How the Vitals Interact

Pull one thread and the whole hide moves. So it is with the body.

Every vital reaches into the others. How one weight makes the rest heavier.

No vital stands alone. Each one changes how fast the others fill. Learn the threads and you will see trouble coming before it reaches you.

What each weight does to the rest

Injury

• Tires you faster, up to three times.
• Shrinks your breath, down to half.
• Near death, speeds your mending, up to three times.

Fatigue

• Hinders your movement and your reactions.
• Slows healing, down to a third of the pace.
• Spent, makes you stumble and slip.

Hunger

• Tires you faster, up to twice.
• Slows healing, down to a third of the pace.
• Spoils rest and sleep.
• Full, harms you every hour.

Thirst

• Tires you faster, up to twice.
• Slows healing, down to a third of the pace.
• Spoils rest and sleep.
• Full, harms you every hour, twice as fast as hunger.

Reek

• Lets creatures track you more easily.
• Makes illness more likely.

Wounds

• Bleed into Injury every hour they stay open.

Venom

• Tires you faster, up to four times.
• Harms you every hour.

Toxin

• Harms you every hour.
• Makes you thirsty, up to three times faster.
• Makes you reek, up to twice as fast.
• Spoils rest and sleep, and turns your stomach.

Illness

• Tires you faster, up to three times.
• Makes you hungry and thirsty, each up to twice as fast.
• Harms you every hour.
• Spoils rest and sleep.

The limit

When several weights speed up the same vital, their effects multiply, but never past four times its normal pace. Even at your worst, healing never stops. It only slows.

The downward spiral

1. A hard fall opens a wound.
2. You run for home, and the wound opens wider.
3. The bleeding raises your Injury, and Injury tires you faster.
4. Hungry, thirsty and tired, you mend at a quarter of the pace.
5. Spent, you start to stumble, and every stumble hurts.

The way back

1. Stop running. Bind the wound.
2. Drink, then eat.
3. Sit or sleep. Rest mends Injury ten times faster than walking.
4. Fed, watered and rested, you heal at full pace again, and faster still if you came close to death.