Morbid Skills

Table of Contents
Primary Item (H2)
The stranger you become

When you expe­ri­ence Mor­bid dreams, you must gain or improve a mor­bid skill.

  • If you have no mor­bid skills, choose one and buy a lev­el in it. You must spend XP.
  • If you already have a mor­bid skill, spend XP to increase it by one lev­el. If you’re lev­el 4 in it, there’s a 1-in-6 chance of gain­ing a sec­ond mor­bid skill instead.

If you have insuf­fi­cient XP to afford a mor­bid skill lev­el, buy it as soon as you are able.

Gain­ing a mor­bid skill lev­el reduces your Dis­tress by 1.

Mor­bid skills are abnor­mal. They car­ry effects both help­ful and harm­ful and may demand you con­duct unusu­al behav­iors to remain at peace. Unlike oth­er skills, you must have lev­els in a mor­bid skill in order to use its func­tions or attempt rolls.

Atavism

A regres­sion towards the ancient world. An urge that has destroyed civ­i­liza­tions.

Need: Antiquity

At end of ses­sion, suf­fer 1 dis­tress if you did­n’t acquire an ancient arti­fact or secret.

Philology

Get a per-lev­el XP dis­count on ancient Lore and Lan­guage top­ics equal to your Atavism lev­el.

Austerity

Rig­or­ous self-denial. A reli­gious mal­adap­ta­tion.

Need: discipline

At end of ses­sion, suf­fer 1 dis­tress per dis­ci­pline defied.

asceticism

Every 3 lev­els of Aus­ter­i­ty, you must adopt a new dis­ci­pline. Get +1 max­i­mum faith points per dis­ci­pline.

meditation
You must med­i­tate for 4 con­sec­u­tive hours every day. When you do, you earn 1 faith point.

“The font of Her wis­dom is ever­flow­ing; a life­time may be spent to drink.”

mendication
You can­not pos­sess coinage or valu­ables. When you give a share of trea­sure to char­i­ty, you earn 1 faith point.

“To give char­i­ty is to serve the Lord. Her truest Church is the Church of the poor.”

minimalism
You can­not pos­sess more than 3 items (except sim­ple clothes.) When you give away items in excess, you earn 1 faith point.

“Her has­ta, Her hel­met, Her san­dals. Pos­ses­sions enough to change the world.”

fasting
You can­not have more than 1 meal per day. When you suf­fer Hun­gry stress, you earn 1 Faith point.

“To live by the flesh is to die. To deprive the flesh is to live by the spir­it. To live by the spir­it is to tran­scend the flesh.”

flagellation
When you strike your­self with a painful wound, you earn 1 Faith point.

“I will know the lash as did the Lord, and by it know her strength.”

drama

A cer­tain flair. A need for the spot­light.

Need: Attention

At end of ses­sion, suf­fer 1 dis­tress if you did­n’t insti­gate a reac­tion roll.

Provoke

Roll Dra­ma when you insti­gate a reac­tion roll. If you suc­ceed, you alter the result by one step—improving it if it was 4 or high­er or wors­en­ing it if it was 3 or low­er. If you fail, you gain 1 dis­tress if the reac­tion roll result­ed in 1–6 after mod­i­fiers.

Grand gestures

You can do any of the fol­low­ing in per­il, once each per day:

  • Tear off your hel­met. Remove a Weary stress.
  • Throw down a new­ly-bro­ken/breached weapon or armor piece. Get an edge on your next attack.
  • Pull an embed­ded weapon from your body. Get an edge on your next attack or block with it.

gambling

Play and bluff through games and life alike.

Need: Risk

At end of ses­sion, suf­fer 1 dis­tress if you did­n’t gam­bit and wager. If you played a game of chance, it counts as 1 of these, but not both.

Gambit

In per­il, roll Gam­bling before anoth­er d12 roll. If you suc­ceed, the oth­er roll gains an edge. If you fail, it gains a -4 penal­ty.

Wager

Once per ses­sion, make a wager with the Book­keep­er. Iden­ti­fy a roll with a 1-in-3 (or worse) chance of suc­cess. Stake a quan­ti­ty of XP on it, up to 50. If you suc­ceed in that roll, you get dou­ble the XP. If you fail, you lose all of it and gain 1 dis­tress.

Mortification

A taste for suf­fer­ing. Purest masochism.

Need: Suffering

At end of ses­sion, suf­fer 1 dis­tress if your malus did­n’t increase at least once.

Dancing on the Edge

At 3 pain and 3 malus, your malus can­not increase.

transmutation

Roll Mor­ti­fi­ca­tion when you gain Pain stress. Suc­cess grants you 1 Com­fort.

Undulled

Any drug or effect that reduces your pain oth­er than nat­ur­al heal­ing caus­es you 2 Dis­tress.

reason

An attempt at fun­da­men­tal under­stand­ing. A fool’s pre­tense in an irra­tional world.

Need: rationality

At end of ses­sion, suf­fer 1 dis­tress if you did­n’t gain a top­i­cal skill lev­el in a philo­soph­i­cal school, ide­ol­o­gy, or reli­gion.

amor fati

When you are forced to suf­fer dis­tress, roll Rea­son. If you suc­ceed, you gain the +5 XP but not the dis­tress.

language: sordor

The tongue of Ancient Naus­sia. A moral con­t­a­m­i­nant; every word learned irrev­o­ca­bly cor­rodes your com­pas­sion and human­i­ty.

Need: obscenity

At end of ses­sion, suf­fer 1 dis­tress if you did not dis­course with anoth­er Sor­dor speak­er or writer.

inhumanity

At Sor­dor lev­els 3, 6, and 9, gain +1 to reac­tion rolls with those who know Sor­dor and -1 with those who don’t.

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