Harrowed Abilities
- Coup: Can count coup on Others. See below. (Also upon becoming Harrowed receive one free Harrowed Edge).
- Dominion: Score: 0.
- Undeath: Being undead grants the harrowed a +2 to toughness, needs only 1d6 hours of sleep per night, immune to nonlethal damage, "death" only puts the Harrowed out of commission for 1d6 days. Only and incapacitating head shot can kill the hero for good, immune to poison and disease.
- How Died/Permanent Wound: Sid took a knife in the back.
Additional Notes on being Harrowed:
Special Rules:
• Coup: See below.
• Dominion: See below.
• Undeath: See below.
About Being Harrowed
Some might believe they’re just too tough to die, but the fact of the matter is no human can pull off the resurrection act alone. To crawl back out of the grave, a deceased soul has to catch a ride from a demon, or Manitou, as the Native Americans call them. This Manitou holes up inside its host and grants it powers not normally available to the dead, like walking and talking, to name a couple.
These undead are known as Harrowed, or literally “dragged forth from the earth.”
Since one of the few ways a Manitou can actually be slain is if its host’s brain is destroyed, they only take this risk on those who really stand out in the crowd. That’s why your average chump just gets brought back on temporary terms, like zombie walking dead.
In order for this arrangement to function, both the host and the Manitou need each other: the host provides the body and the Manitou the means to keep it moving. They don’t often play nice with each other, leading to a constant battle for control. Most of the time, the Manitou is content to sit back and enjoy the ride, letting the Harrowed go about his daily unlife.
Every now and then, though, the demon makes a go for squeezing into the driver’s seat. If it’s strong enough, it can take control of you for a while and raise a little Hell. And that’s the whole reason they’re around!
How Dominion Works
When a Harrowed first returns to the land of the (un)living, they have a vivid memory of suffering through their worst nightmare—and with good reason. You see, the demon put the through its own little corner of Hell before it let him out in an attempt to weaken his resolve. Worse, it continues to do so every night of their existence from then on.
Recently offed characters who return as Harrowed, as well as those who begin the game with the Harrowed Edge, start with a Dominion of 0. This means the host and the Manitou are roughly on equal footing. When the GM tells you to make a Dominion roll, make a Spirit roll and add your current Dominion. This is opposed by the Manitou . Your deader’s Dominion can never go below –4 or above +4.
Dominion Table
Success: The Harrowed retains control and gains 1 point of Dominion, or 2 points with a raise.
Failure: The manitou takes over (and no doubt gets up to some evil shenanigans); your hero loses 1
Dominion point, or 2 if the manitou scored a raise. Tie: The manitou doesn’t get control, but the fight
leaves your Harrowed Shaken.
The Unlife of a Harrowed
If you’re wondering what it’s like to be a Harrowed, let’s just say it’s got its ups and downs. Sure, being a walking corpse has its advantages when lead starts flying, but on the other hand, you’re also if people catch on that you are actually a walking corpse it has a tendency to make you a little less popular with most folks.
Death Wounds
It should come as no surprise that anything bad enough to put a fella down leaves a mark. A Harrowed’s “death wound” is healed on resurrection, but always leaves some scar or deformity. In your case this is a stab wound on your chest. Harrowed are not left so disfigured that they’re instantly recognizable as undead—that would defeat the manitou’s purpose.
Decay
The living dead have wan, ashen skin. Since the manitous sustain their bodies, they don’t rot, but they don’t smell like roses either. Anyone who gets close to a Harrowed picks up the smell of decay with a Notice roll.
A Harrowed can “pickle” themselves for a day or so by drinking a quart of liquor. Other possibilities are certain herbs or perfumes that may mask the scent. Animals can always tell, no matter what. Riding rolls and any other rolls involving the cooperation of animals may suffer a –2 penalty. Unless of course it was a harrowed horse.
Harrowed do not reproduce
Thankfully...
Food and Drink
Harrowed need meat to patch themselves up, but it can be fresh or rotten. Each time a Harrowed makes a healing roll, she consumes a pound of flesh. The character has to eat the meat, but it doesn’t have to be cooked.
Undead don’t need water, and you can’t get drunk either—which helps with the whole “pickling” They aren’t affected by drugs or poison and can’t catch a normal disease. Supernatural diseases and effects are fair game, though.
Fear
Crawling out of your own grave has a habit of toughening you up on the psychological front. Once you’re already dead, it takes a little more to put the frighteners on you than the average person. For this reason, Harrowed characters add +2 to Fear tests.
Sleep
Harrowed don’t need sleep, as such, but the manitou powering their bodies requires 1d6 hours of rest every 24 hours to recharge itself. And, unlike living people, the Harrowed can’t just down a cup of java to stay awake. When it’s time to “sleep,” the manitou simply shuts down. You can try to resist, but must make a Spirit roll every hour or keel over on the spot. This roll gets harder as the night drags on, with each additional roll suffering a cumulative –1 penalty to a maximum of –3.
Fortunately, the manitou maintains some awareness of its surroundings, so Harrowed are just as likely to wake up as other folks if trouble rears its head.
Undeath
The living dead are a fairly hardy lot. They don’t take Fatigue from normal sources, and they’re pretty much immune to nonlethal damage. Though they do suffer wounds normally, they can’t be put down except by destroying their brain. A head shot is the only way to kill a Harrowed. A called shot to the head does the trick, as does a Head result on the Injury Table. In the latter case, if the hero fails her Incapacitation roll, she’s dead for good.
Harrowed Incapacitated by damage to other body parts are only knocked out of commission for 1d6 days. After that, they regain consciousness and can drag themselves around until they can scrounge enough meat to heal their limbs. They can even regrow lost limbs this way. Harrowed don’t feel pain nor do they really bleed, so they never bleed out and can ignore all the effects of such. They do take wound penalties, but in their case these reflect the damage to the Harrowed’s muscles and bones. Of course, slipping around in your own blood and guts can throw off one’s game as well.
Counting Coup
WIP
