Lore of the Realms
Description: The Lore of the Realms allows Angels to enter and leave the Shadowlands, or Haven, as they call it. Only experienced Angels may make good use of this Lore, because only they have the innate ability to navigate and survive in the Shadowlands.
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- ● SENSE THE BARRIER
The Angelus is able to sense the relative strength of the barrier between the physical and the spirit realms in an area as large as a city block, allowing the demon to home in on regions where the boundary is exceptionally thick or thin.
System: Roll Perception + Awareness. If your roll is successful, your Angelus can zero in on any regions of unusual strength or weakness in the barrier between the realms. As a rule of thumb, the barrier between realms tends to be strongest in areas where the influence of human faith is weakest. Therefore, a science lab that promotes cold intellect over intuition might have a strong barrier, while a graveyard or a church might have a weak barrier. Your Angelus can read an area that's 10 square yards multiplied by his Faith score.
Torment: Monstrous demons can sense only areas where the barrier is weak, drawn by the call of the spirit storm raging just beyond.
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- ●● STEP BEYOND THE VEIL
This evocation allows the Angelus to physically cross the barrier into the shadow world, a lifeless mirror image of the mortal world. Doing so allows the Angelus to travel vast distances in the shadow realm at the speed of thought and return to the physical world at a corresponding location. Crossing over also allows an Angelus to interact with the spirits of the dead that linger on the other side.
System: Roll Dexterity + Awareness. The difficulty is determined by the relative strength of the barrier in the area where your Angelus tries to cross. Doing so at a weak point (a church or graveyard) is difficulty 6. Crossing over in an old house or apartment building that has seen generations of occupants is difficulty 7. Crossing from a shopping mall is 8. Once in the shadow land, your character can fly across the bleak landscape with the speed of thought. Roll Dexterity + Athletics ( difficulty 8 ), allowing the demon to cover a mile each turn per success rolled. The roads and buildings in the shadow realm are just as real to your demon as are their physical-world counterparts. She must traverse any physical obstacles and find her way to her destination just as she would in the mortal world. Upon reaching her destination, the demon can return automatically to the corresponding place in the physical realm, appearing as if from nowhere. All other actions are performed as normal in the spirit realm, but the furious storm raging there increases difficulties to 8, at the least. Furthermore, your Slayer loses a point of temporary Willpower each time a roll botches. If the demon loses all her Willpower, she is torn from her mortal host. The body is returned to the physical realm and the disembodied soul must fight the pull of the Abyss while searching for another anchor.
Your character cannot take passengers with her to or from the spirit or living realms. Encountering and communicating with spirits in the dead lands is similar to meeting people in the living world. Spirits have their own identities and agendas and may be willing or unwilling to interact with visitors. Demons can use Lore of the Spirit to encourage such interaction.
Torment: Monstrous demons that cross into the spirit world create a "seam" in the barrier that draws restless spirits into the physical world, resulting in temporary but intense hauntings. This seam remains in the area for a number of days equal to the demon's Torment score.
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- ●●● GHOSTWALK
This evocation allows the demon to exist simultaneously in both the physical and spirit realms. She can interact with both mortals and spirits, and pass through objects in both places.
System: Roll Stamina + Awareness. The difficulty is determined by the relative strength of the barrier in the area where the Slayer performs the evocation. Doing so at a weak point (a church or graveyard) is difficulty 6. Crossing over in an old house or apartment building that has seen generations of occupants is difficulty 7. Crossing from a shopping mall is 8.
If your roll is successful, your demon becomes a hazy, insubstantial form, able to see and be seen by individuals on both sides of the barrier. She passes through objects without harm, and vice versa, though she can interact with one realm or the other in a given turn with a Willpower roll ( difficulty 8 ). If the roll succeeds, the Slayer can speak to individuals, handle objects, attack or be attacked in the realm to which she has attuned herself, just as if she were solid. The effects of this evocation last for a number of turns equal to the character's Faith rating. Your character cannot take any other beings with her to this "middle ground" between realms.
Torment: When monstrous demons perform this evocation, it causes the energies of the spirit storm to leak into the physical realm around her, causing wild and unpredictable spirit manifestations and hauntings.
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- ●●●● REACH ACROSS THE BARRIER
The Slayer can peer into and reach across into the spirit realm the same way a mortal retrieves something from a cupboard, placing or retrieving items between the realms at will. During the War of Wrath, this evocation was used extensively to place powerful weapons or other items beyond the reach of the Slayers' enemies. Many still remain there to this day, waiting to be found.
System: Spend one Faith point and roll Dexterity + Awareness. The difficulty is determined by the relative strength of the barrier in the area where the Slayer performs the evocation. Doing so at a weak point (a church or graveyard) is difficulty 6. Crossing over in an old house or apartment building that has seen generations of occupants is difficulty 7. Crossing from a shopping mall is 8. If your roll is successful, your character can see into and "reach" across the barrier between realms—her hand and arm literally vanishes from mortal eyes until she withdraws it again. She can place or remove any item that can be easily Lifted with one or two hands. Mortals or demons cannot he forced across the barrier using this evocation. Items can be hidden away from the spirit world, however, placing them in the material world, out of reach from dead-land inhabitants. (But, of course, that might mean that real-world beings could find the items.)
Torment: Monstrous demons who perform this evocation risk allowing traces of the spirit storm to leak through into the physical world, causing surreal and terrifying side effects. If the evocation succeeds, the Storyteller makes a Willpower roll with the difficulty equal to your Slayer's Torment. If the roll fails, the winds of the storm seep through, subjecting all mortals in the immediate area to Willpower rolls ( difficulty 8 ).
If their rolls fail, they flee in terror. If their rolls botch, they also suffer a temporary derangement.
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- ●●●●● PIERCE THE BARRIER
This evocation enables the Slayer to create a temporary doorway between the living and dead realms, allowing other demons to cross into the shadow lands if the portal's creator wishes.
System: Spend one Faith point and roll Stamina + Awareness. The difficulty is determined by the relative strength of the barrier in the area where the Slayer performs the evocation. Doing so at a weak point (a church or graveyard) is difficulty 6. Crossing over in an old house or apartment building that has seen generations of occupants is difficulty 7. Crossing from a shopping mall is 8. If your roll succeeds, your Slayer creates a portal that other demons may bodily pass through into the shadow realm, allowing them to interact with the spirits of the dead and to travel through the dead lands. As many other demons may enter as you get successes on your roll. Living mortals and thralls cannot pass. Non-Slayers who make the transition are at a considerable disadvantage compared to the Halaku, being more susceptible to the ravages of the Maelstrom than those of the Seventh House.
Furthermore, they cannot travel as quickly across the shadow realm as the Slayers can. They cover distances only as fast as they could in the physical realm. The dice pools for all actions taken by uninitiated demons are halved (rounded up), and these fallen lose one temporary Willpower point each day that they remain in the spirit realm. When their Willpower is exhausted, the demons become catatonic. Their bodies lose one point of Stamina each day thereafter. When a demon's Stamina is exhausted, her mortal body dies and her spirit is drawn back into the Abyss. The doorway created by this evocation lasts for only a single turn, and it is one-way. Spirits from beyond cannot normally use it to enter the living world.
Torment: Monstrous demons who perform this evocation cause the effects of the spirit storm to rage in the physical world in the immediate vicinity of the doorway, drawing spirits and causing horrifying manifestations to linger for a number of days equal to your character's Torment.
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ERESHKIGAL, VISAGE OF THE REALMS
Angels of the Second World manifest as shadowy figures whose features are hidden in perpetual darkness. The air itself seems to wrap about them like a robe of night, conjuring the image of the cowled ferryman of human myth. Their hands are white and bony, like a skeleton's, and they move without effort or sound.
The Visage of the Realms confers the following special capabilities:
• Dead Reckoning: The character always knows where she is in relation to known landmarks, no matter how far away those landmarks may be. Unless affected by spatially distorting evocations such as Warp Path, she can never lose her sense of direction.
• Pass Without Trace: The difficulties of the character's Stealth rolls decrease by two, and her passage does not disturb the surrounding environment in any way. She leaves no footprints and disturbs no foliage.
• Increased Awareness: The fallen is especially attuned to the fabric of reality, lowering the difficulties of all Awareness rolls by two.
• Conjure from Nothing: The character is capable of supernatural sleight of hand, seeming to conjure items out of thin air only to make them vanish again with a flick of the wrist. She can draw an item from a pocket or conceal an item without detection on a successful Dexterity + Athletics roll (difficulty 6).
Torment: Angels of the Realms who surrender themselves to their Torment are walking portals to the land of the dead, exuding an aura of loss and despair that chills mortal hearts. Their voices are bleak and sepulchral, and their eyeless stare gives the boldest heart pause.
The Visage of the Realms confers the following high-Torment special capabilities:
• Cloak of Shadows: The demon is shrouded in a pall of darkness, making her features difficult to see in the best of light, and rendering her near-invisible at night. The difficulties of all Stealth rolls decrease by two whenever the demon stands in a pool of shadow or moves in darkness. If the character is attacked, the rules for Blind Fighting apply to the attacker.
• Relentless: The demon can walk or run without need of rest, able to cover superhuman distances without pause. As long as she stays in motion, she is unaffected by fatigue or hunger.
• Voice of the Grave: The difficulties of all Intimidation rolls decrease by two.
• Dread Gaze: Individuals (mortal or demon) who meet the demon's gaze and who fail a Willpower roll (difficulty 7) must forfeit their actions for that turn.
