A stain is a physical mark on a card — a surface record of contact with a substance. Blood from a fight, mud from a flooded room, oil from a broken lamp. Stains accumulate per substance: a sword can be bloodied and muddy simultaneously, with each tracked separately. They have no scent attached to them and no decay. They sit on the surface until removed.
Stains above a certain threshold begin to affect the comfort of whoever carries or wears the item. Below that threshold, they are descriptive only — the item is marked, and the world notes it, but no mechanical penalty applies. Above it, the discomfort of being filthy becomes real and persistent.
A smell is an airborne quality that drifts from its source over time. Cooked meat, spilled herbs, alchemical residue, blood — each smell carries an intensity that fades turn by turn, and a comfort modifier that applies continuously while the smell persists at any meaningful level. Smells are entirely separate from stains and are tracked independently.
Where stains are static until cleaned, smells are dynamic. A freshly cooked meal on a campfire carries intense pleasant scent for a short time, then fades. A deep wound saturated with blood may smell strongly for longer. The intensity and the decay rate are properties of the specific substance, not of the object it is attached to.
Each stain accumulates on a scale from zero to one hundred. The scale is divided into three bands that change how the stain is described and when it begins to impose mechanical cost.
At this level, the stain is cosmetic. The description is restrained — faint traces, whisper-thin marks, a speckle on the surface. The item carries evidence of what happened to it, but a reasonable person would not find it objectionable. No comfort penalty applies. An item in this band is dirty in name only.
The stain has become visible and significant. Descriptions shift to language of presence — bold streaks, fresh slick coating, clearly marked. At the upper end of this band, the discomfort of contact starts to register. Equipment in moderate condition is not pleasant to handle, wear, or be near, and comfort begins to reflect that.
The item is saturated. Thick, caked, dripping, drenched — the description makes no attempt at subtlety. Heavy staining imposes real comfort penalties on whoever carries or wears the affected item, and those penalties scale with how far into this band the stain has progressed. An item at maximum stain is a significant drain on the well-being of its owner.
Smell is a continuous contribution to comfort and a potential beacon for creatures that hunt by scent. Its effect is present for as long as the smell's intensity remains above a meaningful threshold, then absent entirely once it fades.
Certain substances carry a positive comfort modifier. Freshly cooked food, certain herbs, sweet wax, and specific alchemical preparations all contribute warmth and ease while their intensity lasts. A seeker with several pleasant smells active simultaneously accumulates that comfort continuously, which can offset some of the harsher penalties the dungeon imposes through other means.
Blood, rot, certain dungeon substrates, and the residue of alchemical failures all carry negative comfort modifiers. A seeker covered in the smell of fresh blood is deeply uncomfortable, and the comfort penalty applies every turn the smell persists at meaningful intensity. Managing unpleasant smells has a real mechanical cost.
Every smell loses intensity each world turn at a rate specific to the substance. Cooking smells fade quickly — a few turns at most. The smell of old blood persists longer. Some alchemical odours are nearly persistent. Decay is automatic and does not require player action. Left alone, any smell will eventually fade to nothing regardless of how intense it began.
Creatures that hunt by scent can detect high-intensity smells from adjacent rooms. A seeker moving through the dungeon with fresh blood or strong cooking scent may draw attention that careful movement would have avoided. The attraction is proportional to intensity — a faint residual smell rarely matters, but a freshly saturated source can bring creatures out of rooms the seeker had not yet entered.
Stains do not clean themselves. Unlike smells, which decay over time, physical stains require deliberate intervention. The method determines how thoroughly the stain is addressed.
Certain items and actions perform a complete reset of all stains on a card simultaneously. Every substance is removed in a single action, regardless of how many stains were present or how heavily they had accumulated. Full cleaning is the fastest and most thorough solution but typically requires a specific item or location — a basin, a cleaning cloth, running water — rather than passive recovery.
Other cleaning items or actions reduce every present stain by a fixed amount rather than removing them outright. A substance at thirty is reduced to twenty; a substance at eighty is reduced to seventy. Substances that reach zero or below through partial cleaning are removed entirely. Repeated partial cleaning is therefore a valid approach, but requires multiple applications to fully address heavy staining and may not be efficient against extreme accumulation.