Sage (FiD)

Starfox's Blades in the Dark fan page

You are a master of history, medicine, and general lore. You give advice on almost any subject, convince others through logic, and uncover the truth from evidence. You may lead, but more often you are the advisor or right hand of a leader. You might be known as a confident, counselor, detective, executive, inquisitor, judge, philosopher, scholar, or student.

The sage is the mundane equivalent of the wizard and the humanist scholar compared to the savant's technologist.

Touchstones: Father George (Flesh and Blood, 1985), William of Baskerville (Name of the Rose, 1986), Ibn Fadlan (The 13th Warrior, 1999), Thomas More (Wolf Hall, 2015).

Special Abilities

Analytic

Use Study to Set Up any action, in the moment or as a flashback. 4-5: Improve position. 6 Improvs position or effect. Critical Improves both. Stacks with others' Set Up actions, but you must explain this to benefit others.

Apothecary

You can research Rituals (p. 222) and Craft Alchemicals with the Medical tag with Study instead of Tinker. Start with no Ritual Procedures but the Formulas for all Medicine Chest Alchemicals.

Consolation of Philosophy

During downtime, you can take a downtime action to roll Study to recover stress. When resisting a consequence, you may roll Study instead of the relevant attribute.

Discerning

Roll Study to determine the truth behind spoken words: 1: failed insight, 2-3: uncover white lies, 4-5: uncover lies about things, 6: uncover lies about people, critical: expose the underlying intention.

Investigator

Spend a few minutes examining a creature or location to make a Study roll. Gather Information based on success: 1: no information, 2-3: 1 question, 4-5: 2 questions, 6: 3 questions, Critical: 5 questions. Adjust type of success for situation and tier difference. A success against a creature reveals a way to gain potency against a target (e.g., silver weapons or an occult symbol).

Physicker

You can reduce Harm that is internal, systemic, and psychic harm (poison, disease, shock, curse, exhaustion, mental collapse). Spend several minutes on a Study roll to reduce non-wound Harm suffered in the last hour by one level. This roll takes a -1d penalty per level of harm (-1 to -4 dice, level 4 Harm is stabilizing the dying). This has no consequences but each instance of Harm can only be treated once. During downtime your crew (2 stress to affect yourself) can use your Study for healing rolls.

Specialist

Choose a specialization — a field of science or the humanities such as astronomy, history, or law. When you act in this field, improve the degree of success by one step: Fumble → Failure → Opposed success → Success → Critical.

Ward

You make an area anathema to creatures associated with a specific Form of Power decided when you create the ward. Spend a minute and select a Form to create a ward in an an area based on your tier (p. 221). A ward is obvious and reduces the effective Tier of creatures tied to that Form by 1 for an hour after entering it or when acting against anyone within it. You can create connected wards to cover more ground and overlapping wards to protect against multiple different Forms in the same area.

Additional Playbook

Select another playbook. You gain immediate access to its Inventory and XP conditions. but not base upgrades. From now on, you can choose its Special Abilities. You can take this special ability multiple times, each time selecting a new playbook. Prerequisite: To select a playbook, you need an action rating of one in each of its starting actions.

Allies and Antagonists

˄ ˅ Alathis, a librarian.

˄ ˅ Jorven, a savant.

˄ ˅ Kyris, a mastermind.

˄ ˅ Lyneth, a sage.

˄ ˅ Taren, a wizard.

Inventory

☑ Emerald Pen.

☐ Fine Hand Weapon.

☐,☐ Fine Monster Lure.

☐,☐ Manual.

☐☐ Medicine Chest.

☐ Shared Meal.

• Emerald Pen ☑: This pen is tipped with an emerald nib and requires no ink to write. It can draw green lines and text on any material, including in air, and you can make the text glow for a few minutes. On a surface it lasts much like normal ink, in the air it disappears when it stops glowing. More expensive versions use other gems and create text of other colors. Common, Gadget.
• Fine Hand Weapon ☐: A one handed weapon, usually a sword or spear. The fine quality improves effect.
• Fine Monster Lure ☐: Something enticing to unsophisticated creatures like a decoy, glass beads, strong drink, food, or a scent lure. Fine quality improves effect.
• Manual ☐: Allows you to use Study instead of any one Insight or Resolve action for one specific task. You can use the manual again on a very similar task. Each use takes a few minutes.
• Medicine Chest ☐☐: A chest of medical drugs and tools such as leeches, scalpels, mortar and pestle, and linen bandages. Using this gives +1d on recovery checks. The medicine chest also contains up to five ☐,☐,☐,☐,☐ doses total of Alchemicals listed below. Playbook.
• Shared Meal ☐: Share a simple meal with the crew during a score. Everyone recovers 1 stress. Consumable, Playbook.

Medicine Chest Alchemicals

Your medicine chest can hold up to five doses of any Alchemical listed below. For Unreliability tests, use the listed complexity unless your Tier exceeds it, in which case use your Tier.

• Potion of Heroism (Complexity 0) ☐: Drinking this potion makes you fearless. For the next hour fear effects lose effect and have at worst a controlled position. Volatile you may lose all sense of self-preservation. Addictive. Common, Consumable.
• Second Sight Potion (Complexity 1) ☐: Gives the ability to see spirits and the invisible. Lasts several hours. Consumable, Unreliable/Volatile. You may see things that are not there.
• Trance Powder (Complexity 1) ☐: A dose of the popular drug, which induces an altered mental state. The victim of this powder is not fully unconscious, but rather retreats into a calm, suggestible mental state, similar to hypnotism. +1d on all Resolve actions against imbiber. Common, Consumable, Unreliable.
• Bewitching Perfume (Complexity 2) ☐: Apply this perfume to give yourself +1d on Consort and Sway actions for the next hour. You also attract general attention, making yourself notorious. Conspicuous, Consumable.
• Coca Leaves (Complexity 2) ☐: Leaves grown in tropical mountains, rolled into a ball and chewed. Restores 2 points of stress. Improves energy for 10 hours. Common, Consumable, Unreliable/Volatile. Complexity roll when the effect ends: 1-3 level 2 harm: "Restless" when the effect ends.
• Cure-All (Complexity 2) ☐: A painkiller draught that makes drinker feel fortified and able to overcome pains and aches. Suppresses level 1 or 2 harm that involves pain for an hour. Common, Consumable.
• Slumber Essence (Complexity 2) ☐: A dose of slumber essence sufficient to put someone to sleep for an hour. This can be imbibed, inhaled, or made wet to be injected. The victim's sleep isn't supernatural, but it is deep—they can be roused with some effort but this gives them level 1 harm: drowsy. Common, Consumable.

XP

• Every time you roll a desperate action, mark xp in that action's attribute.

At the end of each session, for each item below, mark 1 xp (in your playbook or an attribute) or 2 xp if that item occurred multiple times.

• You addressed a challenge using insight or knowledge.
• You expressed your beliefs, drives, heritage, or background.
• You struggled with issues from your vice or traumas during the session.

Starting Actions

Skirmish 1

Study 2

4 points by choice, no higher than 2 in any one.