Unconscious

You drift off to sleep, feeling the sweet embrace of unconsciousness take you, your body thankful for the coming rest.

Causes

This condition is unique in that it can be inflicted by trauma, but it is also a state most creatures (elves are an exception, others exist, such as the restless dead) enter willingly for a few hours ever full day. Sleeping in effect is being unconscious in its own way. As such this isn't always a negative condition so much as it is contextual, the main influence as to this condition is the explanation of how one ended up unconscious.

Symptoms

Adventures in Valerick: A Unconscious creature, regardless of how they ended up in such a state, take a -4 to Armor Score, Awareness and Agility Defensive Tests. Furthermore they are counted as Blind {3} and Flat-footed as well, losing their Agility Boost to armor score along with the -4 penalty. When you enter this state, you drop all held items and fall prone. (A creature willingly going to sleep would likely set down/put away any held object and lie down willingly before falling asleep.)

So long as you were not brought to this state by Wound Loss and subsequently avoiding death, but by perhaps a sleep based magick effect, or simply by choosing to sleep, you can be awakened in the following ways;

• Taking any amount of damage that does not reduce your Wound total to zero.



• Recieve any healing from a source other than rest (healing magick, someone carefully feeds you a healing potion, etc). This will also wake you from wound loss based unconsciousness.



• Someone wakes you using the interact/aid another action. If you are unconscious due to Wound Loss, this requires a Medical skill roll of TN=10+5/rank of Injured they now have.



• So long as you are sleeping or some similar thing, and are not unconscious due to wound loss, you can be woken by any loud noise. Applying the appropriate penalty from above, you attempt Awareness skill rolls against the TN of any noise or against the Subterfuge skill roll of any creature trying to stay quiet.

Treatment

For one whom has cheated death, whom has come back from the brink, it is suggested to first treat their injuries, as someone whom is injured in a critical sort of fashion is going to be slower to recover, harder to awaken. As noted above for someone whom is sleeping, even if induced magickally, waking them can be quite easy to accomplish, though there are some more powerful effects and magicks that can make this significantly more difficult.

Prognosis

A creature that falls into an unconscious spell that won't break would likely, after some time, perhaps days, perhaps weeks, be deemed dead to the world, deceased, no longer upon this mortal coil. Such a comatose individual simply cannot be properly cared for in most places in Valerick currently. A few exceptions to this rule exist in some the largest cities in the world, but by and large this is how such a thing would be viewed and handled.