Injuries and Death

## Summary

*Many injuries, such as cuts, scrapes, bruises and burns represent transient inconveniences to a dungeon-delving hero. Some injuries are instead more difficult to deal with. Broken limbs, diseases and mental trauma can take far longer to heal, and some never heal at all without radical intervention.*

Characters can only sustain so many injuries. Once a character's *Vitality* falls below zero, that character suffers a real risk of sustaining permanent and life-altering injuries.

## Rules

### Falling Unconscious

When a character’s Vitality plus their Stamina falls to zero, the character becomes Unconscious. While Unconscious.

* A creature may not perform Actions or Reactions
* A creature becomes Prone (see above)

As Vitality can fall below zero, this can mean that a heavily injured character may still be able to get up with a brief rest and a splash of water to the face. However, they risk immediately falling unconscious if they overdo it.

### Falling to Zero

When a character loses Vitality and that character's Vitality falls below zero two things happen. The player must make an immediate Fortitude check. The TS is the negative of the new Vitality (i.e., -8 Vitality corresponds to a TS = 8).

* On a *Regular Success*, the character falls Unconscious and there are no further consequences.
* On a *Regular Failure*, the character falls Unconscious and begins to Bleed Out (see below).
* On a *Critical Failure*, the character falls Unconscious, begins to Bleed Out and must roll for Injuries.

### Bleeding Out

At the end of each 'player turn' during which a character is Bleeding Out, that character must make a Fortitude check (TS = new Vitality below zero).

* On a *Critical Success*, the character stabilizes and is no longer *Bleeding Out*.
* On a *Regular Success*, nothing happens.
* On a *Regular Failure*, the character loses 1 *Vitality*.
* If a character’s Vitality falls to a negative value less than their maximum Vitality, they die (i.e., a character with 15 maximum Vitality would die once they reach -15).

### Injuries

When a character suffers an injury, they must make a *Fortitude* check to determine how bad their injury is. The TS for the injury is how many negative *Vitality* they have. If they fail, the must roll again, each fail increasing the severity of their *Injury* by one step according to the table below.

 2
 3
 4

### Mental Scarring

If a character's *Morale* is reduced to zero they become susceptible to *Mental Scarring* resulting in *Disease*. Whenever a character rolls a *Critical Failure* on a check to become *Panicked* due to zero *Morale*, they must make a *Mettle* save. If this is failed, the character becomes subject to a random or appropriately selected *Mental Disease*.

## Injuries

### Minor Injuries

Minor injuries are the kind that will inconvenience a player but heal naturally in the space of a week.

#### Crushing

* This character rolls a *Fizzle Dice* when jumping
* This character can not *Hustle* or *Sprint*
 2

#### Piercing

* This character rolls a *Fizzle Dice* for any checks or saves that use *Strength*, *Dexterity*, *Fortitude* or *Agility*.
* This character can not *Hustle*
 2
 3

### Moderate Injuries

Moderate injuries are fairly severe, requiring proper treatment. These injuries will heal, but will take a significant amount of time.

### Severe Injuries

Severe injuries are permanent and no amount of bed rest will cure them.