at the same time. Limited outcome suffices against a nearby creature you can clearly see. You need greater outcome against against a creature that is hidden or far away (standard outcome) or behind a wall (great outcome). The position usually starts controlled, with the usual consequence that you missed the opportunity and cannot try again until the situation changes.
Soul Shroud
Dismiss Death.
You can banish undead and dismiss Death powers. Death is unusual in that Advanced Attune Death can animate corpses to create simple undead.
When dismissing you can only affect Death, you can make Death Spirits materialize and dispel Death powers and powers affecting undead, corpses, and tombs. Dispelling can be used as a defense against others' use of powers, or it can be used to break continuing effects. Dispelling is often used as a setup action to help another character in a situation when the opposition is using powers. This usually improves the position of the supported action and can work in addition to other setup actions. When used directly, the effect is usually limited unless the opponent is relying on powers for their safety. Against an opponent that uses Animal wings to fly or turned into a fish to breathe underwater you have a better base effect. When dramatically appropriate that a power is hard to dispel, often because it is the crux of the situation, this will not negate the power but instead give you a clue to what you need to do to resolve the situation.
Forcing a spirit to materialize or de-materialize is easy, but limited in range. The spirit cannot return under its own power for a while, usually after the score.
- Limited Outcome only works on spirits within reach.
- Standard Outcome covers an area based on your tier (p 220).
- Great Outcome reaches out to a range covered by tier (p 220).
Dismissing a creature back to its home plane and usually requires a high Outcome.
- Limited Outcome: Dismissing a creature that wants to return.
- Standard Outcome: Dismissing a weakened or damaged creature.
- Great Outcome: This is the norm, most dismissing requires this Outcome.
You can animate the dead. This simplest kind of undead are corpses or body parts animated by a simple animus. They can follow your orders as long as they are simple and direct, but are easily distracted by their drive to kill the living. They function as gang cohorts (p. 96). This means that at higher Tiers you need to find many corpses to animate for them to be effective (p. 221). Corpses in properly maintained graveyards can't be animated, but old disused graveyards and unconsecrated battlefields and mass graves have no such protection.
Soul Summons
Summon undead.
Undead are either incorporeal Spirits or an animus of Death possessing things, usually corpses but sometimes other things related to Death, like hearses, graves, tombs, or even entire graveyards or battlefields. Summons can use simple effects of their power and maintain power effects you have created. They can also give advice and information related to their own past lives.
Summons are Cohorts: Creatures you summon function as temporary cohorts (p. 96) — either an Expert or a Gang — with added Powers from their Form. An Expert is a skilled individual who can offer advice, Assist, or act independently. A Gang is a group (numbers based on your Tier, p. 221) that primarily provides Scale in combat and labor.
You can always summon a Gang of creatures one Tier below yours. Summoning a specific Gang or Expert requires knowing its unique identity — called a true name in mystical traditions. For a technomancer, this might be a type ID, blueprint, or genetic code. Learning a creature’s true name may require a flashback, or in complex cases, the research downtime activity or a reward from a score.
- Summoning a Creature
The summoning itself is quick but dangerous. When you have time and resources, it is wise to use wards and Barriers, but in action this is usually impossible and you must face the risks. Having allies present for safety is advisable. Offering a creature gifts or services appropriate to its nature and power can be a literal Devil’s Bargain — accepting an additional consequence to gain an advantage.
Depending on your degree of outcome, a creature is willing to do different things:
- Limited Outcome allows you to ask questions of an Expert or demand a short period of physical labor from a Gang. They will not fight for you.
- Standard Outcome allows any service appropriate to the creature’s type, having it act in its typical role. Most creatures don’t mind fighting, but may have preferences about how they do it and what they do outside a fight.
- Great Outcome allows service outside the creature’s comfort zone, though not against its nature. Lengthy service — even within its comfort zone — also requires a Great Outcome, such as guarding treasure until it is stolen.
The position usually starts at Risky — the creature is compelled and may resist. Typical consequences, in ascending order of severity:
- Half-hearted efforts
- Demanding not to be summoned again
- Breaking things or demanding concessions
- A short fight to assert dominance
- Deliberate sabotage
- A constant struggle to maintain control
Soul Sojourn
Create a portal to the plane of death.
Create a portal to the Land of the dead. There are things that are possible to do here that are not allowed in the regular world. Appropriate effects are reduced one step in difficulty, from advanced to basic, master to advanced, and apex to master. This opens the possibility of new super-apex powers that have to be negotiated with the game master. Such effects rarely reach outside the plane of origin, but if they affect creatures there the effect may remain when you return to the mundane world.
This can also be used to contact creatures too powerful to summon. This allows you to ignore tier when creating the gate, but gives you no power over the target. The creature may then use the gate to come to you, call you into its presence, send minions, or communicate with you at a distance.
Command
Command and intimidate the undead, projecting authority. Position and effect depend on the situation and your relationship with the listeners.
Wraith's Whispers
Intimidate with Death.
You can create Death effects such as a skull face, skeletal hands, and etheric whispers, gaining leverage similar to what could be a achieved with threat such as displaying a weapon. This can provide the leverage needed to use Command to intimidate without actual threat of violence. Creatures of Death might recognize you as one of them.
Wraith's Words
Message undead.
You can communicate with undead over any distance as long as you know the target, and a line-of-sight even if you do not. You can communicate with the most powerful undead creature in a vehicle or installation as long as you can see the exterior. The communication is simple and direct, suitable for the Command skill.
You can also use a skull as a communication device. You say who you are trying to speak to, and if a skull is present near the target, you can communicate.
Wraith's Will
Command undead.
Targets will see you as a leader type outranking them. This allows you to order strangers around and improves Effect, but not Position; targets comply without accepting your authority. This does not remove existing loyalties, which may lead to conflict. Understanding the social order of your targets helps avoid clashes with established hierarchies.
Wraith's Writ
Bind undead.
This won’t work unless you are already in a position of power. The effect is similar to Wraith's Will but permanent. A creature can be freed by Powers or strong passions.
Consort
Consort powers change your form and later that of other creatures. This can be used as a set-up action for later or you use the Consort roll for the power directly. This will often give a bonus to effect or improved position or even allow an action that a human could not do.
A common consequences is that you are mistaken for someone, or that your assumed form is somehow a hindrance. You might be obnoxiously rotten, cause panic, or have unexpected handicaps.
Pallid Presence
Make clothes and accessories rotten but functional when used by you and undead creatures.
You do not physically change yourself, you change your accessorize and outfit. This can make regular items and clothes look decrepit while staying functional. When the power ends, items return to their original status.
You can use this on your entire Crew as an Advanced ability.
Pallid Persona
Assume the form of an undead.
This is a true physical transmutation. You need not assume the form of an existing creature, as long as the gamemaster agrees your new form makes a reasonable undead.
Pallid Persona can work as a set-up action for a number of other actions but may penalize other things, as appropriate to your new form. When appropriate, your new form can use Basic and Advanced Death powers inherently without risking stress.
- Limited Effect — You resemble how you might look as an undead creature; those familiar with you may still recognize you.
- Standard Effect — You become a generic undead, very difficult to recognize as yourself or you can opt to change very little, making it hard to see that you now have n undead form. Many necromancers are naturally pallid, if you are there may be no apparent change at all.
- Great Effect — You assume the form and some of the mannerisms or presence of a specific devil you have studied.
Pallid Proxy
Turn others into undead.
This is Pallid Persona applied to another creature. The duration depends of the effect.
- Limited Effect — One scene.
- Standard Effect — Lasts for the duration of a score.
- Great Effect — Lasts weeks. It can be used as poetic justice, transforming the target as a punishment as a permanent curse.
If you also want to make the target unrecognizable or to look much the same, that requires additional effect, see Pallid Persona.
Pallid Procession
Turn a host into undead.
Often known as the Danse Macabre, this transforms a number of willing creatures into undead, give a simple instruction. Those affected will think of it as a nightmare once it is over. This is where Consort becomes similar to an Attune ability to summon. You transform a number of existing creatures and give them a task that they will perform with gusto, turning them into single-minded minions. Targets must be willing, Non-Sentient like animals, or just very minor figures in the plot, many tiers below you.
This creates a gang cohort (p 96) that they can be given bit parts as servants or laborers or fight and chase for you. Such goons are more useful for chasing and cornering targets than in actual combat.
Finesse
Deal death with finesse, manipulating and attacking with precision.
Harrowing Hearse
Ride the dead.
Ride undead or a vehicle of death as if they were trained. This allows you to use Finesse with undead mounts and vehicles you are not familiar with. An undead vehicle is something like a ghost ship or a car possessed by an undead animus or used mostly to transport the dead such as a hearse . You can ride undead beasts even if they are not trained to carry a rider. They must still be physically able to carry you.
You can give this ability to your crew as an Advances ability.
Harrowing Hack
Fine and Potent attack.
Fine and Potent close-range attack, similar to a fine potent weapon. Death attacks are made with phlegm and ectoplasm that inflict disease. Death attacks incapacitate but take their time actually killing. Disease and infection kills slowly, a Death disease is extremely hard to cure. Death attacks can weaken and corrupt objects, but again this is also slow. Besides variety, this only substitutes for equipment, a Fine and Potent Finesse weapon is just as effective. In a fight, using this does not take any more time, activating your attack power is equivalent to drawing a weapon.
Harrowing Husk
Animate a dead ride.
You can animate dead mounts or destroyed vehicles for you and your crew to ride. These function just as if in pristine condition. The created vehicle is not vulnerable to sunlight but it cannot be created in direct sunlight. Lasts until the next sunrise.
Harrowing Horde
Create a crew of undead.
Animuses (lesser spirits) of the dead rise to assist you with a task. The horde can only provide Scale and Assist, it cannot act on its own. The most obvious use is to give you Scale for a task or fight against an opposing crew, but Harrowing Host can also act as a crew on a ship, a parade, laborers, or in other tasks that require a large but unskilled crew. The crew remains until the task is finished or until sunrise, whichever comes first.
Hunt
Track, attack, and unleash devastating barrages with the power to Hunt Death. Shooting into melee can be dangerous to you and yours.
Arrow Approach
Track and pursue Death.
You can sense the progress of Death. This allows you to track the dying, dead (corpses) and undead. Works even if the quarry does not leave any mundane trail or clues. Consequences here are mainly to lose the trail, but depending on the environment and targets, this might get you lost, into traps, or even into an ambush.
It also allows you to track the progress of a disease in a patient or community and identify disease vectors.
Arrow Aim
Fine and Potent snipe.
Death attack similar to a fine and potent rifle. Strike an opponent with plague from a distance. Death attacks are made with phlegm and ectoplasm that inflict disease. Death attacks incapacitate but take their time actually killing. Disease and infection kills slowly, a Death disease is extremely hard to cure. Death attacks can weaken and corrupt objects, but again this is also slow. Besides variety, this only substitutes for equipment, a Fine and Potent Finesse weapon is just as effective.
Arrow Ash
Create signs of haunting.
You can create signs of haunting, such as faintly glowing images, rattling noises, and banging doors. The haunting is within Range (p. 221) outdoors and within an Area indoors. This is usually used as a Set Up, but may also change how people act in reaction to the environment — hauntings are likely to make people be careful and defensive. Does not inflict any direct damage.
Arrow Ague
Burst of Death.
An escalation of Arrow Aim. Less precise, this affects all creatures at a location, with a risk of collateral damage. Targets in trenches, behind walls, or otherwise shielded are not in direct danger, but tend to keep their heads down, which gives your side the initiative.
Prowl
Sneak and move with stealth and agility. Works in environments that manifest Death: ossuaries, graveyards, necropolises, tombs, and battlefields.
Haunt Hide
Hide among Death.
Hide in graveyards, tombs, and haunted places. This allows you to hide in impossible places as long as the environment manifests Death. It otherwise works just like any other attempt to use Prowl to avoid notice. Note that only you can use this ability; your friends and allies cannot unless you use Haunt Hallow, below.
Haunt Hop
Move through Death.
Move on and through tombs, corpses, and cadavers. This allows you to safely climb and pass through the walls of tombs, ossuaries, graveyards, and similar places of Death, as well as piles of corpses, bones, and even among gangs of undead.
Haunt Huddle
Crew Haunt Hide and Hop.
Share Haunt Hide and Haunt Hop with your allies. Now you and your crew can Prowl in places where Death holds sway. They still use their own Prowl action rating.
Haunt Hallow
Escape from graves.
You and your allies can teleport from one graveyard or tomb to another. This is regional travel; you remain within the same city or region, but it is generally sufficient to escape almost any situation or location.
This takes you to places you are familiar with. Both Effect and Position are worse unless you know where you are going, making this ideal for escapes but unreliable for intrusion into unfamiliar or hostile territory.
Skirmish
Dance of Deflection
Block Death Harm.
Absorb Harm from Death powers, infection, and disease. This allows you to survive most infectious environments unless they cause actual Harm you need to roll to absorb. You increase the effect of Skirmish rolls for endurance in such environments. Roll Skirmish to resist such Harm. 1-3: No reduction. 4-6: Reduce Harm by 1 level. Critical: Reduce Harm by 2 levels.
As a Master power, you can protect an ally for a score; as an Apex Power, you can protect your crew. Allies roll their own Skirmish dice.
Dance of Decay
Fine and Potent attack.
Strike down melee opponents with death and disease. Death attacks incapacitate, but don't kill quickly, they take their time as disease but such Harm is extremely hard to cure.
Dance of Distraction
Prevent Scale.
Ghosts and animated corpses distract enemies so they cannot coordinate to use Scale (p 221). You can use Dance of Death as a part of this.
Dance of Death
Attack all enemies in an area.
Dance of Death on a larger scale, not only avoid Scale (p. 221) but also do full damage to a cohort gang.
Study
Study and analyze objects and creatures imbued with Death to gain insight and knowledge. This works on bone and skin used as materials, on corpses, cadavers, and on undead.
Obituary Outline
Identify death.
Identify corpses, cadavers, and materials taken from the dead, including silk, leather, and undead. This gives the name and very basic information in narrative terms, but not details or actual rules.
Obituary Oracle
Analyze Death.
Learn the powers and abilities of Death. You learn of any powers or special abilities the creature or object has. This includes actual rules and game effects.
Obituary Orison
Necromantic seance.
Summon an apparition of a dead person you have a link to and ask them questions. This requires a link to the dead creature. Part of the corpse, grave, cenotaph, and place of death all qualify. A personal object can also do, as well as a close friend or relative of the deceased.
You summon a powerless apparition of a dead person. This can be a ghostly image or voice, or a manifestation on something like a Ouija board or tarot reading. The lesser spirits of the dead can tell you about things that happened in its lifetime. Most apparitions are vain and eager to speak about their lives and the wrongs they suffered, especially to people close to them. They retain habits from life, particularly negative ones like suspicion, greed, and lust for vengeance. An apparition is unable to speak of its continued existence after death.
Obituary Omniscience
Wide-range seance.
Allows you to see a image of every undead and every creature killed or buried in an Area (p. 221), pinpointing locations of interest like tombs and sites of murder. You can then use Obituary Orison to learn the history of up to three dead people from this area.
Survey
Perceive and locate manifestations of Death. The outcome you need depends on the target's concealment. Limited outcome finds those hiding behind cover and in far places you can only barely see. Standard outcome can look behind walls and into hard cover. Great outcome can look into far-away places and spots you had no idea existed.
Grave Glimpse
Sense Death.
Sense manifestations of Death, including undead and Death powers. This is a basic spotting power, selectively sensing things related to your power. You can limit what you are looking for down to a particular corpse or grave if you have a link or sufficient information to eliminate false positives.
Grave Gaze
See through Death.
Choose a skull or a representation of one; perceive as if you were at that spot. You move your perception to a skull, real or manufactured, and sense as if you were at that spot. If using an actual buried skull, you can perceive from any point of the grave it is buried in. You still sense things at your actual location, but very dimly.
Grave Vigil
Spy through Death.
Choose a location or creature. You gain a sensor at the nearest skull. Similar to Grave Glimpse but allows you to focus on a specific creature or position. Automatically directs towards the best vantage point provided by a suitable skull, hopefully close enough to observe the target. Fails if no suitable viewpoint is available.
Grave Horizon
Synthesis of Death.
You perceive like Grave Glimpse from all corpses and places where Sapient are buried within Range (p. 221) at once. Enhances your senses impossibly, akin to being multiple individuals spread across the scene. Creates a comprehensive mental image of the area, revealing numerous details simultaneously.
Sway
Communicate, mesmerize, and manipulate undead. Position and effect are determined normally, depending on the situation and your relation to listeners.
Inquiring Eulogy
Death communication.
Understand undead even if normally couldn't and sense their motivations. You can gauge the mood and motivations of undead and talk to them. You can also sense when any kind of creature is morose or in mourning.
Enticing Eulogy
Emote the dead.
You and allies can communicate with undead. You can make folk morose. This allows you to use the Sway action with full effect, overcoming cultural and linguistic barriers. undead are often cold and emotionless, this allows you to appeal to them in a way they care about. You are persuading, not speaking with authority.
You can make any type of creature morose, not just undead.
Edict Eulogy
Suggest the undead.
You can post suggestions in the mind of an undead. This is essentially an enhanced Sway attempt, allowing you to implant suggestions that will trigger under conditions you set. The power remains subtle until the suggestion is activated. The target will not remember being swayed.
Enshrine Eulogy
Permanently convince undead.
Change the personality and motivations of undead creature in your power.. This power is permanent but blatant. It changes the target on a deep level, altering their loves and loyalties. The target remembers their past but considers it unimportant compared to their new motivations. There are limits to this power, especially for creatures linked to a power — you cannot make an undead cherish Life. The effect fades over the next few days, but depending on the response from others long-term attitudes may change.
Tinker
Manipulate, shape, and create objects of Death to suit your needs. Objects of Death include parts of corpses, fossils, grave goods, and seriously corroded or aged items of all kinds. You can restore such an item to functionality without changing its appearance.
- Limited Outcome solves an immediate problem, then ends. Any effect achieved will last, such as a repair made with temporary tools.
- Standard Outcome construction, repair, or item lasts for the duration of a score.
- Great Outcome is semi-permanent. This does not make permanent kit, but it can make permanent effects to the setting, such as repairing a large construction like a bridge or wall.
Something larger than you are, very complex, or of higher Quality Level than your Tier increases the needed Outcome.
Position depends on the tranquility of your workspace and if you are working on something that is dangerous in itself.
For long-term projects, Tinker powers can substitute for missing tools, but that is all they do until you use the Apex ability. You use coal as a power source, creating a pall of smoke around your workshop.
Funerary Fashioning
Craft Death.
Work the remains of the dead. Make decrepit and broken items function normally. You can craft bone, skin, sinew, and other materials from corpses and cadavers. You can take a decrepit item and make it function as new while you or an undead use it. It still looks decrepit.
Funerary Forging
Shape Death.
Shape Death materials as if they were of clay. This surpasses normal crafting, letting you manipulate unstable Death materials. You can shape bone, blood, and similar substances as if they were elastic, and they retain their new shape. This can substitute for pipes and containers and facilitate the construction of traps or devices, avoiding the need for extensive equipment.
You can restore grave goods of any kind in both appearance and function.
Funerary Fusing
Transmute Death.
Shape Death out of nothing, create Fine and Potent items. You don't need tools to build complex fine and potent items appropriate to Death or to restore grave goods to their former splendor.
You can create stuff related to Death from nothing. This is like Funerary Forging, above, but needs no raw materials.
If you know multiple Forms you can transform material linked to Death into material linked to another Form. This allows intricate transformations where a metal sword can be transmuted into blood and still work as a sword, or a the lock of a sarcophagus can be changed to air so you can reach right through and then revert back to how it was.
Funerary Foundry
Fabricate Death.
Mass produce dead things or make something large, such as a vehicle or building. This expands Funerary Forging to a massive scale, without removing their underlying constraints. You can mass produce objects or create large structures, such as entire tomb complexes, that would normally require a workforce and facilities.
In long-term projects involving construction or crafting, Funerary Splendor produces many dozens of items with the same effort as one item, but risking a stress cost.
Wreck
Wreck remnants of the dead. Finish off damaged things. Noisy, and leaves a twisted object in place.
The Outcome required depends on the size and structural strength of the target. Creating a smaller breach still requires the same Outcome.
- Standard Outcome is sufficient to create a car-sized breach in a brick or mortar wall.
- Limited Outcome suffices for construction significantly weaker than this.
- Greater Outcome is required for larger breaches or stronger structures.
As usual, Wreck may be at an advantage or disadvantage compared to Hunt, Finesse, or Skirmish, depending on the situation.
Rot Rend
Rot the living and the dead.
Finish off damaged things. Noisy, and leaves a twisted object in place. You can affect anything that comes from a dead body or that has suffered damage sufficient to hinder its function. You can also make a rough melee attack.
Death attacks are made with phlegm and ectoplasm that inflict disease and rot. These attacks incapacitate rather than kill quickly; death comes slowly through disease, infection, and degradation, which is extremely difficult to cure. Death attacks can also weaken and corrupt objects, but this process is likewise slow.
Rot Ruin
Stronger rot.
As Rot of Death, but faster. You rot most materials as if they were wood. Works as a Fine and Potent sledgehammer in combat.
This bypasses the strength of materials, allowing you to break anything that comes from a dead body or that has suffered significant damage. You can also use this power to smash other objects outright, treating it as a Fine, Potent sledgehammer.
Rot Raze
Silent Rot.
Rot Ruin , but destroyed targets silently vanish or are reduced to grave dust. The key difference is that the destruction is silent and leaves minimal traces. Because this power is tied to Death, it can eradicate most physical evidence of destruction.
Rot Reaping
Area Rot.
As Rot of Oblivion, but applied over an Area (p. 221). You can level a necropolis or reduce anything heavily weathered to ruin. This power is straightforward, scaling destruction up in scope rather than changing its nature.