Cadaverpeople and Disciplines

[Uli]

Are old cadaverpeople who regained their sentience and most of their sanity able to use their former disciplines? Undeath/becoming a horror construct has surely a huge impact on its victims' pattern, so I am not sure. Twiceborn is the only elder cadaverperson who comes to my mind and she does not have any talents, does she?

[Slimcreeper]

There is a troll cadaverwoman in the adventure _Infected_ who retains her sentience. She lost all of her discipline abilities.

On the other hand there is a dwarf who becomes a Shadow (or something like that) in the adventure . . . _Shattered Pattern_? He remained a scout. So it depends on the type of horror construct and the needs of the GM.

[Uli]

In that case, I need them to do discipline stuff. Thanks!

[Telarus_KSC]

Yup. Check out the Horror Powers in ED3- Game Master's Guide. p.270, "Animate Dead" creates Cadaver Men. p.277 "Unnatural Life" creates undead servants that retain their memories and talents from their life.

[Rogan Rubyeye]

According to the 1st ED opponent entry, cadaver men were created from those who committed suicide - IE: the characters actually died and are then "resurrected" to endure the unending torments and pain. Dying removes the magical energies that were tied to the living pattern of the character - pretty much similar to being reNamed - IE: the pattern is no longer the same and thus magical abilities such as talents are lost.

As mentioned in the posts above, there is a case of this in the Infected adventure, Abakule the troll adept if memory serves me correctly. Her spirit has been captured and imprisoned into her corpse by Moltaa the nethermancer (by using a certain magical item). thus even though the character retains her memories and personality (to some degree) she doesn't retain her Discipline abilities as the magic is no longer attached to her pattern, it having undergone a drastic shift.

Another case to reference about this would be the 1st ED scenario Dead Man's Hand from Parlainth Adventures which also has a similar encounter with cadaver men/adepts.

The case of the altered Scout adept from the Shattered Pattern scenario is different in that the character underwent nethermantic rituals to alter their physical "living" forms and thus retained their Discipline abilities as they adapted their patterns. thus the character is not undead or a cadaver man.

[Uli]

Great research. In my adventure, I am stealing the basic Parlainth concept (an isolated kaer which has been corrupted by Garmeks) for my Scytha/Nebis campaign. I think I will handle it like this: The cadaver dwarves needed to relearn their talents over time just like they tried to reclaim their memories and culture. Maybe they are unable to increase their ranks above their former levels, because their pattern are now crooked. Considering they have been locked up for around 700 years, they all should have reclaimed their original abilites.