Scar Reading

AX.GAN.08.08

Lore

Something was changed by what the World Gate did. The Kyne Daas noticed this in the first weeks, not what it meant, but that it was happening: the Blasted Reach was not simply damage. It was altered. The physical destruction was visible to everyone; the Kyne Daas were the only people who stayed long enough to observe that the destruction had properties, that those properties were changing over time, and that the change had a pattern. They have spent three generations learning to read that pattern.

Scar Reading is the tradition that formalized this learning. It is not divination; it does not read futures in the way that word implies. It does not contact entities or invoke powers. It is, in the most precise sense, a perceptual technology: a trained ability to read what large magical events leave in the places they occur, to understand what those residues mean, and to develop sensitivity to the conditions that precede similar events. The practitioners are not mystics in the oracular sense. They are careful observers who have learned to observe things that other people cannot see.

The tradition is also, in the second generation of its development, revealing something the Kyne Daas did not anticipate when they began: it is not limited to the Blasted Reach. Wherever a major magical event has occurred, a great battle that involved Force tradition use at scale, an elemental catastrophe, a significant working of any tradition performed at high Threshold, the residue is present, and Scar Reading can access it. The Kyne Daas regard this discovery with the careful attention they give to everything they do not yet fully understand.

The three Expressions of Scar Reading correspond to what a Reader does:

Read, the forensic face; reading what has happened in locations, objects, and creatures. What major events occurred here, what kind of force was used, how long ago, and what persists.
Watch, the predictive face; sensing probability-pressure and building patterns; detecting where disruption is accumulating before it manifests.
Fragment, the operational face; compartmentalizing information, concealing resonance traces, and constructing information security that uses the tradition's perceptual logic against those who would read what the practitioner does not want read.

Most Kyne Daas practitioners develop Read first, it is what the tradition was built around, and develop Watch as their experience deepens. Fragment is the expression of the tradition's most specialized practitioners, those whose roles involve not only knowing things but controlling what others can know. All three Expressions draw on the same Odd Talent pool.

System Integration

Scar Reading as an Odd Talent

Scar Reading functions as an Odd Talent per Core Part 4. All standard Odd Talent rules apply:

The roll is: Wit + Scar Reading (+ Focus if applicable)
Scar Reading dice are purchased from the Talent budget at character creation, or improved through Advancement at the standard Odd Talent cost (Wit × 2 XP for a new Tradition at 1D; current value × 2 XP to improve)
Maximum Tradition rating: 5D. Maximum Focus rating: 3D
A character may use any of the three Expressions with the same Odd Talent pool

Governing Attribute

Scar Reading is always Wit-governed. This is not a choice made at character creation, the tradition has no other governing Attribute. It is entirely perceptual and analytical; no physical or kinetic Attribute has meaningful application to what the tradition does. A practitioner who primarily develops Body or Speed will find Scar Reading's rolls correspondingly weaker. The tradition selects for Wit investment; it does not adapt to other development paths.

Access

Kyne Daas Lineage: Scar Reading is granted at 1D at character creation through the Kyne Daas Lineage Power Access perk. This is the primary and most natural access path.

Reach Reader Profession: The Reach Reader Rogue profession (previously listed as having optional access "if a tradition connected to World Gate energies is developed") formally gains access to Scar Reading through this tradition definition. A Reach Reader who is Kyne Daas begins with 2D in Scar Reading (Duplicate Access, below). A non-Kyne Daas Reach Reader gains access at 1D through Profession Power Access, see Independent Study limitations below. The Reach Reader's Progression Track abilities (What Changed, Grammar of the Wound, Reader's Protocol) are mastered applications of the tradition that do not require separate Scar Reading rolls and are not subject to Perceptual Saturation.

Independent Study: Scar Reading cannot be learned through standard Independent Study pathways. It developed from three generations of lived experience in the Blasted Reach; it cannot be transmitted through a week of mentored training in the way that other traditions can. A non-Kyne Daas character who learns Scar Reading must establish a sustained relationship with a Kyne Daas teacher willing to transmit it, which requires: GM approval, an established narrative reason for the Kyne Daas to teach, extended in-world time (minimum months of contact), and costs Wit × 3 XP for the initial 1D (higher than standard, reflecting the difficulty of transmission). Non-Kyne Daas practitioners learn a narrower version of the tradition; they can access Read Expression fully and Watch Expression partially; Fragment Expression is culturally restricted and requires an additional narrative threshold to unlock.

The Kyne Daas do not refuse to teach as a matter of policy. They teach when they have assessed that the student is ready to hold what the tradition gives them, and not before. This assessment takes as long as it takes.

Duplicate Access: If a character is Kyne Daas and selects a Profession granting Scar Reading access, they begin with 2D in Scar Reading at no additional cost.

Mechanics Summary

Feature	Detail
Tradition Category	Resonance, perception and reading of residual magical patterns
Governing Attribute	Wit (always; no alternatives)
Action Type	Primary Action (most effects); Free Action (Pressure Sense, Identify Tradition); Extended work (Pattern Track, Compartment, Intercept, Deep Scar)
Signature Feel	Quiet, precise, and investigative; provides information rather than force; value compounds with knowledge of what has been learned previously
Power Access	Kyne Daas Lineage; Reach Reader Profession; Independent Study (culturally restricted; Wit × 3 XP; extended narrative requirement)
Signature Focus	The Scar Stone
Expressions	Read (forensic/historical), Watch (predictive/probability), Fragment (operational/security)

Threshold Scale for Scar Reading:

Threshold	Scale of Effect
1	Minor; immediate; reads surface residue from the recent past; detects presence of magical trace without detail
2	Standard; reads a specific event or pattern from recent history; identifies tradition category and approximate scale
3	Significant; reads events from months or years past; identifies probability-pressure with specificity; establishes secure compartmentalization
4	Major; reads major events from years or decades past; reads probability-convergence at high precision; deep Scar history with full detail
5+	Profound; World Gate–scale residue; reading the Scar's voice at its deepest register; probability at civilizational scale

Note: Scar Reading has no attack rolls, the tradition contains no offensive applications. Excess successes on all Scar Reading rolls are allocated to: depth of detail received; range of the read (extending from Touch toward Near); time period accessed (more distant past or wider probability window); or duration of an active effect.

Expression: Read

The forensic face.

Read is the tradition's foundational Expression, the one the Kyne Daas developed first, and the one every Scar Reading practitioner develops before the others. It governs the reading of magical residue: what large-scale events have left in locations, objects, and creatures. Not what people did in a place, but what magical forces were applied there, what traditions were used, at what scale, how long ago, and what the current state of the residue is.

The Read Expression's information is always retrospective. It reads what happened. It does not read who was involved (people leave specific physical traces; they do not leave resonance signatures unless they used a tradition in that space), and it does not read intent. What a Reader sees is the shape of what occurred: the force-category of what was used, the approximate scale, the directional pattern of its effects, and the quality of what remains. This is not limited information. In the hands of someone who knows what to do with it, it is decisive.

The Reach Reader profession ability Grammar of the Wound (Stage 2) is a mastered Read application; it produces a specific yes/no answer to a precisely stated question about a person, object, or location. That level of precision is the product of trained Read practice at high skill. Independent Read Expression rolls represent the same capability used improvisationally or outside the profession framework's specific once-per-Long-Rest constraint.

Read, Challenge Applications

Identify Tradition (Free Action, Threshold 1) At the practitioner's current location, or when in Touch contact with an object, identify the presence and category of magical residue: Force, Resonance, Form, or World Gate residue (the specific category associated with the Blasted Reach's altered energies). No detail beyond category and presence; this is an orientation check, not a full read. In an area with no magical residue, the result is simply: nothing.

This is the lowest-cost Scar Reading application and the one Kyne Daas practitioners use most frequently as environmental assessment. A practitioner who habitually uses this on entry to new locations develops a map of where magical events have occurred that no other tradition can provide.

Read Residue (Primary Action, Threshold 1–4, Touch to Near range) Read the magical residue of a location, object, or creature for what events have left traces. The Threshold determines how old or subtle the residue the practitioner can access:

Threshold 1: Residue from the past week. Tradition category, approximate scale (trivial application vs. major working), and direction of effect (what the working was aimed at). Takes one round of contact.

Threshold 2: Residue from the past season. As above, plus: whether the event was a one-time occurrence or repeated; whether the working was controlled (practiced) or desperate (overextended); any notable secondary effects still present. Takes one minute of contact.

Threshold 3: Residue from the past several years. As above, plus: approximate number of practitioners involved; whether the working was collaborative or individual; whether it caused lasting change to the location (or object) or passed through without permanent effect. Takes five minutes of contact.

Threshold 4: Residue from the past decade or more. Full historical read of significant magical events at this location, what tradition categories, at what scale, in what sequence, with what cumulative effects. Takes ten minutes of contact; requires the practitioner's undivided attention (no other actions possible during the read).

Scaling: Excess successes at any Threshold refine the information, more precise timeline, clearer scale estimation, identification of whether multiple tradition categories were present at the same event, or (at Threshold 3+) a qualitative sense of the practitioners' intent (controlled working vs. crisis response vs. deliberate concealment of traces).

Read the Wound (Primary Action, Threshold 2–3, Touch) Apply the forensic framework specifically to a living creature or significant object, read what major magical events have directly affected this entity. This is distinct from reading a location: a location holds residue from all events that occurred there; a creature or object holds residue from events that directly affected them.

Threshold 2: Identify whether the target has been the subject of significant tradition use within the past season, what category, approximately when, and whether the effect is still active.

Threshold 3: Full history of major magical events that have directly affected this target, as far back as the residue persists. Some old events produce only faint traces; recent significant events are clearer.

This is not a way to read a person's thoughts, plans, or identity. It reads what has been done to them with magical force. A target who has never been the subject of tradition use gives nothing. A target who was in the center of a major Force working has clear residue.

Deep Scar (Extended work, Threshold 4, Touch to Near range) Conduct a full reading of the deepest-layer residue at a site of major magical scarring, World Gate residue, a historical magical catastrophe, a location where a tradition was used at Threshold 5+ and left a permanent mark on the space. Takes thirty minutes of focused attention; the practitioner cannot move or take other actions during the reading.

The result is as complete a historical record of the site's magical events as the residue can provide, what occurred, in what sequence, with what traditions, at what scale, and what the site's current residue-state indicates about its ongoing qualities. In the Blasted Reach, Deep Scar is the tradition at the limits of its capacity: the information available is more than most readings can process, and the practitioner must decide what they are specifically asking before beginning.

Deep Scar can only be attempted in a location with Threshold 4+ residue. Most locations do not qualify. The Blasted Reach qualifies throughout its interior. Significant ancient battle sites, the sites of major historical elemental events, and any location where the World Gate's energies have reached may qualify at GM discretion.

Backlash: - Minor: The read produces one piece of false information alongside the accurate results. The practitioner does not know which piece is false; it arrives with the same perceptual quality as the genuine data. A subsequent careful read of the same location at Clear state (Threshold 3+) can identify the false element. Until then, the practitioner has one unreliable piece in their read. - Moderate: Residue overwhelm. Practitioner takes 2 damage (not physical injury; this is the force of what they read registering as pressure on the practitioner's own system). They become Shaken until end of their next Turn. The specific location or object that was being read is "closed" to the practitioner for the rest of the scene, their perceptual connection to it has overloaded, and subsequent Read attempts against the same target automatically fail. - Severe: Deep inversion. Practitioner cannot use Read Expression for the remainder of the scene. They also receive one overwhelming false impression from the read, a major false event delivered with the full intensity of a genuine read. The GM presents this false impression to the player as if it were accurate; the practitioner experiences it as real. This is not a deception by an entity; it is the practitioner's saturated perception generating its own signal. 3 damage.

Expression: Watch

The predictive face.

Watch is the expression that emerged second in the tradition's development, and it is the expression the Kyne Daas find hardest to explain to outsiders who ask what they are doing in the Blasted Reach. Read is comprehensible, you look at what happened. Watch is less so: you sense what is building. The Reach's altered probability-texture, the way large magical events leave traces in the likelihood of subsequent events as well as in physical space, the specific quality of a location where multiple forces are converging toward a result that hasn't manifested yet, this is what Watch accesses, and it has no clean equivalent in how other traditions work.

Watch does not predict specific outcomes. It detects probability-pressure: the sense that something of a particular character is becoming more likely in this location or around this entity. "Something violent is building here" is the kind of information Watch provides. "The Ekhari envoy is going to betray the negotiation tomorrow" is not, that is specific intent, which Watch cannot read. The distinction matters in practice. A practitioner who interprets Watch impressions as specific predictions will be wrong in consequential ways. A practitioner who interprets them correctly, as directional signals about probability-weight, will be right with remarkable consistency.

The Reach Reader profession ability Convergence Warning (Stage 1) is a passive Watch application embedded in the Progression Track. The independent Watch Expression rolls represent the tradition used deliberately, at higher precision, or by non-Reach-Reader practitioners who have developed the tradition.

Watch, Challenge Applications

Pressure Sense (Free Action, Threshold 1) Detect whether any location, object, or creature within Near range is accumulating unusual probability-pressure, the precursor condition to a significant event of any kind. This is a binary result: pressure present, or not. The practitioner knows that something is building; they do not know what, or when, without a deeper read.

For Kyne Daas practitioners, this extends and formalizes the Scar Sense biological perk, Scar Sense detects the presence of magical residue; Pressure Sense detects the building of future magical activity.

Probability Read (Primary Action, Threshold 2) Get a specific directional sense of what kind of event is building in a location or around a target. This is not prophecy and should not be played as prophecy. It is a qualitative assessment of the probability-weight: what character the building pressure has. Is it violent? Revelatory? A convergence of multiple actors? A betrayal? An arrival? The GM should describe the impression in terms that are true directionally but not specific enough to constitute a spoiler.

The practitioner asks a question in the form: "What is building here?" or "What kind of event is approaching this situation?" and receives an impression in response. One impression per roll; the impression is accurate in character even when its specifics would be misleading.

Scaling: Excess successes refine the impression, narrowing the character further (from "something violent" to "something violent and hidden, not open confrontation"), extending the probability window (from within the next few hours to within the next few days), or including a directional sense (the pressure is coming from outside this room; the pressure is centered on one specific person in the group).

Pattern Track (Extended work, Threshold 2) Monitor a specific pattern of probability change across multiple scenes. The practitioner spends one scene observing a specific location, entity, or situation and establishes a baseline read. Once established, the practitioner may update the Pattern Track during each subsequent Short Rest without triggering Perceptual Saturation, a free Threshold 1 check on how the pattern has changed since the baseline. This does not provide the full depth of a Probability Read but tells the practitioner whether the pattern has intensified, shifted in character, or stabilized.

A Pattern Track can be maintained on one target at a time. Establishing a new Pattern Track replaces the prior one.

In practice: Pattern Track is what a Reach Reader uses when they have been assigned to watch a situation over time. The free Short Rest updates are the tool of long-duration observation; the tradition is designed for this kind of sustained, patient work.

Convergence Warning (Primary Action, Threshold 3) Identify when multiple probability-streams are about to converge, when a planned action, a gathering of actors, a magical working in preparation, or a series of events is approaching a point of no return. Convergence is the moment before the event: the narrowing of possible outcomes toward one result.

The practitioner receives: approximate timing (within the next hour; within the next day; within the next scene); approximate scope (this involves one person; this involves multiple actors; this will affect a significant area); and approximate character (this convergence is deliberate and planned; this convergence is accidental; this convergence is being forced by someone who knows what they are doing).

This is the Watch Expression's highest practical-use application. GMs should use Convergence Warning to give the practitioner actionable intelligence that changes what the party can do before an event unfolds, not to tell them what will happen, but to tell them that something is about to.

Backlash: - Minor: The probability-read turns inward. The practitioner receives a vivid, specific impression of an immediate threat to themselves. This impression is delivered with the full perceptual weight of a genuine Watch result; the GM determines whether it is accurate or a saturation artifact. Either way, the practitioner becomes Shaken until end of their next Turn as the probability-weight registers physically. - Moderate: Overwhelm. Practitioner perceives too many probability-streams simultaneously, all the possible divergences of the current situation arriving at once, unfiltered. They cannot use Watch Expression for the remainder of the scene. They become Shaken until Short Rest and take 2 damage as the cognitive pressure of the simultaneous impressions registers. - Severe: Probability cascade. The practitioner experiences a full uncontrolled forward projection, all the possible futures of the current situation, layered and contradictory. 4 damage. They gain Staggered (until next Long Rest). Any specific Convergence Warning impressions they received this scene should be treated with caution, one of them is framed incorrectly. Not false, but misread in a specific way the GM tracks privately; the practitioner will not know which one until events contradict it.

Expression: Fragment

The operational face.

Fragment is the expression of the tradition turned from reading toward concealing. It uses the practitioner's perceptual expertise in reverse: instead of reading what resonance reveals, they structure what resonance reveals, controlling which traces are left where, distributing information in ways that require specific skill to reassemble, and making themselves unreadable to practitioners who would use Scar Reading or equivalent perceptual traditions against them.

Fragment is the expression the Kyne Daas developed last, and the one they are most careful about transmitting. Read and Watch extend observational capacity; Fragment gives practitioners tools for active information warfare at the level of magical forensics. The decision about when to teach Fragment to a student is not made by any individual teacher; it is made by the band's Reader after sustained assessment. Non-Kyne Daas practitioners face an additional narrative threshold for Fragment access as a consequence (see Access section).

The Reach Reader profession ability Reader's Protocol (Stage 3) is a mastered Fragment application. The independent Fragment Expression applications represent the tradition's operational dimension used with finer granularity, at higher frequency, or by practitioners who are not Reach Readers.

Fragment, Challenge Applications

Scar Seal (Primary Action, Threshold 2, Touch) Place a resonance marker on an object, location, or threshold, a subtle flag detectable to practitioners with Scar Reading, invisible to those without it. If the sealed thing is accessed, moved, or read by anyone other than the practitioner, the practitioner receives an immediate awareness that this has occurred, a clear perceptual signal regardless of distance (as long as the practitioner is within Far range when the trigger occurs, or has a Pattern Track active on the location).

The Scar Seal does not prevent access; it detects it. Setting the seal is out of combat work (one minute). It persists until triggered, until dismissed (Free Action), or until the end of the next Long Rest.

Scaling: Excess successes extend the duration (1 excess = next Long Rest; 2 excess = until deliberately dismissed; 3 excess = indefinitely, requiring a deliberate removal).

Compartment (Extended work, Threshold 2–4) Distribute information, a plan, or a piece of evidence across multiple physical objects, locations, or inscribed fragments in a way that no single piece reveals the whole. Each fragment contains one portion of the content; reassembly requires possessing all fragments and understanding their sequence.

The number of fragments required to reassemble the full information is set by the practitioner when establishing the Compartment:

Fragment Count	Threshold	Minimum Setup Time
2 fragments	Threshold 2	One scene
3–4 fragments	Threshold 3	One scene plus placement time per fragment
5 or more fragments	Threshold 4	Multiple scenes; each fragment requires individual placement

The fragments resist being identified as connected by anyone without Scar Reading, to an ordinary investigator, they appear to be unrelated objects. A practitioner with Scar Reading can attempt to detect and follow the fragment-chain; see Interception Rules below.

When the Reach Reader's Reader's Protocol profession ability is used, it operates at Threshold 3 with up to five fragments as a mastered, once-per-Full-Rest application that does not require a roll for established practitioners.

Blank (Primary Action or Extended work, Threshold 2–3, Touch) Remove Scar Reading–readable residue from a location, object, or creature, leaving it perceptually empty, giving practitioners who Read it a result of nothing, not a false read.

As a Primary Action at Threshold 2: remove the residue of one specific recent event (within the past week) from Touch range. The practitioner must know what event they are removing traces of; Blank does not remove all residue, only the targeted event.

As Extended work at Threshold 3 (ten minutes): systematically remove all significant magical residue from a Close area, leaving it unreadable for practitioners with Scar Reading or equivalent. The area gives nothing, not false information, simply absence. This is detectable to practitioners who expected to find something and found nothing instead; a blanked location is a signal of its own.

Blank cannot be used on living creatures without their awareness, the process requires their stillness and cooperation. Blanking a living creature's residue (removing traces of what tradition effects have been applied to them) takes ten minutes and requires their consent.

Veil (Primary Action, Threshold 2, Self or Touch) Suppress the practitioner's own ongoing resonance signature, make themselves unreadable to Scar Reading or equivalent traditions for the current scene. Any practitioner attempting to Read the Veil-shielded character finds nothing of interest: no evidence of tradition use, no significant magical event traces, no read worth pursuing. The Veil does not prevent observation by non-perceptual means and does not protect against social scrutiny or physical tracking. It specifically defeats residue-based reading.

Duration: until the scene ends or until the practitioner uses any other Scar Reading Expression while the Veil is active. Using another Expression expression within the scene while Veiled produces a detectable contradiction, a blanked field that suddenly shows fresh activity. Practitioners with Scar Reading who were watching will notice the gap and the activity.

Intercept (Extended work, Threshold varies)

This section formalizes Flag 5: the Reader's Protocol interception procedure for adversarial Compartment recovery.

When a practitioner attempts to intercept an established Compartment before its intended recipient assembles it:

Locating fragments: Each fragment must be found individually. Finding one fragment requires a Scar Reading roll (or Notice/Investigation roll at Disadvantage for non-practitioners) vs. the establishing practitioner's original Compartment roll success count as the Threshold. Success locates one fragment; failure means that fragment remains unfound this attempt.

Fragment count and rolls required: The interceptor must succeed on a number of separate locating rolls equal to the number of fragments in the Compartment. These rolls cannot all be made simultaneously, each requires time spent searching in the relevant location (minimum ten minutes per roll; the fragments are concealed in specific real locations, not an abstract space).

Interception success: If the interceptor locates all fragments before the intended recipient assembles them, the Compartment is intercepted. The original sender is not automatically aware that interception occurred; they receive no signal unless they had a Scar Seal active on the fragments (see above), in which case they are immediately alerted.

Interception failure: If the intended recipient assembles even one fragment before the interceptor locates all of them, the information has been partially delivered. Full interception is no longer possible; the interceptor may at best recover partial fragments.

For interceptors with Scar Reading: Locating rolls are Scar Reading (Wit + Scar Reading) vs. the Compartment Threshold. The tradition makes the fragments visible as connected resonance; the interceptor is reading the chain.

For interceptors without Scar Reading: Locating rolls are Notice or Investigation vs. the same Threshold, at Disadvantage, the fragments are concealed in resonance-space as much as physical space, and a practitioner without the tradition is working blind relative to how they are hidden. Extraordinary circumstantial knowledge of the hiding locations can reduce this penalty at GM discretion.

Backlash: - Minor: One piece of information the practitioner was concealing or protecting through a Fragment Expression application becomes legible, a Scar Seal activates without the trigger event occurring, a Compartment fragment becomes findable without the full interception effort, or a Veiled practitioner briefly becomes readable. GM determines which operational detail becomes exposed. - Moderate: Practitioner's own information-security inverts. One thing they specifically do not want known becomes resonance-legible to anyone with Scar Reading within Near range for the rest of the scene. The practitioner takes 2 damage. They are aware this has happened; they do not know exactly what is now readable. - Severe: All active Fragment Expression workings fail simultaneously, Scar Seals detrigger, active Compartments lose their concealment structure (fragments become individually findable without interception rolls), and the Veil collapses. Additionally, the practitioner cannot use Fragment Expression for the remainder of the scene. Takes 4 damage. Any practitioner with Scar Reading who attempts to Read the character in this scene does so at +2D, as the practitioner's defenses are entirely down.

The Scar Stone (Scar Reading Focus)

A fragment of glassite, the fused silicon and mineral produced where the World Gate's energies struck the Blasted Reach's ground at highest intensity, collected by the practitioner personally from the deep Reach, from a location they have read at Threshold 3 or higher. Glassite is not manufactured; it is found, in specific locations in the Reach's interior that the Kyne Daas map and protect. Not all Kyne Daas have made the deep-Reach journey required to collect true glassite; those who have are recognized by other bands as practitioners of substantive experience. The stone is opaque, black-grey, and warm to the touch, the residual World Gate energy it holds does not dissipate.

Scar Stone | Focus | Scar Reading
Mechanical Effect:
  +2D to all Read Expression rolls (the glassite holds
  concentrated World Gate residue; reading through it
  deepens the connection between the practitioner's
  perception and any resonance they are reading, regardless
  of tradition category).

  Watch Expression: Pressure Sense does not trigger
  Perceptual Saturation. The stone maintains a continuous
  connection to the probability-texture of the practitioner's
  environment; listening for pressure costs nothing when you
  are already holding a fragment of the event that created
  the Scar's voice.

  While the Scar Stone is held, the practitioner's
  biological Scar Sense (from Reach-Hardened lineage perk)
  extends to detect any magical residue regardless of type
 , not only World Gate residue, but Force, Resonance, and
  Form residue, within Near range. The practitioner
  additionally perceives which broad category the residue
  belongs to without rolling, matching the Identify
  Tradition Free Action result passively.

Acquisition: Collection from the Blasted Reach's interior
  requires physical presence at a deep-Reach location with
  Threshold 4+ World Gate residue and a minimum one-hour
  Read at that location, the stone must be read before
  it is taken, and the practitioner must understand what
  they are carrying. Kyne Daas bands facilitate this for
  their practitioners when readiness is assessed. Forcing
  the collection without the prior read produces a stone
  that holds residue but cannot be calibrated; it functions
  as an improvised focus (+1D to Read Expression only) until
  properly read in situ, which requires returning to the
  collection site.

  Non-Kyne Daas practitioners may possess a Scar Stone
  only if given one by a Kyne Daas practitioner or band,
  collection requires access to the deep Reach, which is
  Kyne Daas-controlled territory. A gifted stone provides
  +1D to Read Expression rather than +2D. The Pressure
  Sense Saturation suppression and the extended passive
  Scar Sense apply only to Kyne Daas practitioners (the
  biological lineage perk is the foundation the stone
  amplifies; non-Kyne Daas practitioners do not have
  the biological foundation).

Improvised Focuses: A fragment of stone or mineral from any site of significant magical scarring, a location where a major Force tradition event occurred, an ancient elemental catastrophe site, any location with Threshold 3+ residue, may serve as an improvised Scar Stone at GM discretion, providing +1D to one Expression (chosen when collected). It does not suppress Perceptual Saturation or enhance the biological Scar Sense. True glassite is not replaceable by equivalent-looking mineral; the distinction matters to Scar Readers and is discernible to them.

Access and Cross-Lineage Notes

Other human practitioners: The Kyne Daas are the only human culture that stayed in the Blasted Reach. Ekhari, Sereindal, and Ustara practitioners may encounter Scar Reading through contact with Kyne Daas bands, but accessing the tradition through independent study is structurally difficult (see Access section). Ekhari practitioners have repeatedly attempted to commission or purchase systematic Scar Reading training from Kyne Daas teachers; the Kyne Daas have consistently declined commercial arrangements for this specific tradition. The Mirelen, who gave the Kyne Daas their water-table maps without asking for anything in return, are the only external culture the Kyne Daas have voluntarily shared fragmentary Scar Reading with, one Reader taught a Mirelen practitioner the basics of Read Expression as a return courtesy. The Kyne Daas regard this as complete.

Kin and Anima practitioners: No Kin or Anima lineage has documented access to Scar Reading. The tradition is specific to three generations of Kyne Daas experience in the Reach; it cannot be learned through brief contact. The Yusk's deep-time geological sense is conceptually adjacent to Watch Expression in some ways, a Yusk elder who observed Kyne Daas practice for six months described it as "reading stone for what it will say, not what it has said." The Kyne Daas considered this accurate. They did not offer to teach him.

Example Rolls

Vessal is a Kyne Daas Reach Reader: Wit 3D, Scar Reading 2D, Read Focus 2D, Scar Stone (+2D to Read; Pressure Sense is Saturation-free; passive Identify Tradition at Near range). They are investigating a building where a contact went missing. The party has thirty minutes before the building's owners return.

Situation: Vessal enters the contact's last known room. Before doing anything else, they check for tradition residue.

Pressure Sense (Watch, Free Action): Saturation-free via Scar Stone, no roll required. Vessal knows: pressure is present. Something is building. This room is not finished with what happened here. Status: Clear (Pressure Sense did not trigger Saturation).

Situation: The Scar Stone's passive identification tells Vessal that Force-category residue is present within Near range. Vessal wants to Read what happened.

Roll 1, Read Residue (Read, Threshold 2): Pool: Wit 3D + Scar Reading 2D + Read Focus 2D + Scar Stone +2D = 9D. Status: Clear. One minute of contact with the floor at the room's center. Result: 5 successes. Exceeds Threshold by 3. Vessal reads: Force-category working, single practitioner, within the past three days, directed at a specific point, not the room generally but a person who stood in a specific position. The working was not clean; it was reactive, slightly desperate. Vessal allocates excess successes: 1 excess confirms this was a one-time occurrence (not a repeated pattern), 1 excess establishes that the working had a secondary effect still present in the material of the floor, 1 excess indicates the practitioner was not Kyne Daas (the Force-signature is unfamiliar tradition-character, probably Consortium Arcanism). Status after: Saturated.

Situation: Vessal has enough to work with but wants to know if the threat is still building, whether whoever was here will return.

Roll 2, Probability Read (Watch, Threshold 2): Pool: 9D at Disadvantage (only 6s count). Status: Saturated. Result: 2 successes (two 6s). Meets Threshold. Impression received: the probability-weight here is directed, patient, and not yet complete. Whatever the working was doing, it was not finished. The actor is not gone, they are waiting for a condition. Status remains Saturated.

Vessal uses their next Primary Action on Saturation recovery ("Vessal kneels and presses both palms flat against the floor for one moment, not reading, just touching. Returns to the immediate physical fact of the room."): Wit 3D + Resolve vs Threshold 3. Result: 4 successes. Saturation clears.

Later: Vessal needs to preserve what they found without the information being readable to whoever comes back to this room.

Roll 3, Veil (Fragment, Threshold 2, Self): Pool: Wit 3D + Scar Reading 2D = 5D. Status: Clear. No Focus bonus (Scar Stone adds only to Read Expression). Result: 3 successes. Exceeds Threshold by 1. Vessal's own residue from the reading is suppressed, a practitioner who Reads this room after Vessal leaves will find the Force-category residue from the original event, but no indication that anyone has since read it. The Veil lasts until the scene ends. Status after: Saturated.

Vessal waits for the Short Rest in the alley outside before the next scene begins.