The Verdant Curse — Homebrew Conditions

The Verdant Curse (Infection)

The forest wants you. It wants to know you better. It's very patient.

Design Intent: Verdant-Born transformation is tempting. The power is real. The cost — your humanity — arrives slowly and then all at once. Players should genuinely wrestle with whether to fight it or lean in.

Corruption Tokens

Tokens are temporary exposure. They accumulate during play and clear between sessions.

Gaining Tokens

Take Severe damage from a Verdant-Born creature → gain 1 token
Spend an extended rest in heavily corrupted territory → gain 1 token (GM discretion)
Voluntarily accept a token (see Embrace the Wild below)

The Session Check

At the end of each session, roll the Fear die.

Result ≤ your current token count → gain a Transformation Mark (permanent)
Result > your token count → no change; tokens clear
Natural 12 → tokens clear AND gain 1 Hope (the forest releases its grip, for now)

Tokens clear regardless of whether you gain a Mark.

Transformation Marks

Marks are permanent. They represent the Verdant Curse taking root. You cannot remove a Mark without magical intervention tied to the campaign's resolution.

Track marks separately from tokens. Marks determine your Stage.

Stages of Transformation

Stage 1

Touched

1 Mark

A bark patch on the skin. Moss in an old scar. A thorn where hair grows. Flowers that bloom from wounds and don't hurt.

The transformation is small and easy to hide under clothing. Most people won't notice. You notice.

Benefit

You can feel the forest. Once per session, ask the GM one question about your immediate natural surroundings and receive an honest answer (animal movement, hidden paths, whether Verdant-Born are near).

Cost

Animals and Verdant-Born creatures sense what you're becoming. They may react to you differently than the rest of the party — sometimes better, sometimes worse. The GM will telegraph this.

Stage 2

Marked

2–3 Marks

A full forearm plated with bark and petals. Green light in the eyes at dusk. Roots visible beneath the skin of one hand. You can't hide this anymore.

People see it. Some are afraid. Some are curious. Ironhold soldiers are neither.

Benefits

+2 to Instinct rolls in natural environments
Natural weapons — thorns from the fists, bark-hardened forearms (1d6+2 phy, always available)
Sense the general emotional state of nearby plants and trees (afraid? calm? angry?)

Costs

Ironhold soldiers treat you as a potential threat on sight. Roll Presence (Difficulty 14) to avoid immediate hostility at checkpoints or patrols.
Disadvantage on Presence rolls with anyone who fears or hates the Verdant Curse.
Once per session the GM may have the forest call to you — a distraction at the worst moment. Make a Knowledge roll (Difficulty 13) or suffer disadvantage on your next action.

Stage 3

Turning

4–5 Marks

Half your body has changed. One arm is fully wood and vine. Flowers grow from your shoulders. A root threads through your left leg and blooms at your knee. You are beautiful and wrong.

You can no longer pass as uninfected. The Verdant-Born do not attack you unprovoked — they recognize something in you.

Benefits

You can speak to plants — impressions, images, directions. Old trees remember things.
Detect all Verdant-Born within Far range passively (no roll required).
Natural weapons upgrade: 1d10+2 phy. Once per encounter: attack at Very Close range with thorny vines, Difficulty 13, 1d8 phy, target Restrained until end of next turn.
Verdant-Born will not attack you unless you attack them first or they are directed to.

Costs

At the start of each session, roll Presence (Difficulty 15). On a failure, begin the session Distracted — the forest's thoughts are bleeding into yours.
HP maximum reduced by 1.
Mourning Roses no longer remove tokens. Once per session, consuming a Rose lets you roll the Session Check with advantage.

Stage 4

Verdant-Born

6+ Marks

You are of the forest now. You still have your mind. Mostly. The question is how long.

You are extraordinary and terrifying and no longer welcome in most of civilization. The Resistance will take you in. Ironhold will shoot first.

Benefits

All previous stage benefits, plus:
Move freely through difficult natural terrain.
No need to eat or drink if you can spend at least one hour in sunlight or soil.
Once per session: roots burst from the ground — all enemies within Close range make Agility (Difficulty 14) or become Restrained and take 1d8+4 phy. Does not cost an action.
Immune to Verdant Corruption tokens. You are the corruption.

Costs

At the start of each session, roll the Fear die. If the result ≤ your total Mark count, you lose a Bond with another PC. When all Bonds are severed, your character becomes an NPC.
Cannot benefit from Long Rests in cities, buildings, or enclosed spaces. Must rest in natural environments.
Ironhold's kill-on-sight directive applies to you.

Embrace the Wild (Optional — Player Choice)

Players may voluntarily accept Corruption tokens in exchange for early access to transformation benefits. This is a choice, not a trigger.

Tokens Voluntarily Held	Benefit
1	Advantage on Instinct in natural environments
2	Natural weapons (thorns/bark, 1d6 phy)
3	Detect Verdant-Born within Far range
4+	Stage 2 visual transformation begins

The cost: These tokens still trigger the Session Check. You are choosing to play with fire.

Cure

1 Mourning Rose: Removes 1 token. At Stage 1–2 only: also removes 1 Mark if consumed immediately after gaining it (within the same session).
Mourning Roses at Stage 3+: No longer remove Marks. Advantage on the next Session Check only.
True cure: Restoring both of Sylora's Eyes (campaign resolution, Path 3). Reverses all Marks entirely for anyone who chooses it. The choice is theirs — some may not want to go back.

✦

Ashlung (Disease)

First the cough. Then the dust. Then the stone.

Design Intent: Ashlung has no power. No benefit. No temptation. It is a countdown, and the only question is whether you find the cure before it finds you. It should feel like desperation — the same desperation that drove Ironhold to invade in the first place.

Contraction

Ashlung is not casually transmitted. A character contracts it through:

Prolonged close contact with a late-stage carrier (Stage 3+) over multiple days
GM-determined exposure events (specific encounters, campaign moments)
Being a Havenite ancestry (may begin play at Stage 1 — discuss with GM at character creation)

Stone Marks

Ashlung uses a separate track called Stone Marks (distinct from Verdant Corruption Marks). Track them separately.

The Session Check

At the end of each session in which a character has Ashlung, roll the Fear die.

Result ≤ the threshold for your current stage → gain 1 Stone Mark, advance toward next stage
Result > the threshold → no change this session

Stone Marks do not clear between sessions. They accumulate until cured.

Stages of Ashlung

Stage 1

Grey Cough

1 Stone Mark · Advance on Fear die result 1–3

A dry cough that produces a faint grey dust. It comes and goes. Easy to explain away. Hard to ignore.

Mechanical Effect

Once per session, at a dramatically inopportune moment (GM's choice), you suffer a coughing fit — disadvantage on one roll of the GM's choosing.

Stage 2

Stone Patches

2 Stone Marks · Advance on Fear die result 1–4

Grey patches hardening on the skin — usually fingers first, then hands, then forearms. It's visible now. People step back.

Mechanical Effects

–1 to all Agility rolls (joints stiffening)
Disadvantage on Presence rolls in social situations where your condition is visible
The coughing fit (Stage 1 effect) persists

Stage 3

The Spreading

3 Stone Marks · Advance on Fear die result 1–5

One limb has gone mostly stone. You can feel the weight of it. The cold of it. You have weeks, maybe less.

Mechanical Effects

The affected limb cannot be used for fine manipulation (writing, lockpicking, sleight of hand)
–1 to Agility, –1 to Strength
Stress maximum reduced by 1 (breathing is harder)
The coughing fit effect persists

Partial reversal: 2 Mourning Roses administered carefully (a long rest, proper preparation) can reduce to Stage 2. The cure threshold rises from here.

Stage 4

Encroaching

4 Stone Marks · Advance on Fear die result 1–8

Stone at your torso. Your breathing is labored. Grey pallor across your face. You are running out of time and everyone in the room knows it.

Mechanical Effects

Cannot sprint
–2 to Agility, –1 to Strength
Cannot benefit from more than one Short Rest per session
At the start of any session without a Mourning Rose, mark 1 Stress that cannot be cleared until you have one

The disease accelerates sharply at this stage.

Stage 5

Terminal

Days remaining — measured in scenes, not sessions

Days. You have days. The stone has reached your heart. You can feel it slowing.

This stage is a conversation between GM and player. The character is not dead — but they are dying.

Mechanical Effects

All rolls made at disadvantage
Cannot benefit from any rest

Last resort: Three fresh Mourning Roses, properly administered, can still pull someone back from Terminal — but only with immediate action.

Cure

1 Mourning Rose: Skip the next Session Check entirely. Buys time — does not reverse progress.
2 Mourning Roses (Stage 3 only): Reverse one stage.
3 fresh Mourning Roses during a proper Long Rest: Full cure. All Stone Marks removed. Return to Stage 0.

Mourning Roses are rare (1 crimson bloom per ~10,000 white), grow only in Verdanya, and Ironhold controls the fields at Fort Ashvale. The supply is exactly as available as Ironhold wants it to be.

Special: Can You Have Both?

Yes. A character can carry both Ashlung and Verdant Corruption simultaneously. This is uncommon but not impossible.

The rumor (unconfirmed in-world): Late-stage Verdant-Born transformation seems to slow Ashlung progression.

This is mechanically true: a character at Verdant Stage 3 or higher rolls the Ashlung Session Check with disadvantage — meaning they are less likely to advance. The forest and the stone are at war inside them.

Whether that tradeoff is worth it is exactly the kind of question this campaign is built on.

Quick Reference

Verdant Curse

Stage	Marks	Visible?	Benefit	Cost
Touched	1	Hideable	Sense surroundings 1/session	Animals react differently
Marked	2–3	Obvious	+2 Instinct (nature), natural weapons 1d6+2	Ironhold hostile on sight, Presence disadvantage
Turning	4–5	Undeniable	Speak to plants, detect Verdant-Born, weapons 1d10+2	Presence DC 15 each session or Distracted; –1 HP max; Roses only delay
Verdant-Born	6+	Transformative	All prior + free natural terrain, burst roots 1/session	Lose a Bond on failed check; no indoor rest; kill-on-sight

Session check: Roll Fear die. Result ≤ tokens → gain a Mark. | Cure: Rose removes 1 token (or 1 Mark if same session, Stage 1–2 only). Full cure = Path 3.

Ashlung

Stage	Stone Marks	Threshold	Key Effect
Grey Cough	1	Advance on 1–3	GM-triggered coughing fit once/session
Stone Patches	2	Advance on 1–4	–1 Agility, Presence disadvantage (visible)
The Spreading	3	Advance on 1–5	Affected limb unusable, –1 Agility/–1 Strength, –1 Stress max
Encroaching	4	Advance on 1–8	No sprint, –2 Agility/–1 Strength, 1 Short Rest max/session
Terminal	5+	—	All rolls disadvantage, no rests, days remaining

Cure: 1 Rose = skip next check. 2 Roses = reverse Stage 3→2. 3 Roses + Long Rest = full cure. | Special: Verdant Stage 3+ causes Ashlung check at disadvantage.