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Role: Saboteur, radical advocate, ecological insurgent
Threat Layer: Intentional → Persistent → Political
Design Goal: Non-combat escalation, environmental leverage, moral pressure

Verdanni eco-terrorists are not criminals in their own minds.
They are correct, urgent, and running out of patience.

They don't want to win fights.
They want the land to win eventually.

Core Identity

This template assumes a Verdanni using alchemy, environment, and social leverage as weapons.

Primary Tools:

  • Ecological sabotage

  • Alchemical contamination (non-lethal preferred, lethal accepted)

  • Information warfare

  • Targeted intimidation

Violence is a means, not a preference.

Attributes

Attribute Sum: 10 (exceptional focus, fragile physically)

Attribute Value Justification
Vigor 1 Avoids direct confrontation
Finesse 2 Mobility, placement
Will 2 Ideological conviction
Cunning 3 Planning, foresight
Presence 1 Alien presence
Influence 1 Direct persuasion is blunt
Sorcery — Verdanni alchemy replaces it

This is a thinking threat, not a brawler.

Skills

Eco-terrorists are planners and specialists.

Core Skills

  • Crafting (Alchemy) (Cunning): Apprentice (+4)
  • Nature (Will): Apprentice (+4)
  • Survival (Cunning): Novice (+2)
  • Stealth (Finesse): Novice (+2)
  • Skullduggery (Cunning): Novice (+2)

Optional Skill (pick one):

  • Society (+2)
  • Con (+2)
  • Strategy (+2)
  • Performance (+2)

Untrained skills: +0

Fixed Action Benchmarks

Eco-terrorists rely on setup, not rolls.

  • Sabotaging infrastructure (mills, canals, roads)
    12.5 + Cunning 3 + Crafting 4 ≈ 19.5
    → Treat as 18–20, depending on preparation

  • Creating environmental hazards (tainted water, blight zones)
    12.5 + Will 2 + Nature 4 ≈ 18.5
    → 18

  • Avoiding detection in wilderness or ruins (Stealth)
    12.5 + Finesse 2 + Stealth 2 ≈ 16.5
    → 16, higher in Verdanni-tended land

  • Convincing locals the land is angry (Society or Performance)
    → 14–16, context dependent

Equipment

  • Alchemical reagents and dispersal tools

  • Verdanni growth-craft implements

  • Maps, journals, seed caches

  • Local disguises or cult-like markings

Their tools leave signatures, not fingerprints.

Health

Uses standard PC wound rules.

Eco-terrorists:

  • Flee immediately if discovered

  • Sacrifice assets, not lives

  • Escalate indirectly after losses

Killing one rarely ends the problem.

Behavioral Doctrine

Default Posture

  • Observant

  • Withdrawn

  • Patient

They watch systems, not people.

Conflict Behavior

  • Avoid direct confrontation

  • Trigger consequences, then disappear

  • Let others fight over the fallout

They win when the PCs are blamed.

Disengage Triggers

  • Direct exposure

  • Loss of anonymity

  • Compromised network

  • Land visibly damaged beyond tolerance

They retreat to re-seed, not regroup.

What Verdanni Eco-Terrorists Punish

  • Industrial exploitation

  • Resource extraction

  • River control

  • Imperial "efficiency"

Punishment is slow, public, and deniable.

What They Reward

  • Sustainable behavior

  • Protection of old growth

  • Non-interference

  • Respect for natural cycles

They are capable of alliance, but never submission.

Escalation Pattern (Very Important)

  1. Warnings and signs

  2. Sabotage and disruption

  3. Public consequences

  4. Political destabilization

  5. Regional collapse or withdrawal

Each stage is survivable.
Ignoring them makes the next one worse.

Template Morphs

This is where the design pays off.

Fluvarri Activist (Spirit-Driven Variant)

Changes:

  • Swap Crafting (Alchemy) → Folklore or Performance

  • Replace sabotage with spirit agitation

  • Hazards are social or supernatural

  • Regard shifts instead of physical damage

Threat Profile:
Community pressure, haunting rumors, loss of legitimacy

They don't poison rivers.
They make rivers refuse cooperation.

Kampanni Rebel (Technological Variant)

Changes:

  • Swap Nature → Hermetics or Crafting (Devices)

  • Add Strategy (+2)

  • Hazards are mechanical or logistical

  • Focus on precision strikes

Threat Profile:
Infrastructure failure, surveillance, cascading breakdowns

They don't rot the land.
They make systems collapse elegantly.

Shared Design Principle

These are belief-driven threats, not alignment-driven enemies.

You cannot defeat them with swords.
You must:

  • expose contradictions

  • remove leverage

  • or change the environment they exploit

GM Guidance

  • These NPCs should never feel random.

  • Their actions should make sense after investigation.

  • Killing one should create questions, not closure.

They are Persistent Threats by design.

Design Summary

  • Low combat presence

  • High long-term impact

  • Escalation through consequence

  • Easily reskinned across species and ideology

This template is how Kaernest teaches players that belief can be a weapon.