[Chronicles of Darkness] Hurt Locker Merits

In-Character (IC) Info:

Onyx Path Publishing
Chronicles of Darkness

Venue: Hunter: The Vigil 2nd Ed

Post by: Jerad Sayler

New General Merits

Approved for immediate use in Mage 2: The Dethroned Queen.  Source: Chronicles of Darkness - The Hurt Locker - "Treatment of violence in the Chronicles of Darkness. Lasting trauma, scene framing, and other tools for making your stories hurt."  We will have a future posting on a new and improved Fighting Style system.

These Merits are available to any character who meets the prerequisites. They are written with human characters in mind, but most should work fine in the other Chronicles of Darkness game lines. They may require some consideration for your particular chronicle’s direction, and some traits might not convert perfectly. For example, some Merits that reference Integrity might convert reasonably to use the Humanity trait from Vampire: The Requiem, but others might not since they don’t work the same way. You may have to adapt or rethink some of the details to fit the game  you’re playing. This shouldn’t necessarily be grounds for disallowing such a Merit, but do what is best for your chronicle on a case-for-case basis.

Social: Air of Menace (••)
Prerequisites: Intimidation ••

Effect: Your character has survived dozens of fights, and each one has taken its toll. He carries scars, features that have healed crookedly, and an attitude that unsettles others. The character gains +2 dice to rolls that use fear and menace to force compliance, such as with Intimidation rolls. Opponents less menacing than the character also think twice before provoking him. Opponents with Intimidation dots fewer than the character’s must spend a point of Willpower to initiate combat  against him.

Drawback: Though many people try to overcome their prejudices, appearance still drives many human opinions. In social maneuvers, the character’s first impression is downgraded one step for people who do not know him, and even for those who do, he must overcome an additional Door.


Physical: Body as Weapon (••)
Prerequisites: Stamina •••, Brawl ••

Effect: Your character has honed her body to be a hardened weapon. She has trained long, punishing hours to inure herself to the pain of the cracked knuckles, broken hands, and crushed toes that come with hitting others with her body. She can hit harder and more often without flinching. Your character’s unarmed strikes still cause bashing damage normally, but they add one point of bashing damage on a successful hit.


Social: Cohesive Unit (• to •••)
Prerequisites: Presence •••+

Effect: Your character is a natural leader who brings out the best from those he works with. At one dot, team members add +2 dice to teamwork actions dedicated to helping the team (see Chronicles of Darkness Rulebook, p. 72). 

At two dots the team gains access to a pool of dice equal to the character’s Presence each scene, which they can draw upon for actions where they work towards their established purpose.  

At three dots, all team members can reroll a failed result once per scene. 

In each case, the benefits last until depleted, or until the team reaches or deviates from its agreed goal or disbands. The character with this Merit can’t access any of the benefits he encourages in others.

Drawback: The character’s natural aura of command can cause confusion in groups where the character is not the recognized leader. If a group benefiting from the character’s Cohesive Unit Merit receives orders from someone they are expected to follow, and those orders don’t conform with the
actions the group is already taking, they suffer a –1 penalty for a number of turns equal to the character’s Presence while they work through the conflicting tasks.

Mental: Defender (• to •••)
Prerequisites: None

Effect: Your character is filled with a burning fury when her friends or family are threatened. For each dot of this Merit, the character gains a Willpower point to spend on actions related to defending or protecting these loved ones. This also applies to actions taken preemptively to prevent clear threats to her charges, and to acts of retribution against an offender if her loved ones are hurt. These bonus Willpower points do not count towards the character’s normal Willpower dots, and replenish each chapter.

Drawback: The danger of loving so deeply is the pain of loss that comes from failing. If someone the character loves is killed or otherwise permanently taken from her, she cannot regain Willpower unless she strives towards inflicting retribution on the guilty party. If she is prevented in doing so, she grieves and loses a point of Willpower per day until she reaches zero. At this point, she may begin the healing process and recover Willpower as normal again. Your character loses this Merit at that point.


Social: Empath (••)
Prerequisites: Empathy ••

Effect: Your character has seen pain, and can identify it instantly. With a single Wits + Empathy roll, you can identify any mental Conditions from which a character suffers, and his Integrity. A character trying to hide this can contest with Manipulation + Subterfuge, but may roll no more dice than his Integrity or other relevant trait. If he does not have Integrity, you get an idea of his general, abstract state and internal conflicts. For example, a vampire has Humanity instead of Integrity. Your character might know that the vampire struggles with a terrible addiction, and feels inhuman, but wishes to maintain attachment to what made him feel like a person. Any character so discerned is always down one Door in any social maneuvering with your character. 

After a successful roll, with meaningful, relevant interaction, your character can give the 8-again quality to a subject’s breaking point rolls for the chapter. If a character takes your character as a Support Network (see below), that character may never roll fewer dice for a breaking point than your character has Empathy dots.

Mental: Object Fetishism (• to •••••)

Effect: Your character places immense trust and confidence in an object, often assuming it has mystical or otherworldly significance. He believes he’s tied inexorably to the object. Choose a Skill Specialty when taking this Merit; that Specialty must be tied to your character’s relationship to the object. 

Each chapter, your character gains an additional number of Willpower points equal to the Merit’s dots. If your character uses Willpower on a roll using that Specialty, any failure is considered a dramatic failure. However, exceptional successes occur on three successes instead of five. Your character cannot regain or use Willpower when separated from the object.

Note: If the fetish object is destroyed or truly lost, it constitutes a breaking point, the dice pool of which suffers this Merit’s dots as a penalty.

Social: Peacemaker (•• or •••)
Prerequisites: Wits •••+ and Empathy •••+

Effect: Your character is keenly attuned to indications of imminent violence, and knows techniques to soothe hot tempers and calm emotions. At two dots, the character may act first in a violent scene to attempt to deescalate the behavior. He spends a point of Willpower and forces his opponent into a social maneuver. The opponent’s base number of Doors is equal to the higher of her Resolve or Composure for this maneuver.

The character rolls each turn as if he had a perfect first impression. If the character fails a roll, his opponent may attack him next turn unless he spends another point of Willpower to continue the social maneuver, but his opponent adds two Doors to her remaining total. If the character dramatically fails, his opponent may attack him immediately without the chance to reinitiate the social maneuver.

If the character removes his opponent’s final Door, her will to fight is exhausted — Storyteller characters will seek a nonviolent resolution to the scene. Players’ characters may either take a Beat and seek a nonviolent alternative, or gain the Reluctant Aggressor Condition.

When facing groups of attackers, this Merit allows the character to single out the leader of the group, or an individual the others look to for guidance. While the social maneuver continues, the other attackers wait to see the outcome. If the leader gains the Reluctant Aggressor Condition, so too do all her allies. The social maneuver automatically fails if the character’s allies initiate any violent actions while the character attempts to avoid violence.

At three dots, the character’s soothing voice and actions are almost supernatural in effect. He may use this Merit against opponents suffering supernaturally inspired anger, including vampires in frenzy or werewolves in Death Rage. These opponents have an additional number of Doors equal to their Supernatural Tolerance traits — talking down an enraged werewolf is very difficult, but the character can do it.

Drawback: The character’s first instinct is to reduce violence, not join it. He suffers –1 to his dice pools for attacking opponents until he suffers damage, which overcomes his deeply-held reluctance to injure others.

Physical: Punch Drunk (••)
Prerequisite: Willpower ••••••+

Effect: Your character’s resolve is unwavering, even when suffering wounds, broken limbs, and lost blood. She can fight on past the point that her body demands she quit. When she suffers bashing or lethal damage that would remove her last Health box, you may spend a point of Willpower to keep the last box, and instead upgrade damage in her other Health boxes. This Merit has no effect on aggravated damage.

Mental: Scarred (•)
Prerequisite: Integrity ••••• or lower

Effect: You may take this Merit when failing a breaking point, if you have the Experience. Otherwise, with Storyteller discretion, you may take it “on loan,” and spend the next earned Experience on it.

When your character fails the breaking point and loses Integrity, write down this Merit along with whatever event caused the breaking point. Your character no longer suffers breaking points from that influence or action. This Merit is tied to a specific Condition you and your Storyteller choose at the time you take this Merit; that Condition becomes Persistent. The normal resolution terms become a source of Beats. Removing the Scarred Merit becomes the only method for resolving that Condition.

Note: While you have this Merit, you cannot increase your character’s Integrity. You may shed it through the Sanctity of Merits rule if you wish to increase Integrity.

Social: Support Network (• to •••••)
Prerequisite: Allies, Mentor, Retainer, True Friend, or another similar Merit.

Effect: Your character has friends, family, teammates, or any other person or people who provide emotional support in the face of terrifying circumstances. This Merit must be tied to another Social Merit such as Allies, Mentor, Retainer, or True Friend, but can be tied to any Merit representing a person or group that the Storyteller deems fitting. Alternatively, any character with the Empath Merit (see above) can be the anchor point for this Merit.

Once per chapter, you may prolong an Integrity breaking point by spending a point of Willpower. During the same chapter, your character must have a meaningful interaction with her Support Network, or the breaking point dramatically fails. If she interacts with her Support Network, add
her dots in this Merit to the roll to resist the breaking point, and the roll achieves exceptional success on three successes instead of five.

Physical: Survivalist (•)
Prerequisites: Survival •••, Iron Stamina •••

Effect: Your character has been trained to fight even through the most dangerous environmental extremes. When inflicted with the Extreme Cold Tilt or Extreme Heat Tilt (Chronicles of Darkness Rulebook, p. 282) she doesn’t begin taking the normal –1 to her rolls until a number of hours equal to her Stamina.

Physical: Trigger Discipline (•)
Prerequisites: Wits ••, Firearms ••

Effect: Your character is a disciplined shooter, able to maximize her shots and conserve ammo appropriately. Choose a type of firearm when you choose this Merit: Pistol, Shotgun, Rifle, Thrown, Heavy Weapons. Increase the weapon’s effective capacity in your hands by one level. For weapons already at high capacity, this allows an additional long burst. You may choose this Merit multiple times, each time selecting a different category of firearms.

Physical: Loaded for Bear (• or ••)
Prerequisites: Athletics •, Survival•

Effect: When you go into a situation expecting trouble, you come prepared. Extra ammo, pipe bombs in cargo pockets, a bandolier of grenades, whatever it takes. With one dot of this Merit, you gain an extra free “reload” of a weapon, including single shot weapons, during a scene. Taking two dots in this Merit allows two free “reloads” after running out of ammo, whether by rolling a dramatic failure
or following burst fire.

[Changeling: The Lost] Primer: Changelings

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

Primer: Changelings - Escapees from Arcadia

Changelings, also known as the Lost, are humans who were abducted by the Fae. Unlike most who suffer this fate, the Lost have managed to find their way back through the Hedge to the mortal world, but their time in the Faerie realm (Arcadia) has irrevocably changed their bodies, minds and souls. A Changeling's true, inhuman mien is hidden by his Mask, the aspect of Fae magic that makes Faerie creatures and artefacts seem mundane to mortal eyes. Very few Changelings are able to reclaim their old lives, or make entirely new ones without retaining ties to the fae realm.

While every Changeling is unique, those who have shared similar experiences in Faerie notice similarities in the physical changes they have undergone. These loose categorizations are referred to as Seemings. Within each Seeming are more specific groupings called Kiths.

Changelings find themselves alienated from normal mortals, as they are no longer mortal themselves. They therefore often congregate into small groups, sometimes called motleys. More formally, they make use of ancient pacts made by the Fae with the seasons (at least in Europe; in other places there are Courts aligned with other things of similar symbolic power, like the cardinal directions or the sun and the moon). They align themselves into seasonal Courts which offer them some measure of protection against the True Fae. Each Court has supernatural influence over a strong emotion and the physical aspects associated with their season.

Effects of Being a Changeling

The Mask:

Ordinary humans cannot see changelings for what they are. All things fae, including changelings, are protected by the Mask, an illusion that makes them appear to be mundane versions of themselves. Only the fae, such as changelings, can see through the Mask; all others see a hulking man instead of an Ogre, a bent old woman instead of a goblin crone. The fae can also ensorcell humans, granting them the temporary ability to see through the Mask.

Glamour:

Changelings have a trait called Glamour. It is the power that fuels all the wondrous and terrible miracles of Faerie. In game terms, it is a measure of how much magical energy is within each changeling. Glamour can be used to fuel Contracts as well as the following inherent powers.

Though there are numerous ways for changelings to regain Glamour but most commonly they regain Glamour by harvesting the emotions of mortals. To do this, a changeling simply must find a human who is experiencing strong emotions and attempt to leech some of that energy. Both “positive” and “negative” emotions can potentially provide Glamour; the strength of the emotion is what truly matters, not the type. Exactly what kind of roll is required to gain Glamour in this fashion depends on the action or situation taken to obtain. For example, an Ogre who wishes to get a quick rush of fear might pick up a hapless victim and slam him against a wall; a Spring Court club kid might entice a naïve young thing to join him for a bit of lustful fun in a darkened corner; and a retiring Darkling might soak up the sorrow of a funeral home while maintaining the pretense of a grieving relative. The emotions they feed on correspond to the Court which they are blessed.

Cold Iron:

Those who know the secrets of the fae tell a curious tale about the Fair Folk’s weakness to cold iron. Long ago, a powerful True Fae made a Contract with iron itself, but that Fae failed to honor the terms of the contract. Thereafter, iron swore itself as an enemy to the prodigal people, cold and unyielding in its grudge against them. This elemental animosity passed down to the changelings, as well. In effect, an item made from at least 90 percent pure, unalloyed iron ignores defenses contrived by the fae and their magics. A protection Contract will not offer any safety from an iron weapon, for example. A changeling wearing fae armor will feel a cold iron knife pass into his flesh, as the armor fails to protect him. This weakness extends further where the True Fae are concerned. While any sort of iron will pierce their magical defenses, it is important to note that on cold-forged iron, iron shaped without the benefit of a forge, inflicts even more egregious wounds.

Clarity:

A changeling is no longer human, but neither are they fully fae. Upon returning to Earth, most changelings find themselves walking a fine line between two worlds. They cannot deny what they have become, but at the same time it is their strong connection to this world that allowed them to return, and they feel a need to identify with and be accepted by the world around them. Clarity is what they call this delicate balance between the mundane world and the maddening realms of Glamour. A changeling with higher Clarity is able to easily distinguish between the two worlds and might even become slightly more adept at spotting supernatural phenomena otherwise hidden from view. By contrast, a changeling with lower Clarity finds her perceptions spiraling out of control. She starts having trouble distinguishing her dreams from reality, and starts mixing up elements from the two worlds. Changelings with falling Clarity find a way to cope with their loss of perspective, and allow themselves to drift further out of touch.  Changelings who cannot keep the balance risk becoming unhinged mentally.

[Mage 2: The Dethroned Queen] Scenes from The Scepter

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

Scenes from The Scepter

The following are flashes of lucidity during our recent plot, The Scepter, part three of the Mage 2 Chronicle main story arc: The Dethroned Queen, an implementation of the Reign of the Exarchs sourcebook.  Starring Jack, Chimera, Templeton, Witness, Ikiyouyou, and Reaper.

Flashes of Lucidity

You are floating near the ceiling of a small, dark cavern. It smells of salt and urine. You look down and see a group of bodies sprawled on the floor. The bodies are arranged around a gilded alter-like construction, from which a jeweled rod juts. You try to touch the corpse’s face, bit you hand slips into the sweaty skin, bone to brain. You yank you hand back, take a deep meaningless non-breath into the protection of your body – into the idea of your lungs – and let the breath out.

The chamber is only light by a soft golden light. Your Astral body clings to the low, jagged ceiling of the cave like smoke. Piled on rocks below you are your friend’s bodies. They lie like dead leaves around the stump of a stone alter from which juts a narrow, delicate scepter dressed in jewels.

The Scepter… is an ornate shaft of highly reflective metal that changes to a helixed dragon made from white jade. The ridge of its back is studded with the 10 gemstones. The Eastern dragon’s neck curls around until its faces forward with an open, angry mouth full of fang. Its eyes are red and seem to glow. The staff glows golden light across the chamber. It is in a round glass vitrine (case).

You recognize the altar, the deep glyphs cut into it. You recognize the scepter, the way it vibrates like a plucked string around its ensconcement. You recognize the faces of your friends but don’t have names or words for any of it. You don’t know where you are or who these people really are. You’re sure, though, that the body below you is you.

You float down to the floor of the cave, next to your corpse, and lean in as close as you can. You watch a dwindling sphere of sweat run from the eyebrow, over the eyelid, to the lashes, where the sweat hangs for a long second, and then spends itself into nothing, running down the cheek into the ear.

The body move. It’s a twitch, a flutter, then follows a thin, wet breath. Your body is still alive. They’re all alive. There is still time… The bodies are breathing shallowly but appear comatose. They seem dehydrated and emaciated, and have voided their bladders. You realize these are the real selves of your friends and you. You are not really in Sutterton Farms. You are in a cave somewhere, and you are dying helplessly.

Flashback Sequences

1. You all bash open an old wooden door and enter the salt cave. After winding passages of gently ridged walls and sandy floors you reach a central chamber. You pass a broken piece of wood with the Death’s Head of Nazi Germany’s SS. You advance slowly on the Scepter. It is glowing gold, filling the chamber with light. It is encased in a glass vitrine. Chimera carefully checks the area for spells and booby traps. After some discussion Templeton casts a spell on the case, Jack is ready to counter spell. Then Witness raises his Kunai to break the case. The golden light flares and with a flash everyone suffers painful convulsions. You see yourselves falling to the floor around the Scepter, twisted with pain. The Hand of Glory falls from Reaper’s fingers and goes out. Fade to Gold.

2. You all, in cool black paramilitary gear, burst out of an elevator, to confront a group of startled security guards, Seer servitors. They shout something in German. With a flash of spell work the guards freeze in place. Chimera pulls out a tattered map and checks it with a flashlight, and head to an old wooden door further in the basement of whatever modern building you are in… Reaper still carries the hand of a pickled thief into the darkness. Pass bomb-disposal robots and machines with extensible arms.

3. You cut your way through a chain-link fence. It’s night. Behind the fence is a lonely, decrepit-looking industrial or military complex. It looks abandoned. It’s cold and damp outside. The surrounding area is forested. The signage on the fence is in German (Private Property: Trespassers Will be Prosecuted). Chimera pops open the case and hands the hand to a squeamish Reaper. Reaper carefully, and with disgust, uses a lighter to light the fingers of the hand and holds it in front of him. The smell of burning fat fills the air as does greasy black smoke.

4. The group emerges, shaken (and a little worse for the wear) from the wreckage of a van. Reaper checks the driver. He is a thin, bald man in a black turtleneck (you guys really went for it) sweater and torn jeans. He’s also very dead, his neck broken, his face bloodied. Beside him is a metal briefcase. After a short debate, Chimera picks up the locked suitcase and moves towards a chain link fence.

5. The group sits in the back of a van, driven by the same thin bald man as before. He has an unappealingly lumpy head and thick neck, not that it helped him later. He is chain-smoking French cigarettes and is singing old Soviet propaganda songs. The van drives down the middle of a muddy road in the early twilight, through a temperate forest. Suddenly there is an explosion under the tires. The van flies up into the air and corkscrews into the ditch.

6. The group gets out of a cab and waits in the front of an abandoned looking inn. The signs are all in German. A van drives up. The bald man gets out. The group gives him the metal briefcase. He opens it; it contains a heavily tattooed human hand. A Hand of Glory. The man examines the hand, nods, and users the group into the van.

7. The group enters a cluttered antique shop. A sour-faced, obese, older woman looks at you through a strange spyglass. Eventually, she nods and invites you into an even more cluttered backroom. She hands them the briefcase and the map to a deserted road in the northern German state of Schleswig-Holstein, near the Danish coast.

8. The group moves through the streets of what seems to be a German city. Having just evaded a troupe of suspicious-looking street performers, who looked at the group a little too intently, you wander until they find the antique shop they are looking for. You stride purposefully in.

9. Gawain Unremarkable man, wearing a beige autumn commuter’s jacket and clothing for travel. Gaunt and roguishly unkempt. Jeans and hiking boots, white V-neck shirt, Neck-length black hair with a fair amount of gray, dark eyes, and narrow facial features. Has a shoulder pack (satchel) slung over one shoulder and the coat has quite a few pockets. Gawain was your contact, tells you that he has a lead on the Scepter they are looking for. All they have to do is meet with an ally in the northern German city of Kiel. Gawain pulls out a Polaroid camera covered in sigils and starts taking everyone’s pictures, one at a time. The pictures come out and he takes them, one by one, and writes their shadow names on each picture. “I’m not sure what it means, but I have it on good authority that there is an apparent risk that you’ll lose yourselves. So here’s a reminder of who you are.” Once he has added a magic seal to each he hands them out to each of you. You look at your photo in the poorly lit room. You see your image. You see your Shadow Name. You see your NAME glowing on your Watchtower. YOU REMEMBER! (All your memories come flooding back).

The Final Dream
You’re back in Sutton Farms… but as yourselves. The ground shakes and the Scepter, in its true form, towers like a Watchtower over the town. Then you are taken out of time and meaning… You see the bastion of the supernal in the fallen world, the ancient city. It looks decidedly Greek but the climate is more European. The intensity of this place is staggering. The ancient peasants live in poverty and squalor. There is trash, blood and shit in the streets.

Close to the center of the city now is an arrangement of columned temples made from marble, chalcedony and obsidian.  At the top of the hill in the center of the city is a square Parthenon-looking temple, made of pure white marble and statues of Greek Gods, all the greats.

 Inside the temple throne room of the Dethroned Queen… the temple’s interior is crafter from snow white marble, ocean blue stones and bright white gold. It has a domed roof overhead and light dances as if reflected off of water. The room hums with power, a Supernal Verge so strong its overwhelming.

The Queen sits upon her throne. She has a crown upon her head. A familiar looking robe covers her body and she holds a bell clapper in one hand and a royal scepter in the other. The Queen looks Greek or Roman with curly black hair bound up tightly above her head and framing her face. The crown is a circlet of 10 gemstones, dangling earrings of pearls and white gold metals. Looks a lot like Audrey Hepburn actually… The bell clapper has the same 10 stones.

The Scepter… is an ornate shaft of highly reflective metal (Thaumium) that changes to a helixed dragon made from white semitransparent jade (True White Jade). The ridge of its back is studded with the 10 gemstones. The Eastern dragon’s neck curls around until its faces forward with an open, angry mouth full of fang. Its eyes are red and seem to glow.

Two mages stand before her on either side of her massive throne, they argue in Atlantean. You can only pick up some words in High Speech, symbols: They are arguing about the nature of power and control. Their forces are armed behind them on either side. They are trying to decide how the Fallen World should be ruled.

With the woman stand warriors with Spartan plumes in rudy gold (Orihalcum) and reflective mirror shields (Thaumium) armed with spears, tridents and glowing swords. They can cut through hope, memory, anything.

With the man stand robed priests and priestesses covered in sigils, staves, wands, swords, chalices, and disks. They were Egyptian-looking crowns (pshents).

The Emissary… is a tall aquiline woman. She stands with the warriors in shiny armor. She has long curly red hair that flows to the small of her back. She has burning green eyes. She is the Queen’s Advisor. Her name is Aldones. Her robes burn with an inner light. (She was an Acanthus Archmage)

The Arbitor… is a dark-haired and stern-looking man with a strong jaw. His eyes are fearful. He is the Queen’s Priest and stands with the other Priests. His name is Neotalba. He is a Mastigos Archmaster.

The argument escalates quickly, emotionally. The Queen says something.. True. But you cannot hear it. Her name burns above the Throne. Both sides suddenly break into conflict and an epic magic battle begins. Time slows as the battle begins. 

 Aldones stands firm, out front, and turns her attention to the observers stares (you). Spells and arrows fly past her, missing her, but her attention remains on you. Bolts of energy fill the throne room. She opens her mouth… Atlantean again. High Speech words express symbols: Gather. Artifacts. Fight. Lords. Save. The Fallen.

The Phone Call

“Chimera. It’s Gawain from the London concilium. Do you remember when I visited the Horsemen a few Christmases ago?”

“I know where an Artifact of the Dethroned Queen is.”

“It’s in a salt cave in Germany. Recently discovered and secured by the remnants of the Hegemonic Ministry.”

“The entrance to the cave is in the basement of an old abandoned industrial complex under guard as the Seers attempt to study it. Destiny is surfacing these artifacts at last. I don’t know exactly where it is, but I have a lead, a Russian Sleepwalker by the name of Czernobog. He did some recently free-lance support for the Seers when they set up shop. However, he will only show them where the complex is he has the means to overcome their wards, defenses, and observations. So, to provide him with that, you will need to acquire a rare Relic, one of the genuine remaining Hands of Glory. It is able to conceal all within its light from mystical and mundane observations."

“To get the hand, you must pay the woman at a special shop in the German city of Kiel. But I will meet you in London before you depart. I have cashed in my favor with her so the Hand is already paid for. It is just waiting for you.”

“Once you have the hand, here is how to contact Czernobog…” [Contact Information] “Have him outfit you with some of his surplus equipment. Tell him it’s a Minor Favor from me and a Major Favor from me for showing you all the installation.”

“She told me to. I couldn’t resist. Who am I to question Destiny? The Destiny of these Artifacts. What she made them for.” 

"Who?"

“You should know. HER. She is here with me right now."

“You’ve encountered two of the Regalia already. You’ve all been spiritually entangled. Can’t you feel it? Haven’t you had the dreams yet?  My role here is minor, but I play my part. I played my part (apparently) when I left the Ring with the Horsemen. Sorry about that. This entanglement can’t touch them, they are exempt. You are not.”

“She wants to see if you can get the third of the Regalia. She wants to see if you are the chosen ones to receive the gifts of the Queen, to fulfill her purpose, to follow the path she laid behind her for others to follow.  You must keep the Regalia from the hands of the Adversary."

“If you stand against the Lie, against the Jailors, the Administrators, you must take back the Regalia. Your fate entanglement gives you the best chance of success. Do you not know what the Regalia is for? Have you not guessed?"

"But the Robe was destroyed.  Cast into the Ocean Orouboros."

“The Robe is not destroyed, it cannot be destroyed. Have you not seen it again, on the path you are following?”

  

[Mage 2: The Dethroned Queen] Artifact: The Scepter Revised

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

The Scepter of the Dethroned Queen

“This Scepter drawn She leaves us all, to brush aside Their distant call.”

The following is a conversion and upgrade of the Artifact: Scepter of the Dethroned Queen to Mage: The Awakening Second Edition rules.  Sources: The Merit as written, straight out of Mage: The Awakening  2nd edition.  The Artifact example I converted is from our current campaign and straight out of the Reign of the Exarchs sourcebook.

The Scepter of the Dethroned Queen

(12 dots) Artifact: 6 Experience Points: OOOOO OOOOO OO

 Description:

The Scepter… is an ornate shaft of (highly reflective metal) Thaumium that changes to a single helixed dragon made from True White (semitransparent and glowing) Jade.  The ridge of its back is studded with the 10 gemstones.  The Eastern dragon’s neck curls around until its faces forward with an open, angry mouth full of fang.  Its eyes are red and seem to glow. 

The 10 gemstones are representative of the 10 Arcana, much like the Ring

-          Diamond = Prime

-          Ruby = Mind

-          Saphire = Fate

-          Onyx = Death

-          Amethyst = Time

-          Moonstone = Spirit

-          Amber = Life

-          Jade = Matter

-          Aquamarine = Forces

The staff glows golden light when its self-defense mechanism is activated.

Basic Stats:

Durability 4, Size 2, Structure 6, Holds 24 Mana

Effective Gnosis: 6 (Mage accessing the Artifact can use any combination of Gnosis and Arcana on a given spell on the item)

Effective Reach: 6

Determining usage: In general, it takes 24 successes on an extended research to figure out how to use the items power.  Opacity is 6 to study the item itself.

1. “Block Profane Urim” (Prime 4) – One Mana to activate.  The holder can utterly block the effects of a Profane Urim either at the Urim or Target.  While the spell endures, Profane Urim’s automatically fail.  These effects follow normal spell rules and can be increased in duration and/or can use space magic to sympathetically target things (such as the Urim itself).  The downside to this spell is that no Mana can be spent within the spell’s subjects or area of effect.

2. “Fight the Lie” (Special) – The holder can use the Scepter as a +3 Tool Yantra to spellcasting when target is a “Servant of the Exarchs.”  It can be used as a +1 Tool Yantra for any Mastigos.

3. “Counter the Supernal” (Prime 5) – The holder can counterspell against any Arcana and and add its effective Gnosis (6) to the counterspell roll against any spell as if it were the caster’s Gnosis or Arcana.

4. “Supernal Dispellation” (Prime 4) – For a Mana it can use Supernal Dispellation as written.

5. Grimorie (1 dot) Can teach a five dot Seer Rote (Prime 5 (no requirement though)) “Counter the Supernal” using the Occult skill.  It functions as a counterspell but if you do not have any dots in that Arcana you just roll your Gnosis.

6. Dream World - The Mysterious powers of the dream world defense mechanism.  Dream worlds can only be created in the hands of an Archmage.

7. Thaumium O:  item has Mana stored in it, it protects its wielder from Supernal magic. Any spell cast at the wielder provokes a Clash of Wills, unless the wielder chooses to allow the spell. The dice pool for the Clash of Wills is equal to the item’s effective Gnosis/Arcana of the Spell cast into it (6) + dots (1) in the Thaumium merit/ Item Size. Whenever used to Clash, the object expends 1 Mana. Mages can refill the item’s Mana supply using the Prime spell “Channel Mana.”

8. White Jade O:

White Jade + Potency to Wisdom Checks, Acanthus

All jade has a translucent sheen, and Supernally created jade seems to shimmer with an inner glow. Each color corresponds to a Supernal realm, embodying the purity of the higher Truths, defying the corruption of the Abyss. The magical tradition of Taoism also associates each color with one of the five Eastern elements, blue for wood, red for fire, yellow for earth, white for metal, and black for water

Benefits:

         Attuned to Arcadia, +1 to Wisdom Checks

         The primary application of jade is to purify the fallen world of Abyssal corruption. When used as a channel for Supernal magic as a tool Yantra, it reduces the paradox of any spells cast through it by -2 (like a second Dedicated tool, they stack). This can reduce the paradox dice pool to zero, at which point no chance die is rolled, as it perfectly purifies the supernal energy.

          Additionally, if the magic drawn through it is of the specific Arcana (listed under Purifies: Spirit and Life) that follows the productive cycle of elements, as shown below, the caster may choose to further reduce the paradox of the spell by its dots. However, each time a piece of jade is used in this manner, it reduces the potency by one, until it becomes a piece of inert green jade at potency zero.

        Jade also offers a passive benefit beyond absolving paradox; it provides its bearer a minor protection against the gross emanations of its controlling elemental realm (+1 to resistance against the Gross Arcana of its listed Path: Time).

Reference - Merit: Artifact Rules

Artifact (•••+, Special) Effect: Your character possesses an Artifact, an item from the Supernal World which is both a physical symbol of magic and a unique item independently empowered create to sorcerous effects. These items possess their own Mana stores, and have their own effective Gnosis and Arcana with which to generate effects. They can cast these effects when harnessed by an Awakened owner who has researched (or divined through Prime) the manner in which the item works.

•Determining usage - In general, this takes successes on an extended research action equal to twice the Artifact’s Merit dots.

•Dot Rating - To calculate the cost of an Artifact, look to its single greatest effect, and map it to a spell effect. The base cost is equal to the highest Arcanum used, or three, whichever is higher. Each additional effect adds to the cost, but only half the highest Arcanum used (rounded up)

•Utility Attainments - Including a Utility Attainment in a spell effect (for example, an Artifact that can cast at Sympathetic Range) increases the cost by one dot for each Attainment included.

•Mana - Item can store Mana equal to twice the dot rating.

•Effective Gnosis Rating - The item’s effective Gnosis is equal to half the dot rating, rounded up.

•Accessing Mana - An owner can access the item’s Mana as if it were her own, or can use it to fuel the Artifact’s abilities. The Artifact can also use its Mana as part of its own activation.

•Effective Arcana Rating/Reach - The Artifact has effective Arcana equal to the highest Arcanum used in its various effects.

•Reach/Paradox - Artifacts cannot Reach beyond the “free” Reach for their Arcana ratings on their own. If an Artifact risks Paradox, the user can spend Mana to mitigate Paradox (in any combination of her own or the Artifact’s Mana pool, up to her Gnosis-derived limits) and may choose to contain the Paradox herself. Otherwise, the Artifact automatically releases it.

•Triggering Use - Every Artifact will use its effects under different circumstances, determined when you create the Artifact. For example, an Artifact might cast its effect the moment it is first seen by human eyes, or whenever it’s dropped on the ground.

•Combining Ratings -If an owner accesses the Artifact’s effects, she may use her own Gnosis and Arcana, the Artifact’s, or any combination thereof. 

•Path Tool Yantra - Every Artifact is also a Path tool Yantra worth +1 dice for mages of the Path of the Artifacts’ highest Arcanum.

[Werewolf: The Forsaken 2nd Ed] The Idigam (Part I)

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

Lore: The Idigam - Forms of the Formless
(Idigam Part One)

“It is true that all of us are the beneficiaries of crimes committed by our ancestors, and it is true that nothing can be done about that now because the victims are dead and the survivors are innocent. These are good reasons for keeping our mouths shut about the past: but tell me, what are our reasons for silence about atrocities still to come?” 

– Damon Knight, One Side Laughing: Stories Unlike Other Stories

Sources: Review lifted from the Werewolf: The Forsaken 2nd Edition corebook.

Lore: Idigam Part One
Lore: Idigam Part Two
Lore: Idigam Part Three

::Information requires advanced knowledge of Werewolf and Spirit lore (spec skills, and 3+ dot rating knowledge sources::

History is catching up with the Uratha, and it comes girded with madness and a burning desire for vengeance. The idigam are inconceivably ancient. They are impossibly young. The idigam are a threat from the dawn of time itself. They are a sudden new danger that has sprung upon the People from the shadows. The idigam are contradictory, ever-changing beings that shatter the stasis of the world around them. Each of the Formless is a chrysalis from which something new and startling will emerge.

The idigam are spirits, yet unlike other denizens of the Shadow. In their natural states, the Formless are roiling maelstroms of Essence. Each passing moment sees their chimera shape change and adapt in an eternal quest for perfection. Then, an idigam finds a spark of obsession, an indefinable something that holds its at ention and begins its path of metamorphosis. It anchors itself and calms the waves of its being in an instant of coalescence. The inner turmoil turns outwards. Now the world begins to change. They slink from their ancient prisons and bindings now, these primeval beings. The Formless find that the world has become a rich hunting ground, a new paradise of experience and experimentation through which they can cavort and slither and writhe. Oh, there are those who might hunt them, it is true. 

Already the werewolves come stalking in the wake of the idigam, assuming that the spoor they follow must belong to prey that they can understand and bring down. They don’t yet comprehend what they’re up against, an enemy that the God of the Hunt could not slay and that the Warden Moon could only seal away. The idigam are returning to the world, and they hate the Uratha.

THE MOON-BANISHED
The wilds of Pangaea played witness to an eternal hunt. Father Wolf stalked the idigam, offended by their natures, but it was a struggle he could never win. Each time he caught one of the Formless it would change and slither away, defeating his every attempt to corner or run it down. He could not complete his hunt but nor could he give it up. To do so would run counter to his very being.

After the Great Hunt had gone on for countless years, it was Luna who brought about a solution. Perhaps Father Wolf entreated the Warden Against The Void to aid him. Perhaps the Moon sought to protect the idigam from the endless pursuit. Perhaps she sought another, unknown goal. Whatever the truth, Luna gathered up the Formless and imprisoned them upon her lifeless surface.

The prison of the Formless was a place with no Essence, no spirits, nothing at all. They stared at the void reaching beyond Luna’s patrolling path, and the glimmering, mocking light of Earth lying far below. Some Moon-Banished fell into slumber. Others danced upon their captor’s surface in mad loneliness, or squatted and crooned to the void and those distant, twinkling lights. Sometimes, they heard answers.

The ages pass. In 1969 the first human stands on the Moon. To the quiescent, mad brood of idigam, the lander’s arrival shatters the silence of the void. Many Formless flee the initial, burbling rush of spirits and Essence, unable to cope with the return of life and light. The hardiest stay and glut themselves on the sustenance that pours forth. Four idigam rode back with the departing humans and came splashing down in the North Pacific. The idigam had returned to Earth.

Several lunar missions have since returned other idigam to the world. Some of the Formless escaped when they reached out to the information streams pouring between satellites. Ecstatic and exulting, these refugees hurtled to their freedom at the speed of data transfer. The few idigam still waiting in Luna’s embrace are nearly berserk from how close freedom is — and terrified that the Lunes will soon perfect a new prison for them.

THE EARTH-BOUND
Luna did not gather up all the idigam into her embrace. Those that remained in Pangaea became the Earth-Bound, captives of an entirely different kind. The Moon-Banished remained truly Formless, but the Earth-Bound had a thread of constancy woven through them from an unlikely source — humanity itself.

Only a few scraps of half-remembered, contradictory stories offer explanations as to the nature of the Earth-Bound, often taken from the messages of cryptic Lunes:

• This story is true. The Earth-Bound took on the duty of serving as monsters for humanity to hunt and battle. Their changing natures made them the perfect opponents to test the species’ mettle, always returning in a new form when defeated. Perhaps Father Wolf looked fondly on the people amongst whom his Uratha children dwelt, and wanted to give them the only gift he understood — the hunt. Perhaps the idigam were just supposed to be a distraction for humanity from deeper horrors in the darkness, defeated puppets set to an undignified task.


• This story is true. It was humanity that saved the Earth-Bound. Far from being ignorant primitives, humans were hewing their claim to the world through strength of arm and mind. They saw the hunted idigam and offered the spirits a pact — they would protect and conceal the idigam in return for the Formless Coalescing to help humanity. Humans would need many new concepts to gird themselves against the world, concepts that did not exist yet. The first of the idigam to agree to this pact eventually became the spirit of tamed fire. With the passing ages, the idigam sunk into obscurity. Humanity had less need of monsters to slay, with war, disease and the rise of empires serving as far more effective distractions. The keystone concepts of civilization became filled and set, underpinning all that would come forth in future. The few remaining idigam laid in quiet slumber. They still feared Father Wolf’s relentless jaws and a lifeless lunar prison. The return of the Moon-Banished has unleashed ripples of wakefulness through the Earth-Bound. Now these slumbering horrors rise from their lairs and find that the Great Predator is long dead. The world is their playground once more, and only the Uratha stand in their way.

ON THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES
Where did the idigam come from in the first place? They were present during the age of Pangaea, but these strange, ever- changing spirits reflect nothing in the physical world. They are an utter mystery to most Uratha, and even learned lore-keepers amongst the People have only managed to assemble a few theories that might explain the idigam. Thus far, none of these theories are based on strong evidence:

• The idigam are spirits of pure change: The idigam do, in fact, reflect the concept of change. Since change is present and constant everywhere in the world, everything serves as their reflection.

• The idigam are spirits of concepts that no longer exist: The idigam once had reflections in the world of Flesh, but they were the spirits of concepts or creatures that no longer exist. They were such powerful spirits that they have managed to cling to existence even beyond the demise of their reflections, but at the cost of their identities.

• The idigam are the spirits of potential concepts: Idigam are left-overs from the Shadow’s earliest history, when it was a state of pure potential as yet unscarred by symbolism. These primeval fragments seek something to be, and may yet pupate into new and bizarre concepts. It’s entirely possible that they may be servants or children of the slumbering planet itself.

• The idigam are spirits of humanity: Humanity has no direct spiritual reflection in the Shadow, although it creates a constant deluge of powerful Resonance that spirits feed from. The idigam symbolized the human species but somehow became cast adrift from their progenitors.

• The idigam are the children of Luna: Luna paired with other spirits than the Great Hunter. Being such a powerful spirit of change, however, it was only the Mother Wolf’s Essence that could match that of Father Moon and produce children of balanced nature. The idigam are the Moon’s offspring by other mates, flooded with mercurial lunar power that overwhelms any other heritage they may possess.

• The idigam are truly alien: Luna patrols the wide orbit of the moon to ward the world’s Shadow from the void beyond. Sometimes, though, things slip past — things like the idigam. They rode to Earth aboard immense vessels, meteors that tore into the planet’s surface in a cataclysm of destruction.

• The idigam are Uratha: Perhaps the strangest theory of all. The idigam are Uratha who have utterly lost themselves to Luna’s maddening love and have degenerated into pure, protean Essence. They were amongst the first generation of Uratha, bearing too much of their lunar parent’s chaotic power within their veins. Father Wolf hunted them down because he felt a parental duty to do so; Mother Luna gathered them in her embrace because, whatever else they might be, they are her children.

THE CHRYSALIS 
The idigam transform a chronicle into a tale of change and evolution. The Uratha have no context to frame their struggle against the Formless. They must adapt and learn or they will die. The Formless themselves are chaos incarnate, travelers on a journey of metamorphosis.

FIGHTING THE IDIGAM
The tragedy of the idigam is that most Forsaken who fall victim to the Moon-Banished never really understand what they’re up against. Unlike other prey, no deep well of lore or repeated history of the hunt exists for the Urdaga to draw upon. The idigam are too old and too young. Werewolves who hunt the idigam assuming that they are just spirits soon find themselves caught in a nightmare. The Forsaken don’t yet know the rules of this game, and the nature of the enemy keeps changing.

Formless idigam — those in the natural protean state — are fortunately rare. However, they are also exceedingly hard for Uratha to defeat. Whatever a hunter throws at a Formless, the spirit will just slough off its old vulnerabilities and adapt with new strengths. No plan survives contact with the Formless, because no plan can account for their infinite variation.

The Coalesced are far more powerful but have shed such constant turmoil of form and focus. They display surprising and often catastrophic capabilities on a scale that the Forsaken rarely ever encounter, warping the world around them with ease. These primordial beings may have a retinue of eerie, twisted creatures that they have forged with their corrupted Essence, minions that don’t conform to Uratha hunting lore.

Above all else, Forsaken who would successfully hunt an idigam must exploit its ban and bane. Unfortunately, a werewolf’s usual tricks are of little use against the Moon-Banished. An Ithaeur attempting to use her Shadow Gaze upon an idigam may find that it is too potent for the Facet to pierce. Even getting close enough to the idigam to use the Facet is a risky venture. Seeking wisdom from spirits is equally unlikely to help because the idigam are as alien and monstrous to the their beings of the Shadow as they are to the Uratha.

Some idigam do offer an unusual opportunity, however. They make use of servitors and spawn, and these far weaker beings can offer a chance for occult research and even vivisection that might reveal some of the master’s nature.

The ban and bane of a Coalesced idigam are often only tangentially related to its form and purpose, if at all. Instead they are rooted in the physical and metaphysical surroundings of the Coalescence. This means that wily Uratha investigators and hunters might track down an idigam’s Coalescence site and delve into the traces that the Moon-Banished left behind. The “birthplace” of a Coalesced offers clues that may decipher its weaknesses. 

The ban and bane of a Formless idigam is as ever-changing as its quicksilver shape. Even were the Uratha to discover the spirit’s vulnerabilities, they would be washed away again a moment later. Against Formless, the best hope is to bring as much spiritual strength to bear as possible, driving the idigam off or damaging it so grievously that even a spirit of change cannot adapt fast enough.

HUNTERS
Over four decades have passed since the first of the Moon-Banished returned. Even for so mysterious and devastating a foe, stories have had the time to circulate and build the first accumulations of idigam-lore. Many of the wider Forsaken communities are awakening to the disturbing realization that something out there possesses immense power and unbridled hatred for their kind. 

They whisper many names born of the confused halftruths that survivors spread: idigam, Formless, ur-Lunes, Terrestrials, Tunguskans. No two lodges agree where these spirits came from or what they want, beyond that they desire the destruction of the Uratha. Some wonder if they are the planet’s own anger, or corrupted Lunes lost to the Maeljin, or actual aliens from space. No one yet sees the overall canvas of this new hunt in its full, horrific glory. It’s time for the Forsaken Tribes to step up and do what the Great Predator could not — to successfully hunt the idigam down.

• The Blood Talons are outraged and exultant wherever they encounter the blasphemous Empty Wolves — terrible prey that demand all the strength and might of the Uratha to defeat. The tribe spreads words of such creatures through its ranks, and seeks answers as to how these monsters come to be.


• The Bone Shadows have learned enough to fear that they are the prey, not the hunters. They possess much lore that helps with fighting the spiritual servants of the Moon-Banished, but it’s not enough to tackle the idigam themselves. More than any other tribe, the Hirfathra Hissu are taking steps to plumb the ancient history of the Shadow, seeking out Lunes and the most primordial of spirits in hope of understanding this new foe.

• The Hunters in Darkness often find themselves drawn to the aftermath in the wake of an idigam’s passing. The Moon-Banished inevitably warp the Gauntlet and corrupt sacred places of power that they visit, and the Meninna are beginning to understand that the nature of these horrors might be puzzled from the places that they form.

• Iron Masters are disturbed by the reflection of their tribe’s philos phy in the idigam. Adapt, change, become a better predator — but can the Farsil Luhal defeat something even more capable of adaptation than they are? The Iron Masters see terrible and profound sources of change that are afflicting humanity, and some wonder if the idigam are a great opportunity to learn.

• Amongst the Storm Lords, some say that this is the age of Father Wolf’s ultimate test for his children, an ancient challenge set in motion when he gave his last howl. Strange, terrible spirits plague the Forsaken and entirely new forms of warped prey emerge. This, the Iminir say, is the crucible in which the tribe will be tested and their worth as successors finally judged.

PREY
The wise amongst the Forsaken listen to the weird, disturbing stories that circulate through their tribal networks, and look to their territory and their prey in search of warning signs:

• The Pure - Where they encounter idigam, tend to suffer worse than the Forsaken. Too many of the Anshega react to the arrival of a powerful spirit by assuming they can seek its patronage. The results are disastrous. The Pure are finally piecing together the wider picture of what they’re up against, and they’re both outraged and terrified.

• Spirits - Are by no means friends or allies to the idigam. They often flee from the spiritual bow-wave of an idigam if they can, and a Moon-Banished’s arrival drives many to cross the Gauntlet and seek refuge as Claimed. Those that cannot or dare not leave the Resonance that sustains them largely try to hide. The Hisil around an idigam’s lair can be a desolate place indeed.

• The Hosts - Have an ancestral memory of the idigam. Their shards are too incomplete and scattered to truly understand the Moon-Banished, but they are possessed with fear when they encounter these primordial beings. A suitably powerful Host that has consumed many shards might actually remember enough to recall the true nature of the idigam, but for now most Hosts flee an idigam’s arrival like rats from a sinking ship — sometimes literally so.

• Humans - Are often a good barometer of an idigam’s presence. They become disturbed and erratic should one of the Moon-Banished exert its influence. More than once, human communities have started to spit out cults and conspiracies around the activities of an idigam. Animals are equally unsettled by the influence of the Moon-Banished but have less complicated means of expressing it. Notably, some Meninna seers have started charting the migratory patterns of birds around areas of known idigam activity, gleaning secrets and insight from the changes inflicted on nature by the chimeric spirits.

Lunes (Lunar spirits)

• The Lunes - Play a strange role in this new Great Hunt. It seems that many Lunes served as jailers and wardens over the void-prison, and the idigam often react poorly to the presence of one of these spirits. Their interventions in aiding and informing the Forsaken of this new threat, though, seem infuriatingly erratic to the Tribes of the Moon. Had the Lunes descended in 1969 and told the Forsaken of what was coming, they could have avoided many deaths. Even now, the spirits show no particular interest in enlightening Luna’s children about the full extent of the threat that has returned to the world. The Lunes have their own agenda and their own purpose, and the Forsaken are only tangential to that.

METAMORPHOSIS
The idigam change the world wherever they walk. Hunting grounds warp with entirely new species of life, and the Shadow buckles and twists. The war against the Moon-Banished and the Earth-Bound will force the Forsaken to adapt, and the battles they fight will scar the Flesh and Shadow. It’s inevitable that, with such powers unleashed, an avalanche of consequences will come tumbling down. How long before humanity becomes aware of the primordial beings worming through their midst? 

What happens when the herd finally does know?


In and of themselves, though, the Moon-Banished have the potential to become something more. Each Coalesced is invariably obsessive, rooted in the world that now embraces it yet ever pursuing an answer. The nature of the question varies, but it is that sparking need to understand that first pushes the idigam to give in to the world’s urge to take form... They seek something that they cannot quite name, and push themselves in a direction that they cannot fully explain.

What will happen if an idigam ever finds what it truly seeks? If an idigam reaches that enlightening answer to its question, if it ever becomes content, then such a creature may enter a new phase of being. What might emerge from a chrysalis born of the idigam? [JS5] A new concept entirely, a new symbol that will change the world, something even more monstrous and devastating than the primordial spirits already are? Only the future can tell.

LAWS OF THE LAWLESS
This section covers the game mechanics for using idigam as antagonists and characters in a Werewolf chronicle. As strange and alien as they may appear, the idigam are spirits and broadly follow the same rules. Idigam do possess several specific traits that are detailed below.

TWIN STATES 
OF BEING 
An idigam is either Formless or Coalesced. All idigam begin as Formless, ever-shifting spirits of change and chaos. Some idigam that the Forsaken encounter may still be in this protean form because they’re recently descended or awoken. Hunting a Formless is a confusing, surreal battle against an ever-changing and truly mercurial enemy, but such an idigam has not yet reached its full potential.


The modern world exerts a subtle pressure on idigam to Coalesce. Perhaps, once, the idigam could prowl the spirit wilds without difficulty. In this era, following Urfarah’s death-howl and the raising of the Gauntlet, the ancient spirits experience an urge to take form. The Formless have no physical analogue or fleshly reflection and, thus unanchored, they are weak. Coalesced idigam have relatively stable manifestations, taking substance and purpose from the world around them.

The differences between Formless and Coalesced idigam are as follows:
• Formless Idigam have no Influences.
• Formless Idigam lose Essence at twice the normal rate while in the physical world.
• The ban and bane of a Formless change every scene.
• Formless cannot target others with Essence Shaping, only themselves.
• Formless only possess the Shifting Dread Power.
• Upon Coalescing, an idigam’s Rank increases by one.
• Upon Coalescing, an idigam’s Influences, traits, ban and bane become set.
• A Coalesced idigam possesses a full selection of Influences, Essence Shaping, and Dread Powers.

Both Formless and Coalesced are immune to supernatural powers that would command them, master them, or reshape their abilities, whether from Gifts, rites, or the witchcraft of other beings. The idigam can be bound or forced into dormancy, but they can never simply be leashed like a dog and forced into obedience. Their ancient, ever-flowing Essence simply shrugs off any such attempts to chain them to docility.

A Coalesced can return to Formlessness by spending Willpower points equal to twice its current Rank when it is sent into dormancy due to damage or a lack of Essence. This is extremely rare; most Coalesced have no desire to descend into Formlessness again.

RANK
The weakest idigam encountered have been Formless, usually freshly descended onto the world from their lunar prison. Such idigam are merely as powerful as an Ensih (Rank 3). The most powerful of the idigam that the Forsaken know of, the terrifying Gurdilag, was a Dihar (Rank 6) once Coalesced, but even more potent Moon-Banished may still wait in the shadows. Most Coalesced are Ensahim (Rank 4) or Dihim (Rank 5).

ESSENCE

Idigam possess deep wells of spiritual power. An idigam’s Essence Pool is double what it would normally be for a spirit of its Rank. Idigam do not lose Essence daily in the Shadow, although in the world of Flesh, Formless bleed Essence at twice the usual rate. Coalesced lose Essence in the Flesh at the normal rate suffered by spirits.

INFLUENCES
While the Formless entirely lack Influences, a Coalesced idigam possesses Influences as a normal spirit of its Rank. Lacking physical reflections, the idigam takes on Influences that reflect either its own agenda and drives or the location in which it Coalesced.

BAN & BANE
An idigam possesses a ban and bane appropriate to its Rank, as other spirits do. The ban and bane of a Formless shift to something new every single scene. Despite the best documentation efforts of those Uratha unfortunate enough to encounter a Formless, there is no discernible pattern to these changes. They have no relation to the surroundings, the activities of the idigam, or the powers brought to bear against it. A Coalesced’s ban and bane are set. These vulnerabilities reflect the world around the idigam at the moment it Coalesced, and thus can be highly esoteric or bizarre — but they are unchanging and can be exploited by those who would hunt the Moon-Banished. They reflect both the physical and metaphysical environment in which the Coalescence happened.

ESSENCE SHAPING
All idigam have the ability to manipulate and shape Essence to an astounding degree, although the Formless can only ever target themselves with these powers. An idigam usually has a number of Essence Shaping powers equal to its Rank, but this is by no means a hard rule. 

All idigam have the power to shape and channel Essence in ways that seem strange and alien to other denizens of the Shadow. The Formless can only remold their own Essence in this way, but the Coalesced possess the ability to turn their Essence Shaping powers against the outside world. The idigam are diverse beings once Coalesced, capable of all manner of bizarre and unnatural accomplishments. 

DREAD POWERS
As well as the usual Numina that spirits possess, idigam often express unique and horrific Dread Powers. Formless idigam only possess the Shifting Dread Power, allowing them to constantly alter their traits. Coalesced idigam may have many more, usually between three and six Dread Powers in total.