Catch faint sounds, distant motion, a stranger’s tells, or the prickle of being watched.
The dead share one thing in common: they didn’t look twice. They missed the floorboard that creaked when it shouldn’t have, the silence where birdsong belonged, the hand drifting toward a hilt across the tavern. The wood is full of monsters and the roads are full of worse. Pay attention, or feed something.
Awareness is the skill of perceiving what others miss in the moment — a half-heard footstep, the wrong shadow, the tell on a liar’s face, the cold that means something is watching. Make an Awareness (Intellect) Trial whenever you are trying to perceive something right now, whether that something is a creature, a sound, or a person’s hidden intent. Reading people in the moment — whether someone is lying, frightened, or armed — falls under Awareness. For deliberate searching of places, objects, or trails, see Discovery (Intellect).
Examples: hearing approach through fog; spotting a hidden archer’s position; reading a negotiator’s tells under pressure; sensing a presence you cannot yet name.