Wild Talents - Grim Wars

 A W i l d T a l e n t s S o u r c e b o o k o f S o r c e r y a n d S u p e r h e r o e s 

Credits

Dedication

Written by:  Greg Stolze and Kenneth Hite, © 2009.  he One-Rol O ne-Rol l Engine Eng ine by : Greg Stolze, © 2009.

Dedicated to Joe Donka, whose snappy dialogue in the firstever Grim War  campaign  campaign inspired us all.

 odd Shearer, S hearer, © 2009. Illustrations by:  odd Page design and layout by:  Shawn Camp. Edited by: Shane Ivey. he Wild Talents rules by: Dennis Detwiller, Shane Ivey and

Disclaimer

Greg Stolze, © 2009. Special thanks to our proofreaders and playtesters:

Darren Evenson, Nathaniel Hobbes (with Yvonne Hobbes,  Josiah  Jos iah Neeley, Neele y, Adam Hoffman, Hof fman, Amanda Am anda Heatherm Heat herman an and a nd Chuck Heatherman), James O’Rance (with Matt Cramsie,  James  Jame s Hardie Ha rdie and Rachel Rach el Young), S hawn O’Steen O’S teen (wit h  Wayne Holde H older,r, William Willi am Skelt S kelton, on, Rob Waldron, Danny Dan ny Shaw S haw and Chad Melton), Dan Parke (with Adam Drake, Matthew Mitchell, Isabel Kunkle and Lauren Austrian), and Janne Vuorenmaa (with Pekka Hänninen, oni Harju, Simo Järvelä and Lassi Seppälä).

No portion of this work may be reproduced by any means  without the express written writt en permission of the t he copyright holders. h olders. All rights reserved worldwide by their respective holders.  Tis is a work of fiction. fict ion. Any similarity with actual people and events, past or present, is purely coincidental and unintentional except for those people and events described in historical context.

G W  A D D  P P   ISBN ���-�-�������-�-� S  ARC���� F , ����. ..

 Contents  CHAPTER 1: THE GRIM WAR .... 8 History, Part One ........................................................10 History, Part wo .............................. .......................... 10 Current Events ............................................................12 Factions in the Grim War ............................. ............... 12 Àkrab-i-allah ...........................................................12 Citizens Against Reductionist Genetic Obsessions...13 Direktiva Nul ...........................................................13 Next Iteration ..........................................................13 People for Religious Freedom ...................................13  Te Piccione Family ................................................. 13 Projekt Ethnologisches Literaturarchiv-Sonderabteillung .............................13  Te Rational Occult Study Crossdisciplinary  Research Organization (ROSCRO) .........................14  Te School of the American Future .......................... 14 Squadron A1 ............................................................14  Te Way ................................................................... 15  Te Xolotl Cartel ..................................................... 15 Variations: Reign and Wild Talents .............................15  New Skills ................................................................15 Character ypes and Power Profiles .......................... 15 Mutant .................................................................15 Conjurer ...............................................................15 Invoker .................................................................16 Spirit ....................................................................16 Conduit ................................................................16

CHAPTER 2: SPIRITS ....... 17 But What Are  Tey? ....................................................18 Spirits’ raits ...............................................................18 Spirits in the Material World ......................................18 

Spiritual States of Being ..............................................19 Astral .......................................................................19 Liminal ....................................................................19 Bound ......................................................................19 Materialized .............................................................20 Spiritual Combat .........................................................20 Spirit Effects .............................................................. 20   Material Vulnerability ................................................ 20  Picking a Fight ......................................................... 21

Daemons: Te First Circle ...........................................22 Securer Against Peril ................................................22  Te Gatekeeper of Monstrous Delights ....................22

rue Names ............................................................... 22

 Te Knight of Sorrows .............................................23 he Spirit Archetype ................................................... 23

 Te Black Cat ..........................................................24  Te Gremlin.............................................................24 Daemons: Te Second Circle .......................................25  Te Grand Maledictor ..............................................25  Te Guardian of the Mind’s Citadel ......................... 26  Te Slayer of Secrets ................................................26  Te Physician Without Body....................................27 Daemons: Te Tird Circle ..........................................28  Te All-Preserver .....................................................28 Lord War .................................................................28 Desecrator of the Body .............................................29 Daemons: Te Fourth Circle ........................................29  Te Dark Warden .....................................................29  Te Soul Breaker ......................................................30 Daemons: Te Fifth Circle ..........................................31  Te D uke of Shadows ..............................................31 Despoiler of Trones ................................................31  Te Malignant Persuader ..........................................32 Archons: Te First Circle .............................................32 Eros .........................................................................32  Te Knight Protector ...............................................32  Te Vigorous Uncle..................................................33 Sister Raven .............................................................33 Archons: Te Second Circle .........................................33  Te Princess of ranquility .......................................33 Nemesis ...................................................................34  Te Celestial Jester ...................................................34  Te Grand Salamander .............................................35 She Who Sweeps the Broken ...................................35 Archons: Te Tird Circle ............................................35  Te Gilded reasurer ................................................35  Te Aspect of Infinite Circumference .......................36  Te Emperor of Souls...............................................36  Te Master of Delight, Despair and Disaster ............37 Archons: Te Fourth Circle .........................................37  Te Blade of Justice ..................................................37  Te Indomitable Pasha ............................................. 38 Archons: Te Fifth Circle ............................................39 Razor of Empires .....................................................39  Whispering Jane ......................................................39 Spiritus Generica.........................................................40

 3 

 Contents  Generic Minor Archon ............................................40  en Minor Archons ................................................. 40 Generic Mid-Range Archon ....................................40  en Mid-Range Archons .........................................41 Generic Significant Archon ......................................41  en Significant Archons ...........................................41 Generic Minor Daemon ...........................................41  en Minor Daemons ................................................41 Generic Mid-Range Daemon ...................................42  en Mid-Range Daemons ........................................ 42 Generic Significant Daemon ....................................43  en Significant Daemons ......................................... 43 Ghosts .........................................................................43  What Ghosts Can Do .............................................. 44 How Tey’re Like Archons and Daemons ................. 45 How Tey’re Different From Archons and Daemons .............................................45

CHAPTER 3: MAGIC ......... 46

 4 

Basic Taumaturgy ......................................................48 Spellcraft .................................................................48 Conjuration..............................................................48 Invocation ................................................................48 Obtaining Service........................................................48 Spirit Familiars ........................................................48  Identifying Spells ........................................................ 48 

Persuading Archons .................................................49  Archons ...................................................................... 50 

Compelling Daemons...............................................51 Making Up New Spells ...............................................51 Gourmet Spellcasting ...............................................51 Daemons.................................................................... 51

A Good Library .......................................................52 A Similar Spell.........................................................52 Spell Effects ................................................................52 Conjure  ................................................................52 Invoke...................................................................52 Minor Defense......................................................52 Major Defense ......................................................53 Minor Harm .........................................................53 Major Harm .........................................................53 Please ...................................................................53 Materialize ...........................................................53 Bind .....................................................................53

Perceive ...............................................................53 Heal......................................................................53 Unbind .................................................................53 Exorcise ................................................................53 Abjure ..................................................................53 Astral Projection ...................................................53 Access ...................................................................53 Infuse ...................................................................54 Nullify ..................................................................54 Spell Flaws ..............................................................54 Secondary Effect ...................................................54 Complicated Requirements ...................................54 Arduous Requirements..........................................54 Monstrous Requirements .....................................54 Extra Difficulty .....................................................54 Risk of Lost Willpower ........................................54 Risk of Lost Base Will ..........................................55 Stability Check .....................................................55 Sacrifice Willpower ...............................................55 Sacrifice Base Will ................................................55 Sacrifice Stat .........................................................55 Minor Backlash ....................................................55 Major Backlash .....................................................55 Soul Sapping ........................................................55 Exclusive ..............................................................55 Spell Extras ..............................................................55 General Call .........................................................55 Agonizing .............................................................55 Simple Requirements ............................................55 Not Difficult .........................................................55 Ordinary Requirements ........................................55 Repeats by Width .................................................55 Repeats by Height ................................................55 Fast .......................................................................56 Exalting ................................................................56 Easy ......................................................................56 Inexhaustible ........................................................56 Extended Duration ...............................................56  Te Grimoire...............................................................56 Conjurations ............................................................56 Baal’s Adornment .................................................56  Extended Duration .................................................... 56 Building an Immutable Focus ...................................... 56

Baal’s Blade ..........................................................57

 Contents  Baal’s Dagger .......................................................57 Black Catnip .........................................................57 Call the Gremlin ...................................................57 Call the Lord of War ............................................57 Conjurations .............................................................. 57 

Call the Soul Breaker ............................................58 Chastisement .......................................................58 Conjure Astral Alarm ..........................................58 Cry Havoc ............................................................58 Defense of the Blasphemous Amulet .....................58 Demand of Succor ................................................59 Dread Imperial Command ...................................59  Te Ifrit ’s Chains ................................................. 59  Te Ifrit ’s Labyrinth ............................................ 59 Incarnate the Duke of Shadows (Xolotl Cartel) ....60  Te Ineffable Ritual of the Dark Warden .............. 60 Lenin’s Lightning (Direktiva Nul).........................60 Maledictus Inelucti ...............................................60 Penetrate the Abyssal Wall ....................................60 Pestilential Demand ..............................................60  Te Philosopher ’s Statue ....................................... 60 Pugnacious Endeavor (Direktiva Nul) ...................61 Putrid Coalition ....................................................61 Raise the Succubus ...............................................61 Relentless Discipline .............................................61 Sacrifice of Sacrifices.............................................61 Shield Against Mind’s Misfortune ........................62 Sorrow’s Glass ......................................................62 Summon the Slayer of Secrets ...............................62 Vigilant Idol .........................................................62 Invocations...............................................................62 Accommodate .......................................................62 Adoration of the ranslunar ..................................62 Archon Restoration...............................................63 Astral Domicile ....................................................63 Beseech the Unyielding Watchman .......................63 Bind the Mind and Loose It .................................63 Boundary of the Infinitesimal Point ......................63  Invocations ................................................................ 63

Celestial Plea ........................................................64 Craft alisman ......................................................64 Empires Collapse ..................................................64 Exile Ex Materia (Direktiva Nul) ..........................64  Te Finest Perfume is From Hidden Petals............64

Fire is the Cleanser ...............................................65 Fortune Smiles ......................................................65 Impassioned Restoration (Direktiva Nul) ..............65 Implore the Blade of Justice ..................................65 Invoke Erotic Archon ...........................................65 Invoke the Angel of Greed ....................................65 Let Us Commence the Final Rule .........................66 Palace of the Flesh (ROSCRO) ............................66 Plea for Succor .....................................................66 Plea to the Heavenly Physician .............................66 Praise for the Luminous Lady ...............................66 Purification by the Burning Ring ..........................67 Quest of All-Consuming Pleasure ........................67 Revenge Sevenfold Upon One Who Has Wounded Me ................................67 Rite of the Black Feather ......................................68 Stable Cancellation Process (ROSCRO) ...............68 Strike Ill ...............................................................68 Sumptuous Feast of the Angels .............................68 Sweat of Grateful oil (Direktiva Nul) ..................68  oil and rouble ...................................................68 Split Spells ...............................................................69 Abjuration of Form ...............................................69 Abjuring Demarcation ..........................................69 Astral Escutcheon .................................................69 Split Spells ................................................................. 69

Craft Eyes of the Otherworld ...............................70 Dangerous Visions (Direktiva Nul) .......................70 Drive Forth the Malignant (Direktiva Nul) ...........70 Expulsion of Device ..............................................70 Inform Otherlife (Xolotl Cartel) ...........................70  Te Miles Jefferson Equation (ROSCRO) ............70 Oanhue’s Manifold Defense ..................................71 Oanhue, Streamlined (Direktiva Nul) ...................71 Othernaut Exploration Procedure (ROSCRO) .....71 Phylactery of Prophylaxis ......................................71 Primary Entanglement ..........................................71  Te Shuddering Treshold ....................................72 Smudge the Circle ................................................72  ranslunar Projection ............................................72 Unveiling ..............................................................72 One Step Beyond ........................................................72 Identifying Domain or Antagonism .........................73  ailored Bait ............................................................73

 5 

 Contents  Divining rue Names ...............................................73 Generic Summons ....................................................73 Cross-Disciplinary Summons ...................................74 Astral Exploration .......................................................74 Whither Science? ........................................................ 75  esting Positive for Superheroism ............................. 75  Bio-Isolated Effects ................................................. 75   Mutation herapy ................................................... 75 

CHAPTER 4: CABALS AND FACTIONS ...... 76

 6 

Àkrab-i-allah...............................................................77 Àkrab-i-allah Character Index .................................77 Using Àkrab-i-allah in Your Game ........................... 77 Getting In, Getting Out ..........................................78 Citizens Against Reductionist Genetic Obsessions ......79 CARGO Character Index ........................................79 Using CARGO in Your Game..................................79 Getting In, Getting Out ..........................................80 Direktiva Nul ..............................................................80 Direktiva Nul Character Index .................................81 Using Direktiva Nul in Your Game ..........................81 Getting In, Getting Out ..........................................82 Next Iteration ..............................................................83 Next Iteration Character Index ................................83 Using Next Iteration in Your Game ..........................83 Getting In, Getting Out ..........................................84 People for Religious Freedom ......................................84 People for Religious Freedom Character Index .........84 Using PRF in Your Game.........................................84 Getting In, Getting Out ..........................................86 Oh, the Mundanity.....................................................85   Juarez Cartel .......................................................... 85  Gulf Cartel ............................................................. 85  CIA........................................................................85  Special hreat Response G roup................................. 85  FBI ........................................................................ 86 GRU ...................................................................... 86 GIGN .................................................................... 86 DEA ...................................................................... 86 he Chicago Outfit ................................................. 86

 he Piccione Family ...................................................87 Piccione Family Character Index ..............................88 Using the Piccione Family in Your Game .................88

Getting In, Getting Out ...........................................88 Projekt ELSA ............................ ............................... ...89 Projekt ELSA Character Index ................................89 Using Projekt ELSA in Your Game .......................... 89 Getting In, Getting Out ...........................................90 ROSCRO ...................................................................90 ROSCRO Character Index ......................................91 Using ROSCRO in Your Game................................91 Getting In, Getting Out ..........................................92  Te School of the American Future .............................93 School of the American Future Character Index .......94 Using SAF in Your Game.........................................94 Getting In, Getting Out ..........................................94 Squadron A1 ...............................................................95 Squadron A1 Character Index ..................................95 Using Squadron A1 in Your Game ...........................95 Getting In, Getting Out ...........................................96 Squadron A1’s Str ucture..............................................97  Senior Command .................................................... 97  Field Command ...................................................... 97  he Gr unts ............................................................. 97 

 Te Way ......................................................................96  Te Way Character Index .........................................98 Using Te Way in Your Game ..................................98 Getting In, Getting Out ..........................................99  Te Xolotl Cartel.........................................................99  Magic Items? ........................................................... 100  he Silent Shotgun................................................ 100  Horny Sauce ......................................................... 100  Good Luck ............................................................ 100  Hexes ................................................................... 101 Sure Shot .............................................................. 101 Deadbeat Compass ................................................ 101

 Xolotl Cartel Character Index ................................ 101 Using the Xolotl Cartel in Your Game ...................101 Getting In, Getting Out ........................................102 Characters: Te First Circle .......................................102 Circles and Motivations ............................................ 10   2

Mel Bates ...........................................................102 Leslie Delacourt, Esq. .........................................103  rey Hogan.........................................................103 Barnabas “Bad Breath Barney” Piccione ..............104 Kim Souter .........................................................104

 Contents  Characters: Te Second Circle ...................................105 Fergus Blascock ..................................................105 Carl Castro .........................................................105 Devon Eire .........................................................106 Irina “Agent XR-6” Grischov ..............................107 Senator Amy Klein .............................................107 Uday Nadhir .......................................................108 Audrey “Powerhound” O’Niel..............................109 Melanie Penobscott ............................................110 Gino “Zipperflesh” Piccione ................................110 Rita “Puke Bomb” Piccione .................................111 Gail “Gary” Podgorny, aka “Mancat” ...................112  Janice Romeo ...................................................... 113 Dr. Brunhilde Sjeök ............................................114 Benjamin “Babe” Weisenthal ...............................115 Harmonia White ................................................116 Reverend Cody Wright .......................................116 Characters: Te Tird Circle ......................................118 “A Letter From Prague”............................... ........ 118 Harriet Breen......................................................118 Lt. Colonel Paul Cohen, Code Name “Resource  wo” aka “Te All Knowin’”................................. 119 Sgt. Megan Deering, Code Name “Te Many” aka “Multiple Meg” ...................................................120 Rufus “Voodoo Child” Dupree ............................121  eymour Ghafari ................................................122 Chlotilde Giroux ................................................123 Albrecht Knudsen ...............................................123 Dr. Eden Majors .................................................124 Sgt. Yolanda Marks, Code Name “Green Crush” aka “Te W isp”..........................................................125  Yevgeny Mishkin ................................................ 126 Christina Streeter ...............................................127 Heather Wells .....................................................128 Sgt. Bailey Wolfe, Code Name “Resource Five” aka “Distortion”............................ ............................. 129 Characters: Te Fourth Circle ....................................130  Jorge Barceló....................................................... 130 Dr. August Frost .................................................131 Dr. Miles Jefferson ..............................................131 Characters: Te Fifth Circle ...................................... 132 Annika Hao ........................................................132 Maj. Rick Rodgers, Code Name “Te One” ........133

CHAPTER 5: SHADOWS STRIDE BEHIND US ............... 135  Te Past is Prologue ............................................... 136 History in Masks ...................................................... 136 What If?............................................................... 136

 Te Past is Present .................................................136 Hell’s Kitchen .....................................................136 Cape and Dagger ................................................137  World’s Finest Adventures ..................................137  Weird War Stories .............................................. 137 Superman and Supernature ........................................137 What If? Masks and the Redcoat Death ..................... 138 

 Te Man in the Ring ................................................. 142 What If? Dead Men Walking .................................... 143

New Deals, New Pacts ...............................................145 What If? Das Ansehen .............................................. 145 

 Te Postwar and the Grim War ................................. 149 What If? ales of the Eschaton................................... 149

New World Orders ....................................................153 Conspiracy heories .................................................. 154 

CHARACTER SHEET ......... 155

 7 

  1   r    e   t   p   a   h   C  e  G  r   i  m  W a  r  

 T h 

“I  N  H  IT LE R ’ S  SORCEROUS  REICH  MA NKI ND ’ S  THIRST 

 8

 for pow er reached its most debased nadir.” Miss

YOU REALLY HINKING ABOU SUDYING HA MAGIC CRAP?

Crandall ’s voice was a low, steady drone, like bees in summer. It was summer outside, and periodically the heads of one of her students would slowly turn to the window, like a flower drawn by the sun. Even the  good students looked. Hank Murdoch looked briefly, then pointed his  face back to the front of the r oom. He was a jittery teen with acne and a safety pin through his nose, old  punk style. “. . . having only recently come to grips with a verifiable ‘beyond,’ the nations of Europe were un prepared for a barbaric sorcerous onslaught backed by a revitalized German economy fueled by Jewish slave labor . . .” 

Kate Palchow wasn’t nearly as good at signing, she’d just started learning i t f rom him. hey w eren’t “going steady” or anything lame like that, but she’d  fool around with Hank. No big thi ng. And if he hadn’t wanted to fool around with anyone but Kate since Kate had started fooling around with him, well, just whose business was that?  Hank stifled a grin, quickly, because Crandall

Hank knew this should be riveting, but Crandall ’s voice could even take something like “make love to me now or lose me for ever” and make it about as interesting as a tax return. He yawned, stretched,

was talking about mass sacrifices. “. . . binding powerful spirits inimical to freedom into their enchanted strong hold at . . . ”  he names, the places, all flowed into one unbro-

and in the process moved his hands in subtle patterns.

ken lullaby. Everyone had to take Crandall ’s “Intro to wentieth Century Occult History” class, every student at the School of the American Future.

Hank knew sign language. His mom was deaf.

I HAVE O S-P-E-L-L WI H YOU A-L-R-E-A-D-Y.

 Chapter 1: The Grim War   HA SUFF IS CREEPY. ME, I’M GOING  MUNICIPAL DEFENDER.

the bleachers during a regional semifinal track meet.  Mid-grade super-strength like that wasn’t anything

“. . . now know that Stalin had been pursuing hi s own occult agenda for . . .” 

special at American Future—what had the eggheads really interested was Kate’s immune sy stem, which apparently had these “biodes” that could kick AIDS in the ass or something. Hank wasn’t really clear on it. Kate’s best friend could disintegrate metals. Hank’s roommate could fly, see in the dark, and change his size by about two feet in either direction. he Prom Queen was bioluminescent. Every student at the School of the American Future was a mutant, many of them had agents a lready, a few were cashing checks fro m Fermilab, MV or the Department of  Justice. Hank couldn’t imagine why Kate would want to throw all that away for moldy old books and scary

Crandall was universally reviled because she was not only boring, but she was a mutant with power over radio waves. As long as she was in the building,  pho nes would n’t get signals, Blackberries would n’t

weird spirits. It didn’t make sense. “. . . read chapters 11 through 13 for tomorrow,” Crandall said, into a chorus of g roans, but the homework wasn’t what made Hank’s eyes widen. It was

carry messages, bluetooth decayed and computers were wireless-less. In a normal school, Crandall would have been adored, like most mutants, but the School of the  American Future was different. “. . . f irst Allied mutant to emerge on the battle f ield was a pilot n amed Geo rge Herbert . . .” 

Crandall ’s hands, making an artless ser ies of jerky  ges tur es.

 YOU GO AN O-F-F-E-R FROM HE D-O-E,  YES? C-H-E-M RESEARCH?

B-U-S--E-D.

 YOU? HEY DON’ HAVE O WEAR FIRE FIGH ER SUFF OR DO A BUNCH OF COP JUNK. HEY ONLY GE COOL JOBS.

 YOU M-E-A-N DANGER.  NO, I MEAN COOL. YOU WAN DAN GER , GO  AHEAD AND CONJURE.

In reply, Hank yawned theatrically, wordlessly. He could force exothermic chemical reactions to occur cold, somehow drawing the heat into his own body where he could release it as electricit y at his leisure. He could make flames icy and r ust iron with a touch.  In the summer, he was inter ning with smoke jumpers who wanted to see if he could create rings of instant ash around forest fires. He couldn’t wait. Hank was a mutant too. So was Kate, who’d been let into the school after a ccidentally jumping into

H-A-N-K AND K-A--E SEE ME AFER CLASS. Crandall gave a mirthless grin before signing,

 9 

 Chapter 1: The Grim War    History, Part One            .

 10 

Whether it was the Pythian oracle, the witch of Endor, bone-pointing Aboriginal killers or voodoo-active pirates, there have always been people around who could call upon the supernatural and have it answer. Tere are  varieties (spirit-binders, fetish-makers, animist shamans) but most forms of magic have long pedigrees. Tey stayed hidden for a long   time, mostly because the typical reaction of people without magic is quite  violent when conf ronted with people who do have magic.  Tere are all kinds of crazy stories about the Borgia popes being satanic magicians, about Pilgrim warlocks using magic to clean out the natives before being unmasked at the Salem trials, about the efficacy of human sacrifice in Central America going head-to-head with the angelic protectors of Catholic conquistadors. It’s hard to say anything for sure before the Teosophists came out into the open and Spiritualist Movement surged after  World War I. But there were just enough people eager for some kind of light after the war’s darkness, hoping for contact with the Other Side and reassurance that mankind was being guided to a better place. Lots of people pursued Spiritualism, and a few things got scientifically  verified. Magic worked. It could contact dead people and provide information that indisputably demonstrated the existence of some kind of human memory af ter the death of the physical body. Magic could also contact immaterial intelligences that were not and had never been human. Not everyone could do it. wo “operators” of equal education could perform the exact same rites, with only one succeeding. Common wisdom holds that some immaterial force of will is necessary to infuse the form of a spell with the energy to operate. Only those with powerful personalities seem to become magicians. Among those who can do magic at all, the simplest sort seems to be subtle influence on the physical world. Gross distortions of the physical world aren’t nearly as common or easy. But they aren’t impossible. Te vogue for magic lasted until a few scrappy in vestigators discovered that, far from being a new cultural

force, there had been magicians quietly influencing politics for as long as fifty years. Te calumny that magicians caused the Great War is certainly a gross oversimplification, but most people believe that there were magicians  who encouraged it and spirits that greatly enjoyed or benefitted from it. As you might guess, the spirits who got off on trench warfare are not the most pleasant kind. But magic didn’t really earn the fear and hatred of the common man until the rise of National Socialism in Germany. Based around a cabal of enchanters, the Nazis  were the first openly sorcerous government. Teir atrocities are now considered the primary example of what magicians do when given authority. After World War II, the practice of ritual magic was banned in most countries, and much of the lore was lost or suppressed. While both the U.S. and USSR legally repressed the practice (after the Supreme Court decided, in he People vs. Megan Boroviak, that magic acts were separate from religion and were therefore exempt f rom Constitutional protection), it’s long been suspected that both sides were secretly using enchantment in their games of espionage, brinksmanship and battles through proxy nations. Indeed, a few dramatic screwups on both sides revealed to all but the most blindly patriotic that most nations were attempting, desperately in some cases, to acquire or recreate lost occult knowledge. A play on one of the words for a magical tome is one reason that the long period of covert strife between Russia and America is called the Grim Wars. Despite the rhetoric of People for Religious Liberation (a so-called “magicians’ rights” movement) that “once  you outlaw magic, only outlaws will use magic,” most people abhor sorcery. Of course, laws and social opprobrium are leveled against murder, theft and drug abuse too, and an awful lot of that goes on.

 History, Part Two       .

A few credulous hero-worshippers claim mutation every time a myth describes someone of unusual strength or unnatural prowess. But between the research of Charles Fort (which earned him the post of U.S. Secretary for Unusual Humanity) and a few well-publicized corpses preserved with obvious traits off the baseline, it

 Chapter 1: The Grim War   seems clear that there were superpowered mutants in the past, even if Napoleon and Ghengis Khan weren’t among their number. Tey’re rare, but becoming less so. Te reason for their rarity goes to the foundations of the phenomenon.  Tere are a number of factors that need to be fulfilled before someone becomes a functioning, metahuman mutant. First off, they need the genetic predisposition. It’s typically theorized that one person in a million has it. In a population of six billion people worldwide, that means there are 6,000 with the potential to develop a power. Secondly, the proto-mutant has to survive into adulthood. Tis is less of an issue in the modern developed  world, but historical child mortality rates were high. Furthermore, activating the genes requires a great deal of biological effort. It’s like bearing a child or recovering from a massive injury. Girls who don’t get enough to eat pubesce later. Children deprived of nutrients grow up stunted. Potential mutants whose bodies are strained  just tr ying to survive and fight off infection have no resources left for a massive change. Even among someone who gets plenty to eat and has the potential, the powers won’t manifest if the host doesn’t accept them. Tey can be present, but unaccessible. Someone who is constantly praised and supported as a child is unlikely to develop low self esteem as an adult  without some serious trauma or life-changing experience, possibly not even then. Similarly, someone who lives his entire life as an ordinary man without heat vision is unlikely to try to use heat vision when he’s a theology grad student. Te potential is there, but he doesn’t even suspect it. Since mutant powers typically manifest after the end of puberty (if they emerge at all), they used to be found most often in people who were already unstable, or who believed in their ability to do inhuman things, or  who were in peril serious enough to jolt them out of their usual self-image. Ironically enough, this last factor meant that many historical mutants thought  they were doing magic, when in fact the ritual trappings of enchantment only gave them a framework for accepting power that was theirs all along. Sorcery aside, historical mutants emerged in conflicts and amidst great tragedies. At the same time that Spiritualism was popularizing the practice of magic, American

belief in eugenics was presenting some primitive clues about the presence of beneficial mutation. Te unusual brutality of the Civil War had produced several prominent mutants (the best known being “Stonewall” Jackson, the general no bullet could touch), so American soldiers going into the Great War were psychologically prepared to at least hope   they could develop some life-saving power under fire. Between the wars, the surviving war hero mutants on both sides became cultural heroes, as well as objects of intense scientific scrutiny. Tis process only accelerated in the Second World War, where America’s

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 Chapter 1: The Grim War   bountiful and well-defended breadbasket ensured that their well fed soldiery had the necessar y calories to fuel the development of powers, if circumstance put them in harm’s way.

Current Events

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Between costumed mutants fighting at the forefront of the Vietnam War while enchanters wormed their  way through Grim War espionage, the life of the average person continued remarkably free of the influence of either. Tat started to change towards the end of the millennium, for both of the very different power ty pes. Te push of mutancy began when developed countries started using hormones on their herds. Tis increased weight gain, raised milk production, and the amounts that remained in the food products were so miniscule that they were deemed insignificant. But in the last thirty years of the twentieth century, the onset of puberty steadily crept earlier in first world nations, possibly for no reason beyond protein-heavy diets. Whatever the reason, potential mutant powers started unlocking earlier. Instead of becoming available to people in their mid twenties (with fairly developed self-images) they  were at hand to teens and adolescents whose identities  were fluid enough to accept parahuman power. Tese same adolescents were also the first generations to grow up with television, and therefore, with televised images of adored and pampered mutants exhibiting their powers. Te mutant population surged, even as many of the teens developing their powers terrified society with their poor power control, or poor grasp of consequences. Te race is on to identify the genes controlling mutantcy, but even without a medical test, genetic databases can churn out lists of likely positives. Some people well into their mature years have been informed, out of the blue, that they have at least a 25% chance of being mutant-positive.  Tis pool of potential repressed mutants have plenty of sponsorship offers f rom governments, corporations and other interested parties with psychological programs designed to tease power out into the open. Some of the more secretive programs utilize the mind-bending powers of enchantment. While it had languished in the shadows, it remained popular with mafias, smugglers, intelligence agencies, terror cells, cults and

other secretive organizations. As computers developed in the 1980s, some of the better funded and scientifically minded sorcerers began applying logical and mathematical analysis to the theory and practice of enchantment.  Tey were able to streamline things considerably, so powerful, compact spells were available just as the Internet arrived and made keeping secrets far, far harder. Leaks were inevitable and, with the media playing up the threat of immature wild mutants (and their rarer but just as dangerous senile counterparts), even some ordinary people started researching a few spells for selfdefense. After all, being bulletproof was one of the more common mutations. Welcome to the Grim War. Tis is a campaign setting for Wild alents: Superhero Roleplaying in a World Gone Mad , and it touches on the “Company” rules from the roleplaying game Reign. You need Wild alents  to play, while the rules from Reign can move the action onto a broader level. For more about Wild alents , visit  www.arcdream.com For more about Reign, visit  www.gregstolze.com

Factions in the Grim War Tese are the power groups the PCs can join and/or fight against and/or fight within.

A krab-i-allah  Brief : Religious fanatics committing indiscriminate ter-

ror, in the name of Allah the all-merciful, using ancient spiritual secrets. Strengths: Absolute conviction, powerful spirits.  Weaknesses: iny fringe sect that any right-thinking person would smash to flinders by any means possible. Incoherent religious ideology makes recruiting difficult.  he Good : You’re kidding, right? I mean, some of them are motivated by genuine religious principles, and some of them blame the U.S. for genuine pain and genuine grievances, but come on. People get misled, they get blinded by their own suffering, but that only explains so much and after that point, it’s on you. Mass murder is that point.  he Bad : All the way down. Some of them are puppets for evil spirits f rom beyond, but arguably they’re less culpable than the people with no such excuses.

 Chapter 1: The Grim War   Citizens Against Reductionist Genetic Obsessions Brief : An advocacy group of genetic normals trying to

inject some humor, sanity and balance into the debate about the meaning of mutants and their place in society. Strengths: Tey’re really well funded, they have a kick-ass PR machine, they’ve put some dollars in some important pockets and they have intellectual cachet.  Weaknesses: Nonviolent and elitist, they deliver votes by manipulation and not by actual passion. Being middle of the road, they’re retrograde to groups like Next Iteration and too appeasing for people who feel threatened or impotent next to mutants.  he Good : Reasonable, rational and have their heads straight on their shoulders. Tey can negotiate as honest dealers between several factions.  he Bad : Self-interested powermongers trying to keep mutants in a PR bind so that they’re docile and need CARGO as intermediaries with the common man.

Direktiva Nul Brief : Te remnant of the Soviet occult intelligence apparatus. Strengths: Magic and ruthlessness. Tey know more

about the invisible world than anyone, and what they know does not lend itself to dreamless sleep.  Weaknesses: Unsupported, have made a lot of enemies and are regarded as evil incarnate by Squadron A1, and as a downed rival in prime kicking position by Projekt ELSA.  he Good : First and foremost, their loyalty is to humanity.  he Bad : Te defense of humanity wallpapers over a lot of sacrifices. Te worst of them are Black 1 and simply regard their chosen side as preferable to evil archons and daemons because the side is their own.

 Next Iteration Brief : Mutants who consider themselves the apex of

human evolution, who seek to spread mutancy and discover latent mutants. Strengths: Some badass, powerful mutants are open supporters and others are quiet donors.  Weaknesses: Very few members. Teir non-mutant staff are either creepy wannabe fanatics or uninspired grinds doing a job and cashing a check. If push comes to shove, some of those powerful mutants won’t walk the walk.

 he Good : Some genuinely believe they’re ushering

mankind into its exciting next evolutionary stage. Tey have nothing against the non-mutated and don’t look down on them intellectually or spiritually. Tey just aren’t this year’s model.  he Bad : Tink KKK with heat vision.

People for Religious Freedom  Brief : A Lobbying group working for the relaxation of

magic regulation. Strengths: Growing populist appeal, loads of money, and sympathy from all kinds of spellcasters.  Weaknesses: Tey have no idea of the implications of  what they’re going on about and a lot of people consider them devil-worshippers. No mutants. Most of their spellcasters are strictly bush-league.  he Good : Principled liberals who support religious freedom and intellectual openness.  he Bad : Covert magicians using this open group as flypaper for anti-magic fanatics.

The Piccione Family Brief : Old-style Italian protection racket with its own

inbred mutant enforcer family, grown into a broad-based criminal conspiracy. Strengths: In addition to loyal (if often messed-up) mutants, they dabble in sorcery. A code of honor keeps them out of drugs and selling spirit-bound objects. Tey try to minimize civilian casualties, too.  Weaknesses: At war with the Xolotl Cartel and losing. At war with the cops and stalemated.  he Good : Stylish, honorable gangsters, possibly with superpowers, enchantments or both.  he Bad : Skeevy, dishonorable gangsters, possibly with superpowers, enchantments or both, and they don’t consider your five-year-old a “civilian”.

Projekt Ethnologisches Literaturarchiv-Sonderabteillung Brief : A secretive European paramilitary group that runs

around stomping mobsters, members of the Xolotl Cartel, resurgent occult nazis, wild mutants, terrorists and anyone else who pisses them off. Projekt ELSA grew out of various nations’ espionage agencies who saw the U.N. (and then the E.U.) as good vessels needing a rudder.

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 Chapter 1: The Grim War   Strengths: Magic, mutants and realpolitik. Also bitchin’

black helicopters.  Weaknesses: Tey’re detached f rom everyday people and everyday morality.  he Good : Gritty warriors defending civilization. Tey’re not good people, but they’re standing between you and things that are evil, crazy, and not people at all.  he Bad : Might-makes-right, ends-justify-means Eurocentric conspiracy.

The Rational Occult Study Crossdisciplinary Research Organization (ROSCRO) Brief : International intellectuals applying science to the

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study of the occult. Tey’re attempting to do it legally,  which means they ’re tightly licensed and observed. Strengths: A fresh perspective has let them get some insights that would make even the Russians sit up and notice. Some of those tweedy professors can throw down Dark Side shit like a Xolotl Cartel enforcer. Who knew?  Weaknesses: Ivory ower mentality, and they’re fumbling around a warehouse in the dark, unaware that it’s full of gunpowder. It’s anybody’s guess whether they find a flashlight or a book of matches first, but any source of illumination will get tried immediately.  he Good : An inner conspiracy using illegal methods to contact benevolent higher powers in defense of humanity against evil.  he Bad : An inner conspiracy using illegal methods to contact malevolent lower powers for self-gratification,  wealth, revenge or out of simple intellectual fascination.

The School of the American Future Brief : Lavishly-funded government school to instruct,

Squadron A1

activate and indoctrinate mutants. Strengths: Lot of mutants there, and some loyalty from early graduates.  Weaknesses: Lot of uncontrolled mutants there, the administration is apathetic about PR, and some bitterness from early graduates.  he Good : Morally-instructed selfless American patriots.  he Bad : Te mean girls you knew in high school, puffed up on entitlement, plus they fly.

Brief : America’s mutant superheroes, who fight crime,

 wage war, do disaster relief and give speeches telling kids not to do drugs or use hexes. Strengths: Beloved by America’s masses, PR-groomed, attractive and hella powerful.  Weaknesses: Under constant surveillance by a cynical public that loves to tear down those it built up. Tey are not, of course, nearly as perfect as they let on.  he Good : Genuine altruists who have the misfortune of

 Chapter 1: The Grim War   being Black 5 in a Black 3 world, but who can throw an Abrams tank into orbit.  he Bad : Hypocrites, turncoats, closet sorcerers and the occasional drug addict or date rapist.

The Way Brief : Christians who vehemently opposed S piritual-

ism back in the day, squandered their capital inveighing against mutants too, and are now resurging as more mutants pop up and are crazier. Strengths: Lots of numbers, lots of history, broad appeal.  Weaknesses: Ain’t got no weird stuff.  he Good : Some distinguish between occultists who sought power and mutants who merely accepted it.  he Bad : Heavily-armed survivalists with an apocalyptic mindset.

The Xolotl Cartel Brief : Criminal magicians who sell enchanted drugs,

 weapons and artifacts. Te common man’s bridge to the occult, for good or (more likely) ill. Strengths: Whole lotta magic goin’ on. Pretty darn rich.  Weaknesses: Te authorities hate them, they’re constantly attacked, and intra-group conflict is settled violently.  Te Good : Groovy libertarian warlocks who think magic is just misunderstood. Te way they see it, there’s no reason people shouldn’t enjoy a visit from the Gatekeeper of Monstrous Delights in the privacy of their own homes.  he Bad : What, curse-flinging black marketeers aren’t evil enough? Okay, there’s a powerful evil spirit operating behind the scenes for its own nefarious purposes.

Variations: Reign and Wild Talents Mutations cannot give characters HD or WD in any Mind, Charm or Command Skills, except for Intimidation—unless the GM says so. If the hyperskill makes sense as a physical extension of the mutant’s power, it might  work. Mutation can’t give HD or WD in those Stats. he “Variable Effect” Extra must be taken with an “If/hen” Flaw that limits it to a particular theme or type of power. his precludes “anything goes” Miracles based on Variable Effect, such as Gadgeteering and Cosmic Power.

 New Skills Given the way that magic is detailed in this setting, there are a few new Skills added to the regular list of Wild alents   skills. Conjure: Tis is the Skill of summoning and compelling daemons, spirits of negativity and opposition. It’s used  with Command. Spirits cannot have Conjure as a Skill. Invocation: Tis is the Skill of entreating and persuading archons, spirits of support and increase. It’s used with Charm. Spirits cannot have Invocation as a S kill. Spellcraft : Tis represents an abstract, theoretical knowledge of sorcery. Someone can have a high Spellcraft score and still be a lousy sorcerer, in the same way that someone can read a dozen manuals on baseball and still have a crappy arm. It’s a Mind Skill. Spiritwise: A Mind Skill, Spiritwise is like Streetwise, only for paranormal entities. It’s mostly good for intuiting influences and presences.

Character Types and Power Profiles Each of these Grim War  character types is associated  with certain Wild alents  sources and permissions. Te type you pick can limit the options you have. Don’t worry though, they aren’t too confining. If you want to stack them up (by creating a mutant conjurer or the like) just add the template costs together.

Mutant   What hey Can Do: Pretty much any physical effect. Limitations: No HD or WD in Mind, Charm or Com-

mand—but see “Variations,” to the left. No telepathy, no detection or control of really abstract principles (“danger,” “loyalty,” “madness”), no emotional control. Sources : Genetic only. Permissions : Super, One Power, Hypertrained, Power  Teme, Peak Performer, and/or Prime Specimen.

Conjurer   What hey Can Do: Conjure daemons, generally nega-

tive spirits with versatile powers. If they beat them at spiritual combat, the daemon has to serve. If the daemon  wins, it can mean a dead conjurer. Or an enslaved one. Limitations: No Hyperstats, Hyperskills, Miracles or intrinsics. Can only compel daemons and must confront them in a power struggle.

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 Chapter 1: The Grim War   Sources: None required. Permissions: None required.

Invoker   What hey Can Do: Invoke archons, generally posi-

tive spirits with versatile powers. Invokers know how to request their assistance. But archons can always say no. Limitations: No Hyperstats, Hyperskills, Miracles or intrinsics. Can only invoke archons and have to persuade them to offer assistance. Sources: None required. Permissions: None required.

Spirit   What hey Can Do: No limits on their power choices

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except as below. Limitations: Can’t easily interact with the physical world, unless bound into it by a Conjurer or Invoker. Cannot deliberately transgress their nature. See page 21 for other details on the Spirit archetype. Sources: Paranormal only. Permissions: Power Teme or Super. (For more on spirits as PCs, see page 16.)

Conduit  Conduits are people who have spirits bound into their very flesh and their minds. Tough many of them appear human (or have one or more human forms) they are a combined entity, human and alien spirit. Not all such combinations are voluntary, but there’s little either party can do to get free without enchantment or death. On the other hand, many people can tolerate the strictures of a spirit in return for the ability to bring its powers to bear on the physical world. Conduits don’t have to buy the Spirit intrinsic, but they don’t get its protections either. If they’re hit, they take damage just like normal people (or more often, like some type of mutant). Tey can still be controlled, compelled and harmed by sorcery,

of course. Tey use the Base Will and W illpower scores of either the spirit or the human, whichever is higher. When a spirit is bound into a person, the caster doing the binding gets to decide whether they’re going to take turns with bodies or blend forms. If they take turns, the human uses the Alternate Form power from Wild alents  and the spirit ’s powers all have the Flaw of being attached to that Alternate Form. Tat alternate shape is, of course, the spirit’s shape. When in his own body, the character takes damage to his mortal f rame and can’t use the spirit’s powers. When in the alternate, he can use all the spirit’s powers.  When forms are blended, the result can look any where from 90% to 50% human. Te altered features come from the spirit’s appearance. With blends, the  wound boxes are either the human’s or the spirit’s,  whichever is better. All powers are available all the time.  With a successful Spiritwise roll, a sorcerer can recognize a blend for what it is, no matter how subtle the changes. If a blended conduit is obviously nonhuman, a successful Spiritwise roll lets a sorcerer get some idea of what the spirit is, or what it represents. Conduits form when people have both bind and access effects working. (For explanations of what those mean, see page 53.) It’s possible to have a spirit bound into someone without giving that person access to the spirit’s power. In that case, the spirit can ride the human’s senses and influence their behavior, but not use its powers normally. (See page 19 for more on bound spirits.)  What hey Can Do: No limits on their power choices except as below. Limitations: Cannot knowingly transgress their nature. It’s not terribly difficult to kick the spirits out, either. Sources : Paranormal only. Permissions : Power Teme or Super.

 Chapter 1: The Grim War  

  2   r    e   t   a  p  i  r   i  t  s   C  h  S   p  T HE  F  IRS T  L ET TER  OF  THE  H  ER MIT 

 My Dear Friend in Christ, Our mutual acquaintance in Malta vouches for your  personal qua lity and assur es me that you have the strength to pick up the burden that she and I share. But before you choose to step upon the path of the invoker, ask yourself if your heart is truly pure in  your pur pose. Do you pursue conta ct with the higher world out of curiosity? If so, you are surely open to the lures of the abyss. Or is it the draw of power that tempts you, the romantic image of the holy war rior,  garbed in righteousn ess with a thousand angels to carry out his commands, defend him from harm and work his pure will upon a muddled world? his too is a snare, and a subtle one, for the true path does not aggrandize its user but rather shr inks him, until his  greatest joy is to submi t to God ’s ineffable will. Are you eager to begin? Or do you dread it? For dread is the proper attitude, and a prayer for this cup to pass your lips untasted. Due to my choice, I have been excommunicated fr om my church. I have been alienated from tho se I love and admire, and have

 17  studied with those I fear and despise. I believe that invocation can be just, a good and sacred practice if approached with reverent aw e. I must believe this, or else I am deceived and surely damned. Even believing as I do, I know that I tread the razor ’s edge, and that the slightest slip could send me plunging into  perdition. I would wish my course on none other, not my worst enemy. Yet if you see no other way to pursue the holy  pur pose, I will consent to instruct you. Consider your answer after much thought and prayer. here is no disgrace in turning away from this dreadful course. Rather, there is the greatest of graces—the grace of God’s mercy. I await your answer and pray for you.

—Aloisius 

 Chapter 2: Spirits  Te relationship between sorcerers and spirits in Grim  War is a curious one, and terribly important to each. Te magic of sorcerers can do almost nothing except constrain, assist, impede or call to spirits. Without archons, daemons and the occasional ghost, magic has no power over the physical worl d. Spirits, on the other hand, are restricted in their power over the material world when they are in their typical astral state. Te only way for them to change their state is the int er vention of a human enchanter. Te smart ones know that the best way to pursue their agendas is by manipulating a mortal,  while the stupid ones are generally so weak of influence that they have no other option for power over the mortal realm. Magicians need spirits to to work their will on people and nations. Spirits need magicians for exactly the same reason.

But What Are   They?

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No one really knows. Tere’s some kind of connection to humanity and the material world, that’s clear. But it’s not clear how significant that connection is. It could be that the spirits that involve themselves with mankind and the physical realm are those whose natures are relevant to what could be t wo small elements of a huge cosmos. Tere could be spirits of undiscovered subatomic particles who are inaccessible because the objects that resonate  with them are unknown. Or there could be entities in the spirit realm totally unencumbered by the natures and antagonisms of the creatures mankind has so far contacted. On the other hand, the spirit would could be an unimportant codicil to the physical world. Te natures of spirits and archons could be bound intricately to the primary world, emerging from their interactions with our world the same way that shadows emerge from the interactions of light and matter. But it’s equally arguable that all our l ands and cities, all we see and are, are the reflections of spirit actions cast in cl ay and flesh. Some highly educated sorcerers believe that the spirits created mankind and the world we inhabit. Others, just as learned believe that spirits are created by mankind, unacknowledged psychic bastards abandoned as children and grown to maturity  with their faces pressed to the glass of the real world. No one is sure.

Spirits’ Traits Spirits ain’t like you and me. hey’re creatures of energy and idea, and their values are, at best, extreme to a point that

Spirits in the Material World Normally, spirits are invisible from the material world. However, it is possible to create conditions that make it easier for a spirit to show itself. Because many spirits operate indirectly, through influencing probability, they can alter highly chaotic systems with less effort. Something with Brownian motion is ideal. They can form faces or letters or images in agitated smoke, billowing steam or boiling liquids. Many modern invokers use a simple plexiglass chamber with a dr y-ice smoke machine and a fan when t hey want to impress people. But it’s just as easy to see them on a TV turned to a blank channel, where they can manifest through the snow, or the static on a radio. If a spirit has been successfully conjured, invoked, or bound by a mortal spellcaster, it can reveal itself in these sorts of randomness.

 would be mad in a human being and, at worst, comp letely alien. hat said, spirits can be quantified by about three traits:  ype, Nature, and Circle. he first of these is its  ype , meaning, is it a daemon or an archon? Archons are spirits of creation and increase. hey are  for   some principle (as defined by their nature, below).  hey cannot decrease or assault that core concept, no matter how much they might selfishly want to or how much they might recognize that it’s for the greater good. Archons aren’t “good,” as anyone who’s encountered the archon Belhimoth, Patron of yranny, can tell you. Daemons are spirits of destruction, decay and decrease,  with inherent antagonism to some principle, as defined by their nature. Tey cannot improve or protect their nemesis, no matter  what it might gain them selfishly (or altruistically) to do so. Daemons aren’t evil any more than archons are good. Tere are daemons dedicated to the defeat of slaver y and child abuse and any other vile thing you’d care to imagine. But there are also daemons with a mad on against democracy and the rainforests. Tis brings us to a spirit’s Nature, the core of its identity, defined as something it must always suppo rt or always oppose.  Tese principles can be broad (such as love, peace or political authority) or quite narrow (being the patron protector or haunter of a specific area or profession). Te broader a spirit ’s nature, the more powerful it is. A spirit of one particular city ’s sewer system is going to be a lesser thing than a spirit of all cities’ waterways.

 Chapter 2: Spirits  A spirit’s Circle is a measure of its power, defined through Points—the same stuff that you use to build Wild alents  characters. Spirits are built like any other alent. Minor spirits are as  weak as 100 Points and rarely interact with the material world at all. Powerful spirits can be 500 to 600 Points, or possibly more. For every hundred Points, they go up a Circle, rounding down. Tus, spirits built with 100 to 199 Points are First Circle, 200 to 299 Points are Second Circle, and so on. Te most powerful spirit identified is suspected to be Seventh Circle, but no one has managed to summon it yet. Perhaps that’s just as well.

Spiritual States of Being Without human assistance, it is a rare spirit that is able to make itself more than momentarily visible. But when so rcerers begin to meddle, suddenly spirits can take a much more direct stance in their relations with the material realm. Tere is a direct relationship between a spirit’s state of being and its degree of influence on the mortal world. Tere are five stages, five degrees of separation from the human world, and the transition between them is accomplished only with human connivance. It’s important to understand the difference between an astral spirit and that same spirit operating through a conduit. For one thing, a spirit that cannot affect or even perceive a human while astral may be able to casually rend him limb f rom limb once brought into closer phase with material reality.

Astral Te most tenuous connection to the physical realm, the astral state is the common and “natural” mode for both archons and daemons. An astral spirit cannot perceive the mortal realm  without using a miraculous power to do so, and its ability to perceptibly change or influence things is an effort as well. An astral spirit influencing the physical world can be temporarily driven off by Exorcism (see page 53). If a human fills all of an astral spirit’s boxes with Killing damage, it is dispersed and that human can consume two dice of any Stats, Skills or Miracles. Tis is hard to accomplish, however, since astral spirits are hard to constrain. If a spell is cast to lock it in place, the spirit becomes bound (as explained below).

Liminal When a summoning spell works properly, it places the spirit in a liminal state. For roughly an hour, the spirit can perceive the material world and interact with the summoner,

 within limits. Te spirit can’t leave the summoner’s presence unless released, at which point it becomes astral. If Invoked, the spirit can use its powers under the same restrictions as it would  when astral, whether those powers are limited, full strength, or impossible in the material wor ld. Conjured daemons are a different matter. When they arrive, there is nothing inherent to the liminal state that keeps them from using their powers at full strength. Tey can’t flee the sorceress unless she releases them or her spell expires. Of course, if she dies the spell ends. Tis is why protection spells are critical tools for successful conjuration. Summoning spells create the liminal state but can’t “unmake” it. Te spirit can only leave the liminal state through the agency of 1:  another spell, such as Bind, Abjure or Materialize,  2:  the end of the summons, which returns it to astral, 3:  the sorcerer’s death or 4:  the enchanter deciding to release it and  it  wants to be astral again. Unbinding and exorcism have no effect on liminal spirits. Another summons has no effect on a sp irit that’s already liminal. It just gets a busy signal. Sometimes a spirit is far from its original summoner when it’s forced from a bound or materialized state back into liminal.  When this happens, the spirit vanishes and appears by the magician who summoned it. If the caster has died in the interim, the spirit becomes astral. Te exception to this is if someone else summons a bound or materialized sp irit. If that spell works, the spirit becomes liminal in the presence of its new summoner. However, bound and materialized spirits can only be summoned when the caster is right there with them. (Astral real estate is flexible. Once a spirit ’s in the material realm, it can’t be  yanked around so easily.) If a liminal spirit has its last box filled with Killing damage, it’s permanently destroyed, but the caster who kill ed it does not get to steal its powers.

Bound Tis is the lowest state a spirit can exist in that is fully across the Barrier. When a spirit has been summoned, a Binding spell can remove it from its liminal state and stick it in an object, lock it to a place, or seal it inside a human being. Spirits don’t need to be compliant to be bound. Spirits bound to devices or locations usually can’t perceive  what’s happening around them, unless they possess powers that let them perceive the material worl d when they’re astral. (If they do have those powers, they can use them as if they were

 19 

 Chapter 2: Spirits 

and then hitting the lock (now a makeshift amulet or talis-

perception powers they have (just as if they were trapped in a  wristwatch or a toilet stall), but without use of a spell that pro vides access (see page 53.) the spirit can’t change  anything with its powers, and neither can anyone else Spells that would harm the spirit if it was astral harm the person physical ly. Successful Exorcisms force the person to flee or lose Willpower. Unbinding spells make the spirit liminal again.

man) with the harm spell until it breaks and the spirit de-

Materialized

Material Vulnerability The presence of a bound spirit in a physical object has some interesting and curious outcomes. For instance, a feeble enchanter who happens to have a powerful harm spell might escape a prison by binding a spirit into the lock of his cell

parts it. Or he might bind a spirit into someone specifically in order to make that person vulnerable to magical attack. Or if he needed to find out which of several diamonds was hosting a daemon, he could hit each with his harm spell and see which one jumped or corroded.

 20 

astral.) Other powers that cross the barrier just don’t work. An object-bound spirit without some kind of access effect may or may not know what’s going on, but it sure as hell isn’t going to affect events. Bound spirits are fairly durable, however. It is impossible to damage them without first destroying the person or object that houses them. Harm spells damage the host obj ect or location. If the binding item is destroyed the spirit becomes astral again. For spirits in places, they may also get returned to the astral plane if the location undergoes serious changes: a house burns down, a crypt gets disturbed, the seal in the laborator y gets broken or so forth. Exorcisms don’t work on spirits that are bound into objects or places. Abjurations don’t do anything to any of them. Successful use of the unbind effect (see page 53.) breaks them free and makes them liminal once more. If a spirit is bound into a person and that person has access to its powers, that person is a conduit, a kind of spirit -matter stew. (For more on conduits, specifically how t hey deal with  Willpower and wound boxes, see page 16.) Spirits bound into people can observe through their host’s senses and use any

A materialized spirit has been brought into full alignment  with the physical world. It can use all its powers at full strength. It can pick up objects, be damaged by conventional weapons, and be seen and heard unaided by people, animals, and other materialized spirits. It is now, for all intents and purposes, mortal. Until the spell wears off, anyhow. If a materialized spirit is killed with conventional weapons, it goes back to being astral. It becomes liminal if hit with an unbinding spell. If successfully hit by some form of Binding spell, it’s stuck in place (or forced to remain within ten feet of an object or person who serves as the spell’s focus).

Spiritual Combat Spirits cannot fight each other when disembodied, amusingly enough. When one spirit screws with another, it’s by manipulating the things that spirit values in the material plane. Nor can spirits initiate spiritual combat with human beings. As long as mortals stay on the material plane, they’re fairly safe from direct  assault by archons and daemons (though spirits who can reach across the barrier can, and do, harass humans mercilessly). Humans who come to the spiritual realm spoiling for a fight usually find one, though. Here’s how that works: Every spirit has a spiritual silhouette that mimics a human’s physical one. Layers of Extra Spiritual ly ough can be purchased normally, as can levels of Heavy Spiritual Armor. Custom Spiritual Hit Locations? Just as with a body. As below, so above. Tere’s Shock and Killing damage, too. However, there are no equiva-

Spirit Effects Unbind Exorcise  Abjure Summon Bind

 Astral

Liminal

Bound

Materialized

no effect flee or lose half WP

no effect no effect

no effect goes liminal becomes bound

goes astral no effect becomes bound

spirit becomes liminal spirit becomes liminal no effect if bound in object, flee flee or lose half WP or lose WP if bound in person no effect goes astral goes liminal goes liminal no effect trapped in place

 Chapter 2: Spirits 

lents to head or torso boxes: A spirit that has only one undamaged box in what maps to its “left forearm” can still operate at full capacity. A spirit with a fully damaged limb can’t use that limb, however, and when any location is full it starts bleeding over into open boxes. When an astral spirit’s boxes are all filled with Killing damage, the spirit is destroyed and its slayer can consume up to two dice (of any type) in any power, Skill or Stat the spirit has, permanently gaining that ability. Tis doesn’t work for nonastral spirits, however. Once a spell keeps a spirit from fleeing by attaching it to some material interface, it’s no longer astral, it’s bound. Remember that. Spirits who attack physical humans (either on orders from a summoner or because they ’re resisting being conjured) do physical damage with their powers, if they ’re able. Tey can’t initiate spiritual combat with a human. When they’re liminal, they can make Brawling rolls and deck the casters as if t hey  were physical. Unless, of course, the conjurer was smart enough to have some kind of protective ward in place. If a human enters the astral world all spirit attacks against it are spiritual combat. Humans rarely get into spiritual combat, and when they do they’re a bit different. hey have one hit location, and they take damage on their Willpower. Once their Willpower is exhausted, they start taking permanent damage to Cool and Command. When those are destroyed, it moves on to Mind.

Picking a Fight Daemons must always accept combat if it is offered to th em by name or title (though this is hardly universal knowledge among sorcerers). After taking one blow and attempting to give one, they may flee, but they have to open hostilities. Archons are under no such onus and usually escape belligerent human sorcerers when if they can. If they’re liminal, that may not be an option.

If an attacker empties a human of Mind, it can then consume up to two dice o f any power, Skill or Stat the human possesses. Of course, most magicians disengage from combat before being hollowed out like that. If they’re able. But many  who get stuck on the losing end of an astral beat-down surrender at the price of letting the spirit pick one task for them to perform. Without a nature to protect him, a human invoker may wind up doing something trul y repellent, with no choice about the matter. It is perfectly possible for humans to engage in spiritual  warfare with one another, as well. Tis needs to be facilitated by a spell, or by them both being in the sp iritual world when they encounter each other, but it happens. Te most celebrated magical duel of the twentieth centur y appeared, to mundane eyes, to consist of a man and a woman glaring at each other

 21 

 Chapter 2: Spirits  until one of them suddenly collapsed into catatonia. Spirits can naturally attack, just as humans can naturally attack  with their fists. A human in the spiritual realm can as well.

True Names No true names of spirits are listed in this book, period. Even

Daemons: The First Circle

the things that sound like they might be names are just

Securer Against Peril

sounds like a First-Circle archon (or a cell phone company).

 ype: Daemon Summoned By : Conjure Astral Alarm (page 58)

titles or aliase s. If you're a GM, just make something up. As a guideline, two syllables times Circle is fine. Thus, "Vaxog" "Nususonapigan" would be Circle Three. Or if you don't feel like counting syllables, give them names you like. Mechanically, the exact name doesn't matter.

Circle : First

When a character possesses a spirit’s true name, she

 Antagonism : Danger

has great power over it. Any Difficulty of any   spell cast on

Stats

the spirit is decreased by 3 when the True Name is used.

Body : 2d Coordination : 2d Sense : 2d Mind: 1d Charm : 1d Command: 1d

 22 

 you and filling all the space around you. Scholars who have investigated the matter say it is t he human mind attempting to interpret the sensation of complete and alien scrutiny through physical filters.

Base Will : 2

 The Gatekeeper of Monstrous Delights

Skills

 ype: Daemon

Athletics 1d, Endurance 1d, Perception 1d, Spiritwise 1d

Summoned By : Raise the Succubus (page 61)

 Mirac les

Circle : First

Create (Awareness of Danger) 2d+1wd (Useful) : Tis abil-

 Antagonism : Sexual Frustration

ity does not suffer a penalty when projected into the material  world. However, the spirit can only provide a warning against a danger it has perceived. Tis means that, in order to see the danger coming, it usually has to be materialized, liminal or otherwise connected to the material realm. Perceive (Peril) 2d+1wd (Useful): Tis ability suffers a –2d penalty when the spirit tries to use it on the physical world from the spiritual world.

Stats

Description

Skills

 Te Securer Against Peril appears as a bloodshot eye the size of a medium-sized dog. Its back side, the part without the pupil, has a long red tendril or pseudopod, which it uses to push itself like a snake, or swim lik e a tadpole. Te same back is covered  with a surface that could be thick red fur, or a bed of blood  vessels. Te iris is brown. When in the presence of the Securer, one feels intensely observed, as if the minute details of one’s actions and movements are being scanned and e valuated. Tere is a feeling of a low hum around it, even though it is in fact silent. Or perhaps it’s more like a gas, invisible and odorless but pressing against

Persuasion 6d, Brawl 3d

Body : 2d Coordination : 2d Sense : 2d Mind: 1d Charm: 1d Command: 1d Base Will : 2

 Miracles

Dark Rapture 8+1hd+1wd (Useful) : Te Gatekeeper cannot use

this power on physical targets when it’s astral, unless some spell provides access. Tis is not a Miracle that attacks or defends. It is something of a specialized hybrid of Dead Ringer and elepathy.  Te Gatekeeper (if conduced or otherwise available) can assume the necessary form and play out whatever acts provide a target  with the profoundest depths of sexual release and abandon. Curiously, many find that this is far from being as wonderful as it sounds. Sexuality, the great human preoccupation, is complicated, and the psychology of it is a complication of a complica-

 Chapter 2: Spirits  tion. Dark Rapture does not give the subject what he wants, or  what she thinks she wants, but rather the fulfillment of the most elemental and overwhelming erotic desires. Tese are often the most deeply suppressed. Arguably a well-adjusted person might be able to make peace with their desires, but well-adjusted people are rarely interested in making supernatural whoopee. Description

 Te Gatekeeper initially appears in the shape you most consciously acknowledge as attractive. (Given that the Gatekeeper is suffering when summoned by Raise the Succubus, this could be a distressing experience for soft-hearted conjurers already, if softhearted conjurers were common.) Once it unleashes its power, it transforms again. Upon initial arrival, it reeks of perfume. During Dark Rapture, it produces whatever aromas are fitting.

Skills

Intimidation 1d, Interrogation 1d, Persuasion 1d  Miracles

Control (Misery) 7d (Useful): Tis ability works at full strength

in the material world, but it can onl y be used to increase unhappiness, not reduce it. It can only affect unhappiness that’s already present, not create it f rom nothing. It can be used to defend, by suddenly causing some emotional or physical discomfort to become distractingly intense. More typically, a conjurer uses the Knight of Sorrows to subtly torment an enemy or rival, honing already-present troubles unbearably. Note that this spirit cannot perceive the material world from the spirit world without assistance. Description

Picture rain running down a window on a sunless, somber day; dim and dark, but without even the drama of night. Perhaps  you’ve just gotten back f rom a funeral, or read a “Dear John” letter, and the sky seems to be pouring out your tears of frustration or sorrow, the tears you can’t muster the energy to cry. Now shape that window into a suit of medieval armor and you know how the Knight of Sorrows appears.

 The Knight of Sorrows  ype: Daemon Summoned By : Sorrow’s Glass (see page 62) Circle : First  Antagonism : Happiness Stats

Body : 1d

 23 

Coordination : 1d Sense : 1d Mind: 2d Charm : 2d Command: 1d Base Will : 4

The Spirit Archetype The Spirit archetype co sts 7 Points. It includes the intrinsic “Inhuman” and the “Super” permission. Above and beyond those categories from Wild Talents , spirits also have the following benefits and restrictions: • If one of th eir powers can be used at all i n the material world wh ile the spirit is astral, it costs 1 WP. • Powers that t a spirit’s nature can be bought at a reduced cost (–1 per die) as if they were awed. Powers that are against a spirit’s thematic nature are more expensive (+1 per die). • Powers that work without penalty in the physical world while the spirit is astral cost extra (+3 per die). • Powers an astral spirit can work upon the physical world with a –2d penalty cost extra (+1 per die). • Spirits are always vulnerable to spells and cannot take any power that protects them directly (so, no “Nullify: Spells” or “Immunity: Magic” Miracles). • Spirits can never, ever act against their essential nature. • Spirits can never learn Conjuring or Invocation. • Spirits do not perish until the last wound box on their whole prole is lled. Any lled limb can bleed over into any unfilled limb.

 Chapter 2: Spirits 

 24   The Black Cat   ype: Daemon Summoned By : Black Catnip (see page 57) Circle : First  Antagonism : Good Luck  Stats

Body : 1d Coordination : 1d Sense : 1d

Description

 Te Black Cat appears as some form of black cat. It might be a sleek, mighty puma or a chew-eared alley cat, but it’s always unrelievedly black. So black, in fact, that light falls into it without reflection. It’s heralded by a scent of burning leaves and rain and starlight (which many people would say has no odor, until they encounter this spirit). No matter where one is when the Black Cat is summoned, the location immediately seems more shadowy, mysterious, vaguely intimidating but undeniably compelling.

Mind: 1d

 The Gremlin

Charm : 2d

 ype: Daemon

Command: 2d

Summoned By : Call the Gremlin (see page 57)

Base Will : 4

Circle : First

Skills

 Antagonism : Environmental Pollution

Brawling 2d, Lie 1d

Stats

 Mirac les

Body : 1d

 Jinx 5d (Attacks, Defends, Useful) : It can only use 3d of this

Coordination : 1d

power at a time in the physical world, if it’s still in the spirit world. Perceive Material World 4d (Useful ): At will, the Black Cat can attempt to peer into the realm of flesh. If it succeeds, it can see for minutes equal to the Height of the roll. If it fails, it can’t try again for minutes equal to the Height of its highest rolled die.

Sense : 1d Mind: 1d Charm: 1d Command: 2d Base Will : 3

 Chapter 2: Spirits 

Skills

Stats

Athletics 1d, Perception 1d

Body : 2d

 Mirac les

Coordination : 2d

Nullify (echnology) 5d (Useful): Tis power works at a –2d

Sense : 2d

penalty in the physical world, but any machine successfully targeted with it ceases working permanently. Perceive (Material World) 6d (Useful): Te Gremlin can only see the physical realm through plants. In a completely ar id or lifeless environment, its sight is blocked.

Mind: 2d

Description

Brawling 2d

 Te Gremlin takes the shape of a squat, toadlike creature the size of a very fat housecat. It’s bright green with an inquisitive, homely, semi-human face. It is extremely flatulent.

 Miracles

Daemons: The Second Circle  The Grand Maledictor   ype: Daemon Summoned By : Maledictus Inelucti (see page 60) Circle : Second  Antagonism : Stability 

Charm: 2d Command: 2d Base Will : 11 Skills

 Aces 1d+1wd (Attacks, Defends, Use ful) : Tis spirit’s version

of Aces has no Willpower cost.  Jinx 4d (Attacks, Defends, Useful) : Te Maledictor can only

apply two of these dice at a time from the spiritual world into the physical. Furthermore, they can only be used to sow dissent, increase confusion, and wreak havoc. Tis spirit’s version of Jinx has no Willpower cost. Perceive (Material World) 4d (Useful) Description

 Te Grand Maledictor takes the form of a burning brand, floating in midair, or the shape of an unnaturally large crow. Sparks fly off the brand and turn into fireflies, buzzing around

 25 

 Chapter 2: Spirits  it. When the crow flaps its wings, black flies emerge from under them like escaping smoke. Te smell of rust and mold permeates the air around the Maledictor, and an elevated heart rate and a vague prickly feeling on the skin are signs of it s presence. It triggers the human fight-or-flight reflex without offering any real reason or target.

 The Slayer of Secrets  ype: Daemon Summoned By : Summon the Slayer of Secrets (see page 62) Circle: Second

 The Guardian of the Mind’s Citadel

 Antagonism : Secrecy 

 ype: Daemon

Stats

Summoned By : Shield Against Mind ’s Misfortune (see

Body : 1d

page 62) Circle: Second  Antagonism: Madness

Coordination : 2d

Stats

Charm: 2d

Body : 3d

Command: 3d

Coordination : 1d

Base Will : 5

Sense: 2d

Skills

Mind: 2d Command: 3d

Dodge 2d, Empathy 1wd, Intimidation 2d, Knowledge (Cryptology) 1d+1wd, Perception 3d, Persuasion 4d, Stealth 2d, Streetwise 5d

Base Will : 5

 Miracles

Skills

Mind Reading 8d (Useful): Tis is a limited form of

Athletics 2d, Brawling 2d, Dodge 2d, Endurance 2d, Lie 1d, Persuasion 2d, Spiritwise 1d, Streetwise 1d

telepathy, in that the Slayer can only detect thoughts, not project his thoughts to others. It can use this as a defensive power, but not for attack. It can use its full pool to read the mind of someone in the material world, even  when it’s in the spirit realm. Perceive (Material World) 7d (Useful) : Te Slayer of Secrets can only sense the material world when in the presence of people who are acting secretively or attempting to conceal something.

Charm: 2d

 26 

drink. Whether this sensation is welcome or not usually depends on the perspective of the experiencer.

 Miracles

Create (Disinterest) 7d (Useful): Tis ability can’t be

used f rom the spirit world into the physical. It’s rolled against Stability. If the Create pool wins, the target is struck with severe, crushing boredom and depression. Its next action costs a Willpower point. Create (Narcotizing Detachment) 4d (Useful): Tis ability works at full power in the material world. With a successful roll, the target of the ability automatically succeeds at his next S tability roll. Heavy Spiritual Armor (Defends +1) 2hd Perceive (Physical World) 4d (Useful) : Tis ability has no

thematic limit. Description

 Te Guardian appears as a floating brain about the size of a beach ball. When it’s protecting someone, it can be seen in the spirit world encasing his head like a helmet. All sounds become muted in its presence, while one’s fingers and toes become heavy, then pleasantly numb.  While it doesn’t make humans around it drunk, there is a sensation akin to the warmth and vagueness of a stiff

Sense: 3d Mind: 2d

Description

 Te Slayer of Secrets appears as a focused beam of blinding white light, shining down from above. It has no real source: If it’s aimed at you, you can only look up into a painful glare. (No matter how tall you are, it’s above you). If it’s aimed at someone else in your presence, you see them harshly lit, but not from any particular object. It is uncomfortable to be under its scrutiny, causing involuntary blushing and disconnected feelings of mortification, as if it has just discovered you engaged in something that is not quite wrong or repellent, just embarrassing.

 Chapter 2: Spirits   The Physician Without Body   ype: Daemon Summoned By : Demand of Succor (see page 59) Circle: Second  Antagonism : Suffering Stats

Body : 2d Coordination : 2d Sense: 2d Mind: 2d Charm: 2d Command: 2d Base Will : 4 Skills

Athletics 2d, Dodge 2d, Endurance 2d, First Aid 2d, Medicine 2d, Perception 2d, Persuasion 2d  Miracles

Deaden Pain 7d (Useful) : Te Physician can only roll

5d with this ability when projecting it f rom the spiritual  world into the material. With a successful roll, it can reduce wound penalties, or keep an individual from knowing he has been hurt (or poisoned). If you need to model this mechanically, the GM can conceal two points of damage from a player during combat, until it makes a limb useless, or causes him to pass out, or until it kills him. Healing 8d (Useful): Te Physician can heal damage in others, as described in Wild alents . When attempting to heal a material being f rom the spiritual realm, the Physician can only roll 6d. Regeneration 2hd (Useful): Every combat round, the Physician automatically heals itself of two points of Shock and Killing damage. Description

A pale, skeletal, blue-white apparition in icy white robes, holding a staff around which two serpents twine and  writhe. Te hem of its garment is stained and spattered  with blood, both dried old stains and f resh new ones. A cold, sterile breeze reeking of bleach and rubbing alcohol flows off it in dry, thin clouds, and its voice sounds like scissors snapping closed.

 27 

 Chapter 2: Spirits   ype: Daemon

 The All-Preserver 

Circle : Tird

Summoned By : Call the Lord of War (see page 57)

 ype: Daemon

 Antagonism : Peace

Summoned By : Te Philosopher’s Statue (see page 60)

Stats

Circle : Tird

Body : 4d

 Antagonism : Change, Decay 

Coordination : 4d

Stats

Sense : 2d

Body : 3d

Mind: 2d

Coordination : 2d

Charm: 2d

Sense : 2d

Command: 4d

Mind: 3d

Base Will : 8

Charm : 4d

Skills

Command: 2d

Brawling 3d, Knowledge (Demolitions) 3d, Leadership 3d, Melee Weapon (all weapons) 3d, Persuasion 3d, Ranged Weapon (all weapons) 3d, actics 3d

Base Will : 6 Skills

 28

Lord War 

Daemons: The Third Circle

Athletics 2d, Brawling 2d, Dodge 2d, Endurance 2d, Mortal wise 2d, Perception 2d, Spiritwise 2d, Stability 2d

 Miracles

 Mirac les

 wrath. It works at full power in the material world. Control (Modern Weapons) 8d (Useful) : Tis pool can be rolled at a –2d penalty when the spirit is trying to influence the physical world f rom the spiritual realm. Tis Miracle can only be used to make a weapon fire or t o prevent it f rom firing. It can’t aim or damage or lift a weapon.

Bestow Incorruptibility 7d (Useful) : Te All-Preserver can

only roll 5d when using t his on material targets while the All-Preserver itself is astral. With any successful roll, an object or person becomes physically, and permanently, “incorruptible”.  Tis does not mean indestructible; the incorruptible is still subject to damage and destruction. But an incorruptible object does not decay or erode and is not subject to corrosion. An incorruptible human does not age. She can get sick, but if she dies, her body does not rot.

Control (Anger) 9d (Useful) : Tis can only be used to increase

Extra ough 6hd Harm ( Jarring Impact) 8d (Attacks + 8) : Tis attack does

Perceive (Material World) 5d (Useful)

 W+8S and Dazes its target. It can’t be used defensively, and if Lord War is astral, this ability can’t pass into the physical world. Perceive (Material World) 7d (Useful): Lord War can only roll to see across the barrier at scenes of confrontation.

 ime Fugue 7d (Useful) : Te All-Preserver can only roll 5d

Description

to use this across the boundary between worlds. It Defends, is Robust and is Useable Outside Combat.

Lord War’s very appearance is an intrusion. It arrives with a deafening blast and the acrid odor of a village on fire. At its core is the guttering, ugly orange light of a burning corpse, but floating around it are weapons, pieces of armor, and chunks of  war machines. Tey’re f rom all periods of history, all damaged and corroded from use, never still, but always forming the fifteen-foot-high shape of a helmeted soldier. Sometimes he’s a WWI doughboy, with the turret of a Panzer poking over his shoulder as a rifle and a cloud of broken chainmail links forming the drapes of his pants. Other times he’s an ancient Athenian hoplite, with a large cannon shell protecting his head and a spear tipped by the nose cone of a V-2 rocket.

Immunity (Everything) 2hd (Useful)

Description

 Te All-Preserver appears as a seven-foot tall statue of flawless  white marble. Te statue depicts a figure of immaculate, androgynous beauty. It is at the same time more human than anyone could be, and utterly alien in its sy mmetrical perfection. It smells of nothing at all, a cloying odorlessness that overwhelms all natural scents. o see it is to be struck with revulsion and covetous envy, all at once. Just one l ook is enough to show you how flawed you are, and how those flaws could be shed.

 Chapter 2: Spirits  Lord War is pompous, aggressive and antagonistic. It has a  voice that mingles the roar of cannon and clash of swords with the screams of the disemboweled. Its words grate and irritate,  while just looking at it makes you feel like you’ve been sleeping in a trench for days and there’s cold filth grinding in every corner and crevice of your body.

Desecrator of the Body   ype: Daemon

Description

A roiling mass of tattered, wounded, infected flesh. In outline, it could be a corpulent human, or a giant frog. It’s about the size of a subcompact car. As you would guess, its odor is not a pleasant one. Tose who are near it cough and their noses clog  with snot. Tey feel chills or sweaty fever-flashes, or one after the other, along with joint aches and the nagging sensation that their lymph nodes are swelling.

 Antagonism : Health

Daemons: The Fourth Circle

Stats

 The Dark Warden

Body : 1d

 ype: Daemon

Coordination : 1d

Summoned By : Te Ineffable Ritual of the Dark Warden

Sense : 2d Charm : 1d

(see page 60) Circle : Fourth  Antagonism : Freedom

Command: 5d

Stats

Base Will : 8

Body : 5d

Skills

Coordination : 5d

Dodge 4d, Endurance 4d, Intimidation 4d, Knowledge (Demolition) 4d, Lie 4d, Perception 4d

Sense : 5d

 Mirac les

Charm: 5d

Create (Disease) 6d (Useful) : Tis ability works at full strength

Command: 10d

in the material world. With a successful roll, the target loses a point off a randomly chosen Stat and loses a die from a set (if in combat). Tis ability can’t successfully attack someone more than twice per day. wenty-four hours after the first exposure, the sick character can make an Endurance check t o shake off the disease. His Stats remain impaired until he makes a successful Endurance check. Only one such Endurance check is permitted per day. Extra ough 10hd (Useful): Damage to these wound boxes cannot be healed. Ever! Not even if he gets hurt, goes back home to the spirit world, and then gets summoned again. Harm (Gruesome, Suppurating Sores) 8d : Tis ability has Penetration 5, does WS damage and has the Daze effect.  Jinx 6d (Attacks, Defends, Useful) : Te Desecrator can’t roll more than 4 Jinx dice when it is astral and its target is in the material world. It can only use Jinx dice on individuals who are ill. Perceive (Material World) 6d : Te Desecrator can’t perceive the physical realm except f rom the perspective of an injur y, or through the eyes of someone ill.

Base Will : 15

Summoned By : Putrid Coalition (see page 61) Circle : Tird

Mind: 4d

Mind: 5d

Skills

Athletics 4d, Brawling 4d, Empathy 4d, Interrogation 5d, Intimidation 4d, Lie 4d, Mortalwise 4d, Perception 4d, Spiritwise 4d, Stability 4d  Miracles

Bind (Chains) 8d (Attacks, Useful) : Chains surge out from t he

 Warden’s body to encircle and constrict his enemies. Bind (Mind-Forg’d Manacles) 4d (Useful) : He has to touch his target. If it succeeds, it is permanent. It makes t he target  permane ntly u nabl e t o vo luntari ly move . Containment 8d (Defends, Useful) : Tis takes the form of a

fast-moving cloud of black particles, which the Dark Warden breathes out in a long hiss. Tey swirl and encircle whatever it is he’s attempting to contain. Create Darkness 4d (Useful) : Tis power can make things harder to see, but not to the point o f blinding someone in an otherwise bright room. Heavy Spiritual Armor 5hd (Defends)

 29 

 Chapter 2: Spirits   Jinx 5d (Attacks, Defends, Useful) : Tis power can be applied

full strength from the spiritual world into the material. However, it can only be used to interfere with attempts to escape, liberate others or otherwise pursue freedom. Perceive (Material World) 6d (Useful): Te Dark Warden can only see f rom the perspective of locks, shackles, security cameras and similar objects. Description

 Te Dark Warden appears as a man composed entirely of iron chains, keys and locks. He’s about eight feet tal l and heavily muscled. No matter how spacious or grand the place into  which the Warden is conjured, it feels cramped, claustrophobic and constructed with contempt and constraint. If called in a dark place, it feels infinitely darker. If called in light, the light becomes harsh, blinding and unforgiving.

 The Soul Breaker   ype: Daemon Summoned By : Call the Soul Breaker (see page 58) Circle : Fourth  Antagonism : Resistance

 30 

Stats

Body : 5d Coordination : 2d Sense : 2d Mind: 2d Charm : 5d Command: 10d Base Will : 17 Skills

Athletics 2d, Brawling 1wd, Dodge 2d, Endurance 2d, Knowledge (Cryptology) 1wd, Knowledge (Demolitions) 1wd, Interrogation 1wd, Intimidation 1wd, Lockpicking 1wd, Perception 3d, Security Systems 1wd  Mirac les

Bestow Penetration 10d (Useful): With a successful roll, the

 Example: he Soul Breaker uses Bestow Penet ration on a r itual

Soul Breaker can bless weapons (or fists and teeth, for that matter) with Penetration. Tis can be used at full power from the spirit realm on physical objects. Te item gains Penetration equal to the Height of the roll for its next attack. Once the  weapon has gained Penetration, any further success gives it the same degree of Penetration for another attack. If you roll low Height, tough luck. Wait for the weapon’s use and then try it again, or make a called shot . Weapons benefitting from this power leave a faint trail of green smoke when they’re using it.

sword. It rolls a 4x5. he sword now has Penetration 5 for its next strike. Its owner wants more, so th e Soul Breaker r olls again. With a  2x10, the sword gets another str ike at Penet ration 5. Extra Spiritually ough 6hd (Useful) Perceive (Material World) 10d (Useful): Te Soul Breaker can

only perceive the material world from the perspective of walls, locks, or implements of torture.  elekinesis 10d (Attacks, Defends, Useful) : Te Soul Breaker can apply the full power of its K to the physical realm.

 Chapter 2: Spirits  Description

Multiple Actions 2hd (Useful)

 Te Soul Breaker appears as a woman clad in obscuring clouds of green smoke. Its face is completely occluded, but it will show its visage if asked. Some who have seen it say it is the loveliest sight of their lives: Others, the most hideous. It ineluctably provokes both fear and resentment admixed, alongside and laced with a cringing desire to submit.

Perceive (Physical World) 2d+1wd (Useful): Te Duke can look

Daemons: The Fifth Circle  The Duke of Shadows  ype: Daemon Summoned By : Incarnate the Duke of Shadows ( see page 60.) Circle : Fifth

into the material world whenever he wishes, but only by looking through a shadow. Description

 Te Duke of Shadows is never clearly seen, by definition. He occupies a space that shifts between three and twenty cubic feet, and within that space he is always composed of cold, inky blackness. Sometimes that darkness assumes the form of a grasping hand, or a five-headed dragon, or a looming figure in a cloak, or a five-pointed crown. It oozes and morphs between forms frequently. He smells like being smothered with a pillow and the cold of him comes with a catch in the chest.

Despoiler of Thrones

 Antagonism : Light, warmth, openness and security 

 ype: Daemon

Stats

Summoned By : Cry Havoc (see page 58)

Body : 6d+1hd

Circle : Fifth

Coordination : 4d

 Antagonism : Law 

Sense : 4d

Stats

Mind: 4d+1wd

Body : 6d

Charm : 6d

Coordination : 6d

Command: 10d

Sense : 6d

Base Will : 17

Mind: 6d

Skills

Charm: 6d

Brawling 3d, Dodge 3d+1hd, Endurance 3d, Empathy 5d, Interrogation 1d, Intimidation 1d, Leadership 1d, Lie 1d, Persuasion 1d, Perception 2d, Scrutiny 4d, Stability 1d, actics 4d  Mirac les

Control (Shadows) 8d+1wd (Defends, Useful): Tis ability to

 warp darkness allows the Duke to occlude his location, disorienting and misdirecting any who would do him harm (or even perceive him). It has Defends and Useful, and both qualities have Go First +1. He can project it from the spiritual world into the material, but can only roll 6d+1wd when doing so. Control (Unease) 6d (Useful) : Te Duke can roll his full dice pool with this when targeting across a dimensional barrier. It has Defends and Useful, so he can use it in combat to make people hesitate or doubt themselves and, therefore, mess up their attacks. Harm (Cold) 8d+1wd (Attacks) : Te Duke’s arctic blast does  W+10S and has a radius of twenty yards. Heavy Spiritual Armor 3hd (Defends) Immune (Cold) 4hd (Useful)

Command: 6d Base Will : 12 Skills

Brawling 1d, Endurance 1d, Intimidation 1d, Leadership 1d, Lie 1d, Perception 1d, Persuasion 1d  Miracles

Body Stat : +5 Attacks levels. Its hand-to-hand attacks do

 W+5K. Fly 10d (Defends, Useful) : Te Despoiler can fly as long as its

 wings are unconstricted and functional. Harm (Sonic) 10d (Attacks) : With an earsplitting bellow, the Despoiler of Trones can destroy obstacles in its path. Its most frequent obstacles are human beings. Tis is attack is Obvious (it can be heard up to a mile away), it does WK, W+8S and it does damage to all hit locations on a target simultaneously. Immune (Everything) 10hd (Useful): Says it all, really. Description

Picture an eight-eyed bat with a mouth like a crocodile. It’s about ten feet tall, with a thirty-foot wingspan, and instead of stubby little bat legs it has sturdy ones like a goat that let

 31 

 Chapter 2: Spirits  it walk and run at a decent pace. he tricky part is, instead of being made of meat and hair and sinew, the Despoiler of  hrones is constructed of shining white light, polished silver and streaks of utter darkness. Every sound echoes harshly in its presence, except for its voice, which is atonal and flat, like granite striking lead.

Stats

 The Malignant Persuader 

Command: 1d

 ype : Daemon Summoned By : Dread Imperial Command (see page 59) Circle: Fifth  Antagoni sm : Human self-will Stats

Body : 3d Coordination: 3d Sense : 5d Mind: 5d Charm: 6d Command: 10d Base Will : 17 Skills

 32 

Brawling 2d, Dodge 5d, Empathy 1wd, Endurance 2d, Intimidation 1d, Knowledge (Demolitions) 1d, Lie 2d, Mortalwise 4d, Perception 1wd, Persuasion 1d

Body : 1d Coordination : 1d Sense : 2d Mind: 2d Charm: 1d Base Will : 2 Skills

Brawling 1d, Empathy 1d, Endurance 1d, Perception 1d, Persuasion 3d, Spiritwise 1d  Miracles

Control (Positive Emotion) 1d+1wd (Useful): Tis ability

 works full power in the material wor ld. Perceive (Physical World) 4d (Useful) Description

Everyone knows what Eros looks like. He’s a flawlessly cute  winged cherub with a toy bow and arrow. He arrives smelling like chocolate, or roses, or your first high school dance. He makes those around him feel sweaty and itchy and clumsy, unsure what to do with their hands or where to look.

 The Knight Protector   ype: Archon

 Miracles

Circle : First

Flight 9d+1wd (Attacks, Defends, Useful)

Summoned By : Fortune Smiles (see page 65)

Heavy Spiritual Armor 10hd (Defends)

Domain: Good Fortune

Invisibility 10hd (Useful)

Stats

Description

Body : 2d

Nervousness, dread and an urge to cringe all accompany this spirit, along with the scent of bleach or perfume covering up something foul. It has two forms. One is the shape of a vast eagle, with a twenty-foot wingspan, composed of whatever substance the conjurer most desires. he second is the conjurer’s parent (or whomever served as his most prominent authority figure).

Coordination : 1d

Archons: The First Circle Eros  ype: Archon Summoned By : Invoke Erotic Archon (see p age 65) Circle : First Domain: rust, Love and Sympathy 

Sense : 2d Mind: 1d Charm: 1d Command: 1d Base Will : 5 Skills

Brawling 1d, Persuasion 1d  Miracles

 Aces 5d (Attacks, Defends, Useful) : Te Knight Protector

can roll only three Aces dice when applying this Miracle from the spiritual realm into the physical. Tese dice, however, can be applied to rolls made by other people. Indeed, the Knight Protector cannot use them to improve his own rolls. Perceive (Material World) 5d (Useful): Te Knight Protector can only perceive the physical realm through o bjects that some-

 Chapter 2: Spirits  one considers “good luck”: a four-leaf c lover, a rabbit’s foot, a horseshoe or the like. Description

 Tis spirit takes the form of a medieval knight in painfully bright chrome armor. Tis plate mail completely covers its facial and body features (if, indeed, it has any). Atypically, it has fo ur arms instead of only two. It appears four feet tall and carries two swords and two shields. Its voice is like a hunting horn, it is forthright and confident, and any who look upon it hope to be  worthy of its positive regard.

 The Vigorous Uncle

Sister Raven  ype: Archon Summoned By : Rite of the Black Feather (see page 68) Circle : First Domain: Crows Stats

Body : 1d Coordination : 3d Sense : 3d Mind: 1d Charm: 1d

 ype: Archon

Command: 1d

Summoned By : Plea to the Heavenly Phy sician (see page 66)

Base Will : 2

Circle : First

Skills

Domain: Health and Medical Knowledge

Dodge 2d, Perception 1d

Stats

 Miracles

Body : 2d

Control (Crows) 5d (Useful)

Coordination : 1d

Perceive (Material World) 1d+ 1wd (Useful): Sister Raven can

Sense : 1d Mind: 2d

only perceive the physical realm in the presence of birds of the crow family (she favors ravens, of course).

Charm : 1d

Description

Command: 1d

Sister Raven appears as a three-foot tall raven, typical of the breed except for being unusually healthy and well-groomed.  When in pitch-black darkness, Raven turns pure white, but becomes black again as soon as there is any light. Te odor of carrion accompanies her invocation, but while she’s there it seems appetizing.

Base Will : 2 Skills

Endurance 2d, First Aid 1hd+1wd, Medicine 1hd+1wd  Mirac les

Create (Medical Awareness in the Mater ial World) 1d+1 wd (Useful) : Uncle Vigor can transfer his medical expertise to an

awake and aware person in the material world. For each point of Width in the Create roll, he can add one die (of any type) from his First Aid or Medicine pool to the aided human’s pool for one roll. Perceive (Material World) 5d (Useful): Uncle Vigor can only perceive the material world from the perspective of exceptionally healthy people, medical or first-aid supplies, or exercise equipment. Description

Uncle Vigor takes the form of a roly-poly, cheerful man with pudgy Asian features, saffron robes, a small opal set in the middle of his forehead, and a number of silver necklaces, bracelets, toe- and finger-rings. His skin is a pleasant violet hue. He’s about three feet tall and speaks with a melodious, clarinet-like  voice. He is effusively polite without being stuffy or offputting.

Archons: The Second Circle  The Princess of Tranquility   ype: Archon Summoned By : Praise for the Luminous Lady (see p age 66) Circle : Second Domain: Sanity  Stats

Body : 2d Coordination : 1d Sense : 1d Mind: 3d Charm: 3d Command: 3d Base Will : 6

 33 

 Chapter 2: Spirits  Athletics 2d, Dodge 2d, Endurance 2d, Leadership 2d, Persuasion 2d, Spiritwise 2d, Streetwise 2d

means that the victim can shoo t at Nemesis with a gun and do nothing, then hand the same gun to his roommate and the roommate can do damage.

 Mirac les

Materialize for One Hour, At Midnight, Near Quarry

Extra ough 2hd (Useful): Limited to a Width of 1.

1d+1wd (Useful): It can only do this if it has a proper vessel, as

Fly 3d (Useful): Tis Flight lacks the Defends quality, so she

described in the Summoning spell.

can’t use it to attack or gobble dice f rom incoming attacks. Heavy Spiritual Armor 2hd (Defends): Limited to a Width of 1. Lend Emotional Fortitude 8d (Useful): Te Princess of  ranquility can roll this pool and, for each point of Width she can spend a point of W illpower to add a die to someone else’s Stability check. If she is in the spiritual world and is attempting to bolster someone in the physical realm, she can only roll 6d. However, the Willpower costs of adding the dice replace the normal Willpower costs of using Miracles across the barrier. Perceive (Physical World) 7d (Useful): She can only spy on t he material world from within a hundred feet of someone who is psychologically stressed or emotionally distressed.

Perceive (arget) 10d (Useful)

Skills

Description

 34 

 Te Princess appears as an eight-foot-tall woman made of dappled light, the kind you see glittering on a clean, peaceful pond in late afternoon. With her, one feels both calm and ready to act, sharp without nerves and alert without anxiety.

Nemesis

Description

In its “natural” form (if you know what I mean) Nemesis appears like a six-foot-tall wisp of bluish smoke. When properly summoned, its appearance changes, as described on page 67 under the description of the spell Revenge Sevenfold Upon One Who Has Wounded Me. Whatever form it takes, it makes onlookers want to grit their teeth and squint.

 The Celestial Jester   ype: Archon Summoned By : oil and rouble (see page 68) Circle : Second Domain: Misunderstanding, mischief and panic Stats

Body : 1d Coordination : 2d Sense : 3d Mind: 2d

 ype: Archon

Charm: 2d

Circle : Second

Command: 2d

Summoned By : Revenge Sevenfold Upon One Who Has

Base Will : 6

 Wounded Me (see page 67) Domain: Revenge

Skills

Stats

 Miracles

Body : 4d

Flight 6d (Attacks, Defends, Useful)

Coordination : 4d

Invisibility 3hd

Sense : 1d

 Jinx 6d (Attacks, Defends, Useful) : Tis power can be applied

Mind: 1d

Skills

at full strength across the Barrier, but it won’t work on Miracles or on any roll that has the Body Stat in its pool. It cannot attack or defend. Perceive (Physical World) 7d (Useful): Te spirit can only perceive scenes where two or more people are present.

Athletics 1wd, Brawling 4d+1wd, Endurance 1wd

Description

 Mirac les

 Te Celestial Jester has no fixed shape, but it always appears as an animal, and always between the size of a very small man or a very large cat. Its changes are only cosmetic, so if it ’s a snake it doesn’t have poison and if it’s a fish it can’t breathe water. Regardless of its form, it is always garishl y patterned with red,

Charm : 1d Command: 1d Base Will : 2

Body Extras: Booster +1 (only for running), Penetration +10 Immunity (arget) 10hd (Defends, Useful): Nemesis has to

be directed against a target. Once that target is designated, Nemesis has Immunity to any attack that target makes. Tis

Dodge 3d, Lie 3d, Mortalwise 3d, Persuasion 3d

 Chapter 2: Spirits  purple, green and blue diamonds. It comes accompanied by the sound of tiny bells and a sense of absurd hilarity that is difficult for most to choke back.

Stats

 The Grand Salamander 

Sense : 2d

 ype: Archon Summoned By : Fire is the Cleanser (see p age 65) Circle : Second Domain: Fire Stats

Body : 2d Coordination : 2d Sense : 2d Mind: 2d Charm : 1d Command: 3d Base Will : 4 Skills

Athletics 4d, Brawling 4d, Dodge 5d, Intimidation 2d, Knowledge (Demolitions) 4d, Perception 2d  Mirac les

Control (Fire) 9d (Attacks, Useful) : Tis has Attacks and

Body : 2d Coordination : 2d Mind: 2d Charm: 2d Command: 2d Base Will : 4 Skills

Brawling 3d, Dodge 3d, Empathy 3d, Lie 3d, Mortalwise 3d, Perception 3d, Persuasion 3d, Spiritwise 3d, Stealth 3d  Miracles

Create (Illness) 6d (Attacks, Defends, Useful) : When astral,

she can only roll 4d when projecting this into the mortal realm. She can use it to defend by inflicting an importune cough or muscle spasm. Invisibility 4hd (Useful): Tis power does not physically change her, so she shows up on cameras if she’s materialized in the physical world. Perceive (Material World) 9d (Useful): She can only view the  world through pills, medicines or health care apparatuses. Description

Useful and works at full strength in t he material realm. It does  W+8S and W+4K. Te archon can, in theory, use this power to shrink a fire, but it is almost imp ossible to persuade it to do so. It would only consider such a thing within a f ramework of somehow supporting a greater burn. It is much easier to convince it to redirect a fire than douse one. Create (Fire) 9d (Attacks, Useful) : Tis has the Burn quality.  When astral, the Salamander can only roll 7d to start fires in the physical world. It does WS and WK damage. Perceive (Material World) 8d (Useful): Te Salamander can only perceive the world in the presence of an open flame.

 The Gilded Treasurer 

Description

 ype: Archon

Picture a fifteen-foot alligator, made of fire, standing on slightly larger hind legs. It smells of ten thousand different burning things, ranging from incense to paper to sulphur to autumn leaves. People in its presence are immediately warm all through, as if they’ve been snuggled in front of a fireplace all day.

Summoned By : Invoke the Angel of Greed (see page 65)

She Who Sweeps the Broken

Coordination : 2d

 ype: Archon

Sense : 2d

Summoned By : Strike Ill (see page 68)

Mind: 2d

Circle : Second

Charm: 2d

Domain: Plague and illness

Command: 10d

 When she’s visible at all, she appears to be a pale, consumptive little girl with a broom and raggedy clothes. Te only spot of color on her is the blood she sometimes coughs up while speaking. Looking at her, one’s body begins to chill from the inside out, starting with the heart. She brings melancholy and pity with her.

Archons: The Third Circle

Circle : Tird Domain: Wealth Stats

Body : 2d

Base Will : 12

 35 

 Chapter 2: Spirits  Skills

Perceive (Everything) 10d (Useful): Tis ability includes the

Brawling 3d, Dodge 3d, Empathy 3d, Intimidation 3d, Leadership 3d, Lie 3d, Perception 3d, Persuasion 3d  Mirac les

power to perceive across the Barrier. Precognition 6d (Useful): Tis power can be used at full strength across the Barrier.

Detect (Hidden reasure) 6d (Useful) : Tis can be used at ful l

Description

strength across the barrier. It has a range of about a mile.

 Te Aspect of Infinite Circumference is an extremely abstract and cerebral archon (brawling skills aside). Unlike most spirits, it does not project a physical presence or a visible form. Rather, it is known by being inexplicably known. Te invoker cannot say how she knows it is near, but the knowledge is simply selfevident. Its presence is accompanied by a feeling of contained infinity, as if one is simultaneously everywhere and nowhere at once. It’s disorienting, the first time.

Fly 5d (Attacks, Defends, Useful) Heavy Spiritual Armor 3hd Perceive (Material World) 5d (Useful): Te reasurer can only

use coins and bills as his eyes and ears. Precognition 5d (Useful): His foresight is limited solely to financial matters. But yes, he can pick stocks.  ransmute Lead to Gold 6d (Useful) : Te reasurer can change ten ounces of lead to gold, permanently. Working upon the physical realm while astral, he can roll only 4d and change five ounces. On the other hand, as of this writing a one-ounce gold Krugerrand is worth $707.09 U.S. Description

 36 

A four-foot-tall winged mantis made entirely of gold. He wears a thick gold chain with a seal of office on it, too. Te light reflected from this spirit makes everything it falls upon seem richer, more splendid, more interesting and lovely. A homely person in its presence looks merely interesting. A hovel becomes charming and quaint, its peeling paint looking like an intriguing surface treatment that would be expensive to emulate.

 The Aspect of Infinite Circumference

 The Emperor of Souls  ype: Archon Summoned By : Let Us Commence the Final Rule (see page 66) Circle : Tird Domain: yranny  Stats

Body : 4d Coordination : 4d Sense : 4d Mind: 5d Charm: 5d Command: 10d Base Will : 19

 ype: Archon

Skills

Summoned By : Boundary of the Infinitesimal Point (see page 63) Circle : Tird

Empathy 2d, Intimidation 1d, Leadership 1d, Lie 3d, Persuasion 1d, actics 1d

Domain: Insight

 Miracles

Stats

Heavy Spiritual Armor 8hd (Defends)

Body : 2d

 Jinx 10d (Attacks, Defends, Useful): Te Emperor can only roll 8d

Coordination : 2d

Command: 2d

of this pool when using it on the material world from the spiritual. Furthermore, this power can only be applied to freedom fighters, reformers and others who are attempting to overthrow repression. Perceive (Material World) 9d (Useful): Tis can only be used through symbols or tools of oppression and authority.

Base Will : 12

Description

Skills

An impossibly beautiful man made of gold that stretches and flexes like flesh. He wears bright silver armor and has wings of flawless green jade. He’s twelve feet tall, and to see him is humbling and imposing to anyone who isn’t a clinical megalomaniac. His voice sounds like a st ern but fair patriarch, right on the edge between approval and disappointment.

Sense : 10d Mind: 9d+1wd Charm : 5d

Athletics 2d, Brawling 4d, Dodge 4d, Lie 1d, Persuasion 5d, Stealth 7d  Mirac les

 Aces 5d (Attacks, Defends, Useful) : It knows the right thing t o

do at any moment and is p repared for nearly any eventuality.

 Chapter 2: Spirits   The Master of Delight, Despair and Disaster   ype: Archon Summoned By : Quest of All-Consuming Pleasure (see page 67) Circle : Tird Domain: Pleasure

the soles of the feet. A tingling at the extremities pulses in time  with the distant, sourceless jingle of bells, and then a sensuous musk fills the air as the Master appears, the naked shape of human perfection cast in glowing light, its hues never still but always mesmerizing. It speaks in the voice of all songs.

Coordination : 4d

Archons: The Fourth Circle

Sense : 4d

 The Blade of Justice

Mind: 4d

 ype: Archon

Charm : 4d

Summoned By : Implore the Blade of Justice (see p age 65)

Command: 4d

Circle : Fourth

Base Will : 8

Domain: Justice

Skills

Stats

Brawling 3d, Dodge 3d, Mortalwise 3d

Body : 5d

 Mirac les

Coordination : 5d

Body Extras—Overwhelming Caress: When the Master strikes

Sense : 5d

 with Brawling, it’s not immediately painful but rather a strangely satisfying frisson. However, these curious strikes have Penetration 1 and do an extra point of Shock due to nerve damage. Mind-Wrecking Pl easure 10d (Defends, Useful) : Tis power functions at full strength from the Astral world to the material. It does no damage, but each time it’s used the target loses a die from every remaining set and has to spend a Willpower point to act the next turn. Otherwise, he’s dazed, speechless, drunk on endorphin aftershocks. When used defensively, it takes the form of aborting deliberate att acks: Te person raises his hand to strike or starts to charge up a lightning bolt and is, instead, overwhelmed by bliss. Tus it offers no defense against insensate threats like falling pianos o r fires or mindless automata. It’s important to understand that being subjected to Mind Wrecking Pleasure can be tremendously psychologically addictive. It is not just superior to any individual sensation:  It’s superior to every physical pleasure combined. Once you experience it, it can become a character flaw with the GM’s permission, and perhaps even whether you want it or not: You can gain  XP for using it again despite all good advice, favoring it over  worldly relationships and motivations—and the GM may even call for a Stability check for you to avoid using it over and over. Handle with care, sybarite sorcerer.

Mind: 5d

Stats

Body : 4d

Perceive (Physical World) 1hd+1wd (Useful) Description

 Te presence of the Master is felt first through a delicious shiver that passes along the skin, from the crown of the head down to

Charm: 5d Command: 5d Base Will : 10 Skills

Athletics 1d, Brawling 1d, Dodge 1d, Empathy 2d+2hd, Endurance 1d, Interrogation 3hd, Intimidation 3hd, Leadership 1d, Perception 1d, Stability 1d  Miracles

Extra ough 6hd (Useful) Harm (Lesser Lightning) 8d+1wd (Attacks, Defends, Useful) :

 his Harm has two levels of Spray and three levels of Go First. Harm (Major Lightning) 10d (Attacks) : Tis attack has ten levels of Penetration and does W+3SK. It works at full power in the physical world and has the Electrocuting extra. It can only be used once every ten days, is Slow 2 and has the Go Last flaw. Healing 5d+1wd (Useful) Heavy Armor 2hd (Defends) Perceive Physical World 6d (Useful) : Te Blade of Justice can

only view the mortal realm somewhere that injustice is being actively perpetrated. Description

 When summoned, the Blade of Justice is heralded by mingled feelings of nervousness and hope. It produces an ozone smell and makes hair stand on end before it finall y becomes visible.

 37 

 Chapter 2: Spirits  Its form begins as a black thundercloud, with a face appearing and disappearing as it speaks. Sparks flicker through it, but  when it’s emotionally involved (which doesn’t take much) a fatter stroke of lightning often appears and then transforms into a sword gleaming with fierce blue light. Once it calms down, it changes back into a storm.

 Miracles

 The Indomitable Pasha 

Immune (Everything) 7hd (Useful)

 ype: Archon Summoned By : Beseech the Unyielding Watchman (see page 63) Circle : Fourth Domain: Security  Stats

Body : 10d Coordination : 5d Sense : 10d Mind: 5d Charm : 5d Command: 5d Base Will : 10 Skills

 38

Athletics 1d, Brawling 1wd, Endurance 1d, Intimidation 3d, Knowledge (Cryptology) 4d, Mortalwise 2d, Perception 1d, Security Systems 3d, Spiritwise 2d, Stability 5d

Block 10d (Defends): Tis can be used at full strength in the

material world. It takes the form of an invisible hand six feet tall, typically seen as the smoke, fire, storm of metal (or whatever else is fired at the protected person) distorts around it. Extra ough 2hd (Useful): Limited to 1 Width.  Jinx 5d (Attacks, Defends, Useful) : Only 3d of this can be ap-

plied across the Barrier, and it can only target threats, invaders, intruders and others acting contrary to safety and security. Perceive (Material World) 7d (Useful): Tis can only be used in the presence of locks, walls, keys and shields. Description

 Te Pasha initially looks like an eight-foot-tall man in flowing robes and piecemeal armor, carrying a scimitar and shield. Closer inspection seems to indicate there is no “person” under the clothes and armor, just more layers of the same. Te blade and buckler are actually elements of its body, as is the cloth.  ears, chips and damage to any of these drip blood, if the spirit is actually harmed. Sound in his presence seems to reverberate less, as if the space he occupies is close, small, and surrounded by very thick walls.

 Chapter 2: Spirits  Razor of Empires

Oddly, when standing before it one’s instinctive reaction is not fear, but a deep, abiding weariness. It smells so strongly of dry dust that the taste of it gets in your mout h, making you want to lick your lips. Its voice is a dull, grating buzz.

 ype: Archon

 Whispering Jane

Summoned By : Empires Collapse (see page 64)

 ype: Archon

Circle : Fifth

Summoned By : Bind the Mind and Loose It (see page 63)

Domain: urmoil

Circle : Fifth

Stats

Domain: Secrets. Note that a secret that ’s shared too much

Body : 6d

ceases to be one, but so does a secret forgotten.

Coordination : 6d

Stats

Sense : 6d

Body : 5d

Mind: 6d

Coordination : 5d

Charm : 6d

Sense : 10d

Command: 6d

Mind: 10d

Base Will : 16

Charm: 10d

Skills

Command: 5d

Athletics 2d, Brawling 3d+1wd, Dodge 4d, Empathy 2d, Endurance 2d, Knowledge (Forgery) 2d, Leadership 4d, Lie 4d, Persuasion 4d, Stealth 2d, actics 4d

Base Will : 17

Archons: The Fifth Circle

 Mirac les

Body Extras: +5 Attacks, Penetration 5 : Tese apply to the

Razor’s hand-to-hand attacks (i f “hand” is the right word). Tey do W+5K. Control (Hate, Envy and Resentment) 8d+1hd+1wd (Useful):  Tis works at full strength across the Barrier. It can only increase these negative emotions, never soothe them. Tey can be redirected, within reason: It won’t take your hatred of your father’s killer and redirect it to your mom unless you believe she  was involved somehow. While this ability is not a direct attack, it can be used in combat t o inflame any petty conflicts between allies to the point that one attacks the other. Create (Emotional Conflict and Confusion) 7d+1hd (Useful):  Tis can be used as a defense (as an attacker momentarily hesitates). Only 6d of it can be projected into the material world. Extra Spiritually ough 5hd (Useful) Go First 7hd (Useful): Tis power adds 7 Width to all the

Razor’s actions for initiative purposes onl y. Heavy Spiritual Armor 5hd (Defends) Description

A shifting, vaguely lizard-shaped skeleton comprised of rust y (but still wickedly sharp) blades. It is also wreathed in flickering blue flames. It stands eight feet tall at the tip of its forehead spike, but is fifteen feet long f rom that to its tail-edge blade.

Skills

Athletics 2d, Brawling 5d, Dodge 5d, Knowledge (Cryptology) 1wd, Lie 1wd, Lockpicking 1wd, Perception 1d, Persuasion 2d, Security Systems 1wd, Stability 1wd, Stealth 1wd  Miracles

Body Stat Extras: +10 Attacks, Penetration 4 : Jane’s hand to

hand attacks have Penetration 4 and do W+10S. Control (Memory) 8+1hd+1wd (Useful): Tis ability can only be used to make people forget things. It cannot be used outside of combat. Defensively, it makes people forget what they were going to do. It can also indirectly attack by making people forget why they’re fighting or who their friends are. Control (Memory) 8d (Useful): Tis variation of memory control can both make someone forget and compel someone to remember. It is permanent and can be used in the material  world from the spiritual realm. Causing someone to remember something they’ve experienced never has a Difficult y. False memories have a Difficulty f rom 3 to 6, depending on how emotionally powerful the memories replaced and imposed are, and how different they are from one another. Making a minor change to a tepid memory (“Russ makes a really good martini” to “Steve makes a really good margarita”) is Difficulty 3. Making a major change to a charged memor y (“Dad killed mom” to “my husband killed my mom”) is Difficulty 6. Furthermore, changing the central image of an event does not cause all ancillary memories to change. Tat can require more rolls, depend-

 39 

 Chapter 2: Spirits  ing on how important the memory is. In the “dad killed mom” example, there would also be rolls to change the memories of the funeral, harassment f rom reporters, psychotherapy, court cases, the nightmares, and so forth.

Command: 2d

Flight 7d (Defends, Useful)

 Miracles

Invisibility 10hd (Useful)

 Aces 6d (Attacks, Defends, Useful) : Can only be used themati-

Perceive (Material World) 7d (Useful)

cally, and only 4d can be used across the Barrier

Description

Ten Minor Archons

 Whispering Jane appears as an entirely human woman, blonde and blue eyed, wearing a lace dress. Her mouth is stitched shut and scarred closed. When she communicates, it’s not vi a words or writing. Onlookers simply know what she wants them to think, with no words involved whatsoever.

Spiritus Generica

 40 

Tere are a number of spells that are “General Call,” meaning, a spirit of the appropriate ty pe and power level appears, but it ’s one appropriate to the area. You cast a general call in a graveyard and you’re likely to get an archon of mourning or a daemon antagonistic to all human life. Cast the same general call on a beach during Sp ring Break and you get the archon of sunshine or a daemon opposing modest sobr iety. Tis is nifty fun for players, who are going to come up with all kinds of evocative places to go to harvest appropriate spirits. GMs should encourage this strongly, but it puts them in a in a tight spot. Your PC invoker goes to an orphanage to try to find an archon of desperate hope. Tis fits your plot like a Speedo, but how do you build an archon on the fly?  Te answer is, you use a generic spirit. Six generic spirits are templated here. hey all operate primarily through Jinx and Aces, often with thematic limitations. he archon of mourning can use his Aces to make people sad and regretful, while the sunshine archon can use her Aces only on brightly sunlit scenes, persons or objects. One power, one mechanic, but depending on the flavor you add, any number of spirits.

Generic Minor Archon Circle : First Stats

Body : 2d Coordination : 1d Sense : 1d Mind: 2d Charm : 2d

Base Will : 5 Skills

Brawling 2d, Dodge 2d

Monkeybar Clown: A spirit of play can be found at play-

grounds, of course.  he Marquis D’Ennui : A spirit of boredom can be fo und in

offices throughout the world.  he Enduring Angel : A spirit of physical persistence can be found in gyms and health clubs.  he Luck Pusher : A spirit of chance encounters; f requents bars, train stations and tourist attractions.  Wingfoot : A spirit of message and package delivery, is often found at post offices or UPS pickup points. Second Skinner : A spirit of leather, is accessible at cattle processing plants and fine l eather goods stores.  he Archon of Pointless Embrace : A spirit of stickiness can be found at glue factories or furnit ure workshops.  he Feather Duch ess: A spirit of grace, likes places where people dance.  he Punchclock Pri march : A spirit of time management can be found in offices, often in conflict with the Marquis d’Ennui.  he Bubbli ng But ler : A spirit of dish soap, can be found in nearly any kitchen.

Generic Mid-Range Archon Circle : Second Stats

Body : 3d Coordination : 2d Sense : 2d Mind: 3d Charm: 4d Command: 3d Base Will : 8 Skills

Brawling 2d, Dodge 2d  Miracles

 Aces 10d (Attacks, Defends, Useful) : Can only be used the-

matically, and only 8d can be used across the Barrier Perceive (Material World) 1+1 wd (Useful)

 Chapter 2: Spirits  Ten Mid-Range Archons

Ten Significant Archons

Streetmeat : A spirit of crime, can be found in jails, prisons

Vigil Unending : A spirit of civic protection, often frequents

and ghettos. Bitsearch : A spirit of information transfer, is most often near large computers. Te way you say its title rhymes with “patriarch.” Vanguard Proletaria : A spirit of hard work, is typicall y encountered on active construction sites during the day, and in grad school libraries after dark. Mournskin: A spirit of grief; funeral homes and sites of tragedy are good places to find it.  he Last Honest : A spirit of truth that can be found in law offices...sometimes.  he Reverend Rev : A spirit of the highway, can be found most often on long clear stretches of road.  he Covet Eye: A spirit of envy, frequents high end boutiques and lavish homes.  he Devouring Ear : A spirit of jealousy, frequents corporate offices and wedding chapels. She often bickers with her brother the Covet Eye over what is more powerful; the envy of things or the jealousy of position.  he Rubber Maid : A spirit of plastic can be found at dollar stores, but she keeps an eye on toy stores too. Doze: A spirit of alcohol that is easy to reach in taverns and liquor stores.

fire stations.

Generic Significant Archon

 he Maw of Bliss : A spirit of consumerism found at the mall. Coach Crush: A spirit of athleticism can be found at any

sports competition.  he Road Eater : An automobile spirit; look for him at stock car events, automotive shows, dealerships or on any street. Polis, the Unseen and Ever Present:  A spirit of the very idea of “the city.” As such, it can be reached in any significant metropolis. She Who Can Carry the Nation : A spirit of transport, can be found on the streets and highways, often looking over her rebel offspring, the Road Eater. It akes Control : A spirit of narcotics, can be found anywhere mind numbing drugs are administered or used.  Abbess Void : A spirit of emptiness, can be found in vacant lots and abandoned homes.  he Genius Box : A V spirit; is in every home.  he Behinder : A spirit of betrayal can be found right behind  you, if you’ve got enemies.

Generic Minor Daemon Circle : First Stats

Body : 2d Coordination : 1d

Circle : Tird

Sense : 1d

Stats

Mind: 2d

Body : 5d

Charm: 2d

Coordination : 5d

Command: 2d

Sense : 5d

Base Will: 5

Mind: 5d

Skills

Charm : 5d

Brawling 2d, Dodge 2d

Command: 5d

 Miracles

Base Will : 17

 Jinx 6d (Attacks, Defends, Useful) : Can only be used themati-

Skills

cally, and only 4d can be used across the Barrier

Brawling 2d, Dodge 2d, Mortalwise 2d, Spiritwise 2d  Mirac les

 Aces 1d+1hd+1wd (Attacks, Defends, Useful) : Tis works at

full strength across the Barrier, but can only be used in support of the spirit ’s domain and agenda. Perceive (Material World) 1hd+ 1wd (Useful): his is limited in some fashion relevant to the spirit’s nature. For example, a pain spirit can only perceive in the presence of a suffering person or animal.

Ten Minor Daemons Itch: A spirit opposed to contentment, found in stores and online. Finick : A spirit opposed to trash and filth, is equally likely to

be encountered at a Superfund site as in an operating room. Mellah : A spirit opposed to frustration can be found in the  winning team’s bleachers. Hatesmite: A spirit opposed to compassion, is usually at the dog-fight ring.

 41 

 Chapter 2: Spirits 

 42 

 he Soaring Sultan : A spirit opposed to constraint, is always

 Miracles

out in the open, where it can move f reely. He Who akes Apart : A spirit opposed to affection, is most easily reached in divorce court.  he Debunker : A spirit opposed to misinformation, can be found at the supposed sites of urban legends.  Ana : A spirit opposed to self-confidence, can be found in beauty parlors and locker rooms. Look for her near the scale.  he Baron of F latwallet : A spirit opposed to finance can be found at the track or casino. Ironheart : A spirit opposed to fear, can be found in psychologists’ offices and at military training bases.

 Jinx 10d (Attacks, Defends, Useful) : Can only be used themati-

Generic Mid-Range Daemon Circle : Second Stats

Body : 3d Coordination : 2d Sense : 2d Mind: 3d Charm : 3d Command: 3d Base Will : 8 Skills

Brawling 2d, Dodge 2d

cally, and only 8d can be used across the Barrier Perceive (Material World) 1d+ 1wd (Useful)

Ten Mid-Range Daemons Slender Embrace : A spirit opposed to competition can be

found in churches and at fixed sport ing events.  he Lens : A spirit opposed to distraction can be found in classrooms during tests, or in air-traffic control towers.  he Forearmed Form: A spirit opposed to surprise can be found anywhere a schedule is being planned. Rubble Raiser:  A spirit opposed to concrete can be found at the site of severe earthquakes, but more often where a building is being knocked down. Sandbags : A spirit opposed to adaptation, prefers the sites of ideological conflict or seats of conservative thought.  he Streamsayer : A spirit opposed to caffeine that is all around, but most reliably at health food stores.  he Maiden of Constricting Dischord : A spirit opposed to music, resides in elementary school band rooms.  he Friendly S ilence: A spirit opposed to radio that is often found in newspaper offices. Opener of the Crypt : A spirit opposed to survival, can be found anywhere a lot of people have died, especially if they struggled.  he Ready : A spirit opposed to disaster, is met in bomb shel-

 Chapter 2: Spirits  ters, warehouses full of emergency supplies, and anywhere that people are bracing themselves to respond.

Generic Significant Daemon Circle : Tird Stats

Body : 5d Coordination : 5d Sense : 5d Mind: 5d Charm : 5d Command: 5d Base Will : 17 Skills

Brawling 2d, Dodge 2d, Mortalwise 2d, Spiritwise 2d  Mirac les

 Jinx 1d+1hd+1wd (At tacks, Defends, Useful): Tis works at full

strength across the Barrier, but can only be used in support of the spirit ’s domain and agenda. Perceive (Material World) 1hd+ 1wd (Useful): his is limited in some fashion relevant to the spirit’s nature. For example, a pain spirit can only perceive in the presence of a suffering person or animal.

Ten Significant Daemons  he Silencer of Questio ns: A spirit opposed to curiosity; likes

both libraries and crack houses, because the two ways t o reduce curiosity are to satisfy it or to obliterate it. Black Mirror : A spirit opposed to reflection, resides anywhere that’s intentionally distracting and overstimulating, like a casino or a Chuck E. Cheese. Baroness Safestep : A spirit opposed to risk, is most at home at an insurance office.  he Emperor of Ope n Doors: A spirit opposed to prejudice and bigotry, can be found in some churches and state houses, but not all. Smilebreaker : A spirit opposed to youth, is conveniently accessible at job fairs. Professor Whatsisname : A spirit opposed to memory that can be found anywhere, as long as the summoner is lost.  he Singl e Still Point:  A spirit opposed to motion that can be found at the kneelers of a Catholic church between services, or in a Zen temple during them.  he Preser ving Sovereign : Stands against entropy in flea markets throughout the world.

She Who Strips the ruth: A spirit opposed to deceit, can be in

private detectives’ offices. __________  A spirit opposed to noise that can be found anywhere it’s utterly, totally silent. (Its title is a pause of about three seconds in the middle of sp eech.)

Ghosts By and large, ghosts seem to be sad, sorry creatures. But as it happens, they’re utterly devoid of emotion and therefore incapable of being either sad or sorr y. As described by the hermit Aloisius (see page 46.), a ghost has no feelings and is merely the memories and reasoning structures of a dead person. Tat doesn’t mean ghosts have no  value: Far from it. A good medium can get a lot of information out of a murder victim’s ghost, if one is available for contact. However, in no nation on Earth is the testimony of a ghost, or a medium speaking for one, admissible in court with the sole exception of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. And even there, the licensing requirements are pretty tight. Ghosts are impermanent, too, though it’s anyone’s guess  whether they simply fade out into static or pass on into an unknowable dimension heretofore unreachable by the living. Spirits and the ghosts themselves have little more to offer than theories, and the observation that one day t he ghost of (say) Albert Einstein can be contacted at the site of his demise, and then the next day be gone. ypically, a ghost can be accessed for about a year after the body perishes, but a number of factors can increase that span: Intelligence : Gifted or disciplined intellects seem to retain their coherence longer, two or three years for the typical A+ student, possibly decades for a genuine genius or prodigy.   Intensity : Even people of average or limited smarts may leave durable ghosts if they were exceptionally passionate, engaged, faithful or commanding personalities. Even though ghosts are incapable of passion or faith, it ’s almost as if a momentum from life keeps them going for an extra year or two, or five, or ten.   Communication : Regular give-and-take with mediums keeps ghosts intact. Te more frequent and intellectually rigorous the contact, the greater its preservative effects. Te longest reliably-recorded case of an enchanter keeping a spirit around  was that of the physicist and psychic investigator Sir Oliver Lodge, who kept the ghost of his mother around for over fifty  years between 1883 and his own death in 1940.

 43 

 Chapter 2: Spirits  Fame or Infamy : Te more well-known a ghost was, the

more people talk about it after death, the more durability it seems to leech off of those who think about it. Tis is rarely good for more than a decade, however, even for great historical figures. Unfinished Business: he classic unlife-extender, some life goal that was unmet at the time of death can keep a ghost around. ypically this gives it five years, but sometimes as many as twenty. Sorcery : A plain ol’ Bind effect can keep a ghost intact until the spell wears off or fails. his can keep it around almost indefinitely. Assuming a ghost is present, the question becomes “How do you talk to it?” Easy. You roll Charm + Invocation or Command + Conjure. It doesn’t even require a special spell, though if a thing is worth doing it’s worth doing right: rying one of these rolls in a brightly lit room without having everyone present hold hands and focus, the roll is at a –1d penalty. A ouija board or crystal sphere often helps. If the roll succeeds, the ghost can hear you, see you, make itself visible and speak to you for ten minutes per point of  Width. If the roll is x5 or lower, only the caster can see and

 44 

hear the ghost. If the roll’s Height exceeds 5, the caster can choose to keep the ghost private or let everyone present interact  with the specter. Simple? Yes and no. Te key phrase in the above two paragraphs is “assuming a ghost is present.” Geography is strictly a concept of the mortal realm, and it maps poorly to “location” on the other side of the Barrier. o be in the  presence  of a spirit, then, sufficient to contact it, you need to near a person, place or thing that was highly significant to the ghost, back before it  was a ghost. Te body certainly qualifies, which is why ghosts can often be called in graveyards even though almost no one dies there. You can usually call a ghost front and center in its old home, or in the presence of its living children, or when sitting aboard its beloved schooner on a moonless night.

What Ghosts Can Do First off, they’re spirits, so they have the Spirit Archetype.  Tey have all the Charm, Mind and Command Stats they possessed in life. Tey all have 10d in Insubstantiality, Permanent,  with the “Always On” Flaw.

 Chapter 2: Spirits  In addition, some (not many) possess the following Miracles: • Perceive (Material World) • Telekinesis • Puppet • Projected Hallucination, typically only to the extent of

creating images of themselves, blood dripping down  walls, faces in f rost and words in the mist on mirrors.

 How They’re Like Archons and Daemons Ghosts can be conjured and invoked, as described. Binding and exorcism both work on them j ust as they do on spirits. Note, however, that creating a spiritual prison or home for a ghost inside a human being is going to give the ghost as much access to the host as the host has to the spirit. If a shade is

contained in some material object, Unbind pries it out. Access does not  work with ghostly powers, knowledge or Skills.

 How They’re Different From Archons and Daemons While ghosts are superficially very similar to archons and daemons, there are some important differences. Tey biggest one is that they can’t be harmed, blocked, accessed, pleased, nullified, materialized or subject to the Agonizing extra with magic. Ghosts bound into an object, person or place merely have to stay within ten feet of it. Sticking one in a bottle doesn’t deprive it of its senses, the way binding a daemon that way would. On the other hand, spirits that can meaningfully interact with the material world unaided are really, really rare.

 45 

  3   r    e   t   p   a   h   C   c   i   g   a   M 

T HE  S  ECO ND  L ETT ER  OF  THE  H  ER MI T 

 46   My Dear Friend in Christ,  I g rieve for your decision, even as I respect and understand it. You see no other course to s trike against the evils that remain unseen to the ignorant and blessed. Selfishly, I welcome your company in this field so dominated by the deluded, the selfish and the mad. Let us begin, then. Enclosed with this missive comes  the most perceptive text I have found on the invocation and containment of ghosts. It has its share of inaccuracies, which I have made my own nearsighted

he nature of ghosts and the ultimate truth about the afterlife are questions that have never been definitively answered. Ghosts have not seen Heaven or Hell, any more than we the living have. It is my considered belief that ghosts are not souls and do not have souls. hey are, rather, the detritus o f an id entity after the body and soul ha ve been absented. hey have knowledge and skill and often insight, but not  feeli ngs. hey have preferences instead of passions, and behaviors instead of beliefs.

attempts to correct through marginalia. he key to deciphering my notes, along with the main text, is under separate cover, sent through a separate agent.

Many who choose to communicate beyond the Black Barrier are surprised by the difference between the ghost and the mortal person. A man who was vile and evil in life may present an eminently tractable

 Needless to say, you must guard this text as you would your own soul. In ign orant hands, it can do terrible damage. I have chosen ghosts to begin with because, of all the spirits, they are the closest to human. heir powers are quite limited, and thus so is their ability to harm an invoker who makes an error in her summons.

 ghost, while someone abundantly blessed with compassion in life may leave a ghost of repellent callousness. o understand this, it helps to regard good and evil, from the human perspective, solely as acts. We are all of us flawed and fallen, so it is an error to regard anyone as a “good” person. We all possess the capacity for gr eat evil. Similarly, it is untrue to say,

 Chapter 3: Magic  “his is an evil man” and by that mean he is inherently worse than any other. In the eyes of inf inite God we have all fallen short, but we ar e all offered solace if we repent.

searchers to lost bodies. It is as callous as any other spirit, but without motivation to hide and lie and harm, it can often be persuaded to divulge information of g reat value to the living. But as with those

If we cannot casually divide people between “righteous” and “damned,” we must instead consider all humanity as humans only, humans who d o good things and bad ali ke. he reasons for their actions

who contact the ghosts of the loving and expect love to remain, it can be a f rustrating experience to summon a ghost, intent on revenge, only to f ind a structure of logic and memory that is no more prone

matter a great deal when tr ying to understand the  perspective of the haunt. Some people are principled, and choose kind actions and ri ghteousness through a rational process.

to unhappiness than a clock. he unjust parallel to the principled mortal is the sinner who constructed an excuse or justification  fo r hi s crimes. heir appeals to a higher purpose or

hey have considered the i mpact of their choices and decided that what is best fo r all is better for them as well. Principled mortals tend to react in death as they did in life. Other people are blessed with an innate compassion and empathy. hey have no elaborate, structured ethical system, but are instead guided by feeling to give succor to the needy and share joy wi th the blessed. his fellow feeling is a wonder ful gift, but it is a gift of the soul and departs when the soul mo ves

 gr eater good, so care fully buttressed by thought and contemplation, remain, remembered, after crossing the Bar rier. hose who were cold and amoral, rather than vicious, continue to be so after perishing. In many cases their behaviors change due to the removal of feelings that were always denied or secret during life, but their adherence to rationales bankrupt of any decency or virtue stays f irm. Consult them with care, for they are the most devious and manipulative of revenants.

on to its reward. he ghost of someone whose kindness was impelled by emotion lacks that impulse. While some inclination to decent action may remain  from force o f habit, there is no longer a passion

I believe that consulting the memories of the dead is consistent with faithful Christian practice, but there are many in the church, good men and wise women, who vehemently disagree. If they are

urging them onward. It is a great tragedy that these  people are often well beloved, and it is their family and friends who most wish the comfort of words from beyond. A spirit that has fallen f rom the warmth of

right and I am wrong, I belong in this last category of sinners, as will you i f I succeed at instr ucting you in damnation. If you are not dissuaded, then turn to the f irst

innate mercy into the cold motives of the g rave is often a terrible shock to those who do not understand the subtleties I am presently laying out. Many have been tempted into despair by injudici ous exchanges with the hard-hearted dead. he converse of this are the ghosts of those who were tormented in life by circumstance or madness, and whose evil acts were expressions of their own suffering. With death, and the lifting of that pain, their ghosts are tranquil. his is a grand surprise

 page of

to those who invoke the spirit o f a murderer and  f in d it willing to explain itself and patiently lead

and read. Prayerfully Your Instr uctor,

 

—Aloisius 

 47 

 Chapter 3: Magic  Basic Thaumaturgy o cast any spell, you roll either Command + Conjure or Charm + Invocation. Te results of that spell are derived from that single roll. What the result is … well, that depends on the spell you cast. Spells are bought with XP, just like levels of Skill. Tis means that there are casters who know a lot of spells, but who only roll a few dice trying to cast them. Tere are also enchanters who only know one spell  but who roll a big pool with it. (Tese are exorcists from the Catholic church who don’t even consider what they’re doing invocation.)

Spellcraft Spellcraft, like Conjure and Invocation, is a new Skill

 48

specific to the Grim War  setting. It forms a pool with th e Mind Stat. It has two primary functions. First off, Spellcraft can be used to identify the remnants of a casting. Tis is not an occult effect, but simply a byproduct of knowing (or knowing something about) a lot of spells. So if a caster performed a ritual and then scrupulously destroyed all the evidence of the working, Spellcraft wouldn’t be able to determine that a spell had even been cast, let alone what spell it was. But if a spell was cast in haste, leaving a drawn symbol behind, then a Mind + Spellcraft roll might reveal what type of spell had required it. Finding a conjurer’s box of arcane equipment, a Mind + Spellcraft roll might determine what sorts of spells the tools are used for. (Tis is beyond the obvious indications of, for instance, a knife stained with ocular fluid.) Spellcraft is also the Skill magicians use when they want to create their own spells, but that ’s described below, under “Gourmet Spellcasting.”

Conjuration Unlike Miracles or Hyperskills or Hyperstats, the art of summoning and controlling daemons is much like a normal Skill. On the character sheet, it’s “Conjure”. Anyone can learn it, even “dabble” in it, if dumb enough. It costs 2 Points per die, but you can’t buy Hard Dice or W iggle Dice in it, nor can you get more than 5d in it. It combines with Command. How does it work? It lets you cast spells, which are purchased separately, if you can find a grimoire or tutor from  which to learn them. Spells have a cost , which is how many XP  you have to spend to learn it; they have a difficulty , which you must beat on your roll to complete the spell successfully; they

Identifying Spells If a caster knows a given spell:   He can identify it being

cast without a roll. If it has elaborate requirements, he can probably tell what it was afterwards, too. If a caster sees the paraphernalia of a complicated Invocation before or after the fact: He can roll Mind + Spell-

craft or Invocation + Spellcraft to identify it. Similarly, if he sees the cast aside elements of a conjuration, he can roll Mind + Spellcraft or Conjure + Spellcraft. If a caster sees the materials used for a spell of ordinary complexity : It can be identified with a Mind + Spellcraft roll

at Difficulty 3. If it’s a simple spell and is seen before or after use, the Difficulty is 5.

have requirements, physical actions you must complete to get the effect; and they have results, which justify all the effort and unpleasantness involved. Tey don’t necessarily cost Willpower or Base Will, though some do.

Invocation Invocation is a Skill, like Conjuration, but instead of imperiously demanding attendance, Invocation is the art of luring and inviting spirits to treat with you. It costs 2 Points per die, but you can’t buy HD or WD in it, nor can you get more than 5d in it. It combines with Charm. It is much safer than Conjuration, but often less impressive in its effects. As with Conjuration, spells are purchased separately, if  you can find a grimoire or tutor. Spells have a cost , which is how many XP you have to spend t o learn it; they have a difficulty , which you must beat on your roll to complet e the spell successfully; they have requirements, physical actions you must complete to get the effect; and they have results, which is, well,  what they do. Tey don’t necessarily cost Willpower or Base  Will, though some do.

Obtaining Service How do you get a spirit to do what you want? Tat depends. Archons must be persuaded; they can’t be forced. Daemons must be forced; they can’t be persuaded. Neither is easy.

Spirit Familiars Most supernatural effects are caused not directly by the enchanter, but by a spirit with whom he has made some sort of

 Chapter 3: Magic  deal or compact. Tis gives spellcasters an interesting advantage in a fight, inasmuch as they can be taking one action while their spirit (or spirits) take others. For instance, an enchanter can concentrate on making attacks (possibly aided by one spirit)  while it relies on a daemon opposed to injur y to keep it safe. Or a sorcerer might duck, cover, and run while his spirit allies stay back to beat on his rivals. When a spirit agrees to help a sorcerer, whether it be by exerting its powers once, or for a week, or until the enchanter’s death, that spirit has formed a link to the sorcerer. It is her  familiar  until the power is used, or the term of service ends. An invoker who has Sister Raven monitoring his ex-girlfriend temporarily has Sister Raven as a familiar. When the ex-girlfriend becomes a conduit to a powerful spirit, that spirit is her familiar. An enchanter who has bound a daemon antagonistic to ignorance and compelled it to provide him unholy insight on his calc final has that demon as his familiar, even though it’s only going to give him one roll. No sorcerer, no matter how puissant, can have more than three familiars at one time. Tat could be two archons and a

daemon, an imprisoned daemon and two others merely compelled, or any similar combination. No more than three. Any group that found a way to exceed or increase this limit would have a decisive advantage, much like the advantage Direktiva Nul had when they were the only ones with fast spells. Ghosts do not count as familiars, so a character can be haunted without it impinging on his ability to recruit archons and enslave daemons. Furthermore, spirits bound into objects or locations are not familiars t o the enchanter who bound them. No object or location can hold more than one   spirit, though the definition of object and location can be rather hazy. Is every room in a castle a location, or is the castle itself a location? Is every tire on a car an individual item, or are they all part of the car? (Possibly they’re individual items until  they get incorporated into the car.) Tese questions are up to GMs to decide. GM, make up your mind early and inform any players  whose characters would know. When a character dies, all its familiars go free. If a daemon  was tasked with the destruction of the Baltimore courthouse and its master dies before they c an accomplish the job, the daemon is no longer required to go through with it (though it might, depending on its nature, abilities and proclivities).

 49 

Persuading Archons Archons can’t be made to serve. Tey can be summoned and implored and bribed, but at any point they can t erminate negotiations if they’re insufficiently interested. Tat said, most stick around with a fair degree of p atience. As long as the enchanter isn’t conjuring harm on them, they can usually afford the time to talk. Te question is, how do you persuade one? As with anyone, you play to its likes and you play to its fears. Every archon has a “persuasion threshold,” a number that goes

 Chapter 3: Magic  up as a task becomes more onerous. Once the GM figures out the threshold, it’s up to the enchanter to amass enough points to surpass it. Te factors that raise it and pay for it are listed below.

its righteous, severe blasts, and as it happens, this enemy is a right

Note that some sorcerers don’t bother with all the horsetrading. hey just summon a spirit, bind it into a talisman and access its powers. hat can work, but it really angers the spirits. If you bind it into yourself without its permission and cast an access spell, that’s a recipe for trouble. Sure, the access lets you use its power, but it also lets the spirit use its power  without your consent.

bastard, so it fulf ills the Blade’s mandate of handing out justice.

 Archons

 Examp le: C icel y summons the Blade of J ustice with a 2x8 roll on her Invocation. It’s a Fourth Circle archon, so the threshold starts at 4. She wants it to electrocute an enemy of hers with one of

his is something the archon would want to do anyway, so there’s

 hreshold Factor

no loss, but no gain either f rom its attitude. It would take a single

Each Circle the Archon has +1  Te Archon would want to do it anyway +0  Te sorcerer asks for a one-time, one-roll favor +0 It’s serving for a day +1 It’s serving for a week +2 It’s serving for a month +3 It’s serving for a year +5 It’s serving indefinitely +7 It’s indifferent to the task +1 It dislikes the task, but the task doesn’t +2 transgress its nature It dislikes the caster +1 to +3  Te task is to reveal its true name +10 It serves until the completion of a +2 simple task  It serves until the completion of a compli+4 cated and/or difficult task  It serves until the completion of an epic task +6

roll, so that’s another wash. Cicely tries a Persuade roll, luridly describing the target’s transgressions. But she gets no sets—the Blade’s heard it all before. She doesn’t know its Name and it’s indifferent to her, so she still has a full four-point hreshold to overcome. She casts Sweat of Grateful oil, a spell that pleases the spirit, and rolls 6d10. She  gets 1,1,3,3,4,10—tw o se ts, b ut none suff icient to beat the Dif f iculty of t he spell. De sperate, s he tri es again (luckily it ’s a fast spell), this time getting 1,5,5,6,8,10. hat’s more like it! hat 2x5  pair redu ces the Blade’s th resh old by 5. he archon a grees to f ry the creep when she points him out to it. If she keeps bargaining, she

 50 

could get the Blade’s full cooperation for a full day.  Examp le: C icel y later wants to be come a conduit for a Se cond Circle iron spirit. She’s learned this spirit’s name, and it likes her. On the other hand, its nature is neutral towards lengthy service, and while its agenda doesn’t conflict with hers, there isn’t much overlap either. (Mainly, she wants heavy armor.) She rolls a 2x7

Value

on her summons, so no bonus there. he threshold starts at 2, because it’s a 200 point spirit. And service until death is a whopping

Persuasion Factor

+7, so she needs to reduce away a total resistance of 9. But she gets

Its true name is used, not just a title –3 It likes the caster –1 to –3  Te Invocation roll used an x10 set –1  Te caster offers to perform some minor task –1 that furthers the archon’s agenda  Te caster offers to perform a difficult task –2 that helps the archon’s agenda  Te caster promises an epic task pursuing –3 the archon’s agenda Caster succeeds at a Persuade roll (only one –2 Persuade roll per summons) Each point of Width or Height in a P lease –1 Spirit roll, whichever is higher.

her Persuasion roll this time, so that’s a –2 factor. She also knows the spirit’s Name, which is huge—another –3. She breaks out Sweat of Grateful oil and rolls a 2x4, which reduces the threshold by 4. With the threshold at zero it agrees. Of course, now she has to succeed at binding it and getting access to its powers.

Once an archon has agreed to perform a task, it’s stuck to the caster until that task is complete. If it tries to back out of a deal, or refuses to complete a transaction (usually because it finds out it’s going to somehow transgress its agenda) it doesn’t have to act, but it can’t do much else until the caster dies or releases it. Given that a caster can only have three familiars at once, an Invoker with a reluctant archon may  just release it, possibly af ter extorting a different service or a promise of future favors.

Value

 Chapter 3: Magic  Compelling Daemons

 Example: re y summo ns a Fourth Circ le daemon, which

Archons have to be cozened. Daemons have to be forced.  hey have a resistance threshold very much like an archon, but instead of being reduced by Please Spirit effects, it’s simply knocked down by damage.

 puts it s starti ng thre shol d at 4. He wants it to kill some one for

Daemons

otal threshold is 7. he daemon appears and immediately tries to

 hreshold Factor

Value

Each Circle the daemon has +1  Te daemon would want to do it anyway +0  Te sorcerer asks for a one-time, one-roll favor +0 It’s serving for a day +1 It’s serving for a week +2 It’s serving for a month +3 It’s serving for a year +5 It’s serving indefinitely +7 It’s indifferent to the task +1 It dislikes the task, but the task doesn’t +2 transgress its nature It dislikes the caster +1 to +3 Each point of Width of Heavy Spiritual +1 Armor or Extra Spiritually ough  Te task is to give up its true name +10 It serves until the completion of a simple +2 task  It serves until the completion of a compli+4 cated and/or difficult task  It serves until the completion of an epic task +6 Persuasion Factor

Value

Its true name is used, not just a title –3 Each point of damage done by the caster –1 Each month or fraction of a month the –1 spirit spends bound, helpless, into an object or place somewhere boring Caster makes credible threats to the daemon –1 to –2 or its interests Caster succeeds at an Intimidate roll (can –1 only be attempted once per summons)  Te caster promises an epic task pursuing –3 the archon’s agenda Caster succeeds at a Persuade roll (only one –2 Persuade roll per summons) Each point of Width or Height in a Please –1 Spirit roll, whichever is higher.

him, which is a bit more of a task than a single roll—call it +1.  It has a layer of Heavy Spiri tual Armor and a point of Extra Spiritually ough, each of which raises the threshold by a point. attack rey, but he was careful to summon it with blocking spells in place. While the spirit’s attacks are halted by rey’s defenses, he uses Chastisement and does a point of Shock and a point of Killing damage past its armor. he next round, the spirit exceeds the spell’s defenses and damages rey as he’s trying to conjure a second Chastisement. He’s hurt and his spell is spoiled. hird round, rey completes another Chastisement before the spirit can over whelm the blocking, so rey gets hurt again but doesn’t lose his set. It  yields another point of S hock and Killing, so h e has n ow done a total of four points of damage to it. he round after that, his Chastisement rolls very well, doing another four points of damage and leading the daemon to grudgingly surrender.

As with archons, it’s possible to hijack a daemon’s power by the expedient of summoning it, binding it, and using an access effect. Tis works, but it makes the spirit angry. All the cautions that apply to enslaved archons apply to daemons as well.

Making Up New Spells Spells are essentially spiritual Miracles with effects, extras and flaws. Te base cost for any spell is zero Points. Just add up  what you want it to do, pay for it and you’re good to go. Most effects have a flat cost, but a few vary. If an effect is “2 x Circle” it means it costs two times t he circle of the spirit it targets. Te flaw “Risk of Lost Willpower” says “–1/point”  which means that if the spell makes you gamble 3 WP, it costs three fewer XP to learn.

Gourmet Spellcasting Spellcraft can be used to construct one’s own spells. Just as Wild alents  offers a selection of pre-built superpowers alongside rules for making your own, Grim War  offers a selection of pre-built spells alongside rules for customization. Here are the steps for creating a spell: 1: Determine what you want it to do. Tis is handled by recourse to the Spell Effects Menu, on page 52. 2: Roll Mind + Spellcraft. If you fail the roll, you can’t build that spell, or any  spell at this time. Wait a month

 51 

 Chapter 3: Magic 

 52 

of game time, kicking yourself over wasted effort, and try again. If you want to spend that time in the lab, fruitlessly trying to make a silk purse from your sow’s ear, go ahead. If it suits your Loyalties or Passions it might get you a little extra Willpower, but it won’t get  you another roll, or get your mind ready for more spell building any better than spending the month relaxing on the beach with a string of Perez-Reverte novels. If you succeed at the roll, multiply the Widt h by the Height. Tat’s the most XP your spell can cost. If you don’t like the cost, you have to change it with Extras and Flaws. 3: Spend the Experience Points. Once you’ve created a new spell, you can’t cast it until you’ve mastered it. Mastering it costs XP, which represent the investment of effort and thought required to get a handle on the process. But you don’t have to spend the XP until the roll succeeds. Characters can only create one new spell per month, maximum. Characters who choose to spend an extra month or two can add an extra die or two to their Spellcraft pool. Furthermore, access to resources can alter the roll.

A Good Library Characters who do their spellwork while consulting a  well-stocked collection of grimoires and theoretical tomes can squish their result by one point. (Squishing rolls is described under “Dice Options” in Chapter 1 of Wild alents .) Tis benefit can be raised to squishing two points if the character is using one of the four following resources: 1: Te “Restricted Access” room in the ROSCRO librar y. 2: Te Vatican’s collection of forbidden tomes. 3: Te temple carvings of the secret Xolotl mountain strong-

hold. (Tis assumes the character has enough Skill dice in pre-Columbian linguistics to comprehend them.) 4: Te locked archive of Direktiva Nul.

A Similar Spell If a character already knows a spell to summon the Guardian in the Dust, but wants to design another one that’s faster or does something else or is more reliable, she can change one of her Spellcraft dice into a Hard Die.

Spell Effects Many effects are instant , meaning they happen once, change something, and then they ’re finished. Unless labeled otherwise, a spell effect is considered instant. Other effects (Conjure, Invoke, Nullify, Materialize, Bind, Perceive, Astral Project and Access) are enduring which means that they extend over a span of time. Unless altered by an Extra or otherwise noted, enduring effects last a number of minutes equal to the Width of the casting roll.

Conjure (+5 x Circle) (Conjure Only) (Enduring) It conjures a specific daemon by title or descript ion and can’t bring anyone else (unless it has the General Call extra). If that daemon is killed, the spell becomes worthless. You can only summon a particular daemon once in a span of days equal to its Circle. Tat is, you can only summon a Fifth Circle daemon once every five days. Conjure spells have a base Difficulty equal to the daemon’s Circle. If a daemon is already materialized or bound, the caster must be in its physical presence to summon it. If the summons succeeds in this context, the spirit becomes liminal (see page 19). Unlike most enduring effects, a successful conjure makes the spirit liminal for about an hour.

Invoke (+5 x Circle) (Invocation Only)  (Enduring) It implores a specific archon to appear, by title or description, and it can’t bring anyone else (unless it has the General Call extra). If that archon is destroyed, the spell becomes worthless.  You can only summon a particular archon once in a span of days equal to its Circle. So you can summon a First Circle archon every day, but a Tird Circle archon every three days. Every Invoke spell has a base Difficulty equal to the archon’s Circle. If an archon is materialized or bound, the caster must be in its physical presence to summon it. If the summons succeeds in this context, the spirit becomes liminal (see page 19). Unlike most enduring effects, a successful invoction makes the spirit liminal for about an hour.

Minor Defense (+5) Tis spell parallels the Block Miracle, but only for spiritual attacks. It doesn’t matter if the spirit is liminal, astral or materialized, however. It’s resolved as a power that Defends. Tat is, the dice in the set gobble from incoming attacks.

 Chapter 3: Magic  Major Defense (+10)

Perceive (+10) (Enduring)

Tis spell parallels the Block Miracle, but only for spiritual attacks. It doesn’t matter if the spirit is liminal, astral or materialized, however. It’s resolved like a Wild alents  Miracle  with both Duration and Interference, such as Heavy Armor: It gobbles Width from each and every incoming attack.

 While the spell is in effect, you can see every spirit in your presence without artificial aid. You can also see the forms of spells in effect. Objects with a spiri t bound into them, or which have a supernatural effect, are also visible.

Minor Harm (+5) (Conjure Only) Tis works like the Harm Miracle in Wild alents , but it only does Shock damage. o give it Extras, simply pay what that Extra would cost to alter one die of Harm. Spells that harm only hurt spirits or people who are conduits, remember. Harm spells can target any spir it that isn’t bound into an object.  When a spirit is bound into a place or object, harm spells damage that item or location.

Major Harm (+7) (Conjure Only) Tis works like Minor Harm, but it does both Shock and Killing damage.

Please (+6) Some element of the spell provides energy, nourishment, entertainment or some other benefit to the spirit in question. Invokers aren’t sure why this effect makes spirits so pliant, but they know it works. Its particular use is covered on page 50.

Materialize (+20) (Enduring) Te spirit passes into the material world and takes physical form. Its wound boxes convert normally, it retains its resilience, and it can use all its powers in the physical world without penalty. Its spiritual armor functions as physical armor. Spirits in any state—liminal, astral, even bound—can be materialized. Of course, it can be a really bad idea to materialize a spirit before getting its service, but in some circumstances it may be better to have a spirit physically present, rather than bound into an amulet giving its hol der power.

Bind (+10) (Enduring)  Tis parallels the Bind Miracle, but all it does is keep a spirit f rom fleeing. A spirit bound into a person, place or thing is constrained as described on page 19 under “Bound.” Materialized spirits are bound to their physical location. Liminal and astral spirits can be bound into objects, places and people. Spirits that are already bound into something can’t be bound into anything else until they’ve been released from their first binding. (Tat is, you can’t use a binding spell to pull that cool spirit out of the bad guy’s talisman and into your own. You’d have to unbind it first.)

Heal (+15)  Tis works like the Heal Miracle, except it’s limited to spirits.

Unbind (+15) If a spirit has been bound into an object, person, place or other trap, this spell pries it out and places it in a liminal st ate. It has no effect on liminal or astral spirits. Materialized spirits become liminal when unbound. All Unbinding attempts face a base Difficulty equal to the target’s Circle.

Exorcise (+15) All Exorcisms face a base Difficulty equal to the Circle of the spirit they’re targeting. If the spell works, the spirit has a choice. It can either has to flee at its top speed for a number of rounds equal to the caster’s Invocation or Conjure Skill, or it can lose half its remaining Willpower. Exorcise works on spirits that are astral or materialized. It has no effect on liminal spirits or those bound into places or objects. If cast on a spirit bound into a person, the person either has to flee or face the Willpower loss.

 Abjure (+20) All Abjurations face a base Difficulty equal to the target’s Circle. If a liminal or materialized spirit is Abjured, it goes back to being astral.

 Astral Projection (+25) (Enduring) Tis effect removes a human being from the mortal realm and sends them to the spirit world. While spirits cannot attack each other while astral, they can attack humans (and humans can attack them). Anything he’s carrying, up to his own body mass, becomes astral as well and functions in the astral world as it would in the physical realm. Tus, an astral machine gun can be used to mow down daemons.

 Access (+15) (Enduring) Te caster can target one spirit present and use one of its Skills, Stats or Miracles as if it was his own. While the spirit is under the influence of Access, it can can perceive the material world and has the option of offering other powers to the accessing human as well.

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 Chapter 3: Magic  Infuse (+5) Te caster can lose a number of Willpower points equal to the Width of the roll in order to give them to one spirit present.

Nullify (+10) (Enduring) Tis is just like the Nullify Miracle in Wild alents , except that it works only on spirits.

Spell Flaws Like Wild alents  powers, spells can be made less difficult by making them less effective. You do this with spell flaws.

Secondary Effect (–3) When designing the spell, designate one effect as “secondary.” It only occurs if the casting roll gets two sets. Te secondary effect always takes place after the primary effect. You can even try for a tertiary effect and hope for three sets. Good luck with that.

Complicated Requirements (–2)

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Te spell has extremely exacting, complicated or exotic requirements. It could require a sword that t he caster has forged himself with no one helping him, or a room-sized diagram composed of a thousand tiny glyphs, or it could demand the destruction of a pearl the size of a pea. Fulfilling these requirements doesn’t necessarily demand any kind of roll, indeed it probably shouldn’t. But they should be roleplayed through.

 Arduous Requirements (–3) Te spell is physically grueling or has some very demanding requirement. It could demand that the caster fast for a week beforehand, or dance vigorously for an hour, or that he draw a complex pattern in his own blood. As a general guideline, it should inflict a point of Killing damage, or force multiple Endurance checks, or require something similarly demanding.

Monstrous Requirements (–5)  he actions of the spell are a crime against humanity. Human sacrifice, ritual mutilation, cannibalism; something gross and beyond the pale. ypically these sorts of spells demand Stability checks from all but the most debased and degraded sorcerers.

Extra Difficulty (–1/point) Some spells have a margin for error. Others do not. Tis flaw can be bought multiple times, and each time it reduces the  XP cost of learning the spell by one, but increases the Difficulty of casting it by 1.

Risk of Lost Willpower (–1/point) In some fashion, there’s a chance that the caster loses one or more points of Willpower. It’s up to the GM to decide how this works: Examples abound in the spells already developed. Mostly this is to give some wiggle room for the GM to create spells that aren’t unusually hard or unusually easy.

 Chapter 3: Magic  Risk of Lost Base Will (–3/point) Tere’s some chance that the caster could end up losing some points of Base Will. Again, the GM decides how this  works. Again, it’s for wiggle room so that the spell 1: isn’t useless compared to other spells or 2: doesn’t make other spells useless.

Stability Check (–1) While the actions of the spell may be innocuous enough, it opens the caster’s mind to images or energies that are profoundly alien to the human experience. If the spell also has Monstrous Requirements, there are two Stability checks, one for gazing into the abyss and one for the abyss gazing into you.

Sacrifice Willpower (–2/point) Te caster must spend one or more points of Willpower to get the roll.

Sacrifice Base Will (–4/point) Te caster must lose a point or more of Base Will to roll to activate the spell.

Sacrifice Stat (–5/point) Define which Stat is permanently decreased, and by how much,  when the spell is cast, as the spell is written up. It does this every time the spell is cast.

Minor Backlash (–2) Every die in the casting roll that isn’t in a set causes a point of Shock to the caster, at the location indicated by the number on the die.

in a parking lot, you might get an automotive archon, or you might get a daemon that despises nature. It’s pot luck, but very  versatile. Different general calls are used for different Circles of spirits, since the summon effect still has to be bought when the spell is being built. If your general call summons effect cost 10 points, it calls Second Circle spirits, and making it General adds another 4 points. No spells are yet known that can use a general call for spirits above the Tird Circle. General call spells only, only  work on astral spirits. If a spirit’s in a talisman (or is rampaging down the street) a general call won’t turn it liminal like a specific summons.

 Agonizing (+7) (Conjure Only) Every die that turns up outside of sets does a point of Shock damage to the spirit, ignoring all armor and immunities.  Te damage hits the location shown on the die.

Simple Requirements (+2) Te ritual elements and items required are easily procured or produced: salt, string, a simple phrase, any book, a drop of blood or a circle drawn on a surface.

Not Difficult (+0) Te spell may require some effort to learn, but it’s not that difficult to actually do. Other than any Difficulty set by the base effect, there’s no additional Difficulty rating for a spell with this extra. Tis is the default Difficulty level for spells.

Ordinary Requirements (+0)

For every die in the casting roll that isn’t in a set, the caster loses a point of W illpower.

he ritual components and paraphernalia are specific, but not unduly onerous to perform or acquire. For example, a complex pattern drawn in blue ink, a difficult song, a feather from a particular bird in a particular color, a specific animal’s tooth, a word traced in f rost. his is the default level of complexity for spells.

Exclusive (–4)

Repeats by Width (+3)

Major Backlash (–5) Like Minor Backlash, only with Killing damage.

Soul Sapping (–4)

Te spell affects archons, or it targets daemons, but it doesn’t work on both. Tis Flaw can’t be added to Conjure or Invoke effects, which are already exclusive.

Spell Extras Flaws make a spell less effective but less expensive; extras make a spell more effective and more expensive.

General Call (+2 x Circle) Instead of conjuring or invoking a particular spirit by name or title, the spell calls whatever spirits are present. Tis means that if you cast it in a library, you might get an archon of silence or a daemon antagonistic to ignorance. If you cast it

When a spell has a one-time, immediate effect (it hurts a spirit or pleases it or heals it, instead of calling it or materializing it), that effect repeats a number of times equal to the Width of the activating roll. If there are Willpower costs, they have to be paid each time. Note that the caster can be doing other things while the spell is repeating. If dice are rolled as part of the effect, they are re-rolled each time the effect repeats.

Repeats by Height (+5) Tis works like Repeating by Width, except it repeats a number of times equal to the Height of the activation roll.

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 Chapter 3: Magic  Fast (+3) Te spell can be cast as a single action in a fight. Any spell that isn’t Fast can’t, no matter how simple the spell is. Only spells with the Simple Requirements Extra can be Fast.

of Wild Talents) isn’t terribly hard to create through sorcery.

Exalting (+9)

You need a bind effect to trap the spirit in the talisman, and

Every die that turns up outside of a set provides a point of the Please Spirit effect.

an access effect to permit use of the imprisoned spirit’s

Easy (+2/point)

lotis, are one-use only. Much more powerful (and difficult to

If a spell as a built-in Difficulty, that can be reduced with this extra. Each point of Difficulty reduced costs 2XP.

Inexhaustible (+30) If a spell has an instant effect (see page 52) this Extra means that the caster can create the effect at will, any time she  wants, after the spell has been cast. For example, if a Harm spell is Inexhaustible, once the caster has succeeded at it , she can roll the appropriate dice as a Harm pool any time she  wants, without going through the ritual actions. Effectivel y, it makes an instant effect work like a mutant’s power, except that the caster can do it even if their Willpower bottoms out.

Extended Duration (varies)

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ypically, a caster summons a spirit and the duration of its service is determined by how hard he beats it (if a daemon) or how lovingly he implores it (if an archon). With this extra, the spell confines or obligates the spirit to a minimum term of service. But only if it agrees/submits to ser vice in the first place.  Tis extra can only be applied to effects that are not instant.

Extended Duration Minimum Duration

Cost  

 Width minutes Height minutes  Width hours Height hours  Width days Height days  Width weeks Height weeks  Width months Height months  Width years Height years Forever It serves until the completion of a complicated and/or difficult task 

+0 +1 +2 +3 +4 +5 +6 +7 +8 +9 +10 +11 +20 +4

Building an Immutable Focus The typical Immutable Focus (discussed in Chapter 8

powers. Some amulets, particularly those sold by the Xocreate) are those with the Extended Duration Extra.

The Grimoire Tese spells are broken into three major categories: Con jurations, Invocations, and Split spells. Te first two categories are pretty obvious: you cast one wit h the Conjure Skill and the other with Invocation. Te split spells are simply those that can be cast with either Skill, though the requirements may be mildly different between them.

Conjurations Te art of compelling daemons has adorned many of its initiates with power, privilege and profit, but is itself adorned by the broken bodies and shattered minds of those who toyed with it unprepared. A successful conjurer needs a variety of spells in his grimoire. Te descriptions are in alphabetical order, but the spells’ functions are summarized below. Fast spells—those that can be cast during combat—are in bold, and their XP cost is in parentheses after the title. General summons are in italics . Many spells are identified with a single cabal or faction. Tat doesn’t mean you can’t know that spell if you’re outside the group, but it does mean you need a good expl anation, and possibly more than a good one if a member of that group finds out.

Baal’s Adornment  Cost : 16 XP Difficulty : none Requirements : o receive Baal’s Adornment, the caster must

garb himself in a black robe, shave his head, and burn a human infant to death in a furnace. He must then press his forehead to the furnace twice, enough to injure (each touch inflicts a point of Shock damage). He can then give up a point of Willpower and make his Conjure roll. If the roll succeeds, he has to make a Stability check (in addition to any he took for performing a human

 Chapter 3: Magic  Conjurations Effect

Summons

Harm Materialize Bind/Access Miscellaneous

Spells

Black Catnip (5), Call the Gremlin (12), Call the Lord of War (14), Call the Soul Breaker (18), Conjure Astral Alarm (15),Cry Havoc (13), Demand of Succor (10), Dread Imperial Command (20), Incarnate the Duke of Shadows (35), Te Ineffable Ritual of the Dark Warden (19), Maledictus Inelucti (14), Penetrate the Abyssal Well   (20), Pestilential Demand  (12), Te Philosopher’s Statue (15), Putrid Coalition (47), Raise the Succubus (3), Shield Against Mind’s Misfortune (10), Sorrow’s Glass (5), Summon the Slayer of Secrets (9) Baal’s Adornment (16), Baal’s Blade (10), Baal’s Dagger   (13), Chastisement  (7), Dread Imperial Command (20), Lenin’s Lightning  (9), Pugnacious Endeavor   (1), Relentless Discipline (10) Incarnate the Duke of Shadows (35) Te Ifrit’s Chains (23), Te Ifrit’s Labyrinth (19), Putrid Coalition (47), Sacrifice of Sacrifices (11) Defense of the Blasphemous Amulet (12), Vigilant Idol (10)

sacrifice). Whether that succeeds or fails, the spell is complete. Results : Te caster develops a pair of astral antlers. o those  who can perceive the spirit world, they look like bull horns, about eight feet wide and glowing orange. For the rest of his life, the caster can roll an 8d Harm pool against spirits at will.  Tis can be done once per round and it does WSK damage.

equal to the Width of the Conjure roll. It cannot be halted once it commences.

Black Catnip Cost : 5 XP Difficulty : 3 Requirements: o cast this spell, the conjurer must acquire a

Baal’s Blade Cost : 10 XP Difficulty : none Requirements : Te caster must have a longsword with a

straight blade, a handle wrapped in red silk, and a trailing golden tassel. Te blade must be unsheathed and presented to the four cardinal points of the compass as a chant is spoken. Results : Tis spell creates an astral weapon. o those who can see it, it looks like a sword floating above the caster’s head. As a single action, the caster can direct the blade against one spirit he knows is present. It strikes once per round for five rounds, rolling a pool equal to the caster’s Command + Conjure. Once released, it can’t be stopped or called back. It does WS. Te caster can take other actions while the blade is striking, of course.

Baal’s Dagger Cost : 13 XP Difficulty : none Requirements: he caster makes a complicated hand gesture

and spits. Results : Tis is a fast spell—it can be cast in combat. If it succeeds, it does WS against one spirit the caster knows is present and can target. Tis damage is repeated for a number of rounds

living black cat and hold it while speaking a short incantation.  Te same cat can be used over and over, but it must belong to the caster as much as it belongs to anyone. Results : If the Conjure roll succeeds, the spell brings the Black Cat (see page 24) near.

Call the Gremlin Cost : 12 XP Difficulty : none Requirements: Te caster must drip patchouli oil on a small,

live plant, and then burn the plant completely to ashes. Te gremlin appears in the smoke. Results : If the Conjure roll succeeds, the spell calls the Gremlin (see page 24). It is an Agonizing spell.

Call the Lord of War  Cost : 14 XP Difficulty : 3 Requirements : Te caster must pick a fight and lose, suffering at

least one point of Shock damage. Ten she must draw, with drops of colored sand, a complicated image of Lord War triumphing over enemies. (Tis takes about two hours. It requires no roll, but some sort of artistic Skill could reduce the time required.)

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 Chapter 3: Magic 

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Results : When the sand-image is complete, the caster blows

Conjure Astral Alarm

it away and calls upon L ord War (see page 28). o make the Conjure roll, the caster needs to sacrifice a point of Willpower. If the spell succeeds, the caster makes a Stability check. Tis is an Agonizing spell.

Cost : 5 XP

Call the Soul Breaker  Cost : 18 XP Difficulty : 4

Difficulty : none Requirements: Te caster must construct or acquire some kind

of trap (a mousetrap is most commonly used) and disassemble it until it ’s completely non-functional. Ten the pieces are thrown in a fire and the spirit is called. Results : If the Conjure roll succeeds, the spell summons the Securer Against Peril (see page 22).

Requirements : Te caster must ritually debase himself with ash,

blood and soil. Ten a wailing song is canted over a fire, into  which the caster flings powdered copper to create green smoke. If called successfully, the Soul Breaker emerges f rom the smoke, behind the caster. Results : If the Conjure roll succeeds, the spell rolls summons the Soul Breaker (see page 30).

Chastisement Cost : 7 XP Difficulty : 5

Cry Havoc Cost : 13 XP Difficulty : 5 Requirements: o call the Despoiler of Trones, a soldier,

police officer or other human representative of t he armed civil authority must be strangled to death with a silken cord, while  wearing his or her uniform. Results : With a successful roll and sacrifice, the spell calls the Despoiler (see page 31). If the daemon arrives, the caster loses a point of Command, permanently.

Requirements : Te caster must clap his hands, shout out three

syllables, then spread his hands wide. Results : Tis is a fast spell—it can be cast in one combat round. If the Conjure roll succeeds, the spell does WSK against one spirit that the caster knows is present and can target. If the Conjure roll fails, the caster loses a point of Willpower.

Defense of the Blasphemous Amulet  Cost : 12 XP Difficulty : none Requirements: Te caster must hand-craft soap from the fat of

a pig, the ashes of an aspen, and the oil of a rose. Te target of

 Chapter 3: Magic  the spell must be washed with this soap while the caster sings a chant in ancient proto-Hindi. Results: Tis spell can only be cast on an object, place or person containing a bound spirit. If the spell works, any attempt to unbind the spirit has to beat both the Height and Width of the Defense of the Blasphemous Amulet set. Te effect lasts Width weeks.

Demand of Succor  Cost : 10 XP Difficulty : none Requirements : Te caster must invoke the Physician Without

Body in the presence of a dissected human corpse. She needn’t have killed the person, though it doesn’t interfere if she did. Results : If the Conjure roll succeeds, the spell brings the Physician Without Body (see page 27).

Dread Imperial Command Cost : 20 XP Difficulty : 8 Requirements : Te caster must shave off e very hair on his body,

burn them, and collect the ashes. Ten he must cut a complicated sigil into his own flesh (it requires about three square inches) and rub the ashes into it. Te sigil does a point of Killing damage and (thanks to the ashes) almost always leaves a baroque scar. It must go on a previously unmarked section o f skin. Tis typically requires a Stability check. Results : Once the symbol is complete, the caster can spend five points of Willpower and make the Conjure roll. If that roll succeeds, the next round Te Malignant Persuader (see page 32) arrives. Te spell is Agonizing and forces a Stability check on the caster. As a secondary effect, the spell does Minor Harm, but if that fails, the caster loses five more po ints of Willpower If he has no Willpower left, it comes out of Base Wil l.

 The Ifrit’s Chains Cost : 23 XP Difficulty : none Requirements : Tis ghastly rite requires a human sacrifice, and

not a quick one. Te caster must keep his victim alive while cutting words of power into each limb in Arabic. Tis flowing script begins at each foot and each hand, and extends up the body until all four of them meet at the sternum. Te caster then delves into the chest until he has removed the xiphoid process

(a piece of cartilage attached to the bottom of the sternum,  which ossifies in adulthood). Te removal of this is what is meant to kill the victim. Some casters finish the job with one quick jab to the heart. Others let them bleed out. For the spell, it doesn’t matter. What matters is that the caster must spend the next 24 hours on his knees, staring at the bloody chunk, examining it, and memorizing every detail. After the first seven ho urs, this is a Stability check to keep from getting distracted. After the first fifteen hours, it’s an Endurance check to st ay awake. At the final hour, a multiple-action Endurance and Stability check is required. If all those checks are passed, the spell can be cast at any time by gripping the bone and speaking t wo words. Results : If the bone was properly prepared, the two words seal the deal. Ten the caster spends a point of Willpower and rolls his Conjure roll. If it succeeds, he can Bind one spirit present.  Te spirit is trapped in the bone for a number of months equal to the Height of the roll. While it’s trapped, the caster can Access any of its powers. Te bone petrifies into rock once the spirit leaves it, so if the caster wishes t o cast the spell again, it requires another sacrifice. Te stone xiphoids are, however, highly sought by occult col lectors and may confer minor benefits to spell research at the GM’s discretion.

 The Ifrit’s Labyrinth Cost : 19 XP Difficulty : none Requirements: o perform this spell, the caster must cut a slit

in each of her feet and produce a compl icated pattern in her blood through a lengthy dance. Tis takes at least an hour and requires either a Perform: Dance success or a successful Endurance roll. Te caster can take a break after p reparing the pattern (rest, bandage her feet, regain her composure, maybe cast a few other spells) and then complete the spell simply by touching the symbol with both feet. Results : Regardless of whether the Conjure roll succeeds or fails, the caster immediately makes a Stability check the next round. If the spell worked, the caster can order a spirit present to remain locked in the pattern or in a physical item placed in the middle of the sigil. Te caster can Access the spirit ’s powers as long as it remains bound (that is, minutes equal to Width). Note that while this spell can only be cast with Conjure, it can trap spirits of any type.

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Incarnate the Duke of Shadows (Xolotl Cartel)

Maledictus Inelucti

Cost : 35 XP

Difficulty : 2

Difficulty : 5

Requirements: Te caster must break a mirror in which she is

Requirements : Te caster must kill a human being with a ritual

reflected, and grind the f ragments into powder. Te powder is added to boiling water, and then the image of the Maledictor forms in the steam, if the spell works. Results : After fulfilling the requirements, the sorceress pays a  Willpower point to make her Conjure roll. If it succeeds, the Grand Maledictor (see page 25) is summoned and the summoner makes a Stability check. Tis is an Agonizing spell.

dagger, then drink and vomit out all the blood in the victim’s body into a cauldron. Te repeated vomiting requires f rom one to three Endurance checks, depending on how big the victim  was and how big the sorcerer is. If an Endurance check fails, the conjurer takes a point of Shock damage to her torso. Once the pot is full of the blood and stomach acid, the caster can make the Conjure roll. Results : If the Conjure roll succeeds, the Duke of Shadows (see page 31) appears, forcing a Stability Check on the caster. If the Duke arrives, the conjurer is permitted to materializ e the Duke in the physical realm as a secondary effect. (Te Conjurer is free to negotiate with the Duke and/or attack him before allowing this, and can abort the materialization if she wishes.) If it succeeds, a daemon inimical to warmth of any description is f ree in the material world for a number of days equal to the Width of the materialization set.

 The Ineffable Ritual of the Dark Warden Cost : 19 XP Difficulty : 4 Requirements : o perform this rite, the conjurer dresses all

in black and traces a large occult design in whit e chalk while uttering a chant to the Warden of the Dark. When he lights a single black candle in front of the pattern, the spell is complete. Results : If the Conjure roll fails, the caster loses a point of  Willpower. If it succeeds, the spell summons the Dark Warden (described on page 29).

Lenin’s Lightning (Direktiva Nul) Cost : 9 XP Difficulty : 4 Requirements : Te caster must rub a piece of amber through

her hair and point it at the spirit. Results : Tis is a fast spell—it can be cast during combat. If the Conjure roll succeeds, it does WS against t he target. Tis attack has the particular fault that it can never turn into Killing damage. However, when the Harm strikes, it travels through the spirit’s body and out through one leg, or both (just like when lightning strikes).

Cost : 14 XP

Penetrate the Abyssal Wall Cost : 20 XP Difficulty : 3 Requirements: Te caster must chop down an elm tree with a

bronze-headed axe. Te tree must be at least ten years old, and the caster can’t change axes before it falls (though he may pause to sharpen it). When it’s down, he can take a single piece of the stump away with him and use it to cast the spell in another place. o cast, either at the stump or elsewhere, he must spill his own blood on the wood and gaze at the patterns they form. (Tis is one point of Killing damage.) Results : If the Conjure roll succeeds, the spell summons a nearby Tird Circle daemon. Tis is a general call. If the Con jure roll fails, the caster loses three points of Willpower. If the spirit is called, the spell is Agonizing to it.

Pestilential Demand Cost : 12 XP Difficulty : 3 on the Conjure roll Requirements : Te caster must trace a pattern on a mirror with

his finger while burning a black candle, then breathe on the glass so that the pattern becomes visible. In the middle of the pattern, the daemon can briefly make its face appear in the mist. Results : Tis spell conjures any nearby First Circle daemon, as long as the spirit isn’t already performing a task for another sorcerer (including being bound into a device or person). It’s a General Call, and Agonizing.

 The Philosopher’s Statue Cost : 15 XP Difficulty : 3

 Chapter 3: Magic  Requirements : o cast this spell, the conjurer needs a circle of

Raise the Succubus

 white salt, with a star of powdered cobalt inside it. In the center of this he places a sprig of rosemary or a piece of amber, and then bows. When he looks up, the All-Preserver should appear, if all has gone well. Results : With a successful Conjure roll, the spell calls th e AllPreserver (see page 28).

Cost : 3 XP

Pugnacious Endeavor (Direktiva Nul)

Difficulty : none Requirements : Te succubus requires a painting or statue or

a beautiful person to be destroyed in its name. It has to be an original piece of artwork, not a copy. It has to be produced with a successful roll of an appropriate artistic Skill of at least Height 3. Results : If successful, the spell summons Te Gatekeeper of Monstrous Delights (see page 22).

Cost : 1 XP Difficulty : 3 to the Conjure roll

Relentless Discipline

Requirements : Te caster bites the back of his left hand and

Cost : 10 XP

then strikes the bite mark with the back of his right hand. It is not necessary to break the skin. Results: Tis is a fast spell—it can be cast in combat. Te summoner must spend two points of Willpower in order to make his Conjure roll. If it fails, he loses four additional points of Willpower. If it succeeds, the spell does WSK to one spirit present. On the next round, the caster has to make a Stability check.

Difficulty : none

Putrid Coalition

Requirements: Tis spell requires a red cloth and a glass con-

tainer with one cup of distil led water. Te caster sticks the cloth in the cup and boils o ff all the water. Te cloth can then be used to cast the spell one time before needing to be boiled again. Results : For a number of rounds equal to the Height of the casting roll, a spirit present and designated by the caster takes  WS damage. Once the spell is cast, the caster has no way to call off the attack.

Cost : 47 XP Difficulty : 3

Sacrifice of Sacrifices

Requirements : Te Desecrator of the Body can only be sum-

Cost : 11 XP

moned by constructing an elaborate mandala made of rotting meat and dried bones. Constructing this requires at least a day, and consumes one cow, one dog and one rooster or large lizard. It takes up a hundred square feet and reeks to high heaven. Te Desecrator of the can be smelled over this . Results: If the Conjure roll succeeds, it calls the Desecrator of the Body (see page 29). It’s an Agonizing spell. Te activation roll also acts as a binding roll, locking the Desecrator in the caster’s body. Te caster can delay the binding, however, for as long as a week (thus allowing him time to bring it to heel, if he  wants compliance.) As a Secondary Effect, the spell allows the caster to access all the Desecrator’s powers. Te Desecrator of the Body remains in the material world, using the conjurer as a conduit, until 1: the conjurer voluntarily submits to medical treatment, 2: a number of days equal to the Height of either the Conjure or Access roll pass (caster’s choice) or, 3: the caster dies.

Difficulty : None Requirements: Te caster must prepare a complicated enclosure

of iron rods and silk draperies of azure and cream-yellow. No one may assist him in its construction, and it is assembled in a cumbersome and unwieldy way while chanting a long litany.  Tis process takes at least two hours, four if he fails an Endurance check. He must then commit an act of incest inside the enclosure, and kill the family member involved. Tereafter, he can complete the spell by sp eaking a single syllable. Results: Tis spell can only be cast when the conjurer is touching the enclosure, and only on a spirit that is present. If the Conjure roll succeeds, the activation set produces a binding effect, tying the spirit either into enclosure, or to an item inside it. As a Secondary Effect, the spell allows access to the spirit’s powers. Both the binding and the access last for a number of months equal to the Height of the Conjure roll. (If the secondary effect happens, the caster can choose which set’s Height to use.)

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 Chapter 3: Magic  Shield Against Mind’s Misfortune Cost : 10 XP

Casting this spell costs 3 WP and hits the caster with a Minor Backlash.

Difficulty : 2

Invocations

Requirements : Te caster must ritually burn psychedelic plants

(such as belladonna, peyote or jimson weed) (stand back f rom the smoke on that last one) while drawing a drop of blood from the middle of her forehead. Results : If the Conjure roll succeeds, the spell summons the Guardian of the Mind’s Citadel (see page 26).

Sorrow’s Glass

 Te gentler, persuasive path of Invocation is directly safer than Conjuration, but requires more patience and delicacy, perhaps. It’s more forgiving of dabbling, which means an Invoker with a thin spell book isn’t doomed, only incompetent. As with the conjurations, descriptions are in alphabetical order, but the spells’ functions are summarized below. Fast spells are in bold, and their XP cost is in parentheses after the title. General summons are in italics .

Cost : 5 XP Difficulty : none Requirements : o call the Knight of Sorrows, the conjurer

must shake a drop of poison into a glass of clear water and then draw a pattern around the glass in white chalk. Results : If the Conjure roll succeeds, the spell summons the Knight of Sorrows (see page 23).

Summon the Slayer of Secrets

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Cost : 9 XP Difficulty : 3 Requirements : o perform this ritual, the conjurer needs a

brown leather bag, into which she must place a skull, a book and a black candle. She then ties the bag shut and lights a  white candle while calling out to the Slayer of Secrets. o complete the spell she unti es the bag and reveals the items. Results : If the roll succeeds, the spell summons the Slayer of Secrets (see page 26)

 Vigilant Idol Cost : 10 XP Difficulty : none

 Accommodate Cost : 4 XP Difficulty : none Requirements: Te caster must write out his full name three

times, one each in blood, tears, and saliva. Tis done, the paper  with the names must be soaked in the caster’s sweat and then coated (front and back) with the caster’s earwax. Te caster must then blow a glass bottle himself and, when it’s cooled, put the paper inside, seal it with a knot of his own hair, and bury it in a plot of land he owns for one lunar month. When that’s done, he must dig the bottle up and swallow the paper. He’s then ready to cast the spell, which he can do at any time by breaking the bottle and making his roll. Results : Te caster must already have a spirit bound into himself to cast Accommodate. If he has a bound spirit and c asts the spell successfully, the binding (whatever spell produced it) becomes unconditionally permanent. In addition to the requirements, the spell has the Flaws of Major Backlash and Soul Sapping. Furthermore, the character loses one point of a Stat (GM’s choice, based on what would be the most appropriate sacrifice to the bound spirit).

Requirements : Te caster must construct some form of idol or

statuette. Te material doesn’t matter, but it has to be representative of something recognizable such as a tree, person, animal, garbage truck or whatever. While making this item, the caster must be within one mile of t he place where she was born. Results : If the roll succeeds, the caster can designate one spirit present. Tat spirit can see and hear f rom the perspective of the idol for Width years. It doesn’t have to spend Willpower for this glimpse into the mortal realm. Note that the spirit is not bound or using Access or anything. It can just perceive the  world through the idol.

 Adoration of the Translunar  Cost : 2 XP Difficulty : 3 Requirements: Te caster must personally prepare a seven-

course meal. It is to include appetizer, soup, salad, a palate cleanser, two entrees, and a dessert. It should be enough to serve eleven people and include appropriate wines. Te entire meal is laid out on a formal service and then abandoned for seven days and nights before attempting the spel l. If anyone

 Chapter 3: Magic  Invocations Effect

Summons

Please Bind/Access Nullify Heal Materialize Miscellaneous

Spells

Beseech the Unyielding Watchman (22), Bind the Mind and Loose It (27), Boundary of the Infinitesimal Point (15), Celestial Plea  (18), Empires Collapse (19), Fire is the Cleanser (5), Fortune Smiles (3), Implore the Blade of Justice (17), Invoke Erotic Archon (5), Invoke the Angel of Greed (16), Let Us Commence the Final Rule (37), Plea for Succor   (8), Plea to the Heavenly Physician (11), Praise for the Luminous Lady (13), Quest of All-Consuming Pleasure (20), Revenge Sevenfold Upon One Who Has Wounded Me (15), Rite of the Black Feather (8), Strike Ill (10), oil and  rouble (15) Adoration of the ranslunar (2), Boundary of the Infinitesimal Point (15), Let Us Commence the Final Rule (37), Praise for the Luminous Lady (13), Sumptuous Feast of the Angels (3), Sweat of Grateful oil  (7), oil and rouble (15) Astral Domicile (27), Palace of the Flesh (24), Craft alisman (17) Purification by the Burning Ring (3), Exile Ex Materia   (13), Stable Cancellation Process (14) Archon Restoration (10), Impassioned Restoration  (16) Let Us Commence the Final Rule (37) Accommodate (4), he Finest Perfume is From Hidden Petals (20)

human eats of the food before the spell is cast, the spell automatically fails. Results : If the Invocation roll succeeds, the caster can Please one spirit present.

mains in the object until t he crystal is destroyed, or until killed or pulled out by sorcery. Some Astral Domiciles have been in use for thousands of years.

Beseech the Unyielding Watchman  Archon Restoration

Cost : 22 XP

Cost : 10 XP

Difficulty : 4

Difficulty : 4

Requirements: he invoker sketches a shield shape in dirt and

Requirements : Te caster must pour a circle of pure water and

drips a splash of pure water in the center of it. he spell is then ready. Results : If the Invocation succeeds, the spell summons the Indomitable Pasha (see page 38).

crush a handful of vervain and hollyhock together. Results : If the Invocation roll succeeds, the caster can Heal a spirit. Every point of Width heals a point of Shock and Killing damage and costs a point of Willpower. If the casting roll fails, the invoker loses one Willpower.

Bind the Mind and Loose It  Cost : 27 XP

 Astral Domicile

Difficulty : 5

Cost : 27 XP

Requirements: Te caster sketches a summoning diagram on a

Difficulty : 5

flat mirror, with water. She then tilts and the mirror so that the  water flows and drips. Whispering Jane’s image first forms in the streams of water, then solidifies into a reflection standing behind the caster. When the caster turns around, there Jane is. Results : If the Invocation roll succeeds, the spell summons  Whispering Jane (see page 39).

Requirements : Te caster creates a crystal. Tis could be some-

thing as simple as making rock c andy on a string, though many prefer something a little more durable and less edible. Results : When the cr ystal is ready, the caster can spend five points of Willpower and make his Invocation roll. If it succeeds, he loses a point off one Stat o f his choice and creates a habitat for any spirit present. Te habitat must incorporate the crystal and ser ves as an Immutable Focus. Te spirit is Bound and the holder of the focus can Access its powers. Te spirit re-

Boundary of the Infinitesimal Point  Cost : 15 XP Difficulty : 3

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 Chapter 3: Magic  Requirements: his invocation requires the inscription of

 Examp le: D r. Major s rolls a 2x1 0 to put a sp irit into a tal isman.

an elaborate mathematical formula in white on black or dark gray. (raditionally this was chalk on slate, but a computer screen works fine.) While contemplating the equation, the caster has to learn or comprehend something new—a fact, an insight, an analytical theory—anything that ’s not purely subjective opinion. Results : If the Invocation roll succeeds, the next round the caster makes a Stability roll while the Aspect of Infinite Circumference (see page 36) arrives. As a Secondary Effect the spell produces a Please effect.

he spirit’s there for ten days (Height) or until she uses its powers

Celestial Plea  Cost : 18 XP Difficulty : 3 Requirements: he caster must make a square out of four

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pieces of string, each as long as his forearm. hey must be colored red, green, black and white. hen he must place some of his tears in the middle of the square. If necessary, this spell can be cast in total silence. It is not a fast spell, however—it cannot be cast in battle. Results : Whether the invocation succeeds or fails, the caster loses a point of Willpower. If it succeeds, he must also make a Stability check. Regardless of whether that check succeeds, the spell emits a general call for any nearby 300 point archon. If the roll succeeds, an archon of some descriptio n answers the plea and opens negotiations.

Craft Talisman Cost : 17 Difficulty : 3

 for two roll s ( Widt h).

Empires Collapse Cost : 19 XP Difficulty : 5 Requirements: Te caster must construct, by hand, a house

of at least three rooms and th ree doors. It must have at least one piece of furniture in each room and be scaled f or human occupancy. Every wall, door and piece of furniture must be hand-scribed with the Razor o f Empires’ name (in Arabic) over and over, so that every inch is covered with the words, inside and out. Ten the caster burns the house to the ground, seeing the Razor emerge from the smoke and fire. Results : Te caster has to spend a Willpower point to roll the Invocation pool. If it succeeds, the spell calls the Razor of Empires (see page 39). If that roll fails, the caster loses another  Willpower point. If it succeeds, he makes a Stability check upon beholding the Razor’s grandeur.

Exile Ex Materia (Direktiva Nul) Cost : 13 XP Difficulty : 4 Requirements: Te caster performs a quick and harsh series of pat-

terned exhalations, and spends a Willpower point before rolling. Results: his is a fast spell that targets one astral spirit present with a 7d Nullify pool. he Nullify effect specifically and only targets the spirit’s ability to project its powers into the material world. It lasts a number of hours equal to the Height of the Invocation roll.

Requirements : Tis spell requires the caster t o prepare some

object that can be carried in one hand. Te item must be ritually buried in the earth overnight, washed in rainwater, dried in the wind and passed through a flame. When the spell is cast, the caster kisses the object. Results : Te caster must spend 5 Willpower to make the In vocation roll, and has to make a Stability check if the roll succeeds. If it succeeds, the spell Binds a spirit into the talisman.  Te spirit is stuck for either Height days, or until the holder of the talisman exhausts it. Te talisman is exhausted after the holder Accesses one of the spirit ’s Skills, Stats or Miracles for a number of rolls equal to the casting roll’s Width. After that, the talisman is mundane again.

 The Finest Perfume is From Hidden Petals Cost : 20 XP Difficulty : none Requirements: o cast this spell, the enchanter must shout

“Te finest perfume is f rom hidden petals!” (in English) and slam his hands together forcefully. Results : Tis is a fast spell (it can be cast in combat), and despite the frou-frou name, one highly favored by front-line Nul operatives who go toe-to- toe with materialized spirits.  Tat’s because it allows the caster to access the powers of any spirit present, for a number of minutes equal to t he Width of

 Chapter 3: Magic  the casting roll. Te caster can only borrow one power at a time, but when Lord War is attacking you it’s real helpful to be able to steal his Harm power or, failing that, to temporarily use his Extra ough boxes.

Fire is the Cleanser  Cost : 5 XP Difficulty : 2 Requirements : Tis spell has to be cast at night, around a very

large bonfire containing at least three different types of wood. It can’t contain anything but wood (or leaves). Arrayed around this in the four cardinal directions are complicated sigils traced in powdered copper, cobalt, potassium, and magnesium. Te caster has to jump over the bonfire and then use its flame to light each of those symbols in order. Tat means four jumps. Each is an Athletics roll which, if failed, causes a point of Shock damage to a leg location. Results: If the Invocation roll succeeds, the spell summons the Grand Salamander (see page 35), who takes form in the flames of the bonfire.

Implore the Blade of Justice Cost : 17 XP Difficulty : 3 Requirements: Te caster must kneel on a stone floor, naked,

holding a sword. Tere is a brief incantation, and the caster must recite it over and over, raising the blade at the end of it, for an hour. Results : Te caster accepts a point of Shock damage to his torso in order to roll this spell. If his Invocation roll fails, he loses five Willpower. If it succeeds, the spell calls the Blade of  Justice (see page 37) for negotiations.

Invoke Erotic Archon Cost : 5 XP Difficulty : none Requirements: Te caster must burn some memento of a genu-

ine love affair in the flame of a white candle. Results : If the spell works and the spirit is available, this incantation summons the extremely popular E rotic Archon (see page 32).

Fortune Smiles

Invoke the Angel of Greed

Cost : 3 XP

Cost : 16 XP

Difficulty : none

Difficulty : 3

Requirements : o call the Knight Protector, the caster must

Requirements: o lure this spirit into negotiations, the caster

have a metal shield with a perfectly mirrored chrome front. It has to be a real  shield, and it has to be at least the size of a typical large pizza. Te caster props the shield up so that her face is reflected in the chrome, and then boils a four-leaf clover in pure  water in f ront of it. Results : If the Invocation roll succeeds, the spell calls the Knight Protector (see page 32). Its image appears in a combination of the steam, condensation on the shield, and the caster’s own distorted face.

must first cultivate five caddisfly lar vae in a habitat containing tiny grains of precious minerals—gold dust, ground-up jade, tiny seed pearls and the like. In the wild, caddisflies secrete a sticky goo and incorporate local dust and pebbles to create shells for themselves. Given valuable materials, they build jeweled insect palaces. Once five jeweled caddisflies are available, the caster induces them to crawl in a pentagon shape, then blows a handful of dust into its center. Gently agitating the dust by drumming outside the circle allows the reasurer to first project its image and then, if all goes well, appear completely. Results : If the Invocation spell succeeds, the dust in the symbol shows a vague, moving shape of the Gilded reasurer (see page 35) as it arrives. As a Secondary Effect, the spell may also Please the spirit.

Impassioned Restoration (Direktiva Nul) Cost : 16 XP Difficulty : 5 Requirements : Te caster must lace his fingers to gether in

a complicated pattern, then manipulate them into another complicated position. Results: Tis is a fast spell; it can be cast in combat. If the Invocation roll succeeds, it produces a Heal effect on one spirit present.

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 Chapter 3: Magic 

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Let Us Commence the Final Rule

Plea for Succor

Cost : 37 XP

Cost : 8 XP

Difficulty : 3

Difficulty : 3

Requirements : Te caster must construct an elaborate scourge

Requirements : Te caster must make a Performance (Dance) roll

of gold and silver wire, wrapped and braided around a jade handle and tipped with obsidian. Ten he has to spend an hour flagellating himself and chanting about his unworthiness, baseness, humility and need to submit to a wor thy master. (When done seriously, this does 1 or 2 Shock to the caster’s torso. He can give himself a +1d bonus to t he roll by taking a point of Killing damage instead, or a +2d bonus from two points of Killing.) After painting a summoning mandala with his own blood, the spell is ready to be cast. Results : If the Invocation roll succeeds, the caster loses a point of Willpower as the spell summons the Emperor of Souls (see page 36). Tis spell has the Exalting extra. If the caster and the Emperor come to an agreement of some sort, the activation set serves to Materialize the spirit. Te caster can wait as long as desired to make the spirit physical, even to the extent of casting the spell, making a pact, and then letting the Emperor go about his business for  years  before calling him back to be material for a few minutes. (If that seems like a raw deal, consider that the Emperor can bark out “Kill yourself!” with a Command pool of 10d. He can command two people every combat round, rolling 9d, or three for 8d, and so on. If they want to resist, it’s a S tability roll, and if that fails it ’s digging into Willpower. For extra nasty, roll twice against the same target. How many combat rounds are in sixty seconds?)

to begin the vigorous performance required for this spell. (If she has musicians, at least a drummer and someone who can make a melody, and they make successful Performance (Music) rolls, she gets a +2d bonus to her Dance roll.) Te dance is frenzied and lasts an hour, requiring an Endurance roll to avoid collapse. Results : If the Dance and Endurance rolls succeed, the caster can make an Invocation roll. If it succeeds, the spell produces a general call to any proximate Second Circle archon. It’s a useful spell, even if snide conjurers call it “Plea for a Sucker.”

Palace of the Flesh (ROSCRO) Cost : 24 XP Difficulty : 5 Requirements : he caster must ritually purify himself

through a series of seven immersions in seven different medicated and aromatic baths. Dripping and naked, he can present himself to a spirit. Results : Te caster must sacrifice five points of Willpower to make his Invocation roll. If it succeeds, he can sacrifice a point of Body to bind the spirit into him and access its powers. Tis fusion lasts until the c aster’s death or until the spirit is expelled.

Plea to the Heavenly Physician Cost : 11 XP Difficulty : none Requirements : o summon the Vigorous Uncle (see page 33),

the caster must perform some form of simple calisthenic exercise (run up and down a flight of stairs, twenty push-ups, a set of crunches or some jumping jacks) and then say, “See, Blessed Uncle, what a good child I am!” in an ancient precursor of Hindi. Results : If the Invocation roll succeeds, its set works both as a Summons and a Please Spirit effect for the Vigorous Uncle.

Praise for the Luminous Lady  Cost : 13 XP Difficulty : 3 Requirements: o cast this spell, the caster needs three hoops,

one of copper about a foot and a half across, one of silver about a foot across, and one of gold about six inches across. Tese are arranged in a concentric, “bulls-eye” pattern as a Sanskrit chant is intoned. Ten they are shifted into a vertical pattern of descending size, sort of like an exclamation point or a stoplight. Only the copper hoop may be touched while rearranging them.  Ten there’s another chant. Ten the hoops are reconfigured to over lap in a three-lobe patt ern, touching only the silver hoop this time. Tere’s a third chant, and then the caster pic ks up the gold hoop (without touching the other two) and squints through it at some source of light. If the Princess has responded, she’s then visible. Results : Tis Invocation requires a sacrifice of 3 Willpower. If the spell is performed properly and the Invocation roll suc-

 Chapter 3: Magic  ceeds, the spell summons the Princess of ranquility (see page 33). Tis is an Exalting spell.

Purification by the Burning Ring  Cost : 3 XP Difficulty : 4 Requirements : Te caster must prepare a ring of fuel at least

fifteen feet wide, with runes written outside it and within it in some flammable liquid. o activate the spell, the caster dons a single, seamless yellow garment and ignites the fuel. She must then walk, barefoot, all around the ring, on top o f the hot coals. (Tis does a point of Killing damage to each foot if the caster doesn’t wait until the fuel burns down to coals. If she waits for fire to burn down to where they ’re glowing, but without open flames, two Athletics rolls can get across the coals without t he damage. If the rolls fail, Killing damage to each foot.) Results : Te spell targets one spirit that is present and which must be designated by name or title. If the spell succeeds, it Nullifies one power specified during the casting. It lasts months equal to the Width of the roll. If the Nullify roll fails, the caster loses a point of Base Will.

Quest of All-Consuming Pleasure Cost : 20 XP Difficulty : 3

Requirements: Te caster must inscribe, by hand, a series of

runes and sigils on green stone squares, string them together in order, and wear them as a necklace next to t he skin for an hour and a day. When that’s done, the necklace is smashed, ground into powder, and poured onto a sandalwood fire. Results : Te spell summons the Master of Delight, Despair and Disaster (see page 37) and drains a point of W illpower from the caster. Te activation set also serves as a Please Spirit set. Te Master takes shape in the smoke and steam of the quenched fire.

Revenge Sevenfold Upon One Who Has  Wounded Me Cost : 15 XP Difficulty : 2 Requirements: o unleash Nemesis (page 34) on an enemy,

the invoker must acquire someone that his enemy loves and decapitate him. An elaborate mandala is flayed into the back of the corpse, and the head is returned to the enemy. Results : When the Invocation roll succeeds, not one but two spirits are bound into the headless corpse. One is Nemesis and the other is the ghost of the murder victim. An image of the  victim’s head forms above the torso, composed of smoke and dim blue flame. Te ghost can speak to the victim if addressed by name, but Nemesis can access all of the ghost’s memories

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 Chapter 3: Magic  and thoughts in order to track, ambush or torment the target. Nemesis can only exist for the hour of midnight, however, unless materialized with another spell.

Strike Ill Cost : 10 XP Difficulty : 2 Requirements: Te caster must lay a tr ail of discarded bandages,

Rite of the Black Feather  Cost : 8 XP Difficulty : none Requirements : Te caster must construct a small model bird

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out of crow feathers. It doesn’t have to be anything terribly elaborate, but it needs to be at least the siz e of his hand. Te spell is cast while burning the effigy. Results : If the spell is performed properly, it calls Sister Raven (see page 33), who manifests in t he smoke of the burning doll. If persuaded to aid the invoker, this spell provides an additional benefit: Te caster can call Sister Raven automatically, a number of times equal to the Width of the Invocation roll. Sister Raven is popular as a spy for this reason, since her namesakes are common and usually unremarkable. A caster can invoke her, negotiate for observation, and then call her back at leisure for reports. Her limited intelligence makes this imperfect, but then again, she’s but a minor spirit.

Stable Cancellation Process (ROSCRO) Cost : 14 XP Difficulty : 3 Requirements : Tis spell requires a sort of three-dimensional

pentagram projected by lasers inside a man-sized tube o f inert noble gasses. Te tube also contains a Möbius st rip made of silver. Te caster recites a lengthy chant in Binary. Results : Te caster loses a point of Body for 24 hours after attempting this spell. If the Invocation roll fails, she loses a point of Base Will. If it succeeds, she loses 5 Willpower and creates a nasty astral weapon. (It looks, for some reason, like a neon pink hand grenade.) Any time thereafter, the invoker can (as a single round action) release the spell on one spir it present. Te spell Nullifies one power possessed by one spirit present, designated by the caster. Te caster makes a Stability check during the Nullify process, due to the mental backlash of the spirit ’s resistance. If the Nullify roll is successful, the power is gone forever.

used tissues and other medical trash at least three feet long. At the end, he swishes a bowl of dirty water around. If the spell succeeds, the Sweeper emerges from the bowl. Results : If the Invocation roll is successful, the spell rolls a summons She Who Sweeps the Broken (see page 35).

Sumptuous Feast of the Angels Cost : 3 XP Difficulty : 2 Requirements: o prepare a Sumptuous Feast of the Angels,

the caster must suspend himself upon a living ash tree by the arms, using a complicated series of knots in rope. It’s not comfortable. He must stay hung from sunup to sundown. He must keep his face turned to t he sun all during that day, and is not permitted to eat, drink or speak. After four hours, the caster starts making Endurance rolls every hour. If he fails, he takes a point of Shock damage in each arm. Once he’s down, he can cast the spell one time thereafter. Ten it’s back on the tree if he wants to try again. Results : Te activation set acts as a Please Spirit effect, and that effect repeats a number of rounds equal to the Height of the casting roll. Successfully casting this spell costs 1 Willpower.

Sweat of Grateful Toil (Direktiva Nul) Cost : 7 XP Difficulty : 3 Requirements : he caster must draw a rough circle on a

flat surface with her own sweat while saying, “Please” in her native language. Results : Tis is a fast spell; it can be cast in combat. It costs a  Willpower point to make the Invocation roll. If the invocation succeeds, it Pleases a nearby spirit as the caster directs.

 Toil and Trouble Cost : 15 XP Difficulty : 2 Requirements: Te caster must strip naked in broad daylight,

in front of at least one witness, and either put on a hat adorned  with horns or twist his hair up until it looks like them. Ten

 Chapter 3: Magic  a cauldron of water is boiled as the caster performs a capering dance around it. Results : If the Invocation roll fails, the caster loses a po int of Willpower and hears the snickers of the Jester ringing in his ears. If the Invocation succeeds, the spell summons the Celestial Jester (see page 34) while the c aster makes a Stability roll. (A failed roll leaves the caster feeling compelled to roll on the ground laughing hysterically.) If the Jester appears and the caster is capable, the caster can voluntarily spend a point of  Willpower to make the spell Exalting.

Split Spells he desirability of spells that can be cast as either Invocations or Conjurations should be obvious. Developing split spells was a decisive advantage for Dirketiva Nul f rom 1971 to 1972, when the Xolotis reverse-engineered it and sold it to Projekt ELSA.

 Abjuration of Form Cost : 17 XP

a Shock point ’s damage of blood loss. Tese diamond patterns can be overlapped, but the layers have to be rotated at least 45 degrees. Terefore, no more than four diamonds can be in place over one area. Results : It costs a point of W illpower to cast this spell. If the Conjure or Invocation roll is successful, the next time a daemon or archon attempts to exert its powers across the diamond (into it if it ’s outside, out of it if the spirit’s inside, through it if the spirit’s on one side and a target is on the other side) the casting set serves as Minor Defense. Furthermore, the first time a spirit attempts to cross a line of the diamond, it applies the casting set to Binding. If the spirit beats the Binding, it can cross the pattern at will. If the Binding roll succeeds, it’s bound into the pattern until the next sunrise (for archons) or sunset (for daemons). If the roll fails, the caster loses a point of Base Will .

 Astral Escutcheon Cost : 8 XP Difficulty : none Requirements: A device intended to protect from physical

Difficulty : 4 Requirements : If conjuring, the caster pulls out one of her own

hairs and swallows it. Inovoking, he bites off a piece of his own fingernail or toenail and swallows it. Results : Tis is a fast spell, so it can be cast in combat. If the Conjure or Invocation roll succeeds, it hits one spirit wit h an exorcism.

 Abjuring Demarcation Cost : 3 XP Difficulty : 5 Requirements : Te caster must draw a diamond shape in his

own blood. Te shape is ten feet long and five wide, requiring

harm is anointed with a drop of the caster’s blood. A physical shield is traditional, though a parachute, seat belt, motorcycle helmet or fire extinguisher would work as well. It needs to be blooded each time the spell is cast. Results : Te spell creates an astral shield. It ’s visible in the spirit world as a transparent energy matrix operating like the device that fulfilled the requirements: A shield interposes itself, a fire extinguisher quenches energies or blinds an attacker, a child’s safety seat ensconces and protects, and so on. Te next time the caster is attacked by a spirit, the Astral Escutcheon interposes itself. For a number of rounds equal to  Width of the casting roll, that roll serves as a Minor Defense against spiritual attacks.

Split Spells Effect

Exorcism Liberate Bind Defense Perceivce Materialize Sending

Spells  Abjuration of Form (17), Drive Forth the Malignant  (15) Smudge the Circle (17), Expulsion of Device (13)

Abjuring Demarcation (3), Primary Entanglement (6), he Miles Jefferson Equation  (28) Abjuring Demarcation (3), Astral Escutcheon (8), Oanhue’s Manifold Defense (13), Oanhue Streamlined (5), Phlactery of Prophylaxis (24) Craft Eyes of the Otherworld (17), Dangerous Visions (6), Unveiling (12) Inform Otherlife (7) Othernaut Exploration Procedure (24), Te Shuddering Treshold (21), ranslunar Projection (21)

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 Chapter 3: Magic  Craft Eyes of the Otherworld

Requirements : o perform this spell, the caster has to be in

Cost : 17 XP

uncontested possession of an object or restrained entity that is serving as a focus, prison, habitat or conduit for a spirit. Tis object or person has to be positioned on a green cloth (for invokers) or a yellow cloth (for conjurers). Te cloth has to be square, ten feet on a side, and lying flat with nothing on it except the affected object. Te caster then performs a dance that traces the four sides of the square. Tis takes about twenty minutes. Results : If the spell succeeds, it Unbinds the target.

Difficulty : 5 Requirements : Te caster ritually prepares some optic device—

kaleidoscope, eyeglasses, monocle, opera glasses, lorgnette or the like—by looking at the sky through it while he’s immersed in snow, up to the neck, for an hour at midnight. After that he can roll to cast the spell. Results : If the spell succeeds, the caster loses a point of Base  Will. Tereafter, anyone who looks through the optic can roll 4d to see archons, daemons and the spirit world. Te item follows the rules for an immutable focus. If the object is broken or badly damaged, it loses its power.

Inform Otherlife (Xolotl Cartel) Cost : 7 XP Difficulty : 3 Requirements: Te caster cuts her own left arm and uses the

Dangerous Visions (Direktiva Nul) Cost : 6 XP Difficulty : 3 Requirements : Te caster must press his right thumb into his

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closed left eye, hard enough to stimulate the opt ic nerve and cause phantom images to appear. Results : Tis is a fast spell; it can be cast in combat. If it fails, the caster loses a point of Sense and 3 Willpower. If it succeeds, he can perceive the spirit wor ld. He gets a minute of perception for every point of Width in the roll.

Drive Forth the Malignant (Direktiva Nul)

blood to write a complicated text in Mayan (it’s called “Te Forbidden Reaving”) on the front of her torso and thighs with the blood. (Tis cut does a point o f Killing damage.) When it ’s complete, she recites the text to perform the spell. Note that once the script is written, the caster can wait as long as he likes before reciting it to complete the sp ell. Te text takes about a minute to speak. Results : By speaking the Forbidden Reaving aloud and spending three Willpower points, she can roll her Conjure or Invocation pool. If it succeeds, the spell Materializes one present spirit of the caster’s choosing.

Cost : 15 XP

 The Miles Jefferson Equation (ROSCRO)

Difficulty : none

Cost : 28 XP

Requirements : Te caster strikes herself in the sternum while

Difficulty : none

bellowing, “Begone! Te power of Christ compels you! Te power of Christ compels you!” in Invocation. If using the Conjure version, she instead cries, “By Baal and Beelzebub, begone! I charge you by your master’s voice, to Hell returneth!” Note that Christian faith is not necessary to cast this spell, just the words. After spending a Willpower point, she can make her Conjure or Invocation roll. Results : Tis is a fast spell, so the round it’s cast the conjurer or invoker can exorcise one daemon present. It doesn’t work on archons.

Requirements: Te caster tightens all of her muscles simultane-

Expulsion of Device Cost : 13 XP Difficulty : 3 + target’s Circle

ously. Results: Tis is a fast spell; it can be cast in combat. (Dr. Miles  Jefferson, an American researcher, developed the equation after a hushed-up lab disaster. He had long asserted that spells should be simplified for quick, emergency use. Once he had two research aides in hospitals, he put his math where his mouth was.)  When successfully cast, the Equation exerts Binding power, locking a liminal or astral spirit into whatever inanimate, physical item is closest to it. If the Bind roll is successful, the spirit is stuck a number of months equal to the Width of the Bind set multiplied by its Height. If you roll a 3x9, that spirit is trapped for over two years.

 Chapter 3: Magic  Oanhue’s Manifold Defense Cost : 13 XP Difficulty : none Requirements : o prepare this spell, the caster constructs a

little doll out of his own hair. (Tis can be made of hair felt, but typically magicians just grow it long enough to loop into legs, a head and arms.) Tis puppet can be reused. o cast the spell, the sorcerer must press it to his forehead for a full sixty seconds  with his eyes closed. When the charm is prepared in this fashion, he can release the spell at will by brandishing the figurine. Results : If the spell roll is a success, it’s used for a Major Defense effect the next time a spirit attempts to harm or influence the caster, or someone else the caster uses the puppet to protect. (Te enchanter must be aware of the effect in order to block it.)  Tis defensive set is available a few more rounds after the first use. Specifically, it’s a number of rounds equal to the Width of the casting roll.

Oanhue, Streamlined (Direktiva Nul) Cost : 5 XP Difficulty : 5 Requirements : Te caster simply has to yank out one hair and

throw it at a spirit. Results : Tis is a fast spell; it can be cast in combat. Te caster has to spend a Willpower point in order to make the roll, and if the roll fails she loses another 3 Willpower. Tat done, the spell applies Major Defense to the next spirit effect to target the caster. It can’t protect others and it does not repeat.

Othernaut Exploration Procedure (ROSCRO)

be rolled for before he collapses, though.) After t hat, the caster rolls Invocation or Conjure. If that roll succeeds, the caster makes a Stability check, and the person in th e vacuum chamber is expelled from the physical realm and into the spirit world for a number of months equal to the Width of the casting roll.

Phylactery of Prophylaxis Cost : 24 XP Difficulty : none Requirements: Surprisingly, the requirements are identical for

both the Invocation and Conjure versions of this spell. Te caster must spend a day, from sunup to sundown, crawling straight towards the sun. (Tis means she starts out heading east and gradually arcs around to face west.) As she crawls, she must move any living creature she encounters on her path off it to safety: ants, worms, beetles, whatever. If she runs into a tree, rock or other obstacle, she has to climb it. (Obviously, timing is key, as is the selection of an area to crawl.) She can’t stop. She can’t stand. She can’t eat or drink. Tis requires an Endurance roll and (if the terrain is difficult) possibly an Athletics roll as  well. Also, she needs a small leather box on a strap. Results : After the crawl, she can sacrifice a point of Will power and make either a Conjure or Invocation roll . If the roll succeeds, that leather box becomes enchanted. As long as the caster is wearing it on her arm or head, she can roll her Conjure or Invocation pool against any spir it’s attack as a standard action. (Tis is just like dodging a physical attack.) Furthermore, anyone else who gets the box and wears it p roperly can do the same thing. Tis property lasts until the box is destroyed. (It’s an Immutable Focus.)

Cost : 24 XP

Primary Entanglement 

Difficulty : 4

Cost : 6 XP

Requirements : Tis spell is dizzyingly complicated, requir-

Difficulty : 3

ing the construction of a roughly spherical armature ten feet in diameter, with interior surfaces lined in tin, enclosing a completely darkened vacuum chamber. A person is put i n the chamber, which then has all the air pumped out. (ypically, the person wears an armored environmental suit.) Te c aster, standing outside the structure, puts his hands on it and concentrates. Results : Te caster has to make an Endurance roll while attempting to complete the spell. If it fails, he loses two points of Body, which return at a rate of one per day. (If this drops him to or below zero Body, he goes into a coma. Te spell can still

Requirements: Tis spell needs an ordinary, everyday pentacle,

a star within a circle. It has to be at least a yard in diameter, and the circle has to be true, unmarred by straight lines. (Something  you sketch by hand isn’t going to be good enough.) Conjurers need the lines inlaid with onyx, while for invokers it ’s copper. A fifteen minute chant activates the sy mbol. As soon as a spirit enters it, the spell is complete. Results : If the Conjure or Invocation roll succeeds, a spirit inside the pentacle is targeted with a bind. It lasts a number of minutes equal to the Height o f the casting roll.

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 Chapter 3: Magic   The Shuddering Threshold Cost : 21 XP Difficulty : 4 Requirements : Te caster must encircle and constrict each arm

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and each leg with a cord tight enough to indent the flesh and reduce circulation. Ten he walks a mile, doing a point of Shock to each leg. (Each leg and arm also falls asleep, but only the legs are really damaged.) After that, he can cast the spell and hold its effect until needed. Results : If the spell is correctly cast, the caster can set it off any time thereafter to move himself back and forth between the physical and spiritual realms. As soon as the spell is unleashed, the caster passes into the spirit realm. Te next round she returns to the physical. Tis effect repeats a number of times equal to the Height of her set. (Tat is, if you roll a 3x5, the character enters the otherworld and leaves it five times, over the course of ten rounds.) Te transition happens after ever ything else in the round. Note that if a mortal caster begins in the spirit realm and performs this spell there, he winds up back in the spirit realm  when the spell ends.

Smudge the Circle Cost : 17 XP Difficulty : none Requirements : A conjurer must put his left thumb between his

left fore- and middle fingers while spitting on something that contains a spirit. He then utters a short incantation. An invoker does the same thing, only with the right h and, and the incantation is the conjuration pronounced backwards. Results : Tis is a fast spell, so it can be cast in combat. If the spell succeeds, the next round it Unbinds the spirit. Regardless of  whether it fails or succeeds, the caster loses a point of Base Will.

 Translunar Projection Cost : 21 XP Difficulty : 3 Requirements : Te caster must paint the spell’s intended target

(be it himself or another) with copies of a quarter-sized rune of moderate complexity. (It’s a different rune depending on whether it’s Conjure or Invocation.) Every five square inches of flesh on the person’s body must contain at least one rune. Tese sigils can’t be stamped or mass produced. Each one must be painted by

hand. When the last figure is painted, the target claps his hands (if it’s Invocation) or the caster does (for Conjure). Results : When the requirements are met, the caster can make the Conjure or Invocation roll. If the roll fails, the caster loses a point of Willpower. If the roll succeeds, the caster makes a Stability check while the person who got painted is removed from the physical world. Te spell’s target enters the spirit realm for a number of hours equal to t he roll’s Width.

Unveiling  Cost : 12 XP Difficulty : none Requirements: Te caster must personally embroider a scarf

 with cabalistic symbols. Once made, the scarf can be used again and again to cast Unveiling. o cast the spell, the caster wraps the scarf around his eyes like a blindfold and chants for about sixty seconds. (If it ’s loosely woven, he still may be able to see, albeit at a penalty or Difficulty.) Te Invocation version of this spell requires a white scarf with gold symbols. Te Conjure spell requires a black scarf with red symbols. No one but the enchanter who made the scarf can use it to cast this spell. Results : If the Invocation or Conjure roll succeeds, the caster can perceive spirits for a number of hours equal to the Width of the casting roll. He must have the scarf over his eyes to do so.

One Step Beyond  Te practice of conjuration and enchantment is constantly evolving. Despite persecution and secrecy, the ease of modern communication is rapidly ushering in a golden age of sorcery.  Te cults and conspiracies trying to monopolize it, and the governments trying to stifle it, may be as hopeless as King Canute trying to hold back the tides. Split spells were developed in the early 1970s, and for a  year they were the exclusive domain of the Soviet occult apparatus. Even after the fall of the S oviet Union, Russian occultists are far more adept at blurring the line between conjuration and invocation. Similarly, fast spells were unique to the Xolotl Cult for decades. Te Nazi techniques for contacting Circles beyond the Fifth have been lost, at least for the time being. So it goes, as it has always gone. Before the revelation of the Teosophists, the demimonde of conjuration was dominated by the Swedenborgian New Church, who monopolized the use of General Call spells. Before their collapse during the Renaissance, a decisive advantage redounded on the poetic-mystical

 Chapter 3: Magic  Fedeli d’Amore of Florence, simply because they understood the difference between archons and daemons, conjuration and invocation. What every sorcerer who has advanced beyond the basics  wonders is: What will be the next development? And who will get it first?

Identifying Domain or Antagonism  When a sorcerer is pestered or attacked by a spirit, he has only his spiritcraft to tell him what its nature is. If he’s never read its description, he’s stuck trying to figure out its nature through observation and deduction. If it’s eating his sp leen, that’s a tough job. A spell that allowed an enchanter to take one look at a spirit and grasp its motivations would be very useful, which is why the  Xolotis have been working on one for the last nine years. Tey’ve made progress, but haven’t succeeded yet. If they do, identifying a spirit’s nature will be an effect that costs 10 XP.

Tailored Bait Spirits brought by General Call spells are appropriate to a geographic location, which can be inconvenient when a location has multiple meanings. Or when one is trying to get a spirit that would hang out at high-security military nuclear facilities. Rather than focusing on geography, some Projekt ELSA enchanters are experimenting with using symbolically potent objects to lure in spirits that wouldn’t normally respond to a General Call at their location. A spell that let one use a General Call to conjure or invoke a specific type of spirit would be a 20 XP effect.

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Divining True Names So far there’s no system for acquiring the rue Names of spirits, other than bargaining for them from the spirits themselves or from other spirits who are willing to give up the information (if they have it in the first place). Dr. Eden Majors, the director of the Institute of Applied Parapsychology at the University of Miami in Ohio and a prominent voice in ROSCRO, believes that if she can construct a machine to measure the minor distortions of light and gravity that seem to accompany spiritual summoning, she might be able to run the information through a complicated algorithm and put the result through a spell to unveil a spirit’s rue Name, whether the spirit consents or not. Such an effect would cost 20 XP.

Generic Summons Tere are two methods of summoning, and they can be understood through a comparison with telephones. Unique summoning spells are like dedicated phones. Tere’s no dial, you  just pick it up and it connects you to one particular party on the other end. A summoner who knows a lot of these spells is like someone with rack upon rack of single-connection phones. Certainly that ’s useful, but it ’s clunky.

 Chh a p t e r 3 : M a g i c   C Ten there are General Calls, which are like telephones that connect you to another line at random. Tis is also useful, but limited. How about a summons like a real phone? It would be one spell, but the caster would be able to “fill in the blanks” with the title (or rue Name) of the specific spirit being pursued. Generic Summons would still need to be broken down by Circle, but instead of learning a dozen spells to summon a dozen different First Circle archons, a caster would only need the generic “Summon First Circle Archon” spell and would be able to direct it to whichever spir it he wanted. Te Te Generic Summons extra  would double doubl e the base XP cost of a spell. s pell.

Cross-Disciplinary Summons

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Split spells have been developed for just about every effect, with the noteworthy exception of the very core act of the enchanter. Tere are no split spells for summoning. It may be fundamentally impossible to conjure an archon or invoke a daemon, and it’s anyone’s guess whether an invoked daemon would need to be appeased or abused. But anybody who specialized in one discipline or the other would certainly drool over the possibility of accessing the other team’s set of servants. Cross-disciplinary summoning would be a +5 extr a.

Astral Exploration Astral projection is already a known power, but it’s very rare. Rarer Rarer still are those who enter the astral realm and come back to tell t ell the (usuall y garbled) tale. Humans aren’t aren’t meant to exist in that place and t hey lack the senses to navigate it, full stop. Te few observers who have come back to report off er the following observations. Geography is arranged ideologically, not spatially. Tat is,  you’re lost. los t. You’re You’re always alwa ys lost. lo st. You You can never backtr b acktrack, ack, and the th e direction you travel is determined more by mood and “thematic sympathy” than by any connection to the material worl d’s prox-

imity. Places there look like places in the real world, to a certain extent, though often flat and strangely str angely representational. Tus, Tus, if you travel to the astral realm from the stage of the Moscow Symphony Orchestra, you find yourself in a place that looks like the stage you left, but unconvincing and hallucinator y. If  you leave le ave the stage towards t owards the t he back, back , you’re more likely l ikely to find  yourself  yoursel f on a movie set or backstage backst age at a high school production of “12 Angry Men” than you are anywhere in Moscow. If  you go to the th e front, f ront, you co uld wind wi nd up in the seats of a movie m ovie theater, the bleachers of a ball game, the stall of a peep show or anywhere else that people go to watch things.  Te inhabitants inhab itants can mess mes s with wit h you, and will. Sometimes Some times they look like people, but more often they look like they do  when summoned. su mmoned. So at that th at peepshow peep show you’d yo u’d see a daemon daemo n stripping, and in a spiritual subway you’d see spirits ready to commute, probably on a subway train spir it when it showed up, ridden by some kind of timetable spirit. Exiting from the astral world into the material is tricky, since you wind up somewhere that matches the “sense” of where  you were astrally, astral ly, not any kind kin d of physic p hysical al region. regio n. Tis could be be great for what is, effectively, effectively, teleportation across the material  world.  world . Unfortunatel Unfortu nately, y, it’s it ’s unguided and random ran dom right r ight now. no w. Tat’s about it. Te reporters who came back sane weren’t weren’t there long enough to notice that they never got sleepy or hungry or had to take a leak. Certainly no one’s aware that time passes differently there, though those ROSCRO longhairs who examine folklore suspect that a time spirit there could keep you for a decade that felt like a minute (or vice versa). No one realizes that there are powerful sorcerers who’ve been trapped there for decades or even centuries. Tese Tese magi, lost and unaging, have either adapted to the spirit world in a  way most mo st people peo ple can’t ca n’t comprehend, or they ’re completely comple tely insane. Tat they can cannibalize spirit powers ensures that these people (if they still qualify as such) are likely very powerful.

 Chh a p t e r 3 : M a g i c   C Whither Science? There are far more geneticists and biologists than there are invokers and conjurers, and the excitement and prestige attached to society’s beloved mutants is a lot more glamorous than the soiled and sullen world of sorcery. All those bright sparks with their centrifuges and sequencers and clean well-lit laboratories are just as likely to make a jaw-dropping discovery as some creep sitting in a pentagram and poring over some worm-eaten unhallowed text. Some possibilities follow. Testing Positive for Superheroism

This is almost certain to be the next big discovery discovery in the field of mutant studies. Every Every world-power government has Top Secret labs working day and night in pursuit of this grail, and many publicly traded biotech firms and privately-held trusts are chasing it too. Most, working in parallel, are already beginning to suspect that the mutation sequence is far more common than previously thought, perhaps one in a hundred thousand instead of one in a million. The more data they can put in the banks, the closer they get to a test that can tell if someone’s a latent mutant. Depending on who hits the finish line first, it could wind up as something private between you and your your doctor, doctor, or as an element of “public health” with state-mandated blood tests in order to get married, enter or graduate school, or even get an autopsy. (Sure, the dead guy with the gene isn’t doing anyone any good, but if you’re really interested in tracking down the next Yolanda Marks it might be worthwhile to scope out his descendants.) Bio-Isolated Effects

Telekinesis, teleportation, cracking cracking open the time-space continuum like a nerdy rockhound with a suspected geode: Those powers all seem to be limited strictly to the minds of their fortunate possessors. But other mutations, to all appearances, are biologically based, instead of functioning on some psychic, dimensional or subatomic level that ordinary physics can only guess at. Physical mutations, operating on a cellular level, are much easier to grasp, examine, and possibly duplicate. No one’s talking about installing these powers permanently (yet) since the so-called “biodes” that supercharge a mutant’s physiology have a short lifespan outside the host. But if the problems with cell rejection can be overcome, an injection of biodes could temporarily allow a normal human to mimic the powers of the mutant from which they were withdrawn. The focus focus is on injury regeneration, since the ability to regrow a kidney or liver, liver, even just once, is highly marketable, to put it mildly. Get a few drinks in Dr. Sjeök down at Mutagenet Labs and she’s likely to start gesticulating wildly and talking about the end of blood donation centers, as labs would be able to simply clone out all the O Neg they could ever need. But even powers like strength and speed and durability might, in time, be available from donations. The hurdles are formidable. To get a normal body to accept biodes, its immune system system has to be depressed to the point of near-uselessness. If the biodes being applied work to protect the body from disease, they just take up the slack (and then some), but biodes that supercharge the muscles or streamline the nervous system might give someone that coveted Hyperbody or Hypercoordination or a few levels of Go First and Multitask, at the cost of leaving the user completely defenseless to even the mildest of infections. That’s without considering the issues of what happens to a normal body when the biodes are done with it. Dr. Sjeök won’t even speculate about that out loud, though she admits that “just going back to normal” is by far the unlikeliest outcome. Mutation Therapy

The Holy Grail of mutology would be a set of treatments where you you walk walk in as a baseline normal without the gene to develop metahuman potential, and you walk out breathing fire or flying or invisible. More likely it would start with parents grafting the genes into test tube babies, though with sturdy Congressional opposition that’s more likely to happen in France or Japan t han the U.S. The optimists say it’s years away, away, maybe decade s. The pessimists say it won’t be th is year, but it will never take as long as five. Too many armies are chasing it, too many labs, too many eager masplaying wannabees. The cautious point out that even those who have these gifts through nature sometimes lose control or wind up horribly mutilated by their own e nergies. The odds of that happening in a body unpr epared are exponentially hi gher. Or so say the “experts. “experts.” But their negativity doesn’t stop the research. Probably doesn’t even slow it down. (The holiest of Holy Grails would be the ability to choose  which  which mutant power would develop. But that’s so desirable that scientists and politicians instinctively won’t even discuss it in public.)

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   4  4   r    e   t   p   a   h   C  C  a  b  a  l  s  &  s   n   o   i   t   F a  c 

T HE   L ET TE R  OF  THE  H  ER MIT  HE  T HIRD  H IRD  L

 76   My Dear Dea r Frien Fri endd in Chri Ch rist st,,  I am pleas ple ased ed that th at your yo ur hea lth has ha s impr im prov oved ed,, and a nd I am encouraged, both by your successes with basic necromancy and with your attitude of unease and fear towards your studies. hat fear is right and proper. proper. reasure it as your bulwark against familiarit y, for  fami  fa mili liar arit ityy is the th e f irst ir st step ste p on the th e pat p athh o f tempta tem ptati tion on.. I believe you are now in a position to commence the study of Angels. he ways of Angels are not our ways, they see clearly while we are bound to stare in to our dimmed  glas  gl ass. s. he  heyy can ca n ther th eref efor oree seem, see m, to us, us , ali a lien en,, cal c allo lous us or even actively malicious. We can only hope that their mysterious ways ultimately serve God, just as we must hope that our own muddled comprehension has not snared us in the Evil One’s One’s wiles. he careful and righteous invoker must stretch his discernment to the utmost, rendering judg ment exceedingly f ine. Strive to reflect, at your utmost, the wisdom of God, in whose i mage you were formed. For make no mistake, invocation can reach the ears of

demons as well as the blessed residents of the Spheres. he vital key to determining whether one is dealing with a servant of malignant evil or with a true agent of...                      

 Chapter 4: Cabals & Factions 

Akrab-i-allah  Qualities as a Reign  Company :  Might  2, Influence  1, Sovereignty 

4, erritory  0, reasure  3 “Àkrab-i-allah” means, roughly, “God’s Scorpion” and they’ve been around since at least 1904 (when they show up in a British police report from Cairo)—although they alternately claim to have been founded and persecuted by the Mad Caliph Hakim of Fatimid Egypt around 1000 A.D. Tey’re a tiny sect, beset on all sides. Most al-Qaeda cells hate them too, considering them blasphemers against Islam, just as bad as the U.S. if not actually worse . It’s a situation that parallels People for Religious Freedom and the Xolotl Cartel. Tey both like magic and want it disseminated, but the PRF regards the Xolotis as negative press of the  worst sort. Similarly, radical Islam hates the West, but not the point of hopping in the sack with evil spirits.  Tat’s not to say the more pragmatic terrorists won’t try to set up a game of “let ’s you and him fight” but since the U.S. and the Scorpions are fighting already, the sensible course is to just stay out of their way. Ten again, a lot of suicide bombers aren’t noted for taking the sensible course, so Àkrab-i-allah has to  watch its back as well as its f ront. Teir general modus operandi is to try to get into an American city, summon the nastiest spirit they can, ideally one inimical to safety or human life or something like that, then facilitate it as much as they can on a rampage. Fortunately for everyone else concerned, even their best so rcerers aren’t to the

point of being 100% reliable with their casting. Even better, Àkrab-i-allah is, except for a few pushy low-level o peratives, singularly disinclined to try and improve their methods or learn new spells. Tey believe their techniques are the only  supernatural tools with God’s stamp of approval and that anything they don’t know must be forbidden because, if it was permitted, they’d know it.

 Àkrab-i-allah Character Index  • Mel Bates (Circle 1, page 102) • Teymour Ghafari (Circle 3, page 122) • Uday Nadhir (Circle 2, page 108)

Using Akrab-i-allah in Your Game Ooh boy. Do you really want to run a game where the PCs are terrorists trying to bring down western culture using black magic? I’m not going to say it can’t be done or that it can’t be done well or that it ’s not worth doing. I suspect that the odds of it crashing and burning are singularly high. But if you love a challenge, here are some approaches you could take. One is to emphasize the humanity of the characters involved, making sure their grievances are visceral and immediate. It’s even possible that you can do a conversion story  where evil characters repudiate their murderous ways. Or a straightforward, lowbrow, “we’re baby-eatin’ EEEEVIL!” game so cartoonish that it has no real moral heft. asteless, but I can’t stop you. I’ll just leave the topic with this caveat: Once you mix

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 Chapter 4: Cabals & Factions  Getting In, Getting Out

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in highly-sensitive current events, the idea t hat “it’s just a game” loses a lot of its persuasive force. As antagonists now, well, that’s just high Black, isn’t it?  You want a ticking-bomb scenario with no moral complexity, here they are. If you want to make it lower Black, you can use them as a lens through which to pick up issues of race, faith and culture, touching on the question of what it means to prize diversity and praise tolerance in t he face of a “join or die and then go to hell” mindset.

How does one join a secretive and despised terror cult? For one thing, it helps a lot to be ethnically acceptable. Tere’s no stated bias in their ideology. One only has to accept Allah and their perverse, hyper-violent and incoherent edition of Islam (right down to a hidden Koranic verse, the “Scorpion Sura”). But all the people in charge are Arab or Persian and someone  with blue eyes would face some steep suspicion. Assuming the right look and accent and languages and faith, the Scorpions like to recruit f rom two sources, for two  very different purposes. For trigger-pullers, patsies, convenient martyrs and spirit hosts, they try to poach from other terrorist, Islamist or anti-Western groups. Tey look for the disaffected, the weird, the wild and the “angel-touched” who have a hard time fitting in even with an organization like Al Qaeda in Iraq or the aliban. Tese soldiers (preferably with some training or experience under their belts) are told that the reason they don’t fit is that they’re better, touched by a higher power, and that they can get a lot more touched if they accept their destiny. Assuming the guy (and yes, 80% of Ákrab-i-allah is male) agrees, he’s initiated. But more on that presently. Te other source for recruits are disaffected, Westerneducated, but from a traditional background. Ákrab-i-allah leverages the disconnect between cultures to convince those  who are suspended between East and West, those who feel they don’t really belong in either. Te Ákrabists see these people as sufferers of a spiritual malaise, one that can only be cured by the violent rejection of the West. Tese recruits are valued for their clean records—those who have already start ed to act out visibly against the U.S. or protest the E.U. or U.N. aren’t considered good recruits because they’re already turning to the truth on their own. And, as a practical consideration, they may be watched. Te educated Western recruits are seduced through scholarship, not through promises of results (like the terrorist transfers). Tey are guided through particular interpretations of history and religion and, if they agree and get through initiation, they’re groomed for leadership. Usually they have the intelligence, training and education to handle it . Tey work behind the scenes as much as possible, setting up actions within enemy nations and studying the spells within the hidden sura so that they can bless and embolden the… more expendable members. But before they’re even told that a secret Koran verse exists, they’re initiated.

 Chapter 4: Cabals & Factions   hat initiation takes place in total darkness, and someone sufficiently versed in Ákrab lore summons the Angel of Honesty. No one’s sure what it looks like—because of the darkness—but it arrives in material form and judges recruits’ true openness to Ákrab-i-allah’s beliefs and their ability to devote themselves to it completely. hose of insufficient truthfulness and fervor are dismembered. Te extremes of the initiation aren’t necessary for the lowest-level members. Ákrab-i-allah uses cut-outs and dupes as much as any secret society. If all you need to do is listen and obey, exposure to that deadly spirit isn’t necessary. But only initiates are ever going to be listened to or obeyed. Te highest leaders came from both sources, however. o get that kind of authority, one must master the sura and put in a lot of years. It just is not possible to leapfrog to the top of the command structure. And given the high mortality rate in Ákrab-i-allah, those who survive usually do so through cunning, guts and skill. How does one leave Ákrab-i-allah? Beyond the obvious (dying during initiation, dying during a suicide mission, dying due to enemy action) uninitiated members may simpl y flee.  Tat’s not a terribly safe option, however. Tough such choreboys aren’t supposed to know much, rejection always hurt s and the official Scorpion position is that any who give up are traitors, and such betrayal warrants death. If they can’t manage to kill a runner, they might supply damning information to  Western soldiers. Or they might use a spirit, if they feel they can spare one. Initiates rarely leave, because one does not survive initiation without true faith. But if one did become disillusioned and leave the cult, death would be too good for him. Literally.  Te destruction of an apostate who knew of the Scorpion Sutra  would become the entire organization’s top priorit y.

Citizens Against Reductionist Genetic Obsessions Qualities as a Reign  Company :  Might  0, Influence  3, Sovereignty 

2, erritory  3, reasure  3 Senator Amy Klein has made mutant policy the focus of her political career, and has done a remarkable job, so far, of balancing the public’s awe towards mutants against the real requirements of law enforcement.

Te public is scared of “supervillains” who use their mutant powers to terrify the masses and seize control, but Klein understands that, far more commonly, the mutant criminal operates from a sense of entitlement more than ambition. For every nutjob who tries to make himself King of San Diego, there are a hundred mutants who think tax codes, blood alcohol levels or public safety regulations don’t apply to them. Many mutants have good reason to think they can get away with lawlessness that would land a normal person in the slammer. Klein has spearheaded legal initiatives to crack down on casual criminality. At the same time, she’s been very public with her efforts to get “good” mutants (usually those working for the government) to mentor and tutor those who’ve been in trouble. CARGO is a bipartisan think-tank based in Washington, D.C. Tough they’re vocal about their desire to mediate disputes to everyone’s satisfaction, they have (without consciously realizing it) strengthened the boundaries in the public mind between the haves and have-nots. CARGO benefits from a schism between mutants (to whom a separate set of standards apply, both for the laws of man and the laws of nature) and normal people (who have all the votes and political power). CARGO doesn’t benefit if mutants and normal folks think they have more in common than in conflict. Much as they agitate for parity, they want it to be parity on their terms.

CARGO Character Index  • Devon Eire (Circle 2, page 106) • Senator Amy Klein (Circle 2, page 107)

Using CARGO in Your Game CARGO is a good framework for non-superhuman PCs, or for mutants and spellcasters who are looking for political influence without revealing their p owers openly. Games focusing on CARGO are all about who owes what to whom, with the occasional sidetrack to talk down a mutant on the edge or to soothe the ire of a mob waving guns and calling for that mutant’s blood. CARGO isn’t interested in magic or subterfuge, so its dealings with criminal groups or occult cabals are limited.  Tey have close ties to Squadron A1 and the School of the American Future, of course. CARGO makes for a slippery and potentially frustrating rival. Tey operate through opinion and legal chicanery,  which are not methods easy to stop with super-speed or an ice blast. As antagonists, they would mainly be pushing laws that discriminate against mutants, in the guise of protecting the

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 Chapter 4: Cabals & Factions  people from renegades. Registries and mandatory genetic testing (if they could get a test that works) could set the stage for the loss of crucial civil rights. Tere’s already a double standard for imprisoned mutant criminals. Tey can be kept in conditions that appall Amnesty International, since other means  would be insufficient to keep them isolated f rom future victims.  Te Supreme Court approved that measure on a thin margin, and pressure from CARGO probably played a meaningful role. (Tat same law was cited as a precedent for a later law that permitted convicted enchanters to be kept in total seclusion, denied all flammables, clothing and direct contact with the outside world.)

Getting In, Getting Out

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People can join CARGO by tearing a postcard out of the back of “Te Economist” or “Te New Yorker” and sending in a $25 membership fee. Tis gets you a monthly newsletter and the occasional robot phone call asking you to bug your congressman about pending legislation. During election years, it might get you a free invitation to hear a candidate speak (if you’re in a swing state) or it might get you an opportunity to attend one of those $1,000-a-plate dinners (if your state isn’t in play). Tat’s how one becomes a member   of CARGO—but the group as a whole regards such members as an asset to be directed, not as masters to be obeyed. After all, if they didn’t agree with CARGO’s goals, they wouldn’t have sent in their twenty-five bucks, right? Becoming a player in CARGO, someone who makes decisions and has a voice that gets heard, that’s not so easy or cheap. If you kick in a lot of money, you’re in, though if your ideas are mostly crazy they’re only going to humor you. If  you’re a publicly-adored mutant, that ’s good enough to get you a lunch with Senator Klein, and if you make a good impression  you might get to see her more often than that. If you’re terribly persuasive and you gather some media attention pleading eloquently (or ranting impressively) about mutant issues, that too can buy you entry to the smoke-filled room or some column inches in the mailings. If you’re just one of the plebes on the mailing list, quitting is easy. You just don’t pay your dues and you’re out, don’t let the door hit your butt. If you’re an insider, there are about three ways out. You can have internal conflicts with Klein and the other bigwigs and, by mutual agreement, your name drops off the newsletter masthead and you stop being invited to brainstorming sessions

at the senator’s office. No blood, no foul, though they may tread lightly around you after that. Another option is to loudly and publicly repudiate CARGO, which certainly gets you out and, moreover, paints a big bullseye on you for their spin doctors and PR specialists. Or if you try to push CARGO too hard in a direction they don’t  want to go, and you won’t take the hint to leave voluntarily, you may get a refund of your dues, a carefully worded “explanation” in the newsletter and—if you keep p ushing—a restraining order. Tat on top of any reputation-smothering Kl ein and the rest are able to engineer.

Direktiva Nul Qualities as a Reign Company : Might  2,  Influe nce  3, Sovereignty 

3, erritory  2, reasure  2 In the Soviet Union, government operated through “Directorates” and there were sixteen of them. Sixteen acknowledged ones, anyhow. After the Second World War (if not before it) there was a secret branch that the KGB and GRU called in to deal with criminals, dissidents and unwanted persons who were unmanageable due to magical powers. Tat branch was named “Directiva Nul” or “Directorate Zero.” Te Nazis saved particular bile for Communists, and their Russian front was the site of much of the fiercest fighting. Given the Nazis’ occult skills, the Russians had a lot of catching up to do, and they kept on catching up after the war ended. Te new menace to the united proletariat was the U.S.A., symbolized by the war hero superhumans. Te USSR’s attempts to promote their own thin ranks of mutants weren’t as successful as Squadron A1, and with good reason. Te hungry don’t turn mutant, so the mutants f rom the war were those who’d had the good fortune and connections to avoid the misery and privation that had gripped the majority of the country. It’s not that calculated breeding programs and gruesome scientific experiments weren’t attempted, the USSR had plenty of them. Tey just didn’t work nearly as well as their sociopathic  willingness to do what it took to attain and master occult knowledge. In actual fact, some of the same despised Nazis  who unleashed daemons of f rost and lightning on the people of Leningrad died comfortably in t heir beds after decades spent tutoring Direktiva operatives. Te big turning point for Direktiva Nul came with the fall of the Soviet Union. For years it had been “kill, suborn, steal, conjure and invoke for the homeland.” Everything they did

 Chapter 4: Cabals & Factions   was to maintain occult supremacy and protect the USSR (and, if necessary, the rest of the world) from supernatural menaces.  When there was no more USSR, for whom would they kill, suborn and steal? Tey still have no clear answer, so by default they’re doing what they’ve always done out of inert ia. Many of them have turned the Direktiva’s resources towards their own comfort, power and security, but that was how it worked under Stalin through Yeltsin anyhow. Some see themselves as warriors defending Russia  instead of some farcical communist utopia. Others do what they do because years spent in the occult espionage biz have lef t them a lot of scores to settle, and the only way to get the resources for the settling is to remain in the occult espionage biz. Many can’t give up because of their very legitimate fears of someone from Projekt ELSA or the Xolotl Cartel burying them in a shallow grave if the Direktiva doesn’t stick together. And some do it simply because it is what they do and they would have no idea  what to do with themselves if there weren’t grimoires to steal and spells to intercept.

Direktiva Nul Character Index  • Harriet Breen (Circl e 3, page 118) • Irina “Agent XR-6” Grischov (Circle 2, page 107) • “A Letter From Prague” (Circle 3, page 118) • Yevgeny Mishkin (Circle 3, page 126)

Using Direktiva Nul in Your Game If you and your players do your homework on what life was like in Russia, and what it is like now, and how KGB officers behaved, then the tone and immersion of a Direktiva Nul game could be very evocative. But if you don’t have that grasp of history and culture, it’s quite possible that you’ll fall back on old stereotypes, and you’re more likely to wind up with a game that resembles the hunt for Moose and Skvirrel than the hunt for Gary Powers. Maybe you’re okay with that, and if you are, good. Your PCs are undercover sorcerers, often outgunned and certainly out-mutated, but surrounded by people whose view of the spirit world is mercifully (for them) far less complete. Nul PCs work best with a particular type of Black 3 game: Te game where the PCs and the Direktiva know that it’s Black 3 (maybe 2.5 even) but everyone else seems to think the world is Black 4.5 and they have the right of it. In this structure, Direktiva doesn’t have honor and power, but they have the truth. Te truth is that there are worse things in the spirit world than Fifth Circle daemons antagonistic to human life, and that Fifth Circle murder monster is plenty bad enough. Everyone else is squabbling over the pieces on the chessboard, and you’re the only one  who knows the game’s being played in a house on fire. Unfortunately, the preoccupied gamesmen have most of the hoses.

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 Chapter 4: Cabals & Factions  So you do what you can. You run the tap, open the windows, try to call 911, pull ceilings when you can, but mostly you try to trick those damn preoccupied idiots into doing something productive. Direktiva Nul is more versatile as an antagonist. Tey’re sneaky, they’re remorseless, they comfortably traffic with spirits that any reasonable person on the street would term evil. Tey can be straight-up Black 4 or 5 Bad Guys. But if your Black level is lower, then can be an evil on the personal scale that is, on the global scale, necessary.

Getting In, Getting Out

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Entry into Direktiva Nul has a lot of commonalities with the methods of other covert agencies (right down to often claiming to be f rom the CIA). Tey watch people for a long time before making the offer, and the offer is a one-time only, take it or leave it kind of deal. But just saying “no thanks” has its risks. Nul takes a stoic approach to persuasion that, to most, looks suspiciously lik e blackmail. If they don’t start out with blackmail dirt on you, they’re experts in creating situations from which such dirt emerges organically. Getting film of a sorcerer consorting with familiars is pretty standard. Mutant do-gooders can be maneuvered into a position where they have to murder a Xoloti or, better, an agent of ELSA in perceived self-defense. Once that’s in place, a series of half-explained missions follows, in which the operative is

subtly positioned to dig himself deeper. (If people refuse to sign the paper and take the Commissar’s Ruble? Well, sometimes Nul can’t be bothered to destroy a refusenik. But they drop the hammer often enough that word gets around. After all, you can only bluff if people know that sometimes you really do have those pocket aces.)  What ’s surprising is how natural it all comes to feel. Nul does take care of its people, to the best of its ability. It does revenge the fallen and it does respect the individual needs, and even desires, of its operatives. Tere’s always an incredible, but genuine, feeling of institutional regret when Nul hands out a mission. Teir glum acceptance of the ugliness of their business is a stark contrast with ELSA’s gleeful arrogance. Getting out? Tere is no “out.” Once you’re in Nul, it’s in  you. Te Directive has too many enemies on both sides of the astral veil for it to be otherwise. Even if every Direktiva agent  you know dies, or is certain that  you’re  dead, you still carry their stink. Some day a suicide bomber, a French assassin, a Mexican death mage or an American mutant will come for you. If not them, a daemon or archon. Most decide that when that day comes, they’d rather have their Nul comrades beside them than behind them. Once you’re in deep enough, surviving solo looks impossible. Nul gets its people in very deep, very fast.

 Chapter 4: Cabals & Factions   Next Iteration he only difference between a rogue and a reggie is the M after the logo.   —Mancat  Qualities as a Reign  Company :  Might  2, Influence  2, Sovereignty 

3, erritory  3, reasure  2 Next Iteration started out casually, and if it was a group espousing the primacy of any other segment of society, racial superiority, gender dominance, something of that sort, they’d probably be relegated to quiet Internet chat rooms, if not bedsheet masks. But because they argue for the supremacy of mutants, they’re quite open and frank about it. As far as they’re concerned, the evidence is  prima facie . Can you fly, bounce bullets off your chest, and bend steel with your bare hands? No? Ten how about  you have some hot tea and relax, ‘cause this debate is over. For a few years, Next Iteration didn’t even have a name. It was nothing more than a ser ies of conversations in which prominent mutants coyly felt one another out about their  viewpoints and opinions. In these, what was unsaid was almost as important as what was spoken aloud. For many in the middle road of Next Iteration philosophy, they’re happier not knowing exactly where a fellow traveler sit s on the continuum that stretches from “the normals just failed to draw a pair of aces in the genetic poker game” to “the normals are playthings, servants and vermin.” Even those far in the crazy end of that spectrum tend to fantasize more than act. Tey, and Next Iteration as a  whole, were stuck at the daydream level of “wouldn’t it be great if all the mutants got together and made things great? We could call it the Pax Mutandis!” Ten Dr. Brunhilde Sjeök came along and set an actual agenda. Dr. Sjeök (it’s pronounced “see-YOCK,” only with a sort of slewing Finnish transition between syllables) (Americans almost universally mispronounce it “Shock” and she answers to that as well) is a biologist, geneticist and a mutant. She wrote up a business plan and a mission st atement, she solicited investments from both mutants and ordinary folks, and she founded Mutagenet Labs. Te ultimate goal of the lab is to find a way to graft mutant genes into normal people and awaken them to “full human potential” (as she rather excitedly puts it). Tey’re  working on other projects in tandem: a blood test for the latent gene, artificial ways to spur the activation of dormant mutations, figuring out what makes powers manifest earlier or later,

drugs to suppress unwanted effects, and training techniques for the recently awakened—but everyt hing is regarded as a component of the ultimate goal of a fully mutated population. Te goals of Next Iteration are to make the discovery, get there first, and gain the loyalty and trust of as many mutants as possible. (Tey focus on mutants whose powers have recently gone active, who are often scared and vulnerable, for that latter goal.) Tey want to train mutants to use their powers, and then teach them to use those powers for the betterment of all mutants. Dr. Sjeök is quite vocal with her ideas that mutants shouldn’t hurt other mutants—ever!—but most of her followers aren’t willing to be quite so idealistic.

Next Iteration Character Index  • Annika Hao (Circle 5, page 132) • Audrey “Powerhound” O’Niel (Circle 2, page 109) • Gail “Gary” Podgorny, aka “Mancat” (Circle 2, page 112) • Dr. Brunhilde Sjeök (Circle 2, page 114)

Using Next Iteration in Your Game If you have a lot of players who want to be mutants saving the world, Next Iteration is a good group fo r them because there’s that same kind of optimism. Next Iteration adventures could focus on Mutagenet Labs, with PCs doing research, tangling with spies both domestic, foreign and miscellaneous, and at the same time grappling with the implications of the work they’re doing. It could work out that their fiercest opponents are also members of Next Iteration, so conflicts that escalate to fists and power beams would earn the disgust of Dr. Sjeök, possibly to the point of open rejection. Next Iteration makes an interesting antagonist as well. On the surface they’re a low key group of starry-eyed optimists bullshitting about a genetic utopia. But there are at least t wo alternatives to “we all become supermen.” One is “mutocracy,”  where mutants rule the ungifted in a fascist state, upheld by an oligarchy who can give tank rounds the finger and twist the fabric of time-space with their minds. Te other possibility is that the technology slips the leash and is put to ill-intentioned use by normals who fear, envy and long to control the power mutants represent.  Te research pursued by Next Iteration is going to be a powerful catalyst, for good or ill . But there’s no chance of putting the juice back in the orange, since so many corporations, militaries and NGOs are harvesting their own groves.

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 Chapter 4: Cabals & Factions  Getting In, Getting Out

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If you’re a mutant, getting into Next Iteration is as easy as stopping by Mutagenet labs and asking for admittance; if they can get a blood sample to put in the database, that’s even better. Dr. Sjeök takes you to a quiet lunch and gives you a key card for a private salon, where members of Next Iteration can unwind and speak freely without worrying about reporters and stalkers and bystanders with cell phones. If you’re not mutated, it’s a lot harder. People with ad vanced degrees in biochemistr y, or millions of dollars, or fame and influence—they might get admitted for membership and permitted to come to weekly meetings, but they won’t get a key to the salon. Te crucial difference is that the Salon is where people just talk. Te meetings are where policy is formally debated. So of course, much of the real reason to get in Next Iteration is the private access to the powerful, though don’t kid  yourself: Having a say in the formal policy is pretty impressive too. But unless someone has a qualifier like being a lawmaker or opinion shaper, or unless they ’ve done something large and public to aid “the mutant community ” (such as it is) membership probably gets put off and put off in the hopes that the asker gets the hint and stops applying. (Dr. Sjeök hates to have to disappoint people.) One other option for entry is to mimic mutant powers through occult access. Tis is unlikely to be detected right away: Next Iteration is extremely naïve about magic. But if the ruse  was uncovered, expulsion would be immediate. Tat brings us to the matter of leaving the group. One can resign simply by handing in the membership card and lett ing  your membership dues lapse. (It’s $100 a year for ordinary folks, $50 for mutants.) Stop going to meetings and you’re out, no fuss, no muss. Well, none from Next Iteration as a coherent entity. But individual members may take a retirement badly, depending on the circumstances. Reprisals could range from Mancat (page 112) breaking into your house to piss in your washing machine, to Annika Hao hiring a cadre of spin doctors and publicists to subtly convince the public that you’re a delusional racist headcase. One thing’s for certain: If you join Next Iteration and leave it, the members who stay are going to gossip like hell about you.

People for Religious Freedom  Qualities as a Reign Company : Might  0,  Influe nce  2, Sovereignty 

3, erritory  1, reasure  3 People for Religious Freedom are one of those awkward action groups that annoy everyone and seem to never get quite enough done. You know. Te kind that ’s utterly essential for the functioning of democracy. Some of them are Wiccans who think that after the government comes for the Xolotis, their coven’s next. Some are libertarian curanderos who hate the idea of having to beg the government’s permission to pick the fruits of their will and learning. Some are people who’d be in ROSCRO if they had the grades, and some are Christians, Muslims and Jews of good faith who believe that the principle of religious freedom is essential to America, no matter what the religion in question is. hey hold rallies, they sponsor debates, they raise funds and write letters, they blog and pass petitions, but they’re finding that events are moving faster than the political process. here’s a Kinko’s on every corner and a cyber-cafe next door to half of them. Copying and transmitting information has never been easier. racking the dissemination of forbidden lore has never been harder. Many in the PRF are happy (or at least grudgingly willing) to slog through the political morass. But many are also tempted to break the law, download that tutorial on archon handling and give it a spin in the basement. Or even just have  it. Of course, for every PRF member who chickens out when the crunch really comes, there’s one who contemplates how much faster they could get their freedoms if the right spirits could be found, bound and set to the task.

People for Religious Freedom Character Index  • Leslie Delacourt, Esq. (Circle 1, page 103) • Dr. August Frost (Circle 4, page 131) • Kim Souter (Circle 1, page 104)

Using PRF in Your Game PRF PCs can be sorcerers who are joining up with one of the few legitimate and (semi-) reputable institutions that regard magic with anything but naked loathing. Tis gives them connections to like-minded folks who support them, but it can also put them in the crosshairs. When a cop pulls over a

 Chapter 4: Cabals & Factions  Oh, the Mundanity The unique power groups of Grim War  don’t compete solely

Gulf Cartel

with one another, of course. Here are some quick refer-

Operating out of Tamaulipas in Mexico, the Gulf Cartel

ences to other interested groups, based on the real-world

recently saw a lot of its top leaders relocated to small ce-

history with which we’re all familiar.

ment boxes in the U.S., but there don’t seem to be any

Note that huge organizations like “Russia” or “The

debilitating leadership struggles. They’re especially known

Catholic Church” or “OPEC” aren’t listed here. The scope

for employing enforcers calle d “Zetas,” supposed ly ex-army

of those entities is such that, if they were to focus their

and Special Forces types. Might 4, Influence  2, Sovereign-

entire attention on any of the statted groups, they’d crush

ty 1, Territory  2, Treasure  4

it. But by the same token, those groups are too big to bog

CIA

themselves down with one small special-interest faction.

While technically barred from operating within the U.S.,

So instead of tangling with Russia, your cabal may draw

in this age of connectedness the lines between foreign in-

the attention of the KGB. Instead of the Catholics, it’s Opus

telligence and domestic surveillance of foreign enemies is

Dei (or a covert splinter group within Opus Dei). Instead of

increasingly blurry. Might 2, Influence 4, Sovereignty 2,

OPEC, it’s a deniable group of non-state-actors funded out

Territory 1, Treasure  3

of Saudi Arabia. But some groups that are on the Grim War faction scale include the following: Juarez Cartel

Special Threat Response Group

The red-headed stepchild of U.S. protective agencies is tiny, underfunded and politically toxic. It combines govern-

The most geographically-widespr ead of Mexico’s drug

ment grudge-work with the despised practice of sorcery.

gangs, the Juarez Cartel operates primarily out of Chihua-

Unfortunately for the U.S., it employs the kind of sorcerers

hua on the U.S. border. But don’t let the association with

who are willing to serve a country that hates them for be-

tiny dogs mislead you, they’re vicious. Supposedly their

ing what they are—so, masochists, political extremists, and

leader, Amado Carrillo Fuentes, died under a plastic sur-

people who couldn’t cut it with ROSCRO. The FBI and CIA

geon’s knife in 1997. But isn’t that just what they want you

unload occult hassles on them at every opportunity in order

to think? Incidentally, Fuentes was called “The Lord of the

to free up their own sorcerers (who do not, of course, exist

Skies” but that’s probably a nickname and has nothing to do

on paper) for more proactive opportunities. Might 1, Influ-

with the Fourth Circle storm archon of the same title. Might

ence 1, Sovereignty 1, Territory  1, Treasure  1

3, Influence  3, Sovereignty 2, Territory  3, Treasure  5

speeder with a “My Other Car is a Broom” bumper sticker, he may not intend to be tougher, harsher or more suspicious. But the nagging little thought that he might get turned into a frog has to push his hand a little closer to the safety on his pistol. In many ways, PRF enchanters are very close to the comic bo ok superhero concept. Tey have great power, but they need to defend their identities from a public that simultaneously needs and fears them. Sorcerers for sorcerers’ rights want to make magic less scary, of course, and one way to do that is by providing it s benefits on a Robin Hood basis. Te Boston Saint, for example, is a sorcerer who sneaks into hospitals and uses magic to heal those  who otherwise wouldn’t have a chance. When Boston passed a law decriminalizing witchcraft, the U.S. Supreme Court struck

it down, but no one’s had much luck forcing the Boston PD to prioritize finding the Saint. No one much wants to. For every Saintly altruist, there are a dozen crooks using  Xolotl techniques or supplies, of course, and that’s what makes the news. Te PRF hates the Xolotis with a white-hot passion, and some vigilantes do something about it. When they do, they know where to go to find sympathetic civilians to hide them. Or not. While a good half of PRF is cool with a wink and nod for off-book enchanters, there’s a vocal quarter who insist that the law is the law and ignoring the laws you don’t like makes them less   likely to get repealed, not more. Guided by the intensity of their principles, these PRF members narc on their fellows when they cross the line, and they sleep just fine at night afterwards.

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 Chapter 4: Cabals & Factions  Oh, the Mundanity (Cont) FBI

in on parachutes, and they’re military, not police, so they folTheir purview is U.S. law enforcement, and while there’s

practically no chance that player characters will break laws,

Influence 2, Sovereignty  3, Territory 2, Treasure 2

They are included for the sake of completeness. Might 3,

DEA

Influence  3, Sovereignty 3, Territory 2, Treasure  2 GRU

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low a rather harsher philosophy of engagement. Might 3,

The Drug Enforcement Agency in the U.S. is noted for its casual attitude towards national borders and its rabid re-

Russia’s military intelligence apparatus has the jaw-

alism in fighting a war that quite possibly can’t be “won”

breaker name Glavnoye Razvedyvatel’noye Upravleniye

in any traditional sense. They’re less interested in the Xo-

and an agency emblem that bears a striking resemblance

lotis now that they’ve made a horizontal move into magical

to the Batman™ logo. They regard Direktiva Nul with the

tchotchkes, but there’s some institutional memory there

same contempt that the CIA holds for the Special Threat

and many ingestible charms technically fall under their en-

Response Group, except they understand that if they act

forcement purview. Might 3, Influence 2, Sovereignty 2,

too dickish they’re likely to get plagued by nightmares—

Territory 3, Treasure  2

both while asleep and while awake. Mostly they concern

The Chicago Outfit

themselves with legitimate threats to the Russian Federa-

Once upon a time a man named Al Capone made a lot

tion, such as mutants and newspaper reporters. Might 4,

of illegal money, and then generations of people who were

Influence  3, Sovereignty 2, Territory 2, Treasure  2

just as ruthless and contemptuous of the law set about

GIGN

using Capone’s wealth and apparatus for their own com-

The initials stand for Groupe d’Intervention de la Gendar-

fort and influence. With the new millenium, they’re almost

merie Nationale, which is how you say “John McClane from

legit: It’s easier. But fuck with ‘em and you still might get

Die Hard”   in French. They’re an elite counter-terrorism and

your legs broke. Or you might get sued into oblivion. De-

hostage intervention group and they also put down prison

pends on their mood. Might 1, Influence 3, Sovereignty

insurrections on the side. They number about 380, they come

1, Territory 4, Treasure 4

As an antagonist, the PRF is a sort of wet, sandbaggy mass that’s impossible to p ersuade or shift or break up. Even if  you talk sense to individuals (“Do you really want precocious twelve-year-olds conjuring daemons? Of any   Circle? And don’t try that lame ‘where are the parents?’ line with me either”) there’s always another self-righteous teen with an ankh tatt oo and a day job to cover the membership dues. Tese warm bodies, along with the more politically savvy ideologue idealists, are the mass of the PRF, mainly serving to logjam the public debate on sorcery. But among the floating logs, there are a few alligators. Where PRF becomes a real danger is when it serves as protective coloration for a magician with evil intentions who,  when confronted, can fall back on the PRF to bail him out and launch counter-accusations of harassment.

Amnesty International, NPR or ACLU mailing lists, just to artificially inflate their numbers. You cough up a nominal fee and get (yes) a bi-weekly newsletter, typically about four pages long unless something relevant is in the news. Leaving at that level is as simple as calling their 900 number to cancel and being patient enough to deal with their trained “Are you sure  you want to drop out of the fight for fundamental liberties?” operators.  o ascend to a higher level of author ity within the PRF, it’s all about the meetings. hat’s what about half a page of that newsletter is about, scheduled meetings all over the country. o become influential, you have to attend the meetings, contribute forcefully, and have opinions that others agree with. Sheep don’t get to write guest editorials in the newsletter, shepherds do. If you’re a good shepherd, you can get elected as a regional PRF delegate. Yearly, there’s a convention, at which regional delegates  vote up or vote down planks in the PRF platform. Ever y other

Getting In, Getting Out  Tey’re always  recruiting. Tey’re desperate for numbers. Sometimes they even send out free memberships to people on

 Chapter 4: Cabals & Factions 

 year, the convention also holds elections for the PRF executive council, and that’s  where the real power is. Councilors serve six  year terms and vote among themselves to pick the treasurer, secretary and president. (Te second-place winner in the presidential competition gets to be VP.) Tose three officers are salaried employees of the PRF, but everyone on the council gets to propose plank elements f or the next convention, as well as suggesting group actions as organized through the newsletter. So far, re-election to the council hasn’t been an issue, but there’s nothing in the bylaws precluding it. (It’s the council that can propose changes to the bylaws, too, which are voted on at the convention.) Councilors, just like the commonplace membership, can quit at any time, though there’s likely to be an outcr y (if she’s popular) or malicious gossip and insinuation (if she’s not).  Tere are no reprisals from the group, and probably none f rom angry members either. PRF just doesn’t have the kind of energy or resources to be casually malicious to quitters. Tey have to keep their powder dry for the fights that matter.

The Piccione Family Qualities as a Reign  Company :  Might  2, Influence  2, Sovereignty 

3, erritory  2, reasure  3 Oh, for the good old days when a man could make a good living with shylock loans, a bit of racketeering, and the establishment of the occasional brothel or gambling ring. Tose were

the salad days of the old-school Mafia, when Hoover insisted that La Cosa Nostra was a myth, when the humble immigrants came to the local Don for justice and advice instead of voting, and when talk of mutants or sorcery was greeted with a raised eyebrow or even a hoot of l aughter. Tose are the days to which the Piccione elders nostalgically hearken back, conveniently forgetting what an unreasonable psychopath Al Capone was, that they (meaning the Italian-American immigrant community) got called “dago” and that they (meaning the Piccione family in particular) got spat on and had hand signs against the Evil Eye sh oved in their faces about half the time they tried to ask out a nice girl or buy a tank full of gas. If there ever was a golden age for mutant mobsters, it ain’t now. Now, the Five Families are increasingly irrelevant, practically legitimate and willing t o cede most of the dirty, streetlevel crime to ongs, riads, Russian Mafiyas and Hell’s Angels. But the Picciones stay in there, grimly breaking the thumbs of loan defaulters and chasing freelance hookers away from territories where they take a skim off prostitution. Tey don’t sell drugs. Tey don’t sell magic. Tey don’t have the numbers and the money of the Xolotis or the craziness of meth- and steroidaddled illiterates with nothing to lose. But they have the Picciones. And the Piccione family has, per capita, the highest incidence of beneficial mutation in human history. If they somehow got with Dr. Sjeök’s program,

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 Chapter 4: Cabals & Factions  they’d push her studies forward five years at least, just by pro viding nature’s data signature for what she’s trying to artificially accomplish. Tey tend towards hulking, gruesome flesh-masses, but the occasional flier or t elekinetic crops up. Tey started studying sorcery in the 1980s, pretty much out of default. Teir rivalry with (and hatred for) t he Xolotl cartel has roots farther back—something involving the CIA, double crosses and possibly the Picciones’ legendary covert agreement to help guard U.S. coasts during World War II—but they’ve been at it hammer and tongs since the cult moved up North decades ago. Te Picciones escalated from guns to mutants, and the Xolotis countered by escalating to sorcery, so the Picciones set a witch to catch a witch. Tey’re not as proficient as the Xolotl cult, of course, but some of them are just as willing to grease the skids with human sacrifice.

Piccione Family Character Index  • Barnabas “Bad Breath Barney ” Piccione (Circle 1, page 104) • Gino “Zipperesh” Piccione (Circle 2, page 110) • Rita “P uke Bomb” Piccione (Circle 2, page 111)

 88

Using the Piccione Family in Your Game Did ya like Miller’s Crossing, Te Godfather  and Goodfellas? Now imagine Joe Pesci can remotely activate the pain center in  your brain by squinting. Good times, man. Good times. Te advice for running Xolotl Cartel PCs pretty much carries over here, only instead of being styled like an uneasy mix of  Miami V ice  and Saruman the White, you get the tropes of Al Capone gangsterism: offers you can’t refuse, kisses of death, horses with bed head, all the indisputable classics. One big difference between the Picciones and the Xolotis is that one’s a business/religion combo and one is a family. Picciones rarely kill one another, they just hurl food and swear at hanksgiving dinner. Internal rivalries are settled on the level of guilt and debt and reputation and occasionally you realize that the guy you’ve been butting heads with is the same one who gave you his GI Joe when yours broke, and you wind up hugging and setting aside your differences. hen again, these people are gangsters, and sometimes you just gotta kill the guy. When the guy’s your brother it’s a tragedy but it doesn’t make it less necessary. Picciones as antagonists are going to try to co-opt PCs, intimidate them if that doesn’t work, and just flat out bury them in bleeding mutant death if they won’t back down. Tey prefer

to pick on the weak and defenseless (it’s way  more efficient) but confrontations don’t spook them.

Getting In, Getting Out  Te easiest way in is getting born into the family, but failing that one can join by t he traditional method of hanging around the goons, getting pic ked on, sticking around, doing petty favors, kissing ass, and proving yourself with small-time crime. You make yourself useful and eventually one of the family members may decide to formaliz e your status as a Piccione soldier. Tis involves a brief ceremony in a dark basement in  which you spit on a picture of your birth family, prick your thumb and become blood brothers with your Piccione sponsor, and swear to serve loyally until death. Soldiers aren’t trusted with sensitive information beyond  what they need to do their jobs, of course, but they do have the backing of the family against anyone on the outside. But they’re the lowest in the mob and if one needs to be sacrificed to protect someone higher up, there’s never even a question of  who goes under the bus. o rise in their esteem, you have to make your bones—that is, you have to kill someone for the gang. Often this is at their request, because they don’t want a bunch of loose cannons running around bringing down the heat for no real gain. But if you do it,  you may find yourself invited to the suppers at the house, not just the rough planning sessions at diners and in warehouse offices. You become one of those people that soldiers get sacrificed to protect. But no matter how useful or prominent an outsider becomes, he’s toast if it’s a choice between him and someone born into the family—just like a Piccione-by-blood is toast if he isn’t mutated and he can be sacrificed to protect someone who is.  Tis is never openly stated, but it ’s understood. It is possible, after a string of successes with the family, to “retire.” You just say you’re ready to get out of the game and they give you a nice party, a gold watch is produced to much laughter, and the head of the family gives you a big hug. If it’s a  just a hug, you can go off to your peaceful home and do whatever you want, as long as you don’t snitch. Piccione guys may still drop by now and again when they need a pl ace to hide or have a corpse that needs to be dismembered like now , or when they need a loan until payday, but you only really get dragged back in if you’re so damn skilled that you’re necessary for a particular  job or other. If it’s a hug with a kiss, well, they don’t quite trust you enough with the knowledge you have, and you have to die.

 Chapter 4: Cabals & Factions  Or you may just rat out completely, name names, get on a lot of newspaper covers and then enter the W itness Relocation Program. Unlike the Xolotis, the P icciones don’t have centuries of experience using spirits to track down fleeing enemies. But they’re learning.

in wherever they suspect terrorism, unacceptably powerful sorcerers, or crimes of which they disapprove. If their suspicions prove correct, they poke their big guns in, too.

Projekt ELSA

• Albrecht Knudsen (Circle 3, page 123)

Qualities as a Reign  Company :  Might  2, Influence  3, Sovereignty 

• Benjamin “Babe” Weisenthal (Circle 2, page 115)

2, erritory  3, reasure  3 Projekt Ethnologisches Literaturarchiv-Sonderabteillung (ELSA) never makes the paper: not in any capacity that can be identified. heir actions (fires, mysterious murders, car crashes, ships lost at sea, plane wrecks, the unexplained disappearances of people, materials and, in one case, a small Micronesian island) crop up, but no one has attached it to a U.N. project that is, on paper, an archive for the preservation of ethnological literature. here is, in fact, a very presentable and perfectl y prosaic library of songs and dances and folk stories. It’s located in he Hague and, except for sharing a name, and that their budget provides a smokescreen for mind-boggling levels of financial jiggery-pokery, it is utterly unconnected to the genuine Projekt ELSA. he real Projekt is about ten mutants, thirty badass sorcerers, another fifty sorcerers who are either pretty crappy or extremely over-specialized, seventy five highlytrained elite soldiers who were in GIGN or the SAS before they faked their own deaths, maybe a thousand spies and field operatives, an equal number of sources, dupes, and patsies, and about a hundred managers and secretaries who actually run the whole thing. Tey’re global. Teir mission is to uncover, isolate and deal  with paranormal threats to the E.U. or to U.N. authorit y. Tey treat this less as a mandate and more as a guideline. Tere was nothing supernatural about the slavery ring they broke up in 1997, nor about the al-Qaeda cells t hey’ve smashed, nor about the illegal diamond smuggling operation they set up in the early 2000s to make several of their members obscenely rich.  Tey are renegade spies who aren’t at all averse to lining their own pockets through an unspoken code of conduct that boils down to “finders keepers.” In their (moderate) defense, a lot of that dirty cash rolls right back into ELSA’s Swiss bank accounts, where it pays to refuel black helicopters, arm con venient insurgencies, bribe police commissioners and buy up black market ex-Soviet plut onium. Tey poke their big noses

Projekt ELSA Character Index  • Chlotilde Giroux (Circle 3, page 123) • Janice Romeo (Circle 2, page 113)

Using Projekt ELSA in Your Game Guns, cash, and a self-righteous mandate to Smash Evil?  What’s not to like? Te answer, which may not be immediately apparent to PCs who hop in bed with ELSA, is that the bosses are even more used to vigorously exercising power down at the Realpolitik Gym, without bothering with the locker-room shower of responsibility. Tey give orders and expect them to be followed. Sometimes those orders are brutal and ugly. Sometimes they’re cowardly, bigoted or flat-out dumb. Sometimes they’re unethically selfish. (One secretary had her cheating boyfriend murdered in cold blood through a fairly crude sorcery frame.) But ELSA demands obedience from its soldiers. Pawns  who just say no can be left to twist in the wind. More informed operatives who decide to grow a spine and a conscience have to be silenced in more permanent ways. If you’re lucky that means they get an archon and a cold-eyed doctor  with a whole bunch of needles to fuzz your memory and lower  your higher brain functions. When they’re really mad, they kill you and bind your ghost into the boss’ day planner so that no one else can ask it questions. In an antagonistic role, ELSA is even tougher. Tey can pull political strings and machine-gun triggers with equal ease, and they just do not give a shit about your Bill of Rights. Tey are lawless cowboys of the worst t ype and if they grease some innocent farmhands in Des Moines while taking down a Xolotl enchanter, that’s not their problem. Tey’re going to be in Antigua or Northern Ireland by the time those Iowans’ moms get the bad news. Tey’re global, they’re selfish, and they’re okay  with that. Te only thing they really fear is being outed, but they (wrongly) don’t even fear that very much. Tey’ve been in their cynical “we’re the h eroes so whatever we do is heroic” echo chamber for so long that they genuinely don’t understand that if their activities in the Americas came to light, it could cause a major rift between the U.S. and Europe. Tey don’t get it that if

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 Chapter 4: Cabals & Factions  the E.U. found out what ELSA has been doing in their name, it could conceivably be the end of the United Nations as a meaningful force in world politics.

Getting In, Getting Out

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Because they’re terribly secret, Projekt ELSA isn’t something you can just walk up to and say, “Hey, I’m a skilled killer and my ethics are tepid at t he best of times. Let’s network for  wetwork!” If they ’re going to let you in, they’re going to come to you—possibly in the guise of some other agency like the CIA or MI6 or, hell, the Illuminati. Teir standard recruitment pitch is that they’re the highest authority, empowered to deal with extranormal threats and that you have one chance to join up and be part of the solution at the highest levels. Say no and you won’t hear from them again. Say yes, and they take you off to a training center to test  your body, mind and willingness. Tey don’t invite anyone they haven’t already been watching, but the tests let them fine tune their dossiers about your power capacities, your weaknesses,  your ethical firm lines and soft spots, and which of your family they should threaten if it’s ever necessary to bring you to heel. Leaving ELSA is unlikely to be a companionable breakup.  Tey retire agents when they feel they’re becoming more of a liability than an asset, and honestly, they rarely have to kill off their own people. Nul and the Xolotis and any number of terrorist groups are happy to do it for them. But people who survive enough missions and who are starting to slow down (or crack up) are gently told that their service is appreciated but it’s time to find that nice farm somewhere, enjoy your monthly checks from an ELSA-approved front company, maybe take up  watercolors and never, ever, ever  talk about what you did, ’kay? If they think there’s still some use in you, you don’t get the farm and the check and the watercolors. You get more missions and maybe some Zoloft, regardless of your reservations. rying to flee is possible, but they’ve got resources and, once you drop out, you’ve got a date with a spray of lead, or a needle tipped with curare, or someone’s plasma eye beams. Tat date is noted in the boss’ day planner. You remember the deal  with his day planner, right?

ROSCRO Qualities as a Reign  Company :  Might  1, Influence  2, Sovereignty 

2, erritory  3, reasure  2 Te United States didn’t do too well at espionage in the last half of the 20th century. Te government got complacent,

there was political hay made by purging accused federal sorcerers, and Direktiva Nul pretty much walked all over the CIA’s inept groping at power. But when the state fails, private initiative often hops right into the breech. In this case, the occult information and principles fumbled and sup pressed by the nation’s leaders were picked up and examined by tenured professors who badgered Congress into licensing them t o experiment. Te deciding argument was, “Closing your eyes and hoping ignorance p rotects  you hasn’t worked yet. We’ll be completely open and submit to law enforcement oversight. Let ’s see if there aren’t responsible  ways to use this power, and if there aren’t, let’s find out how to defend ourselves.” Tus began Te Rational Occult Study Crossdisciplinary Research Organization (ROSCRO), but the insistence on transparency and accountability had unexpected consequences. It turned out that the scientists and philosophers had been serious  about sharing information, and not just with t heir minders at the Pentagon and the Justice Department. ROSCRO is numerically small, but it’s widespread, with its researchers combing the globe for information much as t he spies did in decades previous. Te difference is, instead of keeping what they find hidden and using it to push policy, they’re sharing it (carefully) with one another and using i t to advance knowledge. Tat’s not to say ROSCRO is idealistic and naïve. Far from it. It’s home to some p eople who were (and are) sorcerers first, researchers second, human beings third. Its leaders understand realpolitik hardball quite well, thank you, and they’re not afraid to whip in an occasional beanball to keep the game tight. (“If you really want to cut my funding, I can’t stop  you. I just wonder how far the Xolotis are going to push the topic before I can find private backing.”) Some use it to attract prestige, perks, and lithe-bodied grad students while pursuing the safest and least controversial topics of research. More commonly, ROSCRO members are perfectly honest in their pursuit of its stated goal: Archiving and expanding occult knowledge. But there’s a small group hidden within, loyal to no one but themselves, using ROSCRO as a beard to hide their pursuit of magic as a means to devious personal ends. ROSCRO’s membership is diverse and contentious. About a third of them (the “buzzcuts”) entered the field of occult studies from math or the hard sciences (usually physics).  Tat’s the group slaughtering sacred cows (only rarely literally), pushing boundaries, and complaining about their col leagues

 Chapter 4: Cabals & Factions   who pussyfoot around. Half of ROSCRO, the founding half, came at magic from the Liberal Arts perspective. Philosophers, philologists, historians, linguists and a surprising number of English professors (dubbed the “longhairs”) have realized t heir abilities to find old texts and decode ancient modes of thought can produce results as impressive as the hard-heads using calculus and objective benchmarks. When the backwards-looking academics get together with the futuristic flatto ps they can often form shocking synergies. But they can almost never  get along long enough to prosper. A small, slowly-growing segment of ROSCRO consists of academics who’ve been studying the stuff since graduating high school. Te governing council of ROSCRO didn’t have that option, and it’s not easy for someone to get even t he mildest clearances for magic study before they ’re old enough to drink, but ROSCRO now holds members who didn’t come to thaumaturgy f rom a background in Medieval Germanic Languages or particle physics. Tese youngsters don’t have the clout or experience to even be Young urks yet, but they do have a few advantages. For one, they have far fewer preconceived notions about what magic is  or how to approach it. For two, they’re not in the thick of the power ploys of the longhairs and buzzcuts.

ROSCRO Character Index  • Trey Hogan (Circle 1, page 103) • Dr. Miles Jeerson (Circle 4, page 131) • Dr. Eden Majors (Circle 3, page 124)

Using ROSCRO in Your Game Te shady groves of academe can serve as a nice, selfcontained setting for a game of occult cross and double-cross. ROSCRO PCs can wonder which of their colleagues’ cliques (which are constantly shifting) is doing the right thing, and  which the wrong, and who can be trusted. Are the antagonisms based on genuinely foul deeds, or is it just slights of reputation and who flirted obnoxiously with whom? Looming over the whole thing is the threat of losing their practice licenses. No matter how pissed they get at one another, pulling out their wands to settle things straight up j ust isn’t an option. Not only would they be for bidden to legally practice magic, they’d almost certainly get tossed in one of those sorcerer jails where, in order to keep the prisoners f rom casting, they take away anything that could be a component of a spell . (Since just about anything can be an element of enchantment, the wizard pen is a very bleak and empty place indeed.) On

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top of that , every licensed sorcerer who goes off the rez puts everyone else’s license in jeopardy. So, in conclusion, it’s a bad idea and strongly discouraged. Or at least, getting caught is a bad idea and strongly discouraged. Given that the number of f ederal agents who can reliably detect magic is about seven, and that testimony gained by sorcerous means is inadmissible, and that the average ROSCRO sorcerer can enchant the p ants off America’s feeble Fed mages, it’s not uncommon for the ol’ voodoo dolls and blood chalices to get used. It just has to be deniable. Not every licensed ROSCRO sorcerer focuses his energies and hatred on his companions, of course. Te licensing terms require an enchanter to accede to any reasonable request for aid from civil, military or law enforcement officers pertaining specifically to occult dangers. Most of the time, the academics are as reluctant to help bust Xolotis as the police are to come, cap in hand, admitting that they ’re stymied. But some professors have developed good (or oddball-but-necessary) relations with certain detectives or officers, and have found themselves headto-head with Nul spies, Xolotl assassins, Piccione leg-breakers and Àkrab-i-allah fanatics.  Tey’d feel out of their depth in these conflicts, except the cops and soldiers they ’re protecting are a thousand times worseequipped to cope. Te ROSCRO members who’ve gotten into these sorts of relationships talk about coming to the “Gandalf on the Bridge” moment, after which they ’re accepted or even respected. If they survive. All the things that make ROSCRO intriguing as a PC group (competition, subtle secret struggles and the suspicious authorities hanging over their heads lik e the sword of Damocles) make them menacing as enemies. Proving someone’s a magician can be tough, if he covers his tracks well. When a known sorceress decides to p ursue you with astral agents, it’s almost impossible to track the misery back to her, if the harassment can even be identified as something other than a run of bad luck. So many spirits make do with Jinx, after all. ROSCRO antagonists are unlikely to murder for profit, and there’s no coherent religious, political or famil y stance underlying their efforts. Tey seek knowledge, not to accomplish a goal, but because knowledge is their goal. In this way, they can be the most hazardous occult opponents if they get dangerous knowledge. It’s always possible to buy off the greedy or appeal to self-interest with a politician. But convincing a ROSCRO researcher that a spell is too dangerous to cast is a hard sell.

Especially if he’s the obsessed type who lets his family and personal connections atrophy, and who has been in the ivory tower so long that he has no sense of perspective. Furthermore, you know how Direktiva Nul argue that their actions, while painful in the short term, are ultimately necessary for humankind’s survival? ROSCROcians can do the same, if  you substitute progress for “survival”. When they look you in the eye and say, “Isn’t it better to know? What kind of coward turns away?” you’d better have a good answer.

Getting In, Getting Out  o join ROSCRO you need to jump through hoops. Tere are many minor hoops—signing away many of your civil liberties to the cops so that they can search your home, car, person and property whenever they feel itchy, snapping to attention and serving those same cops (plus soldiers!) when they have an occult problem to deal with , plus paperwork, registering  your location with various federal agencies from the FBI to the EPA, signing the loyalty pledge—but the two major barriers are educational and occult. You need both, college credentials and sorcerous ver ve.  Te relationship between how much of each you need is somewhat complicated. If you’ve got a C+ GPA with your B.A. in English f rom the University of Podunky, you’d better be consistently calling, binding and accessing at a Tird Circle level. Conversely, if your MI 4.0 was a double major in physics and mathematics, you may only need a thorough grounding in paramagical theory and no practical experience to get admission. Either way, of course, it doesn’t hurt to have a mentor in your corner arguing for your acceptance. Basically, there’s a critical mass of knowledge a ROSCRO applicant needs, and it can come from either t he scholarly research bucket or the “Submit to my will! Come not in that form! By diagram and hidden name come not in that form!”  bucket. If you have enough, you get in, if you have more than enough you get courted by various scheming factions within, and the ratio of your mix determines if you wind up hanging  with the buzzcuts or the longhairs.  Tey don’t publicize it at all, but applying to ROSCRO and getting denied is an excellent way to end up on several closely-watched government lists. It’s about like openly declaring, “I want to learn more sorcery than I already know!” and the law enforcement and national security folk have a keen interest in people with that attitude. As for departing from ROSCRO, well, you can check

 Chapter 4: Cabals & Factions  out any time you like but you can never leave. People who quit (usually loudly, publicly and in disgust) aren’t invited to or permitted in ROSCRO’s thrice-yearly closed-door arcane symposia. Tey don’t get access to the restricted research, which is much of it and almost all the good stuff. Tey’re unwelcome at ROSCRO research labs and may have trouble getting any  academic post. Quitting, then, is an excellent way to cut off the benefits of ROSCRO. Te drawbacks—meaning, the government watches you like a hawk and expects you to perch on their gauntlet when they whistle—remain in effect until you die . Possibly longer than that, depending on the interpretation of an ambiguous paragraph at the back of one of the confidential access agreements. rying to drop off the grid and retire in anonymity is  just not on the schedule, as far as Uncle Sam is concerned. If  you thought spirits were persistent at finding you when you owe them a debt, you haven’t seen the FBI when they ’re panicky about a sorcerous asset slipping the l eash.

The School of the American Future Qualities as a Reign  Company :  Might  1, Influence  2, Sovereignty 

1, erritory  3, reasure  3 Emily Queen isn’t a mutant. She doesn’t have the gene, hasn’t gone through an experience that would provoke powers to develop if she had them, and she wasn’t even a wistful  wannabe with a couple of capes in her closet and goggles for rainy days. Ms. Queen was an educator, an agitator, a rep for the teacher’s union and, in her spare time, a blogger about the dangers of using hormones on cattle to increase milk and beef production. One of her middle-school students, however, was a mutant.  Tat student ’s nascent flesh-twisting powers produced his hideous, painful, lingering death before he could get a grip on  what was happening to him. Emily hadn’t even liked him that much, but she certainly felt sorry for him and, with her typical excess of ype A drive, she started researching similar cases of disastrous child mutation. Her research led her to take a year’s sabbatical to get more thorough data, and what she wound up presenting to Senator Klein was devastating: Te younger a mutant was when their powers emerged, the less likely they were to get a college or even high school diploma. Tey were also at greatly increased risk for criminal behavior, unwed parenthood, drug and alcohol

abuse and bankruptcy. But what really grabbed headlines was the strong correlation between early development and th e likelihood of a power-related fatality, either the mutant’s or someone nearby. Klein took most of Queen’s recommendations and got the Klein-McCain act passed, funding a special school to educate (and, just between you and me, contain) early bloomers before they could become full-blown monsters. Dr. Queen (she got her Ph.D. through her research) was appointed the first headmistress, and she has remained such for the twelve years SAF has been in existence. She’s stern but sympathetic, and her door ’s always open. (Unmarried and childless in her late forties, Dr. Queen can usually squeeze in a talk with a student if it’s urgent.  o her students she’s a distant but matronly figure, like the God of the Old estament, if God baked home-made snickerdoodles every year to celebrate graduation.) Deep in rural Maine, the School’s location is secret, but a poorly kept one. It’s only a matter of time before Perez Hilton or someone else lets the cat out of the bag, but the various crime syndicates, secret government agencies and clubby mutant conspiracies already know exactly where it is. Really, it’s only the public that’s been kept ignorant. Tem and Middle East terrorists, surprisingly. Maybe not so surprising. Te school’s security has focused on them, since blowing up the symbol of America’s future global dominance (look at the school’s name) would have any decent terrorist creaming his j eans, if his violent perversion of Islam permitted jeans-creaming. Te security of the school consists of an undisclosed number of staff mutants, at least one of whom can steal the energy of intense heat and violent impact to fuel the ability to manipulate time. Te students figured that out after the pipe-bomb incident, but they still don’t know which grown-up is the chrono-twisting explosion drinker. Te pool in the Boy’s House gives top odds to Mr. Hengle the janitor or the Calculus I instructor Ms. Boggs (since she obviously wasn’t hired for her teaching skills).  Tere are close to fift y students at SAF, making it the densest concentration of active mutants openly acknowledged to exist. (Te unconfirmed reports Senator Klein has read about China and India’s counterparts give her night sweats.)  Te youngest two students are in Grade Five, while the Grade  welve graduating class has nine members. Despite the generous teacher salaries, academic achievement among graduates is quite disparate, since some mutants only come in as juniors

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 Chh a p t e r 4 : C a b a l s & F a c t i o n s   C or seniors. It’s racially and culturally diverse t oo, which means some pretty big gulfs between cliques. Te competition between Boy’s House and Girl ’s House can be intense. (Te crap-shoot of genetic enhancement has made the traditional male edge in sports mostly irrelevant.) It has long been suspected that a mysterious group of  young-looking  young-l ooking costumed costum ed adventurers, advent urers, sighted sight ed all over the t he U.S., U.S., is composed of SAF students. Whether they’re operating despite their teachers or with their permission (tacit or overt) depends on which theorist you listen to. Mostly this group (who’ve referred to t hemselves as “ eam Safe,” “Te Safetoids” and, on one memorable occasion, “Te Fuckin’ Badasses”) have done disaster relief and unasked emergency response, but they’ve popped up in major criminal boil-ups too.

School of the American Future Character Index  • Christina S treeter (Circle 3, page 127) • Heather Wells (Circle 3, page 128)

Using SAF in Your Game

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een drama and power punch-ups make for a fine mix.  Te biggest bigges t issue iss ue to consider with the relativel rel ativelyy straightf str aightforw orward ard SAF game is the inability of the schoolkids to muster meaningful political power. If you want to play with the contrast between the immediate and dramatic flash fights of idealistic teens, versus the slow, grinding progress of evil that has a political arm (possibly embodied by Projekt ELSA or even CARGO), then SAF is a good choice. Alternately, Alternately, you can run some fun with PC teachers trying to keep a lid on the unpredictable powers of their volatile st udents. Tis looks at the contrast from the other side, as teachers (who don’t necessarily have mutant powers and who are outnumbered by students even if they do) try to exert wise influence on the trends of society despite the best intentions of excitable teens with acne, super strength and the ability to phase through matter. SAF antagonists work just as well. Tink of it: Tey’re spoiled, coddled, powered-up powered-up and a lot of people have a big stake in them becoming America’s America’s next heroes. A group of SAF students could easily make life hell for townies, who could learn sorcery to str ike back, as the marginalized and powerless have often done in histor y. Te could become an emblem of everything that’s wrong with the mutant/normal double standard, if people are willing to believe it.

Getting In, Getting Out Are you a U.S. citizen between the ages of five and nineteen, and do you have mutant powers? Tat’s all it takes to get into the School of the American Future. You have to apply, and if your parents have been funneling money to Hezbollah or are members of the White Ar yan Resistance you might get turned down because the school just can’t risk having someone out  partic ular  kind their location. But without that  particular    kind of baggage, it doesn’t matter if you’re a poor student, a genius, a troublemaker, a cheerleader, a juvenile delinquent, rich, poor or middle-class. If you’re a school age American mutant, you can get in. (You can also get in if you’re school age and can  pass  as  as an American mutant. Te School absolut ely, positively won’t won’t hire sorcerers on staff and the law-enforcement agents from the woefully understaffed federal occult service makes only the most cursory scans. People from ROSCRO are twice as likely to spot a fake than a Fed-wand, and ten times as likely to let it pass with a wink and a nod.) Being hired to teach is something of a higher hurdle. Mutants with any kind of teaching credentials are sure bets, and those who lack the degrees but have the willingness to learn can get hustled through an accelerated teaching program on Uncle Sam’s dime in return for a six-year contract to teach at American Future. Non-mutant educators have to be at the top of their field and preference is given to those with law-enforcement or military backgrounds. Or those who have political clout, of course. If those behind the teacher’s podium want out, they can quit. All they have to do is sign some waivers, but since the conditions of getting hired (or admitted) involve putting one’s name on some fairly harsh legal language regarding the secrets of the School, a few more documents rarely make a difference. Ten they can go out with a hell of a prestigious line on their résumé. Students? Tey graduate. rying to withdraw before graduation is surprisingly hard, since the small print in those admission documents grants guardianship to the School and guarantees the student’s attendance until completion or until he attains his majority at the age of eighteen. Running away is an option, but most truants don’t have to worry about Squadron A1 being mobilized to track them down. Tat’s not out of the question for students at American Future, if they can avoid more conventional pursuit. But these students are regarded as precious assets o f the U.S. U.S. government once they’re in the school, and when those assets are lost, the government seeks them avidly. avidl y.

 Chh a p t e r 4 : C a b a l s & F a c t i o n s   C Once a runaway gets brought back, there might be leniency if there are extenuating circumstances. Or the student could be treated, essentially, essentially, like a pr isoner: watched 24/7, electronically monitored and prevented f rom leaving by some of those mutant teachers who definitely weren’t weren’t hired for their pedagogical skills.

Squadron A1  Influ ence  2,  4, Influence   2, Sovereignty  Qualities as a Reign  Company :  Might  4,

3, erritory  1,  1, reasure  4  4 Te U.S. military ’s mutant program has been the envy of the world since the Great War, despite a few well-publicized and disastrous setbacks when their powers were ill-advisedly applied to the Grim War of occult espionage. (Te Bay of Pigs and the infamous Operation Tailand Swing still get cited as examples of hamfisted alent meddling.) After Af ter those black eyes, the U.S. Army made it unofficial policy to keep mutants on the battlefield  where they belong. Tat approach has worked a lot better or, at the very least, has generated fewer open catastrophes. Arguably, Arguably, the presence of powerful and visible mutants was most beneficial on the level of tactics and troop morale. A soldier who’s bulletproof is not necessarily that much more effective than a soldier who just happens not to get shot. (Granted, the fragile-but-lucky soldier needs tremendous reserves of courage to wade into a situation the armored one knows he can survive. But soldiers do it.) A bulletproof soldier with a cape and a fancy uniform is a horse of a different color. It’s quite likely that he draws t he fire of panicky foes, f oes, if his mere presence isn’t isn’t enough to send them scurrying in panic. Tis encourages the soldiers on his side, if merely seeing him str ide fearlessly t owards a bunker doesn’t give them a l ift. On the other hand, sometimes a mutant isn’t invulnerable, but has other battlefield-useful powers, like blanketing an area with a sudden cloud of freezing ammonia fog. Having that guy in regular uniform as a nasty surprise keeps enemies on their toes. Squadron A1 consists of the toughest, most dangerous mutants the U.S. U.S. has been able t o field. Just realizing Te One is on the battlefield can sap the courage of anyone short of a fanatic. (For the fanatics who remain, Te One shoots shoot s lasers.) Logically, there’s there’s no difference between seeing a bunker blow up from f rom conventional weapons, and seeing a little woman in a green tutu fly down, tear the roof off and start bodily flinging

everyone inside fift y feet up in the air. But emotionally, it’s not the same. Especially when she LOOKS at you. Squadron A1 conducts big, flashy assaults that show up on CNN and Al Jazeera, they give speeches and engage enemy mutants who are trying to accomplish the same P.R. coups. hey get called in for domestic situations on occasion, but only for things like big spirit materializations or off-their-rocker mutants. he problem with presenting your mutants as invincible immortals who can solve any problem is that it creates more problems when they turn out to be mortal and vincible. A popular member of Squadron A1, the Lightning itan, died recently in the tribal areas of Pakistan. He wasn’t felled by enemy guns, but by poison, and his death had the effect of siphoning fighting spirit directly out of the U.S. troops and into the aliban.

Squadron A1 Character Index  • Lt. Colonel Paul Cohen, “Resource Two” (Circle 3, page 119) • Sgt. Megan Deering, “e Many” (Circle 3, page 120) • Sgt. Yolanda Marks, “Green Crush” (Circle 3, page 125) • Maj. Rick Rogers, “e One” (Circle 5, page 133) • Sgt. Bailey Wolfe, “Resource Five” (Circle 3, page 129)

Using Squadron A1 in Your Game As protagonists, Squadron A1 can be a vehicle for having to act high-Black in a wor ld that’s moderately Black at best. If you really want to emote like crazy, play up the contrast between the things A1 talks about doing in public (“. . . then  we broke brok e through throu gh the th e wall and rescued resc ued the th e hostages!”) host ages!”) and the th e things they’re not allowed to acknowledge, ever  (“.  (“. . . hardly our fault that the hospit al in sector G22b didn’t show up on the map of sector G22d…”). Te dissonance between “clean cut” and “involved in a damn dirty war” can drip drama even if you don’t have everyone relying on you because you’re a mutant. But maybe you don’t want your game to focus on the torture of scampering up and down the Black axis. Maybe  your game ga me is supposed suppo sed to be about abo ut beating beat ing bad guy butt, but t, and Squadron A1, in a high Black game, is an ideal vehicle for j ust that. Russian spies? Wi cked sorcerous crooks? errorists? Bring ‘em all on! Te big key to that game is to vary the vill ains and try to build a few good recurring heavies.

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 Chh a p t e r 4 : C a b a l s & F a c t i o n s   C Squadron A1 doesn’t work well as an antagonist group in a high-Black game, unless your players want to get their kicks embodying evil stereotypes. (If they do, make sure one of them twirls his mustache while watching he One struggle against an elaborate death trap.) he lower Black sinks, the more intense a Squadron A1 rivalry becomes. At the muddled middle Black range, Squadron A1 can serve nicely as Hell’s road crew, paving a four-lane highway with all the good intentions their blind patriotism and blinkered optimism can produce. Alternately, a Squadron A1 that’s hypocritical, as opposed to merely misled, can be an even more insidious threat, since anyone who fights against Multiple Meg must be a bad guy. After all, she’s one of the good guys! Going this route does open up a lot fun story potential. If the PCs knock some two-faced A1 sociop aths off the pedestal, doesn’t that hurt hur t America? If they let sleeping sl eeping dogs lie, though, doesn’t that make them complicit and partly responsible for any other lousy thing A1 does? Where does the buck stop? If they aren’t aren’t going for exposure, the question’s question’s even more serious: How do you take on p owerful superhumans who have the whole force fo rce of the U.S. government government lined up behind them?

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Getting In, Getting Out Every American boy who shaves before he really needs to has dreamed of being in Squadron A1, and very few of them make it. If you’re a mutant, any branch of the service is delighted to have you. Te Army is the most prestigious, but you don’t get into A1 right away. You have to pay your dues, get through basic training and then an extended two-month course fo r mutants, learning how to work with other mutants, with normal order s follow foll ow orders ord ers follow f ollow orders . soldiers, and how to  follow orders Even if the officer giving them can’t fly or choke people with  K, you have ha ve to follow foll ow his orders. Te Army is very ver y clear cl ear on that. But you’re still not in A1 after that grueling course. First  you get deployed with a normal unit in i n normal norm al uniform uni form and are expected to use your powers quietly because it’s always good to have the enemy worried that any particular American in uniform might have brain-f rying gifts. In time of war, you have to distinguish yourself on the battlefield ( though, as a mutant, that often just means surviving enough firefights to develop some steady nerves). In peacetime, it’s all about training, seeking challenges, and getting promoted. If you do that, after f our or five years you can get into A1.  Tere are normal folks who are part of Squadron Sq uadron A1 as

 well, and t hey get to cash c ash in on the th e cachet cache t and bask b ask in the reflected mutant glory. But that’s a matter of being politically connected and  good.  good. In a pinch, politically connected is sufficient, but no one with unexciting DNA goes into A1 with less than ten years in uniform, not even if he shares a last name  with a president presi dent and an d two generals. generals . Leaving A1 is just mustering out. You decline to continue and, after filing the proper paperwork, you turn into a civilian  with good posture p osture and a severe s evere haircut. ha ircut. Leaving outside of the Army’s schedule is called “AWOL.” “AWOL.” It’s unacceptable, to the tune of a prison term, even for the lowest enlisted man, and if someone in A1 tries it, the brass tries to bring him back before it becomes public knowledge. If a coverup might possibl y work, they try it, but if the A1 trooper is steadfastly refusing to f ollow orders, it’s time for a court martial—a very public, humiliating court martial, with the results almost certainly foregone. Going rogue gives the Squadron a huge black eye, and the only damage control option they have is blacken the soldier’s reputation and, as much as possible, ruin his life. Tis lets them claim t hat 1: he was a bad apple but 2: they dealt with him as they would any other soldier because military honor is blah blah blah while 3: issuing a pointed warning to anyone else who thinks mutation is a blank check to act without discipline.

The Way  2, Influe nce  2,  2, Sovereignty  Qualities as a Reign Company : Might  2, 3, erritory  3,  3, reasure  2  2 Tey don’t speak in tongues, or handle snakes, or utter prophecy. Tey’re squarely in the mainstream of protestant Christian America. In fact, many on Te Way Way are a littl e bit on the left end of the spectrum. Te Te most prominent preachers of  Te Way aren’t fundamental ists, they believe in evolutio evo lutionn and some even support legal abortion (though they hardly broadcast that belief ). It is that very emphasis on t he tangible, on God’s God’s lessons through the Book of Nature, that leads them to reject both mutant powers and occult practices.  Te Way believes in the observable, obser vable, the repeatable repeatab le and the provable. Tey like  the  the laws of nature, which (to any logical believer in an omnipotent Creator) represent the way God wants things to be. When they’re faced with something that breaks the rules, their instinct is to regard it as either a miracle (and they’re skeptical of miracles) or as an assault on God ’s order for the world.

 Chapter 4: Cabals & Factions  Squadron A1’s Structure Units One and Two of Squadron A1 have essentially the same structure. Each is directed by a lieutenant colonel, usually operating some dist ance from the point of conflict. These commanders are expected t o be strategic th inkers. They set agendas, plan missions and give broad directions during action. Senior Command

Paul Cohen (page 119) is in charge of Unit Two, and under his guidance it is increasingly a counterterr or unit, often operating in the United States. Tracy Wickman, the officer running Unit One, is an entirely different sort of man. Wickman’s no mutant, but he’s a third-gene ration Army officer with political ambitions and the connections to make them viable. He makes no bones about his mission being “The Big Win”—the spectacle that shocks and awes (or that wins hearts and minds). As distasteful as Cohen finds it to run a war like a Hollywood back lot, he finds it hard to argue with Wickman’s results. Field Command

Under the strategic thinkers are a pair of majors whose duty is to issue commands on the ground, think tactically, and achieve the objectives set by the lieutenant colonels. Major Rodgers (page 133) is a bold, enthusiastic warrior, but lacks what one might call “detail orientation.” For that he falls back on Captain Lewis Corbert, a non-mutant who made his way through the ranks as one of Wickman’s protégés. Corbert is a standard soldier and his thinking is relentlessly traditional, which makes him a good counterbalance to Rodgers. Rodgers has many a good laugh at Corbert’s “mere mortal” suggestions, and Corbert has come to silently despise his direct superior. But without Corbert, The One would have a hard time getting supplies, fuel, places to sleep, vehicles, and communication equipment—not to mention coordinating with other groups of soldiers. Also, Corbert is the replacement for the well-liked mutant the Lightning Titan. He rarely gets to forget whose boots he’s filling. Major Amy Blanks has a very different problem. Being the boots on the ground for Unit Two, this invisible woman finds it hard to actually lead . If you were under the all-seeing eye of Paul Cohen, wouldn’t you? Normally a forceful and decisive person, she can’t get a handle on how to deal with the almost bottomless store of information she can request from her boss. So she winds up thinking of herself as his oven mitt, a defensible proxy body for his fragile omniscience. It’s not good for her self esteem and she takes it out on Second Lieutenant Carver Hodges. Hodges is a minor mutant, with slow regeneration and resistance to extreme temperatures, and he would never admit how much it bugs him taking orders from a woman and a Jew. The better part of his personality recognizes and loathes these ingrained bigotries, but he’s not quite introspective enough to realize that they’re causing him to interpret everything his leaders do in the worst possible light. The Grunts

Even though they all have the minimum rank of sergeant—you don’t get in Squadron A1 unless you’re a sergeant or above—the remainder of Squadron A1’s two units are grunts and they know it. Their job is to survive, do what they’re told, and engage the enemy, not necessarily in that order. Currently, Squad One has Sergeants Marks and Wolfe (pages 125 and 129 respectively) along with a telekinetic ier named José Pujol Tapia and a nine-foot bulletproof strongman called Buford “Tiny” Gilette. (Despite his size, his sloping forehead, and the name “Buford,” the guy got a 4.0 at West Point.) They’re a good se t of soldiers and they work well to gether. Squad Two has Sergeant Deering (page 120) along with Brandon Ackworth (who phases through matter and can become weightless) and John Lee Kess, who can create up to a dozen immaterial but fully visible doubles of himself, and who can see and hear ever ything close to these “clones.” Unit Two’s missions place far mo re emphasis on stealth, speed and deniabilit y, so their actions are less likely to be straightforward. By the same token, they rarely come under serious artillery barrages or face down tanks. Nevertheless, uncertainty and ambiguity are hallmarks of their work, and the strains it creates often play out through interpersonal conflict.

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 Chapter 4: Cabals & Factions 

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Teir stated belief is that mutant powers and sorcery both emanate from Satan, but that they ’re separate arms of a pincer movement intended to encircle human decency and humilit y. Both hold out the temptation to be like God, and through this hubris fall into sin. Sorcery is the obvious left-hand path to power, trafficking directly and deliberately with spirits whose sole purpose is to trick, seduce and cozen the caster into  wrongful action. Mutant powers are, if anything, more  sinister because it’s evil power wrapped in squeaky clean propaganda.  Te Way has a thousand anecdotes (many of them documented) about mutant powers being exercised with the best of intentions, but ultimately having unforeseen tragic outcomes. Tey believe that the unaltered process of histo ry according to natural laws is the best of all possible worlds, and that any deviation is inherently  worse. It is not possible to use mutant powers for aggregate good. Any immediate good is overweighed, sevenfold, in the fullness of time. If every mutant could understand the full and subtle ramifications of their actions, they’d see what an evil force they wield. his is, needless to say, a tough sell to a country raised on stories of heroic WWII mutants smashing the Jerries and making the world safe for democracy. he Way usually takes a much more palatable anti-sorcery stance with newcomers and in their public literature. It’s known that they are suspicious of mutants and wish they weren’t operating so freely and openly, but most people outside the fold don’t grasp that he Way sees mutants and occultists as flip sides of the same diabolical coin. Indeed, many who attend Way meetings and demonstrations don’t actually believe in that item of doctrine. But to the leadership, it’s an article of absolute faith (because anyone  who had doubts about the connection probably wouldn’t want or get a leadership position). Tey throw around what political clout they have, supporting anti-sorcerous crusaders and then trying t o convince them to get tough on the other breakers of nature’s law. Teir two most prominent leaders are Reverend Cody Wright in Ohio and Alyssa Moraine in exas. Tey’re diametrical opposites. Reverend Wright is softspoken, respectful, always willing to listen and always ready with a measured and logical rebuttal. He turns up on CNN and Larry King. Alyssa, on the other hand, is a firebrand. Her incendiary rhetoric spurs newspaper columns, elicits equally extreme responses, and raises ratings  whether she’s getting into a screaming match on O’Reilly or getting self-righteous with Stephen Colbert. Surprisingly, in

person she’s much more low-key: charming, in fact, funny, wellread and obviously intelligent. In the same fashion, mutants  who go one-on-one with Wright in private are surprised at his intransigence and his willingness to come out and tell them that they’re going to hell if they don’t repent of their powers.

 The Way Character Index  • Fergus Blascock (Circle 2, page 105) • Melanie Penobscott (Circle 2, page 110) • Reverend Cody Wright (Circle 2, page 116)

Using The Way in Your Game PCs who are members of Te Way are most likely, in one  way or another, screwed. If they don’t have powers, they ’re screwed by not having powers. If they do have powers, they’re screwed by belonging to a belief system that t hinks everything supernatural (mutations get filed in that dr awer too) is straight from Satan’s outbox. Maybe they buy up their everyday skills to show that normal people can be pretty darn impressive. Or maybe they are  mutants whose powers operate subtl y and unconsciously. (“I wasn’t wearing a seatbelt, but got thrown clear of the car crash. Praise the Lord!”) Ten again, a covert spellcaster would be hard pressed to find a better camouflage than right in the middle of his most fervent enemies. (Te biggest danger would be what if he likes  them? What if he comes around to their beliefs? Or what if they find out he played them for suckers and some hotheads go with the “shalt not suffer a  witch to live” interpretation of Exodus 22:18?) Perhaps the most interesting way to use he Way is by respecting their beliefs. his puts them in the position of lying somewhere in the mucky middle between ally and antagonist. Can someone who only wants t o save your soul honestly be termed an enemy? On the other hand, someone  who wants to control your actions and influence your beliefs isn’t always your friend. Te Way can operate blatantly as torch-bearing villagers  who get the PCs fired f rom their day jobs. But a much more insidious Way consists of good people who truly, deeply believe they are confronting the powers of darkness made manifest.  Tey may not go in for physical assault. Hell, given the disparity between a normal person and a mutant or a conduit, they’d be fools to try. Instead, they persuade. Tey help . Tey present a reasoned arguments that the pursuit of forbidden power can only bring grief. Given the way things tend to go in RPGs (especially a low-Black game) they may have difficult points to refute.

 Chapter 4: Cabals & Factions  Getting In, Getting Out  Te Way falls firmly on the side of the open, welcoming political action group, eager for a new warm body to call its own and happy to swing a slightly bigger voting blo c. Te Way is generously funded by a series of anonymous t rue believers, so joining is free and their monthly magazine is glossy and attractive, with big full color photos and judicious use of white space. As with the other political groups of Grim War, it’s easy to join and quit at the quotidian mass-mailing level. It’s more difficult to be the one making the decisions, rather than one of the many in whose names the decisions get made. How does one ascend to that rarefied level? As always, cash is king. In Te Way, however, piety provides the divine right of kings. Te leaders are all 1: millionaires, 2: ministers  with active and large congregations, or 3:  both. If you’re a minister, then you need to openly and aggressively condemn witchcraft, from the pulpit and with demonstrations  whenever the liberalization of anti-magic laws rears its ugly head. If you’re a millionaire, it’s mostly about writing checks. Either route gets you invited to participate in private weekends with Alyssa Moraine and Cody Wright to discuss strategy. Replacing either one of them is unlikely while they live: Wright is practically synonomyous  with Te Way and Alyssa is his successor. (She’s not a minister, but she is a millionaire thanks to a series of breathless exposés of secret witchcraft cults in America. In her defense, they’re well researched and what she states as fact is factual, no matter how much hyperbolic rage and indignation accompanies it.) Wright listens, he’s open to other points of view, but in the end,  Te Way follows where he leads and the small cadre of lawyers, secretaries and managers who keep it going are essentially just there to handle the detail work of carrying out his will. o leave Cody Wright’s inner circle is as easy as saying, “I think our disagreements have become intractable. I’m sorry I can’t make your Fourth of July barbecue this year.” Te problem is, Cody may not accept that. It’s not a matter of arrogance; he understands perfectly well how p eople of good will can disagree  with him. He is unwilling to let a friend go willfully into error. He sticks by his friends even if it makes them hate him. Alyssa Moraine is less sanguine about changes of heart. (Unless they’re changing to agree with her.) Anyone who repudiates Te Way won’t get publicly lambasted by her skilled outrage… as long as they have the good sense to avoid politics, fame and public attention. If they leave for another path to prestige, she’s going to bar their way by any means necessary.

The Xolotl Cartel Qualities as a Reign Company : Might  3,  Influe nce  1, Sovereignty 

1, erritory  3, reasure  4 Xolotl is the Aztec god of lightning and bad luck. Everyone who learns magic within the cart el has to pledge religious fealty to Xolotl, but the Xolotis aren’t just a crazy and murderous cult. Only half o f their members are practicing sorcerers, and only ten percent of those sorcerers have the chops to do anything consistent or impressive. Most Xolotl business is conducted like a mundane criminal organization: through bribes, threats, blackmail, appeals to self-interest and by supply ing goods and services that are bot h sought-after and illegal. Te non-sorcerers don’t have to go to Xolotl church.  his does make the cartel a little schizophrenic, since most of them just want to get rich and take drugs and tap booty (like typical criminals) but a small percentage want to incarnate powerful spirits in order to burn down the works of mankind and heap sorrow upon the helpless. And the camp that worships the bringer of misfortune contains a disproportionate number of the powerful conjurers and invokers. Despite disagreements, by and large Xolotl works. Te sorcerers create one-shot magic items (typically to bring curses, give someone a high that won’t show up in a piss test, or to summon otherworldly entities for sexual gratification) and the gangsters sell them. Te sales force is happy because they’re getting money. Te  Xolotl worshippers are happy because most people who’re willing to break the law to get high or get a weapon are already busily creating bad luck for themselves and everyone around them. Xolotl activities are a bigger law-enforcement pain than coke smugglers and meth labs, even though they’re less common. A Xolotl cell can create product with innocuous mundane items. And the Xolotis are unlikely to stick to anything as passé and predictable as firearms when chal lenged. Xolotl operations are decentralized and often mobile. Coordinating through spirit messengers (far more secure than phones, dead drops or the Internet), product is produced and distributed in ever-changing patterns, both to keep the cops guessing and to create waves of occult bad luck that are pl easing to their fiery master. While they do most of their sales in the densely-populated coasts, they often prefer to p roduce in small towns and out-of-the-way rural areas. Tey conduct human sacrifices in a central temple in Mexico’s Sierra Madre mountains—once their Mecca—but the cult is full y international.

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 Chapter 4: Cabals & Factions  Magic Items? The Xolotl Cartel sells access to sorcerous services. The premium level of service is to have an actual enchanter cast a spell on you, with rates sliding depending on the level of service required. It’s only $100 to get a one-off love-job from the Erotic Archon, or to tryst with the Gate keeper of Monstrous Delight s. Anything permanent is a far different proposition: Most Xolot is won’t do long-term spirit bindings for anyone outside the organization, period. It’s almost never worth it to take a spirit they can contact out of play for a one-time payoff. Spirits brought by General Calls maybe, but by the same token, that’s always a grab-bag. Most Xolotis would rather do specific calls to spirits whose services they can sell over and over, rather than push their luck. The lower-level of service is in the form of charms and talismans that have limited effects and are, of course, more reasonably priced. The Silent Shotgun

You’d think this would have some awesome slang nickname, but no. It’s just what it sounds like. Or doesn’t sound like, actually, because the whole point is to be able to shoot your ex-husband into spaghetti sauce without waking the baby. Daemons inimical to noise can create single noiseless rounds, which retail for about $50. If you’ve got a busy weekend planned, you can drop $600 a day to rent out a silence archon. The Xolotis bind it into your weapon of choice or provide the actual gun for a $100 surcharge. The archon serves for 24 hours making every  discharge from the weapon as soundless as a ninja kitten walking on cotton balls. But make sure the first shot’s a winner, because neither version quiets the shrieking of a gunshot victim who didn’t die outright. (Rules: There’s just no way to hear this going off. Don’t even bother to roll.) Horny Sauce

This poetically-named liquid is, again, just what you think it is. When ingested or applied to the skin, it targets one individual for an archon of sexual arousal, permitting it to work its powers easily on the material world. This costs about $40 a dose, though may gouge you if you look old or desperate. (Rules: Gives a +2d bonus on rolls when tr ying to seduce somebody. It won’t  100  they take away their free will or make them stop hating you afterwards, but it will engorge the appropriate tissues.) Good Luck

In keeping with the Xolotl tradition of skimping on the marketing, this is another product that doesn’t really need aggressive advertisement. People just want it. Good luck charms take various forms—rabbits’ feet, four-leaf clovers, various saint medallions or even simple coins. When you’re about to do something risky, you rub the talisman, triggering the attention of a good-luck archon or a failure-antagonist daemon. After one use it’s done in, but a lot of times one use is all you need. These can be had for as little as $15, but despite what you hear down on the cellblock, rubbing on five of these is no better than rubbing one. It’s just more expensive. (Rules: For one action, the person gets a +1d bonus.)

No one other than terrified indigenous people had heard of the Xolotl cult until the 1970s. (Let’s face it, who was going to listen to them?) In the U.S., pot had been limited to beatniks and jazz musicians until the 1960s, but as demand increased and enterprising North Americans discovered you could make loads of dough smuggling the good stuff up from South America, their ambitious and inventive southern counterparts started growing it and killing gratuitously over it. Te Xolotl sect was late to the table. Tey got involved with the CIA in an attempt to even things up (and it was that group that corrupted their name to “Xolotis,”  which, to their chagrin, has stuck as a plural). Te CIA was looking for occult secrets to counter the Russians. Te Xolotis wanted an easy route into America. Somehow, it all backfired.

Anyone who knows just what went wrong isn’t talking, but it ended with the Xolotis getting their asses beat by the conventional cartels, and CIA operatives running north like whipp ed puppies. But by that time the CIA had kept its end of the bargain and moved a lot of cultist s and associated tradespeople north. Ten after decades of f ruitless toil as pushers the Xolotls discovered that the occult tools they’d used for smuggling were marketable commodities in their own right. In a way, the Xolotis are the archetypical American Dream story. Poor immigrants flee trouble to land of opportunity, work hard and get rich. But they edited out the part where they assimilate to middle-class Protestant morality. Tey’ve replaced that with cheerful nihilistic contempt for humankind.

 Chapter 4: Cabals & Factions  Magic Items? (cont) Hexes

These nasty, reliably-profit able pieces of work usually take the form of a defaced coin or a piece of paper with cryptic designs (or more recently, just strings of nu mbers) in indigo ink. They can be bought for ab out a hundred bucks. The trick with these is, you have to get it on your victim after wh ispering an activation phrase. (Often “All praise to Xolotl.”) Then stick it in his shoe or tuck it in his coat pocket or tape it on his back like a “kick me” sign. He becomes the chew toy for a misfortune spirit until it gets tired of him or the spell wears off, which is usually a day or two. If you put it in his car, it only messes with him in his car. But that’s a bad time to have bad luck… (Rules: The target g ets two Jinx dice ro lled against all his acti ons while under the spirit’s attention and while the talisman is on his person.) Sure Shot

Blessed by an accuracy archon, these $50 bullets have an attractive feature. When you start to pull the trigger on one, suddenly everything goes slow and Matrix -y, giving you all the time in the world to line up a nice, leisurely shot. It is possible to miss someone who’s behind cover, but the Xolotis are pretty circumspect about that fact. These are not easy to disguise, because they’re always warm—like body-temperature warm. Also, if you hold on e to your ear, you can hear it faintl y groaning. (Rules: For one shot, this adds a Wiggle Die bonus.) Deadbeat Compass

These have to be constructed special, so the price fluctuates quite a bit. If you’re willing to wait, you can make your request and pay your $200 and in a few weeks, or a month, or long er, your compass shows up from Iowa or Belgium or South America. If you’re in a rush, you can get it in two days for a thou sand bucks. Right away? Sky’s the limit. No matter how much you opt to pay, you need to also give some token of a person you’re trying to find—an article of their clothing or some of their hair or a photograph. With that, the sorcerer can get the spirit to roll its 6d pool to create the talisman. If it succeeds, the compass infallibly points in the direction of that person until you’re either within ten feet (at which point it goes back to north) or until you see the target. After that, it’s just a normal compass. If the spirit’s roll fails, you need to pay again and get another token. (Rules: None needed, this pretty much works on the plot level.)

 Xolotl Cartel Character Index  • Jorge Barceló (Circl e 4, page 130) • Harriet Breen (Circl e 3, page 118) • Carl Castro (Circle 2, page 105) • Rufus “ Voodoo Child” Dupree (Circle 3, page 121) • Harmonia White (Circle 2, page 116)

Using the Xolotl Cartel in Your Game A group of Xolotl-aligned PCs is an unorthodox choice, but it can work. One option is to simply pitch the game low on the Black axis and present the so-called good factions as fools or hypocrites. Xolotl PCs are criminal scumbags, sure, but at least they know what they are and accept it. A higher-Black game could even allow for true belief in the effects of Xolotl operations (if not the goals or precise associations with the old Aztec god). If you want to spread magic around directly and get it in the hands of ordinary people, your choices are Xolotl and the People

for Religious Freedom. Te former will have you putting spells on the street by the weekend. Te latter will ask you to stuff envelopes for a petition asking Congresswoman Klein to let a bill out of subcommittee. Which sounds more exciting to you? Xolotl PCs have plenty of trouble—the cops, the Projekt, Squadron A1 when they’re stateside. Ten there’s the Picciones,  who just don’t know when to quit, and Direktiva Nul, who aren’t trying to smash the cartel but who certainly have their own plans for it that don’t involve making fat bank selling bad luck. Interior conflicts are rife as well. urf wars are endemic and, while the cartel officially frowns on its members killing one another outside the context of the yearly Ball Game (played with a ball made f rom the head of the last game’s losers), they accept that shit happens and it ’s a lot easier to forgive the winner than resurrect the loser. Tat’s without getting into the conflicts between the “Humankind must suffer! Xolotl commands it!” branch and the “Make money money G” branch. As antagonists, the Xolotis’ use should be obvious, but I’ll

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 Chapter 4: Cabals & Factions  reiterate. Tey’re sorcerers with lots o f money and street connections and their god wants you dead. Any questions?

Getting In, Getting Out

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 Tere are two avenues into the Xolotl cartel, and neither is terribly permeable. Te American street organization expands by recruiting people who are well known t o the members. Often this happens in small, poor, insular neighborhoods where everyone has known one another for decades, and often it targets adolescent males who are searching for an identity (or  just some cred and cash). Strangers who show up looking for a  job might as well wear a name tag with “Narc!” on it. Some narcs do get in, usually by coercing someone who’s already in to flip and vouch for them, or by ser ving jail time  with a Xolotl cultist until the required tr ust is established. But neither method is quick and neither is guaranteed. he  Xolotis are paranoid, and they can fix ghosts or spirits on you to spy for them. Te other traditional way in is religious. If you worship  Xolotl and have attended services faithfully, they might bring  you into the priesthood. But that route is even more insular. Adults who haven’t been indoctrinated can try to muscle their way in, but that ’s the path of most resistance. o get grudgingly accepted on your own terms, you have to be so spectacularly useful that they cannot  do for themselves what  you can do for them, and you have to be so spectacularly badass that they can’t just possess, blackmail or threaten you into service. You have to be a problem that the priests of a bad-luck lightning god can’t solve with violence, and that’s a big problem indeed. But if they withdraw enough bleeding stumps after trying to push you around, they come to terms. Tey watch you like a hawk, they don’t take orders or tell you more than they have to, but they work with you. In this way, you might earn their trust… after a few decades. o become a full Xolotl Cartel member, you have to offer a sacrifice of your own blood t o a Xolotl idol and pledge your undying loyalty to it, in this world, in the overworld, and in the afterworld. (It’s up to the GM whether that idol is more than  just a statue.) Needless to say, after that you can’t just fecklessly decide the cartel isn’t to your tastes. Te most honorable way to retire is to volunteer as a human sacrifice, but if you don’t like that option, you can run or you c an fight. Te cartel is really good at finding runners, and they’re really good at fighting. One way or another, people who want out usually leave from the top of an altar.

Circle and Motivations Two things you need to know about the characters in Grim War.

First, they’re arranged by Circle, like spirits. First Circle is 100 to 199 Points, Second Circle is 200 to 299 Points, and so on. A high-Circle character is a high-power character. Second, they don’t have predefined Motivations. They get the same allotment as other Wild Talents   characters— divvy up their Base Will between Loyalties and Passions— but for the sake of player suspense we’re leaving it to individual GMs to decide what in-game events are going to boost or batter a character’s Willpower score.

Characters: The First Circle Mel Bates  Archet  ype: None Permission: None  Allegiance : Àkrab-i-allah Circle : First Stats

Body : 3d Coordination : 3d Sense : 3d Mind: 2d Charm: 2d Command: 1d Base Will : 3 Skills

Body Skills: Athletics 2d, Brawling 2d, Endurance 2d Coordination Skills: Dodge 2d, Drive (Car) 1d, Ranged

 Weapon (Grenade) 3d, Ranged Weapon (Rifle) 3d, Ranged  Weapon (Rocket Launcher) 3d, Stealth 2d Sense Skills: Perception 1d Mind Skills: Knowledge (Demolitions) 2d, Language (English) 3d, Streetwise 1d, Survival 1d, actics 1d Charm Skills: Lie 3d Command Skills: Stability 2d

 Chapter 4: Cabals & Factions   History

Mind: 4d

Mel (or, as his colleagues known him, Imran) isn’t the smartest of terrorists. He’s an unassuming nobody, shy and stammering and a little plump. He grew up in Pakistan, attended a Madrassa, cheered when the planes crashed on 9/11, went to the mosque regularly, made the Hajj. Nothing special. He’s not the cruelest or most remorseless of terrorists. Recruited to go north and fight the American devils because there was no other work for him, he fired his rifle and threw his grenades and then ran off to the caves and camps. He doesn’t know if he hit or not. Combat confused and frightened him. If he had to kill someone in cold blood, he might not be able to do it, especially if they weren’t wearing a soldier’s uniform. He shot at the infidels and hoped to survive, hoped he was making a difference. Nothing special. But the man from the other   group, the one none of his colleagues liked or would tell him about… when that man showed up he was treated with deference and respect, despite the fear and outright hatred Mel knew the other Pakistanis and Afghanis had for this Iranian stranger. Tat man looked at Mel and told him he was special, chosen, his birth foretold by scholars and that Mel had to come with him. After a lifetime of being nobody special, Mel is shocked but gratified by the respect he’s being shown by his new colleagues, the self-proclaimed mullahs and would-be martyrs who call themselves God’s Scorpions. Tey tell him he has a foretold duty, to host in flesh an avenging angel, who will scourge the occupiers from the Holy Land. Everyone except Mel and other low-level dupes like him know that this is bullshit. Te only thing that makes Mel special is this: He had an American father. He has an American name. He has an American passport. But if their plans are fulfilled, and Mel does indeed become a permanent host for a Fifth Circle daemon, then he will be very, very special indeed.

Charm: 2d

Leslie Delacourt, Esq.

Command: 4d Base Will : 5 Skills

Body Skills: Endurance 1d Coordination Skills: none Sense Skills: Perception 2d Mind Skills: Knowledge (Law) 3d Charm Skills: Lie 3d, Persuasion 5d Command Skills: Interrogation 1d, Intimidation 3d, Leader-

ship 1d  History

Leslie was born to aggressively political parents and she came away with extensive and cutting critiques of both sides. A selfdescribed “rational libertarian,” Leslie could more accurately be described as a fundamentalist contrarian. Other than abject, subservient agreement (which fills Leslie with contempt) there is no position that doesn’t have some  component worthy of an argument. As a Devil’s advocate, Leslie’s even worse, as there’s no position too repugnant for a skillful, “hypothetical” defense. Fat, prosperous and opinionated, Leslie is PRF’s  pro bono lawyer and a passionate campaigner. Te government’s intrusion into people’s personal lives is (as Leslie expounds at length) irresponsible, unconstitutional, borderline fascist, and altogether unconscionable. Leslie has gotten into loud, angry and well-publicized arguments over this issue. She is having a great time.

 Trey Hogan  Archet  ype: None Permission: None  Allegiance : ROSCRO Circle : First Stats

Body : 2d

 Archet  ype: None

Coordination : 1d

Permission: None

Sense : 2d

 Allegiance : People for Religious Freedom

Mind: 3d

Circle : First

Charm: 3d

Stats

Command: 3d

Body : 1d

Base Will : 6

Coordination : 2d

Skills

Sense : 3d

Body Skills: Brawling 2d, Endurance 1d

 103 

 Chapter 4: Cabals & Factions  Coordination Skills: Dodge 1d, Driving (Car) 1d, Stealth 2d

Sense Skills: Empathy 1d

Sense Skills: Empathy 2d, Perception 2d

Mind Skills: none

Mind Skills: Spellcraft 2d, Spiritwise 1d

Charm Skills: none

Charm Skills: Lie 2d, Invocation 4d, Persuasion 1d

Command Skills: Intimidation 2d, Stability 4d

Command Skills: Conjure 4d, Stability 2d

 Miracles

Spells

Dead Ringer 4d+1wd: Tis is a heavily flawed version of the

Boundary of the Infinitesimal Point, Fire is the Cleanser, Fortune Smiles, Adoration fo the ranslunar, Palace of the Flesh, Stable Cancellation Process, Sorrow’s Glass, Chastisement, Oanhue Streamlined, the Miles Jefferson Equation

power. His flesh is claylike and of variable density so, given time, he can sculpt it to resemble another’s features. He can’t get shorter than his own height of 5’10” and he can’t be taller than 6’3” (and even that looks kind of weird). He can’t change skin or eye color or what his hair looks like. Heavy Armor 2hd: His skin is leathery, variable in texture and consistency and, when condensed, incredibly resilient. He can re-allocate it around his body, giving greater or lesser degrees of protection depending on its thickness. Essentially, he has 12 points of Heavy Armor to allocate among each arm, each leg, his torso and his head. He could put six points on each leg if he knew he was going through a minefield, or two points ever y where, or six on his torso and six on his head to stay alive in a real crisis. But unless he’s got two points on each location, he looks inhuman, misshapen and hideous. Harm (Fire) 8d : Barney breathes fire. Tis power has the extras Burn and Spray 1.

 History

 104 

 rey’s a clumsy, awkward intellectual prodigy. One of the youngest full members of ROSCRO, he’s earned his way in by talking the languages of both the longhairs and the buzzcuts, but more importantly, he can straddle that line because he sees the way both approaches fit together and compliment one another.  rey was Miles Jefferson’s lab assistant at the Sorbonne before he got his Masters Degree. With that sort of pedigree, he had his pick of positions, and chose the one that happened to be home to a sparky young grad student named Cecily, who’d caught his eye and blown his mind in short order. Tey moved in together, stopped having make-up sex after fighting just three months in, but hung in there grimly for another half year before she kicked him to the curb. She’s been seen hanging around with one of the local municipal defenders. As if that wasn’t trouble enough, he’s at Miami of Ohio, so his immediate superior is Dr. Eden Majors.

Barnabas “Bad Breath Barney” Piccione  Archet y pe: Mutant Permission: Tree Powers  Allegiance: Piccione family  Circle:  First Stats

 History

Barney’s skin went strange when he was in junior high, and I don’t mean a breakout of whiteheads. His family, far less surprised than another might be, started home schooling him (which, in their case, meant turning him into a better mob enforcer). He’s been a professional criminal since the age of 16, has killed dozens of people face to face, and dozens more have perished in fires he started. He’s not an arsonist for pleasure, but the family tells him to burn a place, it burns. He is blindly loyal and has no identity outside the family.

Body: 2d

Kim Souter 

Coordination:  2d

 Archet y pe: None

Sense:  2d

Permission: None

Mind: 2d

 Allegiance: People for Religious Freedom

Charm:  2d

Circle:  First

Command:  2d

Stats

Base Will: 4

Body: 2d

Skills

Coordination:  2d

Body Skills: Brawling 2d, Endurance 2d

Sense:  2d

Coordination Skills: Dodge 2d, Driving (Car) 2d, Ranged

Mind: 3d

 Weapon (Pistol) 2d

Charm: 3d

 Chapter 4: Cabals & Factions  Command:  2d Base Will: 5 Skills

Body Skills: Athletics 2d, Endurance 1d Coordination Skills: Dodge 1d, Driving (Car) 1d Sense Skills: none Mind Skills: Knowledge (Computer Hardware) 2d, Knowledge

(Computer Software) 2d, Knowledge (Electronics) 1d Charm Skills: Invocation 1d, Persuasion 2d Command Skills: none Spells

Fortune Smiles, Plea to the Heavenly Physician, Rite of the Black Feather  History

Kim’s a cute, enthusiastic Wiccan database manager whose tats can readily be hidden beneath work clothes. Earnest and engaging, Kim has done a decent job of sniffing some genuine rituals out of the reams and reams of false stuff that people post to the Internet out of cruelty, boredom, malice, or a desperate attempt to convince someone to do “sex magick” with them. Entirely self-taught, Kim has managed to actually summon spirits on two separate occasions. Unfortunately, neither seemed terribly interested in becoming a familiar.

Characters: The Second Circle Fergus Blascock   Archet y pe: None Permission: None  Allegiance: Te Way  Circle:  Second Stats

Body: 5d Coordination:  5d Sense:  3d Mind: 2d Charm:  2d Command:  3d Base Will: 5 Skills

Body Skills: Athletics 2d, Brawling 2d, Endurance 2d, Melee

ing 2d, Ranged Weapon (Rifle) 4d, Ranged Weapon (Rocket Launcher) 3d, Stealth 3d Sense Skills: Empathy 1d, Perception 3d Mind Skills: Knowledge (Demolitions) 3d, Knowledge (Electronics) 2d, Navigation 1d, Streetwise 2d, Survival 2d, actics 2d Charm Skills: Lie 2d Command Skills: Intimidation 1d, Leadership 1d, Stability 3d  History

Fergus always knew he’d go into the military, specifically the Army. Every man in his family had, for four generations back. He figured he’d get there, do boot camp (which was extra hard on him because the drill sergeant knew his daddy) and go into the Rangers, which was pretty much what happened. On the  way he met a nicely uninhibited young lady who had a thing for tough guys. She was the whole package: pretty, freak in the sack, smart, good sense of humor, and really impressed with how macho he was. He fell hard and, when she ditched him, it hit him hard. He got deployed to train Iraqi soldiers and was about to re-up for another tour when he got his “Dear John” letter. Instead of continuing the family tradition, he went home to demand an explanation. Tat’s where he met the new boyfriend, Tad, an overweight punk with bad teeth, an incessant sneer, and the mutant abilit y to shrug off punches, bullets and fire. Tad worked as a Registered Civic Defender in empe, Arizona, but was talking about moving to New York. Fergus got a trailer and a slavish job, spent his days numbly selling batteries at Radio Shack and his nights drinking alone and shooting up stuff in the desert. His dad, his army buddies, they all tried to pull him out of his funk, but nothing worked until Reverend Cody Wright came to have a talk with him. Tat was two years ago. oday, Fergus is a Radio Shack district manager and leads about a dozen like-minded followers of Te Way who understand what must be done to awaken America to the mutant menace poisoning it f rom within.  Tey’re out in the desert most weekends, getting the benefits of Fergus’ training and combat experience. A few of them are fellow vets who, like Fergus, are really curious about what it’s going to feel like when they’re finally on the delivery end of a cell-triggered IED.

Carl Castro

 Weapon (Knife) 4d

 Archet y pe: None

Coordination Skills: Dodge 5d, Drive (Car) 3d, Parachut-

Permission: None  Allegiance: Xolotl Cartel

 105 

 Chh a p t e r 4 : C a b a l s & F a c t i o n s   C Circle:  Second Stats

no mutant, either, but many mutants drastically underestimate the skills of a thoughtful, versatile, experienced crook.

Body: 4d

Devon Eire

Coordination:  3d Sense:  3d Mind: 2d Charm:  2d Command:  2d Base Will: 4 Skills

Body Skills: Athletics 2d, Block 4d, Brawling 4d, Endurance

2d, Melee Weapon (Club) 4d Coordination Skills: Dodge 3d, Driving 4d, Ranged Weapon (Handgun) 3d, Stealth 5d Perception 5d, Scrutiny 3d Sense Skills: Empathy 4d, Perception Mind Skills: Language (English) 3d, Security S ystems 4d, Streetwise 5d Command Skills:  Intimidation 4d, Interrogate 4d, Stability 4d Charm Skills: Lie 5d, Perform (Sing) 3d  History  Histo ry

 106 

Carlos is ordinary and average in his appetites. He likes a greasy taco, a cold beer, and a large-breasted woman whose dewey eyes look a litt le alarmed, but whose moistened lips indicate she’s primarily intr igued. He’s a fútbol fan and, since moving to the U.S., a NASCAR fan. But Carlos is not ordinary in his skill s and profession. In his mid-fifti es, Carlos is still an active leg breaker, asset manager, manager, courier, driver and hit h it man for f or the Xolotl Cartel. Cart el. Growing up on the borderline between poor and very poor, a life of crime was a no-brainer. Unlike many of his criminal compadres, Carlos Carlos wasn’t in it for the bravado or the risk or the excitement. Calm, methodical and pragmatic, Carlos was in it for the pesos and (af ter crossing the border) for the do llars. Deficient in both ambition and machismo, Carlos is trusted by the sorcerer-priests because he’s shown no ambitions towards the priesthood. He’s trusted by his fellow normal crooks because he, like them, is normal but also because he, unlike them, is only moderately greedy instead of outstandingly greedy. greedy. His easygoing nature has kept him from falling fal ling prey to internal politics, while his common sense and discretion have kept him safe f rom outsiders like the FBI, the Picciones and the police. His lengthy active career has, in turn, allowed him time to build an impressive stable o f skills. He personally has no power over the unseen spirits, but he knows who to ask. He’s

pe: Conduit  Archet y pe: Permission: One Power  Allegiance  Alle giance:: CARGO Circle:  Second Stats

Body: 4d Coordination:  3d Sense:  3d Mind: 2d Charm: 4d Command: 5d Base Will: 9 Skills

Body Skills: Athletics 1d, Brawling 1d Coordination Skills:  Dodge 1d, Drive (Car) 1d, Lockpicking

1d, Ranged Weapon (Rifle) 1d, Stealth 1d Sense Skills: Empathy 1d, Perception Perception 1d Mind Skills: Language (Spanish) 1d, Mechanic (Car) 1d Charm Skills: Lie 2d, Persuasion 2d Command Skills: Intimidation 1d  Miracles  Mirac les

 Aces 1wd: 1 wd: Tis can only be used in the pursuit of his archon’s

agenda. It has no Willp ower cost.  History  Histo ry

Devon has no idea he’s possessed, has no idea that his mom bound an archon of uncooperative self-interest into him, has no idea that his successes in life are due more to its intercession than any innate awesomeness on his part. He’s always just assumed that he was great and, given that there’s nothing he hasn’t succeeded at when he tried really hard, the evidence is on his side. Of course, when Devon “tries real hard” he’s managing to switch on his unknown familiar’s Aces. Te Te archon doesn’t mind; they’ve been together so long that Devon’s attitude to wards others o thers has been be en indelibly indel ibly sculpted sculpt ed by the t he archon’ archo n’s “screw  you, I’m the important impor tant one” o ne” philosophy. philoso phy. Charming, likeable, personable, laid back and really efficient in pursuit of his clients’ c lients’ agendas, agendas, he’s quite good at subtly bumping them onto the path of remorseless selfishness. (He hasn’t discovered Ayn Rand yet, but when he does, he’ll recommend “Te Virtue of S elfishness” to everyone he works f or.) Devon works as an agent for mutants, getting them endorse-

 Chh a p t e r 4 : C a b a l s & F a c t i o n s   C ments, finding them jobs, getting them laid and stoned while making sure they don’t grow feelings or get addicted, recomrecommending lawyers and costume designers and generally standing in the shadows of America’s most famous and powerful metahumans. Naturally, he’s involved with CARGO.

Irina “Agent XR-6” Grischov   Archet y pe: pe: Mutant Permission: One Power  Allegiance  Alle giance:: Direktiva Nul Circle:  Second Stats

Body: 1d Coordination:  10hd Sense:  2d Mind: 2d Charm:  2d Command:  3d Base Will: 5 Skills

“You have promise,” promis e,” he said. “Come work with us. Or, if  you prefer, pr efer, we can have you possessed po ssessed.” .” His name was Yevgeny Yevgeny and he was her introduction to Direktiva Nul, which initially seemed more wonderful than she could have guessed. She got to be a secret agent, shoot guns and fight demons? As the Americans said, “Awesome, “Awesome, dude!” dude!” Tat was before her first gunfight. Before she killed people. Before she found that no matt er how confident she seemed in her metahuman prowess, an actual life-or-death fight terrified her, left her no t ime to think, no time for witty comments, only time for panic and a series o f murderous head shots. Slaughtering materialized spirits is one thing. She’s fine with that and accepts that she’s one of the few shooters in the world precise enough to hit their weak sp ots. But things that were once men, turned by her hand into sprays of blood and chunks of meat: She pukes after wards. She wakes screaming. screaming. Recently, Recentl y, she’s met a man who seems to understand, underst and, a translator who suspects nothing o f her secret life. His name is Uday Nadhir (page 108) and he’s an orphan too.

Body Skills: Brawling 1d, Endurance 3d

Senator Amy Klein

Coordination Skills: Dodge 1d, Ranged Weapon (Pistol) 1d

 Archet y pe: pe: None

Perception 2d, Scrutiny 2d Sense Skills: Empathy 2d, Perception

Permission: None

Mind Skills: Knowledge (Demolitions) 2d, Language (Movie

 Allegiance  Alle giance:: CARGO

English) 3d, Security Systems 1d, Streetwise 1d Charm Skills: Bluff 2d, Lie 2d Command Skills: Conjure 3d

Circle:  Second

Spells

Coordination:  2d

Baal’s Blade, Abjuration Abjuration of Form, Expulsion of Device

Sense:  3d

 History  Histo ry

Mind: 4d

 When her parents pa rents died, d ied, all Irina Ir ina had was the th e movies. mov ies. Te slowly failing video rental concern, which had left them three payments behind on the car they died in, became a rapidly  failing  failing  video shop when w hen Irina Ir ina tried tr ied to take over o ver at sixteen. sixte en. When the th e bank foreclosed, she resisted and had to be hauled away by the cops. But they couldn’t keep her imprisoned. Irina told herself that it was because she’d she’d watched so many American spy movies, and action films, and episodes o f  MacGy ver, but deep down she knew no one should be able to do the things t hings she could do. No one but those Western mutants could move the way she moved. She got away from the cops and stole stuff to live and was on her way to wasting her talents as a l ow-profile “supervillain”  when a wheezy wheez y old man let himself into her apartmen ap artmentt and,  when she s he tried tr ied to run, halted halt ed her with a barked word.

Charm: 4d

Stats

Body: 2d

Command: 5d Base Will: 9 Skills

Body Skills: Endurance 2d Coordination Skills:  Driving (Boat) 1d, Driving (Car) 1d

Perception 2d Sense Skills: Empathy 5d, Perception Mind Skills: Knowledge (Criminology) 1d, Knowledge (Law) 4d,

Language (German) 1d, Language (Spanish) 2d, Streetwise 2d Charm Skills: Lie 5d, Persuasion 5d Command Skills:  Intimidate 2d, Leadership 3d, Stability 4d  Miracles  Mirac les

None, unless unless you consider the ability to manipulate the national media on mutant topics miraculous.

 107 

 Chh a p t e r 4 : C a b a l s & F a c t i o n s   C

 108

 History  Histo ry

Coordination Skills:  Dodge 3d, Driving (Car) 2d, Ranged

Amy always liked polit ics. Her mom and dad were on opposite sides of the U.S. U.S. party divide and their discussions covered a continuum from playfully cerebral discussion to passionate oratory. When she was twelve and figured out why she always heard those weird noises from her parents’ bedroom on election night, Amy was really grossed out. So, class president at her New York law school, informally  voted “Most Promising” by her Poli Sci professors at UCLA, salutatorian at Yale Law, dramatic successes in the courtroom for a few years, turned down a partnership to run for District Attorney, led a crackdown on the Xolotis in rural Iowa (where most people didn’t know they were), used that as a springboard to the House of Representatives and, eventually, to the U.S. Senate. (Along the way she married a shy, handsome West Point graduate a few years younger. He died under a daemon’s hooves while attending a wedding in Austin. Amy couldn’t go: important vote.) Amy Klein is driven without being obsessed, clever without being (unduly) devious, moderate without being wishy-washy and attractive without being sexy. She’s so moderate that her vote is in play more often than not, which means both parties court her. She’s astutely sat on top of a growing public debate about mutancy, and has been careful to keep it poised between hope and fear. She feels she needs the issue there, t here, for now. Once it gets settled, it’ll be hard to change it without another disaster. While the question of what to do with, for and about powerful mutants is still in the air, her influence remains tremendous.

 Weapon (Rifle) 3d, Ranged Weapon (Grenade) (G renade) 2d, Ranged  Weapon (Mortar) (Mor tar) 2d, 2 d, Ranged Weapon (Rocket (Ro cket Launcher) Launch er) 3d, Stealth 3d Perception 3d Sense Skills: Empathy 2d, Perception Mind Skills: Knowledge (Demolitions) 1d, Knowledge (Survival) 2d, Language (English) 3d, Language (Russian) 1d, Language (Farsi) 1d, Security Syst ems 1d, Streetwise 2d,  actics 1d Charm Skills: Lie 3d, Persuasion 2d Command Skills: Invocation 3d, Stability 1d

Uday Nadhir   Archet y pe: pe: None Permission: None  Allegiance  Alle giance:: Àkrab-i-allah Circle:  Second Stats

Body: 3d Coordination:  3d Sense:  3d Mind: 3d Charm:  3d Command: 4d Base Will: 7 Skills

Body Skills: Athletics 2d, Brawling 2d, Endurance 2d, Melee

 Weapon (Knife) (Knif e) 3d

Spells

Praise for the Luminous Lady, Fortune Fortune Smiles, Adoration of the ranslunar, Fire is the Cleanser  History  Histo ry

Blake MacGillicuddy came to the Persian Gulf as a roughneck for BP, got a better offer in Iraq, married a local girl, and killed himself  when his son was was only four years old. old. Uday Uday took his mother’s last name and grew up in a strange, in-between position. On one hand, he was fascinated by all things western, particularly movies and rock music. On the other hand, he was groomed to be a good Baathist with a healthy suspicion of the imperialist West. He never got it all sorted out before Operation Desert Desert Storm. Te Westerners’ failure to topple Saddam Hussein the first time convinced him that they were weak and timid, no matter how many mutant supersoldiers they had. His smug confidence endeared him to some of the party functionaries he served as a concierge at a major Baghdad hotel. He was moving in international circles, gaining in confidence, bucking for a promotion and serene about the future right up until the second Iraq invasion. “Shock and Awe” killed his mom, and while he was still shocked and awed, a group of Marines did a house-to-house search in his neighborhood. Decked out in body armor, gas masks and night-vision goggles, they barely looked human. A year later, he was in an insurgent cell for all of two months before it started getting methodical ly picked to pieces. Hearing awful stories about the tortures that awaited, he prayed seriously for the first time in years. He was the only one of the group to escape capture. Sneaking across the border, border, he was recruited into another terrorist organization, and recruited from that  into  into Àkrab-iallah. oday oday he works as a translator for the U.S. troops in Iraq and recently was able to poison a mutant soldier called the Lightning itan.  itan.

 Chapter 4: Cabals & Factions  Uday understands America a lot better than many of his resisting countrymen. He personally believes that some time in the 1980s, America came to prefer evil to good. You can see it in the movies: Hannibal Lecter and Darth Vader have gone from villains to protagonists. America wants  to be bad. Tis theory helped him intrigue a pretty young slip of a thing, a Russian girl working in some secretarial job for a businessman who’s probably Mafiya. She doesn’t mean anything to him, really. Just another Westerner to fool. Her name’s Irina Grischov (page 107) and she’s an orphan too.

 Audrey “Powerhound” O’Niel  Archet y pe: Mutant Permission: Power Teme (Energy Control)  Allegiance: Next Iteration Circle:  Second Stats

Body: 2d Coordination:  2d Sense:  2d Mind: 2d Charm:  2d Command:  2d Base Will: 4 Skills

Body Skills: Athletics 1d, Brawling 2d, Endurance 1d, Melee

 Weapon (runcheon) 1d Coordination Skills: Dodge 1d, Driving (Car) 1d, Ranged  Weapon (Pistol) 1d, Stealth 2d Sense Skills: Empathy 2d, Scrutiny 1d Mind Skills: Streetwise 2d Charm Skills: Lie 1d Command Skills: Stability 2d  Mirac les

Energy Absorption 8hd : Tis power supplies Heavy Armor,

more or less. Every level of Energy Absorption acts like a layer of Heavy Armor for one imp act, gunshot or bolt of fire. However, for each round it defends her, the HAR drops by one and she gains an Energy oken. If she voids herself of tokens, her Absorption gives her better Armor again.  Example: Audre y has no tokens and is walking by a g rocer y store  just as it gets r obbed. Cursing the luck (she doesn’t have her c ostume either) she jumps in front of the getaway car. It hasn’t had time to  get u p a lot of speed, so it’s only 5K, plus 2S to every location. Right now she’s at HAR 8, and she takes no damage. However, she takes

an Energy oken and her HAR drops to 7. he next round, the robber jumps out of the car, frothing at the mouth and calling her terrible, foul names. He also shoots her with a shotgun and rolls two hits, each at width 2. Since she has HAR 7, none of them do any damage. he pellets touch her skin, lose their force, and tinkle to the ground. She now has two tokens and her HAR is 6.

It’s like Audrey has a battery that can hold eight charges. Each time she gets hit, a charge gets filled, and her ability to hold energy decreases. Te more energy she’s holding, the less it takes to overwhelm her. Or, think of it simply as “okens + HAR = 8” and any time one goes up, the other goes down. Wondering how she gets rid of tokens? Read on. Surge of Strength 4d: By spending an Energy oken, Audrey can add four points to her Body score, for one roll. If she wants to do something hella strong again, she needs to spend another token. Harm (Electricity) 6d: o use this power, she needs to spend an Energy oken. (See how this works?) Tis power is ouch Only, but it has the Electrocution extra. Harm (Heat) 7d : urning captured energy into heat seems more efficient for her. Perhaps it’s some kind of entropy thing. However it works, her scald ray (as she calls it) costs an Energy  oken to each use, but it has the Burn extra. Harm (Laser) 6d : Yep. Lasers. Often she shoots ’em out of her eyes, too, though hands are just as good. Te laser beam costs a token to use and has Spray 1 as an extra.  History

Oh how Audrey hates the journalist who gave her the nickname “Powerhound.” Sometimes she hates the public who let it stick, but most of her glum, sullen wrath is reser ved for him. His name’s Steve Connor, she’ll never take revenge and if she saw him falling from a high building she’d try to save him, cursing herself all the while. Audrey’s that way. She’s got a highly evolved sense of duty. Dad was a cop, mom was a nurse, Audrey grew up with the idea that helping people who didn’t appreciate it was just  what grown-ups did. A blocky, unlovel y woman, she signed up as a licensed public protector after coming into her powers at age seventeen. Shy by nature, she asked that her identity be kept a close secret, and her employers (the city of L os Angeles) happily agreed. Ten the first time she went out in the field, in her custom-made police uniform, the vest gave her a blocky profile

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 Chapter 4: Cabals & Factions 

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and the mask looked vaguely canine when the light hit it right, and Steve S.O.B. Conner gave her the name “Powerhound” after getting an explanation of what it was she did. Humiliation! Abject humiliation. Everyone thought she  was a man . Just what her self-esteem needed. Te ignominy of it all sent her deeper into her shell until the day Dr. Sjëok made an appointment with her. Or rather, with “Powerhound.” Her bosses didn’t want the bad publicity attendant with clearing up the mistake, they pointed out how many jokes the late-night hosts would make and how good the gender error would be at preserving her hidden identity. She caved in. But Dr. Sjëok recognized her as a woman instantly, and after that Audrey was very, very  receptive to the Next Iteration philosophy. Especially since it was so consoling: A vision of a world where metahumans could make a real diff erence and improve the lives of ever yone. What was there to dislike? Tat  was before she found out Mancat was attending meetings too, of course. (Incidentally, the reason Dr. Sjëok didn’t fall for the manhood mistake like everyone else was that she hadn’t read any of the newspaper articles. She thought she remembered her aide referring to Powerhound as “he” but it wouldn’t be the first t ime such a mistake was made in her office.)

Melanie Penobscott   Archet y pe: Conduit Permission: Power Teme (Intolerance)  Allegiance: Te Way  Circle:  Second Stats

Body: 2d Coordination:  1d Sense:  1d Mind: 3d Charm:  1d Command:  2d Base Will: 3

 Miracles

 Jinx 10d (Attacks, Defends, Useful) : Tis power has no

 Willpower cost and a couple of fairly restrictive If/Ten Flaws. Firstly, it can only interfere with attempts to make peace, spread understanding or ease the tensions of a situation. Second, and always at the GM’s discretion, it sometimes acts outside Melanie’s conscious control, inflicting massive penalties on anyone she dislikes or distrusts, whether she wants them to fail or not. Projected Hallucination 6hd (Defends, Useful): Tis power can target two people at once, making each appear to be the other with a 3hd illusion. Tus, in the middle of a fight (should she ever get into one) the spirit within her can make people on both sides misidentify one another. Tis is used to protect Melanie but, more importantly, to sow confusion and paranoia. Control (Emotion) 3hd (Attacks, Defends, Useful) : Tis is a power with no Flaws or Extras. Given that it originates with an archon of Intolerance, however, it’s never used to mediate problems away but always to inflame tensions, encourage mistrust, and set up damaging misunderstandings. It can’t directly damage anyone, but it can make them suicidal, or enrage them blindly against an ally, so much so that they must spend a point of Willpower or immediately attack as powerfully as possible.  History

Melanie was always a shy, quiet girl. Bright and polite and respectful to her elders, she excelled in school and could have gotten through med school if she’d had the self-esteem. Instead she settled for her second choice, and now works as a nurse practitioner.  Tree years ago, right about the time she joined Te Way, someone tacked a spirit of Intolerance on her. Melanie has no idea, though she has noticed her increasing interest in sports and politics. She attends as many rallies, events, debates and speeches as she can, from her local cit y council (which has gotten very bitter and entrenched these days) to candidates for national office. And, of course, she never misses a Sunday hearing a preacher of Te Way hold forth.

Skills

Gino “Zipperflesh” Piccione

Body Skills: Athletics 2d

 Archet y pe: Mutant

Coordination Skills: Dodge 1d, Drive (Car) 1d, Stealth 3d

Permission: Power Teme: Minion skin

Sense Skills: Perception 1d

 Allegiance: Piccione Family 

Mind Skills: First Aid 4d, Language (French) 2d, Medicine 4d

Circle:  Second

Charm Skills: Persuasion 1d

Stats

Command Skills: Stability 1d

Body: 2d [+5d] Coordination:  2d

 Chapter 4: Cabals & Factions  Sense:  2d Mind: 2d Charm:  3d Command:  3d Base Will: 6 Skills

Body Skills: Athletics 1d, Brawling 3d [+1wd], [Endurance 1wd] Coordination Skills: Drive (Car) 1d, Stealth 1d Sense Skills: Empathy 1d, [Perception 3d], [Scrutiny 1wd] Mind Skills: Streetwise 2d Charm Skills: none Command Skills: [Intimidation 2hd], [Stability 2hd]  Mirac les

Skinion 5hd: Gino has a second layer of skin that he can put

on and take off like a suit. When the skin (or a piece of it) is off him, it can move around under it s own power, watch things, smother people, steal stuff and so on. When it comes back to Gino and reintegrates with him, he can then remember everything that happened to the chunk. On its own, a “skinion” (from “skin minion” if you must know) is about as smart as a clever dog or a monkey. For each point of Width of his Skinion power, he can send a piece out solo. (Te five pieces are two arms, two legs, the torso and the head.) When his skin is completely off, he looks like a flayed man, though he doesn’t bleed and can move about without the pain of exposed ner ves. Seeing him in this state t ypically causes a rauma Check for the uninitiated. He can distribute his five extra ranks of Body between his skinions and himself if he has enough flesh on him to make it reasonable. Tat is, if he sends his arm skins slithering away like snakes, each with Body 2, he only has one extra point of Body left on his person. Similarly, he can attach his levels of Extra  ough to skinions as he wills. Regeneration 2hd: Tis power is attached to his “Skinion” power. Each skinion regenerates 2SK per round, as does Gino if he has at least one Width point of flesh on his person. Extra ough 5hd: Tese wound boxes are attached to the Skinion power, and he can distribute them as described above.  History

Gino thought he was just a super-strong quick healer with 360 vision and great hearing until he got grabbed up by some of those damn Xolotis. Te enchanter who had him chained him up good on a metal slab and gloated about just how long and how much more a regenerator could suffer than a normal

human. Ten he bragged about the hideous ritual he could do  with a mask made of human skin and, true to his word, he carefully cut around Gino’s jaw and pulled the flesh off the top of Gino’s head like the world’s goriest stocking cap. Te sorcerer  was laughing, Gino was screaming, and then they exchanged roles as the blob of skin and hair crawled up the enchanter’s arm, leaving a smear of blood behind it, wrapped itself around his head and smothered him. Ten it tried, fruitlessly, to let Gino out of his shackles, until Gino directed it t o get the key out of the dead sorcerer’s pants. Tat was the beginning of a beautiful friendship between Gino and his epidermis. Note: Everything in [brackets] is a power attached to his semi-autonomous skin. If he’s stripped, he can’t use those Skills and Stat boosts. His Brawling, Intimidation, Perception and Scrutiny Skills stay at full strength for both himself and his skin as long as he has some of it attached. He can see f rom the perspective of any of his exposed skin that he’s wearing, and the Perception boost comes from having the exterior of his body serving as one big eardrum. When he sends his flesh roaming, he can attach as much or as little of his extra Body as he wants. He can only use the Stability when he is fully covered.

Rita “Puke Bomb” Piccione  Archet y pe: Mutant Permission: Power Teme (Monster)  Allegiance: Piccione Family  Circle:  Second Stats

Body: 4d Coordination:  1d Sense:  1d Mind: 1d Charm: 1d Command: 3d Base Will: 4 Skills

Body Skills: Athletics 2d, Brawling 3d, Endurance 2d Coordination Skills: Dodge 2d, Drive (Car) 1d, Ranged

 Weapon (Pistol) 2d Sense Skills: Scrutiny 5d Mind Skills: Knowledge (Demolitions) 1d, Streetwise 2d Charm Skills: none Command Skills: Intimidation 4d, Stability 3d

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 Chapter 4: Cabals & Factions   Mirac les

Heavy Armor 5hd Sicken 3d+1wd (Attacks, Useful): Tis power has the flaw

 112 

Obvious. Te way it works is, Rita pulls a chunk of her suppurating, diseased, scabby flesh off—typically a pustule the size of a gumball—and throws it. It bursts on impact and expo ses the target to some yucky freaking pathogens. Tis causes Width in Shock damage, which is Non-Physical so it ignores armor, and it has another immediate, automatic result that depends on the Height of her roll. x1 : arget gets a runny nose for a while. No other effect. x2 : Dizziness. arget automatically fails all Climb and Athletics rolls, and cannot use the Fly Miracle (if the target has it). x3 : Muscle lock. One arm or leg (determined randomly) goes stiff and cannot be used except in a clumsy, clublike fashion. –2d to all pools that need it to move freely. x4 : Laryngitis. arget can’t speak for a number of turns equal to  Width. x5 : Weakness and trembling. arget is at –1d to all Body pools and automatically fails Intimidation attempts. x6 : Crippling joint pain. arget is at –2d to all Coordination pools. x7 : Paralyzing cough. arget is at –2d to all pools. x8 : Blurred vision. arget is at –3d to all sight-dependent pools, and all Perception or Scrutiny rolls to gather visual information automatically fail. x9 : Anaphylaxis. arget loses a point of Body per turn for a number of turns equal to W idth. If Body hits zero, the target passes out. Te effect wears off within about five minutes. x10 : Convulsions and vomiting. arget can’t take any action  without spending a Willpower point, for a number of turns equal to the Width of the roll. arget takes two Shock to the torso, ignoring armor. Once the immediate effects wear off (after about ten minutes if no limit is listed above) the target makes a Bo dy + Health roll. If it succeeds, he feels kind of cruddy for a few days, has a sore throat and a weird rash, but nothing to impact the rules. If the roll fails, he’s infected. Until he succeeds at a Health roll, every single action he attempts has Difficulty 3. He can roll ever y other day or so. Medical science is, incidentally, helpless against Rita’s poison. Medical spirits, however, can handle it with any success.  History

 When you’re a three-hundred pound woman whose skin is constantly overgrowing, folding, going gangrenous and slough-

ing off, just what are you going to do with your life? Especially  when you smell terrible, have these pimply growths all over, and are just not real bright. Te answer is, punish the world by spreading the disease. Rita revels in destruction, preferring up-front sadism but settling for fire and explosions, especially  with casualties. She is stupid malice incarnate. Te family keeps her on a pretty short leash, but when someone pisses ’em off and they aren’t in the mood for subtlety, they drop the puke bomb. Rita’s one reason the cops give t he Picciones a wide berth. Precincts that make trouble tend to have to deal with Rita committing indecent exposure in broad daylight, making a monstrous nuisance of herself until they either 1: fail to arrest her for a couple hours, and look like j ackasses or 2: arrest her, in  which case she gets a chance to leave chunks of herself on every cop she passes during processing. Choose wisely, copper.

Gail “Gary” Podgorny, aka “Mancat”  Archet y pe: Mutant Permission: Power Teme (Feline)  Allegiance: Next Iteration Circle:  Second Stats

Body: 2d+1wd Coordination:  7d Sense:  2d+1wd Mind: 2d Charm: 2d Command: 2d Base Will: 4 Skills

Body Skills: Athletics 1wd, Brawling 1d, Endurance 1d Coordination Skills: Dodge 3hd (permanent), Lockpicking 1d,

Stealth 1d Sense Skills: none Mind Skills: Security Systems 1d Charm Skills: Lie 1d Command Skills: Intimidate 1d  Miracles

Body Stat—Attacks +3: When Mancat attacks with his bare

hands, it can do an extra +3S. Go First 3hd (Useful): With this Permanent power Mancat adds 3 to the width of all his actions for initiative purposes only. Unconventional Move (Climb and Jump) 6d  History

An early bloomer, Gail got his retractable claws when he was

 Chapter 4: Cabals & Factions  in sixth grade. Was this (he wondered) the mysterious puberty thing that his grandma kept hinting about? Te first time he  jumped to the top of the garage in one bound, he figured out it  was something else. From just the above paragraph we can observe that Gail  was not a well-informed youth, that his parents were out of the picture, and that he was a boy   named Gail . he next time someone made fun of his name, Gail immediately escalated to “Yeah, but your mom sucks cock on the Internet” and started what would be the first of many thrilling fights ending in exhilarating victory. Like the cat that would become his namesake, Gail enjoyed p laying with his prey, dodging blows by mere inches when he could have leaped ten feet away, firing annoying rabbit punches to ribs when he could have struck lower and ruptured organs or (for that matter) gone to work with the claws and excavated the guy’s bladder. His victories always looked like near things and, as he aged, he was even able to make them look lucky and accidental.  What did it for him wasn’t winning so much as making the bully lose, and nothing’s worse than losing to someone you ought to whip. Had Gail been an intelligent or well-informed young man, or one with interested parents (any of the options, really), his mutations could never have been hid and he would have k nown that the smart play was to go legit, sign up with the army or the Cirque de Soleil, and stack some fat chips. Instead he chose cat burglary, complete with costume. He stole from ages 11 through 15 inclusive, and only then realized  what a huge error he’d made. He weaned himself off the B&E, but the cat was out of the bag. No one could prove that Mancat  was a thief, or that Gail was Mancat, though various people had various suspicions. What people could prove was t hat when a group of bank robbers took hostages, Mancat jumped onto the bank roof f rom an adjacent building, snuck in and disabled (and in one case, killed) the robbers without being captured or  causing any civilian casualties. It’s also known that he has, on three separate occasions, leaped into burning buildings to haul out civilians. On the last of those, he himself had to be dragged out by firefighters, who provided him first aid and “accidentally” let him escape before they alerted the police. Mancat’s famous in his hometown of L.A. He’s also infamous. He’s also got a very well-publicized “feud” with Powerhound, and every time they posture and scuffle, donations pour in to his Swiss Bank Account via www.mancat.com.

Gail? He’s a nineteen-year-old punk pushing stereo goods at a big box store. Other than off-book superheroing, the only thing he’s got going is his UFC video collection and his role as class clown/voice of anarchy for Next Iteration.

 Janice Romeo  Archet y pe: Conduit Permission: One Power  Allegiance: Projekt ELSA Circle:  Second Stats

Body: 2d Coordination:  4d Sense:  4d Mind: 3d Charm: 3d Command: 3d Base Will: 6 Skills

Body Skills: Athletics 2d, Brawling 2d, Endurance 2d, Melee

 Weapon (runcheon) 2d Coordination Skills: Dodge 2d, Driving (Car) 3d, Lockpicking 1d, Ranged Weapon (Pistol) 3d, Stealth 3d Sense Skills: Empathy 4d, Perception 3d Mind Skills: Knowledge (Criminology) 2d, Knowledge (Cryptology) 2d, Knowledge (Electronics) 1d, Language (German) 3d, Security Systems 2d, Streetwise 2d Charm Skills: Lie 3d, Persuasion 2d Command Skills: Interrogation 4d, Stability 3d  Miracles

Control Vocalization 6d+1wd (Useful): Tis single-effect power

comes from an Indiscretion spirit bound into Janice. She can make people talk and be unable to stop talking. When she rolls a success, any thought that goes through the target ’s head comes right out of the target’s mouth. Te speaker can’t stop . It’s like everyone around him become instant mind readers. If the blabbermouth spends a Willp ower point he can force his thoughts into an innocuous vein (typically some ghastly pop song from the target’s youth), but subjects who can spend Willpower are few, and Janice has had great success with interrogating people conventionally and making sure the desired data is right at the top of their thoughts before hitting them with this.  History

 Janice is going to be awfully pissed when she finds out she’s not a mutant after all.

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 Chapter 4: Cabals & Factions  ELSA wanted Janice because she had a tough attitude and useful skills, but they told her she was brought into Pharaoh Six because she was extremely likely t o be an unawakened mutant.  Te “top secret ” procedures they used to “awaken her mutant potential” were, of course, summoning and binding rituals that they’d just uncovered and weren’t quite ready to use on experienced and trusted personnel. But they couldn’t be happier  with how it all turned out! For example, the spirit in her has made Janice carelessly let details slip about Pharaoh Six. Tat  just spreads disinformation.

Dr. Brunhilde Sjeök   Archet y pe: Mutant Permission: Power Teme (Electricity)  Allegiance: Next Iteration Circle:  Second Stats

Body: 2d Coordination:  1d Sense:  3d Mind: 4d Charm: 2d

 114 

Command: 3d Base Will: 7 Skills

Body Skills: Athletics 1d, Endurance 1d Coordination Skills: Driving (Boat) 1d, Driving (Car) 1d Sense Skills: Empathy 2d, Perception 2d Mind Skills: Knowledge (Electronics) 1wd, Language (Eng-

lish) 4d Charm Skills: Persuasion 2d Command Skills: Leadership 3d, Stability 5d  Miracles

Perceive (Electromagnetic Current) 3hd (Useful) : Tis power

She got bumped off the Liverpool police force after running a corruption investigation that led to two assassination attempts and no convictions. Disgusted, she was drinking herself stupid in Stuttgart when a man in a black coat approached her about covert work. She’s been with Projekt ELSA ever since, though she believes she works for a covert British anti-terror squad code named “Pharaoh Six” that operates illegally on the continent (and elsewhere) but which is intended to always be fully deniable.

has the flaw O bvious, in that when she’s using it, mini-lightning strokes in various colors crawl at random around her body. She uses this almost all the time, as it happens. Control (Electricity) 8d (Defends, Useful) : Tis power lets her avoid lightning bolts and shocks, not to mention messing up electronic stuff. Control (Bioelectricity) 10d (Defends, Useful): Tis power has the flaws State of Mind (scared and up set) and Obvious. When she uses it, multicolored bolts of lightning arc out f rom all over her body and target the poor unfortunate person that she has reluctantly aimed it at. It does no physical damage, but it

 Chapter 4: Cabals & Factions  causes muscles to go haywire and ner ves to fire wildly. In rules terms, here’s how it works: When it strikes, it removes dice from sets equal to its Width. It targets one limb as determined by Height. All actions taken with that limb on th e next round suffer a dice pool penalty equal to the set’s Width.  Example: Brunhilde hits Stewie with a 3x1 j olt. Stewie loses three

Benjamin “Babe” Weisenthal  Archet y pe: Mutant Permission: One Power  Allegiance: Projekt ELSA Circle:  Second Stats

dice out of his sets, and anything he tries to do with his leg next

Body: 2d

round has a –3d penalty. If the target trie s something that doesn’t

Coordination:  2d

use the le g—flying, grabbing, yelling something—there’s no penalty.

Sense:  2d

Harm (Electricity) 3d+1wd (Attacks): Tis is an attack that

she does not yet even realize she possesses. She’s never been threatened enough to use it. It has the extras Electrocuting and Non-Physical, so it ignores all armor and grounds through the target. It also has the flaws Slow, Willpower Cost, State of Mind (stark terror) and Obvious.  History

Brunhilde Sjeök is the third of six girls born to Bjorn and Anita Sjeök, but she’s the only active mutant. Her father was a modestly prosperous real estate developer, so Brunhilde never knew serious want, though with five sisters surrounding her she  wasn’t getting spoiled either. Living in the Finnish boondocks, she grew up studying and running track. (Her oldest sister I lsa  was the popular one and her second oldest sister Maja was ‘the pretty one’ so Brunhilde had her choice of being the smart one or the athletic one.) Her happy life was perfectly ordinary until the day she woke up seeing electrical current. She told her dad, he took her to the university for testing and ever since then her life has gone from charming to charmed. It helped a lot that she was fascinated by the genetics of her condition, and only slightly less so by the sociological implications. Getting funding was a snap, not only because she brought herself as a prime specimen for examination, but for the glamor of her popularity among the international mutant crowd. Funny thing, that popularity. She’s no beauty, no fashion plate, no gossip monger, but a lot of mutants find her approach of taking people as she finds them appealing. It could be an enlightened attitude or a sort of social blindness, but Dr. Sjeök treats everyone  with the same interest and engagement—heads of state, the guy  who sells her a kebab, the middle-aged lady who can instigate fusion reactions by gritting her teeth; they’re all fascinating to her. She’s the Research Director at Mutagenet Labs in Los Angeles, which is the de facto headquarters of Next Iteration. No one realizes it, but if she packed up her bags, six months later Next Iteration would be centered wherever she’d settled down.

Mind: 3d Charm: 3d Command: 3d Base Will: 6 Skills

Body Skills: Athletics 1d, Brawling 2d, Endurance 1d Coordination Skills: Dodge 3d, Driving (Car) 4d, Lockpicking

1d, Ranged Weapon (Pistol) 2d, Stealth 2d Sense Skills: Empathy 4d, Perception 2d Mind Skills: Knowledge (Forgery) 2d, Security Systems 2d Charm Skills: Lie 3d Command Skills: Interrogation 3d, Intimidation 3d, Leadership 3d, Stability 3d  Miracles

Flight 8d (Attacks + 8, Defends, Useful) : Babe’s flight has a lot

of serious flaws. First off, he can only fly in the fetal position (that is, balled up tight with his arms curled over his head). Secondly, he can only fly in a straight line. Tirdly, he can’t control his speed: He’s either accelerating to about a hundred miles per hour, or zipping along at  a hundred miles per hour, or he’s stalled out and falling. As an attack it does onl y Shock damage. On the other hand, this power does Width + 8 in Shock damage when he slams into somebody, so he’s not complaining.  When he has to travel far, he usually shoots straight up, uncurls (thereby starting to fall) , aims himself, curls until he needs to take another bearing, and repeats until he gets where he’s going. Or he just drives. Heavy Armor 8hd: Tis is attached to his Flight power, so he’s only invulnerable while 1: curled in a ball, 2: flying in a straight line and 3: moving at high speed.  History

Babe was a stock car racer until he got into a bad accident.  aken by surprise, he didn’t curl up on the initial impact, got bruised and shook up, but as his car started to roll he instinctively ducked and covered and then—BLAM!—shot up out

 115 

 Chapter 4: Cabals & Factions  of the roof of the burning car like a comet, zoomed across the track, and slammed into the steep track opposite, emerging burned and surprised to a standing ovation. Te footage of that one still gets played a lot. Babe tried the fame and fortune route but found it weirdly unsatisfying. All the money went up his nose or out his dick and when he got out of detox he felt sure he’d be back at the clinic unless he found some way to make a difference.  Tat’s when he got recruited by Projekt ELSA, although he thinks he’s working for the CIA. Tey’ve got other people to find things out: Babe goes in fer t ’ smash. He digs it. He’s not a complicated man, really. Just a content one.

Harmonia White

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 joined the Xolotis because they were there, and they took her in because she did what she was told, wasn’t ambitious, but still retained some basic competence. Tey moved her out into the boondocks, which she kinda hates because it’s boring and alien, but kinda likes because it’s boring and good for her daughter. She makes talismans, sells ’em on the sly, has a day job at a grocery store.

Reverend Cody Wright   Archet y pe: None Permission: None  Allegiance: Te Way  Circle:  Second Stats

 Archet y pe: None

Body: 2d

Permission: None

Coordination:  3d

 Allegiance: Xolotl Cartel

Sense:  3d

Circle:  Second

Mind: 4d

Stats

Charm: 4d

Body: 2d

Command: 5d

Coordination:  2d

Base Will: 9

Sense:  2d

Skills

Mind: 3d

Body Skills: Athletics 2d, Endurance 2d

Charm:  4d

Coordination Skills: Dodge 2d, Driving (Car) 1d, Pilot (Air-

Command:  2d

plane) 3d, Pilot (Boat) 2d, Stealth 1d Sense Skills: Empathy 5d, Perception 3d Mind Skills: First Aid 2d, Knowledge (Mechanics) 1d, Knowledge (Teology) 4d, Language (Spanish) 3d, Navigation 1d, Streetwise 3d Charm Skills: Lie 2d, Performance (Oratory) 3d, Persuasion 4d Command Skills: Leadership 3d, Stability 4d

Base Will: 7 Skills

Body Skills: Athletics 2d, Brawling 1d, Melee Weapon (Knife) 3d Coordination Skills: Dodge 3d, Driving (Car) 2d, Ranged

 Weapon (Pistol) 3d Sense Skills: none Mind Skills: Streetwise 3d Charm Skills: Lie 3d Command Skills: Intimidation 2d, Stability 4d Spells

Invoke Erotic Archon, Quest of All-Consuming Pleasure, Sweat of Grateful oil, Adoration of the ranslunar, Craft alisman  History

Harmonia grew up poor, wasn’t treated any worse that most people in her neighborhood but no better and, consequently, concluded that most people were selfish little shits. Tere was a boy she loved and who said he loved her and if he’d resisted knocking her up when she was six teen, or had married her  when she was pregnant, or had at least stuck around, then she might have come to think differently. No such luck. She

 Miracles

Not a blessed one.  History

Sometimes, when fate comes to a man with both hands full, he goes out of his way to squander the gifts. So it was with young Cody Wright, a bright kid and decent wide receiver who was more interested in the status of being on t he team than he was in pushing himself to excel. He figured he could get B grades easily but that he’d need to sweat for an A, so he got Bs. After high school, he got a job as a roofer, intending to  just do it for a while until he figured out what he wanted from college. But he didn’t get around to applying, just as he’d never gotten around to applying himself.

 Chapter 4: Cabals & Factions  Ten one day, while he was working on a nice cliffside mansion, during a light rain, he slipped, slid towards the edge and realized that if he went off, he wasn’t just going to hit the lawn and break his legs. He was going to do a Peter Pan down into the valley hundreds of feet below. With all his strength, he slammed the claw end of his hammer into the roof and held on, shouting for help. His waist was over the edge, his fingers clutching the hammer and the rain gutter, as he heard the house’s buyer say, “Oh for Christ’s sake.” He decided at that moment that he was done roofing. A regular churchgoer, he started praying. “Lord God, as of this moment I dedicate my lif e to your service, however much longer you let it last.” Ten he felt a strong hand on his wrist. “I gotcha, amigo,” said one of his co-workers, stretching and straining. From below, he heard a woman asking, “Why don’t  you help him?” “Why should I?” replied the homeowner. “I’ll get the dumb shit if he falls.” It clicked then. He was building a home for a famous local metahuman, a flier with the strength t o rend steel. It would have been almost nothing for the man to swoop out and carry him to safety. But instead, that rich and gifted mutant did absolutely nothing. Reverend Wright went to college and to the seminary, he became a pastor of a small congregation and grew it to thousands of followers, but he never could understand that turning-point experience. When he got invol ved with Te  Way, it explained so much. He’s never thought to compare the squandering of mutant potential with his early squandering of human potential. It’s never come up. Cody Wright is an honest, decent man, humble in himself but strong in his faith. He can’t be tempted off his path. He reserves his greatest compassion and hope for those who have the deluded hope of doing good with their profane powers. He knows that such powers can onl y, ever and always corrupt.

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 Chapter 4: Cabals & Factions  Characters: The Third Circle “A Letter From Prague”  Archet y pe: Conduit Permission: One Power (Conduit)  Allegiance: Direktiva Nul Circle:  Tird Stats

Body: 2d

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(and consumption) of the daemon that made his sister kill his brother that both fulfilled him and enabled him to gain inhuman coordination. A Letter From Prague, no matter what false name he’s using today, is a man bowed down by tragedy, but unbroken. He has genuine sympathy for the victims of otherworldly spirits, and he tries to keep his collateral damage minimized. But he doesn’t lose much sleep when he has to choose between saving lives and smashing cults. He smashes the cult, takes a pill (he likes Ativan), and moves on to the next assignment.

Coordination:  5d+1wd

Harriet Breen

Sense:  5d

 Archet y pe: Mutant

Mind: 3d

Permission: One Power

Charm:  5d

 Allegiance: Direktiva Nul / Xolotl Cartel

Command:  2d

Circle:  Tird

Base Will: 7

Stats

Skills

Body: 1d

Body Skills: Athletics 4d, Brawling 4d, Endurance 2d

Coordination:  1d

Coordination Skills: Dodge 5d, Lockpicking 2d, Ranged

Sense:  3d

 Weapon (Grenade) 2d, Ranged Weapon (Rifle) 5d, Stealth 2d Sense Skills: Empathy 3d, Perception 2d, Scrutiny 1d Mind Skills: First Aid 1d, Language (Czech) 2d, Language (English) 2d, Language (German) 1d, Language (urkish) 1d, Security Systems 3d Charm Skills: Lie 2d, Invocation 2d Command Skills: Interrogate 2d, Intimidate 2d, Stability 3d

Mind: 3d

Spells

Sense Skills: Perception 2d

Abjuration of Form, Craft Eyes of the Underworl d, Expulsion of Device, Oanhue Streamlined, Plea for Succor, Purification of the Burning Ring, Primary Entanglement, Sweat of Grateful  oil, Smudge the Circle

Mind Skills: Knowledge (Demolitions) 1d, Security Systems 1d

 Miracles

 Mirac les

Immunity (Everything) 10hd: Tis power is Permanent.

Dodge Skill Extras—Defends +4 and Go First 6 : A Letter

Spells

From Prague possesses a small clay pendant in the shape of a lizard, coated with green enamel, that makes him very, very good at avoiding attacks (it ’s a Focus).

Pestilential Demand, Drive Forth the Malignant, Unveiling, Chastisement

 History

 Te man known as “A Letter From Prague” is one of the most  valued agents of Direktiva Nul, even though his name has been completely erased f rom their files. Great effort, both occult and practical, has been spent to obscure his name, origin and past. An early-life tragedy with a Xolotl-sponsored daemon set him on the path of the invoker, realpolitik within Nul made him into an assassin and spy, but it was the destruction

Charm: 3d Command: 3d Base Will: 6 Skills

Body Skills: Athletics 3d, Brawling 3d Coordination Skills: Dodge 3d, Stealth 1d

Command Skills: Conjuration 1d, Stability 2d Charm Skills: Lie 2d

 History

 When she was thirteen, people said Harriet was a late bloomer. At fourteen, when she went to the doctor, he couldn’t draw blood because the needle broke on her skin. At fifteen, she  volunteered with the CIA, who told her to come back in a few  years. She didn’t want to wait. At eighteen, the CIA sent her to kill Fidel Castro with a device that would (in most people’s hands) have been a suicide bomb. She failed, spurring further speculation that Castro was

 Chapter 4: Cabals & Factions  also protected by something more than the good wishes of the Cuban people. Tat was 1975. Harriet hasn’t aged a day, at least not physically. She’s in her early fifties and she still looks like she’s thirteen years old, a late-blooming  thirteen, so it’s not hard for her to pass for a tall eleven. As each successive generation gets taller, she figures she’s going to turn 100 and look ten. In her fifty years she has robbed armored cars, worked at heavily polluted environmental sites, assassinated various intelligence assets (first for the CIA, then for Nul when she got pissed at the U.S.), blackmailed more pedophiles than she can count, been shot, bludgeoned, set on fire, attacked with atomic eye-rays, possessed, and left for dead in a running car compactor. What she has not done is go through puberty, attain emotional maturity, or come to any kind of peace with the idea that she’ll be thirteen forever. Physical skills don’t seem to stick in an unchanging body. No muscle memory. She’s tried college, but the questions, the outsider status of being mistaken for a prodigy… nah. Doesn’t have the patience to be an autodidact, so she’s turned to the one endeavor where her primary contacts won’t care what she looks like: Sorcery. She’s been working for Direktiva Nul since 1992, and since 2001 it’s been on a part-time, ad hoc basis: Tey found her too erratic, too cavalier about piling up collateral bodies, and too dangerous to her fellow Nul agents. Tey taught her a few things, but they know her too well to give her anything  with higher circles. Tis has driven her to the Xolotl Cartel. She doesn’t trust them any farther than she could drop-kick a semi, but her money’s as good as anyone’s, and as a plus, they’re  willing to take it out in trade. If she can kill the U.S. Attorney General, they’re going to teach her a General Call for Tird Circle daemons.

Lt. Colonel Paul Cohen, Code Name “Resource Two” aka “The All Knowin’”  Archet y pe: Mutant Permission: Power Teme (Perception)  Allegiance: U.S. Army/Squadron A1 Circle:  Tird Stats

Body: 4d Coordination:  3d Sense:  10d Mind: 3d

Charm: 4d Command: 4d Base Will: 8 Skills

Body Skills: Athletics 2d, Brawling 1d, Endurance 2d Coordination Skills: Dodge 3d, Driving (Car) 1d, Driving

(Motorcycle) 1d, Driving ( APC) 2d, Parachute 1d, Ranged  Weapon (Machine Gun) 1d, Ranged Weapon (Pistol) 1d, Ranged Weapon (Rifle) 1d, Ranged Weapon (RPG) 1d Sense Skills: Empathy 1wd Mind Skills: actics 2d Charm Skills: Lie 1d Command Skills: Leadership 2d, Stability 3d  Miracles

Perceive (Universal) 9d+1wd: Paul can perceive any physical

quality, trait or object within a three-mile radius. He can read the numbers on the credit card in a wallet being sat on in the next train car. He can perceive air currents, the movements of electricity, the health of his own liver, how much gas is in the car two lanes over and what impurities that gas contains. He can read  your DNA and tell you if you’re a mutant (a feat that science has  yet to duplicate), and if he feels you using mutant powers he can probably explain how they work better than you could. Paul’s not omniscient. Not quite. He can’t see the past or the future. He can’t decode the information on a tape or a CD or a hard drive, though he can perceive the data. He can’t read minds (though his ability t o monitor brain activity, skin conductivity, heart rate and the like makes him awfully hard to fool). He cannot perceive spirits, magic or the use of occult energy any more than any normal person. When materialized spirits are about, his mutant power reads them as blank spaces, perceptible only by the air they displace, or by more blatant changes to their environment.  History

Paul Cohen came from a militar y family, went into the Army as was expected, served as a trainer during the first Gulf War,  worked his way up the command chain and was in live-fire action during the second. It wasn’t until his unit was pinned under sniper fire that Paul’s power manifested. He found the sniper, shot him with his eyes closed, and became intimately aware of the man’s pain, the damage done by the weapon, the firing of neurons and voiding of bowels. He felt the man’s heart shut down and his cells die.

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Since that time, Paul Cohen has refused to fire a weapon at an enemy. But given the astonishing usefulness of broadspectrum physical perception, he hasn’t had to. Need the streets swept for IEDs? Paul can do it. Want to know who’s hiding rifles? Ask Paul. It never made the news, but Paul was directly responsible for locating and apprehending both Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein.  With mission after spectacular mission piling up in his  op Secret personnel file, Paul has shot up the ranks and been given a great deal of autonomy. He commands Unit wo, the less public of the Army ’s two all-mutant units. (Organizationally, he’s still part of Squadron A1.) His question is not how to use his power, but how to use it best. Lately, that’s meant lots of  work in the U.S., sweeping cities for terror cells. He’s haunted by his big failure, in Austin, which was where he disco vered his blind spot for spirits. He’s determined not to let that happen again, but increasingly frustrated by a war that seems endless (no matter how excellent his intel) and by a bureaucracy that  won’t admit his clairvoyance in court. He has to decide whether to head back to a battlefield he despises and fight a war he’s starting to suspect can’t be won, or stay in his homeland where he lacks the authority to have troops kick in doors and start shooting bad guys. Nor has it escaped him that the biggest threats arise f rom the one thing he can’t detect. Paul is Black Four at the very best, not because he’s a bad person but because his power forcibly confronts him with imperfect moral outcomes. Even killing the most deser ving enemy is a horrifying experience for him. He doesn’t like it even  when someone else pulls the trigger or throws the punch. Te lower the Black level, the more Paul becomes gunshy, stymied by indecision, and increasingly burned out f rom being unable to look away from the petty pains and betrayals of the world, let alone the grand ones.

Sgt. Megan Deering, Code Name “The Many” aka “Multiple Meg”  Archet y pe: Mutant Permission: Power Teme (ime)  Allegiance: U.S. Army/Squadron A1 Circle:  Tird Stats

Body: 2d Coordination:  6d Sense:  3d Mind: 3d

Charm: 4d Command: 4d Base Will: 8 Skills

Body Skills: Athletics 1d, Brawling 5d, Endurance 2d Coordination Skills: Dodge 5d, Driving (Car) 1d, Lockpicking

2d, Stealth 2d, Ranged Weapon (Pistol) 4d, Ranged Weapon (Rocket Launcher) 4d, Ranged Weapon (SMG) 4d Sense Skills: None Mind Skills: Security Systems 2d Charm Skills: Lie 1d Command Skills: Intimidation 1d, Leadership 1d  Miracles

On Borrowed ime 10d (Attacks, Defends, Useful) : Megan

can exclude herself temporarily from the flow of time, and then reappear as a physical duplicate. For instance, she could disappear for three minutes, and then for one minute have three exact duplicates to help her move a couch or strangle a drug smuggler. Tis power is managed in play with “time tokens”. She can’t have more tokens than there are dice in her pool. o gain tokens, she rolls and can vanish from reality for a number of minutes equal to either Height or W idth. She can also choose to remain out for less time, if desired. Every minute out of time  yields one token. o call forth temporal doubles, she rolls and spends tokens. She can spend a number of tokens equal to the Width of her roll (or less, if she chooses). For each token spent, a perfect double appears and can act with its own dice pool. It’s present for one minute (or less, if she opts to send it away). If she wants it to remain longer, she can spend another token and get another minute  without a roll. Multiples can spend but not earn tokens. All tokens and Willpower are spent from the same pool, and all the temporal doubles have the same wound silhouette. If Meg gets punched, all the doubles immediately display the bruise. Te multiples are all aware of each other—the actions of all other Megs are visible as ghostly images overlapping the solid form of each body. All the equipment she carried while out of time appears  with each duplicate, but limited resources all come from the same pool. For example, if she had a full canteen with her when she time fugued, she could later call two duplicates, and each  would have the full canteen. But if she drank f rom the canteen of one duplicate, the other’s canteen would drop by the same amount, and when the duplicates vanished, the water would disappear from her stomach.

 Chapter 4: Cabals & Factions  Tis means that if she fugues with a gun in her hand, her multiples who use that gun fire bullets out of the same weapon. If it’s a six-shot revolver, any multiple can use it, until six shots have been fired and it ’s empty. Doesn’t matter if it ’s one duplicate with one gun shooting six times, or six duplicates firing one time each. Te bullets disappear when the duplicates fold back out of time, but any damage done remains. Meg can defend with this power’s dice pool by winking out of time and back instantly to avoid harm, and her high Coordination—a product of her manipulation of t ime—means she can literally dodge bullets if she chooses. Meg can’t attack things directly with her power; she must use a weapon or her fists to hurt things, no matter how many of her there are. Go First 6hd (Useful): Tis Permanent power adds 6 Width to all Meg’s actions for initiative purposes only. Body Stat Extra—Booster (Running Speed) 2 : Meg can sprint 1,000 yards per round.

Stats

Multiple Actions 2hd

Spells

 History

Penetrate the Abyssal Well, Pestilential Demand, Black Catnip, Call the Gremlin, Baal’s Blade, Chastisement, Pugnacious Endeavor, Ifrit ’s Labyrinth, Vigilant Idol, Inform O therlife, Abjuring Demarcation, Astral Escutcheon, Expulsion of Device

Meg is a product of the School of the American Future and is, consequently, skilled, intelligent, confident, and prone to forget that some of the people around her are really, truly threatened by bullets. She bought into the superhero concept loc k, stock and barrel, even to the point of dressing like a masplayer when off duty. She went to Iraq with the army and adapted to t he excitement and deadliness of combat with distur bing ease. She  was assigned to Paul Cohen’s unit, but some commanders are eager to move her up to A1. Te only reason they haven’t is her  vulnerability to area attacks. It doesn’t hurt that she’s telegenic. Meg at Black Five is a little naive and gung ho, but as the Black slides lower, this moves towards actual sociopathy. Te less Black the world, the less Megan is able to empathize with other people, particularly non-mutants. A low-Black Meg could shoot an unarmed civilian in the back (if there was a rational reason to do so) and consider it an unremarkable event, barely  worth remembering, a month later. Meg is fun and vivacious and has a great sense of humor, so only Paul Cohen has any idea what a stone cold killer she really is.

Rufus “Voodoo Child” Dupree  Archet y pe: None Permission: None  Allegiance: Xolotl Cartel Circle:  Tird

Body: 2d Coordination:  4d Sense:  3d Mind: 3d Charm: 3d Command: 4d Base Will: 7 Skills

Body Skills: Athletics 1d, Brawling 2d, Melee Weapon (Knife) 2d Coordination Skills: Dodge 3d, Ranged Weapon (Pistol) 2d,

Stealth 1d Sense Skills: Empathy 2d, Perception 1d Mind Skills: Streetwise 3d Charm Skills: Lie 2d, Persuasion 2d Command Skills: Conjure 4d, Intimidate 2d, Leadership 1d,

Stability 2d

 History

Voodoo Child Dupree grew up Xoloti in the Detroit projects. His father was a boccor, a voodoo shaman, who left Dupree’s mother when she was pregnant. When Dupree was fourteen, his father came back, unapologetic, and said that he’d left them to make Rufus tough. Rufus told him to fuck off. Six months later, his mother died, and six months after that, his dad made the offer again. Tis time, Rufus said yes. By the time he was eighteen, Rufus had learned conjuration and his father’s business of magic merchandising on the down-low. He also learned that his dad had killed  his mother to get Rufus away from her. Tat didn’t seem right to him. When he confronted his father, the man didn’t deny it. Tey fought. Rufus lost t he fight but kept his life, while his father left him, shaking his head half in disgust and half in admiration. Rufus is a magician for pay, now, in the same neighborhood where he grew up. But he doesn’t concern himself too much with that love spell and succubus bullshit. He’s less interested in giving his people more ways to waste money and destroy themselves, and more concerned with giving them what they need. Cops who harass his turf get harassed back. Crimeys

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 Chapter 4: Cabals & Factions  Plus, now and then, the Cartel folk have news about his old man. Dupree isn’t anywhere near finished with him.

 Teymour Ghafari  Archet y pe: None Permission: None  Allegiance: Àkrab-i-allah Circle:  Tird Stats

Body: 3d Coordination:  2d Sense:  2d Mind: 3d Charm: 3d Command: 4d Base Will: 7 Skills

Body Skills: Athletics 1d, Endurance 2d Coordination Skills: Driving (Car) 1d, Pilot (Boat) 2d, Pilot

(Light Aircraft) 2d, Ranged Weapon (Rifle) 1d Sense Skills: none Mind Skills: Knowledge (Cryptolog y) 2d, Language (English) 2d, Language (Arabic) 2d, Language (Pushtu) 1d, Navigation 2d, Spellcraft 1d Charm Skills: Lie 2d, Persuasion 3d, Invocation 3d Command Skills: Conjure 3d, Intimidation 2d, Leadership 2d, Stability 3d

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Spells

Praise for the Luminous Lady, Fortune Smiles, Adoration of the ranslunar, Fire is the Cleanser, Call the Soul Breaker, Cry Havoc, Putrid Coalition, Baal’s Blade, Chastisement, Te Ifr it’s Chains, Defense of the Blasphemous Amulet, Accommodate  History

 who don’t care whether you’re in the game or not before they shoot you tend to have real bad luck when he’s around. And if  you have some kind of supernatural situation? Hell, even police have been known to come to the Voodoo Child, cap in hand, for help with a curse. Voodoo Child stays right with the Xolotis because he’s no fool and has a keen grasp of reality. He’s willing to look the other  way while they  sell shit to help people make themselves poor,  wrecked and miserable. Far as he’s concerned, the war on magic has done more hurt to Motor City than the magic ever could.

Growing up in ehran, eymour never had to work a day in his life, thanks to his father’s connections and business acumen.  Tat idleness, unfortunately, gave him time to follow regional politics very closely. He hated the Americans for suppor ting Israel, then for letting Iraq get away with attacking Iran, then for not  letting Iraq get away with Kuwait, then for failing to unseat Saddam, for keeping troops in the Holy Land and, finally, for unseating Saddam. From discreet contributions to the PLO and Hezbollah, he came into contact with some p eople who suggested that there was a better way to strike against the Americans, and a better reason. eymour halfway convinced himself that all the

 Chapter 4: Cabals & Factions  apocalyptic cant was true, but he wanted to believe because his true interest was the magic.  eymour learned the sacred invocations of Àkrab-i-allah  just in time to get found out by his father and, despite the old man’s advanced years, he was able to disown eymour and cut him off f rom the family fortune. Tat happened just in time for  eymour to see a group of western commandoes (he doesn’t know who, but it was Projekt ELSA) kill an angel. His instructor had materialized the most powerful spirit he could summon and the mutants hurt it, then made it run away, then killed it  while it was fleeing. eymour escaped with his life, but not his faith. Since that time, he has feverishly pursued any kind of sorcery he can get his hands on, hoping to find something powerful enough to punish the infidels. He believes himself to be already damned for false doctrine, sorcery, lying to his faithful confederates and for leading them astray into blasphemy with him. He tells himself he doesn’t believe in damnation, that he’s an agnostic. But habits of the heart die hard, especially when they broke you off from your family. eymour is scared, very angry, desperate, and increasingly unstable. Te only thing that keeps him going is his plan for a “deep strike” against the U.S.A.

Chlotilde Giroux 

Command Skills: Interrogation 2d, Intimidation 2d, Stability 3d  Miracles

Flight 9d Invisibility 7hd  History

Before her powers manifested, Chlotilde was an unhappy French gym teacher. When she found out she could fly and turn invisible, she made the flight public, started a high-p restige messenger service, and divorced her husband. She also started  working undercover for GIGN, the French counter-terror agency. Her “maverick attitude” got her in trouble there, but attracted the attention of Projekt ELSA, which was happy to have a fast-moving and unseen asset whose day job (international secure messenger) gave her a good reason to be just about anywhere. Right now she’s in the U.S., keeping an eye on ROSCRO.

 Albrecht Knudsen  Archet y pe: Mutant Permission: wo Powers  Allegiance: Projekt ELSA Circle:  Tird Stats

Body: 2d Coordination:  3d

 Archet y pe: Mutant

Sense:  2d

Permission: wo Powers

Mind: 2d

 Allegiance: Projekt ELSA

Charm: 3d

Circle:  Tird

Command: 2d

Stats

Base Will: 5

Body: 3d

Skills

Coordination:  3d

Body Skills: Athletics 2d, Brawling 1d, Endurance 2d

Sense:  3d

Coordination Skills: Dodge 1d, Driving (Car) 1d, Lockpick-

Mind: 2d

ing 2d, Ranged Weapon (Rifle) 2d, Ranged Weapon (Rocket Launcher) 1d, Stealth 2d Sense Skills: Perception 2d Mind Skills: Knowledge (Computer Hardware) 1d, Knowledge (Computer Software) 3d, Knowledge (Criminology) 1d, Knowledge (Cryptology) 1d, Knowledge (Demolitions) 1d, Knowledge (Electronics) 1d, Knowledge (Mechanics) 1d, Language 3d (English) Charm Skills: none Command Skills: Interrogation 1d, Intimidation 2d, Stability 2d

Charm:  3d Command:  3d Base Will: 6 Skills

Body Skills: Athletics 3d, Brawling 4d, Endurance 1d Coordination Skills: Dodge 2d, Stealth 3d Sense Skills: Empathy 5d, Perception 2d Mind Skills: Knowledge (Cryptology) 1d, Knowledge (Forgery)

2d, Language (Spanish) 1d, Language (English) 3d, Navigation 1d, Security Systems 3d Charm Skills: Lie 4d, Persuasion 1d

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 Chapter 4: Cabals & Factions   Mirac les

Spatial Distortion 5hd (Defends) : As far as anyone’s been able

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to determine, this power is purely defensive. When he activates it, a field of bent space radiates out ten yards from his body. Anything that’s moving too fast or is too hot or is transferring too much energy fails to touch his body. In fact, anyone  within that radius is protected. Bullets arc away, lightning bolts ground themselves, a spray of molten lava curves as if blown by a strong wind, only there’s no wind. What’s happening is that straight lines are becoming curves as space bubbles out wards in a way that makes projectiles or energy rays have to travel a mile to cross an inch. Te field is transparent, though light (of the non-deadly-laser variety) seems to shift and tremble a little bit inside it. If he so chooses, Albrecht can opt to protect himself only, but he’s a popular guy to stand beside when things get hectic—though, in order to shoot or stab or fire a power outside the bubble, you have to get right up to the edge and stick your gun or your knife hand outside. Spatial Collapse 10d (Attacks) : Te ugly side of Albrecht ’s power causes objects (including living ones) t o shake, tremble, heat up, and start arcing with electricity. It can affect everything  within an 80-yard radius. (Except, of course, for things within his ten-yard spatial distortion protection field. His defense trumps his own attack.) As with his defensive power, he can narrow it down to a single t arget if he wishes. It has the NonPhysical extra, so it ignores armor. Note that his powers have never interacted with those of Sgt. Bailey Wolfe. GMs are encouraged to imagine bizarre scenarios if such a thing occurs.  History

Albrecht did tech support for a German pantyhose manufacturer. He debugged their billing database, maintained their firewall, kept spam off their company email and was modestly content with his lot until the day a doctor and a woman who never took her black sunglasses off stopped by his flat and told him there was a very high chance that he was a mutant. Albrecht laughed them off. Tey offered to test him, by taking him on an all-expenses week-long jaunt t o their facility in the Swiss Alps. He hesitated. Tey showed him government ID. He asked what they’d want from him and they said it would depend on if he had a power and what it was, now  wouldn’t it? He was still unsure, and they made a few phone calls. wenty minutes later, the phone rang. It was the president of the pantyhose company.

“For fuck’s sake, Knudsen, just go on the trip. It won’t count towards your vacation days, you can do some skiing.” So he went and found that the testing was far more strenuous, stressful and unpleasant than he’d been led to believe. After five days of f rustratingly impossible tests, being shouted at and provoked by expert drill sergeants and subjected to a battery of invasive medical procedures, they shrugged their shoulders and said they couldn’t find a thing. If he was a mutant, he was remaining stubbornly latent. He might as well spend the last couple days on the slopes. Tanking them for nothing, Albrecht went skiing, and his powers showed up during an avalanche. He later learned that it was deliberately planned and that they had a couple other mutants ready to rescue him if things went wrong. Since then, he’s been the “pullout man” in similar tests. Once they realized they had a guy who could head to the middle floor of a twenty-story building, kill or maim everyone inside, possibly collapse a couple walls and ceilings, and walk out unhurt, oh yeah, the Projekt was interested. His experience  with computers was just frosting on the strudel.

Dr. Eden Majors  Archet y pe: Conduit Permission: Power Teme (Oak)  Allegiance: ROSCRO Circle:  Tird Stats

Body: 2d Coordination:  2d Sense:  1d Mind: 4d Charm: 4d Command: 3d Base Will: 7 Skills

Body Skills: (Endurance 5d) Coordination Skills: Lockpicking 2d, Stealth 3d Sense Skills: Empathy 2d Mind Skills: Knowledge (Cryptography) 2d, Knowledge (Me-

dieval Studies) 4d, Security Systems 2d, Spellcraft 3d Charm Skills: Invocation 3d, Lie 4d, Persuade 3d Command Skills: Conjure 3d, Stability 4d  Miracles

(Heavy Armor 3hd) (Unconventional Move 1d+1wd [Defends, Useful]) : With a

 Chapter 4: Cabals & Factions  successful roll, she can meld herself with an oak tree (oaks onl y) and emerge from another oak anywhere within twenty yards. (Alternate Form, Oak 1d+1wd [Defends, Useful]) : She can roll to defend with this power by making herself more treelike and tough for a split second. She can also turn herself into a rooted oak fifty years old. Note: All Skills and Miracles in parentheses originate with the spirit she’s hosting, an oak archon. If her binding or access spell wears off or gets broken, she loses them. Spells

Baal’s Adornment, Baal’s Dagger, Chastisement, Pestilential Demand, Celestial Plea, Plea for Succor, Adoration of the ranslunar, Sweat of Grateful oil, Craft Eyes of the Underworld, Craft  alisman, Drive Forth the Malignant, Primary Entanglement, Oanhue Streamlined, Exile Ex Materia, Palace of the Flesh  History

Looking at Eden’s sensible shoes, earth-tone wardrobe, care worn face and unglamorous haircut, it ’s hard to imagine her  writhing her way through an orgy in a blood-soaked Catholic church before dousing the pews in gas and t ossing in a lit Bic.  What can you say? She was pretty wild in her twenties. During that period of experimentation she hooked up with a gentleman named August Frost with whom she was extremely sexually compatible and from whom she learned a fair lick of magic. But despite the orgies, the human sacrifices and the rituals that can only be termed “crimes against reality” she was never as numbly casual about it as her mentor. Sure, Eden was indisputably evil (she’s got Baal’s freaking Adornment, for Pete’s sake) but she was never as callous as Frost. So unlike August, she could repent, and she did. Not repent in the sense of having a come-to-Jesus revelation where the scales fell f rom her eyes and she cried and went to confession, but a morning when she woke up and thought “Aw nuts, the Cagliostro ritual ’s today and that guy with the terrible B.O. is flying in from California, I have to pick him up at the airport and he’s going to want me as his personal Ishtar to put the wind up August’s…” She realized, with a jolt, that being an evil sorceress had become as routine and dull to her as the data entry job she had so violently fled. So she parted ways with Frost, who was starting to get bored with her anyway (this was about the time that she started to lose what looks she had) went back to school for her Medieval Studies doctorate, and was ready to put her wand away for good when ROSCRO started up.

She joined, partly because she was curious, partly because it was a better shot at tenure, and partly because she wasn’t outstanding at her legitimate field, and she bet that she had a big head start in the magic academic game. She was right on all counts and might have died as peaceful a death as anyone who experiments with daemons can expect, except that her former lover blew up Austin and she ratted him out to the feds. Really, her decision to narc shows how far she’s progressed, ethically. She’d still kill someone, guilty or innocent, if she felt she had no better option. But now she’d investigate those options very carefully and feel bad about it afterwards. She just got the news that Frost’s out of jail. She’s freaked. She has a very strong presentiment that one of them is going to die, sooner rather than later, and that if it just comes down to whose conjuring is stronger, she’s toast. She’s looking for  weapons, ideally human ones who can take some initiative. If she manipulates some patsy into dying during an attack on Frost, she won’t feel bad at all: She’ll pin the blame squarely on August and totally ignore her own role in it. Her ethics aren’t that  evolved.

Sgt. Yolanda Marks, Code Name “Green Crush” aka “The Wisp”  Archet y pe: Mutant Permission: Power Teme (Force)  Allegiance: U.S. Army/Squadron A1 Circle:  Tird Stats

Body: 2d Coordination:  3d Sense:  3d Mind: 2d Charm: 5d Command: 4d Base Will: 9 Skills

Body Skills: Brawling 5d Coordination Skills: Driving (Car) 1d, Ranged Weapon (Rifle)

1d, Ranged Weapon (SMG) 1d Sense Skills: Empathy 3d, Perception 1d Mind Skills: Knowledge (Criminology) 2d, Language (English) 2d, actics 3d Charm Skills: Performance (Dance) 2d, Persuasion 2d Command Skills: Leadership 1d, Stability 1d

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 Chapter 4: Cabals & Factions   Mirac les

Flight 8d+1hd+1wd (Defends, Useful): Tanks to a power Flaw,

 Yolanda’s top speed is only 64 mph. Immunity (Impact Damage) 10hd : Blows, bullets, knives, strangulation—she has 10 Endless Interference dice against pretty much anything that has to physically touch her to do damage.  elekinesis 8d+1hd+1wd (Attack s, Defends, Useful): Tis power has Penetration 2. It is limited to touch range. Tis means she can touch a speeding tr uck and halt it in its tracks, or touch a light pole and force it to bend into a pretzel shape, but typically she uses it as if it was Hyperbody without the limitations of physics. Tus, she can pick up a car by the bumper without overbalancing or having the bumper tear off in her hand.  History

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 Yolanda had a full life, working as a universit y librarian by day and trying to break in as a professional dancer (ballet and tap) on the side. When she discovered her powers (after a jealous boyfriend tipped a bookshelf onto her) she did some vigilante crime-busting but found it unsatisfying, mostly because she had no way of finding the really significant events. She spent a lot of time flying around in a wispy green tutu and prying people out of the car wrecks she couldn’t prevent. After 9/11, she decided to come in out of the cold and join up. She worked with Paul Cohen for some time and likes him a lot. (Hey, he let her keep wearing that tutu. It looks great next to her black skin and showcases her slender dancer’s physique.) Recently, she’s been

promoted to the more public activities of Squadron A1 and profoundly misses Paul’s insight, both on and off the battlefield. Standing 5’3” in stocking feet and weighing less than a hundred pounds, Yolanda doesn’t look like she can punch through a cardboard box, let alone a cinderblock wall. Lately, she’s been disturbed to find that her muscles are losing definition and she’s gaining a bit of a spare tire, despite a lifestyle that’s well beyond “active”. Finding out that her muscles are atrophying because her  K power has grown to the point that she’s now using it to pick up coffee cups and turn steering wheels could give her a nasty psychological shock. If she doesn’t find a solution to the problem, she could have serious health problems, eventually degenerating into either an anorexic waif or a pudgy torso with wasted arms and legs, all held together by telekinesis. At Black Five, Yolanda is a brave, intelligent and articulate woman faced with a tough health crisis. As Blackness drops, she becomes more self-absorbed, vain and callous towards others’ problems.

 Yevgeny Mishkin  Archet y pe: None Permission: None  Allegiance: Direktiva Nul Circle:  Tird Stats

Body: 1d

 Chapter 4: Cabals & Factions  Coordination:  1d Sense:  1d Mind: 3d Charm:  4d Command:  2d Base Will: 6 Skills

Body Skills: Endurance 1d Coordination Skills: Dodge 2d, Ranged Weapon (Rifle) 2d,

Ranged Weapon (Rocket Launcher) 2d Sense Skills: Empathy 1d, Perception 2d Mind Skills: Knowledge (Cryptology) 2d, Knowledge (Demolitions) 1d, Knowledge (Forgery) 1d, Language (English) 1d, Language (German) 1d, Spellcraft 2d, Spiritwise 3d Command Skills: Leadership 1d, Stability 2d Charm Skills: Invocation 4d Spells

Beseech the Unyielding Watchman, Bind the Mind and Loose It, Empires Collapse, Boundary of the Infinitesimal Point, Adoration of the ranslunar, Sumptuous Feast of the Angels, Astral Domicile, Exile Ex Materia, Drive Forth the Malignant, Expulsion of Device, Primary Entanglement, Astral Escutcheon  History

 Yevgeny got drunk in Cairo the night the Pope was stabbed. He got drunk in Bonn the day Ronald Reagan lost an arm to a lunatic with heat vision and a Jodie Foster fixation. He got drunk in Berlin the day the wall came down and in Paris on 9/11. Other than that, he’s mostly been sober since 1966. Yevgeny has seen too much in too many years and has been part of it or has known who’s really responsible, who’s really benefitting and who’s really taking it up the ass, for so long that any instinct he had for good and evil is utterl y worn away. He understands why most people would find it repugnant to torture a Sunni while pretending to be Shia in order to steel the Sunni’s resolve to resist until his last breath. He can follow the logic that says society needs to restrict people from murder, robbery, blackmail, bribery, intentional maiming, forgery, smuggling and all the other things he’s done over the years, but he no longer  feels  it. Yevgeny rarely feels much of anything, except  when some unique global balls-up floats across the headlines.  Ten he feels the desire for a series of strong drinks. Everyone Mishkin ever loved has died, every ideal he believed in has been soiled, and everything that held h is loyalty

has dissolved, except Direktiva Nul. Tey’re the only people h e can talk to, the only ones with whom simple communication isn’t too laborious to merit the effort, the only slender remaining reason to his slenderly remaining existence. He continues to fight, not out of any urge to defend mankind, not from dut y or guilt, but simply because Nul provides a counterweight to the inertia that would otherwise claim him. One day, when he’s too tired even for that and he wil l sit down on a bench in Gorky Park and die. But until that t ime he pursues the Direktiva’s missions, doggedly, guiltlessly, with a devotion that would be mad, were his mind not already so far past conventional definitions of sanity.

Christina Streeter   Archet y pe: Mutant Permission: Power Teme (magical pony girl)  Allegiance: School of the American Future Circle:  Tird Stats

Body: 1d [+9d] Coordination:  1d [+4d+1wd] Sense:  2d Mind: 2d Charm: 2d Command: 1d [+5] Base Will: 6 Skills

Body Skills: Athletics 1d, Endurance 2d Coordination Skills: none Sense Skills: none Mind Skills: none Charm Skills: Lie 3d Command Skills: none  Miracles

 Alternate Form (Horse) 1d+1wd : When her power kicks in,

she turns into a horse. She cannot speak in t his form. All the Stat boosts in parentheses are attached to her horse shape. It’s named “rusty.” Sidekick (“Janie”) 1d+1wd: Janie is a figment of Christina’s imagination, heavily modeled on unrealistic heroines f rom children’s books and movies. Heavy Armor 4hd: Tis is attached to her horse form. Heavy Armor 8hd: Tis is attached to Janie.  Aces 1d+1wd : Tis is attached to Janie. It costs her no Willpower.  Jinx 5d: Tis is attached to Janie. It costs her no Willpower.

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 Chapter 4: Cabals & Factions   History

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 Te School of the American Future’s newest student is also one of its youngest and, potentially, one of its most powerful. Shame she’s got more issues with her childhood than th e entire run of Parenting  magazine. Christina Streeter was five years old when she vanished from her family home in a Seattle suburb. Best guess of the police was that she was snatched out of her home during naptime. Christina claims she doesn’t remember anything until Janie went into a sto re in the suburbs of Vancouver to get some apples for her horse and trashed the place after a hardass cashier tried to nab her for shoplifting. Weird reports of a girl and her horse started surfacing all around the area. People said  Janie found missing pets for them, rescued a little boy from drowning and helped get someone out of a car wreck. She also stole a whole lotta toys, clothes and groceries. Tings got bad when the police tried to find her. Teir constant inability to out-maneuver one mounted little girl, apparently about ten, was making them a laughingstock until a social worker who’d seen one mutant’s power go active started to suspect something. He was already an avid hiker, and when he met her on the trail he pretended to be lost. Janie led him back to civilization and he asked her to let him repay her with ice cream. She said she’d been warned about accepting treats from strange men. He nodded and said maybe he’d see her again. Te next time, he brought a woman with him, a co-worker.  Janie told them that she was fine, but that she’d met another girl, “a little one” who might need help. But she still wasn’t completely trusting. Te third time, they took a police matron in a squad car and came back with Christina Streeter, dirty, disheveled, carrying half a dozen low-grade ailments and dressed in garish, clashing clothing stolen for her by Janie. Nobody knows what happened to her while she was gone, or how she got from Seattle to Vancouver. Nobody knows if she left the house herself when her powers kicked in, or whether she was kidnapped and then escaped. She has not manifested her powers since reuniting with her parents. No one suspects that she’s actually the horse, not the little girl. She starts at American Future in the fall, right after turning ten. She’s really scared.

Heather Wells  Archet y pe: Mutant Permission: Power Teme (fire)  Allegiance: School of the American Future Circle:  Tird Stats

Body: 2d Coordination:  3d Sense:  2d Mind: 2d Charm: 4d Command: 3d Base Will: 7 Skills

Body Skills: Athletics 1d, Endurance 1d Coordination Skills: Driving (Car) 1d, Pilot (Sailboat) 1d,

Riding (Horse) 2d Sense Skills: Empathy 2d, Perception 2d Mind Skills: Knowledge (Computer Hardware) 2d, Knowledge (Computer Software) 2d Charm Skills: Lie 3d, Performance (Dance) 2d, Persuasion 3d Command Skills: none  Miracles

Immune (emperature Extremes) 1 0hd Harm (Fire) 7d+1hd+1wd (Attacks, Useful): Tis power has

the Obvious flaw, Spray 1, the Burn extra, and it does a total of  W+3K, W+4S in damage.  History

She’s a good-looking girl, Heather Wells: dark hair and full lips and sultry. Good dancer. Looks ’70s retro-flirty in her favorite mirrored sunglasses. Almost killed about a hundred people when some jackhole slipped her a roofie during the high school ski trip. In one sense, she’s lucky she doesn’t remember ashing him, setting a maintenance shed on fire, then a stand of trees near the shed, and then causing a kind of combination flood/avalanche/mudslide by melting a couple feet of powder off the top of the mountain. Heather tried to stay in her own high school (she was captain of the dance squad!) but t hat lasted about a week before she grudgingly went off to the School of the American Future. She had a bad attitude since day one. She smokes, she’s sarcastic, she backchats the teachers and she’s fast becoming the most popular among the school’s substantial population of cranky outcasts with chips on their shoulders. Right now, Heather is in full-bore defiance mode of any

 Chapter 4: Cabals & Factions  Sgt. Bailey Wolfe, Code Name “Resource Five” aka “Distortion”  Archet y pe: Mutant Permission: One Power  Allegiance: U.S. Army/Squadron A1 Circle:  Tird Stats

Body: 3d Coordination:  3d Sense:  3d Mind: 3d Charm: 3d Command: 3d Base Will: 6 Skills

Body Skills: Athletics 2d, Brawling 3d, Endurance 2d Coordination Skills: Driving (Car) 1d, Driving (Motorcycle)

3d, Lockpicking 3d, Stealth 3d, Ranged Weapon (Grenade) 2d, Ranged Weapon (Pistol) 3d, Ranged Weapon (Rocket Launcher) 2d Sense Skills: Empathy 2d, Perception 3d Mind Skills: Knowledge (Demolitions) 2d, Knowledge (Computer Software) 1d, Knowledge (Criminology) 1d, Knowledge (Cryptolog y) 1d, Knowledge (Food Stylist) 2d, Language (Spanish) 1d, Security Systems 3d Charm Skills: Lie 3d Command Skills: Stability 3d  Miracles

 A World Gone Mad 8d +1hd+1wd (Defends, Useful): No one,

and all authority. Indeed, resistance is her first instinct whenever anyone dares to be enthusiastic or optimistic in her presence. She desperately hopes that because she chooses to be a real bitch all the time, it means she can, like, choose . Tat she’s in control. Tat she’s not about to snap and start emitting burning  whips of flame again. (Tose fiery tentacles were beautiful, like the best Fourth of July ever.) Heather turns eighteen next week.

including Bailey himself, knows what ’s going on when he activates his power. Te observed phenomena include hallucinatory visual distortions, deafening grinding sounds, color shifts, disorientation, and disruptions of magnetic media.  What he’s actually doing is rotating some of the seven normally hidden crumpled superstring dimensions through the three spatial dimensions human beings can observe. While moving through these altered dimensions, he can go through solid matter (around it, technically, but it amounts to the same thing) which means that when he punches you in the gut, he can bypass skin and bone and hit t he inside of your stomach. Only Bailey can perceive clearly or navigate easily within the distortion field. When he rolls the pool, the effect lasts for a number of rounds equal to the Height of the roll. On the first round, he can use his activation set as Gobble Dice. For the

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 Chapter 4: Cabals & Factions  rest of the time the field is up, it inflicts Penalty Dice to all dice pools except Bailey ’s. Te Penalty is equal to the Width of the activation roll. Te field extends ten yards out f rom Bailey for every point of Height in his roll. Body Stat Extra—Penetration 8: Tis only works on targets  who are within his distortion field, and only applies to mundane physical attacks launched by Bailey h imself. Insubstantial 5d+wd (Defends, Useful) : Tis is non-attacking insubstantiality, and it only works while B ailey is in his distortion field.  History

Bailey Wolfe comes from a lower-middle-class American family with the typical levels of mistrust, dysfunction and miscommunication. He went to chef school, got okay grades, and wound up as a food stylist. Tat is, he made food look really beautiful for advertising photos, V commercial shoots, menu covers and the like. It wasn’t a great living but he was hoping to primp food for movies after moving to Los Angeles.

Characters: The Fourth Circle

 130   Jorge Barceló  Archet y pe: None Permission: None

 Allegiance: Xolotl Cartel Circle:  Fourth Stats

Body: 1d Coordination:  2d Sense:  3d Mind: 4d Charm:  4d Command:  5d Base Will: 9 Skills

Body Skills: Endurance 3d Coordination Skills: Dodge 2d, Ranged Weapon (Handgun) 1d Sense Skills: Empathy 3d, Perception 2d Mind Skills: Language (English) 3d, Language (German) 1d,

Language (Russian) 1d, Streetwise 2d Command Skills: Intimidation 3d, Leadership 2d, Stability 2d Charm Skills: none

Spells

Penetrate the Abyssal Well, he Philosopher’s Statue, Incarnate the Duke of Shadows, Baal’s Blade, Baal’s Adornment, Defense of the Blasphemous Amulet, Invoke the Angel of Greed, Fortune Smiles, Revenge Sevenfold Upon One Who Has Wounded Me, Sweat of Grateful oil, Sumptuous Feast of the Angels, Craft alisman, Drive Forth the Malignant, Smudge the Circle  History

 Jorge blew it. It was five years ago and the leaders of the WO  were in Cancun, Mexico, Jorge’s home country, so he didn’t need a passport to get close to them. Sure, the police were on the lookout for him, what with the circumstantial evidence linking him to the Xolotis, but they had their hands full with terrorists and cultists who’d been careless or weak enough to get caught. It was all planned. Four cells at four separate locations. First Lord War would appear and begin wreaking havoc. Ten the Dark Warden and the Razor of Empires would be summoned simultaneously at the other end of the city, aiding one another as they sowed panic and taxed t he responders beyond capacity. Only then, at the moment of greatest chaos, would  Jorge bring the Duke of Shadows forth to collect the heads of the world’s economic guardians. Jorge choked. Lord War got sent back beyond by some knowledgeable enchanter before its body count could even app roach triple digits. Te Warden and the Razor went toe to toe with some powerful European and American mutants. Tey took down two of them, along with about fifty soldiers and policemen and bystanders, but it was nothing like what the Xolotis had hoped. But all could have been well if Jorge had just managed to correctly summon the Duke. No one blames Jorge for what happened, mostly because he’s the only survivor and his version is that two of his aides betrayed him to the Chinese before he could attempt the ritual. Born into the cult, anointed as sacred to the god before he could even speak, Jorge is one of the highest of their high priests. He lives so that others might die for Xolotl and the idea of any other life is completely alien to him. He has been training for sixty years to bring human civilization crashing down in ruin.  Yet when he had the chance, he failed. Jorge can’t forgive himself, and he punishes everyone he can in lieu of himself. But he has sworn that he’ ll die before failing at another such oppor tunity.

 Chh a p t e r 4 : C a b a l s & F a c t i o n s   C Dr. August Frost  pe: Conduit  Archet y pe: Permission: Hyperstats  Allegiance  Alle giance:: People for Religious Freedom Circle:  Fourth Stats

Body: 3d Coordination:  3d Sense:  3d Mind: 5d Charm:  6d+1wd Command:  5d Base Will: 12 Skills

Body Skills: Athletics 1d, Brawling 1d, Endurance 4d, Melee

 Weapon (Knife) (Knif e) 2d

a spirit on the inside, he was able to kill it and absorb its superhuman levels of Charm. When he finally got to testify on appeal, he easily demolished the case against him. Now he’s out, he’s decrying the treatment he received at the hands of the government, he’s on a speaking tour funded by PRF, and he’s plotting revenge against Paul Cohen, Multiple Meg, and Dr. Eden Majors , the three people he blames most for his arrest. He also knows there was some federal sorcerer in volved,  volved , and when he finds out who wh o that tha t is, he plans p lans to t o torment tor ment and kill that person as well. Next year, he plans to run for president p resident of PRF. He thinks it could serve nicely as a road to becoming Governor of a st ate, or a Senator or… well, who knows? Dr. Frost is hosting the Razor of Empires. His familiars include the Slayer of Secrets and t he Aspect of the Infinite Circumference.

Coordination Skills: Dodge 3d, Ranged Weapon (Pistol) 1d,

Dr. Miles Jefferson

Stealth 2d

 Archet y pe: pe: None

Sense Skills: Empathy 3d

Permission: None

Mind Skills: First Aid 1d, Knowledge (Archaeology) 4d, Spell-

 Allegiance  Alle giance:: ROSCRO

craft 5d, Spirit L ore 5d, Language (German) 1d, Language (Greek) 1d, Language (Latin) 1d, Language (Sanskrit) 1d, Language (Spanish) 1d Charm Skills: Invocation 5d, Lie 2d, Persuasion 2d Command Skills:  Conjure 5d, Interrogation 1d, Intimidation 1d, Stability 5d

Circle:  Fourth Stats

Body: 2d Coordination:  2d Sense:  2d Mind: 4d

Spells

Charm: 5d

(Conjuring) Chastisement, Baal’s Dagger, Baal’s Blade, Unveiling, Drive Forth the Malignant, Penetrate the Abyssal Well, Conjure the Slayer o f Secrets, Primary Entanglement, Inform Otherlife, Conjure Astral Alarm, Abjuration of Form (Invocation) Abjuring Demarcation, Celestial Plea, Adoration of the ranslunar, Sweat of Grateful oil, Empires Collapse, Fortune Smiles

Command: 4d

 History  Histo ry

Dr. August Frost unleashed a powerful demon on Austin, exas, mainly because he could. A sociopath who values knowledge only , he was arrested, framed for the crime he actually committed  (since the evidence was so shaky) and sent away to one of those “no clothing, no paper, no nothing” sorcerer jails, where he languished in impotent fury for three years while his associates on the outside worked to get a spirit to him and to free him through legal maneuvers. Tey succeeded. Not only did Dr. Frost get the aid of

Base Will: 9 Skills

Body Skills: Endurance 3d Coordination Skills:  Dodge 2d Sense Skills: None—the guy’s the classic absentminded profes-

sor, especially when he has his sunglasses on. Mind Skills: Knowledge (Academia) 3d, Knowledge (Mathematics) 4d, Language (Ancient eutonic Runes) 1d, Language (French) 1d, Language (Greek) 1d, Language (Hebrew) 1d, Language (Latin) 1d Charm Skills: Invocation 4d, Persuasion 2d Command Skills: Conjure 3d, Stability 3d Spells

Celestial Plea, Plea for Succor, Implore the Blade o f Justice, Sumptuous Feast of the Angels, Sweat of Grateful oil, oil, Adoration of the ranslunar, Stable Cancellation Process,

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 Chh a p t e r 4 : C a b a l s & F a c t i o n s   C Craft alisman, Penetrate the Abyssal Well, Summon the Slayer of Secrets, Baal’s Blade, Relentless Discipline, Defense of the Blasphemous Bl asphemous Amulet, Vigilant Idol, Drive Forth the Malignant, Smudge the Circle, Te Miles Jefferson Equation (naturally), Phlactery of Prophylaxis, Craft Eyes of the Ot her world,  worl d, Inform Otherlife, Other life, Othernaut Other naut Explor E xploration ation Procedure, Te Shuddering Treshold  History  Histo ry

 132 

No one would’ve expected ROSCRO’s ROSCRO’s thundering intellectual patriarch to emerge from northern Florida, the son of a schoolteacher and a real estate agent. But from the first time he stumbled across a grimoire in a Pensacola pawn shop, he’s  just  gotten it . He’s got a talent for the mathematics of enchantment, and has led the buzzcut rationalist faction of ROSCRO practically since its fo rmation. Since the age of 19 he’s been at a college, either studying or t eaching, and and he’s now in his early fifties. (Te only reason he doesn’t doesn’t have the Streetwise Skill is that there’s no provision for negative numbers.) A proud, sometimes prickly and forbidding personality, Miles is fiercely loyal to his friends, his family, and his ideals.  Te few times they’ve they ’ve come into conflict, lik e when he had to eject his brightest colleague, August August Frost, from the program at the Sorbonne, it has torn him up. His lack of worldliness doesn’t make Miles a fool, however. however. As a ROSCRO luminary, he has been called in for serious occult outbreaks everywhere from ibet to Egypt to the Amazon and the Arctic Circle. Tose who know him only as the t he gruff, puttering professor who makes the pompous speeches at faculty meetings would be shocked to see hi m swing into action against the other worldly. Tere are Direktiva Nul agents who admire him. Not that Miles has any idea.

Characters: The Fifth Circle  Annika  Anni ka Hao Ha o

Mind: 4d

pe: Mutant  Archet y pe:

Charm: 5d

Permission: Power Teme (flawless)

Command: 4d

 Allegiance  Alle giance:: Next Iteration

Base Will: 9

Circle:  Fifth

Skills

Stats

Body Skills: Athletics 3d, Brawling 4d, Endurance 2d, Melee

Body: 4d+3hd+2wd

 Weapon (Sword) (Swo rd) 4d

Coordination:  10d

Coordination Skills:  Dodge 5d, Driving (Car) 2d, Lockpicking

Sense:  7d

1d, Pilot (Airplane) 1d, Ranged Weapon (Bow) 1d, Ranged  Weapon (Pist ol) 4d, 4d , Stealth 4d

 Chh a p t e r 4 : C a b a l s & F a c t i o n s   C

Perception 1wd, Scrutiny 3hd Sense Skills: Empathy 5d, Perception Mind Skills: First Aid 3d, Knowledge (Business) 5d, Language

(English) 1d, Language (Hindi) 1d, Language (Cantonese) 1d, Language (German) 1d, Medicine 2d, Navigation 1d, Street wise 3d, 3d , actics actics 4d Command Skills:  Interrogation 3d, Intimidation 5d, Leadership 3d, Performance (Acting) 4d, Stability 5d Charm Skills: Lie 3d, Persuasion 4d  Mirac les

None  History  Histo ry

 When Annika was w as eight, eigh t, she was the pretties pr ettiestt girl gir l in the refugee camp. When she was twelve, her mutations blossomed fully, allowing her to escape the man who had her that  year. By seventeen, sevent een, she was in her first Boll B ollywood ywood movie. By twenty-two, she starred in her first Hong Kong action flick. She founded Hao International Consulting and Logistics when she  was twentyt wenty-eight. eight. HICaL HIC aL cracked crac ked the t he Fortune Fort une 500 last l ast year, yea r,  when she s he turned tur ned thirty th irty-three. -three. She Sh e sits on the board of o f directors direc tors for Mutagenet Labs, is stunningly beautiful and articulate, prefers to be with men who won’t die if she accidentally engages those 3hd in Body dur ing a moment of passion, and regards unmutated human beings as cattle fit only to be manipulated, led for gain, and used for yield. She has revealed these views to exactly three other people, all of whom share them, all of whom she can blackmail, disgrace and discredit if needed.

Maj. Rick Rodgers, Code Name “The One” pe: Mutant  Archet y pe: Permission: Power Teme (Light), Power Teme (Indestructible)  Allegiance  Alle giance:: U.S. Army/Squadron A1 Circle:  Fifth Stats

Body: 4d Coordination:  4d Sense:  4d Mind: 2d Charm: 4d Command: 4d Base Will: 8 Skills

Body Skills: Athletics 4d, Brawling 2d, Endurance 1wd Coordination Skills: Stealth 2d, Ranged Weapon Weapon (Pistol) 2d,

Ranged Weapon (Rifle) 1d Sense Skills: Empathy 1d Mind Skills: Language (Arabic) 1d, Language (Spanish) 2d Charm Skills:  Lie 1d Command Skills: Leadership 3d, Stability 3d  Miracles  Mirac les

Control (Light) 6d+1hd+1wd (Defends, Useful): He can use

it to change the colors of objects, raise or lower levels of illumination and disperse light-based attacks like lasers o r flash grenades. When relaxed, he usually has his skin mottl ed with

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 Chapter 4: Cabals & Factions  patterns of red, while and blue swirls. He defends with this power by adopting the colors of his surroundings like a chameleon, moving shadows around, or by projecting brief images (like a movie projected onto whatever surface he’s changing). Create (Light) 6d+1hd+1wd (Attacks, Useful): All the stuff he can defend against by controlling light, he can attack with by creating it. He can’t manage coherent holograms, but he prefers lasers anyhow.  X-Ray Blast 1d+1hd+1wd: Tis is a Harm power with the flaws Full Power Only and Willpower Cost. It has the extras Engulfs (so it damages every hit location equally) and Non Physical (so it can’t be reduced by armor). People who get hit with this look evenly cooked all the way through and also suffer from cellular degeneration thanks to the brief but intense radioactivity. Immunity (Everything) 5hd Extra ough 5hd Regeneration 2hd: He heals 1S and 1K every round.

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 History

Rick has always been “the one,” even before his powers manifested. A star athlete, Homecoming King, first son of a doctor and an attorney, Rick is the all-American Alpha Achiever writ large. When he graduated f rom the School of the American Future there was a fierce bidding war to hire him, and Uncle Sam spent the most. Rick has a fan club, an agent, he’s got the rank of major and an ego th at would border on megalomania in anyone who hadn’t handily beaten up an Iraqi Republican Guard tank unit singlehandedly. In Black Five, Rick would be the kind of moral paragon that develops when someone has no t raumas and tragedies to  warp him away from essential human decency. At lower Black levels, Rick’s privilege, sense of entitlement and ego push him farther and farther from the ability to understand that anyone might disagree with him or refuse him anything he wants. Around Black Tree he becomes easily capable of date rape, not out of malice, but out of an arrogant delusion that no one could say no to him and mean it.

  5  r    e   t   p  s  S  t  r   i  d  e   C  a  h  d  a   o  w

 S  h   s   U   d   n   i   B  e  h            the tales of superhumans. Gilgamesh seeks the flower of immortality from a mysterious being older than the ocean; Jason and the Argonauts sail to Colchis and discover the sorceries of Medea; Beowulf tears the arm off of Grendel, and uncovers an eldritch treasure cursed by an unquiet shade. And these tales may well be true. Both magic and mutation go as far back as the archaeological record exists. Te palace of Knossos simply cannot have been built without Hyperstrength; Mussolini’s stregoni  used Etruscan thunder-plates excavated from pre-Roman tumuli with hardly a stutter. Tere are stories of Imperial German armies salting and sacking Borgia Rome, of Cotton Mather hanging the “philosophers” at Salem, of the Inquisition burning magicians at the stake indiscriminately, for witchcraft if they confessed to demon-wielding, and for heresy if they did not. Magicians of all

sorts stopped leaving footprints in the records. Reliable evidence of mutation is even harder to come by than likely evidence of magic. Scholars can guess that t he near-incest of the Hapsburgs (and the actual incest of the Egyptian pharaohs) might have been attempts to maximize any Hypergenes in the pool. Tey can point to stories of a Crusader knight who could hurl larger rocks than any trebuchet, or of Buddhist monks who could freeze water with a touch, but such tales were told, often by court hist orians, of every possible figure from Alexander the Great to Napoleon. (Te sorting problem isn’t made any easier by the tendency of premodern chroniclers, and pre-modern mutants, to call such feats “magic.”) Te historical consensus, however, is that before the 19th century, when child mortality plummeted and the surviving kids’ nutritional intake skyrocketed, superhumanism was as rare as magic was hidden.

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 Chapter 5: Shadows Stride Behind Us  The Past is Prologue

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So what, you may ask, does any of this have to do with the price of wolfsbane in Budapest? Well, for starters, if it  weren’t for the existence of magic, nobody would want to buy much wolfsbane. And if magic hadn’t been suspect for ages,  you wouldn’t have to buy it on the gray market, in Budapest or Beijing or Bakersfield. Te history of the world affects its present state. What has gone before shapes what goes on now, and  what is to come. Te rest of this chapter sets out the big picture of the Grim War  setting histor y since about 1850, as concisely as possible. Once it maps out a given era, we change gears a little bit. For each era, in this “Past is Prologue” section, we list some general trends and specific scenarios that the sorcerous and super history of that era echoes or lingers into the present of the Grim War  setting. You can just use these historical foundations as set dressing, or throwaway detail, or McGuffins to get modern ad ventures going. Alternately, you can drive the whole game with the conflicts between the insufficiently dead hand of t he past and the will of the modern heroes, or between the noble ideals of previous generations and the present that has corrupted them, with the heroes fighting for a dream that they refuse to consign to the ashes.

History in Masks By now, you will have noticed that the histor y in the world of Grim War   is an alternate history. It’s not quite a “standard”

alternate. It doesn’t spring from any single historical pivot point, and it do esn’t diverge as much as strict historical logic might indicate. It’s a “close par allel,” in which we minimize new history and maximize new flavor. We aim to hit that sweet spot where players and GMs can have adventures in any era without having to go back and make up a bunch of new  history books. But in every era, mutan ts and magic add

a whole lot of bright shiny colored hooks to grab without having to go back and read a whole bunch of old   history books. In short, don’t worry about getting the history exactly right: By an astonishing coincidence, adding superheroes and necromancy to our history precisely replicates all the historical movies you half-remember, or that one novel you read, or the war comics you collected, or stuff you lifted out of some other historical game book. When you’re playing Grim War  in a past decade, the only wrong  history is boring 

history. What If?

If the standard Grim War   world is too close a parallel, we’ve sidebarred some “alternate alternate histories”

The Past is Present

throughout this section, under the “What If?” heading. Set

History doesn’t have to stay history, of course. You can build your Grim War  game around any year, any event, any place that grabs your interest. Hurl lightning as superhuman Secret Servicemen, keeping eddy Roosevelt safe from mutant anarchists and the Kaiser’s tame theurges! Whisper across the Veil as Leopard Man witches in 1950s Kenya, conspiring for African liberation while you pit British imperialists and Soviet sorcerers against each other! Don’t worry if your new history diverges from ours. We broke it first, after all. Find something fun, or dark, or bloody, or all three, and make it your own.  o help with that, the “Past is Present ” section in the following historical-era writeups presents some specific seeds and sparks for each of four general campaign t ypes. Any of them might feature mages, mutants, or some combination thereof; all of them overlap to some extent.

a campaign in one of them, or use them as inspiration for

Hell’s Kitchen Tis heading in each writeup covers “street level” stories, featuring criminals and cop s, gangs and cabals, markets black and gray. Key themes include anonymity (with or without

your own departures. If you’re feeling extremely ambitious, go for that old-school DC Uni verse feel: add an “Eart h-Two” or a “mirror universe” onto the default Grim War  world. Perhaps a dimensional gate was torn open by some mighty Archon of Stillborn Dreams, or by the Philadelphia Experiment, or by the West Virginia Mothman. And now, whenever “now” is, a crisis builds …

masks), corruption (demonic or mort al), and, perhaps paradoxically, a kind of “Arabian Nights” sense of wonder and infinite possibility. Tere are a million stories in the naked city, after all. Tis campaign type occurs where the underground, the underworld, and the nether realms intersect. Heroes do good at the local precinct and parish l evel as social workers or vigilance committees. Tey’re walking the alleys, not running the world. But then again, whoever runs L ondon’s or Moscow’s street life could have their hooks in the people who do run the world.

 Chapter 5: Shadows Stride Behind Us  Cape and Dagger  Tis heading covers “secret histories,” especially stories of espionage and conspiracy. From the sophisticated character studies and intricate plots of a John Le Carré or a Charles McCarry novel to the slam-bang action of a pot-boiling airport thriller, these adventures emphasize the action behind the scenes, beneath the headlines, and below the surface. As such, they create an implicit contrast between the “official version” and the “real truth”; lies, hypocrisy, betrayal, and double-crosses run rife in such tales. It’s possible to tell “Cape and Dagger” stories at Black 4 or 5, by the Wild alents  scale, but the genre’s tropes point grayward. Heroes might be actual intelligence agents, Hitchcockian innocents toppled into strangeness, conspirators (or anti-conspirators) willing or unwilling, or Mack Bolan-style crusaders in a secret war. Te threads they follow might lead anywhere, except back out of the labyrinth.

 World’s Finest Adventures If George Smiley, or at best James Bond, wear the “Cape and Dagger,” the “World’s Finest Adventures” happen to Indiana Jones or Doc Savage. Here are tales of brave daredevils and bold seekers of marvels. Tese are “globe-trotting” stories featuring archaeologists and anthropologists, oilmen and ecologists, photojournalists and salvage crews, and anyone else who gets into trouble somewhere you have to hit the atlas to find. Key themes include peril ( physical and metaphysical), action and speed, and the frisson of t he exotic and the sheerly strange. Nobody (perhaps not even the GM) should know what could happen next. Tis campaign type occurs in bright tropic sunlight and stark Stygian shadows, in the blank spots on the map or against towering ruined monuments. Heroes might  work for an eccentric billionaire, a multinational charity or corporation, or for an ancient cabal of Unknown Masters. Tey smite mad scientists, Hyper-rogues, unburied demon-gods, or  would-be warlords without particular concern for politics or plausibility. Tis, in Wild alents  terms, is where the characters can dive into the Blue.

 Weird War Stories What these adventures have in common is the War,  whether the specific battlefield is Vicksburg, Verdun, or Vietnam. Tey might be grim tales of desperate survival and thousand-yard stares, or thrilling wonder stories of overcoming enemy hordes and changing the course of the war. Key themes

include vast scope (whether the heroes feel like insignificant pawns or like linchpins of history), relentless violence (physical and moral), and the physical world of mud and blood. War stories might ask tactical questions or pose psychological challenges, or both. Heroes are more likely to be irregulars such as commandos or special forces rather than common grunts, but a barracks story or “dogfoot ’s eye view” of the mystical or metahuman goings-on might yield role-playing rewards for committed players. o say nothing of the sheer satisfaction of taking down an enemy cape with a well-aimed shell, or of calling in air strikes onto some necromancer’s summoning session.

Superman and Supernature “Nor should we imagine that man has attained his  f inal form, as the process of variations continues to this day and will necessarily continue for generation upon generation into the future. Such differentiations may be slight, even invisible alterations of cellular bodies, or they may be of such divergence and of such obvious degree as to achieve specific notoriety, such as those in the well-known cases of Richard readiwell (the so-called “Hercules of the Crimea”), the Spaniard  Juan Ordonez, or Mrs. Gerald Sanders of Iowa City, in the United States. Many such incidences of markedly  favorable characteristics manifesting in individual men can be adduced by Professor Broca and other naturalists,  providing the clearest possible illustration of a species in the process of improvement, and one in which we have the clearest possible interest.”  —Charles Darwin, he Divergence of Man On the surface, the nineteenth century seemed to begin much as every other one had: magic was suppressed (and concomitantly hid itself ), and mutation was rare. But larger forces were  working to change both conditions. Te anti-clerical enthusiasm of the French Revolution, and the Romantic reaction to the dry skepticism of the Enlightenment, gave magic a higher profile in Europe than it had enjoyed since the Hapsburg destruction of the Rosicrucian kingdom of Bohemia in 1619. Publishers dared the censors by printing grimoires: Barrett’s Celestial Intelligencer  in 1801 and Levi’s Doctrine and Ritual of

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 Chapter 5: Shadows Stride Behind Us   Magic  in 1855 bracketed a steady increase in magical awareness.

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At the same time, cholera outbreaks and industrialization drove new public sanitation measures that swelled Europe’s birthrate, increasing the mutation survival pool. Scientists started t o pay attention to the “wonder youths” of the 1840s, cataloging and comparing across populations. One of the most attentive savants was Charles Darwin, searching for a mechanism to explain changes in species. In Te Origin of Species  in 1859, Darwin devoted only a few paragraphs to the “New Men,” proposing that many now-separate species might have begun as “New Birds” or “New Flowers,” mutations of prior types. But it was enough to spread the concept of mutation, as a beneficial scientific process distinct from uncomfortable (and possibly evil) magic, to every corner of the Western world. America, which already had a better-fed, healthier populace than any other nation, conveniently fought a massive Civil War right after Darwin’s book hit. Enough soldiers went through enough hell that a measurable population of mutants emerged under scrutiny for the first time in recorded history. “Stonewall” Jackson, the general no bullet could touch, was the most famous of the New Men, the irony of his death from a gangrenous leg, broken when his own men accidentally shot his horse in the dark, only cemented his legend. In a growing feedback loop, the visible emergence of so many New Men in the 1860s drove increasing acceptance of

Darwin’s theory of evolution. Darwin’s book also shook the pillars of organized religion, removing a major social obstacle to the study of magic by both scientists and S piritualists (and by Spiritualist scientists such as Sir W illiam Crookes). he most famous magical circle in this era was the heosophist movement, led by a channeler and spirit contactee named Helena Blavatsky.  Teosophist cosmology, with its steadily evolving rings of root races, was intriguingly Darwinian. Perhaps more importantly in political terms, it maintained that India was both the magical and spiritual center of mankind. In 1875, the Teosophical Society published, in both L ondon and Calcutta, what Blavatsky claimed were transcripts of revelations by the archon Kuthumi, complete with working spells. Te Disraeli ministry  was caught flat-footed by this open defiance of the W itchcraft Act, and by the increasing nationalist protests in India apparently sparked by the Teosophist demonstrations of Indian magic. Disraeli’s fall in 1877 essentially ended for 70 years any British governmental attempt to suppress magic. Following Britain’s lead, the European great powers moved gingerly toward trying to control magic within their borders, harvest any promising artifacts or magical lore from their colonial empires, and explore the possibilities of sorcery for national aggrandizement and scientific learning.

What If? Masks and the Redcoat Death Around 1730 in our histor y, the British colonies o f America became the best-fed population in the world. In this alternate, that’s enough of a tipping point that when the Revolution comes, it comes with a fresh “Great Awakening” of American “Exceptionals.” The players might even be the bravest and the boldest of all, a black-powder Justice Society battling the hated British and the occasional masked Tory supervillain. Add another layer to the mix: the infamous Hell-Fire Club of noble British orgiasts is actually a magical cabal, and their Agents-in-Extraordinary use sorcery t o choke American rebellion in its crib. Of course, in our history, Benjamin Franklin was a member of the Hell-Fire Club, as were major Parliamentary opponents of King George III. Who exactly is on whose side? And who says a bunch of slave-owning rabble is any more legitimate just because some of them can shoot fire out of their hands? A sympathetic British or Tory PC group might work with slaves and Indians, neither of whom had any great fondness for American independence, to awaken conjure-magic and Indian shamanism to save the Americans from themselves. This can be a riff on the “mutants vs. magi” war-story game, or an opportunity to let the PCs set the course of human events. In a low-Red game, they might even conquer Canada or add a slave revolution to the mix, and alter the war, and America, for good or ill. The Revolution might also be a heroic backstory for later-era games, a flashback for scions of heroic lineages, or a stop on time-travel adventures. Of course, any of the historical settings suggested throughout this chapter can serve any of these three purposes.

 Chapter 5: Shadows Stride Behind Us  The Past is Prologue • In the 21st century, much of Next Iteration’s rhetoric is hyper-

Darwinist, which makes them no f riends on the American religious right, even among those few Evangelicals who don’t believe that mutant powers are the Devil’s lure. • Evolutionary biol ogists: ose working for Mutagenet and

those in mainstream academe still consult the massive archive on the Victorian-era New Men o f all nations assembled by Darwin and his colleagues. So does the Royal Army, which keeps tabs on the New Men’s descendants in Britain, with an eye toward recruiting any mutant atavisms in the bunch. In America, the DOUH (Department of Unusual Humanity: they really  hate the shorter acronym) does much the same  with bloodlines of the Civil War-era supers. Present-day mutant player characters might be descendants of 19th-century parahumans, and the government may know more about their ancestors (complete with any weaknesses) than they do. Tey may not even know they had mutant great-great-grandmothers! • e eosophists are still around today. eosophy enjoys

muddy protected religious status in the United States, and in  jurisdictions with liberal judges and eager rich people (like Marin County, California), theosophical “temples” even get away with offering very simple “healing” and “cleansing” rituals.  Tese Teosophist temples also act as rumor mills, sanctuaries, and informal job fairs for gray-market wizards, and for conmen who fleece wannabes, of course. • In India, the eosophists survive within the Jiddu Krish namurti Party, or JKP, which played a core role in the Indian independence movement until splitting with Gandhi and Nehru in the late 1930s. Te JKP allied with pro-Axis parties during the War, and with the Communists afterward, but has been drifting toward the nationalist r ight since 1991. Party electoral strongholds (Simla, Agra, and Kanpur) provide safe employment for magicians, those that toe the JKP line and p arrot Teosophical theology, anyway. Indian politicians sometimes court JKP support by offering to liberalize the anti-magic laws. Between partisan maneuvering, political machine-building, and omnipresent corruption, nobody really knows just what is going on magically in India, possibly including the JKP it self. • e European imperialists redrew boundaries, overthrew

states, rose up some ethnic groups and ground down others, and radically altered local economies from the Caribbean to the China Seas. Te result has been pol itical crisis, massacre,

boundary dispute, rebellion, and economic dislocation across the Tird World ever since. Te same thing happened to the magical ecosystem: European magi plundered temples in India, carried off boundary sigils in New Guinea, discarnated daemons in Angola and animated archons in Dahomey, and left any number of sorcerous r ivalries and vendettas, and horrific gaping hell-voids, behind when they withdrew.

The Past is Present Setting games in the Victorian or Edwardian eras, essentially the period between Darwin’s debut and the opening shots of World War I in Sarajevo, lets you play with everybody’s preconceptions. From movies and comics and other games, we know the basics: foggy streets, hansom cabs, steam, steel, and top hats. You can play up to those preconceptions: a higherBlack game of gentlemen (and gentlewomen) who hold to a moral code, imperialism and the Great Game of Nations as adventure and excitement, and magic as one more promising  wonder-technology. Or you can play across them: yawning divides in society tamped down by violence, pillage and bullying everywhere f rom India to Brooklyn, and magic as another sort of black corruption like coal-smoke or syphilis. Neither is “unrealistic.” Both can make terrific games. But set your tone together and make sure everyone knows the notes.

Hell’s Kitchen • In the stews of L ondon’s East End, Jack the Ripper strikes,

killing five (or six? or ten?) whores in 1888. Is he a Darwinist gone rogue, culling the unfit? Is he har vesting organs for some purpose, philosophical or magical? Is he tracing the boundaries of a Death’s Pentacle, or working the will of some possessing daemon? Is he an Irish terrorist or a foreign spy, striking at the cabals of Whitehall in some hidden gambit? Or does he serve their interests, and the whores are but pawns in a larger game? Either mutants or magi or both could tease out this mystery,  which is already amply documented for the harried GM, not least by Alan Moore’s From Hell. • It is the Bel le Epoque in Paris, the most glorious city of t he

 world. A new Bohemia waits to be born, of art and Art, of performance and Performance, where magicians and mutants are celebrities and political statements and works o f beauty all at once. Over it all drif ts the specter of the Green Fairy, absinthe, the drink of the working poor and the star ving artist alike. What rare herbs awaken such visions? What communion

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 Chapter 5: Shadows Stride Behind Us  do Parisians sup during le heure vert: “the green hour”? Tis is a higher-Blue “Babylon-on-the-Seine” sort of setting, suitable for any and all Grant Morrison-inflected strangeness. • Peking, 1899. e Eight Powers ( Japan, Russia, France,

Italy, Germany, Austria, the U.K., and the U.S.) occupy the International Settlement near the Forbidden City : All around them roils the ancient capital of the Chinese Empire. Each of the Eight Powers has its own interests, and the Imperial court is divided into factions. Te Righteous Harmonious Fists rail against all foreigners, and their kung fu powers impress everincreasing crowds tired of the arrogance of Japan, Europe, and America. Are the Fists (the “Boxers,” as Westerners call them) mutants or magicians?  Te Eight Powers have decided to deploy their own New Men to bolster Western face in China, and no doubt the chancelleries are sending covert magical investigators as well. Te players might be Western agents, Chinese rebels, or imperial conspirators, Once Upon A ime in China. • Other evocative cities of the period include: an Edo slowly

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opening to Western ways, including sorcery and superheroism, and smoldering with wounded samurai pride; Chicago, rising from the ashes and roiling with labor strife and political hardball as magicians build spells into its brand-new skyscrapers and mutants crack heads for ward bosses; Dawson City, at the heart of the Yukon Gold Rush of 1897, swarmed by magicians looking for elemental metal and by mutants with powers that will surely give them an edge in the gravel fields; and the decadent, intellectual, collapsing pre-war Vienna of Freud and Klimt and  Wittgenstein and a starving artist named Hitler, a city excellent for high-concept magical games and corrupt intrigue.

Cape and Dagger  • In this era, magicians, mutants, and spies all have this in com -

mon: they are writing their own rul es as they go. Except for the First Rule: Tou shalt not embarrass t hy patron. A GM with a good head for the period’s history and feel (whether via Castle Falkenstein, the novels of E. Phillips Oppenheim, or Robert Massie’s histories) can run a wide open game of f reelance ops complete with missing naval treaties, sultry femmes (or hommes) fatale, and showdowns over the baccarat table. Redness level can vary with the GM’s comfort level, but the characters are likely to stay fairly high-Gold. Or high Fools’ Gold, for proper villains. • After Appomattox, the ex-Confederate New Men had three

choices: go West and get forgotten, go home and let Grant burn them out with the rest of the Klan, or go South fo r one last chance at glory. Between 1865 and 1888, when the Empire of Brazil abolished slavery, the “arnished Angels” intervened in the Mexican civil war, wormed into Brazilian court politics, tried coups f rom El Salvador to Uruguay, and hired out as mercenaries, playing all sides against the middle for their own benefit. Tis can be a “ local heroes” game of magicians vs. mutants, or some outsiders might go hunting for rumored neoConfederate “New Breed” compounds in a fine steampunk Boys From Brazil  style. • This is the era when the first major magical cabals come

together: not just the heosophists but the Hermetic Brotherhood of Luxor, the Societas Rosicruciana in Anglia, the Vril Gesellschaft, the Ordre Kabbalistique de la RoseCroix, and of course the Golden Dawn. Within each order, or in other more successfully secret societies, conventicles of magicians seek to use occult means to influence the affairs of their own nation—and of others. Whether every member of the Masonic Lodge of the Quattuor Coronati in London  was part of a British imperial conspiracy, or whether the Vril Gesellschaft awakened the German sorcerous Reich, remains unknown even in modern times, official ly, anyway. Conspiracy gaming can go as deep behind the magic mirror as the GM and players want to take it. • Nihilists and anarchists assassinated Tsar Alexander II of

Russia and President McKinley. Tey plotted the overthrow of all nations and the destr uction of all industries, and started  World War I. And those were their good points, in our history, even before daemons get involved. Hardcore terrorist-hunting adventures can go from remote Siberian prisons to the slums of Chicago to the boulevards of Milan or Vienna. Or load up on Dostoevsky and Joseph Conrad, who could teach Stan Lee a thing or two about soap-operatic angst, and rage against the machine with the Black Hand or the Narodniki.

 World’s Finest Adventures • In the Wild West, even a New Man is nothin’ but a man. e

serious moral questions of t he Western are the same as those of the superhero comic: the use and abuse of power, garrison morality, and the value of a civiliz ation that must be built wit h  violence. And so are the good parts: showdowns in the streets, colorful nicknames, and “right makes might” storytelling. • With the New Men explor ing the human f rontier, and magi -

 Chapter 5: Shadows Stride Behind Us 

cians investigating the astral plane, what other limits might be overcome? What of the limit of flight? Mysterious airships cruise across America in the 1890s, and flit over the North Sea in the 1900s, seen above Cuban battlefields and by whalers in the Antarctic Sea. Chinese nationalist propaganda and It alian Futurist art depict them. Jules Verne’s novels hint of secret bands of revolutionary scientists in the far corners of the world, harnessing radium or untrammeled electricity. A “secret airship  wars” campaign adds mad science to mutation and magic for a third force to be reckoned with. • Not all mad science ends in airships. is is also the era of

“wild archaeology” across the world, from Nineveh (1847) to Machu Picchu (1911). Archaeological discoveries might pro vide origin stories for magi or mutants. Outside some jungleeaten pyramid in Yucatan, the discoverers might run across the  Xolotlis before the Cartel gets all civilized.

 Weird War Stories • e American Civil War is the rst major conict with mutants

openly serving on both sides, and—as you can see in another Wild alents   book, Tis Favored Land —is a natural arena for Godlike -style mud-spattered superhero gaming. Te South has its Master Breeds, and the North its Men Made For Glory; magic might play a hidden role behind Mississippi’s imperialist Knights of the Golden Circle, or the mulatto Teosophist Paschal B. Randolph may supplicate spirits for Lincoln.

• 1871: Paris lies prostrate under Prussian siege guns, defended

only by the Communards. Within the Commune, factions turn to ever-wilder schemes to raise t he siege and liberate the city : awakening mighty angels, throwing human waves against the Prussian guns to forcibly awaken mutation, and anything else out of the Blue. • Anything is possible beyond the Cape of Goo d Hope. On the

mother continent strange magics brewed since Eden, and the mysteries of King Solomon’s Mines, await the bold and the desperate. Both sorts are fighting the Boer War, on both sides. Tis  war works best as a vague, free-flowing backdrop to adventure and dark mystery torn from the pages of Edgar Rice Burroughs or H. Rider Haggard.

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 Chapter 5: Shadows Stride Behind Us  The Man in the Ring “By main force, the fair-minded man can wrestle himself into seeing Mr. Bryan’s point about the Spiritualists and other panjandrums who purport to traff ic with  Aeons and archons and on and on. After all, the solitary book we know of that Mr. Bryan has read condemns any such unlicensed sale of impossibilities, hoping to set itself and its franchisees (among whom must be counted  Mr. Bryan) up in the miracle monopoly. But why then must Mr. Bryan traduce, out of the other side of his mouth, the X-Ray Girl and the Idaho Flyer and their colorful ilk? Surely he must have read in that same book as far as the tale of Samson, which would seem to give the Almighty’s imprimatur to such carryings-on.” 

—H.L. Mencken, “Te Great Commoner Versus Te Cincinnati Firefly,” Baltimore Sun (October 12, 1922)

mutant misbehavior and the dangers of magic. It still exists, as the magazine he Way , house organ of the eponymous movement. • Similarly, the fan clubs and vast fortunes accumulated by the

first wave of propagandized mutant war heroes such as the American Eagle, and the first wave of celebrity showbiz mutants such as “Mistress Lifter” and the Unkillable Kirk, still exist. Some are devoted to tracking their heroes’ descendants, or to recruiting suitable replacements for trademarked heroism even now. • Try a little secret histor y with your alternate history. e Vic -

torian cabals weren’t shut down, but went further underground as part of the Plan, the Making Manifest of Tat Which is Hidden. Tey are still active, putting the world through the  orment of Metals as preface for the Chymical Marriage of Sun and Moon that will vault them to ultimate power. How do  your Projekt ELSA badasses react when they learn they’re just dancing steps piped by the Golden Dawn in 1888? • Since 1914, something like 200 million people have died,

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 What the Civil War in America had awakened, the Great  War in Europe forced to maturity. All the Powers made war heroes—willing or unwilling—of their mutants. Te bleak hell of the trenches awakened some New Men, if only out o f desperation for any sort of change, and the global propaganda machines of both sides spread the news t o every ear in the  world. Te mountains of corpses, the tens of millions dead, the  weeping widows and broken parents, gave a huge impetus to Spiritualism, further eroding the social controls on magic. In the glorious modern era of the machine gun and mustard gas, such superstitious restraints on magic were as ridiculous as Edwardian brocaded waistcoats and cavalry charges. Rutherford and Ossendowski formulated scientific paradigms that brought magic into the realm of physics and chemistry; both Edison and Marconi explored the interfaces of spiritual power and electromagnetism. Te most modern of all nations, Revolutionary Russia, embraced sorcery, albeit in secret, as calling on archons smacked of reactionary religion. In 1922, Lenin and Dzerzhinsky planted the “Shcheka,” or “Whispered Cheka,” the seed that would blossom into Direktiva Nul. Both  were dead within a year.

The Past is Prologue • William Jennings Bryan and Charles Sheldon, though theo-

logically on opposite sides, came together in 1916 to found he Human Way to Christ,  a newspaper devoted to exposing

usually in agony, in global war, genocide, and terror-famine.  Tese hordes of those dead before their time, the “excess lives” littering killing fields f rom Flanders to Fallujah, pile up between the worlds. If an arithmetical increase in food has bred new superhumans, what does a geometrical increase in ghosts and misery breed?

The Past is Present Everyone in the world of this era, from 1914 to 1933, is either fighting World War One or desperately trying to forget it. (A few are planning the next one already, but we’ll get to them in the next section.) Tis is an era of action and fury, of fast living and sudden death, whether in a hail of machine-gun fire on the Somme or a hard f reeze in the snows of Siberia. High-Black games get a little harder, although popular culture derring-do hasn’t quite caught up to high culture’s despair.

Hell’s Kitchen • After the collapse of 1918, Germany sees street ghting, putsch

and coup of brown and red, hyper-inflation, starvation, and misery. In this soil, the poison flowers of Weimar grow bright and magical. Shut out of the government by panicked bureaucrats, Berlin’s magi turn to art and sex and drugs, competing in garish display for sorcerous street cred. Weimar Berlin makes an ideal Grant Morrison-style setting, worked as Blue as you can stand it; leave the Nazis as provincial backwater buffoons for as long as possible, and accentuate the esoteric glamour of a dead man’s party.

 Chapter 5: Shadows Stride Behind Us  What If? Dead Men Walking The sheer weight of hopes and dreams, it turns out, had magical power, or enough of the widows and orphans and bereaved parents were latent magi to splinter the locks to the Other Side. The spirits of the dead begin to return wholesale during the 1920s, many bringing back infernal

H.P. Lovecraft’s Providence, an ideal setting for a horrortinged game in which the mutations come with nightmares and wizards must excavate spells f rom tomes bound in human skin; and Shanghai, the center of foreign influence in China,  where a tiny speck of Europe floats in a Chinese sea, guarded by well-fed Western mutants and subverted by Japanese Bl ack Dragon magi.

(or archontic) power with them. A flood of ghosts can be-

Cape and Dagger 

gin as horror and move into just another accepted part of

• e classic “cape and dagger” campaign in this era would cast

the world, or it can go from scientific curiosity to sheer

the players as muckraking journalists investigating magical cabals. Tis could be a “normal heroes” kind of game, or PCs could be mutants disguised as reporters for great metropolitan newspapers, and their magical stringers, whistleblowers, and contacts.

nightmare. If the ghosts predominate in the Western world (among the major WWI combatants), maybe Japan gets a chance to rise unmolested, or India gets to rebel, while the Great Powers are paralyzed. The GM can stir in zombies awakened by a mutated New Flu in 1918, for a dash of survival horror and desperate conflict. For a slightly more subtle conflict, perhaps the dead must possess the living, Deadman style, in order to interact with the living world. And the powerful dead seem to want to possess the most powerful living bodies, like magi, and mutants, and the player characters.

• e rst great villains of the 20th century arrive on stage in

this era: the Commies! Mutant G-Men raid Bolshevist rings in New York, and the sorcerous Dion Society at Cambridge slowly falls to Soviet subversion. Tese games can be thrilling Commie-smashing pulp or subtle stories of magi already cut off from bourgeois reality, who genuinely seek something better in Russia’s charnel house.

• e secret world boils close to the surface in teeming Cal -

• Marconi, Tesla, Edison, Kirlian, and the other great electrical-

cutta. Te original Teosophist temples are getting fat or old or both, and only a violent gang war between Kali’s cults keeps the goddess (or a very powerful daemon using her name) from seizing back her city. During the War, the pro-German Jugantar terrorists try to overthrow the Raj; afterward, the British cabals driven from power in London by the Labour government try to rebuild in Calcutta. “Atiriktaji,” India’s mutants, are straining the caste system, and on the docks, the Black Dragon Society plots for Japan’s turn in the sun.

engineering minds of the day chase the grail of technomagic  with no result. Or rather, with no result that could be revealed to the outside world. Consider a laboratory of thaumagineers  with controllable spell capacitors, or radios for contacting spirits, or a Death Ray. Suddenly, they are hunted by all sides, desperately trying to perfect their (balky, dangerous, experimental) equipment, and still more desperately deciding who to give it to: Mussolini? rotsky? Warren G. Harding?

 World’s Finest Adventures

• By contrast, Chicago is simple, even bright in its way. e

• It ’s the Twenties, the height of the Pul p Era. Every cliché is

government is broken and t he police are bent. Chicago has more mutants than any five other American cities, all of them drawn by the promise of more money t han they ever dreamed existed, soldiering for Al Capone, Bugs Moran, and any other boss with pretensions to clout. Te bosses stage showdown fights in the ring and on t he streets, the papers turn the “Big Guns” into stars, and the city roars with the “Chicago Circus.”

new and bright, from the hyper-intelligent mutant goril la to the zeppelin woven of grave linen f or contacting the Princes of the Air. Hit any five Doc Savage  or Spider, Master of Men reprints for all the ideas you can steal. Anything the pulp writers could invent, anywhere in the world, some mutant genius is already building an army of robots to stop.

• Other evocative cities of the period include: Revolutionary

gest discovery of all stays submerged in secrecy. On June 22, 1916, the Royal Navy submarine E.26 discovered the ruins of Atlantis. Unfortunately, the Germans intercepted it s report, triggering a covert submarine war in the Atlantic, and sending

Petrograd, where Lenin and Kerensky and rotsky and Stalin compete to rule Russia, while the heirs of Rasputin plot royalist revenge and the New Soviet Man might emerge on any side;

• Although exploring Antarctica gets all t he press, the big -

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 Chapter 5: Shadows Stride Behind Us  mutant and magical agents racing around the globe, following clues found on the ocean floor, to recover Atlantean artifacts. Even today, the results of “Operation Poseidon” (and “Projekt Seegold”) remain classified. • e 1920s are the great decade of Egyptology, marked by the

opening of King utankhamen’s tomb in 1923. Te “Mummy’s Curse” is mere sensationalistic journalism, but the sudden appearance of whole libraries of Egyptian lore, and carloads of Egyptian artifacts, has an effect on the magical scene similar to that of the influx of crack and Uzis on L.A. in the 1980s.

 Weird War Stories • e weird war this time is the Great War, World War One.

 Te war on the ground is a bleak, grimy, miserable experience, even—perhaps especially—if you’re a mutant. Tis is the “ War is Hell” game, privileging slow disintegration and the thousand yard stare. Is there a better answer than “Just get through today?” And can even the New Men find it? • By contrast, we have t he romantic, knightly legend of WWI

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in the air. Flying mutants, with or wit hout aircraft, escape the blood and mud and anonymity fo r wind and sun and a hero’s death. Charlie Knox, the Canadian Hawk, battles the Red Baron, whose exact powers are a mystery even to the High Command. From the Lafayette Escadrille to the ArchonsZirkus, the sky’s the limit for players. • e “sideshow” theater of the War is the Middle East, as

Lawrence leads the Arab Revolt and Brit ish regulars grind up the Jordan and the Euphrates against the urk. Ten, the Greeks and urks continue their war over the ruins of roy and Ephesus well into the wenties; all theaters best suited for magical operations and sorcerous missions.

 Chapter 5: Shadows Stride Behind Us   New Deals, New Pacts “As Destiny chooses tho se to give voice to the nati onal will, it chooses those with the force of command. I speak of the moral force, practiced and refined, not the inherited or purchased authority so-called of the monarchists or the bourgeois. And by experience, where do you find such practitioners of command-force but on the battlefield or beside the pentacle? he difference being that the off icer, as much as the soldier, is constructed by society to obey the national will, or worse merely the social will, while the Mighty Spirits are created of pure Self-Will, which must be mastered by those who would master them. Hence, those who command Archons and Eminences are those whose will-force has survived as it were a thousand battles. Who better to shape the will of a nation, then, than he who has bent the will of a demigod?”  —Adolf Hitler, Mein Wirkung (My Working)

What If? Das Ansehen  It’s not an alternate history if there isn’t an alternate WWII lurking somewhere. The GM can be as realistic or as dramatic as she wishes: a Battle of Britain (or Leningrad) that goes the other way and sets up a Grim War between America and Germany in the 1960s; a nuclear exchange between Germany and the U.S. leaving Stalin supreme over a devastated Eurasia; Japan strikes north instead of east, and the Axis powers split Russia between them, neutralizing Britain with the U.S. locked in isolation. Or go all-out: the Thulists awaken and bind the archon Ziracah, the archon of Vinland, and the northeastern third of the U.S. (and eastern Canada) suddenly becomes, literally, enemy territory. Set the game in 1963, a couple of decades after the invasion; the boundaries are stable at the Rockies and along the TennesseeVirginia line. The Free United States (which lost Alaska, Hawaii, and the Philippines to Japan) and the increasingly collaborationist White Confederacy share the continent with Reichskomissariat Vinland, and everyone knows the Grim

 Te watershed moment came on Imbolc of 1933. Rather than be disbanded by the Reichstag, a magical cabal called the Tule Gesellschaft seized power in Germany. Its political wing, the National Socialists, took over the levers of government, and sent Germany on a magical path to diabolism and war. During the Tirties, voices in Britain and France called for an amnesty for the old magical conspirat ors driven out of power a decade ago. But such calls were easily (and often accurately) dismissed as special pleading by corrupt and venal men t rying to rebuild their hidden influence at the expense of democracy.  Te West remained magically disarmed. In America, FDR instead founded the Department of Unusual Humanity, appointing the leading anomalist Charles Fort (remarkably rejuvenated by Dr. Progress in 1928) as its Cabinet-level Director. What Fort lacked in focus, he made up for in sweep and drive; the able New Dealers in his office turned his unique genius into solid programs for mutant identification, recruitment, and publicity. With rather less publicity, FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover made a deal with Philadelphia boss Isacco “Icepick” Piccione to keep a lid on criminal mutants. Te “Chicago Circus” shut down with Capone’s arrest on t ax evasion charges, and the FBI and DOUH took out the stragglers (except, of course, those in the Piccione family, which Hoover allowed to take over the Baltimore mob as well.) By the time the U.S. entered the

War is escalating again. Or maybe America goes fascist first! In our own history, after all, Woodrow Wilson’s G-men threw 150,000 dissidents into prison, smashed presses, deported foreigners, and nationalized the economy. Perhaps he doesn’t have his stroke in 1919, or perhaps the Germans hang on until they’re completely smashed and Wilson “wins” a third term unopposed in 1920. (Or perhaps his “stroke” is cover for demonic possession.) A game of Jazz Age anarchists, gangsters, magi, and Republicans hiding out from the progressive dictator determined to “keep America safe for Democracy” might be all kinds of fun. Or move it along to a 1935 coup attempt as Governor Huey Long strikes at President-for-Life FDR, and present the PCs, the first-ever graduating class of the School for the American Future, with one hell of a final exam question: Which side are you on?

Second World War, the American mutant program was the strongest in the world, with a “bench” of over 35,000 military mutants registered, trained, and sent overseas. aking a leaf from the Chicago illustrated papers (and from professional wrestling), Fort’s office recommended that the military provide their mutants with bright, propagandafriendly costumes. Te morale boost for mutants and their normal squad mates alike proved to outweigh the “instant tar-

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 Chapter 5: Shadows Stride Behind Us  get” effect, and capes and cowls became standard issue in both Allied and Axis armies. Te main exceptions were the Soviets,  whose New Soviet Men all wore the same red costume, and the  Japanese, who gave their enshi colorful, decorated helmets but no special uniforms, in a typically useless compromise between the Navy (which wanted U.S.-style costumes) and the Army (which thought the whole idea smacked of heresy). Facing the German magical onslaught, Stalin vastly expanded the VGU (the old Shcheka renamed and moved under the OGPU) into its own independent Directorate, Direktiva Nul. Tough neither Britain nor America was truly ready or willing to develop a useful magical arm, the two founded the Allied Special Capabilities Office ( ASCO) to streamline U.S.-U.K. magic research and operations “for the duration of the emergency.” In the end, it came down to weight of metal, money, and manpower: Allied armies crashed into Germany and bombed its cities to rubble. Te “Magical Reich” (the “Priestly Reich” was the Holy Roman Empire, and the “Royal Reich” was the Kaiser’s Germany) collapsed on Walpurgisnacht, 1945, when Hitler and the high cabal of the Tule died in what  was either a failed summoning or a mass suicide pact.

 146  The Past is Prologue • During WWII, the DOUH made a lot of hasty decisions.

 Tey recruited mutants who weren’t necessarily very stable, and taught them to kill. Some of them came back. Teir cults of personality, churches, and descendants may still dot t he hinterlands. Worse yet, some of them simp ly dropped off the map in the confusion of demobilization, cropping up f rom Latin America to the Far East, and attracting their own followers overseas. And some might well have sur vived to this very day, by means that don’t bear close examination. • Sure, you could chase down hidden cabals of refugee Nazis

in Argentina, or Egypt, or the Moon, but try this one on for size. One: Projekt ELSA is a magically powerful, secretive, elite movement with a contempt for mundane politics. wo: Projekt ELSA is full of Germans. Tree: Tere are rumored spells that allow the sorcerer to transfer his spirit into a newborn child. Get your Boys From Brazil  and ODESSA File  ya-yas out with a Revenant Reich hidden in plain sight. • Hiroshima and Nagasaki remain spirit ual dead zones. e

electron sleet of an atomic detonation actually depolarizes the soul, as far as anyone on Earth can tell, anyway. Even if you  were born outside those cities, moving in does something to

 you. For example, it’s easier to get possessed, and to shake off possession. (Average Joes without Base Will develop a sort of psueo-Base Will and Willpower that they can use to shrug off possession more easily. But at the same time, any possessing spirit gets a +1d bonus to its pool to take control.) Cults in both cities promise that tho se who die in the atomic shadow simply disappear, without involving Heaven or Hell or any other entity. And the curious can find weirder rumors than that.

The Past is Present Between the Great Depression and the Second World  War, almost any level of Blackness can work. Tere are plenty of events in this era that GMs can mine for magical (or merely thematic) significance, from the Dust Bowl to Guernica. Averting the War is still possible, if the West awakens in time; this can be the holy grail of a lower-Red game, or simply a character hope that the players know is foredoomed. Te same, in broad outline, is true for the whole period: great hopes dashed, from the New Deal to the United Nations. Building a better world is up to the heroes, if the GM allows it.

Hell’s Kitchen • With the Chicago Circus shut down in 1931, and a Depres -

sion rolling into the foreseeable future, America’s amoral mutants mostly tried their luck in Hollywood. Has-been mutant superstars trickle back into the mobs, but the LAPD cracks heads a lot harder than the Chicago force used to: LA has a different image to maintain. Games can focus on anything from studio dreams to hard-boiled noir, with heaping side orders of racism, corruption, and despair. • During the sixteenth centur y, Prague was the most magical

city in the world. Johannes Faust and John Dee are only t wo of the famous magi to dwell t here, and under the Emperor Rudolf II (1576-1612), it became a haven for alchemists, theurges, Rosicrucians, and kabbalists of all kinds. Tis made it a prime target for the Tulist Reich. Between 1939 and 1945, Prague’s occult underground resists German occupation and Tulist corrosion with an ingenuity born of increasing desperation. Direktiva Nul infiltrators play their own game, and the Jews in the ghetto hunt for the legendary Golem built by the Rabbi Loew, as the war slowly closes in on the city and the Tule becomes increasingly desperate in its own turn. • e character of Brisbane, Australia, utterly changes during

the War, being flooded by both mutants and magicians, mostly  Yanks and Brits but some Dutch and Filipino, after July 1942,

 Chapter 5: Shadows Stride Behind Us   when General MacArthur establishes his GHQ there. Tis is a “wild home f ront” setting; the players can be members of MacArthur’s staff new to the area, or local Aussie heroes who get a world war suddenly dumped in their laps. With an ASCO regional command in St. Laurence’s College, and a DOUH liaison office in Luna Park, there are always plenty of new folks and potential new stor y lines in town, and if Brisbane ever gets too boring, send the PCs up to the E ast Indies to find something or beat on the Japanese Navy. • Other evocative cities of the era include: Rio de Janeiro,

 wracked with revolutionists and rioters as the rich and famous forget the Depression in the glittering paradise along the Copacabana, a target for super-thieves and Umbanda magicians alike; Barcelona, cockpit of the Spanish Civil War, rich in opportunities for super vs. super action in alleyways and battlefields, while in the background the VGU works its spells for the Comintern and gathers resources for its own occult revolution; Cairo, nest of spies ruled by a pro-German king but occupied by the British Army, where magicians delve in the city’s necropolis for secrets best forgotten and Nazi supermen slip through the streets on missions of death; and we’ll always have Casablanca.

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Cape and Dagger   • Like other New Deal agencies, the Department of Unusual

Humanity takes its mission seriously: to travel the country and secure anything unusually human for the national good. Casting the PCs as “DOUH boys” sets up a fine “ X-File s  meets  X-Men” campaign. Tey hunt and find the unusual all across Depression America, from Huey Long’s Louisiana to the inbred hills behind Boston, and they recruit it or st amp it out, as circumstances demand. • A “founding era” Direktiva Nul campaign set in the Soviet Union

combines sorcerous experimentation and research with deep politics. Te PCs must build a crash magical response to over whelming Nazi power while avoiding Stalin’s paranoid purges and the jealousy of the other Directorates, such as the Red Army and the NKVD. Battlefield or backstairs; nowhere is safe. • Although it ’s the obvious direction to go in “cape and dagger”

gaming, there’s nothing wrong with running a game of superspies in the European Teater, under the OSS or MI6 or both. Every daring tale from he Guns of Navarone  to he Icarus  Agenda  becomes fodder for super-heroic skullduggery, from Casablanca to Helsinki, opposed by the magical manipulators of the Gestapo and the Abwehr.

 World’s Finest Adventures • During the 1930s, the Ahnenerbe-SS sought and stole major

magical artifacts around the world f rom ibet to Peru. Tis can be a straight-up  Indiana Jones  rip-off (not that there’s anything  wrong with that), or played as a “reverse campaign” in which the evil Ahnenerbe NPCs continue f rom adventure to adventure, but the PCs change from country to country. Tis lets players change up their characters, try wild and radical tactics, and always have the home field advantage.

 Chapter 5: Shadows Stride Behind Us  • is is the great age of air travel, from Bery l Markham to

Amelia Earhart to Antoine St-Exupery. Player characters might be adventurous bush pilots, noble gun-runners, footloose demobbed Great War fliers, or all of the above. Te planes can be the focus of the stories, or just a convenient delivery system for the setting. In an air adventure campaign, the sky’s the limit. • ASCO, the Allied version of the Ahnenerbe-SS, may not

have the expertise, or the resources, or the ruthlessness, or the access to magical lore that their foes do, but that just makes it interesting. he ASCO campaign is likely one of globetrotting mystery, covert duels in ostensibly neutral nations, and “on-the-job” sorcerous training, punctuated by the occasional horrific firefight.

 Weird War Stories • Again, just because a campaign of American New Men battling

Nazi sorcery on the Western Front is the obvious thing to do

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doesn’t make it a bad idea. We all know that the only thing Band of Brothers  needed was guys in capes punching demons, right? • A Russian Front game might be best played “troupe sty le,”

 with each player taking her turn at running a New Soviet Hero for a session, and the others playing hordes of patr iotic cannon-fodder normals. As the War continues, the normals can get slightly better, and the Heroes occasionally join forces, until the final team-up and showdown in the r uins of Berlin against monstrosities born from Nazi nightmares. • e place to put e verything Blue and wonderful, meanwhile, is

the South Pacific. Somewhere off the Solomon Islands, heroic USMC mutants battle Japanese enshi, cannibal Neanderthals, living dinosaurs, cargo-cult sorcerers, the dead gods of Mu, abandoned robots, the ghosts of th e fallen, and the occasional forty-foot ape. Hit the oho Studios canon, or back issues of he War hat ime Forgot,  and go wild.

 Chapter 5: Shadows Stride Behind Us  The Postwar and the Grim War “James Byron looked across the table at the man he was  going to kill. Under the table, he held his iridium dag ger, f ighting style, with the blade folded back along his own forearm. He had ground that blade himself, under  four new moons, and he knew it would cut through the other man’s ghost shirt, through the tattoos on his skin inked by blind men in the Lubyanka basement. Cut through and spill the violet blood. Nothing else would touch someone who had undergone the SMERS initiation, a ritual that reached back into Siberian ways old before Christ. he man looked back at Byron, black eyes glinting in his flat, impassive face. He knew death was coming. He had faced worse.”  —Ian Fleming, On Her Majesty’s Sorcerous Service  Fighting a global war against evil sorcery did what the churches couldn’t; virtually every nation on Earth once more banned the practice of magic, and enforced the ban with serious jail time and the occasional lynch mob. Te magicians who could pass stringent background checks went into the secret services; ASCO split back up into Br itish and American sections of MI6 and the CIA. (Not before one final mission: in Operation Spearmint, ASCO operatives stole the Rite of the Stifling Air from the Tule cult center in Wewelsburg.) A few magi combined high-profile skills with political unreliability; the Allies set up ROSCRO under U.N. license and shuffled all the magic they couldn’t ban or classify under

its umbrella. Te final turn of the key in America came in 1948, with the Supreme Court’s 5-2 ruling in People v. Megan Boroviak  that magic is a body of paraphysical lore, not religion, and therefore not a Constitutional right. State Senator Walter A. Derby of Massachusetts founded what became the People for Religious Freedom (PRF) in the wake of this decision. Te DOUH drifted somewhat in the postwar era as well; Charles Fort, its long-time Director, died in 1946, ten minutes after the death of the mutant Dr. Progress. Te Pentagon took over most of the American mutant program; MacArthur was slow to deploy “costumes” to Korea, perhaps for fear of being outshone in the press, and their service was downplayed as part of ruman’s “New Normalcy.” Kennedy reversed this pattern; the bright colors (and favorable p ress) of American mutant heroes fit his style, and he integrated them into S pecial Forces units and deployed them to Vietnam. Unfortunately, the Pentagon’s new stars weren’t up to the older DOUH standards: during the supposedly covert “Operation Tailand Swing” in August of 1966, two mutants went berserk and started massacring allies and enemies indiscriminately, and the Viet Cong briefly captured five others in a huge propaganda victory. (In 1991, declassified Soviet records revealed that the American supers had stumbled into a Direktiva Nul o peration.) In this charged climate, plenty of people stop ped believing the government knew what it was doing: the mutants who stopped became the first seeds of Next Iteration. ( Te name came from a Cleveland punk band in 1978, but the concept was active a decade earlier.) Teir movement absorbed a fe w of the older eugenics societies f rom the Progressive Era, and started ringing their own discordant changes on Darwin.

What If? Tales of the Eschaton  The big Cold War alternate is, of course, a 1962 nuclear war over Cuba. In our history, the U.S. would have “won” easily; it’s up to the GM whether the Soviets have effective magical defenses against multi-megaton throw-weight. If the “Hiroshima Effect” remains true, and souls are depolarized by nuclear blasts, Miami (and most of Russia and China) might be inhabited only by the desperate and the doomed. American supers might be fighting endless wars against mutant partisans in radioactive Europe and Asia; vengeful Soviet sorcerers with nothing to lose might be unchaining demons from Paris to Paris, Texas. The apocalypse could instead be magical; a nuclear exchange over the Yom Kippur War in 1973 could literally unleash Armageddon. The GM can blow things up during the Locust Wars and the Rise of Magog, or maybe usher in a conspiratorial Antichrist for a deep Grim War with that special Omen feel. Either as part of such an End Times game, or as an alternate apocalypse, monsters rise from the deep (Gojira, or Great Cthulhu) or the magical races return, from elves to man-eating ogres. Think of it as a chance for a global search-and-replace, or even a full-on reboot.

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 Chapter 5: Shadows Stride Behind Us 

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On the magical side, the CIA increasingly neglected sorcery. Its pact with the Seventh-Circle Archon of the Stifling Air provided America with a seemingly f oolproof defense, and Congress was far more willing to fund spy satellites and decryption computers. Te British carried a lot of the sorcerous load, but their Apostle Group turned out to be completely infiltrated by Communist agents f rom Direktiva Nul. In 1962, the French and German governments chartered Projekt ELSA as a “European alternative” to CIA spookfo rcers; ELSA rapidly picked up the slack for the West in the covert magical war known as the Grim War to its participants. In the 1970s, the Xolotl Cartel muscled in on the global narcotrafficking business, which got it connections in Europe  just in time to break the Direktiva Nul monopoly on split spells. Xolotl magi sold the reverse-engineered ritual to ELSA in 1972, only a year after Direktiva Nul unleashed “Red ’71,” a wave of magical assassinations and sorcerous sabotage. Te CIA tried to recruit the Xolotlis as “expert assets” over the next decade, which turned out about as well as one might expect:  Xolotl took over the West Coast occult underground and most of the cocaine trade, and the CIA got a bunch of agents kil led or pensioned off ahead of the Congressional inquir y.  Te next big development was the rise of computer-compressed enchantments in the 1980s, which drew the attention of a Reagan Administration eager to escalate the Grim War under American leadership. In 1984, as part of the Strategic Defense Initiative, the NSA began work on planetary-scale rituals using incredibly powerful super-computers. Te Russians panicked and poured more and more of their magical and technical resources into the competition, stretching Direktiva Nul to the breaking point. (Tis may have been the plan all along, but the NSA isn’t telling.) Meanwhile, the Pentagon deployed Squadron A1, an all-new super-unit, in Grenada, Libya, El Salvador, and Eritrea,  with plenty of cameras on hand to see American heroes kick Commie ass. Washington rumor claimed that the liberal software billionaire K. Olsen Hastings founded CARGO to stave off a “super-coup” by Reagan’s media darlings, but the official reason  was the wave of super-criminals who suddenly appeared to steal their share of America’s new prosperity.

The Past is Prologue With the coming of the Grim War era, the GM separating out individual events for their influence on the present is spoiled for choice. Almost everything that happened then still echoes into the present, from American overconfidence on the

magical front, to Soviet atrocities in Afghan cities where the fathers of today’s Àkrabist scholars worked, to some Projekt ELSA outrage in Biafra forgotten everywhere, except in Biafra. In short, when writing any adventure set in the present day, think about what happened, what had to happen, 15, or 25, or 50 years ago to set it in motion. Every villain has a past, every feud has a history, every picturesque ruin has a destroyer.

The Past is Present Setting a game in the “Grim War” era from the fall of Berlin in 1945 to the fall of the Wall in 1989 can span the gamut from high-Black Silver Age action to low-Black Vietnamsyndrome agon. Te GM has the advantage of familiarity here; even the most contemporary-minded player has some concept of “the Sixties” and “Nam” and “the Eighties” to go on. Even if  just with a  Miami V ice  rerun, it’s easy to set a historical tone for games in this era, which makes departing from it (in low-Red games, or the standard Grim War  setting) even more potentially memorable and interesting.

Hell’s Kitchen • In no city do the Cold War and the Grim War overlap as

starkly as in Berlin. Set the game in t he beginnings of the Four-Power Occupation in 1945, sifting through the rubble for  Tulist magical secrets, or ratchet up the tension with the raising of the Wall in 1961 and beyond. Berlin is where spies and soldiers and sorcerers all rub elbows and betray t heir nations and each other; the interested GM will drown in po ssibilities and source material alike. • In the summer of 1967, 100,000 young people ooded into

the Haight-Ashbury district of San Francisco for the “summer of Venus,” looking for drugs, love, and a new wor ld of beauty and magic. Te bards of the movement tried to reawaken American magic; sorceries and evocations were practiced openly in the streets and parks. Angels rose and demons danced and then the Man brought the hammer. Tis is the high-Blue campaign with the soundtrack you already know ; it can end  with covert FBI magical counter-revolution, with riots and police phalanxes, or with an immanentized eschaton. • After t he 1967 war Israel to ok over Jerusalem, and Western

tourists descended on the city. Hundreds, perhaps thousands, of them suffer f rom “Ezekiel Syndrome,” in which people suddenly experience contact with archons and demons (usually Biblically named) and then manifest what seem very much like mutant powers. Although the doctors say it’s all psychosomatic,

 Chapter 5: Shadows Stride Behind Us  that’s cold comfort to the increasingly harried Jerusalem police  which also has terrorists, religious fanatics, and lore-seeking  wizards to deal with. • Other evocative cities of the era include: Havana before the

fall, where American gangsters (including supers hiding out from the heat in the States) and the idle rich hit the clubs for music and recreational sorcery while Castro lurks in the hills; gritty New York in the 1970s, where punk and disco rise together with the mutant crime r ate, Xolotis and Picciones try (and fail) to take the heroin trade away from Frank Lucas in Harlem, and Satanists rumble with Telemites in Greenwich Village for magical turf; and Rome in the 1970s, crawling with Projekt ELSA assassins, Direktiva Nul advisers to the Red Brigades, crazy independent Vatican demonologists, and CIA “Operation Gladio” provocateurs in an increasingly explosive magical chess match across cathedrals and through catacombs.

Cape and Dagger  • Step One:  Crack open James El lroy’s novels  American abloid 

and he Cold Six housand . Step Two:  Add shadowy superheroes and skeevy sorcery. Step Three: Awesome. Howard Hughes, JFK, the heroin trade, Sinatra, Marilyn Monroe, MLK, police brutality, J. Edgar Hoover, the Mob, RFK, Nixon: his is the great age of sweaty guys in fedoras, and cigarette-smoking guys taking out the trash. his is when America’s greatest-ever crop of conspiracy and tawdriness flowered and ripened. Harvest it.

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• e purest “cape and dagger” game in the Grim War era cov-

ers the glory days of Projekt ELSA: the Ian Fleming 1960s and  John le Carré 1970s. Combine glamour and glamor, from the secret Staaza (Staatszaubersicherheit, the East German magical security police) laboratory on the Brocken to the kabbalistic energies swirling around Monte Carlo’s casino. Tis is a good sort of game in which to play around with Goldness; a wisecracking Commie-stomper can become a cynical shadow player over the years, only to be revealed as a long-time So viet mole at the climax. • e super side of t he “cape and dagger” coin is counter-terror -

ism. Direktiva Nul and the Staaza sponsor terrorists all over the  world, from the IRA to the Red Army Faction to the PFLP to FARC. Tis is covert superheroism against sorcerous scum, or it’s morally bankrupt deals for hostages and the acid knowledge that the whole game is as fixed as professional wrestling, for much the same audience.

 World’s Finest Adventures • As a U.N. agency, ROSCRO manages to insert itself into

any number of war zones, disaster areas, magical arms conferences, and cultural heritage sites all around the world. Only the worst of cynics would note that illegal artifact thefts and spell trade flourish wherever ROSCRO shows up; surely nobody associated with the U.N. could possibly be corrupt! Players might be tomb raiders, ROSCRO bureaucrats, smugglers, or any combination of the above. Choose up good guys and bad guys likewise.

 Chapter 5: Shadows Stride Behind Us  • ey travel the wor ld, seeking its secret ows. ey draw up

the black blood of the Earth, and turn it into fire and power.  Tey are awash in money and danger, beset by wars and conspiracies and mounting them in return against their foes.  Tey are oil-men, and they may accidentally uncover magics in remote regions, or have their own secret t raditions for seeking buried treasure and cursing their rivals’ fields. • For a looser version (though likely lower Black) of the war

story, consider a PC group of mercenaries. African coups, security jobs at multinational factories and mines, and the occasional commando raid against a lost temple; it ’s all in a day’s  work for those who don’t work for any government but the universal democracy of the dollar. Mercenary units might be less concerned about mixing and matching magi and mutants in the same force, or even the same squad; as long as the job gets done, nobody asks much which physical law you broke to do it.

 Weird War Stories • Vietnam isn’t the biggest war of the era (that ’s the Iran-Iraq

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 War) or the most dramatic (the Yom Kippur War in 1973), but it certainly grew the most evocative imagery, from Casualties of War  to  Apocalypse Now to Rambo. Tis can be another opportunity for “supers vs. sorcery ” gaming in the jungles, and even Saigon can support not just a fine “Hell’s Kitchen” game in its own right but a good deal of Blue weirdness. • If all’s fair in love and war, “La Violencia” is among the fairest

 wars ever. From 1948 to 1958, all Hell let out for breakfast in Colombia, killing 200,000 people. What began as a complex series of coups completely degenerated into lawless anarchy; this is potentially the lowest of Black settings. Te PCs, be they magi or mutants, are likely among the most personally powerful humans in this backwater country, and they can literally do anything they  want without any consequences worse than what ’s already going on. Does absolute opportunity corrupt absolutely? • By contrast, 1980s El Salvador is a step up t o civilization.

 Tis is a good three-sided setting, for players and GMs who enjoy juicy political games can maneuver among the Xolotlis, Squadron A1, and Direktiva Nul. Further wild cards might include: CIA-contractor drug smugglers either allied with or trying to screw over the Xolotl, Cuban “advisers” whose revolutionary zeal and military incompetence endanger Direktiva Nul operations, meddling Congressmen of either stripe, and even  well-meaning local generals (rebel or government) appalled at the whole mess.

 Chapter 5: Shadows Stride Behind Us   New World Orders “So the wingnuts have  predictably exploded  over the Green Crush nipple slip pictures (which we proudly link to again  here ) just as if they hadn’t spent the last five years creaming themselves over her special combination of simpleton glamor and tank-busting Will to Power. We could go on and on here about Hugh and Rush and Hannity and their not-so-hidden  desire to be walked on by a green stiletto boot, but we have new DVDs of Magus X that aren’t going to watch themselves, no matter what Mike Huckabee’s  friends try to tell you. We’ll just close by taking a leaf from the wingers’ book (don’t worry, it’s the one they’ve already colored in) and and asking them - aren’t they always  saying  we’re in Iraq to bring the benighted heathen the  American Way? Well, what better weapon than nipples to do that? We rest our case.”  —post by “Altius” on CAPErflick.com [02/29/08]  Overstrained and sclerotic, the Soviet empire fell apart with breathtaking speed. Te military and technical sectors gave up the race with America; Direktiva Nul, which had always beaten the CIA in the field, simply faded into the woodwork during the Yeltsin Spring. Rumors claim t hat the Putin regime has purged as many old Direktiva hands as it could (the KGB and Nul never did get along) but other rumors, equally plausible, say that Nul is back in business for the Motherland under some even more secret name. Operatives and sensitives alike agree that a “New Grim War” is certainly under way, though nobody seems quite settled on what t he sides are this time around. Rumors likewise swirl around Àkrab-i-allah, the “Scorpions of Allah” who have scuttled out of the cracks opened by the  War on error. Some scholars (on the left) say they, like Xolotl,  were an idiotic CIA attempt to recruit counter-sorcerers to fight Direktiva Nul in Afghanistan and Eritrea. Other analysts (on the right) say that they, like hundreds of other magical terror cults, are leftovers from Direktiva Nul’s 1970s heyday, made coincidentally relevant by their co-ideologists’ rise. Either way, they’ve made plenty of headlines in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Morocco since 9/11 but nobody in the Federal government wants to discuss “the Niagara Falls incident,” not even the PR flacks  who trot out every money-laundering sting at a Midwestern mosque as the second coming of Hamas.

Te biggest secret of all, however, is that the plane that hit the Pentagon on 9/11 breached the pentacle binding the Archon of the Stifling Air. In increasing order of bureaucratic “oh shit” worries: • e magical backlash from the pentacle breach may have

 wiped other magical rites and records in the Pentagon, or in the Smithsonian, or in the computers at Fort Meade. • Or it may have changed them and we don’t have any way to

check without casting them. • Plus, a Seventh-Circle archon, at least, is out loose now. • An archon that happened to be the key stone of the entire

magical defense network of North America. • And how, exactly, did al-Qaeda suicide pilots know which  wing

of the Pentagon to hit in order to breach that pentacle? Was it  just dumb luck? Or did the archon somehow call them? • e archon, after all, may not be very happy with the U.S.

government sorcerers who bound it for 55 years, or with the U.S. government. Or with the U.S. Could Hurricane Katrina have been the first blow? • If so, what’s keeping the second blow from landing? Or who?

All in all, a certain level of governmental paranoia, even panic, seems justified. But it really would have been nice if the United States had had an effective magical espionage force. Te global hyperpower may have just become everybody’s astral whipping boy, and an army of mutants may not be enough to set things right.

 Here and Now Gaming in the here and now poses its own set of challenges, over and above the specific questions addressed in the  various group writeups in Chapter 4. A game centered on espionage and magic is a game centered on those two things  your mother told you never to argue about: politics and religion.  Te odds of your entire gaming group agreeing on the facts on the ground in Baghdad, much less the political implications thereof, are slim at best. If you are  blessed with nothing but a uniform set of Limbaugh or Olbermann fans, well, then get cracking! Political gaming, like all gaming, is great fun when everyone agrees on the bad guys. But drama  comes from disagreeing on the bad guys, or at least on the right things to do to (and with, and occasionally for) them. If you don’t think you can separate player politics from character politics, or you don’t think you can fight exSoviet necromancers side-by-side with a liberal Democrat, you

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 Chapter 5: Shadows Stride Behind Us  might be best off setting your campaign in a less-contentious historical period. But if you want a bunch of free character motives, complete with tense shouty scenes just like in West Wing , then full speed ahead. Figure out what helps you hit closer to drama and farther from flamewar: Maybe the lefty players should all play muscl e-bound conservative superheroes, and the right-wing players should all play granola-nibbling liberal witches. Politics might hurt less if your game takes place in an alternate universe where Al Gore, or John McCain, was inaugurated in 2001, or where Rumsfeld resigned in 2005, or  where the U.S. invaded Iran or Pakistan instead of Iraq. Or maybe everyone with strong political opinions has to play a Libertarian, or a rotskyite, or a foreigner. Perhaps the GM can offer an extra Experience Point to every player after any session that occurs without a political shouting match. Or maybe you should make your characters interesting people with their own beliefs, and see what happens without taking any of it personally. Just saying.

Conspiracy Theories Believe it or not, in a world of demons and people who can fly, there are still things too crazy to believe. Just like in our world, the world of Grim War   has folks who think the U.S. government, or Israel, took down the World Trade Center, although in the Grim War  world more of these crazy people think the CIA did it with sorcer y. But WTC and JFK and MLK and so forth are old hat in both realities. What the Grim War world’s conspiracy shows obsess over are mutants, specifically the “alien seed” theory. By this theory, “mutation” doesn’t exist. Superpowers come from alien DNA, either spliced into people during abductions (“origin stories” are just screen memories to fill the “missing time”) or descended from human-alien hybrids in previous generations (perhaps as far back as the “ancient astronauts” who built the Pyramids). The government is either duped by alien brainwashing or scientific hubris, or it’s in league with the aliens to cover up the truth and guarantee an army of extraterrestrial storm troopers. The antiDarwinian biases of the American Religious Right play into

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this belief complex, as do millennia of historical persecution and hatred of the Other. (That said, some cultists believe that the benevolent blond aliens from the Pleiades are seeding the planet to save us from ourselves and uplift humanity.) This can set up a nice X-Men  vibrato in your game i f you play it up, or it can just be a cute bit of set dressing. Or, of course, it could be true. The “Faerie Among Us” theory is somewhat similar. Bright, famous, good-looking people—the Kennedys, Tom Cruise, Princess Diana, Green Crush—are not humans, but elves. Or faeries, or Fair Folk, or Gentry, or Inhumans, depending on which paperback you read or which website you visit. Opinion is likewise divided on whether th e Fair Folk are good or evil, or (most excitingly) divided among themselves. Some believe in an Elven Establishment that secretly runs Hollywood, or Washington, or the drug trade, or the Royal Family; others believe the Good Folk are just here to have promiscuous sex and drink infant blood. Some anti-Semites believe that all Jews have “goblin eyes,” while other Ar yan Identity types believe that only the “Nordic races” are honored with Alfandir intermarriage. This makes a good line of mystical baloney for crazy magi to rant about, or for the GM to occasionally drop hints about.

Name: _____________________________________________

Archetype:  ____________________________________

Description: _____________________________________________

Sources: ________________________________________________

________________________________________________________

Permissions: ____________________________________________

Occupation: _____________________________________________

Intrinsics: _______________________________________________

Allegiance: ______________________________________________

Hit Locations

Circle: __________________________________________________ Loyalty: _________________________________________________

10 Head 

Passion: ________________________________________________

Stats

7–9 Torso 

Body: __________________________________________________ Coordination: ____________________________________________ 5-6 R. Arm

Sense: _________________________________________________

3–4 L. Arm

Mind: __________________________________________________ Charm: _________________________________________________ Command: ______________________________________________ Base Will: _______________________________________________ Willpower: 1 L. Leg 

2 R. Leg 

Skills Skill

Skill Dice

Stat Dice

Dice Pool 

Skill

Skill Dice

Stat Dice

Dice Pool 

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________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________

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Spells, Powers and Notes Spell

Type

XP Cost

Difficult y

Notes 

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