Cray

Dark Ages Mage

Quintessence flows through the world like the humors through a human being, bubbling to the surface in certain places. These places are called crays. Mages seek out these rare sites jealously, as they provide plentiful energy for mystical endeavors. Such places aren't often left unattended; the werewolves revere them as holy sites (though the brutal beasts probably have no idea of the Cray's potential) and other, stranger beings such as spirits and Fae also haunt them.

This Background assumes that the mage has exclusive access to a cray, either because he owns and can defend the land it is on or because no one else has discovered it yet. Players can pool their ratings in this Background to indicate particularly powerful cray or a number of smaller ones.

A mage may draw Quintessence from a cray as often as she wishes. To accomplish this, the character must "harvest" the Quintessence and prepare it in a particular way. A cray located deep in a forest might take the form of a fairy ring, requiring the mage to pick and boil the mushrooms that grow there in order to make use of its energies. The harvesting method is rarely difficult and allows the mage to control how much energy he takes from the cray, but it can be time consuming. In dire straits, the mage can attempt to absorb Quintessence from the site directly. The player simply rolls Wits + Foundation (difficulty of 10 minus the Cray's rating). The mage absorbs one point of Quintessence per success. This method is dangerous, though, as the mage must absorb the Quintessence she draws, and so make inadvertently take too much (see below).

Crays have only a finite amount of energy. A cray holds a number of Quintessence points equal to five times its rating. The cray replenishes its Quintessence at a rate of one point per day, regardless of how powerful it is, but only if the cray goes untapped (it does not regenerate a point on any day during which it is tapped).

If a mage ever attempts to draw so much Quintessence from a cray that it would have no points left, she runs the risk of depleting it completely. After a cray is drained of its usual (rating x 5) of Quintessence, a greedy mage can drain an additional number of points equal to the Cray's rating. Doing so, how- ever, automatically drops the rating of the cray by one level. In addition, the player must immediately roll the Cray's adjusted rating (difficulty 8). If the roll succeeds, the cray is depleted but will begin replenishing itself at its normal rate. If the roll fails, the cray becomes "dormant" and replenishes itself at a rate of one point of Quintessence per year. If the roll botches, the cray "dies" and will never again generate Quintessence. Keep in mind that mages do not know how many "dots" their crays are worth, and therefore often have difficulty gauging how much power a cray holds. The Awareness Talent, as well as certain magics (notably the Order of Hermes Primus Pillar) can help the mage determine more accurately how much Quintessence a cray holds and how long it will take to regenerate.

If a cabal's members' players pools their Cray rating, points may be spent to increase the cray's potency or to make it more difficult to detect magically. Each point spent in this way raises the difficulties of any magical attempts to find or sense the cray by one.

● -- A minor cray; five Quintessence maximum

●● -- A small cray; 10 Quintessence maximum

●●● -- A notable cray; 15 Quintessence maximum

●●●● -- A major cray; 20 Quintessence maximum

●●●●● -- A legendary cray; 25 Quintessence maximum

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