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The Disruption Zone and the Alexandrist
The
15th century was a truly great epoch of magical research, and nowhere
more so than in Florence, Italy. Amongst the Gifted gathered there
was one Umberto Spoglio, who along with magical training had
inherited seer powers.
One of the great debates of the
day was the nature of the mind and its relation to body and soul. The
Gifted were not limited to the purely theoretical speculations of the
mundanes. Spirits were summoned, experiments conducted; to all this,
Umberto intended and indeed delivered a unique contribution. He
sought to bind Essence into a pattern duplicating certain functions
of the human mind.
The Alexandrist is a slightly
oversized bust of dense, crystalline substance that resembles white
marble but is in fact unique. It appears unfinished, the face
indicated by faint lines. It is the object Umberto empowered,
destroying his sanity in the process. The magicians who subsequently
investigated found that the bust now to all intents and purposes
radiated a single, fixed thought, an injunction to stay calm and
rational, and believed this to be the imprint of Umberto's last
coherent idea. They named it the Alexandrist after the contemporary
philosophical group that propounded the soul was a material object
generated by the body.
The presence of the Alexandrist,
constantly repeating its one thought, was found to disrupt attempts
to summon and focus essence identically to a large crowd of hostile
mundanes. Further, if it was kept for a time in one location the
surrounding stonework would begin to resonate in harmony with the
pattern and the effect would be magnified. This is what has happened
at Arcanities. The zone of disruption extends to the thresholds of
the building and no further. Within that area, the following holds:
Invocations,
Necromancy and Miracles: Thirty Essence Points are automatically
neutralized. Unless the Gifted attempting to use them can compensate,
her invocation fails. Further, no ambient Essence can be channeled
within the zone (including that generated from magical number
combinations) nor can it be drawn from vessels. These restrictions
apply to any form of power that draws on essence, such as Anguish,
the Keys of Solomon and Tao Chi (but not Wrath).
Seer Powers: Seers may not
attempt to augment their powers with Essence, but otherwise their
abilities are unaffected. The Alexandrist's thought pattern acts like
Mindtalk used defensively and any seer powers, including attempts to
see into the zone with Mindview, are resisted with a flat result of
11. This result is composed of (Effective Will) 6 + (Effective
Strength) 6 + 5 (5 is used instead of 1d10 as the Alexandrist is a
completely artificial construct, and the conditions under which it
"uses" its power never change).
Astral Zombies, Elementals,
Ethereals, Ghosts, Phantasms & Spirits: Gail once had to get
the police to remove some lunatic who refused to leave the shop at
closing time, saying this was the only place where his dead
girlfriend could not get him. Immaterial beings of any kind simply
cannot enter-the disruption locks them out. An incarnate Phantasm may
enter, but may spend no further essence once inside to keep the body
"alive" nor use any of his other powers. A manifested
elemental or ethereal, however, is still subject to the Crowd Effect.
The elemental or ethereal will be aware of this and will refuse to enter.
Vampyres: These beings may
not drain Essence nor use any of their powers. Powers already
operational remain so. For example, the Vampyre retains the Semblance
of Life but cannot use Greater Shifting.
Zombies: These creatures
may or may not be affected in varying ways, depending on how they
were created. A zombie created by purely physical means such as a
Living Zombie (Abomination Codex, p. 148) or a Sacred Soil Zombie
(All Flesh Must Be Eaten, p. 181) has no difficulty. However, an
Essence-oriented zombie, such as the Undead Zombie (Abomination
Codex, p. 148), automatically attempts to break free of its master's
control at +3, and if it succeeds its spirit is automatically forced
across the Threshold as described below.
High Bast & Ferals:
These beings cannot transform. Gail has also had to get the police to
remove a lunatic who insisted that unless he remain within the shop
he would turn into a vicious beast. (Sigh, the full moon always
brings 'em in.)
Fiends: These creatures
cannot enter unless they are possessing something or in material
form. Once inside, however, they are restricted to their physical
abilities, including augmented life points.
Demons, Relentless Dead,
Qliphonim, Kerubim & Seraphim: These beings suffer no
noticeable effects, although they will be aware of the disruption.
Mundanes: Normal humans are
only affected through continual exposure, such as ten or more years
living and working in the zone. Personality changes are the first
symptom, tending to logic, skepticism and lack of emotion. All
creative and casual thought withers, including dreams. The subject
finds herself unable to not always be concentrating on some task, on
some practical goal. Outside the reinforcement of the zone she begins
to feel uncomfortable and rationalizes it as guilt at work left
undone. She suffers Essence depletion as her thought patterns begin
to approximate that of the Alexandrist, and eventually goes mad or
dies outright.
If a
person dies through violence or misadventure within the zone, their
spirit is immediately forced across the Threshold. However, if a
person dies from Essence drain caused by the Alexandrist their
spirit, horribly, remains within the zone. These spirits are trapped,
endlessly repeating the Alexandrist's thought. These spirits may be
perceived by anything that can do so innately, such as a Necromancer
with Death Speech at Level 2 or an incarnate Phantasm. The spirits
cannot speak or act, unless someone manages to perform an Invocation
in the zone. They then manifest as poltergeists attacking the source
of the disturbance. It is possible that in this "rage" they
follow their target out of the zone. This frees them, although their
trauma heals only slowly. If the Alexandrist is removed, neutralized
or destroyed, they are freed.
If the Alexandrist is removed from
Arcanities the zone shrinks to a radius of ten feet. If it is placed
in a new environment of stone, brick or even concrete it begins once
more to extend the zone through resonance, although this takes time.
To neutralize the Alexandrist it must be sheathed in some non-mineral
substance-one foot of wood, plastic or latex effectively renders it inert.
Destroying the Alexandrist is not
easy. The magically fused crystal is immune to acid and heat and will
not crack unless 80 DC can be somehow delivered simultaneously. Once
it does crack, however, the pattern is destroyed and the Alexandrist
ceases to function. Another possibility is to oppose it directly with
MindTalk, attempting to duplicate its thought as a Very Difficult
Task. Anyone attempting this and failing loses the difference between
the two scores in Essence Points and must pass a Difficult Will test
to disengage from the contest, or lose the same again next turn, and
so on. But success sets up a sympathetic resonance which shakes the
thing to pieces.
The Zone does not provide the shop
with any physical protection. The bricks are bricks, the wood is
wood, and subject to damage from explosions, fire and any magical
attack that delivers a bolt of force, such as the Earthquake
Invocation or the Elemental Bolt of a big Pyro.
Taint powers are not affected by
the Alexandrist (and neither can the Alexandrist be Tainted). The day
an artifact of the Mad Gods comes into the shop may be the beginning
of the end.
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