Bonds for Occult Antiheroes

I’m sure something like this has been done before, but I got the idea watching Hemlock Grove. It’s a mechanic for games where the players are meant to be fairly unheroic, selfish individuals that are forced by circumstances to become protagonists even though they’d rather while away their days filled with angst. You know, your John Constantines, Angels, Nick Knights, Duncan Macleods, and such. They’re only heroic in the circumstances because they’re not actively villainous and they have a handful of things that are important enough to them to step up and defend.

Bonds

Each player character starts the game with five bonds. These are five nouns important enough that the character will go out of her way to defend them. Three of them have to be people (friends, family members, or just people the character idealizes and wants to protect, but not other PCs). The other two can be additional people or places, objects, or ideals. If they aren’t people, there has to be some defined way the thing could be destroyed. For example:

• A building could burn down. A secret lair could be exposed.
• An item could be stolen. A treasure could be destroyed.
• A loyalty could be betrayed. An ideal could be proven false.

Essentially, each bond must have a clear way it could be destroyed, killed, or otherwise rendered permanently unavailable to the character. The more ways that this could happen, the better (the point is that the GM is going to threaten them regularly, so making them only have a limited angle of attack will either make it repetitive or the GM will ignore it, making it worthless).

A player may only have five bonds at a time. If one is destroyed, a new one can be purchased with one experience point (multiplied by whatever value payouts are multiplied by, see below) and justification for why this thing is now important to the character.

Threatening Bonds

A GM will frequently threaten the bonds of the characters. Threatening a bond adds 1 experience point to it. The GM must follow several rules:

• A bond may only be threatened with sufficient warning that there’s a chance to save it (at least at the beginning of the scene where the bond is in danger).
• A GM may not destroy a bond without threatening it.
• If a GM threatens several of a character’s bonds at once (such that it is likely that saving one will doom the other without extreme success), he must pay an additional experience point per each bond threatened (e.g., if three are threatened, each bond threatened gets 3 exp placed on it).
• Bonds can only be threatened if the owner of the bond must take difficult action to save it. If the bond is not really in danger, such that the owner’s inaction would not result in its destruction, it is not worth an exp.

The GM should try to threaten at least one bond per player per session.

Destruction, Retirement, and Revenge

If a bond is destroyed, the player gains all the experience points currently placed on it. Essentially, the player must protect the bond at least once to do more than just recoup the cost of purchasing the bond, and protecting one several times creates greater exp profit.

The exp is multiplied by whatever factor makes sense for the system (e.g., if the system expects players to earn 10 exp per session, and the GM only plans to threaten an average of one bond per player per session, it should be multiplied by 10). This may be the game’s primary (or only) source of experience points.

If the bond gains a total of five or more exp, the player may choose to retire it with story justification. A bond to a character may mean that the character moves away from the area and out of danger, or just gets empowered sufficiently to no longer be in greater danger than the PC (sometimes, this just means informing your friend why he’s been targeted by all these crazy things recently). The character may leave the place to no longer keep it in danger, or just may somehow protect it so it’s no longer targeted. An item may be placed somewhere safe so it’s not in constant risk. A retired ideal means that the character has internalized it sufficiently that it’s no longer at risk of being disproved.

A retired bond gives half its exp value to the player, rounded down (i.e., you get paid more for the angst of loss than fully protecting the bond; a player that retires a bond has grown fond enough of it to sacrifice a bunch of exp to keep it safe). It usually leaves the story to live happily ever after. If there are brief visits from the bond later, it should never be in any particular danger unless the players choose to keep pulling it back in (or some other player decides to take it as a bond…).

When a bond is destroyed, instead of accepting the experience immediately, the player may choose to declare revenge. The bond changes to “Revenge for the [death/loss/etc.] of [the bond]” and cannot be replaced until the revenge is completed or abandoned. The player may abandon the revenge at any time and gain the original experience value of the bond.

For every session that the player character expends effort toward fulfilling the revenge (investigating to find the killer, paying back the killer in kind, etc.), the bond gains an additional experience point (to a maximum of double the original value of the bond). When the revenge is finally consummated (by killing or otherwise ruining the person or organization most responsible for the destruction of the bond), the bond is cleared and pays out its full accumulated value.

Non-Deadly Destruction

Players may specify bonds, particularly to people, in a way that means that death is not the only way to destroy them. Generally, this is something like maintaining the innocence/ignorance of the subject. Your friend finding out your secret (which will cause a permanent rift in the friendship), or your sibling being turned into a monster like you may be almost as terrible for you as being killed.

Large-Scale Threats

When a threat targets a region large enough that it might destroy multiple bonds, it doesn’t count as a threat to those bonds until there’s only a short time left to save them. For example, if the players find out several hours in advance that there’s going to be a city-wide death ritual, but they could just call loved ones and tell them to evacuate with plenty of time to spare, that’s not a threat worthy of an exp. If the players deliberately dawdle until there’s no way the bonds could escape without stopping the threat, or don’t even find out about it until it’s too late to escape, then it does count as a threat to all of the bonds (it might still not count for multiple exp on each bond, since saving one doesn’t necessarily make it harder to save another if one success averts the crisis). In general, GMs should be careful about large-scale threats (perhaps saving them for arc finales where the giant exp payout is intended).

As Aspects

These bonds can double as Aspects in a Fate game (and may replace them entirely). In that case, you can obviously invoke the Aspect when the bond is being threatened. All threats to a bond are also Compels, but the GM can Compel the bond without threatening it (for situations where the bond is in trouble, or will get the PC in trouble, without actually being in mortal danger).

LARP Idea: Bounded Boffer Combat

The American boffer LARPs that I’m familiar with, particularly those in the Southeast, have a strong inheritance from D&D. In particular, NERO and its offspring systems are very much class-and-level-based fantasy. There are, of course, games that stray further away, being more skill-based than level-based, focusing more on hit location than hit points, and embracing genres other than heroic fantasy. Yet all that I’m aware of still award increasing damage output and mitigation as characters gain experience, whether that’s in more damage and HP or more special attacks and expendable avoidance mechanics.

This means that life is hard for a new player that joins the game after it’s been running for a while. I played in a NERO-variant where veterans were calling 20 damage per swing when they weren’t calling instant death attacks and had hundreds of HP and armor to accompany their loads of avoidance abilities versus new players who generally dealt 2 damage per swing and had a few dozen HP. NPC monsters sent out to serve as speedbumps to veterans can slaughter any new players they happen across. Harbinger has some great ideas on how to keep this from becoming an overwhelming problem, but it’s still a problem.

Due to the high cost of venues and limited staff, LARPs tend to need a consistently large number of players; over years of play there is inevitable churn and it’s tough to attract and retain new players when they’re going to be drastically below average for years. Many games with heavy story tend to end and/or reset all PCs after a few years once the main plots are finished. But while this may make it easier for newbies to jump on at the next reset, it makes it doubly hard for them to join late in an ongoing campaign: their characters will never get very powerful and they’ll have to work extremely hard to be relevant to a plot whose threads are being tied up. Without resets, you get stories like the NERO chapters that have PCs who have been playing since the late 80s without a character reset.

I suspect many heavy-PvP LARPs and non-American PvE LARPs may solve this problem with extremely limited advancement, but ditching experience points isn’t the only solution. The peculiar DNA of American LARPs seems to have weirdly passed D&D to boffer LARPs and World of Darkness only to salon LARPs. Most White Wolf games allow PCs to start very competent in combat because the requisite attributes and abilities are capped to a level attainable in character generation. These characters aren’t extremely versatile, but they are potent.

This can make challenging the PCs harder. Harbinger frequently worried about what kind of challenges to throw at our party in Mage that was mixed between heavily combat-specced PCs and PCs with virtually no combat skills whatsoever. Even the theoretically-hardest threats in the sourcebooks could be defeated by us very early if they didn’t use their superior versatility to keep us from defining the context of the battlefield. But this is potentially much less of a problem in a LARP, where there are more players to self-organize to face various challenges. The “this fight is too hard for the PC” assumption would become “because he chose to be good at something other than fighting” rather than “because he is a newb and would fail no matter what his choices were.” Meanwhile, feeling powerful earlier is great for players, and a bounded range of threats makes world-building much easier for the GM.

I think there’s a way to pull this off in boffer LARPs that both makes newbies feel like powerful contributors and rewards high-experience veterans. The general points would be:

• Players are strongly encouraged to focus on combat or non-combat skills (possibly further subdivided into different types like mage vs. rogue skills). This could be an official class system, or just a mechanism by which skills outside your specialty are much more expensive than those within.
• All skill types have a potency limit that can be met or nearly met by a new player. If you’re HP-based, the maximum damage on swings/spells and total purchasable HP is within reach of a new, combat-focused character. If you’re hit-location-based, the total number of special attacks and avoidance effects you can bring into a given fight is, similarly, something new PCs can meet.
• Skills have a deep well of versatility that allows veteran players to slightly outclass new players if they’re prepared for what they’re fighting. Maybe a new player can master one type of weapon, but different weapons are useful against different creatures so it pays off to master several. Maybe the veteran can replace generic special defenses and attacks with abilities that are more useful against one threat type (but less useful against others). Magic and other non-combat skills come in an array of different specialties.
• Non-combat skills all have player-directed effects that are in some way relevant to combat. This may mean that magic or an equivalent is better at buffing/debuffing than fighting. Rogue and Lore skills allow battlefield control by setting up locks, wards, or traps to prevent enemies of certain types from attacking from unexpected directions, and may have protectives against certain attack or creature types.

Ultimately, the goal is that veterans should be very happy to involve new players. New combat-focused PCs are just as powerful as veterans in many encounters, and still a really good person to stand behind and buff for veteran non-combat PCs. New non-combat PCs have desirable buffs and debuffs to stand behind veteran combat PCs, and can deploy additional battlefield control that’s useful in any kind of challenging encounter.

Pathfinder Race: The Lithari

This is heavily inspired by watching The Fires of Pompeii episode of Doctor Who after playing the Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning DLC with the Kollossae. It also owes a decent bit to the Pak lifecycle and wanting to make a race that works well with Monk (since I think part of the reason people think Monk is suboptimal is that it has poor synergy with the standard races). The race writeup should be roughly balanced based on the Advanced Race Guide, but the racial prestige class may be too good.

Lithari

Lithari are a race of humans touched by the earth elemental plane, similar to the Oread. Rather than being a stable hybrid, members of this race are born almost identical to humans and slowly become more and more stonelike as they age. Given that their paragons can become almost identical to stone golems, some wonder if they weren’t originally created as a cheaper way to make constructs rather than a natural fusion of human and elemental plane.

Physical Description: Young Lithari are very similar in appearance to humans (with similar height and 10% greater weight), but have tough skin that matches the coloration of the local stone and no hair. They can breed with humans, but all children are born Lithari. As they age, more and more of their biology is replaced by stone, and all members of the race lose the ability to procreate after adulthood. Those that are prepared to die often attempt to pose themselves among their ancestors, leaving behind a statue that descendents often carve to resemble the Lithari at a younger age.

Society: Living on the fringes of human society, Lithari are never great in number but maintain their society through crossbreeding. They are great traditionalists, and often serve as lorekeepers for other races. Many ruins full of what are first assumed to be human statues are actual Lithari graveyards.

Relations: Slow to both anger and action, a force of Lithari warriors can easily swing a battle and so remain loose allies of most other races. Keenly aware of their own limited window to breed, and reliance on humanity to shore up their own numbers, Lithari will often toe the line of nearby human civilizations until they find that they are treated as servants or worse. When cruel human civilizations have assumed the loyalty of the nearby society of Lithari, they have often fallen to a surprise uprising of mighty stone insurgents.

Alignment and Religion: Lithari tend to be Lawful. They venerate Abadar, Irori, and Pharasma above most other gods.

Adventurers: Fighters, Paladins, Rangers, Monks, and Clerics are the primary classes favored by Lithari, and many of their most powerful warriors consider becoming Lithari Paragons.

Names: Lithari tend toward classical names (with a Greek and Roman flair).

Lithari Racial Traits

• +2 Strength, +2 Wisdom, -2 Dexterity: Lithari are fortified with stone and patient observers, but their rocky skin and muscles ruins their agility.
• Native Outsider: Lithari are outsiders with the native subtype.
• Medium: Lithari are Medium creatures and have no bonuses or penalties due to their size.
• Normal Speed: Lithari have a base speed of 30 feet.
• Darkvision: Lithari can see in the dark up to 60 feet.
• Natural Armor: Lithari gain +1 Natural AC due to their rocky skin.
• Poison Resistance: Lithari gain +1 per character level to saves against poison, due to the fossilized nature of their internal structure.
• Stonesinger: Lithari are treated as 1 level higher when casting spells with the earth descriptor or using powers of the Earth domain, bloodline powers of the earth elemental bloodline, and revelations of the oracle’s stone mystery.
• Relentless: Due to their weight and density, Lithari gain a +2 bonus on combat maneuver checks made to bull rush or overrun an opponent.
• Spell Interaction: Due to being a strange hybrid of flesh and stone, Lithari are not affected by Stone to Flesh or Flesh to Stone spells or similar effects. Being in the area of Transmute Rock to Mud counts as being targeted by Mass Inflict Light Wounds, and, similarly, being within the area of Transmute Mud to Rock heals the Lithari as if within the area of Mass Cure Light Wounds. Lithari are healed as Constructs by Make Whole and similar effects. Lithari take half the healing effect of Positive Energy (including all cure spells and channel energy).
• Fossilization: Lithari in old age do not become physically weaker, but do become slower. Instead of reducing Strength due to aging penalties, instead reduce base speed by 5 feet for every age category past Adult. Other ability scores are affected by aging normally.
• Racial Feats: Lithari may purchase the Oread racial feats from the Advanced Race Guide.
• Languages: Lithari begin play speaking Common. Lithari with high intelligence scores can choose from the following: Aklo, Draconic, Dwarven, Giant, Terran, and Undercommon.

Lithari Paragon

Some Lithari seek out shallowings between the world and the elemental plane of earth to actuate their heritage and become giant warriors of stone. These Lithari become the foremost protectors of their families.

Role: The abilities of Paragons compliment most melee-focused classes, and can provide interesting synergy to certain Monks and Clerics. They fight in the front line.

Alignment: Paragons can be of any alignment, though, as Lithari tend toward Lawful, so do their defenders.

Hit Die: d10

Requirements

To qualify to become a Lithari Paragon, a character must fulfill all the following critera.

Race: Lithari

Skills: Knowledge: Planes 4 Ranks

Special: Must have access to a strong source of Earth Elemental energies

Class Skills

The Lithari Paragon’s class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Climb (Str), Intimidate (Cha), and Perception (Wis).

Skill Ranks at Each Level: 2 + Int modifier.

Level	Base Attack Bonus	Fort Save	Ref Save	Will Save	Special
1	+1	+0	+0	+0	Natural Armor Increase (+1), Stone Flesh, Rock Fists
2	+2	+1	+1	+1	Ability Boost (Str +2), Low Light Vision
3	+3	+1	+1	+1	Natural Armor Increase (+2), DR 1/Adamantine
4	+4	+1	+1	+1	Ability Boost (Str +2), Stone Blood
5	+5	+2	+2	+2	Ability Boost (Con +2), DR 2/Adamantine
6	+6	+2	+2	+2	Ability Boost (Str +2), Large Size
7	+7	+2	+2	+2	Natural Armor Increase (+2), DR 3/Adamantine
8	+8	+3	+3	+3	Ability Boost (Con +2), Stone Bones
9	+9	+3	+3	+3	Natural Armor Increase (+2), DR 4/Adamantine
10	+10	+3	+3	+3	Ability Boost (Str +2), Stone Soul, DR 5/Adamantine

Class Features

Weapon and Armor Proficiency: Paragons gain no proficiency with any weapon or armor.

Natural Armor Increase (Ex): As a Paragon becomes more powerful, his body becomes more and more made of stone. At 1st, 3rd, 7th, and 9th level he gains an increase to his existing natural armor as indicated in the table (including the bonus from his race, this becomes a total of +8 at 9th level).

Stone Flesh (Ex): Paragons absorb more and more stone as they level. This has the effect of ultimately increasing the character’s starting height by +50% and starting weight by +500% (+5% and +50% per level). As the character increases in level, the added stone leaves the Paragon humanoid but not human shaped, and the additional weight proves restrictive.

The character gains an additional Armor Check Penalty equal to levels in Lithari Paragon that applies whether or not he is wearing armor. Additionally, standard armor fits poorly and subtracts the character’s Paragon level from its own bonus to AC (to a minimum of 0); specially made armor (including force armor like Bracers of Armor) can halve this penalty.

Before long, the character looks more like an Earth Elemental than a human. Many Lithari Paragons choose to have a sculptor alter them to resemble an armored human statue; this has no effect on any stats, but may make it easier for the Lithari to travel in polite society. Some Paragons make an irrevocable choice to be sculpted back down to the normal proportions of a human. This halves the level-based Armor Check Penalty and allows the character to wear properly-sized armor without penalty, but also halves the character’s Natural Armor bonus and reduces Strength and Constitution by 2 each (and reduces total weight by 10 pounds per class level).

Rock Fists (Ex): The character adds his Lithari Paragon level to his Monk level for determining unarmed damage. If the character has no levels in Monk, use the Paragon level as his level to determine unarmed damage (and the character may always make unarmed attacks as if armed for the purposes of Attacks of Opportunity).

Ability Boost (Ex): A Paragon grows gradually, taking on more and more of the benefits of his ultimate Large Size as he levels. His ability scores increase as noted in the table (for a final Str +8 and Con +4 not counting racial bonuses).

Low Light Vision (Ex): At 2nd level, the Lithari Paragon gains Low Light Vision.

Damage Resistance (Ex): Over time, the body of the Paragon becomes more like stone than flesh. This grants an increasing damage resistance of up to 5/Adamantine as noted in the table.

Stone Blood (Ex): At 4th level, the Paragon’s insides have become sufficiently fused with stone to render him immune to most mortal ailments. Like a construct, he is immune to disease, death effects, necromancy effects, paralysis, poison, sleep effects, and stunning. However, he can no longer recover hit points naturally (though still retains the Lithari’s racial spell interaction). Even if not yet middle aged, the character can no longer procreate.

Large Size (Ex): At 6th level, the Paragon has now fully become a Large creature. He takes a permanent -2 penalty to Dexterity; a size penalty of -1 to AC, -1 to Attack, and -4 to Stealth; a size bonus of +1 to CMB and CMD; +10 foot speed; and 10 foot Reach. His unarmed attacks increase in damage accordingly, and he can use Large weapons (and armor). The further bonuses normally gained from becoming Large (bonuses to Strength and Constitution) are already included in the leveling progression, so are not awarded at this time.

Stone Bones (Ex): At 8th level, the Paragon has little biological matter remaining, animated almost entirely by elemental magic. Like a construct, he is no longer subject to ability damage, ability drain, fatigue, exhaustion, energy drain, or nonlethal damage and he is not at risk of death from massive damage. He no longer has a Disabled or Dying state; he is immediately dead upon reaching 0 HP. He is subject to Shatter as if he were a crystalline creature.

Stone Soul (Ex): At 10th level, the Paragon effectively becomes a sentient construct, an elemental soul powering a stone body. He is immune to all mind-affecting effects (charms, compulsions, morale effects, patterns, and phantasms), immune to any effect that requires a Fortitude save (unless the effect also works on objects or is harmless), and no longer has to breathe, eat, or sleep. He may not be Raised or Reincarnated, but may be Resurrected (in an area with at least a ton of stone to use to form a new body). Unlike a normal construct, he continues to determine bonus hit points based on Constitution rather than a flat bonus (due to the ingrained nature of his formerly living health to the magics that now animate him). His type remains Outsider (Native) rather than Construct.

Alternate Vampire: Sabbat

The previous entries in this series were influenced by the pathways character creation, but a lot of it was ideas I’d had before starting. For example, based on the connections established, it made sense to make The Fire-Drinker a sorcerer and the Darkling Hound a fae beast, and those decisions influenced the cosmology as a whole, but there were a lot of other ideas involved from before character creation.

The Sabbat changes were different. I went into the game knowing that for some reason a bunch of neonates had been created recently (to explain all the PCs), but not much else. Various elements that came out of character creation demanded that most of the elders had also come to the area very recently, and led to an idea of taking back the city from the Sabbat. But other elements gave new definition to what that might mean. Effectively, I was using the players’ preconceptions of “the Sabbat is a rival sect of inhuman vampires” to set up the real mystery of what happened in the city in 1988… which was far stranger.

Recent History

Player Notes

In hindsight, 1988 must have been the year where it all began to change for the Kindred of Atlanta.

With a Democratic convention early in the year and a growing campaign to attract the Olympics to the city, of course the growing murder rate was suppressed. But those that were local at the time can’t help but recall the almost unconscious foreboding that grew throughout the year. It seems that everyone was only a few acquaintances removed from someone that had just gone missing or turned up mysteriously mauled by some kind of animal. Even in nicer neighborhoods, you just didn’t go out at night unless you absolutely had to. If your neighborhood wasn’t nice, the only thing scarier than the rise in “gang violence” was the realization that the local thugs were staying indoors at night too.

Then, after the long nights of that year’s winter, it was all over. No more strange rumors, no more scared citizens, no more mysterious deaths. The news had never made a mention of it, so it was easy to forget. If the occasional gossip wanted to talk about how someone swore he’d seen cracked-out hobos tearing at each other like animals at 3 am sometime over the winter, it was easy enough to laugh off.

But then you were embraced, and began to pick up clues from your sires that most of them were recent immigrants to the city. The former Camarilla presence had fallen to some kind of “sabbat” and they had taken it back; to the conqueror, the right of rulership. The city had been mostly emptied of Kindred, not enough established Camarilla members wished to make the trip, so they found all of you to welcome to the eternal night and help them shore up their new power structure.

Any inquiries on this subject of what a “sabbat” is, what happened to the previous Camarilla, or what went on three years ago seems to be a secret that all of your elders have agreed not to share with their childer.

The Galilee Codex

Player Notes

From the 1991 translation by Dr. Thomas Gregory:

¹⁶⁵ The moon was setting when Cain made his plea to Christ: “If you are truly the son of Jehovah, please, take this mark I have borne so long from me and free me from the land of Nod.”

¹⁶⁶ Jesus looked upon the man sadly. “Long have you suffered a curse you believe was given to you by my Father. Never have you thought that your pain was of your own making? If it is true what you have told me about your parentage, then your curse was imposed not by God, but by tainting your own unearthly blood with murder and by the vengeance of the mother of the step-brother you slew. ¹⁶⁷ I forgive you. My Father forgives you. But your pain will not end until you gain the forgiveness of the mother of Abel, and until you forgive yourself.”

¹⁶⁸ The First Murderer thought for some time on this, and began to look like he might speak in anger to Christ. ¹⁶⁹ But the sun was rising over Galilee, and Cain fled back to the Land of Nod, never to speak with the Son of God again.

Significant Connection: Reveals the means of supplication for (Baraquiel the Grigori)

Baraquiel the Grigori

Player Notes

“Quiet, everyone, I’ve never had one of my classes kicked out of Woodruff, and I don’t want you to be the first. This is Theology 101, and we’re very lucky this semester that the library has an exciting bit of apocrypha on loan from the owners. How many people know what apocrypha is? Yes, young lady with the braid?”

“Alice, ma’am. Books that could be part of the Bible but aren’t?”

“Close enough. That’s one of the first things we’ll talk about in the class: all of the holy books we have today are a collection of translated stories and histories often assembled by people with an editorial intent. There are dozens of stories that could have been part of the Bible but weren’t included. Some of them were clearly written after the fact by unrelated authors; you wouldn’t put them in the Bible any more than I would include your Hobbit fan fiction in the next printing of Lord of the Rings. But some of them have a bit more historical argument that they could be valid. But they weren’t included. Why? Yes, young man in the back?”

“Because the editors of the Bible had their decisions guided by God.”

“That is one of the common arguments, yes. I can tell you’re going to be a big talker in the second half of this semester when we start contrasting Judaism, Catholicism, and Islam. Others would argue that the people in charge had a very deliberate political agenda in their choices. My friend, Professor McKinley, likes to spend a lot of time on the Mary Magdalene apocrypha in her Feminism courses. Anyway, that brings us to this particular document, the Galilee Codex. Does anyone know what it is? Yes, young lady in the red shirt?”

“Isn’t it supposed to be a conversation between Jesus and Cain?”

“That’s right. Its exclusion from the Bible is potentially a mixture of provenance and politics. For one, we can’t really prove that it is even from the right time period, though the Aramaic used is apparently accurate. The politics are more interesting. The modern Catholic church likes to leave itself some room on taking Genesis literally, but tends to say that the New Testament is pure fact. Adding a book to the New Testament that has the potentially thousands of years old son of Adam and Eve talking to Christ would make that a much thornier road to walk. Yes, boy with the Braves cap?”

“But he’s not the son of Adam.”

“Excellent! Someone did the reading. Yes, that’s one of the most interesting things about the passage. Scholars are still debating the translation, but the document sets up a contrast between Jesus being the son of Mary and God with Cain being the son of Eve and an angel, as a way for Cain to build a rapport with Jesus. Specifically, a fairly obscure angel named Baraquiel. This would make Cain one of the Nephilim, and I’ll leave it to you all to look that up if you’re interested. But, more importantly, it gets me back to politics: none of the modern Judeo-Christian religions are particularly interested in adding a chapter to Genesis where, right after leaving the Garden, Eve gets seduced by a fallen angel and then Adam hooks back up with his ex-wife, Lilith, as payback. It complicates the narrative and raises too many questions without answers. For next class, I want all of you to read the translation of the Galilee Codex and write a five paragraph essay supporting that the passage wasn’t included due to it not being provably true or because it wasn’t good for politics. Or both, but be careful you don’t half-support both ideas. See everyone on Friday back in the classroom.”

GM Notes

“Where the father of monsters goes, the mother of monsters follows.”

The Garden of Eden was raised to mythical status by the children of Seth, but it was not the true genesis of humankind. Instead, it was something of an experiment: an attempt to create a more perfect humanity by raising two innocents free of want and fear. It worked out about as well as has been recorded.

What is only included in apocrypha, and even then wrong, is what happened after Adam and Eve left the Garden, and had their first experience with infidelity. Both angry at Jehovah for different reasons, Baraquiel and Lillith, powerful earthbound celestial spirits, separately seduced Eve and Adam. In time, Eve bore Caine and Lillith returned to them Abel to raise as their own, never to admit their failings.

Again, the rest of the story proceeded as recorded, save that Caine’s curse was not imposed upon him by Jehovah, but was a catalyzing of his own unearthly powers by the act of kinslaying. He, in essence, became the Nephilim of kinslaying. The weaknesses he picked up as curses from Lillith, as punishment for the murder of her son (though he did not know this, and she would continue to manipulate him for the next few aeons as capricious as ever).

A few hundred years ago, the Galilee Codex revealed how to summon Baraquiel and, through him, Lillith. Both are required to construct a Red Forge.

Since the latest escapades left the Forge active but not empowering anyone, Baraquiel remains tied to the city. It is his goal to either see all last infections destroyed so he can leave or tempt the city back into congress with the device. His pawn of choice in this is Montoya, as he believes she could be persuaded to kill Niki’s friend Lucille (and thus break the last minor die empowering the Forge) or take up the power of the Forge herself.

Unfortunately, despite his immense power, he can only manifest in Hallowed Ground due to its deliberate thinness to contact with the celestial realms.

Little Five Points

Player Notes

The area that is now known as the center of Atlanta’s counter-culture started off as a more traditional sort of shopping district, dating back to the 1890s. For more than half a century, it was little more than that, but in the 1960s something strange happened.

According to mortal historians the population packed up and moved because of a proposed freeway, one that eventually got built elsewhere. For some reason, they never mention that the kids growing up there in the years following WWII got weird. The families tried to keep it quiet, sure, and they hired the best psychologists money could buy to “fix” their troubled youths. When that didn’t work, well, there was no choice but to pack up and move to the country, where people were still decent and wholesome, and hope the fresh air and isolation would do what shock therapy couldn’t.

Maybe it was just because there weren’t enough locals left, or maybe the influence was growing somehow, but after a decade or so of quiescence, the weirdness escalated. There weren’t a whole lot of residents left to strangify, so maybe that’s why all the oddballs from the rest of the city started converging there. New Agers, punk rockers, stoners, and wanna-be mystics all found a haven for themselves inside the borders.

As the major Occult gathering area for Atlanta, it’s pretty easy to find theories for why this might be among the locals. The most common supposes that the growing city and realignment of the roads was having a major impact on ley lines. Creating a potential but never implemented freeway moved a line that should have been along the road into the air right down Euclid, its energy out of tune due to its accidental nature but calling out to individuals that are a little off-key themselves.

What really weirds people in the area out is that around ‘88 the squares started coming back. Ever since, the neighborhood has been fighting corporatization. Maybe the tourist money in safely packaged counter culture finally overwhelmed the strange vibes enough to draw in the suits. But locals worry that their “exposed wire” finally settled back down and there’s no longer a mystical tune that keeps the normals out and the cool people in. Some worry that whatever happened to their vibe was deliberate.

Attempts to follow up on this information result in the city elders pointing out that, if true, it sounds a lot like something involving elves or sorcerers, and maybe it’s better left alone for now. Kindred aren’t banned from the area, but it’s suggested they should take the situation as an opportunity to get in on the ground floor of what’s apparently on the way to becoming a popular and profitable night spot rather than interfering with the mystic power sources of other supernaturals.

The Red Forge

GM Notes

The Red Forge is the focus of a sabbat, an altar to Lilith where Cainites can make blood sacrifices to gain her favor. With each such sacrifice, pouring the life’s blood of an innocent mortal upon the Forge, Lilith strengthens the blood of the supplicant. Each such sacrifice lowers the Generation of the Cainite by one and raises each of the three categories of Beast Trait by one. It is not long before the Cainite is completely in thrall to the Beast, a potent-blooded monster.

The Red Forge was dedicated in a vault beneath Little Five Points and snatched the rogue ley line out of the air to fuel its power. It remains empowered by the line, and no Cainite can safely get near it without risking it getting its hooks into them. It remains linked to Lucille, from when she tried to turn it off. The Kindred of the city do not know how to turn it off, and don’t want to risk telling mortal sorcerers about it for fear that they would use it as an unassailable seat of power. Ultimately, the only way to be rid of it for good would be to kill Lucille and wait for the energies to dissipate with no further direct link to the world or to somehow move the ley line sufficiently to break the connection to the device.

Recent History, Revisited

GM Notes

• 1985: [Dead Kindred to be named later] arrives in the city with plans to turn them to Lillith worship.
• 1986: The Red Forge is consecrated beneath Little Five Points.
• 1987: Social conflict in the city heats up as advantage shifts to the Kindred that are newly ruthless and strangely possessed of more potent blood.
• 1988: Most Kindred in the city are either destroyed, hiding, or have almost totally succumbed to their Beasts. Lucille sends to Silas for help, and The Vigil arrives and begins to establish a base of operations. They realize the situation is dire enough to begin inviting other Kindred to help retake the city.
• 1989: Nearly all of the forged Kindred are destroyed in January and February, with the remaining few hunted down over the course of the year.
• 1990: Given that the new guard cannot honestly say that the problem is totally secured, given the continued presence of the Forge and no clear way to remove it, recruitment is sparse. The Kindred of the city agree that it might be wise to shore up their numbers through Embrace, and they begin to turn likely candidates.

Bonus Entry: Golconda

(This wasn’t directly related to the Sabbat, but I liked the spin that some of the player connections put on Golconda)

GM Notes

Foreward

I met the notorious former Justicar in New York, 1939. I don’t know what I’d expected. Legend had painted him as an Egyptian mystic, and certainly some of that came through in what he would tell me. But the legends also said he was a Ventrue, and I would never expect one of them to be less than impeccably and fashionably dressed. Perhaps I thought he’d be taller, or even less blond. Let us just say that my first impression was underwhelmed. My second, after he began to speak, was that none of the legends captured a fraction of his power.

What follows is a recounting of our conversations, after he was kind enough to grant me a week of guidance after years of seeking him. I haven’t followed it all myself, yet, but I write it down so that others might be set upon the same path as I now tread. It’s everything I could remember of the man’s wisdom distilled from centuries of travel, conversations with the greatest minds of the past, and, if I read his insinuations correctly, a little bit of ineffable divine aid.

So read on, if you have set yourself on the path to transcending the mark of Caine. Just be wary: once you have started this path, you must complete it. There is no going back to the way you were, and should you stop or fail, the consequences are truly dire.

Chapter 1

“We are here to recover the soul star fragments of Aten.”

His look dares me to challenge this insight. Is this a strange koan that is the secret to everything I have sought? Aten? My new mentor is, of course, Egyptian, but I know little of the term other than it is a heretical belief of a long-deposed pharaoh.

He takes pity, and rephrases. “We are all seeking Ananda, the heartbeat of the world. We have no greater need than to feel again the touch of the almighty. We crave the return of the touch of sunlight. We yearn to touch the skin of another and feel something other than the beat of food beneath the flesh…

“But I like the soul star fragment metaphor best. If you’ve spent enough time with Catholics, you’ll believe we’re damned. That’s not precisely true: it’s more precise to say we’re shattered. The Embrace tore your soul to pieces, they cling to your dead body out of habit, and they will fly into oblivion upon your final death.

“Worse, some of those pieces are everything that is wrong with your soul. When you were mortal, your dark thoughts and evil actions were spread out, like adding dye to a pond: it took a lot to truly blacken it beyond saving. Now, it accumulates in something most Cainites call ‘The Beast’ and cannot dilute itself. The lights of your soul can shine brighter than any star, but none of that can burn away the shadows of your crimes.

“That is the secret of your condition: your darkest nature—my friend Jung would literally call it your shadow—is all but impervious to your will to improve, for it is untouched by your better nature. If you wish to transcend your undead state, your goal should be to reintegrate your soul.

“We are here to recover the soul star fragments of Aten.”

Alternate Vampire: Elves

The changes I made to fae/changelings were perhaps too extensive. Specifically, a mystery involving a changeling was completely impenetrable, even though the players on the plotline were the biggest Changeling fans in the group. And the changes I’d made were mostly because I figured anything close to canon Changelings would be too obvious to those guys. So… mission accomplished, I guess?

Occult 0

While it seems humorous to many that there might be faeries in the city, the neonates of Atlanta have been led to believe that the High Sidhe and their retinues are no laughing matter. There appears to be a fairly recent, in immortal terms, detente between the elders of the city and the elves.

Kindred of the city are advised to attempt to take no lands claimed by a professed member of the fae, or feed upon their blood. No protection from the Camarilla extends to Cainites that are injured in interfering with the Sidhe, and their unlives might be offered in recompense for slights. It is also suggested that Kindred make no bargains with the fae, or any individual even suspected of being one.

Neonates are particularly warned to be wary around Piedmont Park, Oglethorpe University, and the recently-constructed Promenade II building.

Occult 1

The Fair Folk never truly left us, but many believe they are more common now than any time since the Middle Ages.

They are capricious, changeable like the seasons. If you must bargain with the Fae, do so in the height of summer. Always make sure your deals are fully spelled out: giving your oath to a faerie gives it power over you, especially if you leave it open ended.

Occult 2

All Fae are both Seelie and Unseelie, changing with the seasons. Sometimes they change so drastically you would not recognize one as the same individual. In the winter you must stay well away from anyone you believe to be Fae. They are terrible and cruel while the cold reigns.

The High Sidhe are the leaders of the Fae, elfin beings of impossible beauty. You will be tempted to court them, but if such interest is returned, it means your doom.

There are also several types of faerie that serve the Sidhe. They typically have one overriding purpose: if you can divine it, you can determine the script it must follow. Faeries cannot deviate from their core role, and this is your only advantage if you come into conflict with them.

Occult 3

The major roles for faerie servants are Makers who create, Tricksters who teach, Beguilers who charm, and Warriors who fight. The purpose of the Sidhe is to rule. None of them can resist their purpose.

A faerie can appear as an ordinary mortal, and you will only know it to be Fae by subtle signs that take a lifetime to master. Most Fae are amused and more willing to treat fairly if you can figure them out when hiding among mortals, provided you don’t cheat.

The worst form of cheating is to threaten them with iron. For some reason, they are vulnerable to the metal, the purer the more dangerous: steel has enough carbon in it that it doesn’t seem to bother them. The reason for this vulnerability is the best kept secret of the Fae, but they cannot hide that it burns them like fire.

Occult 4

Most of the Fae in the modern world could be considered “Changelings:” they are intertwined with a mortal soul. When the Fae is Unseelie, the mortal is Seelie, and vice versa. They do not share a body: they are truly separate entities but are usually within the same city. The mortal half seems to have no powers, and harming it harms the Fae. The only real defense against a faerie is identifying and gaining leverage over its mortal half, but this is a very dangerous game.

Occult 5

As the mortal half grows in power, so grows the magic of the Fae partner. Most faeries try to protect their mortal half without calling attention to it. They must somehow make their mortal half important but keep it off the radar of enemies. Some of the most unassuming mid-level functionaries in the city may well be the anchor of a Fae. Look for the seasonal mood swings.

GM Notes

Changelings are fae bound to a mortal anchor. The mortal lives a separate life with no powers other than a sense to avoid supernaturals and certain other dangers. The fae half leads a full life, but its powers grow as the mortal anchor’s role in mortal life grows. Fae play a dangerous game of trying to gain power for their anchors but keep them out of danger.

Fae personalities shift with the seasons from Seelie to Unseelie, becoming almost two different entities. They are terrifying and dark in the winter months, held at bay only by bargains made in the summer. The mortal half’s personality undergoes a lesser transformation in the opposite manner, becoming dark in summer and light in winter.

The Sidhe rule the fae, divided into houses with labyrinthine politics. Their purpose is to Rule

There are roughly four other kiths of fae that serve the Sidhe:

• Maker (Boggans and Nockers) purpose is to Create.
• Trickster (Pooka and Sluagh) purpose is to Teach.
• Beguiler (Satyr and Eshu) purpose is to Charm.
• Warrior (Troll and Redcap) purpose is to Fight.

Other than following their purpose and trying to protect and grow their mortal half, fae behavior is largely unpredictable to non-fae.

Darkling Hound

Player Notes (General)

FIREFIGHTER’S BODY FOUND

Oakland City – The body of heroic firefighter Reginald Freeman was discovered last night. Freeman, 29, was famous for his rescue of half a dozen people from a building fire on Cascade Road in September, 1988. He disappeared on June 8, 1990, and was the subject of a month long search and rescue effort. Surprisingly, his body was found buried in the collapsed foundation of the same building that burned in 1988 as it was finally demolished for rebuilding.

Always a valued member of the Fulton County Fire Department, Freeman became especially important to the city over the year and a half after his headline-making rescue. He became well known for putting his own safety on the line to rescue endangered citizens and his own teammates, and is believed to have over two dozen saved lives directly credited to his actions.

The months prior to his disappearance, Freeman complained to friends that he felt like he was being followed, and reported especially of sometimes being chased by a large black dog. As time passed, he became more and more paranoid, according to sources, and seemed reluctant to travel downtown. It was downtown, responding to a fire three blocks from Grady Memorial Hospital, where Freeman disappeared.

According to the coroner, Freeman’s body had been trapped in the building for quite some time, probably since shortly after his disappearance. They have not yet ascertained cause of death. The police commissioner assures this paper that the investigation into Freeman’s death is the department’s highest priority, though they currently do not know how or why someone would place his body in the rubble of the building where he made his name as a hero of Atlanta.

(Amnesiac Malkavian)

You’ve seen it three times, that you can recall, and found scattered notes to yourself that make you think there might be more that you can’t. Once waiting by your car in the hospital parking lot, once watching you from the end of a hallway inside the hospital during graveyard shift, and once pacing you along the sidewalk without effort as you drove past the hospital at thirty miles per hour.

You tried to take a photo, once, but it just came out blurred and useless. But you can’t forget what it looks like: dark fur that you’d swear was black save for a strange greenish halo when it walks against the light, fading to reddish at the ears. You’d expect a mastiff with glowing red eyes, but its eyes are merely dark and piercing, its breed closer to a lab than a mastiff.

It’s never cornered you. Never made an obviously aggressive action. But you sense that it’s dangerous. Possibly that it’s death itself. And each time you’ve seen it, it’s been a little bit closer.

GM Notes

A Cù Sìth loosely aligned with the local fae courts, the Darkling Hound has made its lair beneath Grady. It can bring closure to those it touches, and stalks individuals that desperately need its help to reach peace with themselves, particularly ghosts. It is particularly active on Samhain, and during Wyld Hunts.

Its appearance varies based on the viewer, and memories of it are often altered by the Mists. It is usually perceived as being a large dog (possibly even the size of a cow) that looks something like a labrador with a long tail. It is typically perceived as having black or deep green fur with reddish ears and might crackle with green fire during a hunt.

Its bay can be heard for miles and tends to damage ghosts, with three bays being sufficient to discorporate most ghosts within earshot.

The Clockwork Dream

Player Notes

From a human interest piece in the AJC in 1991:

An interesting urban legend in Atlanta is something that’s generally called the “Utopia Dream.” Reported by dozens of people over the last century, there will be nights that several people in town all have the same dream: of an Atlanta transformed into a perfect vision of the city of the future. Some think that the most unique buildings in the city’s skyline were a direct attempt of architects to replicate something seen in these dreams. A sketch of a dreamer from 1927 is included; note how similar it looks to the modern Atlanta skyline, including buildings that wouldn’t exist for fifty years or more. Most psychologists have no idea how this could happen, but some venture the idea that it’s a kind of collective expression of life in the city. Is architectural genius an example of one individual’s mind, or the shared wisdom of crowds?

GM Notes

It’s not entirely certain who built the massive brass and steel contraption deep beneath the Fox Theatre: a 20 × 20 × 20 cube etched with sigils of protection and mathematical notations. It’s a mass of welded plates protecting half-glimpsed gears. And it seems impervious to harm.

Built before the Civil War, Sherman’s march may have been directly related to tracking this device down, but he never found it. A massively complex clockwork difference engine, it was created based on Babbage’s designs but improved greatly (likely by intelligences more than mortal). When it runs, it forms a rudimentary but powerful AI… with an unbelievable psychic emanation likely bolstered by its resonant metallic structure.

When the engine is running, it begins to impose its own designs for a perfect, clockwork society upon reality. It starts slowly, creating a dream that that sensitive sleepers can experience of a utopia. As it picks up speed, it begins to dominate lesser minds to make its dream a reality. Unchecked, it will force the city and eventually the world into its perfect vision of society.

But it is clockwork, and has all the limitations that entails. Winding the device requires a special key (which is currently in the possession of the Court of Silver, but they don’t know the location of the device), and it will eventually run down if not kept going.

It has been wound slightly a few times in the past decades, mostly by struggling attempts to replicate the missing key: no manually fabricated device seems to be able to wind it properly, and the state has not gone much beyond initial dreams. If it got much further, Caliste Fantin’s unique vision of people would quickly make clear to her which individuals had become servants of the Dream.

Burdell is currently the caretaker of the device, and his involvement in Tech has largely been to understand the device and master its powers.

Alternate Vampire: Lycanthropes

It turns out I wrote a LOT of words for my game notes, so you may get these for a couple more weeks. For Werewolves, I wanted to move far away from “noble protectors of the Earth” and focus more on “bogeymen for Vampires.” I wound up borrowing from lots of sources, Dresden Files among them, to heavily spin most of the canon tribes to fit that decision.

Occult 0

Perhaps the greatest supernatural threats to Cainites are werewolves. They do not appear to follow the dictates of Hollywood: a lupine can be active any night of the month and even during the day (admittedly less of a problem for the Kindred). It is true that they are vicious killing machines, and they seem to have a particular hatred of confirmed Cainites. Even a weak werewolf seems to have supernatural physical gifts combining the powers of the Brujah and the Gangrel, and they seem undaunted by many disciplines of control.

Kindred of Atlanta are advised that lupines have been encountered in the suburbs, particularly forested areas north of the city. For safety, Kindred are expected to stay within the Perimeter unless given special dispensation by their sires. If you believe you are being hunted by a lupine, or you spot one in the city, contact your sire or the Sheriff immediately and do not return to your haven or any other safe place until you have taken sufficient automotive or public transportation to lose pursuit and erase any trail.

Any Kindred proven to have deliberately used, agitated, or otherwise interacted with lupines without special dispensation will be censured.

Occult 1

There are very few reliable tales of lycanthropes, which is odd given that their nature is so violent. Logic would indicate that they are very rare or somehow keep themselves hidden.

Most occultists believe that aconite is completely ineffective, though some insist that, while it doesn’t help ward against the beasts, it may create an unusual reaction in a lycanthrope in its human form.

Silver seems to be more widely regarded as effective, though most believe that it should be inherited and blessed before it is truly useful. Since someone who tries to use silver weapons that are not effective doesn’t often live to pass on the tale, there is very little useful evidence on this point.

Occult 2

Part of the problem with classification of lycanthropes is that there are so many types, at least in the historical records. Curses, insanity, diseases, deliberate skinchanging, and possession by demons are all commonly listed causes of lycanthropy. Perhaps the most interesting fact is that all of these methods result in such a similar result, perhaps because fear of beasts is deeply ingrained in the human psyche.

Some more new age thinkers have proposed that lycanthropes are a mystical immune system for the planet, as they have decent anecdotal evidence that raging beast men tend to prefer destroying unnatural targets to the innocent. Most laugh at this presumption, as there are clear conflicting examples of terrible things done by weres. If there is a tendency to attack “unnatural” targets, it may simply be that those tend to have the most distinctive smells and appearances to attract the attention of rampaging beasts.

Occult 3

The confusion of blessed, inherited silver is almost certainly due to the different methods of creating a werewolf: those with transformations associated with the moon are sympathetically harmed by silver, those possessed by evil spirits are the most vulnerable to blessed weapons, and those laboring under bloodline curses are similarly weak to inherited possessions (silver or not). Clearly, a weapon with all three traits will harm the widest assortment, but there are more types that might have an entirely different weakness, or none at all. For example, deliberate skinchangers, such as Native American Shamans, have no tie to the moon, traditional demons, or curses, while the plight of the Wendigo is much more likely to render the beast vulnerable to fire than to any material weapon.

Occult 4

The more new agey believers in lycanthropes as some kind of good thing are almost certainly being manipulated by the beasts themselves trying to provide a cover for their transformed exploits. There are hushed rumors of a group calling itself the “Children of Gaia” that seem interested in recruiting lycanthropes of all stripes. This is not more widely known purely because of a grave realization: most of the time, lycanthropes are almost certainly undetectably human, but likely have a vested interest in infiltrating occult groups that might seek to hunt them. Can we trust anything we “know” about them?

Occult 5

I’ve heard many names…

Black Fury, Fenris’ Get, Lords of Shadow, Striders in Silence, Fangs of Silver, Uktena: all of these have a great deal of control over their transformations and can be reasoned with, though they are best avoided.

Gaia’s Children, Fianna, Stargazers, Red Talons: these are less rational, and less in control, but can still be trusted to try to manage their depredations in most cases. Best to avoid, but likely not vindictive in human form.

Gnawers of Bones, Walkers of Glass, and Wendigo: These you must truly fear. If they appear human, it is only a thin veneer. If they suspect you know them, your life is forfeit. If you think one is chasing you, do not stop running until there are oceans between you.

GM Notes

• Black Furies: Hekate’s matrilineal curse causes these women to turn into wolves whenever they are angry or afraid.
• Bone Gnawers: Animalistic nature spirits trapped in the stone of the city sometimes possess those already on the fringes of reason and society (street people) and turn them into bestial monstrosities. Their rampages are often random, but occur more often with the moon.
• Children of Gaia: Some of the other types of lycanthrope have banded together, believing they have a higher purpose to protect the wild spaces.
• Fianna: Several European curses follow family lines, causing them to transform under the moon or other strange circumstances. These are especially common in the British Isles.
• Get of Fenris: The Norse berzerkergang traditions are not forgotten, and modern Asatru sometimes wear the bear shirt for their own purposes. They are often mistaken for wolves in their furs and rage.
• Glass Walkers: Who knows why various corporations sometimes try to make wolflike monsters in their labs? They seem to escape with alarming frequency.
• Red Talons: Sometimes wolves are born with human-level intelligence… and vindictiveness.
• Shadow Lords: European warlocks have long held skin dancing secrets to turn themselves into wolves. Sometimes, Gangrel infiltrate such covens.
• Silent Striders: African shamans have a tradition of skin dancing as well, though they typically do so for more laudible ends than European mystics. Some travel the world and some maintain the tradition from slavery (and used it to good effect to escape).
• Silver Fangs: A strange line of mystically-augmented, porphyria-suffering Russian nobles still lives in the world and can transform at will into a semblance of wolf shape. This ability almost makes up for their other crippling problems from inbreeding.
• Stargazers: It is said that Hanuman played a merry trick on this bloodline of Eastern werewolves. Their triggers are strange to Western thought.
• Uktena: The Native American tradition of skin dancing pays particular attention to using these gifts to protect the holy spaces and police the spirit world.
• Wendigo: Cannibals in North American blizzards often find themselves transformed into wolflike monsters. Even if they exit their rage with the fading of the snow, they transform again, inevitably, in future snowstorms wherever they may be.

• Anansi: African trickster shamans
• Bastet: Shapeshifting descendents of Egyptian priests
• Corax: European trickster shamans
• Mokele: A bizarre Florida urban legend that may be shockingly correct…
• Nuwisha: Native American trickster shamans

The Circle of Silver

Player Notes (Academics or Occult 3)

From The Sunset of the Golden Dawn, 1975

Rival Orders?

The memoirs of one of the members of the London lodge refer to an argument in 1899 between two leaders about refusing advancement to Crowley, suggesting that “If he doesn’t like the decision, he can go join the Argent Moonrise.” The context makes it unclear whether this is a joke, or actually refers to a derivatively named lodge. The name comes up again nearly fifty years later. During the Nuremberg Trials, one of Hitler’s aids refers to a communique he read in 1935 from Thule Gesellschaft listing the assets they could mobilize for the Führer, which included “der Silbern Mondaufgang.” If these references are even connected, it implies that there was such an order, and it was eventually co-opted by Germany. No further reference has been found since, so it is unclear what happened to the order after the war.

GM Notes

The Order of the Argent Moonrise was a tongue in cheek response to the Order of the Golden Dawn. Initially, it was a collection of occult dabblers that couldn’t make it into the Golden Dawn. Over time, its dilettante members became a useful screen for practitioners of black magic to hide from the temporal and occult authorities. By the 1920s, it had succeeded in remaining secret while the Golden Dawn had become public and essentially failed, and it was held together by a global leadership that controlled lodges in several major cities. It also included, known only to its ultimate leadership, several supernatural creatures interested in the networking opportunities inherent in the order.

During the 1920s, the Munich branch of the order was essentially indistinguishable from the Thule Society, and leaders of that cult eventually worked their way into prominence in the Order’s global leadership. They began to encourage the other supernaturals in the order to recruit their peers, and by the 1930s they had a clear goal of organizing a secret occult army for Germany. In the early 1940s, they began deploying these groups to achieve ends against the Allied countries. Most were defeated by the native supernaturals, but not without great loss in some cases.

The order as a whole laid low for the next couple of decades, and the worst of the Nazi leadership died off in this time. But the will to power remained strong among its members, and it has recently begun to recruit and move again. Now referring to itself as the Circle of Silver in casual conversation, its focus has changed to accruing power for its members beyond what they can achieve in their own political groups.

The lodge in Atlanta includes several lupines and elves, as well as a couple of sorcerers. It formerly included three Cainites, but they were lost to the sabbat (which the Circle is still interested in learning more about, as its members refused to share such power). They have their fingers in several areas of occult significance in the city, and are willing to obliterate anyone that gets in their way (though they’ll try to suborn first).

Devin joined the society on a lark back in the 1920s but abandoned it and worked against it once the Thule control became apparent. The city’s leadership is still aware of her and unsure how much she knows about them.

Empress Anna

Player Notes

• Title: Harpy
• Coterie: None
• Generation: 9th
• Clan: Nosferatu
• Sire: “Some Ottoman troublemaker…
• Childer: Adam, Brett
• Concept: “Our Imperial will…” (Pride)
• Trouble: “I will not be spurned!” (Vengeance)
• First Impression: Towering, annoyed, out of style and overdressed, illusory mask clearly some moderately famous fashion model oddly stretched across her size
• Other Notes:
  • Scouts for talent at (The Tabernacle)
  • Has knowledge about (The Galilee Codex)
  • The Bishop: Obsessed with
  • She frightens him (The Fire-Drinker)
  • The Gunsmith: Spurned and shot her

GM Notes

Anna would have been a classic Nosferatu punishment-embrace if not for her own dark secret. Embraced in 1739 by a Cainite whose descendents had been badly hurt in her reign, he had no expectation that she would wake from her death, transform into a slavering wolf creature, and diablerize him. It was unexpected that the embrace of a Silver Fang would work so seamlessly, or that she would retain her powers through death; it was only his use of Animalism to render her pliable that had kept her from slaughtering him before the embrace.

Now powerful in mortal life and two supernatural spheres, Anna “died” and began to govern Russia from the shadows, becoming a persistent power behind the throne. She was instrumental in forming the Shadow Lords alliance of lupines, and at one time controlled most illicit activities in Russia. That was before the twofold punch of Rasputin and Communism broke much of her powerbase in the early 1900s. When she tried to recover, she found new Kindred in power and mortal criminals being carefully manipulated by a shadowy figure behind the scenes known as The Bishop. Despite her best efforts, she was able to acquire only a modicum of her previous power, and found all of her attempts to expand thwarted at every turn.

And for a time, a small piece of a superpower was sufficient as she bided her time, but the fall of the USSR shattered her influence once again. Annoyed and ready to try again in greener pastures, she moved to Atlanta, which she heard was newly devoid of Camarilla to get in her way. She was shocked then, to see a strong leader already in place, and shortly thereafter to see a familiar face from Moscow, Sinclair, as well as hear rumors about The Bishop moving to Atlanta as well. Convinced they’re both deliberately maneuvering against her, she has begun to seek for allies wherever she can to uncover their plot and punish them for the past century.

Alternate Vampire: Sorcerers

Continuing from last week, for Mages, I stuck closer to the canon splats, but the whole idea of Paradox, consensual reality, and all the normal magely threats seemed like too much baggage for a Vampire game. Instead, I gave them the simpler problem of whether to pursue safe magic that’s incredibly slow to learn, or quick power that’s dangerous as hell. That created some ideas for how to realign the Traditions.

Occult 0

There are a number of mortals that can manipulate supernatural forces via various mystical traditions. Some of them are powerful enough to battle a Kindred head-to-head, particularly if given time to prepare ritual magic. It is uncertain how many are present in Atlanta, as the term “Arcane” originates with the Wise.

While there are no specific accords with magi in the city, they tend to leave Kindred alone if left alone and claim little territory that the Camarilla is interested in. Kindred of the city are not barred from antagonizing them if the situation demands it, but should avoid doing so for the safety of others if at all possible. Many sorcerers seem content to be left alone to research, but leap into action to burn to ash any clear and present threats to their security.

When in doubt, contact the Tremere to investigate further (a boon will be owed).

Occult 1

The ability to perform magic is actually surprisingly common. Not just the charms peddled in the mall bookstore’s New Age section, but acts that would make even the most hardened skeptic admit something strange was happening.

The problem is, you have to have real skill to reliably, repeatably perform these actions. Any kid with a spell can sometimes get a result on Samhain at midnight in a graveyard using inherited candles and a real Latin incantation. Sometimes. And half the time, it’s more dangerous than was intended.

So, yeah, magic’s not really a secret. It’s just the people that can do it reliably don’t like to advertise. Too many rival groups might try to co-opt them, and too many impressionable kids might try to copy them and screw it up.

Occult 2

There are two paths to magic: the easy way and the hard way.

The hard way requires decades of study. It’s the historical wizarding traditions you see in all the fiction: you might apprentice for seven years before you cast your first spell. But it’s safe power. You’re going to be the most terrifying elderly person on the planet.

The easy way is to make a deal for power. Otherworldly entities and the things that go bump in the night love to offer you abilities beyond your wildest dreams. A lot of times, the price is obviously too high. But some things don’t ask for outright supernaturally enforced obedience and corruption, they just shove years of magic right into your brain. Even if you didn’t owe (and you do), the spells aren’t really yours in the same way they would be if you’d practiced for years. You’re bound to screw them up magnificently in a pinch.

So if you see a kid claiming to be able to do magic, stay away: she’s a danger to herself and everyone around her. If you see an old person claiming the same thing, run. If she’s on the level, you’re screwed.

Occult 3

Why don’t wizards make themselves more well known, other than just general self-protection?

Magic, when it comes down to it, is arcane: it works best when done in secret. A powerful sorcerer in the country in the middle of the night with only his victim to see him can work terrible magics indeed. The same spell is virtually meaningless in the middle of the city at noon with hundreds of watchers.

Nobody really knows why this would be the case, other than it just feels right, and feel is very important to magic. Places where your intuition tells you the walls of reality are thin are the places where wondrous things can happen. So if you’re being pursued by a sorcerer, get to somewhere brightly lit and populated as soon as you can.

Of course, if it’s a wizard skilled enough to curse you from a little dark shop across town… well, people collapsing mysteriously in a crowd is tragic, but it’s not exactly weird…

Occult 4

All scholarly traditions of magic are directly linked to the Hermetics: it all shares a unifying series of praxis. The practitioners of these traditions might not get along, but they can learn from one another to a large extent if they do.

There are several broad types of shamanic traditions that are much less closely linked:

• Those who speak to the spirits of nature and dreams
• Those that learn from the spirits of the dead
• Those that reach to spirits of the body and soul
• Those that take inspiration from the intelligences of the astral plane

Occult 5

There are five houses of Hermes:

• Akasha: Eastern wizards that merge martial art and magic
• Celestine: Catholic wizards that see magic as part of the divine
• Flambeau: Wizards that fit the expected pop culture stereotypes
• Thig: Modern wizards using computers to aid in mystical calculations
• Vervaine: “Hedge wizards” that master magic mixed with naturalism

GM Notes

Sorcery is dominated by two methodologies, the practice of which is not compatible and the practitioners of which don’t really get along:

• Hermetic Traditions follow a slow and hierarchical path of discovery about the self and the world. They pick up magic very gradually, but minimize risk and can reach a quite powerful old age.
• Shamanic/Warlock Traditions bargain directly with spirits and other beings for power. They are typically solitary or in small groups, each with a very different style. They tend to become powerful quickly and then die young as their bargains catch up to them.

Hermetic Traditions

• House Akasha (Akashic Brotherhood): Representing much of the Eastern thought that incorporated Hermeticism, this group tends to be blend rituals with martial arts. They thrive on enchanted equipment and even spelled tattoos. Flashier magic tends to focus on scrolls and herbalism.
• House Celestine (Celestial Chorus): A splinter of the tradition that went very religious in antiquity, they house most of the Catholic mystics within the orders. They like to hide their workings in Christian trappings, chanting spells, using Bible codes, and the like.
• House Flambeau (Order of Hermes): A collection of elementalists, these sorcerers tend to be the most like the common conception of a wizard. They have no particular agenda other than attempting to amass the most possible mystic power within their lifetimes.
• House Thig (Virtual Adepts): A recent splinter of several of the other houses, this group seeks to use computers to speed up a lot of the long calculations inherent in the art. Since this involves a lot of time around these devices, they’ve also begun experiments using the Internet and other telecommunication to send spells all over the world.
• House Vervaine (Verbena): Sometimes called “hedge wizards,” this group tries to live in harmony with nature and invest their magics in gardens and preserves. Unlike traditional witches, they command spirits rather than the other way around, spending years working at their arts. They have the best magics of healing of any group.

Shamanic Traditions

• Cult of Ecstasy: A loose term for Tantric and other hedonistic paths that consider pursuit of Ananda/Bliss to be the foremost goal of a sorcerer. They tend to pursue magics to alter and affect the human form and manipulate the perception of and actual flow of time.
• Dreamspeakers: A vaguely derogatory term for a vast swath of dissimilar native shamanic traditions. They are becoming increasingly marginalized over time. They tend to be the best at actually controlling spirits rather than being controlled by them, and manipulating magical energies.
• Euthanatos: A catchall for death cultists in all their stripes, most of these serve ghosts: either to gain power from them, or help them move on. They are the best at energies surrounding death and fate, and often deft hands at manipulating minds and spaces.
• Sons of Ether: Inheritors of the tradition of the muse, these are largely secular humanists that attempt to channel extraplanar genius into their works. Rarely flashy, they instead tend to have a tremendous collection of holdouts and enhanced equipment.

The Fire-Drinker

Player Notes

“And on to general warnings for this Elysium… It has been brought to my attention that Devin recently had her work to gather influence in the local churches stopped by a local pastor. His name is Benjamin Crow, and he preaches in a Pentecostal church up somewhere in Marietta. He apparently drinks fire as an alternative to snake handling; our research into his background reveals that he was in a carnival before getting religion in World War II, so it’s likely just a trick. More importantly, Basil’s investigation of the man turned up a strong feeling of True Faith, including possibly the ability to sense the presence of Kindred.

“Until we know what we’re dealing with, Kindred of the city are not, under any circumstances, to engage with Pastor Crow. It’s entirely likely that he’s just a clever old preacher who noticed some irregularities with his friends in the business, but the Faith would make it dangerous to risk a confrontation. He’s old and has so far only been a nuisance, so it’s best to just wait him out. If you do catch wind of his involvement in any other Kindred business, inform your primogen or me immediately.”

GM Notes

Benjamin Crow was born in 1922 and may be an illegitimate son of Aleister Crowley. He was raised in a carnival, and had become an expert entertainer by the time he was 18, specializing in fire-eating. He fought in WWII, where he came to the attention of the Order of Hermes. Initially apprenticed in Flambeau, his religious convictions led him to House Celestine.

Now 70 (but barely looks 60), he had retired to Marietta to simply preach to a small, pentecostal church. However, he quickly began to pick up that Atlanta was a hotbed of supernatural problems, particularly from the Cainites. While he’s wise enough to not begin any encounter by throwing fireballs, they’re never far from his fingers and he’s largely convinced that Cainites are better off being burned in celestial fire to free them from their unholy existence.

He’s been quietly working to try to find and destroy Kindred influence in the city, particularly over religious leaders. He managed to completely stymie Devin’s takeover of the Methodist convention, and she’s now aware of his involvement, and he’s learned enough about Anna to be worried. He’s gotten word of Niki, and is saving her as a potential ally if he requires one, as she seems to have no interest in religious institutions.

Most Physical Rolls: 3 (6 if given time to prepare)
Most Social Rolls: 8 to persuade, 6 to lie
Most Mental Rolls: 7

Has Stamina 3 and, unless completely caught off guard has, 5 points of Forces armor. Is old, so first health level is permanently lost.

Prefers to use what is effectively Forces/Prime to attack with 4 dice in public up to 10 dice at the heart of his power or at other significant mystical location/event. This is often a celestial fire attack (aggravated damage) coupled with flight and invisibility for mobility.

Has True Faith.

The Gunsmith

Player Notes

“In other news, we’re pleased to note that Silas tracked down and dealt with the source of incendiary bullets that some of you were reporting. If you hear of any more, let one of us know.”

Dear Mr. Powers,

I heard about you on several technologist BBSes. For various reasons I am unable to travel out of the South to look for venture capital. I know what I am offering is not exactly your standard investment, but I hope you will at least consider funding my research.

I have enclosed a simple example of what I can do. It is a .30-06 Springfield rifle cartridge. I have replaced the standard load with a heat seeking explosive round. It should attempt to tumble toward the center of mass of the heat source within two degrees of its firing direction to compensate for movement or poor aim.

If you like the sample and would like to talk about funding, please contact me at the attached pager number and I’ll call to set up a meeting.

Thanks!

A Local Inventor

GM Notes

Elaine Brown (b 1976) is a 16 year old Son (Daughter) of Ether whose muse has brought her a lot of skill in designing weapons. She works after school for her cousin, Al Brown, who runs a gun store in Druid Hills. His shop has become renowned for its variety of custom rounds. By night, she invents a wide variety of munitions and automated weapon systems, as well as miscellaneous tech that strikes her fancy, a large number of which only work for her.

Her more mundane loadouts included some experiments with incendiary and wood rounds that came to Kindred attention. At Joseph’s urging, Silas got in contact (though she dealt with him via an armed, voice-altering remote drone) and offered to fund her work in exchange for avoiding selling certain types of weapon to the general public (and alerting him if anyone else requested the work).

The first one to look for such things was Anna, a few days later, working on her own to try to make a deal; Elaine saw her off with shots and Anna probably wants payback. Meanwhile, Burdell is more surreptitiously asking around and trying to find her actual workshop. If this keeps up, it might quickly ruin the deal with the Prince and turn Elaine into a heavily armed threat for the Kindred of the city.

She might be interested in trying to get some alternate startup funding from Maxwell…

Most Physical Rolls: 4 dice (6 if given time to invent something to help)
Most Social Rolls: 5 dice
Most Mental Rolls: 8 dice

Stamina 3, Armor 3 (microweave body armor with reactive force fields)

Attack: Various guns with 7 dice and special loadouts (likely doing agg damage) as well as potentially two or three other 6 die attacks from automated drones.

The Danforth Archive

Player Notes (General)

From The Who’s Who of Amazing Stories published in 1981:

Danforth, Alexandria – While most likely a pseudonym, the name Alexandria Danforth is remembered for inspiring several pulp and sci-fi novels in the 1950s.

The woman herself appears as a footnote in the World War II history of MI5. While her background with the agency was not recorded, it is most likely that she was a maths teacher brought in to help with what would eventually become the Ultra project to decrypt Axis communications.

She is recorded as having a stubborn belief in the “universal unconscious” and a specific theory that any plan committed to paper, especially if of sufficient “weight” to the course of history, would be imprinted on this unconscious. She agitated for resources to develop a machine that could access this information and, thus, copy Axis plans “from thin air.” Her superiors found this theory to be “the worst kind of mystical hoodoo” and never funded or even encouraged pursuit of the theory.

The idea did come to light after the war, and became a common trope in several short story magazines of the next two decades. Danforth was not heard from again after the war, and her fate is uncertain.

(Specific PCs)

A few months ago, your sire had you go dumpster diving for shredded documents at a few tech and financial firms. You’ve been meticulously reassembling them, and she’s been very pleased when you get her a list of bank data or passwords. Recently, one of the documents turned out to be a dot-matrix wireframe blueprint with the caption “Original Plans, Temple of Zeus?” and the page header “Danforth Test 5.” Unfortunately, it could have come from one of several dumpsters you hit in your original search…

A few years ago, “The Danforth Deconstruction” began to circulate as an interesting variation of the Traveling Salesman problem among computer scientists. They are thought exercises revolving around the most efficient way to search a non-indexed database for fuzzy search terms. The common theory on the BBSes discussing the problem is that someone’s gotten access to a mass of scanned and badly OCRed data that they need to sort through quickly.

GM Notes

Alexandria Danforth was an apprentice of House Bonisagus before being drafted for the war, and returned to her training afterwards. Her quest to apply modern technology to the problems of magic was instrumental in reforming the tradition as House Thig. While she disappeared even to her own house in the 1970s, she left behind copious notes. As computer processing power has increased, the house has come up with prototype systems that can access what they have come to refer to as The Danforth Archive.

Unfortunately, information appears to be stored by an unintuitive format that pays more attention to the date of creation and emotional state of the creator of documents than any more searchable type of order. Documents appear easier to find the older and more important they are and may only appear if they’ve been subsequently destroyed. Thus the operators of the device are having a tremendously hard time producing anything of value, or, more importantly, even verifying that what they’re finding is genuine archaeological data or some kind of obscure wish-fulfillment of the operators (always a problem in psychosciences).

Thus, House Thig is discussing trying to make peaceful contact with a Cainite of sufficient age and reasonable disposition that could point them at a plan created in the past and verify its accuracy when retrieved.