Kidnapper

Those who capture the unwilling and hold them for ransom or otherwise take them from their circumstances.

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Lepsian

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

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.

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

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Pied Piper

In the lore, in the legends, there are those known as pied pipers whose music could command vermin to follow them - or children. If you cross the Violet Grith, beware you don't hear the pipes outside your home.

The pied pipers are terrifying. Everyone is afraid of them. Though they get by day to day keeping Violet Grith safe houses and bases free of vermin, they are known for taking away children. Their powers come in part from their musical talent, in part from their magical pipes, and in part from the fact that they sold part of themselves to a powerful fey within the Violet Grith. Most have given up some of their better emotions (including love, compassion, kindness, generosity, or fear), fonder memories (their entire childhoods, their first loves), or their entire souls. Some have given up body parts, and not reasonable ones (hearts, livers, stomachs) that they inexplicably live without, though not without problems arising from it. They always have lips, tongues, teeth, mouths, larynxes, throats, and lungs to play pipes with.

They start with the following songs:

• Rat's Lullabye: a song that calls vermin and puts them to sleep so they might be exterminated.
• Marching to the Sea: a song that calls children to follow the pied piper away.

And at least one of the following, though others may be possible:

• Maypole Dance: a song that encourages ardor and dancing.
• Mermaid's Tune: a song that makes people want to go swimming, even if they don't know how.
• The Drinking Song: a song that makes people drunk.
• Violet Symphony: a song that creates illusions.
• The Teddy Bear's Picnic: a song that summons teddy bears to picnic and dance... and kill.

The pied pipers only show up if the Violet Grith is very, very angry with someone.

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

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Ponderant

The Green Grith employs kidnapping mostly to ransom rich targets or terrorize them into stopping their environmentally destructive practices. Those who specialize in this work often use elemental magic of gravity to help them in the work.

Ponderants learn to control and wield gravity by learning about it, engaging in specific rituals to attune themselves to it, and by embedding certain materials within their bodies. They are trained by the Green Grith in basic science (at least as much is known at the time of the game) and in the needed rituals. The rituals involve motions that force an awareness of gravity. The simplest are jumping off some high structure; the more complex and involve observing gravitational phemonena like waves, the movement of cosmic bodies, and the falling of leaves. It takes four years of work to have a basic capability of controlling gravity, four years culminating in a test wherein they attempt to jump off a 50' tall structure and not die. Those who fail are caught by members of the Green Grith and spared a grisly death; those who succeed have the power to alter gravity.

There are four basic ways a ponderant can alter gravity:

• Weakening: making gravity weaker so they can jump higher and move more easily.
• Negating: completely turning gravity off so they can float around.
• Amplifying: making it much stronger so that no one can move.
• Shifting: changing its direction such that gravity is now sideways, upside down, or otherwise not drawing toward the center of the world.

Ponderants use this to engage in kidnapping operations of the rich and powerful for the sake of ransom, extortion, or coercion.

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

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Rescuer

The Blue Grith has many who specialize in removing prisoners, slaves, and victims of oppression, exploitation, and abuse from their circumstances. Sometimes, they must do so even against the will of those they are rescuing. Sometimes they also target rich people to kidnap and ransom. But they do have specialists among them who "kidnap" children who are being abused or otherwise harmed, and these gain special powers from saving and protecting those children.

Rescuers specialize in saving children from harmful environments. They determine this with the children's consent, oftentimes working with a supportive parent to remove the child from an abusive parent or to rescue enslaved children. Rescuers also "kidnap" enslaved adults, adults in bad situations, and prisoners, but they do not gain special powers for doing so.

Anyone who saves a child from terrible circumstances generates magical energies, but only some are able to notice and wield them. In order to do this, rescuers learn from mentors within the Blue Grith. They practice by engaging in rescue missions before they have powers, going on missions with their mentors, and studying the magical arts wielded. Eventually, they are deemed ready and are tested. In order to be able to tap into this magic, they must meet certain criteria. They must never intentionally harm a child. They must not allow harm to come to a child if they have the means to safely prevent it. And they must be willing to die for the cause.

If they meet these criteria, they are tested three times. Each time, they are forced to decide between their own life and that of a child, and if they hesitate at all, they are not granted powers. If they sacrifice themselves, they are granted a magical power to let them resolve the situation without dying. After these tests, they then gain new powers as they continue to rescue children:

• Guardian presence: if the rescuer is within 10' of a child, they may extend an aura of protection to that child (or children).
• Tourmaline shadow: any child standing in the rescuer's shadow (including their clothing, hence why they wear big cloaks) is invisible to preying eyes.
• Hide and seek: if the rescuer tells the children to "play hide and seek", the children gain +6 to STH from any predator seeking them and the rescuer gains +6 AWA to finding them.
• Bouncing ball: a rescuer can throw an illusory ball that appears to pursuers to be a child fleeing.
• Shield the innocent: the rescuer may give a child a token (usually a toy) that gives the child +6 protection against any kind of infernal attack.
• Baby's breath: the rescuar may give a child a snack that, if eaten, allows the child's cries to be heard by the rescuer from anywhere.
• Parental vengeance: if a child has been harmed by someone other than their parents, the parents may give a rescuer a token of the child that grants the rescuer +6 to killing the person who harmed their child.
• Bloodsevering: if a child's parent is their abuser, the rescuer can kill the parent and sever the blood connection between the parent and child such that the trauma is erased, if the child is under 10 years old.

Rescuers are a major part of the operations of the Commitee for Liberation.

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