Refinement of the Marrow

Cultivation

Physical Purification

Level

1

Mortals are born with a gift they cannot repay, and it is a gift that was made to be spent. But what if a mortal simply…declined to spend it?

Upon taking this feat, to gain its benefits, you must spend at least 400 hours, within 6 months, engaged in standing meditation; also for each of these days, you must sleep for 12 hours a day, instead of 8, and you must never move faster than a walking pace or breathe quickly during this time. You must also totally abstain from alcohol, psychoactive herbs, stimulants, and intimate contact for this time. You must every day before bed drink a decoction of tonics made of antler, marrow, ginseng, and less decent things, which costs no less than 500 gp (in total over the training period).

At the end of the 400 hours you must make a DC 15 Fortitude save. Without the tonics, the DC is 20. With GM permission you may undergo a different form of training. Failure deals 1d6 Constitution damage and wastes the attempt; you may begin a new attempt at any time by resuming your training.

By doubling the amount of time and/or wealth required, the DC of the save can be lowered by 2 per doubling (you may not double the wealth required if you are not using herbs to begin with). This doubling, unlike most Pathfinder doubling, is exponential (doubling twice results in a fourfold increase, not a threefold increase).

You may also increase the HD of your Heart Demon by 1d3 and the Heart Demon’s minimum HD by 1 to gain the benefits immediately, with no check or preparation required.

On success you suddenly breathe in for an entire hour without breathing out, and for the next week every breath you breathe out smells strongly of copper, iron, and ginseng.

You gain the following benefits:

Your Constitution increases by 2. If the bonus from Skillful also applies to Constitution, the two together raise it no higher than a +2 modifier. For the purposes of getting drunk, only: treat your constitution score as 8 higher than it actually is.

Your hair is thick and full, and you no longer get age spots. You never lose teeth, and neither your nails nor teeth ever chip. Your wounds always close cleanly and in almost all cases do not leave scars. Your eyes and ears degrade more slowly with time, and for those purposes you count as up to 20 years younger than you actually are. Also, your skin and ligaments age more slowly and remain supple for longer, and for those purposes you also count as up to 20 years younger than you actually are. You have incredible stamina for all purposes, and you can much more easily have children if you wish it (if you were previously infertile or barren, you no longer are).