IMMORTAL (As Per HighLander)

Str +5, Dex +5, Fit +10

HUMANITY: Immortals are not adversely or positively affected by their humanity scores. It merely reflects how kind or cruel and inhuman acting the individual Immortal is.

CHARACTERISTICS:

FIRST DEATH

This is the date the Immortal dies is reborn as an Immortal. To become an Immortal the First Death must be a violent death. This could come from an accident, combat, or any other form of trauma. If a pre-Immortal dies a nonviolent death, from disease or old age for example, he goes to his grave as a mortal.

The date of the characters first death should be recorded on the Player Characters sheet along with the place and how.

IMMORTALITY

The Immortal's age freezes at the time of First Death. The Immortal physically appears to remain at this age, and will not age again, until the Prize is won.

Immortals can be magically aged, (with all the effects of normal aging applying), but they will re-grow younger at a rate of 1 year per day.

Immortals are immune to disease and infection from Kin.

STERILITY

It must also be noted that all Immortals cannot reproduce. The Immortal is free to adopt and raise a family that way, but the Immortal will never have children of their own.

REGENERATION

Immortals regenerate at a rate of 1/5 Fit per BT. They regenerate Ability scores at the rate of 1/10 Fit per hour.

If a limb, or any other body part other than the head, is cut off or lost in some other way, it will re-grow back…eventually. Note how many SP were lost in the attack that severed the limb. That is the number of months it will take to regrow the limb, SP lost in the attack x1 months. SP lost are healed normally as the stump heals over with out the limb. Therefore your immortal may lose an arm but be up and running at full SP in a few minutes as the stump heals over.

If the detached limb can be found before the stump heals up, it will then re-attach normally. But it will take twice as long to regenerate the lost Survival Points.

QUICKENING POINTS (QP)

Immortals all have a base stored pool of Quickening Points that can be used for Quickening Powers. It is represented by the Max Quickening Score, which is the maximum they can naturally regenerate up to when QP are used.

The Current QP Score is the current number of Quickening available, often above the Max score due to absorbing another Immortals QP from combat.

Any QP ABOVE the Max score which are used are NOT regenerated, Immortals can only naturally regenerate QP to their Max score.

The Current Quickening Score is used to make Quickening Checks.

SENSE QUICKENING

This allows the Immortal to automatically sense other Immortals at a radius equal to Perception score in yards + 1 yard per 10 years of age.

This ability also allows an Immortal to senses Holy Ground with the same range as well as their Bonded Weapon should it become separated from the Immortal.

This ability will not let the Immortal pinpoint the other Immortal in a crowd of people.

Once an Immortal enters the range of another Immortal, nether can be surprised.

Newborn Immortals will become nauseated from the feeling. The feeling of nausea will remain until another Immortal explains what he is feeling and the rules of the game to him or her.

WEAPON BOND

This is the only trait that appears after his mentor trains the Immortal. This trait cannot be utilized until after the proper training and time is acquired, (six months is a good rule of thumb),

At the end of the training period, the Immortal must make a successful Quickening Check to empower his first weapon. If the save fails, then the Immortal must spend another month in training before he can retry to bond with his weapon.

The Immortal becomes bonded to a particular weapon of his choice. Through this weapon, the Immortal is able to evoke various other Quickening Powers (Empower weapon, Hide weapon, etc).

Only one weapon may be bonded at one time. If a second weapon is bonded, the first weapon looses the ability to channel Quickening powers.

The cost to bond to a new weapon is a permanent loses of ¼ the Immortal's current Max Quickening Points. This loss can be avoided altogether, if the player makes a successful Quickening Check. The points can be built back up through participation in the Game.

NEW SKILL:

Immortal Lore (Int)

This skill is knowledge of the Game and personal information of Immortals. This skill can be very useful in identifying unknown immortals and researching their past history.

QUICKENING:

Quickening is the magical life essences of Immortals. It is what Immortals use to power their Quickening Powers.

MAX QUICKENING SCORE

Characters have a Max Quickening Score of 25 + advantages/disadvantages + 5 per 10 years of life +1 for each Immortal killed.

This is the score that Immortal characters will regenerate naturally. Extra Quickening gained from combat is lost when spent.

There is no upper limit on an Immortal's Max Quickening Score. The score, however can be lowered by situations (such as a violation of the Holy Ground rule) which will be explained.

The Current Quickening Score is often used to make a Quickening Check. Immortals with Quickening over 100 still fail on a roll of 95% or higher.

The release of Quickening from a beheaded Immortal can be viewed as a fantastic display of electricity and raw power.

This release of power will cause some damage to the surrounding area. The extent of damage is as follows:

Each remaining Quickening Point that wasn't absorbed by the winner of the duel (they absorb ½ of the fallen Immortal's Current Quickening Score) will cause 1 point of damage to the surrounding area, with a radius that is equal to the fallen Immortal's Sense Quickening Range.

This damage includes the winner of the duel and every breakable item with in its range. Make a Quickening save (using the new after duel Quickening score) for ½ damage.

The winner of the duel is considered to be fatigued.  This is based on how much Quickening was absorbed from the defeated Immortal.

For every 10 points of Quickening absorbed, the Immortal will have a -1% penalty to all rolls for an equal number of BT's due to disorientation.

If the Immortal reaches zero Quickening Points, the Immortal falls unconscious for 50-Fit in minutes. They then awaken with 1 Quickening Point and regenerate Quickening Points normally (up to the Max Quickening Points).

GAINING QUICKENING:

Quickening is gained through age, regeneration, and combat.

AGE

Immortals Receive 5 Quickening Point's for every 10 years of life.

After a characters First Death he gains 25 quickening points, plus or minus any advantages or disadvantages taken.

For older characters use the Kin Age Determination Table on pg. 245. Use the skill and luck bonuses. Ignore ability increases. The Max Humanity bonus listed is used for the Quickening bonus (representing the number of Immortal kills taken.)

REGENERATION

The Immortal  regains Fit plus 1/10 points of his lost Max Quickening Point total every hour. The Immortal can only regain up to the his Max Quickening Points. Any extra points that were gained from combat and used/lost are not recovered.

COMBAT

When an Immortal loses his head, the Immortal who beheaded him OR the  nearest Immortal (if no Immortal did the actual beheading) within the dead Immortal's Sense Quickening range will gain the half of the fallen Immortals Quickening. Left over Quickening is released into the surrounding area doing damage as noted above.

USING QUICKENING

Quickening Points can be used to activate and maintain Quickening Powers.

QUICKENING POWERS:

Immortals have access to all of these powers. To use them the Immortal simply pays the QP cost and they are activated.

After the duration is ended the QP cost must be paid again to continue using it.

All Immortal Powers are to be treated like a free action taking no time. The Immortal may invoke the power and still attack or move or whatever in the same BT.

However they may only activate 1 power per Battle Turn (he can activate it at it's maximum potential in the BT.)

Quickening Powers can be used as much as the player wishes, provided he has enough Quickening Points to pay for the ability.

Breathe without Air

Base Cost: 6 points

Duration: Fit in BT's

This allows the Immortal the ability to breathe without air. If the Immortal is underwater, then movement and combat is still penalized by the CP.

Empower Bonded Weapon

Base Cost: 5 points per increase
Duration: Fit/5 BT

This ability can only be applied to the Immortals bonded weapon. This empowers his blade with Quickening, to an increase to hit or damage.

For every 5 Quickening Points used, the Immortal adds a +5% bonus to hit or + 2 to damage, with a maximum of +25% / +10.

The weapon is treated at a magical weapon and as such ignores the Armor Edge. In addition it ignores half of the Weapon Immunity Edge.

Empower Abilities

Base Cost: 10 points per increase
Duration: Fit/5 BT

This allows the Immortal to increases any ability by empowering himself with Quickening. For every 10 Quickening Points used; the Immortal can raise any ability score 5 pts.

Quickening Fate

Base Cost: 3 points
Duration: Int/5 BT

This allows the Immortal to have a limited form of ESP within his Quickening Sense range.

The Immortal can know one piece of information about another Immortal or about his surrounding within his Sense Quickening Range. A Quickening Check , (but not the Base Cost), must be made for each type of information wanted. (i.e. another Immortals name or that there is a gun in a desk drawer).

Quickening Luck

Base Cost: 10 points per roll
Duration: n/a

Quickening can be used to help a player that is having a bad day.

A player can re-roll a dice score for any reason that he feels his character has failed accomplish, (i.e. failed an ability save or did not roll high enough to hit). This Quickening Power will allow a second roll to be made.

This power can only be used once per roll and only once per BT.

Weapon Hide

Base Cost: 10 points
Duration: Will in Hours

This allows the Immortal to hide his bonded weapon on his person, it is ignored by casual observers or those near him who are not looking for a weapon.

If the weapon is searched for it will be found normally.

QUICKENING ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES:

Advantages are bought with Quickening Points and Disadvantages increase an Immortals Quickening Points. These extras are completely optional and a player does not have to buy any of these advantages or take any disadvantages. These extras can be used as a role playing aid to individualize your character. Once one of these extras are bought or taken, they are permanent and they do not require any additional cost or upkeep.

These extras can be bought after the character has received his First Death, or also through game play, or through the Quickening of a fallen Immortal.

Disadvantages can be bought off for double the Quickening Points Added.

ADVANTAGES

Flashback

Quickening Point Cost: 4

This allows the Immortal to have a memory flashback to remember a past time, place, name and/or event from his or her lifetime. Useful as a game aide from kind CP’s for remembering information.

Lighter Quickening

Quickening Point Cost: 6

This lowers the damage caused by the release of the Quickening after a beheading by ½ damage normally taken.

Sense Beginning Quickening

Quickening Point Cost: 4

This allows an Immortal to sense the Quickening in someone who has not yet received his or her First Death.

Soft Quickening

Quickening Point Cost: 10

This allows the Immortal to suppress his own Quickening so that he cant be detected by another Immortal. The Immortal can move into half/range of the other Immortals sensing range without being detected. This skill is very useful to thieves and other who may wish to conceal themselves.

DISADVANTAGES

Addicted to Quickening

Quickening Points Added: 8

The Immortal is addicted to the power of the Quickening. He will go out of his way to make the kill, regardless of what the situation is. The Immortal must make a Will save to avoid attacking any Immortal he runs into.

Allergic Quickening

Quickening Points Added: 12

Immortal is allergic to the sensing of other Immortals Quickening. The Immortal will suffer a 5% to all rolls while he stays within his sensing range.

Body Scar

Quickening Points Added: 12

The Immortals body will retain a scar from regeneration if an Immortal received a wound that was very severe. (i.e. mass burns, limbs removed and reattached, etc.)

This will give a -5 to one Ability score of the CP's choice. Intelligence or Will for a head wound; and/or Str, Dex, or Fit for a body wound. The ability loss is assumed to have been compensated for by learning and training so it confers no penalty to combat, movement, ect.

However, if the body scar is extensive enough to affect social skills from Attractiveness, a –20% to these skills can be applied.

Regeneration and magic will not heal this scar. This is a permanent scar.

Immortal Fanaticism

Quickening Points Added: 8

The Immortal enjoys defining death, doing painful stunts, or any other dangerous stunt. This could very easily bring unwanted attention to the Immortal from any number of sources.

Neck Scar

Quickening Points Added: 5

The Immortal has a large scar on his neck that impedes his voice and as a result will lower Attractiveness by 5 points.

This also reduces skills such as diplomacy, persuasion, and seduction by 5%.

Slower Regeneration

Quickening Points Added: 12

The Immortal has a slower metabolic rate of recovery and it takes longer for the Immortal to heal for wounds.

The Immortal will take twice as long to regenerate lost Hit Points and any lost limbs.

Strong Quickening

Quickening Points Added: 8

Quickening in the Immortal is so strong that its double the range of other Immortals Sense Quickening Range.

The Immortals Quickening is so strong, that Kin can also feel it. This sense doesn’t tell the other creature what the Immortal is, but they know that this person is different.

This will give such creatures the ability to feel the Immortals presence equal to the Immortals sense range.

This does not go both ways; the Immortal is not granted the ability to sense those supernatural creatures.

THE GAME…

DUELS

When two Immortals meet, Quickening is released into the air around them. It can be felt between all Immortals in the area. Nothing happens to the Quickening unless the Immortals challenge one another and engage in a duel.

When the metal from the Immortals blades connects for the fist time, they are considered to have grounded each others Quickening to that spot.

Once the duel has been started, it cannot be stopped or interfered with, unless both Immortals can make a successful Quickening saves.

The Immortal(s) breaking off the duel must make a Quickening save. If the save is failed, then the Immortal losses ¼ of his Current Quickening points. These points can be recovered normally through rest.

MULTIPLE OPPONENTS

Immortal duels are a one on one combat only. This is done for a very good reason.

If two or more Immortals team-up against a single Immortal in combat, the Immortal that took the head receives all the appropriate Quickening of the dead Immortal and will also drain his friend's Quickening Points, of an equal amount.

RANGED WEAPONS

The use of any ranged weapons and/or spells is a dishonorable act. The Immortal will lose half of his Current Quickening Points. He will also be unable to use any of his Quickening powers for 24 hours.

MORTALS

The Game and Immortals must not be revealed to mortal society. This is done for their own protection. Some Immortals however, build relationships with mortals to the point that they will accidentally or sometimes intentionally reveal their nature. These mortals must take care or they may end up being used or even killed by their Immortal ally's enemies.

HOLY GROUND

Immortals cannot harm each other (or other mortals) on holy ground. Holy ground is a form of sanctuary for Immortals and allows them to talk freely with each other. This is rooted in tradition and honor, and is never broken and was founded due to some very good reasons.

Holy ground has a draining and amplified effect on Quickening. None of the Quickening Powers can take affect on Holy Ground due to an over load effect

-Benefits

One of the benefits from this sanctuary is that Immortals will regenerate lost Survival Points and Max Quickening Points twice as fast on holy ground.

-Description of Holy Ground:

It is important to know what constitutes Holy Ground. This is mostly left up to the discretion of the City Planner. Some guidelines are:

Monasteries

Churches Temples

Graveyards

Hallowed Grounds

Hallowed Groves

Hallowed Rock formations

If it is consecrated ground, (regardless of faith and/or religion), it is considered to be Holy.

-Mortals on Holy Ground

Mortals are also safe from Immortals on Holy Ground. If an Immortal breaks this code of honor and attacks a mortal on Holy Ground, then the ground immediately drains ¾ of the Immortals Current Quickening Points and permanently drains 1d10 SP.

-Dueling on Holy Ground

An Immortal must make a Will check to attack another on holy ground.

A duel between Immortals on holy ground is very deadly to themselves and the surrounding area. Dueling on Holy Ground will have the following effects:

LIGHT AND DARK QUICKENING

Quickening can have a mysterious effect on an Immortals personality and his soul. If an extremely powerful Quickening is received, an Immortal may betray all he stands for, and switch personality. This is known as a Dark or Light Quickening.

This is very rare and very dangerous. A change of personality can happen if an Immortal receives a Quickening that is equal to or greater then his Quickening Points he has at that moment.

The Immortal must make a Quickening Check at to avoid the switch.

NOTES ON PLAY:

It is recommended that the PC Immortals start out as being Immortal for several years. This allows them to begin with the full amount of Quickening Points due to them and with a bonded weapon.

Spend as many skill points as possible on the bonded weapon, get it up to the beginning limit of 70% in a skill.