Abyssal Communion (•••)

Prerequisites: Dialectic: Plutonic; Culture or Esoterica ••••

If in proximity to the Abyss, or a place where Abyssal creatures, artifacts, or weapons are present, you can commune with the Abyss as if it were a neutral attitude entity once per session. It speaks directly into your mind and may offer advice as to threats ahead, a portal to another place in the Abyss or the Dark, demand sacrifice in exchange for a favor, or, if aggravated, spit out a monster in your vicinity. You always come away from such communication with something, which could be as slight as a riddle or as impactful as a gateway to a hidden realm.

Aggravate Vulnerability (••)

Prerequisites: Dialectic: Qeobaca; Empathy ••

You lay your enemies low with your barbed tongue rather than a weapon. Study a target up to Medium range away and make a simple Empathy action to determine their present fears, concerns, and phobias. If you score a hit, you gain 1 Social Advantage against this individual.

Ambush Predator (•••)

Prerequisites: Dialectic: Scarab; Athletics or Survival ••

Like the large insects and arachnids that prowl the tunnels, you too are an ambush predator. When you set a trap for or ambush an opponent, you impose a Major Complication for them to avoid or detect. If they fail to buy it off, they take the Stunned status effect.

Armament of Darkness (•••)

Prerequisites: Dialectic: Myceli or Plutonic; Esoterica ••••

Once per session, you can summon an armor of shadow, granting 3 injury boxes (treated as an extension to the Injury Level the character currently occupies) that remain until destroyed or until the summoner receives the Taken Out status effect. Attacks using the Dreamcrafted tag eliminate these injury boxes immediately on a successful hit. This suit of shadow armor can be summoned onto another person and follows the same conditions as it would for the summoner.

Atmospheric Analysis (•)

Prerequisites: Dialectic: Elemental; Science ••

Elemental energies swirl around you. When you focus your attention, you can read the air within the caverns and determine what elements and creatures might be present. Once per session, this ability allows the player to ask three general questions about the presence of life, any environmental hazards, and how breathable the air is.

Black Blade (•)

Prerequisites: Dialectic: Myceli or Plutonic; Close Combat or Esoterica ••

Once per session, a weapon of liquid darkness appears in your hands at will, the shadows pouring from your body to form it. This weapon is good for one successful strike (it remains in hand if you miss or inflict no damage on a target) and possesses the Shadow tag (if you’re Myceli) or Abyssal tag (if you’re Plutonic). It disappears after one successful use.

Blank Slate (•••)

Prerequisites: Dialectic: Qeobaca; Empathy •••••

There is something truly unsettling about the nature of the Qeobaca. Sometimes, it looks as if there is nothing inside their large, violet-hued eyes. Once per session, when you acquire the Taken Out status effect after being at the Injury Level Near Death, the processes of your body suspend, and your consciousness escapes. The body you inhabited is just a shell, and once combat resolves, you’ll appear with a new body, similar to the last but without hair or scars, somehow emerged from the matter of the World Below. Any attempt to convince others that you’re the same person imposes a Major Complication to social interactions unless bought off or until the next Kalm phase passes. If not bought off, bond values from those characters to you are reduced to 0 until the next Kalm phase.

Bliss (•••)

Prerequisites: Dialectic: Adamas, Myceli, or Qeobaca; Persuasion ••

Once per session, your presence nullifies all negative mood-related area effects within a Medium range band. This can be a blessing or a curse depending on what is going on and can cause a Moderate Complication to future interactions with characters who you’re emotionally manipulating without their permission. Failure to buy off this Complication decreases their attitude toward you.

Blocking Winds (••)

Prerequisites: Dialectic: Elemental; Close Combat ••

Your control over the elements allows you to summon a shield that blocks incoming ranged attacks. Once per session, you can summon a protective shield of your chosen element that adds armor with the Elemental tag to every chosen character in Short range. The shield disappears if it’s broken or when the scene in which it was used ends.

Bonereader (•)

Prerequisites: Dialectic: Plutonic; Enigmas ••

Something about you resonates with the spirits of the dead. When you handle bones, you can recall pertinent information about the corpse. Make an Enigmas action with a Minor Complication. If you succeed, you can ask the Storyguide two questions about the body. Failure to buy off the Complication allows the Storyguide to provide a deliberate falsehood; you just won’t know which answer is the lie.

Breakaway Weapon (•)

Prerequisites: Dialectic: Adamas; Close Combat ••

Once per session, you can produce a glistening gem the size of a dagger or short blade from one limb. Snap it off painlessly to produce an improvised weapon with the Piercing tag. This weapon is suitable for a single use before shattering.

Bug Talker (••)

Prerequisites: Dialectic: Scarab; Culture or Leadership ••

You speak the language of bugs, enabling you to communicate with non-sapient insects, spiders, and worms, among other bugs, though they can choose to ignore you.

Carapace (• to •••)

Prerequisites: Dialectic: Adamas or Scarab; Survival •••

You possess a psychic carapace visible to other Adamas as a gemstone cloak and other Scarabs as a hardened shell. Increasing your Defense is only the beginning of this attunement. You may purchase it up to three times, with each time improving the Synthesis as follows:

Cash Crop (••)

Prerequisites: Dialectic: Adamas or Scarab; Artistry, Medicine, or Technology ••

You have intuitive access to a material considered valuable by many guilds, be it a hive in the walls containing honey or a replenishing stash of precious gems. Once per session, you can use this Synthesis, and the Storyguide will tell you the location of the closest valuable resource in the wild. This material can be traded or used, conveying a +2 Enhancement when making actions, depending on the type of material and its purpose.

Cloud Sight (••)

Prerequisites: Dialectic: Elemental; Enigmas or Survival •

You can connect your senses to those of your chosen element. You can connect to other patches of darkness, know what lies in a deep body of water, or even listen through clouds of condensation in the colder strata. Once per session, you can reach through your chosen element up to Long range and gain a +2 Enhancement to Enigmas and Survival actions to perceive activities through that element. Some of this information might be muddled by other environmental concerns or disturbances within the element, such as magma superheating water or a small radius of firelight. This Synthesis cannot be combined with Keen Sense.

Corpse Whisperer (••)

Prerequisites: Dialectic: Plutonic; Culture or Enigmas ••

You speak the language of undeath, enabling you to communicate with non-intelligent undead creatures such as Fungal Undead and Husks, though they can choose to ignore you.

Crystallize Kaos (•••)

Prerequisites: Dialectic: Adamas or Elemental; Esoterica •••

You can crystallize Kaotic energy into Kaos rocks to be used later. Once per session, you can pick up a lump of inert rock and transform it into a Kaos rock for channeling, as an explosive (with the Boom! Thesis), or for trade.

Curative Clay (••)

Prerequisites: Dialectic: Adamas or Myceli; Medicine •

You can extract a rare alchemical ingredient from your surroundings. When you take this dust and mix it with water, it creates a restorative clay. When you apply the clay to wounds, it restores 1 full Injury Level to yourself or to a target of your choosing. You can only use this restorative dust once per session.

Darkborn (•••)

Prerequisites: Dialectic: Myceli; Esoterica ••

You gain a +1 Enhancement to navigating the Darkness area effect and may extend this to anyone with whom you have a bond (positive or negative) if they remain within Close range.

Death's Visage (••)

Prerequisites: Dialectic: Plutonic; Persuasion ••

You’ve learned to manifest your ethereal nature as a visage of death to frighten and intimidate people from fighting you. Gain a permanent 1 Social Advantage on attempts to dissuade people and weaker beasts than yourself from fighting against you.

Delaying the Inevitable (••)

Prerequisites: Dialectic: Qeobaca; Enigmas ••

Your natural capacity for Kaos allows you to twist the circumstances of fate to remove all Complications from a single action once per session, but the Abyss will always get its due: the Storyguide adds an equivalent Complication to another member of the party at any point in the current or next session. This Synthesis can’t be invoked to cancel Complications imposed by this Synthesis.

Detachable Limb (••)

Prerequisites: Dialectic: Myceli or Scarab; Medicine •••

Your body has adapted the defense mechanism of detaching an appendage to flee from the clutches of a hungry predator. Once per session, you can choose to detach a limb and take 1 Injury Level to flee without taking any negative status effects for losing the limb. Your limb grows back by next session un- less regrown with a Sorcery beforehand. You can lure an enemy away with such tasty bait.

Dialectic Code (•)

Prerequisites: Culture or Enigmas •

Your Dialectic has developed a way of communicating without speech and at a distance. Plutonics subtly manipulate the density of the darkness. Adamas translate vibrations within the stone. Elementals manipulate their element within a cavern. Other Dialectics can’t understand the ways that your Dialectic speaks without buying the same Synthesis.

Diamond Jaw (• to •••)

Prerequisites: Dialectic: Adamas or Elemental; Close Combat ••

You can manifest a spiritual stone skin that makes it hard for even the strongest punches to knock you down. When you would be afflicted with the Dazed status effect, the number of rounds it takes for you to recover is lessened by 1 for each dot in this Synthesis.

Disarming Constitution (••)

Prerequisites: Dialectic: Elemental; Athletics ••

The elemental nature of your spirit allows you to eschew some of the limits of humanoid anatomy. Once per session, when you take an injury or status effect that would otherwise result in you losing a limb, you can grab the lost limb and reattach it as a reflexive action. You don’t recover the Injury Levels, but if you have the Aggravated Wound or Bleeding status effects because of this injury, they resolve immediately.

Don't Mind If I Do (•••)

Prerequisites: Dialectic: Elemental or Plutonic; Larceny •••

By focusing their abilities, a Dialectic-gifted thief can pull a small, easily concealable object into a patch of darkness or wind and whisk it away before the victim is any wiser. Once per session, gain +3 Enhancement to Larceny actions to use your elemental abilities to pick the pockets or steal from someone unaware of your presence.

Double Strike (••)

Prerequisites: Dialectic: Myceli; Close Combat •

Myceli Hunters have mastered the art of utilizing their shadows to do more damage to their opponents. This technique allows the martial artist to strike their opponent with not only their chosen attack but with the shadow of their movement. Once per session, on a successful Close Combat or Ranged Combat action, you strike the target twice, once with your normal attack and once with your shadow, which is treated as only possessing the Shadow tag. This Synthesis cannot be used alongside the Dual Wielder, Rapid Shot, or Rapid Strike Thesis (the shadow only strikes once).

Dreamborn (•••)

Prerequisites: Dialectic: Adamas; Artistry ••

You can tolerate the Overstimulating area effect and Senses Occluded status effect without Complications. You may extend this to anyone with whom you have a bond (positive or negative) if they remain within Close range.

Drift (••)

Prerequisites: Dialectic: Elemental, Plutonic, or Scarab; Athletics ••

When you’re falling, rappelling, or climbing down from a great height, your ethereal, insectoid, or elemental nature allows you to slow your descent. Make an Athletics action while descending. If successful, you slowly drift to your destination.

Earth Door (•••)

Prerequisites: Dialectic: Adamas or Elemental; Enigmas •••

In times of great danger, your attunement to earth and stone allows you to rip open a door in the ground or a cavern wall. Once per session, make a simple Enigmas action. Success opens a door for the remainder of the scene. Once the door closes, getting back requires some effort, as this Synthesis never opens the same door twice. What lies in the unknown is up to the Storyguide’s discretion.

Echolocation (••)

Prerequisites: Dialectic: Myceli; Survival ••

Navigating the darkest tunnels has degraded your eyesight but enhanced your hearing. You’ve developed a method of navigating by bouncing sounds off objects. Gain a +3 Enhancement when attempting to navigate via sound, vibration, and echolocation. Gain a Minor Complication to perceive things when exposed to area effects such as Crowded and Overstimulating, and a Moderate Complication to navigating the Obscura for the same reasons. If you fail to buy off the Complication, you cannot use this Synthesis again until the next session.

Elemental Immunity (•••)

Prerequisites: Dialectic: Elemental or Qeobaca; Survival •••••

You’re immune to a chosen element. You ignore damage, status effects, and area effects from this chosen element. Likely examples are magma, fire, acid, alkaline, cold, darkness (affecting weapons with the Shadow tag), and negative energy (affecting weapons with the Abyssal tag). This Synthesis can be chosen multiple times for different elements.

Elemental Sympathy (••)

Prerequisites: Dialectic: Elemental; Science ••

Choose up to three elements that make up your Dialectic composition. In first dealings with other Elementals sharing one or more of these elements in their Dialectic, you benefit from an innate positive attitude (unless you’ve done something to generate anger or distrust).

Emotional Vampire (•••)

Prerequisites: Dialectic: Qeobaca; Empathy ••

While you can nourish your body from conventional sources, you can also sate your hunger by consuming the emotions of those around you. Once per session, you can activate this ability to reduce the attitude of a crowd or person within Short range from negative or positive to neutral, or neutral to negative, granting you 1 injury box of health for each person affected and removing the Deprived or Exhausted status effects if you’re suffering from either.

Ethereal (• to •••)

Prerequisites: Dialectic: Plutonic; Esoterica ••••

You’ve begun losing substance as your body slips into the everlasting night of the Vast Underneath. Once per session, you can use this transformation to slip between otherwise impenetrable cracks in the cavern ruins and protect yourself from the many predators that lurk below.

Exploit Weakness (•)

Prerequisites: Dialectic: Qeobaca; Empathy •

You’ve learned to identify the weaknesses in others and dress it up like you’ve cursed them. Once per session, when you utter a curse upon a target, you or one of your companions may reroll a failed attack or influence action or ignore a single Complication (up to Moderate level) against the cursed individual.

Extra Sensory Perception (•)

Prerequisites: Dialectic: Adamas, Scarab, or Myceli; Survival ••

You’ve developed a sensory perception that, once per session, alerts you when someone or something with hostile intent is following you. On a successful Survival action, you can determine the approximate location of the tracker.

Fists of Onyx (••)

Prerequisites: Dialectic: Adamas or Elemental; Close Combat •••

You’ve learned to channel your attunement to reinforce your fists and feet with a hardened layer of stone. Your unarmed attacks possess the Brutal tag.

Flash Jump (••)

Prerequisites: Dialectic: Elemental or Scarab; Athletics or Science •••

By vibrating volatile energies, you can instantly jump out of harm’s way from Close to Medium range as a reflexive action. You can pull someone with you on a successful Athletics action.

Flight (•••)

Prerequisites: Dialectic: Elemental or Scarab; Athletics •••

You either have wings or mastery over your element to allow you flight. You can carry double your body weight without dropping. You can move unimpeded past ground obstacles but are impacted by obstacles in your flight path. Your flight movement is equal to your movement on foot.

Forgettable (•••)

Prerequisites: Dialectic: Plutonic or Qeobaca; Larceny or Survival ••

The shadowy nature of your form or the strange smoothness of your face makes it easier for you to slip from people’s memories when you desire to be forgotten. Once per session, when in the Crowded area effect, gain 1 Speed Advantage on attempts to go unnoticed by observers. Additionally, if witnesses spot you committing an act, they suffer a Major Complication on attempts to describe you, which, if not bought off, results in them describing you incorrectly. You cannot take this Synthesis if you possess the Striking Thesis.

Fortuna's Smile (••)

Prerequisites: Dialectic: Qeobaca; Larceny or Technology ••

You possess 1 Intellect Advantage when playing all games of chance and may extend this to anyone with whom you have a bond (positive or negative) if they’re within Close range. If you fail a roll using this Advantage, other participants in the game of chance realize they’ve been cheated, and their attitudes may degrade unless mollified.

Foul Omen (•)

Prerequisites: Dialectic: Qeobaca; Empathy ••

You leech the luck of others. Once per session, you can turn 1 hit on any roll from an antagonist into a failure, or apply it to another player character to take away 1 of their hits and generate 1 Momentum in its place.

Fragment (•)

Prerequisites: Dialectic: Myceli or Qeobaca; Medicine or Technology ••

You possess a floral or artificial homunculus piece that can move around at will. You’ve learned that if you add it to someone’s gear, you can use the fragment to track them. Your fragment sends you a signal up to Long range, indicating its location. It has 1 Health and no Defense, and it dies by the end of the story. It is a piece of vegetation or Kaotic energy and is highly flammable. If your fragment is destroyed, you can create a new one. You can take this Synthesis multiple times for multiple homunculi.

Fungal Communion (•)

Prerequisites: Dialectic: Myceli; Leadership or Survival •

You can mentally converse with primitive fungi and molds up to Medium range from your location, using a reflexive action to glean two pieces of valuable, if vague, information on where surrounding cracks and caves go and how the tunnels connect. Roll a Leadership or Survival action with a Minor Complication. On a successful roll, the Storyguide provides you with two facts about the immediate area. Failure to buy off the Complication allows the Storyguide to provide a deliberate falsehood; you just won’t know which answer is the lie.

Gatekeeper (• to ••)

Prerequisites: Dialectic: Qeobaca; Esoterica or Technology ••••

You are in tune with the weave of Kaos and can channel it through control over Kaos gates. When you create portals by tethering Wild Kaos, you may extend the Area factor of your result by a range band equal to the rating of this Synthesis.

Geomorphic Arrows (•••)

Prerequisites: Dialectic: Elemental, Myceli, or Plutonic; Ranged Combat ••••

You’ve learned how to channel your energies into arrows, bolts, stones, or other ranged weapons. Once per session, you conjure sufficient ammunition of this type to last until the end of the scene. The weapon functions as normal ammunition, but it has the Electrified, Flaming, or Freezing tag (if you’re an Elemental), the Shadow tag (if you’re Myceli), or the Abyssal tag (if you’re Plutonic).

Ghost Eyes (••)

Prerequisites: Dialectic: Plutonic; Esoterica •••

Staring into the Abyss has altered the way you see the world. When you investigate the encroaching darkness of the tunnels, you can see the lingering dead’s movements. Once per session, you can speak with spirits as if they were material, and despite their initial attitude, they will respond as if neutral. This attitude worsens if you anger or upset them.

Grafter (••)

Prerequisites: Dialectic: Scarab; Athletics ••••

You can attach the limbs of other Scarabs and bugs onto your body to replace missing limbs or to augment your existing ones by adding more to a maximum of eight. To graft a new limb, lose 1 Injury Level by creating an attachment point (if one doesn’t exist already) and make an Athletics action to determine how long the limb can remain functional before it rots. The act of grafting is unsettling and adds a Minor Complication to Social actions but grants 1 Enhancement to rolls to intimidate or threaten. If the Minor Complication goes unresolved, the person you’re dealing with shifts to a negative attitude.

Having additional limbs enables multiple close combat, ranged combat, or crafting actions per round, though each use of a grafted limb (or pair of limbs) comes with a Moderate Complication, which if not bought off, results in the amputation going bad and the used limb/s being rendered unusable after the action is taken. You require the Dual Wielder Thesis to use these limbs in the same round without splitting your dice pool.

Granite Weight (•••)

Prerequisites: Dialectic: Elemental; Close Combat ••

You’re a dangerous, crushing force. Every attack you make (armed or unarmed) gains the benefit of the Heavy Weapon tag.

Heart of the Storm (•••)

Prerequisites: Dialectic: Elemental; Science ••••

You can harness the passionate storm within your elemental heart to empower your allies. Once per session, by surging your confident energy outward to your companions, you grant a +1 Enhancement to all allies in Medium range for combat initiative. Additionally, all allies gain the Inspired status effect for their first combat roll.

Heat Haze (• to •••)

Prerequisites: Dialectic: Elemental; Science •••

By channeling your elemental energies, you can create a hot haze, inflicting difficulties on those who seek to harm you. Once per session, impose the On Fire area effect (Minor for 1 dot in this Synthesis up to Major for 3 dots) in a variable range (Short for 1 dot in this Synthesis up to Long for 3 dots). This haze remains for the duration of the scene.

Hex (••)

Prerequisites: Dialectic: Qeobaca; Ranged Combat ••

Your presence brings foul luck to those around you. You’ve learned to harness that ability to curse those standing in your way. Once per session, if you’re in an opposed challenge, you can force your opponent to reroll their dice pool and take the lowest pool of results.

Hive (•••)

Prerequisites: Dialectic: Scarab; Pilot ••••

You possess a geological or floral home to a colony of insects. When agitated, these insects swarm and attack anyone threatening their home or can be used as forward scouts. Once per session, you can unleash them as a swarm antagonist, but they treat you and your packmates as allies. You can choose the type of swarm and may purchase this Synthesis more than once for multiple swarms. Note that if your swarm is destroyed, you will need to coax a new swarm to inhabit your hive, requiring you to interact with a hostile swarm and succeed on a Pilot action.

Holding Back Death (••)

Prerequisites: Dialectic: Plutonic; Esoterica or Medicine ••••

When you find yourself at death’s door, you can pool the living darkness within you to contain it long enough to find assistance. This Synthesis activates once per session when you take the Aggravated Wound status effect or are reduced to Near Death. It nullifies the Aggravated Wound status effect or your Near Death state for three rounds (returning you to Maimed) and allows you to escape or fight. If you do not receive healing by the end of three rounds, you fall to Near Death.

Hungry No More (•)

Prerequisites: Dialectic: Adamas or Myceli; Medicine ••

You’ve adapted to the food and water scarcity to endure for long periods of time without direct sustenance. You may ignore the Deprived status effect for the first session where it would appear, but it overwhelms you and returns in the following session. You cannot use this Synthesis to sate the same deprivation more than once.

Husk (•••)

Prerequisites: Dialectic: Adamas, Scarab, or Myceli; Medicine or Athletics ••••

Once per session, when you reach Near Death, you can shed your outer shell and return to the Maimed Injury Level. This does not cause another injury but makes it easier to harm you until your skin hardens once more. Gain a Moderate Complication to Defense (represented by your tender skin and open wounds) after shedding your husk until next session, when it returns to normal. If you do not buy off this Complication, you suffer the Agony status effect. Your skin awakens in the next session as a husk antagonist unless destroyed beforehand.

I Know What You Want (••)

Prerequisites: Dialectic: Qeobaca; Empathy ••

When observing or interacting with a person, you can determine what they want versus what they need and understand the difference between the two. Gain +2 Enhancement to learn what the target desires most. If you know the target’s desire, add +2 Enhancement to use the desire against them.

Ignite the Heart (•••)

Prerequisites: Dialectic: Elemental; Empathy or Leadership •••

When all aspirations fall cold in the face of adversity, you know just the right thing to say to reignite the passion in the hearts of those who see or hear your words. Once per session, when a player fails a dice roll, you can make a reflexive Leadership or Empathy action to inspire the character who just failed with your actions or words. If you succeed, the target gains the Inspired status effect for their next action and resolves the Crestfallen status effect if possessed.

Incendiary Spores (••)

Prerequisites: Dialectic: Myceli; Medicine •••

You carry a pouch of volatile fungal spores. Your unarmed attacks come with the Flaming tag, and once per session, something that successfully grapples with you is immediately affected by the Burning status effect.

Inverted Step (•••)

Prerequisites: Dialectic: Plutonic; Esoterica ••

Your body’s developing Abyssal abilities have allowed you to sink into your shadow and appear in another. Once per session, on a successful Esoterica reflexive action, you can jump to an unoccupied shadow in Medium range and within your line of sight. This action can disconcert onlookers, inspiring fear or distrust.

Jewelsight (••)

Prerequisites: Dialectic: Adamas; Artistry or Larceny •

You can examine unrefined ore, unpolished stones, and other unidentified minerals to determine their value. Gain +2 Enhancement to negotiations with merchants or artisans, or when appraising minerals, and if successful, the other party gives you good advice about the road or times ahead as well as a fair deal.

Kaos Pocket (• to •••)

Prerequisites: Dialectic: Qeobaca; Esoterica •••

You recognize the Kaos-powered hidden mechanisms and forbidden technology dotted in the World Below. You’ve learned how to open these shuttered-off pockets to unknown places to store and hide items. If any items in this Kaos pocket aren’t recovered before the Synthesis’s effect elapses, they’re vaporized by Kaotic energies or transported to another Kaos pocket in the World Below. These pockets are airtight and sterile, and before opening, they lack oxygen and any other sustenance.

Strangely, the user of Kaos Pocket can open another Kaos Pocket elsewhere during the Synthesis’s duration and find any equipment stored within the previous one, as if it teleports to wherever the Synthesis is used. This element of Kaos Pocket does not allow for the recovery of vaporized items, however.

Kaos Sense (•)

Prerequisites: Dialectic: Qeobaca; Technology •

You instantly recognize a Kaos-imbued item without needing to roll but can make a reflexive Esoterica action to learn more information about the object and how it can be used. Multiple hits allow you to ask the Storyguide multiple questions. Failure leads to a false but convincing narrative or misidentification.

Kaos Sink (••)

Prerequisites: Dialectic: Plutonic or Qeobaca; Esoterica ••••

Once per session, reduce the Kaos level up to Long range by 1 while you’re present. This can’t reduce the Kaos level to lower than 0. The Kaos reduction applies throughout the location, not just for you. Allies attempting to tether Wild Kaos also face the reduced potential. Communities that harness environmental Kaos to power magical defenses or technologies are unlikely to welcome your character’s presence.

Kaotic Manipulation (•••)

Prerequisites: Dialectic: Qeobaca; Esoterica or Technology •••••

Your innate ability or a device powered by Kaos enables you to manipulate untethered Kaos. Whenever you or the Storyguide roll for a Kaotic Retaliation, you may reroll once if you wish to change the result, then choose from the two results.

Kiss of Warding (••)

Prerequisites: Dialectic: Qeobaca; Empathy ••

You can impart a blessing to those who gain your favor, lending them momentary protection from a chosen weapon tag. Once per session, this blessing can be passed by placing a hand on the shoulder or arm or, more commonly, a kiss on the forehead. Make a simple Empathy action. Each hit grants +1 Defense to protect from 1 chosen tag for 1 scene.

Light Eater (•)

Prerequisites: Dialectic: Plutonic; Larceny •

You gain sustenance by consuming all sources of light within a Short range band of you and extinguishing them. You remove the Deprived status effect but impose the Darkness area effect up to Medium range. Performing this unsettling act of survival in the presence of those of neutral attitude adds a Minor Complication to social interactions, which, if not bought off, reduces the attitude to negative.

Living Shadow (••)

Prerequisites: Dialectic: Plutonic; Enigmas •

Once per session, your shadow and the corporeal substance of your body can detach. Your shadow can then move, up to Long range, away from your body to provide you with valuable information about other areas. Your shadow has no thickness or mass and is unable to impact its surroundings, but it can be sent into areas with shadows and darkness to learn the location of items and people. It can’t hear or touch, but it can observe whatever it touches. Your physical body will not cast a shadow and inflicts a Minor Complication to positive interactions or a +1 Enhancement to intimidate those who witness this aberration. If you fail to buy off the Complication, anyone of neutral attitude dealing with you suffers a reduction to negative.

Magnetic (• to •••)

Prerequisites: Dialectic: Adamas; Artistry •

You can create a natural magnetism a number of times per session equal to the dots in this Synthesis. You can use this Synthesis to attract fist-sized quantities of ferrous metal to you from Short range, even when they’re buried under a layer of dirt or rock. If on the receiving end of a melee or thrown ferrous weapon, you can activate this Synthesis reflexively and add its rating to your armor rating.

Make It Hurt (••)

Prerequisites: Dialectic: Qeobaca or Scarab; Close Combat or Ranged Combat ••

Your predatory instincts allow you to determine the most painful and damaging way to strike someone. On a successful combat action, you reduce the number of hits required to purchase the Critical Trick by 1 (this stacks with the Brutal tag, if present).

Natural Sculptor (•••)

Prerequisites: Dialectic: Adamas; Artistry ••••

You’ve devoted your energies to creating works of art that you shaped from your own body. Once per session, gain +3 Enhancement to crafting using material from your body. If successful, you create a sculpture that the most influential person up to Extreme range travels to see, upon hearing of it.

Natural Tools (••)

Prerequisites: Dialectic: Elemental or Qeobaca; Technology ••

Once per session, you can create just the right tools for a job by solidifying your elemental energies. Any tools you make this way only last for 1 scene and grant +2 Enhancement to the appropriate Skill for which they’re used.

New Persona (•••)

Prerequisites: Dialectic: Myceli or Plutonic; Larceny ••••

Once per session, you can adopt the appearance of another person or creature of approximately the same size and shape as you until you decide to remove your mask and reveal your true self. This disguise only reverts if you choose. This new persona gains Enhancements (up to +3) against targets you’re trying to fool if you know details about the individual you’re impersonating. If you do not, or the targets have cause for suspicion, the Storyguide is free to impose Complications ranging from Minor (you don’t know the target’s walking gait) through to Major (you only know their appearance and you’re being interrogated about their family, childhood, and allegiances). If not bought off, attitudes will reduce to negative and potentially hostile.

Nourishing Harvest (••)

Prerequisites: Dialectic: Myceli; Medicine or Survival ••

You can sense the nearest edible lichen and fungi. Once per session, you can access such a site (unless you’re in the Abyss or a similar place where foodstuff would be absent) and harvest it to feed one person and remove the Deprived status effect for the session’s duration.

Pet Rock (•)

Prerequisites: Dialectic: Adamas or Elemental; Athletics or Ranged Combat •

In your travels, you’ve found a rock that resonates with you. No matter how many times you throw it away, it always returns. Always gain a +1 Enhancement when assaulting someone with your pet rock via a Ranged Combat attack. It returns to your hand on the next turn without fail. The rock has 3 Health and 0 Defense. It can also be used as a method to deliver messages or small objects, granting +1 Enhancement to appropriate Athletics or Larceny actions.

Pheromone (••)

Prerequisites: Dialectic: Myceli or Scarab; Persuasion ••

Once per session, you may exude either an attractive or noxious pheromone or spore, applying 1 Social Advantage on attempts to charm or intimidate anything living (this has no effect on the undead or inorganic). You may purchase this Synthesis more than once to produce a pheromone of the opposing type. If you fail an action with this Advantage applied, the target knows you were using a Synthesis to influence them, and their attitude may adjust in response.

Pigment (••)

Prerequisites: Dialectic: Scarab; Survival ••

You can conjure a chemical with which you can mark things. This pigment disperses in a mist across Short range and leaves a thin spray of color on whatever it touches. This grants +2 Enhancement to track the marked targets and reveals concealed enemies in range of the spray. This pigment also carries a strong smell that imposes a Minor Complication to social interactions until it’s washed off. If not bought off, nobody wants to get within Close range of the dosed character.

Radiant (•)

Prerequisites: Dialectic: Adamas, Myceli, or Scarab; Leadership •

Once per session, your body can glow brightly enough to illuminate a Short range band. You have control over this ability when you concentrate for a turn, with the glow remaining for the scene’s duration.

Reveal Falsehood (••)

Prerequisites: Dialectic: Myceli or Qeobaca; Empathy or Leadership ••

Beneath your watchful gaze, all truth is revealed. Utilizing either Kaos or dispersed spores, you make it harder for people to lie convincingly. Impose a Moderate Complication on anyone in conversation with you that only triggers when they attempt to lie. If this Complication is unresolved, the individual cannot lie without stammering, sweating, or otherwise acting in an overtly duplicitous manner.

Ruby Talons (••)

Prerequisites: Dialectic: Adamas or Scarab; Athletics or Close Combat ••

Once per session and lasting a scene, you can make your body produce shards of strong stone or gems, which grow into long, sharp talons. Your unarmed strikes are treated as if possessing the Piercing tag. Additionally, gain a +1 Enhancement on all climbing actions. This Thesis stacks with the Climber Thesis.

Scentless (•)

Prerequisites: Dialectic: Qeobaca; Survival •

You lack a distinctive smell, making it difficult for creatures to detect you. You impose a Minor Complication to be detected or tracked by your scent as you confuse the tracker. Failure to buy off this Complication results in the tracker confusing your trail with someone else’s. This abnormality also imposes a Minor Complication when you’re attempting to befriend animals, as they regard you as peculiar. Failure to buy it off results in the animal’s distrust.

Self-Sealing (••)

Prerequisites: Dialectic: Myceli; Medicine •••

You have no fear of slime mold and know the nourishing benefits of covering your body in a thin sheen of it. One per session, when you take the Bleeding status effect or reach the Bloodied Injury Level, you can obtain slime mold from your environment, which moves over the wound to staunch the blood loss. After three turns, if the wound is not exacerbated, the mold heals 2 injury boxes and removes the status effect. If you suffer more injuries, the mold’s seal breaks, and you suffer from the status effect or Injury Level as before.

Shadow on the Wall (••)

Prerequisites: Dialectic: Plutonic; Athletics or Larceny ••

You’re a shadow creeping along the crevices of the cavern wall until you reveal yourself. Once per session, when you’re caught sneaking, the person who spotted you becomes convinced you’re just flickering darkness and moves on.

Shatter (•••)

Prerequisites: Dialectic: Elemental or Qeobaca; Science or Technology ••

You can channel your elemental energies into a destructive strike in the correct place to break barriers. Once per session, make a Science or Technology action to locate the place on a wall or other large object where it is most likely to collapse or destroy that structure. On a hit, imbue your fists or tools with the Wrecking tag with it, bypassing Kaos Forged or Kaos Bound armor and equipment.

Silent Sentry (• to •••)

Prerequisites: Dialectic: Myceli; Empathy or Survival ••

By attuning with spores along your path, you can spread your awareness. Once per session, you can temporarily detach your consciousness into them to observe and hear what’s happening within Short range of your mushrooms. You can spread a number of spy spore deposits in Short range bands up to the number of dots you have in this Synthesis. Gain +1 Enhancement to observe areas remotely this way but gain a Minor Complication to awareness checks to your physical body while your consciousness is detached. Failure to buy off this Complication on your next roll makes you suffer the Dazed status effect.

Slip the Bonds (•)

Prerequisites: Dialectic: Elemental or Plutonic; Larceny or Athletics •

Once per session, by focusing your energies, you can shift solid, inanimate objects like rope or manacles through your momentarily phasing limbs. This Synthesis enables you to escape these kinds of restraints with a simple action.

Spark (• to •••)

Prerequisites: Dialectic: Elemental; Close Combat or Ranged Combat ••

Once per session, you can manifest your element as a spark, a handful of ice, a cyclone of water, or the light of a campfire. This disappears at the end of the scene. Your Synthesis rating determines how much of your element you can manifest at a time.

Spook Slither (••)

Prerequisites: Dialectic: Plutonic or Scarab; Pilot ••

Drawing on an instinctive fear of the weird and of that which slithers hither, you harness this terror weapon at will. Once per session, make a Pilot action to project your predatory instincts to every foe within Short range. On a success, you impose a Moderate Complication to their actions against you. If they don’t buy off the Complication, they must run away or surrender, as they imagine you striking, devouring, or mutilating them.

Spore Shield (••)

Prerequisites: Dialectic: Myceli; Close Combat •

Once per session, you can summon a shield of robust, whirling spores as a reflexive action, adding 2 injury boxes to your present Injury Level. It is destroyed once it absorbs the injuries, if it succumbs to the Destroy Object Trick, or at the end of the scene.

Statue (•••)

Prerequisites: Dialectic: Adamas; Artistry or Larceny •••

Once per session, for the duration of the present scene, you can suspend the processes of your body to remain inert as a statue but aware. You gain +3 Enhancement to Larceny actions where anyone is attempting to determine if you’re something more than a statue, corpse, or piece of the scenery. If someone attempts to harm you as a statue without having determined you’re in disguise, your body is treated as if imbued with the Kaos Forged armor tag.

Stone Stomach (•)

Prerequisites: Dialectic: Adamas or Elemental; Survival •

When your stomach quakes, it can be sated by mineral-rich mud. Eating dirt or stones removes the Deprived status effect for one session, but it returns in the following session and can’t be sated with the same Synthesis.

Stunning Blow (••)

Prerequisites: Dialectic: Elemental; Close Combat ••

You’ve learned how to control the application of your ele- mental strength to reduce fatal blows to stunning ones in the heat of battle. Once per session, when your Close Combat at- tack inflicts the Aggravated Wound or Bleeding status effects, you can opt to inflict the Insensate, Dazed, or Stunned status effect instead.

Swarm's Call (•)

Prerequisites: Dialectic: Scarab; Empathy or Pilot •

By sending out a chittering call or releasing an insect-attracting pheromone, you can summon a small swarm of harmless bugs to you once per session. If you lack the Bug Talker Synthesis, you leave this swarm where they are (possibly to devour someone’s food supply or scare someone critically afraid of bugs), but if you do possess it, you can negotiate a service from these bugs, which number anywhere from a dozen to a hundred, depending on the species. You can ask these bugs to gain general information about an area, such as predators, food sources, and layout. You can use the bugs to ask the Storyguide a general question about an area in Medium to Long range that you can’t see or access.

Switch (•••)

Prerequisites: Dialectic: Qeobaca; Empathy or Ranged Combat •••

You’ve learned that you can transfer injuries from an ally to another being or object. It can’t be used to transfer damage absorbed by shields or armor, but it does transfer injuries taken on a person’s body to another target in Short range. Once per session, as long as someone with whom you have a bond (or yourself ) has taken injuries, make an Empathy or Ranged Combat action. The number of hits affects the number of filled-in injury boxes transferred to your target, which cannot be defended against. The number of injury boxes transferred cannot exceed the amount of injuries the source had originally taken.

Tendrils (•••)

Prerequisites: Dialectic: Scarab, Myceli, Plutonic, or Qeobaca; Esoterica •••

Once per session, your Dialectic allows you to summon prehensile tendrils in the form of roots, webbing, wisps of living darkness, fleshy tentacles, or snakes of raw Kaos from the surrounding environment. You can use these like an additional set of hands, allowing you to do two things at once without following the rules for taking a mixed action. You gain +1 Enhancement to actions to intimidate or threaten and a +2 Enhancement on attempts to use the Establish Grapple Trick. The tendrils use your traits for combat, perceiving danger, searching for clues, etc., though they’ll never leave Short range of you. They have 3 Health total and 0 Defense, and they disappear at the end of the scene.

To Glory! (•••)

Prerequisites: Dialectic: Adamas; Leadership or Persuation •••

Through your innate Adamas charisma, you can persuade a crowd to act in a way that leads them to glory and heroism, whether the situation is advisable or the danger manageable. Once per session, gain 1 Social Advantage to Leadership and Persuasion actions to talk a group of people within Medium range to ignore self-preservation and rush into battle.

Toxic (•)

Prerequisites: Dialectic: Myceli or Scarab; Close Combat, Medicine, or Ranged Combat •

Either your bite comes with venom, or you can easily access or conjure a toxic pheromone, spore, or other organic byproduct. Your unarmed attack permanently has the Poison tag.

Tremorsense (•)

Prerequisites: Dialectis: Adamas or Qeobaca; Culture or Technology ••

You know the feel of approaching danger or possess a Kaotic device that can. With a Culture or Technology action, you can attune your senses to feel the earth’s vibrations beneath your feet up to Long range to detect the presence of other beings and creatures as well as approaching earth shocks. The benefits of this Synthesis can be combined with Keen Sense.

Trove Revealed (•)

Prerequisites: Dialectic: Adamas or Plutonic; Culture or Enigmas ••

For Adamas, your gems resonate with harmonious energies imbued with Kaos, glowing when you close in on clues and hidden truths. For Plutonics, the dark voices inside you whisper secrets into your mind. Once per session, ask the Storyguide for a vision revealing the location of something valuable within Long range of you. The Storyguide must provide a clear description, but they may omit details surrounding traps and ambushes en route.

Twist of Kaos (•••)

Prerequisites: Dialectic: Qeobaca; Technology ••••

When you’re aware of an attack heading in your direction, one of your Kaotic mechanisms can redirect the damage to another target. Once per session, you can interrupt an attacker’s turn to redirect a successful attack against you to another person up to Medium range away, so long as you don’t have a bond with them. Whatever damage you would have suffered is instead transferred to them.

Void Strike (••)

Prerequisites: Dialectic: Plutonic; Close Combat •••

The Abyss provides you with the power to distort the flow of Kaos. Once per session, as a 1 hit Trick, your Close Combat attack initiates the Taxed status effect on your target until the end of the scene.

Whispering Wind (••)

Prerequisites: Dialectic: Elemental; Science •

When you concentrate for a turn, your voice can carry to a target at Long range. Your words can echo through a cavern, disguising your location as you throw your voice to create distractions and lead predators elsewhere. You must make a successful Science action for this distraction technique to succeed.