Urchin

Children surviving on the streets.

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Chibase

Urchins are any youth engaged in petty crime, usually homeless and/or orphaned. In the Red Grith, they are employed in various minor tasks or encouraged to learn the basics of crime. Those who do not get recruited into another form of crime often learn survival magic. These are called chibases.

Chibases learn to survive on their own, then get noticed by the Red Grith and trained further, often training other urchins as they go. They are scavengers, hunters of vermin, doers of oddjobs, pickers of pockets, shoplifters, trashpickers, pranksters, and more. They become attuned to survival itself, learning to find the most helpful objects, most nourishing food, the easiest targets. As they do this, they gain an instinctual magic. If a chibase survives a month and a day on their instincts, they are visited by a local vermin that becomes their animal companion, helping them survive. Usually, this is a rat, pigeon, fox, wasp, squirrel, or mouse. Once this happens, the Red Grith notices and recruits them if they haven't already.

Chibases gain certain powers from their animal companion:

• Rat: disease resistance, intimidation, body squeezing (fitting through small spaces), heightened sense of smell, and increased STH.
• Pigeon: disease resistance, shared vision, unassuming appearance, increased speed, and secret calls.
• Fox: cunning awareness, illusory tails, sharp bite, heightened sense of smell, and increased ATH.
• Wasp: stinging strike, shared vision, intimidation, increased speed, and poison resistance.
• Squirrel: increased ATH, preserving food, food sensing, climbing skill, and jumping skill.
• Mouse: increased STH, unassuming appearance, food sensing, body squeezing, and squeak signalling.

After they grow up, chibases lose their animal companion, usually around the age of 20.

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

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Gamine

Street urchins who turn to the Green Grith for help are often simply fed, clothed, and sheltered, educated with the philosophy of nature, but also given freedom to choose their own path. Most grow up without special powers. But some young girls and non-men find themselves attuned to a form of witchcraft that attunes them to autumnal energies.

Gamines are young girls or non-men who find the autumn to be invigorating. They are drawn to its powers as the urgency of preparing for winter falls on them, and they begin to connect with elementals of that season as they grow. The autumn itself chooses to protect them and grant them magicks to get them through childhood. Those who survive to adulthood are often called to deeper forms of witchcraft.

During their earliest years on the streets, gamines are trained by autumnal elements and members of the Green Grith who notice their powers growing. If they seek these powers, if they are engaged and accept them, they face a series of subtle but gentle trials that assure their devotion to nature. They gain a small flock of skippers (a kind of butterfly) that protect them at all times. These skippers can repel magical attacks (power 10+), attack others (10/15/20/25 damage), and block attacks (block score 13+). They grow weak in spring and strong in autumn.

Gamines also have the following powers in the autumn:

• Autumnal hardening: as the autumn progresses, they draw from its power to strenghten themselves against hunger, illness, cold, fear, and physical attacks, going from +1 in each to +6 by the middle, then waning to +1 again.
• Harvest forager: during the autumn, they can sense where edible food is within 30' at any given time.
• Chilling persona: as the temperature drops, they gain intimidation points, +1 per 5 degrees below 50, maxing at +6.
• Fearsome determination: after Eighenihtes, they can re-roll any failed roll once a day, ending once winter begins.
• Abscission: once the leaves start falling, they can emulate it by shedding skin, hair, or equivalents, and turning them into magical talismans to use throughout the year by binding them to fallen leaves. These talismans are 3 points of autumnal energy each, and can be used any time to use any of the above powers (autumnal hardening costs 3 points per point of hardening to any given resistance, harvest forager costs 6 points per use, chilling persona costs 2 points per point of intimidation, and fearsome determination costs 9 points per re-roll, but can only be used once per day).

Other powers may be possible. Consult the GM.

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

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Kierrett

Urchins are children living on the edges of society, usually homeless, jobless, orphaned, and/or runaway. They do what they need to to survive. The Blue Grith tries to protect them at all costs.

Some urchins learn to protect the other urchins using the power of their own youth. Usually, these children are a little older than the others, and they take up a protective role in whatever groupings they are part of amongst the urchins of Haenor. Their protectiveness and resourcefulness in taking care of the others generates celestial energies, which they use instinctively. If the Blue Grith sees them using these powers, they often find someone who can guide and train them.

Their instinctive powers only affect other children (the younger, the more potent), and they can are sometimes unstable. But they can do many things in terms of helping the urchins survive:

• Scattering whistle: the kierrett gives a soft whistle that only other children can hear, inspiring them to scatter, fleeing to safety.
• Instant duck: the kierrett signals with their hands and every child that sees ducks instantly, hiding behind something nearby.
• Sharpened glance: the kierrett gives a quick scan or glance that allows them to see anything needed to help themselves or their fellow children survive for the coming night.
• Stretching: the kierrett splits a piece of scavenged food without reducing it, having just enough to feed the other children under their protection.
• Defensive rise: the kierrett can instantly move between an attacker or authority figure and the other children to protect them.
• Sticky hands: the kierrett can impulsively pick a pocket or shoplift if and only if it is to feed or support the other children with a +3 sleight-of-hand.
• Share coat: the kierrett can share a coat, shirt, or blanket with another child and provide enough warmth to keep them alive even on the coldest night.
• Sprinkle of water: the kierrett can sprinkle water from the river on another child and keep them cool enough to keep them alive on the hottest days.
• Improvised shelter: the kierrett can turn any discarded box, can, or other object of suitable size into a secure shelter for a night.

These powers are all derived from instinct. They cannot be planned. They cannot be relied upon. But they are enough to help the urchins survive.

If they gain some training, they can use the following powers:

• Invigorating words: they can speak words that inspire another child's will to live in difficult times, alleviating depression, trauma, suicidality, desperation, etc. and generally give them a temporary WIL boost. This can also reduce a mortal wound to a normal wound by force of WIL if powerful enough.
• Defiant strike: they can hurl a stone or other small object at an authority figure and gain a +6/+6 stun/wound if they are acting to protect other children. If they are angry enough, the object will explode for a further 14/14 damage.
• Guardian embrace: they can bless any other child with a hug, giving them a +6/+6 defense against any attack, or a power of 14 defense against hunger, sickness, or other source of harm.
• Family bond: any other child for whom they have a familial or communal love, they can know where they are at any moment, no matter how far away they are.

These four powers are drawn from their love and care of others, and thus, if they lose those feelings, they lose their powers.

Kierretts stop having these powers at the age of 21 or if they ever harm another child. If they reach adulthood, these powers sometimes evolve into those of a rescuer (see kidnappers).

Part of the Committee for Support.

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

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Mocker

Children of the streets in the Violet Grith are taught to draw from stories of mischief and mockery to survive. Some girls are also taught special tricks to keep the boys away.

Mockers are street urchins, children surviving on the streets by cunning, who engage magic via mischief. The Violet Grith allows them to recruit their own and self-govern so long as they live by the lore. To be recruited, one must show a propensity for mischief, a knack for trouble, a yen for surprises.

Unlike the grinning mages whose magic theirs resembles, they do not wear masks or hide their identities, but instead rely on STH to hide after performing a prank or causing trouble. Their goal is usually distraction to allow for theft, often stealing food, clothing, or other necessities of survival, but also to distract with an amount of humor that leavens the theft - in other words, to make them laugh so they are more forgiving.

Because their goal is not solely mischief, their magic ends up being weaker than the profoundly bizarre work of the grinning mages. They have the bump, the instinct that there is an opportunity for mischief available, but their spark (the bonuses they get for causing mischief) is weaker. As the mischief unfolds, they can still absorb the energy they created (which will be less than pure mischief) by pausing to witness the trouble unfold and basking in it. There is a risk in this moment of capture, so they sometimes have to cut the basking short. However, if in this moment, they mock their targets, they may roll PRS to inflict a stunning effect to allow them to bask even more and escape - which is where their name comes from.

The magic they absorb can be used to give them further bonuses when causing trouble.

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

Flibbertigibbet

Flibbertigibbets are mockers who are not men or boys, and therefore vulnerable to patriarchal violence. Thus, they use their mocking powers to directly target those who might prey on them. They can wield the mocking power even without invoking trouble first if they are in a situation where an older man is threatening them or scaring them, and they can vanish when directly attacked by an older man once per day. They gain these powers by posing as easily distracted and unfocused, hence their name.