Can Attributes go into Negative numbers thanks to Poison?

[Alathriel]

A new narrator to Lord of the Rings insisted on our first session that mirkwood spider poison would continue to work on my character's body and bring my Str and Vit into negative numbers. I tried to refute this, but he stated that in Fell Beasts it says that attributes continue to drop for the duration. This doesn't make sense to me. Shouldn't the poison run its course once you are at 0 in the given attributes, and then you recover them over time as per the rules? Any official pages that help me out with this would be great. Thank you!

[Ineti]

It depends on how many stages the poison is effective for. Page 43 of Fell Beasts indicates that the poison of Shelob's spawn lasts for 10 stages, which means your character would suffer the effects for however long that was. The note on page 43 indicates that characters fall unconscious when their STR or VIT hits 0, they fall unconscious, but continue to lose points until the poison wears off (all its stages are complete).

So, that could well take you into negative numbers, but your character would be unconscious anyway. He would recover points at a rate of 1 per hour, so even if he was at -8 STR or whatever, a good night's rest would recover the worst of it.

[Alathriel]

Thanks, that makes more sense now. I didn't have the Fell Beasts in front of me. It's my own copy, but he's been guarding it jealously now that he's running the game so none of us can get too acquainted with it =P

[Ergi]

Does reduced Strength or Vitality affect a character's health? You seem to believe that it doesn't, but I don't remember any official ruling, at least not in the Trek books.

[Ineti]

Does reduced Strength or Vitality affect a character's health? You seem to believe that it doesn't, but I don't remember any official ruling, at least not in the Trek books.

Losing points of Str or Vit do not normally reduce a character's health, though some poisons could initially start with a WP hit then move into attribute loss.

But normally, losing STR or VIT doesn't automatically equal a loss of Health.

[Ergi]

I guess I will have to believe you about that.
Thanks.