Harmful effects bestow afflictions, which limit what you can do on your turn, make certain rolls more difficult, or both. You can gain the same affliction multiple times, provided each instance comes from a different source, and you must remove each instance of the affliction separately. Sometimes gaining an affliction imposes additional effects. Those additional effects persist until you remove that instance of the affliction.

If you have an affliction as a result of some other ongoing effect and you remove the affliction, you automatically regain the affliction at the start of your next turn unless the ongoing effect ends. For example, if you are unconscious because you are incapacitated, and something ends the unconscious affliction, you would become unconscious again at the start of your next turn unless you stop being incapacitated.

When you become buried, you fall prone and debris covers your body completely or nearly so. This might happen when someone tosses you into a pit and covers you with dirt, or when the ceiling gives way to rain rubble down on your head.

Being buried limits your ability to move, as solid obstacles surround you on all sides. If you can clear away space, you can move into that space by crawling.

The debris blocks line of sight to anything beyond it, and you have total cover from effects originating from beyond your space. Normally, the debris counts as a single obstacle for the purpose of hearing and making yourself heard, but might count as more if you’re deeply buried. Furthermore, you might become subject to the effects of suffocation, and if under a heavy mass, also lose 1d6 Health at the end of each round until you are crushed.

Whether or not you can dig yourself free depends on the debris covering you. You can dig through dirt, sand, snow, and loose material, but heavy rocks, large chunks of ice, or metal slabs make escaping impossible without help or magic. You can use an action to dig through 1 foot of soft material. Other creatures might be able to free you by using heavy tools to clear away the debris.

If you are a living being, you need food and water to survive. If you go without either, you suffer deprivation until you expire. Normally, provisions and waterskins can keep these effects at bay, but if you run out of water or someone makes off with your food, you might be in trouble. You need to spend at least 1 hour each day eating at least two meals and drinking at least half a gallon of water. A small creature (Size 1/2 or lower) requires half these quantities, while a large creature (Size 2 or higher) requires four times these amounts or more.

Each day you go without drinking sufficient water, you lose 1d6 Health. For every two days you go without eating, you lose 1d6 Health. If such deprivation drops your Health to 5 or lower, you fall prone and become weakened until your Health score increases above 5. While weakened in this way, you cannot stand up and can move only by crawling.

You need sleep to refresh yourself. Unless your ancestry says otherwise, you need at least 6 hours of sleep every day. If you go a day without sleep, you become weakened until you do sleep. For every day you go without sleep thereafter, you lose 1d6 Health.

The sudden loss of a limb makes certain activities and forms of movement difficult, if not impossible. The effects are obvious: losing a leg makes it difficult to stand up, and a missing hand or arm prevents the use of two-handed weapons. Using prosthetics, such as those described in Chapter 3, can mitigate the effects of dismemberment.

Exposure occurs when you lack adequate clothing and protection against the elements. You can suffer from exposure to extreme heat, extreme cold, or hostile conditions such as storms or extremely dry or damp climates. At the end of each hour spent in a hostile environment without adequate protection, make a Strength roll. On a failure, you lose 1d6 Health. If such exposure drops your Health to 5 or lower, you fall prone and become weakened until your Health rises above 5. While weakened in this way, you cannot stand up and can move only by crawling.

Exposure can also have additional effects. Frostbite, for example, might eat away at your ears, nose, and fingers, while damp climates might expose you to infections.

Fire deals 1d6 damage to any creature or object that touches it. A creature or object takes this damage just once per round, regardless of how many times it touches the fire during the same round. Extended contact with fire can cause a creature or object to catch fire. Extinguishing a fire requires smothering it with water, sand, or a rug or tapestry.

Starting a fire takes 1 minute of work using a tinderbox or similar ignition method, such as a candle or flame-maker.

Any toxic substance counts as poison. Poison affects creatures when introduced to their bodies and persists until it runs its course, is neutralized, or is otherwise overcome.

A manufactured poison is produced by mixing certain ingredients or harvesting them from biological sources, rather than a toxin a creature naturally produces. You can apply a dose of manufactured poison to food, drink, an edged or pointed weapon or piece of ammunition, or some other object that can introduce the poison to a victim’s system. You might even soak a book’s pages in a toxic substance to poison anyone who turns them and then licks their finger. Some special poisons require only physical contact to have an effect.

Once applied to a surface or mixed into a substance, the poison remains harmful for 8 hours. If a living creature of flesh and blood takes the poison into its body—eats poisoned food, drinks poisoned liquid, takes damage from a poisoned weapon or piece of ammunition—the creature becomes poisoned (luck ends).

Infection results from exposure to something that can sicken you, such as drinking contaminated water, eating spoiled food, or being close to someone suffering from a disease. If you’ve been exposed to infection, note the exposure on your character sheet. After your next rest, make a Strength roll. On a success, you shake off the infection. On a failure, you become infected and lose 1d6 Health.

While you are infected, you are weakened; at the end of each rest, make a Strength roll, losing 1d6 Health on a failure. If your Health drops to 10 or lower while you are infected, you fall prone, and cannot stand up and can move only by crawling. If your Health drops to 5 or lower, you become unconscious and cannot be woken until your Health increases above 5. If you succeed on a total of three Strength rolls, you fight off the infection and can regain lost Health by normal means.

You are subject to suffocation when you go without breathing for 1 minute or longer. While subject to this effect, you make attribute rolls with 1 bane and you grant 1 boon on attribute rolls against you. In addition, you cannot talk or perform activities that require speech, such as casting spells. Last, you take 1d6 damage at the end of each round, or double this damage if you used an action during your turn.

You transform when an effect alters your body so that you become someone or something else. Unless the effect responsible for the transformation says otherwise, the following rules apply.

ATTRIBUTES: You use the Strength and Agility scores of the new form, but you keep your original Intellect and Will scores.

DEFENSE AND HEALTH: You use the Defense and Health scores of the new form. You ignore any losses to Health from your previous form, but your damage total carries over to your new form.

POSSESSIONS: If you were holding one or more objects in your hands, and the new form lacks hands or similar appendages, you drop the items to the ground in your space (or beneath your space if you are not on the ground). The Sage might also rule certain items fall off your body when you assume the new form.

SPEECH: If the new form is that of an ordinary creature not normally capable of speech, you lose the ability to speak.

TRAITS: You lose all traits of your original form and gain the traits of your new form.

TALENTS: You retain all talents you have gained, regardless of your new form. However, certain activities might be impossible in your new form. If you become a harmless mouse, you would not be able to attack and thus would not benefit from any talents that would affect your attacks.