Hypothermia
You ever been so cold you felt warm? You ever been so cold you lost all sense of time, all situational awareness. So cold nothing hurts anymore, so cold you start seeing things, start losing cognitive understanding of reality and imagination? Aye the cold is less violently aggressive then heat. But that only makes it more dangerous, cause it isn't obvious. Its creeping, insidious and once it starts its very hard ta stop.
Military survival expert educating new recruits on the dangers of the tundra, in Suranth.
Hypothermia. The word will send shivers up the spine of any Suranthi, especially those serving in the military. It is a well known risk and foe, but one you can't face, cannot fight with shot or steel. But it is absolutely deadly and dangerous. Near no one in the Tundra Realms can go through life without having someone they know or are directly related to suffering from hypothermia at some point in their lives. It is an ever present threat and danger in these lands, one that you cannot lower your guard against.
Transmission & Vectors
Hypothermia is a condition caused by unprotected exposure to extreme cold. Now this definition whilst sounding succinct and easy enough to follow, is actually quite vague. The issue is that it does not mean acute exposure. You can start experiencing hypothermia at any temperature where water freezes, if you don't prepare and protect yourself adequately. The Suranthi as a people deal with this the most, it is perhaps the most common 'illness' in the country. Its severity does vary, and in many cases it isn't lethal. However it is so common, and can happen so easily, it is one of those things that from a young age parents teach their kids and preach to their kids about.
Causes
Unprotected overexposure to the cold.
Symptoms
Hypothermia has many symptoms. Obviously the extreme cold and uncontrolled shivering is one of the first signs, as is loss of feeling in any extremities. But this in and of itself is not when the danger truly begins, this in fact is rather normal to the Suranthi peoples. The danger begins when it starts to effect your motor control and brain function negatively. At this point you will begin to lose basic cognitive awareness of your surroundings to some level, you will begin to feel next to nothing, the cold will suddenly just start to fade. You might even begin to think you're overheating! This is a dangerous alarm bell, as you start to lose cognitive function, you start to misinterpret your own body and communications. This is what leads people to do wild things like wander off into a blizzard barefoot and shirtless, as an example.
In game mechanic terms, how this illness works is simple. If you are over exposed to cold, (dressed inappropriately, the temperatures have hit bonechilling levels, an ice storm, are wandering about soaked in negative temperatures, fall through ice and into water, etc) and don't do something to counteract the cold exposure, after TB minutes, you make a Endurance Test at Disadvantage. Should you pass, you are fine, but will have to make such a test every TB minutes the exposure continues. Should you fail, you develop hypothermia. Once this happens, the first thing that happens, is immediate fatigue. Gain Fatigued conditions equal to your degrees of failure. These cannot be recovered by any means until you are somehow warmed up. With this comes the sluggishness of muscular responses. Gain Slow Condition as well, also cannot be recovered until you are warmed up. Every minute you take Damage equal to your Fatigued+Slow Conditions, ignoring Armor Points, to a minimum of 1 damage. Once you hit zero Wounds, the real fun begins. Instead of ordinary criticals, every time you take damage from this, you must roll two Toughness Tests at Disadvantage and one Willpower Test at Disadvantage. The first Toughness Test is against gaining a Frostbite injury to a random extremity. Severity of the frostbite is decided by your degrees of failure. The second Toughness Test is simply a pass or fail. If you fail, you gain the Unconscious Condition, and barring someone rescuing you, you are likely to die of exposure.
The Willpower test is against arguably the most dangerous symptom. Should you fail, see the table below. Each failure moves you one more rank further down the table.
In game mechanic terms, how this illness works is simple. If you are over exposed to cold, (dressed inappropriately, the temperatures have hit bonechilling levels, an ice storm, are wandering about soaked in negative temperatures, fall through ice and into water, etc) and don't do something to counteract the cold exposure, after TB minutes, you make a Endurance Test at Disadvantage. Should you pass, you are fine, but will have to make such a test every TB minutes the exposure continues. Should you fail, you develop hypothermia. Once this happens, the first thing that happens, is immediate fatigue. Gain Fatigued conditions equal to your degrees of failure. These cannot be recovered by any means until you are somehow warmed up. With this comes the sluggishness of muscular responses. Gain Slow Condition as well, also cannot be recovered until you are warmed up. Every minute you take Damage equal to your Fatigued+Slow Conditions, ignoring Armor Points, to a minimum of 1 damage. Once you hit zero Wounds, the real fun begins. Instead of ordinary criticals, every time you take damage from this, you must roll two Toughness Tests at Disadvantage and one Willpower Test at Disadvantage. The first Toughness Test is against gaining a Frostbite injury to a random extremity. Severity of the frostbite is decided by your degrees of failure. The second Toughness Test is simply a pass or fail. If you fail, you gain the Unconscious Condition, and barring someone rescuing you, you are likely to die of exposure.
The Willpower test is against arguably the most dangerous symptom. Should you fail, see the table below. Each failure moves you one more rank further down the table.
| Stage of cognitive failure | Effects |
|---|---|
| 0 | The baseline, simply works as above, no additonal negatives yet. |
| 1 | Overexposure, Minor: -10 to all Initiative, Intelligence, Dexterity, Willpower and Fellowship tests and associated Skill Tests |
| 2 | Minor Confusion: Every time you wish to do something, your character must pass a Intelligence Test with Advantage or they instead act contrary to what you were hoping for (if trying to move towards somewhere they thought shelter was, they stumble, lose their bearings and move the wrong way, or trip and fall prone, or something of that nature.) all while believing they are doing the right thing. |
| 3 | Loss of Sensation, minor: You must pass a Heal or Outdoor Survival test, with Advantage, every minute, to stay aware you are actively in danger of freezing to death. Elsewise you begin to feel 'fine' and believe you are in no danger, even as continuing to suffer damage and danger. |
| 4 | Overexposure: -20 to all Initiative, Intelligence, Dexterity, Willpower and Fellowship tests and associated Skill Tests. | 5 | Confusion: Every time you wish to do something you must pass an Intelligence Test, or act contrary to what you were trying to do. |
| 6 | Loss of Sensation: You must pass a Heal or Outdoor Survival test every minute, to stay aware you are actively in danger of freezing to death. Elsewise you begin to feel 'fine' and believe you are in no danger, even as continuing to suffer damage and danger. | 7 | Overexposure, Major: -30 to all Initiative, Intelligence, Dexterity, Willpower and Fellowship tests and associated Skill Tests. |
| 8 | Confusion, Major: Every time you wish to do something you must pass an Intelligence Test, at Disadvantage, or act contrary to what you were trying to do. But here is where you become very dangerous. If you fail, you not only do something contrary to what you were trying to do, you also react with violent hostility towards anyone attempting to 'help' you. |
| 9 | Loss of Sensation, Major: You must pass a Heal or Outdoor Survival test at Disadvantage, every minute, to stay aware you are actively in danger of freezing to death. Elsewise you begin to feel 'fine' and believe you are in no danger, even as continuing to suffer damage and danger. Here again is where you become dangerous. Since you believe you are fine, you will react with violent hostility towards anyone claiming to or attempting to 'help' you. |
| 10 | Brain Failure: The cold drives you completely over the edge mad. Make a Willpower Test at Disadvantage. If you fail, you do any number of mad things, for you no longer comprehend or understand the concept of the cold. You don't feel anything anymore. You lie down in the freezing cold and just decide to 'have a nap' because you are tired. You strip naked and wander into the raging blizzard never to be seen again because you feel like you are overheating, even though you are freezing to death. Whatever it is, it is something that inevitably kills you from exposure. You are dead. Burn a Fate Point if you wish to stay alive. |
Treatment
Hypothermia, though easy to begin experiencing, is also relatively easily treated. Simply put, get out of the cold, and get warm! A big fire, many layers of blankets, hot food, all these things will help over time. But it does take time. It takes hours equal to your Toughness Bonus of doing any or all these mentioned activities to remove the Fatigued and Slow conditions. Furthermore, for every Frostbite injury you have acquired, add another hour/point of severity AND you must treat the injury as is needed based on severity. You also add another hour for every rank down the Stage of Cognitive Failure table you are. In order of priority for recovery you recover the Cognitive Failure Table first, moving up the table one rank every hour. Then you begin recovering the hours floating due to Frostbite injuries, and then finally you begin removing Fatigued and Slow Conditions, alternating between them every hour.
Prognosis
So long as you weren't alone, isolated, or abandoned, you likely survive your brushes with hypothermia. However it is common enough that though the lethality of the illness itself is low by percentage, it kills and/or cripples or maims more than its fair share of folk in the Tundra Realms every year.
Sequela
At the end of recovery however, you must roll a Willpower Test at Disadvantage. Should you fail you develop a Trauma or Phobia psychology based on the cold and your unique hypothermia experience. Maybe its a phobia of frozen surfaces, if you plunged through ice for your near death experience. Maybe its a trauma related to Frostbite injuries if you lost fingers or toes to such injuries. Whatever it is, it is permanent.
Affected Groups
Everyone. No one is immune to this, it is indiscriminate of race, social standing, or gender. It simply does not matter.
Hosts & Carriers
Not applicable as this is not passed between people.
Prevention
Simply put, don't be unprepared. Bundle up, avoid being outside in cold snaps or blizzards as best you can. If you must travel in the winter, travel with fuel to start a fire, and bring extra blankets and clothes. Most importantly never travel alone!
History
Hypothermia is the ghost in the wind of Suranth, near every community here has stories of this neighbor or that fellow whom died of from exposure. Its a relatively common place issue.
Cultural Reception
Though the condition itself is feared heavily, since it is known not to be contagious, it is treated with compassion and even bravery. Communities will rally together to try and find missing members if a storm hits, hoping that against all odds, they are somehow still alive and saveable. They will come together and tear the nearby countryside apart seeking their missing neighbor, and will rally as a group to try and help them recover, is they are found alive and can be saved.
Origin
Natural
Cycle
Short-term
Rarity
Uncommon
Affected Species
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