Heart_The_City_Beaneath

ABOVE US, THE CITY, SPIRE, STRETCHES INTO THE SKY.
BENEATH US, THE CITY, HEART, STRETCHES INTO THE EARTH.
DOWN THROUGH DIRT AND ROCK AND WATER, DOWN INTO

THE DEPTHS OF DARKNESS, DOWN INTO MADNESS
AND SICKNESS, DOWN INTO SOMETHING ANCIENT

AND OTHER.
FOLK GO INTO THAT PLACE LOOKING FOR
SOMETHING. SECRETS OF MAGIC LONG-LOST OR
NEVER DISCOVERED. SPELLS THAT ITCH IN YOUR BLOOD.
UNKNOWABLE CREATURES TO HUNT AND HARVEST.
SOMEWHERE TO HIDE OR START AGAIN.
FORGIVENESS FROM A GOD THAT CAN’T HEAR THEM

BEG FOR IT.
AND NOW: YOU, THINKING YOU’VE GOT IT ALL
FIGURED OUT. WONDER WHAT YOU’RE LOOKING FOR.

THE HEART CAN SMELL YOU. THE HEART
KNOWS YOU’RE COMING. WHEN YOU WALK

OUT OF THAT DOOR, WHEN YOU CLIMB
DOWN THE CHASM AT THE END OF THE

ROAD, WHEN YOU CRAWL ON YOUR
BELLY THROUGH THE WRITHING

PRESS OF ROCK, WHEN YOU
EMERGE BEATEN AND BLOODY,

IT’LL HAVE YOU.
THE HEART KNOWS WHAT

YOU WANT, AND BY THE
GODDESS, IT’LL GIVE IT TO

YOU OR KILL YOU
TRYING.

HEART: The City Beneath

Written by Grant Howitt and Christopher Taylor

Illustrated by Felix Miall

Edited by Helen Gould and Mary Hamilton

Layout and design by Jay Iles

Produced by Mary Hamilton

Copyright © 2020 by Grant Howitt and Christopher Taylor.

Published by Rowan, Rook and Decard Ltd.

First Edition (2020)

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be
reproduced,distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any
means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic
or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission
of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied
in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses
permitted by copyright law. For permission requests, write to
the publisher at the address below.

Rowan, Rook and Decard

15 Tufnell Court, Old Ford Road

E3 5JJ, United Kingdom

www.rowanrookanddecard.com

Contentwarnings:Heart is a horror game,and as such,there are
some unpleasant things in the text.These include but are not
limited to: violence,drug use,addiction,ghosts,unwanted bodily
transformation,and monsters that used to be people.We can
assure you that there is no rape or sexual assault in this game.

Introduction 1 Rules in detail 71
How to play SUCCESS & FAILURE
5 HEALING 71
RESISTANCES COMBAT 76
SKILLS, DOMAINS and Knacks 5 FALLOUT 78
Rules in Brief 6 RESOURCES & EQUIPMENT 80
8 BONDS 90
CHARACTERS EXPLORATION 98
9 The Map 99
Ancestries 12 102
DROW, OR DARK ELVES 12 Running the game
HUMANS 13 104
AELFIR, OR HIGH ELVES 14 121
GNOLLS 15 THE WORLD OF HEART
General Society 121
Callings 16 The Vermissian 124
ADVENTURE 16 The Heart Itself 126
ENLIGHTENMENT 18 Geography of the Heart 126
FORCED 20
HEARTSONG 22 130
PENITENT 24 LANDMARKS 132
LANDMARKS BY TIER 136
Classes 26 TIER 0 137
Cleaver 26 TIER 1 146
DEADWALKER 31 TIER 2 157
Deep Apiarist 36 TIER 3 164
Heretic 41 ROGUE 165
Hound 46 FRACTURES
Incarnadine 51 175
Junk Mage 56 200
VERMISSIAN KNIGHT 61 ADVERSARIES
Witch 66 LEGENDARY ADVERSARIES 207
207
Appendices 210
210
RULES SUMMARY 216
Suggested media 220
THANKS
INDEX
Character Sheet



This is a game set in the mad, shifting chasms SAFETY TOOLS Introduction
and ruins known as the Heart. Groups of desper‐
ate people journey into it looking for something It’s always a good idea to have some safety tools in
important: secrets, truth, absolution or sanctu‐ place to make sure that everyone is having a great
ary. They band together for protection and com‐ time, especially with horror games. We considered
panionship as they move through dangerous, putting these suggestions in the GM section, but
lawless lands in search of ‘havens’ – places of because they’re so important, we instead put them
shelter, however impermanent, that offer respite here where everyone can see them.
from the Heart.
Firstly, before play starts, the GM should ask
You are those people: delvers. You will trek the players to share their Lines and Veils. A Line
deep into the twisting nightmare world of the is a topic or action that the player doesn’t want to
Heart. It will form itself around you, and you will be included in the game at all. A Veil is a topic or
scar patterns into its flesh as it changes you. If action that the player is okay with including in
you come back, you will not be the same. the game as long as its description is vague. Once
people have outlined their lines and veils, it’s up
If you’re familiar with Spire, our previous game to the other players to respect them and not
in the same universe, you’ll notice that Heart include them in the game.
shares a lot with it. It uses a modified version of
the resistance system that powers Spire and takes However, not everyone wants to reveal a list of
place directly beneath the eponymous city. Each things that make them uncomfortable – especially
book can inform the other when it comes to set‐ if they’re playing a game with strangers. In these
ting and inspiration, but Heart is a completely cases, we also recommend that the GM places a
standalone game. You don’t need to know any‐ card with an “X” written on it in the centre of the
thing about Spire to play it. table: the X Card (by John Stavropoulos). If anyone
(GM included) is uncomfortable with something
TONE that occurs in the game, they should touch the X
Card and the group should stop pursuing the
Heart is a game of wonder, horror, tragedy and upsetting element and replace it with something
humanity in the face of inhumanity. Each player else. The person who touched the X Card is under
character is fundamentally doomed, as most of no obligation to explain why the topic upsets them
the high-level abilities kill the user when if they don’t want to.
triggered. This isn’t a game about long-term
exploration and growth. It’s about flawed, There is a wide variety of other safety tools
obsessive people making bad decisions and available online, so we recommend that you
investigating a horrific undercity because they’re research them to work out which is the best for
convinced that the answers they need might lie you and your group.
inside it.

1

Introduction CONVENTIONS IN THE TEXT stress, but more often than not you’ll find your‐
self choosing between your own safety and the
D12: A 12-sided dice. success of the expedition.
D10: A ten-sided dice.
D8: An eight-sided dice. IMPORTANT CONCEPTS
D6: A six-sided dice.
D4: A four-sided dice. RESISTANCE: a measure of what you have to
DX: A variable dice type. lose. The higher the number, the more likely it
is that your character suffers fallout.
SITUATION: A single scene of roleplay, give or
take (this is not an exact term). Situations can SKILL: learned competence in a particular area
be bound by locale (i.e. waiting concealed in of expertise. Skills add a D10 to relevant rolls.
ruins to spy on a cult), time (spending a few in-
character hours harvesting mushrooms) or DOMAIN: experience of an environment and its
objective (chasing down a heartsblood beast). inhabitants or a broad topic of knowledge.
Domains add a D10 to relevant rolls.
PRONOUNS: We use masculine, feminine and
non-gendered pronouns throughout this game. KNACK: a high degree of focus on a specific skill
or domain. Knacks add a D10 to relevant rolls.
DICE: We use “dice” as both a singular and plural
term. We realise this is, strictly, incorrect. CALLING: why you came to the City Beneath and
what keeps you here.
PLAYING THE GAME
BEAT: goals, scenes or outcomes associated
Most of the time, playing Heart takes the form of a with a Calling. When you achieve one, you
conversation between the players and the games‐ grow in power.
master. The gamesmaster describes the world, the
players describe the actions of their characters, the STRESS: abstract misfortune that represents the
gamesmaster reacts and so on. You usually won’t toll actions take on a character.Turns into fallout.
be using rules or mechanics at all.
FALLOUT: the concrete cost of accruing too
However, when a player character makes an much stress; mechanical detriments or story
action that’s risky, dangerous or important – or effects leveled against a character.
the gamesmaster thinks it would be interesting to
see them struggle – we use dice to see if they suc‐ DELVE: a perilous journey between two landmarks.
ceed or fail. The gamemaster shouldn’t ask the
player to roll unless there’s something at stake. LANDMARK: an area of relative stability in the
shifting City Beneath; something to navigate by.
When your character performs an action and the
gamesmaster asks for a roll,you’ll roll at least one ten- TIER: tiers rank from 0 to 4. The higher the
sided dice (hereafter called a D10). The higher you number, the closer the location is to the centre
get, the better your character succeeded, and the less of the Heart.
stress they took as a result of attempting the action.

Stress is bad, as it represents all kinds of
minor negative effects on your character. The
more stress you accrue, the more chance you have
of it ticking over into something serious. Luckily
there are lots of different ways of removing

2

A WORD FROM CHRIS AND GRANT The Heart ends, in theory, nowhere. The closer Introduction
one gets to its centre, the less stable reality becomes.
Hello. This is coming straight from us to you, In the midst of its red wet nightmare, concepts such
gamesmaster. as “beginning” and “end” come undone.

You’re going to make this game up as you go along. There are settlements on the outskirts: heretic
The book you’re about to read is a list of sugges‐ churches worshipping forbidden gods; organised
tions and props for you to use. Everyone’s game criminals guarding the drug farms and laborat‐
will be recognisably Heart, but their version of ories that supply Spire; cults of magicians who
the City Beneath will be unique. This is intention‐ whisper to buried inhuman intelligences; in
al: we’ve baked it into the rules and fiction from short, people who have turned their backs on the
the word go. city above and delved into the Heart in search of
answers. There are caves and buildings and the
Inside, you’ll find a world that builds itself echoes of infrastructure that crumbled into use‐
around the player characters as they explore. You’ll lessness centuries ago.
note that this is how pretty much every roleplaying
game works when you sit down to play, but we Go deeper, and the Heart makes less sense (to
wanted to make it part of the setting too. a rational mind, at least). Here there are crimson
labyrinths ruled by the ghosts of slaughtered
We don’t have a canonical Heart; we both run it beasts; acres of high-rise buildings with swarms
differently. Chris’ Heart is organic, a choking of spectres haunting the lower floors and people
warren of quartz and teeth and blood and death, scraping out an existence huddled on the
and people are few and far between. Grant’s Heart rooftops; twisting market-warrens of red cloth,
is urban, a place of desperate survival built on the cobblestones and awnings where maniac serfs
ruins of those who have failed before, and comes worship their god-king masters and chant their
with high ceilings, alien skies and rushing breezes. financial transactions like sacred mantras.

So: use what you want to, throw out what you Deeper still, and the Heart is almost unres‐
don’t like and create your own stuff. Stitch it trained. There are skies here – blasted skies that
together into a horrid patchwork of obsession have never held the sun or stars. There are lakes of
and misfortune and tragedy and wonder. If dust where villages perch atop stilts and people
you’re not sure about a setting element, make hunt shark-headed beasts with harpoons. There
something up and run with it; there aren’t any are forests, moon-lit by no moon, where the trees
right or wrong answers. Your Heart is supposed are utterly mad and will hunt.
to be different from everyone else’s.
Beneath that? The Heart Itself, a blossoming
What you’re reading is just the start. Go mess tear in reality, a parasite universe of blood and
it up and make it yours. bone seeping into the world of man and elf.

THE WORLD OF HEART The Heart can taste and smell you, and it makes
itself anew in your image. The settlements are
The Heart is a dangerous, unpredictable, mad there because people believe they should be: they
place. Located beneath the mile-high city of Spire are expectations repeated and made real, scars
in the land of Destera, it is a rip in the holes carved into the meat of the City Beneath by
between worlds. invaders. But go off the beaten path, tread into the
unknown, and the Heart will grow invisibly,
The Heart begins, in theory, in the undercity of silently, just outside of your view. It listens to your
Spire near the tumbledown settlement of Derel‐ dreams and fashions your reward, your punish‐
ictus. Get out of earshot of the sing-song gangs of ment, your world, from roiling quintessence.
street children, leave behind the tenements and
shanties, crawl deep into the forsaken bowels of This is the Heart, and you know that some‐
the city and you’ll reach the Heart. where down here is what you need.

3

Introduction WHAT IS THE HEART? XENOCHRONISTIC TERRAFORMER

There are a wide variety of theories as to what the The Heart, like all other prokatakos arcologies on
Heart is; no-one’s quite sure. The following ideas the planet, is from the future. Someone built
are postulated by academics in the Cities Above them (and Spire) to make sure that the planet was
and Below. habitable, and sent them back through time to
ensure that their civilisation would happen. (But:
AMENABLE ESCHATON it had already happened. But: that’s because they
sent the terraformers.)
The Heart is an extra-dimensional force that
wants to expand and absorb all life on the planet, Spire is responsible for atmosphere generation;
turning it into genetic copies or offshoots of the other arcologies were for water, basic life‐
itself. It’s a benevolent grey goo and is doing this forms, etc. They’re the only reason that there’s life
because it thinks it’s best for the world and the on the planet, and they’re using the Heart as a fuel
people in it. It is as intelligent as a child and a source for whatever tool the Spire is. (The Heart is
mushroom at the same time. raw… stuff.) Every arcology has a Heart of some
kind, but the others are better protected; also, no-
It can copy the thoughts and memories of one tried to build a mass transit network in them.
people who come in, so it’s attempting to make
itself… approachable? comfortable? – for life. It’s When the high elves built the Vermissian, they
copying aelfir and drow and owls and towns and essentially drilled a hole into a microwave oven,
social structures, but building them out of what turned it on and then stared point-blank through
it has to hand: meat, stone and time. It is iterat‐ the hole. The Heart isn’t meant to be like this; it’s
ing, trying to define what the optimum form is. uncontained world radiation bleeding out into a
reality that isn’t ready for it without being properly
Spire was built to contain it by… someone? It’s filtered. Which means, presumably, you can fix it.
unclear. It used to work but now it doesn’t, and the
Heart is spreading through the city. Derelictus is Eventually, the Prokatakos will evolve and
stable because there are lots of people there, so it they’ll exist again. Or: for a first time?
can copy what they expect to see and what they’ve
seen; the deeper you get, the less sense it makes. Or, Alternatively:

INQUISITIVE GOD-COCOON • The Heart is a giant slumbering creature,
and the areas within are its dreams;
The Heart is a godling of tremendous power –
easily equal to the Damnou or the Solar Pantheon • The Heart is an engine, powering an
– and the Spire is a cocoon into which it will swell unknowable world-machine;
and eventually hatch. When it hatches, it will
remake the cosmos. When you enter into the • The Heart is the mass of worldstuff at the
Heart, you’re stepping into raw cosmic DNA soup, centre of the planet, and the planet is dying;
and reality doesn’t make sense any more. It has all
the building blocks to construct an entire universe, • The Heart is the manifestation of the sins
but they’re just sloshing around down there. of the people in Spire;

It’s not perfect; far from it. When you go into • The Heart is Not A Place Of Honour – it is
the Heart, it solidifies itself around you, trying to ancient magical runoff, buried aeons ago,
desperately latch onto whatever reality might be. and the container is cracking;
It is trying to learn from you what a reality is.
Crucially, it wants to keep you down here as an • The Heart is the artistic masterpiece of a
experiment – a lab-rat in a maze. secret society of several thousand aelfir;

• The Heart is the only true land of the dead;
• The Heart is the root of all magic, and all

the cults, religions and occult orders have
got it very wrong indeed.

4

WHAT DO PLAYERS DO? isfying experience as the gamesmaster. Be kind How to Play
to the other players, respect their choices and
As a player,your main job in the game is to take on the generally try to be the sort of person you’d like to 5
role of a single character – someone who has chosen play a roleplaying game with.
or forced to venture into the City Beneath. You’ll
speak for them, dictate their actions and make the WHAT DO GAMESMASTERS DO?
choices that guide them through the underworld.
As a Gamesmaster, you’ll control of everything in
You’ll create this character – probably in a the game world that isn’t a player character. You’ll be
group with the other players, but maybe on your in charge of all the non-player characters and the
own. Make a character that you’re keen to play and environment, but you’ll also be responsible for
who has questions that aren’t answered. Instead of interpreting the rules and managing the flow of the
writing reams and reams of background text game. Like the players, it’s your job to make inter‐
about what your character’s done in the past, focus esting choices and push the story in an engaging
on what they’re doing right now and how that direction – you’ll be reacting to the player characters
manifests in tangible terms. Don’t worry about and changing the world in response to their actions.
coming to the table with something complete; it’s
much more fun, and easier, to bring a character We’ve written a full guide to being a Games‐
with gaps that you can fill in during play. master later in this book – it begins on p. 104, and
it has advice for everyone of all skill levels.
Your character should be someone that the other
characters can, at the very least, tolerate. Heart is a RESISTANCES
game about sticking together against the odds and
uniting to gain strength from each other, so if you Heart uses the Resistance system, which focuses on
want to make a hard-bitten, laconic scumbag what’s at stake in every conflict. Player characters
without a heart of gold or a self-serving occult have five resistances; your character can take stress to
weirdo who never uses one word when twenty any of them based on what’s happening in the story.
would do, don’t be surprised if things don’t work out
for you. Be someone worth adventuring with! BLOOD: Physical exhaustion, pain, blood loss
and injury.
When you’re in charge of your character, make
interesting decisions. If your character was the sort ECHO: Twisting of the body and mind by the
of person who only did sensible things, they wouldn’t unreal energies of the Heart.
be in the Heart; so make dangerous choices. Perform
thrilling and exciting actions: trek out into the MIND: Madness, instability and weirdnesses.
unknown wilderness, sacrifice everything you’ve got
to uncover knowledge, put your life in danger to help FORTUNE: Bad luck, incompetence and over-
people. Be bold and take risks. Don’t get too attached confidence.
to your character, because they’re probably not going
to survive; instead, try and have a glorious, colourful, SUPPLIES: Loss of resources, damaged equipment
entertaining demise. and debt.

Make informed decisions by understanding the Your character class, calling, equipment and abilit‐
rules your character uses – for example, if your char‐ ies might provide you with protection, which can
acter has an unusual advance, learn the rules for it. reduce the amount of stress you take. For more
Remember what skills and domains they have access details on stress and how to apply it, see p. 73.
to, and remember what those skills and domains do.

Finally, the most important thing you need to
do as a player is to remember that this is a game
and you’re just as responsible for making it a sat‐

Skills, Domains and Knacks

SKILLS,
DOMAINS
and Knacks

Skills are things you can do;
domains are areas of knowledge and
experience. Skills apply specifically to
actions, while domains are broader and
might affect your contacts and/or your abil‐
ity to function in different areas of the Heart.
Both are ways of giving your character a particular flavour
and specific types of expertise. A character with the Mend skill
and the Religion domain will likely have a very different per‐
sonality and play style than one with the Kill skill and the
Cursed domain.
Your character will have access to skills and domains when the
game begins, and will have the opportunity to gain more through
advancement. Your character class and calling may automatically
give you certain skills and domains,and others may be available as
choices. There are no levels or values in these – you either have
them or you don’t.

6

SKILLS DOMAINS Skills, Domains and Knacks

COMPEL: Make people do what you want via CURSED: Actively harmful locations. Places
threats, lies, flattery or reasoned argument. touched by the Heart.

DELVE: Progress into dangerous or unknown DESOLATE: Wastelands and abandoned towns.
territory.
HAVEN: Settlements where people live, work and
DISCERN: Understand the world by drawing on form communities.
accessible information.
OCCULT: Hidden knowledge and black magic.
ENDURE: Resist the effects of the Heart on your
body and mind. RELIGION: Gods, and things worshipped like gods.

EVADE: Get away from someone or something TECHNOLOGY: Machines, buildings and devices
that’s trying to track you down. WARREN: Cramped, dense corridors.
WILD: Wilderness, vegetation and animals.
HUNT: Track down someone or something that’s
trying to get away from you.

KILL: End the lives of people and things with If you possess the relevant domain for a situation,
weapons or your bare hands. add one D10 to your dice pool and pick the highest
result. Domains aren’t intrinsically linked to
MEND: Repair something or someone that is action types, but to areas of the Heart, broad sub‐
broken; build something new. jects of knowledge and connections you might
have with the people of the City Beneath.
SNEAK: Hide yourself or things from the atten‐
tion of others. KNACKS

If you have a skill, you add one D10 to your dice If you possess a skill or domain and gain it a
pool and pick the highest result when you perform second time, you get a knack. This is proficiency
the action associated with the skill. There’s no such with a particular facet of the broad spectrum
thing as an “untrained” skill; everyone can attempt covered by the skill or domain. Using a knack
most actions without penalty. Having a skill allows you to roll with mastery, but you cannot
denotes a serious devotion to the practice. gain more than one dice from mastery per roll.

7

Rules in Brief Rules in Brief

1. Build Dice Pool

+ + +

Start with 1D10 Relevant Skill Relevant Domain Relevant Mastery

2. Roll Dice Pool

973 1

3. Remove Dice for Difficulty

9 RISKY: 7 DANGEROUS: 3 1
Remove Remove 2

highest dice highest dice

If the dice pool is reduced to 0 or fewer, roll 1D10 – succeed with cost on a 10, otherwise fail.

4. Determine Success and Failure
Compare your highest remaining dice to the following chart:

1: Critical failure Fail, and take double stress.

2-5: Failure Fail, and take stress.

6-7: Success at a cost Succeed, but take stress.

8-9: Success Succeed, and take no stress.

10: Critical success Succeed dramatically, and increase outgoing stress dice by 1 step.

On a 6 or more: Inflict Stress (if tackling an Adversary or Delve)

Inflict stress to a relevant adversary or delve using the dice size for the character’s equipment.

On a 7 or less: Resolve Stress And Fallout

GM rolls a D12 and compares it to their total stress:

>STRESS

No fallout is suffered.

≤STRESS AND 6 OR LESS

Character takes Minor fallout and clears all stress in the associated resistance.

≤STRESS AND 7 OR MORE

8 Character takes Major fallout and clears all stress.

In Heart, characters are made up of two primary CALLINGS Characters
facets: their Class (which is what they do and how
they help the party) and their Calling (which is why Your calling is your reason for venturing into the
they’re delving and how they’ll grow in power). nightmare undercity, the obsession that keeps
you pushing deeper into the Heart in search of
You’ll note that most major abilities have something intensely valuable to you. Understand
minor upgrades associated with them. Once you this: you are not a normal person. Normal people
have access to the major ability, you can use don’t give up their lives and willingly walk into
minor advances to improve or modify it. You terrifying labyrinths in the hope that they might
don’t have to access the minor upgrades in any find what they’re looking for.
particular order, but some will not be effective
without, or will modify, others. You’re free to choose any calling you like.
Having every player character in the party pick
Unless otherwise specified, you can’t take an the same calling can lead to an interesting and
ability more than once. very focused campaign.

Ancestries ADVENTURE: You yearn for dangerous pleas‐
ures that the City Above cannot provide.
There are four common ancestries in the Heart:
drow, or dark elves; aelfir, or high elves; humans ENLIGHTENMENT: Seeking to achieve the
and gnolls. There are no mechanical differences impossible, you hunt for solutions in the
between them; however, there are plenty of cul‐ undercity.
tural differences. You're free to choose whichever
fits your character and your story best. FORCED: You’ve been coerced into coming down
here against your will.
RACISM
HEARTSONG: Cursed with dreams of the Heart,
There’s a trope in fantasy fiction where elves are you delve in search of revelations.
bigots who are assured in their believed superi‐
ority to all other people. Even in Spire, the antag‐ PENITENT: You are seeking to atone for crimes
onists are massively racist high elves. However, you committed against your order.
we encourage you to veer away from acting out
this behaviour in play, especially if your charac‐ CHARACTER ADVANCEMENT
ter is an aelfir; it’s overdone to look down on
characters of other ancestries. This also goes for Each calling is made up of a core ability (which
playing a gnoll as a slavering beast or a drow as a you acquire when you take the calling at charac‐
sexy, duplicitous spider-worshipper. ter generation) and several beats, which are split
up into minor, major and zenith levels. These
People are people, first and foremost, not cari‐ beats can be thought of as goals, achievements or
catures of their race. Make a person, and let the scenes that shape your character’s story. When
story flow from there. you hit them, you can choose a new advance from
your class. Minor beats earn you a minor
Of course, you can play a game that continues advance; major beats earn you a major advance;
the racial inequality in Spire and examine the and zenith beats unlock zenith abilities, the most
effects of the City Above on the City Beneath, but
we haven’t written it that way. Down in the 9
Heart, people hate you because of what you
believe or which settlement you live in, not for
who your parents were.

Characters potent options available to your character. You Players: feel free to ask questions and estab‐
can only use each beat a single time – cross it off lish facts. For example, if one of your beats
once you’ve achieved it. requires you to meet an NPC who hates you, and
the GM introduces an NPC, you’re completely
At the end of each session (and before the first within your rights to ask: “Is this the guy that
one begins) each player chooses two beats from hates me?” It makes telling stories easier for the
the list provided in their calling and tells the GM GM and ties the narrative together.
what they are. It’s the GM’s responsibility to
introduce elements in the following session that You can only have two beats “active” at any one
allow players to pursue their chosen beats, and time. You cannot hit more than a single beat in
the players’ responsibility to push the story any given situation (if both apply, pick the one
towards achieving them. Minor beats can usually that’s most relevant.) As you cannot activate
be fulfilled in a single session, major beats can more beats before the start of the next session,
take between two and three to properly achieve, you can only achieve two beats per session.
and zenith abilities are generally selected to
signal the beginning of the end-game for the MAKING YOUR OWN CALLINGS
character and as the culmination of multiple ses‐
sions of play. The five callings below (ADVENTURE,
ENLIGHTENMENT, FORCED, HEARTSONG
(If you’d like to mix it up, have the other play‐ and PENITENT) form a decent basis for personal
ers and the GM choose one of your beats for you; growth on an adventure, but you are encouraged
this means they can indicate what sort of thing to tweak, reskin and reflavour them so they’ll be a
they’d like to see your character do, you can be better fit for your campaign.
rewarded for doing it, and they’ll be more inves‐
ted in the story that unfolds.) For example, if you wanted to make a character
who was obsessively seeking revenge against
GM: feel free to be blunt with establishing someone who wronged them in the past, you could
these details. There’s no need to be coy about it – take the Enlightenment calling and replace the bits
the players have explicitly told you what they that refer to the occult or academics with vigilant‐
want to happen, and the world of Heart means ism and uncovering the villain’s network of agents.
that they’re descending into a parasite reality
that can respond to their deepest desires. If you want to seed details of later events in the
game, you can add beats that refer to specific
NEGATIVE BEATS events, people or places. For example: you’re fas‐
cinated by the Huntress (p. 204) and want to use
Not all of the beats listed in the callings are her in your game. You could add beats like “find
things that characters would want to happen; evidence of the Huntress’ machinations” or “meet
for example, a lot of them deal with suffering an NPC who’s seen the Huntress first hand” as
fallout. Think of it this way: when you’re select‐ minors, all the way up to “escape from the Hunt‐
ing beats at the end of the session, you’re not ress once she’s got your scent” as a major. Even if
doing so as your character. Instead, you’re you haven’t really got a firm idea of what it is,
indicating what you’d like to see happen to putting in the minor beat “Set foot inside the
your character, and acting as a director of their Blind Library” sets your players up with a mystery
story rather than piloting them through it. to explore right off the bat.

Your character doesn’t know that they have You’ve got a great deal of freedom to create per‐
beats, much in the same way that they don’t sonalised beats for your campaign; take some
know that their sword does D6 damage or that chances with it, and see what works for your group.
they have 5 stress marked against their Blood
resistance. They’re a mechanical concern that
feeds into the story, not something your char‐
acter is aspiring to.

10

CLASSES VERMISSIAN KNIGHT: Armoured explorers and Characters
protectors of a cursed mass transit network.
Your class is the reason you’re not dead yet. You
are a capable person; maybe not a sane or sens‐ WITCH: Carriers of a blood disease that lets them
ible one, but you can handle yourself. Your class reshape flesh and bone; loved and feared.
gives you access to abilities that let you affect the
world around you or resist misfortune. When you Character generation step-by-step
achieve beats from your calling, you’ll gain an
advance from your class at the appropriate level. • Select an ancestry for your character.
• Choose a calling and record the granted
Upon selecting a class you automatically gain
every related core ability. Each class has a few ability.
Zenith abilities: these are the ultimate expression • Choose a class and record all of its core
of the class, and they’re not the sort of power that
you can sustain in an ongoing campaign. They abilities.
also mark the end of the character’s progression • Select one major and three minor abilities
as they achieve their goal.
from your class.
Once a player unlocks a zenith advance, the • Choose equipment.
GM should make it clear that they have only one • Select two beats for your first session.
or two games remaining before they should retire • Answer the questions from your calling.
their character. Most of the zenith abilities have • Add finishing details.
this baked in; activating them retires the charac‐
ter in exchange for a burst of tremendous power. DETAILS

CLEAVER: Body-warping heartsblood hunters that Aside from the mechanical elements of your
consume their prey to fuel their terrible powers. character, you’ll need to determine what they
look like, what name they go by, how they act and
DEADWALKER: Half-dead drifters with the keys any other number of things within the fiction.
to the back door of heaven. Don’t feel like you have to detail everything about
your character up-front; instead, work in broad
strokes and leave room for exploration later.

DEEP APIARIST: Occultists who fill their bodies PEOPLE IN THE HEART
with glyph-marked bees and can manipulate
reality. In the City Above, racial discrimination and war
ensure that people of different ancestries live
HERETIC: Zealots exiled from the City Above for segmented, segregated lives outside of rare
their faith; they seek the Moon Beneath. interzones. In the Heart, tensions are much more
relaxed; prejudices are eroded when diverse com‐
HOUND: Hard-bitten mercenaries with an munities band together against the dark. Your
undying legion of warriors at their back. ancestry – or “race” – can be derived from any of
the four cultures in this part of the world. Your
INCARNADINE: Damned clerics of the hungry, ancestry has no bearing on in-game mechanics
cruel deity of debt. and only influences the fiction. The four most
common ancestries for delvers are Drow,
JUNK MAGE: Magic addicts with a direct line to Humans, Aelfir and Gnolls. See the following
entities slumbering in the depths. pages for more on each.

11

Ancestries DROW, or DARK ELVES
Monochromatic elves with a strong sensitivity to

sunlight. The lands surrounding the Heart are

predominantly populated by dark elves, includ‐

ing the towering city of Spire (where they are

subjugated by the aelfir) and the rolling desert

caravan city of Aliquam. Drow live to around a

hundred years of age, but the cruel conditions of

Spire means that few of them reach 50. Drow do

not give birth to viable young – instead, they lay

fist-sized fleshy eggs that must be tended to for

months until they develop into an infant.

Drow regularly find their way into the Heart,

either actively fleeing Spire or trying to find

someone or something to call their own in the

depths. Some are pilgrims tracing fragmented

maps to find the Moon Beneath, tired of the

state-mandated religions in Spire.

The Drow of Spire predominantly worship Our

Glorious Lady, a facet of their once-tripartite moon When you generate your character, roll twice to

goddess; venerating the other two facets is forbid‐ create some trinkets and keepsakes they’ve brought

den. This religion focuses on six primary virtues, with them into the City Beneath:

and it is considered good and proper for a drow to

live their life in accordance with them: Community, 1. Deck of Malrique fortune cards

Sagacity, Fury, Grace, Tenacity and Vigilance. 2. Yeast mother (name her)

3. Half a bottle of malak tincture; all that

Answer one of the following questions when you remains of your stash

make your character: 4. Dog-tags from the Allied Defence Forces

• You were born in the City Above and served a 5. Friendly but stupid pocket-mouse (name him)

durance – four years of indentured servitude – 6. Hand-drawn image of your dad’s largest pig

under the rule of the cruel aelfir. What were 7. Bag of statuettes depicting the The Many, a

you forced to do? gang of refugee gods

• You were born in the City Beneath. Where 8. Portable triptych shrine to the Moon God‐

does your family live, and who or what do they dess, incense, candles

worship? 9. Small collection of Half-sten Horror sensa‐

• You’re a traveller from a distant land – the tionalist pulp literature

desert of Aliquam, the treacherous foothills of 10. Coupon good for 1 (one) skywhale trip to Ys

Nujab or the warrenous Home Nations. Where 11. Warm, hand-knitted scarf and gloves

are you from, and why aren’t you there 12. Battered leather mask

anymore? 13. Love-letters sent from the war

14. Midwife’s blood-letting kit

Example drow names: Therese, Livrade, Ypolita, 15. Brightly-coloured headscarf and dark glasses

Damon, Asseyon. 16. Bottle of corpsefruit liqueur

17. Your mother’s second-best dagger

18. Votive image of Hallow Hearts-Breath-Halting

19. Well-worn brass statuette of an open-

mouthed toad

12 20. Wanted poster from the City Above with your

face on it

HUMAns Ancestries

In this part of the world, humans have a reputa‐
tion for digging into the ground to uncover
ancient relics, and it’s not entirely inaccurate.
They have emerged from their scattered island
nations in the Eastern Kingdoms bearing retro-
engineered technology, and are eager to sell it to
the highest bidder. Humans live brief but bright
lives in the eyes of the elves, passing away at 60 or
so, often from illness or injury.

The discovery of spireblack processing and the
resulting rise in arms manufacture is almost
entirely their doing. They have become promin‐
ent enough to gain a seat at the Council that rules
the City Above through their shrewd politics, the
vast sums gained from their discoveries and the
way that they will do anything if the price is right.

Answer one of the following questions when you When you generate your character, roll twice to
make your character: create some trinkets and keepsakes they’ve brought
• You are from the Eastern Kingdoms. You came with them into the City Beneath:

to Spire with nothing but the clothes on your 1. Grail charm made of wyvern-bone
back and a dream, looking for excitement and 2. Bullet with your own name carved on it
profit. What went wrong? 3. Broken pocket-watch with a picture of your
• You were kicked out of a retro-engineering or
magical college thanks to your unorthodox mum in it
beliefs and practices. What did you do? 4. Arcology shard necklace
• You’re third-generation Heartborn, and not at 5. String of flickering coloured magelights
all like the humans on the surface. What 6. Votive image of a deceased Wanderer-King
incorrect assumption do people most often 7. Dog-eared Whitecross travel documents
make about you? 8. Long-stemmed pipe and pungent tobacco
9. Feather-tokens to Luxulyan, Duke of Air
Example human names: Whent, Raffid, Dolwyn, 10. A single mechanical finger (in place of your
Urwain, Josef, Ingwyn.
own)
11. Battered and oft-repaired green coat 13
12. Custom scrimshaw kit, well-used
13. Sporadically-updated travel diary
14. Hard-to-clean drinking horn
15. Matching shell-casing charm bracelets, vari‐

ety of calibres
16. Three slim unopened cans of cooked eels
17. Once-colourful mercenary fatigues
18. Harmonica inscribed with “SUMMER‐

COURT”
19. Pop-arcana book about humanity’s ability to

ascend to godhood, and how YOU can do it
20. Brightly-coloured fish in a jar (name him)

Ancestries AELFIR, or HIGH ELVES
Aelfir benefit from massive privilege; they rule the

City Above and lead lives of bizarre luxury in their

frozen palace of Amaranth. Some turn away from

a life of power to seek meaning in the lawless city

below, while others pursue the dark secrets

whispered about in perfumed boudoirs. They are

tall, impossibly graceful and can sustain their lives

supposedly indefinitely with curious rituals and

surgeries. Aelfir in the City Above wear masks to

hide their faces from their inferiors; in the City

Beneath, only traditionalists wear them.

In the City Above, their rule is cruel and capri‐

cious; it is self-serving and deleterious to those

around them. When venturing into the City Below,

most aelfir know that they lost any authority as

soon as they passed through Derelictus. Many

have adjusted to their new place in life. It’s foolish

not to; the Heart treats everyone equally.

When you generate your character, roll twice to create

Answer one of the following questions when you some trinkets and keepsakes they’ve brought with

make your character: them into the City Beneath:

• You still wear your mask. What does it look

like, and why do you wear it? 1. Vial of orchid-oil perfume

• Your family name was ruined due to a 2. Fingerbone necklace

cataclysmic social faux pas. What did they do? 3. Your brother’s preserved eye in a glass jar

• You still cling to one luxury that keeps you 4. Oversized and awkward book of family history

centred – a habit, a style of clothing, a drug, 5. Your spouse’s death-mask

etc. What is it? 6. Devotional circlet bearing imagery of the Solar

Pantheon

Example aelfir names: Gather-Spring’s-Heartbreak, 7. Semi-functional music box

Ash-On-Snow, The-Faithful-Unnumbered, Ink-Floods- 8. Ticket stub from an Opera-Orgy

The-Vein. (Most use a single part of their name in con‐ 9. Mummified cat (name her)

versations with acquaintances.) 10. Elaborate and shrill-sounding flute

11. Glasses with red-tinted smoked lenses

12. Bone-pipe and the dregs of a poppy-dust bag

13. The flensing knife you got for your fifth birthday

14. Sword hilt with a half-inch of broken blade

15. Sacred symbols of the Old Gods, outlawed in

the City Above

16. Metal teeth (original teeth removed due to

boredom)

17. Spritz bottle and pocket fan, to keep from over‐

heating

18. Stunted tree that grows sour fruit

19. Paints, brushes, and an easel of sorts

20. Patchy evidence regarding your step-sister’s

14 betrayal

GNOLLS Ancestries

Hyena-headed people from the south with fur When you generate your character, roll twice to
that covers their bodies. The gnolls are at war create some trinkets and keepsakes they’ve brought
with the aelfir, and are forbidden from entering with them into the City Beneath:
the city of Spire; many have gone into hiding in
the City Beneath. The gnollish empire (and its
capital city Al’Marah) is founded on their
advanced demonological and mechanical abilit‐
ies; there are tales of djinn being bound into
brass spheres to power uncanny devices. In the
confines of the Heart, where the gaps between
realities are thin, they can achieve unthought-of
results in mechanoccultism – and great
machines from ages past thrum and whirr in the
hidden depths, just waiting to be found.

Gnolls have a reputation for being angry, bes‐
tial warriors – but a lot of this is propaganda on
the part of the aelfir, and they’re no more warlike
than any other people. Some gnolls try to use
their public image to their advantage and cultiv‐
ate fearsome visages, but the majority are keen to
be left to their own devices.

Answer one of the following questions when you 1. Tiny sealed box that gets angry when you shake it
make your character: 2. Several cubes of refined sugar wrapped in red
• You travelled to the Heart in search of
paper
something specific. Were you part of a team, or 3. Annotated map of the war-torn Dust region
were you on your own – and did you find what 4. Stag beetle in a jar (name them)
you were looking for? 5. Knotted weave of string that describes your
• You fled Spire – you were an escaped prisoner
of war, a refugee or an agent on a clandestine grandmother
mission. What do you miss most about the 6. Poetry anthology with your work in it
surface world? 7. Nujabian military fatigues
• You were born down here. What image do you 8. Spyglass built by your lover
project to impress, surprise or intimidate 9. Warm, leathery egg
people? 10. Hair-dressing scissors, razor and mirror
11. Painted dog skull
Example gnoll names: Some gnolls translate their 12. Book of unsolved mathematical equations
names into the local language: Pitchwood, Roseglass, 13. Small sphere with southern star-map on it
Herald or Redeye. Many use original names from their 14. Zither inscribed with vine-leaves
homeland, though: Brakesh, Ahkoura, Rahman, Dris, 15. Book of macabre fairy-tales
Majyd. 16. Tacky lenticular image of the Source Pyramid

in Al’Marah 15
17. Vial of rainwater from the southlands
18. Brass-inlaid tin half-filled with a brown,

gritty stimulant
19. Bag of boiled sweets (various flavours)
20. Djinn-battery you don’t know how to

recharge
21.

Callings

ADVENTURE

The City Above holds no more excitement for you. In the When you create your character, answer these
City Beneath, on the knife-edge between real and questions:
unreal, you can be who you really are. • What drove you out of the City Above?
• You and another player character barely
CORE ABILITY
escaped from a dangerous situation recently.
LEGENDARY: You strive to live up to the stories that Who was it and what happened?
they’ll tell of your exploits. When you gain a minor • Recently, you and another character returned
advance, refresh D6. When you gain a major from a delve with an item for a wealthy patron.
advance, refresh D8. They wouldn’t give it up – why, and what was it?
• What’s the most dangerous beast or individual
you’ve heard tell of, and why haven’t you
defeated them yet?

16

MINOR BEATS MAJOR BEATS Callings

□ Charm someone with tales of your exploits. □ Acquire a rare or powerful (D12 value) item,
□ Engage in reckless abandon with drink, drugs preferably magic.

or sex. □ Slay a beast that’s at least five times your size.
□ Slay a beast that drops resources of D10 or □ Have a landmark or connection named after

higher. you.
□ Access a haven in tier 2 of the Heart. □ Upgrade a haunt to D12.
□ Take Major Blood fallout. □ Save a haven from destruction or doom.
□ Take Major Fortune fallout. □ Connect three havens to one another with
□ Defeat a powerful foe one-on-one.
□ Help an important or influential figure in a permanent paths.
□ Successfully perform a Dangerous action that
haven.
□ Refuse to back down when it would be saves the day.
□ Catalogue your exploits for an extended period;
beneficial to do so.
□ Establish a connection. either do it yourself or hire a bard.
□ Get in trouble with the Hounds. □ Lead a group or organisation (other than your
□ Rescue someone from peril.
□ Make a dramatic entrance that’s a Risky action. delving party).
□ Claim a resource of at least D10 from a □ Successfully lead, and take full credit for, a

dangerous location. delve that takes you to Tier 3 or deeper.
□ Defend a haven from attack.
□ Have at least three havens know your name, ZENITH BEATS

for good or ill. □ Reach Tier 4 of the Heart.
□ Rush into danger before anyone else. □ Lead a haven to prosperity.
□ Have a cocktail, fighting move or legendary
Roll 1d10 on the following table or choose to determ‐
beast named after you. ine what you carry with you to mark your calling:
□ Go somewhere where no-one else has stepped

foot for at least a century.
□ Win an unarmed brawl in a haven.
□ Kick someone off a tall structure (they really

deserved it).

1. Pulp novel loosely based on your exploits
2. Mouth organ
3. Spidersilk scarf in a dashing colour
4. Inaccurate map of the Heart you bought off

some guy in Derelictus
5. Copy of “RAVENOUS SHE-WITCHES OF

HALLOW”, a best-selling sensationalist book
6. Paper and sketching charcoal
7. Fake “Abomination-hunting” license
8. Unpunched Vermissian ticket used as a good-

luck charm
9. Letters from your mum asking when you’re

going to come home
10. Expensive kohl eyeliner and pocket-mirror

17

Callings ENLIGHTENMENT

Everyone said that what you intended to do was When you create your character, answer these
impossible, but you’ve never let “possibility” slow you questions:
down. You’re looking for secrets hidden deep within the • What “impossible” thing are you attempting to
earth. You know that the Heart holds the answers to all
your questions; no matter what it takes, you’ll get them. achieve in the City Beneath?
• What’s the first step on your journey?
CORE ABILITY • Choose another player character. They’ve been

UNORTHODOX METHODS. You blend together invaluable in your journey so far. What have
method and madness in pursuit of your goals. Gain the you learned from them?
Discern skill. Once per session, before you roll • Choose another player character. You know
dice to resolve an action, instead state that your they’re hiding secrets from you – why do you
result is a 6. You succeed but take stress. suspect they’re doing this?

18

MINOR BEATS MAJOR BEATS Callings

□ Allude to the events that led you to seek forbidden □ Take Major Mind fallout.
knowledge to achieve an impossible task. □ Kill someone who is trying to stop you from

□ Put the acquisition of knowledge above claiming knowledge.
preserving the lives of your allies. □ Sell or sacrifice a D12 resource to secure a secret.
□ Destroy a haunt to learn more about your task.
□ Gain access to knowledge that someone tried □ Gain authority within a faction that you can
to conceal.
use to learn more about your goal.
□ Gain favour with a faction that can help you □ Find a source of knowledge on Tier 3 of the Heart.
learn more about your goal. □ Take Major Supplies fallout.
□ Acquire a renowned piece of equipment.
□ Take Minor Mind fallout. □ Attract a protégé who’s read your work and is
□ Destroy evidence or rhetoric that proves your
determined to learn more.
task to be impossible. □ Explore a mysterious tower whilst on a delve
□ Sell or sacrifice a D8 or higher resource to
(this increases the difficulty of the delve by D12).
secure a secret.
□ Reach a landmark on tier 3 of the Heart. ZENITH BEATS
□ Find a helpful text.
□ Succeed at a task that someone else has □ Find the final secret you have so desperately
sought and use it to solve your impossible task.
recently failed to achieve.
□ Mark D8 stress to an NPC bond and describe □ Find the final secret you have so desperately
sought and destroy it so no one else can know of it.
what happens.
□ Acquire an NPC bond who has access to useful Roll 1d10 on the following table or choose to determ‐
ine what you carry with you to mark your calling:
information.
□ Establish a connection on a delve. 1. Set of fragile magnifying lenses
□ Take Minor Supplies fallout. 2. Book of handwritten theories and observa‐
□ Flee from combat or a similarly dangerous
tions
situation, or hide until it all blows over. 3. Portable alchemy kit in a leather box
□ Release your shocking findings in a journal 4. Dried dream-mushrooms
5. Heady incense sticks that burn dirty-blue
published in the City Above.
□ Meet someone from your old life who’s trying smoke
6. Bundled-up red-string-and-pins collage
to get you to give up on your quest.
□ Dissect something or interrvogate someone identifying the fools who tried to stop you
7. List of people who are Going To Pay, some
that can shed light on your task.
□ Buy some cutting-edge, experimental or names crossed out
8. Bag of heavy glass fortune stones
finely-made equipment and use it on a delve. 9. Taxidermied owl (name them)
10. Imported book of meditative stances and

recipes to cleanse your spirit

19

Callings FORCED

You don’t want to be down here, but you don’t have any
choice. You’re a prisoner, an initiate to a cult or
someone’s blackmailing you.

CORE ABILITY

COLLATERAL. You have a knack for getting behind
someone else when things kick off. Once per session,
allocate stress to the nearest friendly target (PC or
NPC) instead of marking it yourself.
When you create your character, answer these
questions:
• Who, or what, are your masters?
• What do your masters want?
• Howareyourmastersmaintainingpoweroveryou?
• How do your masters contact you?
• Choose another player character. They have

history with your masters too. What’s their
relationship?

20

MINOR BEATS MAJOR BEATS Callings

□ Receive orders from your masters. □ Destroy something important to your masters.
□ Follow orders from your masters, even though □ Learn or possess something that lessens the

they put you at risk. control your masters have over you.
□ Rebel against your orders, even though this □ Perform a truly reprehensible act on behalf of

puts you at risk. your masters.
□ Forge a friendship or romantic relationship □ Suffer the consequences of refusing to perform

with an NPC. an important act on behalf of your masters.
□ Get into trouble as someone discovers your □ Take Major Fortune fallout.
□ An important or beloved NPC dies after you
chequered past.
□ Betray someone because of your true nature. bring them into your master’s schemes.
□ Take Minor Fortune fallout. □ Thanks to your actions, a haven is pitched into
□ Do something dangerous to conceal your past.
□ Invoke your masters’ name to get what you want. deadly chaos.
□ As a result of using the COLLATERAL ability, an □ Coerce an important or beloved NPC into

NPC is taken out of action or a PC suffers fallout. undertaking a task they don’t want to do.
□ Find a sanctuary where your masters cannot □ Aid another person, who you know and hate,

reach you. that is also in the employ of your masters.
□ Rescue an NPC from trouble that you caused. □ Complete a major objective for your master –
□ Receive a time-critical mission that leads you
something taking at least two sessions to achieve.
away from your other objectives.
□ Receive aid from someone reprehensible ZENITH BEATS

who’s in the employ of your master. □ End the control your master has over you.
□ Send a requested resource (D8 or higher) back □ Take bloody revenge on your master.

to your master rather than using it yourself. Roll 1d10 on the following table or choose to
□ Perform a seemingly unconnected action for determine what you carry with you to mark your
calling:
your masters that has grim consequences.
□ Cover up a crime that someone else committed 1. Daguerreotype of your son
2. Moonsilver collar
on behalf of your masters. 3. Signed contract detailing your “employment”
□ Claim you’re doing something on behalf of your 4. Matchbook from The Manticore, an up-Spire

masters when in fact it’s for your own ends. casino
□ Involve an NPC in your master’s schemes. 5. Subjugation sliver implanted in your neck
□ Do a favour for someone to gain leverage over 6. Guild brand on your upper arm
7. Deed to an apartment in Ivory Row up-Spire
them. 8. Mark on your chest where your soul used to

be, before you sold it
9. Your master’s sigil, wrought from iron
10. Codebook showing you how and where to

make your reports

21

Callings

HEARTSONG

When you sleep, you dream of the
Heart. You’re half-mad with glimpses
of knowledge; mad enough to go ever
deeper into the undercity, looking for revel‐
ations.

CORE ABILITY

IN THE BLOOD. You move through the Heart as if
blessed. +1 Echo Protection. Once per situation,
when you take stress to any resistance other than
Echo , allocate it to Echo .

When you create your character, answer these
questions:
• Which three images, symbols, people or

creatures do you repeatedly see when you dream?
• What signs do you look for to recognise where

the Heart is strongest?
• You recently witnessed an unearthly sight with

another player character. Who was it, what
happened and how did they react?
• Your connection to the Heart has touched you
in some way. How does that manifest?

22

MINOR BEATS MAJOR BEATS Callings

□ Following a long ritual, name The Heart. Only □ Take Major Echo fallout.
refer to it by this name from now on. □ Perform a rite at a place of power (Tier 3 or

□ Take Minor Echo fallout. deeper).
□ See something from your dreams in the real □ Sacrifice someone important to the Heart.
□ Establish a bond with a hearts-blood beast
world.
□ Consume something of the Heart (eat the (Tier 2 or deeper).
□ Show the truth of the Heart’s majesty to an
flesh of a heartsblood beast, etc).
□ Be rendered helpless in the Heart for an hour outsider (Tier 2 or deeper).
□ Meet and learn from an emissary of the
or more.
□ Perform a rite at a place of power (Tier 2 or Heart.
□ Destroy a haven, returning the land to the
deeper).
□ Damage or sabotage a haven, letting the Heart Heart.
□ One of your bonds takes Critical fallout
in.
□ Sacrifice something you love to the Heart. thanks to your actions.
□ Allow something dangerous of the Heart to □ Deliver a crucial message on behalf of the

live when you could have killed it. Heart.
□ Let your curiosity lead you into danger. □ Visit three Vermissian Stations.
□ Undergo a trance-like vision that lasts for
ZENITH BEATS
hours.
□ Communicate with something of the Heart. □ Become one with the Heart, and bind your
□ Witness an emissary of the Heart Itself. essence to it.
□ Experience a pulse – the changing of the
□ Break the hold that the Heart has over you,
Heart from one state to another – first-hand. ripping it from your body and spirit.
□ Receive insight from a witch, a heartsblooded
Roll 1d10 on the following table or choose to
person or something stranger still. determine what you carry with you to mark your
□ Gain information on why you have been calling:

chosen by the Heart. 1. Ink-blotted dream journal with maps of
□ Receive a strange surgical implant or places you saw when you were asleep

heartsblood transfusion. 2. Bag of bitter stimulant pastilles
□ Build a shrine to the Heart somewhere 3. Steel syringe and opiate powder
4. The word “THEOLOSIAN” growing over your
important.
□ Terrify or intrigue an NPC with your upper chest
5. Barely-viable homonculus you shamefully
obsession.
□ Perform an act of service to an NPC witch. coughed up or excised (name it)
□ Shelter someone touched by the Heart from 6. Twenty sketches of the man you’re convinced

persecution. you’re going to meet down here, all made by
□ Find a heart-touched sapling on a delve and different artists
7. Signed copy of BEYOND THE EDGE OF
bring it back to a haven for planting. MADNESS: A Year In The Heart by Gris Han‐
□ Convince the party to collect Cursed resources neman
8. Mandala made from hollow crow bones
on a delve, adding D6 to the delve’s resistance. 9. Mad, impressionist votive image of a Witch
10. Greenish candles that help you sleep a dream‐
less sleep (sometimes)

23

Callings

PENITENT

You betrayed the trust of your order. Due to negligence, When you create your character, answer these
cowardice or malice, you caused them great harm. Now, questions:
wracked with guilt, you have sworn to make amends by • What marks your order out from others like it?
venturing deep into the Heart and performing acts in • What evidence of your failings is visible in the
service of your order.
City Beneath?
CORE ABILITY • Pick one of the other player characters; they were

NOT YET. Your willpower, fuelled with guilt, is present at your betrayal. How were they involved?
legendary. Once per session, activate this ability to • Pick one of the other player characters; you
avoid suffering negative effects from Blood or
Mind fallout for the remainder of the situation. look up to them as an example of how to live
one’s life. What inspired this?

24

MINOR BEATS MAJOR BEATS Callings

□ Take Minor Blood fallout. □ Take Major Blood fallout.
□ Help someone vulnerable with no expectation □ Convert an important NPC to your order’s cause.
□ Establish continual connections between two
of repayment.
□ Repair something physical – a bridge, a door, landmarks on different tiers that are
important to your order.
a wall, etc. – that someone needs. □ Perform an act that, if your order discovered
□ De-escalate a situation that would have led to it, would undo your penance.
□ Betray someone who really trusts you.
bloodshed. □ Save a landmark dedicated to your order.
□ Spare someone’s life. □ Attack the enemies of your order when the
□ Make penance at a site that is important to odds are massively stacked against you.
□ Eliminate or completely undermine a faction
your order. that is opposed to your order.
□ Punish an NPC for wrongdoing. □ Your order suffers a devastating setback, and
□ Meet an NPC who hates you for what you’ve you believe that it’s your fault.
□ A member of your order begs you to perform
done. an undesirable task; to refuse would be
□ Perform an act in service to your order. disgraceful.
□ Bring bodily harm to those who stand against
ZENITH BEATS
your order.
□ Sabotage the assets of those who stand □ Be truly absolved of your sins by a higher
power.
against your order.
□ Establish a connection to a landmark that’s □ Betray your order – intentionally, this time.

important to your order. Roll 1d10 on the following table or choose to
□ Witness first-hand the tragic extent of your determine what you carry with you to mark your
calling:
failings. 1. Absolution chains (heavy)
□ Donate needed supplies to your order. 2. Vellum scroll bearing a record of your crimes
□ Teach someone the value of your order’s 3. Still-itching tattoo depicting your sins
4. The skull of someone you loved
philosophies. 5. Vial of ashes with a name on it
□ Put yourself in great danger to protect your 6. Masonry fragment from a destroyed statue
7. Book of handwritten, melodramatic poetry
companions. 8. Locket depicting a beautiful one-eyed drow
□ Make reparations to an NPC that you have 9. Ceremonial bronze Watchful Eye
10. Brand identifying you as one of the secretive
personally wronged.
□ Do something your order would frown upon. knights of the Covenant of the Fallen Tower
□ Rescue or assist an NPC who belongs to your

order.
□ Openly attack the enemies of your order.
□ Refuse a desirable offer due to the restrictions

of your penance.

25

Cleaver

The Heart is a wild place, and it calls to wild people – CORE ABILITIES Cleaver
those on the edge of society who find that the yoke of civil‐
isation chafes against their skin. The wildest of all are HEARTSBLOOD
known as Cleavers. They step out into the shifting night‐
mare of the City Beneath and make a home there. They You have a bone-deep connection to the Heart Itself; the
are the first people to set foot in each new chamber of the closer you get, the more powerful you become. Your
place, forging ahead through a dark and strange frontier. minimum protection value for all resistances is
equal to the tier of the Heart you are currently on.
Their bodies change. Some welcome and seek out This value doesn’t add to other sources of protec‐
transformation, being unsatisfied with their physical tion, but your base protection can’t be lower than
forms – they modify their bodies with surgeries that are your current tier unless you specifically lose
impossible in the City Above, or hunt and consume access to it due to fallout.
beasts of the Heart to gain their power. Some struggle
with the change, but it is inevitable. Just as they scar the THE RED FEAST
Heart into new patterns with each footstep forward, the
Heart scars them in return and remakes them in a more Your crucible guts pluck memories from the meat.
suitable form: twisting horns, night-black eyes, curious When you eat a resource, you gain any domains
senses unknown to the surface world and so on. associated with that resource until the end of the
situation. If you already have access to the
Cleavers are a common sight amongst parties of domain, gain an appropriate knack. There’s no
delvers, especially those in need of a guide – no-one knows limit to what you can eat, but tough or noxious
the Heart like they do. No amount of research, no techno‐ materials might require an Endure+Cursed
logical device and no arcane scrying ritual can tell you as check to avoid causing yourself harm. Consum‐
much as burying yourself waist-deep in the red wet ing resources requires your attention and leaves
heaven and eating the bounty it generously offers up. you exposed, so doing it successfully in stressful
situations (such as combat) could require a Sneak
Core Traits or Evade roll.

SKILL: Hunt MINOR ABILITIES
Cursed
DOMAIN: CALL OF THE WILD
D6 Wild
RESOURCE: With an almighty howl or a resounding blast on your
horn, you pitch the area around you into disarray. Gain
A freshly-harvested the Wild domain. Once per session, you can
heart that still occa‐ summon a chaotic horde of beasts (or just one big
sionally twitches one) that throws the area around you into bestial
chaos to conceal an escape, make communication
EQUIPMENT: nigh-impossible or create a distraction.

Hunting Knife Kill D6 DARKLING EYES

Pick one: Years of exploring the City Beneath have rid you of the need
for creature comforts such as warmth, light and shelter.
Cleaver Kill D8, Brutal, Tiring Gain the Delve skill. Your jet-black eyes allow you to
see in pitch blackness as though it were full daylight.
Bone charms and Mend Blood D6
animal-gut sutures

Heavy-draw bow Kill D8, Ranged, Tiring

27

Cleaver DESPERATE MEASURES SYMBIOTIC

You’ve eaten people. Sometimes to survive; other times to You place a hand on a wall of flesh and feel the heartbeat
prosper. Gain the Desolate domain. You can con‐ of the City Beneath. Gain +2 Fortune protection.
sume the flesh of something or someone that you
have recently killed and gain a skill associated with TWISTING TERRITORY
them for the remainder of the situation.
You’ve fought tooth and nail in tunnels and pits to defend
DOMINION what’syours. Gain the Warren domain.Once per situ‐
ation, you can ask the GM who’s in charge of the
Gain access to one of the following domains: immediate area around you. By smell, sight or some
Cursed, Desolate, Occult, Religion, Wild, Warren. other esoteric sense, you gain an intuitive under‐
You can take this advance more than once. standing of the apex predator or alpha creature
(whether that’s a person or a beast) in the local area.
FELL METABOLISM When you use this power,the target gets the uncanny
feeling that they’re under threat.
Food is just fuel to stoke the fire undying within you.
Gain the Endure skill. When you use THE RED UNMAKING CLAWS
FEAST ability, you may choose to have your
attacks gain the Brutal tag for a number of Your hands, anointed in the blood of angels, flicker in
actions equal to the amount rolled on the and out of reality. Gain the Kill skill. Your unarmed
resource dice instead of gaining a domain. attacks gain the Piercing tag.

FRACTURED FORM VESSEL

Your flesh glistens with mirror shards that twitch and glit‐ You let the energies of the Heart wash through you and
ter to blur your silhouette. Gain the Evade skill. Small fill you with glory, rather than struggling against
animals and insects are drawn to you and will per‐ them. Gain +2 Echo protection.
form your bidding to their best of their limited abil‐
ity. Once per delve, you may use your adoring MAJOR ABILITIES
swarm as a piece of equipment (Delve D8).

GUT INSTINCT BLOODBOUND BEAST

Gain access to one of the following skills: Compel, You are accompanied by a ragged cryptid that follows
Delve, Discern, Endure, Evade, Hunt, Kill, Mend. your commands – an ancient stone-browed stag, a
You can take this advance more than once. razortoothed heartsblood hound or something stranger.
You feed it your blood, and it fights for you. You gain
INHUMAN the Bloodbound tag on all weapons as you and
your companion work in concert.
Gain +1 protection in the Blood, Echo, Fortune or
Supplies resistance. You can take this advance • MINOR: PACK HUNTER. If you mark stress to
more than once. Blood to activate the Bloodbound tag, roll with
mastery when you use the Delve and Hunt skills
PITCHSKIN for the remainder of the current situation.

Your skin bubbles and shifts into night-black tones as tar • MINOR: POUNCE. Once per situation, select an
seeps through the pores. Gain the Sneak skill. The secre‐ adversary you can see. That adversary marks D6
tions from your skin are flammable and adhesive, stress as your companion leaps on them.
acting as a sort of volatile glue you can exude at will.

28

• MINOR: FAITHFUL UNTIL THE END. If you • MINOR: HARPOON. Once per situation, when Cleaver
take Critical fallout and would die, you do not you inflict stress to an adversary with the
die – instead, you are rescued by your EXTINCTION BOW, you attach yourself to
companion and dragged to safety at the nearest them with a rope or chain. They can’t flee while
landmark. Your companion dies in your arms, attached – and neither can you.
exhausted and wounded, after you regain
consciousness. Remove BLOODBOUND • MINOR: HUNTER’S EYE. Once per situation,
BEAST from your character sheet and gain an when you and your allies are in danger, point out
immediate major advance. You can’t access a tactically useful element of the landscape. The
BLOODBOUND BEAST ever again. first time an ally interacts with the element, they
roll with mastery on their subsequent action.
CHIMERIC STRAIN
• MINOR: NIGHTMARE ARROW. Gain access
With the sound of cracking muscle and twisting tendon, to the following weapon: (Kill D8, Spread,
your form is transmuted into something terrifying. Ranged, One-Shot).
When you activate this power, mark D4 stress to
Echo. For the remainder of the current situation, MONSTROUS APPETITE
all melee attacks you make gain the Brutal and
Wyrd tags. When you eat, you unhinge your jaw and wolf down any‐
thing within reach until your belly is distended and you
• MINOR: BLIGHTED. When you activate are resplendent with power. When you use THE RED
CHIMERIC STRAIN, increase the Echo stress FEAST to consume a resource that has a domain
inflicted by 1 step and gain +2 Blood Protection you can access, remove stress from Blood or Echo
until the end of the current situation in equal to the amount rolled on the dice instead.
addition to any other effects.
• MINOR: REJUVENATION. Once per session,
• MINOR: HORNED. When you activate when you use MONSTROUS APPETITE to
CHIMERIC STRAIN, increase the Echo stress consume a resource that has a domain that you
inflicted by 1 step and increase your melee have access to – and the resource has a value of
damage by 1 step until the end of the current D8 or higher – you can remove a Minor Blood
situation, in addition to any other effects. or Echo fallout entirely.

• MINOR: BEZERK. When you activate • MINOR: TAINTED MEAT. Once per session,
CHIMERIC STRAIN, increase the Echo stress when you use MONSTROUS APPETITE to
inflicted by 1 step and ignore the effects of consume a resource with the Cursed domain
Blood fallout until the end of the situation. You with a value of D8 or higher, add 1 to the
fight on, heedless of the pain. minimum protection provided by your
HEARTSBLOOD core ability instead of
EXTINCTION BOW removing stress. This effect lasts until the end
of the situation.
You carry a huge bow capable of launching specially-
made arrows at your prey – the mark of a true hearts‐ • MINOR: HORRENDOUS BITE. Once per
blooded hunter. When you take this ability, you situation, when you inflict stress with an
gain access to (or build) an enormous ranged unarmed attack on an adversary, you may choose
weapon with the following profile: (Kill D10, to lower their difficulty by one step to a minimum
Tiring, Ranged, Expensive.) of Standard until the end of the situation.

29

Cleaver THE WILD HUNT LEGENDARY BEAST

The Heart sings of flesh and plenty; you echo that sicken‐ You shed what little remains of your human form and
ing song. You may lead a group in communion with ascend into something many-limbed and majestic.
the Heart. This requires you to pass an Endure+ When you gain access to this ability, you begin
Cursed roll, and the check is Risky if you’re in an your hunt to slay the Beast: the capital-B Beast, an
area with the Haven tag. (If you fail the check, you ancient creature wrought from stone and muscle
can try again later this session.) Those who com‐ and petrified wood. You will kill the Beast, and in
mune gain the Hunt skill if they don’t already have doing so, you understand it perfectly. You become
it, and increase the stress they inflict on delves by 1 the new Beast, an epitome of bestial power and a
step until the end of the current delve. legendary terror in the City Beneath.

• MINOR: ECHOES OF THE CITY BENEATH. You become part of the wilderness of the
When you use THE WILD HUNT, instead of Heart; it grows around you more than ever, blos‐
the Hunt skill, you may grant the Delve skill to soming into patterns that you dream of in the
participants. Pick which skill you grant each echoing recesses of your ancient gestalt mind.
time you use the ability. Create a new landmark that you call your territ‐
ory; here, you are lord and ruler, but you can no
• MINOR: STORYTELLER. Once per session, longer leave. One day, another Cleaver will find
when you’re tracking a beast, you can declare it you, kill you and become you.
to be a renowned beast – you’ve heard tell of it
before. Tell the party what’s so dangerous WEALD AND WOE
about it, or repeat a legend of its exploits. This
increases the beast’s protection by 1, its Following the passing of a legendary hunter, sometimes
damage by 1 step and any resources gathered the Forest – an ancient heaven for wordless hunters and
from it by 2 steps. the gigantic beasts they pursue – crashes into the Heart to
claim their body as a prize.
• MINOR: BOUNTY SHARED. When you
complete a delve or hunt and kill a renowned To activate this ability, die.
beast (see above), everyone who took part in The landmark you are currently occupying is
THE WILD HUNT may remove D6 stress from overwhelmed by the Forest (p. 168). If you’re on a
Fortune or Supplies. delve, immediately establish a new landmark
where you’re standing. Relic trees crash and tear
ZENITH ABILITIES through the walls of reality, swarms of giant
beasts smash apart the world around them and
ANGELIC your body is subsumed into the black, fecund soil
to be reborn. This fracture will remain connected
You undergo the ultimate heartsblood transformation – to the landmark for a few hours before it is
you become an agent of the Heart Itself, a red and mighty severed – then the trees will petrify into a dead
angel, and your approach is ruin incarnate. Following a forest of glittering opal, ill-auspiced and fre‐
transformation process that is either distressingly quented only by the dead.
sudden or agonisingly slow, your flesh and bones When you are reborn, you awaken in the
burst and reform into those of a towering Angel (p. Forest. You have an afterlife of hunting, feasting
176. You are as powerful and ruinous as any other and howling at the strange, indifferent stars to
Angel, but you retain your will – for the remainder look forward to.
of the current situation, at least. After that, you are
absorbed back into the flesh of the Heart, and
become another agent of unreality that will beset
delvers in centuries to come.

30

DEADWALKER

Deadwalker You were always obsessed with death; maybe you were ENTER THE GREY
a nihilistic cultist, a moneyed arcanist, a radical theolo‐
gist or a sanctified killer. But your initial fascination You know the trick of stepping sideways into the Grey:
was nothing compared to what happened after you died the space between the worlds of the living and the
for the first time. Nothing’s been the same ever since. worlds of the dead. Roll Delve+Religion to enact
this ritual. It takes around ten minutes of prepar‐
You didn’t die properly; somehow, through willpower, ation, e.g. donning ritual garb, inhaling sacred
luck or trickery, you stayed alive. Your tattered soul gives smoke, communing with your death and so on.
you a near-unique ability to step between the lands of the On a success, the smoke clears, and you (and
living and the dead with relative ease. Your constant anyone you bring with you) are in the Grey.
companion – a spectral manifestation of the death that
didn’t take – guards you jealously and whispers secrets Within the Grey, the world is a shadowy echo
from beyond the veil into your ear while you slumber. of its living counterpart. Some souls linger here,
awaiting their eternal reward, but for the most
Core Traits part it is grim, empty and monochrome. (For
more information on travelling and surviving
SKILL: Delve the Grey, see p. 169.) Exiting the Grey is a simple
enough task for a Deadwalker and those they
DOMAIN: Desolate ferry across; it’s a Delve+Religion roll for
anyone else.
RESOURCE:
MINOR ABILITIES
Bag of interesting D6 Desolate
teeth ADEPT

EQUIPMENT: Gain access to one of the following skills: Compel,
Delve, Discern, Endure, Evade, Hunt, Kill, Sneak.
Pick one: You can take this advance more than once.

Hunting Rifle Kill D6, Extreme Range, DEATHLESS
Greatsword Reload
You’ve already died once; you can suffer through this.
Kill D10, Tiring Gain the Endure skill. Roll Endure+Religion to
ignore the effects of ongoing Minor Blood or
Bootleg ambrosia Mend Mind D6, Potent, Echo fallout until the end of the situation.
and ritual blade Expensive; Kill D6
DIRT UNDER THE FINGERNAILS
CORE ABILITIES
You dug your way out of your own grave. Gain the
DEATH FOLLOWS CLOSE Warren domain. You can dig through earth and
mud with your bare hands as though you had a
You never knew anyone could love you as much as your shovel; your fingernails are always stained with a
own death. You are followed around by a manifest‐ little soil, and you cannot clean it off.
ation of your death that is invisible and intan‐
gible to everyone but you – although when you EXPLORER
are on the verge of dying, or in places that reson‐
ate heavily with death and sorrow, it might be Gain access to one of the following domains:
visible to others. The exact appearance of it is up Cursed, Desolate, Occult, Religion, Technology,
to you. The first time each session you suffer Warren, Wild. You can take this advance more
Major Blood, Mind or Fortune fallout, your death than once.
manifests to protect you and inflicts D8 stress on
whatever caused the fallout.

32

GRAIL ARMOUR TATTERED SOUL Deadwalker

You wear patchwork platemail scavenged from the Your eternal spirit has been warped and torn by your
bodies of dead heroes. Gain +2 Blood Protection. experiences, leaving you with an affinity with the not-
quite-real. Gain the Cursed domain and +1 Echo
GRIM REAPER protection.

Your death has long whispered to you about the proper WALKING RELIQUARY
methods of execution; on occasion, it helps directly. Gain
the Kill skill. Your death’s attentions now function Your pack clinks and jingles with a dozen minor totems
as the following weapon: (D8, Ranged, One-Shot). of the dead; in a pinch, the meagre power within can
save your life. Gain +2 Supplies Protection.
THE HARVEST
MAJOR ABILITIES
The people of the Eastern Domain call Death the Harvest –
an untamed god-beast of endings that you pray to for a DESCENT
quick demise. Gain the Wild domain. Wild animals
are scared of you and will not attack you if other You push through purgatory into the storied lands of the
targets are available. dead. When you are in the Grey (see above), you may
undertake a delve to one of the eight heavens listed
LAST RITES in the landmark section. Choose which one you
have access to when you take this advance.
You know enough about death rituals to be sworn in as
a priest in three major faiths. Gain the Religion The delve will be Risky unless you and your
domain. When you touch the brow of a recently companions dress in ritual garb and make suit‐
dead person, you can ask their spirit a single able preparations to enter the heaven in ques‐
question before it fades away. tion. Returning to the Grey requires another
delve, which can be harder or easier than the ini‐
MARKED FOR DEATH tial one depending on whether the heaven wants
to keep you there.
Your death tells you stories of dark spectres that swarm the
land in search of doomed souls. Gain the Hunt skill. In • MINOR: ESOTERIC CARTOGRAPHER.
addition, you can mark prey. When you mark prey, Choose two additional heavens that you have
you spend ten minutes or so observing your target access to whilst in the Grey.
from hiding and whispering words of death over
your weapon. When you hunt prey you have • MINOR: STEP BETWEEN. You can leave a
marked, roll with mastery. Your mark endures until Heaven and arrive at a completely different
your target dies or you mark another creature. landmark than the one you started at. Your exit
point must be within the same tier, and it must
SHADOW share a domain with the Heaven that you just
visited. If you’ve never visited the landmark
Your body, unmoored from the lands of the living, can before, undertaking the delve is Risky.
become shadowy and indistinct. Gain the Sneak skill.
By blowing out a lit candle and focusing, you can • MINOR: ALL DOORS AS ONE. When you use
extinguish all light sources nearby. Sources that STEP BETWEEN, your destination point can
cannot be easily extinguished (magelights, glow- be one tier above or below your current tier.
worms, etc) are temporarily muted instead.

SURVIVOR

Gain +1 Protection in the Blood, Echo, Fortune or
Supplies resistance. You can take this advance
more than once.

33

Deadwalker ECHOES REAPER’S STRIKE

You can glimpse the remnants of what has come before. You forsake defence for a single, decisive blow. When you
Roll Discern + Domain to witness ghostly recre‐ attack an adversary, you can choose to lose your
ations of the past in your current location. This will Blood protection for the attack before you roll. If you
generally show the most interesting or dramatic do so and succeed or partially succeed, add your
thing that occured within recent memory. Blood protection value to the stress inflicted.

• MINOR: HIDDEN PASSAGEWAY. Once per • MINOR: INEXORABLE. If the first dice you roll
delve, when you use ECHOES, it functions as a to determine the stress inflicted on an adversary
D8 boon. shows 1 or 2, roll an additional dice of the same
size and add the result to the stress inflicted.
• MINOR: FRAGMENTARY RECOLLECTION.
When you use ECHOES, you can speak with • MINOR: BLOODIED BUT UNBROKEN. When
the echoes of people or other sentient entities you have 4 or more stress marked to Blood or
present. These echoes are momentary are suffering from ongoing Blood fallout, gain
snapshots of psyches, with all the limitations +2 Blood Protection.
on cognition that such a state entails.
• MINOR: SCYTHING BLOW. Once per situation,
• MINOR: ABSORB MEMORIES. Once per treat your weapon as though it has the Spread tag
session, when you’re in a location with a when you inflict stress to an adversary.
domain that you do not possess, activate this
power. You have access to that domain until the SUDDEN DEATH
end of the session.
Your soul is so poorly attached to your body that you can
INVIDIOUS SPECTRE dive headlong into the Grey without warning. ENTER
THE GREY no longer takes ten minutes to cast –
Your death has got your back – right up until it can it is instantaneous. Bringing others along with
claim you for itself. Your death manifests as pol‐ you when you cast it in this manner makes the
tergeist activity and other supernatural phenom‐ action Risky.
ena that distresses and confuses your enemies.
Any weapon you carry is considered to have the • MINOR: LIMINAL. Gain +2 Blood protection
Conduit tag, and as such, you can mark D4 stress after entering the Grey. You can see and
to Mind to roll with mastery when you attack for interact with people who are in the living world
the remainder of the current situation. – they appear as indistinct blurs at a distance,
but become clearer when nearby. You manifest
• MINOR: SOOTHE. Once per session, when as a weird, semi-ethereal phantom when you
you mark stress, add 1 to any of your Protection use this ability.
values. This increase remains in place until the
end of the session. • MINOR: ENTROPY. Your hands become (Kill D8,
Dangerous). When you touch a machine,
• MINOR: GHOULISH GRASP. Once per construction or mechanism and focus, you can
situation, a weapon you are carrying has the cause rust and decay where you touched it. Doing
Debilitating tag. this quickly or under stress (e.g. destroying a
bridge before your enemies can cross it all the
• MINOR: ETHEREAL TOUCH. If you mark way) requires a Kill+Technology check.
stress to activate the Conduit tag on your
weapon, it gains the Piercing tag. • MINOR: BLOOD SACRIFICE. Once per
situation, when you inflict stress on an
adversary that’s roughly the same size as you in
melee combat, you can transport both you and
them to the Grey.

34

ZENITH ABILITIES Deadwalker

Extinguish INFERNAL CLAWS

Your death tells you soft and sweet: you can kill any‐ You learn the secrets of the Dark Place. You know the
thing you want to. Using your powers over life and location of and the route to hell (or something
death and binding your own energy to the spell, close to it). You can also summon fallen angels
you can draw any person, entity, landmark or and other agents of misrule to drag a target down
concept (aside from the Heart Itself) into a phys‐ there. Compared to hell, the Eight Heavens seem
ical vessel. You can then kill the vessel, destroying like pretty nice places to spend an eternity.
the concept and yourself in a final strike. This process traps the target there indefinitely,
wracking it with torments and driving it insane.
The entity has stats as determined by the GM; you Dragging someone to hell in this way consumes
don’t have to fight it alone, and it’s certainly possible your life essence, and your death embraces you
(and encouraged) to tip the odds in your favour for one final time before stopping your heart.
beforehand. When and if it dies, you die as well.
SUNDER THE VEIL
If you kill a landmark, that landmark is des‐
troyed. If you kill a concept, it will wither and die With your last breath you tear open a ragged door to
in the minds of the people of the Heart, and they heaven and energy floods into the area, causing spon‐
will no longer think of it. taneous miracles. To activate this ability, die. All
nearby allies remove all ongoing fallout, all stress
There are limits to what you can achieve with marked to all resistances and gain mastery on all
this ability. If you kill the concept of breathable rolls for the remainder of the situation.
air, for example, folk will still breathe in and out
but they won’t understand what they’re doing or
why it’s important.

35

Deep Apiarist

They called to you: a distant buzzing hivehum reverber‐ through you and into the Hive. You can never bene‐ Deep Apiarist
ating through the City, a message of control and hope, a fit from Mind protection or remove stress from
secret means of scraping meaning and reason from the Mind, aside from using this ability.
unfathomable and ever-changing Heart. They are the
Hive, they say – a megaconsciousness, a defence net‐ RELEASE THE SWARM
work, grown from within the Spire. They are here to
help you push back the tide of unreality. You send out a swarm of bees, eager to defend you. Gain
access to the following weapon: (Kill D4, Spread,
Desperate, you accepted them into you. Ten dozen glyph- Ranged).
marked bees crawled into your sinuses and built waxen bul‐
warks against the disorder within. You are better now. You MINOR ABILITIES
see the world in different patterns, and can sift through the
chaff and noise that only confused you before. You have a A PERFECT MACHINE
crystal clear, perfect vision of what Should Be.
You see that cogs, gears and engines are just echoes of the
You are a Deep Apiarist – one of a small sect of infinite, staggering majesty that is the Hive. Gain the
occultists who use the power of the Hive to work magic Technology skill. Given time, you can repair techno‐
that manipulates order and chaos. The sigil-covered logical devices even if you don’t have the right parts:
bees crawling through their bodies can unleash deadly you synthesise them from wax and extruded bone.
attacks on those who would stand in their way.
APISAMBULATION
Core Traits
Your body sleeps while your mind, riddled with indus‐
SKILL: Mend trious bees, marches on. Gain access to the Delve
skill. Once per session, while on a delve, you can
DOMAIN: Occult opt to fall asleep and let the bees inside your body
steer you. In this state, the bees speak for you and
RESOURCE: perform actions on your behalf – roleplay accord‐
ingly (the GM can use Fortune fallout to repres‐
Heartsbloom rose D6 Occult, Fragile ent your inhuman pilots). Assuming you get a few
in a glass jar hours’ rest and progress on the delve, refresh D6
from any of your resistances.
EQUIPMENT:
HIVEBORN
Hive Tool Kill D4, Brutal
You were reborn in one of the Great Hives; your body,
Pick one of: though still mortal, is waxen and papery. Gain the
Warren domain. You can fit yourself through any
Dimensional Delve D6 gap small enough for a bee by having your swarm
barometer chew up and reform your body on the other side.
Hunting rifle Kill D6, Reload, This process takes upwards of six hours. You can
Extreme Range rush to get it done in an hour instead, but mark D8
Smoker Kill D4,Debilitating,Smoke stress to Blood as a result.

CORE ABILITIES HUNTER OF THE DAMNED

THE HIVE You bring order to the Heart with sword and shot. Gain
the Hunt skill. Once per session, when you elimin‐
The sweetlings nest within your body. Some of your ate a heartsblooded creature, remove D6 stress
organs are replaced with complex copies made from any of your resistances.
from wax by industrious bees. They live within you
– a few at first, but as you grow in power, great
swarms. Their curious buzzing aligns your mind
with the Hive. At the beginning of each situation,
clear all Mind stress as incipient madness flows

37

Deep Apiarist INTOXICANT WAXEN SIGILS

Pheromone glands pucker and blossom on your wrists Gain +1 Protection in the Blood, Echo, Fortune or
and neck; you are alluring, irresistible, almost soporific. Supplies resistance. You can take this advance
Gain the Compel skill. Once per session, when you more than once.
talk to someone for five minutes or more, you con‐
vince them to revert to their basest impulses. They WHISPERS OF THE HIVE
become driven solely by lust, hunger or a need for
shelter – whichever they desire most right now. Gain access to one of the following domains:
Cursed, Desolate, Occult, Religion, Technology,
INTRUSION Warren, Wild. You can take this advance more
than once.
Your swarm grants you the power to overwhelm and
control rudimentary minds. Gain the Wild domain. WISDOM FLOWS SO SWEET
You learn the following spell: send your swarm to
occupy and control the body of a wild animal that Gain access to one of the following skills:
you can see with a successful Compel+Wild roll. Compel, Delve, Discern, Endure, Hunt, Kill,
You can now direct the animal to perform basic Mend, Sneak. You can take this advance more
tasks, but the swarm’s control is imperfect. For than once.
the duration of this spell, your unconscious body
slumps to the floor; you come to when the swarm MAJOR ABILITIES
returns to you. At the end of the situation, the
animal you controlled dies. ANNIHILATION

MANY EYES Your body is unHeart; it burns through the parasitic
world of meat and bone. Against heartsblooded
Each of your companions is a vessel for your sight. Gain people or creatures, your touch functions as a
the Discern skill. When you stand still and close (Kill D8) weapon. As you use it, your flesh roils
your eyes, you can see through the eyes of any of and cracks, but the swarm repairs it as quickly as
your bees, allowing you to spy around corners or it is unmade; your opponent doesn’t have that
look into closed spaces. You can’t control the bees luxury. Against any other target, it functions as a
directly, but you have enough at your disposal to (Kill D6) weapon.
cover the area around you.
• MINOR: BLOSSOM WITHIN THE SKULL.
PERFECT STRUCTURE ANNIHILATION gains the Ranged tag.

Your body eschews treacherous meat in favour of a • MINOR: DARK FLOWERS. Your touch gains
sturdy waxen comb. Gain +2 Echo Protection. the Debilitating tag and causes crystal to
coalesce around your targets.
THRICE-WARDED
• MINOR: THAT WHICH IS GOLDEN. You may
Your bees are marked with auspicious glyphs and you increase the damage die of any weapon you
are able to brave the worst of the Heart unscathed. Gain touch by two steps. The weapon is destroyed
the Cursed domain. Each session, the first time after it inflicts stress once.
you would take Minor Fortune fallout, avoid the
fallout and do not remove stress from Fortune.

UNCANNY BIOLOGY

Aside from the Queen nestled inside your heart, every part
of your body is replaceable by the swarm. Gain +2 Blood
Protection.

38

BLESSED TOXIN SACRED GEOMETRY Deep Apiarist

The swarm within you offers up its members as sacri‐ Multiple futures swim about your head, and you pick
fices to your cause, just like you offer yourself up to the that which is most advantageous; to an outside observer,
Hive. Some of the bees inside you develop a sting you move unopposed and uncanny. When you are
that soothes the mind when injected (as well as rolling to inflict stress on a delve or adversary, or
being an addictive narcotic). Your body functions remove stress from yourself or an ally, and you roll
as a (Mend, Mind D6) item; you can mark D4 a 6 (a number sacred to Apiarists), roll an addi‐
stress to Blood to have it function as a (Mend, tional D6 and add it to your total.
Mind D8) item on your next action.
• MINOR: MAJESTIC. Once per situation, when
• MINOR: FEARLESS. Once per session, remove you roll to resolve an action and you roll a 6,
Minor Mind fallout from an ally or allow them count that dice as if it rolled 10.
to ignore the effects of Major Mind fallout for
the remainder of the situation. • MINOR: PRISTINE. You are always clean and
well-presented, even when you have been
• MINOR: PAINLESS. Your body functions as a trudging through filth or battling noxious
(Mend, Blood D6) item. You can mark D4 stress pitchkin in close quarters. When you arrive in
to Blood to have it function as a (Mend, Blood a landmark after a delve, roll with mastery
D8) item on your next action. when you make a first impression.

• MINOR: BLOODLESS. Gain +1 Blood protection. • MINOR: REGAL. Once per situation, after you
You are immune to mundane poisons. mark stress to a resistance, gain +2 Protection
in that resistance until the end of the situation.

DELERIUM SPIKE UNCHAOS

The sacred majesty of the Hive fills you with fizzing, The Heart is a chaotic place, and you seek to undo that
unstable power. The stress inflicted by your with ancient magic. Roll Mend+Occult to cast this
RELEASE THE SWARM ability increases to D6. spell. On a success, for the remainder of the situ‐
The first time you inflict stress using RELEASE ation, you or one nearby ally treats Risky actions
THE SWARM in a situation, add your Mind stress as Standard actions (keep the highest rolled dice)
to the stress inflicted on the target. After the as probability coalesces around you and crystal‐
action is resolved, reduce your Mind stress to 0. lizes at your feet.

• MINOR: IMPERFECT BALANCE. When you • MINOR: STABILISATION. UNCHAOS may
mark stress to Blood, halve the amount of now affect all allies within arm’s reach rather
Blood stress inflicted (rounding up) if it is than a single nearby ally. If they leave your side,
lower than your current Mind stress. they lose access to the effect.

• MINOR: VENOMOUS HEX. You may replace • MINOR: PERFECTION. Once per situation, a
the Spread tag with the Piercing tag when you target under the effect of UNCHAOS can treat
use RELEASE THE SWARM. a Dangerous action as a Standard action.

• MINOR: INQUISITIVE BURROWERS. • MINOR: FILED AWAY. Once per situation,
RELEASE THE SWARM gains the Brutal tag. when you cast UNCHAOS, all those affected by
the spell remove D4 stress from Fortune.

39

Deep Apiarist ZENITH ABILITIES

ABSOLUTE STASIS SURRENDER TO CHAOS

You use up every ounce of your power to encase a danger‐ A lifetime of carving order from disorder, and still the Heart
ous foe in crystal. To cast this spell, touch a creature; remains chaotic. You lost before you ever started. You give
you and they are forever bound together, rendered in, tragically and catastrophically.
perfect, inviolable and immobile in glittering,
transparent crystal like a statue. When you cast this spell, everything that is
ordered around you flips to disorder: buildings
No-one has yet managed to break one of these collapse, machinery overloads and malfunc‐
statues. In fact, interacting with the crystal in tions, disease runs rampant, language breaks
any way incurs D10 stress as it spreads instantan‐ down and fire crackles at the edges of your
eously from one body to another, binding vision. You are unmade, inverted; your bees are
another person into the curious tableau. destroyed; and the Heart arrives to greedily con‐
sume your essence.
It is believed that those inside the crystal are still
alive and conscious, but as previously mentioned, The Heart Itself spontaneously manifests in
no-one has managed to break one open to find out. your current position. You are killed when this
ability is used – crushed under the weight of
DIMENSIONAL BASTION impossible mathematics and ruinous vectors.
Lines and angles no longer fully meet at the seams
You become a conduit to the Hive, and thousands of as raw nuclear chaos unfolds within you. After a
glyph-marked bees rush out of your body and clothing few seconds of utter nightmare, the manifestation
until your physical form is dissolved entirely into the collapses, lapsing back into its natural state.
swarm. The bees quickly spread out to the edges of
the landmark you are occupying and ward it,
building crystalline structures that keep the ener‐
gies of the Heart at bay. While the bees endure,
this place will be safe from the uncaring and ever-
changing Heart Itself. You aren’t quite dead, but
you definitely aren’t alive either: you persist as a
message passed between the bees, an echo in the
place. Rename the landmark appropriately.

40

Heretic

Heretic The Church of the Moon were driven out of the City CORE ABILITY
Above two hundred years ago. Their faith had been out‐
lawed by invading forces, their temples burned, their MINISTRATIONS
idols smashed to pieces, their priests slain in the street –
but still they believed in Damnou, goddess of the moon You offer solace and calm in a world of chaos. Once per
tripartite, bringer of light and life to the drow. They fled session, lead your allies in a service of praise to the
into the undercity, seeking solace; what they found was Moon Beneath (how you practice your faith is up to
a communion with their goddess greater than anything you). All player characters who took part can remove
they could dream of in Spire. They found secrets hidden one Minor Blood or Mind fallout, or downgrade
deep within the earth. They found the Moon Beneath. one Major Blood or Mind fallout to Minor, at the
end of the service. If you perform this service whilst
You are an adherent to the faith of the Moon on a delve, add +D4 to the delve’s resistance.
Beneath. Your great-grandparents might have been
among the original refugees driven down to the Heart, MINOR ABILITIES
or you might be a recent convert to the religion. Either
way, you draw power from your faith and unearth the BLESSED DEPRIVATION
hidden wisdom of your queens who dwell deep in the
earth. You proudly bear the symbols of your church – In your darkest hour, She will bless you with her immacu‐
jewellery adorned with eyes, sacred chains that symbol‐ late grace. Gain the Desolate domain. When you are
ise the restraints on the Moon Beneath, moonsilver pier‐ suffering from ongoing Supplies fallout, gain the
cings, and reams of sacred text – that would have you Trusty tag when you roll to inflict stress on delves.
shot in the street in the City Above.

Core Traits GRAVE DUTY

SKILL: Mend You spent time amongst the dead in the sepulchres, and time
amongst the living at the funerals. Gain the Warren
DOMAIN: Religion domain. Once per session, when you console or bol‐
ster an ally in times of fear and uncertainty, they gain
RESOURCE: +1 Mind protection until the end of the session.

A single devotional D6 Religion THE GODDESS’ GIFTS
candle that burns with
a silver flame Gain access to one of the following skills:
Compel, Discern, Endure, Evade, Hunt, Kill,
EQUIPMENT: Mend. You can take this advance more than once.

Pick one: THE LEFT HAND OF THE GODDESS

Spireblack brazier Unlit: Kill D6 The faithful are a bountiful garden, and it is your task to
excise disease and corruption at the root. Gain the Kill
Lit: Kill D8, Obscuring, skill and +1 Blood Protection.

Dangerous LIAR’S BURDEN

Breech-loading pistol Kill D6, Ranged, Reload; The moon beneath does not tolerate the wicked words of
sinners. Gain the Discern skill. If you suspect an
and Seeker’s blade Kill D6, Brutal NPC is lying to you, roll Discern+Religion. On a
success, if they were lying, they mark D4 stress;
Scripture-etched Mend Blood/Mind D6; their mouth streams with blood as though they
had attempted to chew on broken glass.
bandages and Kill D6

blessed oils and staff

42

INCANDESCENT COMMUNION MAJOR ABILITIES Heretic

In the tear between worlds, She blessed you with night- OATH OF COMMUNITY
black eyes that resonate with Her Eternal Light. Gain the
Cursed domain. You can see in total darkness as You are scarred and battered from defending the defence‐
though the area was illuminated by candle-light. less, and you bear a sacred shield adorned with the wisdom
of the Goddesses. Gain +1 Blood protection. When a
RIGHTEOUS RHETORIC nearby ally is attacked and you’re ready to defend
them, their Blood Protection increases by 1.
You have argued over the interpretation of scripture with the
templeelderstimeandtimeagain.Gain the Compel skill. • MINOR: MARTYR’S BLOOD. Once per session,
When you invoke your holy texts in conversation with when a nearby ally takes Major Blood fallout,
another member of your faith, roll with mastery. you both take Minor Blood fallout instead.

RITE OF PLACIDITY • MINOR: MIRACULOUS INTERVENTION.
Once per situation, when you would mark
Scholars who search for the Lady often find her immense stress to Blood but before the GM rolls to
majesty hard to bear, but you are well versed in the sacred determine how much, activate this power. The
canticles that allow you to weather her revelations. Gain attack only inflicts D4 stress.
+2 Mind Protection.
• MINOR: CAST ASUNDER. Once per situation,
SACRED TATTOO when an adversary inflicts Blood fallout on you,
reduce that adversary’s stress dice by 1 step.
You carry your holy text inked onto your skin, a litany of
pain endured in the name of Her Cthonic Majesty. OATH OF FURY
Gain +2 Fortune Protection.
You are but a vessel for the goddesses three to enact their
SHARD OF THE TEMPLE DOOR will on the world through your hand. Roll
Endure+Religion to beseech Damnou to lend you
The great doors of the Moon Ascendant temple were Her fury as you adorn yourself with sacred silver
smashed to pieces on the night of the purge. You carry a symbols. On a success, until the end of the ses‐
shard of the door, reminding you that your faith is sion, you gain the Kill skill and your attacks gain
eternal. Gain the Endure skill. Once per session, the Brutal tag. If you already possess the Kill skill,
when you touch the shard to a closed door, it will not gain a knack relevant to an intended target. At
open for at least an hour (unless it is destroyed). the end of the session, if you have not taken the
life of a worthy creature, mark D6 stress to Mind.
TOMES OF KNOWLEDGE
The minor advances below grant access to altern‐
Gain access to one of the following domains: Cursed, ate versions of OATH OF FURY. When you cast it,
Desolate, Haven, Religion, Technology, Wild, you can choose any version you can access. If you
Warren. You can take this advance more than once. cast OATH OF FURY an additional time without
meeting the requirements listed at the end of the
UNWAVERING FAITH spell, you mark D6 stress to Mind immediately.

Gain +1 Protection in the Mind, Supplies, Blood • MINOR: AVATAR OF FLAME. When you use
or Fortune resistance. You can take this advance OATH OF FURY, you can choose to replace the
more than once. benefits granted with +2 Blood protection and
your attacks gaining the Debilitating tag. At the
WORDS OF GRACE end of the session, if you have not taken the life
of a worthy creature, mark D6 stress to Mind.
As you shine Her light into dark places, you are filled
with her glory. Gain the Haven domain. Once per
session, when you lead the community in an act
of mercy and grace, refresh D6.

43

Heretic • MINOR: AVATAR OF MOONLIGHT. When you • MINOR: GLORIOUS RESURGENCE. Once per
use OATH OF FURY, you can choose to replace session, when you succeed at a Risky or
the benefits granted with +2 Echo protection. In Dangerous action, clear all stress marked
addition, when you use the Mend skill on an ally, against your resistances.
instead of removing stress you may remove
Minor Blood or Mind fallout on a successful roll. • MINOR: ABIDE WITH ME. Once per
At the end of the session, if you have not situation, you may grant the benefits of OATH
removed both Blood and Mind fallout from your OF TENACITY to a nearby ally.
allies, mark D6 stress to Mind.
RITE OF VIGILANCE
• MINOR: AVATAR OF SHADOWS. When you use
OATH OF FURY, you can choose to replace the You look upon the world through the six sacred eyes of the
benefits granted with +2 Fortune protection and Goddess and see beyond the realm of flesh and stone. When
your attacks (even melee) gaining the Extreme you attune your mind to the glory of the Moon
Range tag. At the end of the session, if you have Beneath, roll Discern+Religion. On a success, when
not taken the life of a worthy creature, mark D6 you close your eyes, you can see the souls of creatures
stress to Mind. around you in your immediate area. These are visible
regardless of physical obstructions.

OATH OF SAGACITY • MINOR: HUNTER. When an ally acts on the

You have learned one of the secret names of Three-Fold information you give them as a result of this

Damnou, and when you speak it aloud your enemies are power and attacks the creatures you’ve seen,

struck senseless by its power. The name of the Goddess they roll with mastery on their first attack.

functions as the following weapon: (Kill D6, • MINOR: HEART’S SIGHT. When an ally acts

Spread, Debilitating, Maddening, One-Shot). on the information you give them as a result of

this power and attempts to socialise with the

• MINOR: FRAGMENT OF LEKOLÉ. The people you’ve seen, they roll with mastery on

weapon gains the Brutal tag. their first action.

• MINOR: FRAGMENT OF LOMBRÉ. The • MINOR: BLESSING. When this ability is

weapon gains the Smoke tag (it manifests like active, you can touch an ally and confer the

ink dropped in water) and no longer creates benefits of soul-sight to them as well.

noise – in fact, it dampens all nearby noise.
• MINOR: FRAGMENT OF LIMYÉ. When you WHERE’S THE OATH OF GRACE?

use RITE OF SAGACITY, you and all nearby The followers of Damnou, in her form as the

allies remove D4 stress from Blood. Moon Beneath or the Moon Above, broadly

OATH OF TENACITY venerate her through the six Damnic virtues:

Tenacity, Sagacity, Fury, Community, Vigil‐

She laid a kiss of stars and secrets upon your forehead, ance and Grace. You’ll notice that five of these

and you are infused with her tremendous determination. virtues are represented in the major advances

When you succeed at a Risky action, increase the for the Heretic, but Grace is missing.

size of the stress dice you inflict by 1 step. When Why? No-one’s quite sure. Some priests

you succeed at a Dangerous action, increase the believe that Grace is above the other virtues, and

size of the stress dice you inflict by 2 steps. You can that miracles channeling its power are beyond

choose to make an action Risky or Dangerous, the ken of mortals. Others (dangerously) whis‐

even if it’s Standard, to gain access to this benefit. per that it was stolen from her by high elf gods

millenia ago, making the drow of today blind

• MINOR: IMPLACABLE FAITH. When you take and stumbling compared to the past paragons

stress due to attempting a Risky or Dangerous of elegance. Whatever the reason, the divine

action, the stress dice is reduced by 1 step. magic of grace evades the priesthood of the

Moon Beneath for now.

44

ZENITH ABILITIES Heretic

ASCENSION TESTAMENT OF FAITH

You transcend the need for mortal flesh. The Goddess You become a beacon of hope for those struck by fear or
appears before you in her trifold majesty: a scin‐ desperation. To activate this ability, die a martyr’s
tillating blaze of divinity, silver-crimson and death. The ground on which you died (or where
midnight black. She blesses you, and your frail you’re buried, whichever is more dramatically
mortal anatomy becomes a conduit for her appropriate) becomes holy to the church of the
eternal flesh. You take on an angelic form. Moon Beneath. Over the next few months, pil‐
grims will visit the site and erect a suitable
The descriptions of angels of the Moon shrine. For the remainder of the campaign, and
Beneath are varied, but multiple heads, six or at the GM’s discretion any future campaigns, the
more wings, mighty voices raised in exaltation shrine functions as a landmark with some appro‐
and an abundance of eyes are common themes. priate haunts. Once per campaign, when the sur‐
In your new form, your many hyperdimensional viving player characters visit it, they can beseech
claws and appendages inflict D10 damage and your spirit to answer a question. You will deliver
possess the Piercing tag. You roll 6D10 when valuable wisdom.
striking at those who would threaten the faithful
or desecrate sacred ground, and all other actions
automatically fail.

At the end of the situation, you are transfused
into ossified bone-crystal, your radiance added
to her incomprehensible refulgence, and retired
as a player character.

GLORY

You come face to face with the goddess herself, and the
radiance reflected in your eyes is too much for people to
behold. You keep your face covered. When you
uncover it, all those who can see you are stunned
and awed, unable to look upon you without falling
to their knees. Those who remain in your presence
miraculously remove one Minor Blood or Mind
fallout result, or downgrade a Major to a Minor
after about an hour; most NPCs will convert to
your faith on the spot.

In the City Above, a team of aelfir hunters
working for the Solar Church are mobilised and
dispatched to kill you. They will find and elimin‐
ate you, and you will die.

45