Lores
For knowledge about demons, see Demon Lore instead. For knowledge about supernatural / mortal+ races in general, see House_Rules/Miscellaneous#Lore.
Includes errata from Demon Players Guide pages 14-15.
A high-Torment effect occurs:
- When you declare it ahead of time. (Gain 1 temporary Torment.)
- When more than half your successes are less than or equal to your permanent Torment. (Just your successes. Ones cancel your highest dice first.)
- Example: You have permanent Torment 6. You roll vs difficulty 4 and get (1 2 2 3 3 4 6 8 9 10). The 1 cancels the 10, so your successes are (4 6 8 9). Only two of these are less than or equal to 6, so high-Torment does not occur.
Common Lores
Lore of Fundament
Demon: The Fallen Rulebook, p. 172-173
Note: In the book it is listed as 'Lore of the Fundament', but our database does not have 'the' in the name for +sheets
Manipulate Gravity:
Altering the way that gravity affects them, the Fallen may leap tremendous distances, hover, or fall without harm.
- High-Torment: Identical, but gravity fluctuates wildly around the Fallen, randomly increasing or decreasing the effects of gravity on surrounding objects or people who pass within a number of yards equal to the demon's Torment score
System: Roll Strength + Athletics. The demon can leap (or climb) up to 20 yards per success, or fall a similar distance without suffering injury. Completely canceling the effect of gravity requires a number of successes equal to the character's Stamina. Characters who defy gravity aren't weightless, per se --- they are still affected by outside forces as normal. The effects of this evocation last for a single turn.
Manipulate Adhesion: The Fallen may walk up walls or along ceilings, or cling to objects.
- High-Torment: The Fallen's touch will also partially melt surfaces and make them hot to the touch. Individuals coming into contact with these surfaces in the same turn as the demon touched them suffer one level of lethal damage.
System: Roll Dexterity + Athletics. The difficulty is determined by the angle of the surface relative to the earth. Running up a steep slope is difficulty 6, while a vertical surface is 7. Moving along an inverted plane (like a ceiling) is difficulty 8. The character can move up to three yards along a surface per success rolled. The effects of this evocation last for a single turn.
Manipulate Inertia: The Fallen may throw objects over tremendous distances, or simply stop attacks dead.
- High-Torment: Makes a thrown object become temporarily unstable and fragile. For a period of time equal to the character's Torment, any item that was the focus of this evocation causes a botch on a rolled 1, 2 or 3 when used for any reason.
System: Roll Dexterity + Athletics. The demon can throw an object up to 30 yards per success rolled, regardless of her strength. Snatching a projectile out of the air requires rolling a number of successes equal to or greater than the projectile's damage dice. For example, a thrown knife inflicts Strength + 1 damage. If the person throwing the knife has a Strength 3, you must roll four or more successes for your character to catch the knife. Your demon has to be able to see the projectile to affect it. Rocks, knives, even arrows are possible candidates, but bullets aren't. If your demon throws a projectile at a target, each extra success achieved becomes an automatic level of damage. The effects of this evocation last a single turn.
Manipulate Acceleration: The Fallen may move blindingly fast and pour their momentum into devastating close combat attacks.
- High-Torment: The Fallen also drags a wake of superheated air that may cause burns in bystanders. The acceleration of a monstrous demon so disturbs the air around her that she is surrounded by an aura of blistering heat that radiates out a number of yards equal to the character's Torment score. Living beings caught within the area of effect suffer one level of bashing damage.
System: Spend one Faith point and roll Dexterity + Athletics. Each success allows your demon to walk up to 10 yards per success per turn, jog 20 yards per success or run 40 yards per success per turn. If used in combat, treat these successes as automatic levels of damage for hand-to-hand, melee or ranged attacks using thrown weapons. These damage levels can be split among multiple targets if desired. The effects of this evocation last for a single turn.
Manipulate Cohesion: The Fallen may alter the density of matter, allowing them to walk on water or evaporate stone or even flesh.
- High-Torment: The affected material's aggregate state will fluctuate randomly for some time. Matter affected by a monstrous demon remains inherently unstable for a number of turns equal to the character's Torment, changing states at random. The Storyteller is free to use her discretion when describing the chaotic effects that occur in the wake of the demon's manipulation.
System: The demon must be able to physically touch the matter she wishes to affect. Spend on Faith point and roll Stamina + Science. The difficulty depends on the matter involved and the degree to which it is affected. Changing water to ice or steam is difficulty 6. Increasing the cohesion of water or air to the degree that it briefly supports the demon's weight is difficulty 7. Vaporizing wood, cloth or other low-density material is difficulty 8, while doing the same to high-density material such as metal or stone is difficulty 9. Each success allows the demon to affect one cubic foot of matter. The effects of this evocation last for a single turn , after which the materials affected return to normal or remain in their current state if it's natural for the material in question. Living beings targeted with this effect suffer a level of lethal damage for each success gained on the roll.
Lore of Humanity
Demon: The Fallen Rulebook, p. 173-174
Translate: The Fallen may speak with any mortal, regardless of language.
- High-Torment: Attempts to communicate may come across as insulting or threatening. Monstrous demons must overcome the obstacle of their own Torment, or the words they hear are filtered through their own anger and obsessions. After the evocation is used successfully, a Willpower roll is made with a difficulty equal to your character's Torment. If successful, your character understands the words of those around her as they are intended. If the roll fails, your demon's understanding of what is said is skewed by her own hatred and despair. A greeting is misunderstood as a threat, or an honest answer sounds evasive or outright deceptive. The Storyteller is encouraged to make this Willpower roll on behalf of the character and keep the results secret, tailoring the information the player hears accordingly.
System: Roll Manipulation + Empathy. The evocation affects a number of people equal to the successes rolled. The demon can understand the speech of each affected individual and be understood in turn, even if all of the individuals involved speak completely different languages. The effects of this evocation last for the duration of the scene. People who speak different languages do not understand each other when this power is used on them.
Insinuate: The Fallen causes mortals to instinctively regard the demon as a potential friend, allaying any initial feelings of distrust or suspicion and engaging their interest in her. Unless gifted with a demon's resistance to mind-control, thralls can be affected by this evocation as well.
- High-Torment: Instead, they may create feelings of suspicion and hostility. Affected individuals use the demon's Torment as the difficulty for their Willpower rolls. If a roll fails, the person is overcome with feelings of revulsion and anger, and treats the demon with intense apprehension and fear. The difficulties of all Intimidation rolls directed at these individuals decrease by two.
System:Roll Manipulation + Empathy. The evocation affects a number of individuals equal to the successes rolled. Each person resists the evocation with a Willpower roll. If the Willpower roll fails, affected individuals trust the demon within reason and talk freely and openly with her, lowering the difficulty of any of the demon's subsequent Manipulation rolls by one. The effects of this evocation last for the duration of one scene.
Fade: The Fallen may make people ignore them, moving through crowds or entering places unnoticed. They literally fade into the background. Mortal eyes simply pass over them unless the demon choose to call attention to themselves. Demons (and thralls who have been gifted with the demon's resistance to illusion) are immune to the effects of this evocation.
- High-Torment: Psychopathically inclined people can still perceive the Fallen and are actually drawn to them.
System: Roll Manipulation + Subterfuge. Mortals resist with a Willpower roll (difficulty 8). If successful, the demon goes unnoticed by mortals unless she does something to call attention to herself such as make physical contact or speak to them directly. These effects persist for the remainder of the scene or until the demon wills them to cease.
Confession: The Fallen may make mortals reveal their innermost secrets, and the mortals won't even remember spilling their hearts to the demon as they answer in complete candor. Unless made aware of it later with direct questions about events, the mortal affected by this evocation does not remember the details of the conversation. Unless gifted with a demon's resistance to mind-control, thralls can be affected by this evocation as well.
- High-Torment: Mortals may only confess their darkest secrets.
System:Spend one Faith point and roll Manipulation + Subterfuge. The target resists with a Willpower roll (difficulty 7). If your roll is successful, the demon can ask the mortal any questions she wishes, and the mortal answers with complete honesty. The effects of this evocation last for a number of turns equal to your character's Faith score.
Alter Memory: The Fallen may alter a mortal's memories in any fashion desired. Unless gifted with a demon's resistance to mind-control, thralls can affected by this evocation.
- High-Torment: The victim becomes mentally disturbed after being tampered with. Nightmares persist for a number of nights equal to the character's Torment score. Each night, make a Willpower roll for the victim with a difficulty equal to the demon's Torment. If the roll fails, the victim loses a temporary Willpower point. If the victim runs out of Willpower points, she gains a temporary derangement.
System:Spend one Faith point and roll Manipulation + Subterfuge. If your character attempts to alter or remove an existing memory, the difficulty is 7. Planting a completely false memory is difficulty 8. A resisted Willpower roll is made for the target (difficulty 7). You must achieve a number of excess successes determined by the Storyteller, depending on the intensity and breadth of the memory or memories that your character tries to manipulate. Editing or removing the memories of a brief encounter requires one success, while planting or altering a series of memories covering a period of days or weeks requires a two or more successes. Altered or fabricated memories are permanent.
Devils
Lore of the Celestials
Demon: The Fallen Rulebook, p. 175-176
- Visage: Bel
Lamp of Faith: The Fallen may evaluate a person's Faith or Faith potential with a glance, and even see the glow of Faith through obstacles that is invisible to others. Individuals glow with a pale blue light, varying in intensity depending on the strength of their Faith, while non-living objects lose color, fading into dark silhouettes.
- High-Torment: The Fallen can only see low Faith or high-Torment Faith.
System: Roll Perception + Alertness. This evocation affects all living beings within a radius in yards equal to the character's Faith. Demons targeted by this evocation (and aware of its use) can resist its effect with a successful Willpower roll (difficult 8). Extra successes permit the character to detect these beacons of Faith through intervening obstacles, allowing the demon to detect hidden individuals as well. Seeing through an interior wall or door requires one extra success. Seeing through a brick wall requires two extra successes. Seeing past thick metal bulkheads or a vault door might require three or more extra successes. This special sight persists for a turn.
Send Vision: The Fallen may send visions to anyone in their field of view.
- High-Torment: The visions are always horrific and may cause psychological damage.
System: Roll Manipulation + Expression. Devils may use this evocation to send complex instructions to fellow demons at the speed of though. Unlike an invocation , this vision fills the recipient's mind like an illusion or a walking dream, playing out whatever scene the sender wishes to convey in the blink of an eye. The amount of information the sender can convey depends on the number of successes generated by your roll. Each success allows the sender to describe on turn's worth of action. For example, if a Devil wishes to instruct one of her fellow demons to go outside, get in a car and start the engine, the player would need three successes to fuller convey her instructions. These instructions can be shared simultaneously to a number of individuals equal to your character's Faith. These visions can be sent only to recipients within the sender's line of sight. This power may be used on mortals and demons alike.
Pillar of Faith: The Fallen can bolster another Fallen's evocation by providing bonus dice.
- High-Torment: Alternatively, the Fallen can hinder another Fallen's evocations by subtracting dice.
System:Roll Manipulation + Leadership. This evocation allows the Devil to add her Faith to the efforts of another, as long as the Devil knows the demon's Celestial or True name and can draw a line of sight to him. Each success adds a bonus die to the target's next evocation roll. The Devil cannot provide more bonus dice than her permanent Faith score, and if the recipient's roll botches he still loses a point of Faith as normal.
- The user of Pillar of Faith does not lose any Faith when "lending" it. Repeated use of this evocation on a single target does not cause bonus dice to accumulate.
The Fire of Heaven: The Fallen attack with a searing blast of celestial fire that causes aggravated damage.
- High-Torment: The fire erupts in an uncontrolled burst that affects the entire vicinity of the Fallen.
System: Spend on Faith point and roll Dexterity + Athletics. The character may target any individual or object within a range in yards equal to her Faith score. Every success generated by the roll inflicts one level of aggravated damage (or lethal damage if the target does not deal in aggravated damage).
Hand of Faith: The Fallen may take control of another Fallen's evocation.
- High-Torment: They can reflect other Fallens' evocations back upon them.
System: Spend one Faith point and roll Manipulation + Leadership. Hand of Faith allows a Devil to usurp another Celestial's evocation, directing its effects as she desires. You must generate more successes on your Faith roll than the player of the demon performing the evocation does with his, and your character must know the initiator's Celestial or True Name. If successful, the Devil can alter the evocation's target and its effects as if she were the one using the power. If the Devil does not roll enough successes to seize control of the evocation, the attempt fail and the evocation proceeds as originally intended. When used in combat, the Devil must have a higher initiative than the demon performing the evocation --- Hand of Faith cannot be performed as a reflexive action.
Lore of Flame
Demon: The Fallen Rulebook, p. 176-178
- Visage: Nusku
Fuel: The Fallen may fan existing flames, making them grow with a single thought.
- High-Torment: Each success increases the fire's lethal damage rating by one.
System: Roll Stamina + Survival. If there is a source of fire or heat within a number of yards equal to her Faith score, the Devil can increase its size by one square foot per success.
Ignite: The Fallen creates fire from nothingness, igniting a flammable object.
- High-Torment: Monstrous Devils are too fueled by hatred to perform this evocation with precision. All flammable objects within a radius in yards equal to the character's Faith score are affected. A single evocation roll is made with some materials igniting and others remaining unaffected, based on successes rolled.
System: Roll Stamina + Survival. This evocation allows the Devil to cause flammable objects to burst into flame. The character may attempt to ignite any object within a number of yards equal to her Faith score, and you must obtain a number of successes in excess of the target's resistance to combustion. Gasoline, gunpowder or other explosive material might have a resistance of 1. Dry, flammable objects like wood or paper might have a resistance of 2. Inert metal might be rated 5. Water and strictly nonflammable materials cannot be ignited with this power. Fires ignited in this fashion are no more intense than natural flames, and they inflict damage accordingly.
Command the Flame: The Fallen may manipulate the flames themselves. Fire can be moved, doused, or fanned.
- High-Torment: The Fallen may accidently burn part of their own Faith supply in the process and cause aggravated damage to themselves. High-Torment Devils have less facility in controlling fire's movements, but their rage increase the flames' intensity. A monstrous demon's control pool is halved (rounded up) for all actions, with the remaining dice added as damage levels to the harm that the fire is capable of inflicting.
System: Roll Wits + Survival and total the number of successes achieved. The successes form a poll that you use in subsequent turns to control the progress of the fire. Rolls to control the fire are made against a difficulty of 8, although that may increase depending on circumstances such as active sprinklers and fire-retardant materials, at the Storyteller's discretion. Successes generated by the roll allow your character to cause the fire to grow by one square foot per success, shrink by the same amount or spread in a specific direction up to a yard per success. The player may add to this pool with subsequent Wits + Survival rolls on successive turns, if desired, but the pool can never exceed the character's permanent Faith rating. If at any time you fail to roll any successes, the fire burns out of control for that turn. If a roll botches, control is lost completely.
Holocaust: The Fallen burns the inherent Faith that makes an object real, rendering even a steel door to ash in mere seconds or robbing other Fallen of their power while hurting them grievously.
- High-Torment: Monstrous demons delight in feeding the cosmos to the flames. Roll your full dice pool, although damage levels inflicted in excess of the target's available Faith are taken from your character's Faith pool. Additionally, if the evocation causes more damage than the target is capable of sustaining, the remaining aggravated levels of damage are suffered by your Devil as she loses her focus in the ecstasy of destruction.
System: Spend on Faith point and roll Stamina + Survival, although your dice pool for the roll cannot exceed the target's Faith pool. Your demon must physically touch her intended target to perform this evocation. Each success inflicts one level of aggravated damage (or lethal if the victim does not deal in aggravated damage) to the target and consumes one point of the target's temporary Faith. This form of attack can be used on inanimate objects as well. Most physical matter has no more than one point of Faith suffusing its physical being, though especially sacred objects may have considerably more. Physical objects burned this way are reduced to ashes when all their inherent Faith is consumed (objects therefore burn much quicker than normal).
Ride the Flame: The Fallen literally transforms into a flame or becomes part of an existing fire, gaining control over it in the process.
- High-Torment: The Fallen becomes a flame-wreathed skeleton instead, retaining their physical mobility but losing the special mobility of a flame. Monstrous demons are unable to fully realize the transformation into flame. These fallen become fiery, skeletal figures, instead, their blackened bones wreathed with flame, and howling their rage and pain with tongues of fire. High-Torment demons use their normal Attributes and Abilities to move, attack and otherwise act in a given turn, but they cannot move with the speed or ease of true, mutable flame. Furthermore, their bodies are wracked with agony. If they do not inflict at least one level of damage or combust one square foot of material per turn (with a successful Willpower roll), they suffer one level of lethal damage as the fire feeds upon their physical bodies.
System: Spend one Faith point and roll Stamina + Survival. A Devil has two options when employing this power: She can either join her essence with an existing blaze or become a pillar of fire by converting her available Faith. In either case, your demon's body literally transforms into flame, consuming her clothes and any possessions she carried. While becoming a pillar of fire means the flame occupies the same dimensions as the character's physical body, your demon can increase this area by one square foot for each additional Faith point you spend.
Once transformed, your Devil is a formless mass that shifts size and shape according to her will. While in this state, you use the character's Willpower pool rather than her normal Attributes and Abilities to perform any actions, splitting this pool for multiple actions as normal. She may effectively travel anywhere air can go --- under doors, through crevices. If she lashes out at an opponent in combat, roll dice equal to her Torment score to determine damage. The fire of your character's body is unaffected by water or other fire-suppression technology, as it is fueled by faith instead of a mere chemical reaction. The drawback to this condition is that the fire must be fed continually or it dies out. Each turn, your character must devote some of her Willpower pool to consuming flammable material. One success is sufficient. Failing that, her flame shrinks by one square foot at the end of the turn. The fire does not spread like a normal fire; it remains a self-contained entity, leaving only charred remains of the matter it consumes. If the fire shrinks to less than one square foot or you botch a Willpower roll at any point, your character transforms back into her physical form.
Lore of Radiance
Demon: The Fallen Rulebook, p. 179-180
- Visage: Qingu
Voice of Heaven: The Fallen's voice penetrates all other sounds, and either single mortals or everybody within range feels compelled to obey.
- High-Torment: The voice instead becomes a string of horrible blasphemies that inflicts damage on mortals, and may cause a listening Fallen's Torment to rise as well. Each success inflicts one level of bashing damage to targets, though they can attempt to resist this damage by making a Willpower roll with a difficulty equal to the demon's Torment. Demons can be affected by this form of evocation and can resist its effects using Willpower as well. If any damage is suffered, they must also make a Courage roll to avoid gaining a temporary point of Torment.
System: Roll Manipulation + Leadership. A Devil may use this evocation to affect everyone up to a distance of 10 yards times her Faith (difficulty 8), or focus on a single individual (difficulty 6). The player may issue a single command to the target, who may then attempt to resist the command with a Willpower roll. If the victim scores fewer successes than the Devil, he must obey the demon's command. When the Devil speaks, her voice can be heard clearly regardless of the level of ambient noise. She could speak into a raging typhoon and still sound as though she were speaking directly into the recipient's ear. This evocation has no effect on other demons or thralls with protection from mind-control effects.
Exalt: The Fallen encourages a number of mortals to greatness, the power of the demon's commanding voice is enough to instill hope in the weakest of hearts, spurring mortals to put aside their fears and steal triumph from the jaws of defeat. Allows them to add a number of dice equal to the Fallen's successes to any action.
- High-Torment: The listeners are dismayed by the Fallens' scorn, and lose dice instead.
System: Roll Manipulation + Leadership. Each success is a bonus die that the target may add to a single dice pool for that turn. The demon may affect a number of mortals (including thralls) up to her Faith rating. Each individual benefits from the full amount of bonus dice. Demons cannot be affected by this evocation.
Aura of Legend: This evocation awakens atavistic memories buried deep in the human subconscious, renewing the ancient bonds of fealty that once bound humanity and the fallen in the face of heaven's tyranny. The ties run so deep that when they arise, it can sometimes drive all other thoughts from a mortal's mind, leaving only the urge to fulfill the ancient duty once more. A number of mortals joins the Fallen as loyal servants for a short time.
- High-Torment: The target mortals enter a murderous frenzy instead, attacking the nearest living beings within reach.
System: Roll manipulation + Leadership. The Devil can affect a number of mortals equal to her Faith, as long as they are within line of sight and able to hear the demon's voice. If the number of successes rolled exceeds a target's Wits, she is immediately filled with a sense of devotion and loyalty toward the demon. She instinctively defends the demon from attackers, and follows reasonable orders without question. If your successes are less than the target's Wits, that target's player can resist the power's effects with a successful Willpower roll (difficulty 8). Thralls of other demons targeted with this evocation use their demonic masters' Willpower to resist its effects. Thralls with mind-control resistance can automatically resist the evocation's effects by spending one Willpower point. Mortals remain loyal to the demon for the duration of the scene. A person can be a target of this power only once per scene.
The Mark of the Celestials: A mortal can be marked by the Fallen so that every other mortal that encounters him treats him like the Fallen intended. During the War of Wrath, both angels and demons found ways to signify their friends and enemies, subtly altering their auras to make subjects easier to find or as marks of anger and shame so that anyone who encountered subjects would know their crimes and treat them accordingly.
- High-Torment: The Fallen may only create marks that trigger hatred and violence. A Willpower roll is made for mortals who try to resist the mark's command (difficulty equals the Devil's Torment).
System: Spend one Faith point and roll Manipulation + Expression. The Devil must know her target's name (in the case of a demon, the Celestial or True Name is necessary), and be able to touch him. She must then pronounce the nature of her mark so that the subject can hear is (e.g. "Let every man give him shelter no matter where he travels"). The number of successes achieved determines the potency and the effectiveness of the mark. One success allows the mark to last for a single day. Two successes give it a life span of a week. Three allow it to last for a month. Four or more successes cause it to remain for a year. Whenever another person encounters the marked individual, the total number of successes is compared to the person's Wits. If the successes exceed the newcomer's Wits, the person behaves as directed toward the subject without hesitation. If the successes are less than the person's Wits, she may make a Willpower roll (difficulty 7) to resist the imperative. Demons with at least one Faith point and thralls with immunity to mind-control are able to make their own judgments on a subject.
Revelation: The Fallen allows a mortal to look into his (the mortal's) true self. The experience may be uplifting, but there is the risk of permanent damage if the target can't endure what he truly is.
- High-Torment: Monstrous Devils are not interested in revealing a mortal's personal virtue. They wish to only crush egos to render victims more malleable, or to stoke the fires of dark impulses. When a high-Torment demon performs this evocation, the effect exaggerates a subject's worst qualities, giving them greater emphasis than the rest of the individual's personality. If the mortal fails her initial Willpower roll to resist the evocation, the character's impulses override her identity for the duration of the scene.
System: Spend one Faith point and roll Perception + Intuition in a resisted roll against the target's Willpower. If you win the roll, your character sees the individual for who he really is --- his nature, attitudes and beliefs. If questioned, the individual cannot lie or be indirectly deceitful; his answers are direct and straightforward, sparing no detail. By the same token, the individual himself must face the harsh, unyielding truth about his strengths, weaknesses, virtues and faults. At the end of the scene, the target must make a second Willpower roll (difficulty 7). If successful, the target gains a permanent point of Willpower, having faced the worst aspects of her identity and accepted them. If the roll fails, the target loses one permanent Willpower. If the target botches the roll, the individual loses three permanent Willpower and acquires a temporary derangement.
This power has no effect on other demons, but it does affect thralls.
Scourge
Lore of Awakening
Demon: The Fallen Rulebook, p. 181-182
- Visage: Dagan
Find the Faithful: The Fallen may locate an individual by their unique Faith if they know their name and are within a few miles of their target.
- High-Torment: The Asharu may only locate individuals without Faith or Willpower.
System: Roll Perception + Awareness. The difficulty depends on how much information your character has concerning the subject. If she has the subject's mundane name, the difficulty is 8. If the subject is a demon and the character knows the subject's Celestial name, the difficulty is 7. If she knows the demon's True Name the difficulty is 6. The Scourge can detect and home in on an individual up to a number of miles away equal to her permanent Faith score. Demons being actively sought in this manner can use their supernatural awareness to detect the search as a reflexive action (see the section on inherent powers for details). If a demon detects the search, he may avoid detection with a Willpower roll (difficulty 8). If he gets more successes than the Scourge, he evades the search.
Cleanse: The Asharu purify their target of all toxins and disease, emerging from the body as a black viscous fluid.
- High-Torment: The Asharu spread a supernatural disease that weakens their targets and leave them listless.
System: Roll Stamina + Medicine. The difficulty of the roll depends on the virulence and scope of the disease or poison. Cleansing a body of the effects of alcohol is difficulty 6, while a virulent disease such as tuberculosis or cancer is difficulty 8 or higher. The process is all or nothing. The evocation overcomes the illness or it doesn't, and only one attempt may be made by a single demon on a single subject for a specific instance of an ailment or poison. A Scourge must be able to touch her target in order to perform this evocation.
Heal: The Asharu restore a body to full health, and may even heal aggravated damage with a touch.
- High-Torment: Monstrous Scourges use this evocation to poison a victim's body. Each success lowers a target's Stamina temporarily. if the target loses all of her Stamina, she falls into a coma and suffers one health level of aggravated damage (or lethal if a victim is not subject to aggravated damage) per hour per success remaining unless she receives medical attention immediately. Stamina is lost for a number of days equal to the demon's Faith score.
System: Roll Stamina + Medicine. The Scourge can heal all of a target's bashing damage or one health level of lethal or aggravated damage per success. The Character must be able to touch her target to perform this evocation.
Animate: The Asharu temporarily grant life to an inanimate object, and may direct the object's actions as long as they can see it.
- High-Torment: The animated objects become rabid with anger and pain, and will attack any living creature they can reach if the Asharu can't or doesn't control them. Unless she controls them with an iron will, they lash out at the nearest living things they find, friend or foe. Make a Willpower roll for each object per turn. The difficulty of the roll is equal to your demon's Torment. If a roll fails, your demon loses control of that object for the duration of the turn and it goes beserk, attacking the nearest living being it can reach. If the demon is content to allow an object to run amok, no roll is needed.
System: Spend one Faith point and roll Intelligence + Crafts. The total number of successes achieved forms a dice pool that you roll for any actions that the animated object performs in a given turn. The object is not intelligent or self-aware, it is an extension of a demon's will. The demon may animate a number of objects equal to her permanent Faith score at one time. The effects of the evocation last for a single scene. A demon must first touch an object in order to animate it, but he can control it from a distance as long as he can see it.
Restore Life: The Asharu may restore life to a recently deceased body, and they might even restore a soul to that body.
- High-Torment: the reanimated bodies become rabid, and will attack anybody they can reach unless the Asharu controls them, they will lash out at the nearest subject, friend or foe. Make a Willpower roll for each raised body per turn. The difficulty is equal to your demon's Torment. If a roll fails, the demon loses control for the duration of the turn, and the body goes berserk, attacking the nearest living being it can reach. If your character is content to allow the body to run amok, no roll is needed.
System: Spend one Faith point and roll Stamina + Medicine. The difficulty depends on how long the body has been deceased. A freshly dead corpse is difficulty 6, while one dead for several days or as long as a week might be difficulty 7 or higher. Older bodies cannot be restored. If successful, the body is returned to life, but unless the Scourge is also able to furnish the body with a soul, the result is a mindless zombie that the demon can control. Disembodied fallen may possess these animated corpses with the Scourge's permission, or they can try to wrest control from the demon with a resisted Willpower roll. The effects of this evocation last for a single scene, unless you wish to spend a temporary Willpower point to make the restoration permanent. Your demon may restore a number of bodies at any given time equal to her Faith score. Subjects must be within your character's Faith score in yards to be affected.
Lore of the Firmament
Demon: The Fallen Rulebook, p. 182-184
- Visage: Anshar
Remote Viewing: The Fallen can see through the eyes of a thrall simply as a spectator.
- High-Torment: When a monstrous demon uses this evocation, it causes blood vessels to burst in the mortal's eyes. When the demon breaks contact, the mortal must make a Stamina roll with a difficulty equal to the Scourge's Torment. If the roll fails, the thrall is blinded for a number of days equal to the total number of turns the evocation was in effect. If the roll botches, the thrall is blinded permanently.
System: Roll Perception + Empathy. The Scourge may see through her thrall's eyes for a number of turns equal to the successes rolled. There is no range limitation for this evocation.
Scry: Using an object that belongs to the target, and possessing one of their names, an Asharu can always observe them.
- High-Torment: The weight of a monstrous demon's attention causes a severe headache in the subject, as well as feelings of mounting paranoia, stress and aggression. The Storyteller must make a Willpower roll (difficulty 6) for the subject in each turn that she is observed. If a roll fails, the subject suffers a level of bashing damage and reacts with increasing anger and aggression toward the people around her, increasing the difficulty of all Social rolls by two for the duration of the scene. If the roll botches, the subject gains a temporary derangement as well.
System: Roll Perception + Empathy. The difficulty depends on the level of connection to the subject: Using a mortal's name or a physical possession is difficulty 8. A demon's Celestial Name is difficulty 7. A True Name is difficulty 6. The amount of detail gained depends on the number of successes rolled. One success provides only a visual image of the immediate area around the subject. Two successes expand the visual sphere out from the subject to a distance in yards equal to the Scourge's Faith score. Three successes adds audio; the demon can hear the subject's voice, but no one else. Four or more successes allow the Scourge to hear everything that occurs around the subject. This evocation lasts a number of turns equal to your character's permanent Faith score, or the connection can be broken voluntarily at any point.
Mouth of the Damned: The Asharu can speak through the mouth and act through the body of one of her thralls. This is more like a form of remote control than outright possession, though. The demon remains firmly ensconced in her host body and simply directs her will through the bond between herself and her thrall, and he may do so at any distance.
- High-Torment: In addition, this can cause permanent brain damage to the thrall. Each turn the demon performs an action with the mortal's body, the Storyteller makes a Stamina roll for the thrall. If the roll fails, the mortal loses on point from the relevant Attribute permanently. If the demon uses the thrall only to speak, the Storyteller makes a Willpower roll instead. If the roll fails, the thrall loses one point of Intelligence.
System: Roll Manipulation + Leadership. The number of successes determines how many of the thrall's dice you can roll for any given action during a turn. This dice pool cannot be greater than the maximum number of dice the thrall would normally get for an action. When your demon speaks through her thrall, voice, expressions and mannerisms are the Scourge's. The effects of this evocation last for a number of turns equal to your character's permanent Faith score.
Touch From Afar: The Fallen can direct their powers at a target not within their sight if they have an item from that person.
- High-Torment: Horrific visions accompany the power used on the target. When a high-Torment demon uses this evocation, the Willpower roll is made for the target with a difficulty equal to the demon's Torment. if the roll fails, the target gains a temporary derangement. If the roll botches, the derangement is permanent. These effect are in addition to the results of whatever evocation the Scourge directs at the target.
System: Spend one Faith point and roll Manipulation + Awareness. your demon can affect targets as far away as 10 miles times the character's current Faith pool. Then follow the system for performing whatever evocation your character uses, but the difficulty of the roll is determined by the amount of information she has on her target. if she only has the target's mundane name or a personal possession, the difficulty is 9. If the target is a demon and she has his Celestial name, the difficulty is 8; if she has the target's True Name, the difficulty is 7. If the demon targets one of her own thralls, the difficulty is reduced to 6. Area-effect evocations are centered on the individual targeted.
Many Places At Once: The Asharu can use Mouth of the Damned on multiple people at the same time.
- High-Torment: The effect can damage a thrall's body and mind. Each turn the demon performs an action with a thrall's body, the Storyteller makes a Stamina roll for the mortal. If the roll fails, the subject loses one point from the relevant Attribute permanently. If the demon uses the thrall only to speak, the Storyteller makes a Willpower roll instead. If the rolls fails, the thrall loses on point of Intelligence. Additionally, if a monstrous demon performs an evocation through the body of one of her thralls, the thrall gets a Stamina roll with a difficulty equal to the demon's Torment. If it fails, she suffers one level of lethal damage.
System: The demon can affect a number of thralls equal to her Wits score, though if she affects fewer targets than her total Wits score, she can also control her own body at the same time. Otherwise the demon's body falls into a deep coma until the evocation expires. Spend one Faith point and roll Manipulation + Leadership. Successes achieved form a dice pool to roll for each of the thralls under the character's control. In addition, the character may perform an evocation through one of the thralls under control each turn, using her own dice pool. Multiple thralls can be controlled over a number of turns equal to your character's permanent Faith score.
Lore of the Winds
Demon: The Fallen Rulebook, p. 184-185
- Visage: Ellil
Summon Wind: The Fallen can call a wind from nowhere.
- High-Torment: The wind reeks of death and decay. Anyone caught in this blast must make a successful Stamina roll (difficulty 7) or suffer one level of bashing damage that may not be soaked. If such a roll botches, the victim forfeits all actions that turn due to extreme nausea.
System: Roll Stamina + Survival. The total number of successes rolled determines the strength of the wind summoned. Depending on how the wind is used, this strength can be added as a number of automatic successes to an Athletics roll (to leap a long distance, for example), it can increase the difficulty of a ranged attack staged against your character, or it can be used as a dice pool to exert force against an object (such as pushing open a door, knocking a person over). The wind persist for only a single turn. Increased winds can be applied across any distance that your character can see.
Fist of Air: The Asharu can manipulate air pressure in or around a target, allowing her to crush objects, stun living beings or cause them to burst apart from within.
- High-Torment: This effect deals lethal damage to living beings.
System: Roll Stamina + Survival. Each success inflicts one health level of bashing damage to living beings. If directed at non-living objects, successes rolled are considered Strength points on the Feats of Strength chart to determine how much effect the blast of air has on a target. Your character must be able to see her target to use this evocation on it, and the effects persist for one turn.
Command the Wind: The Fallen may use the surrounding winds to manipulate objects as desired.
- High-Torment: The winds turn into a miasma that causes living beings to choke. The winds stirred by a monstrous demon become a foul miasma that chokes the lungs of anyone touched by them, Every living being within the range of the demon's evocation suffers one level of bashing damage per turn that cannot be soaked using armor. Filtration or breathing apparatus such as gas masks provides the only source of protection form this poisonous air.
System: Roll Dexterity + Survival. The total number of successes achieved forms a dice pool that you can roll for your character to perform any action that involves moment or control of objects or targets. The difficulty of actions that require fine motor control (typing, putting a key in a lock) is 9. The Scourge can affect objects up to a distance in yards equal to her Faith score. The effect of this evocation lasts for a duration of the scene.
Wall of Air: The Asharu can turn air into a solid barrier. When this evocation is performed, the air visibly distorts, like old, wavy glass. The stronger the barrier is, the more opaque it becomes.
- High-Torment: The wall of air resembles weaves of writhing gray mist and acquires an acidic effect that dissolves flesh. Individuals who attempt to force their way through the barrier suffer a number of lethal damage dice equal to the demon's Torment.
System: Spend one Faith point and roll Stamina + Survival. The total number of successes achieved is a dice pool that can be used to soak all ranged attacks (as if it were armor) or to make resisted rolls against all close-combat attacks. The wall covers 10 square feet times the character's Faith score, and your Scourge can make the wall any size or shape desired within that limit. A resisted Strength + Athletics roll (difficulty 7) must be made versus the wall's dice pool to push through it. The wall can be placed anywhere within the Scourge's line of sight up to a distance in yards equal to her Faith score. The wall remains in place for the duration of the scene unless removed sooner at your character's will. The wall fades immediately if your character is Incapacitated.
Cyclone: The Asharu may create a massive windstorm. This furious storm affects everything it touches, but the demon can focus it against a specific target if desired.
- High-Torment: The wind will suck the breath from any living being caught in said storm. Every living being (save your character) within the radius of the cyclone suffers one level of lethal damage each turn as they struggle for air. If the storm's Strength exceeds the demon's Willpower it spirals out of control, affecting everything it touches including the demon herself.
System: Spend one Faith point and roll Stamina + Survival (difficulty 7). The total number of successes achieved determines the Strength of the wind that your character summons that turn. The storm affects everything out to a distance in yards equal to your character's current Faith pool: Light objects are tossed about, doors are blown open, windows are broken. Compare the Strength of the storm to the Feats of Strength chart to determine how much force the wind can exert. If your character wishes, he can focus the effect of the cyclone against a specific target with a successful Willpower roll (difficulty equal to the cyclone's Strength). A storm can be targeted within the range of your character's line of sight.
Once per turn, roll a number of dice equal to the Strength of the storm. Each success inflicts one level of bashing damage to living beings caught within, or on whom the storm is targeted. Your character can make the storm center upon himself, or he can center it elsewhere when targeting it, without personal harm in either case.
On each turn after the first, the storm loses one point of Strength and its radius shrinks by one yard, unless your character wishes to sustain it (make another Stamina + Survival roll and spend another Faith point).
Malefactor
Lore of Earth
Demon: The Fallen Rulebook, p.186-188
- Visage:Kishar
Earth Meld: This evocation allows the demon to bond their physical body with the earth beneath her feet. As long as the evocation is in effect, they cannot be moved, picked up, or knocked down unless they wish it.
- High-Torment: The Fallen may sink into the soil and move beneath the earth in any direction they wish as if they were swimming. The number of successes rolled determines how many yards the demon can cover in linear travel. Each turn of movement requires a Strength + Athletics roll. If the roll fails, the demon is forced to surface.
System: Roll Strength + Survival. If successful, the Malefactor is bound to the earth and cannot be moved from that spot unless they wish so.
Roil the Earth: This evocation allows a Malefactor to cause the earth to give up it buried secrets. By concentrating on a particular kind of object (gold, iron, corpses), the earth roils and churns, forcing the objects of desire to the surface.
- High-Torment: The Fallen can use this lore to create a vortex that sucks objects below the surface. Demons or humans affected may attempt to dodge if they have an available action that turn. The target is buried a number of feet equal to the total number of successes rolled. Digging out of the tomb of dirt requires an extended Strength + Athletics roll (difficulty 8), rolled per minute. Until the victim gains more successes than you rolled, she remains buried and suffered damage in the same manner as if they were drowning.
System: Once determining what they're seeking, make a Strength + Survival roll. The number of successes rolled determines the radius in yards -- including depth -- from your character that is affected by the evocation. If the object or material is within that area, it is forced to the surface.
Mold Earth: A potent evocation that allows the Malefactor to cause the earth to mold and move itself according to her whim. With a sweep of a hand, a wall of earth or stone can leap from the ground to shelter her, or a buildings walls could flow away like melted wax, creating a door that wasn't there before.
- High-Torment: The material being manipulated becomes incredible toxic. Living beings making contact with it suffer one level of lethal damage per turn of exposure.
System: Roll Strength + Crafts. The difficulty is determined by the material.
- Unpacked dirt -- Difficulty 5
- Granite -- Difficulty 6
- Processed Materials (concrete) -- Difficulty 7
The number of successes rolled determines how many square feet of the material they can manipulate. The affected material can be directed to assume any shape or form the demon desires within those parameters. The material affected must be within a number of yards equal to the character's Faith, and changes imposed are permanent.
Earth Storm: This evocation causes clods of earth and shards of stone or concrete to tear free from the ground and form a whirling storm of deadly projectiles surrounding the Malefactor, providing protection from attacks and supplying the demon with missiles to hurl at foes.
- High-Torment: The barrage invoked is more akin to a sandstorm; flaying living beings alive and wearing inanimate objects away in moments. This version does not provide extra soak dice or ranged attacks, but inflicts lethal damage dice equal to the character's Torment to everything caught within the storm's radius, except the demon itself. Additionally, the swirling clouds of powdered dirt and stone serve to largely conceal the demon, increasing the difficulty of ranged attacks directed at them by one.
System: Spend one Faith point and roll Strength + Survival. The number of successes achieved forms a dice pool that is rolled as armor to soak damage from any attacks directed at the demon. The storm itself is centered on the Fallen, and it moves as they move. If the demon wishes, they can sacrifice a die from her pool during any given turn to hurl a fist-sized projectile of earth or stone at a target. As with any ranged attack, roll Dexterity + Athletics to hit the target, with bashing damage dice pool equal to the character's Faith score. The evocation's radius extends for a number of yards equal to the character's Faith score. Individuals caught within the radius are whipped by gusts of stinging grit, increasing the difficulty of any actions taken by one. The effects of the evocation last for the duration of the scene.
Earthquake: By focusing the power of her will, the Malefactor can stir the pent-up energies deep below the earth's surface and create a brief but powerful tremor that can reverberate across an entire city.
- High-Torment: This causes the earth to heave and spew toxic clouds that are thick with ash and reek of brimstone. In addition to the normal effects, the stinging air increases the difficulty of all Perception rolls made within the affected area by 2, and victims suffer one level of bashing damage each turn they are exposed to the fumes. The effects continue for a number of turns equal to the earthquake's intensity.
System: Spend one Faith point and roll Strength + Survival, and then allocate successes rolled between the intensity and extent of the tremor. The intensity of the tremor is added to the difficulty of any person's actions within the area and is used as a dice pool to determine damage to standing structures. A small wooden building like a shack has one or maybe two structure points, while a brick home might have as many as three or four. The difficulty for the damage roll is 6. If a building sustains more damage than it has points for, it collapses. The extent of the tremor determines its effective radius. One success causes the tremor to affect a number of square feet equal to the character's Faith score. Two successes affect a number of square yards. Three affect square miles. Therefore, a demon can cause an immense destruction on a small scale; significant destruction on a medium scale; or minor damage across a large scale. A tremor persists for one turn for each intensity point assigned.
Lore of Paths
Demon: The Fallen Rulebook, p. 189-190
- Visage: Antu
Find Path: Permits the Malefactor to determine if a path exists between itself and a destination that fits the criteria it requires. The path is visible to only the demon and anyone they touch, revealing itself as a faint, silver-blue line, like a ray of moonlight.
- High-Torment: Able to find paths just as their counterparts are, the difficulty is always set the equal to the demon's Torment.
System: After the criteria for the path is set, make a Perception + Survival roll. Number of successes required depends on the criteria set and the distance covered. Example: if your character wants to find a path through a stretch of impenetrable forest or swamp, you may need only one success. If you want a path through an open field that allows her to move unobserved, you may need two or more. A path that leads unharmed through a raging house fire might require three or more. If the roll fails, the path cannot be found.
Lay Path: The Malefactor doesn't have to look for a useful path. They can simply lay one to suit their needs, but it's not done spur of the moment.
- High-Torment: The taint of Torment becomes worked into the fabric of the tail and makes it unpredictable and dangerous. Rolls to traverse a path laid botch on 1 AND 2. A botched roll causes the traveler to exit the path at a random point along it, determined at random by the Storyteller -- a potentially fatal mishap if the path leads under a lake or through a mountain.
System: After determining the criteria of the path and the distance, make a Dexterity + Survival roll. The difficulty increases according to the complexity of the path. A shortcut that reduces travel time, allows the user to pass unobserved and is wide enough to permit multiple people to walk at once is very complex and could have a difficulty as high at 9 or 10. You must gain a number of successes equal to the length of the path in hundreds of yards. These successes can be gained through an extended action, but must be gathered over successive turns. Using the previous example, if the Malefactor wanted to lay such a path between two points 500 yards apart, you need five successes at difficulty 9 or 10. The path, once laid, is visible to only the Malefactor (though successful use of the Find Path evocation can detect it like any other path), and remains usable for a number of days equal to the character's permanent Faith score. The player can make the path permanent by expending a temporary Willpower.
Conceal Path:Paths, once formed, can be found and followed by any demon who has the eyes to look for them -- UNLESS they are camouflaged by the demon that made them.
- High-Torment: The hidden path is not as much concealed as it is trapped. When the evocation is performed, the successes rolled become automatic levels of bashing damage that are inflicted when any other being steps onto the path. The trap can be detected with a supernatural awareness roll (Perception + Awareness for demons), but it cannot be avoided or disarmed. Unlike the more benign form of concealment, this trap cannot be made permanent. It disappears after a number of day equal to the demon's Torment score.
System: Roll Perception + Survival. Any demon who attempts to find the path later must gain more successes than the Malefactor when searching for the hidden route. The concealment lasts for a number of days equal to the character's permanent Faith score, or it can be made permanent by the use of a temporary Willpower.
Close Path: This allows a Malefactor to seal both ends of a path, denying its use to both friend and foe until it's opened again. Paths closed in this way are often "locked" using special words that can then be used as a kind of key to allow specific individuals access to the path while restricting others.
- High-Torment: With Torment, the path is not closed, it is collapsed. Again, you must gain a number of successful rolls equal to the length the path covers in hundreds of yards and your character can make the effort as an extended action over a period of turns. If successful, the path collapses and is destroyed. If travelers are on the path at that time, the consequences are dire. The ST rolls Dexterity + Survival (Diff 8) for each person. If successful, that victim exits the path at a random point. If it fails, she is lost between the physical and spirit realm and begins to suffocate. The ST can continue to roll for a trapped victim each minute until they escape or are killed. If they die, their body does not return to the physical realm. It is lost.
System: Spend one Faith point and roll Dexterity + Survival. You must gain a number of successes equal to the length of the path in hundreds of yards, and the effort can be accomplished in an extended roll over a period of successive turns. If successful, the path is closed. If travelers walk the path at that time, they are trapped there until the demon chooses to open it again. You can spend a temporary Willpower point and for your character to create a keyword that other demons (and thralls) can use to unlock and travel the path. Paths closed with this power can be forced open with a successful Willpower roll, difficulty equal to the Willpower of the Malefactor at the time that he closed the path, and the roll must net a number of successes equal to the closer's Faith score at that time. Forcing a path open in this way can be done as an extended action performed over a period of turns.
Warp Path: This evocation allows a Malefactor to warp the nature of an existing pathway, altering one or many of its parameters. The path can be traveled in a shorter or longer period of time, it can lead travelers back to their point or origin, it can lead to a different destination entirely, or it can simply loop upon itself without end.
- High-Torment: Creates warped paths that prey upon the minds of travelers. In addition to any alterations made to the path itself, travelers crossing it must make a Willpower roll upon reaching their destination. If the roll fails, they gain a temporary derangement. If the roll botches, the derangement is permanent.
System: Spend one Faith point and roll Dexterity + Survival. If your character wishes to increase or decrease the time to travel the path, travel time is altered by a factor equal to the successes rolled. If she wants to change the destination of the path or cause it to loop back on itself, successes must equal the length of the path in hundreds of yards. The duration of the effect is a number of days equal to your character's Faith score, or it can be made permanent by expending a Willpower point.
Lore of the Forge
Demon: The Fallen Rulebook, p. 190-191
- Visage: Mummu
Enhance Object: The Fallen gains an innate understanding of an object and its intended function simply by running its hands over it or working its moving parts. What's more, she can repair damaged objects or improve the efficiency of an item.
- High-Torment: Objects repaired or enhanced by a Tormented demon are tainted by the demon's hatred, infusing them with a tendency to inflict misfortune and death. Botches become both 1's and 2's and weapons strike the user or someone close to her with a botch.
System: Roll Perception + Crafts. The difficulty is determined by the relative complexity of the object:
- A hammer -- Difficulty 5.
- A car -- Difficulty 8.
- High Tech (computers, etc) -- Difficulty 10.
A single success grants the demon an innate understanding of how the object is constructed and the way it works; they can operate it as though they possessed a basic familiarity with it. If the object is damaged, the demon can repair it with a single success. If the demon wants to improve the way it works, each success lowers the difficulty needed to use the device. This method of refinement can be done only once to any given item, and it normally lasts for the duration of the scene. The demon can make the effects permanent by expending one temporary Willpower.
Activate Object: A demon may cause mechanical objects to operate by sheer force of will. e.g. firing guns, opening locks, or making suits of armor walk.
- High-Torment: A machine affected will often break or goes wildly out of control, damaging or destroying itself in the process. When making the Stamina + Crafts roll to activate the object, also apply the number of successes rolled as damage levels to the object itself.
System: Roll Intelligence + Crafts, difficulty determined by the complexity.
- Opening a door -- Difficulty 5.
- Firing a pistol -- Difficulty 8.
This evocation only works on objects that operate by simple, mechanical means. Hinges move, levers operate, but hammers do not pick themselves up and start banging away at nails; an elevator's button could depress or a computer's power switch may turn on or off, but the inner workings of the computer's memory aren't affected. The character can affect a single object within a number of yards equal to their Faith score.
Shape Object: The Fallen may freely shape any kind of material as if it was clay or putty, or as if it was a naturally growing crystal; a wooden board can be worked into a model ship, a plate glass window into a delicate crown or a steel pipe into a razor-edged sword all by the Malefactor's hands.
- High-Torment: The objects created become dangerous and unpredictable, equally capable of inflicting tragedy as they are of functioning as designed. Objects will botch on a 1 or a 2 and the wielder or someone close to him will suffer the consequences.
System: Roll Dexterity + Crafts. You must gain a number of successes depending on the complexity of the item your character wishes to create.
- Hammer -- One success.
- Clock -- Five or more successes.
These successes can be gained through an extended action, allowing the character to work on an item, set it down, then come back to it later in the day or week. The difficulty to create sophisticated machines, such as internal combustion engines or electrical generators is 9 and could require 10 or more successes to complete. High-tech items like computers pose a difficulty 10 and could require as many as 15 successes or more to complete. Items created exist permanently unless destroyed.
Enchant Object: Most associated with the Angels of the earth: The ability to infuse objects with supernatural qualities that can make ordinary mortals into heroes--or monsters. Many such objects are specifically created for that purpose, but Malefactors are also adept at taking pre-existing items and infusing them with frightening new capabilities. The Fallen combines several Lore effects to create a unique magical object called a relic. There is very little that cannot be accomplished as long as the Annunaki knows the required Lore, and as long as the material is sufficiently well attuned to contain the energies. With the use of Anchor the Soul as part of the enchantment process, objects can even be given a consciousness by incorporating a mortal or demonic soul.
- High-Torment: The object is cursed and causes madness or torment by consuming the souls of their owners and wreaking misery to those close to them. A cursed object botches on 1 or 2, and the consequences of a mishap are always directed at the wielder or friends and loved ones who happen to be nearby. Further, instead of making a dice roll to activate the object, mortals (including thralls!) lose one point of Willpower with every use, and demons fain a point of temporary Torment.
System: Creating an enchanted item is a laborious and expensive process, requiring substantial investments of time and energy. If the Malefactor creates the object intended for enchantment, the difficulty is a 6. If she works with an existing object, the difficulty is 8. To enchant an item the demon must first possess a lore path that evokes the investiture in question. Example: If the demon wants to create a mirror that shows an illusion of perfect beautify to whoever looks at it, she needs to possess at least one dot in the Lore of Light--the path governing illusions. More complex effects could conceivably require a combination of pertinent lore. If the demon wants the mirror to sense a mortal's deepest desire and present an illusion of it, he would need some measure of Lore of Light, and Lore of Humanity. Enchanted items draw upon the wielder's inherent belief to perform their functions. Mortals (including thralls) require a successful Willpower roll (Difficulty 8) to access the object's abilities, while demons require a successful Faith roll (Difficulty 6). This roll must be made each time the item is used. If either roll botches, the character loses one point of the relevant trait. Alternatively, characters can attune an object to them and create a permanent link that keeps the item energized at all times. Attuning an item costs one point of permanent Willpower (for mortals/thralls) and one point of permanent Faith for demons. Once attuned, the character can use the device at will without requiring a dice roll to activate it. If the demon possesses the required knowledge, make an extended Dexterity + Crafts roll and expend a Faith point. The number of successes required depends on the power and scope of the enchantment. A simple creation like a knife that never loses its edge requires one success. A key that opens any lock requires five. A magic mirror that shows a mortal attaining her deepest desire requires 10. If a creation roll botches, the item is destroyed. This evocation cannot be used on high-tech items like computers or electronic hardware.
Imbue Object: While the ability to enchant objects made the Annunaki much sought after, this evocation made them equally feared as well, allowing a Malefactor to bind a soul -- mortal or demon -- into a specially prepared reliquary or object. This power is always permanent, and it works on the souls of mortals and on the souls of Fallen, but only the Fallen can make full use of their abilities in their new sanctuary, effectively becoming instant Earthbound. Mortal souls drift in darkness, and even wraiths cannot use their abilities any more.
- High-Torment: The soul bound to the object becomes twisted by the Malefactor's Torment, becoming maddened, malevolent entities. Mortal souls bound in this fashion suffer a permanent derangement, determined by the ST. Fallen bound have their permanent Torment increased by the number of successes generated by the Stamina + Crafts roll used to anchor them.
System: The Fallen must prepare a suitable vessel to hold the spirit in question. This vessel must be made of natural materials and be shaped by hand. If the demon made the vessel itself, the difficulty is 6. Otherwise, it's 8. With this vessel in hand, your character can use this evocation on any disinterred spirit (like a demon stripped of its host or a ghost) within a number of yards equal to their Faith. Spend on Faith point and roll Stamina + Crafts in a resisted roll versus the target's Willpower. If your effort is successful, the spirit is bound into the vessel. Mortal souls bound this way cannot interact with the physical world. Demons, on the other hand, can still use their inherent powers and their lore paths, provided they have available Faith. (Any existing pacts with mortal thralls remain in effect). the only way to free a soul thus bound is to destroy the vessel that contains it.
Fiend
Lore of Patterns
Demon: The Fallen Rulebook, p. 192-194
- Visage: Ninsun
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.
- High-Torment: Monstrous demons are able to use this evocation to search only for impending events of violence and destruction.
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 how. 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.
Trace Pattern: A Neberu can trace the causes of an event with great accuracy. 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.
- High-Torment: Monstrous Fiends can attempt to trace the pattern they wish, but they can focus on only sources of violence or injury that pertain to the event.
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.
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.
- Torment: The duration of the high-Torment version of this evocation is a single turn, 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.
System: Roll Wits + Intuition. The evocation takes the 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 the Initiative order, you can interject your character's action at any point during the turn.
Causal Influence: A Fiend can use this powerful evocation to gain insight into events up to several days in 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 the information only; it's up to her (or her pawns) to shift fate in her favor.
- High-Torment: 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.
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 infiltrate 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 and affect the outcome according to her desires. 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.
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.
- High-Torment: The Fallen may 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.
System: Spend one Faith point and roll Stamina + Intuition. The difficulty is determined by the effect the Fiend wishes to achieve.
- Speed time up (everything within the bubble moves faster than the world around it)--Difficulty 7.
- Slow time (everything within the bubble moves slower than the world around it)--Difficulty 8.
- Stop time (the outside world freezes in relation to the bubble)--Difficulty 9.
The number of successes determines how many turns the evocations 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 not 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 does not move.
Lore of Light
Demon: The Fallen Rulebook, p. 196-198
- Visage: Shamash
Light:This simple evocation allows a demon to fill an area with pale silvery light, akin to moonlight. The light seems to emanate from the area's surroundings, allowing individuals to move and act in the illuminated area without penalty. This evocation also has a more tactical application, permitting the demon to stun or disorient opponents with intense, blinding flashes.
- High-Torment: Monstrous demons fill their surroundings with inky, suffocating darkness, affecting an area as above. They can move unhindered through this darkness. Other individuals within the area of effect are effectively blind.
System: Roll Stamina + Science. The evocation illuminates one cubic yard per success rolled, centered on the character. The light persists for a number of turns equal to the demon's Faith score. When used tactically, the intense flashes of light can be focused in a single direction. Any individuals, friend or foe, who look in that direction at the time of the flash suffer a number of levels of bashing damage equal to the successes rolled. Flashes of light only appear for only a turn.
Bend Light:By exerting her will and manipulating the properties of light, the Fiend can bend waves around her body instead of reflecting them, giving her a powerful form of camouflage.
- High-Torment: Monstrous demons do not bend light so much as they distort it into crazed, eye-straining patterns. The number of successes rolled increases the difficulties of all attacks directed against the demon, ranged or otherwise, but do not affect others' Perception rolls.
System: Roll Stamina + Science. The number of successes gained increases the difficulties of any Perception rolls or ranged attacks directed at the character for the rest of the scene. Melee attacks are resolved as normal. Other demons and thralls with the capability are able to resist the effects of these illusions thanks to their inherent powers.
Phantasm:This evocation allows a Fiend to create ghostly images that perform a rote set of actions as directed by the creator.
- High-Torment: A monstrous demon's phantasms, no matter how simple or apparently benign they are, remain subtly disturbing, even on a subconscious level. A Willpower roll (difficulty 8) is made for individuals viewing one of these illusions. If a roll fails, the individual flees the area. If the roll botches, the individual flees and gains a temporary derangement.
System: Roll Intelligence + Performance --- the difficulty is determined by the complexity of the illusory form created. A single, ghostly individual is difficulty 6, while a whole scene with various individuals is 8 or more. The number of successes generated determines how many actions the demon can program the image to perform. Once the image and actions are set, a loop is created that runs when the demon wishes, and that persists for a number of days equal to the character's Faith score. Other demons and thrall with the capability are able to resist the effects of these illusion thanks to their inherent powers.
Illusion: This evocation is a refinement of Phantasm, allowing the demon to create images that seem completely real until touched. What's more, the demon is capable of directing her illusions and altering their appearance on the fly.
- High-Torment: A monstrous demon's illusions are overtly unsettling, reflecting the demon's inner corruption in subtle but frightening ways. A Willpower roll (difficulty 9) must be made for individuals who witness these illusions. If a roll fails, a victim flees from the sight of the illusion. If the roll botches, he gains a temporary derangement.
System: Spend one Faith point and roll Intelligence + Expression. The difficulty of the roll is determined by the complexity of the illusion the demon wishes to create. Creating the illusion of a static object such as a table is 6. A simple but more mobile object such as a thrown rock is difficulty 7. Living beings have a difficulty of 8 or higher depending on the level of detail. The successes rolled form a dice pool that is rolled thereafter to direct actions of the illusion (e.g., to stage an "attack" on someone, to leap from one building to another) or alter its appearance. If a roll to direct or alter an illusion botches, the image disappears. Illusions created in this way cannot speak, and the Fiend must maintain a line of sight with a creation at all times or the illusion disappears. A Fiend can maintain multiple illusions at the same time equal to her Faith score, but the dice pool to control each illusion is reduced by one extra image created after the first, to a minimum of one die per illusion. The effects of this evocation last for the duration of the scene. Other demons and thralls with the capability are able to resist the effects of these illusions thanks to their inherent powers.
Coherent Light: The pinnacle of this lore path allows a Fiend to compress light to the degree that it assumes a degree of physical solidity, allowing her constructs to interact almost seamlessly with the physical world. Like Illusion, the images created by this evocation can be controlled directly by the demon, and its appearance can be altered from moment to moment.
- High-Torment: The constructs fashioned by a monstrous demon are shaped in part by her hatred and despair, and unless they are controlled carefully, the illusions act on their own lashing out destructively at their surroundings. A Willpower roll must be made each turn for each construct, with the difficulty equal to the Fiend's Torment score. If a roll fails, an illusion attacks the nearest living being (save the Fiend herself) using its full dice pool. Note that the Fiend doesn't have to exert control over her constructs --- she can simply create them and turn them loose on her enemies if she wishes, leaving her mind free for other tasks.
System: Spend one Faith point and roll Intelligence + Expression. The difficulty of the roll is determined by the complexity of the illusion that your character wishes to create. A table is difficulty 6, a dog is 7, and a human is 8 or more. The successes rolled form a dice pool that is rolled thereafter to direct the actions of a construct or alter its appearance. Illusions created in this way cannot speak, and the Fiend must maintain a line of sight with the image at all times or the illusion disappears. If a construct is attacked or would otherwise suffer one health level of damage (bashing or lethal), the creation vanishes. A Fiend can maintain a number of illusions equal to her Faith score at the same time, but the dice pool to control each illusion is reduced by one for each extra image created after the first, to a minimum of one die per illusion. The effects of this evocation last for a number of turns equal to the character's Faith score. other demons and thralls with the capability are able to resist the effects of these illusions thanks to their inherent powers.
Lore of Portals
Demon: The Fallen Rulebook, p. 194-196
- Visage: Nedu
Open/Close Portals:This evocation gives a Fiend complete control of the portals she encounters. Doors and windows unlock, open or close at her command.
- High-Torment: Monstrous demons do not open or close portals so much as they smash them open or jam them shut. When a high-Torment demon affects a portal with this evocation, the number of successes rolled is also applied as Strength points to the portal in question, doing damage to materials as if performing a feat of Strength.
System: Roll Manipulation + Intuition. The number of successes required is determined by the complexity of the portal and its attendant locking mechanisms. A simple residence requires one success, while a prison cell door might require as many as three. If successful, the portal unlocks and opens or closes and locks at the character's touch.
Create Ward:This evocation allows the Fiend to seal off the portals in an area. making it inviolable to outside forces.
- High-Torment: Monstrous demons are capable of creating of wards, but their energies do not restrict invaders so much as they inflict pain on those who attempt to enter a protected space. When an intruder crosses a warded portal, he suffers a number of bashing levels of damage equal to the successes you achieved on your roll. This damage may be soaked, but the difficulty of the Stamina roll is equal to your character's Torment.
System: The character must be inside the area she wishes to seal with this evocation. Roll Charisma + Intuition. If successful, all the entrances to a given area become impassable. Even open doorways become clouded with wisps of fog, and what feels like a solid barrier of air prevents anything from passing through. Once sealed, the area cannot be entered, even through the use of another lore (such as Paths or Realms). To penetrate the ward, an intruder must exceed the number of successes you achieved, rolling against a difficulty equal to your character's Willpower. The area remains sealed for the remainder of the scene.
Teleport:This evocation allows a Fiend to use an existing portal to transport herself instantly to a similar portal at another location, potentially hundreds of miles away.
- High-Torment: Monstrous demons performing this evocation are severely hampered by their lack of focus. If the evocation is successful, a Willpower roll must be made with a difficulty equal to the Fiend's Torment. if the roll fails, the Fiend is transported to a random (but familiar) location as determined by the Storyteller.
System: Roll Intelligence + Intuition. The number of successes required depends on your character's familiarity with her destruction. If it is somewhere with which she is intimately familiar, such as a doorway in her own home, only one success is required. If it is somewhere she has visited frequently, two successes are necessary. if the destination is somewhere that the Fiend has only recently visited for the first time, three successes are required. The demon must have visited her destination at least once before to be able to travel there with this evocation, and there must be a portal there identical to the type she enters. If she steps through a doorway, there must be a doorway at her destination. The Fiend can travel up to 100 miles for each point of Faith she has. Therefore, a Fiend with 10 Faith could travel up to a thousand miles away.
Co-Locate: Akin to Teleport, this evocation allows a Fiend to use a doorway to tie two locations together for a short time, allowing others to pass through from one place to another.
- High-Torment: Monstrous demons can create co-locations, but those passing through are momentarily exposed to the demon's Torment, and risk severe psychological trauma or madness as a result. A Willpower roll must be made for individuals passing through the portal, the difficulty of which equals the Fiend's Torment. If a roll fails a victim gains a temporary derangement.
System: Spend one Faith point and roll Stamina + Intuition. The difficulty is determined by your character's familiarity with the location she wishes to reach. If she is intimately familiar with the location, the difficulty is 6. If it's a location she has visited numerous times, the difficulty is 7. If she's been there only once, it's 8. If she's never been there before and goes merely by the guidance of another, the difficulty is 9. The doorway remains open for one turn per success achieved. Like Teleport, the demon must use an existing portal (doorway, window, manhole) to cross between two locations. As many others can cross through (or back again) as may walk through the portal in the time that is available. The Fiend can travel up to 100 miles for each point of Faith she has.
Doorway into Darkness: This powerful evocation allows a demon to create a doorway into the shadowy space between the physical and spirit realms --- a dark, lifeless reflection of the world. Demons can cross over into this bleak realm for a short time or hide items from prying eyes and then retrieve them later.
- High-Torment: When a monstrous demon open a portal to the shadow lands, she risks losing focus and allowing some of the energies from beyond to slip into the physical realm. If the evocation succeeds, make a Willpower roll with the difficulty equal to the Fiend's Torment. If the roll fails, the winds of the cosmic storm seep through, causing all Mortals in the immediate area to make a Willpower roll (difficulty 8). If their rolls fail, they flee in terror. If a botch results, the victims suffer a temporary derangement.
System: Spend one faith point and roll Stamina + Awareness. The evocation requires a portal --- door or window --- to form the threshold between realms, and the opening remains for only one turn. Individuals who pass bodily through find themselves in a bleak, desolate mirror image of the physical world, one wracked by howling winds that wear away at living minds. Mortals who cross over into this realm lose one Willpower point for each turn that they are there. Once their Willpower is gone, they gain a temporary derangement and suffer one level of bashing damage per turn that may not be soaked. Demons can remain in this shadow realm for a number of turns equal to their Faith score without ill effects. After that point, they begin to suffer bashing damage as well. This evocation must be performed again to open a doorway that allows a Fiend or another to return to the physical realm. Such a "return" opening can be created on either side.
Defiler
Lore of Longing
Demon: The Fallen Rulebook, p. 198-199
- Visage: Ishhara
Read Emotion: This evocation allows the Defiler to draw a person's deep-seated emotions to the surface, allowing a demon to gain greater insight into the subject's thoughts and desires by studying her body language and expressions. The victim is completely unaware that she is being "studied" in this way. To her, it is as if the Defiler is reading her mind.
- High-Torment: Monstrous demons are more adept at drawing out a victim's dark nature and fueling it in the process. The subject comes away form an exchange entertaining thoughts she hadn't dare contemplate before. A resisted Willpower roll is made for mortals targeted by the high-Torment effect of this evocation, with the difficulty equal to the Defiler's Torment score. If the roll fails, the mortal is driven to act on her darkest desires (making her boss pay for all the years of verbal abuse, for example, or entertaining the affair with a co-worker she's resisted for so long). The effects of this evocation last a number of days equal to the Defiler's Faith score.
System: This evocation works on only one mortal at a time. Roll Perception + Empathy. Each success is a bonus die added to all Social rolls directed at the mortal for the duration of the scene, or until the demon switches her attention to a new victim.
Empathetic Response: This evocation permits the demon to read a subject's emotions and desires and react to them without thinking, molding her behavior to conform perfectly to the subject's expectations. The subject thinks the demon is everything she expected or dreamed of, banishing any suspicion, hesitation or fear.
- High-Torment: Monstrous demons use this evocation to inspire fear instead of affection. They mold their behavior to speak to a victim's worst fears, becoming the type of person that the mortal dreads most. If your successes equal or exceed the target's Wits, the mortal is completely intimidated by your Defiler. She takes no action against your character, and she leaves the area if at all possible. Any Intimidation rolls directed at the target are resolved with a difficulty of 4.
System: Roll Manipulation + Empathy. If your total successes equal or exceed a mortal's Wits score, the mortal reacts to your character with complete trust, obeying any reasonable request your character makes. This evocation can be directed at only a single individual at a time. The effects last for the duration of the scene or until your demon turns his attention to a new victim.
Manipulate Senses: With a touch, a Defiler can manipulate a person's nerves, enhancing perceptions and heightening sensation. The effect can be as broad or as subtle as the demon wishes, and the effects are often addictive unless the victim possesses a will of iron.
- High-Torment: Monstrous demons use this evocation to inflict searing agony or to warp the awareness of their victims. Subtract the total number of successes achieved from the victim's Perception dice pools for a number of turns equal to the Defiler's Faith score.
System: The Defiler must be able to touch her intended target to use this evocation. Roll Intelligence + Intuition. Each success adds one bonus die to the target's Perception rolls, but by the same token, all wound penalties the target suffers are similarly increased. Demons can resist the effects of this evocation if they wish by making a resisted Willpower roll (difficulty 7). The effects of this evocation last for a number of turns equal to the Defiler's Faith score. After the effects of the evocation wear off, a Willpower roll must be made for the target. If it fails, take the number of bonus dice the evocation generated and apply them as a penalty to all the mortal's Perception rolls for the remainder of the scene. If the roll botches, this penalty is permanent. In the case of a botch, the victim is addicted to the thrill of the evocation and can regain full use of her senses only by receiving the power's effects again.
Obsession: This evocation allows a demon to take one of a subject's interests or desires and heighten its allure to the point that the victim can think of nothing else. This obsession can be about a person, an idea or a project. During the War of Wrath, many Defilers used their wiles to become objects of desire to mortals, and then used this evocation to create legions of fanatically loyal followers.
- 'High-Torment: Monstrous demons use this evocation to make a victim psychotically obsessive, removing all inhibitions and exaggerating the victim's need to the point of physical pain. The victim does anything within his power to fulfill his desire, no matter how destructive or dangerous it is. Failing to do so reduces all dice pools by one until the subject can make a constructive effort toward his goal.
System: To enact this evocation, the demon must first know one of her victim's long-held interests or desires and be within a number of yards of the subject equal to her Faith rating. Spend one Faith point and roll Manipulation + Empathy. The mortal can attempt to resist the evocation's effects with a Willpower roll (difficulty 8). If your roll succeeds, the mortal's desire becomes a source of obsession. He knows no peace unless he takes reasonable steps make his desire a reality. A willpower roll (difficulty 7) is made for him to undertake any action that strays from his obsession, and he is not able to eat or sleep until his desire is fulfilled. This evocation lasts for a number of days equal to the Defiler's Faith score, or until the mortal succeeds in sating his obsession, whichever comes first.
Inspire: This potent evocation literally expands a subject's consciousness, permitting him to achieve heights of insight and awareness that border on the inhuman. The subject is able to draw upon the fullness of his mental potential, but when the power fades, the return to reality can be a blow for the person's sense of self-worth.
- High-Torment: Monstrous demons use this evocation in a similar fashion, but they push the victim over the edge from genius to madness, creating talented but dangerous lunatics. The high-Torment effect of this evocation provides bonus points to Mental or Social Traits and causes a temporary derangement. If the subsequent Willpower fails, the mortal loses a Willpower point permanently and the derangement becomes permanent.
System: Spend one Faith point and roll Intelligence + Medicine. Each success allows you to add a point to a mortal's Mental or Social Traits, up to a five-point maximum. These bonus points persist for a number of days equal to the Defiler's Faith score. When the effects of the evocation wears off, however, the mortal loses one point of Willpower permanently unless a successful Willpower roll is made (difficulty 7).
Lore of Storms
Demon: The Fallen Rulebook, p. 200-201
- Visage: Adad
Summon Water:The demon can summon water from any nearby source, causing anything from a sudden concealing fog to a torrential flash flood.
- High-Torment: The water that a monstrous demon summons is slimy and foul, spreading sickness and disease. Victims exposed to this polluted water risk developing deadly diseases that manifest within days or weeks. Mortals and demons exposed to this water for more than one turn risk becoming infected unless a Stamina roll is made, with the difficulty equal to the Defiler's Torment. Also use the Defiler's Torment to gauge the relative virulence of any diseases. A Torment score of 7 inflicts a minor disease that might lower the character's dice pools, while a Torment of 10 imposes a lethal (and possibly highly contagious) disease that inflicts lethal damage.
System: Roll Stamina + Survival. The number of successes required depends on the amount of water the Defiler wishes to summon. If the demon wants to call up a thick fog (increasing the difficulty of all Perception rolls by two), one success is sufficient. If she wants to douse the area with a sudden shower, two successes is required. If she wants a torrent of water, three successes are necessary. A raging flood demands four successes or more. Individuals caught in such a torrent or flood suffer the effects of drowning unless a successful Dexterity + Athletics (difficulty 8) roll is made. There has to be a water source of some kind within Faith in yards, no matter how small, for this evocation to work. The effects of this evocation continue for a number of turns equal to the character's Faith score.
Water Form: This evocation allows the Defiler to transform her physical body into water, either as a liquid or a mist.
- High-Torment: The water form of a monstrous demon is polluted by its Torment, and contact with it causes chemical burns. For each turn that a victim is exposed to the Defiler's "body," she suffers one health level of lethal damage.
System: Roll Stamina + Medicine. Once transformed, the character leaves her clothes and possessions behind. She can travel anywhere water or air can reach while in water or mist form, and she is immune to any damage. The Defiler can remain in this form for a number of turns equal to her Faith score.
Manipulate Weather: This evocation allows the Defiler to nudge existing weather patterns, pushing away storm fronts or drawing them to her with surprising speed, and alternating the local temperatures.
- High-Torment: Monstrous demons increase the intensity of local weather patterns rather than alter their course, turning a spring shower into a raging tornado or a light snowfall into a blizzard.
System: Roll Intelligence + Science. The number of successes achieved determines the severity of the weather pattern that the Defiler can manipulate. Affecting a minor rainstorm requires only one success, while affecting a thunderstorm requires two. Major storms require three successes to manipulate, and truly powerful phenomena such as tornadoes or hurricanes require four or more. Alternatively, the Defiler can raise or lower the temperature in her area by a degree per success rolled. This evocation affects an area with a radius in miles equal to the demon's Faith score. Note that all weather manipulated must be present. This power cannot spontaneously create new weather effects.
Command the Storm: A Defiler can use this evocation to create weather patterns at will, conjuring a storm out of thin air or banishing a hurricane with a wave of her hand.
- High-Torment: Monstrous demons can command the weather with equal ease, but their effects are always inimical. Storms bring damaging wind, hail and lighting. Even creating clear skies can invoke extreme temperature changes or suffocating humidity.
System: Spend one Faith and roll Intelligence + Science. The difficulty is determined by the environment and the type of weather the Defiler wishes to create. Calling up a thunderstorm near the ocean is difficulty 6. Creating one in the middle of the Arizona desert is difficult 9. Banishing existing weather patterns is resolved with a difficulty of 7. The number of successes rolled determines the intensity of the weather pattern that the Defiler can create or calm. A rain shower or a light snowfall requires only one success, while a tornado or a massive hurricane requires four or more. This evocation affects an area with a radius in miles equal to the demon's Faith score. Once summoned, the weather effect runs its natural course unless affected by additional evocations.
Invoke the Storm: The Defiler can surround herself with a raging storm at will, creating wind, water and lightning in an area as small as a room or as large as a city block. The heart of the storm is centered on the demon, and it moves as she moves. It causes her no harm, though.
- High-Torment: Monstrous Defilers raise storms that lash out indiscriminately at any living being caught in the area, punishing them with fierce winds and lightning. Each turn, roll a single die (difficulty 9) for each person within the storm's radius. If a roll is successful, someone is struck with a bolt of lightning. Furthermore, the buffeting winds increase the difficulties of all subjects' actions by two.
System: Spend one Faith point and roll Stamina + Survival. The difficulty is determined by the environment the Defiler is in. Conjuring a storm outside, with rain clouds overhead, is difficulty 6. Conjuring a storm in the air-conditioned environment of an office is difficulty 9. The successes form a dice pool that you roll while your character directs the effect of the storm. If she wishes to use wind to knock someone down or blow open doors and windows, roll this dice pool in lieu of Strength. If she wants to fire lightning at a target, roll the pool at against a difficulty of 9. Each success generates one lightning bolt that strikes the target automatically and imposes a number of lethal damage dice equal to the Defiler's Torment score. The storm affects an area with a radius in yards equal to the character's Faith score and lasts for an equal number of turns unless banished.
Lore of Transfiguration
Demon: The Fallen Rulebook, p. 202-203
- Visage: Mammetum
Mimic: This evocation allows the Defiler to assume the exact mannerisms and vocal patterns of a subject, allowing her to disguise herself enough to fool a distant observer.
- High-Torment: Monstrous demons can mimic the voice and mannerisms of others, but their Torment invariably bleeds through the disguise and unsettles any witnesses, inspiring feelings of discomfort and paranoia. Roll Willpower for someone who encounters the disguised demon, with a difficulty equal to the Defiler's Torment. If the roll fails, the mortal is so unsettled by the Defiler's presence the she flees the demon's presence.
System: This evocation requires the Defiler to have spent at least an hour in close company with the individual she seeks to mimic. Roll Manipulation + Performance in a resisted roll against another person's Perception + Alertness. If you get more successes, the target believes that the Defiler is the person she attempts to mimic. Encountering someone who has never met the mimicked subject succeeds automatically. The effects of this evocation last for a number of turns equal to the character's Faith score. There is no illusion at work here --- your character's body actually changes --- so other demons may be fooled with this power.
Alter Appearance: The Defiler can use this evocation to alter cosmetic features of herself or others. She can change eye color, hair color, skin color and remove scars.
- High-Torment: Monstrous demons can alter the features of themselves or others almost, but unless they maintain strict control, their Torment can cause disturbing deformities. When your character performs this evocation successfully, make a Willpower roll with a difficulty equal to his Torment. If the roll fails, he or his subject suffers a subtle but unsettling deformity. The difficulties of all Social rolls increase by two due to this deformity.
System: Roll Charisma + Subterfuge. The Defiler can alter one cosmetic feature per success rolled. The alteration remain for a number of turns equal to the Defiler's Faith score, or they can be made permanent by the expenditure of one Willpower point. Your character must touch a subject if another being is changed. There is no illusion at work here --- your character's body or that of another actually changes --- so other demons may be fooled with this power.
Alter Shape: The Defiler can alter his own physical shape and dimensions, increasing or decreasing height, weight, shoulder width and girth.
- Torment: Monstrous demons are capable of performing the same evocation, but the potential exists for deformities to warp their appearance. When your character performs this evocation successfully, roll Willpower against a difficulty equal to his Torment. If the roll fails, the Defiler suffers a crippling deformity and losing one point from a Physical Attribute for the duration of the evocation. You choose which Attribute is affected.
System: Roll Charisma + Subterfuge. The Defiler can alter one physical feature per success rolled. Alterations persist for a number of turns equal to the Defiler's Faith score, can be dismissed permanently or can be made permanent by the expenditure of one Willpower point. There is no illusion at work here --- your character's body actually changes --- so other demons may be fooled with this power.
Doppelganger: This evocation allows the Defiler to alter her appearance completely, based on the expectations of her victim. She assumes the form of the person that the victim expects or wants to see.
- High-Torment: When monstrous Defilers perform this evocation, the result is a dark, sinister version of the victim's expectations. The difficulties of all Social rolls to manipulate the subject decrease by two as any inappropriate feelings or urges that the onlooker has toward the demon may be indulged.
System: Spend one Faith point and roll Manipulation + Empathy. The roll is resisted by the target's Willpower (difficulty 8). If your roll succeeds, your character assumes the physical form, voice and mannerisms of a person whom the victim expects to see within the context of the scene. If you wish, your demon can dig deeper into the victim's memories and assume the form of a specific individual for whom that the victim has strong feelings, but doing so increases the difficulty of your roll to 8. If your character attempts to use this evocation on a group of individuals, assuming a form that all of them might expect to see in a given situation, the difficulty increases to 9. The effects of this evocation last for a number of turns equal to your character's Faith score, unless terminated prematurely. There is no illusion at work here --- your character's body actually changes --- so other demons may be fooled with this power.
Shapechange: This evocation gives the Defiler complete mastery over the physical features of herself or others. She can transform herself or someone else into the apex of human beauty. She can also condemn those who displease her to a nightmare of twisted flesh.
- High-Torment: Monstrous demons must exercise careful control when performing this evocation, or they risk creating a reflection of their Torment instead. If the evocation is performed successfully, make a Willpower roll with the difficulty equal to your character's Torment. If the roll fails, the subject assumes the form of a hideous monster. Mortals who witness this nightmarish figure flee in terror without a successful Willpower roll (difficulty 8). If a Willpower roll botches, the witness suffers a temporary derangement.
System: Spend one Faith point and roll Intelligence + Medicine. Your character must touch a subject. A resisted Willpower roll (difficulty 8) is made for a target who refuses the change. If your roll succeeds, your character can alter her (or another's) physical appearance to anything she wishes. If she wants to alter another person's appearance to meet their own specific desires (as opposed to a willing subject's), the difficulty increases to 7. The Appearance Attribute is increased or decreased by one per success achieved in your roll, within the limits of 5 and zero for a mortal. Your character's or a subject's other Attributes and Abilities remain the same, no matter what shape is assumed. The effects of this evocation last for a number of turns equal to your Defiler's Faith score, or they can be made permanent by expending one temporary Willpower point. There is no illusion at work here --- the body actually changes --- so other demons may be fooled with this power.
Devourer
Lore of Beast
Demon: The Fallen Rulebook, p. 204-205
- Visage: Zaltu
Summon Animals: This evocation allows the Devourer to detect the presence of animal life in the surrounding area and to summon those creatures to his side. These animals instinctively protect the demon.
- High-Torment: Monsterous demons can summon only carnivorous animals, their Torment driving the creatures into a murderous frenzy. A Willpower roll must be made each turn with a difficulty equal to the Devourer's Torment. If the roll fails, the animals turn on the nearest human or demon, including the Devourer himself. The Devourer can attempt to regain control of frenzied animals with another Willpower roll in a subsequent turn.
System: Roll Perception+Animal Ken. If the roll succeeds, your character gets a detailed sense of the animal life in the area, from insects to mammals. The Devourer's awareness extends in a radius in miles equal to their Faith score. Armed with this knowledge, the Devourer can choose which animals of a single type she wishes to summon, up to the number of successes rolled. If the Devourer wishes to summon a swarm of vermin or insects, instead, the number of successes rolled determines the number of square yards that the swarm covers. These animals flock to the Devourer's side as quickly as possible and circle her protectively, attacking anyone who threatens. The effect of this evocation lasts for the duration of the scene or until the demon releases the animals.
Command Animals: This evocation extends the Devourer's influence over the beasts of the earth, allowing her to command one or more animals to do her bidding.
- High-Torment: Demons can only command carnivorous animals, and the weight of the demon's Torment makes them murderously aggressive. Unless they are in the Devourer's presence, they attack any mortal or demon they encounter if they fail an Intelligence roll (difficulty 7).
System: Roll Manipulation+Animal Ken. The Devourer can command a number of animals equal to the number of successes. The animals must be in her presence already for this power to work. The evocation enhances the intelligence of the animals. Assume that they have an effective Intelligence of 1, though exceptional breeds may have ratings of 2 at the Storyteller's discretion. The demon does not have to speak to the animals in order to issue a command. Instead, she imparts her desires by placing them directly in the animal's mind. The effects of the evocation lasts for a single day.
Possess Animals: The demon is capable of possessing one or more animals and acting through them as an extension of their own will. During the War of Wrath, many Devourers went to war possessing entire packs of terrible beasts that wrought havoc among the Host's human allies.
- High-Torment: Monsterous demons can possess only carnivores and they must exercise iron will to avoid losing themselves to the fermal nature of the animal host. Make a Willpower roll each turn, with a difficulty equal to your Torment. If it fails, the demon succumbs to the animals' instincts. Its mind is subsumed completely into their will, and control of the character (and animals) passes to the Storyteller until the evocation expires. If the roll botches, the evocation expires and the demon takes on the nature and instincts of the animals, becoming feral in her own behavior.
Animal Form: The Devourer can take the form of any animal whose blood or flesh they have tasted. Conservation of mass does not apply, so a 95 pound woman can absolutely become an 800 pound tiger if the demon so desires.
- High-Torment: Monsterous demons must exercise iron will to avoid losing themselves to the feral nature of the creatures they become. Make a Willpower roll each turn, with a difficulty equal to the Devourer's Torment. If the roll fails, the demon succumbs to the feral instincts of the animal form it's assumed, and control of the character passes to the Storyteller until the evocation expires.
System: Spend one Faith point and roll Stamina+Animal Ken. If successful, the transformation takes a single turn. The effects of this evocation last for the duration of the scene, unless intentionally terminated prematurely.
Create Chimera: The demon is capable of manipulating an animal's physical body, enhancing its capabilities or mutate it into a hideous, fantastic creature that combines characteristics of numerous different animals.
- High-Torment: Monstrous demons invariably infuse their creations with the taint of their own Torment, creating pain-maddened, murderous beasts. No Willpower roll is necessary to determine the mental state of these creatures. They are invariably deranged, rabid beasts that exist only to kill and maim the living.
System: Spend one Faith point and roll Intelligence + Animal Ken. Each success allows the Devourer to add one point to a specific trait, or to alter a specific feature of the animal's physical form. The laws of physics and the conservation of mass do not apply, so if the Devourer wants to make a winged tiger, she can. Too much change too fast can put a tremendous strain on the animal's psyche, though. Total up the number of trait points and alterations that have been added to the animal and make a Willpower roll for your character. If you get more successes than the total number of modifications applied, the animal comes through the process unharmed. If the roll fails, the animal becomes dangerously unstable. The Storyteller determines the specifics of the animal's altered behavior, and in the interests of creating tension can make the Willpower roll on your behalf, keeping the result secret until the animal's true nature manifests. The effects of this evocation last for a number of days equal to your character's Faith score, or can be made permanent with the expenditure of one Willpower point.
Lore of Flesh
Demon: The Fallen Rulebook, p. 207-209
- Visage: Aruru
Body Control: This evocation allows the Devourer to alter the body chemistry of her host body and others. She can purge poisons (both natural and manmade) and increase or reduce metabolism.
- High-Torment: Monstrous demons use a brute-force approach when performing this evocation, putting a terrible strain on a subject.
System: Roll Intelligence + Medicine. The difficulty depends on the complexity of the metabolic change.
- Purging the body of fatigue poisons is difficulty 6.
- Forcing alcohol out of a person's system is 7 or greater, depending on the level of intoxication.
- Putting the body into a deathlike coma is difficulty 9 or more.
To perform this evocation on another, the demon must be able to make physical contact, and the individual can attempt to counteract the effort with a successful resisted roll using the victim's Willpower (difficulty 8). The effects of this evocation last for the duration of the scene, after which poisons removed or normal metabolism takes effect again, This evocation can alleviate one instance of poisoning altogether if a temporary Willpower point is spent.
Manipulate Nerves: Like Body Control, this evocation allows the demon to manipulate a subject's nervous system. Strength and reflexes can be enhanced, senses can be dulled or sharpened, or the person can be subjected to waves of intense pleasure or pain.
- High-Torment: A monstrous demon risks inflicting severe physical damage to a subject by crudely manipulating the victim‘s nervous system.
System: Roll Intelligence + Medicine. The difficulty is determined by the complexity of the intended effect.
- Reducing the effects of pain is difficulty 6.
- While increasing the speed of a person's reflexes (increasing his Dexterity) is 7 or 8.
- Sharpening a person's senses (or dulling them) might require a difficulty of 9 or more.
Each success increases or decreases a relevant physical trait or wound penalty by one, as appropriate for the effort. The effects of this evocation last for the duration of the scene. To perform this evocation on another individual, the demon must be able to make physical contact, and a resisted Willpower ( difficulty 8 ) can be made to counteract your character's effort.
Manipulate Flesh: This evocation allows the demon to manipulate a subject's physical form (be it her own or another's), adding muscle mass, increasing bone density or expanding mental faculties.
- High-Torment: Monstrous demons alter flesh and bone without regard for their subjects‘ frailty. If performed on another, the subject is likely to become uncontrollably paranoid and prone to violence.
System: Roll Intelligence + Medicine. Each success is a point that can be added to any of the subject's Physical or Mental Attributes for the scene. There is a risk, however. Compare the total number of successes to the subject's Stamina. Any excess successes are suffered as bashing damage due to system shock. This damage cannot be soaked. To perform this evocation on another individual , the demon must be able to make physical contact, and the individual can attempt to counteract its effects — the Storyteller makes a Willpower roll ( difficulty 8 ).
Restore Flesh: The demon is capable of restoring an animal or person's body to its original form, no matter how torn or mutilated it has become.
- High-Torment: Monstrous demons are capable of performing this evocation as well, but their ministrations are invariably tainted by hatred and pain. This manifests as anything from a temporary derangement, to a permanent derangement, to turning the subject into a mindless, psychotic killing machine.
System: Spend one Faith point and roll Perception + Medicine. Each success heals one level of lethal damage or all levels of bashing damage that the subject has suffered. Lost limbs or organs are restored completely, and any illness or poisons are purged from the body. Aggravated damage cannot be healed with this evocation, nor can the power resurrect someone who is already dead. The Devourer must be able to touch the subject to perform this evocation.
Shape Flesh: The demon is capable of transforming human flesh into any shape desired. Mortals or fallen can become monstrous creatures straight out of legend.
- High-Torment: Monstrous demons‘ alterations are invariably warped by their Torment, creating grotesque deformities that transform victims into walking nightmares. Such a hideous metamorphosis causes the victim to gain a temporary derangement and to physically suffer each day as a result of the intolerable strain placed on his body. Mortals who witness these creatures suffer the effects of Revelation.
System: Spend one Faith point and roll Dexterity + Medicine in a resisted roll against the target's Willpower (difficulty 7). The player decides the form she wishes to create, along with its relevant physical capabilities, and the Storyteller determines the number of successes necessary to make the form a reality. These successes can be generated as part of an extended roll over a period of days (one roll per day) as the demon "tinkers" with her creation. As a rule of thumb, assume that each success confers or removes one Physical Attribute point or physical feature. The effects of this evocation last for a number of days equal to the character's Faith score, or they can be made permanent by expending one temporary Willpower point. Devourers can use this evocation on themselves or others, as long as they can touch a subject.
Lore of Wild
Demon: The Fallen Rulebook, p. 206-207
- Visage: Ninurtu
Wilderness Sense: The Devourer gains an immediate sense of the surrounding area, building a map in her mind of the region's natural features, the plants and animals that inhabit the place, as well as the location of any interlopers that the local fauna consider a threat.
- High-Torment: Monstrous demons who perform this evocation transmit their murderous nature to the surrounding area, causing the flora and fauna to react inimically to human trespassers. Any animals in the area react aggressively to trespassers, attacking them if they are able. Athletics or Survival rolls must be made for intruders to avoid harm or to escape attack, using the Devourer's Torment score as the difficulty.
System: Roll Perception + Survival. Demons in the area can attempt to avoid detection through a resisted Willpower roll (difficulty 7). If your roll succeeds, your character gets a detailed mental map of her surroundings to which she can refer as needed, along with the approximate locations of nearby animals and people. Although this evocation works best in wilderness areas, it can also be used in urban settings at a difficulty of 8. Your Devourer can gain insight into a given area within a radius of miles equal to her Faith score. The effects of the evocation last for the duration of the scene.
Quicken Growth: The Devourer can fuel rapid and unchecked growth in the local plant life. Trees shoot skyward, vines swell, fissures spread through any object to which they are rooted and briars envelop their surroundings.
- High-Torment: Monstrous demons cause a plant to grow and entwine any living beings within reach, strangling or ripping them apart. For every living being within the plant's growth area, roll a number of dice equal to your Devourer's Willpower.
Treat this as a grapple attempt, which victims can attempt to parry or dodge as normal. If the attack is successful, roll a number of damage dice equal to the Devourer's Torment. Each success inflicts a level of lethal damage. System: Roll Stamina + Survival. The Devourer focuses on a specific plant and causes it to increase in size by a number of cubic yards equal to the successes you rolled, all within the space of a single turn. Vines or roots inflict a like number of damage points to physical structures with which they are in contact (consider each success a Strength point and compare the results to the Feats of Strength chart. Objects caught within the growth radius are swallowed up. The plant remains overgrown and causes damage for a number of turns equal to the successes you rolled.
Command the Wild: The Devourer can direct the rapid growth of local plants by force of will, affecting the environment in specific ways according to the demon's plan.
- High-Torment: In addition to directing their growth, monstrous demons cause the affected plants to become inimical to flesh and blood, sprouting needle-like thorns and poisonous sap. The exact manifestation is determined by the Storyteller, but a successful Dexterity + Athletics (or Survival) roll must be made for anyone attempting to move through the area, lest they suffer a number of dice of lethal damage equal to the demon's Torment.
System: Roll Intelligence + Survival. Your character can affect a number of plants equal to her Faith score. Each plant grows a number of cubic yards equal to the successes you rolled, and expands in the direction and configuration specified by your character. If plant growth is directed at a specific structure, take the number of successes rolled and compare them to the Feats of Strength chart to determine the damage inflicted on objects.
Possess Plant: The demon can take over the living essence of one or more plants, making them extensions of his will. The plants move with supernatural speed and strength, performing any action the Devourer desires.
- High-Torment: Monstrous Devourers spread the taint of their Torment through any plants they control, destroying them from within and reducing them to lifeless husks within minutes. Each possessed plant suffers one health level of damage per turn that cannot be soaked. As a rule of thumb, assume that a given plant has one "health level" per cubic foot of volume. When all the plant's health levels have been consumed, the plant dies.
System: Spend one Faith point and roll Stamina + Survival. The Devourer can control a number of plants equal to the successes rolled. Plants affected by this evocation must remain rooted in place, but they can perform any other action within the limits of their physical composition and size. A rose bush can entangle a victim, or ivy can pull apart the wall to which it's anchored. The effects of the evocation last for the duration of the scene. Consider the plants to have a Strength score equal to your demon's Willpower and refer to the Feats of Strength chart to determine the damage the plants can do to items. That same number of dice is used to make attack and damage rolls when the plants attack living targets, doing bashing damage.
Mutate Plant: The Devourer can manipulate a plant's composition and form at will, creating new, specialized breeds according to her desires.
- High-Torment: Monstrous demons who use this evocation create plant life with a taste for blood. Make a Willpower roll with the difficulty equal to your character's Torment. If the roll fails, the plant's metabolism mutates spontaneously, developing natural weapons that allow it to kill and feed on living beings — including the demon herself. The plant's attack and damage dice pools equal your character's Torment, and damage is lethal.
System: Spend one Faith point and roll Intelligence + Survival. Your character can alter or add a new plant characteristic per success rolled. Alterations include increased metabolism (heightened speed of growth), thick bark or tough skin and thorns. These successes can be generated as part of an extended roll over a period of days (one roll per day), as the demon "tinkers" with her creation. The effects of the evocation persist for a number of days equal to your character's Faith score, or they can be made permanent by expending one temporary Willpower point.
Slayer
Lore of Death
Demon: The Fallen Rulebook, p. 209-211
- Visage: Namtar
Read Fate: This evocation allows the demon to look into the eyes of a dead body and see the manner in which he or she died.
- High-Torment: Monstrous demons are able to discern a subject's fate only if that person died as a result of violence, whether accidental or intentional.
System: Roll Perception + Awareness. The number of successes achieved determines the amount of detail your character can determine about the mortal's fate. One success provides a picture of the moment of death. Each additional success goes further back in time, from minutes at two successes, hours at three and days at four. It also provides a broader context for the circumstances behind the person's passing.
Decay: One of the Reaper's primary powers, this evocation accelerates the process of decay, reducing living and non-living matter to its component particles.
- High-Torment: Monstrous demons affect people and objects in an area as opposed to single targets. Everything within a radius of yards equal to the character's Faith score is affected.
System: Your Slayer must be able to touch his intended target to perform this evocation. Roll Stamina + Medicine. Each success inflicts one health level of aggravated damage (lethal damage to a mortal). If performed on a dead body, each success removes a point from the body's Stamina. When all the dots have been eliminated, the body is reduced to dust. The process works in a similar fashion on inanimate objects, but the difficulty varies depending on an object's composition. Decaying an article of wood or cloth, for example, is difficulty 7, while decaying a piece of plastic is difficulty 8. Decaying metal is difficulty 9, and stone is 10. Each success decays one cubic foot of material.
Vision of Mortality: This evocation saw frequent use in the War of Wrath, permitting Slayers to fill the minds of their foes with visions of impending death. Even battle-hardened angels found their mettle sorely tested by these bone-chilling sights, throwing down their arms and fleeing before the Halaku's remorseless advance.
- High-Torment: Monstrous demons affect every living being around them as opposed to a specific target. The demon affects targets within a number of yards equal to their Faith score, and resisted Willpower rolls are made for each potential victim.
System: Roll Manipulation + Intuition. The target resists the evocation with a Willpower roll, using the Slayer's Faith as the difficulty. If you succeed, the target abandons her action and flees from your demon's presence. If the target's Willpower roll botches, he flees and suffers a temporary derangement. This evocation can target individuals up to a number of yards away equal to your character's Faith rating. A target who wins the resisted roll cannot be subjected to this evocation again for the remainder of the scene.
Extinguish Life: The Reaper's touch means death. By placing a hand on a living body and exerting her will, a demon can sever a victim's soul from his body, killing him instantly. This capability can be used on the fallen as well, but rather than cause instant death, the evocation produces an icy chill that saps the vitality from a demon's body.
- High-Torment: Monstrous demons do not need to touch their victims to employ this evocation. Their icy hatred radiates from them in all directions, stilling the hearts of living beings. The high-Torment version of this evocation affects every living being within a number of yards equal to your character's Faith score.
System: The Slayer must be able to physically touch her intended target to perform this evocation. Spend one Faith point and roll Strength + Awareness. Compare your successes to the target's Stamina. If your successes exceed the target's Stamina, he is killed instantly. If your successes are less than the target's Stamina, each one inflicts a level of bashing damage as the Slayer's icy touch saps the strength from the mortal's body. If this evocation is employed against another demon and the successes exceed the target's Stamina, each success inflicts a level of aggravated damage. If the successes are less than the demon's Stamina, apply them as bashing damage.
Unlife: This powerful evocation allows a living body to function without the presence of a soul or vital spirit, creating an unliving creature completely under the Slayer's control.
- High-Torment: Monstrous demons cannot prevent their Torment from infusing creations with an unnatural craving for violence, raising flesh-eating monsters that must be held in check constantly or they attack any living thing they can reach including the Slayer herself. If not programmed with a rote set of instructions, these creatures go into a violent frenzy unless their creator makes a successful Willpower roll (difficulty 8) each turn. This Willpower roll is in addition to any to impose commandments from action to action.
System: Spend one Faith point and roll Stamina + Medicine. A walking-dead creature has only one point in each of its Physical Attributes upon creation, though each extra success can be used to add additional points in Physical Attributes, at your discretion. These creatures do not suffer wound penalties in combat, using their full dice pools at all times. They must suffer no less than 10 health levels of damage before being destroyed. Undead minions are mindless automatons, acting solely according to your demon's will. Each time your character wants one of her minions to perform an action, make a Willpower roll (difficulty 7). If your character controls more than one creature at a time, you must divide your Willpower pool among them per turn. A failed roll causes a zombie to continue the last action it was commanded to perform.
Alternatively, a Slayer can program a minion to perform a rote set of instruction; one action per point of Wits that your character has, all by spending a temporary Willpower point. Since these instructions are transmitted mentally, it's possible to create a detailed set of commands, including complicated travel routes and detailed physical descriptions. Once programmed, however, a minion cannot be given further commands. If the demon uses her Willpower to command the minion to perform an action outside the realm of its instructions, its programming is lost.
Slayers can raise and control a number of minions equal to their Faith at one time. The bodies must be within Faith in yards to be affected. The effects of the evocation last for the duration of the scene. If your character wishes, the effects can be made permanent by the expenditure of a temporary Willpower point per body. A permanent minion remains until destroyed, and it cannot be raised again thereafter.
Disembodied fallen may possess animated corpses with the Slayer's permission, or they can try to wrest control of programmed corpses from the demon with a resisted Willpower roll. Unless transformed by use of other lore, the demon's host remains a dead body with all due appearances, smell and physical limitations.
Lore of Spirit
Demon: The Fallen Rulebook, p. 211-212
- Visage: Nergal
Speak with the Dead: This evocation allows the Slayer to communicate with spirits roaming the physical or spirit world. Spirits addressed in this way are compelled to respond, and they must answer the demon's questions to the best of their ability.
- High-Torment: Monstrous demons can perform this evocation as well, but the spirits they contact become warped by the demon's Torment and grow inimical to living beings for days afterward. Spirits affected by this evocation become restless and hostile to the living for a number of days equal to the demon's Torment score if a Willpower roll (difficulty 9) fails.
System: Roll Manipulation + Awareness. The spirit can attempt to avoid the evocation's compulsion with a resisted Willpower roll (difficulty 9). If the evocation is successful, the spirt must answer the Slayer's questions truthfully. The Slayer can affect any spirit within reach of her voice, and the effects of the evocation persist for a number of turns equal to the character's Faith score.
Summon the Dead: Slayers can use this evocation to summon spirits to their presence, their influence reaching across entire city blocks. Spirits summoned in this fashion must come to the demon whether they wish to or not, and they remain until dismissed.
- High-Torment: Monstrous demons can summon spirits, but the effects of their Torment cause the beings to become inherently hostile to the living for a number of days equal to the character's Torment score if a Willpower roll (difficulty 9) is failed.
System: Roll Manipulation + Leadership. The Slayer can summon one spirit per success rolled, if any are present in the area. The evocation affects 10 square yards times the character's Faith score, and the spirits within the affected area are drawn to the Slayer's presence immediately. They remain until the effects of the evocation expire or the demon dismisses them. The effects of this evocation last for the duration of the scene. At the Storyteller's discretion, a particularly potent or willful spirit could try to break the demon's control with a resisted Willpower roll (difficulty equal to the demon's Faith score) made against your Manipulation + Leadership successes.
Command the Dead: A Slayer may command a spirit of the dead to do her bidding, forcing the ghost to perform any actions that the demon desires if her will proves greater than its.
- High-Torment: Monstrous demons can command spirits as well, but they warp any beings by the force of their Torment, causing ghosts to become maddened, violent entities that lash out at the living at the first opportunity. Once the evocation's effects expire, the Storyteller makes a Willpower roll (difficulty 8) for an affected spirit. The roll requires a number of successes equal to or greater than the number of turns that the ghost spent under the demon's control. If the roll fails, the spirit becomes malevolent and hostile toward the living for a number of days equal to the demon's Torment score. if the roll botches, the change is permanent.
System: Roll Manipulation + Leadership. The Slayer may command any single spirit that can hear her voice. The spirit may attempt to counteract the effect with a resisted Willpower roll (difficulty 8). If the spirit's roll fails, it must obey the demon's commands to the best of its ability. The effects of this evocation last for a number of turns equal to the character's Faith score.
Anchor the Soul: This powerful evocation allows a Slayer to anchor a disinterred mortal soul (or a demon's spirit) to a physical object, creating a haunted artifact that traps the spirit in the physical world. In the darker days of the War of Wrath, Slayers used this evocation to bind the souls of mortals and angels to fuel powerful weapons and tolls crafted by the Annunaki.
- High-Torment: Monstrous demons bind spirits with a shroud of suffocating darkness, imposing the slightest taste of the agony suffered in the Abyss. These trapped souls are so frenzied by their hardship that their despair leaks into the physical realm, surrounding their anchors with an aura of ill fortune. Individuals touching or carrying such a spirit anchor botch their actions on a roll of 1 or 2.
System: Spend on Faith point and roll Stamina + Awareness. The difficulty is determined by the nature of the object being used as an anchor. Binding a soul to something that was close to the person in life (difficulty 6) is the most effective kind of anchor, while foreign objects prove more challenging depending on their composition. Crystal, gems or precious metals are useful (difficulty 7), while natural objects such as wood, glass or bone are less so (difficulty 8). Synthetic objects such as plastic or high-tech items such as computers are challenging to use (difficulty 9). Your character must be within a number of yards of the spirit to equal to his [your character's] Faith rating in order to affect it, and he must hold the intended anchor. The spirit can resist imprisonment with a resisted Willpower roll (difficulty 8). If you get more successes, the spirit is trapped within the anchor and cannot interact with the outside world unless the object has been properly attuned. Demons bound to an attuned item can still access their inherent powers (including their lore paths), provided they have Faith available. (Any existing pacts with mortal thralls remain in effect). This evocation persists for a number of days equal to your character's Faith score, or it can be made permanent by expending a temporary Willpower point. If an anchor is ever destroyed, the spirit is freed immediately. Freed mortal souls disappear forever or become ghosts haunting a locale, at the Storyteller's discretion. Freed demons must resit the pull of the Abyss and attempt to locate another host body or physical anchor.
Restore the Dead: This evocation allows a Slayer to anchor a spirit into any soulless physical body. This effort returns the ghost to the land of the living, at least for a short time.
- High-Torment: Monstrous demons who perform this evocation invariably taint the spirit with their own Torment, leaving the soul twisted by hate and pain. Once the soul has been restored, the Storyteller makes a Willpower roll for it with a difficulty equal to your character's Torment. If the roll is successful, the restored person suffers a temporary derangement. If the roll fails, the derangement is permanent. If the roll botches, the restored person becomes a frenzied monster, attacking the living until it is destroyed.
- If a disembodied demon spirit is put into a body with the high-Torment version of this evocation, a Willpower roll is made for it, too. If the roll is successful, the possessing demon has a Torment score that's one point less than your character's. If the Willpower roll fails, the possessing demon's Torment score equals your character's. And, if the Willpower roll botches, the possessing demon's Torment score exceeds your character's by one point.
System: Spend one Faith point and roll Stamina + Awareness. The Slayer must have the soul she wishes to restore in her immediate vicinity and be able to touch the body she wants it to possess. The body in question must have died only recently (i.e., within the last 48 hours). If successful, the soul is anchored to the body, healing any injuries the body may have had and returning the spirit to the land of the living. The new person has the same Physical Attributes that the body had in its former life, and the Mental and Social Attributes and Abilities of the new soul. The effects of this evocation last for a number of days equal to your character's Faith score, or it can be made permanent by expending one point of permanent Willpower. Demon spirits without hosts can be placed into bodies through this evocation.
Lore of Realms
Demon: The Fallen Rulebook, p. 213-215
- Visage: Ereshkigal
Sense the Barrier: The Slayer 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.
- High-Torment: Monstrous demons can sense only area where the barrier is weak, drawn by the call of the spirit storm raging just beyond.
System: Roll Perception + Awareness. If your roll is successful, your Slayer 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 unfluence 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 demon can read an area that's 10 square yards multiplied by his Faith score.
Step Beyond the Veil: This evocation allows the Slayer to physically cross the barrier into the shadow world, a lifeless mirror image of the mortal world. Doing so allows the demon 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 a demon to interact with the spirits of the dead that linger on the other side.
- High-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.
System: Roll Dexterity + Awareness. The difficulty is determined by the relative strength of the barrier in the area where your Slayer 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 a 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.
The demon cannot take passengers with her to or from the spirit or living realms.
Encountering and communication 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.
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.
- High-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.
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.
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.
- High-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 roll (difficulty 8). If their roll fails, they flee in terror. If their rolls botch, they also suffer a temporary derangement.
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 be 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 being could find the items.)
Pierce the Barrier: This evocation enables the Slayer to create a temporary doorway between the living and the dead realms, allowing other demons to cross into the shadow lands if the portal's creator wishes.
- High-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.
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 the 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.
Earthbound
Note: These Lores are specific to Earthbound Demons and are NOT up for option with mortally bound Demons. These are only reference points for any ST using an Earthbound NPC. They have no Visage as Earthbound have no physically breathing bodies; no high or low torment as Earthbound have no conscience, no morality and are the most corrupted creatures in the Fallen world; beyond that, these lores are the most forbidden, evil and cruelty laced powers that a Fallen could tap into.
Lore of Chaos
Demon: Earthbound, p. 87-89
Reality Tremors: This evocation causes the unpredictable, chaotic energies of the spirit realms to bleed into Creation. Doing so causes a variety of strange effects, events that violate the laws of nature and cause and effect — fish fall from the sky, blood oozes from a house’s walls, reflections bare their teeth and threaten their maker. These events are real, not illusory, but they fade away after a short period, as reality reinforces its power over the area.
System: Roll Manipulation + Occult. If the roll succeeds, an area within the demon’s line of sight with a radius in yards equal to the character’s Faith becomes the site of unnatural phenomena — a cosmetic, non-harmful, but still unsettling violation of the laws of nature and common sense. The Storyteller decides what kind of event manifests in the area. The evocation allows the chaos realms to bleed into this world, but it doesn’t dictate how they do so. The result is always disturbing and wrong, though, and it can seriously spook and distract witnesses. Unless a successful Willpower roll (difficulty 7) generates more successes than the evocation roll, each mortal or non-Earthbound demon in the area of effect suffers a +1difficulty penalty for all actions. The penalty is re-moved once the victim leaves the affected area. A botched Willpower roll made on a mortal’s behalf also causes a temporary derangement at the Storyteller’s discretion. The strangeness persists for a scene, after which it fades out of existence.
Sphere of Chaos: This evocation infects reality with the shifting,unpredictable laws of the chaos realms, worlds where nothing works the same way twice. Within the area affected by the evocation, probability breaks apart, and nothing works as it should. Even the simplest tasks might fall prey to sudden shifts in reality and fluctuations in cause and effect.
System: Roll Wits + Expression (difficulty 8). The evocation affects an area within the character’s line of site and has a radius equal to the demon’s Faith score in yards. The affected area is the site of a breakdown in normal causality, where nothing works as it should. Within this area, all actions and dice rolls — except for evocation and Faith rolls — have their difficulty in-creased by a value equal to the successes generated by the evocation roll (so with three successes, the difficulty of all rolls increase by three). When actions fail due to the increased difficulty, they fail because of fluctuations in probability and natural law. A bullet falls apart before reaching its target, gravity suddenly increases under a jumping athlete, a computer suddenly starts displaying gibberish and obscene messages, et cetera. The Earth-bound suffers the same effects as everyone else if it is within the area affected. The effects last for a number of turns equal to the successes on the evocation roll.
Wave of Mutilation: As the Earthbound’s control over the chaos realms grows, it can project the energies of the realms into living tissue. Living bodies are affected by this energy in random — but always painful and dangerous —ways. Neurons misfire, lungs spasm, joints collapse,hormones and adrenaline flood the body, and thoughts ricochet wildly through the brain. Mortals and demons alike are left confused and injured as their muscles and nervous systems turn against them.
System: Roll Strength + Medicine. If the roll succeeds, an invisible wave of chaotic energy permeates the area surrounding the Earthbound, out to a radius equal to the character’s Faith in yards. Any living being in that area (except for the Earthbound itself) is affected by the energy unless a successful Stamina roll is made. If the roll fails, the victim’s body and mind are sent into spasms and seizures, while her organs shudder randomly and hormones flood her body. She suffers a number of health levels of bashing damage equal to the successes generated by the evocation roll. This damage cannot be soaked. The victim’s player must also make a Willpower roll (difficulty 7) and gain more successes than the evocation roll to keep the character from panicking, flying into a rage, collapsing into catatonia or similar reactions(determined by the Storyteller), as her brain and nervous system misfire. Injuries caused by this power manifest as subcutaneous bleeding and bruising, and possibly even hernias, sprains and broken bones.
Demons are affected by this power since it isn’t mind-control, but rather a physical effect that affects their host’s brain. Demons suffer the bashing damage as normal with no extra protection.
While this evocation lasts for only an instant, the effects continue to ravage victims for some time before their bodies regain equilibrium. Affected characters will not recover their senses, for a number of minutes equal to the successes of the evocation roll, and they suffer +1 difficulty penalties to all rolls (except evocations) until the end of the scene.
Summon Outsider: The Earthbound can rip open a small portal be-tween Creation and the chaos realms and pull something through— a creature too bizarre and dangerous to exist in this reality. The creatures summoned by this evocation are always dangerous monstrosities with terrible killing powers and a desire for destruction. The Earth-bound cannot control the creature, but it can watch from afar as the outsider strikes down its enemies with claws and supernatural powers.
System: Spend one Faith point and roll Wits +Occult (difficulty 7). Success means that a supernatural creature suddenly materializes within a number of yards equal to the Earthbound’s Faith rating. The Storyteller decides on the traits and appearance of the creature, while the Earthbound character’s player determines any special powers the being has. The outsider gains a pool of “form points” equal to the successes of the evocation roll, which the Earthbound player can spend on granting visage features to the creature as if it were an Earthbound (Earthbound p. 93). None of the creature’s base traits may be higher than the number of successes rolled for the evocation (unless improved by visage features). The creature is controlled by the Storyteller,and it might turn on the Earthbound or its minions if they cross its path. The monster rampages for a number of turns equal to the successes on the evocation roll, after which it returns to the chaos realms.
Hell on Earth: This evocation smashes open the barrier between Creation and the chaos realms, allowing otherworldly madness and dangers to rampage into the real world. Reality cracks apart and falls into splinters over a wide area— the skies turn red, stones bleed and float through the sky, and tentacled horrors writhe beneath the skin of babies. Wounds spontaneously open on the bodies of those within the area, and almost every action has disastrous consequences. When the evocation fades and the barrier between worlds returns, reality snaps back to normal, but the changes caused by the reality breakdown remain. This can have grave consequences — such as when a floating,screaming pillar of stone suddenly plummets to the ground as gravity reasserts itself.
System: Spend one Faith point and roll Stamina+Occult (difficulty 7). If the roll succeeds, an area around the Earthbound with a radius in yards equal to10 times the character’s Faith rating suffers a massive reality breakdown. Uncontrollable and dangerous events occur at random, horrific sights assail the eyes and minds of witnesses trapped within, and nothing works as it should. The Storyteller should flex her imagination to come up with strange and awful things with which to plague the area.
The successes on the evocation roll form a dice pool that can affect characters within the area indifferent ways. If a character encounters a dangerous hazard, such as a cloud of fanged mouths, the pool is the amount of damage she might suffer (bashing or lethal as appropriate). If a character attempts an action, the pool is rolled to resist that action (even if it’s not normally resisted), successes reducing the other roll’s successes as normal. Players and Storytellers might find other ways to apply the successes to represent the unpredictable dangers of the affected area. Rolls made with this pool cannot botch.
Within the area, all appropriate dice rolls (including evocations) botch on a roll of 1 or 2. Mortals exposed to the horrors of the area gain a temporary derangement unless a successful Willpower roll (difficulty 7) generates more successes than the evocation roll. (If the Willpower roll botches, the derangement is permanent.) The evocation lasts for the duration of the scene
Lore of Contamination
Demon: Earthbound, p. 89-91
Create Proxy: With this evocation, the Earthbound infuses an object with a portion of its own essence, attuning the item to its demonic spirit. By concentrating, the Earthbound can then focus its consciousness through that item, no matter where it is — seeing and hearing through the object, and even using it as the focus for evocations.
System: The Earthbound or its reliquary must be in contact with the item to be infused. Roll Strength +Crafts— if successful, the item becomes a proxy for the Earthbound. At any time, the Earthbound’s player may make a Faith roll for the character to project its consciousness into the proxy for as long as it wishes.The Earthbound can sense things around the proxy just as it can through its reliquary, and it may perform any evocations it knows as if the proxy was its body. The object modified by the evocation cannot be larger than a human being. The proxy appears normal, but super-natural awareness will reveal it to be tainted with a dark power. The proxy retains its power for a number of days equal to the successes on the evocation. The Earth-bound can permanently alter the object by spending a point of Willpower.
Lash of Corruption: With this evocation, the Earthbound can force a pulse of its own tainted energy into any being with which it is in physical contact. This black energy rips apart tissue and bone, imparting the Earthbound’s essence into the victim’s body with deadly results. Wounds from this attack are tattered, bleeding lacerations, weeping with pus and toxic fluids.
System: Roll Dexterity + Expression. Each success on the roll inflicts a health level of lethal damage onto the target. Mundane armor such as a Kevlar vest offers no protection against this evocation, but armor gained from evocations or visage features does. The Earth-bound must be in physical contact with the target to perform this evocation.
Taint the Land: This evocation forces the Earthbound’s essence into the very earth it rests on, corrupting it and any-thing that grows in it. While the evocation is in effect,the Earthbound’s senses spread to encompass the entire tainted area, and it can direct its evocations through the earth without being physically present. The area also gains a kind of foul pseudo-life and can be used to strike out at intruders.
System: Roll Stamina + Awareness. If successful,the evocation affects an area around the Earthbound’s reliquary with a radius in yards equal to 10 times the successes rolled. The Earthbound can sense whatever happens within that area, just as an Earthbound in a location-reliquary can. It can target anyone within that area with evocations, but the difficulty of evocations performed through the earth increases by one.As an action during its turn, the Earthbound can animate or control the land it has corrupted in order to attack intruders. Trees lash out with their branches,the earth falls away under an intruder’s feet or cancer-riddled bees swarm onto a target. Roll Dexterity + Awareness (difficulty 7) to make these attacks, with a basic damage pool equal to the successes generated by the evocation roll (plus any additional successes from the attack roll). The dam-age may be bashing or lethal, at the player’s discretion.The effects of Taint the Land last for a scene.
Corrupt Relic: Just as the fallen (especially Malefactors) make relics with the Lore of the Forge, so too can the Earthbound create their own twisted relics of power by tainting an object with their own essence. These corrupt relics are similar to those of the fallen, but they are rarely subtle. Such objects grow cancerous nodes of pseudo-flesh or ooze with ichor and toxins. Mortals who handle a corrupt relic risk madness, as the corruption within the relic begins to eat at their sanity.
System: Tainting an object is not an overly long process, but it does require an investment in energy and the appropriate knowledge. To instill a corrupt power into an object, the Earthbound must possess a lore path that evokes the power in question. For instance, to create a pistol that shoots a stream of acid, the Earth-bound must have at least one dot in the Lore of Storms.More complex powers that mimic the evocations of multiple bodies of lore require at least dot in each relevant lore. The Storyteller is the final arbiter on what lore is required. Any object can be tainted in this way, regardless of technological complexity.
To corrupt the object, the Earthbound must stay in contact with it for a full scene — either holding it in a physical body or having a thrall hold it against the reliquary. Roll Manipulation + Crafts (difficulty 7). If successful, the item has been corrupted with the Earthbound’s power. To finalize the evocation, the Earthbound must spend an amount of temporary Faith equal to the successes rolled. Doing so makes the corruption permanent.
When used, corrupt relics have a dice pool for their power equal to the successes gained on the Corrupt Relic evocation. A mortal using a corrupt relic loses a point of Willpower for each success rolled to use the relic, while a demon gains a point of temporary Torment for each success rolled.
(A complete optional system for designing and building relics can be found in Chapter Five of the Demon Players Guide. Storytellers might want to adapt that system to encompass the corrupt relics of the Earthbound.)
Unspeakable Servitor: The mortal worshipers of the Earthbound are poor vessels for its power, as they inevitably die in unspeakable agony hours after being possessed and used. With this evocation, the Earthbound can make a mobile vessel for itself, filling a specially prepared item with its own taint and transforming it into a powerful, long-lived host. The servitor possesses more resilience and power than a mortal vessel, and it will last for far longer before eventually being destroyed by the Earthbound’s power. Such vessels, though, are obviously inhuman, permanently mutated and deformed by the taint of the Earthbound. These monstrous hosts appear as imps, golems, hellhounds and other hideous creatures.
System: This evocation cannot be performed on just any item — it must be used on a statue or idol crafted by the Earthbound or its worshipers and made of primarily natural materials. When a suitable item is ready, spend a Faith point and roll Stamina + Crafts (difficulty 7). With even one success, the item is transformed into a vessel for the Earthbound, who can possess and animate the statue whenever it wishes.
The servitor gains a number of “form points”equal to the successes on the evocation roll, which the player can spend to give visage features to the construct (Earthbound p. 93). These can be completely different features from those of the Earthbound’s own apocalyptic form, and they remain as permanent features of the servitor. The Earthbound does not have to assume apocalyptic form to use these features, and it can continue to access them when it does take on its revelatory form. The servitor also has a number of grotesqueries (see Earthbound p. 97) equal to the successes rolled, which are also permanent and cause the vessel to appear hideous and obviously inhuman.
When the Earthbound wishes to possess the servitor, it may do so instantly, without the need for a roll,and no matter how far away the servitor is. The servitor is tougher than a normal mortal, and it can soak lethal damage with a Stamina roll. Its Attribute ratings are the same as the Earthbound’s. When the Earthbound ceases to possess the servitor, it becomes an inert — if grotesque— statue again.
The servitor will eventually be destroyed by the strain of containing the Earthbound. The character may possess the servitor a number of times equal to the successes of the evocation roll without any ill effect. After that, the player must make a Stamina + Crafts roll each time the Earthbound ceases possessing the servitor, with a difficulty equal to the Earthbound’s permanent Faith rating. If the roll succeeds, the servitor can be used again. If it fails, the vessel breaks apart and is destroyed.
Lore of Violation
Demon: Earthbound, p. 91-93
Nightmare Sending: This evocation allows the Earthbound to send messages into the dreams of sleeping mortals. While this isn’t a particularly potent effect, it has a staggering range. The Earthbound can direct nightmares into the minds of mortals dozens of miles away,without even needing to see its target. This evocation is also unique in that, unlike every other evocation, the Earthbound can perform it while devoid of spiritual energy, and can even perform it unconsciously, sending out dreams even while it rests in stasis, in the hope of drawing mortals into its influence.
System: Roll Manipulation + Expression. If successful, the Earthbound may send a telepathic message into the dreams of a sleeping mortal within a number of miles equal to 10 times the character’s Faith rating.The Earthbound may target a specific mortal that it knows to be within range, or it may simply cast its mind out at random (in which case the Storyteller selects an appropriate victim).
The sleeping mortal’s dream becomes corrupted by the Earthbound, turning into a disturbing night-mare. In that nightmare, the target hears the telepathic message of the Earthbound, which will reverberate in his subconscious even if he pays it no attention. The bad dreams and insidious power of the evocation leave the mortal drained and tired.The mortal loses a point of temporary Willpower(and does not recover any Willpower for a sound night’s sleep) unless a Willpower roll (difficulty 7)on her behalf generates more successes than the evocation roll. If the Earthbound’s message contains a command (such as, “Find my reliquary and worship me”), the mortal will obey this command if the effects of the evocation reduce his temporary Will-power to zero.
The Earthbound may target the same mortal every night in order to wear away his Willpower. This evocation can be performed even if the Earthbound has no Faith in its pool or is in stasis.
Mind Rape: This evocation allows the Earthbound to probe the mind of a mortal that it can see, scanning her thoughts and memories for information. Material that the mortal doesn’t feel is important is usually easy to find, while thoughts about things the mortal wishes to keep secret are more difficult to retrieve. The process of scanning a mortal’s thoughts causes her appalling headaches, and possibly even leaves her bleeding from the nose, mouth and ears.
System: Roll Perception + Awareness (difficulty7). If successful, the Earthbound can scan the mind of any mortal within line of sight. The number of successes on the evocation roll determine how far into the mortal’s mind the Earthbound can probe. One success allows the Earthbound to skim surface thoughts and very recent memories; three successes grant access to memories of the last few weeks or thoughts that the mortal considers it important to keep private; five successes allow the demon access to all of the target’s memories and thoughts, even her most private and secret feelings. The mortal suffers a number of bashing damage levels equal to the successes rolled in the evocation. This damage cannot be soaked with Stamina or armor, but it can be soaked with a Willpower roll.
Vision of Terror: This evocation projects terrifying visions into the mind of one or more mortals. The Earthbound can send a specific image or simply cause a mortal to see some-thing that terrifies him. The mortal’s brain conjures up an appropriate image to explain the sudden rush of fear.Mortals faced with these images are likely to panic and run away.
System: Roll Manipulation + Intimidation. If successful, the demon can affect a number of mortal sequal to the successes rolled as long as they are within line of sight. The targeted mortals will see an illusionary vision, whether chosen by the Earthbound or determined by the Storyteller, that frightens them;those not targeted by the evocation see nothing. Each affected mortal panics and must flee the area as best he can unless a Willpower roll (difficulty 8) on her behalf generates more successes than the evocation roll. On a botch, the mortal also loses a point of permanent Willpower. The effects of the evocation fade after a scene, after which the mortals calm down and can return to the area.
Enslave: While the Lore of Humanity allows demons to only nudge and subtly influence mortal minds, this evocation goes far beyond those limitations. With this evocation, an Earthbound can completely control the mind and body of a mortal, making her do and say whatever it wishes. When the evocation fades, the mortal might suffer great emotional stress and lose her grip on her sanity.
System: Spend one Faith point and roll Manipulation + Subterfuge. The target must be within line of sight, and she resists with a Willpower roll (difficulty 7). If the Earthbound gains more successes, it takes control of the mortal and can telepathically command her to do its bidding. The mortal is forced to obey the demon’s commands. If it orders her to do something that drastically violates her Nature or personality (such as killing the man she loves), another Willpower roll can be made to resist the successes of the evocation.
The Earthbound retains control of the mortal’s mind for a scene (or until she throws off the control). When the mortal regains control of herself, a Will-power roll (difficulty 8) must be made. Failing this roll means she gains a temporary derangement, which lasts for a number of days equal to the successes of the evocation roll. Botching this roll means that the mortal gains a permanent derangement.
Devour the Soul: The most dreadful fate that can meet a demon is to have her soul devoured by another demon, her memories and energies fueling her enemy while her spirit is forever destroyed. Human souls, God’s perfect creation, are protected from this horrific fate — except from the powerful Earthbound who have mastered this lore. With this evocation, an Earthbound can tear the soul from a living mortal and devour it, draining it of energy, memories and even precious Faith. The mortal’s body lives in an irreversible coma for a time, while his soul is forever extinguished.
System: Spend a point of Faith and roll Wits +Occult (difficulty 8), targeting a single mortal within a number of yards equal to the Earthbound’s Faith rating. The target resists with a Willpower roll (also difficulty 8). If the Earthbound succeeds, the mortal’s soul is instantly ripped from his body and devoured by the Earthbound.
For each additional success on the evocation,the Earthbound gains one of the following at the player’s discretion:
- A point of temporary Faith (to a maximum of the mortal’s Faith potential). The Earthbound cannot exceed its normal maximum Faith pool.
- A point of temporary Willpower (to a maximum of the mortal’s Willpower). The Earthbound cannot exceed its normal maximum Willpower pool.
- A temporary Ability increase if the mortal possesses the same Ability at a higher level than the Earthbound. No Ability may be increased by more than one dot, nor can the Ability rating exceed 5. The player chooses which of the demon’s Abilities is in-creased in this fashion.
- A particular memory or linked set of memories,chosen by the player. The Storyteller is the final arbiter as to the depth and breadth of the stolen memories.
Memories and difficulty reductions last until the end of the scene, after which they fade away. Faith and Willpower points remain in the Earthbound’s normal pool until used. The mortal’s body falls into a coma until the end of the scene (or possibly longer, at the Storyteller’s discretion) before dying. During this time,it can be possessed as normal by other demons. Fallen cannot be targeted or affected by this evocation, but mortal thralls are not immune.