Veil Bleed
Also called: The Bleed, Erosion Symptoms
Definition: The physical and psychological symptoms that progress as Erosion accumulates. Its four stages, Tremor, Flicker, Scarring, and Threshold, each carry worsening mechanical penalties and roleplay cues.
Veil Bleed is the visible, playable manifestation of Erosion: the slow poison that marks a character who has touched the Current too many times. Where Erosion is the number on the sheet, Veil Bleed is what the character experiences and how others see them.
| Erosion | Stage | Symptoms | Mechanical Effect |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1–2 | Tremor | Headaches behind the eyes. Nosebleeds after channeling. Fine tremor in the hands. | None |
| 3–4 | Flicker | Hallucinations at peripheral vision. Shadows that move wrong. Déjà vu. Whispers in mirrors. | −2 dice to Awareness checks |
| 5–6 | Scarring | Memory gaps (not Core Memories: names, conversations, recent days). Emotional blunting. Sense of being watched. | −2 dice to social checks |
| 7+ | Threshold | Significant personality changes. Difficulty separating memory from hallucination. Reflections that don’t match movement. | −3 dice to Awareness AND social checks |
| Full | Break | The Memory burns. Track resets to 0. | Lose one Core Memory permanently |
The roleplay cues are as important as the mechanics. A Veil-Bled character should act differently: describe the symptoms, comment on the wrongness, react to things others don’t see. The system incentivizes treating Erosion as a horror trope, not just a tracked number.
(See the Erosion keyword for the underlying resource and recovery methods.)