Advanced rules for Mutations, Gifts, Alchemy & Surgery

Edited five minutes later...
OK. This is embarrassing. I've read these rules over and over again and this question has been bugging me for years. I've only just decided to ask and now five minutes later I have realised the answer. A hero can only carry a single stone from the Alchemist. A hero can carry other wyrdstone items though in addition to a stone such as a wyrdstone pendulum. (This was my mistake.) Any item made out of wyrdstone requires a test. However, if a hero has a stone and a wyrdstone pendulum (or some other combination of items) then the hero only needs to roll once.

Thanks TBMF for being my Rubber Duck.  

Cheers, RL  


Original post:
Hey Stu,

There seems to be a contradiction in the wording regarding heroes carrying a stone. Here is the relevant text from the rules (the highlighting has been added by me).

Corrupted Characters wrote:

No Hero may ever carry more that one stone at a time. Harnessing the power of the stones is always a dangerous undertaking and to represent this, after every battle, each Hero who carried wyrdstone must make a check to see if they have been adversely affected by their exposure to it. Heroes with wyrdstone pendulums or any other items known to be crafted from the stone must make the same check. Only one check is ever required for each Hero.

The first sentence makes it is clear that a hero can only carry a single item made out of wyrdstone. The two references in bold are confusing. The first highlighted text states that a hero must test after EVERY battle when carrying a stone. The second highlighted text states that a hero only needs to check a single time meaning that no further checks will EVER be required.

The last highlighted text does not exist within the original 'Power in the Stones' article which seems to mean that it was a deliberate addition to the rules. Is there a desire to make wyrdstone items less dangerous by changing the rules to only require a hero to test a single time rather than testing again and again after each battle?

I'm looking forward to the answer.