Health, Death, and Dying
How does one die?
A characters health is a measure of a number of things. Most directly, health is indicated by Body. Characters do not suffer negative effects from Body loss until they receive an amount equal to their total. When (not if) this unfortunate event occurs, the character falls Unconscious.
Characters become Unconscious at 0 Body. Unconscious characters have no awareness of their surroundings. They cannot move, cannot use Skills/Spells/Powers, and are Helpless. Unconscious characters wake after ten minutes, if they are not subjected to further harm.
Characters reduced to negative Body are Dying. Dying characters have all the same problems as Unconscious characters, but do not wake after ten minutes. Instead, they begin bleeding out, a process that takes two minutes. During those two minutes, any healing will save a Dying character. Body cannot be reduced below -1. Any further damage inflicted on a dying character is ignored. This is also referred to as your 'bleed out count'.
After two minutes of bleeding out, a character is Dead. Dead characters have all the same problems as Dying characters, but cannot be saved by healing. A Dead character will leave to Resurrect after four minutes of being Dead. During those four minutes, a Life effect can save a Dead character, usually restoring the poor soul to one body, sometimes restoring them further. Dead characters generally end the duration of any effects on them at the point where they transition from Dying to Dead. This time is also sometimes called your 'death count'. After that 4 minutes, your body dissipates unless a someone claims it to try and return it to an applicable spot/person for easier resurrection.
Resurrection
When you die there are a few ways to deal with your spirit.
- If you died in some remote location be it the back trails out exploring or on some module adventure abandoned to your fate by your fellows, you are then going to have to drop your gear (feel free to hand it to whomever is running the mod or to someone at the marshal station if you were killed and there is no one around.) Just make sure you walk to the marshal station out of game with either your white headband on or your hand\weapon on your head. This is represents your spirit wandering towards the closest Lifewell in the area. Certain skills may be able to interact with you but for the most part you are completely out of game. You may announce 'Spirit' to anyone who asks if you are out of game or a spirit.
- If your friends are trying to be there for you and just don't have a Life spell, then they can take your body back to a safer location and attempt the resurrection there, more info on that in a moment.
Resurrection Effect by Rank
Resurrection Rank 1- Target resurrects with Grave Touch which lasts for 1 hour, they have whatever skills they had remaining when they died.
Resurrection Rank 2- Target resurrects with Grave Touch which lasts for 30 minutes, they have whatever skills they had remaining when they died.
Resurrection Rank 3- Target resurrects with Grave Touch which lasts for 5 minutes, they have whatever skills they had remaining when they died otherwise they have what the had at the time of death.
Resurrection Rank 4- Target resurrects; their mana/energy is set to half their maximum if it is more than what they had remaining when they died.
Resurrection Rank 5- Target resurrects; their mana/energy, as well as their Masteries, are refreshed to full.
Grave Touch- This effect is not curable by any means and will last even through death. This effect causes the target to be Slowed and Devastated.
Either way, what you're going to now is called a 'bead draw' where you will work with a Marshal to figure out what your chances of resurrection are and then pull a bead, unseen, from the bag. The Marshal should prove the bag is empty before adding in the beads as agreed upon according to the following chart. If there is any discrepancy, a player rep can be called to help arbitrate the situation.
Retirement: Keep in mind that AT ANY POINT in this process before your second draw you may opt to retire your character and build a new one with 50% of the earned Skill Points of your current character.
| State\Situation | Effect |
|---|---|
| It is a character's very first death | CONGRATULATIONS, everyone has 1 free death, no draw |
| Base resurrection draw | Start with 9 white and one black bead |
| Your spirit was anchored to your body with a Bind Form | Add two white beads |
| You died in Nexus | Add 2 black beads |
| You died on a Shard of a Prime | Add one black bead |
| You died on an Inner Plane (Elemental) | Add two black beads |
| You died on an outer Plane (The Abyss) | Add three white beads |
| You died on Acheron | There is no bead draw unless you have the body. |
| You are being resurrected in the field | Add one black bead |
| You are being resurrected at a shrine | Add white bead |
| You are being resurrected at a Lifewell or similar location | No beads added for this state |
| Number of deaths on your character sheet | Add one black bead per death |
| Ranks in resurrection of the person performing the resurrection | Add one white bead per rank past Rank 1 |
| Plot effects | varies |
Following the above example, if Aodhán dies for the second time (which is the first death he must draw for so no + or - from that) he would start with 9 white and 1 black beads in the bag. If he died in Nexus (+2 black) alone in the woods with no one to save him and his spirit drifted on it's own to the Lifewell (+/-0), to someone who happened to be at the Lifewell that had 3 ranks of the Resurrection skill (+2 white) his new count would be 3 black and 11 white beads in the bag. If he were to then pull a white bead, he has successfully resurrected and may return to the game as if he had just completed a full reset.
However, if he pulls the black bead, things get a little trickier.
The bag is emptied out and refilled with 9 white and 1 black bead and you are allowed to draw again. You may choose to fight back without chancing the draw but such a thing is costly to a spirit. If you draw the first black bead and do not wish to risk this chart you can choose to push through resurrection at the cost of 40% of your character's earned SP.
| Black Bead | Outcome |
|---|---|
| 1st | You're permanently deceased |
| 2nd | Your character becomes lost in the void for 6 months or retire and keep 10% of earned SP |
| 3rd | Your character becomes lost in the void for 6 months or retire and keep 20% of earned SP |
| 4th | Your character becomes lost in the void for 3 months or retire and keep 30% of earned SP |
| 5th | Your character becomes lost to the void for 1 month then fights back but loses 30% of earned SP (can retire with 40% earned) |
| 6th | Your character becomes lost to the void for remainder of event then fights back but loses 20% of earned SP |
| 7th | Character fights back but loses 10% of earned SP |
| 8th | You're back but Devastated for 6 months (this does not stack with Gravetouched) |
| 9th | You're back but have no Bleed Out for 3 months |
| 10th | You resurrect normally |
If Aodhán is unlucky enough to come to this table he will have to try his luck. If he were to pick the black bead on the first try, he would be permanently dead and the player would have to start a new character from scratch. Let's say he had 50 earned SP before going into this draw to make it easier to calculate. If he did not want to draw, he could choose to lose 20SP and resurrect fully as if he had drawn white on the first draw. If he chances fate and picks the black bead 4th then his player will have to either play a secondary or NPC for 3 months as Aodhán makes his way back through the void. Upon his return, he will have lost 15 SP. However, if his luck is a bit better and he draws the black bead 8th out of the bag he loses no SP but is under the effect of a non removeable Devastate for the next 6 months. He could get so lucky as to his the jackpot and draw all the white beads before the black and resurrect fully with no detriment but Lady Luck must be on your side to accomplish such a task.