Lore of Patterns

Lore of the Host

Description: The Lore of Patterns allows a Angel to manipulate time in ways both subtle, such as causing apparent serendipity, to outright slowing or stopping the time flow. They can also read the patterns of the heavens, telling the future and enabling them to alter it.

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● SENSE CONGRUENCE

This evocation allows a Fiend to sense localities or people that are at the heart of a convergence of consequential forces. By reading the forces at work in the great design, the Fiend can use this power to always be in the right place at the right time.

System: Your character must specify what kind of event she tries to detect (e.g., the invocation of a summoning ritual, a car accident), and you roll Perception + Intuition. Your character can sense the pattern a number of days into the future equal to her Faith score. The number of successes determines how much information the Fiend receives. One shows the location where the event will occur, but not when or where. Two successes show the location and give an idea of when it will happen. Three successes show where and when the event will occur, as well as images of the people involved.

Torment: Monstrous demons are able to use this evocation to search only for impending events of violence and destruction.

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●● TRACE PATTERN

This evocation allows the Fiend to view a particular event and analyze the various forces that caused it to occur. This insight comes in the form of vague impressions that sharpen into detailed images as the demon devotes her unblinking attention to them.

System: Your character must be at the location where the event in question occurred to work this evocation. Make a Perception + Intuition roll. The number of successes rolled determines how detailed the picture of a particular event is. One success depicts the immediate circumstances surrounding the event. Two reveal a few minutes preceding the event. Three successes might take the demon back a quarter of an hour to give a broader idea of the forces leading up to the event.

Torment: Monstrous Fiends can attempt to trace any pattern they wish, but they can focus on only sources of violence or injury that pertain to the event.

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●●● FORESEE

This potent evocation allows the Fiend to read the tides of fate in her immediate area and predict events and actions that are about to occur.

System: Rolls Wits + Intuition. The evocation takes effect for a number of turns equal to the successes rolled. This evocation protects the Fiend from being taken by surprise and takes the character out of the normal initiative system. As the other players and the Storyteller announce actions in Initiative order, you can interject your character's action at any point during the turn.

Torment: Monstrous demons are less interested in viewing the subtle shifts of patterns as they are in inflicting misery on their victims. The duration of the high-Torment version of this evocation is a single rum, but each success gives the demon a free dodge action that can be used against any attacks directed at the Fiend regardless of her own initiative.

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●●●● CAUSAL INFLUENCE

A Fiend can use this powerful evocation to gain insight into events up to several days into the future, and depending on her intentions, she can home in on which causal threads she must affect to achieve a desired result. It's worth noting that this power provides the demon with information only; it's up to her (or her pawns) to shift fate in her favor.

System: This evocation can be focused on a specific person (difficulty 6), place (difficulty 7) or upcoming event (difficulty 9). Spend one Faith point and roll Perception + Intuition. The number of successes rolled determines how many days into the future the Fiend can view regarding her subject. It also determines how many questions the player can ask the Storyteller about what the character sees. The evocation fills the Fiend's mind with a torrent of images, showing the most likely fate of a specific person, place or event, barring any outside interference. The Storyteller describes the course of events as though the demon were an outside observer. She isn't privy to the thoughts of the individuals involved, and she must decide the context and meaning of relationships and actions herself. As the player listens to the Storyteller's description, however, she can ask specific questions about why a particular action happens the way it does. This can provide clues to the demon that she can then use to influence the situation. For example, say a demon wants to observe the fate of one of her thralls. The player rolls Perception + Intuition and gets one success. She sees the events of the next day in the thrall's life and sees that he will be hit by a bus. Since the player rolled one success, she can ask one question of the Storyteller: Why does the bus hit the thrall? She then gets an image of the bus driver moments before the accident and sees that he is distracted by one of the passengers. Armed with this information, the demon can decide how she wants to try to affect the outcome according to her desires.

Torment: Monstrous demons use this evocation to gain insight into the dangers surrounding an individual, and how to manipulate these risks to cause injury or misfortune. The high-Torment version of this evocation shows the Fiend where the subject (be it a person, place or event) is at risk of suffering an accident or other misfortune, and it shows the best way to cause the tragic circumstances to occur. In the example with the thrall and the bus, above, the high-Torment version of the evocation provides the same images, but the vision of the distracted driver indicates what must happen for the tragedy to occur. Because it's often difficult to tell the difference between a viewing that warns of a tragedy or that hints at causing one, the Storyteller has the option of making the Perception + Intuition roll on the player's behalf, presenting the information and letting the player decide what to do with it.

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●●●●● TWIST TIME

This powerful evocation allows the Fiend to alter the flow of time within a small area, shifting it out of phase with the rest of the cosmos. The Fiend and anyone else within this bubble of distorted time may act faster or slower than the normal flow of the universe.

System: Spend one Faith point and roll Stamina + Intuition. The difficulty is determined by the effect the Fiend wishes to achieve. If she wants to speed time up (everything within the bubble moves faster than the world around it), the difficulty is 7- If she wants to slow time (everything within the bubble moves slower than the world around it), the difficulty is 8. If she wants to stop time (the outside world freezes in relation to the bubble) the difficulty is 9. The number of successes determines how many turns the evocation lasts. When the evocation is in effect, nothing and no one inside the bubble can interact with the world beyond, and vice versa. To the outside world, the demon and everyone within the bubble simply disappears. Within the bubble, actions may be taken as normal. Objects and individuals can exit the bubble (or be forced out), in which case they return to the normal time stream. If the Fiend herself exits the bubble, it collapses, returning the time stream to normal. Outsiders who enter the bubble's space do join its altered time unless your character wishes it. The maximum amount of temporal distortion is determined by a multiple or factor of the character's Faith score. For example, if the Fiend performing the evocation has a Faith of 5, she could choose the distortion to be as great as five to one: five turns for every one turn spent in the bubble, or vice versa. The bubble is centered on the Fiend and has a diameter in yards equal to the character's Faith score. Once created, the bubble docs not move.

Torment: Monstrous demons use this evocation to hurl unsuspecting victims out of phase with the time stream. To the victim, the experience is instantaneous and horrifying, a momentary brush with the void between realms that leaves terrible scars on a person's sanity. The evocation affects every individual within a number of yards equal to the character's Faith score. Demons can resist the effects by making a resisted roll using their Willpower, with the difficulty equal to the Fiend's Torment Victims knocked out of phase disappear for a number of turns based on how fast or slow time passes in the bubble compared to the outside world. When they return to the normal time flow, victims lose one temporary Willpower for each turn they were out of phase. If this loss reduces their Willpower to zero, victims suffer a permanent derangement.

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NINSUN, THE VISAGE OF PATTERNS

The angels of the great pattern have skins of indigo. Their hairless bodies are covered with intricate lines and patterns etched in silvery blue light that shifts and realigns depending on the angle of light and the intensity of the angel's mood. Their eyes are like bright sapphires, casting the cold light of the stars.

The Visage of Patterns confers the following special capabilities:

• Wings: A pair of swan's wings extends from the character's shoulders. At full extension, each wing is a third again as long as the character is tall. The character can glide up to three times her running speed per turn.

• Improved Initiative: The character adds two to her initiative.

• Enhanced Intuition: The character's uncanny insight lowers the difficulties of all Intuition rolls by two.

• Enhanced Mental Acuity: The character receives the following bonus traits: +1 Intelligence, +1 Wits, +2 Perception.

Torment: Monstrous Ninsun lose their indigo hue and become as black as the void. The patterns covering their bodies take on the color of quicksilver, and their eyes are nothing but empty globes of darkness. An extra set of spindly arms gives these demons a distinctly arachnid appearance.

The Visage of Patterns confers the following high-Torment special capabilities:

• Aura of Misfortune: Any individuals caught within a distance in yards equal to the demon's Torment score suffer a botch on any roll of 1 or 2.

• Extra Actions: Faith points can be spent to gain extra actions in a turn at the rate of one point per action. These actions occur in order of descending initiative, so if one of the Ninsun with an initiative of 7 gains an extra action, she takes her normal action at 7 and her extra action at 6. The player must decide to purchase extra actions at the beginning of a turn before any other actions have been taken.

• Extra Limbs: The demon grows a second set of arms. Extra arms allow a character to parry or block close-combat attacks without sacrificing her own attack, or to make up to two additional attacks of her own per turn (which are considered multiple actions).

• Sibilant Whispers: The difficulties of all Subterfuge rolls decrease by two.

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