Death & Danger

Wounds are the countdown. The injury tables are what a wound costs you.

Out of Vitality: Wounds & Second Wind

What Happens

Running out of Vitality does not drop you. A hit that takes you to 0 Vitality or past it inflicts a wound: a lasting injury, rolled on d20 plus however far past 0 that hit reached (below). You catch a Second Wind and stay conscious and fighting, coming back up with your Vitality and your Vigor both restored to full. The rest of that hit is negated. Your wound capacity is your Tier + 1, counted from your active lasting injuries.

Reaching 0 costs a wound. A hit that takes your last Vitality and no more still buys a wound and a Second Wind. Its injury roll is a plain d20.

This is what makes a KING character hard to put down: a Tier 3 hero has four more full sets of pools behind the one you can see, and each one costs a permanent injury to buy.

When you would take a wound and have none left to spend, you die. An injury roll of 31 or more kills you too.

There is no dying state, no death timer, and no death saves. Your wounds are the countdown, and everyone at the table can see it: a Tier 3 hero carrying four wounds is one bad hit from the end, and they knew it when they took the fourth.

NPCs never take wounds: a Major NPC or Sovereign at 0 Vitality simply dies, and a Minor breaks and flees at Tier remaining in its pool or dies at 0, twice its Tier in total damage (Part 7B).

Staying Alive

Because there is no dying state to be rescued from, everything that keeps you alive has to happen before the killing blow:

• Heal the pools. Vitality and Vigor restored before a hit lands mean fewer hits that reach 0 in the first place.
• Remove a wound. Wound-removal magic and the Treatment column give back capacity, and capacity is life. See the Treatment entries on each injury table.
• Do not be there. Disengage, Step, cover, and range are how a wounded character survives; at capacity there is no cushion left.

Lasting Injuries

A wound IS a lasting injury. Vitality is battle damage that returns on a Rest; a wound is what a hit costs you when it takes you to 0 Vitality or past it (you are hurt but standing, and both pools refill: see Second Wind above). You can carry wounds equal to your Tier + 1; with no wound left to spend, you die.

A wound carries no penalty to your rolls, except a poison wound (below). What it costs you is a slot, and a slot is a life. Carrying wounds does not make you worse at your job; it makes you closer to the end.

A lost part stops what it stops. The GM rules what you can no longer do without it. Restore the Maimed gives it back.

The Injury Roll

A hit that lands you on exactly 0 rolls a plain d20. A hit that goes past 0 rolls d20 + the carry-over: the Damage left after your Vitality ran out. 31 or more kills you outright.

• You stand at 2 Vitality and a hit takes 2. Nothing is left over: roll d20.
• You stand at 2 Vitality and a hit takes 3. One point is left over: roll d20+1.
• You stand at 3 Vitality and a Tier 5 crit rolls 12. Nine points are left over: roll d20+9.

Read the result on the table for the kind of harm (Which Table, below), and write the wound on your sheet with its row and what dealt it. The GM may skip the roll if it is narratively inappropriate.

Fate. The injury roll is a d20 you roll, so 1 Fate point rerolls it and the new roll stands (see What Fate buys in section 1). The carry-over is added to the new roll as well. This works on a roll of 31 or more too: if the new roll comes to 30 or less, you live and take that wound. With Fate's Thread you roll both dice again and keep the lower, and The Undying still counts a 31 or more as 30.

Severity

Every injury has a Severity from 1 (Minor) to 6 (Crippling), and severity does one job: it decides how the wound closes. Severity 1 and 2 are light, 3 and 4 are middle, 5 and 6 are the worst.

The Odds

Healing a Wound

Light (Severity 1 and 2, rolls 1 to 11). It closes over one Rest under a healer, given proper tools and supplies: Healing 2 for Severity 1, Healing 4 for Severity 2. One wound per patient per Rest. Seal Wounds closes one too, and so does 1 month of downtime.

Middle (Severity 3 and 4, rolls 12 to 19). It closes by 1 month of downtime. Nothing faster.

Worst (Severity 5 and 6, rolls 20 to 30). Downtime never closes it. Only the litany its row names: Restore the Maimed, Restore Sight or Break Great Curse.

A month of downtime spent resting (REST, Part 8) closes every light and middle wound you carry.

Closing a wound frees its slot. A part that is gone stays gone unless the litany restores it.

Other healing. Any other magic, potion, item or place that removes a wound closes one light wound. It never closes a middle or worst wound.

Destiny does not buy healing.

Which Table

The GM rolls randomly between tables if the source was mixed.

Wound Injuries (Blades, Claws, Arrows, Teeth)

Trauma Injuries (Falls, Blunt Force, Crushing, Explosions)

Burn Injuries (Fire, Cold, Lightning, Acid, Holy)

Corruption Injuries (Necrotic, Psychic, Curses, Magic)

Poison Wounds

A poison names its wound and its debuff. When a poisoned hit costs a wound, roll as usual for death (31+ kills, unless the poison is non-lethal); otherwise take the poison's wound in place of a table row. The debuff lasts until the wound closes, by its Severity's band.

A non-lethal poison never kills. When it would cost your last wound, or the roll is 31+, you fall unconscious until one of your wounds closes.

A Creature's Own Wound

A creature's entry may name a wound it deals: "Its bite gives Rotting Bite (Severity 3)". When its hit costs a wound, roll as usual for death; otherwise take the named wound in place of a table row. It carries a debuff only if the entry says so.

A poison or creature wound of Severity 5 or 6 that names no litany closes by Restore the Maimed.

Disease Table

When exposed to illness or as a result of certain injuries, roll to determine the affliction.

Treatment Guide

Reading the Treatment Column:

• N months = N months of genuine rest and convalescence, no adventuring
• Healing N = treated over a Rest by someone with at least N points in the Healing skill tree, given proper tools and supplies
• Litany: Name = Requires that specific prophet litany

The disease table uses all three. A wound closes by its band instead (Healing a Wound, above).

Treatment Options:

• Time: Safe but slow. A month of downtime spent resting closes every light and middle wound; the worst wounds never close by time. Character must avoid strenuous activity.
• Care: A disease needs the Healing its row names. A wound needs Healing 2 at Severity 1 and Healing 4 at Severity 2, and no healer closes a worse one. One wound per patient per Rest.
• Litanies: Divine intervention. Requires finding a prophet with the appropriate litany and convincing them to help.

Litanies Used for Treatment:

• Cure the Afflicted (Tier 1) - Cures disease and poison
• Seal Wounds (Tier 1) - Closes a light wound (Severity 1 or 2)
• Restore Sight (Tier 3) - Restores blindness from any cause, and closes the wounds whose row names it
• Restore the Maimed (Tier 3) - Regrows lost limbs and organs, and closes the wounds whose row names it
• Break Great Curse (Tier 4) - Breaks curses, magical corruption, soul damage, and closes the wounds whose row names it
• Cure Plague (Tier 4) - Required for actual plague

Poison

Poison

Application:

• Poisoned weapons
• Ingested poison
• Contact poison
• Inhaled poison

Saving: Body save vs poison DC

• Success: No effect (or reduced effect)
• Failure: Full effect

Effects:

• Immediate Vitality loss
• Vigor stripped each round (damage over time)
• Stat penalties
• Conditions (paralyzed, unconscious, etc.)

Treatment:

• Antidotes (instant cure)
• Healing magic (varies by spell)
• Time (poison runs its course)

A poison wound (Lasting Injuries) is not cured with the poison. It closes by its band.

Death

How Characters Die

A character dies the moment they would take a wound and have none left to spend, or rolls 31 or more on an injury roll. There is no dying state, no death timer, and no stabilization: the wound track IS the countdown, and it is visible to everyone at the table.

What this means in play:

• Help has to arrive before the killing blow, not after it
• Clearing a wound (Treatment or wound-removal magic) gives back a slot, and a slot is a life
• A character at capacity should be played like it: they are one hit to 0 Vitality from the end

Resurrection

When Characters Die:

Low Levels (1-4):

• Death is usually final
• Resurrection magic is rare
• May require quest to find resurrection

High Levels (5-10):

• Resurrection spells become available
• High-tier clerics can resurrect
• Expensive and costly

Resurrection Limits:

• Some deaths can't be reversed (disintegration, consumed by demons, etc.)
• Each resurrection takes a toll (stat loss, corruption, etc.)
• Multiple resurrections become harder

Resurrection Costs:

• 2,000 gp in material components, and they are not always for sale
• A Great Rite (Raise the Recently Dead, or its arcane equivalent) and the caster's price for performing it
• The returned character takes 1 permanent wound
• Time and recovery

The 5,000 gp Elixir of Life is the exception that proves the rate: no rite, no wound, but it must be poured within a minute of death, and everyone who can afford one hoards it.

Permadeath

When Resurrection Doesn't Work:

• Body completely destroyed
• Soul trapped or consumed
• Divine intervention prevented
• Player chooses final death

Making a New Character:

• Start at appropriate level for party
• Inherit some wealth/resources
• Integration into story

Testament Points

When a character dies for good or retires, their unspent Fate becomes Testament Points.

Testament Points = unspent Fate x Tier

Count the Fate on the sheet at the end and multiply by Tier. A Tier 2 character who dies with 4 Fate leaves 8. A Tier 5 who retires with 6 leaves

1. Fate you spent in life is Fate the world never feels, and a character who dies empty-handed leaves nothing.

Retirement counts when the character exits at the table and does not come back as a PC. Death counts when it is final. A character who gets resurrected keeps their Fate and leaves nothing, because they have not left.

Whose Points They Are

The player who lost the character. That player decides what the points buy, and the rest of the table can ask but not spend.

Each lost character gets its own account. Accounts do not expire, and they carry for the whole campaign however many new characters that player rolls. Two players can combine accounts if both agree.

Every purchase is the departed character's doing. Say the name out loud when you spend.

What They Cannot Buy

• The character who generated them.
• Anything on a living character's sheet. No XP, levels, stats, items, or Fate.
• Refunds. Points spent are gone whether the purchase worked or not.

Every purchase fires once, and each account buys each entry once. The departed catch one blade, cache one stash, turn one failed check. Buying the same thing again takes another name on another account, and splitting a cost marks the entry used for every account that paid.

The Shop

The buyer picks the purchase and describes it. The GM can veto that description, never the price and never the choice.

Purchases marked (Final Act) only happen in the scene where the character dies or retires, paid out of the points that death just made. When the scene ends they close and whatever is left banks as normal. Otherwise a table sits on a pile of points and treats them as a supply of combat saves.

1 POINT - THE HAND ON YOUR SHOULDER

A door, an answer, a single roll. Never a wound, Vitality, or Stamina: if it would change what the party can survive, it costs more than 1.

5 POINTS - THE WORD THAT CARRIES

An arc, a region, or one life pulled back from the edge.

15 POINTS - THE SHAPE OF THE MAP

On the map for good.

30 POINTS - THE TURNING

The campaign is about this now.

60 POINTS - THE DEBT PAID

One enormous thing, once. More than one death usually pays for it.

100 POINTS - THE APOTHEOSIS

The last thing that ever happens to them.

Testament Points at a Glance

Combat Reference Tables

Damage Resistance & Immunity

Conditions

KING runs on six conditions. Each one either hits a stat you already use or takes your turn away, so nothing here is a subsystem of its own. Anything an ability calls by another name is fiction unless it points at one of these.

A condition that lowers a stat lowers everything that stat feeds. A blinded character is easier to hit; a frightened one has a thinner shield and may already be over the new cap, in which case the excess Vigor is gone.

Losing your turn. An effect that takes a player character's or a Major's turn ends at the end of the target's next turn, and a creature that saves is immune to it for the fight.

An effect takes a turn when it leaves its target unable to act (Stunned, Unconscious) or chooses its action for it (anything that commands or dominates it). The rule covers what is done to a creature against its will, not a state it chooses or pays as the price of its own ability. It is a cap: an effect that would end sooner still ends when its entry says. A Sovereign has its own protection (Part 7B).

States

Three more things track on your sheet without being conditions: