Spy

Agents who gather information from the enemy.

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Ahothian

The Green Grith's espionage cells are extremely secretive, often times cells of one. They wield the element of darkness and shadow to keep themselves hidden, sewing fragments shadow into cloth.

Ahothians learn the art of shadowstitching from other members of the Green Grith, usually a spy mentor. They learn to sew not mere shadows, but true shadow, the darkness within darkness.

To stitch true shadow, one must be able to sense it. To find a shadow is one thing; to find a true shadow is another. Sensing true shadow is to sense the essence of that which is hidden. Sensory deprivation means all senses, mundane and magical. Complete and total deprivation requires extensive effort, usually in specially built boxes made by the Green Grith. While in this state, one must meditate on one's own loss of sensation until one feels the absence as a tangible thing. This requires significant awareness and patience. Once someone can sense true shadows, they can interact with it in any form of darkness or shadow around them, including their own shadows. This is a vital step - they must engage with their own shadow and find the essence within it. This requires trapping the shadow in a box of light (usually just a lot of candles properly positioned), then meditating such that one can feel it and speak to it. This shadowspeech allow the weaver to insert their own consciousness into the essence within their own shadow. Once this is done, their shadow may be sent to capture true shadow to bring back to them.

Once they have true shadow to work with, they can sew or stitch with it. To do this, they need a special needle, usually made of silver or elemental metal. Without a loom to weave full pieces of shadowwoven cloth, they instead sew other cloths with shadowthread to enhance them. They create clothing that gives them extra stealth, make garrotes embedded with darkness, and even stitch into their own flesh to enhance their bodies.

• Shadowspeech: the ability to speak to mundane shadows of living things allows the ahothian to learn secret things.
• Shadowstitch: sewing or stitching shadowthread into an object has distinct effects. See below for examples.

Common objects created by their stitching include the following:

• Night shoes: shoes with shadowstitching grant +1 STH during the day and +3 at night. They can be empowered with the ahothian's own shadow to allow for shadowwalking (teleporting to other shadows within 100' of the ahothian), but this risks losing part of the ahothian's shadow (roll STH vs. 1 point per 4' teleported). If they stitch directly into their feet, they will suffer shadowburn (see below), but they will double their power.
• Black hood: hoods with shadowstitching amplify the ahothian's shadowspeech to allow them to speak to the shadows of inanimate objects; however, they can only do this six times before having to recharge the hood by leaving it in pitch darkness for six straight nights.
• Shadowhand gloves: gloves with shadowstitching grant +1 sleight of hand during the day and +3 at night. They can be empowered with the ahothian's own shadow to allow for shadowburn, which turns anything they touch into unliving shadow. This risks losing part of the ahothian's shadow (roll STH vs. 1 point of power of shadowburn). They can also grab other shadows as if they were tangible, and if they choose to absorb these shadows, they can temporarily cause blindness if they touch someone with the gloves. However, this will destroy the shadow they took, which has severe metaphysical consequences for the one who lost their shadow. If they stitch directly into their hands instead of gloves, they will slowly receive shadowburn, but they will double their power.
• Darkthread garrote: garrotes with shadowstitching gain +1 to sneak attack during the day and +3 at night. Like shadowhand gloves, they can shadowburn targets as well (with the same rules as above).
• Umberfold: blindfolds with shadowstitching allow for shadowsight, a form of negative sight that allows the ahothian to see secrets. This, however, causes damage to the ahothian's eyes - the more they use it, the harder it is to recover. If they stitch directly into their eyelids instead of a blindfold, they will quickly go blind, but they will have double the power.
• Midnight cloak : a cloak with shadowstitching grants +3 STH during the day and +6 at night. If empowered with a bith of the ahothian's shadow, they can gain shadowspeech for any shadow from the hood of the cloak, and the power to create a shadowself illusion. The longer the shadowself exists, however, the more likely it is to completely replace the ahothian.

If the ahothian loses part of their shadow, they start to lose base stats, starting with PRS, then ATH, then STR, then WIL (-1 to one, then the other, as more of the shadow is lost, repeating in a cycle). If any of them hits 0, the ahothian becomes a mindless shadow.

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

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Arcanist

The most potent members of the Violet Grith are its arcanists, spies who wield arcane shadow, the power of secrets, mysteries, and silence.

One who keeps a secret that literally no one else has gains strength from that secret, granting them the ability to hide things relating to that secret. This is the source of magic for arcanists, spies who wield the arcane shadow.

To wield arcane shadow, first, they must find a secret that no one else has. This is easier than most believe, as many things about a person are secret simply because no one else cares to find out. But they must realize and accurately identify a piece of information they know or have found that no one else knows.

Then, they must attune to this secret via seven whispers. The first is to whisper the secret to a mirror. Second is to whisper the secret to an empty room. Third is to whisper the secret to a footprint (or other symbol of passing). Fourth is to whisper the secret to a veil. Fifth is to whisper the secret to a locked box. Sixth is to whisper the secret to a moment of silence. Seventh is to whisper the secret to a shadow. They must do all of these without anyone else finding the secret out. If they do this successfully, the shadow will ripple with castory darkness.

If they then step into the shadow, they will see all of their own secrets for a brief moment. They must remember at least seven of them. If they do, they will have powers:

• Locked secret: anything relating to one of their seven secrets may be kept hidden behind a password if they actively choose to do so.
• Arcane revelation: for the cost of a single secret, they may know what is missing.
• Veiling: a shadowy veil may descend over their face, making it almost impossible to remember.
• Arcane empowerment: if they share one of their secrets with up to seven people, they can form a bond with those people and share STH bonuses with them.
• Secret-binding: if they spend a secret, they can bind a place or object with it that hides the place or object.
• Arcane sense: they will know when something is being hidden from them, but not what is hidden.
• Viewing the unknown: at the cost of a secret, they can look into the power of mysteries and secrets, the unknown beyond the veil of reality, and if they survive without erasing themselves from existence, they will be able to ask the GM for one answer.
• Soft voice: they may relate a newly found secret over great distances.
• Questions: they may bind someone they are interrogating into a game of Questions, wherein each is bound to answer, but this risks exposing a secret. They may ask seven questions each.
• Deletion: they can erase someone from existence at the cost of all of their secrets.

Arcanists are extremely powerful spies, the best in the world, and the Violet Grith has few of them, and they answer only to the Abdit themself.

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

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Macrinoth

The Blue Grith has many who engage in espionage for them, but those who specialize in it use magical light to see through walls, see long distances, or see into people's hearts.

A macrinoth is someone who sees espionage as an art. They engage in it on behalf of the Blue Grith, spying on slaveowners, nobles, and business owners, as well as the police. They use the arts of disguise and deception, distraction and technology to gather information. Their primary art, however, is disguise, which they master as a mundane skill before using it as fuel for magic.

A macrinoth studies under a mentor in the Blue Grith to learn their arts. They are taught how to disguise themselves, using everything from costumes to makeup to acting skills. They perfect these skills, using the world around them for inspiration, drawing upon it, and focusing on the art of it. Once they have masterd it (skill of 11 or more), they are tested on a real spy mission with their mentor and taught magical methods. They use their art as a source of power; art has inherent energy to it. When they create a disguise, it has a power equivalent to the difficulty plus the success rate (NS /, SS +3, ES +6, CS +9). Learning to wield it, however, is very difficult.

To wield it, the macrinoth must vow to wield it in service of the Blue Grith. They must never use it to harm anyone but an enemy of the Blue Grith. And they must train relentlessly to be able to even be able to sense it, much less draw from it. The process of sensing it means repeatedly fashioning disguises that are of the calibur needed to generate it, and learning to draw from it means finding a tool of the art of disguise that can interact with it. Usually, this is a piece of crystal that can somehow be used in a disguise. If they have their crystal on their person, they can wield it to channel the magical energy of their art, which manifests as light.

Once they can wield the light, they gain different powers:

• Flash of distraction: they can send a pinpoint beam of light somewhere within line-of-sight that causes a flash in that location, distracting anyone nearby. This costs 1 point per point of distraction they wish to roll from.
• Dazzling form: they can wreath their disguise in light such that it shimmers in a way that makes it hard to focus on, making them harder to see. This costs 2 points per point of STH they wish to add.
• Reflecting form: their disguise reflects away all light, making them invisible. This costs 13 points but gives perfect STH.
• Artful image: their disguise can be augmented or improved by the light, or they can extend a disguise to someone else with the light. This costs 2 points per point of STH or PRS they wish to add.
• Impressive aura: their disguise can make them more noticeable, but amplify their persuasion or presence by making them more impressive. This costs 3 points per 2 points of PRS they wish to add.

And if they use their crystal and light to see with, they gain these powers:

• See-through vision: the macrinoth can see through solid matter for 5 seconds per point used, spending an extra point for every 6 inches of solid material they wish to see through.
• Farsight: the macrinoth can multiply their line-of-sight by 10 per point used, but cannot see through solid objects.
• Heartsight: the macrinoth can see what someone is feeling, rolling +1 point of perception per point used against the PRS of the target.
• Bent sight: the macrinoth can see around corners for 6 points of magic.

Other powers may be possible. Consult the GM.

Macrinoths are elite spies; many mundane spies also serve the Blue Grith. It is rare one is able to become a macrinoth, but those who are are invaluable to the work.

Part of the Commitee for Information.

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

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Mentalegens

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

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