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 chancellor, inquisitor, judge, philosopher, scholar, or student.

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

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

Special Abilities

1. Analytic: Use Study to Set Up any action, in the moment or as a flashback. Partial success improves position. Full success improves position or effect. Critical success improves both. Does not interfere with others' Set Up actions.
2. Apothecary: Use Rituals (p. 222) and Craft Alchemical drugs, medicines, and potions with Study instead of Tinker. Research new Ritual Procedures and Alchemical Formulas with Study. Start with no Ritual Procedures but the Formulas for all Medicine Chest Alchemicals.
3. Consolation of Philosophy: During downtime, you can take a downtime action to roll Study to recover stress instead of indulging in your vice. When resisting a consequence, you may roll Study instead of the relevant attribute.
4. 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.
5. Inquisitive: Spend a few minutes examining evidence to make a Study roll. Gather Information based on success: 1: failure, 2-3: 1 question, 4-5: 2 questions, 6: 3 questions, critical: 5 questions. Subtract any tier difference and reduce questions if the site is significantly disturbed.
6. Physicker: Your crew (2 stress to affect yourself) can use your Study for healing rolls. 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 -3 dice). This has no consequences but each harm can only be treated once.
7. Studious: Use Study to gather information on a target. On success, and ask an additional question about their vulnerabilities or habits and identify a way to gain potency against them (e.g., a material or occult symbol). If used before a score, gain +1d on the engagement roll.
8. Ward: Create a ward that reduces the effective tier of creatures linked to a specific Form of Power within an area. Creating a ward takes about a minute and affects an area based on your tier (p. 221). Multiple wards for different Forms can overlap.
9. Wisdom: Expend your Special Armor to resist any consequence or to push yourself using Study.

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 the 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.