Pickpocket

Petty thives who pick pockets, shoplift, and otherwise engage in small thefts.

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Baganin

The petty thieves of the Violet Grith rely on basic superstitions from the lore for their powers.

Baganins are pickpockets, shoplifters, and other petty thieves who are granted the power to make supersittions real by their fey benefactors in the Violet Grith in exchange for money and the occasional meal. They are petty thieves and thus minor parts of the Violet Grith, but their superstitions can provide them with significant protections.

Some superstitions they can wield:

• Black cat: a black cat crossing one's path means the street animals of the city are watching out for you.
• Burial paths: avoid walking on them to avoid disturbing the dead.
• Charmstones: pebbles painted with simple designs from long ago that are said to be able to heal disease in people and animals.
• Coal gift: a dark-haired person bringing coal on NYE brings good luck.
• Coins in trees: putting a coin in a tree will bring wealth.
• Counting magpies: one for sorrow, two for joy, three for a girl, four for a boy, five for silver, six for gold, seven for a secret never to be told, eight for a wish, nine for a kiss, ten a surprise you should be careful not to miss, eleven for health, twelve for wealth, thirteen beware it's the devil himself.
• Covered mirrors: covering a mirror at night prevents surveillance, invasion of the domicile, and evil spirits.
• Ears burning: if one's ears burn, someone is talking about you.
• Fire jumping: jumping over fires on Beltane will protect you from fire for the summer.
• Four-leaf clover: the leaves of a clover represent hope, faith, love, and luck. Wearing one in your clothing brings all four for the day.
• Funerary bread: eating bread over a corpse puts the soul of the dead at peace by devouring its sins.
• In-door umbrella: opening an umbrella in-doors brings bad luck in weather.
• Killing ravens: if a raven is spotted on a government building, killing it will bring misfortune to the authorities working within.
• Knock on wood: prevent disaster (+3 to any base stat used against anything that would be disastrous to them, like being arrested).
• Ladybird: if a ladybird lands on a person, they should make a wish.
• Midsummer rain: rain on midsummer's day means 40 more days of rain.
• New year debt: paying off debts before midnight on NYE prevents financial ruin in the following year.
• Owl hoot: impending death.
• Rabbit rabbit rabbit: on the first day of the month, they say "rabbit rabbit rabbit" upon waking to have good luck.
• Red thread: red thread tied to the wrist protects from surveillance.
• Slow-boiling kettle: a slow-boiling kettle represents the presence of dangerous magic.
• Spilling salt: spilled salt brings bad luck. Throwing spilled salt over the shoulder prevents that.
• Walking under a ladder: they avoid this for fear it will bring disaster.
• Washing days: don't wash clothes on holy days or the soul might be washed away.
• Water gathering: if water is gathered at the half-hour, it will be poisonous.
• Witches' marks: etchings in buildings that protect from magic.

Baganins can only intentionally invoke seven of these per week without bringing disaster upon themselves. They can gain more by paying extra to their benefactors.

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

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Macronian

Pickpockets and shoplifters are rarely sought out by the Blue Grith, but those few who do join are often older, more skilled wielders of sleight of hand.

Macronians practice the virtue of patience. By learning and practicing patience, they gain special abilities. Patience in and of itself is a powerful tool in their craft - watching for the right mark, casing their targeted establishment - and one that allows them to be amongst the most skilled thieves in any Grith. But they rely on their magical powers as well to make up for what they don't have in strength or prowess.

In order to gain special powers, they must be exemplary in their patient ways, and they must make a vow to always be patient. They must prove it every day, and their vow must be made upon something sacred to them - and at risk of losing that. (And it may not be the life of another, though it may be their own life.) Their oath must be heard by someone who also lives a life of patience or by someone of equal power within the Blue Grith (one who lives by a virtue or one who draws power from one of the celeste waters, flames, stone, metal, beast, wood, or winds). Then, they prove their patience by being tested with a vision that comes in their sleep. This vision will inevitably require them to choose patience and know the right time to act. If they succeed, they awaken with a feeling of immense, unmoveable patience.

Once they have this power, they can wield it both in being able to observe but also in knowing when to act. In effect, their WIL can be transferred to their AWA or STH if they wait long enough, meaning they roll with major bonuses to see when and where to target and to roll sleight-of-hand to steal and sneak objects away.

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

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Snatcher

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.

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

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Viverist

Pickpockets, petty thieves, and shoplifters in the Green Grith use elemental magnetism to steal coins and other small objects from targets, helping with fundraising or stealing critical objects, like keys.

Electromagnetism is ever-present around the world, but magnetism - the attraction of a magnetic field generated by some substance that attracts ferromagnetic materials - can take on an elemental form when generated from certain materials. Elemental lodestones are the most common, though still rare over all. Viverists learn to wield them from mentors within the Green Grith. Many are fairly young and often give up this magic later in life to pursue more complex forms of thievery.

The art of wielding elemental magnetism begins with understanding the basics of magnetism and literally infusing elemental magnets under the flesh of the wielder. Small pieces of elemental lodestone are gathered and sewn into the skin with a concurrent ritual, and then the user is taught over the course of months or years how to feel the magnetism flowing through them. They have to learn to control the field around their own bodies so that they are not constantly magnetically attracted to the iron (etc.) around them, and so they can direct it specifically. Once they can control it, they are then tasked with acts of petty theft. Their control of their magnetic powers defaults to AWA, and its power defaults to the strength of the magnets in their body +1 point per 3 points of STR they have, but these are translated into the skills magnetic direction and magnetic force.

Mostly, they take coins from people in the streets or small objects from shops. Some have specific targets. They also practice mundane pickpocketing and shoplifting to augment their powers.

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