Harborer

Protectors of fugitives, refugees, or safe-houses for criminal organizations.

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Domocust

In the Violet Grith, harborers use the story of a place to strengthen it. Every place has its own stories, its own lore, and those who know those tales may invoke them to command and control that place, to make it safer - or more dangerous - and thus harbor fugitives and others seeking refuge within. The stories of a place are alive, and if treated well, will reward those who dwell within it. A domocust learns what the stories like and finds ways to give them what they need and want in exchange for powers of protection.

Stories like to be shared and remembered, so telling the story of the house is the most important thing a domocust must do, preferably nightly and to an audience of at least one person. If it ever goes below monthly, the story will revoke the powers they grant.

Other things the story like include but are not limited to keeping the house clean and maintained, welcoming guests, following certain house rules idiosyncratic to the house, returning home nightly or at least weekly, not altering the house too much beyond how it is described in the story, or re-enacting the story within the house. The more these customs are kept, the more likely the story will make contact and grant powers to the domocust.

Powers they might be granted include the following:

• Doorless passage: within their home, they can move from room to room without need for doors.

• Groundswander: if they walk their grounds once a week, they can use it to teleport to other homes’ yards, gardens, or grounds at a specific hour of the night.

• Load-bearing: if they form a strong enough bond, they can make it so that the house will not fall if they are alive or that they will not die so long as the house does not fall (but not both).

• Opening decision: if the open their front door to someone, it is not open until they decide it is open, even if it is open.

• Returning token: if they give someone a token from the house, they can return their at will once.

• Sense of place: if they know their home intimately, they will have +3 AWA to know other places and their stories when they go there.

• Tutelary presence: inside their own home, they gain +3 to any act that defends the house directly against an attack.

• Unmoving defense: if they have kept their home well, they can draw power from it when taking a hit to have the equivalent of a +5/+5 armor.

Other powers may be possible. Consult the GM.

Domocusts house fugitives, refugees, and anyone the Violet Grith asks them to.

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

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Halgunger

The Green Grith's safe-houses and havens are all on the islands in the river or river mouth, and their protectors have elemental command of those islands.

The river mouth is home to dozens of moderate-sized islands and hundreds of smaller ones. On these islands, which are sometimes small sandbars, sometimes stretches of mud, and sometimes substantial islands, there are safe-houses of the Green Grith shaped by the halgungers, members of the organization who have spent years bonding with the islands to be as one with them. They do this by literally burying themselves on the islands, drinking the water flowing through or around them, and connecting to all the natural parts of the island as best they can. After a year and a day of this, they will look into the waters on or around the island and their reflection will speak to them, and thus they begin the test to see if they are a servant of nature. If they prove themselves worthy in this magical test, they will be drawn into the waters, wholly (no matter their depth), and come out the other side a day later having communed with the island.

The powers include the following:

• Sense visitor: the flows around the island, water or wind, will tell the halgunger if someone not of the island has arrived.
• Shift passage: any path (natural or not) on the island can be altered at will by the halgunger if they are on the island.
• Speak to inhabitant: the halgunger can speak with any plant, animal, or fungi who is of the island.
• Strength of the isle: the halgunger can draw the strength of the physical earth of the island into themselves.
• Sedimentary shape: the halgunger can alter the form of the island or of themselves as the flow of the river shifts the shape of islands.
• Sudden wash: the halgunger can summon a small flood.

I didn't mean for all of these to start with S, but halfway through I realized they were and went with it.

Off of the island, the halgunger can draw strength or fluidity from the isle if they carry either mud or water from it with them, and they can always return to the island no matter how far from it they are.

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

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Sharana

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.

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 /

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Tegerist

The Blue Grith keeps many safe-houses throughout the city, and they have special protectors living in them who have magical powers that allow them to keep their wards or locations hidden, protect them from attack or invasion, or otherwise provide safety to those inside.

A tegerist is someone who forms a special connection with a safe-house in order to be able to magically keep it safe. They do this in several different ways. First, they must either build or rehab the safe-house itself, getting to know its construction intimately. Then, they must make it physically secure as much as they can. Once this is done, they must ritually cast protections upon it with special rituals:

• Ritual of Cleansing: ritually cleaning the safe-house means cleaning it physically and magically, using special herb smoke to drive away harmful or dangerous energies.
• Ritual of Warding: this ritual requires placing special objects at key locations in the house and doing a brief gesture of connection. Objects can be a horseshoe hung above a door, a salt shaker placed above a stove, a special curtain hung in a window, or other commonplace things to disguise them from prying eyes.
• Ritual of Familiarity: this ritual makes the safe-house recognizable to members of the Blue Grith or those in desperate need and obscured from all others. To do this, the tegerist places objects throughout the home from their own past, speaks special words (like a prayer, but to no greater power), and spends a night focusing on the objects, to embed their familiarity with the objects into the house itself.
• Ritual of Welcoming: this ritual provides comfort to those who seek refuge in the house. The tegerist stocks the larder, makes sure there are other necessities (linens on the beds, towels in the bathroom), and then marks each room with a special sigil. If the other rituals have succeeded, this one will cause the safe-house to provide basic necessities automatically.
• Ritual of the Hearth: this ritual involves lighting the hearth and making a powerful offering to the flames within, then marking the tegerist with the ashes. If they wear the ashes for a year and a day, they will be bonded to the hearth and able to return to it at will.

These rituals combined give the safe-house up to four of these powers to start, and more as the house is used to protect people:

• Self-cleaning: the house cleans itself. Cleaning materials animate themselves at night to do so.
• Unbreakable doors and windows: if closed, the doors and windows will not open or break, power 14+, if enemies come or attack.
• Strong walls: the walls cannot be broken or burnt, power 14+, so long as there is a fire in the hearth.
• Friendly countenance: the safe-house is recognizable only to those who need it or members of the Blue Grith, power 14+.
• Well stocked: basic necessities are always available in the safe-house.
• Expansive space: it is larger inside than out.
• Concealed egress: there is a secret exit in an impossible location (i.e., a door to the outside in an inner closet or under the sink), power 14+.
• Taupe barrier: if someone manages to get inside, they see no doors, only solid taupe walls, power 14+.

For every person safely kept in the house (for at least a month), the tegerist can add +1 to one of the numerical powers. For every six people, they can add a totally new power. Other powers are available. Consult with the GM.

And the tegerist gains up to four of these powers for their own individual use, adding more at the same rate as they add powers or points to the house:

• Return to hearth: the tegerist can return to the safe-house at will, no matter how far away they are.
• Secret cupboard: a pocket in the tegerist's clothing actually empties out into a cupboard in the house.
• Hearthfire: the tegerist draws flame from the burning hearth and casts it at a target (AWA to hit, power of 14+/14+ celestial fire damage). If they add to the damage rating, it will add to both stun and wound, not just one of them.
• Comforting touch: a simple touch from the tegerist will bring comfort to someone in distress or pain at a power of 14+.
• Kiss of relief: a kiss from the tegerist will bring relief from all worries and negative emotions at a power of 14+ for up to an hour.
• Purifying water: if they take water from the house, they can use it to cleanse away actual dirt or grime instantly from something, or they can use it to wash away infernal energies at a power of 14+.
• Home advantage: if within the house, they roll at +3+ for anything.
• Home strength: as long as the safe-house is safe and standing, unviolated by enemies, the tegerist has +3+ to STR when defending it.

Tegerists are a vital part of the Blue Grith. Many of them almost never leave their safe-houses. Their main role is to provide a place for fleeing slaves as they make their way out of the city. Part of the Commitee for Support.

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