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Night Horrors: Nameless and Accursed Paradox Pal  Phemonoe, AKA Lucia Reyes, has always been obsessed with paradox, time travel and predestination. Literally from childhood. She self-taught math and learned computer code in order to study the equations of paradox and time travel, had an immense college disaster, and then used her trust fund to start up a Silicon Valley company that eventually went public. Somewhere in that series of events - no one outside of Phemonoe is capable of saying exactly when - she literally broke the principles of Time and created a closed loop with her own childhood. Even she has no idea how many times she traveled that loop - there's no objective way to tell and to her it felt like endless iteration. The final loop, however, ended in college. On that particular journey through time, something noticed Lucia's time loop. It reached in to try and fix it, and in doing so, it altered the nature of her Awakening through its intervention. That something was the Prophet, the Exarch of Time, and its ochema did not reveal its feelings on the loop to Phemonoe. However, after the event, she took her Shadow Name and dedicated herself to the Prophet with the zeal of a convert. She has created something great and powerful, using Sleepwalker engineers and her algorithimic scheduling app, DeSchedule. DeSchedule automatically creates a future calendar for its users by relying on scraping their data without their input, along with a tiny bit of knowledge granted from Phemonoe's magical understanding. The ad copy claims that predictive calendar software will make your life perfect. The actual goal? Predestination. Phemonoe and her Paylon of similar believers, the Oracular Order of the Prophet's Grace, are trying to render free will meaningless. They serve as the secret leaders of her company and have even developed their own Lgacy, the Choronologues. They believe that Phemonoe is chosen by the Prophet, and it's put the Pylon on a rocket ship of ambition. Phemonoe is tall, extremely thing and often forgets to eat. When she does eat, it's using her own personally redeveloped replacement for Soylent most of the time. She rarely sleeps and the bags under her eyes are essentially permanent, though often hidden by her expert makeup techs. Despite this, she's never tired and barely blinks. She keeps her hair short to ensure her daily hair schedule is exactly two minutes long, and the only bit of vanity she really has are the immaculate suits she wears at all times. She does know that it's important to look good, of course, and she will modify herself to fit her audience. With investors, she's an ambitious smooth talker, and with her employers, an inspirational leader. With other Mages, she is a divine agent, all-knowing but approachable. Her Immediate Nimbus creates minor temporal hiccups, in which bits of speech or activity briefly go backwards, then replay the right direction. Her Signature Nimbus is a deep sense of deja vu. Her Long-Term Nimbus causes events to iterate around her, repeating their patterns with eerie similarity. If viewed under the gaze of Active Time Sight, it's easy to tell that Phemonoe's personal time loop changed her. She always appears to be out of sync, as if she were a time traveler, even though she's technically in the correct timeline for her. If traced all the way back to its origin point, however, it leads not to her birth but to her Awakening, which according to Time is now the earliest event in her personal history. It surprises many who understand its nature to learn that most of DeSchedule isn't magical. Almost all of the code is algorithmic data scraping and collation, allowing for extremely accurate user profiles that are indeed extremely predictive. The final bit, though, is magic. Phemonoe hides just barely enough High Speech into the code to allow it to serve as a sympathetic connection for anyone who has both sufficient skill and either the admin permissions or enough computer knowledge to fake them to predict events magically anywhere in the proximity of any phone hosting the app. An aerial view of DeSchedule's newest campus is more revealing - the building is laid out really weirdly because it's tracing out a sigil in High Speech. Phemonoe's cabal used her vast financial resources from duped venture capitalists to design it as a giant monument to the Prophet. While it is often rumored to be haunted or cursed by locals or employees, it isn't...yet. Phemonoe just spends enough time there that her Nimbus is acting to cause significant deja vu and actual repetition of minor events. They'll be right soon enough, however, once the executive spa is finished, complete with summoning circle. Not all of the employees are witting agents of the Seers. Plenty are just Sleepers trying to get paid, though even they can usually tell the company is weird and off. The crunch is one thing,m but all the executives are freaky and Phemonoe herself tends to leave comments on code hours after it gets uploaded. Sometimes, someone will run into the High Speech code and need to take a few days of enforced vacation and memory wiping. Memory scrubbing of employees is relatively common, in fact - not for security reasons, but to ensure her employees don't get burned out. Phemonoe is an Acanthus, a member of the (new for this book) Lesser Ministry of the Horologion, and a Chronologue. Her Virtue is Diligent, her Vice Distant. She has Obsessions focusing on the use of computer code for magic and the violation of causality. She also hopes to achieve total market saturation with DeSchedule and to take control of the Horologion entirely - her view of herself as the prophet of the Prophet is very real. She's extremely intelligent and strong-willed, a master of manipulation, and physically a pretty average person. Her industry fame and wealth mean that she's pretty hard to get to without having to deal with being in her place of power, and she's extremely good with occult knowledge, science, hacking and other academic topics, plus pretty good at reading people. She also knows how to shoot a gun, though not super well, and is magically quite potent. Her specialty is Time, followed by Fate, with Space a distant third. The Horologion seeks to control the world via routine. Repetitive tasks and unbreakable routines numb the mind, impose a rigid structure on the future as a form of worship of the Prophet, the Exarch of control through inevitability. The Horologion have grown massively in the past two centuries, first aided by the Industrial Revolution, then by the Internet, allowing them to draw power off the 9-to-5 daily grind. They believe that if they can track and dictate the lives of every person, they can destroy the capacity for independent thought and creativity. Their Prelacy's greatest power is the Crownd of Agency, which allows its user to have powerful tempral sympathy with any point in their own personal past, and gives them additional time to react and stop anything - even Time magic - that would supernaturally alter history. The Chronologues take this obsession with time and prediction even further. They're mostly Acanthus and Seers and focus on, naturally, Time. They reject the idea of free will, believing that ultimate enlightenment requires perfect predestination, and that once this is achieved, all of the world will be a flawless machine, interlocked and unstoppable. They rely heavily on the principles of predictive algorithims and digital simulations, using magic to guide these mundane processes into something divine. They can draw power for their magic through timepieces and schedules, by arranging their castings to calculated and predetermined periods down to the second, or by fulfilling prophecies and dooms. They can draw Mana by ensuring events follow their predictions, by being productive for at least 12 hours without rest, by repeating the same action for an entire hour, or by precisely following their own self-created schedule precisely. The first Attainment of the Chronologues is If-Then-Else, which combines Time, Fate and skill with computers to subtly alter causality, allowing them to bless with good timing or curse with bad timing, as long as they don't use this power on themselves. Further, they can define a single specific action which will swap the target from good luck to bad luck or vice versa, if the target does it. Their second Attainment is Possibility Matrix, drawing on further Computer skill. It lets them spend time coding a spell digitally, allowing them to read the future of a target with detailed answers and track how they shift based on changes in action every five minutes over the course of a scene, even if their target is no longer in range, by tracking the ripple effects through Time. The big limit is, once again, it cannot self-target. E: Phemonoe is very clearly designed to be a story arc boss, and it works quite well. I like her! Next time: The Scapegoat Mors Rattus fucked around with this message at 19:32 on Mar 15, 2020 |
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Mar 15, 2020 19:11
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I just want to highlight the Crown of Agency, because it's a very fun Prelacy. The agency, you see, is all the Mage's - the Prophet calls on Seers to be 'Great Men of History' and trample the masses in doing so, and the Crown of Agency allows prelates to edit their own timeline easily and with minimal risk to themselves and them alone. No major change in their life makes it harder for them to go back and change things, and any change they dislike will give them a very short grace period to cancel it with Time magic (even just casting Time 2: Shield of Chronos will block any personal-level time changes they don't like). On the other hand, anyone their past actions effect are yanked around helplessly, shifting in Time without recourse. The Crown of Agency takes it from others but grants it to the Seer. The Prophet sucks, destroy the servants of the Lie! Now, I have generally given my PCs with Time Sight a hot second to cast Shield of Chronos anyways, but this is a strong power for an NPC to have when engaged in time combat, and means that a Prelate of the Prophet is like a horrible anchor point in history. On the other hand, using Time to gently caress with Phemonoe by changing how her loop works seems like an extremely fun session - especially since you can have Present Phemonoe show up in the past as a distinct individual at the point where her time look breaks off. Much like Pangloss, I think she's a very fun, awful enemy.
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Mar 15, 2020 19:28
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Ever since I started working for this tech company I feel confused and ill at ease on a daily basis and I keep forgetting things and the management are all weird culty assholes. So yeah no change from my last job.
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Mar 15, 2020 19:29
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What is it about the tech industry that attracts this kind of ridiculous culty nonsense?
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Mar 15, 2020 21:58
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The STEM education is not tempered with liberal arts, sociological and philosophical courses as it should be, leading people with a limited skill-set to discover and invent their own language for concepts like "religion" and "Hell" and "ethics".
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Mar 15, 2020 22:32
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Also, business models that are predicated upon the perception of eventual profitability under vaguely-defined Someday conditions (because most startups aren't moneymakers from the business itself right away / ever—they're VC-funded until they can get bought or IPO). And if you talk and think in these terms long enough at the C-suite, your messaging to everyone under you becomes universally "the best is yet to come, ignore numbers, but still make those numbers bigger for Tomorrow," weird end-times-capitalist-rapture-cult poo poo. So it's perfect to see in a Mage game, because it's possibly one of the most Fallen World things imaginable.
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Mar 15, 2020 22:50
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Robindaybird posted:What is it about the tech industry that attracts this kind of ridiculous culty nonsense? Capitalism and the Cult of American Prosperity makes rich people think they got rich through their brilliant ideas and hard effort and not, say, a mixture of blind luck and stealing good ideas from other people. So, that dude who got mega-rich must be super-smart too! Combined with the other things people said about STEM whackjobs.
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Mar 16, 2020 00:15
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 Hello everyone! I’m back from my writing hiatus, and as promised my next review is for one of 2nd Edition’s more innovative settings. First published in the early 90s, Al-Qadim drew heavily from Arabian Nights and Middle Eastern history. Its first sourcebook, Arabian Adventures, was light on setting but heavy on rules mechanics. In fact, the book was first pitched as more akin to an “Oriental Adventures” setting-neutral supplement than what was planned to be a full world. This was in part because the writers worried that the suits at the time would judge such a project too risky. The line lasted for 6 years, producing 3 supplements, 2 boxed sets, and 9 adventures both stand-alone and serials. Al-Qadim never got updated for future editions, although there’s been fanmade conversions for 3rd Edition and one in the works for 5th Edition courtesy of the Dungeon Master’s Guild. For this review, we’re going to cover the Land of Fate boxed set, which was the supplement that propelled al-Qadim into a full-fledged world. Introduction & Chapter 1: Lay of the Land  As a boxed set, there are three booklets of varying length and a series of handouts and maps. Adventurer’s Guide to Zakhara is both player and DM-friendly, covering the world of Zakhara. The second book, Fortunes & Fates, details DM-centric things such as hidden intrigue and secrets along with organizations and new magic items. We’re going to cover the Adventurer’s Guide first, although in some cases we’ll slip in Fortunes & Fates material which shows how things really are in our respective regions and cities. Finally, Land of Fate is a mini-sourcebook which has new monsters. As I own the electronic copy, all of these are present as their own PDFs. Our first chapter is surprisingly a geographic glossary of sorts. There’s mention of features which may not be common in more standard Euro-style settings, such as different names for sand dunes and their functions, along with terms such as a kavir (salt flat overlying a sea of mud) or a haram (a general term for a holy site or place of power). The book references specific places as examples encountered for such terrain and places. Chapter 2: Life in Town  Here we have an overview of common customs and daily life for the people of Zakhara, which is also known as the Land of Fate by its people. Zakharans are more or less divided into two major cultural groups: the al-Badia, who are nomads, and the al-Hadhar who primarily live in cities and outlying towns and villages. The al-Hadhar are more populous than the al-Badia, and most Zakharan cities lie along rivers and coastlands while the al-Badia are most prominent around the two inland deserts. In the cities, there are regular calls to prayer spaced around major points in the day (sunrise, mid-day, sunset, etc) often signaled by a gong or other loud device from a mosque. These religious sites are often placed in the geographic center of a settlement for efficiency and often serve as a meeting or gathering place for the community. Most occupations relate to food production, particularly in rural areas, and agriculture makes ample use of irrigation to make up for arid environments that are common in Zakhara. Most people do not own the ground on which they live; instead it is owned and managed by local nobles and officials. Many forms of merchants and artisans often operate their place of business right out of their homes. Musicians, story-tellers, and entertainers are another well-received occupation, and the best of the best may be lucky enough to be hired on as private performers for the nobility. Meals are taken quite seriously. Dinner is often the largest and most important, and it’s common for the head of the house to first thank the gods for providing them with sustenance, and richer households may have multiple courses. Bread, olives, coffee, and dates are common among all social classes, while well-to-do people may supplement their diet with fruit jam and meat. Clothing varies based on religion and culture, although there are some commonalities. Trousers and overshirts with sashes are favored by working-class men (no mention of what working-class women wear), with sandals and leather slippers when leather boots cannot be afforded. Headgear often is a soft cap or headcloth, while turbans are common in the central cities. Those who make their living in the desert wear keffiyehs and agals, and women often wear shawls whose material and jewelry is indicative of her class status. The middle and upper classes have more decorative clothing, with purses containing money, tobacco and small weapons in their sashes, and leathering stockings attached to trousers. A kaftan may be worn during times of unfavorable weather. The upper classes are fond of gemstones and gold thread, with turbans wrapped around fezes for men to make them appear taller, and it is common for servants to carry their personal belongings. Veils are common among both genders, with some places having only men or women commonly wear it. Veils are worn differently by region: nobody wears veils in the Cities of the North, the Pearl Cities are highly transparent and decorative, and the League of the Pantheon has veils which obscure one’s face. In Afyal tradition mandates that women have a veil at all times, but they don’t necessarily have to wear it and is thus usually hung over the belt or sash. Mamluks do not wear veils, for their facial tattoos demonstrate which order of slave-soldiers they belong. There are regional differences in clothing. Dyed fabrics are common in the Pearl Cities, given the inhabitants a wider variety of colors. In the conservative Pantheist League, jewelry is forbidden as are colors other than black, and men and women alike dress in full-length robes with veils to prevent attractive people from inciting lustful thoughts in onlookers. The Cities of the Heart, sitting at the relative center of the Caliphate, have a cosmopolitan array of styles. The Ruined Kingdoms, rural areas, and island settlements often have fashion several years out of date. Even Afyal, which is a financially rich realm, is often remarked for having fashion that went out of style during the era of the Grand Caliph’s grandfather. The Cities of the North, which have the most frequent contact with “Northern barbarians” have more exotic fashion. When it comes to governance, Zakhara is the term for the peninsular subcontinent, but the Caliphate is its official name. It is an empire whose leader holds lineage to the First Caliph, responsible for rediscovering the Law of the Loregiver and spreading Enlightenment to the world. The Caliphate functions via a form of feudal federalism, where the empire as a whole is governed by the Caliph’s law and that of the Loregiver’s teachings, while smaller provinces and city-states swear fealty to the Caliph with minor sultans, kings, and other forms of governors administrating on a regional level. Below even them are qadi, or judges, who act as local arbitrators and mediators for disputes and the dispensation of justice. Among the city-dwellers they are often appointed by existing bureaucracies, but among nomads they are often appointed by the community directly based on support and trust. Leadership roles among nomads in general is often more informal and closely-bound at the local level. For war and military matters, most nomad tribes have many among their number who can defend themselves. Most cities have militias that can be called up in the event of an invasion, and a watch for internal policing. Some larger cities can make do with a standing army or hire out mercenaries, and mamluk units are their own division of elite soldiers. Theoretically speaking the Caliph can call upon soldiers across Zakhara in a single unified army, but they have no neighbors who can seriously challenge them in the ways of symmetrical warfare. Most small-scale battles and skirmishes are often land disputes between local authorities, or Unenlightened barbarians and pirates around the Caliphate’s borders and more isolated regions. Twenty years ago there was a local sheikh who tried to lead an army against the capital city of Huzuz, although a single mage summoned an army of genies which wiped about the sheikh’s forces in a one-sided battle. We get a bit of a lengthy treatise on women, marriage, and family structures. Before Enlightenment, most of Zakhara was a highly patriarchal society, and while there have been many inroads towards equality (women can and have held every position besides Caliph) there are still some lingering holdovers. Men are encouraged to be financial breadwinners for family units, while women attend to domestic affairs. Women and children also have their own separate quarters in many houses known as the harim, which can range from a single room or an entire complex based on the wealth of the family. Marriage is traditionally one man, one woman, with class and financial obligations often playing a role. Men are given more freedom to marry below their station, although it is possible for both husband and wife to hold property separately. Men are permitted to have as many as four wives, although this is a steep financial obligation which only a few among the wealthy take advantage of. There’s an exception on the island of Afyal, where women can have any number of husbands; this is due to the fact that the island’s men are mobile traders, and the wives often manage the mercantile houses. One of al-Qadim’s more controversial setting aspects is slavery. Or rather, its portrayal of the institution as one which is largely non-evil beyond some bad apples. In Zakhara is not chattel slavery for life, but more often a form of indentured servitude for law-breakers, debtors, and of Unenlightened people. The children of slaves are considered to be born free, they cannot be left to the elements if they become crippled or useless, and torturing and starving slaves may allow a qadi to rule in favor of their freedom. Any crimes committed by a slave are the owner’s responsibility. Slaves among the Unenlightened are mostly drawn from isolated tribes among the southern islands, mountain regions, and deserts who are captured by slave-hunters. Unlike the above their children are also slaves if they reject the Law of the Loregiver. In some more lawless provinces unscrupulous slavers capture Enlightened people far from home, claiming them to be heathens pretending to be civilized. Mamluks are the most famous and privileged of slaves in Zakhara. They are all technically owned by the Caliph himself and employed by the state as soldiers, often kidnapped from the Unenlightened and indoctrinated as children to become loyal warriors. In the northern cities bordering the Great Sea they are the de facto rulers, and often war against the pirates of the abolitionist Corsair Domains. Finally, we talk about Zakhara’s Nonhuman Races. Zakhara holds a human majority, but all of the Player’s Handbook core options are present, along with some of the more monstrous humanoids such as goblins, kobolds, lizardfolk, gnolls, and even locathah and merfolk in seaside and undersea settlements. Unlike many other D&D settings of the time, there was no major strife between such races. In fact, most demihumans and humanoids living in Zakhara more or less assimilated and share the same customs, deities, and ways of living. However, the races still retain their original languages, which implies that at one point there were distinctive cultures, and in terms of marriage a union which can produce children’s encouraged which means that most people marry within their race* even though the Law of the Loregiver does not ban interracial marriages. *orc-human and elf-human pairings the notable exception. But what of races beyond that? Generally speaking, there are four main qualifiers for a monster to become accepted in the Caliphate: 1. They must be intelligent enough to understand the Law of the Loregiver. 2. They are usually humanlike in size and shape. Creatures with more exotic sizes, anatomies, and/or dietary restrictions have more difficulty living among population centers and tribes. Extremely non-humanoid monsters never become al-Hadhar, although it says nothing one way or the other about the al-Badia. 3. Their innate abilities must not be such that their powers can cause tension or discord. Very powerful and dangerous abilities can put people and local rulers on edge, even if the monster makes it a habit to only use their powers for good. 4. Certain subraces belonging to faiths and civilizations which are on a war footing with the Caliphate, or whose number have been shown to be continuously and irredeemably evil (such as sahuagin and yak-men) are never allowed to join Enlightened society. Speaking of ‘irredeemably evil,’ I am a bit curious about this point. Although far enough away that it may as well be its own setting, Zakhara is part of the planet of Abeir-Toril which itself houses the Forgotten Realms setting. And said setting has pretty much every D&D trope with which we’re familiar, including monsters which are naturally inclined towards evil. This has included humanoid numbers such as orcs, and there isn’t really any description on how Zakharan society overcomes this trope. It seems to me that the implication is that the Law of the Loregiver is such a revelation of truth and wisdom that it can break down ignorance and hidebound customs. But then I have to ask what is it about sahuagin which makes them innately evil that they cannot be converted, whereas orcs and gnolls can break free of such tendencies. Thoughts So Far: The Land of Fates’ opening chapters feel at once both big-picture but also focus on the day-to-day lives of its citizens. I do like the attention to detail on various things, from leisurely activities to food, clothing, and governance. It’s something even a lot of settings today forget to include, and as such makes al-Qadim feel more “lived in” than your average fantasy world. It may more reflect the media I consume, but I find it rather novel even near 30 years later to have a setting with an empire that is not evil. And even moreso, one which does not have any major enemies militarily speaking. There are foul cults, rampaging monsters, and rulers mad with power, but Zakhara isn’t in any great danger from a Mordor-like invading army. Even the Lands of the Yak-Men and Brotherhood of the True Flame, who are al-Qadim’s most iconic villains, tend to act more via magical spies and “rotting from within.” While there are plenty of ruins and dungeons, conflict in al-Qadim would likely be of a more personal nature, and while there are problems in the system, the government’s highest echelons and Grand Caliph do genuinely care for the welfare of the people. The aspect of slavery being an institution that is not portrayed as innately evil or in a “kinder way” is one of al-Qadim’s more controversial options, the other being honor-killing for infidelity (which isn’t mentioned in this book but in Arabian Adventures). While most D&D settings often portray slavery as the chattel kind, the various limits/protections are reflective of attempts in the Islamic world to reform the practice. Even so, slavery as a whole no matter the civilization has been too open to abuse that I am not exactly keen at seeing it ‘softened,’ morally speaking. Join us next time as we cover the nomadic side of things in Chapters 3 and 4!
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Mar 16, 2020 10:02
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"Enlightened slavery" seems to be an artifact of people being fascinated with certain societies that had slaves, so they tried to portray the slavery as "not that bad, really!" I think Egyptian slavery is probably the example of this that I remember most, and occasionally Greek slavery. "ah yes but you see he can't simply shoot the slave, that would be illegal, therefore, the slaves have rights and this slavery is very just and proper." I mean, if we assume that slavery has to exist, then sure, it's better than some forms of slavery. But no form of slavery is better than no slavery at all.
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Mar 16, 2020 11:36
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Night Horrors: Nameless and Accursed The Worst Month  Matatag, born Manuel Dalisay, dreamed of librarianship as a youth. His Awakening led him to the Mysterium - close enough. He was a member of a close cabal named the Tree-Root Union, and he was always more loyal to them than to the Mysterium or his local Consilium. They were the ones who found him during his Awakening and helped him get sorted. The eldest of them, Baobab, even initiated him into the Eleventh Question Legacy. However, unknown to Matatag, not all of the cabal were good people. Two members, Baldachin and Ironwood, were fascinated by Reapers and the soul, and it wasn't long before they became soul thieves themselves. When Baobab and Matatag discovered this, they brought the crimes to the local Mysterium caucus leadership to try and avoid a scandal. However, they were simply told to ignore it - the Union's importance as record keepers and artifact guardians made them too important, and besides, it was only Sleepers being harmed, so it could be overlooked. Baobab was horrified and decided to take things into her own hands, sure that the caucus leadership must also have become corrupted. When she confronted them, Baldachin and Ironwood murdered Baobab, then stole the cabal's large collection of artifacts and grimoires which it had been guarding for the Mysterium. They faked their own deaths and framed Matatag for the entire thing. The Mysterium leadership wasted no time accepting the frame job, declaring Matatag apostate. He fled his city, and while the Consilium was very suspicious of how fast this all went and dispatched a team to investigate and bring him back for trial, Matatag refuses to believe they might be on his side and he will not go back. He is a man on the run now, a fugitive from his Consilium who seeks to track down the traitors Baldachin and Ironwood and...well, he's not totally sure what he'll do after that. Matatag is a Filipino man, mid-30s, a bit small and short. He wears big ol' coke bottle glasses and cheap outfits. He doesn't shave often, and his beard is patchy and gross, while his hair runs to his shoulders. He believes that he should reject the Pentacle as they rejected him, and he no longer obeys the rules or etiquette of mainstream Mage society - he was never a fan in the first place, really. When he reaches a new town, he finds some magical mystery to investigate and does so with no regard for if anyone else is already doing so. He's happy to steal grimoires or breach protected territories, and he almost never works with a Pentacle mage on anything, even when it'd help everyone (including him) to do so. While this keeps him busy, his biggest focus is tracking the traitors down. He's horrified by what they did...but he also blames himself. He helped them in their studies of the soul, which he feels a lot of guilt over, and he often thinks about how he should have said something rather than looking the other way for the sake of friendship. Some days, he wants to kill the two Reapers in revenge, while others he only wants to ask them why they did what they did. His Immediate Nimbus is a glowing purple fog that makes people who breathe it want to engage in their vices. His Signature Nimbus is a chalky taste and a feeling of shame. His Long-Term Nimbus encourages fear over one's own flaws and actions. Baldachin and Ironwood are both still out there, but they've changed massively. Both became Tremere, though Baldachin failed his initiations and became a preta, a failed Tremere candidate. We'll cover those later. Ironwood succeeded, and now goes by Ashra of House Thrax; more on what that means later, too. They haven't been working together or even seen each other in a long while, but both are actively hunting Matatag - consuming his soul will be, each feels, an act of final closure on their old lives. Oh, and the Mysterium leaders that condemned Matatag? A number of them are fully aware he didn't do the crimes. The coverup was a sloppy one, and any real investigation would've shown it. He was made apostate for political reasons - he was a patsy by the Left-Handed (read: corrupt wizards practicing evil magic) mages that hide in the local Mysterium caucus. While they are nominally helping to hunt for Matatag, they would very much like if he just went away and wasn't caught. Matatag, meanwhile, is trying to find a way to contact Baobab's ghost, which he assumes must exist. She had skill in Death magic, but he doesn't, and so he's looking for artifacts or other tools to do the work for him. Hopefully, he thinks, she'll be able to tell him more about her killers' motives and where they might be now, as well as help him with further study of the Eleventh Question. Matatag is rumored in his old Consilium to have gone Reaper himself, as the crimes he has been blamed for have gotten exaggerated both by normal rumor and the active misinformation fed by the corrupt leaders within the Mysterium caucus. There's a bit of truth there, however - he has become interested in the nature of the soul due to his work alongside Baldachin and Ironwood, and he has continued his studies in secret, assuring himself that it's just to protect him from them. He also doesn't realize that some of his old Mysterium colleagues don't buy what their leaders are selling. A group of Mysterium mages from his Consilium have grown suspicious, though they do not yet believe their leaders have gone Left-Handed. Still, they want to talk to Matatag and get the truth, but he's trying to avoid them, believing they are his enemies as well. Most of the local Consilium thinks he has the stolen artifacts and grimoires his old cabal used to take care of, after all. He doesn't...but, as one of the old caretakers, he'd be invaluable in tracking them. The collection certainly held a number of very potent items, including a very powerful grimoire containing spells used for stealing, manipulating and eating souls. That one's currently in the hands of Ashra (nee Ironwood). Matatag is a decently powerful Mastigos, belonging to the Eleventh Question Legacy. His Virtue is Studious, his Vice is Hesitant. His chief Obsession is to understand the nature of the soul, and he also wants to set up a new sanctum and find the traitors from his old cabal. He's a clever, strong-willed sort, but he's physically average and socially completely incompetent. He's extremely educated, particularly on magical artifacts, and he's a decent sneak and survivalist, plus he does know how to shoot things. He's no good at talking to anyone that isn't a dog, however. He has a smattering of magical skill spread across Matter, Mind, Space and Time, but he is expert at none of it. Overall, Matatag is less a challenge to fight and more a challenge to deal with. He's going to show up and gently caress with whatever your PCs are looking into, maybe steal from them, but ultimately he is an innocent man who has been horribly wronged. He has Tremere Reapers after him, so that's trouble one way, and a Consilium that wants to at least talk to him and maybe arrest him, so that's another. Worse - if he's allowed to spiral out on his own without anyone to talk to or help him, he's likely to go Reaper himself. He's not going to be much of a fight, but the chaos that follows him and his ability to hide make him hard to nail down for a confrontation. Next time: The Fool
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Mar 16, 2020 14:40
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Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 2e: Terror in Talabheim Taalahim to Talabheim So, Talabheim is built into an immense impact crater, forming a huge mountain range around the city and the surrounding countryside. According to myth, this happened because Taal was having an enormous wrestling match with a giant serpent after giving his little brother Ulric that lame flat mountain that Middenheim's built on (This is the Taalite version of things, obviously). Eventually, Taal threw the thing around enough to create the Talabec River, then powerslammed it into the ground so hard the impact crater looks like something that should have caused an extinction event. He decided this was an appropriately great way to produce a sheltered land where his worship could flourish, so he hid it all in the woods and waited for people to find it. He bored a tunnel into the crater walls and called the region 'Taalahim', Taal's Victory. Several hundred years later, humans from the Taleuten tribe found the tunnel, and discovered the land on the other side was fertile, well defended, and good to live in. They thanked their God and eventually got around to building a city within the great crater; what we'll know as Talabheim was founded in 40 IC, during the latter part of Sigmar's reign. Sigmar himself is said to have stopped in Taalahim to visit and inspect the new city during his final journey to the east, and it's said he was mightily impressed and proclaimed that this city could not fall as long as it stayed true to Taal. The history presented in this book is naturally all from a Talabheimer/Taalite perspective, and it's interesting to see it talk about the spread of Sigmarism almost like a plague. If you'll recall from Tome of Salvation, it was the Countess of Talabheim that refused to legitimize the election of a Stirlander anti-Ulrican/Taalite zealot in 1359/1360. Empress Otillia as she called herself claimed that the Electoral system had lost legitimacy, that the prior Drakwald Emperors had caused the crisis of 1111, and that recent scandals (of which there had been many) and religious aggression proved that Johan Helstrum had been a fraud and Sigmar was not a God. What I find interesting and that's elaborated here is that under no circumstances did she claim Sigmar's faith was a Chaotic plant or that the cult had anything to do with Chaos. Her entire grievance was that the Sigmarite faith was being used as a shield for major political corruption, and had been for centuries. In this, she was not at all incorrect (she was wrong about him not being a God; he's pretty definitely a God). Similarly, she's never portrayed as having been influenced to this by Chaos. This incident was entirely human, and entirely a reaction to repeated scandals and attempts to wipe out the old faiths, as well as the new bevy of Electoral Votes the Sigmarites enjoyed that had enabled them to control the Imperial Election. No evil slime from the northern hellgate needed. While Talabheim never came to be the center of a great Empire of its own during the Time of Three Emperors, it was also basically unconquerable with current technology. Getting over the crater mountains rather than going through the tunnel is impossible to do in the numbers you need to do it and with the heavy equipment necessary to mount a major offensive. The people of Talabheim can't man every inch of the crater walls; they're much too big. But they can patrol the entire area and watch for scattered crossings, and holding the actual entrance tunnels is easy. Add to that the fresh water from the local lake (which is magically, unusually clean at all times) and the verdant fertility of the crater's bottom, and the city has its own sustainable food and water. Attempts to besiege it can last for years without ever significantly bothering the residents. Middenheim was defensible; Talabheim is impregnable. During the mess of the Three Emperors, Talabheim declared itself an independent city state in 1750. It had everything it needed to survive, and anyone besieging it had no chance, so who could enforce making it into a fief? The crazy law codes of Talabheim come out of the confusion of these days, a symbolic rejection of anarchy and a statement that the city wanted its own form of order so it could stand out among the chaos. Unfortunately, the law and tax codes are so complex by 2522 that they may as well be anarchy, with everyone in the city vying to get out of as many of their taxes as possible (leading to more taxes being passed, on the hopes that they'll get a few people), and the book of laws being so immense and potentially contradictory as to sustain entire tribes of squabbling lawyers within the Jewel of the Forest (Who it's said love the extremely complex laws of the city and try to prevent them being simplified lest it threaten their livelihood. Same for the excisemen. The Tax Preparation Lobby is a real thing in Talabheim) . But it's the thought that counts. Talabheim's full independence came to an end in 2302-2304, at the hands of our old friend Magnus the Pious. While it was less dramatic than stepping into the Flame of Ulric at Middenheim, it's said that when Magnus arrived in Talabheim to ask for their help, a stag with a hammer mark appeared to pose majestically in the Temple of Taal while every wolf in the Taalbastion took up a howl that echoed through the entire crater. Sensibly, the priests immediately took that as a sign to advise the city's parliament of nobles to send the army with Magnus. Talabheim's Emperor surrendered the Otillian crown in return for being named an Elector, and Talabheim slid back into the normal Empire surprisingly smoothly. It helps that Magnus took that army and saved the world, and then ruled justly for 50 years. Foreshadowing the events of this adventure, though, the Skaven managed to sneak into the Taalbastion while the army was away with Magnus, and spread plague and suffering throughout the city. Talabheim survived it, but it did pay a price for sending its soldiers and trackers off to help save the world. A price that's going to be paid again after the Storm. Talabheim came through the Storm just fine. The bulk of Archy's forces went to Middenheim, and what few warbands made attempts got slaughtered pretty easily. The greater problem came from cultists hidden within the swarms of refugees from Hochland (and within the city itself), and from demagogues and agitators who sought to gain power by turning these incidents (and others) into an anti-immigrant fervor and encouraged people to turn away refugees and those seeking shelter. Note many of these people had nothing to do with Chaos, and were just the normal opportunistic shitbird demagogues that show up whenever people are frightened. Count Ludenhof of Hochland was forced to seek refuge along with many of his people in Talabheim, and now that things have calmed down the city's government has promised to help him rebuild Hochland. They figure it's the best way to deal with the refugee problem: Build them new homes, clear out remaining infestations, and resettle Hochland. Which is pretty reasonable; they'd get a friend in Count Ludenhof and Hochland, deal with the overcrowding problem, and generally do it in a way that isn't 'send them all away and tell them to burn' like the crazy demagogues want. Unfortunately, this adventure is going to interrupt that process pretty severely. Which sort of gets to my issue with the Talabheim writeup: It's actually quite good, and about on par with the Middenheim one. But the adventure isn't going to use a lot of it. You don't spend much time in the Talabheim that's about to be described; things go to hell pretty much from the word go and only get worse until you're playing Resistance members in a city occupied by Rat Nazis asking for your papers and swinging from the rafters as they try out Imperial beer. Which is entertaining in its own way, but it's a bit sad that it's a waste of good plot hooks like the insidious anti-immigration demagogues. Now, this makes the book very useful if you want to write adventures in Talabheim without the actual adventure happening, and for that it's certainly valuable. And Talabheim is a fun place! Just I wish the adventure integrated some of this material a little more. Next Time: The Powers of Talabheim
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Mar 16, 2020 14:42
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PurpleXVI posted:"Enlightened slavery" seems to be an artifact of people being fascinated with certain societies that had slaves, so they tried to portray the slavery as "not that bad, really!" I think Egyptian slavery is probably the example of this that I remember most, and occasionally Greek slavery.
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Mar 16, 2020 15:46
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Or make it an explicit goal for the PCs to overthrow the system.
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Mar 16, 2020 17:16
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I get the appeal of having Mamluks and Janissaries in your Arabian Nights inspired setting, and I appreciate not wanting slavery and it's accompanied baggage being a central element to your game. I also understand that trying to minimize and sanitize slavery, even in a very different context from Western chattel slavery, is not going to be a acceptable choice for many players. I don't think a perfect solution exists, but I do appreciate the intent behind Al-Qadim's choices. Edit: also, unless there's a whammy coming down the road, I appreciate they stayed true to the historical harem as a feminine space within a home and not the nubile pleasure domes of Orietalist fantasy Tibalt fucked around with this message at 17:49 on Mar 16, 2020 |
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Mar 16, 2020 17:46
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Night Horrors: Nameless and Accursed What If A Petty rear end in a top hat Got Godlike Power  Ricardo, real name Gagan Bhatia, is the third son of an Indian family. His siblings were highly successful - one a successful lawyer, the other an indie rock star. He, on the other hand, was never more than average at anything he tried, and he was quick to drop whatever he was trying once that became clear. He's always seen himself as destined for greatness despite this. He eventually became a hedge fund manager in the hopes that he could make enough to retire early and pursue passion. For ten years, nothing happened to him at all...until he noticed something odd about the reports he was reading. He reviewed them and found that for several years, the funds' investments didn't follow the market - they led it, occurring before the events they'd normally be reacting to. Despite being warned off this idiocy by his colleagues, he decided to test the theory by convincing his manager to sell it all. That night, he Awakened in a dream of Arcadia, finding himself able to see the early warnings all around him. He's still not sure what happened, but he decided he was going to use it. Ricardo's an Indian man in his early 40s, pretty average-looking and fond of expensive business suits. (He spends very little otherwise.) He's losing his hair but thinks it makes him look distinguished. He believes that now is the time he has been waiting for, and that his life has truly only just begun. He has no real understanding of his nature as a mage, but has picked up a few things - use of the Shadow Name (Ricardo), how to use a magical tool, that kind of thing. He learns magic mostly by trying it out at his apartment, which he uses as a training ground, seeing what kind of soap opera insanity he can manipulate his neighbors into for his amusement. He freely uses magic whenever he sees a chance to improve his own life or standing, and he's free with blessings for his friends and curses for his enemies. Everyone that knew him has noticed his personality's sudden and drastic shift - he's gone from a humble, quiet sort to an arrogant rear end in a top hat. He believes himself the only mage in all the world, after all, and for the first time he feels powerful and important. He'd be shocked and disappointed to learn he's one of many. His Immediate Nimbus provokes a sense of helplessness and loss of control, his Signature Nimbus causes a gray fog of disappointment and lost opportunity, and his Long-Term Nimbus makes circumstances arrange themselves to encourage poorly advised and regrettable choices. Ricardo's apartment building, Stone Island, has gained several Sleepwalkers since he started his reign of drama. They know something's up, and they've figured out that Ricardo is at the center of everything, but the last time someone confronted him directly, that person got into a ten-car pileup immediately after. They've decided to form a tenant's union as an excuse to keep tabs on Ricardo and figure out how to handle him. It gets worse, though - Ricardo is a Paradox disaster waiting to happen. Ever since a bad experience with a Paradox anomaly, he's entirely solved his Paradox issues by containing the Abyssal incursions within his Pattern, and it's been warping his mind and encouraging him to reach far beyond what he can safely achieve. No one's explained anything to him, and he's likely to end up causing a Paradox well beyond what he can contain. The one person who might explain has no desire to: Aurochs. Aurochs is a Seer, a potent member of the Ministry of Mammon, and he has been actively concealing Ricardo's existence. He infiltrated the hedge fund months before Ricardo Awakened, receiving messages from the Exarch known as the Chancellor in the form of market shifts. He was very disturbed when Ricardo's analysis of those shifts caused him to Awaken, and he's been hiding the young mage because he has no desire to change his plans to induct a new Seer or bring a potential rival into his Pylon. It's not a particularly strong cloaking spell he's used, however. Locals in the area have decided Stone Island must be haunted thanks to the weird extremes of luck that follow its tenants. Some win lotteries, others die in freak accidents. The truth is, of course, it's just Ricardo. Whenever a new neighbor arrives, Ricardo glances at their direct future. If he doesn't think it fits his impression of them, he changes it by casting a spell on something they own to alter their luck. If that fails, he'll give them his 'lucky coin,' using it as a sympathetic link to do magic on them directly. He's at the center of basically everything in that apartment. The local Seers, meanwhile, have figured out Aurochs is hiding someone. They think it's a new apprentice he wants to hide, though they don't know who. Aurochs would deny this, of course. While he admires Ricardo's willingness to use magic selfishly, he thinks of the guy as a dupe, not an apprentice, and Ricardo hasn't realized he even exists. Ricardo's also gotten what he always wanted - a Destiny. He receives visions of it occasionally, seeing people bowing to him and watching himself do magic that alters the world forever. He hasn't realized that his Destiny can go two ways, however, and that the dark side of it is his Doom: if he doesn't change how he's acting, yes, he'll do world-altering magic that makes others bow...because he's going to be possessed by an Abyssal entity that is going to try to warp the local city into its own personal anti-real kingdom or something similar. Ricardo is a very weak, newly Awakened mage. He's an Acanthus, no Order or Legacy, and his Virtue is Tenacious while his Vice is Impatient. His chief Obsession is using his power to warp his neighbors' fates for entertainment, and he also wants to show off his power and get promoted. He's kind of an rear end in a top hat. He's fairly average at everything, though his in fact good at finance and well educated, and decently good at social skills. He's got a mix of Fate, Forces and Time, none especially powerful. Next time: The Queen of the Rose
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Mar 16, 2020 18:05
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So, Ricardo is basically just an episode of The Twilight Zone?
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Mar 16, 2020 20:34
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Ithle01 posted:So, Ricardo is basically just an episode of The Twilight Zone?
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Mar 16, 2020 21:03
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Tibalt posted:Right down to the twist ending where he finds out that magic didn't make him special either. Not only is he not the only mage in existence the other mages don't want to hang out with him because they think he's such a loser. Ouch.
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Mar 16, 2020 21:16
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People thinking the building is haunted could bring in all sorts of different splats; Werewolves that think it's a Spirit problem, Sin-Eaters that think it's a ghost problem, etc. Only to have it turn out to he one careless Mage. Honestly I think he's my favorite NPC so far
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Mar 16, 2020 21:26
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Be nice if he gets turned into a vampire and without his reality altering magic finds himself to be even less special. VVVV: guess I'm not up on my WOD lore, what would rob a mage of his powers? By popular demand fucked around with this message at 21:32 on Mar 16, 2020 |
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Mar 16, 2020 21:28
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By popular demand posted:Be nice if he gets turned into a vampire and without his reality altering magic finds himself to be even less special. Mages are normally immune to the embrace. Sadly, being turned into a vampire would actually make him special and thus can't be allowed.
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Mar 16, 2020 21:30
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He can still end up as an ashtray, right?
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Mar 16, 2020 21:31
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I like how he has a literal important capital-d Destiny and that doesn't make him special because a ton of mages have those. e: hell, you can hand them out at high levels of Fate
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Mar 16, 2020 21:39
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Hostile V posted:The STEM education is not tempered with liberal arts, sociological and philosophical courses as it should be, leading people with a limited skill-set to discover and invent their own language for concepts like "religion" and "Hell" and "ethics". I volunteer with 826 Valencia to teach creative writing, specifically to help counteract the negatives of STEM-based education pushes.
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Mar 16, 2020 21:53
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Night Horrors: Nameless and Accursed MY NAME IS A GODDAMN ACRONYM  U.O.P.S. is known to most of the world as Summer Coleman, daughter of one of the long-time state senators of recent decades. She sought meaning in youth and discovered it in the Holy Temple of the Obelisk, an occultist organization of some history. She took her motto as her alias - Ut Omnes Perfecta Sint, That All May Be Complete. Her family didn't approve, but she didn't really care. Besides, it was the 60s. This was her thing. In the late 70s, however, the organization suddenly went bust, its leaders vanishing and its disciples left without direction and with a lot of anger. Summer recovered what she could of the sacred library, obsessing over the way the texts described other worlds and the magical energies within them. One night, she Awakened while studying these texts, watching Mana flow around her. She was certain she had passed the final test set before her by the secret masters, and she used her family's political connections to get in touch with the ex-members of the Temple. Most of them were Sleepers, and UOPS destroyed their minds trying to force them to understand her power. Those that came through her spells intact became Sleepwalkers, forming the core of her new organization - the Order of the Rose. While most of her followers still couldn't use magic, they were able to find other mages and recruit them. It's been 40 years since, and the Order of the Rose has become a fully fledged Nameless Order and the most numerous group of mages in Ripton County, their center of power. They don't really exist outside it, though. UOPS is a white lady in her 60s. In public she wears very fancy outfits, but when doing magic she exclusively wears plain black robes and white full masks without emotional expression. She has a large perm of gray hair. She's very friendly, even to Seers and Pentacle mages, but she takes her work seriously and will not tolerate mockery of the Order of the Rose or their beliefs. She is very well connected in local politics, and her nephew recently took over her father's state Senate seat. The Order's dominance in the county is assured by her focus on strong infrastructure and control of local politics. There is a small Consilium in the area, and the Seers technically consider it part of a larger Tetrarchy, but the Pentacle and Seer cabals and pylons within the county have yet to successfully challenge UOPS for local dominance. UOPS' Immediate Nimbus is a blindingly bright thunderstorm, her Signature Nimbus is electrical sparks and the sense of a mild static shock, and her Long-Term Nimbus encourages profound religious and spiritual experiences, which has made the area prone to surprise conversions. The Holy Temple of the Obelisk was actually run by the Guardians of the Veil as part of their Labyrinth; its secret master was a mage named Voitto, and he would absolutely still be in charge of it had he not gotten caught up in the Silent War of 1979, a local conflict that wiped out most of the Pentacle and Seer presence in the county. The vacuum this left behind is what allowed UOPS and her order to take over. Voitto is still alive and in the region, and he's still really mad about UOPS; he'd very much like to bring her down and get things back to what he thinks of as normal. (Obviously, UOPS is a true believer and likely wouldn't accept that her Order was born from deliberate Guardian lies that she took seriously.) The return of the Seers and Pentacle brought with it negotiations, and UOPS had to promise that the Order of the Rose would not attempt to expand outside the county. She has broken that promise several times, but never actually managed to get a foothold anywhere else; she's under the impression that no one noticed. She is wrong - both the Pentacle and the Seers know about her broken promises and plan to use them against her. The main current goal of the Order of the Rose is to produce the Crown of the Rose, a perfected, magically Awakened human. Their experiments are recorded in the Crown Notebook, a grimoire that the mages of the Order's inner circle have created together. All of the inner circle have a copy, while UOPS wields the original, and has hidden within it the notes on the Legacy she is also developing: the Shapers of the Invisible. The Order has so far found many potential candidates to become the Crown, and some of them even volunteered. All of them are dead, buried with honors in nameless graves in the Order's private cemetary. These graves are marked only with the number of that candidate - Attempt 36, say. Many believe UOPS is actually a Seer in deep cover; she isn't, but the Order of the Rose's top-down structure and infiltration of Sleeper life make it an easy mistake. Some Seers plot to convert her Order to worship of the Exarchs as a way to undermine her control, and one Pylon has gone undercover within the Rose to attempt to enact this plan. The Order is also an active recruiter of Sleepwalkers - they need these people to make their work easier, and UOPS believes the Crown must start as a Sleepwalker. While they know how to temporarily force someone to Sleepwalk, it's not a permanent solution, so the Order actively tries to poach Pentacle and Seer-aligned Sleepwalkers. UOPS is an Obrimos and a Shaper of the Invisible, as noted above. Her Virtue is Patient, her Vice is Imposing. Her Obsessions involve creating the Crown of the Rose, mapping the Temenos, and contacting a Celestine, one of the "natives" of the Supernal Aether. She'd also like to convert others to her faith and use her influence in the county to her whim. She's actually pretty average, stat-wise, except for being insanely manipulative. She does have a decent understanding of chemistry and occultism, and she can knife fight to some extent, but she's significantly more focused on magic than anything else. She is an extremely good user of Prime and Forces, with a sideline in Spirit. The Shapers of the Invisible are an Obrimos Legacy focused on Spirit. Currently, UOPS is the only one, having developed the Legacy by studying her failures in creating the Crown. The goal of the Legacy is to harmonize the intangible and the physical in order to create an enlightened spirit. This enlightenment, UOPS believes, is key to successfully creating the Crown. The Shapers can do magic through appeasing spirits by ritual, using scientific methods to study the occult and occult methods to study science, or by using the symbols of secret societies. They can gain Mana by teaching people about the spirit world, recruiting people into a cult or mystical society, or by inspiring others to better themselves or otherwise seek out enlightenment. The First Attainment of the Shapers, Seeing the Invisible, combines Spirit and Science to allow the mage to perceive spirits in Twilight, and with added Forces also grants the ability to sense light, heat and vibration, which is real useful. The Second Attainment, Graspign the Invisible, uses additional Science to allow the mage to touch spirits in Twilight. With more Forces, it can also force a single mundane force in a small area (such as a room) into Twilight - so, for example, in this room gravity affects spirits in Twilight but not material things or people. The Third Attainment, Harmonizing the Invisible, uses Occult skill to allow the user to cross the Gauntlet via a long ritual. With additional Forces, it can drag a mundane force across the Gauntlet in a small area - so now gravity isn't affecting spirits in Twilight, but rather has been dragged into the spirit realm (within, y'know, the single room). There's also rules for being a member of the Order of the Rose. Sleepers can reach up to 3 dots, Sleepwalkers 4 and Mages 5. The Order focuses on metaphysical perfection of body and soul and the exploration of mystic realms. It teaches about Occult and Science, grants access to research libraries it controls, and in Sleepers and Sleepwalkers can teach the ability to sense nearby Supernal magic. Mages instead learn to use their skills in Occult, Science and Empathy to do magic. Beyond the third rank, it grants skill in exploring the Astral realm, and at the highest rank, you get a copy of the Crown Notebook as a grimoire. UOPS is great as either a sinister patron or major foe for a local campaign. Her goals are laudable in theory, but she's more than willing to literally kidnap and kill people in pursuit of them. She considers making the Crown more important than anything else, and she enjoys being a petty tyrant of the local magical community. Plus, she's an old hippy lady with massive local political connections. I think she'd be a lot of fun to run, and she's a great example of how on a local scale, the greater Orders don't have to be in charge. Next time: Banishers
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Mar 16, 2020 22:21
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I admit I kind of like UOPS as well. She's like the magical, hippy love child of Hillary Clinton and L. Ron Hubbard.
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Mar 17, 2020 02:39
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Is there a post with a primer on all the different Mage terms anywhere? I'm picking up a lot from the context of these posts, but there's just so much it's a little bewildering at times.
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Mar 17, 2020 02:58
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Nemo2342 posted:Is there a post with a primer on all the different Mage terms anywhere? I'm picking up a lot from the context of these posts, but there's just so much it's a little bewildering at times. https://projects.inklesspen.com/fatal-and-friends/mors-rattus/mage-the-awakening-second-edition/ Hit the archive and ctrl-f for the words you need.
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Mar 17, 2020 03:04
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Nemo2342 posted:Is there a post with a primer on all the different Mage terms anywhere? I'm picking up a lot from the context of these posts, but there's just so much it's a little bewildering at times. Mage’s lexicon is the biggest and most complicated of any White Wolf game. Meghan (my successor as line developer) keeps it in a spreadsheet that I started. Do not be ashamed, it’s legitimately hard. If a search of previous F&Fs doesn’t help, ask!
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Mar 17, 2020 07:51
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The short version is the Obrimos Virgin vs the Mastigos Chad meme that I keep meaning to make that no one wants. Not even me. ("Makes lightning and then eats Paradox like Grapenuts" vs. "Just mind controls people from 500 miles away cause he handed them a hairbrush", etc.)
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Mar 17, 2020 08:18
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 Chapter 3: Life in the Desert  This is a rather brief chapter, focusing on how the al-Badia people live. Zakhara is dominated by two major deserts: the High Desert and the Haunted Lands, and besides a few examples no large cities exist given that what few sources of water there are. All recognize the deserts’ dangers, but the al-Badia can see the beauty of the land. Nomad tribes heavily rely upon trade and livestock for survival: sour milk, roasted desert rats and lizards, and dates are common sources of food, and in lieu of water people wash with sand for hygiene. Dogs and falcons are commonly used for hunting prey, particularly gazelle, and it is customary to pray to Fate and the gods before going on an expedition to raise one’s chances of success. A unique and rare food known as “nomad’s bread” is regarded as a delicacy by the al-Badia, cooked from unleavened dough tossed into a campfire before being cleaned of ash and sand and dunked in a cup of butter. Al-Badia tribes have seasonal routes where they pick up stakes and make voyages to nearby towns and cities, selling the various goods of their people (wool, livestock, textiles, etc) to in turn buy items they cannot ordinarily obtain on their own. They often graze off the land, and when camping arrange their tents so that they’re within easy hearing range of warning horns in the event of trouble. For what they cannot (or will not) trade for, they often obtain in raids where hunters will ride at night or during a dust storm to steal cattle from another tribe. This is meant to be a non-lethal affair, where those who remain in their tents are untouched and combat is not to the death, with signs of surrender known to almost all tribes to ensure that such raids don’t devolve into blood feuds. City-dwellers have no love or understanding for such raids, so nomads who attack villages and outposts often escalate things into bloodier affairs. More sensible and honorable tribes discourage this practice unless times are truly lean. Nomads recognize laws of hospitality much as city-dwellers do, although the traditions are different in some ways, such hanging up a frock at a tent’s front to celebrate a guest’s arrival. It is during this time that the al-Badia have mutton as a feast, for sheep are delicious but their wool is an important trade good. Marriage (and divorce) are more informal as well, where a husband simply declares his desire three times while in the woman’s case she returns to her parents’ home. Babies are often decorated with blue-beaded caps, kohl on the face, and a dagger by the side of their crib in belief that such things protect them against the evil eye, a unique type of curse in Zakhara which is often bestowed by genies who become jealous of mortals who are too obviously arrogant.* *This has mechanical rules in Arabian Adventures, and as a result causes most Zakharans to make shows of humility when they are praised in public. It goes without saying that camels are a common herd animal among the al-Badia, as well as anyone who seeks to traverse Zakhara’s inland regions. They can endure the heat and poor resources of the desert, their dung can be used for fire fuel, and their urine serves as a multipurpose shampoo/disinfectant/eyewash/laxative. Honestly, I am a bit surprised that there’s no mention of horses. In real-world Arab societies horses played an iconic role more so than camels, and served as a status symbol and were used for a variety of roles from racing to war. Camels were more typically draft animals. Chapter 4: Desert Tribes  This chapter covers the major groups of al-Badia, split up into tribes of the High Desert and the Haunted Lands with nine among the former and three upon the latter. There are hundreds of smaller tribes which are little more than individual bands and extended family units, while the major tribes can number thousands of people (and ten times as many livestock). The tribes of the Haunted Lands by contrast are fewer in number, and their region is more highly elevated above sea level. Said desert was once home to warring kingdoms, and it is an important trading route connecting the eastern Ruined Kingdoms to the League of the Pantheon. A Note on NPCs: It is with this chapter that we begin to see a common trend in the al-Qadim setting. Although none have full stat blocks, Zakhara is similar to Forgotten Realms in that its important figures tend towards the higher levels. Most city rulers and tribal leaders are quite high level, ranging from the low 10s to 15 and higher. Levels 5 to 10 are usually the sons and daughters or more minor yet notable figures in court. But unlike Forgotten Realms, most such figures tend to the interests of their hometowns primarily (or themselves for the less scrupulous sorts); nobody exceeds 20th level, and there’s no Elminster or Seven Sisters’ equivalents going around Zakhara and righting wrongs. Even the Grand Caliph and his court usually delegate matters to local rulers instead of intervening directly, using the empire’s bureaucracy and institutional power to alleviate injustices. Tribes of the High Desert House of Asad (Children of the Lion) are one of the more prosperous tribes of the High Desert, and this in turn makes them quite arrogant. They claim a notable Jamal Oasis as their land but let other Enlightened tribes make use of it. Their leader, Sheikh Najib bin Kamal al-Asad, is one of the few 20th level NPCs in the setting and is known for being unmatched in combat. House Bakr (Clan of the Young Camel) mostly live in and nearby Tajara, one of the cities of the Pearl. Their leader, Sheikh Ali al-Hadd, is the son of one of the rebels against the city’s ruler, who saw a vision that the people of his clan would know only misfortune within its walls. As said leader was formerly a prominent officer, relations between House Bakr and Tajar’s government are strained. House of Dhib (Sons of the Wolf) live mostly as craftsmen and herders, but are notorious raiders of caravans and use old qal’ats (ruined fortresses) in the mountains to store their ill-gotten gains. Many such strongholds are believed to be magically warded from conventional view. Its leader, Sheikh Anwat al-Makkur, is gaunt to the point that he’s nicknamed “the Skeleton.” House of Dubb (House of the Bear) live in the southwest portion of the High Desert, and also harvest the woodland resources of the Realm of Bleeding Trees. Its leader, Sheikh Yaqub al-Quwwat, would much prefer to go out on adventures than attend his traditional duties. He has also fallen in love with the city of Ajayib’s ruler, in part because he is still unmarried without children and was told of a prophecy that he does not have long to live. House of Nasr (People of the Eagle) are well-known for maintaining the Desert Mosque which is holy to all nomadic tribes. The clans among the house serve yearly rotations where they watch over the mosque, and its leader Sheikh Nadia umm Fadela is famous for protecting it from foreign raiders. She is also known for single handedly rescuing her daughter from a band of mamluk slavers from Qudra. Said daughter has red hair* and was thus mistaken as an Unenlightened barbarian. This was all settled amicably once the mistake was revealed, and the responsible mamluks were assigned to the less-prestigious naval units of their city *which calls the marital faithfulness of Sheikh Nadia into question in very whispered hushes. House of Sihr (Jann of the High Desert) are not humanoid at all, but rather janni who live in the most inhospitable region of the High Desert: the appropriately-named Genie’s Anvil. They are a diverse gathering of clans hailing from faraway lands, some serving greater genies and others independent. They live much as other al-Badia, albeit with more magical abilities in common use. Their leader, Amir Bouladin al-Mutajalli, oversees a group of lesser sheikhs who regard themselves as the most important clan, and his daughter is often fond of disguising herself as a mortal and accompanying adventurers to fascinating locations. House of Tayif (Ghost-Warriors) are Unenlightened, and their major stock in trade is raiding other tribes and appear to only seek violence against trading caravans. Its leader, Mouli al-Ajami,* is a blonde-haired, blue-eyed foreigner who seeks vengeance against the Caliphate for his capture and torture at the hands of Qudran mamluks. Interestingly said foreigner is a Paladin, and given that this is pre-4th Edition where they could only be Lawful Good, this makes me wonder if there’s some deeper tale to tell behind this. Anger at Qudra’s military is understandable (they aren’t above using under-handed measures against their fellow cities as we’ll find out in Chapter 7), but the tribes’ portrayal sounds like they’re attacking a much wider audience than the mamluks. *Ajami is a Zakharan term for ‘foreigner.’ Another foreign NPC in this book also has this title. House of Thawr (Children of the Bull) had the majority of their number settle into more sedentary lives in the Pearl Cities. The remaining nomads have been on the receiving end of attacks from said cities after some unsuccessful raids. Its leader, Sheikh Ali al-Sadid, has refused various plans from advisors, instead placing his trust in visions of a “cleansing wind” that shall destroy the cities. His daughter worries about her father’s sanity, and has pressed the ablest members of the tribe into scouring dungeons and ruins for valuable treasures to uplift themselves out of poverty. House of Uqab are technically Enlightened and pledge loyalty to the Grand Caliph, but they are made up of outcasts from the other tribes and not hospitable to strangers. They have even been known to recruit Unenlightened tribes from the mountains, but often employ them as expendable mercenaries on the front lines of raids. Their leader, Solina al-Ganij, is a powerful fire mage and former member of the Brotherhood of the True Flame who is on the run after a failed assassination attempt against the sultana of Hiyal. Tribes of the Haunted Lands Unlike the High Desert, these ones have no alternate names in parenthesis. House of Hanif are the largest tribe and whose center of governance operates out of a qal’at once home to an order of holy slayers. They are loyal to the Caliph and even have their own ambassador in Huzuz. The leaders’ two sons differ on their relationship to the Grand Caliph, with one entranced with the courts’ wonders and marvels of the city-dwellers, while the other feels that they are too much under the al-Hadhar’s thumb and advocates building their own city. Both sons have advocates among the tribes, which may lead into an ideological split. House of Hotek have a legendary rivalry with the City of Hiyal. The greed and treachery of the latter’s governance has earned them many enemies, and the House’s numbers increased exponentially from those who lost everything from Hiyal’s sultana. Its leader, Ibrin bin Hotek, seeks to destroy the city and the evil legacy of its rulers, and leads many raids against its holdings. Jann of the Haunted Lands tend to be more erratic and quick to offense than their counterparts in the High Desert, which causes most to avoid them unless they have no other option. They once lived in a grand civilization known as the Great Anvil, but its buildings are now charred ruins among the desert. Many people theorize that this is the reason for their violence and paranoia. They used to pledge loyalty to every new Grand Caliph for the past 14 generations, but as of today no jann diplomat has been sent to Huzuz’s court. Its leader, Amir Heidar Qan (who has no HD or level listed) has not been seen in 50 years, and if he’s alive he acts only through servants who claim to speak in his will. Thoughts So Far: I like how the al-Badia clans have enough detail that virtually each of them has an adventure hook of some kind or an interesting ally or backstory for a nomadic PC. There’s quite a bit of talk on the ‘mundanities of life’ which I touched upon in my last entry. Unfortunately, we don’t have much more info on nomads beyond these chapters, for the rest are by and large dedicated to the al-Hadhar cities of Zakhara. Join us next time as we cover Chapter 5: Gods & Faiths!
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Mar 17, 2020 10:36
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Xiahou Dun posted:The short version is the Obrimos Virgin vs the Mastigos Chad meme that I keep meaning to make that no one wants. Not even me. I mentioned that UOPS’ ability to shunt a physical force into spirit can’t hit her with Paradox because it’s an Attainment, right? E: also that’s not how Paradox works in 2e, notably Mors Rattus fucked around with this message at 11:41 on Mar 17, 2020 |
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Mar 17, 2020 11:38
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Mors Rattus posted:I mentioned that UOPS’ ability to shunt a physical force into spirit can’t hit her with Paradox because it’s an Attainment, right? I know. In proud tradition of poo poo-posted memes, I'm not striving for your silly ideas of "accuracy".
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Mar 17, 2020 12:58
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a proper virgin vs chad meme needs ludicrous, borderline nonsensical claims on the chad side
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Mar 17, 2020 13:14
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Night Horrors: Nameless and Accursed Banishing Evil A Banisher is a mage that hunts mages. It's a term used mostly by mage society rather than Banishers themselves, and it's a catch-all that reduces all of the different types down to a single thing. Most Banishers don't call themselves anything - they rarely operate as collectives, except for the few belonging to Left-Handed Legacies that seek destruction of magic as a path to enlightenment. Most work alone. There are actually several types of Banisher, who differ in why they're pursuing their hunt. Ideological Banishers kill mages for a cause. Usually, that cause is that magic is dangerous. The Pentacle tends to ignore the dangers - yes, the Guardians of the Veil warn mages not to pursue magic that causes Paradox and the Arrow warn of getting yourself in over your head, but they don't generally stop people from loving up. The Orders tend not to talk about that, for fear of scaring people off. Sometimes, those that survive these gently caress-ups are broken by the trauma to their mind or soul, and a mage who finds magic traumatic is in for a really bad time. Mages can't turn off their ability to sense magic and Mysteries. Often, these sorts of Banisher are self-loathing, drawn to Mysteries while hating them and using magic while seeking its eradication. They tend to hate mages or mage society, often due to being warped or traumatized by darker Mysteries. They also tend to be good at convincing others on the edges of mage society to agree with them - not due to any quirk of their nature, but because their stories are usually pretty compelling. The Orders are generally unable to tell them from the kind of Banisher that is compelled to do what they do, so there's usually a policy of summary execution even for ideological Banishers, since it's hard to study and check the differences while they're trying to kill you. Many of this kind of Banisher Awakened without anyone around to help them or train them, though a few are ex-Order mages driven to turn on their own by their experience. The apostate Banishers rarely last long, however - they have too many people that know them and thus can more easily track them. It's much easier to survive as an unknown, Nameless Banisher who never joined an Order. Hungry Banishers crave power over all things, and turn to Left-Handed paths that grant them power by the destruction of magic or the murder of mages. They consume and destroy in order to possess magic and deny it to others. Typically, a hungry Banisher belongs to a Left-Handed Legacy that alters their soul to be able to gain direct power from doing this. Some consume raw magic to live, others steal secrets, soul stones, timelines or other aspects of Mysteries, or leech power from magic items. Others even drain Supernal power from the world itself, creating dead zones and destroying Hallows. The Orders would not knowingly accept these mages, but sometimes such a Legacy will infiltrate them, often by means of recruiting an Order mage to the Legacy. They hide in the Orders as long as they can, until their murderous tendencies are revealed. Even then, some Order mages would prefer not to kill this kind of Banisher, hoping that some useful information can be gleaned from them. The Seers are also not above making deals with hungry Banishers, using them as assassins or attack dogs in exchange for protection, but they're just as fine eliminating them as potential dangers. Hungry Banishers are more likely than other kinds to band together, usually in the form of taking Legacy apprentices or recruiting others, but they can get as much power from killing each other as anyone else, so it rarely lasts a long time. That said, they are the most likely to try and actively recruit more of themselves, as companions, in order to make their ideal magical society in miniature or to help them do their work. Harrowed Banishers are what happens when something goes very, very wrong in an Awakening. Someone's soul is unready for the experience, but goes through it anyway. These are known as Harrowing Awakenings, and the Harrowed are the poor souls that come out of it. For them, magic is an experience of pain and fear, and they hunt and destroy it to be free of that pain. They avoid using magic as much as they can, because using it causes them physical and mental pain. However, they cannot fully avoid it - like any other mage, their Obsessions and need to understand draw them in, and their Mage Sight works fine...which means that they can always tell when magic is happening. Dread and terror are their constant companions. They break like Sleepers do - but unlike Sleepers, they can't forget, they can't scab over the wound the Lie leaves in their mind. Even those who control themselves enough to ask other mages for help rather than just attacking them blindly have nothing to look forward to - the Orders know of no method to cure the Harrowed. It should be unsurprising that they tend to conclude they have no choice but to lash out and hope it makes the pain stop even temporarily. Harrowing Awakenings sometimes just happen, for whatever reason. Some people can make it all the way to the Watchtower and then hesitate and refuse to fully reject the Lie. Some push too hard and too fast, or are altered by forces outside their control or understanding during Awakening. However, the most common cause of Harrowing is other mages, generally mages trying to manipulate Awakening onto those unready or unsuited for it, or forcing their souls open with raw power. It's one of the big reasons the Orders warn apprentices not to just try and force Sleepers to Awaken. Yes, you may want to bring your family into your new life. That's understandable. Don't destroy them by trying to do it before they can handle it. The Harrowed, whyever they exist, are fully mages in every way but one: they do not have Wisdom. They can use Mage Sight and cast spells, they aren't Sleepers, they can join Legacies...but they still have mortal Integrity rather than gnostic Wisdom, and that causes them to suffer terribly when they confront Awakened magic. The pain affects them all differently - for some, headaches of crippling strength. For others, nausea or fever. For others, panic attacks or generalized body ache. It is a constant torment, and the most instinctive way they have of ending it is to destroy whatever is triggering the pain. Banishers generally operate alone, thanks to their attacks on their own kind. Even a Harrowed who only wants to be left alone will lash out violently if other mages get too close. They can't fit into mage society, and the Orders discourage attempts to befriend or integrate them because of the fear that Banisher status will be contagious and they'll have to put down their own. They're not wrong, either - no one understands why or how, but the Harrowed can "infect" other mages with their soul damage, spreading their condition. Ideological Banishers can convince others to join them, and hungry Banishers look for potential recruits. A lot of Harrowed commit suicide before it becomes a risk, though, due to the pain and grief they suffer constantly. Others are killed by their prey, unable to handle a united cabal or Consilium responding to their attacks. The ones that survive, however, become the most cunning and dangerous. The solitary nature of Banishers does mean most don't fully understand their own powers. No one teaches them rotes or how to use the High Speech or yantras. Few develop Legacies, save for the hungry. They can only learn so much without teachers. Despite this, Banishers all use magic. Even if it is painful or traumatic, it is a tool they can't let go of. It's part of their very nature as mages. They will often develop elaborate self-justifications for why they do. They fight fire with fire, say, or refuse to let this evil power go to waste. They might see it as the rightful punishment for their own sins, forced to wield this painful power until, at last, their task is over and they may rest. Others believe that all mages are damned, including themselves, so they may as well use the power of their own damnation to fight evil. Mechanically, Ideological and hungry Banishers work identically to normal mages - they have no special rules, except that they pretty much never belong to an Order, rarely know rotes, and almost never belong to cabals or Legacies except Banisher Legacies. Harrowed have more complex changes. They have Integrity as mortals do, rather than Wisdom. They use Integrity for any roll that would call for Wisdom, but it otherwise functions as mortal Integrity. It can't go below 1, and they always suffer a breaking point the first time each story that they perform or experience a particular kind of magic by any Supernal means - spellcasting, Mage Sight, Attainments, whatever - no matter what the source. Also, if they fail a breaking point, they go berserk or even become obsessed with destroying any magic nearby. Further, they suffer penalties to all rolls when their Mage Sight is used or when Peripheral Mage Sight triggers, thanks to the pain. Casting spells, using Attainments or actively studying magic with Mage Sight causes them Bashing damage. Any mage who develops a Strong sympathetic link to a Harrowed Banisher is at risk of becoming one. If such a mage has their Long-Term Nimbus affect a Banisher and that Banisher's Long-Term Nimbus affects them, they are contaminated by the Harrowing. They begin to suffer pain as above, and suffering Wisdom loss causes a roll to see if they become Harrowed entirely. This can be cured by regaining Wisdom before becoming Harrowed, or by getting an exceptional success on an Act of Hubris check if the Harrowed causing the taint isn't present. Next time: The Gatekeeper of Truth
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Mar 17, 2020 13:44
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Night Horrors: Nameless and Accursed Something Something Bull Market  The Minotaur was once a man named Zachary. He grew up in a city where he learned very fast that cops and criminals were both corrupt assholes caught in an unceasing cycle of violence. He was lucky enough that his parents taught him it was all rigged against him, but that he could succeed if he tried hard enough. He studied hard and tried to make them proud, he got to college, and while he was seen as a weirdo who didnt' talk much, he didn't care. He was dedicated to study so he could make something of himself. He began to realize that the Lie would keep him down anyway when he lost an honors society position to an academically inferior but more connected student, but he refused to just accept that hypocrisy. He pushed through, researching the case and why he was rejected. He discovered that a secret society existed on campus and controlled who gained access to what positions there. He knew that getting involved in weird occult-y stuff would be dangerous...but he had to keep fighting. That's how he entered the Guardians' Labyrinth. He was a promising candidate, quickly moving through conspiracies and into cults. However, the amount of lies and deceptions he had to deal with wore him down. He became paranoid and lost hope. When his Awakening came, he rejected it as just one more part of the Lie. Even now, he refuses to accept the Supernal as Truth. There is no longer a Zachary - only the Minotaur, lurking within the Labyrinth. He has decided to make himself the guardian of the only thing he has ever been able to rely on: the strong prey on and control the weak. That is the only Truth he has, now. The Minotaur is an athletic young man who dresses to fit into wherever he is. His eyes are intense, and he only ever focuses on one thing at a time. He never wears bright colors or flashy patterns, for fear of drawing attention, but he tends to dress as a preppy college student. It's where he usually is, after all. His Immediate Nimbus is an aggressive red glow that urges others to act based on despair and powerlessness. His Signature Nimbus is a bloody smear that stains whatever his magic touches on. His Long-Term Nimbus spreads paranoia, mistrust and fear of power structures of any kind. That distrust for power is the core of what makes the Minotaur so dangerous. He infiltrates and corrupts societal networks, though he tends to avoid direct confrontation with the Orders or the Seers. He instead prefers to target the institutional means by which they control human society rather than trying to infiltrate them directly. He often targets Guardian Labyrinths or Ladder Cryptopolies, or seeks to destroy Exarchal symbols and corrupt sympathetic connections. He leaves very little evidence of his actions...but he's just one Banisher. He really shouldn't be able to keep avoiding the enemies he makes. Yes, he's smart and good at magic, but even more than that, he has an Abyssal entity watching over him. He was a Banisher before it noticed his existence, and he'd still be one if it left, but it encourages him and hides him. It is drawn to his inexorable destruction of Patterns and infrastructures, and it uses its power and influence to wear down sympathetic connections to the Minotaur, protecting him from magical detection. It has also found his families and is responsible for the various accidents that have claimed their lives in the past few years. When his mother Berenice became his last surviving relative, the entity dragged her into the Abyss directly, wielding her grief to do so. It keeps her in stasis in that non-place, granting it a permanent connection to the Minotaur which it uses to feed and draw power from. Some mages believe that the Minotaur won't kill anyone that can meet his gaze without fear. They are correct - the Minotaur respects the strong, and he defines this by those who can meet his maddened gaze without flinching. That makes you go from a simple victim to a worthy foe, and he doesn't execute worthy foes the way he does those he determines to be weak. On the other hand, some believe he eats the bodies of his victims, and that's not correct. It is true that he never leaves a body if he can help it - he takes them, not always dead, to a pocket dimension he's created as his personal labyrinth. He's not really sure why, but he also doesn't care; it's due to the influence of the Abyssal entity that watches over him, which feeds on these victims to maintain itself. He has not noticed, and probably wouldn't care if he did. He just shoves them in there and is done. The biggest secret he has, though, is one he's not even slightly aware of: someone let him exist. The Guardians would hate to think it, but there's just no way that a Banisher could be Awakened while inside a Labyrinth and not be noticed by the Guardian Cultor in charge of the whole thing. He would have had to be allowed to live, at least until he was strong enough to escape detection on his own. Some of his original Consilium are convinced that there's no way he could've outsmarted and evaded the Guardians for long on his own, and they're probably right. The Minotaur is a Mastigos, with no Legacy or Order. He's shockingly powerful for a Banisher thanks to his various helpers keeping him alive. His Virtue is Dedicated, his Vice is Hateful. His Obsessions are finding and destroying places and things of Supernal power and tearing down symbols of Mage society. He also wants to prove his philosophy is objective Truth, and shove mages into his personal Labyrinth. He's smart, strong-willed and charismatic, plus above average at most physical things. He's well-educated, great at investigating mages and very good at lying and intimidating people, plus decent with other social skills. He's a good fighter, especially with a handgun, and very sneaky. He also has camped out in a large abandoned library that he's got set up to warn against intrusion, and has picked up a flak jacket from somewhere. He's exceptional with Space and Fate, and can use Mind but isn't specialized in it. The Minotaur is, as a note, an ideological Banisher. He's perfectly normal magically - he's just convinced that mages are assholes he needs to kill. He's pretty good at it, too, though I'd have appreciated more on how his Acamoth secret admirer manages to help him besides eroding sympathetic connections. I feel like that's going to be a problem PCs will need to deal with, too. Next time: The Dark Passenger
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Mar 17, 2020 21:41
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I've never actually seen anyone wear a sweater like that in real life.
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Mar 18, 2020 01:23
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Night Horrors: Nameless and Accursed Murder Most Foul  Officer Maxwell Peter Kelly was a highly decorated and beloved cop, but he became obsessed with one case that he wasn't able to solve. This was a serial murder case, a rash of ritualistic killings that he was unable to let go of. They haunted his dreams, consuming his life. He rejected the aid of the FBI or even other cops in the precinct as he focused on solving the killings all by himself. His investigations took him into many secrets of his town, revealing terrifying and wonderful places of power, bizarre creatures and beings living there, and more. He was half-maddened by the experience, but also felt liberated, as though things were finally making sense. Each day brought him closer to the mind of the killer, making him feel less like himself and more like the brutal, unknowable monster he was chasing. He often felt like his was walking a path not meant for him. That's because he was. Kelly wasn't supposed to Awaken, and his soul was utterly unready for the Mystery Play that he wandered into. His obsession with catching the killer, with thinking like the killer, allowed him to force his way into the killer's own Awakening. It made no sense to him, as his mind and soul rebelled against and rejected a Truth that was never his own. He could not understand the Awakening, and he tore himself apart trying desperately to make some sense of the dark, terrifying nightmare he had accidentally entered. It broke him - he was Harrowed. It has been ten years since that horrible night, and as far as everyone else is concered, Max Kelly had a breakdown and got over it. He recovered well and operates well as a cop. He's a simple, friendly person. Until, that is, something plays at the edges of his Mage Sight. Then, invisible knives begin flensing him, tearing the skin off his bones. When he can no longer stand the pain, he turns off. He enters a fugue state, becoming someone else. His colleagues describe him as intense and focused when this happens, distant and always apparently busy with some other problem. Kelly is terrified and ashamed of these blackouts, but he's even more terrified of looking into what he might be doing during them, afraid that he will discover a connection between them and the horrific murders happening in his precinct. Officer Kelly is certain that something else is riding shotgun in his brain, something he has named the Dark Passenger. Kelly is tall, well-built and precise, with slicked-back hair and blue eyes. He can be cheery, but more often he comes off as grim due to his intense focus. He's nearly 50 but still healthy and strong, able to outdo cops half his age. His Immediate Nimbus is a mix of red and blue light that compels orderly behavior. His Signature Nimbus is total silence and a sense of dread. His Long-Term Nimbus causes obsession with fixing minor imperfections of all kinds. Oh, and he's wrong. The Dark Passenger isn't something else living in his brain. It's Kelly. Kelly's blackouts did start when he Awakened, and while he's in his fugue he feels an irrational hatred for the pain magic causes him, but his vicious, callous methods as he murders wizards are all him - a repressed darkness that has always been within his mind. He is not controlled, and the dark whispers and urges he feels are merely his own self manifesting through his Mage Sight. The Dark Passenger is half an excuse he has come up with to justify the behavior he can't admit to and part his True self, the warped self-perception of himself as a mage. Kelly has found other Banishers over the past decade. Even at his worst in his fugues, he has never attacked them. Rather, in his fugue as the Dark Passenger, he taught them what he knew about magic and, in doing so, spread his Harrowed nature to them. Non-Harrowed Banishers he's run into become Harrowed and start to succumb to similar blackouts as their darker urges are released. Occasionally, a cabal will take one of these 'infected' Banishers down and believe they have defeated the true Dark Passenger, which is part of how Kelly has lasted ten years like this. The murderer Kelly was tracking during his Awakening is also out there still, and Kelly's no closer to finding him than he was ten years ago. The only real new knowledge he's got is that his quarry is a mage now, and that is the thought driving him when he is the Dark Passenger. When the pain becomes too much and he goes on the hunt, Kelly sees the killer in the face of his every mage he hunts. It's what draws out his rage and brutality - every hunt is personal. The other cops think Kelly's a weirdo. He shows up to the parties, but he never stays long. He plays football with them, but he doesn't go out drinking after. He doesn't stay out late, and he doesn't care that his wife is cheating on him. It's all small stuff, but it's added up over a decade, and his coworkers have no idea what to think of him. If approached properly, the other cops might be willing to talk about the weirdness surrounding Kelly, and a few have even occasionally wondered if, perhaps, he's the serial killer he claims to be chasing. None, however, have any inkling of his true darkness. Some do know that he spends most his time patrolling off his own beat, outside their jurisdiction, in the isolated areas that he associates with the wrongness and pain of magic. Not a lot - most of the other cops have no idea. Those who do do not tend to care, though - it's not really the kind of weirdness they care about. A cop car out of place in Kelly's area, though, is something a mage should learn to watch out for. When Kelly is desperate and feels he has to do something really crazy to keep the Dark Passenger from being discovered, he will seek out weird and obscure experts - mediums, parapsychologists, exorcists. He runs on the assumption that these people are overlooked by mainstream society, which should keep his inquiries confidential. A mage who discovers this could find some very useful info by questioning these people...but may also end up in the false belief that Kelly's actually possessed. Anyone trying to exorcise the Dark Passenger is in for a very rude surprise. Kelly is a Moros, a Harrowed Banisher with no Legacy. His Virtue is Just, his Vice is Violent, and he is Obsessed with new Awakenings and the Dark Passenger. (Which is, incidentally, his own Shadow Name.) He also wants to destroy magic and catch his mystery killer. Kelly's not very smart, but he is insanely strong-willed, cunning and manipulative. He's decently charismatic and above average in most physical arenas. He's a very good detective, gunman and sneak, plus a decent melee fighter. He also has excellent social skills, especially intimidating people, reading people and gathering information. He's quite good at Death, Forces and Matter magic, too, and decently powerful magically. Kelly's not really a mastermind, though his spawning of mini-Dark Passengers in other Banishers might fool the PCs into thinking he is. The real danger is just, Kelly is terrifying to fight. He's got Professional Training (Cop) 5, which includes Firearms as one of its skills - so, like Keres before, if he has a chance to just operate on instinct and not need to worry about things like being attacked, he can use rote quality to murder with. He's also extremely difficult to hide from, because he's a master investigator, and between that, his magic specializing in hiding what he does and being a cop, he's got a lot of institutional power to hide behind. Next time: The Scheming Antiques Dealer Mors Rattus fucked around with this message at 17:27 on Mar 18, 2020 |
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Mar 18, 2020 13:14
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Night Horrors: Nameless and Accursed Word Eater  Sophia, birth name Angela Jackson, is an ambitious woman who is dedicated to pursuing her goals. She was raised in east Texas, where being a black woman got her mocked constantly, but her family and community supported and loved her, and she has forged a strong sense of self from all of her troubles. She wanted to give back to her community and help them. Her Awakening was a great one, a moment of self-actualization in which she forged a path to her Watchtower in the Aether and found what she was truly meant to be. Which is why many mages would be shocked to learn she's part of a Banisher Legacy, the Logophages. Her mentor, Izukanne, found her shortly after her Awakening and was the one to initiate her into deeper lore, and that's...well, probably the entire reason Sophia has become Sophia as she is today. Izukanne taught her that power comes from knowledge - and therefore that ultimate power comes from being the only onw with key knowledge. She taught Sophia that magic was dangerous and certain knowledge had to be permanently forgotten, that understanding must be kept from the unready and unworthy to keep them from being destroyed or destroying others. Mages too often harmed Sleepers by revealing dangerous knowledge to them, and so few cared about the damage they dealt. Sophia had seen firsthand the problems of unchecked power in the hands of people who abused it. She was easily convinced that Izukanne was right in rejecting other mages. It was only much later that she realized the cost of siding with a Banisher - and by then, she loved Izukanne deeply and truly, and Izukanne loved her. Besides, the feeling of power drawn from her kills is too much to give up. Sophia is a smart young lady with an MBA and a history degree, gained to help Izukanne seek out lost artifacts in Sleeper museums and galleries. Sophia often attends gallery showings and museum openings and has become an expert thief. However, she has also learned that the greatest power is not displayed, but kept hidden in private collections. She's gotten into black market art dealing and the trade of magical items, hunting at private auctions for goods to take. She has a reputation in the mundane world as an expert in antiquities and forgery and a good source of information on rare goods. She uses her antiquities dealing as a front to look for magic items and the mages that want them, then hunts down and destroys both. Sophia's a short lady with brown eyes and braided hair. She's a fashionista, and she particularly loves Ankaran and Nigerian fashion styles. Her cheery Texan accent and small size tend to make people underestimate her, and she avoids other mages when possible except when killing them. Her Immediate Nimbus is a purifying flame that dances across her skin and the targets of her magic. Her Signature Nimbus is a sense of heavy gravity and a consuming void. Her Long-Term Nimbus makes people lose track of small items, events and so on. She uses Sophia as her Shadow Name because she is completely convinced of her own wisdom in saving mages from themselves and Sleepers from the dangers of magic. She kills mages and takes their stuff in the firm belief that she is somehow protecting them. Her love of Izukanne helps her justify this and keeps her from feeling too guilty about being a murderer. Well, that and her active decision to scrub her guilty memories from her own mind with magic when it gets too much. She's still not able to kill in cold blood, and by Logophage standards, she and Izukanne are very careful and choosy about their targets. They research potential victims and select only those who, per the Legacy's traditions, have gone too far in pursuit of knowledge. They tend to ignore newly Awakened mages or offer them a chance to become Logophages, depending on if they seem promising and sympathetic or just overeager. E: It should be noted: Sophia prefers destruction of secrets to keeping them for herself, for fear of accidentally revealing them. She actively edits her own memories and prunes them to keep her worldview pleasant. This includes her actively removing her own memories of Izukanne's plans. Specifically, Izukanne is raising the bunch of apprentices the pair have collected to be food for their Logophagic hungers. Sophia was utterly horrified to learn this, and debated telling the apprentices, but instead decided to seal the memories deep in her own mind to keep her life livable. She has not destroyed that memory, though, just sealed it off, and if someone could make her recall it, it might be able to turn her against her lover. A lot of mages think that Sophia and Izukanne are actively forming a Banisher cabal that's stockpiling magic; it's an easy mistake, given how many apprentices they've picked up. In truth, though, none of the apprentices have actually met each other and don't work together at all. They aren't aware that other apprentices exist - only Sophia knows all of 'em, really. Also, they're not stockpiling - they consume and destroy magic. Most mages just don't know all that much about Logophage practice and assume they're just gathering weapons. Sophia and Izukanne themselves are known to local mages - they're killers and their actions aren't secret. The hard part is tracking them down and fighting them, because they kill anyone they notice snooping on them and are careful to leave little evidence. The local Mysterium caucus blames them for any missing artifact, mostly in the hopes that it'll get someone to take their complaints seriously enough to hunt the Logophages down for good rather than because they think they're actually behind every loss. Among Sleepers, Sophia has a much better reputation. She pays top dollar information on antiquities and never fails to pay - even if the information turns out to be useless. This encourages people to come to her, and that increases her odds of getting useful intel. Sure, Sleepers can't actively recall seeing Awakened magic, but Sophia is very good at fishing out the repressed, scabbed-over memories within their minds and spotting the telltale evidence of a Nimbus' mark on them. Sophia is an Obrimos and a Logophage. Her Virtue is Loyal, her Vice Overconfident, and her Obsessions are destroying artifacts owned by other mages and learning secrets of Order mages. Her other goals involve recruiting new Logophages and infiltrating the Mysterium to find their local vaults. She's very smart and strong-willed, plus manipulative and charismatic. Physically, she's average. She's exceptionally well educated about history, a good sneak thief and an amazing liar, but not a fighter herself. She does have strong magic, though, focused on Prime, Mind and Space, with a smattering of Death and Forces. The Logophages, also called the Secret Keepers, are a Mastigos, Guardian of the Veil and Mysterium Legacy focused on Prime. Their philosophy is simple: a secret should be consumed. You should learn all you can, then destroy the secret so that it can no longer be misused and thus harm people. Mages that know better (read: Logophages) can keep the knowledge hidden and safe within their own minds, rather than risking it to Paradox or Dissonance. They will even give up their own minds in order to force others to give up their knowledge. They are able to perform magic via the sacrifice of books, informants or other sources of knowledge, encrypting messages, or learning things they shouldn't via secretive means. They gain Mana by spreading misinformation to hide a truth, by conditioning themselves to forget things without magic, or by convincing others to share important and dangerous secrets with them. Their first Attainment is Grasp the Arcane, which mixes Prime, Mind and skill at Subterfuge, Empathy and Investigation to increase the user's ability to gain surface information via Focused Mage Sight and expands what information they can gain this way. The second Attainment is Security of the Lost, which requires further Mind and Subterfuge. It lets the user force themselves to forget something temporarily, and then lets them permanently destroy the memory to gain Willpower if they want to. I like Sophia as a character but I think that without stats for Izukanne she's less useful than she could be. She's an impressive researcher and spy, but on her own she's not going to put up a fight, which I assume her girlfriend is probably better at. Her apprentices are probably on par with starting PCs, based on the descriptions, but they also go unstatted. Next time: Rapture Mors Rattus fucked around with this message at 20:27 on Mar 18, 2020 |
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Mar 18, 2020 17:27
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Mors Rattus posted:I like Sophia as a character but I think that without stats for Izukanne she's less useful than she could be. To me, she screams 'Untrustworthy patron or ally working her own agenda' rather than a straightforward antagonist.
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Mar 18, 2020 19:58
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