Choose Your Delver
Heart · Session Zero

Heart: the City Beneath · Delve Edition + Ways & Means

Choose Your
Delver

Four ancestries. Nine callings. Thirteen classes. Pick one of each, in that order.

The Eight Steps

Order matters — equipment depends on class, and the shared questions depend on everyone having a calling first.
  1. Pick an ancestryDrow, human, aelfir or gnoll. No mechanical difference whatsoever. Roll or pick twice on your ancestry's d20 trinket table.
  2. Pick a calling, take its core abilityWhy you went down there. This is your advancement engine for the whole campaign.
  3. Pick a class, take all its core abilitiesCore abilities are automatic. You don't choose between them — you get every one listed.
  4. Take one major and three minor abilitiesFrom your class's menu. This is the only real build decision at creation; everything after comes from beats.
  5. Choose equipmentYour class says what you get and what you pick between. Full gear rules at Core p. 93; Ways & Means p. W36 adds a market's worth more.
  6. Select two beats for session oneDo it now, not later. Tell the GM — they're obliged to put those situations in front of you.
  7. Answer your calling's questionsRound the table, out loud. Several of them name another player character, so nobody does this alone.
  8. Add the finishing detailsName, look, voice, the trinket in your pocket. Broad strokes are fine — leave room to find the rest in play.

Terms

Roll a d10 and take the highest. A skill that fits the action adds a die. A domain that fits the place or subject adds a die. Get the same one twice and you have a knack — mastery on one narrow slice of it. No ratings: you have it or you don't.

The five resistances

Blood
Pain, injury, exhaustion, blood loss.
Mind
Madness, instability, weirdness.
Echo
Body and mind twisted by the Heart's unreal energies.
Fortune
Bad luck, incompetence, overconfidence.
Supplies
Lost resources, broken kit, debt.

The nine skills

Compel
Threats, lies, flattery, argument.
Delve
Push into unknown or dangerous ground.
Discern
Read the world from available information.
Endure
Withstand what the Heart does to you.
Evade
Get away from what's tracking you.
Hunt
Track down what's running from you.
Kill
End things, armed or otherwise.
Mend
Repair, heal, build.
Sneak
Hide yourself or your things.

The eight domains

Cursed
Places the Heart has actively touched.
Desolate
Wastelands, abandoned towns.
Haven
Settlements — where people still live.
Occult
Hidden knowledge, black magic.
Religion
Gods, and things worshipped like gods.
Technology
Machines, devices, buildings.
Warren
Cramped, dense corridors.
Wild
Wilderness, vegetation, animals.

The Party

Add everyone at the table, then browse to an ancestry, calling or class and assign it with one tap. Saved automatically — it's still here next session.
Nobody in the party yet. Add a name above. Once someone's in, an Assign to strip appears on every ancestry, calling and class page — browse to the one you want and tap their name.

Ancestries

Zero mechanical weight. Culture, history, and a d20 table of things in your pockets. Mixed parties are normal — the Heart erodes the hierarchies that hold up in Spire.

Drow

Dark elves

Core, p. 16 · trinket table d20 · Names: Therese, Livrade, Ypolita, Damon, Asseyon

Monochromatic elves with a strong sensitivity to sunlight. The lands surrounding the Heart are predominantly populated by dark elves, including the towering city of Spire (where they are subjugated by the aelfir) and the rolling desert caravan city of Aliquam. Drow live to around a hundred years of age, but the cruel conditions of Spire means that few of them reach 50. Drow do not give birth to viable young - instead, they lay fist-sized fleshy eggs that must be tended to for months until they develop into an infant.

Answer one of these

  • You served a durance — four years of indentured labour under the aelfir. Doing what?
  • You were born in the City Beneath. Where is your family, and what do they worship?
  • You came from somewhere far off — Aliquam, Nujab, the Home Nations. Why aren't you there now?

Humans

Diggers

Core, p. 17 · trinket table d20 · Names: Whent, Raffid, Dolwyn, Urwain, Josef, Ingwyn

In this part of the world, humans have a reputation for digging into the ground to uncover ancient relics, and it’s not entirely inaccurate. They have emerged from their scattered island nations in the Eastern Kingdoms bearing retro-engineered technology, and are eager to sell it to the highest bidder. Humans live brief but bright lives in the eyes of the elves, passing away at 60 or so, often from illness or injury.

Answer one of these

  • You arrived in Spire with nothing but the clothes on your back and a dream. What went wrong?
  • You were thrown out of a retro-engineering or magical college. What did you do?
  • You're third-generation Heartborn. What do people wrongly assume about you?

Aelfir

High elves

Core, p. 18 · trinket table d20 · Names: Gather-Spring's-Heartbreak, Ash-On-Snow, Ink-Floods-The-Vein

Aelfir benefit from massive privilege; they rule the City Above and lead lives of bizarre luxury in their frozen palace of Amaranth. Some turn away from a life of power to seek meaning in the lawless city below, while others pursue the dark secrets whispered about in perfumed boudoirs. They are tall, impossibly graceful and can sustain their lives supposedly indefinitely with curious rituals and surgeries. Aelfir in the City Above wear masks to hide their faces from their inferiors; in the City Beneath, only traditionalists wear them.

Answer one of these

  • You still wear the mask. What does it look like, and why keep it?
  • Your family name was destroyed by a catastrophic social blunder. What did they do?
  • You cling to one luxury that keeps you centred. What is it?

Gnolls

Al'Marah

Core, p. 19 · trinket table d20 · Names: Brakesh, Ahkoura, Rahman, Dris, Majyd — or translated: Pitchwood, Roseglass, Redeye

Hyena-headed people from the south with fur that covers their bodies. The gnolls are at war with the aelfir, and are forbidden from entering the city of Spire; many have gone into hiding in the City Beneath. The gnollish empire (and its capital city Al’Marah) is founded on their advanced demonological and mechanical abilities; there are tales of djinn being bound into brass spheres to power uncanny devices.

Answer one of these

  • You came looking for something specific. Alone or with a team — and did you find it?
  • You fled Spire as a prisoner, refugee or agent. What do you miss about the surface?
  • You were born down here. What image do you project to impress or intimidate?

Callings

Your obsession. One core ability, plus a long list of beats at three tiers — the beats are how you advance, and the zenith ones are how your story ends. A whole party sharing one calling makes for a focused, strange campaign.

Adventure

Core

Core, p. 20

Bored of a life on the surface, you seek a knife-edge life of danger and excitement where laws, both social and scientific, no longer apply.

Core ability

Legendary. When you gain a minor advance, remove D6 stress spread across any resistances you like. When you gain a major advance, remove D8.

Beats reward showing off, rushing in first, and getting your name on things — a cocktail, a landmark, a fighting move. Zenith: reach Tier 4, or lead a haven to prosperity.

Answer these

  • What drove you out of the City Above?
  • You and another player character barely escaped something recently. Who, and what happened?
  • You and another PC brought a wealthy patron an item — and kept it. Why, and what was it?
  • What's the most dangerous thing you've heard of, and why haven't you killed it yet?

Enlightenment

Core

Core, p. 22

You want to achieve something impossible; you know that the Heart holds fragments of the knowledge you need to pull it off.

Core ability

Unorthodox Methods. Gain the Discern skill. Once per session, instead of rolling to resolve an action, declare the result is a 6 — you succeed, and you take the stress.

Beats reward putting knowledge above your friends' lives. Zenith: find the final secret and solve your impossible task — or find it and destroy it so nobody else can have it.

Answer these

  • What impossible thing are you trying to achieve down here?
  • What's the first step on the journey?
  • Which PC has been invaluable to your work, and what did you learn from them?
  • Which PC is hiding something from you, and why do you suspect it?

Forced

Core

Core, p. 24

You don’t want to be in the Heart, but your masters are blackmailing or coercing you into it. You follow their orders as best you’re able.

Core ability

Collateral. Once per session, put stress you'd have marked onto the nearest friendly target instead — player character or NPC. They will notice.

Beats reward obeying orders that endanger you, and rebelling at exactly the wrong moment. Zenith: break their hold on you, or take bloody revenge.

Answer these

  • Who, or what, are your masters?
  • What do they want?
  • How do they maintain power over you, and how do they make contact?
  • Which PC has history with them too? What kind?

Heartsong

Core

Core, p. 26

Years of mysterious dreams where a red wet heaven glistens beneath you have lead you to the cursed labyrinth of the City Beneath in search of greater truths.

Core ability

In the Blood. +1 Echo protection. Once per situation, when you would take stress to any resistance other than Echo, put it on Echo instead.

Beats reward eating the Heart, sabotaging havens to let it in, and naming it. Zenith: become one with it, or tear it out of yourself.

Answer these

  • Which three images, symbols, people or creatures recur in your dreams?
  • What signs tell you the Heart is strongest somewhere?
  • You and another PC saw something unearthly recently. What, and how did they react?
  • How has the Heart already marked you?

Penitent

Core

Core, p. 28

You were part of an order; you let them down, and people paid the price for it. Now you seek atonement through self-sacrifice.

Core ability

Not Yet. Once per session, ignore all negative effects of your Blood and Mind fallout for the rest of the situation.

Beats reward repair, restraint, mercy and self-sacrifice. Zenith: be genuinely absolved by a higher power — or betray your order again, deliberately this time.

Answer these

  • What makes your order distinct from others like it?
  • What evidence of your failure is visible down here?
  • Which PC was present at your betrayal, and how were they involved?
  • Which PC do you look up to as a model of how to live, and why?

Artist

Ways & Means

Ways & Means, p. W4

You are an eccentric creative who has chosen to dive into the unreality of the City Beneath in search of a muse, inspiration or impossible substances to forge your magnum opus.

Core ability

In Pursuit Of Greatness. Once per situation, mark D6 Mind stress — describe how you open yourself to terror, grief or panic — and reroll every die in a pool.

Beats reward witnessing extremity, destroying your own work, and derailing a delve to look at something wondrous. Zenith: make art so powerful it becomes a fracture, then walk into it.

Answer these

  • What semi-portable medium do you work in?
  • What's your unfinished masterpiece called?
  • You've made half a dozen studies of another PC. What can't you capture about them?
  • You collaborated with another PC on something controversial. Where, and who hated it?

Containment

Ways & Means

Ways & Means, p. W6

You are an overworked member of the Office of Closure and Mitigation, a thankless job which pits you against the ceaseless bleeding incursions of the Heart, all so people who don’t know you exist can sleep safe at night.

Core ability

Jaded. Once per session, mark D6 Mind stress to gain any domain for the rest of the situation.

Beats reward closing connections, insulting divine things, and holding a chokepoint alone. Zenith: wound the Heart itself, or surrender and accept you're never going home.

Answer these

  • What are you really trying to protect from the Heart?
  • Which horror from down here haunts your dreams?
  • Which PC do you owe a debt to, and what is it?
  • Which PC do you have a bad feeling about — and do you want to save them, or cut them loose?

Demagogue

Ways & Means

Ways & Means, p. W8 · the most mechanically involved calling in either book

You have monumental ambitions which can only be achieved with a lot of people’s support, and you won’t stop until the job is done. They may call you a cult leader, rabble-rouser or worse, but you know they’ll eat their words once you’re the one on top.

Core ability

For The Cause. Gain the Compel skill and D6 followers. They are a single unique bond who can take bond actions and travel with you. Once per situation, before a Risky or Dangerous action, command them to help: reduce the difficulty by one step — but you and they take any resulting stress.

When followers suffer fallout. Minor Shaken Faith — they refuse to help until you hear them out. Major Ignoble Sacrifice — lose one follower; at zero it escalates. Terminal Ideological Death — recruitment rolls become Dangerous until you're back up to three.

Answer these

  • What grand goal or ideology needs followers and power to accomplish?
  • Who was responsible for thwarting you in the City Above?
  • Which PC has a loved one among your devout — and how do they feel about it?
  • Which PC knows the secret that would turn your followers against you?

Beats reward martyrs, purges and lavish celebrations. Zenith: overthrow a ruling power and install your people — or admit it was always self-interest, and spend every last follower on what you actually wanted.

Protector

Ways & Means

Ways & Means, p. W10

You have something you swore to protect, and that thing has gone and found itself in one of the most dangerous places in the world. It’s up to you to make sure it stays safe, no matter the cost.

Core ability

Defiant. Once per session, double your protection against a single attack.

Beats reward taking the hit, teaching people to fight, and running away and living with it. Zenith: defeat a Legendary adversary — or lose everything you swore to protect.

Answer these

  • Who or what have you sworn to protect?
  • What do you believe is the biggest threat in the Heart?
  • You saved another PC from certain death. How did they get into that position?
  • You and another PC came back from a delve recently. What did you both lose?

Classes

Take every core ability listed — they aren't a choice — then pick one major and three minor abilities from the class's menu.

Cleaver

Core

Core, p. 30

A shapeshifting hunter who consumes the flesh of their prey - or anything they can get their hands on, really - to gain power.

Skill
Hunt
Domain
Cursed
Resource
A freshly-harvested heart, still twitching D6 Wild
You get
Hunting knife Kill D6
Pick one
Cleaver Kill D8, Brutal, Tiring
Bone charms and gut sutures Mend Blood D6
Heavy-draw bow Kill D8, Ranged, Tiring

Core abilities — you get both

Heartsblood. Your minimum protection in every resistance equals the Tier of the Heart you're currently on. It doesn't stack with other protection — it's a floor. The deeper you go, the harder you are to kill.

The Red Feast. Eat a resource and gain its domains until the end of the situation — or a knack, if you already had them. Tough or noxious material wants an Endure+Cursed check; doing it mid-combat wants Sneak or Evade, because it leaves you wide open.

What the abilities do

Minor
  • Summon a horde of beasts
  • See in total darkness
  • Eat the dead for their skills
  • Command small animals
  • Slip away unseen
Major
  • Bind a beast companion
  • Transform into a chimera
  • Wield a monstrous bow
  • Lead the party on a hunt
Zenith
  • Become an angel
  • Become the Beast
  • Bury the land under a forest

Deadwalker

Core

Core, p. 35

A Deadwalker has stared into the face of death and come out triumphant, and they’re accompanied by a spectre of their demise. They use their half-dead spirit to break into various afterlives using the thin reality of the City Beneath.

Skill
Delve
Domain
Desolate
Resource
Bag of interesting teeth D6 Desolate
Pick one
Hunting rifle Kill D6, Extreme Range, Reload
Greatsword Kill D10, Tiring
Bootleg ambrosia Mend Mind D6, Potent, Expensive + ritual blade Kill D6

Core abilities — you get both

Death Follows Close. A manifestation of your death trails you, invisible to everyone else — except near dying, or in places thick with grief. The first time each session you take Major Blood, Mind or Fortune fallout, it lashes out and inflicts D8 stress on whatever caused it. You decide what it looks like.

Enter the Grey. Roll Delve+Religion after roughly ten minutes of ritual to step into the Grey — the monochrome shadow-world between the living and the dead — taking anyone you like with you. Getting out is trivial for you and anyone you ferry; everyone else has to roll.

What the abilities do

Minor
  • Be shadowed by your death
  • Step into the Grey
  • Dig through earth barehanded
  • Terrify wild animals
  • Question the freshly dead
  • Mark prey and hunt it
  • Snuff out every light
Major
  • Walk to the eight heavens
  • Witness the recent past
  • Turn your death on enemies
Zenith
  • Destroy any person or concept
  • Drag a target into hell
  • Die to heal your allies

Deep Apiarist

Core

Core, p. 40

Occultists who have given their bodies up to the Hive, an otherworldly intelligence manifested as thousands of crystal bees. They see the Heart as anathema, and seek to keep it in check.

Skill
Mend
Domain
Occult
Resource
Heartsbloom rose in a glass jar D6 Occult, Fragile
You get
Hive tool Kill D4, Brutal
Pick one
Dimensional barometer Delve D6
Hunting rifle Kill D6, Extreme Range, Reload
Smoker Kill D4, Debilitating, Smoke

Core abilities — you get both

The Hive. At the start of every situation, clear all Mind stress as it flows out into the Hive. The price: you can never gain Mind protection, and you can never clear Mind stress any other way. A completely different risk curve to every other class in the game.

Release the Swarm. You permanently have this weapon: Kill D4, Spread, Ranged.

What the abilities do

Minor
  • Loose a swarm of bees
  • Repair machines with wax
  • Let bees pilot your body
  • Squeeze through any gap
  • Reduce someone to base instinct
  • Possess a wild animal
  • See through your bees
Major
  • Burn foes with a touch
  • Heal minds with a sting
  • Steady an ally’s odds
Zenith
  • Seal a foe in crystal
  • Ward a landmark forever
  • Unmake the world around you

Heretic

Core

Core, p. 45 · the party's caregiver

A devotee of the Moon Beneath, a luminous and fecund goddess that grants them the ability to use strange miracles.

Skill
Mend
Domain
Religion
Resource
A devotional candle burning with silver flame D6 Religion
Pick one
Spireblack brazier lit: Kill D8, Obscuring, Dangerous
Breech-loading pistol Kill D6, Ranged, Reload + seeker's blade Kill D6, Brutal
Scripture-etched bandages Mend Blood/Mind D6 + staff Kill D6

Core ability

Ministrations. Once per session, lead your allies in a service of praise — however your faith practises. Every player character who takes part removes one Minor Blood or Mind fallout, or downgrades a Major one to Minor. Perform it mid-delve and you also add +D4 to the delve's resistance.

What the abilities do

Minor
  • Lead a healing service
  • Bolster an ally’s resolve
  • Make a liar bleed
  • See in total darkness
  • Win arguments with scripture
  • Seal a door for an hour
Major
  • Shield your allies from harm
  • Borrow the goddess’s fury
  • Speak a name as a weapon
  • Turn risk into greater force
  • See the souls around you
Zenith
  • Become an angel
  • Stun and convert onlookers
  • Die and leave a shrine

Hound

Core

Core, p. 50

A mercenary police officer shackled by the cursed origins of their regiment.

Skill
Hunt
Domain
Haven
Resource
Bottle of rotgut liquor D6 Haven
Pick one
Legrande rifle Kill D8, Ranged, Piercing, Expensive
Repeater sidearm Kill D6, Ranged, Brutal, Reload + knife Kill D6
Well-stocked haversack Mend Supplies D6 + cudgel Kill D6

Core ability

In the Thick of It. Once per situation, redirect stress from any other resistance onto Fortune. And when you do suffer Fortune fallout, you roll with mastery for the rest of the situation — the class is built to cash in its own bad luck.

What the abilities do

Minor
  • Cover an ally’s retreat
  • Find a safe place to rest
  • Drink away your troubles
  • Hear where trouble is
  • Fight well with bare hands
  • Draw attacks onto yourself
Major
  • Condemn someone as a criminal
  • Prepare the party’s gear
  • Attack with a stare
  • Pierce armour up close
Zenith
  • Post the 33rd as guards
  • Join the 33rd forever
  • Raze a place with the 33rd

Incarnadine

Core

Core, p. 55

A cleric of the goddess of debt, at the end of their luck after a string of deals that saw their soul claimed by their mistress.

Skill
Compel
Domain
Haven
Resource
Second-hand wedding ring D6 Haven
You get
Hooked blade Kill D6
Pick one
Filigreed revolver Kill D8, Ranged, Expensive
Bailiff's iron cudgel Kill D8, Tiring
Spireblack pipe bombs Kill D6, Ranged, Spread, One-Shot

Core abilities — you get both

The Cost of Doing Business. Consume a resource, roll its die, and set the result aside. On any later roll, before you resolve it, swap that stored die in for an unrolled one. If it's still sitting there at the end of the session, take Fortune stress equal to its value. Banked certainty, bought on credit.

Mutually Assured Destruction. If you die, the wards on your soul detonate: D8 + your current Fortune stress to everyone standing nearby.

What the abilities do

Minor
  • Bank a die for later
  • Explode when you die
  • See behind your own head
  • Sense the nearest wealth
  • Repair anything once
  • Push danger onto someone else
  • Preach to restore yourself
Major
  • Strike an unaware target
  • Beg Incarne to heal an ally
  • Plant a craving in someone
  • Wound onlookers with your finery
  • Read what someone has stolen
  • Build a shrine trade network
Zenith
  • Buy anything you want
  • Dump your debt on someone
  • Pay off the debt and retire

Junk Mage

Core

Core, p. 60 · high-variance artillery

Hooked on unnatural power siphoned off from extradimensional entities, these wizards live precarious existences in search of the next hit.

Skill
Discern
Domain
Occult
Resource
Vial of cursed ink D6 Occult
Pick one
Two old-fashioned pistols Kill D8, Ranged, Loud, One-Shot
Hungry knife Kill D6, Brutal, Bloodbound, Dangerous
Overstuffed coat Mend Supplies D6 + blunderbuss Kill D4, Spread, Point-Blank, One-Shot

Core abilities — you get both

Ravening Knowledge. While your Mind stress is 4 or higher, roll with mastery whenever you attempt to cast a spell. The class explicitly wants you damaged.

Sacrifice. Before you channel, destroy a resource with the Occult domain. Roll its die and add the result to your protection against whatever that magic does to you in return.

What the abilities do

Minor
  • Burn a relic for protection
  • Smell out nearby magic
  • Glitch out of harm’s way
  • Vanish without effort
  • Mend anything in seconds
  • Upgrade a piece of gear
Major
  • Drive a crowd to hedonism
  • Set enemies alight at range
  • Armour yourself in wild air
  • Sense what anyone wants
  • Smell out money and valuables
  • Drown a foe on dry land
Zenith
  • Flood a landmark for the Queen
  • Summon the Red King
  • Imprison anything forever

Vermissian Knight

Core

Core, p. 66 · frontline and route-finder

An armoured traveller along the cursed train network, the Vermissian, with experimental technology and inside knowledge of the system’s inner workings.

Skill
Delve
Domain
Technology
Resource
Spare capacitors and wires D6 Technology
Pick one
Pneumatic hammer Kill D8, Brutal, Loud, Tiring
Scrapsword Kill D6 + magelight rig Delve D6
Steel door shield Kill D6, Block

Core ability

Vermissian Plate. Once per session, consume a Technology or Occult resource to repair or augment the armour. Roll its die and pick one:

· Remove that much stress from Blood, Mind or Echo.
· Inflict that much stress on a delve or an adversary.
· D8+ only Gain any skill or domain for the rest of the session.
· D8+ only +1 Blood protection for the rest of the situation.

What the abilities do

Minor
  • Feed your armour a resource
  • Locate hidden occult sects
  • Track anything, trail or not
  • Fall three storeys unhurt
  • Hold your breath for hours
Major
  • Wield an anti-dragon greatblade
  • Shield and heal your allies
  • Overclock your armour to strike
  • Lead the party through a delve
Zenith
  • Find a unique landmark
  • Leave the party one killing blow
  • Summon the Last Train

Witch

Core

Core, p. 71

Carriers of a blood disease that grants them the ability to cast visceral magicks. Their sorcery hides their true forms: flickering zoetrope horrors.

Skill
Compel
Domain
Occult
Resource
Tattered finery — silk scarf, worn jewellery D6 Haven
Pick one
Sacred blade Kill D6, Bloodbound
Goat's leg carbine Kill D6, Ranged, Reload
Physiker's bag Mend Blood D6

Core abilities — you get both

Crucible. At any time, roll a D6. Equal to or under your current Echo stress: clear that much Echo and roll with mastery on your next action. Over it: add that much Echo stress. A gamble that gets safer the more damaged you already are.

True Form. Whenever you want — and automatically when you suffer Major fallout — you unfold into a flickering, hungry zoetrope horror. Describe it. Mastery on Hunt and Kill; every other check becomes Risky. You revert at the end of the situation.

What the abilities do

Minor
  • Unfold into your true form
  • Read someone’s true feelings
  • Brew healing draughts
  • Spit hardening adhesive
  • Find hidden places of worship
Major
  • Read omens before a delve
  • Choke a foe on their blood
  • Keep a blood-fed familiar
  • Master your true form
  • Claim a predatory building
Zenith
  • Remake the land you die in
  • Resurrect someone perfectly
  • Rule the witches of Hallow

Blightborn

Ways & Means

Ways & Means, p. W12

You are a spore-infected changeling who acts as a walking sensory organ for the Heart. Will you resist or embrace the changes the mycelial network brings?

Skill
Endure
Domain
Wild
Resource
Pouch of euphoric mushrooms D8 Wild
Pick one
Cultivation shears Kill D6, Brutal
Needle-like blade Kill D6, Piercing
And one
Poultices and dried mushrooms Mend Blood/Mind D8
Hardened fungal plating +1 Blood protection

Core abilities — you get both

Colonise. Mark 2 Blood and physically touch someone to infect them with your spores until the end of the situation. Succeed on Endure+Wild and it becomes permanent.

Whisper Network. You can reach anyone carrying your spores, anywhere, at any time. The fungus has no voice — messages arrive as flashes of image and concept, and have to be short.

Menu: biofluorescence for light and better delve connections, plus abilities that scale with how many people you've infected — infected NPCs gain protection for each Major ability you hold.

Crawler

Ways & Means

Ways & Means, p. W18

You firmly believe the Heart is a dungeon made just for you. The Heart is happy to oblige this obsession, littering your path with boons while it deviously moulds you into the perfect dungeoneer - one organ at a time.

Skill
Delve
Domain
Warren
Resource
Small golden idol of a dead god D6 Religion
You get
Envenomed dagger Kill D6, Debilitating + erratic self-made map Delve D6, Unreliable
Pick one
Leather cuirass +1 Blood protection
Shortbow strung with your own hair Kill D6, Ranged, Conduit
Stolen elixir of vitae Mend Blood D6, Potent, Taboo

Core abilities — you get both

Every Tool A Hammer. Once per delve, destroy a resource or piece of equipment to inflict stress on the delve equal to its die value.

Inexplicable Loot. Every time you critically succeed on a Delve or Discern roll, you also turn up hidden treasure — a resource or an item, GM's call — sized by the difficulty of the roll: Standard D4 · Risky D6 · Dangerous D8.

Menu: bottomless pockets that rediscover forgotten resources, +1 to a resistance of your choice (repeatable), and gifting treasure to any creature — beast included — for lasting mastery on Compel with it.

Snail Pilgrim

Ways & Means

Ways & Means, p. W24 · the strangest pick in either book

You are a devout martyr who carries everything you love on your back, literally. Your sacred shell holds an entire haven in primordial stasis as you trudge towards enlightenment.

Skill
Endure
Domain
Haven
Resource
Reliquary-chest of mementos D10 Haven — the largest starting resource in either book
Haven
Name it. A building or two and a small handful of residents.
Deity
Name them — or make finding them the whole pilgrimage.
You get
Bountiful sacks of food and tools Mend Supplies D6
Pick one
Pilgrim's staff Kill or Delve D6, Trusty
Oversized revolver Kill D8, Ranged, Loud, Double-Barrelled
Undersized revolver Kill D4, Point-blank, One-Shot

Core abilities — you get all of these

Pilgrim Shell. +1 Blood protection. Once per session, withdraw inside and dodge one instance of fallout entirely — but every die you roll drops one step for the rest of the session, or until you take the shell off.

Remove Shell. Pour out the slime and sacrifice a resource to grow your haven back. It takes 12 hours minus the resource's die size, and needs physical room — Desolate regions have it, Warrens and Cursed places almost never do. Once manifest, it's a working haven with haunts and rest.

Your residents take the hit. While shelled, if a fallout roll comes up exactly equal to your current stress, it lands on one of your residents or a haunt instead of you — and you lose access to their skills until it's cured. Major fallout hits all of them at once.

Witness

Ways & Means

Ways & Means, p. W30 · the only true support class

You are a bardic performer and chronicler obsessed with the antics of other delvers. You know this story isn’t about you, but with arcane instruments and emotive songs you’re going to help weave a tale that will endure through the ages.

Skill
Compel
Domain
Haven
Resource
The last decent song you wrote D8 Haven
You get
A portable instrument, a means of recording what you've seen, and a knife Kill D6, Unreliable
Pick one
Goatskin drum and bone sticks Kill D6, Delve D6, Loud
Unremarkable sword with a great destiny Kill D6, Brutal, Conduit
Bag of narcotics Mend Blood/Mind D6 + spurious travel journals Delve D6, Unreliable

Core abilities — you get both

Inspirational. At the start of each session, pick a skill or domain you possess, or a resistance you have protection in. Every other player character standing near you gains it. You get bored easily, so you can't pick the same one two sessions running.

Observer. When you watch another delver hit one of their beats, take an effect scaled to its size. Minor clear D6 stress, or mastery on your next action, or shift your next stress die a step. Major clear D10 or a whole fallout, or mastery for the situation, or shift two steps. Zenith clear everything, or gain a skill or domain permanently. Take two effects if you helped them get there and suffered fallout doing it.

Observer rewards this player for paying attention to everyone else's arcs. Give it to whoever already does that.