Handbook For Players Third Draft

Credits Writing Writing Writing Writing by Levi Kornelsen and Kim Lam

Considering Considering Considering Considering by Laura Hamilton and Holly Tetz Cantripification Cantripification Cantripification Cantripification by Layne Myrhe

Art Art Art Art by Gustav Dore

Playtesting Playtesting Playtesting Playtesting by Levi, Kim, Laura, Holly, Layne, Alina, Lloyd, Michael, Lachlan, Nikolai, Brooke, Lil’ Brooke, Rebecca.,

Rory, Dan, Noah

Art Copyrights All art is in the public domain, and free for any use.

Text Copyrights All text is copyright of Levi Kornelsen and Kim Lam, 2009-2010. Permission is given to

duplicate this work, in whole or in part, for personal use.

Chapter 1: The Stage 4 You Are A Magician 5 The Nation of Ruritania 6 Social Tensions 8 Magical Society 10 Cosmology 12

Chapter 2: Character 14 Character Basics 15 Gear & Retainers 16 Finishing Touches 18 Experience 19

Chapter 3: Origins 20 Blueblood 21 Guilder 22 Hedgeborn 23 Hierarch 24 Strangeling 25

Chapter 4: Lineage 26 Channel 28 Host 30 Shard 32 Spoil 34 Vessel 36 Namer 38 Spark 39

Chapter 5: Guild 40 Brewers 42 Scribes 44 Tilers 46 Smiths 48 Weavers 50 Tinkers 52

Chapter 6: Gameplay 54 The Nine Rules 54 Melodrama! 56 Downtime 58 Region Lists 60

Ruritania is a theatre game, or live-action roleplaying game. This means that every player has their own character, a persona they dress up as from time to time to attend events where they interact as that person with others doing the same. At these events, characters will discuss events, trade goods, politick, come into agreements and have disputes, all in pursuit of drama, pageantry, and entertainment of other sorts for the players. The game also has significant downtime components. This means players will fill out little notes to describe what their character is doing in the fictional world of play, and those notes are managed with rules. The purpose of this is so that the characters can build and manage resources for use at events, and explore the occurrences of the world they live in. Finally, the game will often have independent combat and interaction scenes spurred by actions done in events or in downtime. These are usually managed separately from dress-up events, often by sitting down over coffee or the like. Heavy combat scenes, especially, are often best managed as sit-downs on the side using tokens and “combat maps”. This allows for plenty of tactical detail and action, and means that players wanting to play the “heavies” of the game have plenty of opportunities to shine.

This game works to more-or-less integrate five types of play, each of which is broad enough that it could legitimately be called a game unto itself. The Interpersonal Game Players can come into the game and play it improv-style, as something that resembles an ongoing soap opera. To help with this, the game as a whole provides flavor, a stage, and a few of core rules (which is about all that’s needed). If this is main appeal of the game to you, be aware that most of the page count of this book is targeted at other kinds of fun; you’ll likely find yourself reading for flavor more than for crunchy rules bits. The Narrative Game The setting of the game is in motion; there are political and magical situations, each of which could be resolved in several different ways. Players can throw their characters into this mix, and change the fictional world. Chances are good that this will run them right into other characters with contrary interests (partly because the organizers will try to make sure that this happens). The Political Game Players can come into the game with characters that want to lead and organize the others. This can be a lot of fun, but one warning applies: In this game, a leadership type will likely end up running into mercantile action, territory discussions, and the like; those parts of the game were deliberately build so that politics would be about land and trade more than being about pageantry and showmanship. If that strikes you as a net positive, you’re set. The Mercantile Game Many of the abilities characters can possess are based on crafts, and much of the downtime engine is about creating wealth. Taking the time to build up a stock, trading, and otherwise playing at getting the best stuff, is absolutely part of the fun that the game supports. The Combative Game Combat is a central par of the overall game, though not necessarily central to a given character. All of the characters in the game can fight, and some of them are specialists. Much of the stuff of trade is combative gear. You might want to be the big bruiser; you might want to hire the bruiser to help you out, or you might want to form a group of others to scrape through these things together. Any way you approach, eventually, there’s always the question of force.

The nine rules given here encompass “how things work” in gameplay. These are active rules - things you do, rather than things you must avoid. This doesn’t mean players are free to be jerks in real life; it simply means that being a jerk is managed outside of game rules. 1. The Rule Of Yes The base resolution for all actions is If you paid for it, it happens. All attacks hit, all powers work, all the time; there are no randomizers or complex resolu-tion systematics involved in the game. Tactical complexity in the game is cre-ated by many-on-many combats; in a one-on-one conflict the question isn't one of probabilities, but how much damage you're willing to take. 2. The Rule Of Lame If any player makes a declaration or takes an action that will flatly ruin the game for you, simply declare "That's Lame". If other players to agree with you that it's lame, then it doesn't happen. Note that rules-based actions are part of the basic nature of play, and it’s very odd to call those lame. Attempting to finesse the rules to get a stupid result is lame; creating a "revenge character" is lame, killing off a character when there's all sorts of interesting goodness in capturing them instead might be lame (or it might not). Don't do lame things. 3. The Rule Of Black If any player is wearing black, or other very dark colors, with no logos, that is to be treated as "appropriate clothing" by all players. While full costume is cer-tainly appreciated (and how!), it's understood that sometimes it's just not easy to do, because of costs, other events in the same day, or the like. Partial costum-ing with an otherwise-black outfit is also encouraged, where full costuming is impossible. 4. The Rule Of Tags If a place or item is "tagged" with a game tag that says indicates what it is, then that's what it is. Tags are sometimes also chits and cards for resources, or sticky notes on scenes to describe where they are. 5. The Rule Of Stages Any playing space for the game will be marked out into "stages" - one of these will generally be some main set piece location, while added stages will be blank - players can use these and tag them as whatever place they like.

6. The Rule Of Circles The game has check-in on entry, and check-out circle at the end. Don't skip either one if you can help it; these are how your get and deposit item chits, and where experience is given out. 7. The Rule Of Blood When you take damage, you have options. You can:

• Cross off as many health as the damage you took. If you don't have enough health left, you can't do this.

• Fall unconscious. If you're already unconscious, you can't do this.

• Take a Scar. Scars are a way to track the times you’ve cheated death; see the Rule Of Scars, below. If you have three scars, you can't do this.

• Die. Upon death, the soul(s) of the character fall into Styx, and lose track of their present life. A character can’t return from death without help.

8. The Rule Of Scars Scars are permanent. When you take a scar, if you are unconscious, you may invoke ‘plot immunity’. You fall off the waterfall, are left for dead, etc. Other players are required to assist in this; if a character is beaten into being scarred and invokes immunity, the others simply may not finish them (though they may ‘throw them in jail’ or the like). 9. The Rule Of Combat When characters are running about and flinging effects around in ways that can easily overlap and conflict - most usually meaning, when there’s a fight - the action may very well be paused, and people told to “act in turn”. Anyone can call for combat time if they believe it will be needed. Combat time is managed in the following way: • The first character to take aggressive action gets the first “go”. They are

followed by everyone opposed to their actions, and then by everyone on the same side as they are, and then by anyone else, and then start again. In a scene that was set up specifically for a fight, the organizers will instead just say “this side goes first”.

• On your turn, you can take three actions. An action is moving two steps, making an attack, changing your equipment, or using a power. You can only make one attack each round. Many powers “count as your attack” - this is shorthanded by calling those powers attack actions and calling everything else a general action.

• If you have retainers, they go at the same time as you, but try to spend all the actions of each individual you control at once, so that you don’t lose track of how many actions and of what kind each one has left.

Ruritania is a game of melodrama. It is not intended for players who like sitting in their Fortress of Solitude. Characters are expected to confront each other rather than engage in shadow wars. However, without some commonality among players, attempts at melodrama can easily become gonzo instead. So, here are some guidelines, pulled from improv theatre. Don't feel like you need to hit all of these all the time - that's a lot of work, and the game is for fun. Starting Out While there will often be a central location for characters to gather at games, the Organizers encourage players to start their own side scenes in different locations as needed; there will usually be a couple of little 'stages' marked off for this. This can be for clandestine meetings, grand speeches, flashbacks, love, murder, mayhem.... When starting these scenes, there are some things you can do to set it up for melodrama. • Set the Ground First: Set the Ground First: Set the Ground First: Set the Ground First: Big crazy action stops being big and crazy if it's all

there is. "Grounding" a scene can be done by starting off with low-key action, or making sure you actually describe the entry to the scene in pro-saic terms. You need to see the street before the explosion demolishes it.

• Enter With Purpose: Enter With Purpose: Enter With Purpose: Enter With Purpose: When you're about to enter a scene, consider what your character wants. Be on the scene for a reason, to get something done. In group scenes, "I'm here to back up another character" is absolutely a purpose.

Exits & Level-Breaks Letting a scene drone on because no one's quite sure what else to do can be irritating. Here are some ideas on changing and ending scenes. • Exit with purpose: Exit with purpose: Exit with purpose: Exit with purpose: If possible, leave looking to go and do something. This

can actually be harder than entering with purpose, but it's a lot easier to fake. The idea is end scenes definitively, rather than having them trail off and linger (unless there's someone poised to barge in and level-break you waiting in the wings. Then you trail..... and bang.)

• LevelLevelLevelLevel----Breaking Starts New Scenes: Breaking Starts New Scenes: Breaking Starts New Scenes: Breaking Starts New Scenes: A level-break is when you step into a quiet discussion with an announcement of violence, or into a giggle-fest to inform everyone that one of their friends is dead. When you do this, you're trying to replace the current scene with a new one. It can be just what is needed, especially if the current scene is meandering. However, if you get into the habit of level-breaking, you can end up calling for weaker scenes in the middle of stronger ones - not so good. If you're uncertain, take time to assess the scene before bursting in, looking for the moment to pounce.

While YouÊre In There Now that you're in the scene, with a purpose, here are some ways to keep it hopping. • Be Affected MORE, Not Less: Be Affected MORE, Not Less: Be Affected MORE, Not Less: Be Affected MORE, Not Less: The single fastest way to kill drama of all

kinds is to "refuse the offer". If someone tries to intimidate you, and you aren't scared or angered or affected in any way, you're refusing the of-fer. This doesn't mean that you should be scared every time something is scary; ruffling in a clear display of "And now, I'm being brave" is a way to accept the offer. But the cool, detached character that simply 'lets things slide right off' is anathema - and often even starts finding that they're be-ing excluded from this stuff, since they're not really playing with those doing such stuff. If everything has an effect on you (even if it's sometimes completely weird), you're in the drama. And if you want to move from drama to melodrama, be affected MORE, not less.

• Angst Happens OffAngst Happens OffAngst Happens OffAngst Happens Off----Stage, Pathos Happens On: Stage, Pathos Happens On: Stage, Pathos Happens On: Stage, Pathos Happens On: Characters in melodrama will, on account of everything mattering more, suffer. However, charac-ters that are suffering silently aren't engaging. There are techniques in television and film to make it work, but they don't fly in larp; you just end up bored stiff (Many new Vampire players learn this the hard way, sadly. We sure did). Pathos, however - having bit of a breakdown, a binge of drink, and then rallying at a few words from a friend (or a cold dunk-ing), that flies. You want your suffering to splash onto others.

• Escalate Hard, And Inaccurately.: Escalate Hard, And Inaccurately.: Escalate Hard, And Inaccurately.: Escalate Hard, And Inaccurately.: Melodrama escalates hard and inaccu-rately. A flirty glance demands Love At First sight. An perceived insult demands not a slap, but a challenge of honor. This falls in line with 'being affected more", but it's also about about being a dolt. To players of high-intrigue games, this can equally be read as "Be easy to manipulate", and that's totally the case. In melodrama, the cold, manipulative, villain should get shockingly good results a couple of times... And should then get lynched. If this occurs in the game, the organisers will not protect said villian from the upcoming lynching of their character; we will expect you to enjoy it.

• Go LineGo LineGo LineGo Line----ByByByBy----LineLineLineLine: The best dialogue for purposes of entertainment moves between participants often and quickly. If you want a scene to build, keep everything you say to a single sentence at a time, and try to make the sen-tences snap (watch some professional improv - this is nearly universal, and on purpose). If you want a scene to cool, use proper sentence structure, and two sentences at a go. If you want to put everyone to sleep, or you want your speech to be background, start monologuing. (If you actu-ally do want to act as backdrop, start a scene where you are monologuing at a crowd that is offstage, with the other players behind you. This almost completely assures wit occurring back there.)

This game occurs in an alternate pseudo-history. This is a world where most of Grimm’s Fairy Tales are distorted version of historical events, and one where the author H.P. Lovecraft will one day be a prominent scholar, without needing to change his subject matter terribly far. It follows the same rough timeline as real history, and most of the place-names are the same, but the details vary in a number of cases - there were many Kings named Louis in France, to be sure, and the dates of their reigns are within a ear of being the same, but at least three of them were the very same man reborn through some unknown magic. This difference isn’t a secret from the people of the world; there are plenty of ratcatchers that can quote you rates for the removal of boggans, piskies, and other varying forms of small mad Fae things. People believe in monsters. But keep in mind that “not a secret” isn’t at all the same as “understood”. There are comparatively few scholars in mystical lore outside of practicing magicians, and practicing magicians aren’t all that keen on widespread fame. So, faced with magic of significance, people make do with a blend of local superstition, varying religious practices, and rumored advice supposedly offered by some local magician or another.

It is 1844. It is a time of rapid technological change, but society is slow to adapt. Although social stratification crumbling as the balance of power moves from the aristocracy to the middle classes, few realize the extent of the changes…

• Gas, Steam and Electricity: Gas, Steam and Electricity: Gas, Steam and Electricity: Gas, Steam and Electricity: Steam is replacing horse power and the sail, and electricity competes with it to provide the next great wave of power supply. In large cities, gas is the preferred form of lighting, though it produces a flickering yellow flame not much better than oil and candles. In Ruritania, gaslighting is in the process of becoming a reality; Schoelin has a small gasworks and several areas lit in this manner.

• Weaponry: Weaponry: Weaponry: Weaponry: The proto-revolver has just recently come into common use, as has the packeted bullet - shot and ball in a paper sleeve together. Sabers, swords, and similar bladed weapons remain quite popular as well; at the same time, unusual combinations and experimental weapons are also common. Laws for control of firearms exist in Ruritania, specifically banning multi-shot weapons. These are enforced zealously. Conversely, Ruritania has no edged weapon control laws whatsoever, and it is quite common for members of polite society to carry weapons which they have the skills to use in a lethal manner.

• Transportation: Transportation: Transportation: Transportation: Outside of rail, transport is mostly horse-drawn; bicycles are only just coming into fashion. To make up for it, there are efficient messenger services, and small cab and carriage stands are relatively common in towns and in the city itself.

• Entertainment: Entertainment: Entertainment: Entertainment: Much is often home-made; the phonograph is still more of a curiosity than a serious rival to live music. Common hobbies include photography (which goes by many names based on the chemicals used), various forms of collecting, handicrafts, and gardening. The main sources of ‘massed’ entertainment are Theatre and Opera, which are very popular.

• Clubs, Salons, and Dinner Parties: Clubs, Salons, and Dinner Parties: Clubs, Salons, and Dinner Parties: Clubs, Salons, and Dinner Parties: This is an era in which most of the social gatherings and institutions of the higher classes are rigid and formalized. Gentlemen’s clubs, Ladies’ salons (and mixed salons), and dinner parties each have sets of expectations which would be more than sufficient to fill a volume or two. These strictures are sometimes pointless, but on those instances where guests have differing and volatile views, it’s possible for a skilled hostess (or sometimes host) to see that friction turned at least partly into a better evening rather than a worse one.

• Sexism: Sexism: Sexism: Sexism: This isn’t quite history in terms of women’s roles, but it certainly isn’t equality, either. Women taking on roles that are traditionally male are somewhat more often viewed as eccentric, rather than dangerous. In Ruritania specifically, eccentricity is pretty common, but sniffy attitudes, crude jokes, and “prove it” challenges abound.

Ruritania is a small, ’backwater’ nation in the extreme south of Germany, from one point of view. However, people do come to it on ships; there’s a pot town. If you know your geography, this doesn't make any sense at all. There's a running theory among some magicians that the country sits sidelong to normal reality - that it's a 'faerie kingdom'. But the nation isn’t not overtly strange; the people are people, the magic is magic. The Five Towns Ruritania has five towns of significant size (as well as a number of hamlets and other minor centers). The towns are... • Tor Eisen Tor Eisen Tor Eisen Tor Eisen is the port town on the west end of the nation; it is harsh, dirty,

mercantile, and extremely lower-class. Where much of the nation is quiet and sedate, Tor Eisen is almost frenetic.

• Schoelin Schoelin Schoelin Schoelin is the capital; it's the (semi-)sparkling center of the nation. The highlights of Schoelin are the estates around the edge of town; as one progresses towards the centre, the class falls rapidly. For most of the upper classes, the Schoelin ‘ring’ is the basis of society.

• Wierstaad Wierstaad Wierstaad Wierstaad sits on the pass to the north into the German states. It began life as a temporary military training camp and base, and remains cleanly laid out, military in management, and quiet.

• Hoherabbey Hoherabbey Hoherabbey Hoherabbey is the eastern tip of the nation, and is built on the slope of mount Pfander, around an abbey and a cathedral. The town is known both for the excellent masonry of the building, and the salt mines of the slope.

• Dolchmarkierung Dolchmarkierung Dolchmarkierung Dolchmarkierung is south of Schoelin in the deep forest, and is even more of a backwater than the rest of the nation; in many respects, this town is basically medieval.

The Ruritanian Character The people of Ruritania aren’t terribly strange, but they do have their quirks. A few things that set Ruritanians apart: • RoverRoverRoverRover----Love: Love: Love: Love: According to local legend, the first king of Ruritania was a

Gypsy. Or a pirate. Or a bandit. Or some other form of roguish wanderer ; the legends vary. Whatever the case, the common folk have a deep and abiding appreciation for wandering scoundrels, and young people (mostly, but not always, men) will occasionally go “on a wander” at some point in adolescence. The upper classes hate this sort of thing.

• An “Orthodox” Church: An “Orthodox” Church: An “Orthodox” Church: An “Orthodox” Church: The local branch of the Christian faith has long since made its peace with the people of the nation, at the cost of being entirely disavowed by almost all other branches. Folk rituals, such as leaving out bread for ghosts in harvest-time, have simply been absorbed into church practice. This flexibility has eliminated almost every other branch of ‘folk’ religious practice into a single mass, with the possible exception of the legendary witches of the Thornwood. Ruritanians, thus, are almost universally Christian, after their fashion, and the church is a powerful unifier between the high and the low.

• The Bohemian Affection: The Bohemian Affection: The Bohemian Affection: The Bohemian Affection: Absinthe has made it’s inroads into Ruritanian culture in almost entirely upside-down fashion. It is the liqueur of choice among the idle petty nobility (as opposed to the working rich of the Volker Haus). The Knights and Dames of the nation, already only a few steps above the forming “middle class”, have been forming up around a new artistic culture of their own patronage, open to many.

Seen From The Gutter Many of the people of Ruritania are upset, and the reasons, while currently inflamed by the recent royal endorsement of sorcery, are certainly not limited to that debate. Other topics which often create civil debate, concern, and ac-tion are listed here, from least to most recent:

• Modernity: Modernity: Modernity: Modernity: From a gutter perspective, every single social ill that exists in the nation can be laid squarely at the feet of (firstly) the King and (now) the Volker Haus coming into a desire for the country to “become modern”, a desire that has led to pointless political waste, heavy oppression in many quarters, and no actual benefits in terms of wealth created to date.

• Law, Appeal, and Prison Death: Law, Appeal, and Prison Death: Law, Appeal, and Prison Death: Law, Appeal, and Prison Death: Since the 1810’s, Ruritania has been a member of the German “Federal Diet”, a series of documents and complex negotiations. One of the side effects of this membership is the requirement for courts of law to have a ‘ladder of appeals’. In the case of Ruritania, the ‘ladder of appeal’ moves outside the country and into the Kingdom of Saxony. Those imprisoned for political reasons often have their appeals delayed for years, and those making appeals to the point of leaving the nation have often been subject to violence from the guard.

• Factory Conditions: Factory Conditions: Factory Conditions: Factory Conditions: As is the case in many countries during the industrial revolution, the working conditions of those employed in factories are atrocious, leading to tension between workers and factory owners.

• The Constitutional Riots: The Constitutional Riots: The Constitutional Riots: The Constitutional Riots: From 1831-33, rioting erupted in many German states, as the people of the nation sought to have their rights protected in the form of a constitution. In Ruritania, these riots were suppressed bru-tally, almost savagely, and only partial efforts at appeasement were made.

• The Joke of Parliament: The Joke of Parliament: The Joke of Parliament: The Joke of Parliament: In 1833, to quell the rioting, a weak constitution and weaker parliament, known as the Volker Haus, were enacted. This new parliament became a bureaucratic busywork, and another financial sink on the country.

• Censorship: Censorship: Censorship: Censorship: After the ongoing vitriol of the press to the newly-embodied parliament, a board of Censors was created in 1836, and based on an existing system of application and license for all printing operations.

• Faith In The King:Faith In The King:Faith In The King:Faith In The King: While the King began his reign as a popular figure, the general feeling is that he has become corrupt, seeking a "bigger picture" with such fervor that it's badly hurting the smallfolk that actually make up the nation. It is common practice for the people to pray for the recovery of his judgement, and for the return of his health if if if if that goes well.

Seen From The Top Naturally, those in power (and those affiliated with them) look at these issues in some radically different ways that those who advocate civil protest, criti-cism, and revolutionary activity:

• Law, Appeal, and Prison Death: Law, Appeal, and Prison Death: Law, Appeal, and Prison Death: Law, Appeal, and Prison Death: The legal doctrines of the Federal Diet are a first step toward a unified German state, without needing to throw away the still-useful systems of older times. That some wish to overthrow the system should shock nobody. Their failure is also no surprise.

• Factory Conditions and The Brink of Hunger: Factory Conditions and The Brink of Hunger: Factory Conditions and The Brink of Hunger: Factory Conditions and The Brink of Hunger: The people have demanded prosperity. To give them these things requires that the nation put forth the great effort of an industrial nation. As the nation grows into the modern age, many of these problems will resolve on their own.

• The Constitutional Riots and Parliament: The Constitutional Riots and Parliament: The Constitutional Riots and Parliament: The Constitutional Riots and Parliament: The people of the country have long desired a voice. But only those with a true understanding of the issues can make wise decisions. We cannot afford for a man to be given bread and circuses at the expense of the nation; for this reason, to verify and seal the rights of the people into law must necessarily be a most careful process, lest the greed of a few who know the law too well over-come and abolish the needs of others. A strong constitution is certainly desirable, but it must be reached slowly and carefully - to give in to every demand of a mob is a sure sign that anarchy cannot be far away.

• Censorship: Censorship: Censorship: Censorship: With such complex issues at hand, and so many decisions that must be made which take away the flippant desires of today to meet the bare needs of tomorrow, inflamed and rash opinions must not be allowed to run rampant. Loud simplicity may be an easy path to take, but it will not feed our grandchildren in the world that is being built.

• Faith In The King:Faith In The King:Faith In The King:Faith In The King: On the whole, the nobility feel that the king has "grown sensible" in his later years, and has become an agent of Progress and Unity.

This game is about magicians. Specifically, the action centers on what are called lineage magician, as opposed to hedge magicians, a distinction that vaults the action directly into the realm of the superhumanly potent. Whether or not a lineage magician is even truly human is seriously questionable. Why So Scary? From an outside viewpoint, the lineage magicians could be easily be shown off as the monsters of the setting. Each of them is formed by an unholy fusion between a human with merely “natural” magical powers and a gateway to other-planar things which are, for normal people, insanity-inducing in their sheer wrongness. However, since these are the people that you’ll be playing, they are presented in a much less emotionally charged fashion. For the most part, lineage magicians are neither truly good nor truly evil; they’re confusing and confused individuals with more power than they understand. They’re people. But they are people whole live on a different scale, and the reasons for the difference do matter.

A Word On Secrecy Magicians in the setting are not a secret. People in general know about the existence of magicians, and have varying views on them. For the most part, lineage magicians keep the exact extent of their power a secret - they might very well be able to hack their way through a crowd or flatten a building, but that doesn’t make them immune to mobs, poisons, or snipers. Most lineage magicians like to be viewed with a little awe, a little fear - but the smart ones keep those proportions at “a little”, in defense of their own lives and livelihoods.

A Quick Overview: True & False Here’s some fast “true and false” about magicians in this setting... • Magicians deal with devils:Magicians deal with devils:Magicians deal with devils:Magicians deal with devils: Not quite true. Magicians certainly deal with

otherworldly stuff, and their inborn powers are not quite human in origin, but neither are they something demonic. Shapeless creatures of green and liquid metal, rifts in space, and unspeakable sights from beyond the walls of reality are much more in the general province of magicians than devils.

• Magic is passed through the blood:Magic is passed through the blood:Magic is passed through the blood:Magic is passed through the blood: True. The magicians of the game fall into five diverse lineages, which make up the quasi-organisation called the great families.

• Magicians sometimes create enchanted items:Magicians sometimes create enchanted items:Magicians sometimes create enchanted items:Magicians sometimes create enchanted items: Significantly more true in the setting than in many stories. Each magician in the game possesses a magical crafting skill which they practice regularly. Petty magical items are trade goods in the great families.

• Magicians, like other supernaturals, must be invited in to your home:Magicians, like other supernaturals, must be invited in to your home:Magicians, like other supernaturals, must be invited in to your home:Magicians, like other supernaturals, must be invited in to your home: True and false. There is such a thing as a 'threshold effect', which curtails the power of magical beings inside it that are uninvited. However, the effect covers an area larger than a home - usually, a whole neighborhood falls under a single threshold effect. Each threshold is centered on a 'hearth', the location where magical energy in that area gathers naturally, and which occasionally generates 'keys' - items, rituals, or people allowing access to the power of the region. A magician without a hearth-key for a region has serious problems operating inside its threshold.

• Magicians are part of a strange world of Fae and monsters:Magicians are part of a strange world of Fae and monsters:Magicians are part of a strange world of Fae and monsters:Magicians are part of a strange world of Fae and monsters: True. There are uncountable kinds of beings that look to hearths as a source for power, and magicians must occasionally deal with all of them. For the most part, these beings are totally uncommunicative and entirely alien, and magicians deal with them by attempting to simply wipe them out and claim their hearths. However, some of these being are much more person-able, and occasional alliances and friendships do occur.

• There are "high" magicians and "hedge" magicians:There are "high" magicians and "hedge" magicians:There are "high" magicians and "hedge" magicians:There are "high" magicians and "hedge" magicians: True. Any lineage magician can use vastly greater amounts of power than any hedge magicians. Hedge magic is "crafting" magic, and is largely ritual; lineage magicians have access to crafting and lineage abilities, which work on the spot and are, for the most part, combat-capable. Magicians played in the game are lineage magicians.

• Magicians are tied to places, ley lines and focuses:Magicians are tied to places, ley lines and focuses:Magicians are tied to places, ley lines and focuses:Magicians are tied to places, ley lines and focuses: Partly true. Lineage magicians draw power from hearths, but don't manipulate the flow of power from one hearth to another. There are people capable of this feat, though, called Hearthbonded. Almost all Hearthbonded are descended of people local to the region since time out of mind.

Everything that dreams creates Quina, a form of energy. Quina is tricky stuff to quantify; it acts according to rules native more to the unconscious mind rather than bowing to physics; it is tied to primal powers not because it must be but because those things matter to those that create it. Quina is the foundation of all magic. The Loose Flow Of Power Where things dream, Quina moves, seeking other Quina that carries similar imprints. This flow occurs in pools that mirror the living spaces of the dreamers; a street or neighborhood has one distinct ‘pool’, while the next block over, a different pool is in motion. Each flow finds a central locus - a place or thing that enough dreamers imprint into it regularly, and which is not active in itself. This locus becomes the place where the flow collects; the touchstone for the power moving through that immediate area. Such spots are known to magicians by many names, but most commonly as Hearths. Hearths, Thresholds, And Keys As a Hearth gathers age and power, it has a number of effects on the area. First, the presence of a Hearth causes the pool of power that created it to grow more difficult to influence; a magician wishing to cast a spell or activate an item within that pool must work harder. This is known as the threshold effect. At the same time, certain actions, items, or persons become imbued with a sort of ‘trust’ from the Hearth - those performing such actions, carrying such items, or who have been well-referenced by those persons are not affected by the threshold effect. Such actions, items, and persons are generally known as hearth keys. Fae As well as centralizing the flow of power in a region, a Hearth also comes to store Quina. Left to itself, fragments of this power will attain a process that resembles thinking, and emerge as Fae. These beings are formed, however, from the impulses of dreaming minds - and not only human ones. They are always confusing to deal with, usually nonsensical, and sometimes horrifyingly dangerous. Left long enough, a hearth will spin out many Fae, which will slowly cull and duplicate until a sort of community forms. A mature Hearth that has seen no interference for decades will become a Fae Court, which may be protective of it’s dreamers, or predatory, or any mixture of the two. Such Courts exist in states of permanent competition; even the most benevolent of Courts with regards to their dreamers still cull their own ranks constantly.

Hearthbonded Of course, things don’t tend to be left untouched. Creatures living in an area for many generations, who dream of the personalities of places, sometimes adapt. The signal adaptation to magic is the ability to force it out from a Hearth; the Hearthbonded are those who possess this capacity. Powerful and gifted Hearthbonded, who have not only become aware of this ability (most do not), and have practiced their powers for a significant amount of time, can cause vast flows of power from one Hearth to another. A few Hearthbonded have become lords over Fae courts, simply by being able to feast or starve those courts at will. Hearthbonded have existed from time before memory. Hedge Magicians At some point in prehistory, some Hearthbonded were instead born with the capacity to force Quina out of Hearths and into material form. Those that were born empowered in this way became a new kind of magic-worker. Each family line of such magicians, developed and refined the ability to craft a few kinds of magical items. For the most part, these Hedge Magicians outpaced the original Hearthbonded; almost any town has a Hedge Magician or a cluster of them somewhere, while only a few towns have a Hearthbonded in their ranks. Outsiders As it happens, this earthly arrangement of power is unusual in the greater scheme of reality (though not unique). On most planes of existence, the local “Fae” are dominant, and dreamers are bred for their ability to generate Quina. In their travels, a number of wanderers from such other planes have found their way to our reality. Such beings found the local powers laughable, and began to establish centers of power - the first human cities. In those cities, these alien gods opened gates to their own planes, letting the rules of far realities leak across. Such power brought about an age of tyranny under beings that wished to remake the human mind into a form more suitable for giving them power. Lineage Magicians In the cities of the Outsiders, mad attempts and experiments were untertaken, as hedge magicians sought to eke out some form of existence. They worked to draw tainted Quina from the gates to alien realities, whether to challenge the alien gods or to gain a place of power at their right hand. Their failures were immense. The few and awesome successes came when they transformed their own bodies into gateways to other-planar power, inheriting an entire new suite of powers and abilities, and the ability to store Quina within themselves. These successes were the first Lineage Magicians, and between them, they shattered the thrones of the Outsiders. The alien gods were driving into hiding by humans who had stolen and mastered their own powers. Your ancestors.

There Planes That Matter From the viewpoint of a lineage magician, four planes of existence matter. Foremost among them, of course, is Reality - the plane where human beings live out their lives. After that, it gets a little stranger.

• Styx: Styx: Styx: Styx: The shadowed plane of ghosts, Styx is the source of power for the lineage known as Hosts. Despite the macabre nature of the plane, it is far more hospitable to human interaction than Lethe or Gehenna; there is a ground and a sky, rivers, boats, and (formerly) human residents.

• Lethe: Lethe: Lethe: Lethe: A plane of liquid silver, which is both the medium in which the denizens live and the stuff of their bodies, Lethe is the source of power for the lineage known as Vessels. The plane is not especially conducive to the presence of normal humans - there is no real gravity, no indications of direction; there seem to be no language-bearing residents, although some Shard explorers speak of great stony vessels delving in these ‘waters’.

• Gehenna: Gehenna: Gehenna: Gehenna: A great vortex of incandescent and freezing fire, Gehenna is the source of power for the lineage known as Channels. The plane is actively hostile to non-Channels, being a blazing and spinning shoal of energy and destruction inhabited only by beings of utter cold and by flocks of strange and singing crystals.

And There Are Un-Places Between Lineage magicians draw on the other planes regularly, but they don’t usually go all the way across and visit. They do, however, often tap into the taint that those other planes cast onto reality, stepping into areas often called “Backstages”. A backstage (properly called an Immrama) is a reflection of reality. A magician in a backstage is insubstantial and invisible to those in the real world, but they remain solid and substantial to that mage. Magical theories suppose that the Backstages are part of a locus of distance, a place-that-isn’t, from which the Lineage most often called Shards draws their powers. And Places Further Beyond A few hardy (and possibly insane) Shards have spent time venturing in these places, seeking pathways that would link them to still other planes. There are tales of following the ships of Lethe back to a place of sparking stones, of strange outposts sighted in the vortex of Gehenna. However, most venturers instead make their explorations up the many-headed river of Styx; those who return sometime tell of finding ghosts of non-human races, and some claim to have found pathways up into the worlds of such peoples.

StyxStyxStyxStyx

T he ÂBlack BackstageÊ

RealityRealityRealityReality

LetheLetheLetheLethe

T he ÂSilver BackstageÊ

GehennaGehennaGehennaGehenna

T he ÂWhite BackstageÊ

The first lineage magicians changed themselves from hedge magicians into something significantly more potent and less human. Their children inherited much of this power, and generations since then have inherited it in turn, for something approximating five thousand years. In that time, lineage magicians have organized themselves in a great many ways, and each of those forms of organization has left traces behind. Homelands The original lineage magicians all mimicked what they had heard of one another, but they did so over great distances, over a span of a few hundred years. Each lineage, bonded to one “outside reality”, also came into existence in a different place. The Styx-bonded Hosts were founded in and around Egypt; the healing and diseased Spoils came into their power among the proto-Celts. The Channels, linked to ice and light, came into existence in the area know known as Poland. The original ’homeland’ of the Vessels was blasted from the earth in their uprising; it is remembered as Atlantis. The only lineage that never had a homeland was the Shards, linked to travel itself. Lineage Struggles These original lineages spread through many peoples, meeting from time to time. Where they met, they most often met as rivals for territory and Quina. A great number of struggles are remembered as “lineage wars”, though it seems likely that they never actually involved enough people to be worthy of the name. But while most struggled, a few traded the various craft items that their respective lines had become able to create. The alliances of these traders grew more potent and wealthy as time went on, and a few of them discovered the combination of powers that would change everything. The Rise Of The Ancients A stable group of lineage magicians that spans a few different lineages can, by using specific powers, set up a means by which all the members are regularly reincarnated into new bodies after death. Hosts and Spoils are most necessary to forming such an arrangement, but other lines can bring their gifts to bear as well. This fact did not escape the notice of magicians in times past, once they got down to really talking, and led to the creation of small circles of magicians attempting to keep such a cycle running over time. Such groups have varying “staying power”; some manage a few reincarnations, while other such circles have managed to last hundreds of years. The member-beneficiaries of these groups have come to be known as Ancients.

The Confusion The benefits of cross-family trade, one combined with the lure of possible immortality, were simply too much to resist. Within a hundred years of the first reincarnations, communities that had been steadfastly single-lineage purists were inviting the descendants of other lineages to join them. Lineage magicians mixed in great numbers. However, despite this general trend of mixing, no single “social order” ever became truly dominant. Instead, what grew up was a multiplicity of different organizations, including… • Ancient Circles: Ancient Circles: Ancient Circles: Ancient Circles: Naturally, many magicians worked to create groups and

circles for reincarnation. Many of these persist even now; cities and large regions are often quietly “guided” and “advised” by increasingly cautious (and powerful) Ancients.

• Guilds: Guilds: Guilds: Guilds: In time, it was found that while a lineage mage can learn only one set of “crafting arts”, they don’t need to learn the same set as their parents. This discovery led to many long-term deals being sealed with fosterage across lineage lines, a practice so successful that most lineage magicians have to pause to remember which lineages originally had which crafts.

• Charters: Charters: Charters: Charters: Those able to craft magical inks, known as Scribes, have long been able to draft binding contracts among those who agree to them. Over time, this has led to the creation of many regions that are ruled “by charter” - a single (often lengthy) contract for society binds the members together, and is re-signed yearly (negotiations on what will change for the next contract typically go on year-round). There are even distributed groups (including at least one knightly order) managed this way.

• Strangeling Cults: Strangeling Cults: Strangeling Cults: Strangeling Cults: This upheaval did not create, but revealed, that a number of single-lineage areas had slowly established contact with the beings living in the planes that their powers were ‘sourced’ from, and had brokered deals for power. A few purges were attempted against these groups; a few even succeeded. However, it slowly became clear that even though the Strangelings were making deals with Outsiders, it really was the Strangelings that were getting the better end of those new deals. The practices and methods of the Strangelings are persecuted less and less, and spreading into acceptability more and more as time goes on.

• Other Local Societies: Other Local Societies: Other Local Societies: Other Local Societies: In local terms, lineage magicians have likely tried on almost every way of arranging their group affairs that un-gifted humans have, albeit on much smaller scales. Communes, tyrannies, democracies, and everything between, have been tried in varying places.

The Great Families The sum total of all these groups, and of the families engaged in them, is known colloquially as “The Great Families”. It has no single form, no unified agenda. It’s a giant mess of pieces, and all the pieces talk to each other.

Lineage Magicians Are New In Ruritania The lineages arrived only recently. Like many small countries with stable royal lines, Ruritania appears to have a threshold effect not only on it's neighborhoods, but on the nation as a whole. A number of overtures and gifts made by the King (legally a figurehead, but a practiced diplomat) to the families, and vice versa, seem to have lifted this threshold. But TheyÊve Been Trying To Get In For A While The families have been seeking access for quite a while. Many of the newly arrived magicians are descended from hedge magic families that call the nation home. Others have noble ties of blood. Still others are arriving in pursuit of relatives that were sent as “pathfinders” to seek out some means to enter the country in a lasting way. These Magicians Will Form Society The ways that the lineage magicians associate with each other, with the magic and power of the nation, and with the politics and current events of the region, are the action of the game. Characters who don’t engage these things to some extent are characters that aren’t being played. Whatever means of dealing with each other the magicians come up with is is is is their society, however absolute or mutable, formal or informal it is. ThereÊs No Right Way For Society To Form The great families aren’t a concatenation of a great many structures, rather than a single giant hierarchy. From the perspective of the whole, it doesn’t make any real difference how magicians in Ruritania govern and organize. Naturally, some specific groups inside of the great families will have very spe-cific preferences, and may try to exert their influence in varying ways - but it’s also likely that mundane humanity will put pressure on the whole to adapt as desired.

But There Are Common Points A number of common points that span all of these places and forms are given lip service at least though almost all the societies of lineage magicians: • Hearths are always central: Hearths are always central: Hearths are always central: Hearths are always central: The way that a society manages the distribu-

tion of hearths is core to what a society actually is. If three magicians have a monopoly on who gets what Hearths, they are the actual rulers in any practical sense, no matter what other structures are pretended to.

• Force creates structure: Force creates structure: Force creates structure: Force creates structure: Lineage magicians, bluntly put, are all capable of violence. There aren’t any universal ‘polite rules’ on how this violence is to be used - so, in general, this means that power accumulates around the ability to exert force, rather than force accumulating around authority. Gang-like structures are often the early foundations of any local society.

• Marketplaces are valued: Marketplaces are valued: Marketplaces are valued: Marketplaces are valued: Regions that have devolved down into infight-ing and chaos often retain at least one place that is ‘neutral’, where things are bought and sold among magicians. The urge to truck and barter runs fairly strong among crafters of mystical goods. In a number of cases, such marketplaces have become the central point of a new order.

• We’re We’re We’re We’re still still still still family: family: family: family: It can be a bit more difficult to stab your philosophical and political enemy in the streets when you’d need to explain the matter to their and your (truly powerful) grandmother at dinner next Sunday. In places where things have gotten out of control, it’s quite common for eld-erly members of the families to make a few absolute statements about the shapes the chaos is permitted to take. This may seem silly, but very few magicians are stupid enough to cross the eldest members of the families.

Forming Society: Townships A character that has an interest in shaping the forming of society in Ruritania (or in revising it in some way) is advised to first note that Hearths are already divided up by town. Because of this natural division, it can be expected that one of the earliest “natural” groups of characters will be the residents of a town, and that the arrangements to manage “who gets what” in terms of Hearths made within each town will be the foundations of society. Forming Society: Contracts Again, for characters wishing to shape or revise society in Ruritania, it is ad-vised that you become familiar with the workings of Union Ink, and (to a lesser degree) of Champion’s Ink, and determine where these items can be gained. Many societies are solidified by creating a series of “articles”, where each arti-cle is a single agreement created by means of Union Ink. Note that when an agreement created with Union Ink has a significant number of signatories, breaking that agreement is an invitation to die suddenly.

Before creating a character, you'll likely want to at least skim through these rules, and get an idea of the kinds of characters that the rules support. You may want to read over the setting material and the rules information. Once you've done that, actual creation is extremely simple. Your character will have the following components: • An Origin: An Origin: An Origin: An Origin: The first package chosen. An origin is a partial answer to the

question “Why is this character in Ruritania?”. Each Origin grants you either a set trait, or a choice between several, and access to a list of further traits.

• A Lineage:A Lineage:A Lineage:A Lineage: The second package chosen. A Lineage describes the original and otherworldly source of your magic. Each Lineage grants you a set of cantrips, a fixed power, and access to a list of further powers.

• A Guild: A Guild: A Guild: A Guild: The third package chosen. A Guild describes the kinds of items that your character is capable of creating. When you choose a Guild, you’ll gain the ability to craft a single kind of item, and will have access to a list of further items you can learn to create with experience.

• A Vision: A Vision: A Vision: A Vision: A vision is basically a statement of political outlook. See the description of visions in the next few pages.

• A Bonus Trait: A Bonus Trait: A Bonus Trait: A Bonus Trait: After making these choices, you may choose a single added trait from your lists. You must have any prerequisites listed.

• Equipment: Equipment: Equipment: Equipment: You will have 25 points to spend on starting equipment; this money is to have starting craft items, hire retainers, and so on.

Coming In With Ties A character that has a history with one or more of the other characters in the game has something of an edge - even if that relationship is negative. By coming into play with context for your character, you have a relative position; the way that the other character relates to people will influence you, there are motives for action right from the first moment you step into play, and so on. Whenever possible, try to get a few minutes with one or more other players and set up a few relationships for your character before you start to play them in the game.

Character Diversity In general, it’s a good thing for the game if the characters in it are diverse, either in terms of mechanical stuff, or in terms of attitude, or both. Having what amounts to the same character as another player doesn’t generally create good times, unless that’s actually built in to the characters (such as if the players are deliberately playing as siblings or something similar). To help reduce the chance of this happening, the organizers will often temporarily encourage, discourage, or even close specific packages. Even if a package is “closed”, though, you can still check around with the other players that share it. If your concept for how the character will play out in action is different enough from others, the organizers will happily reconsider. Some Quick Mechanics Advice A few final things worth noting before you start designing: • The ThreeThe ThreeThe ThreeThe Three----Month Tester: Month Tester: Month Tester: Month Tester: If you play out the same character for 3-8 events,

and then change characters, you keep all the experience you gained. So, when considering something that might be a stretch to play, the simple question is “Can I be this person for three events?”.

• Money will never be cheaper: Money will never be cheaper: Money will never be cheaper: Money will never be cheaper: When you spend points on equipment, always take a few points in money. While you likely won’t need all that much money in any given month, the point value for cash is deliberately very, very low.

Picking Equipment Each character enters play with an allotment of 25 points in gear. These points are exchanged for money, materials, etc, as follows: • Craft Items:Craft Items:Craft Items:Craft Items: You may spend these points on items made with Guild

crafts. The point cost of an item is the creation cost (see the items).

• OwnOwnOwnOwn----Guild Items:Guild Items:Guild Items:Guild Items: Items created by your own Guild cost half as many points as usual.

• Raw Matter:Raw Matter:Raw Matter:Raw Matter: You may also take actual Ingots, Skiens, and the like as start-ing goods; these cost one point each. The same half-price alteration for items made by your own Guild applies; one point buys two such units of material.

• Marks:Marks:Marks:Marks: Marks are the 'mundane money' of Ruritania; each point put into Marks nets a character 50 marks. Marks can be used to hire pawns and retainers at creation, pay their upkeep, and purchase the slim list of basic 'mundane' items that matter to the game. Note that you need six marks each month for "personal upkeep". Note also that marks will never be so easy to get as they are at creation.

RETAINERSRETAINERSRETAINERSRETAINERS The vast majority of mages maintain a small staff of people. Retainers are hired and upkept with Marks; to hire retainers at creation, convert points to cash and hire normally. Retainers are shown overleaf; you may hire only one of each retainer, except for Minions. ARMAMENTSARMAMENTSARMAMENTSARMAMENTS Mages must regularly protect their territories from... things that feed and grow from magic, occasionally from other magicians, and from those who view magic as abominable. As a result, most mages tend to go heavily loaded. Ar-maments are bought with Marks.

• Hand Weapon: Hand Weapon: Hand Weapon: Hand Weapon: If you are using a hand weapon, you deal a base of 3 dam-age, rather than two, when striking a target within one pace. [Purchase 5, No Upkeep]

• Pistol: Pistol: Pistol: Pistol: Ruritania isn't exactly highly advanced in terms of firearms manu-facture and trade; any multi-shot firearm (including pepperbox pistols) is banned, and carrying such an item is a serious offense. A pistol, thus, is a single-shot dueling-style firearm. A pistol may be fired at any target within ten paces, as a strike. It deals three damage, and may be used only once per combat. [Purchase 30, Upkeep 1]

• Carbine:Carbine:Carbine:Carbine: A carbine is a single-shot rifle. A carbine may be fired at any target within twenty paces, as a strike. It deals five damage, and can be used only one per combat. [Purchase 60, Upkeep 1]

Retainers

m

v

t

o Minions

You can have up to eight minions in your employ at once. A single hit dealing two or more damage takes a minion out of action. • Attack: Attack: Attack: Attack: Damage 2, Reach of 1.

Hire 2, Upkeep 1

Thug

Most thugs are ruffians or simple dockside brawlers and bully-boys. • Attack: Attack: Attack: Attack: Damage 3, Reach of 1.

Hire 12, Upkeep 6

Clerk

If you have a clerk hired to assist you, you gain two added actions in downtime. • Attack: Attack: Attack: Attack: Damage 2, Reach of 1.

Hire 12, Upkeep 6

Pistoleer

Most shootists are ’independent guns’; they wear many belts festooned with cheap pistols. • Attack: Attack: Attack: Attack: Damage 2, Reach of 3.

Hire 12, Upkeep 6

w Sergeant

A sergeant is a general term for any salted and flexible com-batant that a magician can manage to hire. Most are minor personalities in their own right. • Attack: Attack: Attack: Attack: Damage 2, Reach of 3. • Attack: Attack: Attack: Attack: Damage 3, Reach of 1.

Hire 20, Upkeep 10

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Finishing Touches A finished character is one that you're ready to put on and walk straight into play. A few things that contribute to this: • History: History: History: History: While your choice of Origin will speak fairly strongly to the

history of your character, you may want to consider the details a bit more. • Naming: Naming: Naming: Naming: Doing a quick online search for names and surnames for the

country of origin you’ve picked for your character can yield long lists of possibilities; a name that “feels right” can help give a character presence.

• “Voice”: “Voice”: “Voice”: “Voice”: A solid character has mannerisms, a way of speaking, their own cadence and expressions. As silly as it might seem, practicing these for a few minutes in front of a mirror can really get these things moving.

• Relationships: Relationships: Relationships: Relationships: Coming into play with existing relations to other characters is something that name traits can help with, but establishing a few other high-tension or high-value relationships right from the get-go can drive play well beyond that. Simple short-term motivations include acquiring territory, stations, wealth, and so on; every character should have at least some inclinations here. Longer-term motivations tend to be broader - take a look at the setting information, specifically the bits about why the characters are in Ruritania in the first place, for some ideas there.

• A Vision: A Vision: A Vision: A Vision: Each magician has a unique viewpoint on what the social structure of the great families is, what it should be, and their role within it. This is, in effect, their political motive. It's useful to sum up the vision that your character has of such things - at the end of each game, you will be able to give out experience to others that reacted in an engaging way to your views, your role. A vision should be something that you can sum-marize in a single sentence, but which has implications and motives for action throughout.

A FORMULA FOR EXPRESSING THIS:A FORMULA FOR EXPRESSING THIS:A FORMULA FOR EXPRESSING THIS:A FORMULA FOR EXPRESSING THIS: "The great families should focus on _____________________. My role in that structure is as a ________________." SOME VISIONS:SOME VISIONS:SOME VISIONS:SOME VISIONS: • The great families should focus on security and purging unspeakable

things. My role is as a hunter of the monstrous. • The great families should focus on discovering and understanding

magic. My role is as a supplier of equipment. • The great families should focus on obtaining regular-world security and

child-rearing. My role is as an honored aunt.

Experience And Traits

Total ExperienceTotal ExperienceTotal ExperienceTotal Experience Traits Traits Traits Traits 0-4 Experience Creation 5-9 Experience Creation +1 10-19 Experience Creation +2 20-29 Experience Creation +3 30-44 Experience Creation+4 45-59 Experience Creation+5 60-79 Experience Creation +6 80-99 Experience Creation +7 100+ Experience Creation+8

How Your Character Will Advance You gain further traits as you gain experience; this is not an expense, but a simple comparison to your total - experience is not spent; it accumulates. The number of experience points required for gaining traits is shown below. Gaining Experience At the end of each event, players will “circle up”. Some fixed awards will be given (attendance, downtime, etc), and then some “voted awards” will be given out. Voted awards are given based on how many people point to who when the group is asked “On the count of three, point at the person whose character gave you the most reasons to show up for next event”, and similar such criteria. An average game yields 4-7 experience points per player.

Changing Characters When you change characters, your experience total may be adjusted (although you’ll always keep at least half of it), based on how long you played at the character you’re leaving.

Time Playing Last CharacterTime Playing Last CharacterTime Playing Last CharacterTime Playing Last Character % of experience you keep % of experience you keep % of experience you keep % of experience you keep 1 Month 50% 2 Months 75% 3-8 Months 100% 9+ Months 75%

There are five origins, each of which can be used as the foundation for a fairly broad range of characters. Your choice of origin should give you an answer to the question “why are you in Ruritania”, and help you decide on the further goals and motives of the character. Each origin will also grant you a single trait; some allow you to select one, while others set out that trait fairly firmly. • Before You Decide: Before You Decide: Before You Decide: Before You Decide: As you’ll see, many origins are meant to accentuate

and emphasize your other choices. You’ll almost certainly want to look at your possible choices for Lineage and Guild, and how those match up with the different origins, before making a final decision.

Origins & The Great Families Your choice of origin is, among many other things, a statement of position in relation to other magicians. In an entirely “stabilized” world, where the families were not constantly changing, all lineage magicians would have some form of the Hierarch origin (likely expanded to some degree). Each origin makes a statement about the kinds of societies your character has embraced. Bluebloods sometimes think of themselves as nobility first, although they often have ideas about the nature of nobility that would strike most aristocrats as ancient. Hierarchs are from, or have worked strongly with, established societies of magicians that study the nature of magic itself. Hedgeborn are the results of comparatively recent marriages into families; they’re the “new kids”. Guilders, like Hierarchs, tend to come from fairly solid centers of society, although their focus is less high-minded and more hands-on. A Strangeling was either born from a community that sought a different path, or has chosen to chase after the power of their lineage with serious ardor. Each of these origins includes a long list of potential attitudes that a character might possess, and which deserve some consideration. Background At Start As a player, you may find it useful to set up a some portion of your background in advance. Knowing where your character is from, a few experiences they’ve had, and the way these things shaped their life can ground a character quite firmly. However, keep in mind... Background In Play Gameplay is fairly improvisational and impromptu; one of the tools used by players whose characters have an existing relationship is “Do you remember the time when…” or “Did you ever study with….”, or something similar, followed simply by making things up. While past events created in this way won’t usually provide a basic grounding for a character, this can be used to flesh out common views and relationships between characters at incredible speed. What The Organizers Use The organizers, for the most part, are interested in how they can use your origin to hook your character into the stuff of play. If your character had a wise and good mentor who died, that might help you develop character, but it doesn’t help the organizers much unless that mentor left work unfinished in Ruritania, or was killed by something that came from or fled to the country. Those kinds of details are “hooks”; they’re ways your character can e grabbed and pulled into the action. Now, you may not want to give the organizers a big list of hooks, preferring to make your own action. Or you might wan to have as many as possible. That’s up to you.

You have a family connection to one of the noble families of Ruritania. This connection might be fairly direct - you may be a distant cousin or the like to one of the existing Barons - or it may be far more tenuous. Whatever the case, the noble family in question has become aware of the King's decision to invite magicians into the nation, and has looked you up and offered to assist you in 'setting up' for arrival. Naturally, your relations will have some expectations as well. It's likely that they'll want to show you off in society, should magicians become fashionable, and equally likely that they'll want to keep you quietly available for more practical aid should this fail to occur. In any case, you've seen some advantage in the possibilities, and made your way to the country. • Trait: Trait: Trait: Trait: At creation, you gain any of the traits shown to right. The other traits

to right are available to you, to be gained as you advance, or as your bonus creation trait.

What To Expect If you’re playing a blueblood, expect the Organizers to connect you to the politics of Ruritania in very short order, and to do so in whatever way strikes them as likely to create conflict. You might very well end up with a family that’s being destroyed (or already was), as the close cousin of a possible villain, or otherwise thrown headlong into a mess.

Ancestral Estate Your family has given you access to and control over the family estate. This will be a Hearth which you gain automatically, and to which you will hold the Hearthkey. In any battle where you work to defend (or reclaim) this hearth, or to scourge Fae from any other hearth in your chosen town, you gain two minions in your efforts (the house staff and guards), free of charge, and two further minions for each added Blueblood trait you possess. Also, while you possess an estate, you can hire new retainers at the cost of their usual upkeep. Elder Knight You have been trained by an ancient order of lineage magician-knights. This grants you the ability to recognize Hearthbonded and Hearth-Keys simply by being in their presence. The main mechanical effect of this trait is that it will never take you more than a single downtime action to locate the key for a Hearth. In addition, this trait is also a “mouthpiece” trait - if you possess it, the organizers will sometimes hand you information about the sites of events, hearths, and such, because of your added sensitivity. Hospitality If you are in a region for which you possess (or are) the key, you can raise or lower the Threshold for others in a scene, simply by telling them that they are or are not welcome in the region. In a combat, this counts as your attack. If used to raise the threshold for someone with a hearthkey, it annuls the key for the scene. You can’t use this ability with a “simulated key”, as provided with Harvest Ink or the like. This ability also doesn’t work on someone who has sworn stewardship on an area. Oath Of Stewardship As a fill-in-the-blank action in downtime, you can “Swear Stewardship” over a specific hearth, which must be within your chosen town. You must have a key for the hearth to do so. If you do, you become the key for that hearth, and all other existing keys (including actions that act as keys) are annulled. If you are absent from this hearth for more than two months, this effect fades. Wealth Of The Land When you take the downtime ‘work’ action in a region within your chosen town, you earn five more Marks for each Blueblood trait you possess, including this one.

You have been raised as a master of your magical craft, and will enter play with added knowledge, as well as access to the potential for knowledge even beyond the usual crafts. • Trait: Trait: Trait: Trait: At creation, you choose and gain an added recipe from your Guild.

The traits shown to right are available to you to be gained as you advance, or as your bonus creation trait; you do not gain any of them automatically.

• Note: Note: Note: Note: Before taking any trait, look very carefully at the list of items created by your Guild. Some Guilds do not suit certain choices at all.

What To Expect If you’ve chosen to play a Guilder, you can expect that the Organizers will hook your character into trade matters. If a master-crafter is visiting from the London Society, they’ll know your name. This won’t always be a good thing; it’s very possible that such contacts and connections will want to get you or the local society involved in trade wars, in fraudulent projects, and any number of other possibilities. Either way it goes, though, this isn’t an Origin for players that want maximum exposure to “interesting times”. It is, though, an origin for players that want to do business in game.

EnchanterÊs Release When you craft items, the raw materials you use are vaporized into floating light and then coalesce back into your crafts. Besides looking pretty, this allows you to make use of any type of raw magical material for your crafts; if you are a Smith, you can forge items from Inkbase and Enamel just as easily as from Ingots. You can also mix materials as desired, and do your work with whatever hodgepodge you can get your hands on. Generalist Lore You are capable of (clumsily) creating any item on your Guild list. If you make an item that you do not know specifically, you pay double the usual cost. Materialise You can craft items almost instantly, changing the appropriate raw material into a finished item in handwave - this is a general action during a combat. Specialist Lore When you gain this trait, choose and name a single item which you can make, a which has a creation cost of at least 3 points of raw materials. You can make that item at 2/3rds of the listed cost, rounded up. If you cannot create any item with a cost of 3 or more raw materials for some reason, you cannot take this trait. You can take this trait repeatedly, selecting another eligible item each time. Unmaking You have mastered the power of unmaking magical items. Use of this power requires that you be the only one touching an item created with guild or lineage abilities (lineage-created items are often ancient and potent), and takes a few moments of concentration. At the end of the required time, the item unravels into a cloud of Quina, which you or any other lineage magician in reach of it can absorb; absorption (of any number of points) is a general ac-tion in combat. The number of Quina in the cloud is equal to the creation cost of the item. The amount of time required in concentration is one general action for each five points of Quina to be yielded. This can thus require several rounds; if you are damaged in this time, you must start over. • Artifacts and Loci: Artifacts and Loci: Artifacts and Loci: Artifacts and Loci: To destroy a Locus or an Artifact in this way requires at

least one downtime action.

You are descended from a cross between the great families and one of the many lines of hedge magicians; three such families are shown below, and players can discuss creation of others with the organizers, if desired. • Trait: Trait: Trait: Trait: Choose a package from those shown right, and gain the trait

indicated. The package will also indicate any other required choices or traits you can take after creation as a result.

What To Expect Organizer hooks and action for Hedgeborn are fairly heavy and tie into a great deal of the setting action going on. These hooks, though, will generally be aimed at the family as a whole. If there are three Stehlskeins, then the action tossed around will likely be scaled for three participants. This does mean that you’ll most likely want to keep the rest of your family members up to date with any findings you make or dangers you encounter related to the “family plot”, lest you get in way over your head.

Dollmacher You are a member of a family of mystical dollmakers. The family originates in Ruritania, but one of your ancestors (likely a parent or grandparent) married into the great families. As the descendant of such a union, you are returning to your ancestral homeland to seek out your distant family. • Limitation: Limitation: Limitation: Limitation: Your lineage choice must be either Host or Vessel. • Creation Trait: Creation Trait: Creation Trait: Creation Trait: You know the scheme to create Poppets, as per the Tinker

Guild list (this list is only accessible as a hedgeborn). • Trait Access: Trait Access: Trait Access: Trait Access: You may later learn the schemes for creating Mannikins and

Titan Frames, also from the Tinker guild list. Stehlskien The Stehlskeins are another former family of hedge magicians from Ruitania who are coming home. Their abilities are linguistic in nature, and seem remi-niscent of the story of Rumplestiltskin. • Limitation: Limitation: Limitation: Limitation: None. • Creation Trait: Creation Trait: Creation Trait: Creation Trait: You have the power Transforming Song, as per the Namer

Lineage list (this list is only accessible as a hedgeborn). • Trait Access: Trait Access: Trait Access: Trait Access: You may later learn the powers Adoptive Speech, Banishing

Name, and Thundering Curses, also from the Namer list. Veneziano Once, the Veneziano were an extensive hedge family. Thirty years ago, some-one hunted down most Veneziano - a handful took sanctuary with the Fami-lies. Their children have found that the killers came from Ruritania; the Veneziano are here to find justice - or at least vengeance. • Limitation: Limitation: Limitation: Limitation: Your guild choice must be either Tiler or Scribe. • Creation Trait: Creation Trait: Creation Trait: Creation Trait: You know the scheme to create Larval Masks, as per the

Tinker Guild list (this list is only accessible as a hedgeborn). • Trait Access: Trait Access: Trait Access: Trait Access: You may later learn the schemes for creating Heraldica and

Bright Motes, also from the Tinker guild list. Create Your Own There are hundreds of other hedge families in existence, with a wild variety of gifts. There are also “sports” - lineage magicians born with a smattering of power in a second guild or lineage beyond their ‘usual’ one. If you’d like to look a either of these options, talk with the organizers.

You were raised in close contact with the deal-brokering at the heart of the Great Families. It’s likely that you acted as a messenger or emissary for the magical society of some city in your lifetime, or that you have traveled widely and been in contact with many different societies of magicians for some reason. In terms of tone, Hierarchs aren’t simply powerful individuals gifted with magic - they are, in fact, wizards. • Trait: Trait: Trait: Trait: At creation, choose and gain either the Artifact trait or the High

Magic trait listed below. The other traits shown are available to you, but all of the other require High magic as a prerequisite.

What To Expect Players of Hierarchs can expect, much like Bluebloods, to be thrown headlong into the politics of Ruritania. However, the politics that Hierarchs can expect to encounter are magical politics. There are Fae Courts and hedge families that have connections to members of the great families (even without hedgeborn ties) in the country, and Hierarch characters will often get wrangled up in such stuff, especially if they choose to have an Artifact as one of their starting traits. Hierarchs are also the ones most likely to get tapped as a contact for a visiting representative of some far-flung society of magicians that feels it has an interest in the nation.

Artifact, Locus, Schematic Artifacts, Loci, and Schematics are the great triumph of High Magic, which is the domain of Hierarchs. It is possible for a high magician with the proper abilities to rebuild a Hearth in a way that focuses the power it draws, and cause that power to constantly infuse a single and immensely potent item. A hearth converted in this way is called a Locus, and the item that gains these benefits is an Artifact. However, if the Locus is damaged or the item disconnected, the Artifact becomes dormant. Creating a Locus and Artifact is an extensive process, the first step of which is creating a Schematic. These items have some minor magic of their own; you can only repair a damaged Locus or Artifact if you have the right Schematic.

Artifact You have inherited or been granted an Artifact, as well as some hints on the location and disposition of it’s original Locus (which will be in Ruritania). You also possess the Schematic for this Artifact and Locus, to allow you to make repairs. This trait must always be discussed with the Organizers; see last page for notes on these terms. High Magic If you possess this trait, your ability to store Quina is permanently increased by five points. This does combine cumulatively with the ninetails shapeshifting alteration (which has the same effect). You can take this trait repeatedly. The effects are cumulative. Analyze & Dispel As a general action, you can determine what magical effects are currently active for target within six steps of you. If you wish, you then use another (attack) action to pay the cost that it took to create any one of those effects, and end it. If ending an effect created by an item, you pay the creation cost of the item, in Quina. You cannot target an “always active” trait. If the effect is generated by a lasting item, you suppress the item for a scene. • Prerequisite: Prerequisite: Prerequisite: Prerequisite: High Magic Leech & Charge You can focus on any Fae or lineage magician within six steps, and either grant them Quina or steal it away. Granting one or two points of Quina is a general action; leeching away one or two points of Quina is an attack action. You can’t grant more Quina than the target’s capacity or steal more than they have. • Prerequisite: Prerequisite: Prerequisite: Prerequisite: High Magic High MagicianÊs Ascendance You are able to direct the creation of Schematics (see below), and with one in hand, able to organize the construction of an entirely Artifact and Locus (other character with a schematic can only repair, not create, such things) . This effort requires a lot of different talents and guilds, and this trait is not recommended for starting characters. The kinds of Loci are not detailed in this rulebook; those notes are held by the organizers; talk to them if you’re eyeing this trait. • Prerequisite: Prerequisite: Prerequisite: Prerequisite: High Magic • Note: Note: Note: Note: A character may only ever have one Ascendance.

At some point, you came into contact with a being originating in the plane that your Lineage powers are drawn from, and struck up an arrangement where you will occasionally act in their interest in exchange for added power. Most recently, you have received notice from this being that they should appreciate your voyaging to Ruritania, and you have decided that this particular request was intriguing enough to accept. Additional details on this deal and on the being in question will be available only after selecting this trait; if you take it, it's a bit of a blind jump. • Trait: Trait: Trait: Trait: At creation, you choose and gain an added Lineage power. The two

traits to right are available to you to be gained as you advance, or as your bonus creation trait; you do not gain them automatically.

What To Expect Strangeling players can expect that they’ll be coming at the same stuff as the other players, but they’ll often be coming into it from a very different angle. Explaining to all the other characters that you have, indeed, been taking tea with a Fae Lord bent on annihilating all humanity, but you only ever talked about a book both of you were trying to find, is just this kind of thing Strangelings will get hit with. Always remember that you can can can can refuse requests from your ally. As a Strangeling, you will know that the agenda your ally has is to eventually break open reality and strap it to the plane or concept that your ally hails from, even if it’s current requests are almost always simple and usually at least appear to be to your direct advantage.

Far Haven Your ally has provided you with a gateway to some place outside of normal reality. This might be a habitable crystal home in the burning light of Gehenna, a shell-like globe floating in Lethe, a tower overlooking the river of Styx, or something very different. Whatever the case, this is an added Hearth that only you can use, as well as being a place from which you can also hire retainers. The hire and upkeep costs of these retainers are doubled (although you’re paying them in their preferred materials, rather than actual money), and they will be a little different. Retainers hired this way by a Host, Vessel, or Channel can use their full turn in combat to enter or leave the appropriate backstage (black, silver, and white, respectively). Shard retainers hired in this fashion can enter and leave any of the backstages. Spoil retainers heal after combat, if ‘killed’. Spirit Ally You can call on your eldritch ally to manifest into the world. Using this power costs you at least five Quina and five Health (you can choose to spend more of either or both). In combat, this is a general action. Your ally then manifests in a spot within a single step of you. They have Quina and Health equal to the amount spent to summon them. They possess a single Ascendancy from those in your lineage chart, and all the powers that act as prerequisites to it; you may not choose a “grafted” ascendancy in this way. The ally acts immediately after you, under your control, and remain for the scene, or until the incarnation is destroyed (out of health). They cannot communicate meaningfully while manifest in this way. • Choose Once: Choose Once: Choose Once: Choose Once: Once you have chosen the Ascendancy your ally possesses,

it is fixed, and will be the same each time you call them. Far Lord If you possess this trait, your ties to your ally are respected by others of the same “kind”. This creates an entire class of beings that will never attack you unless first attacked, even if ordered to under the direct control of another lineage magician. Such beings will give you minor assistance if free to do so, and if you can communicate it to them. The beings are based on your lineage: • Channel: Channel: Channel: Channel: Beings summoned from or native to Gehenna. • Host: Host: Host: Host: All independent ghosts (not part of a different Host). • Shard: Shard: Shard: Shard: Spirit Allies, Strangeling patrons, independent world-jumpers.. • Spoil: Spoil: Spoil: Spoil: Sapient and court-based Fae. • Vessel: Vessel: Vessel: Vessel: Beings summoned from or native to Lethe.

Components Of A Lineage When you select your lineage, you will gain a package of abilities as well as a set of ways in which your character can advance... • Cantrips: Cantrips: Cantrips: Cantrips: These are simple ‘tricks’ which can be performed by any member

of a lineage. They do not have a cost, and can be expanded on by players. • Basic Power: Basic Power: Basic Power: Basic Power: There is a single power gained automatically by all members

of each lineage; this differs from one lineage to another. • Further Powers: Further Powers: Further Powers: Further Powers: Your lineage will grant you the ability to learn a further

list of traits. Some of these further traits will have prerequisites - powers that you must learn before you are able to learn the power in question.

• Ascendancies: Ascendancies: Ascendancies: Ascendancies: Some powers have the term “ascendant” or “ascendancy” in their title. These are the powers of potent masters of their lineage arts. You may only possess one lineage power ever, and may only purchase one if you have all the prerequisites and have at least four of your other lineage powers first (it must be your fifth or later lineage power).

Lineages Run In Families On hearing the term “lineage”, one immediate assumption that can spring to mind is to think of a family or a nationality. And while there’s some credence to that - most lineages still have a place that they consider a homeland - it doesn’t match up quite right in modern times. A lineage is like an eye color; it can suddenly surface even when both parents have to stop and consider who was the most recent ancestor either had of that line. There are many actual families among the mess of the Great Families that cross several lineages; children from these families might be of any lineage involved (or might be born with only crafting gifts, as disappointing hedge magicians). There are Five Recognized Lineages Although the lines of descent from the ur-lineage magicians have crossed so many times that the resulting agglomerate mess simply calls itself “the Great Families”, the lineages themselves don’t mix easily or often; the vast majorityof children of the lines are born with ‘pure’ powers. For this reason, there are five properly recognized strains of power within the Great Families, detailed over the following few pages. You will be of one such strain. And Two Demi-Lineages At the end of this chapter, you’ll find (notably shorter) entries for two other lineages, the Namers and Sparks. These are included because some hedgeborn magicians possess powers from these lines; for example, the Stehlskiens are near-namers. The great families believe that these are potential lineages that may one day become numerous enough as “main lines” to be recognized. A Lineage IsnÊt Usually A Political Grouping... Lineages as a whole typically aren’t especially cohesive. Generally, this is because they don’t have anything to collectively bargain with or about. Hosts, who can exchange abilities temporarily, typically have the strongest relations based on lineage, and occasionally an actual family within a lineage will have some strength together. ...Except When It Comes To Children In a number of well-established magician’s societies, members of the varying lineages pool together to introduce their own descendants to one another. Some even set up trusts and grants to provide for additional children born “of the stock”. It is worth noting that many of the magicians that most strongly support these efforts are Strangelings, and that their Eldritch allies seem very well pleased by such activities and efforts.

Bearers of the rimelit gate of flame, Channels are cool to the touch and usually heavily scarred. Each Channel has the ability to spill fire from their body, in forms ranging from a blast from the hands to a whole-body shroud. This is not natural fire; though it consumes, harms, and destroys, it also burns an incandes-cent white, and siphons in heat rather than putting it off (the flame converts all the energy consumed into pure white light, rather than generating both heat and light). Rimefire, as it is called, cannot normally spread across areas; it can’t stay in the world without magical influence. All Channels gain the Rimelit Strike trait, as well as the ability to cast Chan-nel Cantrips, and may also choose the other traits listed below among their starting traits or as experience buys.

Channel Cantrips A channel may cause or create any of the following effects without cost for cosmetic or narrative effect (and may improvise further, if other players agree that the described effect is low-impact) : • Create a chill in the air. • Draw an portrait or picture in frost on a wet surface. • Sculpt a tiny, fragile object in ice drawn from the air, such as a flower or

the like. • Condense water from the air in a thin and cold trickle. • Illuminate an area by causing an object to glow (and frost over). • Extinguish small lights, such as candles or lanterns. • Cause water in the air around you to change into snow.

Rimelit Strike (1Q, General Action) On activation, your hands ignite with cool blue flame, and you become able to launch bolts of rimefire for the scene. Each bolt is a ranged attack, dealing 2 damage, with a range of up to six steps. If the target is within a single step, this attack does 3 damage instead. • Enhancements: Enhancements: Enhancements: Enhancements: Standard enhancements for this power are Incandescent

Shroud, Encase, and the item Foehammer. All of these enhancements combine for cumulative effects.

Channel Power Prerequisites The prerequisites shown below apply to all powers overleaf. In order to acquire a given power, you must have all the powers that “point to” it. Remember that you cannot acquire more than one Ascendancy.

Rimelit StrikeRimelit StrikeRimelit StrikeRimelit Strike

Rolling SphereRolling SphereRolling SphereRolling Sphere

Primal IgnitionPrimal IgnitionPrimal IgnitionPrimal Ignition

VortexVortexVortexVortex AscendantAscendantAscendantAscendant

Sculptor’s CallSculptor’s CallSculptor’s CallSculptor’s Call

Frost GauntletsFrost GauntletsFrost GauntletsFrost Gauntlets

ChillChillChillChill AscendantAscendantAscendantAscendant

Incandescent ShroudIncandescent ShroudIncandescent ShroudIncandescent Shroud

EncaseEncaseEncaseEncase Lightbringer’sLightbringer’sLightbringer’sLightbringer’s AscendanceAscendanceAscendanceAscendance

Crystal WordCrystal WordCrystal WordCrystal Word

The Look Of the Thing: Channel Powers Channel abilities generate an incredibly bright blue-white flame, which burns cold. This has plenty of cosmetic side effects. Rimefire leaves behind a wound that doesn’t bleed, because it’s frozen shut. Any Channel power is cold enough that breath fogs in the immediate area, leaves behind a trail of snow-flakes or ground frost, and so on. An area where a Channel has been practicing powers provides even stranger evidence; trees may take on autumn colors in the middle of summer, and so on. The Look Of the Thing: The White Backstage The white backstage, occasionally accessed by Channels (and by Shards), looks mostly like a brighter, washed-out version of the part of regular world that it mirrors, except that all cold things also give off light into the white backstage. A frosty mug of ale in Reality glows like a torch to someone in the white backstage. It’s also incredibly, numbingly cold in the white backstage, doing a point of damage each round to anything that’s not a channel, a native, or in stasis..

Primal Ignition (1Q, General Action) You focus on a person within six steps. The target must choose one crafted item they possess (they can choose a unit of raw materials); the item is destroyed, exploding in coruscating rimefire, and dealing them two damage. Rolling Sphere (3Q, General Action) You focus on a spot within six steps. A globe of rimefire one step across appears there, lasting the scene. As a general action, you can move it up to three steps. At the end of your turn, it deals two damage to anything in its space. Vortex Ascendant (5Q, General Action) When you activate this power, Rimelit Strike also activates, for free; rimefire trails from your hands in a lazy orbit around you. When you hit with rimelit strike, you can forego the normal damage in order to create a rolling sphere in the target’s space, or to subject them to primal ignition (they still end up taking damage). In addition, you may use two actions to attack each round, so long as both are Rimelit strikes, and made on separate targets. SculptorÊs Call (1+Q, General Action) You call up ice in a ribbon two steps 'wide', one step 'tall', and as many steps long as the number of Quina you spend, squared. It starts in a space you touch. You can give it any shape along this length that you wish (bridge, wall, etc), but cannot enclose a target. If you create ice on a spot occupied in the white backstage, the occupant is drawn into reality, frozen in ice, in stasis. Freeing a frozen target, or smashing a wall segment, takes a total of ten damage. Frost Gauntlets (1Q, General Action) On activation, ice forms around each your forearms, creating a pair of ‘shields’. When harmed, you can break a shield, reducing the damage by one. You can only use one shield per hit, but this can reduce damage to zero. These last for the scene if not used; “regrowing” a shield can be done, but takes three actions. Reactivating the power restores both. Chill Ascendant (5Q, General Action) When you activate this power, Rimelit Strike and Frost Gauntlets both also activate, for free. Your skin grows pale, and takes on a bluish cast, and a pair of magical effects occur: You are able to move through ice made with Sculptor’s call as if it were not there, but cannot end your turn inside it. The range on Rimelit Strike becomes only one step, but any hand weapon you hold is coated in rimefire, and deals an added damage. This lasts a scene, or you can activate this power for a full day at a cost of seven Quina. If you do, the other powers also remain active for the day. If you do this for an event, make-up is desirable.

Incandescent Shroud (2Q, General Action) On activation, you are wrapped in chill flames for the rest of the scene. If you make a melee attack, or if one is made against you, your foe takes one damage, in addition to any other damage inflicted. If you are using Rimelit Strike (through a Foehammer or not) within melee range, it is enhanced by this power. Encase (Always Active) When you deal damage with a Channel ability, the attack may freeze the subject and pull them out of reality. If the target is an object that would be destroyed, it is encased in ice and vanishes into the white backstage. If the target is a creature, it gains the option to be encased in ice, put in stasis, and sent to the white backstage, in addition to the usual options (lose health, take a scar, death). A creature frozen in this way is in stasis, and cannot act until someone gets them out (usually with Shard abilities or Sculptor's Call). When retrieved by a Shard, they are frozen in ice, which must be broken away just as with the ice from Sculptor’s call. Crystal Word (Special) In downtime, you make use one of your downtime actions to create lamplight crystals around a hearth you have a key for; these are tiny crystals that 'grow' throughout the region. The Hearth can no longer be used by non-channels, and produces one more ‘unit’ of material than normal whenever material are gathered; this is permanent. Repeated use of the power keeps adding to this, but always makes the place odd, and can destroy the territory, ‘collapsing’ it out of Reality and into Gehenna. LightbringerÊs Ascendance (7Q, General Action) When you activate this power, Incandescent Shroud also activates, for free. In the area around you (everything in a six-step radius), reality is unified with the white backstage; this lasts for the rest of the scene, or until you use an action to dismiss the effect, and has several effects: Everything that was in or would move to the white backstage is pulled into reality within this radius, so long as it stays within the effect. Everything cold sheds a pale light, all open water freezes over, and motes of frost begin to hover throughout the air. At the end of your turn each round, anyone that is not a channel, a native to the white backstage or to gehenna, or in stasis., takes one damage. Minions within this effect ignore this damage; instead, they can be killed by doing a single point of damage to them by any other means. Note that this effect is hostile to your own retainers, unless you have retainers which are able to enter the white backstage under their own power.

Bearers of the ivory gate of spirit, Hosts... aren't themselves. Bound by birth to the coming and going of souls, Hosts are easy conduits for the spirits of the dead. By the age of three, a Host is fully possessed by a community of the dead, all in constant communication. These communities are relatively con-tinuous; when new children are born into the host lineage, they are regularly checked up on. When they become 'open', the local hosts commune and colo-nize the new member. All Hosts gain the Swapstrength trait, as well as the ability to cast Host Cantrips, and may also choose from the other traits listed below for their starting traits or as experience buys.

Host Cantrips A host may cause or create any of the following effects without cost for cosmetic or narrative effect (and may improvise further, if other players agree that the de-scribed effect is low-impact) : • Cause a table or shelf in the same scene to vibrate lightly. • Cause writing to appear in liquid or on a fogged surface. • Touch a mirror and cause it to reflect the Black Backstage for a few instants. • Cause indistinct noises to come from any location on the scene (including from

inside a box or the like). • Cause a mundane item to age a year; note that while a spoil would make paper

rot, a Host would make it yellow and brittle. Hosts can also cause rusting on metals in this way.

• Create minor spectral apparitions in the space around them, including small ‘ghost items’ and portraits. This can be used to blur their profile enough that people who don’t know them won’t give a good description, but not enough to fool those who’ve seen them before.

Swapstrength (1Q, General Action) Your internal community of ghosts includes a number of 'envoys'. Any power or ability-like trait that you possess other than this one can be loaned to any other host willing to accept it, for the duration of the event. Note that some traits aren't particularly useful loans, while others are much better choices; you may want to select other traits accordingly. In addition, you can grant any character use of a single Host cantrip for the month, at will.

Host Power Prerequisites The prerequisites shown below apply to all powers overleaf. In order to acquire a given power, you must have all the powers that “point to” it. Remember that you cannot acquire more than one Ascendancy.

SwapStrengthSwapStrengthSwapStrengthSwapStrength

ReaperReaperReaperReaper

SoulstrikeSoulstrikeSoulstrikeSoulstrike

SoulSoulSoulSoul----Eater’sEater’sEater’sEater’s AscendanceAscendanceAscendanceAscendance

DeathwalkDeathwalkDeathwalkDeathwalk EffigyEffigyEffigyEffigy

HauntingHauntingHauntingHaunting

PoltergeistPoltergeistPoltergeistPoltergeist PossessionPossessionPossessionPossession

BeastridersBeastridersBeastridersBeastriders

The Look Of the Thing: Host Powers Host powers call up death and decay. This isn’t a particularly novel look; if you’re familiar with halloween , with cheap horror, or any of the like, you’ve already got the look of the thing pretty much down pat. The Look Of the Thing: The Black Backstage The black backstage, occasionally accessed by Hosts (and by Shards), looks mostly like the area of Reality it mirrors, except that decay is inverted. If something is tarnished in reality, it appears new from the black backstage. If it is new in reality, it appears decrepit and broken-down when viewed from the black backstage. A very few ghosts exist in the black backstage; normally, the souls of the dead fall directly through into Styx. Those in the black backstage have been called back up again, are strong enough to come on their own, or are tethered to reality by a magical bond (some people who lived as hearthkeys are tethered in this manner without being aware of it).

HowlingHowlingHowlingHowling Darkbringer’sDarkbringer’sDarkbringer’sDarkbringer’s AscendanceAscendanceAscendanceAscendance

Reaper (Always Active) If any person dies within one step of you, you can choose to absorb their spirit, sequestering it in of your ghostly colony. From then on, you may start scenes set "inside yourself" to speak with that subject, over which you have control. Soulstrike (Always Active) When you make an attack of any sort, all targets of that attack lose two points of Quina. If they cannot hold or do not have enough Quina, they instead take two added damage. If they die of this damage, and you have the Reaper trait, you can absorb their spirit regardless of range. Soul-EaterÊs Ascendance (Always Active) If you have this trait, your Reaper ability may be used on Fae. In addition, if you have captured a soul by means of the Reaper power in any given scene (including a Fae soul), then you can “consume” it rather than paying the Quina cost of a power. The soul is destroyed, and the cost is paid. You can’t activate a power with a cost above (the full health and Quina of the soul, combined). • Bottled Souls: Bottled Souls: Bottled Souls: Bottled Souls: If you have the materials and ability to make Soul Infusions,

you can craft one that “contains a reaped soul”, letting the drinker reap or incarnate it (if able), or spend that soul as you can with this power.

Deathwalk (1Q, General Action) On activation, you enter the "black backstage" . You remain in this state until you dismiss the effect, or until the scene ends. If, while you are in the black backstage, you find a Styxian pathway, you can enter it at the cost of 3Q. • Downtime: Downtime: Downtime: Downtime: You can search for Styxian paths in downtime. Howling (2Q, General Action) On activation, you send out your ghosts in a cloud around you, to harass those nearby. Everyone within three steps of you must spend one added Quina when they activate a lineage ability, and if they start their turn there, they receive one less action each round. This effect lasts until the end of the scene. Effigy (Special) You are capable of calling a ghost or the “ghost of an item” from Styx into the Black Backstage on a lasting basis. This occurs in downtime, and requires that you find and inform that ghost in Styx, or secure that ghostly item, and construct an anchor for it in reality known as an effigy (a model of that person or item). This requires materials of whatever sort you use in crafts, as follows:

Target’s Size Hand-held Person-Size Castle-Size

Material Needed 10 Material 20 Material 100 Material

Ship-Size

50 Material

DarkbringerÊs Ascendance (7Q, General Action) When you activate this power, in the area around you (everything in a twelve-step radius), reality is unified with the black backstage; this lasts for the rest of the scene, or until you use an action to dismiss the effect. While this power is active, everything that was in or would move to the black backstage is pulled into reality within this radius, so long as it stays within the effect. Everything broken or degraded seems whole, and vice versa. Note that this power is not especially impressive unless employed in combination with effigy-work. Haunting (3Q, General Action) On activation, select a single target within six steps of you, you can inflict that target with spirits that harass and annoy. They receive one less action each round, and if they wish to activate a lineage power, they must pay an added Quina to do so. This effect lasts until the end of the scene, or until you use the power on a new target (you can only have one target at a time). Beastriders (1+Q, General Action) On activation, you send ghosts from your own person to possess and manage animals. Each Quina spent gains you one pawn; these last for the session, or until killed or exorcised. If summoned during combat, they show up at the start of your next turn, at whatever entrance to the scene you used. Poltergeist (1Q, General Action) On activation, you indicate an item within six steps and dispatch a ghost to haunt that item. It loses any crafted qualities, becoming mundane for the rest of the scene. You must be able to indicate the item clearly; statements like "your most powerful thing" do not work. You can name a specific item type, and a place or person to check; the ghost will disable any item of that type found, and return if no such item is discovered (you know the effect failed). Possession (Always Active) When you use Haunting on a target, you also gain the ability to manipulate their actions to a certain degree. During your turn, you may spend one of your general actions to cause such a target to take an action of your choice. This uses one of your actions, rather than one of theirs. The action which you dictate to the target must be one that could be taken by any normal person (moving around, attacking with a weapon). You can force them to manipulate an item in a mundane fashion, such as throwing their sword off a cliff, but cannot force them to use magic in any fashion (including to activate the magical properties of an item). You do not gain any special knowledge of their gear beyond what you can see, but you can take the time to check (having them look through their own pockets only takes one action).

Bearers of the shattered gate of air, Shards see the world as a series of overlap-ping segments; a shard can go from here to there either by crossing the normal space that you can see, or by stepping behind the normal world and travers-ing an unseen space. This isn't another complete reality or alternate plane; to a Shard, there are often many tiny overlapping locations in any given space, often referred to as "side stages" or "backstages". Many of these backstage spaces are quite hostile, though; a Shard may need to risk health on certain travels. All Shards gain the Splinterstep trait , as well as the ability to cast Shard Can-trips, and may also choose the other traits listed below among their starting traits or as experience buys:

Shard Cantrips A Shard may cause or create any of the following effects without cost for cosmetic or narrative effect (and may improvise further, if other players agree that the described effect is low-impact) : • Cause crackling noises or ‘cracking space’ visual effects in the air within

reach. • Throw their own voice to another location on the scene. • Teleport their own possession from pocket to hand; this can be done ef-

fortlessly and repeatedly. • Teleport an unattended item within their reach (and which they could

reach, touch, and move by hand) to somewhere else within reach.

SplinterStep (1+Q, General Action) On activation, you teleport; in appearance, space cracks as if you jumped through a mirror, and reforms immediately. Choose a spot that is within a number of steps equal to (the Quina you spent, cubed). So, if you spent 3 Quina, you would be able to move up to (3 x 3 x 3), or 27 steps, as a single action; if you spend five Quina, that would be (5 x 5 x 5), or 125 steps. If you possess the Exile's Gate ability, you can leap to and from backstage areas, including leaping from one backstage to another.

Shard Power Prerequisites The prerequisites shown below apply to all powers overleaf. In order to acquire a given power, you must have all the powers that “point to” it. Remember that you cannot acquire more than one Ascendancy. Powers shown in grey are described in their respective Lineage lists (Channel, Host, Vessel).

SplinterstepSplinterstepSplinterstepSplinterstep

BilocationBilocationBilocationBilocation

Exile’s GateExile’s GateExile’s GateExile’s Gate

The Look Of the Thing: Shard Powers Shard powers play with the shape of space; in observation, they often appear as if someone is playing a game with funhouse mirrors. One person turns sideways, and is exposed as infinitely thin, vanishing. Another stretches from here to there blurrily, and then snaps back into focus at a new location. Yet another ‘shatters’ the space around them and jumps away.

SplintercallSplintercallSplintercallSplintercall Fugue’sFugue’sFugue’sFugue’s

AscendanceAscendanceAscendanceAscendance

DeathwalkDeathwalkDeathwalkDeathwalk EffigyEffigyEffigyEffigy

HowlingHowlingHowlingHowling Darkbringer’sDarkbringer’sDarkbringer’sDarkbringer’s AscendanceAscendanceAscendanceAscendance SwapstrengthSwapstrengthSwapstrengthSwapstrength HostGrafterHostGrafterHostGrafterHostGrafter

Inc. ShroudInc. ShroudInc. ShroudInc. Shroud

EncaseEncaseEncaseEncase

Light-Light-Light-Light-bringer’sbringer’sbringer’sbringer’s

AscendanceAscendanceAscendanceAscendance

Crystal WordCrystal WordCrystal WordCrystal Word

Channel-Channel-Channel-Channel-GrafterGrafterGrafterGrafter

RimelitRimelitRimelitRimelit StrikeStrikeStrikeStrike

Vessel-Vessel-Vessel-Vessel-GrafterGrafterGrafterGrafter

WhipstrikeWhipstrikeWhipstrikeWhipstrike Rider’s Rider’s Rider’s Rider’s SheathSheathSheathSheath

Rider’s KissRider’s KissRider’s KissRider’s Kiss Blessed Blessed Blessed Blessed StepStepStepStep

Blessed Blessed Blessed Blessed AscendanceAscendanceAscendanceAscendance

Leaping The VoidLeaping The VoidLeaping The VoidLeaping The Void SkyhookSkyhookSkyhookSkyhook

Skyjumper’s Skyjumper’s Skyjumper’s Skyjumper’s AscendanceAscendanceAscendanceAscendance

Leaping The Void (Always Active) If you possess this trait, anytime you use Splinterstep, you are treated as having spent one more Quina than you actually did (you must still spend at least one). Skyhook (2Q, Attack Action) On activation, choose a target within one step of you. You 'shove' that target up to three steps in any direction. They do not cross the intervening space, and ignore terrain effects. They may not be moved into an occupied space, but can be moved upwards - for each step of horizontal motion you don't move them, you can drop them one step vertically (each step they fall does one damage). SkyjumperÊs Ascendance (Always Active) If you possess this trait, anytime you use Splinterstep, you are treated as having spent one more Quina than you actually did; this is cumulative with Leaping the Void. It also allows you to activate that power for free, but if you do so, you teleport only three steps per action (rather than the eight steps that might be expected otherwise). In addition, if you should jump to an unsupported position in the midst of your turn, such as hanging in mid-air, you have until the end of your turn to ‘jump away’. If unsupported at the end of your turn, you still fall. Bilocation (2Q, General Action) When you activate this power, you duplicate yourself. Chose two spaces, each within a single step of your current location; you vanish, reappear in both those spaces, and your turn (if in combat) ends immediately. The power then remains in effect for the scene; each time you could act, both copies of you get a full individual set of actions. However, both copies use the same health pool and Quina pool. You can dismiss this effect as a general action by either copy, causing the other copy to vanish. Splintercall (3Q, Attack Action) When you activate this power, choose a target individual within three steps of you. That target is duplicated in some other location you select, which must also be within three steps of you, until the start of their next action (at which time the duplicate vanishes). This is generally used to move a target to a place where your allies can attack them in a mass. FugueÊs Ascendance (5Q, General Action) This power lasts for the scene. While it is active, the range of Splintercall is increased to six steps, and the distance from your position where you can cause duplicates to appear with Bilocation is also increased to six steps. Also, the costs on both of those powers are reduced to one Quina each.

ExileÊs Gate (2Q, Attack Action) On activation, you can shove someone (who must be within reach) into a back-stage, or step there yourself. A person 'waiting backstage' in this way can only move out, and can't affect anything; they may move back out into the space they formerly occupied as a move. If, when stepping out of backstage, their 'space' is occupied, the person or thing occupying it is sent backstage in their place. There are three different 'colors' of backstage you can choose from, gen-erally just called the white, the black, and the silver. Anyone except a Chan-nel in the white backstage takes one damage each action they take, and can acquire subjects of the Engulf power that left normal reality from the same spot. Anyone in the Black backstage can speak with ghosts in the area. The Silver backstage has no special effects unless the visitor is a Vessel. • Used on yourself: Used on yourself: Used on yourself: Used on yourself: If you use this power on yourself, you can opt to wander

freely backstage. If you do, however, you must reactivate the power in order to leave.

(Channel/Host/Vessel)Grafter (Special) This is actually three separate traits, which must be gained individually, but which function the same way. You may only ever possess one of these powers, and cannot “get a graft” for an alternate set. Each grants you the ability to perform cantrips that are standard to a different type of lineage magician, and add several powers of that same group to your “learnable list”. This does not allow you to learn more than one ascendance; if you gain an ascendance from the normal shard list, the grafted one is inaccessible to you. In addition, you may grant others the ability to learn a set of traits the same as your added list if they are willing. To do so, you touch the target and spend five Quina. They target must then permanently invest two health (these are lost forever) to gain access to these traits; they cannot get a graft if they have this trait or if they already have a different power graft. If such a target is slain but revived, these benefits are lost. The additions are: • Channelgrafter: Channelgrafter: Channelgrafter: Channelgrafter: You can perform Channel cantrips and learn the traits

Rimelit Strike, Incandescent Shroud, Encase, Crystal Word, Lightbringer’s Ascendance.

• Hostgrafter: Hostgrafter: Hostgrafter: Hostgrafter: You can perform Host cantrips and can learn the traits Swapstrength, Deathwalk, Howling, Effigy, Darkbringer’s Ascendance.

• Vesselgrafter: Vesselgrafter: Vesselgrafter: Vesselgrafter: You can perform Vessel cantrips and can learn the traits Whipstrike, Rider’s Kiss, Rider’s Sheath, Blessed Step, Blessed Ascendance.

Gaining any version of this trait after creation requires a downtime action to find a pathway to Styx, Lethe, or Gehenna, as appropriate. There, you splice some portion of the essential nature of that plane into the existing ‘gate’ built into your metaphysical body.

Bearers of the fecund gate of earth, Spoils enhance and encourage life simply by being present. Unfortunately, left unfocused, they encourage and enhance smaller life more effectively than larger - wood rots in their presence, molds grow, and diseases flourish. When focusing their abilities, however, a Spoil can heal creatures and characters with incredible rapidity, cause plants to grow, and so on. All Spoils gain the Generative Aura trait, as well as the ability to cast Spoil Cantrips, and may also choose the other traits listed below among their start-ing traits or as experience buys:

Spoil Cantrips A Spoil may cause or create any of the following effects without cost for cos-metic or narrative effect (and may improvise further, if other players agree that the described effect is low-impact) : • Cause a seed to sprout immediately. • Make someone sneeze or cough. • Cause a small unattended item to rot (or ferment). • Sculpt a living plant by touch. • Make a wooden object break out leaves. • Cause leather to bleed slightly.

Generative Aura (1+Q, General Action) When you activate this ability, you focus the life-generating force that sur-rounds all spoils for your own benefit; you regain as many health as you spent in Quina at activation. • Note: Note: Note: Note: If you possess this trait, you cannot use guns or other complex

devices that use chemical components - and any such device used within one step of you misfires or otherwise malfunctions. In your presence, compounds or stores which can be rotted, rot more quickly; your clothing become tattered quickly, flour spoils, wood degrades, and so on.

Spoil Power Prerequisites The prerequisites shown below apply to all powers overleaf. In order to acquire a given power, you must have all the powers that “point to” it. Remember that you cannot acquire more than one Ascendancy.

Generative AuraGenerative AuraGenerative AuraGenerative Aura

Diseased TouchDiseased TouchDiseased TouchDiseased Touch

Chittering CloudChittering CloudChittering CloudChittering Cloud

BlightBlightBlightBlight WalkerWalkerWalkerWalker

My Garden GrowsMy Garden GrowsMy Garden GrowsMy Garden Grows MidwifeMidwifeMidwifeMidwife

ShapechangerShapechangerShapechangerShapechanger

The Look Of the Thing: Spoil Powers Spoil abilities, even those considered ’blighted’, always create and encourage life. Sometimes, they heal wounds and knit flesh; at other times, they warp creatures with strange blessing and cause horrible infestations to materialize. When describing spoil powers, the emphasis should always be on what is made to grow; even their damaging powers ultimately multiply illness rather than removing health. WhereÊs The „Green‰ Backstage? Channel, Host, and Vessel powers all originate in other planes, while Shard abilities are sourced from the folding of space itself. So… Where is the source of Spoil powers, anyway? The running theory among the great families is that the plane we actually live on is a composite, and the plane from which Spoil powers originate was folded into our plane before the beginning of history. Such magicians speak of “Terra” and “Gaia” as the two proto-realities of the world, and conceive of Terra as lifeless, ordered, and serene, and of Gaia as verdant, chaotic, and primal. Of course, they don’t have much in the way of evidence, pointing mainly at hidden Fae courts and areas devoid of Quina as their appeal. Most thoughtful magicians believe that the truth is likely more complex yet, but that this theory is likely close enough for their needs.

Healing BurstHealing BurstHealing BurstHealing Burst Fae AscendanceFae AscendanceFae AscendanceFae Ascendance

IncarnateIncarnateIncarnateIncarnate

BlightedBlightedBlightedBlighted AscendanceAscendanceAscendanceAscendance

My Garden Grows (Always Active) If you possess this trait, you halve upkeep on each retainer you have and on yourself (round up). Midwife (Special) By laying hands on a pregnant target, you can alter the embryo. You may freely make cosmetic alterations, and cause the child to be born within the next week, and mature in the space of the week after. You may also grant the child a single, permanent Shapechange alteration. If you possess this power at all, you can choose such traits for normal, living retainers when you acquire them (all your Minions must have the same trait). Incarnate (1Q, Special) When using Midwife, you can infuse the embryo with the spirit of a willing fae that you are in contact with. If you are in contact with a Host, you can also incarnate any willing ghost or group of ghosts within that Host (including a 'reaped' one). Also, you can transfer your own consciousness into the embryo; doing so causes the instantaneous death of your current body. Healing Burst (Always Active) When you heal using Generative Aura, you heal three damage for each Quina spent. In addition, if you heal more damage than your own injuries, the excess is applied to everyone within a step of you. Fae Ascendance (Always Active) If you possess this trait, you can expend Quina to cover damage when you are harmed (note that this only applies to damage, not to "spending health"). Also, you can spend one health each round towards powering your lineage abilities - this does apply to Generative Aura, and does allow an "infinite healing loop". Diseased Touch (1Q, Attack Action) You reach out and touch a subject within a single step of you. That subject takes four damage, and until their next action begins, takes one additional damage each time they are harmed. Chittering Cloud (3Q, General Action) On activation, you cause the life around you to become more fragile. Anyone within one step of you that takes damage takes one additional damage, for the remainder of the scene, or until you use an action to dismiss this effect. Blightwalker (Always Active) Your Chittering Cloud extends six steps, and only affects enemies.

Blighted Ascendance (Always Active) Whenever you have Chittering Cloud active, your body takes on a black tone, and the outlines of it become fuzzy, as if you were made up of a mass of crawling things. This has two effects; first, when you have Chittering Cloud active, you can use Diseased Touch on any target within that effect. Second, any armor or magical clothing you are wearing falls away, but when you are struck, if you would take more than two damage from the attack, you instead take two damage. Shapechanger (1Q, General Action) When you take this trait, choose a “Shapechange Alteration” from the list below. On activation, you shed any current alterations, and take on that feature for the remainder of the scene, though you can dismiss the effects as a general action. In addition, if you possess this trait as well as midwife and incarnate, you can create a body with two permanent alterations for yourself (but only for yourself). You can take this trait repeatedly. For each added copy, you “know” two further alterations, and gain one more of them whenever you shapechange (you’ll need to pick the traits gained from among those you know, and may have many possible forms).

Shapechange Alterations • Natural Weapons: Natural Weapons: Natural Weapons: Natural Weapons: You can attack as if you had a hand weapon, dealing

three damage with a reach of one. • Secondary Strike: Secondary Strike: Secondary Strike: Secondary Strike: You have a slashing tail, bite or other attack; you can

use a second action to attack with this in a round, for one damage (or for two, if you also have natural weapons active).

• Beastsenses: Beastsenses: Beastsenses: Beastsenses: You gain extended ears, strange eyes, and the like. You have no problems from darkness, and can see into all three backstages.

• Toughskin: Toughskin: Toughskin: Toughskin: Fur, scale, or feathers grant you two bonus points of health; these are lost first if you are hurt.

• Threaten: Threaten: Threaten: Threaten: You can snarl or roar at a target within three steps as a general action, getting their full attention. They deal only half damage (round up) with any attack that doesn’t include you for the rest of the scene or until threatened by another.

• Gills & Fins: Gills & Fins: Gills & Fins: Gills & Fins: You can breathe in water, and swim two steps per action (including in the silver backstage, if you end up there).

• FourFourFourFour----Legged: Legged: Legged: Legged: You lose your hands (and ability to use handheld items), but can run three steps per action.

• Ninetails: Ninetails: Ninetails: Ninetails: Your ability to store Quina increases by five (but you don’t gain any Quina automatically).

Bearers of the emerald gate of water, each vessel is the home of a formless and liquid thing. These entities are metallic green in color, and a Vessel can exude their rider through bodily openings or pores - sweating and crying it out onto the surface of their body, and then shaping it with an effort of will. The rider is wholly under the mental control of the Vessel, and can be shaped into lashes, strands, and plates on the body of a practiced Vessel. All Vessels gain the Whipstrike trait, as well as the ability to cast Vessel Can-trips, and may also choose the other traits listed below among their starting traits or as experience buys.

Vessel Cantrips A Vessel may cause or create any of the following effects without cost for cosmetic or narrative effect (and may improvise further, if other players agree that the described effect is low-impact) : • Spin out tiny ‘strings’ from their hand to manipulate objects (or mario-

nettes!). This trick has a vast number of uses; it can be used to collect a collection of small objects, or to pick something up by only apparently touching the side of it, and so on. The strings are strong enough to pick the lock on a jewelry box, but not on a padlock.

• Extend ‘stubs’ from fingers to handle toxic, or extremely hot or cold items for a few moments.

• Create tiny items made of silver-green metal; these are brittle and will crumble in a few minutes if the Vessel stops touching them.

• Grow jewelry on their own body, which can appear either normal or deeply impossible.

Whipstrike (1Q, General Action) By spending a Quina, you exude and shape a number of whiplike appendages (usually originating from your shoulders and forearms). These remain in place for the rest of the scene. You can attack targets up to two steps away with these appendages, dealing three damage with each attack.

Vessel Power Prerequisites The prerequisites shown below apply to all powers overleaf. In order to acquire a given power, you must have all the powers that “point to” it. Remember that you cannot acquire more than one Ascendancy.

The Look Of the Thing: Vessel Powers Vessel powers universally call on the substance of Lethe - a living, amorphous, silvery-green substance that moves and looks something like living mercury. This substance is moderately aware entirely on it’s own; a Vessel using the Whipstrike power that isn’t using the provided appendages will see them move slowly to “sniff” the area. The same stuff pour itself fairly naturally into forms both tentacled and insectile, although not always at the same time; in doing so, it is mimicking the forms that were preferred by the independent denizens of Lethe when they visited reality more commonly. The Look Of the Thing: The Silver Backstage The silver backstage appears much like reality, but lacks a few basic essentials. Like, say, gravity. Things in the silver backstage effective swim through the air, moving at half their normal speed (in combat, that’s one step per action). Anything touched by the powers of Lethe is visible by the ‘plume’ of energy - tiny currents seem to flow towards such things.

WhipstrikeWhipstrikeWhipstrikeWhipstrike

LashLashLashLash

Scorpion StrikeScorpion StrikeScorpion StrikeScorpion Strike

Hydra’sHydra’sHydra’sHydra’s AscendanceAscendanceAscendanceAscendance

Rider’s KissRider’s KissRider’s KissRider’s Kiss

Rider’s SheathRider’s SheathRider’s SheathRider’s Sheath

Blessed Blessed Blessed Blessed StepStepStepStep

BlessedBlessedBlessedBlessed AscendanceAscendanceAscendanceAscendance

ArmorArmorArmorArmor SkinSkinSkinSkin

SkitterlegsSkitterlegsSkitterlegsSkitterlegs

MandiblesMandiblesMandiblesMandibles

SilverskinSilverskinSilverskinSilverskin AscendanceAscendanceAscendanceAscendance

ArmorSkin (3Q, General Action) On activation, you sweat a layer of metallic green armor. This remains for the scene; each time damage is done to you, reduce it by one (to a minimum of one). Skitterlegs (1Q, General Action) On activation, you sprout a series of multi-jointed legs. These remain in effect for the remainder of the scene or until you dismiss them. While you have these legs, you can move three steps for each action you spend on movement. Mandibles (1Q, General Action) On activation, you sprout a set of striking jaws around your face. These remain for the rest of the scene or until dismissed. While they exist, you gain an added action each turn that can only be used to attack with them (this does allow you a second attack in a round); they reach one step, and deal two damage. Silverskin Ascendance (7Q, General Action) When you activate this power, Armorskin, Skitterlegs, and Mandibles all also activate, for free. Your armor takes on an insectile appearance, and ‘soaks up; a further point of damage (this doesn’t combine with slimplates, however). You also gain spines on the backs of your added legs. You can kick with these, using another action as an attack with a reach of one and dealing two damage. This allows a total of three possible attacks, when combined with mandibles, but you can’t attack the same target with mandibles and this kick. The RiderÊs Kiss (1 or 3Q, General Action) On activation of this power, you touch a willing retainer , and infuse them with a portion of your own power. This costs one Quina, or three Quina if you wish to affect all of your Minions. Until the end of the scene, the subject may act as if they possessed all of your Vessel powers, but must spend health rather than Quina to use those powers; any such use of power kills a Minion, at the end of their turn. The RiderÊs Sheath (1Q, General Action) On activation, you send an object you hold into the silver backstage. Such an item can be recalled by you at any time, at no cost. Also, if you can see another manifestation of silver-green, you can cause the item to surface in reality at that location, whether just after sheathing the item, or any time following. Blessed Step (1Q, General Action) On activation, you to transit instantly through the silver backstage and exit through any instance of the Silver-green that you can sense, taking a single step out from that point of arrival.

Blessed Ascendance (7Q, General Action) When you activate this power, you are moved to the same location in the silver backstage, and tendrils spring out from you to any instance of silver-green that you have called into the world (anyone you have blessed, among other things). For the remainder of the scene, if any such instance is within six steps of you, in reality, you can use their position as the point of origin for Whipstrike and Lash attacks that you make (your whips surface out of their body, strike, and retract, in a moment). You can pass an item into the hand of any such as a general action. Such beings can use also use your Quina to activate items, if you are willing to let them do so. If no such being exists in reality within six steps of your position, you must immediately choose whether to surface in reality at your current position, or to fall into Lethe; note that this power gives you no special ability to return from Lethe. Lash (1Q, Attack Action) On activation, flailing tendrils lash out from you in all directions. This deals two damage to everyone within a step of you, whether friend or foe. ScorpionÊs Strike (Always Active) If you possess this trait, appendages you sprout with Whipstrike are dexterous enough to wield weapons; if you do this, the reach is increased by a step. HydraÊs Ascendance (7Q, General Action) When you activate this power, Whipstrike also activates for free; Mandibles, Amorskin, and Skitterlegs all deactivate, and cannot be used while this power is in effect. A flow of silver pours out of your body; your true limbs vanish into a single snakelike body, and the whips you would sprout normally as part of Whipstrike instead rear above you as a pair of writhing heads. While you are in this form, you activate use items, though item effects that you triggered in advance can still have their effects. You gain seven added health, which are lost before any damage is done to your actual body. Your head-whips can attack at the normal range, dealing four damage with each strike, and you can also attack with each of them independently (you can use two actions as attacks, but must choose separate targets for each). In addition to these effects, the silver backstage is fully material to this form; you can attack beings there as if they were in normal reality. The total effects last for the scene, or until you use a general action to dismiss the transformation

These powers may only be acquired by a character with the Hedgeborn origin that chooses the Stehlskien package, or by acquiring a Soul Infusion or similar item from abroad. You cannot choose Namer as your lineage. A character who has any claim on Namer powers will always take the power Transforming Song first, and will thereafter have access to the later powers. There are no known Namer cantrips.

Transforming Song (Special) You can transform Ingots into Skeins, and vice versa, and can turn either into pure and mundane gold (but you cannot turn gold into either). This requires a few minutes handling the materials to be transformed while humming or singing to yourself, but has no Quina cost. If you know Banishing Name, you can also transform Inkbase into these materials and vice versa. If you know Adoptive Name, add Enamel Grains to this list. If you know Thundering curses, add Draught.

Banishing Name (3Q, Attack Action) When you use this power, you demand that a specific target depart the scene; you must know their name (what their friends call them). They must spend all actions attempting to do so from that point on; should they do otherwise, they instantly take five damage (and become immune to the power for the next month). However, if you have this power, anyone may act as if they have it with regards to you. Adoptive Speech (Special) You can adopt a mortal child (one at a time) and bring them to maturity just by naming them. The rules effect of this is just: If you have a Sergeant, you pay no upkeep on them. Thundering Curses (1Q, Attack Action) This power is activated as an attack action in combat, and deals one damage to everyone within one step of you; when you use it, you shout a curse that damages those around you. However, you can also swear and stamp as a general action before using it - if you do this for one general action, the damage rises to two points; if you yell and stomp and curse for two added actions in advance, it deals three damage.

These powers may only be acquired by a player creating a customized Hedgeborn, or by acquiring a Soul Infusion or similar item from abroad. You cannot choose Spark as your lineage. A character who has any claim on Spark powers will always take the power Spark Sight first, and will thereafter have access to the later powers. There are no known Spark cantrips.

Spark Sight (1Q, Attack Action) On activation, you blast lightning from your eyes, in a corridor one step wide and four steps long. Anything in this corridor is hit for two damage.

Burning Reflex (1Q, General Action) On activation, your flesh begins to smoke; you must pay two health. For the rest of the scene, you must pay two health at the start of each turn you take, or the effects end. However, during that time, you gain one added action each round, and you can use two of your actions as attack actions in the round. Storm Gate (5Q, Attack Action) On activation, you deal two damage to everything within three steps of yourself, including yourself. This damage cannot be reduced by armor (including armorskin and slimplates). Animus Leap (Special) This power is activated freely and automatically when you choose to take a scar. Your body explodes thunderously, dealing damage equal to the combined total of Quina and Health you had left to every creature within the same number of steps. Your spirit leaps away as a crackling form of energy, into the shuddering body of one target slain by the blast - if there are no casualties, your spirit implodes and is annihilated. The body that you leap into gains your powers and loses it’s own; it also moves to having a number of scars equal to your new ‘count’; if you had two scars before the power activated, the new body has three. Once you possess this power, you can’t take a scar without it going off; it always happens. • Prerequisites: Prerequisites: Prerequisites: Prerequisites: Burning Reflex, Storm Gate.

There Are Five Recognized Guilds There are five properly-recognized Guilds within the great families, and each player character will be a member of one of these. Each Guild represents a mundane craft with can be infused with power. And One Demi-Guild The powers of the Veneziano and Dollmacher hedgeborn are believed to be linked in ways that could give rise to a sixth guild, given time. The guild-like abilities of those two families have often been cause for them to be referred to as “those bloody tinkers”; thus, their abilities are grouped up and listed as “the Tinker’s Guild” list. Origins Of The Guilds Supposedly, each of the first magicians of the great families had a one of these crafts; in ancient times, each Guild was the sole provenance of a single family - sharing their unique skills across Lineages is what unified the families into a whole.

Guild Traits When you choose a Guild, you gain two traits. The first trait will be marked is always the ability to make the 'base material' that your Guild uses out of Quina, and the second is an item that you can make from that material. The second trait you gain will the one from that Guild list which is marked accord-ing to your Lineage, such as [Spoil] or [Channel]. You may also acquire the ability to create the other listed items, treating each as another trait.

Guild Politics In areas where there are more than a couple members of a Guild, a Guild usu-ally isisisis a political unit. This can work a few different ways; here are a few of them: • Guild members simply maintain lists of which members can make which

items, and refer non-Guild members to one another. • The Guild can agree on ‘minimum prices’ to be charged for each item, to

avoid falling into heavy competition with each other; these are usually money-prices, with set values for “what other things are worth by our reckoning”.

• A single member of the Guild can be elected as the “shop”, which is both a grunt-work and leadership position - a Shop finds out what members of the Guild want in terms of items, and then acts as the broker for their crea-tions. Such a person will usually prepares trade and price lists for the group to carry to society gatherings. Smiths often pool their ingots and elect a Shop.

• An especially wealthy member of the Guild locally takes over as the ‘big man’, buying up the work of their fellow Guild members and acting as broker. This is much like a Shop deal in effect, but can some ‘big man’ bro-kers achieve this position with threats, intimidation, territory-brokering, and other means.

These magicians brew liquors and other drinkables professionally. Their skills allow them to infuse these liquids to create magical elixirs. By their nature, each elixir is a one-use item. Consuming an elixir during combat is an action, but not an attack. All Brewers can create Draught, and know one other recipe based on their lineage. Each added recipe is a trait.

Draught In downtime, when you harvest materials, you gain the appropriate number of Draught. These are used to create all brewer-crafts, and are often traded around among Brewers.

Grenado (Channel) 3 Draughts A grenado is a flask which can be thrown, and which shatters and explodes in brilliant light upon impact. This light deals three damage to anyone at the point of impact, and two damage to anyone within a single step of that point. Soul Infusion (Host) 2 Draughts A soul infusion is an elixir containing a single use of any guild or lineage abil-ity possessed by the maker of the elixir - when drunk, the drinker may employ that ability once in the same evening, at which point the effect ends. Guild abilities allow the drinker to create the item in question, given the needed ingredients. Many characters possessing this craft actual create Soul Infusions that share the ability to create another Soul Infusion, allowing a user to make a second infusion for some ability that the original brewer did not possess. Flickering Elixir (Shard) 3 Draughts A flickering elixir appears to be an empty bottle from some angles of view, full from others. If consumed, the drinker gains one additional action each time they take their turn, for the rest of the scene or encounter; this added action cannot be used to attack. Healing Elixir (Spoil) 2 Draughts This elixir looks like a jug of tea or rum. Drinking it causes the user to heal with astonishing rapidity, immediately restoring up to five lost health boxes.

Quicksilver Elixir (Vessel) 8 Draughts This elixir looks almost identical to the substance of the entity Vessels carry within them. A character that drinks it bleeds out shapeless silver-green things of blood and liquid metal when they are injured. After drinking this elixir, for the rest of the scene, a single pawn is created next to you at the end of each combat round where you are injured. These pawns last only until the end of the scene, when the silver evaporates into fog, leaving only a bloody smear. Truth Serum 2 Draughts A bottle of truth serum smells and tastes extremely powerful and fruity, as well as being awful. Anyone who drinks one (and you can bet they’re going to know it; the scent can’t be disguised) cannot lie directly for the rest of the scene. They can still evade the truth, of course. You may want to stick to yes-and-no questions. Fey Poison 2 Draughts Fey poison is a flask which can be thrown, and which shatters and explodes in strange vapors. These vapors deal four damage to any Fae at the point of im-pact, and three damage to any Fae within a single step of that point. They have no effect on any other kind of being. Quintessence 10 Draughts Quintessence is a liquid that appears to be… it looks like fluid glitter, okay? Right. If you drink it, you regain one Quina every few seconds (each round) until you have regained a total of five Quina. Dragonbrew 1 Draught A bottle of dragonbrew is a clear liquid that must be charged before it is used. To charge it, you must be in possession of it when a Fae is destroyed or slain within a single step of you. Should this occur, you spend a single Quina, and the vial becomes charged. Only one vial of dragonbrew can be charged on the destruction of any single Fae. A charged vial will grant the drinker a single power which the Fae in question possessed, for one use only (and at no cost). A character able to make Dragonbrew will be able to figure out what that power is given a little time to analyze the elixir. • Prerequisite: Any two other Elixirs. Glue Bomb 2 Draughts Fey poison is a flask which can be thrown, and which shatters and explodes into a gooey mess. Anyone on the point of impact or within a step of it is “glued”; they must spend one action freeing their hands before they can at-tack, and another freeing their legs before they can move.

These magi craft inks and paints as a profession. Their arcane practice allows them to create inks for use in creating magical documents and a few other uses. All Scribes can create Inkbase, and know one other recipe based on their lineage. Each added recipe is a trait.

Inkbase In downtime, when you harvest materials, you gain the appropriate number of Inkbase. These are used to create all scribe-crafts, and are often traded around among Scribes.

ChampionÊs Ink (Channel) 3 Inkbase This ink is used to write a note in which one person names another as their champion. If the writer had a champion, the older note crumbles; otherwise, it lasts indefinitely. A champion gains a bonus point of damage to every single-target attack they make, so long as the number of people they champion is greater than the damage they would do without the bonus. Union Ink (Host) 7 Inkbase Union Ink is used to write out an agreement which is then signed by any num-ber of participants on the spot. The agreement lasts for a single night if one vial of Union Ink is used, or for a year if three vials are used. More signatures can be added after the fact, but each added later requires another vial. If this docu-ment is destroyed, all signatories know it, and the effects end. The agreement must be phrased as a specific situation, and the universal reaction required of all participants "If any of us are attacked, we will all come as quickly as possi-ble to their aid" is a valid agreement. If anyone breaks the agreement, all sig-natories feel it, and can 'punish' the offender at will; the offender takes one damage for each such punishment. This does not end the effect, and each such 'hit' is separate in terms of resisting damage and taking scars. TravellerÊs Ink (Shard) 6 Inkbase This ink is used up simply by dipping a pen into it and writing your name on a card. From that point onwards, if the card is ever torn in half, you are instantly aware that this has happened and who has done so, and can teleport yourself to the side of that person at a cost of 3 Quina (or for free, if you are a Shard).

Midnight Ink (Spoil) 4 Inkbase This ink is used by writing out a symbol which simply means "spite", and sign-ing your name. Once this is done, the resulting document is cursed; you must keep it on your person, and can’t destroy it. You can hand it to another magi-cian or a fae (including under false pretenses), but not to a “mundane”. You can only force it onto another magician if they are bound or unconscious, as an ac-tion. If it is transferred, the new holder can't get rid of it or destroy it except by the same rules; before they can hand it off, they must sign their own name to it (they can use normal ink for this). While holding such a document, using any power or item that costs Quina costs one extra Quina for each name signed. The midnight after such a note is created, it crumbles. BinderÊs Ink (Vessel) 7 Inkbase This ink may be used to write out a deal of any kind between a mortal being (which include magicians) and a Fae being. Once signed, the deal is bind-ing. Should the magician fail to uphold their end of the deal, all the Quina they currently possess is transferred to the Fae, and the deal ends. Should the Fae break the deal, that being is instantly annihilated. Once this deal is signed by both parties, the document itself burns to a fine ash; this indicates that the deal is now in effect. This Ink works on Outsiders that have a body capable of using writing instruments, language, and a name. Not many. ScrivenerÊs Ink 4 Inkbase To activate this ink, the user puts a drop of it in each eye and ear, which fade from sight, and dashes the rest across a page (which soaks it up). For the rest of the night, everything the user says and hears scrolls across the page as text, and everything they see is shown as a moving illustration. At any time, they may will the end of the effect, causing the text and picture to freeze in place. The writing and illustration styles are distinctive and cannot be forged. Harvest Ink 4 Inkbase This ink is used to write the name of a location onto a magician, and lasts for a month once this is done. During that month, it acts as a hearthkey for that area. Contingent Eye 8 Inkbase This ink is used to inscribe an eye on a person or object, along with an inscrip-tion describing an event the eye might “see”. When this is done, the ink must be charged by the user, or someone assisting the user; a single power is used and the ink absorbs it. When the eye uses the event described, it immediately makes use of that power on a target of the wearer’s choice (so, an eye could be inscribed to trigger when it sees the wearer harmed, to heal them). If a target is already wearing this item when a new one is added, the older one fades away.

Tilers work in mosaic, in tiles; any blocky objects that can form a line or pat-tern. Such blockings, fused with Quina, can "chain" to create effects. Each Tiler item can be made either one-use item or permanent - permanent ones are fixed in place, but can be made mobile with The Woven Tile (weaver item).

Enamels Grains In downtime, when you harvest materials, you gain the appropriate number of Grains. These are used to create all tiler-crafts, and are often traded around among Tilers.

Power Ward (Channel) 2(t) or 50(p) Grains* A power ward is long a string of tiles or beads laid in a circle. When one Quina is spent into the circle, the ward becomes active for the scene. While active, it affects everything within three times the diameter of the circle, radiating out-wards from the edge of the circle. A power ward one step across would affect an area three steps outward from it's edge. Anyone spending Quina in that area takes damage equal to the Quina spent. A temporary ward can be used once; a permanent one can be used as often as needed. • Circles more than three steps across cost:: (radius-2)², x2(t) or x50(p). Elder Sign (Host) 3(t) or 30(p) Grains An elder sign does not need to be activated, only exposed; it takes the form of a bent pentacle with an abstracted eye centered in it, often tiled in yellow or painted in black. If it "can see" an otherly entity with this eye - any outsider, fae, or an entity created entirely through use of power, it expends itself and blasts that target, dealing three damage. There is no absolute limit to this range; the question is one of 'sight' from the eye in the center of the sign. Re-vealing a covered sign is an action in combat, but doesn't use up your at-tack. A permanent elder sign blasts the nearest such target once each minute. Impossible Angle (Shard) 2(t) or 20(p) Grains An impossible angle is a circle of beads or tiles, which is activated for the scene by spending a point of Quina. While it is active, anyone can use the Exile's Gate ability on anyone inside of the circle. A temporary circle of this kind is used up at the end of this scene; a permanent one needs only to be reactivated.

Grim Cloud {Spoil) 3(t) or 30(p) Grains A grim cloud is a small item, generally a ring or a small inlay, which is acti-vated by spending a Quina. When activated, it spins out a brackish cloud of dust that swirls around it, two steps in all directions. Any effect originating in or entering this area which would deal damage deals one less damage, down to a minimum of one point. This does not alter damage done by the magician that activated this effect. The cloud remains in place for the scene. If the source of the cloud is moved, the cloud does not move with it. A temporary item of this kind is used up at the end of this scene; a permanent can be reactivated. Silver-Green Spiral (Vessel) 2(t) or 20(p) Grains A silver-green spiral is a small item, often a brooch or a single engraved floor tile; a permanent one isisisis portable. It is activated by touching it and spending a Quina into it. The activator then chooses a spot within their own reach; a column of shimmering green smoke rises and writhes within that space. This column remains in place for the scene, and can extend tendrils out a full step in any direction. The smoke cannot shift position, but can lift objects, strike within itself or within reach (1 damage), and can push or pull anything in it or next to it one step. The creator controls this action on their ‘go’, and it costs them no action. The cloud cannot be damaged by any normal means; any at-tack on it with the powers of a channel will destroy it, however, and if it is in sight of an Elder sign, the sign will be set off and destroy it. A permanent Spiral can create multiple such columns in the same scene, existing at once. SummonerÊs Circle 4(t) or 40(p) Grains A Summoner’s Circle is long a string of tiles or beads laid in a circle. While it is laid out (even without activation), any being backstage within six steps of the circle becomes visible as a hazy figure (this effect is obvious to them as well), and beings backstage within the circle are entirely visible and even audible should they speak. If a being is backstage and in this range, a mage touching the circle can spend two Quina, instantly moving that target into the circle and pulling it into normal reality (it may not be able to stay, but it at least briefly arrives). This counts as an activation, which causes a temporary Sum-moner’s circle to crumble. Drawing The Tile This is not an item, but a trait that enhances other creations. If you have it, you can spend half the costs to create a tiled item in Grains, and the other half in Inkbase, and inscribe temporary items on paper or cloth. You can also inscribe these effects onto an existing Binding Belt (see the Weaver item), activating them simultaneously with the belt, and whatever is bound is treated as 'seen' or 'inside the circle', as suits.

Smiths forge metal for a living, and create some of the most spectacular items available among the magi of the great families. Smithcrafts require an incredible amount of mystical work; their creations are often sold at a very dear price indeed, even among magicians. All Smiths can create Ingots, and know one other smithcraft based on their lineage. Each added craft is a trait.

Ingots In downtime, when you harvest materials, you gain the appropriate number of Ingots. These are used to create all smith-crafts, and are often traded around among Smiths.

Foehammer (Channel) 50 Ingots A Foehammer is a heavy, ironwork pistol that has no apparent means to load it. By spending three Quina to activate it for the scene, you can fire blasts of power for the scene; these are not visibly magical, but they can start small fires on impact. Each blast is a ranged attack, dealing 2 damage, with a range of up to six steps. A Channel who has this weapon can channel Rimelit Strike through it; in this case, it converts that power from rimefire into normal flame, and grants a bonus point of damage. Slimplates (Host) 50 Ingots A set of Slimplates is a suit of armor so thin that it can be worn under normal clothing without being visible, and which can be reshaped at the will of the wearer to cover or uncover areas to match said clothing. It costs three Quina to activate for the scene, and duplicates the effects of Armorskin (the Vessel power). It also 'stacks' with that power; a character protected by both reduces all damage taken by two points (to a minimum of one). Skynail (Shard) 25 Ingots A skynail is a steel spike that appears somewhat blurred. It can be used as a regular hand weapon in combat; if it is, anyone struck with it loses an action on their next turn. If the holder is a Shard, or is willing to spend a Quina, it can also be rammed into the air; when this is done, the hilt becomes completely immobile until the holder wishes to pull it back out. If stuck into the air, one could hang a pulley off it and use it to hoist elephants into the air.

Clearvoice (Spoil) 50 Ingots This bell, when rung, shatters the threshold effect for a range of thirty steps in all directions, for a full scene. Employing it does count as the user's attack if in combat, but it can be rung by anyone, including retainers. Archblade (Vessel) 50 Ingots An archblade is a hand weapon dealing a base of four damage. It requires no activation and is permanent. Guilder Tools 15 Ingots Each Guilder tools are items which enhance the transformation of gained Quina into raw materials. A character that knows how to make Guilder tools actu-ally knows how to make two of the items listed below, and can learn to make the other three by taking this trait again. All Guilder tools work in the same way: Whenever the user harvests units of raw materials, they gain one added point of raw materials. Only one added unit of raw materials can be gained in this way per hearth harvested per month. • Brewer’s Flask: Adds a bonus Draught; only usable by Brewers. • Scribe’s Vial: Adds a bonus Inkbase; only usable by Scribes. • Smith’s Anvil: Adds a bonus Ingot; only usable by Smiths. • Tiler’s Trowel: Adds a bonus Enamel; only usable by Tilers. • Weaver’s Loom: Adds a bonus Skein; only usable by Weavers. Abyssal Fist 50 Ingots An abyssal fist is a gauntlet or ring. To use it, the wielder takes a stance in preparation for someone else’s use of magic. In combat, this is an action, and uses up your chance to attack. If magic is used anywhere within thirty steps of the user before they next act, they can spend health equal to the Quina cost of that magic, and counter it instantly. If they do so, they then gain Quina equal to the amount of health that they spent. Steel Mirror 50 Ingots A steel mirror is a handheld mirror. To employ it, the user simply gazes into it and spends one Quina. The mirror is then ‘charged’, and cannot be used again until the month ends. If the user dies while the mirror is charged, and is not subjected to the Reaper power, their soul is summoned to and absorbed by the mirror. They cannot use powers from this position, or speak, but they can play a mean game of charades, and can be returned to life by means of the Spoil power Incarnate. Upon their return to life, the mirror shatters. • Special: After forging, a Host with the Reaper ability must spent three

Quina ‘into’ the mirror in order to seal the enchantment.

Weavers hand-create fabrics and clothes of all sorts, crafting and imbuing their greatest works with blessings and boons that the wearer can tap into. While these abilities describe the items here as woven cloth, it is possible for a weaver to work the same effects in knits, felts, and heavy papers.

Skeins In downtime, when you harvest materials, you gain the appropriate number of Skeins. These are used to create all weaver-crafts, and are often traded around among Weavers.

Sigilstitch (Channel) 4 Skeins A sigilstitch is an embroidered circular pattern, often stitched into a hanker-chief. By simply willing it to activate, a holder can cause the stitch to unravel (this doesn't cost an action in combat). The user may then activate powers or items which cost Quina at a reduced cost for a short period (in combat, until the end of the user's next turn), paying one less Quina for each activation - this can reduce such costs to zero, and multiple sigilstitches used in the same round or overlapping rounds are cumulative, but each reduction can only be applied to any given power once per round. Binding Belt (Host) 6 Skeins A binding belt is a long scarf that, when activated, flies out from the hand of the user and wraps itself around a target. Activating a belt costs one Quina, and is your attack if used in combat. The target is automatically bound, and must use their attack to break the cord as well as two additional actions to shake the pieces off, before they can take any other action. A belt can also be enhanced with some other effects; these persist on the location of the pieces after the belt is shed. It can also be enhanced with Midnight ink, in which case breaking the belt simply moves the cursed portion into the pocket of the target after they break the belt as a whole. Banner (Spoil) 2(t) or 20(p) Skeins By driving the pole of a banner into the ground and spending a Quina, it be-comes active for the scene. While active, a banner grants one extra action each round of combat to the user and all allies within six steps of it; this action cannot be used to attack. This effect lasts for the scene, at which time the ban-ner’s colors fade. A permanent version can be activated once per scene.

The Woven Tile (Shard) 2(t) or 20(p) Skeins A woven tile is an apparently blank sheet that can be spread across a surface or set of furnishings or equipment, and then activated at the cost of one Quina. Upon activation, whatever is covered by the sheet vanishes into the sheet, marking it with a wildly complex pattern. Once this has occurred, the sheet can no longer be activated; instead, by ripping it, the things previously covered are released back into the world. A woven tile is so-called because this trick can be used to move permanently installed Tiler items. It is also pos-sible to invert the trick, piling things onto a 'woven tile' carpet, and having them fall into it, rising back out when the carpet is cut or torn - there are a few stories of this method being used to transport cannon and use them as a horrific surprise in battle. This effect can be ‘layered’ repeatedly onto a single piece of cloth, allowing a rug to store a castle, one load at a time. In addition, a perma-nent version can be made, which can be charged and discharged once a month. Cloak (Vessel) 4(t) or 40(p) Skeins A cloak is capable of capturing and absorbing a single blow, of any level of strength. When struck, you must spend a point of quina to activate the cloak; when you do, the damage from the blow is absorbed (although other effects still occur, if any), and the power of the cloak is gone. A permanent version of this item can also be created; such a cloak can be activated to absorb a blow once each scene. Calling Cord 2(t) or 20(p) Skeins A calling cord appears to be a coil of colorful braid, some thirty feet long. When activated, the user indicates a single target within six steps. One end of the cord flies away from the user and wraps itself around a target briefly, yanking that target towards the user. Activating a cord costs one Quina, and is an attack if it is used in combat. The target is automatically pulled three steps towards the wielder, and takes two damage. A temporary version of the cord is one-use; a permanent version may be used as often as the holder can pay for it. MasterÊs Whip 2(t) or 20(p) Skeins A master’s whip is a ranged weapon with a reach of three steps. A target struck by it takes one damage. In addition, the holder can activate it upon striking; if they do, the whip deals an added damage, and the subject can im-mediately take one added action of their own choosing, including an attack. A temporary version of the whip can only be activated once (but remains a weapon afterwards). A permanent version costs one Quina to activate when it hits, but can be used indefinitely. If you are striking your own retainer, this action is not considered your attack.

Tinkers are not a recognized guild, but are instead the theoretical Guild that will likely one day emerge as the Veneziano and Dollmacher powers ‘grow into’ one another; they are listed together for that reason. • Materials: Materials: Materials: Materials: Practitioners of these abilities may use whatever material they

create as part of their normal guild abilities to craft their items.

Larval Mask 5 Material A larval mask is plain and white, often with a long nose. On creation, it is ‘blank’; it may be triggered as an attack action, by simply looking at a Fae. That Fae takes ten damage, which cannot be reduced. If the Fae is not slain, the mask then crumbles. If they are slain by this power, the mask becomes charged with their essence, and takes on an abstracted version of their appearance. The mask then can be employed as a item which contains one of that Fae’s powers, which is chosen purely by organizer whim. It may be used to express this power at least once, and has one extra ‘charge’ for every point of damage it did to the Fae beyond the health that Fae possessed. Activation always costs one Quina, and may be either a general or attack action. • Identification: Identification: Identification: Identification: Only a character able to make this item can identify the

power it contains; anyone else must simply try to use it blind. Heraldica 20 Material Heraldica is a set of livery - a coat of arms or seal distinct to you, modified from that native to your family. A character with this trait has the ability to “see” the appropriate seal or arms for anyone they make this item for - having Heraldica made for you is also an odd way for a character to research their ancestors. A set of Heraldica include one “master” item, worn by the character it was made for (often a badge or surcoat), and a large stack of “vassal” items (effectively an infinite number, for game purposes), which are worn by others. They must be prominent and visible in order to work. The owner of this Heraldica can, by sitting and meditating (they are helpless while they do), transfer their presence to any vassal item, sensing the world from that vantage. When they do, the vassal item glows visibly; this isn’t a stealthy mode of spying Bright Mote 1 Material A bright mote sparkles with energy. If you possess a mote, you may sacrifice it when activating a lineage power or item; it reduces that cost by 1Q, and can reduce the cost to zero. You can sacrifice only one mote per activation.

Poppet 1 Material A poppet is a minion; they are permanent and active from creation until destroyed, but will only serve their creator. If you have this trait, you can have the normal maximum of 8 minions, plus 8 active poppets. A poppet has the traits normal to a minion, but requires no upkeep. If any of your poppets are defeated in a conflict, you can spend one Quina at the end of the conflict to revive them all. Poppets cannot use further gear. You can create Poppets that treat another magician as ‘their creator’ (which can also be reanimated in the same way by that person), but these cost ten times as much to craft. Mannikin 4 Material A mannikin is a retainer; they are permanent and active from creation until destroyed, but will only serve their creator. You can have up to four manikins in your service at any given time. Each mannikin has ten health, and attacks for three damage (with a reach of one step) with whatever simulated weapon you have given them. If any of your mannikins are defeated in a conflict, you can spend one Quina at the end of that conflict to revive each of them. Mannikins cannot use further equipment. Spoil powers can neither heal nor harm Mannikins. You can create Mannikins that treat another magician as ‘their creator’ (these can be reanimated in the same way by that person), but these cost ten times as much to craft. Titan Frame 40 Material A Titan Frame is a roughly humanoid hulk, usually standing about ten feet tall. It is always active, but does not act on it’s own. On your turn, you may use your own actions to move it about and have it attack; if you use one of your actions to have it attack, that count as your attack for the same round. • Quina: Quina: Quina: Quina: You can, if you are touching it, ‘store’ one of your own Quina in it.

This storage is always “charged up” at the start of every conflict or game if your own Quina is full. It can activate items it is holding as if it was you, while under your control, but this stored point of power is the only one available to it normally (though it can carry and use Sigilstitches and Bright Motes). You can control it at any range, so long as you can see it, and can control it through scrying items; Scrivener’s Ink and Heraldica can both be employed for this purpose.

• Ownership: Ownership: Ownership: Ownership: A Titan Frame normally only obeys the mental commands of it’s creator; you can create a Frame that treat another lineage magician as ‘their creator’ (which can also be reanimated in the same way by that person), but these cost three times as much to craft.

• Statistics: Statistics: Statistics: Statistics: A Titan Frame has thirty health. It attacks by punching, with a reach of one step, for three damage. It can use weapons and wear armor. If defeated, the creator can ‘heal it’ after the conflict at a cost of 5 Quina.

Between games, you have five downtime actionsfive downtime actionsfive downtime actionsfive downtime actions. If you have a clerk retainer, you are granted two more actions. These actions can be noted as checkmarks in the appropriate section on your character sheet at the end of the night, but if you feel the need to think on it, downtime is due one week after the game.. In any discussion, you’ll hear "action" and "check" used interchangeably, because of the way you note downtime. Actions & Regions Actions occur in Regions. A Region is an area of a town which has a hearth in it somewhere (so mages are affected by the threshold effect - all Quina costs are doubled while in the region if you don't have the hearthkey). Note that Re-gions do not cover the whole of the town - these are just the interesting parts where we've put things like Quina, money and plot. When taking an action, you must name the Region in which you are taking the action. Then, you may do up to three actionsup to three actionsup to three actionsup to three actions in the Region:

• You may earn money once • You may regenerate Quina once OR harvest materials once. • You may take a "fill-in" action once This does mean that if you want to use all your actions, you will be probably be engaging in actions in at least two Regions . Also, note: If you’re taking actions in a region where you don’t have a hearthkey, the Threshold applies; all your magic costs double there. Earn Money Typically, all characters who earn money in a given Region will receive 10 Marks. If members of the same Guild try to gather money from the same Re-gion in the same turn, then they each receive one less Mark for each member of that Guild after the first (so three Smiths in the same Region all earning money each turn receive 8 Marks, not 10). There is no prerequisite for earning money. Regenerate Quina You must have a heathkey for the Region to take this action there. If you do not take this action at all, you enter each game and downtime conflict with three Quina. If you do take it, you will enter with more than that; how much exactly depends on the number of characters regenerating Quina and harvesting materials there:, as follows :

Harvesters & Regenerators Just You 2 6+

Enter Game & Conflict With 10 Q 7 Q 4 Q

4-5

5 Q

3

6 Q

Harvesting Materials You must have a heathkey for the Region to take this action there. You can draw on the magic of an area and change it into raw materials (Ingots, Skeins, etc). You will gain a number of units of material based on the number of others using the Hearth for this purpose or to regenerate Quina, as follows:

„Fill-In‰ Actions "Fill-Ins" consist of everything else your character might be doing during downtime in a Region. Here's a list of some common fill-in actions: • Seek Keys:Seek Keys:Seek Keys:Seek Keys: You look for keys to the area. This will always lead

you towards a hearthkey, but can generate problems. • Scourge:Scourge:Scourge:Scourge: You wander the territory and meet whoever's in it that is

magical, and can get scenes or fights with them. Good times.

• Seek Plot:Seek Plot:Seek Plot:Seek Plot: Sometimes, you just want to go "Hey, whatever's here, I get into it". This is the action for that. This is about as far from safe as you can get.

• Accompany [Person]:Accompany [Person]:Accompany [Person]:Accompany [Person]: When the named person is in the territory, it will be assumed you're with them for the critical bits (if, for example, a big scene or fight breaks out). Note that the person doing the accompanying will be treated as secondary; if there's a scene, and it can only be scheduled with one of the people for some reason, it'll be the one acting and not the one accompanying who gets it (and the one acting will be expected to fill in the other).

If you're making up different stuff, there's room on your sheet for notes. Explain it! Be aware that "Fill-Ins" can sometimes involve scenes with the Organizers. These scenes will usually be scheduled between games and we'll do our best to get all the players involved together and to keep them short and snappy, but if we need to we'll make Executive Decisions. We do not want the actual games filled with Organizer scenes - we want you talking to each other. Overkill You also have the option of Overkill. You may choose to assign additional checks to a particular Fill-In action; sometimes you’ll need them, and sometime you’ll get a bonus. Overkilling gives you a little more control over the scene, if there is one. For instance, if a key is particularly hard to find, overkilling may let you discover the key faster. You might be a little more prepared when the plot comes to eat you ("I brought a ten-foot pole!"). Remember that this can sometimes waste an action (if you overkill seeking a key that's ridiculously easy to find, for instance).

Harvesters & Regenerators Just You 2 6+

Material Gains 7 Units 3 Units None

4-5

1 Unit

3

2 Units

Dolchmarkierung

1. The Thornwood 2. Charcoal Pits 3. Town Square 4. Longhall Ruins 5. Lonely Roads

6. Carnival Quartering 7. Honig Road 8. Dolchknochen River 9. Militia Barracks 10. Sewers

11. Iron Mines 12. Vergolden Hills 13. Church Graveyard

(Old Forest Town)

Hoherabbey

1. Abbey Commons 2. The Plaza 3. The Residenze 4. The Belltower 5. Sealed Abbey

6. New Glassworks 7. Salt Mines 8. Schollvent Road 9. Schollvent Hamlet 10. Old Glassworks

11. Abbey Catacombs 12. The Shining Ice 13. Gusmark Road 14. Low Gusmark 15. High Gusmark

(Mountainside Town)

Schoelin

1. Royal Museum 2. Schoelin Hotel 3. Sturmacht Street 4. The Clocktower 5. The Retreat 6. The Royal Palace 7. The Promenade 8. Anghevin Manor

9. The Opera House 10. Kiergaard Estate 11. Parliament Hill 12. Embassy Row 13. Downtown Slums 14. The Grand Theatre 15. Royal College 16. Schoelin Cemetery

17. Passenkein Brewery 18. Brumholt Street 19. Engineer’s Club Lands 20. Schoelin Cathedral 21. Schoelin Commanderie 22. The Great Bridge 23. Schoelin Ford 24. Shoelin Sewers

(Capital Town)

Tor Eisen

1. Brot Street 2. The Smuggler’s Cove 3. The Old Wharves 4. Ship’s Graveyard 5. Storm Tunnels 6. Old Cisterns

7. The Vorgebirge (cliffs) 8. Lager-Bezirk (warehouses) 9. Uferfront (shoreline) 10. The Schelvet 11. Golden Road 12. Zauberie Road

13. The Kux 14. The Bank of Ruritania 15. Hammer Quarter 16. Juden Road 17. Mast Road 18. Vecht Manor

(Port Town)

Wierstaad

1. The Taps Quarter 2. The Works Quarter 3. Execution Square 4. Royal Armory 5. Kiergaard Academy 6. Wierstaad Park 7. Warehouse Quarter

8. Wiegraff Road 9. The Kirsen Fields 10. Town Square 11. Kargenstahl Street 12. Helskaal Street 13. Schadner Street 14. Schednel Street

15. Livestock Market 16. Old Plague Hospital 17. Royal Hunting Preserve 18. Wachtnael Road 19. Wachtnael Hamlet 20. Lurek Road 21. Lurek Hamlet

(Military Town)