Recovery

High HP and Healing

The healing rates given for natural recovery, first aid, magical healing spells, the Regeneration advantage, etc. assume someone with human-scale Hit Points; that is, with fewer than 20 HP. Those with more HP heal in proportion to their HP score. Multiply HP healed by 2 at 20-29 HP, by 3 at 30-39 HP, by 4 at 40-49 HP, and so on, with each full 10 HP adding 1 to the multiple.

Recovering from Unconsciousness Without Help

If you have 1 or more HP remaining:  You awaken automatically in 15 minutes.

At 0 HP or worse, but above -1*HP:  Make a HT roll to awaken every hour. 

Once you succeed, you can act normally.
You do not have to roll against HT every second to remain conscious unless you receive a new injury. But since you are below 1/3 HP, you are at half Move and Dodge.

At -1*HP or below

You get a single HT roll to awaken after 12 hours. 

• If you succeed, you regain consciousness and can act as described above. 

• If you fail, you won’t regain consciousness without medical treatment – 

Use the rules given under Stabilizing a Mortal Wound.

Until you receive help, you must roll vs. HT every 12 hours; if you fail, you die.

Natural Recovery

At the end of each day of rest and decent food, make a HT roll. On a success, you recover 1 HP. The GM may give a penalty if conditions are bad, or a bonus if conditions are very good.

First Aid

First Aid has two main uses, Bandaging and Treating Shock

• Bandaging

It takes one minute to apply pressure or a tourniquet to stop bleeding. This restores 1 HP.

Using the Bleeding rule, someone who is wounded but receives a successful First Aid roll within one minute of his injury loses no HP to bleeding. A later roll will prevent further HP loss.

• Treating Shock

After bandaging, the aid-giver may take extra time to apply a more elaborate dressing and treat the victim for shock. He must keep the victim warm, comfortable, calm, and still. After the time indicated on the First Aid Table, he may roll against First Aid skill.

On a success, the medic rolls as indicated on the table to see how many HP the victim recovers – minimum 1 HP. A critical success restores the maximum possible HP! This roll includes the 1 HP for bandaging; thus, a roll of 1 HP restores no further HP.

On a critical failure, the victim loses 2 HP instead of recovering any HP at all!

Infection

A microorganism that attacks open wounds may cause an “infection.”
Infections are possible anywhere, but some places (especially jungles) may harbor especially severe forms of infection.

People wounded under less-than-clean circumstances and who do not receive treatment must make a HT+3 roll, modified as follows:

• Ordinary “clean” dirt in wound: +0. 

• Dung or other infected matter in the wound: -2.

• Locale harbors a special infection: -3.

On a failed roll, the wound is infected. Treat this as any other disease. 

A typical infection requires a daily HT roll, modified as above, with failure indicating the loss of 1 HP.  Most infections progress until the victim either makes a HT roll, ending the infection, or takes so much injury that they die.

If drugs are unavailable, or if the patient doesn’t respond, a surgeon can cut out the infected tissue if the injury from infection hasn’t progressed beyond a certain point. 

• On the head or torso, this limit is the patient’s HP/2. 

• On a limb or extremity, it is the amount of injury required to cripple the body part. 

Surgery cannot help infections more severe than this. The surgeon must make a Surgery roll. 

• This inflicts 2d of injury to the head or torso, or amputates a limb or extremity. 

• On a success, it cures the infection. 

• On a failure, damage or amputation occurs but the patient remains infected.

SURGERY

Surgery can physically repair damage to the body, but it’s risky at low TLs – especially prior to the invention of anesthesia and blood typing. See Surgery skill for general modifiers and for the effects of a failed skill roll. 

Surgery is rarely practiced, the technology and knowledge is lacking due to the presence of healing magics.  However it is important to note that some knowledge of the body is required for the effective use of potions on more serious injuries.

Some additional rules:

Equipment: 

Basic equipment gives a -5 penalty to Surgery skill rolls at the Technological level of Alethia. 

Infection: 

Antiseptic practice is non-existent. Check for infection after any surgery, healing potions used on infections exacerbate the condition considerably causing infections to spread and intensify, potentially killing people as the infection runs rampant.. 

Equipment Modifiers

The quality of your equipment modifies your skill rolls for tasks that normally require equipment:

• No equipment: -10 for technological skills, -5 for other skills.
  Note: Many skills cannot be used at all without equipment!

• Improvised equipment: -5 

• Basic equipment: No modifier

• Good-quality equipment: +1. Costs about 5x basic price.

• Fine-quality equipment: +2. Costs about 20x basic price.

• Best equipment possible at your TL: +TL/2, round down (minimum +2). Not usually for sale!

If you have “basic” or better equipment that is not in perfect condition, the following modifiers apply in addition to quality modifiers:

• Missing important items: -1 per item.

• Damaged equipment: -1 to -3.

• Missing Anesthetic: -5

Stabilizing a Mortal Wound

Each attempt takes one hour. The roll is at: 

• -2 if the patient is at -3xHP or worse, 

• -4 if he’s at -4xHP or worse.

On a failure, repeated attempts are allowed, at a cumulative -2 per attempt.

Repairing Lasting Crippling Injuries

It is possible to fix a lasting crippling injury through surgery rather than leaving it to heal on its own. This takes 2 hours. 

• On a success, measure the injury’s remaining recovery time in weeks rather than months. 

• But on a critical failure, the injury becomes permanent! 

With a Medical or Surgical skill check and a potion the Lasting Crippling Injury can be healed in days instead of months.  However applying a potion to a Lasting Crippling Injury without a Medical or Surgical check to assist in mending the injury can cause the Crippling injury to become Permanent.

Repairing Permanent Crippling Injuries

Radical surgery can fix certain permanent crippling injuries with the assistance of potions or healing magic. 

This kind of operation is also tricky: -3 or worse to skill. 

• On a failure, the patient needs 1d6 months to recover before another attempt is possible.

High level healing magic may also be able to help a person fix a Permanent Crippling Injury.