Lore

Lore represents the knowledge of the occult, fae, magic, and the healing arts; while scholarship covers the book learning (languages, history, and science). There is a great deal of overlap between these skill, when in doubt Scholarship covers the “hard” sciences, while lore covers the “soft”.

Lore is used to research all things related to the arcane, divine, and infernal. Whether related to researching a new spell, recipe for a new potion, or the weakness to a monster - Lore is the skill to use. When a library (workspace) is needed the quality of the library restricts the character's Lore skill.

Even a character with no power skills, nor an aspect making them available, can perform a ritual given the proper text and materials. These rituals are fixed what they draw their power from (elemental, divine, infernal, fae, etc.) and what they can do with that power. Using a common ritual is very dangerous and many of these call forth the entity's power, but provide no method to control or contain that power.

This the heightened awareness of someone to the supernatural world - basically anything the comes from outside the current world. Thus a sprite in the fae lands would use this skill to notice the passage of a mortal in their realm and vice versa. This cannot be used to notice the effect of a creature of that world upon that world - only outsiders.

A character can provide basic first aid during a scene - it takes an exchange for both the healer and the patient. A skill check against a Mediocre(+0) clear a stress box equal to half of the shifts rolled. As an example Rudolf Lore(+3) rolls a +0 to give Yolanda first aid - she can clear her 2 physical stress box. A subject cannot receive more than one attempt per exchange.

Treating long-term injuries (consequences) requires a proper workspace or at least access to the proper materials (herbs, poultices, “healer's kit”) and must target a specific consequence. This takes both the healer and the patient from a full scene. Upon a successful roll the time required to recover from the consequence is reduce by 1 step on the Time Increments Table, plus 1 step for each point of spin generated. Multiple attempts are not allowed.

Like Scholarship, Lore can be used to make simple declarations using the same rules. The caveat is that all declarations must relate to a subject covered under lore, it cannot be academic in nature.

Lore acts as the knowledge allowing you to identify herbs and plants in your vicinity and their various properties and make assessments and declarations. It functions exactly like the Herbalism trapping in the Nature power skill.

Lore allows you to concoct poisons. Poisons have two “skills”, Potency, and Subtlety, rated on the ladder. Potency is the effectiveness, opposed by the target's Endurance, while Subtlety is the difficulty to detect or analyze it using Alchemy, Alertness, Investigation, or Lore. Finally any poison must have an application, such as inhalation, ingestion, contact, or injection.

Creating a poison involves rolling against a base target of Mediocre(+0); although this may be adjusted up if working with inferior materials. The maximum number of shifts gained is the quality of the workshop that you are using to craft the poison. A poison starts with Mediocre(+0) in Potency and Subtlety, with each shift granting a +1 in the “skill” of your choice. The default brewing time is one scene, but you can increase the brewing time (up to your Craftsman skill) on the Time Chart for a further +1 shift per increase.

A damaging poison attacks the target's Endurance using its potency. A poison attacks at the top of the initiative chart before anyone else acts and lasts for the scene, unless the character can stop the poison through magic, a stunt, medical treatment, or vomiting if appropriate. Slow damaging poisons are rolled only once per scene against a target's Endurance causing an automatic consequence if it gets spin.

Exotic poisons place aspects directly upon the target like maneuvers. The duration depends on the poison, but typically last 1 Time Increment per shift on the attack.

Special poisons are those that do not attack the target directly, but instead motivate the plot. The effects by fiat, bypassing Endurance or Potency rolls altogether.

Given access to the proper workshop Lore can answer all manner of questions, given the time and materials. This functions just like the Scholarship's Research trapping. the quality of the laboratory limits the research and the base difficulty is Mediocre(+0) with shifts gained giving more information or quicker research. A higher difficulty can be used to do research on more difficult subjects. The limitation is that each question asked must relate to something covered by Lore - not Scholarship. Long running, or very difficult, questions can have their own stress track with each consequence caused giving more information.