Things Unseen

(Beast of Burden)
CONTENTS
CHAPTER I. Once upon a time 3

CHAPTER II. To be, or not to be 5

CHAPTER III. Time is the fire in which we burn 6

CHAPTER IV. Remember you are dust 7

CHAPTER V. And when this dust falls to the urn 10

CHAPTER VI. Now, what do you do? 11

 CHAPTER I
Once upon a time
“Once upon a time, in lands faraway and long forgotten, there were kings and queens, heroes and
princesses, beasts and monsters. The monsters would plague the people of the lands, and the heroes went
out to kill it. They would, then, be rewarded by the kings and win the heart of the fair maidens – the
princesses. And the people would tell each other of the heroes’ epic journeys for generations and
generations.

Now even the stories are forgotten. No hero, no monster, no king, no queen, no princess remains. If they
ever exist, they must be somewhere far beyond the horizon. Speaking of horizon, no one has ever been
there either. Been there and returned. What kind of people live there? Are there kings and queens? Heroes
and monsters? We cannot see past the thick of forest that surrounds our village. We know there are
beasts there in the forest. They know we live here. As long as they don’t trespass our land, we won’t trouble
them. And as long as we don’t invade their forest, they will leave us alone.”

You have heard that countless times from the adults. Ever since you were little. They keep telling you that
you should stay here and work hard to get enough food to survive the winter. You work hard like they say.
Sometimes there are outsiders who come by, to collect tax or to buy some of your goods to sell to other
villages and towns. Some others stop for a night, on their way to somewhere else, toss a story to the
hungry children, and disappear into the forest in the morning. They never come back to your village.

You have never left this place. Or, for that matter, this time. None of the villagers have. And none of the
outsiders’ stories stay for too long. They are exciting and full of promises and hopes. But they are stories.
Fictions. They won’t keep your belly full in the winter. In fact, even the stories themselves never survive
long enough to see the spring. Scarcely do outsiders arrive in the harsh winter, and the few who come
would be too grumpy and tired and desperate to tell stories. They would curl themselves up in their own
corner, plan for the journey ahead, then sleep their exhaustion away. Then leave their warm bed and blend
into the mist of oblivion the day after. No child remembers any story when the spring comes.

You’ve seen the occasional travellers come and go. You see how cheerful and energetic and alive they can
be. But mostly how scarred and traumatic and exhausted they are. They’ve told you stories. The stories
that no adult in your village believes. They told you of kings and queens, monsters and heroes. Faraway,
long ago, but they exist. And most importantly, within all those stories, either fictitious or real, you saw a
hint of a calling. Passive maybe, hidden even, but they were there. There was something that dragged all
those travellers out of their bed at night and ventured into the unknown. You never could tell what it was.
Until now. Now you can hear it. Clearly. A calling. The calling. What is it? How does it happen? Does it
really exist? What are you going to do?

Your call. Your choice.

 CHAPTER II
To be, or not to be
When you were little, you used to join your fellows in the little hut of the wandering minstrel, where he told
you stories of beyond your village, your age, and maybe beyond his age too. He told you the story of creation.
You would look at him and, in the dim light of the hut, surrounded by the odd scent of the candles, you saw
it.

In the beginning, there was silence.

And out of the silence came the sound. The sound is not here.

CHARACTER CREATION!!!!
 CHAPTER III
Time is the fire in which we burn
Rules of time, dice rolling and stuff
 CHAPTER IV
Remember you are dust
Element

Once man realises that he has a source of power, Motivation, and a means to exert his will, Instrument,
he then materialises, and 5 divine elements precipitate and turn into profane flesh of man. He is born and
reborn with his breath, protected by his flesh, and carries with him the sacred origin in his blood. Numbed
by the flesh, man can thus only feel the world through heartbeat in his wake, and through dream when
he sleeps.

Flesh

All travellers start the journey with 1 Flesh. Throughout the journey into the unknown, a traveller has to
overcome countless obstacles, and rarely can anyone get out of those challenges unscathed. Most of the
pain and shock one suffers during the journey aren’t severe injuries, resulting in simple bruises or scratches,
represented by the damage in the Flesh. However, they slowly wear down the traveller, and when her Flesh
pool runs out, she is wounded, and can hardly venture forward. A wounded traveller needs 2 breaths –
instead of 1 – to act, has her exhaustion level raised by 1 until she recovers her 1 flesh point, and risks
losing ember if she takes another wound, which, in turn, can potentially result in death.

Breath

A traveller starts his day with a pool of 5 Breath points. During the travel, to perform any strenuous
manoeuvre, such as making an attack, scouting, or climbing, one loses 1 Breath point to activate it, and
each subsequent breath spent adds 1P to the roll. When out of breath, a creature can choose to take a
breath. If a creature cannot breathe, for instance while being strangled, or under water (for terrestrial
animals), it loses 1 breath whenever time moves forward (called MOMENT???), either in the time pool or
in round. In those cases, they can hold their breath for 1 rounds when out of breath, after which they
fall unconscious.

Most activities that require a die roll cost breath. Should one needs to make a roll when out of breath, as
with opposed rolls, he uses his passive result of the roll.

Blood

Every traveller starts a journey with a Blood Die of d12. It can be used anytime during the journey as a
bonus to tests, replacing any other source of Progress Die; each use shrinks the die by 1 step. For example,
a traveller while climbing a mountain can, instead of using her breath, spend 1 use of her fresh Blood Die
to add a d12 to the roll, which reduces the Blood Die to d10. On the other hand, you can use other
creatures' blood to aid you in your attempt. When you kill another creature, you can immediately use that
creature’s blood to fuel your move. Choose how much blood you want to use, from d4 to d12, and use it
immediately. Each time you choose to do so, you gain 1 nightmare. Finally, you can lend your blood to
another person, in a manner similar to using breath. Each point of blood used to help another concurrently
reduces your blood die and increases the other's progress die by 1. Your Blood Die increases by 1 when you
take a wound.

Heartbeat

Your initial maximum heartbeat is equal to the total burden you carry. This maximum heartbeat can
change during the journey. After a strenuous event, make an Ember (Heart) test against TN 15, and
raise 1 maximum heartbeat with a failure. When one is out of breath, one can keep on fighting without
catching breath. Doing so risks being suffocated, yet avoids suffering the negative effect of breath
catching. When a traveller is out of breath, her heartbeat will increase by 1 every round until it reaches
the maximum value, at the moment of which she can use her blood die without losing it once per turn. The
process is reset when the traveller regains breath. When 2 or more people have the same heartbeat, or
while they all are at their maximum heartbeat, they can use the higher blood die amongst them. When the
encounter ends, the heartbeat is again at zero.

Teamwork? Also encumbrance? Like you have to strip off all earthly burden to become one? To overcome
challenges? Or someone has to take on more burden to be as encumbered as others?

Nightmare

Nightmare takes the form of a pool of d6s. Nightmare, as the name suggests, is the fear that haunts the
travellers at night. Whenever a traveller resorts to violence to resolve a conflict, more specifically, when a
person uses the blood of a creature he has just killed to fuel his action, he gains one nightmare. At the
end of the day, when a traveller goes to sleep, she gathers a number of dice equal to her nightmare pool
and rolls them all. If a 6 comes up, the nightmare overwhelms her sleep, and she is unable to benefit from
it. At any time during the journey, a traveller can choose to evoke the nightmare. When any traveller
chooses so, all characters gather their nightmare pools and roll them all together. The evocation has 2
consequences. Firstly, all characters no longer have nightmare. Secondly, if the team is trying to solve a
conflict, be it a combat, a climbing, or a social conflict, it is immediately and thoroughly resolved. Count
the number of 3s and 4s that appear as the result of the evocation. If the number of 3s is higher than
the number of 4s, the conflict is resolved in favour of the team, with no negative consequence. If there are
more 4s than 3s, the conflict is still resolved in favour of the team, with 1 person in the team dead. The
players choose who the unfortunate person is. Finally, if there is the same number of 4s and 3s, or if there
is no 3 and 4 at all in the roll, the whole team dies. There is no more that can be done in the game. Also
if you run away from something you will gain nightmare. Whenever your heartbeat reaches max you gain
nightmare.
 CHAPTER V
And when this dust falls to the urn
DEATH!!!!
 CHAPTER VI
Now, what do you do?