Mythos Lore

Game: Original World of Darkness

by J. Edward Tremlett
Mythos Lore is the knowledge of the existence, hows and whyfores of those
powers and entities that are intimately connected to the Mythos...
Mythos Lore is the knowledge of the existence, hows and whyfores of those
powers and entities that are intimately connected to the Mythos. Exact
knowledge of the Mythos is not required to work its magic, but learning its
magic will begin to lead to that terrible knowledge. Note that a mere mortal
will never fully understand the Mythos or its implications, given how alien it is
to human nature.
This Lore should never be taken at character creation. It should be learned
in-character either by accident or design. Its secrets are not for the faint of
heart or weak of will: learning the truth about how the universe really works
is a very, very dangerous undertaking. For each dot in Mythos Lore that a
character takes, a dot of the Sanity score is crossed out, going from right to
left, never to be used again.
* Student: "What the hell was that?" You've seen something, and know
there's more out there than the traditional 'occult' can explain.
** College: "So that's what that was..., and here's how you bring it?" A
partial understanding of what's going on and a very fleeting grasp of how it
works.
*** Masters: "How can I even be reading this?" A careful or reckless study
has illuminated some matters..., but so much more remains to be seen.
**** Doctorate: "You mean..., THEY made US?" An even better
understanding..., maybe. Or maybe you're just going crazy?

***** Scholar: "The Moon is full and the sacrifice is prepared..., now,
where did that copy of Cultes des Ghouls go...?" (insane, mocking laughter)
The Magic of the Mythos
Those entities that comprise the so-called Mythos (an artificial, OOC term)
utilize a kind of nigh-advanced, alien science to do their bidding. We call this
science "Mythos Magic"OOC, though it is not really magic. However, given
that it relies on sounds, gestures, and specially-prepared objects to make
things happen, as opposed to strict reliance on machines and electronics, it's
easy to understand how humans could mistake it for magic. To date, no
human has ever fully understood this, or at least been in any shape to tell
anyone of it after learning.
It is recommended that Storytellers keep the information here to themselves.
Not only does it spoil some of the mystery and horror of the game if the
players know too much OOC, but handing this information off can lead to a
"shopping list" mentality where the ends are focused on rather than the
means, and the Roleplaying involved to get there.
Is/Is Not
Mythos Magic is unlike Hedge Magic because it requires no belief to use. A
total skeptic who pronounces the words correctly will have as much of a
chance to call up Ye Liveliest Awfulness as the cruel and determined cultist,
though the cultist may have other tricks up her sleeve to increase the
chances. It is also not the Sphere Magick of the mages: you do not have to
be Awakened to use it, and while Sphere Magick can rework reality to fit the
will of the Mage, Mythos Magic is reality. Those who use Sphere Magick in a
blatant manner, warping reality, risk paradox, but Mythos Magic accrues no
paradox because it is based on those hidden and eldritch principles by which
the universe truly works.
Working the Craft
Working Mythos Magic is costly. It is also very dangerous to humans, and
other awakened types, as their minds weren't meant to handle it.
In some cases, the character must use Willpower and lose Current Sanity,
and each dot of Temporary Willpower spent gives one dice that the character
may roll to attempt something. In other cases, Permanent Willpower must be
sacrificed. Sometimes a roll must be made, and sometimes spending the
Willpower will be enough. And some things do not require Sanity at all.
Details are given with each spell, or type of spell.
Storytellers will note that understanding of what one is doing does not need
to exist in order to make it happen. A character does not need to know what
she's doing to make something happen provided the time is right, the
materials are there, and wording or gesturing is plain to see. When dealing
with amateurs who stumble across something and do not know what they are
doing, then they will trigger the spell's effects with no control. In the cases
where a certain number of Temporary Willpower may be spent, the character
will have the maximum amount they can spend sucked out of them for the
roll. Once they understand what they are doing (provided they survive) they
can tailor the effects to their needs and spend less than the maximum.
However, once they do this, the Spell should be purchased with experience
points.
Spells can be learned in any combination, in any order; unlike most WOD
systems there is no progression, and a complete novice could learn how to
bring Yog-Sothoth down before learning anything else. There are some cases
where it would be ideal to learn one spell before trying the other: such as
"Enchant object" as a precursor to Summoning and Binding a Dimensional
Shambler. Also note that knowing one kind of spell doesn't help with others:
just because you can Summon/Bind a Dimensional Shambler does not mean
you could Summon/Bind a Byakhee, and these must be learned separately.
Nor do the characters have to take points in Mythos Lore in order to
unwittingly learn these things. Mythos Magic is, as stated earlier, nothing
more magical than a flashlight once one understands its principles.
Unfortunately, mortals -- even Awakened ones -- were not meant to
understand them, hence the resulting madness.
That said, Storytellers should enforce the learning curve. The character might
not know that the strange object will, when manipulated just so, call up
something horrible. But, once that line has been crossed, and the character
starts to learn spells or research things best left alone, Mythos Lore should
start to appear on the character sheet.
Character Development
Mythos Lore is a Secondary Knowledge (except for those game systems
where Lore is a Primary Knowledge). Anyone who studies the Mythos
seriously should start learning this, and each dot that is purchased with
experience will remove a dot of the Sanity Score from play permanently. This
crossing-out goes from right to left, often removing places for possible
Current Sanity before ever getting to Current Sanity or Base Sanity.
Mythos Lore can be learned, initially, by seeing or experiencing Mythos
entities. After that, study and research will have to be done. This usually
entails reading old, blasphemous books and seeking out instruction from
some very frightening people. Contacting Lesser or Greater Entities is a
dangerous but effective way to do this as well, but brings its own perils.
The spells can be treated as Rituals, and cost 3 Exp. to learn how to do. An
Intelligence + Mythos Lore roll could be made in secret by the Storyteller to
see if the character truly understands what she's doing, given how anti-
intuitive some of the magic is, but the appropriate time spent RPing the
learning and the Exp. spent could also be enough, too. It's the Storyteller's
call.
Categories of Spells
There are five types of Mythos Magic that are covered here: Summon/Bind
Lesser Entity, Contact Lesser Entity, Call/Dismiss Greater Entity, Contact
Greater Entity, and Miscellaneous.
While the spells' rolls, conditions for success and effects are described, the
exact, IC mechanisms are not. Storytellers should come up with their own
components and conditions for them, and should tailor them to the nature of
their chronicle and the tastes of their players. A good rule of thumb is that
small things might need very little in the way of components or preparations,
but the really big things need many components, and the preparations will be
much more intricate and/or grotesque. Put another way: the more damage
the spell might have, either on its own or from whatever it's calling up from
beyond, the more elaborate the set-up.
At no time should such an undertaking become mundane or matter-of-fact.
Try to impress on the players the sense that their characters are doing
something cosmically wrong, even in getting the most modest of things to do
the most niggling of spells. Humans working with the Mythos screams of
cosmic taboo, and the atmosphere of treading into realms best left unseen
should be stifling. Let your imagination run wild!
Summon/Bind Lesser Entity
These spells are good for calling up less-intelligent, lesser entities that are
usually used as servants by more intelligent, or at least more powerful
entities. Examples of what can be called up are given below. These usually
require some sort of enchanted component, and in some of the more
carnivorous cases a sacrifice might be needed as well.
System: The character must spend Willpower to gain dice, and may spend
less than or equal to her Manipulation + Mythos Lore dice pool, and no more
than that. Willpower may not be spent for automatic successes. The difficulty
is the Willpower of the creature Summoned. Casting, whether successful or
not, causes the loss of one dot of Current Sanity plus whatever is lost in the
Sanity Roll when the thing arrives. The Summoned creature will arrive
whenever the Storyteller deems it most appropriate or effective for the
Scene, but it will usually be there in less than half an hour.
The Storyteller has the option of saying that the Summoning and Binding
come from the same roll, above, as this makes things much simpler.
Alternatively, the above could be used merely to Summon the entity: if so,
then when it comes the caster and the creature have a battle of Willpower
via a resisted roll. Success by the caster means it is bound, failure means it's
not bound and will either attack or leave, depending on the Storyteller's
judgment. A botched result always causes an attack.
Once successfully summoned and bound, the entity must obey one order of
the caster, no matter what it is (within reason), and is then free to go. If it is
not given a command within a reasonable amount of time it will just leave,
hopefully without attacking the caster. Simple commands are best: the
Storyteller should decide whether the creature understands via a secret
Intelligence roll.
On a related note: if a creature for which the character knows the
Summon/Bind spell is just happened upon, unbound, the character may
attempt to bind it. The character and the creature's Willpowers are rolled off
against one another in a resisted roll. Success by the caster means it is
bound, failure means it's not bound and will either attack or leave, depending
on the Storyteller's judgment. A botched result always causes an attack. The
first attempt to do this costs no Willpower and causes no Sanity Loss, but if
the character fails and tries again, each additional attempt will cause a loss
of one dot of Current Sanity.
Examples of things that can be Summoned and Bound: Byakhee, Dark
Young, Dimensional Shamblers, Fire Vampires, Hunting Horrors, Nightgaunts,
Servitors of the Outer Gods, Star Vampires.
Contact Lesser Entity
Some entities are not able to be ordered about like cattle: these are more
intelligent, or more powerful, and should be contacted instead. Examples are
given below. These usually must be performed at or near places where these
entities would likely be found, or else areas, such as magical gates, that lead
to where they are.
System: The character must spend Willpower to gain dice, and may spend
less than or equal to her Manipulation + Mythos Lore, and no more.
Willpower may not be spent for automatic successes. The difficulty is the
Willpower of the creature Summoned, and a botch will remove a point of
Permanent Willpower from the casting character. Contacting a creature,
whether the attempt is successful or not, costs one dot of Current Sanity,
plus whatever lost in Sanity Roll when the thing arrives. The creature will
arrive when it can, which could be anywhere from an hour to a week, as fits
the Storyteller's judgment on what the story calls for.
The spell will always call a random representative of the creature's race:
large entities will only come one at a time, but smaller ones might arrive by
the half-dozen. These individuals may have their own agendas to fulfill. Some
entities are perfectly willing to enter into agreements with casters, some are
not, and some things -- most notably the Hounds of Tindalos -- are just
better left alone. Once they are here they will act as they wish and leave as
they please.
The Storyteller should roleplay these entities carefully with an eye on keeping
them alien and not completely understandable. They might shower the caster
with knowledge and gifts in return for nothing, or they might ask one odd
question and then leave without saying anything more. Never let them
become dependable: if the caster gets into the mindset that she can just call
on the Elder Things any time she needs an edge over the Primogen Council,
then the point has been lost and the Storyteller is well within her rights to
have the next group come through with dissection of a vampire on their
minds…
Things that can be Contacted: Cthonians, Deep Ones, Elder Things, Flying
Polyps, Formless Spawn, Ghouls (not vampiric ones), Hounds of Tindalos, Mi-
Go, Moonbeasts, Sand-Dwellers, Star Spawn of Cthulhu.
Call/Dismiss Greater Entity
The mad poet Abd-al-Azrad once exhorted his readers "do not call up what
ye cannot put down." In spite of that sage advice, too many are too willing to
call up great entities that they might not be able to control. This is usually
done by the supplicants or worshipers of those creatures, but it's not
unknown for someone to call something up from beyond by total accident.
By Greater Entity, in the context of Mythos Magic, we tend to mean those
nigh-invulnerable beings of the Mythos. However, Storytellers are free to say
that nasty, large Umbral creatures or other great and powerful things of the
World of Darkness can be called and dismissed by these kinds of spells as
well. Most entities that can be ordered here and then sent back are near-
mindless, primal forces or creatures that are so awesomely alien than
mankind can only conceive of them as gods.
System: The character must spend Temporary Willpower to gain dice, but,
unlike Summon/Bind Lesser Entity spells, the character may be aided by
others who know the spell as well.
To Call a Greater Entity, each character may contribute up to the total of her
own Manipulation + Mythos Lore in Temporary Willpower. This is put into a
central pool and rolled, and the difficulty is the Entity's Willpower minus the
number of dice in the pool. Failure means the Willpower was spent for
nothing; a botch removes a point of Permanent Willpower from each
participant. Each participant loses one dot of Current Sanity, and may lose
more when the Greater Entity arrives, as always. The entity will arrive
whenever the Storyteller thinks it's appropriate, but they tend to appear
rather quickly when called.
Dismissing the Greater Entity once it's here is much more costly. One
Temporary Willpower must be spent per dot of Permanent Willpower the
entity has, and then Temporary Willpower must be spent on top of that to
provide a dice pool for Dismissal. The difficulty is ten minus the die pool for
Dismissal, not counting the Temporary Willpower spent to counteract the
Permanent Willpower of that entity. Each character involved who knows the
spell to Dismiss the entity may contribute up to her Manipulation + Mythos
Lore in Temporary Willpower to either effort, of course. Failure means the
Entity hasn't left, and is annoyed; a botch means that not only has the entity
not left, but every participant loses a dot of Permanent Willpower and the
Entity is furious. Dismissing the entity costs no Current Sanity.
Calling such a thing should be no small matter. It might not want to be
brought here, but once it's here it might not want to leave, either.
Storytellers should roleplay these things carefully, playing up their totally
alien psychology (or the lack thereof). Some of these things are literally
mindless and won't notice that they're stepping on anyone. Others have
definite agendas that might be strangely transparent, or as hidden as any
vampire elder worth her age, but their modes of communication should be
both confusing and maddening.
Greater Entities that can be Called/Dismissed: Azathoth, Cthugha, Daoloth,
Hastur, Ithaqua, Nyogtha, Shub-Niggurath, Yog-Sothoth.
Contact Greater Entity
Some Greater Entities are either unable to physically appear, or simply
cannot be ordered about: these ones are usually more intelligent than the
others previously mentioned, or, to be fair, have more "understandable"
personalities. As with Call/Dismiss, some WOD entities could also be
summoned, and it's recommended that these also be more intelligent ones,
or more personable at any rate.
System: Contacting Greater Entities is always costly. Unlike most of these
spells, it is PERMANENT Willpower that is spent: one dot per attempt to
Contact. Once that dot is spent, the Caster may roll her new, reduced
Willpower (but not spend any of it, except for an automatic success) against
the difficulty of the Greater Entity's Permanent Willpower. Success means the
entity will appear within a day or so, failure means it doesn't, and a botch
tends to being lesser entities who are sent to try to kill the caster.
Some entities come in dreams, some appear as hazy phantoms, some form
their own bodies and some possess the bodies of others. Storytellers should
make the visitations as weird or as horrible as she cares to, depending on the
nature of the entity: Nodens would be more kindly a contact than, say,
Nyarlathotep or Cthulhu.
They want to Caster to do things for them, which is the whole purpose of
their coming when Contacted. They might be disposed to give information,
spells and aid to those who follow their wishes. However, they are not there
to be shaken down and then sent away, and any Caster who tries to order
the entity around is in very, very big trouble. Especially when you consider
that, unlike Call/Dismiss, it is the entity who decides when it's time to go.
Greater Entities that can be Contacted: Nodens, Nyarlathotep, Cthulhu,
Tsathoggua, Y'Golonac.
Miscellaneous
These are some of the "stock" Mythos Magics or preparations that should be
used to make components of other spells, deal with the creatures of the
Mythos, or get around in the big, frightening universe they dwell within.
There can be countless other spells available, and the characters could, with
time and study, invent some of their own (a sanity-shaking process, to be
sure).
Again, the exact nature of what to do is up to the Storyteller to define, and
can be as grisly or weird as she cares to make it, in keeping with her
chronicle.
Elder Sign
A symbol of protection from those creatures of the Mythos, this is a potent
tool that can be scribed on anything that will retain its shape. It is described
as a misshapen, five-pointed star, with an eye in its middle and a flaming
pupil within that eye. The symbol itself is not enough to protect: the spell
must be done in time with the symbol's creation, or it is useless.
System: The caster must spend one point of Permanent Willpower to make
an Elder Sign. It can be made in rock, metal, earth or even sand. In sand it
tends to keep its shape and power, even through the worst sandstorm -- a
fact that has many baffled. Some say it could even be scribed on water if one
but knew how. Making an Elder Sign costs no Current Sanity.
Once placed on something, and then physically attached to a doorway or
entrance (or, perhaps better, scribed directly ON the door), no minion of the
Greater Entities of the Mythos may enter that gateway. However, carrying an
Elder Sign on one's person doesn't guarantee that the minions won't attack
that person, especially if they can evade the sign.
Enchant
Many items that must be used to Summon/Bind or Call/Dismiss must be
Enchanted. Likewise, some creatures can only be harmed by weapons that
have been enchanted. Each type of thing to be enchanted has a different
spell (a whistle is not a dagger is not a stone altar, after all) and knowing
one wouldn't help with another.
System: The exact things to do should vary from item to item. Storytellers
should decide what to require, but a good rule of thumb is that the larger the
item, or the more grand (or harmful) its purpose, the more elaborate and
weird the spell should be. At least one Permanent Willpower should be
sacrificed to enchant something, and it should take at least one day and cost
at least one dot of Current Sanity.
Examples of things that might be Enchanted are: knives to aid in Summoning
certain kinds of Lesser Entities; "batteries" to hold Temporary Willpower;
towers from which to Call Greater Entities, and so on.
Gates
One of the more useful bits of Mythos Magic to be learned is the warping of
space and time that allows for the near-instantaneous travel of great
distances. These portals are known as Gates, and can take many forms:
scrawls on a wall, inset stone, a pentagram on the floor, an arrangement of
rocks, etc. The other end of the gate (provided it's a two-way gate) should
look like the start. Some gates have been 'locked' and will open only to those
who have the key, usually a gesture or phrase of some kind. Mention is made
of some gates that will change the user to survive the conditions on the other
side, but many will not: looking before one leaps is not always possible,
either.
System: The exact method of creating any Gate should be up to the
Storyteller to decide. The costs can be fairly staggering, though, as it is paid
in Permanent Willpower: a sacrifice of one point will connect two spots not
more than 100 miles apart, two points will connect two spots not more than
1000 miles, three will give 10,000, and so on. Once established on one end
an additional point of Permanent Willpower must be spent at the other end,
once there, to make the gate two-way, and a similar gateway must be
constructed or placed there. Some variations of the spell allow for locking the
gate as described above, and some have left that vital information out. It
costs no Sanity to make Gates.
In order to use a gate, the person must step through the event horizon.
Anything a person carries will come with them, but inanimate objects cannot
be shoved or thrown through on their own -- a person MUST accompany
them. The trip will remove a number of dots of Temporary Willpower equal to
the casting cost each way: so if the journey crosses 100,000,000 miles, and
cost seven dots of Permanent Willpower to create, it will cost seven dots of
temporary willpower to use going there, and another seven dots to go back.
This means that some people will never be able to use some gates.
Alternatively, a cruel Storyteller could say that anyone who enters a gate
without the needed reserves of Willpower gets stranded somewhere in-
between, possibly in deep space, or just disappears and is never seen again.
Powder of Ibn-Ghazi
A rather useful tool, the powder will, when thrown onto invisible things,
render them visible to the human eye. It can also detect if an item or place
has been Enchanted, or that a particular place or thing is also a Gate.
System: Using the powder requires no roll, except perhaps a Dex + Athletics
to toss it on something from a fair distance. It requires no Current Sanity to
use, though seeing what it shows may call for a Sanity Roll. The powders
effects last for one turn.
The powder's exact nature and preparation is up to the Storyteller. It is
recommended that it be made from at least three different things, one of
which should be fairly rare, and these things must be mixed properly under
the right conditions. The Storyteller may wish to make a secret roll using the
character's dice pool to create it, and only let them know if it worked when
they try to use it; Manipulation + Mythos Lore could do for the preparation,
but Chemistry or Alchemy might be more appropriate.
It's up to the Storyteller as to how this powder effects the invisibility powers
of other Awakened creatures, such as Garou, Changelings, Vampires, etc.
Resurrection
A rather cruel spell that allows the caster to call someone back from the
dead, body and soul. It requires taking a dead body, reducing it to certain,
"essential salts," and then saying a phrase to bring it back to a semblance of
life, soul and all. The body can be turned back to the salts and the soul
dispelled by saying the reverse of the phrase.
System: The caster must assemble as much of the corpse as possible, and
then treat it with certain strange and unworldly things -- all up to the
Storyteller to define, of course.
An Intelligence + Mythos Lore roll might be needed to get it right, or knowing
how to do it and having the right materials might be enough. An Alchemy or
Chemistry roll might do as well. A successful preparation turns the body to a
measure of blue-grey powder. It should cost one point of Temporary
Willpower to make, and deducts one level of Current Sanity. Failure or
botching means that not enough of the corpse was gathered, or something
went wrong, and only "ye liveliest awfulness" has come back from the dead:
a near-mindless, stupid and deformed thing of no use to anyone, save as a
simple guard or a sick distraction.
Calling the person back by reciting the phrase costs three Temporary
Willpower and one point of Current Sanity. No roll needs to be made.
Trying to recite the opposite phrase and send the person back to dust costs
one point of Temporary Willpower, and takes two turns. The caster and
person must square off in a Contested Roll at a difficulty of one another's
Permanent Willpower: success means the person is dust, a failure means that
it didn't work and must be tried again. A botch means the caster cannot
attempt to reduce the person to dust for 24 hours. This costs one point of
Current Sanity per attempt.
Being resurrected is no little thing, obviously: the resurrectee must make a
Sanity Roll against 1 Automatic/4. Her Sanity will be where it was prior to
death. Once resurrected she knows and remembers all prior to death and
after it, but has no access to any old powers, save those Mythos Magics she
once knew. She need not eat, nor sleep, nor breathe. If attacked she will
suffer no wound penalties and may soak Bashing and Lethal damage, but
cannot heal herself. She will have to be returned to the dust and then
brought back once more to be whole again. And, yes, she can repeat the
spell backwards to send herself back to death if she learns it and so desires
to, and this costs her no Sanity nor Willpower.
One of the problems with this spell (as described in Lovecraft’s superb "The
Case of Charles Dexter Ward" – a must-read!) is that there is a clash of
canons between Lovecraft’s stories and the World of Darkness over matters
of spirit, and what happens after death. It’s up to the Storyteller to define
how it works in the larger scheme of things, but here are two suggestions:
1. It works within the WOD framework. Only those spirits that are ‘free’ can
come back, free meaning they have not returned to the world, and are not
tied to anyone else as a ‘past life’-based merit or flaw. Diablerized vampires
cannot come back, nor Changelings, nor Shifters. Any attempt to call up such
a person automatically fails and gets ‘ye liveliest awfulness’ instead.
Wraiths can come back, but if their body was a fetter they will lose it due to
the preparation and go through a Harrowing. Any attempt to call the salt
back to life will have to wait until they get back from the Harrowing. Spectres
do not have this problem. While they are in the body they cannot leave it
until they are sent back to the dust, and may not use any Arcanoi while in it.
2. It works OUTSIDE the WOD framework. Perhaps it is not the true soul that
returns, but the body, once remade, presents a false image of the soul based
on the state of the brain at death? This could get pretty messy, especially if
the body’s owner is now a wraith and should meet "herself."
Space Mead
Besides Gates, there are other means by which to travel great distances.
Certain, lesser creatures of the Mythos are capable of interstellar travel at
phenomenal speeds, and if they can be Summoned and Bound then asking
them for a ride to some far-flung location isn't out of the question; the
problem is how to withstand the nature of space travel and yet survive. A
solution lies in the peculiar substance known as Space Mead, which allows
mere mortals to survive the vacuum, radiation and other dread forces that
exist above.
System: Space Mead is made from at least five, nigh-mysterious ingredients
and takes at least a week to brew. The Storyteller should determine what
these are, and how to go about doing it. Knowledge of the spell might be
enough to make the brewing work, or the Storyteller could make a secret
Intelligence + Mythos Lore roll on the behalf of the casting character, so the
characters won't know whether it's been made right until they try to use it.
Alchemy or Chemistry might also be appropriate for the roll as well.
During the brewing time, Temporary Willpower must be placed into the stuff:
ten points per dose to be made. This can get rather expensive, and it does
not have to be done all at once, nor by the same character, but any donating
character must also know the spell.
When the character is ready to use it, she takes a dose. It works quickly (one
turn), so she will have to clamber on whatever she called and tell it to go
soon after taking the dose. After that she goes into mental and physical
stasis, and cannot act or react to anything until she gets to where she's
going. She cannot be physically, emotionally or mentally harmed or affected
for as long as the dose lasts, and is quite literally in a world of her own just
watching the cosmos roll by. The effects end when she gets where she's
going, and then she must take another dose to return home.
She will have to pay for the trip, though. For a trip of up to 100 miles, she
must pay one point of Temporary Willpower, for 1000 it's two, 10,000 it's
three, and so on: for each new zero, subtract another point of Temporary
Willpower. Each trip costs one point of Current Sanity, no matter how long it
is.
The formula is normally intended for air-breathing mortals who are capable
of withstanding Sunlight and ingesting liquids. This presents a slight problem
for Vampires. Storytellers can say that Space Mead will not work for them at
all, or that to work of vampires it must be prepared with blood that has been
treated in a certain manner. In the last bit, the mead should protect them
from the rays of the Sun, or any other star, for as long as the effects last;
when they get where they’re going they should hope they land at night,
though.
The Voorish Sign
This is a series of gestures and passes done with one hand that, when done
correctly, aids the caster in other endeavors that use Mythos magic. It may
also render the invisible visible, in some cases.
System: No roll is needed to perform this. It costs one point of Temporary
Willpower to do, and this point may then be added to the die pool of any
other, Mythos Magic roll, IN EXCESS of the normal roll restrictions. So if Bob
has a Manipulation + Mythos Lore of 3, he can use Voorish Sign to add extra
dice to that pool, one per Willpower Point. Each casting can only give one
point of Willpower; in order to get more, the caster must cast Voorish Sign
yet again. Its aspect in rendering the invisible visible is up to the Storyteller
to decide for herself, especially in considering what other forms of invisibility
it might affect (obfuscate, Enshroud, etc.) Casting Voorish Sign costs one
point of Current Sanity