Gangster

Members of organized crime groups who work front-organizations or act as soldiers.

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Astermel

Gangsters in the Green Grith are a bonded group who form a constellation. They are responsible for working front organizations, acting as soldiers of the Green Grith, and supporting other rackets for the organization.

An astermel is a soldier of the Green Grith who has joined a cell devoted to a specific task and bonded to a specific constellation, giving them certain powers. They form the bond via a ritual under an ascendant constellation, and the number in the group must match the number of stars in the constellation. The ritual requires a devotion to nature, stargazing and astrological knowledge, and use of hallucinatory substances. The astermel group must sleep under the stars for a month before the bond will fully take place. Powers vary by constellation:

Constellation	Stars	Power	Bonus
The First Tree	12	Rooted to the ground	+3 balance
The Green Shield	8	Protection from infernal magic	+3 toughness
The Druid	6	Channel elemental power	+3 WIL
The Bearer of the Firmament	10	Hold up the sky	+3 STR
The Three Dancers	4	Dance with the moons	+3 ATH
The Daughter of the World	3	Channel primordial ancestry	+3 memory
The Observers	15	Observe what is not what they want you to see	+3 AWA
The River Raft	10	Flow through the world	+3 ATH
The Great Boar	8	Find nourishment and water	+3 investigation
The Pouring Pitcher	22	Release that which is withheld	+3 PRS
The Tricow	9	Strike thrice, wait thrice	+3 STR
The Mouth of the Worm	12	Draw deep within and destroy	+3 WIL
The Headless Reader	19	Know without knowing	+3 AWA
The Five Brothers	25	All converging to one action	+3 PRO
The Mother of Many	7	Generate something new	+3 PRS
The Burning Scorpion	8	Burning sting	+3 PRO

Each of these gangs (which use the name of their constellation) do many different jobs for the Green Grith.

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

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Dorner

The soldiers of the Violet Grith are their gangsters. Ruthless, rough, and empowered by stories of ancient warriors, they are the crooked faces of fake businesses who would as soon break your kneecaps as sell you a pot.

The gangsters of the Violet Grith are dangerous soldiers of crime wars. They usually have some sort of front business or organization they pretend to work for or run, and they tend to belong to one of three crime families within the Violet Grith: MacSithigh, Bradain, or Corraidhin (pronounced “Curradin”).

The Mac Sithigh family has a fey they all swear fealty to and work for, a powerful and brutal fairy warlord from “the home country” who gives them these powers:

• Butcher’s slit: if they cut someone’s throat, the resultant blood will give them +1 to PRO, ATH, or STR if they drink a bit of it.

• Cruel smirk: they gain +3 to intimidation with their smirking.

• Hobbling strike: no penalties to called shots to the knees.

• Jointing cut: if they make a called shot with a blade to any joint on someone’s body, they will cut clean through even on a special success.

• Terrifying loom: +6 intimidation (rather than +1) if they loom over someone (either by being taller or knocking them prone).

Their family must pay a price every year of three souls. They usually take these from those they kill in the year, but if they don’t kill enough acceptable souls, they must kill some of their own.

The Bradain family works with a powerful fey within the Violet Grith who grants them more subtle powers:

• Deceptive wounding: because of how they attack, the target’s wounds seem less dangerous than they are - FW are NW, NW are DW, DW are MW, and MW are CW.

• Dreaded approach: if they visibly wear violet (enough to cover a quarter or more of their body), anyone who sees them approaching will be intimidated (+3 intimidation).

• Fast strike: if they have a small blade, they can strike with it so quickly the target doesn’t notice and cannot parry or block and takes -3 to dodge. This only works on the first attack in a combat.

• Marking: if they injure someone, that person is “marked” and they will always recognize them even if they are in disguise (+3 read people or AWA to recognize).

• Quiet heavy: the louder their attack or approach should be, the quieter it gets, thus allowing to wield very large weaponry and still gain stealth bonuses (+1 to +3).

Their debt to their benefactor is paid in money gained for the Violet Grith. Anything not paid by the end of the year is paid out of pocket or in blood.

And the Corraidhin family has a fey benefactor whom they don’t share with anyone. They gain more openly magical powers:

• Fey blast: they can unleash a blast of a fey element (fire, frost, wind, or water) once per combat after they have been wounded.

• Illusory strike: they can create illusory weapons or fists that appear when they attack to give them +3 to hit once per combat.

• Nightmare form: they may take a form of someone’s worst nightmare once per year.

• Sleeper hold: they can bind someone in illusory ropes to make them sleep if they throw fairy dust in the air near their target.

• Violet aura: they can invoke an aura of violet light that gives them +3 PRS if they put a flower in their pocket.

Their debt to their benefactor is paid in dreams. Every member of the family dreams half as much as other people, causing them to be a little under-rested and stressed out at all times (-1 to all skill rolls).

All gangsters may buy more powers from their benefactor for the right price.

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

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Duldinavi

The Blue Grith is a criminal organization, so anyone within it is technically a "gangster" in the sense that they are a member of a "gang", but the "gangsters" of the Blue Grith refers to the organized individuals who operate front organizations and engage in violence to defend it. They are effectively both businessmen and criminal warriors.

The gangsters of the Blue Grith swear an oath to one another, which allows them to bond and draw power from one another. They are part of a tight-knit community called the duldinavi. The oath they take is one of loyalty to the Blue Grith and to one another, and it is sealed via an ancient ritual dance led by a special drummer. The ritual dance is done in the dark of night during the spring time in a safe-house of the Blue Grith. Before the dance, they must wash in the river in secret and use stones and sticks to scour their skin. They must abstain from drugs or alcohol for a week before the dance. During the dance, they must dance through the night, engaging in a call and response, each taking turns being the caller. What they wear, what offerings they bring, what relationships they have with other members all affect the bonding and the dance, but by dawn, they are all bonded with one another.

These bonded groups must find some form of balance with one another. There must be some equal moiety; the group must have some characteristic that can be divided in two. This can be an equal number of members of two different species, or an equal number of members of two specific heights, or equal number of members using two different types of weapons, or any other possible quality that they go into the dance aware of.

Once bonded, the duldinavi can share amongst each other any stats or skills. One specific member of the group is the one who kept the rhythm in the dance, and they are the one to filter the sharing of stats, making sure no one harms themself while doing so. But they can freely share points across their character sheets, no matter how far they are from one another.

This bond is designed to last for a year and a day or until the oath is broken. If the latter happens, the bond is permanently broken amongst those members. A new bond may be formed only once the betraying member is dead. If the former, a new bond can be formed the next night via a new dance.

Part of the Commitee for Warfare.

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

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Raglaw

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 Goodys. 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 Goodys 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.

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