Wound
Wounds are fresh injuries to one of the fourteen separate body locations, commonly received as part of combat. Each wound has a severity level between 1 and 3. Minor wounds (level 1) have minimal effects aside from combat maneuver penalties. More severe wounds will typically bleed and carry substantial mechanical penalties, and may prevent characters from performing certain actions.
The severity of a inflicted wound depends on the critical portion of the combat system, and may be reduced by wearing more protective armor.
Empaths can heal another's character's wounds directly by transferring the wound onto themselves. Otherwise, wounds can be healed by using herbs, which will leave a possibly debilitating scar until subsequently mended with scar-removal herbs.
Wounds
| Location | Lvl. 1 | Lvl. 2 | Lvl. 3 |
|---|---|---|---|
| head | minor bruises about the head | minor lacerations about the head and a possible mild concussion | severe head trauma and bleeding from the ears |
| neck | minor bruises on your neck | moderate bleeding from your neck | snapped bones and serious bleeding from the neck |
| abdomen | minor cuts and bruises on your abdominal area | deep lacerations across your abdominal area | deep gashes and serious bleeding from your abdominal area |
| back | minor cuts and bruises on your back | deep lacerations across your back | deep gashes and serious bleeding from your back |
| right eye | a bruised right eye | a swollen right eye | a blinded right eye |
| left eye | a bruised left eye | a swollen left eye | a blinded left eye |
| right leg | some minor cuts and bruises on your right leg | a fractured and bleeding right leg | a completely severed right leg |
| left leg | some minor cuts and bruises on your left leg | a fractured and bleeding left leg | a completely severed left leg |
| right arm | some minor cuts and bruises on your right arm | a fractured and bleeding right arm | a completely severed right arm |
| left arm | some minor cuts and bruises on your left arm | a fractured and bleeding left arm | a completely severed left arm |
| right hand | some minor cuts and bruises on your right hand | a fractured and bleeding right hand | a completely severed right hand |
| left hand | some minor cuts and bruises on your left hand | a fractured and bleeding left hand | a completely severed left hand |
| nervous system | a strange case of muscle twitching | a case of sporadic convulsions | a case of uncontrollable convulsions |
Scars
Scars are the remnants of old wounds that have been partially healed through herbs or empathic self-healing. Scars can be healed by using specific scar-removal herbs or empath spells, but if there is both a scar and a fresh wound on the same location then the wound must be healed first. A character who is healed by an empath will not have a scar.
| Location | Lvl. 1 | Lvl. 2 | Lvl. 3 |
|---|---|---|---|
| head | a scar across your face | several facial scars | old mutilation wounds about your head |
| neck | a scar across your neck | some old neck wounds | terrible scars from some serious neck injury |
| chest | an old battle scar across your chest | several painful-looking scars across your chest | terrible, permanent mutilation of your chest muscles |
| abdomen | an old battle scar across your abdominal area | several painful-looking scars across your abdominal area | terrible, permanent mutilation of your abdominal muscles |
| back | an old battle scar across your back | several painful-looking scars across your back | terrible, permanent mutilation of your back muscles |
| right eye | a black-and-blue right eye | severe bruises and swelling around your right eye | a missing right eye |
| left eye | a black-and-blue left eye | severe bruises and swelling around your left eye | a missing left eye |
| right leg | old battle scars on your right leg | a mangled right leg | a missing right leg |
| left leg | old battle scars on your left leg | a mangled left leg | a missing left leg |
| right arm | old battle scars on your right arm | a mangled right arm | a missing right arm |
| left arm | old battle scars on your left arm | a mangled left arm | a missing left arm |
| right hand | old battle scars on your right hand | a mangled right hand | a missing right hand |
| left hand | old battle scars on your left hand | a mangled left hand | a missing left hand |
| nervous system | developed slurred speech | constant muscle spasms | a very difficult time with muscle control |
Penalties
Wounds can cause bleeding in addition to other mechanical penalties. Bleeding can be temporarily slowed or stopped by using TEND to apply bandages. Actively using a bandaged body part in combat can cause the bandages to loosen.
Minor scars (severity level 1) confer no mechanical penalties to a character. Penalties for more serious scars are similar to those of equivalent wounds, except that scars will never bleed.
Head
- level 1 - A minor scratch to the head will not be seriously effected by the wound.
- level 2 - A possible concussion, and will bleed minorly. Reduces a character's perception, slightly. It will also prevent a character from preparing spells, hiding, and likely also reduces a character's aim when ambushing or when using a ranged weapon as well as hinders the character's experience absorption.
- level 3 - A cracked skull. Reduces perception significantly as well as hinders the character's experience absorption.
Neck
Neck wounds have the highest rate of bleeding but few secondary effects.
Eyes
Major eye injuries prevent spellcasting.
Arms
- level 1 - A minor scratch, and has almost no effect on the character.
- level 2 - The arm is broken, and the character will be hindered in using the arm in tasks such as foraging, skinning, or tending wounds. An archer cannot fire a bow with a broken arm, nor can a hurler throw a weapon. Having two broken arms will prevent a character from searching or looting their kills. Spellcasting is possible with a single arm wound up to level 2, but not if both arms are injured (even if the other arm is has only a level 1 wound).
- level 3 - The arm is severed. The arm cannot be used for anything, such as picking up and holding items, using a weapon, or using a shield. A character that loses a limb will not drop the item they're carrying in that hand, but they will not be able to use it, and once the item is put somewhere else, the hand will be unavailable to pick anything else up.
Legs
- level 1 - The wound will not hinder a character in any noticeable way.
- level 2 - A broken leg. It hinders a character when hiding, prevents them from sneaking to another room when hidden, and lowers the chances of successfully standing. This level of wound also bleeds at a moderate rate.
- level 3 - The leg is severed and bleeding. Upon suffering a level 3 leg wound, a character will fall to the ground. A creature will not be able to stand with a severed leg unless it has more than two legs, though a character can stand with a significant penalty.
System
Nervous system wounds can be caused by drawing more mana than in a character's mana pool.
- level 1 - The character will twitch abnormally when using the TWITCH verb.
- level 2 - The character cannot search their victims or prepare any spells except empath circle spells.
- level 3 - The character will die if she attempts to use mana beyond their mana capacity. Since they cannot prepare spells, this is usually a moot issue, however members of the Council of Light are not prevented from drawing a sign, and since some signs drain mana, it is possible for them to kill themselves this way.