Bloodrot | Fantasy Hazard Generated by CharGen

The hazard

Bloodrot is a necromantic engine that turns living circulation against its owner. Its pulse enters the bloodstream as a chill, sour ache, then steadily weakens the victim's ability to resist. The hazard is most dangerous when intruders linger: each round its rhythm grows more insistent, and the basin seems to drink the color from the room.

complex
magical
necromantic

Stealth: (expert) to notice the basin's pulse and moving blood-threads before entering its area; the basin itself is plainly visible.
Trigger: The hazard activates when a living creature enters within 30 feet of the basin or spills blood within that area.
Disable: Three blood-thread channels connect the basin to the surrounding stonework. Disable each with Thievery or Religion, or destroy it (Hardness 20, 20 HP). A successful Occultism check to counteract the hazard's necromancy disables one channel. Disabling all three ends the hazard. A critical success disables two channels; a critical failure triggers the hazard's pulse immediately.
Initiative: Perception +26
Routine: The hazard pulses once per round. Each living creature in the area that is not already bloodrotted attempts the Fortitude save described in Fortitude Collapse. Each bloodrotted creature in the area takes void damage at the end of its turn and can attempt the listed save to end the effect. The hazard can affect each creature only once per round.
Reset: The hazard resets automatically 1 minute after no living creatures remain in the area. Severed or disabled channels remain disabled until repaired.

Damage

Immunities

critical hits, object immunities, precision damage

Resistances

physical 15, except adamantine

Weaknesses

positive damage 15
severing all three blood-thread channels

Effects

2

Fortitude Collapse
DC 34
A creature in the area when the hazard activates, or that enters the area during its routine, attempts a Fortitude save. On a failure, it takes void damage and becomes bloodrotted. On a critical failure, it takes void damage and becomes bloodrotted. A success halves the damage, and a critical success avoids the damage. A bloodrotted creature takes void damage at the end of each of its turns while it remains in the area. It can attempt a new Fortitude save at the end of each turn, ending the effect on a success. Leaving the area ends the recurring damage, but not the bloodrot; a creature can attempt a Fortitude save once per minute to end the lingering effect.
Borrowed Heartbeat
A creature that fails its save feels its pulse falter and hears a second heartbeat that does not belong to it. Bloodstains nearby crawl toward the affected creature. These are sensory signs, not additional mechanical penalties.

Special rules

Reach of the Pulse.The hazard's pulse reaches every living creature within 30 feet of the basin, including through open doorways. Total cover blocks the pulse. Bloodrot does not spread beyond this range.

Visible Corruption.The first time a creature becomes bloodrotted, its veins darken visibly beneath the skin. This makes the condition apparent to observers but does not reveal how to remove it.

Single Infection.A creature can be bloodrotted by only one Bloodrot hazard at a time. Applying a new bloodrot effect refreshes its duration but does not increase its damage.

Spotting it

Discovery

A successful Perception check notices the blood-thread tendrils moving against gravity or hears the basin's faint, rhythmic thump before the hazard activates.

Perception

+26

Stop it

Signs of dangerRust-red stains climb the walls instead of running down them. · A low, regular thump can be heard through closed doors. · Small animals found near the chamber have pale gums and bloodless wounds.

Countermeasures

A creature adjacent to a visible blood-thread can sever it with a Strike against AC 36. A severed thread has Hardness 20 and 20 HP.
DC 34A successful Thievery check disables one blood-thread channel. Three channels must be disabled to shut down the hazard.
DC 34A successful Religion or Occultism check to counteract the necromantic pulse disables one channel.
Covering the basin and its surrounding channels with an airtight barrier prevents the pulse from reaching creatures beyond it, but does not disable the hazard.
The hazard cannot affect creatures that have no blood or similar vital fluid, at the GM's discretion.

In short

Break the blood circuit, interrupt its pulse with a successful counteract check, or deprive it of living blood.

Its story

What it looks like

A waist-high basin of black iron holds a still pool of dark red fluid.

Why it is here

To weaken living intruders, protect a necromantic sanctum, and preserve a chosen body by siphoning vitality from everyone nearby.

Who made it

Sister Veyra, a royal chirurgeon who tried to preserve her dying queen by binding the blood of an entire battlefield to the throne.

Lore

Bloodrot was designed to make a guarded chamber hostile to anyone living while leaving its dead custodians untouched.

Where it is found

Crypts, battlefield ossuaries, abandoned blood clinics, and sealed royal tombs.

Variants

In a frozen crypt, the pulse travels through ice and can be detected only by placing a hand against the floor.

A battlefield version has several smaller basins. Each one pulses only when a creature carries a weapon used to draw blood.

A royal version spares creatures wearing the sovereign's signet, but transfers their bloodrot to the nearest unmarked living creature.

Plot hooks

The pulse has begun beneath a village infirmary, and the sick are suffering the same bloodrot without ever entering the crypt.

A noble family claims the hazard is the only thing keeping an ancient monarch alive, and asks the party to disable it without killing the ruler.

The basin's blood is drawn from a battlefield where several supposedly dead soldiers have recently vanished from their graves.

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