Trickle Down Economics (Hex/Arise Ye Wretched, Lore & Class)

 

Source: my friend's "spooky images folder."

 Why Are There Dungeons Anyways?

     Understand this: the Hex is not new. Nobody knows how old it is. This is not an expanding universe, it is one with well-defined dimensionality. They cannot measure the age of the rocks when alchemy can birth fresh rocks anew. Maybe the hexagonal ice-walls were installed at some point—there are, in fact, sects that exalt the idea of that prelapsarian planar eon. The power of the occult further complicates the matter—civilizations can fall, not into decay or ruin but into secrecy, into secluded retreat; to the scholars (but not Scholars) of the modern Hex, these unimaginable swathes of history are elided into a single time period: Antediluvity.

    This should not be take to mean that the Hex is a “Dying Earth,” however. The Hex is a Living Earth—the cultures and sentiences upon it are not all pale, nostalgic echoes of a faded lost age. They are new buds, vigorous new forms of life, new ideas and passions and arts and hatreds. Eons past are not detritus but soil in which the seeds are planted. And healthy plants have deep roots—the Hex’s down is far more navigable than our own, and there has long been a continuum of cultural mingling and exchange between surface downers and dwellers of the upper mesocosm, for good and for ill.

    The Interdark is a traditional refugium for peoples, ideas, and practices that have been scoured from the surfaces by force or by time. History runs deep there, and the rigid progression of historical stages breaks down into a murky mosaic—the complex technical civilizations of Dwarves, the analytical silklooms and tensegrity structures of the Drow, the slow, deep rhythms of the technology-averse but incredibly long-lived Olm, and others incalculable. There is something that drags immortals down here, a hidden urge - some desire to be in synch with the passage of hexalogical time.

    Also, there are Illithids, commonly called Mind Flayers by all around the world in proud defiance of any sort of hubristic claims to ‘copyright’ or ‘product identity.’ Hex legal scholars have long since determined that nobody can copyright a funny squid-faced freak and besides I’m not even selling this, get fucked losers. I don’t actually know what’s up with them but I just remembered that I had resolved to not care at all about the normal euphemisms and placeholders.

Why Are They Called Dungeons?

    Because kings used to throw prisoners down there to starve to death or get tortured and eaten by horrible monsters, duh.

Demi-Dungeons

    These refer to above sea-level archaeological sites that are still (or have recently been made) “active” in a raiding and salvaging—tombs, labyrinths, etc…

    On the top, these are usually of Late Antediluvian provenance and are inside mountains, fortified barrow-bunkers, and other such flood-resistant constructions. The underside has more and older surviving sites, which makes it such a magnet for topside adventurers (in the Cortés, Napoleon, looted antiquities kind of way).

    They’re “demi” because there’s a lot of overlap in skillset, training, and hazard, but expeditions to these tend to draw in a more varied set, since they tend to be (on average) less vertical, more technically and semiotically consistent, better-studied and characterized, and easier to just pummel with explosives from outside and then sort through the wreckage.

Cleared Dungeons

    Some dungeons are naturally vacant, or about as inhabited as a common cave. Others have been rendered devoid of their native inhabitants by some catastrophe, or by intelligent action. Exploring these is about as dangerous as caving in a creepypasta world, which is to say, you’ll statistically be fine but you could get got really badly so it’s a bit of an extreme thing to do for sport.

    Organized dungeon clearance is an extremely lucrative and controversial practice that is a common target for symbionist and teratophile protest and actionism. It’s also a common source of jobs for those willing to serve as indiscriminate exterminators. Sometimes, this boils down to a routine pest control job of a sort not all that different from what’s required in modern residences (“pests” in the Hex are a little more varied and a little more dangerous than ours, requiring a more hardened and cunning breed of exterminator) and you can go home with a mostly clean conscience.

    Other times, you will find flyers openly advertising jobs for genocidaires; while this kind of work is illegal in much of the world, there is rampant criminal collusion with “deep development” enterprises that results in unreported massacres, forced evictions, use of terror campaigns against dungeon-dwellers. These activities are concentrated in certain countries with controversial teratocidal politics, but were widespread as recently as the 9960s and still crop up in lurid news scandals every once in a new moon.

Neon Dungeons

    A euphemistic insider term amongst professionals for a modern site like a bunker, office, subsextanean facility, or other kind of active dwelling that has been identified as a potential target for an illegal or grey-legal raid. It refers to both the halogen lighting common to this kind of place and to the modern, the chic, the now; neon as a metonym for the 9980s zeitgeist.

    Many dungeon-crawling skills are cross-applicable, and crawlers who are both reputable and morally-flexible can find a fortune in doing deniable sabotage, theft, corporate espionage, and other Shadowrunful pursuits. Many more find a prison cell, a one-way ferry to Carcerii, or an early grave.

I Hear Ya, Bub, But What’s In It For Me???

    Apart from all the various ways you can get paid to go do it, there’s a lot to be made in commodities extraction. Speculative dungeon purchases can often result in boomtown dynamics, especially in regions with weaker law and higher rates of privation. If you spend long enough as a hireling, maybe one day you’ll make enough to buy your own chunk of crawlspace and become the site boss—the ‘dungeon master,’ one might even say :dmthink:. These site bosses can get spectacularly rich or go spectacularly broke; they are a peculiar breed of business-person and are often loved for their grit and eccentricity or hated for their graft, idleness, insensitivity to loss of life, and zealous combination-busting. Get the UDW in, though, and they’ll clear up their act right quick.

    The treasure-chest full of gold pieces is a symbol of the dungeoneering scene in the same way it represents a pirate or tomb-raider or something. Gold, both in deposit and artefact form, is an important strategic resource for both its numismatic and noctilucent properties; those who do not have magmatic, chemical or spirit lakes to tap for fuel, fertilizer and agriculture are totally reliant on the four fuels to generate the energetic conditions for growth. We have yet to discover a self-growing plant—at least, not one that doesn’t require dabbling in draconism. Naturally, magic in all forms is able to create exceptional cases, as is its general purpose.

    All these forgotten eons, compressed into mulch, packing the spaces between those pipes and corridors that stay standing, the pillars that held strong. A complex layering of forms, hexological strata that outnumber ours by an immense margin, old wonders gradually digested by their own energies until all that remains are sumps of self-luminous unrefined azoth. Filtering this stuff into white mercury (AKA the regular kind, quicksilver, element Hg, hydrargyrum, etc…) and trace red mercury (the stuff that costs millions of gp per barrel) is well beyond the means of all but the most technologically advanced and well-capitalized, but any number of speculation firms are willing to fund expeditions and buy finds for a pretty copper piece. If you hit a reservoir above your transportation capacity, you can still get a hefty paycheck via finder’s fee; how big a cut you can expect is largely a function of where your name can get you through the door.

    You can of course find all sorts of artefacts, meet strange people, encounter daimons both eu- and kako-, kill rare and endangered beaſts and strip them for their various libido-enhancing bits, and do all sorts of other creative profit-seeking arrangements.

What is a Dungeoneer Like?

    The dungeoneer is a profession about as old as the miner—the two trades go hand-in-hand, to the point that in the industrial up they are traditionally organized under a single labor combination, the United Deep Workers.

    They are a little bit like spelunkers, insofar as they are trained in speleology, and a little bit like commercial divers, in that they are getting paid, and a little bit like mountaineers, in that they are by necessity experienced in the techniques of descent and ascent, and a little bit like soldiers of fortune, in that there is an undeniable stink of ‘this should be illegal’ hanging over the whole affair.

    There is a transnational character to the dungeon-crawler because there is a transnational character to the dungeon—these labyrinthine tunnels routinely defy borders and laws. But this is also an intensely local subculture, one that spawns entirely disconnected ecosystems of jargon, technique, etiquette, ritual, superstition, etc... that can be so finely grained as to vary from dungeon to dungeon. Nonetheless, there is a general distinction between the cultures of descent in the Hexagonal Up and Hexagonal Down: 

The Up

    Within the context of topside cultures, the aesthetics of dungeon crawling and soldiery are reversed. The soldier is a swaggering landsknecht or a loyal person-at-arms; the dungeon-crawler is a long-suffering peon or a cool operator. The soldier is bound by all sorts of rules of lawful combat; in the chaos of the dungeon, anything goes.

    The crawler is a 3.5 dungeonpunk filtered through the lens of a Metal Gear Solid; the belts get replaced by actual harnesses, sensible carabiners and D-rings for climbing, MREs and tinned plums. They’re some of the only people who you’ll ever see carrying slaughter weapons openly. They eschew the massive polearms and cleavers of their motorplated surface counterparts for tactical rapiers and parrying daggers (or T-RAP and P-DAG, after the iconic discontinued military models that are still extremely popular on the secondary market). They have matte-steel machetes with sawteeth for wire-cutting, punch daggers, butterfly knives, batons, tonfas, and war-picks—the latter of which is a favorite recipient for various aftermarket pneumaspike mods.

    They’re generally obsessed with compressed-air and pneumatic tech for its silence, low price, and abundance; they argue endlessly about artisanal handpumps or high-end autocompressors and which of them makes you more of a poseur; the most daredevil of them build custom body-harness maneuver rigs that approach 3D Maneuver Gear territory, with all the attendant ways that can go very, very wrong.

    Their preference for tacticool gear means that when you see one loaded down with antiques and “costume pieces” they’re either an aesthetic rebel or a very, very successful salvager.

    They like their guns cut short; a favorite joke goes that in mine towns, they sell shotguns with a dotted line already drawn around the barrel labeled saw off here. Standard vs. bullpup magazine loading is another bizarre cultural shibboleth - surface martial types think that bullpup rifles look ridiculous and will mock them loudly, which often results in a brawl. There’s a bit of a class thing going on, but in a way that’s finely-grained and highly specific; outsiders’ attempts to butt in usually results in a temporary alliance to kick their butts right back out. Crossover duels between saber-wielding legionnaires and rapier-wielding crawlers are a classic derby fight that rarely occurs “in the wild” but is still put on semi-regularly for televised spectacle. Technically illegal under modern dueling law, these fights are mostly conducted in free-duelling sanctums like Boncloud and the Dagger Islands and are a big attraction point for the new jet-set.

    The old word for them is ‘katabatistes,’ and their exercise ‘katabasis.’ It has always been done in some capacity, even in periods of active sequestrationism, but the social basis of katabasis has morphed over time. During periods where mining concerns were often owned and overseen by aristocrats, it was common for the aristocrats to furnish specialist retainers to perform forward scouting operations—in fact, an obligation to do so was often baked into the coronal charter under which the original mine-owners were allowed to open the vein in the first place. It was fairly common for skilled thieves to have their sentences commuted to be indentured or enslaved for this role, resulting in the profession’s association with the noble art of the pentadactyl discount.

    In the 98th and 99th century, katabasis became known in fashionable Azimuthi and Ormilláis circles as donjonisme, from whence the modern term ‘dungeoneer’ is etymologically descended. The term katabasis is still frequently used in official titles, in guilds, societies, sodalities and tongs more than a few centuries old, in historical fiction, and to lend a sense of pomp and tradition to what is generally a fairly undignified profession. The katacafe and katabateka or katabatheque are obvious examples of modern use in branding, either for establishments aimed at dungeoneers or for those courting an audience of groupies, wannabes, armchair adventurers &c. 

Solidarity 

    In the early 100th century, the formation of the UDW resulted in the creation of a different stripe of professional descent specialist. “There’s always a plan if you’ve got a UDW man,” the old slogan goes, and this is generally true. Investors and spectators complain about the slow pace of UDW digs; the UDW responds with a shrug and a gesture at their ten-times below-average mortality rate. 

    In order to maintain the symbiocombinist united front politics the combination has agreed to blacklist all digs that would require uncompensated relocation of native intelligences. This is still seen as a cowardly and conciliatory stance by ardent symbionists, and this is a major pain-point in unitfront politics. 

    You can always spot UDW dungeoneers by their hi-vis armor, their heavy-duty backpacks with their characteristic cordage- and wire-spool panniers, and their massive fucking flamethrowers. Unlike your more conventional dungeoneer, the combies have no hesitation bringing massive gear and stationary artillery down there—their methodical style and logistics focus makes unwieldy equipment much less of a liability. 

The Down

    While the topside was weathering the Flood, the underside was subjected to the tribulations of the Millennium Drought. Many escaped Protomen settled there and, we now know, intermarried extensively with the local humans after a period of seemingly voluntary segregation. Others used some remnants of their semiotic inheritance to treat with Slaad and install themselves as wizard-kings, kind or cruel. These were basically Sword & Sorcery times, kind of a real Dark Sun of a chiliad, and are a favorite of underside authors as a rhetorical device, representing either a period of foreign oppression under the hyksos or a heroic age of grit, guile, and resilience, depending on the scribe’s leaning.

    Things hypothesized to originate from Protoman influence include: the cross-cultural recurrence of hero-cults, the Scholars (tone: reverent), the Scholars (tone: conspiratorial), the popularity of absinthe over hashish, harmonic music, and the cold sauna.

    Because of the harshness of the climate, the scarcity of food, and the brutality of the surviving polities (sometimes called ‘ark-states,’ mostly in topsider analysis) drove many underground, literally, and so there has always been a much larger human population. A parallel migration was presumably impossible for the bulk of antediluvian topsiders on account of their inability to breathe underwater and reach the bottom of the Hex-spanning ocean in order to get down there in the first place.

    The dungeoneer exists as a profession insofar as there are ‘local guides,’ but the literal physical space of the subsextene is embedded far more thoroughly into the undersider oecumene. They could even be described as a kind of Balkans, a long-settled but often fractious borderlands region where the most successful undersider state projects interface and clash with their Interdark counterparts. In this context, the dungeoneer and the soldier are united—the dungeoneer is simply a soldier, scout, guide, etc… who works underground. Something of a jianghu, too.

    Still, the terrain lends itself to irregular warfare. There’s a certain kind of specialist, skilled in traversal and dirty war, who resembles the topsider dungeoneer in generalities, if not in specifics. They train in urban and subterranean environments, consider basic skills of disguise, stealth, ambush, lockbreaking and entry to be essential tools of the trade, and often turn their expertise to less-than-legal ends. When politically-motivated, they are partisans, but when they are mercenary, they share an appellation with their topside counterparts.

    Up, down, east, west, north, south, left or right, if you’re one of these tricky buggers, you’re called a

Rogue

A: Certified for Katabasis, Pragmatics, +1 Move/Round

B: Alert, Ultravision, +1 Hit

C: Improved Pragmatics, +1 Hit

D: Uncanny Dodge, +2 Save

 

A: Certified for Katabasis

In order to be a board-certified Rogue, you need to demonstrate expertise in:

1. Lockpicking, device-tinkering, appraisal, and legerdemain.
2. An unassisted climbing speed of 10’ per six seconds on up to sheer surfaces.
3. Ability to move on a surface you are grappled to as though horizontal.
4. Proficiency with modern move-by-wire grappling rigs and airjet RCS.
5. Proficiency with all firearms and one-handed melee weapons (a fumble is disqualifying).

Since you are a board-certified Rogue, you naturally have all of those things.

A: Pragmatics

You are trained to engage with minimum risk for maximum impact. There’s no space for heroics down in the tombs.

If at least one of these conditions is fulfilled, attacks add +1d4 to hit and damage. For each additional condition, the die is increased by one step - 1d4 → 1d6 → 1d8 → 1d10 → 1d12 → 1d20:

• Your target is surprised.
• Your target is panicking.
• Your target is stunned.
• Your target is in a prepared killzone.
• Your target is entangled.

B: Alert

When you are spotted by someone you’d rather not be seen by, activate a trap, fall into an ambush, or otherwise enter a moment of high peril, you can make a single reflexive action - either a move or an attack.

B: Ultravision

Your eyes sparkle with blacklight glow. You have ultravision, which is like infravision but better. In addition to seeing in pitch dark, ultravision offers several benefits:

When viewed under ultravision , people's eyes emit cones of light like bullseye lanterns, revealing their line-of-sight. The color and intensity ranges from dull red to blinding white depending on the acuity of their vision and their level of attentiveness.

The footsteps of non-Rogues appear blue-glowing and lightly smoking, and their fingerprints glow with faint phosphorescence. These traces are wiped clean with the touch of sunlight.

Treasure emits an inviting buttery-gold glow, like soft firelight, which can often be seen through the crack of a closed chest or the aperture of a keyhole.

Other Rogues of fewer templates than yours are blacklit.

The information gained through ultravision is conveyed in spoiler tags, ||like this||. Ultravision is fundamentally the power to perceive secrets, and so you too are bound to secrecy. If you directly tell anyone else what you've seen with your ultravision you lose the power for a day and a night—you, and you alone, have to figure out how to act on the information you've gleaned.

C: Improved Pragmatics

When you are in the position to use your Pragmatics, your critical range is expanded by 1 for each condition you fulfill. If you fulfill all five, your target simply Fortitude Saves vs. Death on a critical.

D: Uncanny Dodge

Split your perception in two - close one eye to anchor half in place. For the next minute, you exist in a superposition of reality and simulation - if you open your eye, it is revealed to have been fantasia and you return to the moment at which you closed it. Otherwise, you may open it safely once the minute has passed to confirm the truth.

You can do this once per eye per day. To others, this appears as you occasionally blinking and then stepping back as if you have miraculous foreknowledge of the swinging axe that would’ve otherwise cleaved you in half - an uncanny dodge.

 

 

 

True Violence (Not Shitpost)

 OK, so the last post was me being a little bit puckish, a little bit silly, a little bit goofy with it - but also, I genuinely do think a mechanic like that achieves the basic goals of Violence by Luke Gearing, designer of very well-written and poorly-edited game Wolves Upon the Coast, more or less adequately while being a hell of a lot simpler.

However, if I were to ruin that purity and therefore make it not really very funny but probably more serviceable, I would add the following rules:

• Saves vs. Death succeed on 12+; 8+ if wearing a helmet or in cover; 4+ if both.
• A ballistic vest allows the conversion of a single failed Save into being knocked on your ass; a plate carrier allows you to easily swap in new plates. 
• Autofire imposes a penalty to the Save equal to the number of rounds fired.
• Suppressing fire has a percentile chance of hitting those out of cover equal to the number of rounds fired.
• In hand-to-hand combat, apply a penalty to the opponent's Save, and a bonus to your own, equal to the number of people you have ever killed in hand-to-hand combat.  

 

True Violence

 If attacked, Save vs. Death.

A Really Obvious Solution to Player Consumable Hoarding

See the title. Putting the post out there with rapid turnaround and minimal polish because this is a very low-hanging fruit idea that I haven't really seen done before, and I suspect it might generate some productive discussion/elaboration.

 

Provenance unclear - seems to have been made either by "Artur Popkins," 

"Artur Mukhametov," or "Trevor Henderson."

 

Players hoarding consumables is a classic issue. There's some deep-seated component of our psyche that makes us desperately want to save things for the perfect moment, which results in them not getting used at the right moment. It struck me earlier that there is an obvious solution to this—give consumables both a short-term strong effect and a permanent weak effect. Now there's another consideration to balance the scales: the longer they hold onto the consumable, the longer they forgo the permanent benefit. 

You could introduce a gambling/randomness element here, if you'd like. 

Some obvious worked examples, to illustrate:

1. Elixir of Health - Upon use, restores the user to full HP, and gives a permanent +1 maximum HP.
2. Longevity Pill - Upon use, renders you immune to unnatural aging effects for a day and a night, and increases your maximum lifespan by +10 years.  
3. Tiger Balm - Rub on your hands to lengthen and harden your nails into wicked claws, dealing 1d8 damage. These last until filed off and are disruptive to tasks requiring manual dexterity, but can also be cut down to less obtrusive points that deal 1d4 against unarmored foes.
4.  Scroll of Magic Missiles - Read to cast Magic Missile at 2 MD. Upon use, you have an INT% chance of a flash of insight that permanently teaches you the spell, whether or not you can cast it - knowing the spell does not grant you the MD needed for it.
5. And So Forth - Et cetera...

Please enjoy this good idea that I just had.  

The Kingdom, Long Divided (Two GLOG Classes, A Bright Place in the Sky)

These classes were invented for A Bright Place in the Sky, a setting that the inimitable Locheil (of The Nothic's Eye fame) and I began to work on in collaboration about half a year or so ago. The initial basic prompt was Sengoku period Japan meets Mughal India, but as we kept poking at it the scope of inspiration has expanded somewhat.

Lacking the energy to give an exhaustive summary, I will simply say that it is a setting of sky islands, where the aerography of the world matches the psychogeography of the people—as people grow united, their islands draw together and merge, and conversely schism and controversy can cause the land to crack and fall apart. The center of the world is ostensibly under the authority of the great Noonday Empire, whose immortal porcelain golem-emperor and current possessor of the Mandate of Radiance is a sad twink in an impenetrable sky palace. His realm is divided and fractious, and many usurpers have risen with a dream of unifying the lands.

It is said that a prophesied world-conqueror will one day arise with the Mandate of Earth and bring together all the lands under heaven into a single goddess-island, Pangæa, but this has yet to take place.

Beyond the remit of the Noonday Emperor, the world devolves into extremes. The six dikpālas, or directional deities, rule the six corners of the universe. Each presides over, or represents, a primordial energetic process or principle, and exists in a syzygy with their opposite—they are Radiance and Darkness, Sea and Sky, and Fire and Fertility. Earth, the goddess Pangæa, will be born when all the dialectical tensions are resolved.

The number six is important.

Here are two classes for this setting, representing the forces of Radiance and Darkness. We are currently writing for g24, which seems to increasingly be emerging as the “default” GLOG within the milieu we inhabit, but this is of course subject to change.

 

Censor

+1 INIT on even levels, +1 SAVE on odd levels

Starting Equipment: An officious blue-and-white robe and saffron headband, a tall and distinctive hat, a writing kit (inkstick, instone, paper scrolls, brushes), sturdy travel boots, a spyglass, a jar of fine wine, and your medium Sword of Judication.

Skills: Calligraphy and 1) Herblore, 2) Oratory, 3) Autopsy, 4) Couture, 5) Fire Investigation, 6) Traditional Dance.

Source: yixique or "eunuchboy"

A: Sword of Judication, Sacrosanct, +1 MD

B: Measurer of Men, Requisition, +1 Hit

C: Solar Glare, +1 MD

D: Last Judgment, +1 Hit

Δ: Destroyer of Worlds

A: Sword of Judication

You possess a Judicator Devil - a spirit of terrible poison heat and bone-prickling light, bound physically into a sword-shaped ceramic shell, and spiritually by a series of oaths sworn to the Noonday Emperor. So long as the Emperor yet lives (and he has lived for a very, very long time), your Devil is sworn to uphold the law and punish lawbreakers. In practice, this weapon is a medium golem-sword which hovers eternally at your side, taking up no slots in your inventory.

If you issue a formal accusation of a crime against somebody, you gain a cumulative +1 Hit with your Sword of Judication against them for each of means, motive, and opportunity you can correctly identify. If you are able to state all three, you can unsheath your Devil from their ceramic shell, revealing a blade like a forked tongue of brilliant howling flame.

In this state, your Sword hits against AC 10, deals an extra die of damage against your target and all known accomplices, and inflicts horrific searing wounds that do not naturally heal. Once your target surrenders or is slain, the Sword will return itself to its sheath.

If an enemy offers false surrender and tries to attack you or flee, you can instantly interrupt them with an iajutsu slash with the unsheathed blade - if successful, your strike is guaranteed critical hit.

A: Sacrosanct

You are legally and spiritually sacrosanct. Anybody of lower rank than you must SAVE to be able to willingly harm you unless you have attacked them first; those who consider themselves particularly honorable or loyal will feel themselves obligated not to strike you even if you do attack them first.

B: Measurer of Men

At the conclusion of a conversation with an intelligent being, you can ask and receive truthful answers to 2 of the following questions:

• What do they want the most?
• What do they fear the most?
• Who do they trust the most?
• Who do they despise the most?
• How do they feel about me?

You can use this ability multiple times on the same person, but only once on any given day. If you obtain answers to all five questions about a person, then you have their measure and can no longer be surprised by them, even in your sleep.

B: Requisition

You may submit written mail to any bird (save the perfidious crow) and have it safely delivered to the palace of the Noonday Emperor, where it will be read by one of countless eunuch functionaries. In addition to updating your bosses on your progress, you may requisition equipment necessary to the completion of your duties.

You may safely ask for commonplace equipment and items, which will be shipped to you at no cost. More complex requests can be negotiated, but the most requested (and most regulated) special dispensation is the delivery of additional MD, which do not return to your pool once expended.

Keep track of the total number of MD you have requisitioned—each time you do so, roll 1d[Templates]. If you score equal to or under your current tally, the palace will refuse to send you anything more or respond to any of your mail until you complete a major service on their behalf, at which point your count resets.

It takes requisitions 1d6 days to arrive in civilized areas, 1d8 days in the boonies, 1d10 days in the wilderness, 1d12 in foreign cities, and 1d20 otherwise.

C: Solar Glare

Your eyes shed sunlight like bullseye lanterns at will in a 60’ cone, and dim light for another 60’ beyond that. You can see lies and ill-intent as clouds of bruise-purple and ocher-red smoke, respectively.

You can release a blinding flash of light from either of your eyes, causing anyone in the sunlit area to check HRTS or else be blinded for 1d6 rounds. Using your glare in this way is highly taxing on the vision; you must keep that eye closed until you perform two of the following: spend ten minutes in total darkness, drink a cup of tea, go to sleep.

If you flash both your eyes at once, the check is made with disadvantage and the blindness lasts for 1d6 turns.

D: Last Judgement

When you unsheath your Sword of Judication, you can do so with a blazing draw-cut that turns your target into a walking ghost, dealing 3d6 damage directly to the victim’s STR and CON scores at the rate of 1 point each day.

With bedrest and medical attention they can check with HRTS each to forestall the damage, but this will only prolong their suffering. If there is a cure, it is a closely-kept secret.

Δ: Destroyer of Worlds

Fire your Atomastra at something totally impenetrable and survive the consequences.

You are immune to ability score damage from all sources. Those who make eye contact with you see a reflection of that which you have wrought, and must SAVE or be terrified.

Psychopomp

+1 SKLL on even levels, +1 SNEK on odd levels 

Starting Equipment: A black-and-indigo turban and bodysuit set, a light lacquered forehead-protector and disc-plate, a pair of smoked-glass spectacles, two light sickles or punch-daggers of matte steel, a light matchlock pistol, a spool of garotte-wire, a straw rain-cloak, an alms bowl, and a box of agarwood and dragons-blood incense.

Skills: Moving Quietly and 1) Ventriloquism, 2) Massage, 3) Knife-Grinding, 4) Ropework, 5) Acrobatics, 6) Vocal Mimicry.

Source: Mizushyne

A: Wheel-Turner, Thunderbolt Tantra, +1 Hit

B: Weight of Sin, +1 MD

C: Shinigami Eyes, Web of Silk and Shadows, +1 Hit

D: Samadhi or Vipassana, +1 MD

Δ: Arahant

A: Wheel-Turner

It is a deep and profound truth of existence that all things are transient, excepting the state of non-existence. All people will inevitably die, and be reborn as according to their karma—as such, many believe that there’s not much virtue in punishing bad men.

Your opinion, and the opinion of the sect that trained you, is that there’s nothing wrong with giving the universe a little helping nudge.

You have a Karma score. When you kill a wicked person, gain a point of Karma for each infamous deed they have committed. Your maximum Karma score is equal to your [Templates] x 2.

Whenever you roll equal to or under your Karma on any d20 roll, you can treat it as an automatic success if it were to be advantageous to you.

A: Thunderbolt Tantra

Most of those charged with the moral cultivation of the sangha achieve their work through long, patient teaching. Your brand of illumination comes in a single razor-sharp stroke of inspiration.

When you strike a surprised person, spend one or more points of Karma to deal [Karma]d6 additional damage. If you could reasonably describe your maneuver as a plunging attack, you may also add any falling damage you would’ve taken.

B: Weight of Sin

While clasping your hands in prayer, you may choose to modify your physical weight according to your karmic burden. At 0 Karma, nothing happens; at 1-2, you can tread silently and don’t set off pressure plates or cause floorboards to creak; at 3-5, you are light as a feather and can fall unharmed, ride wind currents, and skip across the surfaces of water; at 6-8, you are effectively weightless and can move around as if under microgravity; theoretically, at 9+ you would ascend into the Heavens like a helium balloon.

You can spend Karma to force another to bear the weight of their sins with a touch—multiply their weight by 1 + [infamous deeds], and reduce their SNEK and INIT bonuses by as much, for [Karma] days.

C: Shinigami Eyes

You have truesight, which is entirely independent of your actual eyes (or lack thereof). Your vision automatically penetrates all illusions, shows the true forms of shapechangers, reveals the nature of yōkai, fairies, and demons, and allows you to see people’s sins, engraved upon iron tally-sticks hanging from their necks on heavy leaden chains.

As a side-effect, when looking at someone you can see their name, HD, and their remaining natural lifespan. Sentient magic swords and spell-spirits count as “someone.”

C: Web of Silk and Shadows

All things are bound together in a great causal spiderweb. If you know at least one of the following about a person, you can spend Karma to have up to [Karma] more revealed to you:

• Their name.
• Who they serve.
• Their most notorious deed.
• What they look like.
• What they sound like.
• If they’re alive, dead, or undead.

If you know all six of the above, then you unfailingly know the location of the person in question.

D: Samadhi

Through intense meditation and judicious application of murder, you have attained a state of perfect mental equanimity. You are immune to charm, fear, and any undesired emotion.

You may spend Karma to gain [Karma] extra MD which do not return to your pool once expended.

D: Vipassana

Through painful meditation and thorough application of murder, you have attained a state of perfect mind-body awareness. You are immune to pain, exhaustion, and exposure to the elements.

By spending Karma, you may make [Karma] additional attacks in hand-to-hand combat on your turn.

Δ: Arahant

Obtain this by remaining at 7+ Karma for a year and a day.

Upon death, spend all your remaining Karma to be reincarnated into a suspiciously-similar character who dreams vividly of your life each night and starts with [Karma] x 100 XP.

Spellcasting

Works as usual for a GLOG. Your character rolls 1d6 on their spell list at A and B, and 1d8 at C and D. It is safe to assume that spells can be taught fairly reliably to other casters of the same class, and with some difficulty to casters of other classes.

Mishaps and Dooms are a hazard for full-casters, but I am realizing as I prepare to post this that I forgot to write any, so - these guys might not have to worry about them. I don’t know.

Censor Spells

1. Ward 
   Invest MD to mark up to [Sum] paper talismans with eye-glyphs and seals of Imperial authority in cinnabar ink. 
   
   You can close your eyes to shift your vision to any one of your warding talismans at any time.The talismans can be placed individually, or can be grouped together into a polygonal chain or closed polygon no more than 100’ to a side, creating an invisible barrier that spans between adjacent talismans. 
   
   You are automatically made aware when living things cross the barrier, and can make it impenetrable to supernatural beings of [Dice] HD or less.
   
   
2. Tongues 
   For [Sum] hours, your tongue becomes a dancing ribbon of brilliant yellow-white flame, allowing speech and understanding of all human languages plus [Highest] of the following:
1. The crackling language of fire…
2. The babbling language of rivers…
3. The barking language of dogs…
4. The purring language of cats…
5. The musical language of birds…
6. The whispering language of winds…
   
   
3. Command 
   You may issue a verbal command of [Dice] words to up to [Sum] targets in a language they understand, or [Sum] words to a single target—they must SAVE or immediately obey for up to [Highest] rounds or until it is complete, whichever comes first. 
   
   Intelligent creatures SAVE at +4 if the command is deeply opposed to their values, and all living beings with a survival instinct automatically resist obviously suicidal commands.
   
   
4. Prism 
   Conjure a gleaming prism that fires up to [Highest] + [Dice] total pencil-thin rays of coherent light using your Hit bonus for 1d6 damage each, choosing separate targets for each ray, before splintering into fast-dissolving shards. You may fire as many of your allotted rays as you want in a single round in place of a normal attack. 
   
   While your prism exists, you may clap your hands to cause it to expand and envelop you in a refractive shield, giving missile and beam attacks against you a [Dice]-in-6 miss chance.
   
   
5. Stasis 
   One person or object (yourself included) is wrapped in binding chains of pure golden light, freezing them in space and time relative to the most sensible reference frame for [Sum] + [Dice] rounds. During this period, they are unable to act but are also immune to all damage and new effects. Any emanations (heat, light, magic) are also suspended. 
   
   At the conclusion of the spell’s duration, they experience all the forces they were subjected to under stasis as a single impulse, potentially flinging them at great speeds. 
   
   You can take -1D to cast this spell as a reaction.
   
   
6. Glitterdust 
   Blow into your cupped hands to release a plume of glittering golden dust in a [Dice] x 30’ cone. The dust lingers in the air for one round, obscuring vision, before settling on all available surfaces. Up to [Sum] individual people or objects can be spared at the caster’s volition—the dust will simply slide off of them like water off a duck’s back. 
   
   Glitterdust is nearly impossible to clean off by conventional means, and has been known to leave people and objects faintly sparkling for decades after exposure. The only surefire way of getting rid of it is to wash it off with aqua regia. Dilute carefully and take your time!
   
   
7. Emblem - Dominate 
   Conjure a radiant halo which hovers above your head, shedding a beautiful, hypnotic golden light. Anyone the light falls upon must SAVE or be compelled to approach you in a state of awe and pay obeisance to you, unable to raise arms against you and compelled to kneel. The halo emanates for [Dice] x 10 minutes. 
   
   You can discharge the power of the halo by laying your hand upon the head of someone who has failed the save. Instill in them an order up to [Sum] words long which they are bound to follow, or they become a walking ghost, per Last Judgement.
   
   
8. Emblem - Atomastra 
   Conjure radiant bow that fires a single arrow for [Sum] + [Dice] damage in a straight line of indefinite length. 
   
   If it strikes something that it can’t penetrate… well, the first thing they teach you at Censor Academy is don’t shoot it at something it can’t penetrate.

Psychopomp Spells

1. Pain 
   You may link up to [Dice] + 1 targets you can see (including yourself) with faintly iridescent red strings. Anybody linked is immune to all conventional damage—any damage that would be dealt to them, however, is divided equally amongst all those they are linked to. 
   
   Somebody can remove themselves from the web by spending time cutting through the strings; otherwise, it automatically ends when all but one of the bound targets are dead or incapacitated. Unwilling targets may SAVE to avoid being bound.
   
   
2. Shadowplay 
   Cause your shadow to lengthen and extrude a [Sum] x 5’ tendril beginning at any point your shadow would naturally fall on. It can pass along any flat surface, climbing walls and such. 
   
   Regions of contiguous shadow it passes through do not count against its total length. If any part of your shadow (including your ‘natural’ shadow) would touch another living being’s shadow, you can attempt to puppet it. The target may SAVE at -[Dice] and, on a failure, is forced to perfectly mimic any physical action you take until you choose to break the binding.
   
   
3. Fuligin 
   For [Sum] minutes you become a fuligin silhouette, blacker-than-black. You are completely invisible in shadow and darkness, even to creatures with night-vision, and are immune to radiant damage. 
   
   If cast with 4+ MD, you are not a mere silhouette but a hole in the world. You are immune to all damage but cannot interact normally with objects (they fall into you). Anything that is fully enveloped in your body is transported to a lightless void where it falls, forever.
   
   
4. Nails
   Invest MD to conjure [Dice] + 1 ring-hilted poniards of black iron with red lacquer handles. These are throwable light weapons of +1 quality, and can be made to vanish and reappear in your hands as a move. 
   
   When driven into a solid surface, the nails become firmly affixed, requiring a MOVE check of DC 10 + [Sum] to wrest out of place. If a living being’s shadow is pierced, the analogous body-part is paralyzed and tethered in place relative to its shadow.
    
5. Bilocation 
   Split yourself into [Dice] + 1 Shadows. Each has HP, AC, ability scores, and movement equivalent to yours, acts on the same initiative, and is capable of acting independently and in coordination with one another under your ultimate direction. 
   
   Your Shadows take 1 damage each round they are exposed to bright light, and 2 damage each round they are immersed in direct sunlight. They are capable of interacting with the physical world, albeit with a -4 penalty to their MOVE score. 
   
   At any point, even during somebody else’s turn, you may cause all of your Shadows to vanish, causing your “real” self to reappear at the position of any one of them with that Shadow’s respective HP score.
   
   
6. Kundalini 
   For [Sum] rounds, you are endowed with the flexibility and cunning of the serpent. You gain [Highest] of the following benefits:
1. Resistance to bludgeoning damage…
2. Advantage on SNEK checks…
3. You can squeeze through any space larger than the diameter of your head…
4. You can grasp and manipulate objects as dexterously with your feet as with your hands, and walk as quickly on your hands as with your feet…
5. You can support yourself in any pose so long as you have at least one finger or toe firmly planted on a solid surface…
6. You can choose to deal [Dice] damage each round automatically via constriction to anyone you are grappling.
   
   
7. Emblem - Gu 
   Invest MD in a jar of [Dice] slots, filling it with venomous centipedes and scorpions and sealing it fast. The jar must “cook” for [Sum] days—at the completion of this period, it will be full of the most noxious and terrible poison known to man. 
   
   Gu poison instantly sublimes into a gas at atmospheric pressure, creating a cloud of [Dice] x 10’ radius upon release. Anybody within the cloud takes [Sum] + [Dice] total damage inflicted across a period of [Lowest] rounds. 
   
   There is also a [Highest]-in-6 chance the jar will contain a centipede demon of HD [Dice] x 2, which will be unleashed upon the jar’s opening. 
   
   Certain very senior assassins know the secret of making Gu metastable at standard temperature and pressure, allowing it to be slipped into food, smeared on weapons, &c. Somebody who knows this method could procure [Sum] doses of poison from a given jar—when directly ingested or delivered via a poisoned weapon, Gu causes its victims to quite simply SAVE or die.
   
   
8. Emblem - Teleport 
   If you know someone’s location to within a 5’ margin of error, you can step into total darkness and emerge from their shadow from up to [Sum] miles away, taking [Lowest] freezing damage as the price of your passage. Most people tend to be surprised by this.

Four Perfections (GLOG Fighter, Arise Ye Wretched)

Inspired by, with some bits taken wholesale from, Deus ex Parabola's Sword-Shepherd, Loch's Rotless and Shepherd, and my own brain :3 

Modern science has demonstrated that the same four alchæmical fuels that form the basis of modern industry and machinery also play a vital role in the alchæmy of the human body, providing the motive force for the lungs, the heart, the brain and the soul. In a sense, this means a person is roughly homologous to a motorcar, puttering along and fouling the atmosphere. 

You are more comparable to a souped-up grind-racer, with a big screaming engine and neon flame decals. You are faster, stronger, sharper, embodying impossible ability and an immaculate cool. Your ilk are born or made, but almost never inherited—much to the dismay of countless lineages of armigers who proved entirely unable to replicate their honored ancestor's fêted skills. 

In the present day, those possessed of surpassing skill are labeled Paragons and treasured by the state. 

Paragon

Source: Matthew de Witte

Skills: 1) Gun Maintenance, 2) Calligraphy, 3) Wargames, 4) Parkour, 5) Birdwatching, 6) Sports Betting

Starting Equipment: A medium and light weapon of your choice, a scuffed ballistic breastplate, a rumpled business suit, a briefcase full of ammunition, a pack of (1. Ghoulstone Red, 2. Tracer, 3. Mirage Ultrafine, 4. Onager, 5. Black Bandit, 6. Regnal Reserve) cigarettes, a tense homoerotic relationship with your handler.

+1 Hit and Technique per Template.

A: Parry, Guard, Cognoscente, +1 Attack/Round

B: Thunder Voice or Fire Blood

C: Tiger Eating Tiger

D: Radiant Soul or Lightning Mind, Blade Evolution

A: Parry

Weapons leap from your hand to meet their brothers. Once per round, subtract [Hit] with a held weapon from incoming melee damage.

A: Guard

Once per round you can reduce incoming damage by 1d4, directing it onto a slot of armor, or 1d6 onto a shield. Any damage in excess of that number is still dealt and if the defensive implement blocks its maximum amount of damage it is destroyed.

If you are not carrying a shield or wearing armor, you can choose to take 1d6 damage from an attack instead of the real amount once per round. You can do this after you know you are going to be hit.

You cannot use Guard and Parry on the same attack, but you can use them both in the same round.

A: Cognoscente

Smoldering within you is the ability to perform martial miracles. Your Techniques are abilities, learned through hard practice, instinct, meditation, and the teaching of other, more experienced Paragons; via extraordinary utilization of the body’s natural energetic resources, these Techniques can defy plausibility. Your first Technique must be chosen or rolled from the Generic Techniques list, but subsequent Techniques can (and should) be invented in collaboration with your GM, and can get substantially wilder.

 

B: Thunder Voice

Your voice, when you wish it to can be heard clearly over gonnefire, explosions, and other noisy diversions. You are immune to stuttering, being interrupted, or losing your breath.

Your howling warcries rouse allies and terrify enemies: while you yell, your allies (you included) in earshot gain 2+[Templates] temporary HP, and your opponents must make a Will Save or suffer a -[Templates] penalty to all aggressive and bold action.

There is no limit to how often you can do this, but no individual can be affected by it more than once in a battle.

B: Fire Blood

Your blood is scalding-hot and pressurized, significantly increasing your body temperature. You are immune to fever, hypertension, and exposure to the elements.

Furthermore, your blood behaves like strong acid to people and things you hate. This does about 1 damage for 1 HP spilt, 1d4 damage for 2 HP spilt, 1d4+1 for 3, 2d4 for 4, and so forth. Anything that pieces your skin will result in a decent blood spray, thanks to the power of your circulatory system, and get on whatever drew blood from you unless they succeed a Save. Stabbing you is probably as good a reason as any to hate someone.

If you try to coat a weapon or ammunition in your blood you can probably cover it in about 2 HP worth of blood per slot it occupies. Your blood retains this power until it dries.

 

C: Tiger Eating Tiger

If you so choose, your eyes glow with nightshine, giving you perfect vision in full light, near-perfect vision in dim light, and decent vision in darkness. While active, if you can see someone’s eyes, you can determine their HD, and if someone can see your eyes, they can see your HD. Most people have 1 HD; most people will find anything more than 1 HD to be terribly intimidating.

If you are able to make eye contact with someone unaided, you are also able to charge to them as a maneuver, circumventing all obstacles through momentum or parkour and dealing an extra die of base damage on your first subsequent attack.

You count as a monster whenever it would be advantageous.

 

D: Radiant Soul

You, and anything you hold, can touch (and therefore injure) the intangible and supernal. This extends to bullets fired from guns you are carrying for esoteric reasons. You ignore all damage resistances, immunities, and other limitations on dealt damage.

You are immune to fear, energy drain, sepsis, and necrosis. You will leave a beautiful corpse.

D: Lightning Mind

You can take 3 HP damage to immediately take a full extra turn at any time, even during an enemy’s action. You can Parry missile attacks, and anything that allows a Reflex Save.

You are immune to charm, sleep, and any negative consequences of staying up too long (though you still need to sleep to obtain the benefits of it).

D: Blade Evolution

By meditating for a day and a night over your weapons, you can reveal a Quest for Power to Refine one of your Techniques. Negotiate how the Refined Technique differs from the regular one with your GM. Example Refinements are provided for the generic Techniques, but one Technique could have many possible Refinements—it is entirely possible for two Paragons to Refine the same Technique in different ways.

Source: De Witte again

1d10 Generic Techniques (and Example Refinements)

1. Ambush Predator - You deal an extra die of damage when attacking with the advantage of elevation or surprise.
1. Refined: You deal maximum damage on a leaping attack.
2. Cataphract- You can Guard with as many pieces of protective gear as you have worn each round, though you still cannot Guard more than once against the same attack.
1. Refined: When Guarding, you can choose to sunder the defensive implement to automatically reduce by the maximum amount +2.
3. Cleave - When you lay somebody low with a blow in hand-to-hand combat, make a free attack.
1. Refined: You can now Cleave against anything you can see.
4. Fast Hands - You can reload normal thunderarms without taking a maneuver, and thunderarms that would normally require a full round with a maneuver. If you have a gun to hand, you can declare and resolve one shot prior to rolling initiative.
1. Refined: You can declare and resolve three shots prior to rolling initiative, with no more than two shots aimed at a single target.
5. Gonne Kata - You take no penalties from using a thunderarm in hand-to-hand range, and can make a free unarmed attack upon missing a shot with a thunderarm.
1. Refined: You get +4 Hit with thunderarms against a target you have hit with a hand-to-hand attack in the last round, and a +4 to hit in hand-to-hand against a target you have shot in the last round.
6. Ground Game - Every round you have an opponent grappled, you may dislocate one of their limbs on a successful opposed STR check.
1. Refined: Rip limb clean off, 1d10+4 damage. Ow.
7. Hammer Fists - Your unarmed attacks are as light weapons and can splinter wood, shatter bricks, and even crack solid stone with repeated punching. You need no more than one inch of windup to make an unarmed attack.
1. Refined: Your unarmed attacks are medium. You can hit a surprised foe with a nerve pinch for 1 Fatigue to make them Save vs. Paralysis, or a death touch for 3 Fatigue to make them Save vs. Death.
8. Riposte - If your Parry reduces damage from an incoming attack to 0, you may Riposte against the attacker instantly. If you forego proactive attacks for a round you can Parry for 1d6+[Hit] instead.
1. Refined: If you successfully Riposte, you can Parry again on the same round.
9. Sharpshooter - For every round you spend aiming a missile weapon, take a +1 to your next shot and expand critical range by 1, up to a maximum of +10/10+.
1. Refined: Your vision follows the paths of your bullets in slow-mo 360° cam. You always instinctively know whether a shot of yours killed, wounded, bloodied (50% HP or less), grazed, or bounced off a target on a hit, even if you can’t see it.
10. Total Defense - You can Parry and Guard the same attack.
1. Refined: If an enemy attacks you and does 0 or less damage, they are automatically Stunned for a round. 

Source: Vampire the Masquerade, some book idk

 

Cultivated Dreamers (GLOG Sacred One Adaptation, Arise Ye Wretched)

It may no longer be Glåugust, but it's never too late to jump on a bandwagon. This is "adapt a setting-specific class to your setting," and in the spirit of the inimitable Deus ex Parabola, who jumped on his bandwagon years before Glåugust ever even began, I am adapting Loch's Sacred One for the Hex.

Cultivated Dreamer

The holdouts of a prolific Sybilline cult originating in the reign of the Solipsyd emperors.

By the mid-late Empire, an elaborate map of the correlations between experiences in the waking world and the consequent geographies in Dream had been drawn; the imperial oneirotects used this knowledge extensively to craft, or perhaps raise, the Cultivated Dreamers: certain citizens, plucked from the far reaches of Empire and conditioned by means of rigid intellectual discipline, post-hypnotic suggestion, and powerful pharmakon to express certain concepts or facets of the human condition so purely and completely that their dreams could serve as vessels of the sublime, carefully managed spaces into which a noble dreamer could project to brush the realm of pure ideals. 

By the late-late Empire, the better part of the nobility spent nearly all their time in induced torpor, residing in these unreal "Marble Gardens" which promised pleasures and pains which superseded that which the material world could honor. The Cultivated Dreamers themselves, those twisted-up bonsai people, were kept in pampered captivity and guarded more jealously than jewels. 

Though Old Sybilline is long since fallen, her techné broken and her delicate dreaming nobles ground down into the mud of reality, some small fringe sects still keep the tradition alive, grooming Cultivated Dreamers and their perfect diamondlike minds into the present day.

Source: 00AGAIN00

 

+1 Will and +1 Save per Template

A: Anointed, Sacrosanct, Bonsai Person

B: Marble Garden, Soporific Voice

C: Lucidity, +2 Attainments

D: Right of Passage, +1 Attainment

A: Anointed

You are the most or least prominent member in any group, at your choice; if you wish, you are immune to being ignored or interrupted. Your coming is presaged by a perfume-cloud, and its sillage billows in your wake—no incense or resin, not sandalwood nor benzoin nor copal nor patchouli, frankincense or myrrh or dragon’s blood, can fully capture the intricacies of your individual scent. When you grow angry, your eyes grow hypnotic and your voice takes on an echoing aspect.

Dolls, Azatas and Yugoloths always treat you as a friend. Servitors and adjutants of the Old Sybilline Empire will prioritize your orders over others’.

A: Sacrosanct

When a thinking creature attempts to attack you or knowingly bring harm to you, they must Save or be unable to do so.

While in a dream, you are treated as a Lucid of equivalent level.

A: Bonsai Person

The creation of managed dreamscapes exacts a terrible price. You must choose (or have chosen for you) a subject of your obsession that permeates all future expressions of your powers. When confronted with your obsession, you must Save or be unable to pull your attention from it; you can repeat this Save every round in a situation of active danger, every turn in a situation of general ambient pressure, and every hour in a situation of relative calm. 

 

B: Marble Garden

You flower into your true purpose, your mind blooming into a fragrant kept reality for the edification and play of others. When dreaming, drunk, high, or otherwise in altered perception, you may erect the tentposts of your Marble Garden, a space that reflects the inner contours of your self. The shape and nature of it is dependent on your obsession. There, you can hold private conversations, leave messages, repose, &c.

Other Cultivated Dreamers can find their way into your Marble Garden with knowledge of you and its nature. You can also bring others into your Marble Garden as visitors, by sleeping next to them, drinking the same wine, getting high off the same chemic, etc…

You can set up to [Templates] axioms that anyone and anything currently within your Marble Garden are bound by. These cannot interface directly with the Aleph-Taw Principle (read: you can’t have a rule that anyone who sets foot in your Garden dies instantly), but life and death can be made easier or more difficult to reach within your Garden. You can also gain new axioms by taking on a related taboo—the greatest of the Dreamers are enmeshed in such a comprehensive web of taboos that they can to little but lie in bed and dream.

B: Soporific Voice

You can attempt to dull the attention and emotions of those you are speaking to.

You may attempt to calm all listeners by taking a slot of Fatigue - if they can understand you, they must Save. Anything with less HD than you fails this Save automatically. When a creature fails a Save, their emotions dull to grey outlines, anger drains out, joy becomes hollow and the will for violence fades. This lasts until they can take a little rest to shake it off.

If you are able to keep reciting to them, taking +1 Fatigue, they will eventually fall into a deep slumber. At this point, you may choose if their sleep is dreamless, or if they will find themselves “awakening” within the confines of your Marble Garden.

This is believed to be a precursor to, or remnant of, the legendary lost war-spell, Sleep.

 

C: Lucidity

You become Lucid in the waking world, with a Crown of 20m, two points of Focus, and two Attainments of your choice. You gain an additional Attainment at D.

 

D: Right of Passage

While traveling through the Dreamlands, all you meet will treat you as an honored personage. You will never be attacked by any pseudo-sapient dwellers of Dream, and can choose to be immune to the axioms of other Cultivated Dreamers.

Your Marble Garden becomes capable of containing a true mirror of The Divine.