[Mage: The Awakening 2nd Edition] New Legacy: The Midnight's Key

Out of Character (OOC):

Chronicle: Mage 2: The Dethroned Queen
Venue: Mage: The Awakening 2nd Edition
Chronicle Storyteller: Jerad Sayler

Assistant Storytellers: Hannah Nyland & Alex Van Belkum

New Legacy: The Midnight’s Key

Legacy designed by Hannah Nyland & Jerad Sayler

Nickname: Spooks (among themselves), Bogeymen (among others), Remnants (derogatory)

Description: The Midnight’s Key, as laughable as it seems today, were once a serious thorn in The Guardian of the Veil’s collective sides. The original practitioners of the Legacy were almost universally aligned with extremist anarchism, prominent voices in a small splinter faction of mages working towards the violent uprooting of what they saw as the corruption and tyranny of the Diamond Orders, of which they branded the Guardians the worst of the lot – ruthless secret police who deemed themselves judge, jury, and executioner.

But as they say, it’s the winners who write the history books. The name of said faction has long since been wiped from the public memory – among many, many other things. Some more vengeful Guardians blame the Free Council for their existence, but that’s as unverifiable as nearly everything else about their history. Many things are still said about them in the darkened corners of mage society, but those who do make sure to say them very quietly – the Guardians are always listening, and besides, the Legacy lends itself well to whispers:

They took counsel from their own shadows, and performed their rituals in the dead of night. They indulged in human sacrifice to bolster their magic when the tides started to turn, and many of their most passionate gave themselves up willingly to the knife. They only mastered Fate in order to defy it. They were barbaric. They were heroic. 

All of these things are true, and none of them are. Even modern members of the Midnight’s Key can’t agree on any of the fine details, with most believing wildly different stories from one another. It’s become a cipher for those in the know and of a rebellious mind, a projection that becomes whatever they need it to be.

These days, the Legacy has been domesticated into something more respectable under the watchful eye of the Guardians of the Veil. Practical as always, they collared the Legacy instead of destroying it, purging all but the least offensive of its precepts and putting it to their own use.  

So many of their secrets have been deliberately forgotten, to the point where it’s suspected that a Bogeyman today may even manifest their powers in markedly different ways than the originals did. These are the precepts that are still known unequivocally:

1) Go unseen and let no walls contain you. You hold the keys to every lock within yourself.  

2) Precision is the balm of the soul. Hone it, always. 

3) A blind eye shines brightest in the dark. Let your perceptions flow through your magic; sometimes one sense must be quieted for another to grow.

Organization: The Midnight’s Key are not an organization so much as they are a remnant. Access to tutors in the Legacy is stringently controlled and managed by the Guardians, and recruitment numbers are kept deliberately low, due to the Legacy’s rebellious history. The Legacy is paradoxically both a badge of honor and a red flag on any Guardian who takes it up.

While few, they are effective, acting as the Order’s private bogeymen, seemingly able to bypass any security system – and unseen, at that. Mage urban legends tell of the inexplicable intruder who puts a bullet through your head in your own warded Sanctum before you can so much as notice his gun.

Background: Members of the Legacy (and they are few in number) tend to have few connections with other Keys by design, and very little in common beyond exceptional service to the Guardians of the Veil.

Suggested Oblations: Cracking a lock or security system, Performing a significant task or working on a project while completely cut off from your mundane senses, Hobbies where precision and accuracy are important (sharpshooting, building, mathematics).

Yantras: Keys (+1/2, depending on the number and variety), Broken locks (+1), Lockpicks (+1), Blindfolds or Earplugs (+1), Succeeding on a Stealth check to go unseen or Larceny check to break into a secured area (+2).

Parentage: Mastigos, Acanthus, Guardians of the Veil

Ruling Arcana: Space. Secondary: Fate.

Related Skill Specialties: Stealth – Any. Larceny – specialties related to opening doors, or passing through security.

Requirements: Gnosis 2, Space 2, Stealth 2. Larceny 2, a related skill specialty in Stealth or Larceny. In addition, the initiate must have at least one merit representing precision in a particular area. This could be a mental merit like Eidetic Memory, an applicable social merit (knowing just the right people), or a physical merit such as expertise in marksmanship or precise sword-fighting – so long as there is a justification for how the merit relates to the concept of precision.

Initiation: Initiation involves a difficult solo infiltration mission in which the prospective Midnight’s Key temporarily has every sense cut off. Blinded, deafened, and unable to feel their way around, they must rely purely on their ability to see through their magic. Ultimately, Bogeyman believe that supernal perceptions rule over the mundane ones, and teach their initiates how to use it as a reflex. A well-trained student needs no eyes to see.

*Unless otherwise noted, a Midnight’s Key’s attainments can only be applied to themselves.

Attainments:

First Attainment O “Every Man an Island” – Functions as an inverse version of the Space 1 spell “Isolation”, without the penalty to actions. Space wraps around the Key in extremely subtle but unnerving ways, setting them slightly apart from others. Any attempts others make to interact with the target cost 1 Willpower to initiate. For example, it would cost 1 Willpower to deliberately begin combat against the caster; it would not cost a Willpower every round of that combat, but if the attacker left combat and re-entered it later while the spell was still active, they would have pay the cost again. Narratively, even if others can see the target, they will avoid interaction unless they have a very good reason or exceptional strength of will. This effect allows the Key to do things like walk into a private facility unchallenged, or flee the scene of a murder without being questioned by bystanders.

As with the original spell, the effect is unsettling, and may eventually cause breaking points or mild derangement in Sleepers exposed to a Midnight’s Key using this effect over a long period of time.  If people spend the willpower point their social and mental dice pools are penalized by the user's dots in Space as they struggle through their own attempts to ignore the Spook.

Primary Factor: Duration (Dots in Space)

Practice: Compelling

Withstand: Composure (in those that spend the Willpower points)

Requirements: Initiation.

Optional Component “Nothing to See”: Fate 1. Functions as a Fate version of the Mind 1 spell “Mask of Normality”, and an add-on to the Attainment Every Man an Island. Fate itself conspires against others seeing particular items or pieces of clothing on the Bogeyman’s person. Uncanny coincidences and distractions spring up when someone would ordinarily take notice; a man is distracted by his phone ringing just as he’s about to see the Midnight Key’s sniper rifle, or a clerk goes on her lunch break just as he walks by her till wearing an odd looking magical mask.

The caster can disguise a total amount of size equal to their dots in Fate; so a Fate master could hide a Size 1 knife and a size 4 suit of armor on his person with this attainment at one time, for example. The Potency is equal to the caster’s Fate dots, withstood by an onlooker’s Wits.

Primary Factor: Potency (Dots in Fate, duration lasts as long as the primary Attainment)
Practice: Compelling
Withstand: Wits (in onlookers)

Second Attainment OO “A Key for Any Lock” – Space 2. Functions similarly to the Space 2 spell “Break Boundary”, allowing the Key to bypass one piece of deliberate mundane or architectural security for purposes of infiltration. This means that unlike Break Boundary, it allows the Mage to pass through some solid surfaces, such as walls or fences, but it cannot be used, for example, to bypass a raging forest fire or naturally occurring chasm – something that Break Boundary normally allows. 

Primary Factor: Potency
Practice: Ruling

Requirements: Space 2, Gnosis 2/3, a second approved skill specialty in Stealth or Larceny.

Optional Component “Blind Man’s Eyes”: Unless deliberately suppressed, while the Bogeyman prepares to use "A Key for Any Lock" he gains the benefit similiar to the Space 1 spell "The Outward and Inward eye." This does not count towards Spell Control but he only sense the area immediately on the other side of the obstacle he is about to bypass.  The sensory range past the barrier is equal to what their normal perceptions would allow if they were already on the other side of the obstacle but would allow him to pinpoint anything moving in a room on the other side of the obstacle. These sensory inputs are usually more on the side of tactile instead of visual... The Attainment’s Potency is equal to the Bogeyman’s dots in Space.

Primary Factor: Potency
Practice: Unveiling

Third Attainment OOO “Wraith Walk” – Space 3. The caster further perfects the technique from "Every Man an Island," using Space to isolate themselves (but not their perceptions) spatially, becoming effectively invisible to the eye and soundless. Functions as the Forces 2 spell “Invisibility” coupled with Forces 2 “Control Sound” to render their movements silent.

Drawbacks: Normal drawbacks to Invisibility apply; certain other spells or sights can still pinpoint the caster’s location if other precautions aren’t taken – heat vision, for example. In addition, the Bogeyman is incapable of producing sound even if they want to. Speaking out loud or shouting for help is impossible while under the effects of this Attainment; others simply cannot hear it, no matter how sharp their perceptions are.

Invisibility: “This spell can render its subject completely invisible, masking it from all forms of light. Even cameras cannot detect the object, no matter what type of filter or lenses they use. This spell does not mask the sounds an object makes, although when combined with “Control Sound” (see above), the target can be made invisible and soundless.”

Primary Factor: Duration
Practice: Veiling

Drawbacks: Normal drawbacks to Invisibility apply; certain other spells or sights can still pinpoint the caster’s location if other precautions aren’t taken – heat vision, for example. In addition, the Bogeyman is incapable of producing sound even if they want to. Speaking out loud or shouting for help is impossible while under the effects of this Attainment; others simply cannot hear it, no matter how sharp their perceptions are. 

Requirements: Space 3, Gnosis 4/5, Stealth 3, Larceny 3.

Fourth Attainment OOOO “Perfect Precision” – Functions identically in mechanics to Fate 4 “Strings of Fate”, but instead of specifying something that they want to come to pass, the Bogeyman specifies a person or place they want to reach as their target. Their knowledge of Space is so finely tuned that they unconsciously hone and perfect it to create new pathways to their target where none previously existed.

Strings of Fate: “The mage specifies an event that she wishes to happen to the subject. If the event would be possible without magic or any effort on the subject’s part, it occurs as soon as circumstances allow as long as the spell’s Duration is in effect. If the event requires the subject’s participation or cannot take place without a change in circumstances, the spell introduces opportunities to work towards the event, at least once per week while the spell remains on the subject. If the event is simply impossible, the spell has no effect. For example, if a mage casts the spell on herself and specifies that she will meet with her mentor while they are both in the same city, they will “randomly” cross paths at first opportunity. If she casts it on a Sleepwalker ally and specifies that he will recover a stolen artifact (when, unknown to her, it has been moved) he will find travel tickets for the artifact’s new location, clues pointing there, or reasons to travel there. If she cast it on a student and specifies that he will become a doctor, circumstances will hint at a transfer to pre-med. (with Reach 1, new opportunities appear every day)”

Primary Factor: Duration
Practice: Patterning
Withstand: Resolve

Requirements: Space 4, Gnosis 6/7, a third approved skill specialty in Stealth or Larceny.   

                                                                                                 

Optional Component “No Place is Safe” - Fate 4. If the area or person the Bogeyman is trying to reach while affected by this Attainment is behind a Ward, Ban, or similar spatial protection that would normally prevent him from entering, he may attempt to impose a Fate exclusion effect targeting himself on the existing spell as an instant action by spending a point of Willpower. This is a Clash of Wills (typically a Gnosis + Fate vs. Gnosis + Space)  against the original caster. If successful, he passes through into the Warded or Banned space as though the protection wasn’t there. This could, for example, allow the Key to walk straight into a Warded Sanctum, but it would not allow him to cast Space magic inside it if there were a Space Ban over the area.

Drawbacks: On a failure on the Clash of Wills roll, the original caster of the Ward or Ban becomes aware that someone is trying to tamper with their spell. The Midnight’s Key is ejected back outside the defenses. No Place is Safe does not help bypass non-Space related defenses.  Even if the spell was relinquished by the original caster the Signature Nimbus of the Spook remains on the spell as a sign of tampering.

Primary Factor: Duration (dots in Fate). Once the duration expires the Spook is at risk of being trapped within the effects of a Banned area.
Practice: Shielding

Fifth Attainment “The Silent Path” – Space 5. Functions as a fusion of Space 5 “Forge No Chains” and a powerful variant on Space 4 “Cut Threads”. For the duration of the attainment (one scene), the Bogeyman’s existing sympathetic ties become practically imperceptible; those who aren’t deliberately looking for the sympathetic connections of that specific mage don’t notice them, and those who are must beat the Bogeyman in a Clash of Wills roll (Gnosis + Wits vs his Gnosis + Space) to pick them up.

Primary Factor: Potency (dots in Space)

Practice: Unmaking

The Midnight’s Key also gains all the benefits of the "Forge No Chains" spell with Potency equal to their dots in Space: he cannot forge sympathetic connections, and even blood, hair, and the like shed during the spell’s Duration do not link back to her. Her Space spells leave no tell-tale ripples in the Tapestry. Any attempts to scrutinize her Space magic or previously-created sympathetic connections with Mage Sight add the spell’s Potency (dots in Space) to Opacity.