[Mage: The Awakening 2e] The Outer Dark (Abyss part 2)

Out of Character (OOC):
Chronicle: Mage 3: The 6th Watchtower
Venue: Mage: The Awakening 2nd Edition
Chronicle Storyteller: Jerad Sayler
Assistant Storytellers: Hannah Nyland & Alex Van Belkum

Eye of the Void: 

Travel in the Abyss & Abyssal Magic

Part 2

Other Chapters:

Chapter One - Travel in the Dark

Chapter Two - The Outer Dark

Chapter Three - The Inner Dark

Chapter Four - Denizens of the Abyss

Chapter Five - Abyssal Magic

Sources:

- H.P. Lovecraft Mythos

- Stephen King Mythos

- Mage: The Awakening 2nd Edition

- The Left-Handed Path (sourcebook for MtA1.0)

- Intruders: Encounters with the Abyss (sourcebook for MtA1.0)

- The Imperial Mysteries (sourcebook for MtA1.0)

- Night Horrors: The Unbidden (sourcebook for MtA1.0)

- The Summoners (sourcebook for MtA1.0)

- Second Sight (sourcebook for nWoD)

- The Secret World and Secret World Legends video games by Funcom

- Kabbalah religious concepts

- Satanic religious concepts

Chapter Two - The Outer Dark

When someone actually enters into the Abyss bodily, things get much more interesting than Paradox Conditions and the occasional Manifestation.  Those that can tread into the ragged hole of nothingness in between the Phemorial world and "front-facing" Supernal Realms don't agree on much of what they witnessed inside.  The Abyss takes everything consumed and reflects it back using oily oceans of chaos and fun-house mirrors.  It takes every part of the truth inside these things and twists it.  It is anti-reality, anti-true, anti-life, anti-everything we know.  

Welcome to Mage: The Awakening (2nd Ed) on Nightmare Mode.  Even Archmages do not attempt a journey into the Abyss without dire cause, and overly complex preparation. If a goal can be achieved by any other means a Traveler will go that route instead. 

The Abyss is not some empty void, but contains a multitude of broken worlds. Twisted, broken mockeries of reality made of lies spawn whole ecologies of lesser Abyssal entities, each a lie of itself but contributing to the whole. Travelers suffer Manifestation Paradoxes and assume that the intruders
they allow access, terrible as they are, are the worst the Abyss has to offer. Seekers know better.

Greater Abyssal Entities 
The greatest Abyssal entities are entire worlds, made up of hundreds of lesser beings. Where lesser Abyssal intruders are individual aspects of reality gone wrong — languages that cause madness, corruptions of flesh, false laws of mathematics and twisted Hallows — a greater Abyssal is a conglomerate of untold numbers of its lesser cousins, perverted by all the lesser intruders contained within it. The collective entities are Rank 6-9 spirits, but are almost always dealt at the abstract level due to lacking anything resembling a human consciousness. Lesser intruders may only be parts of the whole, but at least a minority of them can hold a conversation, however insane.

The Shining Sea of Chaos

The Outer Dark is the undefined void in between "traditional" Abyssal Realms. It is called the No Place, the Outer Dark, the Sea of Chaos and simply the Void. It is composed of nothingness and the flotsam and jetsam of the things the Abyss has consumed or tried to imitate. These objects and entities drift forever in stasis or ambulating in search of prey. In many ways it is very similar to the hard vacuum of outer-space and Travelers must first deal with the physics-based issues before they shore up defenses against the metaphysical incompatibilities. The Outer Dark is defined by what it is not, not within the "body" of a greater abyssal entity. So lets talk about the Annunaki...

The Great Dreamers: Annunaki 
The Baalim sects call them the Annunaki: the original intelligences of the Abyss, universes unto themselves. Other Scelesti call them the Eldest, Innocents, Pure Ones and hundreds of other names.

The Annunaki sleep. This is their truce with one another and shield against all-consuming Supernal Law. The enemy defines reality, so they choose to be undefined, dreaming of the wonders they once made and will make again, once those who would be God stumble from their thrones—a moment that draws ever closer, as the Exarchs impose their too-human flaws on Creation.

There are myths that the Great Dreamers are kept from awakening by way of strange paramechanical seals, or by a tower.  Should these engines be turned off, the Annunaki with awaken.

Yet even the Eldest’s dreams flood the Abyss with alternate foundations for existence and negations of logic—endless possibilities that caress the cracked egg of the ordered universe. Sometimes the dreams drip in as Paradoxical Anomalies, Abyssal Verges and idea-beings that infect the Tellurian with their principles.

Greater intruders include the Prince of 100,000 Leaves, a sapient history of the world where humanity experiences love through torture, sustenance through cannibalism and faith through betrayal, and where endless volumes detail all the torment that was, is and ever shall be; and the Nemesis Continuum, a theoretical physics that exposes the flaws in all other models, describing and triggering their undoing. Not all these dreams are so grand, however. Naturalists encounter illogical diseases and unknown insects that overthrow the order of things. Psychologists uncover perfect reasons for madness and turn mad themselves. The Abyss infects both the smallest cell and the brightest rogue stars.

But these are just dreams. When the Annunaki discover how fragile reality is, how prepared for collapse, perhaps they’ll awaken, and devour the egg of the cosmos.

The Hungry Stars
Within the Void, a mage with cunning and foolishness can perceive the largest entities in the Abyss - the planet or star-sized Abyssal Gods and the Inner Realms within them, some of which are the Annunaki, the 10 Black Dragons of the Void. These abominable star whales sleep-patrol the endless nightscape, devouring and procreating with everything they notice. A man in a pressure suit is a speck of dust before their terrible splendor, beneath the notice of their cavernous sensory organs. Entering their bodies puts the unprepared in their microuniverse of chaos and madness, an Abyssal Realm. Woe to those who bring the Great Dreamers in their floating slumber, dreaming the realm within into existence, to stir. Those who fall under the half-lidded gaze of an Abyssal God are truly damned. 

Points of Ingress

The Outer Dark is usually where things end up if something enters the Abyss directly, through holes ripped in the Tapestry such as direct portals to the Abyss created by entities, Scelesti spells or dark rituals. This can also happen using a summoning circle where the channel to the Supernal is severed (see Summoners sourcebook) and the connection to the Abyss is all that remains.There are also direct pathways to be found in the Place Between that lead directly into the Darkness.

An entrance to the Outer Dark can also be found by diving into the Ocean Orouboros (and making yourself safe from being dissolved into your component identifiers) at the furthers reaches of the Anima Mundi (Astral Realm). Other places on the edge of known Astral space also brush up against the Abyss and are usually represented by an endless chasm or roiling dark storms.

Archmages and the Ascended create Irises into the Abyss requiring special conditions or Keys.

Lastly, extremely high paradox pooled into one area (LAPA 20+) and/or lots of Paradox releases (5+) may weaken the fabric of reality enough that the Place Between opens (Have the characters roll Gnosis as a teamwork action to open a pathway into the In-between. (roll paradox pool + released paradox to determine how long the hole remains open in rounds. Inside the In-Between, with so much pooled Paradox already present it is fairly easy to find a holes that leads into the No Space.

Thuraes and tears in reality that lead to the Outer Dark usually act as open maws, consuming everything they can suck in. They can pull strong enough to immediately suck nearby people and objects into them with the force of 1-2 Gs of acceleration.  Hang on to something.

The bill comes due...
Upon crossing the threshold into the Abyss, the mage is bombarded with hallucinatory visions which, as they go on, quickly seem familiar. The Abyss offers her lies. Every Paradox she has ever caused is revisited, the pain of every Backlash she has absorbed is re-inflicted, and she suffers every Havoc, Bedlam and Branding along the way. Anomalies and Manifestations she was responsible for are especially dangerous, as the creatures of the Abyss she inadvertently created confront her during the trial. If she has actually bargained with a native of that place, those debts are now called due.

The effect that crossing into the Abyss has on each mage is dependent upon the Storyteller and the story.  If a character releases a lot of paradox or contains a lot of backlash in the past, some measure of that pain or effect should hit them.  If they have spoken with Acamoth or other Abyssal entities then they may return to try to claim the mage's soul or strike a bargain.  If you can think of nothing else then just throw Abyssal Conditions at them.

Abyssal Verges: 
Perhaps it lives. Without exception, an Abyssal Verge is a tendril for one of the great anti-gods/realms called Annunaki, which sheds Acamoth like microbes falling from a great beast, sends Gulmoth to investigate whatever pulled it through, or conjures other unclassifiable intruders. Even in a Verge, ordered reality repels Annunaki, so they only send such entities occasionally. There’s no system for this, but the Storyteller shouldn’t overdo it.

The environment disconnects from nature; stones scream and water flows uphill. This applies a –2 penalty to Skill rolls that depend on a knowledge of natural laws. Abyssal Verges don’t supply the usual benefits but instead provide +2 dice to Gnosis rolls to invite Paradox into a spell the way Scelesti do. Scelesti with powers allowing them to summon Abyssal beings also enjoy a +2 bonus. An Abyssal Verge may be used to join a Scelestus Legacy, though details are left up to the Storyteller.

An Abyssal Demesne is the sort of risky idea even Scelesti might think twice about. Unlike other Demesnes, an Abyssal one is not insulated from visiting entities. All of the above benefits apply. Unfortunately, the soul stone now belongs to the Verge’s ruling Annunaki (associated with an Arcanum), which may destroy, move, or transform it as its inscrutable desires dictate.

New Common Elements

It is a place of nothing and everything.  Infinite possibilities and potential.  Its aspects and concepts are so alien or incompatible with reality that they are beyond all definition. Travelers see their worst nightmares and suffer from horrible madness.  However, there are some common aspects of the Outer Dark that seem to persist among those who have survived long enough to report them.  These environmental qualities are the most stable and mundane of the Abyss's tricks.

When traveling in the Abyss (Outer and Inner Dark), all the following conditions are placed either on the characters traveling in the Abyss or exist in the environments in which they traverse: 

Personal Condition: Shadowed Sights 

Even with Mage Sights to help senses inside the Abyss, the truths of locality and distance are amorphous. How can you scrutinize the absolute Truth uncovered by Mage Sight of something that has no Truth at all? You cannot trust your mundane senses either. The paradox (small p) in trying to deal with this problem creates a maddening feedback loop to a mage when they use the Sight. Mage Sights translate information that paints the Abyssal landscape as "dim" "murky," "foggy," "shadowed," indistinct, lacking detail, full of static or white noise, and overall dark. All of it is shadows on the wall and half-truths. What is seen or felt could be real or not, it is nearly impossible to tell. How much might be in a mind unable to resolve the resolvable? 

Mechanics: Mundane Perception, Mage Sights and Investigation rolls suffer a -5 Penalty.  Using Active or Focused Mage Sights longer than the Mage's Gnosis dots in rounds rolls Stamina to prevent a Personal Tilt (Blinded, Deafened, Insane, Insensate, Stunned or Sick).

Environmental Condition: Saturated Paradox

The Abyss noticed everything and it is hard to pull magic through the corruption and interference. Naturally the Abyss is universally a place of heightened Paradox as well... 

Obvious Magic Mechanic: Any new spells cast in the Abyss automatically risk Paradox based on the Gnosis of the mage. Starting paradox pools also starts at a +3, per canon rules in sourcebook Imperial Mysteries for a total of Gnosis Paradox + 3.  Nasty.

Personal Paradox Mechanic: The Personal Paradox does not reset until you leave the Abyss.  You are insulated, and forced to marinate in saturated Paradox. The ambient/localized (LAPA) Paradox doesn't decrease where it is used no matter how many scenes you wait. Paradox pools created by a spellcaster do not decrease to normal in the next scene.

Ambient Paradox Mechanic: LAPA also remains at the same level in an area of the Abyss no matter how long you wait. Leaving the area affected by high LAPA will bring ambient Paradox back down to the straight +3.

Environmental Condition: Empty Sustenance 

In the Outer Dark there is no food, no air, no water, nothing sustaining. The Inner Dark has food but it provides no succor and instead only infects the eater with sicknesses and Abyssal parasites. Starvation and dying of thirst becomes a worry now, and this is compounded by the fact that time distorts strangely, dragging a trip to the Abyss or compounding environmental effects by compressing them.

The Inner Realms almost always have something approximating "air" to breath though the air is full of pollution and dangers of its own. The Outer Dark is almost universally a vacuum, though pockets of gas might be found there. You have to bring your own food, water and air and do your best to prevent it from creeping corruption. 

Mechanics: What a Storyteller could do with this is endless. Without going into the designs of further Abyssal illnesses or parasites I will only say that nothing consumed in the Abyss provides sustenance. Abyssal air can contain noxious chemicals, gases, poisons, terrible smells and its own set of mystical infections. If you don't feel like using any of these ideas, you can just represent problems with the food and air using the Extreme Environment Tilt mentioned below. 

Personal Condition: No Reprieve
This condition is a representation of the combined psychological, spiritual and physical trials of Abyssal travel.  Trails,  Fatigue, bodily stresses, no respite, wounds seep pus and do not heal.

Mechanics: All damage in the Abyss is Resistant, regardless of it is caused by Backlash, attacks, or just extreme environments, and does not heal while in the Abyss. Characters must leave in order to resume healing this damage normally at the Resistant Damage/Mortal Rate and cannot be sped up with Time magic (as per all Resistant Damage).
I also don't recommend sleeping in the Abyss, even if you could manage.

Environmental Condition: Hard Navigation

Navigation in the murk is just as tricky as just trying to see what is around you. Survival checks to find one’s way to a destination in the Abyss suffer -5 penalties. If the traveler has a particular destination in mind they are further penalized based on sympathetic connection to the place, but at least your headed in the right direction instead of just stumbling around, trying to navigate yourself to a reprieve of some sort. If you fall asleep or lose consciousness (due to damage too) you simply get pulled deeper in and become lost. Your form loses cohesiveness and you vanish from the party... good luck getting back. It is a good way to fall from the Inner Dark into the Outer Dark and it makes it easy for the entities that live in both to quickly consume your soul. You gain the Condition: Lost and are separated from the group. 

Mechanics: Navigation rolls are required to get around the Abyss, even in the hard vacuum of the Outer Void's space analogue, and suffer -5 to the rolls.  This is penalized further by the strength of the Sympathy with the desired destination.

Tilt: Dark Entropy (Extreme Environment)

Being in the Abyss is generally not good for one's health. Travelers will encounter anti-truths that attenuate with things like radiation levels, extremes in heat or cold, pockets of void, incredible air pressure, acidic mist or rain, and the list goes on. Really it is a dark reflection of the Ecstatic Wind encountered in the Anima Mundi.  Regardless of the forms it takes (and it could be many), this wind is physically, mentally, and spiritually painful.  It isn't enough to cause wound penalties (until it does through accumulating damage), but it is ever present.

To represent this badness the characters receive one resistant bashing damage per minute while inside the Abyss. This damage does not heal while the character is in the Abyss. This puts a limit on how long someone can be inside the Abyss before they are disintegrated. 

If the character falls unconscious they are pulled deeper into the Abyss, gain the Condition: Lost, becoming separated from the group as damage accumulates. After this damage reaches full resistant Aggravated the character is subsumed into the Abyss as is no more. For Mages in the know, Scelesti mostly, one can delay or slow these effects with powerful use of the Time Arcana and perhaps other spells. Mages also tend to use moderate amounts of Life and Death to ensure they stay conscious without having to make a stamina check up to full Lethal damage. With mastery of Life and Death if may be possible to stay conscious until one reaches full Aggravated damage and is subsumed by the Abyss. It is also worth stating that nightmare realms closer to conventional reality such as in the Nightmare realm inside a Qlippoth or in the soul of a person with a heavily infected Onerios may not have these extreme conditions and may be exempted from this mechanic. They are deadly in their own ways.

Mechanics: 

Much like the Extreme Environment rules in the Fallen World, without protection a human in the Abyss takes one Resistant Bashing damage per minute.  This does not heal while they are in the Abyss but spells can be used to slow or mitigate the damage.  It cannot be resisted using an Amnion without additional spells weaved in. and those spells are subjected to the Perpetual Dissonance Condition.

Environmental Condition: Isolated Reality

This is why Paradox never decreases. No Twilight& No Shadow – Everything doesn’t exist and therefore exists, an isolation and separation from reality and its fractal states.  There is no ability to enter Twilight, Shadow, Underworld, Hedge, etc... If it appears that the mages enter a place in the Abyss more aligned with those places it is simply part of the illusion of being in the Abyss itself.

Mechanics: No alternate states of existence within the Abyss.

Environmental Condition: Subsumed Death

If you die in the Abyss your soul is hollowed out and you are lost to the corruption and oblivion of the void. A Moros might be good enough to quickly tether the lost soul of their dead friend with them but both lifeless body and soul will suffer greatly from the ambient exposure of the Abyss, unprotected by flesh. Most of the time, dead bodies recovered from the Abyss become infested with Abyssal Intruders. They possess it as a Flesh Intruder or Qlippoth. Souls without a body in the Abyss almost always become Twilight Manifested Abyssal Entities (Abyssal Ghosts),corrupted forms of the person who died.  If the character falls unconscious they are pulled deeper into the Abyss, gain the Condition: Lost, becoming separated from the group as damage accumulates. 

Mechanics: If you fall unconscious or die in the Abyss, horrible shit follows.  Sensing a trend?

Personal Condition: Mental Fracturing

Travelers/Seekers take a Breaking point when they exit the Abyss. This is always on a chance die regardless of the strength of the traveler's mind. This represents the generally madness and badness of the Abyss. Specific horrors seen in the Abyss may provoke their own breaking points but Storytellers are encouraged not to inflict another Breaking point unless it is from specific badness as part of the story such as facing an Abyssal god or the utter awfulness of encountering its unique minions for the first time. These extra Breaking points are not on chance die and generally take a penalty between -5-10 depending on how bad.

Mechanics: Roll one Chance Die Breaking point on each character upon leaving the Abyss as the mental damage takes its toll.

Environmental Condition: Perpetual Dissonance

Mechanics: All active magical spells risk Dissonance at the end of every scene. 10 dice are rolled as the Integrity pool for Dissonance rolls. Non-magical items and clothing also are subject to this roll and are highly prone to wear and corrosion. Abyssal entities and items already in the Abyss do not have these limitations. Scelesti commonly are granted blessings that allow them to mitigate many of the effects above. 

TOO MUCH? COME ON GUYS I WARNED YOU... THIS IS THE ABYSS...

Chaotic Topology

The Outer Dark is the chaotic ocean in between the more coherent Abyssal Realms or realms that constitute the psyche and body of the indefinable entities that dream there. If the mage goes into the Abyss without a destination or the influences of entities to drive them to arrive in one of the realms of the Inner Dark then they might end up here instead.

The Ocean of Chaos (as it is also called) is the space between the Abyssal gods that make up the realms of the Dreamers and consists of the lesser bleed off, foam, emanations, white static, between the Inner Dark realms.  The realms drift through this space, sometimes docking or moving apart.

Drifting in the nothing may be things that passed through the Abyss from the Supernal or from the rest of the Tellurian that didn't come out the other size.  Things may be found here that were cast into the Ocean Orouboros, lost when a pocket dimension collapsed, or even artifacts of beings that rose or fell between the shores of the Supernal or the Lie and got trapped in the middle instead.

The Outer Dark resembles actual outer space in many ways.  Things are very spread out and there isn't usually enough reality pushed together to interact with.  Instead travelers end up floating and slowly dying as if they were ejected from a spaceship's airlock.  Things that float in that space are far between and utterly random.  There are also lesser and greater entities (spirit rank 1-5) that hunt solitarily or in swarms swim through this ocean-space looking for these random elements to consume.  There is not usually anywhere to hide from these ravaging entities.  These are the most "awake" creatures in this place, the larger entities (Rank 5+) slumber and drift, creating infinite universes from their dreams.

There are huge slumbering abyssal gods (with the Inner Dark realms inside them) that may be perceived and traveled to.  These things range in "size" from lesser planetoid to galaxy sized depending on their spirit Rank.  Travelers trying to reach these are usually not noticed but the Abyssal Gods' propulsions and anatomy may destroy or absorb a traveler before they can enter.

On the whole, when two of these dream realms touch the lesser entities may exchange residences and start to absorb each other to create hybrids.  They may also act as immuoboddies to the greater beings, especially against attempts to harm them.   The god-entities with dream realms to access inside them have millions of lesser entities inside them that have already been discussed above.  If they have the means and something gets close enough they may swarm out of the entity like a cloud to subsume whatever they find.

Travel in the Ocean of Chaos

The following are common elements experienced by all explorers of the Outer Dark:

Tilt: Utter Darkness

      The majority of the Outer Abyss lacks all sources of light.  There are exceptions but usually those include incredibly bright searing lights that burn and also blind the traveler.  Either way, normal light-spectrum vision doesn't work.  Mages must use spells of Knowing and Unveiling in order to orient themselves (while dealing with the Shadowed Sights Condition) .  Other senses can't be trusted without Supernal assistance in the same way.  Any given place may inflict phantom touches or screeching noise... 

      

      Mechanics: Normal senses simply do not function beyond all the nasty distracting,fake and pseudo-illusionary input that breaks down a person's soul.  Total sensory deprivation.

Tilt: Hard Vacuum

Outside of an actual Abyssal Realm, in the Outer Dark, subjects experience conditions similar to outer space.  With no air pressure, bodies bloat, blood vessels break and fluids begin leaking out of every orifice, bubbles form in the blood. Consciousness is lost in about 7 seconds.  Permanent damage to the body occurs after about 90 seconds.  Even if someone is saved from this harsh environment, their bodies are subjected to cosmic rays and will suffer from some radiation sickness. Bodies are subjected to extreme cold and heat.  The surface of eyes will freeze, saliva boils and is sublimated into the void as gas, frost bite and first and second degree burns follow.  Lastly, there is no air... you are suffocating the whole time and you can't hold your breath without your lungs rupturing.  Because of the pressure  Spells are needed to insulate a mage from such harsh conditions or brain damage and death will follow.

Mechanics: 

- No Pressure/No Air: Every round a person must roll Stamina to stay conscious as if their Health boxes were full.  A person cannot hold their breath so Stamina rolls for that don't come into play.

- Weightlessness: Physical rolls to move around are required and suffer -2.  With an Skill Specialty in Athletics (Weightlessness) this penalty is removed.

- Extreme Environment: Every round they are exposed a person suffers one Resistant Bashing damage.  This can only be prevented if the person is protected from the lack of pressure, heat, cold, and radiation. 

Missing Something else...

Places in the Outer Void sometimes lack something else fundamental to existence.  Storytellers can have fun with a list of options:

- Lacking proximity, things cannot be brought together and are forever distanced

- Lacking distance, everything is adjacent with no way to get away from whatever resides there

- Time is locked into a frozen singular momment

- Time is compressed, everything happening simultaneouly

- Time runs backwards

- Time runs too fast

- Realm lacks some form of Force (kinetics, heat, electromagnetism, gravity, nuclear forces)

- Things lack tangibility or corporealness  

- Paradox Anomalies can provide more inspiration for these

Egress from the Nothing

To get back to the Tellurian proper, you are going to need to either immediately follow the method or portal that put you there before it diffuses within seconds or you must be swallowed by a greater entity and then navigate its realm to look for ways out...

The Collective (Part One) 

                                        As recalled by Frekki (subsoul of Archmaster Casstiel)

"I'm so sorry Noah, They're too powerful, Kill me I'm only a tool, He can't use my body then, Kill me, Kill me, Kill me."

That was on a handwritten note hidden amongst the AV equipment of Slenderman victim Noah Maxwell.  Milo, his brother, suspected that it matched the handwriting of Noah's friend, Kevin Haus.

Okay, some background...

It had nearly been a year since we killed a creature that had been some sort of Native American boogeyman we labeled as the Slenderman (during the events of Zero-X Apr-Jul 2014).  It wasn't just a boogeyman, sealed away by the local Werewolf packs hundreds of years ago.  It had been corrupted by infectious energies from the Acamoth known as the Darkness that Thirsts and released from its prisons when the Acamoth was destroyed (during the events of What Dreams may Come - May 2014).  

While most children recovered from the soul-rending nightmares brought on by Slendy's rain of terror, one was far too gone.  We didn't know at the time but Kevin Haus had become a Qlipoth... and those Proxies who were recovering on that side of North Dakota were sustained by his connection to the void.  Instead of serving the Slenderman, they now served the Observer as a collective of hijacked teenagers with creepy masks and sharp improved pointy things. The Observer referred to Slendy as the Administration... and he was now free of his control.

Noah Maxwell had been one of the victims of the Slenderman.  He was a high schooler in Bismarck, North Dakota.  He had been sniffed out by his Proxies in the city because he was an empathy, capable of reading auras and sensing emotions. Noah didn't really understand he was a Parahuman, but his organs would make the entity even stronger.  When strange killings, gang sightings and strange occult graffiti started happening around town Noah put on his hat as a budding film student and went out to prove that the Slenderman and his Proxies were real.  He started sneaking out at night with his camera, staying up late doing research on the urban legends.  

A year later, Milo Maxwell was not doing well.  Noah's younger brother had to deal with the death of his brother.  He was caught in the mental harm of being told by therapists that the supernatural wasn't real and knowing deep down that it was anyway.  He was a smart kid, but he wasn't doing well in his AP classes.  I think that, still being in Middle School, his parents were pushing him too hard as he grappled with the death of his best friend and older brother.  The Proxy that had initially ID'd Noah for death had been Milo's friend Jonah Eisenbraun... guilt tormented him even though he didn't fully understand what went down.

We thought we had done a good job with Milo back then.  We interviewed him and made sure he didn't know what we were and what the Slenderman was doing.  After we left him, he devoured Noah's library of video tapes and started heading down the same rabbit hole in our wake.  Against Casstiel and my wishes, Chimera had investigated in our wake too and had continued to observe Milo. Chimer decided that he should be part of her new improvised witness protection program.

Good thing too.  Milo called Chimera because the Proxies had re-emerged and were starting to follow him around.  Chimera, Jack and their college friends from UCLA (and the secret Pentacle Academy there), Overwatch and Caissa came to help.  In typical Jack Bismuth fashion, Jack took a strong liking to Milo, advising him to grieve, having lost many people himself.

That catches us back up with the note in Noah's room...

The Pentacle Academy cabal told Milo that the hidden world was in fact real and that he was in danger, only necessary secrets were provided with no talk about what we are or the Supernal.  Going through Noah's old disks we discovered some important clues about the nature of the Observer.  They had been uploaded to Noah's YouTube page:

1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f-Vg7oCZvlA

2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=arOgzzWacbM

The Pentacle cabal resolved to protect Milo and repel any attack by the Observer and try to save the Observer from the residual Abyssal influence. He soon after sent his own message to Milo, his desire to recruit a new Proxy and tie up a loose end.  He was obviously trying to learn Milo to the forest path at the Victor Park Nature Trail. A good place to set up a counter-ambush...

Having identified Kevin Haus as the Observer, Chimera decided that rather than wait for an attack, she should go on the offensive and murder the young man, to hell with trying to save him.  Her growth as a Guardian of the Veil had been brutal, and she was immediately ready to do what was necessary to deal with this Abyssal incursion.  Her old master Magister Witness would have been proud.  Her master before that, Casstiel would be ashamed.  Overwatch went with her, to perform Overwatch, as was his primary function as a sniper for the Guardians as well.  They weren't just students, they were Suspectors and security for the Pentacle Academy.

Chimera confronted the Observer of the collective in his apartment.  He was in front of his home office computer, probably recording instructions of another threatening message.  Chimera rushed for the kill but the Observer was not surprised.  He.... IT... stood up and slimy black tentacles erupted from him, his face a death's head of screams and teeth.  So she cast a spell upon her self to enhance her fighting capabilities... and things went to hell.

I've seen Chimera kick and punch creatures and people apart, including a clockwork T-Rex.  She didn't know it was a Qlipoth.  Nobody did yet.  They did after that.  She cast her spell and was instantly sucked into its Abyssal Nightmare Realm (an Inner Dark realm, to be covered in a future post).

If you know anything about Qlipoth and their Nightmare Realms, you will note that Chimera was worse than dead.  It is said it would take the resources and power of an Archmage to rescue someone from a place like that.  Body and soul she was in the Abyss.  Damned.  Irrecoverable.

That answer satisfied no one.  If it would take an Archmage, then Jack would call one...

That is when I and my creator got involved.  They were wrong though.  It took three Archmasters to get her out...

(To be continued...)

[Mage: The Awakening 2e] Magic & Conditions in the Abyss (Abyss part 1)

Out of Character (OOC):
Chronicle: Mage 3: The 6th Watchtower
Venue: Mage: The Awakening 2nd Edition
Chronicle Storyteller: Jerad Sayler
Assistant Storytellers: Hannah Nyland & Alex Van Belkum

Eye of the Void: 

Secrets of the Dark Ones

Travel in the Abyss & Abyssal Magic

Part 1

Guidelines for Mage: The Awakening Storytellers, by Jerad Sayler

Other Chapters:

Chapter One - Travel in the Dark

Chapter Two - The Outer Dark

Chapter Three - The Inner Dark

Chapter Four - Denizens of the Abyss

Chapter Five - Abyssal Magic

Disclaimer: Secret & Corruptive Knowledge

The systems and material below expands upon concepts and ideas from many different books involving the Abyss.  On the whole it is an addendum to supplement the horror of the Abyss and bring existing game mechanics to an Archmaster level.  At greater power levels such as Archmastery it becomes possible to travel into the Abyss with the tiny hope of survival.  It isn't that non-advanced templates are unable to enter the Abyss, it's just less likely they escape without severe physical and psychic trauma that tends to make the characters unplayable.

All the information and knowledge contained herein is as dangerous and infectious as the Abyss itself.  Only master Scelesti and ancient Left-Handed texts may contains some of the rudimentary understandings of the concepts and mechanics presented in this addendum.  All of the Pentacle Orders and most of all the other mage factions (Seers, Banishers, Apostates, and even some Nefrandi) do everything in their power to destroy this information.  Once they notice the material for what it is pentacle mages acting as Censors don't read the material further before it gets locked up in a Guardian Vault or the deepest layers of a Mysterium Athenaeum.  Elder mages may recognize the lore for what it is and smite young mages who go around spouting innocent sounding theories tied to extinct Scelesti Legacies.  Outside of connections to well established Shadow Cults, it is virtually impossible for a lone cabal of Scelesti to get information that connects the dots like the secrets laid bare within.  Cults of the Left-Handed never last long and usually have to start from scratch or from shattered notes.  Very few mages with a peek at this dark knowledge can trace their magical traditions back more than 50 years.  As a result of this information sanitation and the chaotic nature of the Abyss itself, even to those who worship the void all the material can be seen as heretical, paradoxical, and contradictory.  Nobody but the some of the Aswadim have put all the pieces together.

The only known ways to find out how the Abyss tends to behave and the secrets of the realm, threats and hidden magical uses is by trial and error.  For a character in a Chronicle to learn such things they would need to cross reference multiple Abyssal sources of knowledge.  To put the whole pie together, one would need multiple Daimonomikons of Scelesti Legacies, many Abyssal texts and items.  They would need to have spoken with many Gulmoth and Acamoth, practiced the arts of the Baalim, tried lesser forms of Abyssal magics and encountered many and varied Abyssal Intrusions.  It is easy to see why the Aswadim and very knowledgeable Baalim are the only ones who scratch the surface.

Similarly, the material below represents its own cross-reference and inferences from multiple Mage sourcebooks, such as:
1. Mage: The Awakening corebook (Basic rules on Paradox, Acamoth, and a Scelesti Legacy)
2. Tome of the Mysteries (contains section on Abyssal magic and abyssal entities)
3. Summoners (contains a section on many Abyssal entities and how to summon them)
4. Intruders: Encounters with the Abyss (The whole book is chalk full of ideas on how the Abyss invades)
5. Night Horrors: The Unbidden (Has a scattering of Abyssal entities)
6. Imperial Mysteries (Covers the Aswadim, travel in the Abyss, and the Qlippoth)
7. Left-Handed Path (Covers details information on Scelesti and many secrets, referencing other books)
8. And many many more, Abyssal material liters many books, including the Legacy specific books

Within our Chronicle: The Dethroned Queen

The characters of Mage II: The Dethroned Queen and future Chronicles are most likely going to come across such information from three sources that have been encountered so far: The remaining Denarians, the Scholomance and the Black Zodiac.

The Scholomance

At $10,000 cash (not magically created) per book, for a week long rental, the Scholomance will happily provide and spread all the Abyssal tomes they posses.  You would need to have enough of them (say a 5+) to call it a one dot Library (Abyssal).  Each additional 5 books adds another dot and the subjects would need to represent the breath of available knowledge.  Then the characters would need to do research with these books, performing extended actions each a day per roll and over time accumulate 20-30 successes for each of the little factoids about the nature of the Abyss and advanced Supernal magic.  Storytellers are discouraged from actually revealing the mechanics of the systems presented below until they are actually happening to the characters.  If the ST wants to add more mystery, just state the effect and not how the mechanic works at all... this plays on the fear of the players, the fear of the unknown for the characters too, and generally makes the Abyss way more scary.

Finding out such information from Tessa and the remaining active Knights of the Blackened Denarius would most likely occur in highly volatile situations.  Most likely the characters would learn something about the nature of the Abyss from trying to discover and thwart the plans of the Denarians and their minions.

Don't touch them FYI

After the Horsemens’ first encounter with the Denarians, Prodigy tracked down a pack of Baelhounds being led by a Denarian simply called “The Old Crone.”  He became trapped in the Black Hills   In order to help him sabotage the ritual and make good an escape, he contacted Casstiel needing to find out enough about Abyssal magic to break the ritual.  What followed was a choice that would haunt them both.  Casstiel ignored the Cabal Charter on needed unanimous vote before contacting or dealing with Infernal or Abyssal influences and had the Scholomance rush him a book on Abyssal rituals outside of Rapid City, SD.

What Casstiel received was a nameless and horrid book with the cover made from human skin.  Its binding was made from hair and sinew and you could clearly see a navel in the center of the front page. It was entreat about the practices of corrupting magic and abyssal thaumaturgy written by a Scelestus philospher named Lynden C.  Worse yet Cassstiel had to find sections that would be useful and support Prodigy.  Casstiel didn’t react well to the book and was more or less forced to hand it to Prodigy via an aportation spell.  This was Prodigy’s first taste of the Abyss and the start of his fall.  It gave the Obrimos the ability to befoul his magic enough to gain an edge to bring the coinholders’ plan to an abrupt stop.

From there Prodigy learned the false-truth and euphoria that comes from corrupting his spells, making them twisted and vicious.  Ever since he saw Nicodemus ignore and inflict Paradox Backlash on other people he knew he needed to learn how to counter that.  To fight fire with fire.

The 13 Black Zodiac

When he returned he managed to lift the card with the Scholomance’s contact information out of Casstiel's things, he placed an order and received a very inexpensive (recruitment-driven perhaps) but important book simply called “From the Endless Dark.”  It was written by a series of unknown authors in fine Baskerville font and only the sigil of the Abyss on the inside cover to give its contents away.  It was a book on summoning Abyssal entities, specifically Gulmoth by means of corrupting a supernal summoning circle.  Now that he had started dreaming of his Watchtower wreathed in unholy light needed to learn more… to fight the Lies with anti-truths.  And to save the world after all… many of the Horsemen compromised their morals for an edge to stop the Denarian’s next plot.  Prodigy became a Autark...

Later, when Jack and Chimera were attending the Pentacle Academy in San Diego they came across a small shop run by a mage Fulbax called the Black Zodiac which peddles in Abyssal Knowledge for the purpose of unbiased study and combating the Abyss (not with censorship but knowledge)...

Chapter One - Travel in the Dark

Imperial Mysteries and the Abyss

Any Seeker may enter the Abyss through the Golden Road. Other methods also exist, and some Abyssal entities teach them to interested mages. While every mage vaults through the Void during Awakening, the unique nature of the event shields them from its full force. After Awakening, lesser mages possess no protection from the un-realms. Anything can happen and the Traveler has little say in the matter.

Similarly, the Golden Road protects Seekers, but only on its narrow route across the Void. They cannot encounter much beyond their own Paradoxes (though they do not suffer their effects after the Abyssal Trial). A Seeker may step off the Golden Road into the greater Abyss at considerable risk.
All spells cast in the wider Abyss are vulgar and Paradoxes are more intense; add three to all Paradox dice pools. Archmasters may travel without being overwhelmed by the Abyss as Travelers are, but only for a number of chapters equal to their players’ successes on a Wisdom roll. When time runs out, the Abyss might consume them immediately or imprison them within an Abyssal domain.
The Abyss can’t be mapped or measured. It sometimes appears as a shifting land, filled with warped, broken versions of places, people and objects the archmaster recognizes, but might manifest as anything else: an endless plain of black glass, perhaps, or a field of shifting stars, filled with floating,
rune-covered wreckage.

Mundane natural laws don’t operate consistently; a thrown rock might endlessly accelerate or just hover in place, sucking heat out of the area. During the “grace period” represented by the player’s Wisdom roll, the archmage’s soul guards her from immediately lethal or soul-destroying changes, but if a spark lights a fire made of venomous worms, they might still poison him if he gets too close.
Acamoth and other lesser entities approach the Seeker to offer services as guides in exchange for Wisdom-destroying acts. Within the Abyss, powerful beings create domains with self-contained laws and ecosystems. These are predictable and somewhat easier to survive in, but ultimately exhibit the Abyss’ anti-reality. Orgasms cause deformities, or past events may enter the present when spoken of.
The Abyss destroys reason, hope and being — but it encompasses all of existence. Every mote of Supernal power passes through the Abyss, which assembles it into infinite configurations. As a lawless place, it is unbound by consistency.

Anyone or anything can be found in one domain or another: working geocentric universes, lost grimoires and old friends long gone — but in each case, they thrive because in some sense they are not supposed to exist. As innocent as they appear, the inherent paradoxes of their being reveal
themselves in physical or magical corruption.

Baseline Effects of Travel in the Abyss

According to the rules laid out in the Imperial Mysteries and The Left-Handed Path source books travel in the Abyss is the same as being on the physical plane mechanically.  Except for a +3 to starting paradox.  What? That's it?!  The Abyss is about the scariest thing in the world to a Mage; its corruption near absolute.  Sure the book talks about what the inside might/could look like: nightmarish landscape full of Abyssal entities, a twisted version of the real or Supernal, but that doesn't really do much for most that want more.  So here we go...

A brief Caress: Abyssal Conditions

Sometimes a mage just gets a brief brush with the pure anti-reality of the Abyss.  This is usually the result of any of the Points of Ingress mentioned in the later chapters where the mage does not actually enter the Abyss completely.  Storytellers are discouraged from stacking the following conditions "on top" of the badness that travelers have to deal with when they enter the outer but coming back with some of the more useful and terrifying conditions may help the characters achieve their goals. Now, things in the Abyss may have specific abilities to inflict the Conditions below but those usually last no longer than a scene.  Refer back to Paradox rules for how these work.  I highly recommend you use the conditions from this document as well for other creative uses to represent the corruption of the Abyss. Refer back to Paradox rules for how these work.  I highly recommend you use the conditions from this document as well for other creative uses to represent the corruption of the Abyss.

The Paradox Conditions Appendix works great for this as well.  How about a table to roll for it?
1. Condition/Tilt: Abyssal Affliction - could stretch this out to a Scene for a Condition
- 1.1 Attribute Drain
- 1.2 Infected Nimbus
- 1.3 Pattern Corruption
- 1.4 Arcana Infection
2. Condition: Abyssal Nimbus
3. Condition: Abyssal Imago
4. Condition: Abyssal Backlash
5. Condition/Tilt: Mana Bleed
6. Condition: Corrupted Mana
7. Condition: Manaless
8. Condition: Bedlam
9. Condition: Branding- go to sub-table
- 9.1 Corrupted Aura
- 9.2 Black Mark
- 9.3 Disfigurement
- 9.4 Inhuman Feature
- 9.5 Hoar
- 9.6 Ill Touch
- 9.7 Scarred World
- 9.8 Hell's Choir
10. Abyssal Exposure
11. Void Scourged
12. Abyssally Shunned
13. Void-Touched
14. Abyssal Consumption

New Condition: Abyssal Exposure

Each level of intensity adds +1 to every paradox increase due to each Reach made instead of the Gnosis based paradox dice alone. Resolution: This effect remains for a day or until the afflicted gains one Mana from an Oblation inside a Demense and Hallow.

New Condition: Void Scourged

This condition has a Minor and Severe rating. The Minor version simply inflicts a number of resistant Lethal Damage equal to the magnitude of the direct the exposure to the abyss.  The wounds manifest as radiation sickness, destroyed cell membranes, phantom burns.  If it wraps into aggravated damage it manifests as damaged DNA and cancer.  The Severe version of this does Resistant aggravated damage. Resolution: The wounds heal over a normal time period.

New Condition: Abysally Shunned
You have done something to reject the power of the Abyss when it offered you power in some way.  For a set amount of time, based on how powerful the gift rejected, the caster has a starting paradox pool of +1 that of whatever the ambient paradox is.  Resolution: This usually lasts a year and a day.  A mage cannot Befoul their magic or use any Abyssal based powers while this is in effect.

New Condition: Void Touched 

Vector: Usually occurs from touching the Abyss as part or proximity to an Abyssal Summoning.  It makes the victim sensitive to the wrongness that surrounds Abyssal entities in the fallen world like a cloying miasma.  This is one of the few Abyssal conditions that may have a positive outcome, minus the damage to the soul and psyche.  Effect: Basically a temporary version of the four dot merit: Void-Scourged. Grants +2 to summon or interact with Abyssal Spirits. Detect abyssal within 10 yards/Gnosis with Wits + Composure + Spirit Rank.  Drawback: This ability does not work in the Abyss itself; there is too much interference.  It leaves the person numb and insensate.  They have a very hard time perceiving the Abyss and what lies in it.  This is represented as an additional -3 to all perception rolls.  Resolution: Condition is resolved at the end of the current story or when the player purchases the merit Void-Scourged to solidify what happened to his pattern.  Example: Seraph rejected his first Watchtower and forced his way to the tower of his choosing, not a Mastigos, not a Thyrsus, but an Obrimos.  However, traversing the distance exposed him to the Outer Dark in the Astral gaps between the realm’s edges.  As a result whenever an Intruder lurks near he can feel it as a cold numbness in his skin and limbs.

New Condition: Abyssal Consumption
Vector: Usually occurs from being thrown into or drowned in an Abyssal sea.  Effect: Same as Void-Scourged except while someone suffering from Abyssal Consumption can detect and react to Abyss, they do not know where the corruption is specifically. Proximity or exposure to high levels of pooled paradox of abyssal magic or beings causes negative reactions such as nose bleeds, bloodshot eyes, massive headaches, muscle cramps.  Each level of intensity can also inflict Resistant Bashing Damage.  Drawback: As soon as the character enters the Abyss they take the Condition: Abyssal Exposure at a +3 to the starting paradox pool and the effect lasts for the entire time the consumptive is inside the Abyss.  Resolution: This condition may be Persistent or may go away in a matter of days or months or even years.  Example: Ever since the Vulgar Duel Arcane with the Denarians, Casstiel gets terrible headaches and nosebleeds when Abyssal resonance is particularly strong.

Supernal Magic in the Abyss

There are no guarantees that a spell or Arcana will be compatible enough with the anti-nothing to slip through.  We know the Abyss is permeable with magic, as every spell cast in the fallen world must be pulled through it.  Supernal magic is the purest form of ultimate truth and therefore causes the Abyss to reflect the brightest back, to respond to this stimuli.  It refracts this light through its infinite and vile facets.  Just like with using magic in the Tenemos, there are no solid or permanent rules, Storytellers can use all of the guidelines provided or pick and choose what makes sense for the Abyssal Realms they are visiting.

Baselining Magic: Some hard and fast rules for magic usage follow based on the whims of the Storyteller. Various Abyssal realms tend to increase Personal starting Paradox for all or certain Arcana +1.  As discussed the ambient Paradox is usually at a +3 right off the bat.  Sometimes certain or all Arcana always risk paradox.  Lastly sometimes if the place is strange enough that it favors an Arcana the environment can be used as a Yantra (+2).

Summoning Gulmoth: The realm grants a +5 bonus to rituals and spells to Summon Abyssal Entities (other than Supernal Summonings).

Abyssal Incursions: The Storyteller's Abyssal Incursion roll during a Supernal Summonings is a Rote action.  The Supernal Summoning rolls take a -5 penalty as well.

1. Prime

The Abyss isn’t just some form of anti-magic, a natural and direct opposite of the truth.  An opposite would be its own truth.  It is instead a shadow cast that ripped in from outside.  It is something so alien and foreign to all forms of existence.  It interacts with the higher realms in such a way that it attempts to mimic what it can perceive, sometimes as if it is some kind of conscious or semi-conscious entity.  It can only be defined in terms of what it is not and the mercurial ways it can conform (for a time) to certain constraints that allow it ingress into the Fallen World.  This simultaneously provides it with the means of subsisting on an alien diet or spreading throughout the lower world.  A reoccurring aspect of Abyssal Intrusions are their tendency to be Thaumavoires.  The void itself greedily lets in these pure sources of magic be called down by the Prime Arcanum.

Prime is simultaneously the most reliable and most dangerous to use during travel in the Abyss.  Celestial Fire and Holy fire are perhaps two of the few things that can reliably harm Abyssal entities, burning them away and purifying that which it blackens.  But the Abyss has a greater chance to twist this raw, unfiltered source of all souls, and when it is welded against Abyssal entities it tends to attract the attention of other things.  Certain entities will actually subsist on Primal spells, consuming them to better define their parameters.  Mana Eaters.

Pros:

• Aetherial Winds (Prime 3), Celestial Fire (Prime 4) and Holy Fire and other attack spells using Prime magic almost universally act as Banes against entities in the Abyss and typically do aggravated or resistant aggravated damage to such entities.
• Spells designed to allow weapons to harm ephemeral entities or pierce protective barriers by increasing the truth and symbolic nature of the weapon can be attuned to cut through the protections and abilities of Abyssal entities.
• Prime magic can overwhelm Abyssal entities and influences, sometimes providing a means to force back the corruptive natures of the void.  Wards and barriers can be used to force back the darkness (Wards and Signs, Words of Truth, 

Cons:

• Using Prime magic has a higher change of being twisted when called directly into the Abyss (-3 to Integrity rolls to internalize a Paradox).
• Paradox caused using Prime magic tend to create anti-magic field anomalies or dispell nearby spells.  Internalized Paradoxes cause infected Mana, Mana bleed or Manaless conditions
• Standing spells such as illusions, constructs and temporary Hallows ate subject to being devoured by entities and can cause such entities to become immune to that mage’s magic for the duration of the visit.
•  While creating Hallows provide vital sources of recouping Mana for a traveling mage, it also provides the Abyss with the means to drain away magical energy.
• When used against entities directly to do damage or harm the magical resonance can be detected up to the casters dots in Gnosis x “miles” by other beings, effectively providing them with a perception roll with a bonus to detect the spell equal to that spell’s potency.
• There are few to no sources of Mana in the Abyss from which to subsist from. Anything Prime magic or conventional means would normally yield Mana will only inflict an Abyssal Condition (outlined earlier) or the ManaBleed condition.The only Mana you will find is what you bring with you.  Mana cannot be drawn out of objects or beings native to the Abyss, at most you get nothing, at worst you corrupt your mana supply.
• It is also very unlikely that the mage will encounter much he can manipulate using Prime magic, this place is not a place of magical constructs. Prime magic can be used to correct, patch, and aid with active spells brought with into the Abyss, including spells on other party members.
• Prime constructs tends to backfire in the Abyss. Entities have a nasty propensity to use these “shells” as means to define their existence, possessing or replacing them which can cause a Havoc Paradox in the spell itself.

2. Forces
The laws of nature are severely skewed or not present in the Abyss.  Like using many of the Arcana in the Abyss, you just don’t know if what you are attempting to act your Arcana against is going to submit to the truth you are inflicting.

Pros:

• Fire represents a purifying force both in the Supernal and Phemoral world. While it doesn’t always hold true Fire has a better chance of affecting and harming Abyssal entities over other Arcana for the purposes of blatant attack spells.
• Can provide physical separation from the realms traveled in, can also create air tight bubbles around people to protect them from the vacuum of space, extreme heat or cold, deadly radiation, and a means of propulsion.
• The Abyss is generally a “dark” and “murky” place.  While creating light doesn’t always help pierce the sea on anti-truth that fogs the perceptions and shrouds the environment, Forces can also create the Supernal Truths represented by Light and Sunlight.  This can harm, stun, or drive off Abyssal entities.
• Forces can be used to sense the environment by doing a very broad cross-spectrum analysis of all the various energies at work in the environment around the caster.  For purposes of navigation this reduces the penalties to survival rolls to get one’s bearing and navigate to where they are going (provided they know where) or where they are.

Cons:

• Outside of a nearby Nightmare Abyssal Realm (such as those found within a Qlippoth) there doesn’t tend to be a lot of ambient energy within the purview of this Arcana. Usually any encountered aspect of the Arcana (Wind kinetics, heat, cold, radiation, light) is only what is produced by entities to act upon the party members or emanate from what the party brought with them. Masters able to create new sources of the Arcana are generally better off unless they can exploit the aspects they brought with.
• Uncontrolled forces that leak out (light pollution) or wind where there was none, can attract unwanted attention from a Diadem as if these foreign sources of energy were a beacon.  Sources of energy in the Abyss are valued by all.
• Paradox Anomalies usually result in powerful and strange weather environmental Tilts instead of Havocs or Manifestations.

3.  Fate
There isn’t a lot of good luck in the Abyss which is a shame because that is exactly what you need to hope to escape with your mind and sanity.

Pros:

• Fate magic works fantastic upon the patterns of the character, his or her party members, and anything they brought with them. It is just what the doctor ordered.
• Fate magic can help the party from getting separated by binding everyone’s fates together. The downswing to that is that if one of the party meets a horrible fate the party tends to all get sucked into the same fate.

Cons:

• Ambient Fate in the environment is always false and impossible to read... well more like “extremely untrustworthy.” Any insight gleaned points to the ultimate destiny of entropy or worse things. Making its utility to understand correspondences and associations between things visited in the Abyss all but useless.
• Fate magic cannot be used to help navigate, it usually gets you more lost…
• Powerful Fate spells such as Forge Doom, Evil Eye, or Greater Curse cast upon entities in the Abyss can easily reflect back upon the caster like a mirror (roll potency of the spell vs the entities rank).
• Fate spells against Abyssal entities are a mixed bag as their reality and destiny are quite varied and subjective.

4. Time

Time is also unreliable, tracking it within the void-worlds cannot be reliable. The Abyss exists in many times, some of which are occurring simultaneously.  It existed before reality came into existence and the clock started ticking.  It never started in the first place and Time holds almost no value as a frame of reference.  The Abyss is also the end of time itself, representing the empty, formless, dead aftermath of all entropy; the Heat Death of the Universe.  Therefore, it can also represent the end times.  Wandering the dark maze of an Abyssal Realm, one might encounter anomaly readings of timelines that never existed or that could have been or might yet be.  In an almost infinite amount of timelines and possibilities, one could find also stumble into post-apocalyptic futures or places the Time doesn’t exist or where causality precedes effect.  The worst of these is where a Time Compression has occurred.  All times are happening, will happen, and have happened simultaneously.

Pros:

• Time magic works fantastic upon the patterns of the character, his or her party members, and anything they brought with them. This can be very helpful indeed.
• The greatest benefit (perhaps) is that Time magic is one of the few things that can lengthen the amount of time between unhealable bashing damage caused by environmental extremes. This allows characters to spend more time in the Abyss so long as they avoid other threats, blunting the harsh effects or delaying them until the travelers can accomplish their goals.
• Time magic can be used to increase the amount of time the characters can spend without sleep, sustenance, or recovery time. It can ward off the constant trauma, reducing the amount of time needed to recover from certain effects.
• In places in the Abyss with strange interpretations of time, Time magic may be the only means to ensure that cause precedes effect or that one can traverse a distance without any time moving by. In the cases of Time Compression Time magic may be the only way to travel, how else can you be simultaneously everywhere you will or have gone with no reference of where you are at a given moment along that path, at least not without breaking something fundamental between your ears.
• Time magic can also ward off places in which time moves much faster or slower than they should. If crossing a room feels or acts as if it took 50 years you definitely have a problem that Time magic might be able to fix.
• Time can also help override certain improbabilities or inevitabilities. Inevitabilities - There are certain Abyssal realms where things and travelers get assigned an inalterable destiny. Improbabilities are placers that resemble anomalies, where nothing goes right or actions may cause completely random results, sometimes random but also either very unlucky or lucky. In a place where you are always on a Chance Die, it’s good to have Time magic to help.
  
  

Cons:

• There may be places in the Abyss where Time magic simple ceases to function at all as part of the strangeness of the place. The place may have such a strong current of Time or weak oncoming end state.
• In places where time runs in reverse the mage must treat his spells that apply effects to the past must be instead counted as if they are acting upon the future, always making them more difficult.
• Ambient Time in the environment is always false and impossible to read... well more like “extremely untrustworthy.” Any insight gleaned points to the ultimate destiny of entropy or worse things. Making its utility to understand correspondences and associations between things visited in the Abyss all but useless. This includes uses of Augry, Prophecy or other divination method to glimpse aspects of the future. It is just as possible that the glimpses you receive about (even) party members may be influenced by the realm and not what is actually going to happen.
• Using Time magic senses to look around can drive a person mad… Integrity check the first time at -3. Temporal Paradox was made for this after all…
• Paradoxes may cause a manifestation of the Prince of 100,000 Leaves or one of his servants.  Paradox Conditions come with knowledge of the Red Prince's realm and the desire to propagate and duplicate his history. 

5. Mind
The Abyss is definitely not the place for sane, rational thinking. The place is built upon literal Lies and constructs that run counter to what the universe would perceive as possible. This makes Mind magic a little tricky.

Pros:

• Mind Magic can be used to strengthen and fortify the mind. Mental Wall and Supreme Augmentation of willpower Attributes can really help with breaking points and psychological trauma.
• What is more, the Abyss readily accepts any order brought into it, it is a sea of chaos simply waiting to be commanded. Where it is appropriate the ST may grant +2 to spell rolls for Mind magic used to solidify some aspect of the Abyss in understandable framework. Spells designed to inflict chaos or madness receive a +3 bonus all the time.
• In the Inner Darkness, sometimes Mind Magic can be attempted to be used in ways that align similarly with dream combat. The mage can attempt to gain some minor semblance over the Abyssal “dream” and change the immediate surroundings or attack with it. This invariably attracts the attention of the Diadem or the God of the realm. If inside a Qlippoth doing so too much will alert a swarm of Abyssal intruders to come looking for the mage. It can be a last resort that saves a mage from certain death but it is unlikely that it will succeed if they are inside one of the more powerful Abyssal gods.

Cons:

• Phrasing seems off, not sure how...Trouble is that the spell comes out distorted.  What is rational becomes impulse, attempts to place concrete memories or magical assistance gets turned into something more emotionally based and mad.  For spells that receive the +2 bonus for framing some kind of logic-based spell or effect a random Havoc can occur, inflicting paradox dice as if the spell were vulgar and the mage unable to absorb backlash. Instead this spell is always turned into a Havoc paradox.
• Attempting to connect your mind to anything in the Abyss is immediately grounds for a breaking point and the Madness Condition for at least a scene.

6.  Space
Like most of the Arcana Space is also dichotomous in the way it can be used effectively. The Abyss reacts most consistently as a null space, an anti-space, the Abyss is nowhere. How can sympathy work when associations may connect to different random things if you’re lucky and to nothing more often. How can you traverse a space that doesn’t exist?  Other places and things have lies of sympathy and locality but can be traversed cautiously. Space bends in ways that make it uncooperative to conventional Space magic usage.

Pros:

• In the Outer Dark this can be used to travel a bit. In the vast reaches the anti-matter of the Abyss that behaves as matter is stretched thin enough that its interference gives way to nearly infinite distances. Space can help act as a means of propulsion, moving when the concept of distance is either too extreme or non-existent. These spells act according to the line-of-sight constraints mentioned below.
• The Inner Dark can behave the same way that Space magic works in the Tenemos of the Astral Realms, travel by following the associations of emotional or symbolism.  The more a realm is close to the surface of the Abyss the more normal Space Magic behaves.  A good example of such is a Qlippoth nightmare realm, a razor thin line of oblivion from reality and total alienation to the normal.  When the symbols are twisted fractals of what you are going for, things can get dicey really quickly however.  These rolls to navigate by association suffer a -3.
• If distance can be perceived using line-of-sight then most of the time you can traverse that space. Space magic generally works normally within line-of-sight.

Cons:

• Sympathy may not work at all or what it connects to may be “lies,” connecting to random horrors that have nothing to do with what was called upon. This may manifest similar to the Havoc rules above (copy in). Instead of teleporting somewhere you may teleport half of your body into the mouth of an Abyssal entity and replace your lower half with a pillar of acidic rose quartz.
• Attempting to use Space magic to Teleport or Portal into or out of the Abyss automatically fail. Only Thuraes, special locations and rituals allow for an explorer to enter the realm or layer of the Abyss.  The Abyss is considered another plane of existence and is resistant to use of Space Magic across realms as if it were the Underworld or the Hedge.
• Using Space magic to teleport or portal to inside destinations within the realm does not work as the realm's space resists folding in any helpful way (unless you have the Parametric Language or have the special Scelesti Attainments).  Using Space magic to help navigate takes a -3 penalty but functions as normal.

7. Spirit

Spirit is one of the more useful Arcana but is still a mixed bag. Most of the Abyss doesn't distinguish between things in Twilight or a functioning Gauntlet or Shadow. More nuanced realms and Abyssal Verges may have a lot more utility for manipulating these states.

Pros:

• Next to Prime, second most effective against entities because many of them assume bodies and forms out of simple ephemera and can be partially susceptible to the Arcanum
• In that same vein, Spirit magic may be partially effective at protecting yourself from Numina, Influences, and attacks of Gulmoth.

Cons:

• As stated, ephemeral beings in Twilight, the Gauntlet itself and Shadow do not tend to exist in most places in the Abyss that have been documented. In places that do you have a whole host of new crazy to deal with. Objects affected by Spirit magic might slip into Twilight, across into the Shadow (if it exists) and even get trapped in the Abyssal version of the Gauntlet!
• Spiritual resonance of objects affected is tainted (lasting)
• Spirits brought into the Abyss have a high chance of becoming infected and converted into a Magath (Whatever their nature plus an Abyssal nature combined)
• Spirits in the Abyss have a much higher chance of becoming Magath or Abyssally tainted the longer they travel in the No Place.

8. Life

Life is both a boon and a curse while traveling in the Abyss. Healing doesn't quite work right, repaired tissue comes back corrupted but perhaps better than it was... for a time. There are stories of repaired organs becoming home to a Flesh Intruder...

Pros:

• Can be used to armor the body against the elements and extreme conditions
• Can be used (Life 3) to suppress some of the effects of Brandings (Physical Paradox Conditions).
• Can be used (Life 4) to undo or suppress serious disfigurements, abyssal diseases and so forth.

Cons:

• Healing comes back tumorous and mutated and has to be cleared up once out of the Abyss
• Life spells used to heal are only somewhat effective
• Can't heal resistant damage
• Failures in spell casting create their own Brandings... using Gnosis/2 for the successes (just like a Nimbus Tilt)

9. Death

One of the strongest symbolic truths of Death magic is its association with entropy. This can be used to affect Abyssal entities directly. Other than that it can be hard to use the Death Arcanum in the Abyss. 

Pros:

• No shortage of shadows to use and they come easily to a Death Mage, just be careful not to give them too much life, or they may become Abyssally tainted and gain a life of their own.
• The nature of Death's entropic nature allows a mage to use certain Death spells of Unraveling and Unmaking to affect Abyssal entities they encounter.  Some can be weakened using these magics, others can be strengthened if their Lie is strongly associated with Entropy the in the first place.
• Sometimes, dead flesh is harder to corrupt than living flesh...

Cons:

• As stated, ephemeral beings in Twilight, the Gauntlet itself and Shadow do not tend to exist in most places in the Abyss that have been documented. In places that do you have a whole host of new crazy to deal with. Objects affected by Death magic might slip in and out of Twilight state.
• The Abyss is a lie. All of the death it has claimed were unmade completely annihilated by the Abyss. Any summoned ghost is a lie if gathered in the Abyss and those fake ghosts can only be found in rare places in the Abyss. This tends to mean that Death Mages who tend to use ghosts (that they didn't bring with them) are handicapped.
• Corporeal undead will decay faster than normal, even if spells were put on them to prevent this.
• Death mages tend to lose control of their undead minions in the Abyss, this has to be managed.

10. Matter

Matter does not exist in the Abyss. As such, one can only manipulate the Matter you bring with without any dependability. The Abyss can be anything from nothing at all (hard vacuum) to atmosphere filled with radiation and carbon monoxide to ephemera or dreamstuff. In many ways, true matter is an antithesis of the void, just as Prime is. The exception is that Matter can not easily be used as a weapon against it as focused truth from the Supernal is.

Pros:

• Can be used to isolate the body and protect you from the extreme elements but these will wear down any armor as quickly as it does flesh with its entropic nature to all things that exists (think a spacesuit or high-pressure hard suit for deep sea diving.
• Matter magic can affect dream ephemeral (if it is behaving as matter at the time) in the Inner Abyss (Abyssal Nightmares and other established locales)
• Gross matter is harder for the Abyss to corrupt, so it turning against you is rarer than other spells and materials

Cons:

• Will not affect most inanimate objects created or found in the Abyss
• Corrodes and decays faster than living things

The Good News: Legacy Attainments

Legacy Attainments do not count as obvious magic to Sleepers, are immune to Dissonance and do not trigger Quiescence or Breaking Points in witnesses.  All Legacies teach special Attainments, built from Praxes the Legacy’s members have internalized. The mage invokes them from her reshaped soul instead of reaching into the Supernal. Since they come from within, these abilities are exempted from the No Reprieve and Saturated Paradox Conditions. Legacy Attainment effects are also exempted from the Perpetual Dissonance Environmental Condition.

Survival Through Magic (Applies to Traveling Inner and Outer Dark alike)

Notes from post-mission analysis after rescue of Chimera from "Kevin Haas" Qlipoth Nightmare Realm

by Casstiel
First off: J4A Spell! always, never deal with the Abyss without it, no matter the realm you are in.

• Cast prep spells beforehand, truths grounded in patterns are harder to corrupt
• Insulate against the Abyss
• Create and wear "spacesuits" to isolate yourself from everything outside (void, heat, parasites, microbe analogs, distorted time, rended space, and so forth...)

• Use Arcana to make wards (for pretty much everything)
• Insulate from physical contact, biological exchange
• Insulate against elements and for “space-travel” suits? Ship? Anti-radiation/energy
• Use magic to "keep bad out and keep good in"
• Mental reinforcement spells to deal with or fail to be harmed by what you see.
• The right combinations of the Arcana (Spirit, Death, Life, Mind, Prime) you can harm and repel the entities you encounter using improvised spellcasting.
• Life Support (Air, water, pressure), heat, cold, and supplies
• Insulate the Mind, Soul, Spirit
• Propulsion – should be self-contained and needs no air or water to operate
• Bring sensors and light sources
• Plan for redundancy and contingency
• It is super hard to be prepared for everything… but that is what is necessary to ensure survival
• Now, what about veils? How do you stay undetected from the things living there? Because you can’t make something strong enough to stop ALL of them
• Abyssals tend to be Thaumavoric or at least attuned to Supernal energies…. Sometimes the more you use the more of a beacon you become
• Magic can be used to mitigate or counteract most aspects of the Abyss
• Environmental Extremes – Time can length the spans between taking damage from weather and hard vacuum. 
• Boosting mental reserves can help prevent insanity and avoid having entities exploit Vice and Virtues.
• Prepare for the fight of your life
• This is still a suicide mission..