Roles

Roles within the Red Grith and occupations available to players: Arsonist, Assassin, Baiter, Beggar, Bookie, Brawler, Con Artist, Consigliere, Conspirator, Counterfeiter, Criminal, Deviant, Embezzler, Extortionist, Fence, Fixer, Gambler, Gangster, Harborer, Pickpocket, Pirate, Pusher, Quack, Revolutionary, Robber/Mugger, Saboteur, Sensualist, Smuggler, Spy, Terrorist, Thief, Torturer, Traitor, Urchin, Vagrant, Vandal, Vigilante, Witch

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Arsonist

Arson is used by the Red Grith only as a last resort, and thus, only very trusted members are allowed to specialize in it. They are called drakignites by members of the Red Grith.

Drakignite

Arsonists among the Red Grith are known to wield dragonfire. While some who wield dragonfire do so by forming a magical bond with a dragon (or by being a dragon, but that's not available to PCs), the arsonists among the Red Grith gain the power by carrying a magical bracelet called a dracutrem . Their dracutrem is always a wristband, bracelet, bracer, or other armguard or jewelry that glows dark red when they draw from it. They draw from it by paying it tribute with every job they do. A little bit of ash mixed with their own blood must be smeared on the dracutrem after burning something down to make sure it does not lose power.

When they invoke the flames of their dracutrem, it ignites in the palm of the hand they wear it upon, and they can manipulate it with their hands and fingers, throwing it, rolling it, pressing it, shaping it, etc. Once it leaves their hand, they no longer have control of it. While it is in their hand, they may shape it such that it can be wielded as a dagger (+5/+5), wreathed over their arm as armor (+5/+5 for that arm, allowing them to parry with it), or to focus it or widen it to apply it to whatever they are holding. Its heat has a power of 11 base, but can be weakened to 5 (or any number in between) at will, or strengthened to 14 with a smaller sacrifice of blood or to 17 with a larger sacrifice of blood. They can maintain it for ten minutes, and then must either feed it blood every ten minutes or roll WIL against a difficulty of first 4, then 7, then 10, etc. to keep it going every subsequent ten minutes. If they feed it blood, after the second feeding, they will have a normal wound. After the fourth, a deep wound. After the sixth, a mortal wound. They can permanently raise the heat score of their flame by 3 by permanently sacrificing a point of WIL or STR. They may also feed the dracutrem magical items or currency to restore its power.

Arsonists of the Red Grith are trained in architecture and pyrology (i.e., knowing where to set a fire to make sure a building burns, what fuels to use, and how to keep it from spreading to where they don't want it), in stealth and analysis, in self-defense, and in local politics and events. Their dragonfire does not register as elemental, and therefore, it does not have bonuses against infernal powers. It does have bonuses against anything weak to fire, such as wooden or frozen targets. It ignores anti-fire defenses that are infernal, celestial, aetherial, or fey.

Drakignites are weak to anything that specifically harms dragons. If their dracutrem is submerged in water for more than five minutes, it will turn to ash.

PRO +1 ATH +1 STR +1 AWA +1 WIL +2 PRS -2 STH +2

Assassin

The Red Grith is not shy about killing those who cross them. Their hired killers are either sicarians, who can convert one skill to another magically as needed; slayers, who hunt their targets ruthlessly; or obligants, those who kill in devotion to a Divine power (usually one of the seven Divinities who patron the Red Grith).

Obligant

Obligants are assassins sworn to the service of one of the deities of the Red Grith. They gain power by remaining in their deity's favor, which they do by living up to the values of their Divine. Depending on their deity, they may gain different skills and powers. All obligants may invoke the favor of their deities via prayer or ritual, asking for almost anything, and roll their favor score to see if they receive it. Success or failure results in loss of favor points.

Obligants of the Hooded Lady are sworn to a life of living outside mortal laws. They are not necessarily punished for obeying a mortal law, but they are rewarded for violating them if and only if they do so either for personal gain or for the sake of survival. She rewards cunning and planning. She punishes those who snitch, those who write or uphold laws, or those who choose death, suffering, or punishment by mortal hands over violating a mortal law.

Her rewards come in the form of the Hooded Shadow, the power to slip into shadows no matter where one stands, to see within dark spaces, to know the value and the risks of a situation, and the vulnerabilities of a target. She also allows her obligants to speak the Cant, the secret language of criminals. Their preferred weaponry are small, easily hidden weapons like knives or darts.

Those she targets for death are authorities and their willing and knowing servants.

PRO +2 ATH +2 STR +1 AWA +1 WIL / PRS -1 STH +3

Obligants of the Five-Headed God are sworn to follow the principles of the Dragon: discipline, power, majesty, territory, and accumulation. They must maintain a disciplined lifestyle with regular exercise and good diet, meditation and study, and constant training. They must keep their mind and body strong. They must be well mannered and maintain social graces. They must keep their own space and not violate that of others. And they must accumulate objects pleasing to their god, which in this case is either currency or magical items.

They are rewarded with access to dragonfire, dragonwill, dragonmight, dragonaura, dragonsense, and draconic accumulation. Dragonfire operates similar to that wielded by drakignites (see above under Arsonist), but obligants carry a holy symbol (a five-headed symbol) instead of a dracutrem. Dragonmight is the ability to increase STR by 6 temporarily (for ten minutes) once per day, and dragonwill is the same but for WIL. Dragonaura is the ability to increase PRS by 3 temporarily (for ten minutes) once per day. Dragonsense is the ability to perceive everything within their territory (usually their home) for three minutes once per day. Draconic accumulation is the ability to absorb esoteric energies directed at them, converting them to favor from the Five-Headed God.

Their preferred weapons are koshes, clubs, or claws, with dragonfire as a common addition.

The Five-Headed God calls for sacrifices of those who violate his territory, steal from his hoard, interrupt his training, insult his majesty, or challenge his power.

PRO +2 ATH +2 STR +3 AWA +1 WIL +3 PRS +2 STH -2

Obligants of the Dust Collector are sworn to never waste anything useful. They keep things they think they may need one day, unless they find a better home for it. They view everything as a resource, and they view it as a sin to throw things away if they can be used somehow. They are rewarded for resourcefulness, inventiveness, and orderliness. They are punished for waste.

They are rewarded with raw menab'e, a reddish kind of coal that is raw resource. It can be converted to points for any of their stats, skills, powers, or abilities, so long as those are something they use regularly. Menab'e burns out after they use the stat (etc.) they spent it on, but can be easily reacquired if they are devout.

Their resourcefulness often translates to scavenging skills in the city. Their preferred weapons are improvised weaponry.

The Dust Collector targets the wasteful and indulgent for death.

PRO +1 ATH +1 STR +1 AWA +1 WIL / PRS -1 STH +2

Obligants of the Great Huntress believe in the sanctity of the hunt. They believe in respecting their prey, in using all parts of that which they kill, and not killing except for food or survival... except those the Great Huntress marks for death. They are rewarded both for respecting the hunt and for being good at it. They are punished for disrespecting the hunt.

Their rewards take the form of blessings to their hunting implements, greater endurance or determination, sharper senses, or animal companions. Blessings to their hunting implements (either weaponry or clothing) take the form of bonuses to hit, bonuses to STH, or bonuses to stun/wound (max +3). Endurance and determination bonuses are upwards of +3 to either (endurance being a substat of STR or ATH, determination being a substat of WIL). Sharper senses give upwards of +3 to sight, hearing, smell, taste, or touch (substat of AWA). Animal companions are animals fitting to the setting.

Ritual sacrifice of prey (or parts thereof) can also gain these obligants favor.

Many of these powers and abilities are similar to that of Slayers, such as their skills in hunting and tracking, survivalist skills, and so on. They prefer to use bow and arrow.

The Great Huntress marks for death those who disrespect the hunt. Poachers, sport hunters, polluters, and those who are wasteful in their kills are all prime targets.

PRO +1 ATH +2 STR +1 AWA +2 WIL +1 PRS -1 STH +2

Obligants of the Humble Trader believe in making good deals. They gain favor almost entirely from bargaining with their deity, offering up sacrifices or dedicating works or services to see if he approves. In general, the Humble Trader likes honest dealing, seeing the real value and utility of things, though "market forces" still influence him. He will punish cheating, going back on a deal, or contract violations. Obligants begin their service by writing a contract with the Humble Trader, wrapping it around a valuable coin, then burning the contract. If the coin also burns, the contract is accepted.

Rewards given these obligants vary by contract. Any bonus or skill can be put into the contract, so long as the obligant makes a fair offer for it and lives up to it. This can be anything from magical powers, skill bonuses, stat bonuses, knowledge or information, or immunities. They cannot write something into a contract that affects someone else ("make my enemies go blind"). Though they can contract for any kind of weaponry or skill, they have a tendency to use small firearms.

Targets are those the obligant is contracted to kill.

PRO +1 ATH +1 STR +1 AWA +1 WIL / PRS / STH +1

Obligants of the Traveler's Friend are committed to supporting those on the road. The Traveler's Friend requires followers to get out of their own comfort zones, to move about, and therefore, many are not always in Haenor. They are rewarded for supporting the travels of others, for traveling themselves, and for learning from those experiences. They are punished for stasis.

Rewards given include speed, endurance, and skills needed for a successful journey - languages, local knowledge, geography, and so on. If they have a means of travel they commonly use - train, horse, airship - their chosen vehicle may receive a blessing as well. The catch is that they must gain momentum. If they are rewarded in one way, they will continue to be rewarded (because they are building momentum) in that stat until it is maxed out (which is a 42 for mortal beings). This leads to super-specialization. The only way they can change their course is by getting punished, and some obligants intentionally do so in order to avoid being faster than a train in their day to day life.

They tend to use walking staves as weapons.

Targets include those thay prey on travelers.

PRO +1 ATH +5 STR / AWA +1 WIL / PRS / STH +1

Obligants of the Corpus must respect their own bodies. The Corpus is a deity of the body itself, of the flesh and blood, the bones and hair, the humors and the viscera. If a being has a body that isn't flesh and blood, the equivalents they have count - i.e., crystal folk's bodies are, obviously, crystal; green folk have plant bodies with sap or nectar, petal or bark; etc. The Corpus rewards those who optimize the lifespan of their body. This does not mean that they never indulge in something "bad" for them, but that they generally speaking do not damage it. One need not be an athlete to gain favor, and indeed, some athletes engage in such violent sport that it has a negative effect. There is a balance sought by the followers of the Corpus, typically. However, obligants need to be in physical condition that allows them to effectively murder people, so they skew toward a more athletic frame.

Rewards are entirely bodily. They range from raw STR and ATH to substats like toughness, endurance, constitution, agility, fine motor skills (which translates to PRO). They can also improve very specific functions, such as making their heart more efficient or their liver more resistant (something they might do if they need to drink a lot of alcohol for a job) or making a specific bone unbreakable temporarily. They can also adapt their body beyond its natural limits, giving themselves wings (if they don't have any to begin with), extra limbs, greater or lesser height or weight or mass, altered shape, etc., but these are much more difficult to achieve and require extreme levels of favor. Perhaps the most common reward, however, is healing.

They tend to resort to unarmed combat.

Targets of the Corpus are always those who cause harm to the bodies of others on a large scale.

PRO +1 ATH +2 STR +2 AWA / WIL / PRS / STH +1

Sicarian

Sicarians are assassins whose focus is honing their skills to an elite level. Only a few are in the Red Grith, as few have the resources to achieve this ability. Those that do are sponsored by the Red Grith after showing promise as precision killers.

They engage in a meditative practice called figgum. This begins with the assassin not learning to kill, but to juggle. They practice this for hours a day until they can juggle five knives with their eyes closed, and then they juggle while meditating. The concept they focus on to meditate is that "one skill is all skills". The idea is that if one learns one skill, that skill can be transformed into another. Thus, they focus on a single skill, becoming elite in it, then use the power of figgum to transform that skill into any other needed skill temporarily. The process of achieving this requires them focusing on the circle formed by the act of juggling, then breaking past it via a meditative process called "moving beyond the circle". This process requires such extreme concentration that one must meditate for months at a time to achieve it, hence why few among the poor and oppressed ever achieve it.

In-game, this amounts to an ongoing series of rolling juggling skill, WIL, and AWA against increasing difficulties, with a series of bonuses and penalties for successes or failures, culminating in a roll against a difficulty of 25 for juggling, 25 for WIL to focus, and 25 for AWA to see past the circle. If this is achieved, the sicarian will gain the ability to move their skill points around their character sheet as they please. There are some caveats to this - they can't move base stats around, for example, nor innate powers. Only learned skills may be adapted. If they alter their skill in juggling, it may affect their ability to use this power, as they must enter the meditative state via juggling to use their power.

Sicarians may also borrow skill points from others if someone willingly gives them that skill by passing a juggling knife to them while the sicarian is meditating. The sicarian must temporarily give the person some of their skill points in order to gain the skill being provided. The skill points the sicarian has can never go above their skill point total.

Some skills cost more than others, however. Magical skills, for example, are not equivalent to basic language skills, nor are elite-level skills equal to low-level ones. There is a scale of equivalence available if you choose to play a sicarian.

As sicarians are assassins, their skill focuses are relevant to their work, but like all who engage in the art of figgum, they often learn other skills in order to have more points to move around. Common relevant skills include disguise, stalking, tracking, personal research, poisons, and weapon skills. Their juggling knives are their primary weapons, though they often keep them poisoned.

Sicarians who lose their juggling knives will lose their powers.

PRO +2 ATH +2 STR +1 AWA +1 WIL +2 PRS / STH +1

Slayer

Slayers are hunters of people. They gain special abilities by engaging in a ritual hunt. While ritual hunting magic is common in many societies, among the Red Grith, it has been adapted to urban living, criminal activity, and assassination rather than hunting for survival in a nomadic community.

Slayers are trained by the Red Grith for seven months as an assassin before they begin the ritual hunt. Their first hunt is always a trial in which they must find and tag their mentor or trainer, during which the mentor or trainer does their very best to avoid detection or being touched. The tagging is simply a normal wound hit. If the mentor or trainer is harmed more than this, the hunt is a failure, for part of the trial is control and precision.

After the slayer succeeds in their "first hunt", they must live as prey for another seven months. During this time, they must live on their own and avoid being caught by their mentor or trainer. During this time, they must engage in rituals that leave them vulnerable, often meditative practices in public spaces. During these meditations, they will see a vision of a symbol that will come to define them. This can be an animal, plant, or other living thing, or it can be a weapon or other object, a color, a shape, anything. They will take to wearing this symbol in some form thereafter.

The next step is their first actual kill. They are given a target and told to find and kill them. This target is always an enemy of the Red Grith. During the mission, the slayer will find their magical abilities start to manifest if they have done the rest of the ritual correctly. They must during this mission learn to honor their target and to become one with the killer within themselves. They must enter a moving meditative state, seeing within and without at the same time, and find their target. They must be wearing their symbol and understand its meaning to them. And they must successfully and efficiently kill their target without getting caught or killed. If they are successful, they emerge as a true slayer.

The powers they gain are as follows:

• Disguise: they gain the ability to magically disguise themselves by invoking their symbol. If they are wearing their symbol, they may simply touch it and will themselves disguised, and they will blend in to their environment temporarily for a STH bonus. This lasts as long as they keep their hand on their symbol or for five minutes, whichever is shorter.
• Patience: slayers need great patience to hunt and kill their targets. They gain magical bonuses to their WIL when on the hunt, needing less food and water and less rest during this time. If they have the chance to kill their target without detection and forgo it, however, while in this state, they lose their bonuses and receive equivalent penalties for the length of time they spent with the bonuses.
• Stalking: if slayers have a target, they may gain the ability to sense and stalk that target within three miles of the target if they gain even a tiny piece of the target or their property. It can be a strand of hair, a piece of cloth, even a discarded piece of food. But once they have it, they will know where their target is if they are close enough.
• Alertness: slayers have a mild form of danger sense that allows them to know when police or agents of the authorities are near. This is a substat of AWA that is active passively.
• Blood: if a slayer is harmed during combat with a target, their blood will have magical power to it. This blood can be smeared on themselves to null pain, smeared on weapons to make them stronger, or smeared on tools such as lockpicks to make them more effective. This blood can be wielded by others who know how to use the power of the Hunt as well. They cannot intentionally spill their own blood or allow it to be spilled intentionally to gain this effect, however; any intentionally spilled blood must be left where it falls as a sacrifice to the Hunt or they will lose all powers temporarily.

Slayers always have a specified territory; slayers of the Red Grith's territory is that of the Red Grith itself. While in their own territory, they have advantages due to their knowledge of the area. This translates into hunting and stalking bonuses within this region, alertness bonuses, and STH bonuses (+1 each).

Slayers must follow the rules of the Hunt or sufer for it. Though they are not hunting animals for survival, the rules still apply - do not kill mothers with small children or anyone pregnant, do not kill small children, do not kill during mating season (if applicable), and do not over-kill any specific species in their territory. Do not harm an unintended target without good cause. Take good care of your tools. Don't kill within the territory of another without permission. Any violation of these rules results in penalties to their skills.

They use bows and arrows, knives, and rifles as weapons.

PRO +2 ATH +2 STR +1 AWA +2 WIL +1 PRS -1 STH +2

Baiter

The animal baiting operations of the Red Grith are a major source of income, and the ones who run it use their connection to the magic of the hunt to connect with and train animals.

Csali

Csalis gain special abilities by engaging in a ritual hunt. While ritual hunting magic is common in many societies, among the Red Grith, it has been adapted to urban living, criminal activity, and local animals rather than hunting for survival in a nomadic community.

Csalis are trained by the Red Grith for seven months for wrangling animals before they begin the ritual hunt. Their first hunt is always a trial in which they must find and tag their mentor or trainer, during which the mentor or trainer does their very best to avoid detection or being touched while dressed as the animal the csali will be working with. The tagging is simply a normal wound hit. If the mentor or trainer is harmed more than this, the hunt is a failure, for part of the trial is control and precision.

After the csali succeeds in their "first hunt", they must live as the animal they will be wrangling for another seven months. During this time, they must live on their own and avoid being caught by their mentor or trainer. During this time, they must engage in rituals that leave them vulnerable, often meditative practices in public spaces. During these meditations, they will see a vision of a symbol that will come to define them. This will be the animal they plan to work with.

Unlike slayers, their training stops here. Once they have their animal vision, they are able to influence and work with that animal. Mostly, they work with local animals, though sometimes animals are imported. However, they only gain a magical bond to the local ones. Options include the following:

• Badger-baiting
• Bear-baiting
• Bull-running
• Cockfighting
• Crab-fighting
• Dogfighting
• Donkey-baiting
• Duck-baiting
• Hog-baiting
• Horse-fighting
• Hyena-baiting
• Insect-fighting (must be specific)
• Lion-bating
• Rat-baiting
• Spider-fighting
• Wolf-baiting

The csali will have incredible magical control of their chosen animal, able to command them with a word or gesture with an absoluteness even the best mundane trainers can't manage.

PRO +1 ATH +1 STR +1 AWA +1 WIL +1 PRS -3 STH /

Bandits

The Red Grith employs groups of bandits just outside the city to rob and plunder for profits. They share skills amongst each other.

Bandalero

Bandaleros are bandits who have a set of skills that complement each other, but which don't work individually. They operate as a team so they can share skills amongst each other.

They engage in a meditative practice called figgum. This begins with the bandits not learning to fight, but to juggle. They practice this for hours a day until they can juggle five knives with their eyes closed, and then they juggle while meditating. The concept they focus on to meditate is that "one skill is all skills". The idea is that if one learns one skill, that skill can be transformed into another. Thus, they focus on a single skill, becoming elite in it, then use the power of figgum to transform that skill into any other needed skill temporarily. The process of achieving this requires them focusing on the circle formed by the act of juggling, then breaking past it via a meditative process called "moving beyond the circle". This process requires such extreme concentration that one must meditate for months at a time to achieve it, hence why few among the poor and oppressed ever achieve it. They do this together with one another, always matching the pace of their least skilled member, to establish a bond.

In-game, this amounts to an ongoing series of rolling juggling skill, WIL, and AWA against increasing difficulties, with a series of bonuses and penalties for successes or failures, culminating in a roll against a difficulty of 25 for juggling, 25 for WIL to focus, and 25 for AWA to see past the circle. If this is achieved, the bandaleros will gain the ability to move their skill points around their character sheet or those of the other six people in their band as they please. There are some caveats to this - they can't move base stats around, for example, nor innate powers. Only learned skills may be adapted. If they alter their skill in juggling, it may affect their ability to use this power, as they must enter the meditative state via juggling to use their power.

Bandaleros borrow skill points from others in their band by willingly giving them that skill by passing a juggling knife to them while meditating. If they do this seven times in a row, they establish a bond that lasts for seven months. After that, they re-establish it. The bandalero must temporarily give the person some of their skill points in order to gain the skill being provided. The skill points the bandalero has can never go above their skill point total.

Some skills cost more than others, however. Magical skills, for example, are not equivalent to basic language skills, nor are elite-level skills equal to low-level ones. There is a scale of equivalence available if you choose to play a bandalero. Once a bandalero band is formed and bonded, they can trade skills no matter how far apart they are or whether they are working together or not.

Bandaleros who lose their juggling knives will lose their powers.

PRO +2 ATH +2 STR +1 AWA +1 WIL / PRS -1 STH +1

Beggar

Some beggars who join the Red Grith are often taught to use the magic of menab'e, a substance they can find in unexpected places that lets them turn meager resources into just enough. These are called ptoch. Some find faith helps them in their work, worshipping not one of the above deities, but the concept of Survival. These are called remainers.

Ptoch

Menab'e is a rare, reddish form of coal that can be converted into other useful materials by those who know how to use it. All it takes is a little bit of it for a skilled wielder to transform it. The Red Grith looks for the most resourceful beggars in their ranks to train for this, as menab'e is rare, and learning to use it is not easy.

The gain menab'e, one must gather resources of various kinds and transmute them via one's own ingenuity. Beggars are uniquely placed to gather resources, and thus, the Red Grith favors them for this magic. A beggar who has gathered (via begging, scavenging, or petty theft) seven useful but distinct objects can begin the ritual. The first step is to use each object for something helpful to oneself without losing it. While a coin or piece of food, for example, is useful, it is difficult to make use of it without losing it, so ptoch favor other objects they can gather. Once each object has been used, they must be collected together in a small circle (made of salt, blood, or simply drawn somehow on the ground). They will then break each item in the circle.

The ptoch will then make an offering of some part of themselves - it can be as direct as blood or as esoteric as their memory of their parents or their ability to dance. This offering is made vocally if it is not possible to offer physically. If they are sincere, and if their offering is susbtantial enough, the circle will begin to glow. The ptoch will then need to attempt to reassemble the broken items in the circle (without removing them) by simply placing the pieces back together. If their offering is suitable and their resourcefulness great enough, the items will reassemble magically, and within the circle will be a single piece of menab'e.

From then on, this piece of menab'e will be the source of the ptoch's power. The seven items will all have a bond to them as well, each one with +1 more to their primary function. Anything the beggar begs off of someone, scavenges from the city, or manages to scrounge or otherwise gather (non-violently acquire) can be empowered by their piece of menab'e. The menab'e can be drawn from for +1 to +7 to any useful object or survival skill up to seven times. The more taken from it, the smaller it gets, and for every seven points used, one of their useful objects will lose its +1. Once all 49 points are used, the menab'e will be gone. It can be extended, however, if the original circle remains intact and new objects are offered to it. They need not go through the full ritual; they simply must be added and left there for seven days before being taken out. These useful objects must be gathered as well, not bought, traded for, or taken by violence.

If a ptoch loses their original circle, they must begin the process over again entirely, and they lose all stats and bonuses gained from it.

PRO -1 ATH -1 STR -2 AWA +1 WIL / PRS +1 STH +1

Remainer

Remainers are beggars who are part of the religion of the Red Grith. They are effectively street preachers, but not the loud, soapbox kind. They are quiet ministers who spread the faith of Survival. They believe Survival is a force, an energy, that can be drawn from by those who have faith in it. This faith is not in a Divine power or some other figure, but in the concept, and thus, there is no favor or disfavor. Instead, it is the power of belief itself that grants remainers their abilities.

Those who truly believe in Survival as a concept put themselves in its hands. They believe they will survive even the greatest hardships if they have faith, and thus, they prove this faith by facing hardships with nothing but. And they spread this belief quietly but effectively among the poor and desperate. The downside of this is that any lack of faith can lead to a terrible death; the upside is that those who truly believe really do survive serious dangers and difficult times.

In order to gain power from Survival, one must engage in an intiating proof of faith. This can take many forms, but it must be a non-contrived hardship that they face with faith alone. This is why the faith is only truly accessible to those without many resources. This can be living without food for a significant amount of time, surviving something violet, living through a disaster, making it through prison time, or some other very difficult trial. This does not mean intentionally not eating or getting arrested, nor does it mean not fighting back or getting out of the way of a moving train. It means praying intensely while facing these difficulties and accepting limitations. It means putting faith in Survival to get you through when you have absolutely nothing else to get you through. Anything else is fake.

If one goes through something like this and survives, they are a remainer, and they will have the power of faith in Survival. At this point, they will have a faith score they can draw from to pray and see palpable effects, often helping others survive hardships. And if they convert others to the faith, they gain even more faith.

If a remainer denies Survival to another who is earnest in the faith, they will lose all faith-based powers.

PRO -2 ATH -1 STR / AWA +1 WIL +4 PRS +1 STH /

Bookie

The Red Grith's betting operations are run by those who keep books that can enforce the status quo, thus preventing manipulation of the odds. These are called gevhiters. The Captain of Heart is always a bookie.

Gevhiter

The Red Grith is keenly aware of the magical powers that affect the odds in games of chance. These powers are aligned powers, and the powers of the Red Grith are unaligned. The strength of unaligned powers is that they can neutralize aligned powers, and thus, the Red Grith makes sure their bookies, who are critical to their operations, have the ability to stop any magical manipulation of the odds.

A gevhiter is trained in the use of a neutralizing energy called shebv heya, "that which is". They learn to use this power by controlling the flow of energies around them. There are several ways they make this happen. The first is, they control their space. A gevhiter has a base of operations designed to control the flow of energy within with careful placement of everything in the room. If they are not in their space, they usually don't take bets. If they are in their space, they have a +3 to every esoteric roll and anyone using an aligned energy has a -3.

The second is that they remain neutralized themself. They never carry anything, use anything, or allow themselves to be affected by anything with an aligned energy if they can help it. This mean no acts of defiance to oppression, no environmental activities and limited contact with nature, no supporting the systems of power, and no engagement with anything fey or legendary. They try to remain unaligned. They won't use any magical object not proven to be unaligned, won't accept blessings, healing, boons, or even curses from aligned powers. Any aligned energy that affects them will start eating away at their own powers at a rate of -1 per day of affect.

The third is that they keep a fair book. They don't fudge the numbers. They don't tweak the odds. They don't play games. The book is accurate, and that's that.

The fourth is that they outsource the violent parts of their job. They have extortionists, gangsters, arsonists, and assassins for that part of the work.

And the fifth is that they submerge themselves in neutralized water every week. Neutralized water is water that has been filtered through neutral materials - specifically, zinc, sard, and hickory. It is boiled in a zinc pot. It is run over a bed of sard on zinc mesh. It is then set with floating bits of hickory, which soak up remaining energies, for a week. After a week, this water is run into a zinc or hickory tub, and the gevhiter is submerged in it completely for seven minutes (a zinc breathing tube is provided if needed).

If they live this way for a year and seven days, they gain the ability to wield shebv heya. They do this through the use of their book as a vessel of the energy. They can invoke this power in several ways:

• Writing in the book invokes its power. This is usually done to ensure a bet cannot be affected by outside powers. For example, a bet recorded in the book has a magical power equal to the gevhiter's score in shebvic energy, and the event the bet is placed on will then have that level of protection. If a rambler or taeflere or calamitist seeks to affect the event with their respective energies, it will roll first against the shev heya of the book.
• Inscribing a name in the book invokes the book's power on that person if and only if the person is aware and willing and if and only if the name is accurate. Accuracy is not based on legality, but on the name commonly used to accurately and precisely identify the individual (thus the full name). This will give the person a protection against aligned energies equal to the power of the book.
• Burning a page of the book releases some of its power. Pages with anything written on it must be torn out and burnt to release the power. This has the obvious downside of destroying part of the book.
• Striking someone with the book is a blunt instrument of unaligned power. It has a +2/-1 stun/wound, and it ignores any aligned magical protections.
• Eating a page of the book with one's own name written on it gives the wielder the power to dispel aligned energies with a touch at the score of the book.

The book's score is determined by how well the gevhiter has lived up to the five steps above. It will gain in +1 power for every year and seven days the gevhiter continues their practices.

If the book is destroyed, all its powers are lost until a new one is made.

PRO -1 ATH -2 STR / AWA +3 WIL +2 PRS / STH /

Captain of Heart

The Captain of Heart is the Red Grith's lead administrator and is always a gevhiter. The Captain of Heart has a minimum score of 17 for their book, which is expanded beyond bets to start recording duties and administrative tracking for the organization. They are an elite gevhiter, and they are always given the Grithsbook to keep.

PRO +1 ATH / STR +2 AWA +5 WIL +4 PRS +1 STH /

Grithsbook

The Grithsbook is the ledger that contains all of the administrative information of the Red Grith (in code). It provides neutralizing protection for every facet of the Red Grith's work at a power level of 25.

Bootlegger

Bootleggers make illegal hooch to sell for the Red Grith. They use hyperscientific methods to create potent alcohol that is banned in the empire and most parts of the world.

Kufera

In the Red Grith, the kuferas use advanced scientific processes to create potent alchohol for sale. They create them via hyperscientific methods that allow them to run multiple experiments with the same ingredients at the same time. For example, if an experiment needs one fluid ounce of water, they can run that experiment twice at the same time with only one fluid ounce of water, allowing for use of controls and A/B testing to experiment more rapidly. In terms of the process of creating alchohol, this allows quicker generation of drinks and quicker development of new kinds of alchohol, giving the Red Grith an edge on competitors.

In order to tap into this power, a kufera needs special equipment - equipment made from a glass called potiri - and neutralized ingredients, and decades of study into hyperscience, specifically hyperchemistry and hyperbotany. The Red Grith sponsors promising members to school to learn these or recruits desperate students.

The processes of creating drugs varies by alchohol. There are six that the Red Grith specializes in:

• Bugum: pear cider with a tangy edge that is popular among younger folks.
• Bulam: a more potent variety of whisky that can cleanse the body of illness because of its burning intensity.
• Kukaw: a special variety of ale that has a sharper bitterness to it but fills the body like a proper meal.
• Kuny: a kind of reddish beer that alters itself to the preference of the drinker in terms of lightness or heaviness.
• Muvul: a more potent variety of gin that refreshes as much as it intoxicates; it has a subtly sweet flavor added to it.
• Woma: a form of mead that is more alcoholic while still maintaining its flavor.

Kuferas are skilled in hyperchemistry and may also know how to make other useful substances. The risk, however, of running multiple experiments or chemical processes is twice the risk of failure.

PRO -1 ATH +1 STR -2 AWA +3 WIL / PRS -1 STH +1

Brawler

Brawlers in the Red Grith gain power via feats of strength and prowess to become intimidating soldiers of criminality (called hectrists).

Hectrist

Hectrists are brawlers who have the ability to alter themselves by performing great feats. They achieve this ability by passing an initial trial of impossibility. This usually takes years of training, during which they will focus on one specific impossible feat, usually one of strength, like lifting something too big to be lifted or pushing something to heavy to be moved. They train in doing this not to achieve it, but to strive, for it is known that if you strive to outrun the wind, one day you might not outrun the wind, but you will outrun horses. Thus, one day, the hectrist will be able to achieve a feat of strength beyond normal mortal capability.

How this translates is that they will one day succeed on a roll that is 9 above their STR. They must do this without use of any tokens, narrative fiat, etc. Once it is done, they will unlock the energy within them that allows them to continue to be altered by feats, and any subsequent critical successes will cause them to gain permanently bonuses to STR or alterations to their bodies within reason. Hectrists tend to alter themselves to be big and intimidating. The opposite is also true, however - any critical failure (failure by 9 or more) will result in the loss of a power, bonus, or other feat-empowered feature.

Their role in the Red Grith is to fight those who cross the Red Grith. They tend to prefer to use their fists.

PRO +2 ATH +1 STR +5 AWA -1 WIL -1 PRS -2 STH -3

Consigliere

The consiglieres of the Red Grith are skilled wielders of the magicks of war, especially those that give them insights into strategy and tactics. They are connected to every organized part of the Red Grith, advising captains, elchees, or lieutenants. Consiglieres have a knowledge of law, local politics, and the comings and goings of the underground world. They are well trained, usually with actual degrees, and connected. They keep their hands technically clean, but they are deeply involved in the work of the Red Grith. An average consigliere in the Red Grith is called a zovlok.

Zovlok

Zovloks are strategists and tacticians. They often even have military training, and they engage in rituals of war magic to gain special powers that they apply not to a battlefield, but the courtroom and the streets.

The ritual zovloks undertake is an act of violent blood magic. A zovlok undergoes training from other zovloks for up to seven years, funded by the Red Grith or recruited from the poorer students in local law schools with promises of criminal wealth or vengeance of the glamour of a criminal lifestyle. The zovloks learn to fight to a basic level, but their main focus is tactics. They view life like a complex battlefield, and they spend time playing games designed to train their mind in this way.

The blood magic they engage to gain their powers is a ritual in which they test themselves against their mentor or trainers. Each cuts themself such that they have a normal wound actively spilling blood within a circle of blood and/or power, and they must engage in a ritual combat wherein they must try to force the other out of the circle they fight within. They must do this before they are too weak from the normal wound to act. The trick is that they cannot cut each other after the initial ritual cut; they must resort to other physical attacks or trickery, positioning, and timing. Every three rounds of combat, a bar or rope is pulled across the circle, which they must leap over or be knocked prone or dragged out. If they win, their mentor paints their face with blood from the mentor's wound, granting them some or all of these special powers:

• Fast learning of tactical information
• Tactical persuasion (+3 to PRS when persuading someone of a good tactic)
• Strategic assessment (+3 AWA when figuring out multiple moves in a contest)
• Dominant voice (+3 PRS in a courtroom, on a battlefield, or in a debate)
• Intimidating glare (+3 intimidation with their glare, once per day)
• Ruthless precision (no penalty to called shots for a killing blow)
• Patient reserve (immune to intimidation, provocation, or fear)
• Calculate expendability (know the value of a henchman, whether they should be kept or disposed of, after they have failed your organization)

Other powers are possible. Consult with GM. Once used, powers must be recharged with blood.

If a zovlok does not renew their powers via ritual combat every seven weeks, they will lose them.

PRO +1 ATH / STR / AWA +4 WIL +1 PRS +1 STH /

Board of Seven

The Board of Seven are seven consiglieres who are leaders of the Red Grith's consiglieres and responsible for the legal-facing operations of the organization. They are the most elite consiglieres, and they answer only to the Cang. All of their powers are +6 instead of +3, and they have to recharge after three uses instead of one.

Chairman

The Chairman of the Board of Seven is just a little stronger than the other six (+7 instead of +6, recharge after five uses) and is effectively the second-in-command of the entire Red Grith.

PRO +2 ATH / STR +1 AWA +5 WIL +2 PRS +2 STH /

Conspirator

The conspirators who manage the Red Grith are known to wield magic that allows them to sense and control social connections (launratha), those who worship the Hands (especailly the first liar) (suaderian), and those who can manipulate the flow of localized systems of any kind (tivant).

Launratha

The launratha are conspriators who use emotional magic. They don't use string figures, but instead wield threads. These threads are woven into special pieces that resonate with emotional connections. Their role in the Red Grith is to work behind the scenes to ensure the right people connect with the right people to meet the needs of the Grith. As such, they keep their powers hidden, posing as a different kind of criminal (often a beggar).

Launratha use special thread which they draw from their own metaphorical hearts, their emotional being, via a ritual. The first step is to attune themselves to their own emotions, much as taelters do, spending the same amount of time training to do so. If they can achieve this, they then must place their hands over their hearts, meditate to their own heartbeats, and then pierce their skin with a narrow needle. If they are truly attuned to their emotions, no blood will flow; instead, the needle will pull out an invisible thread. When they open their eyes, they will see the thread shimmering, though no one else would be able to. They can then spool the thread around a something, pulling for hours until they need to rest. This thread will represent all of their own social connections.

From then on, they can only create more thread if they build a new meaningful emotional connection with someone. This thread can be used to sew pieces that can be given to those with whom they have a connection, which allows the launratha to subtly influence their emotions so long as they carry or wear the piece.

For this reason, they must get close to those they need to manipulate for the purposes of the Grith, but it only takes one meaningful interaction to have a potent enough emotional connection to draw enough thread to make something. Once the target has the piece, the launratha can roll WIL any time that person is within sight to influence the emotional state of that person. Influence - not control. They nudge it in a direction, add a small dose of certain emotions. Depending on the strength of their emotional connection, they have a limited number of uses of this power. One use for a brief but meaningful encounter. Max of nine uses for someone they have a long-term, deep connection with (a lover, a parent, a close friend, a sibling, a long-term coworker, etc.).

If a launratha loses attunement to their own emotions, they lose their powers.

PRO -1 ATH / STR -1 AWA +3 WIL +3 PRS +3 STH +1

Suaderian

Suaderians are those who worship the Hands, the four legendary inmortal beings who feature heavily in stories told by the Red Grith and followers of their religion.

The Hands were said to have been agents of the Hooded Lady who played a major role in her early days. The first thief, called the Maroon Hand, is a trickster figure in those stories, causing trouble and teaching lessons about survival and the code of conduct of those who live beyond the law. The first murderer, called the Bloody Hand, is a figure who was cursed for their actions and forced to guide dead criminals into the afterlife ever since. The first vagrant, called the Long Hand, shows up in the stories to help various figures out, giving them guidance and wisdom. And the first liar, called the Broken Hand, shows up in the stories as a complicated figure, one whose lies can cause problems, but also save lives, depending on when and how they are used.

The Broken Hand is seen as a lesson about how lies must be used carefully. They are necessary for survival when you live beyond the law, but they can endanger trust between members of the Grith. Therefore, they must be used with care.

Suaderians are conspirators whose role is to wield lies to further the purposes of the Red Grith. They are the ones who know when to lie and when to tell the truth, and they invoke faith in the Hands, especially the Broken Hand, to be persuasive when they need to be.

As followers of the Broken Hand, they operate in secret, posing as a follower of the Hands more generally - so they can be open about their faith - but keeping their specific role hidden. However, they always guide people toward the Broken Hand when they can. Their deceptive practices - lying with care, telling the truth when necessary - is what gains them favor with their patron. If they live to this standard well, they are rewarded with greater persuasion skills (substat of PRS), greater STH, insights into other people, and other powers at discretion of the GM.

If a suaderian engages in careless lies too many times, they will lose their powers, or, worse, be exposed as who they are.

PRO / ATH / STR -1 AWA +2 WIL +1 PRS +3 STH +2

Tivant

Tivants work behind the scenes. They see the world as an endless chain of cause-and-effect, and their in-depth study of it allows them to manipulate that chain to cause long-term effects. To them, everything is a Rube-Goldberg device waiting to happen. They see the butterfly flap its wings and know when and where the hurricane will happen on the other side of the world, and they know how to interrupt, alter, reverse, or control that process.

To become a tivant requires incredible amounts of study. In the Red Grith, the goal of a tivant is to further the ends and intentions of the organization, and therefore, they study Haenor and Endruin intensively to know how to manipulate it. They know the criminal underworld as well as the political overworld, the everyday things of the city, and the context of world politics. Part of their study is mundane, but in a magical world, they need to study it magically as well, and they need a way to tweak those energies to their needs. This is why they study the systemic magic of vonzot.

To tap into vonzot, a tivant needs to introduce an antithetical, unpredictable element into any system they wish to manipulate. As part of their training, they learn to do this and gain other powers by introducing the unexpected into their own mental systems, usually in the form of trepanning at the hands of another tivant. This leaves a permanent hole in their head, preferably in an inconspicuous place that can be covered by a hat, and an unpredictable but potent ability to see the lines of vonzot extant in any system. With this, they can simply mentally "grab" these lines and alter them, inserting the unpredictable in the system and allowing them to insert change that they can control. The paradox of this is inherent to their magic.

Some common powers include

• Reversal: seeing the inevitable end to a series of causal events, they tweak the lines to make the exact opposite happen.
• Hasten: seeing the inevitale end to a series of causal events, they tweak it so it happens sooner.
• Delay: seeing the inevitale end to a series of causal events, they tweak it so that it happens later.
• Interrupt: seeing the inevitale end to a series of causal events, they tweak it so that nothing happens.
• Direct: seeing the inevitale end to a series of causal events, they take total control of that series of events to alter it point by point.
• Redirect: seeing the inevitale end to a series of causal events, they tweak it so that something different happens.
• Undirect: seeing the inevitale end to a series of causal events, they tweak it so that something they can't predict happens.

And this would be perfect, except that no system is isolated enough for this to always work, and the vonzot itself is unstable. If any people are involved in the system they are tweaking, the existence of free will has an unfortunate effect on their plans. Chaos, fortune, and other powers may cause unexpected disruptions. And vonzot has a tendency to simply go off the rails. And these are only some of the factors involved.

• People: every person involved in a system a tivant is affecting must roll WIL, whether they know the effect is happening or not. Failure means they are subject to the tivant's control, but every action they are forced to take is another WIL roll.
• Other energies: before a tivant attempts to manipulate a system, either the player or the GM will roll a d100. On a 100, there is no interference. Anything less than that, there is interference on an escalating scale ((100-N)/4, where N is the result of the roll, rounding up).
• Instability: before every tweak to a system, the tivant rolls their skill or WIL-3, whichever is higher, against a difficulty determined by a roll of 3d12+N, with N being the number of attempts after a failure.

Any failure results in the unpredictable.

PRO -1 ATH -1 STR -2 AWA +5 WIL +3 PRS -1 STH -1

Cooker

The Red Grith's drug makers wield the power of possibility, wielding superscience of its era to create magical drugs. They are called emporoses. Others make drugs that derive from the emotional energy generated by their own personalities. These are called mabends.

Emporos

In the Red Grith, the emporoses use advanced scientific processes to create potent synthetic drugs for sale. They create them via hyperscientific methods that allow them to run multiple experiments with the same ingredients at the same time. For example, if an experiment needs one fluid ounce of water, they can run that experiment twice at the same time with only one fluid ounce of water, allowing for use of controls and A/B testing to experiment more rapidly. In terms of the process of creating drugs, this allows quicker generation of drugs and quicker development of new kinds of drugs, giving the Red Grith an edge on competitors.

In order to tap into this power, an emporos needs special equipment - equipment made from a glass called potiri - and neutralized ingredients, and decades of study into hyperscience, specifically hyperchemistry and hyperbiology. The Red Grith sponsors promising members to school to learn these or recruits desperate students.

The processes of creating drugs varies by drug. There are six that the Red Grith specializes in:

• Florid: a red liquid injected via a needle that causes the blood to rush to the head, creating a flushed appearance; it is a very strong stimulant. Prolonged use increases the risk of a stroke. It is highly addictive.
• Minium: a red powder usually inhaled nasally, though it can be melted and injected with a needle; it is a painkiller. Prolonged use causes gastrointestinal issues. It is highly addictive.
• Vicious: pills of various colors that are potent inducers of violent psychosis, energy, and paranoia. It is addictive, but few who use it live long enough for the addiction to be the problem.
• Sourweed: enhanced plants that have an acrid smell when burnt; if dried and burnt as incense, its smoke inhaled, it will cause a pleasant drunken feeling. Prolonged use causes lung damage. It is not addictive.
• Pinch: venom distilled from fire ants and altered via hyperchemistry to be a mild orange fluid that is drunk in tiny doses. It causes the skin to tingle and makes tactile senses more intense. Prolonged use causes shock and organ failure. It is mildly addictive.
• Jinx: hallucinatory chemical derived from multiple sources, this chemical is taken mixed with food. Prolonged use causes permanent but mild hallucinations. It is not addictive.

Emporoses are skilled in hyperchemistry and may also know how to make other useful substances. The risk, however, of running multiple experiments or chemical processes is twice the risk of failure.

PRO -1 ATH -1 STR -2 AWA +4 WIL +1 PRS -1 STH /

Mabend

The most potent drug made by the Red Grith is called jalada. It is a light that, when it touches the face of a user, makes their entire personality louder and more free, instilling a feeling of well being, self-esteem, and contentment with where one is in the world. It lasts about an hour, then is followed by a crash wherein one forgets one's own name. Prolonged use causes the crash to extend until it is permanent, requiring more and more use of jalada. It is highly addictive.

Mabends create this drug by washing in rushing water (usually a shower) while experiencing intense emotions. They do this by focusing on intense memories, and in order to get a wide range of emotions, they seek out certain experiences. Sometimes this means intentionally falling in love, other times it means getting arrested, other times it means jumping off something high, other times it means taking a long nap. Any experience that gives them an intense emotion must be focused on for hours afterward, meditated upon right up until they rest for the night, and then the following morning, they wash in a torrent of water while focusing on the memory and feeling. Then, they gather the water to mix with the next experience. Once they have done this with 100 experiences, they add seeds of mandrake and petals of belladonna, boil it into a tea, then carry it back to thre torrent of water. There, they flash a bright light through it. The light is captured in the torrent, bottled, and sold. To use it, users must boil the water to release the light, placing their face above it to absorb it.

However, mabends do not have to mix 100 emotions into it. They can make mixtures of any kinds of emotions, so long as they are sincere, and these can be used to enhance emotions of anyone who consumes them (via the same method as jalada). However, the Red Grith does not pay for these to be manufactured.

The risk doing this work is that the emotions never come back. The process of making these emotional concoctions requires AWA rolls at every step (initial experience, focus on it until before med, meditation before rest, awakening, showering). The difficulty is 10, 13, 15, 11, and 15. Any failure causes emotional damage to the mabend. Later, they must roll their alchemical skills when boiling the mixture with belladonna and mandrake against a difficulty determined by the success rate of their previous rolls.

PRO -1 ATH -1 STR -1 AWA +4 WIL +1 PRS +2 STH /

Counterfeiter

The Red Grith's counterfeiting operations are mostly done via the power of flux, the energy of change, which is used to alter an object to look like another or a coin to be something it is not. These are called underalterors.

Underalteror

The magic of alteration is done via special spinning orbs made of a magical metal called vysolite. These orbs are extremely hard to acquire, so the Red Grith keeps them as the organization's property and only lets their most skilled counterfeiters work with them. The art of wielding them is also difficult to learns, but as they are instrumental to the Red Grith's counterfeiting operations, they invest in training.

The energy of flux cannot be controlled. It can only be nudged, and this is done because vysolite orbs interact with it without being changed because they are always changing anyway. The energy of change is ever-present, so all that is needed is a spinning orb to draw it in and direct it. Underalterors learn the different movements of the orb they need to engage to cause the alterations they wish, and they learn how to apply these to coinage or objects to make them appear more valuable than they are. This is all kept in a controlled environment in heavily guarded locations, but on rare occasions, and underalteror will be sent on a mission where their magical talents might be needed.

The alteration of objects has a varying degree of difficulty based on many factors - size, complexity, magical properties being major ones - and the amount of flux used to alter them affects the power of the spell. A vysolite orb will spin if left suspended in air (they float naturally), gathering flux to it, sending bands of perceptible energy flowing around it. An underalteror will then tweak the way the orb spins in order to direct the energy. Different directions of spin cause different effects. The longer they let it spin without tweaking it, the more power it builds up. However, the longer it spins, the more likely it is the flux will spontanteously affect anything and everything around it (as a paradoxical energy, it is unstable). As such, when not in use, the orbs are put away in cloth bags that force them to the ground and stop their spinning.

To alter a living being is much more difficult and requires a roll against the target's WIL, PRS, and STR. Underalterors rarely have need to do this.

There are limitations on their magic:

• It is not possible to alter something you are unaware of nor something you cannot perceive.
• The more specific the alteration, the better - it is easier to alter something with specific instructions on how it is to be altered.

A spinning vysolite orb gathers flux at a rate of 3 points per round, starting at a base power determined by the size and potency of the orb. A standard orb starts at power of 8. The largest orbs an average mortal can wield caps at 23, but larger beings may be able to go higher. However, the higher the score, the more unstable it is. Every roll with a base power higher than 10 will result in unpredictable results on any level of failure. Normal failure (1 to 2 below) means minor unintended change to the target. Special failure (3 to 5 below) means an unintended change to the target. An exceptional failure (6 to 8 below) means uncontrolled flux explodes around the orb. Since the underalteror is usually very close if they are wielding it, they are the most likely victim of this, though others may be hit by it depending on how much power is at play. For normal, special, and exceptional failures, the underalteror rolls a d100 to see how bad/good the unintended change is, with a 1 being the worst. A critical failure (9+ below) results in an explosion of uncontrolled flux that causes automatic negative effects.

The way it works, though, is that the the underalteror rolls their spinning skill against the power of flux the orb has built up. If they succeed, they roll the power of the flux plus the bonuses applied by the success rate of their roll (NS +0, SS +3, ES +6, CS +9). If the power score is above 10, failure means unintended effects (see above).

Mostly, underalterors do this in controlled environments wherein they alter currency, and the orbs they use there are larger. The ones they are allowed to take out of this environment are smaller.

Underalterors have a deep knowledge of anything they are fabricating or counterfeiting in order to make their work easier. All of them are experts on currency.

PRO -1 ATH -2 STR -2 AWA +3 WIL +2 PRS -1 STH +1

Criminal

Scelestians are not jacks-of-all-crimes so much as masters of them all. They are those who have trained in every art of crime they can to become elite in all of them, thus able to wield the Cant and the Hooded Shadow better than any others.

Scelestian

NPC only

These master-of-all-crimes are multitalented criminals who have spent decades or more practicing the arts of the Cant and the Hooded Shadow. These are the most elite members of the Red Grith, special agents of the Cang (and probably the Cang himself) who exist in the shadows and do what they must to keep control of their city.

There is an ancient cant, a variation on language, a secret code and a dialect and a pidgin, a set of rhymes and ciphers, that only those who have been pushed outside the law may wield. The Cant derived from the first people who had to steal from other mortals to survive, and it grew into a complex, panlingual cryptological esoteric puzzle. The Cant cannot be understood by anyone who serves the laws of the state that make people criminals, and it gives those who speak it special powers. To access it, one must have committed a crime in a place one has been, knowingly, and one must have done so without other esoteric power. One must have committed this crime for purposes neither related to upholding the oppressive structures nor overthrowing them. The crime must violate a law existing on the books in the place it was broken, and it must be knowingly committed. If the crime is later decriminalized, it will still empower the scelestian. If the crime is unknowingly committed, but the criminal later discovers it was/is illegal, they have a brief window to take advantage before they lose access to the cant (until they commit a crime again). In that brief window, they will see a shadow, and if they follow that shadow, they will begin to see things they never noticed before. This will lead them to the closest wielder of Cant, who, if they are recognized as someone exposed to the shadow, will recruit them.

From there, they will be trained in the Cant, and eventually tested via a series of criminal activities. If they pass, they will be initiated into the Hooded Shadow, the power of concealment from the law.

The Hooded Shadow empowers them in any criminal activity, and scelestians train in so many criminal activities, they learn to apply it to any or all of them. They can empower flames to be unseen to better engage in arson, ensuring a structure burns. They can hide their manipulations of people to better their skills as a conspirator. They can use the shadow to make themselves more intimdiating as an extortionist, or they can use it to become practically invisible as a spy, thief, or assassin. Any criminal activity, they can empower with it.

The most powerful can steal intangible things like a person's feelings, their abilities, or even parts of their lives. They can wield the Hooded Shadow consume people's souls, turn flame into shadow, or alter their own forms. They are true masters of the Hooded Shadow, able to do anything they need to with it to commit the crimes they choose to commit.

In order to wield it, the scelestian must use the correct canting rhymes. They must maintain the Hooded Shadow by remaining outside the law, never cooperating with the authorities, and never going straight. This does not mean never following any law, but rather, never betraying the Red Grith and never surviving off anything but criminal gains. Any violation will destroy the Cant immediately. The more crimes they knowingly commit, the higher the score they have in the shadow, but any use depletes it, meaning they have a limited amount of shadow to use. Furthermore, some crimes only count as one instance even if prolonged - i.e., selling drugs to a dozen people is just "selling drugs", not twelve instances of it. They must be broken up with other crimes in-between. Rape and sexual assault do not generate the Hooded Shadow, as these are infernal acts.

It takes them decades to master all forms of crime, but once they do, they become major players within the Grith. Only a handful have ever existed. Only criminal acts tasked by the Red Grith generate shadow.

PRO +3 ATH +3 STR +3 AWA +3 WIL +3 PRS +3 STH +6

Deviant

The Red Grith has a complicated with deviants, those who are criminalized for their sexuality or gender. The Red Grith has no rules or political views on the matter, and therefore, does not provide special protections for them. There is sexism, homophobia, and transphobia within the Red Grith. But many deviants still find their way into the Red Grith because they want to survive, and they do not feel the other Griths suit them. Many end up being sex workers, beggars, or other criminals, but a rare few find ways to draw power from their alleged deviance. These are called suinoments.

Suinoment

A suinoment is someone who has been criminalized for their sexuality or gender who has learned to wield the magic of Names by altering their self to match their true self. This power is rare, extremely difficult to achieve, and dangerous to practice without deep and intense training. As there is no support for study or training for this within the Red Grith, suinoments always end up practicing their art with great risk and relatively low skill compared to other Namecasters.

In order to gain the power to wield Namecasting, suinoments must have altered their ways of thinking, their feelings about something major in their life, and their own bodies. Furthermore, they must either alter any natural supernatural ability they have or experience something remarkably new to them that changes their life significantly. These four experiences impact their mind, heart, body, and soul. If they do this, they can then attempt to see their own True Name. There are many methods to do this, all of them involving dangerous magical practices (standing between two mirrors and calling to infinity to take you, attempting to nearly kill onself and see the Beyond, meditating into the depths of their being such that they might not return). All of these are difficult, but if they are successful, the suinoment attains awareness of self beyond that of other mortals. This gives them insights into others as well, allowing them to see fragments of True Names for people, places, and things.

Via trial by error, suinoments learn to wield these fragments, speaking them with power. Many die trying, if they try. Most just try to ignore it, or use these insights mildly. But those who risk casting sometimes gain skill in doing so, learning to wield a weak version of Name magic.

• Identifying vision: allows the caster to know what something is on a profound level. Difficulty 13.
• Fragment-reading: allows the caster to understand a facet of something, someone, or somewhere. Difficulty 10.
• Fragment-inscribing: allows the caster to store the power of a fragment. Difficulty 7.
• Minor alteration, other: allows the caster to alter some facet of a person, place, or thing. Difficulty 13 for a small inanimate thing, 15 for a moderate or nonintelligent living thing, 17 for a large thing or person, 19 for a huge thing, 21 for a small place (a room), 23 for a moderate place (a building), 25 for a large place (a town).
• Minor alteration, self: allows the caster to alter some facet of themselves. Difficulty 7.

They cast by speaking aloud any fragment they have recorded, which they do by first reading it, then writing it on something. If they lose the record, they lose the power. If they fail any roll, they damage themselves. Normal failure is a permanent -1. Special is -3. Exceptional -6. Critical is -9. This happens to a random stat on their character sheet. If any base stat hits 0, they die. Recovery from losses requires either a difficulty of penalty times 2 Name-casting minor alteration, self, or years of study, exercise, and healing. If they fail a roll intended to heal a penalty, their penalties are double. If a penalty hits a stat or skill less than the penalty, the remainder of the penalty is randomly applied elsewhere. If they wish, they may apply the penalty to a non-scored feature, such as a memory, a motivation, etc., but it must be harmful.

Other uses of this are possible. Consult with the GM if you have ideas.

PRO / ATH +1 STR / AWA +3 WIL +3 PRS +1 STH +1

Embezzler

Those tempted to embezzle and engage in white collar crime who serve the Red Grith are rewarded with the power of magical contracts if they go to the Red Grith first. They are called carisarks.

Carisark

There are two ways this goes. One is that someone working a white collar job decides to embezzle and comes to the Red Grith for help. The other is that the Red Grith sends an agent into a company with the intention of having them embezzle. Either way, the best of them learn to use magical contracts for their work.

The Red Grith trains their embezzlers and white collar criminals in the art of mercatism. This is the creation of magical contracts that allow for esoteric exchanges. To do this, a person must understand value. Real value. Objective value. Value as derived from both the objective utility of something and the subjective willingness of someone to pay or provide for it. This understanding must be inward and outward. Once understood, they must write a contract with themself that weighs their value against the power they seek, and imbue it with four parts of themself, an offering of their blood, of something of emotional value, of something they have learned, and of something they have experienced. These are their collateral, and any violation of the contract will take one of these from them.

To protect themself, they may make contracts with others. Their first contract will be with another mercator in the Red Grith, who will place their life against their loyalty to the Red Grith. The second contract will be with anyone they can find, but ultimately, their goal is to trick the company they are embezzling from to make a contract that will empower their embezzlement.

Otherwise, they can put anything into a contract, to gain almost any power, ability, skill, or trait. However, any violation of their contracts will cause them to lose all of their powers. If someone else captures and alters their contracts, the consequences can be dire.

PRO -2 ATH / STR -1 AWA +3 WIL +2 PRS +1 STH /

Extortionist

Extortion is a common tactic of the Red Grith's strongest members. They have the secert magic of dragonmight (called drakilists). Some few are the Cang's favored soldiers, including the Captain of Claw.

Drakilist

Drakilists are extortionists who wield dragonmight. While some who wield dragonmight do so by forming a magical bond with a dragon (or by being a dragon, but that's not available to PCs), the extortionists among the Red Grith gain the power by carrying a magical bracelet called a dracutrem, much like the arsonists. Instead of giving them dragonfire, it gives them access to dragonmight, the raw power of a dragon. They draw from it by paying it tribute with every job they do. A little bit of their victim's blood, sweat, tears, or other fluids or flesh mixed with their own blood must be smeared on the dracutrem after intimidating, beating, or killing someone to make sure it does not lose power.

When they invoke the power of their dracutrem, they gain temporary bonuses to STR, PRO, ATH, or any natural bodily abilities they have. The more points they draw from their dracutrem, them more they must put back into it. If they make a powerful offering, they may be able to take on properties of a dragon's body, such as claws, wings, horns, scales, or fangs, to name a few.

The drakilists intimidate, beat, or kill the enemies of the Red Grith. They like to use weapons like knuckle, claws, clubs, maces, flails, koshes, or hammers.

Drakilists are weak to anything that harms dragons. If their dracutrem is submerged in water for five minutes, it will turn into oil.

PRO +3 ATH +2 STR +4 AWA / WIL +1 PRS -1 STH -2

Captain of Claw

The Captain of Claw is always a drakilist with the oldest, most powerful dracutrem. They have high skill in combat and the ability to breathe fire. Appropriately, the Captain of Claw always wields a claw, a magical one provided by the Red Grith.

PRO +5 ATH +4 STR +6 AWA +1 WIL +2 PRS / STH -1

Grithsclaw

The Grithsclaw is the weapon of the Captain of Claw. It is a +6/+6 claw with sharp metallic blades. It absorbs the primary energy of the target if it draws blood, one point per point of wound damage (i.e., if the wound roll was a 10 vs. a 16, they get 6 points of energy). This energy can be released the next round in its raw form (just a blast of raw magical energy of whaetver energy they just absorbed), or kept for another round and converted to dragonfire. If used on that next round, it is a burst of dragonfire equal to the amount of energy absorbed -1 (for the energy used to convert). If the claw has absorbed more energy via wounding another target, that number will be added if a round has passed, -1 for conversion. If multiple energies are absorbed without conversion taking place, those energies may affect each other (i.e., fire energy and water energy may weaken one another). If the energy absorbed is not used, it will last for five hours before it must either be released or the claw melts from the heat.

Fence

The Red Grith runs extensive commercial operations, selling stolen goods via a big network of fences. They are called ploronki.

Ploronki

Ploronki operate similar to carisarks. The Red Grith trains them in the art of mercatism. This is the creation of magical contracts that allow for esoteric exchanges. To do this, a person must understand value. Real value. Objective value. Value as derived from both the objective utility of something and the subjective willingness of someone to pay or provide for it. This understanding must be inward and outward. Once understood, they must write a contract with themself that weighs their value against the power they seek, and imbue it with four parts of themself, an offering of their blood, of something of emotional value, of something they have learned, and of something they have experienced. These are their collateral, and any violation of the contract will take one of these from them.

To protect themself, they may make contracts with others. Their first contract will be with another mercator in the Red Grith, who will place their life against their loyalty to the Red Grith.

They are also trained in the buying and selling of any kind of good, but especially stolen ones of high value. They are excellent appraisers, and they know when they have someone they can reel into a contract. For every contract they make, they must pay something also to the Red Grith, so contracts often have clauses that force contractees to do favors for or pay the Red Grith.

They have a lot of connections and know who owes them what.

Any violation of their contracts will cause them to lose their powers. If someone captures their contract and alters it, there can be dire consequences.

PRO -1 ATH -1 STR -1 AWA +3 WIL +1 PRS +2 STH /

Fixer

The fixers in the Red Grith use the magic of numbers and complexity to manipulate the records of the authorities or to know how to best obfuscate evidence at a crime scene. They are called amolasts.

Amolast

Amolasts wield numerology. If they know the name of someone or something, they can use alphanumeric arithmancy to learn things about it (or them), and from there, they can wield numerological magic to manipulate reality. Amolasts must learn their arts with deep study for many, many years, and the Red Grith only chooses the most ruthless, insightful, skilled of their agents to fund for this.

When numbers change, so does reality. If an amolast has the right names, they can make almost anything happen, but most are not skilled enough at math to perform what a full numerologer does. Instead, they focus on local changes, especially the work of fixing problems for the Red Grith. Notably, they make criminal records vanish, bodies and other evidence disappear, and crime scenes clear away. They do this by having a set of numerological tricks up their sleeve.

• If they know the name of a murder victim, they can numerologically alter their body so it's not findable.
• If they know the name of a criminal, they can numerologically erase their fingerprints from a crime scene.
• If they know the name of a cop, they can numerologically make them forget to arrest someone.
• If they know the name of a magistrate, they can numerologically make them lose critical paperwork.

And so on.

The method of this is to take their name - common name or True Name, though the latter is much more powerful and harder to find - and convert them alphanumerically. The Red Grith uses a special alphanumeric formula that is modulo 13, using a 30 letter alphabet. Within base 13, everything is cyclical, so these effects may return to their original state in time.

Letter	Alphanumeric	Our Number	Effect
A	0	0	Returns all things to their natural order
B	1	1	Catalyst
C	2	2	Combination
Ch	3	3	Amplification
D	4	4	Death or endings
E	5	5	Help
F	6	6	Harm
G	7	7	Good luck
H	8	8	Positive emotion
I	9	9	Transformation
J	!	10	Circular
K	@	11	Magic
L	#	12	Alignment
M	10	13	Cyclical
N	11	14	Analysis
O	12	15	Division
P	13	16	Movement
Q	14	17	Negative emotion
R	15	18	Change
S	16	19	Strength
Sh	17	20	Thought or memory
T	18	21	Creation
Th	19	22	Identification
U	1!	23	Hard barrier
V	1@	24	Bad luck
W	1#	25	Reflection
X	20	26	Growth
Y	21	27	Reversal
Z	22	28	Neutral luck
Zh	23	29	Destruction

If an amolast has a name, they convert it alphanumerically (add up the letters via the code above). Then, they take the original name (the alphabetical name) and inscribe it into their abacus. They must insert the calculated value onto their abacus, made of borov wood with sacratempite sapphires as the beads and provided by the Grith, then use the counting beads to alter the values to reach the effects they wish to inflict above. If their magic is strong enough, the inscribed alphabetical name will change accordingly, causing the changes they wish. The abacus must be attuned to the amolast by being kept in a state of alphanumeric resonance with the amolast's name (i.e., the alphanumeric value of their name must be calculated on it and left there) when not in use.

Because amolasts aren't fully trained numerologers, they must use pre-designed equations to inflict the effects they want. They each are given an additive equation, a subtractive equation, a multiplicative equation, a divisional equation, and a combined equation.

• Additive: increases the value of every letter by 10 (base 13), with any going over 23 (base 13) going back to null state (0) and then counting up the remainder.
• Subtractive: decreases the value of every letter by 7, with any going below null (0) then counting down from 23 (base 13).
• Multiplicative: multiples the value of every letter by 2, with any going over 23 (base 13) going back to null state (0) and then counting up the remainder.
• Divisonal: divides the value of every letter by 3 or 4, rounding down.
• Combined: any two of the above at once.

Mechanically, the amolast rolls numerological skill against the difficulty of their spell, which is calculated by how many points different from the original name they have changed (i.e., if the alphanumerical value of the original name is 100 and they changed it to 107, the difficulty is 7; if the original name is 100 and they changed it to 90, the difficulty is 10). They then roll the power of their abacus (usually a 14, if they are n using a Grith-provided abacus) against an appropriate base stat of the target person (if the target is a person) or against the existential value of the target (determined by the digits of their alphanumeric name added together). If any number being rolled (by the amolast or the target) from is prime, the roll gets a +1, +2, +3, or +5 if and only if that will get the value to another prime.

The "name" of inanimate objects is always an difficult to ascertain. The use of generic names risks affecting objects with similar names as well, or hitting the wrong target, or simply failing because of too many targets. Amolasts find it more difficult to target objects because of this, but some objects do have specific names rather than general ones. For example, a form recording the crimes of a person will have an identification number on it, which qualifies as its name. If they can acquire this kind of information, they can alter the object. In this way, they are opposite of traditional numerologers, who hesitate to alter the fundamental being of a person but know how to calculate the name of an inanimate object easily.

They cannot perform their magic without their abacuses, but if someone takes their abacus, they can alter the name on it to harm the amolast.

PRO +1 ATH / STR / AWA +4 WIL +2 PRS +1 STH +1

Gambler

The best gamblers in the Red Grith use the magic of numbers to count cards or use numerological powers to change the cards.

Cardcounter

Cardcounters use basic counting to determine the odds on a risk when it comes to card games. They often also use their mathematical skills when it comes to other games of chance or gambling operations. But their skill in numerology allows them to alter the odds as well. The Red Grith recruits those who learn to do this, but rarely trains gamblers themselves.

When numbers change, so does reality. If a cardcounter has the right names, they can make almost anything happen, but they are more skilled at it than an amolast. However, their focus is betting, and they don't often go up against other people. They focus on the subject of their betting. They can change the value of cards, the speed of a horse, the sharpness of a dog's teeth, the strength of an athlete. But they have to do so subtly and well-timed, for if they do so where someone notices, they will face repercussions (usually violence or arrest).

The method of this is to take the name of their target - common name or True Name, though the latter is much more powerful and harder to find - and convert them alphanumerically. The Red Grith uses a special alphanumeric formula that is modulo 13, using a 30 letter alphabet. Within base 13, everything is cyclical, so these effects may return to their original state in time.

Letter	Alphanumeric	Our Number	Effect
A	0	0	Returns all things to their natural order
B	1	1	Catalyst
C	2	2	Combination
Ch	3	3	Amplification
D	4	4	Death or endings
E	5	5	Help
F	6	6	Harm
G	7	7	Good luck
H	8	8	Positive emotion
I	9	9	Transformation
J	!	10	Circular
K	@	11	Magic
L	#	12	Alignment
M	10	13	Cyclical
N	11	14	Analysis
O	12	15	Division
P	13	16	Movement
Q	14	17	Negative emotion
R	15	18	Change
S	16	19	Strength
Sh	17	20	Thought or memory
T	18	21	Creation
Th	19	22	Identification
U	1!	23	Hard barrier
V	1@	24	Bad luck
W	1#	25	Reflection
X	20	26	Growth
Y	21	27	Reversal
Z	22	28	Neutral luck
Zh	23	29	Destruction

If a cardcounter has a name, they convert it alphanumerically (add up the letters via the code above). Then, they take the original name (the alphabetical name) and inscribe it into their abacus. They must insert the calculated value onto their abacus, made of borov wood with sacratempite sapphires as the beads and provided by the Grith, then use the counting beads to alter the values to reach the effects they wish to inflict above. If their magic is strong enough, the inscribed alphabetical name will change accordingly, causing the changes they wish. The abacus must be attuned to the cardcounter by being kept in a state of alphanumeric resonance with the cardcounter's name (i.e., the alphanumeric value of their name must be calculated on it and left there) when not in use.

Because cardcounters aren't fully trained numerologers, they use a handful of equations they know will help them in different situations.

Mechanically, the amolast rolls numerological skill against the difficulty of their spell, which is calculated by how many points different from the original name they have changed (i.e., if the alphanumerical value of the original name is 100 and they changed it to 107, the difficulty is 7; if the original name is 100 and they changed it to 90, the difficulty is 10). They then roll the power of their abacus (usually a 14, if they are n using a Grith-provided abacus) against an appropriate base stat of the target person (if the target is a person) or against the existential value of the target (determined by the digits of their alphanumeric name added together). If any number being rolled (by the amolast or the target) from is prime, the roll gets a +1, +2, +3, or +5 if and only if that will get the value to another prime.

The "name" of inanimate objects is always an difficult to ascertain, but with cards, dice, or other implements of chance, cardcounters rely on proximity to let generic names hit their targets. This sometimes means collateral damage when the Ace of Spades becomes the Two of Clubs at every table near them, but so be it. When you live a life of risk, you live a life of risk. Animals (such as horses, dogs, or chickens, which are often bet upon) usually have a name publicly posted, as do athletes. Other targets of betting vary.

Many gamblers in the Red Grith are skilled with pistols.

They cannot perform their magic without their abacuses, but if someone takes their abacus, they can alter the name on it to harm the cardcounter.

PRO +1 ATH +1 STR -1 AWA +3 WIL -1 PRS +2 STH +1

Gangster

The front-businesses and soldiers of the Red Grith wield the Cant to communicate and the Hooded Shadow to hide their illicit activities. They are favored by the Cang, but they are not his captains. Before the founding of the Grith, there were many crime families in the city. The Red Grith absorbed three of them before the formation of the Grith, and then two more after. These families have become the core of the Red Grith's gang activity - the Lennards, the Marshams, the Sanctos, the Callows, and the Godgifus. Since then, any new crime family within the Red Grith has had to ally themselves with one of these.

The Lennards run the bars, inns, and shops near the docks. The Marshams are responsible for the racetracks and animal fights on the east end. The Sanctos run, inexplicably, an ice cream business empire, though this helps cover up a major drug trade. The Callows are majorly into building trades. And the Godgifus traffick in magical goods. These crime families do not make up the entirety of the Red Grith, but many in the Red Grith who have other roles are part of one of these families or have connections to them.

"Gangsters" refer to two things: the businessmen and the soldiers. No one becomes the former without first proving themself as the latter.

A soldier of the Red Grith's gangs is called a raglaw.

Raglaw

A raglaw is taught the Cant and given the power of the Hooded Shadow. They gain this power by being criminals.

There is an ancient cant, a variation on language, a secret code and a dialect and a pidgin, a set of rhymes and ciphers, that only those who have been pushed outside the law may wield. The Cant derived from the first people who had to steal from other mortals to survive, and it grew into a complex, panlingual cryptological esoteric puzzle. The Cant cannot be understood by anyone who serves the laws of the state that make people criminals, and it gives those who speak it special powers. To access it, one must have committed a crime in a place one has been, knowingly, and one must have done so without other esoteric power. One must have committed this crime for purposes neither related to upholding the oppressive structures nor overthrowing them. The crime must violate a law existing on the books in the place it was broken, and it must be knowingly committed. If the crime is later decriminalized, it will still empower the raglaw. If the crime is unknowingly committed, but the criminal later discovers it was/is illegal, they have a brief window to take advantage before they lose access to the cant (until they commit a crime again). In that brief window, they will see a shadow, and if they follow that shadow, they will begin to see things they never noticed before.

For a raglaw, their first crime should be a violent one. It will mark them as a potential gangster. If they follow the shadow, it will lead them to the closest wielder raglaw or other wielder of Cant, who, if they are recognized as someone exposed to the shadow, will recruit them. From there, they will be trained in the Cant, and eventually tested in the work of the crime family. If they pass, they will be initiated into the Hooded Shadow, the power of concealment from the law and empowerment of crimes. They will be initiated into the family and given a series of tasks, most illegal, to perform, ranging from picking up a payment to selling drugs to intimidating or killing someone to running a front business. As they do this, they will be taught new uses of the Hooded Shadow to help them.

• Intimidation: a wreath of shadow forms around the raglaw, adding to their intimidation score. This costs 1 shadow point per 2 points of intimidation per use.
• Laundering: money gained through criminal means becomes enshadowed, making it harder for authorities to track or see it. This costs 3 shadow points per 10,000 coin for complete enshadowing, 2 per for partial, 1 per for minor.
• Assault: the weapon of the raglaw becomes harder ot see because of the shadow, giving them bonuses to hit. This costs 1 shadow point per 1 bonus point to hit per use.
• Distribution: while selling contraband or running a front business, the raglaw is harder to detect by authorities. This costs 1 shadow point per 2 points of STH per use, lasting an hour.
• Vengeance: if wronged, the shadow can be sent to attack those who did it. This costs 25 shadow points for a shadow attack capable of killing a target with average base state score of 10, +3 points per average base stat score above 10, -3 per average base stat score below 10.

Any other criminal activity tasked to the raglaw by the Family can be enabled, empowered, or otherwise supported by the shadow. Consult with the GM for other potential uses.

In order to wield it, the raglaw must use the correct canting rhymes. They must maintain the Hooded Shadow by remaining outside the law, never cooperating with the authorities, and never going straight. This does not mean never following any law, but rather, never betraying the Family, never operating a legitimate business without criminal activity, and never surviving off anything but criminal gains. Any violation will destroy the Cant immediately. The more crimes they knowingly commit, the higher the score they have in the shadow, but any use depletes it, meaning they have a limited amount of shadow to use. Furthermore, some crimes only count as one instance even if prolonged - i.e., running a chain of twelve front businesses is one instance of a crime, not twelve instances of it. They must be broken up with other crimes in-between. Rape and sexual assault do not generate the Hooded Shadow, as these are infernal acts. Only criminal acts tasked by the family generate shadow.

PRO +2 ATH +1 STR +2 AWA +1 WIL / PRS / STH +1

Grifter

In the Red Grith, con artists wield emotion magic to manipulate their targets. They are called taelters.

Taelter

The manipulation of emotion is a magical art done via special string figures. All emotion creates a resonance around those who are feeling them, and those with the right skills can sense them. This resonance causes string figures to react. One must be extremely dexterous to form the string figures, weaving through them at remarkable speeds, in order to wield their power, and they must be one of these nine formations:

• Cat's cradle: senses emotion
• Coconut palm tree: strengthens or weakens emotions
• Dancer: moves emotion from one person to another
• A growth in the tomana tree: releases emotion
• Hammock: captures emotion
• Lizard: changes one emotion into another
• Saw mill: breaks stored emotion into smaller parts
• Two islands joined by a log: combines emotions
• Yam thief: steals emotions, which are stored in the strings and release to fuel the above forms

See here for more info on these figures.

These nine formations are fairly commonly known, but they can be invoked by taelters and others who know their secrets if they use them correctly. They must be done with two hands, even if the user has more than two hands. To properly wield them, they must be keenly attuned to their own emotions. This requires a sense of self-awareness beyond what most people have, an understanding of feelings deeper than average. Taelters achieve this through years of training, usually paid for by the Red Grith.

If they achieve this state, they can draw in their emotion to keep it from affecting the string figures, allowing the strings to react only to those of the people near them. Then, if their fingers are deft enough, they can move the strings to direct that emotional resonance to their own ends.

After they learn this skill, they must learn how to do it in a way that others don't notice, because what good is the con if the target knows their emotions are being manipulated? And then it's just down to their skills as a con artist. Some go big with elaborate hoaxes and long cons, while others stick to street tricks and sleight of hand. But their purpose in the Red Grith is to bring in coin.

If a taelter loses attunement with their own emotions, they will lose their powers.

PRO -2 ATH -1 STR -1 AWA +3 WIL +1 PRS +4 STH +2

Harborer

Safe-houses of the Red Grith are run by wielders of the magic of boundaries and borders, ones who can make frail paper as impenetrable as thick stone. They are called sharanas.

Sharana

A sharana has the ability to turn any substance into an impenetrable barrier, but to do this, they must either weaken their own bodies, the form of some other object, or by sheer force of will. Sharanas gain the power to do this by turning their own bodies into a barrier through repeated stressing, usually in ritual combat sparring or by self-inflicted strikes. They do this for hours every day, using blunt clubs made of neutral materials, and train in combat and medicine as well. During their exercises, they meditate on the nature of boundaries and barriers, until they are able to infuse whatever they are touching with the strength to resist that they are building up in themselves.

The three methods of strengthening materials available to them all have their risks:

• Drawing from their own body means reducing their own toughness (substat of STR), with a conversion of -1 toughness for every +2 to the barrier.
• Drawing from another object destroys that object, reducing it to dust. The relative toughness of the object determines how much is transfered, with materials like paper giving very little strength and materials like diamond giving enormous bonuses.
• Using only their will power means that the attacks against the strenghtened barrier go against their mind instead of the barrier. So any damage done will cause them to lose points of WIL temporarily, with any exceptional or critical damage being in part permanent.

Sharanas keep safe-houses for the Red Grith, serving as their defenders and their caretakers. As such, they also have skills in housekeeping, repair, medicine, and concealment.

PRO +2 ATH -1 STR +4 Toughness +6 AWA +1 WIL +2 PRS -1 STH /

Hijacker

The Red Grith employs hijackers to take on trains and wagons that they want to capture, as well as the occasional airship.

Mochoz

Mochozes analyze their targets as systems. They see the target as a contained chain of cause-and-effect, and their in-depth study of it allows them to manipulate that chain to cause long-term effects. They can see when and where to apply a change to the system to cause it to break down precisely when they want it to.

Mochozes study engineering, tactics, driving, and various forms of mechanical studies and sciences to know how to sabotage their targets. Part of their study is mundane, but in a magical world, they need to study it magically as well, and they need a way to tweak those energies to their needs. This is why they study the systemic magic of vonzot.

To tap into vonzot, a mochoz needs to introduce an antithetical, unpredictable element into any system they wish to manipulate. As part of their training, they learn to do this and gain other powers by introducing the unexpected into their own mental systems, usually in the form of acupuncture into the base of their neck. This leaves a series permanent holes in their neck that they cover with scarves, collars, or other clothing. This opens their mind to seeing the lines of the systems they analyze at will. With this, they can simply mentally "grab" these lines and alter them, inserting the unpredictable in the system and allowing them to insert change that they can control. The paradox of this is inherent to their magic.

Some common powers include

• Reversal: seeing the inevitable end to a series of causal events, they tweak the lines to make the exact opposite happen.
• Hasten: seeing the inevitale end to a series of causal events, they tweak it so it happens sooner.
• Delay: seeing the inevitale end to a series of causal events, they tweak it so that it happens later.
• Interrupt: seeing the inevitale end to a series of causal events, they tweak it so that nothing happens.
• Direct: seeing the inevitale end to a series of causal events, they take total control of that series of events to alter it point by point.
• Redirect: seeing the inevitale end to a series of causal events, they tweak it so that something different happens.
• Undirect: seeing the inevitale end to a series of causal events, they tweak it so that something they can't predict happens.

And this would be perfect, except that no system is isolated enough for this to always work, and the vonzot itself is unstable. The involvement of other people always throws things off and requires a roll or two. Chaos, fortune, and other powers may cause unexpected disruptions. And vonzot has a tendency to simply go off the rails. And these are only some of the factors involved.

• People: every person involved in a system a mochoz is affecting must roll WIL, whether they know the effect is happening or not. Failure means they are subject to the mochoz's control, but every action they are forced to take is another WIL roll.
• Other energies: before a mochoz attempts to manipulate a system, either the player or the GM will roll a d100. On a 100, there is no interference. Anything less than that, there is interference on an escalating scale ((100-N)/4, where N is the result of the roll, rounding up).
• Instability: before every tweak to a system, the mochoz rolls their skill or WIL-3, whichever is higher, against a difficulty determined by a roll of 3d12+N, with N being the number of attempts after a failure.

Any failure results in the unpredictable.

They study trains, wagons, carts, and airships to know how to hijack them with precision.

Other systems, like vehicles or factory machinery, vary greatly.

Besides using vonzot, mochozes often use basic tools in plying their trade, though some keep a few firearms around as well.

Kidnapper

Kidnapping for the sake of ransom is a common practice for the more bold in the Red Grith, and they often wield the Cant and the Hooded Shadow to do so. They are called lepsians.

Lepsian

Yes, I know what it sounds like, but it's based on other terminology.

Lepsians engage in kidnapping either for money (ransoming rich targets) or as an act of vengeance against those who wronged the Red Grith. They gain powers by being criminals.

There is an ancient cant, a variation on language, a secret code and a dialect and a pidgin, a set of rhymes and ciphers, that only those who have been pushed outside the law may wield. The Cant derived from the first people who had to steal from other mortals to survive, and it grew into a complex, panlingual cryptological esoteric puzzle. The Cant cannot be understood by anyone who serves the laws of the state that make people criminals, and it gives those who speak it special powers. To access it, one must have committed a crime in a place one has been, knowingly, and one must have done so without other esoteric power. One must have committed this crime for purposes neither related to upholding the oppressive structures nor overthrowing them. The crime must violate a law existing on the books in the place it was broken, and it must be knowingly committed. If the crime is later decriminalized, it will still empower the lepsian. If the crime is unknowingly committed, but the criminal later discovers it was/is illegal, they have a brief window to take advantage before they lose access to the cant (until they commit a crime again). In that brief window, they will see a shadow, and if they follow that shadow, they will begin to see things they never noticed before.

For a lepsian, their first crime should be a kidnapping, an attempted kidnapping or some crime adjacent to or useful for kidnapping. It will mark them as a potential kinapper. If they follow the shadow, it will lead them to the closest wielder lepsian or other wielder of Cant, who, if they are recognized as someone exposed to the shadow, will recruit them. From there, they will be trained in the Cant, and eventually tested in the work of the Red Grith. If they pass, they will be initiated into the Hooded Shadow, the power of concealment from the law and empowerment of crimes. Their initiation will involve a major kidnapping target, usually one with guards or located in a secure place, and as they engage in it with their teacher, they will be shown the ways the Hooded Shadow can serve them.

• Identify: the shadow covers the eyes, allowing the wielder to only see the target. This costs 1 shadow point per 30 seconds of use, giving +6 AWA to finding the target for that time period.
• Appraise: the shadow fills the mind, allowing the wielder to know the wealth of those they are observing. This costs 1 shadow point per 15 seconds of use, giving +6 AWA to gathering value for that time period.
• Unseen: the shadow subtles the movements and enshrouds the body, making it harder to see the wielder. This costs 1 shadow point per 2 points of STH, lasting an hour.
• Ensnare: the shadow forms bands that subtly capture a target, making it harder for them to move or see. This costs 1 shadow point per 1 point of STR for the bands, lasting 10 minutes.
• Silence: the shadow covers the mouth or body of the target to prevent them from making noise. This costs 1 shadow point per 2 points of inflicted STH on the target, lasting an hour.
• Calm: the shadow fills the heart of the target, calming their emotions. This costs 2 shadow points per 3 bonus points to wielder's WIL against target's WIL, with the duration of the effect lasting 10 minutes for normal success, 30 minutes for special, 60 minutes for exceptional, 3 hours for critical.
• Confuse: the shadow fills the target's mind, befuddling them, thus making them less able to know where they are or who the wielder is. This costs 2 shadow points per 3 bonus points to wielder's WIL against target's WIL, with the duration of the effect lasting 1 hour for normal success, 6 hours for special, 12 hours for exceptional, 24 hours for critical.
• Distract: the shadow spreads around, distracting authorities or those seeking the target or the wielder. This effecitvely gives the wielder +3 STH per 1 shadow point used for 15 seconds per point.
• Escape: the shadow opens a path to escape. This effecitvely gives the wielder +3 STH per 2 shadow points used for 1 minute per point.
• Demand: the shadow enshrouds the demands given, making them harder to trace and more intimidating or convincing. This costs 1 shadow point per +3 to intimidation or persuasion, and +3 to STH to resist tracing.
• Deliver: the shadow delivers the target back, untraceably. This costs 1 shadow point per +3 to STH to resist tracing.
• Kill: the shadow consumes someone completely, removing their lifeforce. This costs 25 shadow points for a shadow attack capable of killing a target with average base state score of 10, +3 points per average base stat score above 10, -3 per average base stat score below 10.

Any other criminal activity tasked to the lepsian by the Red Grith can be enabled, empowered, or otherwise supported by the shadow. Consult with the GM for other potential uses.

In order to wield it, the lepsian must use the correct canting rhymes. They must maintain the Hooded Shadow by remaining outside the law, never cooperating with the authorities, and never going straight. This does not mean never following any law, but rather, never betraying the Red Grith, never releasing or helping a hostage without permission, never ratting out the Red Grith, and never surviving off anything but criminal gains. Any violation will destroy the Cant immediately. The more crimes they knowingly commit, the higher the score they have in the shadow, but any use depletes it, meaning they have a limited amount of shadow to use. Furthermore, each kidnapping only counts as one crime, even if it results in multiple charges, unless a more serious crime (murder, for example) is committed. Rape and sexual assault do not generate the Hooded Shadow, as these are infernal acts. Only criminal acts tasked by the Red Grith generate shadow.

PRO +2 ATH +1 STR +1 AWA +1 WIL / PRS / STH +1

Mugger

Muggers among the Red Grith practice the ancient art of weaponmastery to become dangerously skilled with their chosen tools ("ganaboas"),

Ganaboa

Ganaboas are muggers that the Red Grith trains in weaponmastery, a skill gained via ritual combat and blood magic.

To perform ritual combat in pursuit of weaponmastery, a ganaboa must choose a weapon type to focus on. Then, they create a circle of power to fight in, facing a skilled opponent. The ritual must include a display of weapons, a battlecry, an initial strike that is pulled (to prove the courage of the weaponmaster), then true combat follows. Blood must be spilled in this ritual combat before it is called (at a point agreed upon by both parties). After the end is called, the combatants spill their own blood as a show of respect, bow, and then leave the circle. If the ritual was successful, the blood inside the circle will glow with red flame. The combatants will re-enter, touch their weapons to the blood, and absorb it. This increases their skill with their weapon or one of their combat-relevant stats (they choose as they absorb the blood). Each ritual combat they perform will gain only +1 to a single stat or skill, so they must engage in many, many ritual combats to become a true master.

Because they are robbers and muggers, they use this skill in a rather crude manner, one that devoted weaponmasters despise. However, the Red Grith chooses to use them in this way instead of as assassins, extortionists, or gangsters because of the need for their robbers to be able to fight and kill the guards of the richest, most powerful in the city. They decided long ago to focus on being able to rob the Empress one day when she comes to Haenor, and this is how they decided to meet that decision. Thus, they make their best robbers into weaponmasters.

In order to maintain their high level of skill, ganaboas must renew their skills via ritual combat every seven weeks. If they fail to do this, their stats start to degrade at -1 per day.

Most ganaboas choose to master crossbows, pistols, broadswords, or daggers.

PRO +4 ATH +3 STR +3 AWA +1 WIL / PRS -2 STH /

Pickpocket

Pickpockets are commonly low-ranking members of the Red Grith, though they know the Cant and how to wield the Hooded Shadow. They are called snatchers.

Snatcher

Snatchers are usually young, though there are some who remain snatchers their whole lives without moving on to other forms of crime. They are adept at picking pockets, shoplifting, petty thefts, the art of distraction, and knowing a mark. They enable their craft with the Cant and the Hooded Shadow.

There is an ancient cant, a variation on language, a secret code and a dialect and a pidgin, a set of rhymes and ciphers, that only those who have been pushed outside the law may wield. The Cant derived from the first people who had to steal from other mortals to survive, and it grew into a complex, panlingual cryptological esoteric puzzle. The Cant cannot be understood by anyone who serves the laws of the state that make people criminals, and it gives those who speak it special powers. To access it, one must have committed a crime in a place one has been, knowingly, and one must have done so without other esoteric power. One must have committed this crime for purposes neither related to upholding the oppressive structures nor overthrowing them. The crime must violate a law existing on the books in the place it was broken, and it must be knowingly committed. If the crime is later decriminalized, it will still empower the snatcher. If the crime is unknowingly committed, but the criminal later discovers it was/is illegal, they have a brief window to take advantage before they lose access to the cant (until they commit a crime again). In that brief window, they will see a shadow, and if they follow that shadow, they will begin to see things they never noticed before.

For a snatcher, their first crime should be picking a pocket or some other act of petty theft, like shoplifting. It will mark them as a potential snatcher. If they follow the shadow, it will lead them to the closest wielder snatcher or other wielder of Cant, who, if they are recognized as someone exposed to the shadow, will recruit them. From there, they will be trained in the Cant, and eventually tested in the work of the crime family. If they pass, they will be initiated into the Hooded Shadow, the power of concealment from the law and empowerment of crimes. Their initiation will be picking the pocket of a skilled police officer, during which, their teacher will guide them in how to wield the shadow.

• Identify: the shadow covers the eyes, allowing the wielder to only see what the target is carrying. This costs 1 shadow point per 15 seconds of use, giving +6 AWA to finding the target for that time period.
• Appraise: the shadow fills the mind, allowing the wielder to know the wealth of those they are observing. This costs 1 shadow point per 15 seconds of use, giving +6 AWA to gathering value for that time period.
• Unseen: the shadow subtles the movements and enshrouds the body, making it harder to see the wielder. This costs 1 shadow point per 2 points of STH, lasting an hour.
• Distract: the shadow spreads around, distracting the target or those chasing the wielder. This effecitvely gives the wielder +3 STH per 1 shadow point used for 15 seconds per point.
• Confuse: the shadow fills the target's mind, befuddling them, thus making them less able to notice the wielder. This costs 1 shadow points per 3 bonus points to wielder's WIL against target's WIL, with the duration of the effect lasting 3 seconds for normal success, 6 seconds for special, 12 seconds for exceptional, 24 seconds for critical.
• Bump: the shadow builds a thin barrier between wielder and target, allowing them space to pick pockets as they "bump into" or otherwise closely interact with the target. This costs 1 shadow point per bonus point to STH or PRO, lasting 6 seconds.
• Grab: the shadow forms a hidden hand to pick the pocket. This costs 10 shadow points for a small object, 16 for a medium one, 22 for a large, 28 for an object impossible to take without being noticed (i.e. the clothes the target is wearing).
• Escape: the shadow opens a path to escape. This effecitvely gives the wielder +3 STH per 2 shadow points used for 1 minute per point.

Any other criminal activity tasked to the snatcher by the Red Grith can be enabled, empowered, or otherwise supported by the shadow. Consult with the GM for other potential uses.

In order to wield it, the snatcher must use the correct canting rhymes. They must maintain the Hooded Shadow by remaining outside the law, never cooperating with the authorities, and never going straight. This does not mean never following any law, but rather, never betraying the Red Grith, never giving back what is stolen wtihout permission, never ratting out the Red Grith, and never surviving off anything but criminal gains. Any violation will destroy the Cant immediately. The more crimes they knowingly commit, the higher the score they have in the shadow, but any use depletes it, meaning they have a limited amount of shadow to use. Furthermore, each pickpocketing or shoplifting only counts as one crime, even if it results in multiple charges, unless a more serious crime (murder, for example) is committed. Rape and sexual assault do not generate the Hooded Shadow, as these are infernal acts. Only criminal acts tasked by the Red Grith generate shadow.

PRO -1 ATH +1 STR -2 AWA +3 WIL -1 PRS +1 STH +2

Pirate

The Red Grith employs three kinds of pirates: those who gain power from their travels and movement ("rovers"), those who are connected to past pirate "ancestors" for power ("loza"), and those who are favored by the Cang's Hooded Shadow ("reivers"). The latter are elite pirates who are called upon by the Cang when an especially nice target comes available.

Loza

Loza are pirates who are part of a long line of pirate traditions, and thus able to tap into a form of ancestral memory tied not to their bloodline, but their crew, usually connected to their flag. The flags of the three crews known for using this power are a red field with a burning skull ("the Burning Skull"), a red field with a dagger and a pistol crossed ("the Red Terror"), and a red field with a black rose ("the Red Queen's Revenge"). Those who swear oath to one of those flags may be able to tap into the ancestral memory of the crew to draw from their experiences, skills, knowledges, and more.

The ritual needed to be able to tap into ancestral memory varies by culture, but among the Red Grith, it involves potent drugs, a blood oath, and an elaborate dance. During the dance, they fall into a deep trance because of the drugs, and they must fight the memory-keeper, a spectral figure of one of the ancestral pirates who tests them. If they win, they awaken with the ability to draw from the memories. If they fail, they are out of the crew.

Drawing from ancestral memory has different difficulties depending on what is drawn and from how far back. The rule of thumb is that for every generation back after the first dead generation (living people cannot be drawn from), it is a +2 difficulty to draw, with a base of 8 for the first dead generation. The Burning Skull has been around for twelve generations. The Red Terror has been around for nine generations. The Red Queen's Revenge has been around for seven generations.

• Drawing basic skills is a +1 difficulty for every 3 points drawn
• Magical or advanced skills are a +3 for every 2 points drawn
• Languages are a +1 for every 4 points drawn
• Memories are +1 per minute of memory
• Simple knowledge is +1 for every 3 points drawn
• Complex knowledge is +2 for every 3 points drawn
• Magical lore is +1 per every point drawn

They cannot draw physical abilities or features, supernatural inborn powers, emotions, or anything not learned.

If a loza offends their ancestors, they may lose their powers at any time.

PRO +2 ATH +1 STR +1 AWA +1 WIL / PRS +1 STH /

Reiver

Reivers are pirate crews who all wield the Cant and the Hooded Shadow. There are seven crews of reivers in the Red Grith:

There is an ancient cant, a variation on language, a secret code and a dialect and a pidgin, a set of rhymes and ciphers, that only those who have been pushed outside the law may wield. The Cant derived from the first people who had to steal from other mortals to survive, and it grew into a complex, panlingual cryptological esoteric puzzle. The Cant cannot be understood by anyone who serves the laws of the state that make people criminals, and it gives those who speak it special powers. To access it, one must have committed a crime in a place one has been, knowingly, and one must have done so without other esoteric power. One must have committed this crime for purposes neither related to upholding the oppressive structures nor overthrowing them. The crime must violate a law existing on the books in the place it was broken, and it must be knowingly committed. If the crime is later decriminalized, it will still empower the reiver. If the crime is unknowingly committed, but the criminal later discovers it was/is illegal, they have a brief window to take advantage before they lose access to the cant (until they commit a crime again). In that brief window, they will see a shadow, and if they follow that shadow, they will begin to see things they never noticed before. As pirates, their Cant is more influenced by other places than others in Haenor.

For a reiver, their first crime should be either piracy, something nautical (stealing a small boat), or something adjacent to or useful to piracy. It will mark them as a potential reiver. If they follow the shadow, it will lead them to the closest wielder reiver or other wielder of Cant, who, if they are recognized as someone exposed to the shadow, will recruit them. From there, they will be trained in the Cant, and eventually tested in the work of the crime family. If they pass, they will be initiated into the Hooded Shadow, the power of concealment from the law and empowerment of crimes. Their initiation will be joining a pirate raid on a town or ship, during which, their teacher will guide them in how to wield the shadow.

• Intimidation: a wreath of shadow forms around the reiver, adding to their intimidation score. This costs 1 shadow point per 2 points of intimidation per use.
• Assault: the weapon of the reiver becomes harder ot see because of the shadow, giving them bonuses to hit. This costs 1 shadow point per 1 bonus point to hit per use.
• Sailing: the ship becomes enshadowed, making it harder to follow or track. This costs 12 shadow points per 1 point of ship's STH for an hour.
• Rigging: the ship's rigging is doubled with shadow ropes to make it easier to climb. This costs 1 shadow point per rope, for -1 to difficulty for climbing each.
• Lookout: the lookout's attention focuses with shadows around their eyes, making it easier to scan for what they are seeking (land, enemies, targets, etc.). This costs 1 shadow point per 30 seconds of use, giving +6 AWA to finding the target for that time period.
• Rationing: the ship's food and water is filled out with shadows, making it last longer. This costs 20 shadow points per meal per individual.
• Blacksmoke: the thick smoke formed during a gun- or cannonfight turns shadowy, giving extra cover to the reivers while emphasizing their targets. This costs 8 shadow points for 10 reivers and 1 ship or 10 enemies for the duration of the smoke.
• Flag:
• Melee: during a melee battle, all reivers are enshadowed, making them harder to hit and easier for Canters to identify. This costs 3 shadow points per 2 crew members enshadowed for the duration of the battle.
• Gunfire: during a handheld gunfight, all reivers are are enshadowed, making them harder to hit and easier for Canters to identify. This costs 3 shadow points per 2 crew members enshadowed for the duration of the battle.
• Shipstrike: during a ship-to-ship fight, the targeted ship is enshadowed, making it scarier for occupants and letting cannonballs or ballista bolts or other ship-targeting weaponry hit it more easily. This costs 16 shadow points per 8 points of intimidation to the crew and 1 point of bonus to hit the ship for all ship-targeting weapons for the duration of the fight.
• Landing: when docking, making port, or coming ashore, all reivers or their ship are enshadowed, making them harder to see but also harder to accidentally hit (for the ship or away boats). This costs 3 shadow points for +4 STH for each reiver for 10 minutes, or it costs 20 shadow points for the ship or away boats for the duration of time in port, harbor, or by land.
• Identify : the shadow covers the eyes, allowing the wielder to only see the target. This costs 1 shadow point per 30 seconds of use, giving +6 AWA to finding the target for that time period.
• Appraise : the shadow fills the mind, allowing the wielder to know the wealth of those they are observing. This costs 1 shadow point per 15 seconds of use, giving +6 AWA to gathering value for that time period.
• Darkwater: shadow infuses the currents, calming them if they are too choppy or strenghtening them if they are carrying the ship the right way. This costs 12 shadow points to calm the sea, another 6 if there is a mild storm, 12 if a strong storm, 18 if a weak hurricane, 24 if a moderate hurricane, 30 if a major hurricane. Tsunamis are also another 12. If strenghtening a current, it's 10 shadow points per point of ship's speed per hour.
• Shadowstorm: a storm is infused with shadow and compelled to surround the ship protectively. This costs 50 shadow points per hour for a mild storm, plus 6 for every level of strength above that, capping at another 48 points.
• Shadowwind: the winds are enshadowed, drawing them in during doldrums or strenghtening weaker ones. This costs 10 shadow points per point of ship's speed per hour.
• Maroon: a marooned individual is enshadowed, preventing anyone from finding them. This costs 4 shadow points per inflicted 3 points of STH on the target for an hour per 4 points.
• Plank: shadows rise around the plank or into the minds of targets (filling them with thoughts of it) or the waters below it to make it more intimidating, to make an uneasy crew more afraid of the wielder. This costs 1 shadow point per point of intimidation for 15 seconds, per targeted individual.
• Lashing: a stun-only 11/17/23/29 lash made of shadows forms in the hands of the wielder. It leaves no marks, but causes immense pain. This costs 5 shadow points per use, and can add more stun power for 3 shadow points per point of stun power.
• Capture: shadowy strands capture either an individual or a ship. For an individual, this costs 3 shadow points for a strand with STR of 8, plus 2 further points for each point of STR above 8 wanted, lasting 20 minutes. For a ship, this costs 50 shadow points for a STR of 30, plus 10 further points for each point of STR above 30, lasting an hour.
• Capsize: shadow rolls under the target ship and flips it over. This costs 60 shadow points for a shadow strong enough to capsize a medium-sized ship. For a small boat, it is 10. For a huge ship, 100.
• Sink: shadows dissolve the underside of the ship, causing it to sink. This costs 75 shadow points for a shadow strong enough to capsize a medium-sized ship. For a small boat, it is 25. For a huge ship, 200.
• Raiding: during a raid, shadows enshroud the reivers, giving them bonuses to STH, intimidation, and PRO for the duration of the raid. This costs 10 shadow points for +1 STH, +1 intimidation, and +1 PRO for up to five reivers, with any increase in any number costing an extra 2 points each.
• Anchor: the anchor becomes enshadowed, allowing it to take purchase on nothing and be redrawn swiftly. This costs 10 shadow points per hour.
• Mutiny: if all of the crew except leadership agrees to cant together, they may wrest leadership away at a cost of 10 points of shadow per leader they are targeting.
• Escape: the shadow opens a path to escape. This effecitvely gives the wielder +3 sailing per 8 shadow points used for 30 minutes per 8 points.
• Distract : the shadow spreads around, distracting the target ship or those chasing the wielder. This effecitvely gives the wielder +3 STH per 5 shadow points used for 10 minutes per 5 points.

Any other criminal activity tasked to the reiver by the Red Grith can be enabled, empowered, or otherwise supported by the shadow. Consult with the GM for other potential uses.

In order to wield it, the reiver must use the correct canting rhymes, which reivers usually sing. For every three reivers singing the same rhyme, there is a -1 to cost in shadow points for that effect. Each individual reiver has shadow points, but so does the crew as a collective whole. The latter can only be used if the whole crew cants together.

They must maintain the Hooded Shadow by remaining outside the law, never cooperating with the authorities, and never going straight. This does not mean never following any law, but rather, never betraying the Red Grith or especially their crew, never ratting out the Red Grith, and never surviving off anything but criminal gains. Any violation will destroy the Cant immediately. The more crimes they knowingly commit, the higher the score they have in the shadow, but any use depletes it, meaning they have a limited amount of shadow to use. Furthermore, though simply being a pirate is a crime, shadow does not accumulate just by existing. Each act of piracy is a separate crime to be drawn from. Rape and sexual assault do not generate the Hooded Shadow, as these are infernal acts. Only criminal acts tasked by the Red Grith generate shadow.

PRO +3 ATH +2 STR +1 AWA +2 WIL / PRS +1 STH +1

Rover

Rovers are pirates who draw power from their travels. There are two crews of rovers among the Red Grith: the Cutting Vermilion and the Guns of Yojast (Yojast is a founding member of the Red Grith, the first of their pirate captains).

In order to draw power from travels, rovers must attune themselves to movement itself. To do this, they spend hours learning to move with the flow of the ship. They engage in an intricate series of ritual movements every day until they can sense every movement of their bodies, down to the blood flowing in their veins and the beat of their heart, every twitch of muscle and organ. If they can achieve this, they become attuned to movement and able to draw power from certain aspects of it. Specifically, as sailors of the seas, their journeys to other places allows them to gain powers the further afield they go and the more places they go to.

• 10 non-Endruinite locales or 500 miles: +3 sailing, swimming, and rope-climbing
• 20 non-Endruinite locales or 1,000 miles: +3 speed, reaction, and dodge
• 50 non-Endruinite locales or 5,000 miles: controlled movement (+3 PRO) once per day
• 100 non-Endruinite locales or 10,000 miles: control inertia once per week (WIL)
• 200 non-Endruinite locales or 15,000 miles: rapidstrike (hit seven times in one round) once per day
• 500 non-Endruinite locales or 20,000 miles: superspeed once per day (42 speed for 30 seconds)
• 1,000 non-Endruinite locales or 25,000 miles: flight or teleportation (within seven miles) at will

Furthermore, certain kinds of location give them special abilities:

• Their first enemy ship: +1 PRO
• Their first captured ship: +1 dancing
• Their first shipwreck: +3 escape (to any stat used while escaping a trap, fight, or sinking ship)
• Their first foreign port: quick-learning the local language
• New oceans or seas: +3 to avoiding doldrums, storms, or rogue waves (to any stat used while avoiding these dangers)
• New ports: 6 in local language for first 24 hours OR +3 to finding a safe location in the city to sell goods
• Under the sea, 1,000+ feet: +3 swimming
• Underground, 500+ feet: +3 direction sense
• In the sky, 5+ miles: leviation (7 minutes) or featherfall
• Upper orbit: space survival
• The moons: spacejumping
• In the solar system: +7 ATH
• Another planet, mesoplanet, or asteroid: varies by orbital body
• Beyond the solar system: lightspeed travel
• Another plane: varies by plane

The downside is, if they are ever imprisoned, shackled, or otherwise held, paralyzed, or pinned, they will start losing their sanity rapidly. After one round, they lose -1 WIL and start believing they are irrevocably trapped. After seven rounds, they lose -2 WIL and lose vision beyond 10'. After seven minutes, they lose -3 WIL and have a panic attack. After 77 minutes, they lose -4 WIL and lose muscle control. After seven days, they die.

PRO +2 ATH +5 STR +1 AWA +1 WIL / PRS / STH -1

Pusher

Drug dealers in the Red Grith are usually entry level workers who are being watched to see if they are ready for becoming gangsters or other specialties, but some are seen to be skilled at the street trade and are trained in it magically.

Tarat

Tarats operate similar to carisarks or ploronki, but they operate on a much more informal and weaker basis. The Red Grith trains them in the art of mercatism, but with a very narrow focus. This is the creation of magical contracts that allow for esoteric exchanges, but they do this without making an actual contract. Instead, they make an offer that creates a magical debt, which they draw from.

To do this, a person must understand value. Real value. Objective value. Value as derived from both the objective utility of something and the subjective willingness of someone to pay or provide for it, which becomes very clear while dealing drugs. This understanding must be inward and outward. Once understood, they must write a contract with themself that weighs their value against the power they seek, and imbue it with an offering of their blood. Their blood is their collateral, and any violation of the contract will take strength from them.

To protect themself, they may make informal contracts with others. They give a little bit of drugs or some other small thing - a favor, a bit of money - to create a debt with someone, and as long as that debt exists, they can draw a little strength from it to further their work as a pusher. As they do more of this, they gain more power which they can apply to other powers, abilities, and stats. If someone pays off a debt, they are sure to have others to make up for it. Most tarats have dozens of debts to draw from.

They are also trained in the effects and uses of the drugs they sell, though they are discouraged from using it. They have a lot of connections and know who owes them what.

Any violation of their contracts will cause them to lose their powers.

PRO +2 ATH +1 STR +1 AWA +1 WIL / PRS +1 STH /

Quack

The healers of the Red Grith use the medicine of humors to magically heal their clients. They are called staterists. They mostly treat only members of the Red Grith, unless someone pays extra.

Staterist

Staterists heal people using the theory of the humors of the body. This unscientific and mystical process is, of course, bullshit, but there is body magic that makes it work somewhat. They recognize many humors and their importance:

• Amniotic: the waters of life and protection of the unborn. Keeping it healthy is crucial. In imbalance, it causes miscarriages. A healthy uterus keeps it balanced.
• Black bile: black bile is any organ fluid that is not other fluids listed. It is correlated to melancholic disposition. It is said to cause depression, cancer, and senescence if it exists in excess. A healthy spleen keeps it from increasing to excess.
• Blood: blood is correlated to a sanguine disposition. It is the most powerful of all the humors and can be studied to know the full balance of all humors in a body. It is the source of life within a person. A healthy heart keeps it balanced.
• Lymph: lymph is correlated to a compassionate disposition. It is said to be responsible for healing within the body and for bodily growth. Too much, however, causes heart and lung issues. Healthy lymph nodes keep it balanced.
• Milk: milk is correlated to a maternal disposition. It is nourishment and strength. Healthy mammary glands keep it balanced. Too much milk in the system causes anxiety, back pains, and osteoporosis.
• Oestrus: menstrual blood is correlated to a minerval disposition. It is said that an excess of it causes every problem "women" usually have, but it is also considered a self-balancing fluid. Healthy ovaries keep it balanced.
• Phlegm: phlegm includes any kind of mucus or pus in the body. It is correlated to a phlegmatic disposition. It is said to cause tumours, chlorosis, rheumatism, and cacochymia. A healthy brain keeps it from increasing to excess.
• Semen: semen is correlated to an agrandized disposition. If in excess, it causes strokes, heart attacks, and blindness. It must be purged regularly. Healthy genitalia keep it balanced.
• Tears (lachryma): tears are correlated to a hysterical disposition. If in excess, they cause headaches, confusion, and paranoia. Healthy lungs keep it balanced.
• Urine: urine is correlated to a sour disposition. If in excess, it causes digestional problems. It must be purged regularly. Healthy kidneys keep it balanced.
• Yellow bile: yellow bile is actual bile, the yellowish fluid found or associated with the liver and gallbladder. It is correlated to a choleric disposition. It is said to cause increased anger, irrational behavior, cirrhosis, and jaundice. A healthy liver or gallbladder keeps it under control.

Different foods, exercises, and other practices help to keep fluids balanced, and staterists know what to recommend to their patients. They also know how to encourage blood and lymph to heal sicknesses or wounds, keeping medicines for this purposes always on their person. Their magic is generally long-term, slow, and an absurdly pseudoscientific version of medicine, they have access to quicker magicks such as special herbs, roots, and potions that speed recovery from injuries.

PRO -2 ATH / STR -1 AWA +3 WIL +1 PRS / STH /

Revolutionary

The Red Grith is uninterested in revolution, but they accept certain revolutionary sorts called titanists, those who wish to overthrow not the government, but the gods.

Titanist

Titanists are mortalists, believers that mortals do not need the Divine, believers in a philosophy of the power of mortality to be the true masters of their own fates. Their faith is in themselves as members of mortality, and therefore, they wield mortal will. As they have no Divine being, no inmortal, nor even a potent concept to rely upon, their faith is tested and proven with their belief in themselves and other mortals' abilities. Titanists prove their faith with a potent oath to give no fealty to the Divine nor inmortals. They engage in revolutionary activities on the power of their faith in mortality. They are a mixture of street preacher, community organizer, and defiant rogue.

The power of their faith has little utility except when wielded against the powers of the Divine or inmortals, and then it provides potent protection. Titanists gain +6 to any roll against Divine power or anything done by an inmortal being. If they ever betray their oath by accepting Divine or inmortal aid or support, they will lose all of their powers.

Otherwise, they operate as revolutionaries, but not fighting the government or the ruling class. Instead, they oppose the church of Endruin, the Church of Mal'och the Bleeding Angel. This places them at odds with the powers-that-be regardless of their attitude toward the government, but the Red Grith keeps and supports them because the Church is a major player in opposition to the religion of the Red Grith.

PRO +1 ATH +1 STR / AWA +2 WIL +2 PRS +1 STH /

Robber

Robbers in the Red Grith learn magic that allows them to live in relative luxury ("ladrones"). Some rare few are among the Cang's most elite. The Captain of Face is always a robber.

Ladrone

Ladrones gain power by carrying a magical bracelet called a dracutrem. Their dracutrem is always a wristband, bracelet, bracer, or other armguard or jewelry that glows dark red when they draw from it. They draw from it by paying it tribute with every job they do. A little bit of currency taken from their target (not any other currency) is melted and washed over the bracelet, mixed with their blood, to recharge it.

Their dracutrem gives them the power to mask themselves with dragonaura, which they use to make themselves seem grand and powerful, allowing them to get close to the rich and powerful, whom they intend to rob. Typically, the dracutrem has five charges of dragonaura they can use before having to recharge it. Every charge, they roll the power of their dracutrem (14) against the difficulty of how they wish to agrandize themselves (the player describes how they wish to look and the GM determines difficulty based on how much it differs from their actual appearance). This leads to a bonus of +1 to +6 PRS, depending on the success of their roll.

If the dracutrem is submerged in water for more than five minutes, it becomes molten zinc.

Ladrones use pistols, crossbows, broadswords, daggers, or claws.

PRO +3 ATH +3 STR +2 AWA +1 WIL +2 PRS +3 STH -2

Captain of Face

The Captain of Face is a former robber who has retired to run the Red Grith's publicity and public relations, using the Grithsaura, a powerful dracutrem with extra charges and more potency, to constantly look grand and powerful.

PRO +4 ATH +3 STR +2 AWA +2 WIL +2 PRS +5 STH -2

Grithsaura

The Grithsaura must be charged with the best currency - pure gold coins - to keep its power, but it rolls from a 17 and gives PRS bonuses of +3 to +9. It has five jewels in it (all garnets) which can be drawn from for extra strength, extra awareness, energy absorbption, dragonfire, or a dragon form. The first four may be recharged by melting 100 golden coins and washing the garnet in the resulting fluid. The fifth one, the dragon form, can only be used once, ever.

Saboteur

The Red Grith engages in sabotage only when at war with rivals or against the police. Their saboteurs either use the magic of systems to know weaknesses in their targets or the magic of structures for the same purpose. They are called banzelts.

Banzelt

Banzelts analyze their targets as systems. They see the target as a contained chain of cause-and-effect, and their in-depth study of it allows them to manipulate that chain to cause long-term effects. They can see when and where to apply a change to the system to cause it to break down precisely when they want it to.

Banzelts study engineering, architecture, tactics, strategy, and various forms of mechanical studies and sciences to know how to sabotage their targets. Part of their study is mundane, but in a magical world, they need to study it magically as well, and they need a way to tweak those energies to their needs. This is why they study the systemic magic of vonzot.

To tap into vonzot, a banzelt needs to introduce an antithetical, unpredictable element into any system they wish to manipulate. As part of their training, they learn to do this and gain other powers by introducing the unexpected into their own mental systems, usually in the form of acupuncture into the base of their neck. This leaves a series permanent holes in their neck that they cover with scarves, collars, or other clothing. This opens their mind to seeing the lines of the systems they analyze at will. With this, they can simply mentally "grab" these lines and alter them, inserting the unpredictable in the system and allowing them to insert change that they can control. The paradox of this is inherent to their magic.

Some common powers include

• Reversal: seeing the inevitable end to a series of causal events, they tweak the lines to make the exact opposite happen.
• Hasten: seeing the inevitale end to a series of causal events, they tweak it so it happens sooner.
• Delay: seeing the inevitale end to a series of causal events, they tweak it so that it happens later.
• Interrupt: seeing the inevitale end to a series of causal events, they tweak it so that nothing happens.
• Direct: seeing the inevitale end to a series of causal events, they take total control of that series of events to alter it point by point.
• Redirect: seeing the inevitale end to a series of causal events, they tweak it so that something different happens.
• Undirect: seeing the inevitale end to a series of causal events, they tweak it so that something they can't predict happens.

And this would be perfect, except that no system is isolated enough for this to always work, and the vonzot itself is unstable. The involvement of other people always throws things off and requires a roll or two. Chaos, fortune, and other powers may cause unexpected disruptions. And vonzot has a tendency to simply go off the rails. And these are only some of the factors involved.

• People: every person involved in a system a banzelt is affecting must roll WIL, whether they know the effect is happening or not. Failure means they are subject to the banzelt's control, but every action they are forced to take is another WIL roll.
• Other energies: before a banzelt attempts to manipulate a system, either the player or the GM will roll a d100. On a 100, there is no interference. Anything less than that, there is interference on an escalating scale ((100-N)/4, where N is the result of the roll, rounding up).
• Instability: before every tweak to a system, the banzelt rolls their skill or WIL-3, whichever is higher, against a difficulty determined by a roll of 3d12+N, with N being the number of attempts after a failure.

Any failure results in the unpredictable.

Some systems involve a standard practice to sabotage:

• Buildings: every building has a weak point. Find it, and then arrange for it to be struck at just the right time.
• Rails: rails are easy. Their lines follow the tracks. Just move the tracks.

Other systems, like vehicles or factory machinery, vary greatly.

Besides using vonzot, banzelts often use basic tools in plying their trade, though some keep a few explosives around as well.

PRO / ATH -1 STR -1 AWA +4 WIL +1 PRS -1 STH +2

Sensualist

Sex workers who join the Red Grith are taught body magicks to ply their trades. They are called kavashes. The Captain of Belly is always someone who began as a sex worker.

Kavash

A kavash is a sex worker who uses body magic. They engage body magic by eating a special diet and performing special exercises regularly.

Their special diet is regular consumption of magical grains, spices, and milk mixed into a cereal called nimusti. This may vary by species, however. This diet is expensive and hard to find, being imported from across two oceans, but skilled sex workers often have the money to buy it. Those who don't may find patronage from the Red Grith, but only if the Red Grith believes them to be "suitable" (often with very patriarchal baggage attached to it). Independent kavashes who join the Red Grith for protections while having resources to buy their own nimusti fare much better than those who rely on the funding of the ruthless criminal organization.

The special exercises vary by body and intention, but most kavash seek to have a body viewed as "attractive" by Endruinite standards. Normal exercises may get them such a body, but the special exercises, which involve excessive amounts of swimming, running, and stretching, allow them to eventually control their body magically. Part of the exercises are meditations that allow them to know their body inside and out. If they can achieve this and keep to their diet, after months of work, they begin to gain full control. They gain a point of body magic skill per six months they keep to their routine and diet for the first eight points (0-8), then it extends to one point per year for the next three (9-11), then one point per three years for the next three (12-14), then one point per five years for the next three (15-17), then one point per seven years for the next three (18-20), then one point per ten years for the next three (21-23), then one point per twelve years for the next three (24-26). It continues to extend in length after that.

There are different ways to wield body magic once it is possessed:

• Via sexual activity (their most common method, allowing them to control intercourse of all parties involved at a difficulty of 8 plus 3 per every individual other than themselves).
• Via massage, to affect another person positively.
• Via physical strike (slap, punch, kick, tackle) with skin-to-skin contact to affect another person negatively.
• Via sheer will power to affect one's own internal processes.
• Via self-massage to affect one's external form.

Powerful body mages can give themselves whole new limbs, grow themselves, shrink themselves, etc., but most kavashes do not achieve that nor seek it. They use their powers to give pleasure to their clients, keep themselves from becoming pregnant, heighten their atractiveness by Endruinite standards, and engage in self-defense.

PRO +1 ATH +4 STR +2 AWA +1 WIL +2 PRS +3 STH +2

Captain of Belly

The Captain of Belly is always a retired kavash, one with deep knowledge of the needs of the people. They are effectively a quartermaster for the entire Red Grith. The Captain of Belly is given a set of scales called the Grithscale to weigh the needs of members.

PRO +1 ATH +3 STR +1 AWA +2 WIL +3 PRS +3 STH +1

Grithscale

The Grithscale is a small metal scale. On one side is a coin, representing the needs of the Red Grith, and the other side, a supplicant places their finger. The scale then weighs if their needs, telling the Captain of Belly how much this person has contributed and therefore how much they should be given to eat, drink, or otherwise meet their needs.

Smuggler

Smuggling operations are a huge part of the Red Grith's work, and thus, smugglers are wielders of the Cant and the Hooded Shadow. They are called rutschers.

Rutscher

There is an ancient cant, a variation on language, a secret code and a dialect and a pidgin, a set of rhymes and ciphers, that only those who have been pushed outside the law may wield. The Cant derived from the first people who had to steal from other mortals to survive, and it grew into a complex, panlingual cryptological esoteric puzzle. The Cant cannot be understood by anyone who serves the laws of the state that make people criminals, and it gives those who speak it special powers. To access it, one must have committed a crime in a place one has been, knowingly, and one must have done so without other esoteric power. One must have committed this crime for purposes neither related to upholding the oppressive structures nor overthrowing them. The crime must violate a law existing on the books in the place it was broken, and it must be knowingly committed. If the crime is later decriminalized, it will still empower the rutscher. If the crime is unknowingly committed, but the criminal later discovers it was/is illegal, they have a brief window to take advantage before they lose access to the cant (until they commit a crime again). In that brief window, they will see a shadow, and if they follow that shadow, they will begin to see things they never noticed before.

For a rutscher, their first crime should be smuggling or some crime useful to a smuggler or even something involving merely hiding an item (even shoplifting counts). It will mark them as a potential rutscher. If they follow the shadow, it will lead them to the closest wielder snatcher or other wielder of Cant, who, if they are recognized as someone exposed to the shadow, will recruit them. From there, they will be trained in the Cant, and eventually tested in the work of the crime family. If they pass, they will be initiated into the Hooded Shadow, the power of concealment from the law and empowerment of crimes. Their initiation will be a smuggling run.

• Conceal: an object is enshadowed, making it hard to detect. This costs 2 shadow points per STH, lasting an hour, for a small object, going up by 2 shadow points per level of size, capping at 20.
• Evade: the shadow traces the wielder's vehicle, giving them speed or stealth as needed. This costs 3 shadow points per point of speed or STH, lasting 5 minutes.
• Unseen: the shadow subtles the movements and enshrouds the body, making it harder to see the wielder. This costs 1 shadow point per 2 points of STH, lasting an hour.
• Identify: the shadow covers the eyes, allowing the wielder to identify an object. This costs 1 shadow point per 30 seconds of use, giving +6 AWA to understanding the target for that time period.
• Appraise: the shadow fills the mind, allowing the wielder to know the wealth of those they are observing. This costs 1 shadow point per 15 seconds of use, giving +6 AWA to gathering value for that time period.
• Terrain: the terrain being traversed becomes easier for the wielder to cross because shadows guide them.
• Obfuscate: a contraband object or objects are enshadowed to make them not register to authorities.

Any other criminal activity tasked to the snatcher by the Red Grith can be enabled, empowered, or otherwise supported by the shadow. Consult with the GM for other potential uses.

In order to wield it, the rutscher must use the correct canting rhymes. They must maintain the Hooded Shadow by remaining outside the law, never cooperating with the authorities, and never going straight. This does not mean never following any law, but rather, never betraying the Red Grith, never giving up contraband without permission, never ratting out the Red Grith, and never surviving off anything but criminal gains. Any violation will destroy the Cant immediately. The more crimes they knowingly commit, the higher the score they have in the shadow, but any use depletes it, meaning they have a limited amount of shadow to use. Furthermore, each pickpocketing or shoplifting only counts as one crime, even if it results in multiple charges, unless a more serious crime (murder, for example) is committed. Rape and sexual assault do not generate the Hooded Shadow, as these are infernal acts. Only criminal acts tasked by the Red Grith generate shadow.

PRO +1 ATH +3 STR +1 AWA +3 WIL / PRS / STH +2

Spy

The Red Grith's spies are mind-readers, telepaths, and psionicists. They are called mentalegenses.

Mentalegens

There are only six mentalegens in the entire Red Grith, and they are feared by everyone who know they exist, which is a very small number of people. Their leader, the mentadux, answers only to the Cang, who is said to be the only person the mentadux fears. They recruit their own replacements and train them. It takes rigorous mental training to wield psionic powers, and even more training to be a spy.

Meditation, concentration exercises, memory exercises, and logic puzzles are part of the early training. Later, they are trained via mental exercises that require that they try to affect the world outside their mind with their mind, to move things without touch or to read the mind of another. The first sign of psionic skill is a spark generated from the mind onto a piece of metal, usually a metal headband provided to encourage such activity. As thoughts and emotions are often indistinguishable, emotional resonance and psionic energy are often difficult to separate. Mentalegenses must practice this extensively in order to wield their psionic energy at full strength. Mostly this means maintaining control of oneself in spite of strong emotions like anger, love, or desire.

After the initial spark, training takes place over the course of many years. On average, it takes about 15 years for someone to gain basic psionic ability (two to three psionic skills with scores above 8). For professional level psionic skill, it takes about 25 years (three to four psionic skills with scores above 11). Basic psionic ability is gauged by how well a mentalegens can externalize their psionic energy, thus projecting their mental power outside their body.

Mentalegens focus on telepathy (communication), mind-reading, sensing, masking, shielding, transferring, and storage, with a little bit of altering skill. Telekinesis is also favored. See psionics for a fuller list of potential skills. See psionics for a fuller list of potential skills.

The mentalegenses' role in the Red Grith is to spy on the authorities, on targets, on other segments of the Grith, and on other criminal organizations in nearby cities or even around the world. While there are only six mentalegens, they use assets and mundane agents as well. They use their mind-reading abilities extensively, but they are also skilled in various arts of espionage, including basic stealth, disguise, speed reading, memorization, acting, lockpicking, escape, and other skills.

PRO +1 ATH +1 STR -1 AWA +6 WIL +3 PRS +1 STH +3

Mentadux

The mentadux has a mental connection to the other five mentalegenses. They can send messages to them over a great distance (up to 10 miles), but to do this, they must have total concetration and no distraction. Thus, they remain in a hidden location away from all distraction, only going out in times of great crisis.

PRO -3 ATH -3 STR -5 AWA +10 WIL +7 PRS / STH +3

Terrorist

The only terrorists in the Red Grith are those devoted to its deities, those who commit acts of terror with the power of Divine servitors. They are called urgents.

Urgent

Urgents are followers of the seven deities of the Red Grith, but they gain their powers not from direct prayer and supplication to the Divines, but rather, communion with servitors, invisible agents of Divine power. They commune with them via complex rituals that put them in contact with them, allowing them to communicate in ways others cannot.

Before they can even engage in a ritual of communion, they must be blessed by a priest of each of the deities of the Red Grith. These are usually older people in the Red Grith who once served other roles and turned to religion when they could no longer continue other work, either because of age, infirmity, or simply a lack of desire to do so. To be blessed, the urgent must prove their faith in each of the deities of the Red Grith:

• Test of the Corpus: proving respect for one's own body via a physical fitness test.
• Test of the Traveler's Friend: proving respect for travelers via a test of languages.
• Test of the Humble Trader: proving respect for value and trade by making a fair exchange, making an offering for the blessing.
• Test of the Great Huntress: proving respect for the hunt by successfully hunting a small animal in the city.
• Test of the Dust Collector: proving respect for resourcefulness by completing an obstacle course.
• Test of the Five-Headed God: proving respect for the five values by trial by combat.
• Test of the Hooded Lady: proving respect for the Shadow and the Cant by moving undetected through the courtyard of St. Lovegrace.

Once they have all seven blessings, they perform a ritual involving hallucinogens, a bonfire, and a dance that allows them to see the servitors that others cannot, and then the servitors test them as well, asking them deep probing questions about why they wish to serve their deities. If they succeed, they are given the ability to sense (not see) servitors and to communicate with them. In exchange for the powers of the servitors, they must perform missions for the Red Grith's deities, usually missions of violence. The more they succeed (attaching bastions of Mal'och), the greater powers the servitors give them. They start at an 8, and they escalate from there with every mission. Most do not survive more than a few missions. Every mission gives +3.

The servitors are capable of anything within the domain of their deities.

PRO +2 ATH +2 STR +1 AWA +2 WIL +2 PRS / STH +1

Thief

The Red Grith's thieves are some of the best in the world. Safe-crackers who use precision magical skills, gonophs who steal magic via the power of dragons, and the legendarily skilled pilferers who wield the Cant and Hooded Shadow. The Captain of Hood is always a thief.

Gonoph

Gonoph among the Red Grith wield draconic accumulation. While some who wield this power do so by forming a magical bond with a dragon (or by being a dragon, but that's not available to PCs), the gonophs among the Red Grith gain the power by carrying a magical bracelet called a dracutrem. Their dracutrem is always a wristband, bracelet, bracer, or other armguard or jewelry that glows dark red when they draw from it. They draw from it by paying it tribute with every job they do. A single item they take is burnt, melted, or otherwise affected so the bracelet can absorb it.

While wearing their dracutrem, gonophs can sense any kind of supernatural or magical object within 10' of them. They often use this just to find things to steal, but if they handle a magical or supernatural object, they can absorb the magic within it. If magic is cast at them, they can absorn it with the bracer if they are skilled enough. If they are in a place with ambient magic, they can absorb it at a rate of 1 point per 10 minutes, if they remain still.

They have to be careful about absorbing energies, however. If they absorb more than the bracer's power (which starts at an 11), they must roll the power of the bracer against the power they have absorbed. If they fail, the other power takes over and destroys the bracer. If they succeed, the energy absorbed slowly converts to draconic power at a rate of 1 point per round. The bracer can hold up to 25 points of draconic power without risk, but over that, it must either be used, discharged, or risk melting the bracelet, rolling its current power vs. its current power.

Points of draconic power can be converted into base stats or innate abilities at a rate of 1 point of base stat/ability per 3 points of power, into mundane skills or substats at a rate of 1 point of skill/substat per 2 points of power, into magical learned skills at a rate of 1 point of magical skill per 5 points of power, and into weapons or armor (both stun and wound, but no other properties) at a rate of 1 point of stun/wound per 1 point of power. These bonuses last 25 minutes.

Gonophs use their powers to break into dangerous locations, well-protected areas, bank vaults, rich men's safes, church lockboxes, anything where there is a chance of finding magical objects, for that is their primary target.

Gonophs often wear special claws that are good for combat, for climbing, and for glass-cutting. These claws are called penches.

PRO +1 ATH +2 STR -1 AWA +2 WIL -2 PRS +1 STH +3

Pilferer

Pilferers are extremely skilled thieves who wield the Cant and the Hooded Shadow. They are the elite thieves of the Red Grith.

There is an ancient cant, a variation on language, a secret code and a dialect and a pidgin, a set of rhymes and ciphers, that only those who have been pushed outside the law may wield. The Cant derived from the first people who had to steal from other mortals to survive, and it grew into a complex, panlingual cryptological esoteric puzzle. The Cant cannot be understood by anyone who serves the laws of the state that make people criminals, and it gives those who speak it special powers. To access it, one must have committed a crime in a place one has been, knowingly, and one must have done so without other esoteric power. One must have committed this crime for purposes neither related to upholding the oppressive structures nor overthrowing them. The crime must violate a law existing on the books in the place it was broken, and it must be knowingly committed. If the crime is later decriminalized, it will still empower the pilferer. If the crime is unknowingly committed, but the criminal later discovers it was/is illegal, they have a brief window to take advantage before they lose access to the cant (until they commit a crime again). In that brief window, they will see a shadow, and if they follow that shadow, they will begin to see things they never noticed before.

For a pilferer, their first crime should be any act of theft. It will mark them as a potential pilferer. If they follow the shadow, it will lead them to the closest wielder snatcher or other wielder of Cant, who, if they are recognized as someone exposed to the shadow, will recruit them. From there, they will be trained in the Cant, and eventually tested in the work of the crime family. If they pass, they will be initiated into the Hooded Shadow, the power of concealment from the law and empowerment of crimes. Their initiation will be stealing from a rich, well-defended mansion.

• Identify: the shadow covers the eyes, allowing the wielder to only see what object they seek. This costs 1 shadow point per 15 seconds of use, giving +6 AWA to finding the target for that time period.
• Appraise: the shadow fills the mind, allowing the wielder to know the wealth of those they are observing. This costs 1 shadow point per 15 seconds of use, giving +6 AWA to gathering value for that time period.
• Unseen: the shadow subtles the movements and enshrouds the body, making it harder to see the wielder. This costs 1 shadow point per 2 points of STH, lasting an hour.
• Distract: the shadow spreads around, distracting the target or those chasing the wielder. This effecitvely gives the wielder +3 STH per 1 shadow point used for 15 seconds per point.
• Grab : the shadow forms a hidden hand to pick the pocket. This costs 10 shadow points for a small object, 16 for a medium one, 22 for a large, 28 for an object impossible to take without being noticed (i.e. the clothes the target is wearing).
• Swap: the shadow frames two objects, switching their places. This costs 16 shadow points for small objects, 20 for medium ones, 25 for large, 32 for objects impossible to take without being noticed.
• Backstab: the shadow enables the wielder to strike behind someone from any location within 10'. This costs 8 shadow points for +3 to hit, with another 3 for every +1 to hit.
• Escape : the shadow opens a path to escape. This effecitvely gives the wielder +3 STH per 2 shadow points used for 1 minute per point.

Any other criminal activity tasked to the snatcher by the Red Grith can be enabled, empowered, or otherwise supported by the shadow. Consult with the GM for other potential uses.

In order to wield it, the pilferer must use the correct canting rhymes. They must maintain the Hooded Shadow by remaining outside the law, never cooperating with the authorities, and never going straight. This does not mean never following any law, but rather, never betraying the Red Grith, never giving back what is stolen wtihout permission, never ratting out the Red Grith, and never surviving off anything but criminal gains. Any violation will destroy the Cant immediately. The more crimes they knowingly commit, the higher the score they have in the shadow, but any use depletes it, meaning they have a limited amount of shadow to use. Furthermore, each pickpocketing or shoplifting only counts as one crime, even if it results in multiple charges, unless a more serious crime (murder, for example) is committed. Rape and sexual assault do not generate the Hooded Shadow, as these are infernal acts. Only criminal acts tasked by the Red Grith generate shadow.

PRO +1 ATH +3 STR -2 AWA +2 WIL / PRS / STH +4

Captain of Hood

Captains of Hood are either gonophs or pilferers. Either one, they are given the Hood of Red Shadows, a powerful artifact that helps them remain hidden. If a gonoph, they have a stronger than normal dracutrem, and if a pilferer, they have extra shadow points for the work of their underlings.

Gonoph: PRO +2 ATH +3 STR / AWA +3 WIL -1 PRS +2 STH +5
Pilferer: PRO +2 ATH +4 STR -1 AWA +3 WIL +1 PRS / STH +6

Hood of Red Shadows

The Hood of Red Shadows allows its wearer to permantly have the Identify, Appraise, and Unseen powers of a pilferer on, whether they can use the Cant or not. If they can use the Cant, they gain a further +1 to all shadow skills. If they are a gonoph, they have the ability to take dragon form once and only once.

Safe-Cracker

Safe-crackers are thieves who use figgum, like sicarian assassins. Instead of juggling knives as a meditative practice, they meditate over cracking safes. The process is otherwise much the same:

They practice for hours a day until they can open a complex safe with their eyes closed, and then they break safes while meditating. The concept they focus on to meditate is that "one skill is all skills". The idea is that if one learns one skill, that skill can be transformed into another. Thus, they focus on a single skill, becoming elite in it, then use the power of figgum to transform that skill into any other needed skill temporarily. The process of achieving this requires them focusing on the circle formed by the act of the safe's tumblers, then breaking past it via a meditative process called "moving beyond the circle". This process requires such extreme concentration that one must meditate for months at a time to achieve it.

In-game, this amounts to an ongoing series of rolling safe-cracking skill, WIL, and AWA against increasing difficulties, with a series of bonuses and penalties for successes or failures, culminating in a roll against a difficulty of 25 for safe-cracking, 25 for WIL to focus, and 25 for AWA to see past the circle. If this is achieved, the safe-cracker will gain the ability to move their skill points around their character sheet as they please. There are some caveats to this - they can't move base stats around, for example, nor innate powers. Only learned skills may be adapted. If they alter their skill in safe-cracking, it may affect their ability to use this power, as they must enter the meditative state via safe-cracking to use their power.

Safe-crackers may also steal skill points from others; they may only do this if they sneak up behind them and pick their pocket of something relating to the skill in question. The safe-cracker must release this skill within seven minutes or lose permanently some of their safe-cracking skills. The skill points the safe-cracker has can never go above their skill point total for more than seven minutes.

Some skills cost more than others, however. Magical skills, for example, are not equivalent to basic language skills, nor are elite-level skills equal to low-level ones. There is a scale of equivalence available if you choose to play a safe-cracker.

As safe-crackers are thieves, their skill focuses are relevant to their work, but like all who engage in the art of figgum, they often learn other skills in order to have more points to move around. Common relevant skills include lock picking, disguise, stealth, sleight of hand, appraisal, housebreaking, etc. They usually carry garottes to use if they end up in trouble.

Safe-crackers who lose their tools will lose their powers.

PRO / ATH +1 STR -2 AWA +3 WIL +1 PRS / STH +4

Torturer

The Red Grith employs torturers who wield body magic to get results. They are called hottupalis.

Hottupali

Hottupalis know how to extract someone's organs without killing them instantly. Their methods allow a person who has lost an organ - even a heart - live for up to six hours. They like to show their victims the organs as they torture them. Hottupalis are not nice people. They are employed by the Red Grith to extract information from or simply bring agony to their enemies. There aren't many who do this for the Red Grith, and those who do scare the shit out of everyone else in the Red Grith. They're also called "the organ-grinders", though this is not an accurate description of what they do.

Like kavashes, they use special diet and exercise in order to access their magic. Their special diet is regular consumption of magical grains, spices, and milk mixed into a cereal called nimusti. This may vary by species, however. The Red Grith provides this to their hottupalis, who eat it along with a heavy diet of bloody meat. The special exercises vary by body and intention, but most hottupalis seek to be strong and intimidating. Normal exercises may get them such a body, but the special exercises, which involve excessive amounts of lifting, punching, and push/pull ups, allow them to eventually control their body magically. Part of the exercises are meditations that allow them to know their body inside and out. If they can achieve this and keep to their diet, after months of work, they begin to gain full control. They gain a point of body magic skill per six months they keep to their routine and diet for the first eight points (0-8), then it extends to one point per year for the next three (9-11), then one point per three years for the next three (12-14), then one point per five years for the next three (15-17), then one point per seven years for the next three (18-20), then one point per ten years for the next three (21-23), then one point per twelve years for the next three (24-26). It continues to extend in length after that.

There are different ways to wield body magic once it is possessed:

• Via physical strike (slap, punch, kick, tackle) with skin-to-skin contact to affect another person negatively.
• Via sheer will power to affect one's own internal processes.
• Via self-harm if they intend to alter their own form.

In order to practice their grim trade, hottupalis also feed their victims a mixture of magical grain alcohol, spices, and raw meat, called malucarne. This mixture is ground up (which is where the "grinders" pejorative comes from) and forcefed to the victims. Then they use their body magic skills to alter their bodies temporarily, beating them such that their organs come out of their mouths, but their bodies temporarily bypass that function for up to six hours. During this time, the victims are questioned with the promise of getting their organs back. They don't always give them back.

PRO +3 ATH +1 STR +3 AWA / WIL +1 PRS -6 STH -2

Traitor

The Red Grith does not court traitors from the police or the powerful, for they do not trust them. But they allow those who have betrayed the Divine to serve among them. These are called teomas.

Teoma

Teomas are mortalists, believers that mortals do not need the Divine, believers in a philosophy of the power of mortality to be the true masters of their own fates. Their faith is in themselves as members of mortality, and therefore, they wield mortal will. As they have no Divine being, no inmortal, nor even a potent concept to rely upon, their faith is tested and proven with their belief in themselves and other mortals' abilities. Teomas are former members of another religion (any except that of the Red Grith) who have since betrayed their faith, exposing lies used in that faith or otherwise opposing them in favor of preaching the power of mortal will.

The power of their faith has little utility except when wielded against the powers of the Divine or inmortals, and then it provides potent protection. Teomas gain +6 to any roll against Divine power or anything done by an inmortal being, and another +3 more if against their former faith. If they ever betray their oath by accepting Divine or inmortal aid or support, they will lose all of their powers.

Their role in the Red Grith is to preach against the religions that attack the Red Grith, becoming open targets against the powers-that-be. They train in oratory and persuasion to do this.

PRO / ATH / STR +1 AWA +2 WIL +2 PRS +3 STH -1

Urchin

Urchins are any youth engaged in petty crime, usually homeless and/or orphaned. In the Red Grith, they are employed in various minor tasks or encouraged to learn the basics of crime. Those who do not get recruited into another form of crime often learn survival magic. These are called chibases.

Chibase

Chibases learn to survive on their own, then get noticed by the Red Grith and trained further, often training other urchins as they go. They are scavengers, hunters of vermin, doers of oddjobs, pickers of pockets, shoplifters, trashpickers, pranksters, and more. They become attuned to survival itself, learning to find the most helpful objects, most nourishing food, the easiest targets. As they do this, they gain an instinctual magic. If a chibase survives a month and a day on their instincts, they are visited by a local vermin that becomes their animal companion, helping them survive. Usually, this is a rat, pigeon, fox, wasp, squirrel, or mouse. Once this happens, the Red Grith notices and recruits them if they haven't already.

Chibases gain certain powers from their animal companion:

• Rat: disease resistance, intimidation, body squeezing (fitting through small spaces), heightened sense of smell, and increased STH.
• Pigeon: disease resistance, shared vision, unassuming appearance, increased speed, and secret calls.
• Fox: cunning awareness, illusory tails, sharp bite, heightened sense of smell, and increased ATH.
• Wasp: stinging strike, shared vision, intimidation, increased speed, and poison resistance.
• Squirrel: increased ATH, preserving food, food sensing, climbing skill, and jumping skill.
• Mouse: increased STH, unassuming appearance, food sensing, body squeezing, and squeak signalling.

After they grow up, chibases lose their animal companion, usually around the age of 20.

PRO / ATH +3 STR -1 AWA +1 WIL / PRS / STH +2

Vagrant

Vagrants who join the Red Grith often find in their travels a deep connection to their souls that give them unique powers ("savalis") or simply gain power from the energy of movement itself ("fambas").

Savali

Savalis wander Endruin, coming into Haenor periodically. They have connections with the Red Grith, bringing information from afar. On their journeys, savalis have learned to focus inward, finding their inner strengths and deeply understanding their own experiences. This leads them to have a minor form of sorcery, drawing magic from their own souls. Most learn to do this accidentally, turning inward because of trauma or isolation, then tapping into the power inadvertently in a time of need. They do not understand it well enough to share it. As vagrants, savalis gain certain spells:

• Understand language: comprehend any spoken language dominant in an area for 10 minutes. Difficulty 10.
• Comprehend signage: understand targeted sign. Difficulty 5.
• Direction sense: know which way is which. Difficulty 6.
• Hardened feet: increase endurance by +1 (difficulty 7), +3 (difficulty 10), +6 (difficulty 13), or +9 (difficulty 16) for eight hours.
• Waking rest: gain rest as if asleep, but do not sleep. Difficulty is 11. Difficulty goes up +6 for every subsequent night used, +3 if used every other night, +1 if every three days. If used for seven days within a month, the wielder permanently loses a point of PRS, AWA, or WIL.
• Stretch food: makes food last longer. Difficulty 9. If used seven times within a month, the wielder permanently loses a point of STR or ATH.
• Find water: locates the nearest source of drinkable water. Difficulty 8.
• Hunker down: +6 toughness and +3 STH or vice versa for as long as the caster doesn't move. Difficulty 12.
• Stunning gesture: caster's touch becomes a hit of +6/+0 for one strike. Difficulty 13.

They may also gain spells based on their species, and players may create their own spells or effects. Consult with GM.

The more a savali understands themselves, the more spells they gain. The more they try, the more they gain. However, there is always a risk of backlash. A failure of any spell can permanently remove their power or damage their WIL. Normal failure means temporary loss of spell casting (1 round) or -1 WIL for one round. Special failure means loss of spellcasting for a day or -3 WIL for a day. Exceptional failure means loss of spellcasting for a month, -1 WIL lost permanently, -3 WIL for a month, or -6 for a day. Critical failure means permanent loss of spellcasting and permanent loss of -3 WIL. Furthermore, after casting a successful spell, they have a -1 to casting, WIL, AWA, and PRS, if the success was critical, -3 if exceptional, -6 if special, -9 if normal, for one round after.

PRO -3 ATH +1 STR +1 AWA +2 WIL +3 PRS +1 STH +1

Famba

Fambas gain power from movement itself. They gain power by attuning themselves to movement. To do this, they spend days focusing on the rhythm of their steps. They engage in an intricate series of ritual movements every night before sleeping until they can sense every movement of their bodies, down to the blood flowing in their veins and the beat of their heart, every twitch of muscle and organ. If they can achieve this, they become attuned to movement and able to draw power from certain aspects of it. Specifically, as they travel around Endruin (or beyond) by foot, they gain special bonuses or abilities based on those locales or the distance they've traveled.

• 10 square miles traveled: +1 endurance
• 25 square miled traveled: +1 speed
• 50 square miles traveled: +1 constitution
• 100 square miles traveled: +1 ATH
• 500 square miles traveled: +3 reaction
• 1,000 square miles traveled: +3 constituon, speed, or endurance
• 5,000 square miles traveled: +3 survival
• 10,000 square miles traveled: +3 ATH
• 25,000 square miles traveled: +6 dodge
• 50,000 square miles traveled: +6 survival, reaction, constitution, speed, or endurance
• 100,000 square miles traveled: +6 ATH
• 300,000 square miles traveled: +9 survival, reaction, constittuion, speed, endurance, or dodge

Square miles are measured in north/south times west/east.

Furthermore, certain kinds of location give them special abilities:

• Lone inn or waystation: sense shelter, power 8
• Vagrant camp: +1 read people
• Barn or other farm structure: sense food, power 8
• Village (under 500 people): measure capacity for support, power 8
• Town (501 to 10,000 people): +3 persuasion
• City (10,001 to 100,000 people): unsleeping travel, once per week, if used four times in a month, lose -1 ATH permanently
• Metropolis (100,001+ people): sense friend, power 8
• Port city: +1 negotiation/bartering
• Fishing camp: +3 patience
• Mining camp: +1 toughness
• Rail station: understand rail schedules, power 11
• Crossroads: vanish for 30 seconds, once per week
• Mountain road: +3 climbing
• Forest road: +3 scavenging
• Highway: escape teleport, 1 mile, once per month
• Rail tunnel: danger sense
• Open water: +1 sailing
• Underground, 500+ feet: direciton sense
• Underwater, 1,000+ feet: underwater breathing
• Open seas, 10 miles out: waterwalking
• The sky, 5+ miles: cloudwalking
• Borderlands: +1 PRO

If they visit a new instance of each location 50 times, they gain the bonus again or gain +1 to the power it gave them, and this repeats every 50 new instances.

PRO / ATH +4 STR +1 AWA +1 WIL +1 PRS +1 STH +1

Vandal

The Cang has a soft spot for vandals, it is said. Those who show talent are given the task of marking the territory of the Red Grith and decorating it with magical graffiti. They are called naghashes. The Captain of Wing is always a vandal.

Naghash

Naghashes among the Red Grith are known to wield dragonsense. While some who wield dragonsense do so by forming a magical bond with a dragon (or by being a dragon, but that's not available to PCs), the naghashes among the Red Grith gain the power by carrying a magical bracelet called a dracutrem. Their dracutrem is always a wristband, bracelet, bracer, or other armguard or jewelry that glows dark red when they draw from it. They draw from it by paying tribute after every major act of vandalism. They mix their own blood with either paint or some other material they used in their act of vandalism, smearing it on the bracelet.

When they invoke the power of their dracutrem, they gain temporary bonuses to any form of perception that they have or any creative skill. The more points they draw from their dracutrem, them more they must put back into it. If they make a powerful offering, they may be able to take on properties of a dragon's magical senses (consult with GM).

As vandals, their primary work is to paint the city streets with special marks that show where the Red Grith's territory is, to send signals or taunts to the authorities, or to send messages to other members of the Grith. They sometimes engage in pettier vandalism (broken windows, defiling buildings with waste, minor acts of arson, etc.), but the most skilled among them stick to extravagant graffiti. They are messengers, effectively, but also artists. Sometimes, their graffiti serves only the purpose of inspiring their fellow Grith members. Sometimes, it is to leave their own personal mark. Sometimes, it is a bold statement, painted on a police station or mansion. Sometimes, it is just for fun.

Inspring graffiti can give bonuses to other members of the Red Grith who see it. Bold graffiti that taunts the authorities can give them penalties as if it were intimidation - or it can backfire and bring them down on the vandal. Other types may bring other bonuses or penalties, depending on use.

And any place marked as Red Grith territory gives bonuses to naghashes so long as they are within it.

PRO / ATH +2 STR / AWA +2 WIL +1 PRS +1 STH +2

Captain of Wing

The Captain of Wing is a skilled, veteran naghash. They patrol the entire territory every week, making sure it is clearly marked, using their graffiti to give orders to members of the Red Grith to protect certain areas if need be. They have a stronger dracutrem that allows them greater bonuses for longer periods, and they carry the Grithwing, a pair of red cloth wings that meld with their cloak and allows them to fly.

PRO +1 ATH +3 STR / AWA +3 WIL +1 PRS +2 STH +3

Grithwing

Two red cloth wings sewn into a cloak. They fold into it to hide, but can be unfurled to allow the wearer flight and gliding at a speed of 25.

Vigilante

The Red Grith employs vigilantes to keep the peace among their own and to target those who harm their own. Some derive power from strict, disciplined regimens (budruses), while others derive power from the laws and rules of the Red Grith itself. They are called synvakas. The Captain of Muscle is always a vigilante.

Budrus

Budruses among the Red Grith are known to wield dragonwill. While some who wield dragonwill do so by forming a magical bond with a dragon (or by being a dragon, but that's not available to PCs), the budruses among the Red Grith gain the power by carrying a magical bracelet called a dracutrem. Their dracutrem is always a wristband, bracelet, bracer, or other armguard or jewelry that glows dark red when they draw from it. They draw from it by paying tribute after every shift they spend in vigilance. They mix blood of any victims with their own blood to feed it; if they did not harm anyone on their shift, they feed it their own blood mixed with expensive alcohol.

When they invoke the power of their dracutrem, they gain temporary bonuses to WIL, PRO, STH, or any mental or supernatural abilities they have. The more points they draw from their dracutrem, them more they must put back into it. If they make a powerful offering, they may be able to take on properties of a dragon's powers (consult with GM). They train extensively to become vigilantes.

Budruses keep watch over protectees of the Red Grith, exacting revenge for any harm done to the weakest among them. They protect the beggars, urchins, vagrants, and others who are not combat-oriented, as well as poor families in the territory of the Red Grith. They also hunt down any non-Grith criminals who come into their territory, and they bring the fight to the powers-that-be often. Budruses wear black and maroon cloaks that help them remain stealthy, carry climbing gear and other useful tools for getting around the city unseen, and have a deep knowledge of the city's hidden passageways and understreets.

Their preferred weapons are grappling hooks, wrist-daggers, and chain flails.

PRO +3 ATH +3 STR +2 AWA +1 WIL +3 PRS / STH +2

Captain of Muscle

The Captain of Muscle is a retired budrus who undertakes the administration of the training programs of the Red Grith, as well as directly training vigilantes, robbers, muggers, extortionists, and assassins. They are extremely disciplined and have the ability to focus their dracutrem such that they can pull double the amount of power that others can. The Captain of Muscle also carries the Grithbaton, a heavy cudgel that gains power as students spar with the Captain.

PRO +3 ATH +2 STR +2 AWA +2 WIL +5 PRS / STH /

Grithbaton

A heavy cudgel that gains power as students spar with the Captain. If the Captain uses it in defense of the Red Grith, of their students, or of the poor and weak, it is a +7/+5 cudgel instead of a +5/+3 cudgel. It can unleash a wave of shadow once per week, allows the wielder to sense the weakpoints of their opponent once per combat, and unleash draconic lightning once per year.

Synvaka

Synvakas are empowered by the rules of the Red Grith itself. To become a synvaka, they must submit themselves to the higher ups of the Red Grith for approval. Then they must go into a sanctum of the Red Grith and wait. The shortest wait is seven hours. The longest is six days. During that time, either another synvaka will arrive and place their hand on the shoulder of the candidate, a Red Grith officer will call the name of the candidate to name them as worhty, or the time will pass and no reaction will occur in order to mark the candidate as unworthy. If this happens, they may try five more times, once per year.

While in the sanctum, their worthiness is tested internally, as the magic of order will tempt them, challenge them, and test their knowledge. None of this is visible to outsiders, but eventually, a synvaka or leader of the Red Grith will be informed by magic of the success of the candidate. The method of choosing is determined by practical circumstance: if there is a local synvaka in a position to train a new synvaka, they will be called to do so; if not, they will be on their own to train as per the rules of the Red Grith.

Training takes six months, much less than other wielders of order magic, because they are hampered by being criminals. They must study the rules of the Red Grith and be tested upon them. To graduate to a full synvaka, the candidate must spend six days in meditation upon the rules, stand up to a series of combat tests, and then be tested on difficult situations by their mentor. If the mentor views them as worhty, they are given their club and knuckles and a jurisdiction.

The role of the synvaka is to enforce the rules of the Red Grith. They are vigilantes to police the criminal organization on the basis of its own rules. Thus, they gain certain powers to do that:

• Invocation of the code: if they speak ritual words during combat with a violator, they can bind them with a magical red rope of energy.
• Street judgment: if they find someone guilty of a violation and they have no uncertainty on the matter, they can impose judgment then and there, magically placing a geas on them to redeem themselves or face painful punishment (including possibly death).
• Red shield: if they are defending a member of the Red Grith against a violator, they gain bonuses to PRO and STR during the combat.

Other powers may be possible under specific circumstances. Consult the GM.

PRO +2 ATH +1 STR +2 AWA +1 WIL +1 PRS -1 STH /

Witch

All witchcraft is illegal in Endruin, so all witches are criminals. There are many kinds of witchcraft, but the two most common in the Red Grith are those who study "women's" sciences and a sect of women warriors.

Bellona

Bellonae belong to a sect of women warriors (who also welcome other non-cis men of any gender) who combine the arts of witchcraft with war magic. They use ritual combat to ignite their powers, specifically focusing on the use of sword, shield, spear, torch, whip, and chariot. Every bellona chooses one of these to focus on, but they have some skill in all of them.

The ritual combat they engage in happens every three months, and they fight to first blood. At the start of the fight, they ritually wound their arms and/or legs as a blood sacrifice to make sure blood is spilled. When blood is spilled, both victor and loser of the fight absorb it into their weapons for its magical power. This blood is used for spells that enhance their combat abilities. Initiates spend three years training before they are let to do anything on their own as a bellona. The spells they gain in that time include the following:

• Fury of battle: after the first round of combat, if they invoke this power, they get a counter attack against any attack against them for an entire round.
• Flame of strife: during combat, they can create a raging wall of flame that covers the entire combat area, damaging everyone, friend or foe.
• Wild abandon: they can enter an unfocused, erratic series of strikes that add +3 to all damage rolls if they hit, but are always open to counter attacks.
• Bloodlust: every time they draw blood, they gain +1 to PRO, ATH, or STR (their choice, but it must be the same for the entire battle) that lasts for the length of combat.
• Dismembering strike: they can make a called shot without penalty to attempt to remove body parts from their target (as long as it's not the neck/head/back).

The brutality and gore of their sect is feared by all, even by other members of the Red Grith.

PRO +3 ATH +2 STR +2 AWA -1 WIL -2 PRS -3 STH -1

Stabula

Stabulae are scientists who either study fields of science that are beneficial to women and non-men or who are women or non-men in scientific fields usually barred to them by patriarchal society. The Red Grith is not particularly feminist, but these women often turn to it because there are experts within it who know how to use hyperscience and have no care for the laws prohibiting them.

In the Red Grith, the stabulae use advanced scientific processes to study any kind of science they wish. They perform hyperscientific experiments that allow them to run multiple experiments with the same ingredients at the same time. For example, if an experiment needs one fluid ounce of water, they can run that experiment twice at the same time with only one fluid ounce of water, allowing for use of controls and A/B testing to experiment more rapidly.

In order to tap into this power, a stabula needs special equipment - equipment made from a glass called potiri - and neutralized ingredients, and decades of study into hyperscience. The Red Grith sponsors women who come to them seeking this knowledge if they promise to use their work to help the Red Grith for a certain amount of time.

Some examples of works stabulae involve themselves in include the following:

• Hyperastronomy: study of comets.
• Hyperbiology: reproductive health and gender-transition science.
• Hyperchemistry: study of reaction kinetics between chemicals.
• Hypergeology: cartography and topography and geological classification systems.
• Hypermeteorology: study of cyclones.
• Hyperoceanography: bathysphere exploration.
• Hyperphysics: study of radiation.
• Hyperpsychology: children's behavior, self-psych, experimental psychology, sexuality, memory, mental illness, psychopathology, and more.

Whatever field they are in, they have devices that help them in their work that have interesting powers.

PRO / ATH / STR +1 AWA +3 WIL +1 PRS -1 STH -1