TEXT:  
  I
  Jenna Moran
  
  IIII
  
   
  III
  Chuubo’s Marvelous 
  Wish-Granting Engine
  The Roleplaying Game
  Nobilis: Antithesis, Nobilis: the Essentials, and all included text, concepts, and game mechanics 
   are copyright 2011–2015 by Jenna Katerin Moran.
  Chuubo’s Marvelous Wish-Granting Engine and all included text, concepts, and game mechanics 
   are copyright 2012–2015 by Jenna Katerin Moran.
  All art and presentation elements are copyright 2012–2015 
  by Jenna Katerin Moran or by the original artist or artists. 
  Nobilis is the creation of Jenna Katerin Moran (formerly known as R. Sean Borgstrom).
  Reproduction without the written permission of Jenna Katerin Moran 
  or the appropriate artistic copyright holder is expressly forbidden, except for the purposes of reviews, 
  blank character sheets, and copying reasonable selections for personal use and reference only.
  The mention or reference to any company or product in these pages 
  is not a challenge to the trademark or copyright concerned.
  This book uses fantastical and supernatural elements in its setting, for its characters, their abilities, and themes. 
  All such elements are fiction and intended for entertainment purposes only.
  This book contains mature content and reader discretion is advised. 
   Dedication 
  For Robin Michael Alexander Maginn, who wanted to visit me in China; 
  for Lillian Elanor Tewson Heino, just in case you get into gaming someday; 
  and for Killian James Sebastian Maginn, whom I haven’t had the chance to meet yet.
  Also for Cync Brantley, Rand Brittain, Cheryl & Joseph Couvillion, Anthony Damiani, 
  Chrysoula Tzavelas, Kevin Maginn, Raymond Wood, James Wallis, 
  Dara & Anna Korra’ti, Jesse Covner, Hsin Chen, Karen Hermann, 
  Sonja Britt Borgstrom, and Gayle Margolis.
   Special Thanks 
  To Karl Friedrich Borgstrom, for teaching me the joy of sailing. 
  Fortitude would be different without you.
  
  IV
  IV
   Credits 
  Written and Conceived by: 
  Jenna Katerin Moran
  Edited by: 
  Stephen Lea Sheppard
  Layout and Visual Design by: 
  Paolo Bosi and Claudia Cangini for Studio Shadow
  Design and Development Contributors: 
  Amy Sutedja, Anthony Damiani, 
  Christopher Humphrey, Erika Svensson, 
  Jim Henley, Peter Svensson, 
  and Rand Brittain... 
  not to mention my marvelous sponsors 
  and the many suggestions and error-catches 
  they offered over the kickstarter’s course!
  Playtesters: 
  Alexander Benekos as “Mrs. Senko” and “Hisui Watanabe;” 
  Jennifer Coy as “Soun Shoujo;” 
  C. Lindsay Cross as “Natalia Koutolika;” 
  Anthony Damiani as “Raven Irinka” and “Principal Entropy II;” 
  Beth Eves as “Lilimund Cartaign” and “Rinley Yatskaya;” 
  Eric Eves as the HG; 
  Lee-James Foelker as “Chuubo Nolastname” and “Leonardo de Montreal;” 
  Tristen Gardner as “the Magical Detective;” 
  Adam Gieseler as “Natalia Koutolika” and “Suzy Swan;” 
  Nicolas Hoover as “Soun Shounen;” 
  Channing Johnston as “Seizhi Schwan;” 
  Alex Kelly as “Leonardo de Montreal;” 
  Mike MacMartin as “the Magical Detective” and “Jasper Irinka;” 
  Travis McCord as “Leo the Rival” and “Dulci the Witch;” 
  Angelo Pampalone as “Soun Shounen;” 
  Jennifer Power as “Seizhi Schwan;” 
  Richard Preston as “Jasper Irinka;” 
  David Sepulveda as “Natalia Koutolika;” 
  John Sepulveda as “Chuubo;” 
  Justin Smith as “the Magical Detective;” 
  Peter S. Svensson as the HG; 
  and Amy Sutedja, as the HG.
  
   
  V
  IntroductIon ............................................3
  What is this? ..........................................4
  chapter 1: play .......................................5
  Basic principles .....................................7
  An overview of Play ..............................8
  Quests and Experience ........................10
  Action XP ............................................11
  Issues ...................................................12
  Fading ..................................................12
  Time .....................................................12
  Arcs .....................................................13
  Playing as the HG ................................14
  chapter 2: campaIgns ...........................15
  Power Levels .......................................16
  Genres ..................................................17
  Pastoral ................................................18
  Festivals ...........................................18
  Emoting ...........................................18
  XP Action: Shared Action ...............21
  XP Action: Shared Reaction ............21
  XP Action: Slice of Life ..................22
  Isolation ...........................................23
  Gothics ................................................24
  XP Action: Obsessive Action ..........24
  Gothic Isolation ...............................25
  Immersive Fantasy ..............................26
  XP Action: Sympathetic 
  Action/Shock ...................................26
  XP Action: Foreshadowing ..............27
  XP Action: Discovery ......................27
  Hollow .............................................29
  Techno Gaming ...................................30
  The Road of Trials ...............................31
  Breaking From Reality ....................31
  XP Action: (Suffer) Adversity .........32
  XP Action: (Suffer) Corruption .......32
  XP Action: (Suffer) Trauma ............33
  XP Action: Never Say Die! .............33
  Illusion .............................................35
  Fairy Tales ...........................................36
  XP Action: (Suffer) Transformation/ 
  Metamorphosis ................................36
  Fairy Tales and Illusions ..................36
  Epic Fantasy ........................................37
  XP Action: Science, Faith, 
  and Sorcery ......................................37
  XP Action: Decisive Action .............38
  XP Action: Wicked Action ..............39
  Turn Back! Turn Back! ....................39
  Adventure Fantasy ...............................40
  XP Action: (Be in) Trouble ..............40
  Trembling ........................................41
  Special-Purpose Actions ......................42
  XP Action: Rituals ...........................42
  XP Action: Transitions ....................45
  Emotions ..............................................46
   Contents 
  
  VI
  VI
  chapter 3: character BuIldIng ..........47
  The Character Creation Process ..........49
  Step 1: Choose Your Arc .....................49
  Step 1a: Custom Quests .......................55
  Step 2: Choose Your Skills ..................56
  Step 3: Choose Your Special Abilities— 
  Mortals ................................................56
  Step 3: Choose Your Special Abilities— 
  Miraculous Characters .........................58
  Step 4: Choose Your Bonus XP 
  Emotion ...............................................60
  Step 5: Little Details ............................60
  Step 6: Choose Your Connections .......61
  Step 7: Choose Your Basic Quest ........62
  chapter 4: resources ...........................64
  Skills ....................................................64
  Actions ................................................65
  Intentions .............................................66
  Miraculous Will ...................................67
  Obstacles .............................................67
  The Meaning of a Skill ........................69
  Tools ....................................................70
  Conflict ................................................70
  Edge .....................................................70
  The Ace................................................71
  Cool .....................................................71
  Shine ....................................................72
  Connection Skills ................................73
  Magic ...................................................74
  Superior Qualities and Skills ...............76
  chapter 5: Questes ...............................79
  Quest Description ................................80
  Perks ....................................................81
  Quest Cards .........................................82
  Choosing your Quests .........................86
  Starting a Quest ...................................86
  HG/Group Quests ................................87
  XP and XP Cost ...................................87
  Bonus XP .............................................87
  Any-Time XP ......................................88
  Quests: Work and Study Quests ..........90
  Quests: Melodramatic Quests ..............91
  Quests: Paradigmatic Quests ...............93
  Quests: Exciting! Quests .....................94
  Quests: Off-Camera Quests .................94
  Quests: Lurid Quests ...........................96
  Quests: Struggles .................................99
  Quests: The Background of 
  Your Life ...........................................100
  Quests: Symbolic Quests ...................102
  Storyline XP ......................................103
  Spending XP ......................................103
  Abandoning Quests ...........................103
  Quest Completion ..............................104
  chapter 6: the mIraculous ..............105
  How Miracles Work ..........................108
  Common Cost Structures ..................110
  MP .....................................................112
  Recharge Tokens ...............................112
  Miraculous Conflict ...........................113
  Miraculous Edge................................114
  The Auctoritas ...................................114
  Strike .................................................115
  Bonds .................................................116
  Region Properties ..............................119
  Afflictions ..........................................119
  Bonds and Afflictions ........................121
  Conventions .......................................121
  
   
  VII
  chapter 7: health levels .................123
  Wounds ..............................................126
  Accepting a Wound ...........................129
  Focusing a Wound .............................130
  Living With a Wound ........................130
  Avoiding a Wound .............................131
  Resisting Wounds ..............................132
  Back-and-Forth Wounds ....................133
  Twisted Wounds ................................135
  Metaphorical Powers .........................136
  Story Wounds and Sickness ...............136
  chapter 8: Issues.................................137
  How an Issue Works ..........................139
  Issue: Calling .....................................143
  Issue: Hero .........................................143
  Issue: Mystery ...................................143
  Issue: Hollow .....................................144
  Issue: Illusion ....................................144
  Issue: Isolation ...................................144
  Issue: Complex ..................................145
  Issue: Sickness ...................................145
  Issue: Something to Deal With ..........145
  Issue: It Never Stops! ........................146
  Issue: Trust ........................................146
  Issue: (in) Over Your Head ................147
  Issue: Vice .........................................147
  Issues in Play .....................................148
  chapter 9: settIng..............................203
  Fortitude ............................................205
  Fortitude Rats ................................207
  Shrine Families ..............................208
  The Mysteries ................................224
  Big Lake ............................................226
  Horizon ..............................................229
  The Ghost World ...........................233
  Vampires ........................................235
  The Principal .................................242
  The Student Council ......................243
  School Uniforms............................244
  Bluebell Park .....................................245
  Arcadia ..............................................253
  Fox-Eared People ..........................257
  Tsukumogami ................................259
  Exorcists and the 
  Kinnoruto Temple ..........................260
  Some Miscellaneous Youkai..........262
  Places to Eat ..................................265
  Cutting-Edge Stuff ........................266
  The Methodology Building ...........268
  Inside the Marvelous Wish-Granting 
  Engine ................................................270
  Old Molder ........................................272
  Little Island........................................280
  Celestia ..........................................283
  The Walking Fields ............................287
  The Jotun .......................................292
  The Excrucians ..............................292
  Soma Village .....................................297
  The Outside .......................................298
  The Near Outside ...........................299
  136199 Eris....................................301
  The Earth .......................................303
  The Low Outside ...........................304
  The Deep Outside ..........................305
  The Far Outside .............................307
  The Bleak Academy ......................308
  The Far and Sunless Land .............313
  
  VIII
  VIII
  chapter 10: example Quests .............315
  A New Hobby ....................................316
  A New Job .........................................318
  Bind ...................................................320
  Concentrated Awesome .....................323
  Connecting With Someone ................324
  The Door Into Memory .....................326
  Mental Training .................................328
  The Object .........................................330
  Keeping a Record of Your Life .........332
  Physical Training ...............................334
  Poisoned ............................................336
  Preparing for a Festival or Event .......338
  Taking Care of a Small Child ............339
  chapter 11: 
  example Quest sets ............................344
  A Scientific Adventure.......................344
  Science! .........................................344
  Someone’s in Trouble!...................346
  Engineering! ..................................348
  Above the Fray ..............................350
  Walking the Boundaries ................352
  Looking for Trouble ..........................354
  Adventure GET .............................354
  Let’s Doing! ...................................356
  Labyrinth Diving ...........................358
  Climbing the Sacred Mountain ......360
  Down .............................................362
  A Heroic Journey ...............................364
  Changes .........................................364
  The Refusal of the Call ..................366
  The Belly of the Whale..................368
  The Trials of the Sun .....................370
  Apotheosis .....................................372
  A Bittersweet Saga ............................374
  Beautiful and Far Away .................374
  Fascination.....................................376
  This is So Surreal ..........................378
  This is Such a Bad Idea .................380
  You’ve Lost Them .........................382
  Something Heals............................384
  chapter 12: arcs ................................387
  The Story of an Arc ...........................388
  Arc Traits ...........................................390
  Mundane and Miraculous Perks ........390
  Arcs: Bindings Arcs ..........................393
  Arcs: Knight Arcs ..............................400
  Arcs: Otherworldly Arcs ...................406
  Arcs: Storyteller Arcs ........................413
  Arcs: Aspect Arcs ..............................420
  Arcs: Shepherd Arcs ..........................427
  Arcs: Emptiness Arcs ........................435
  Arcs: Mystic Arcs ..............................442
  Chibi-Quests ......................................450
  Mortal Arcs ........................................452
  Miraculous Arcs ................................452
  Quest Miracles ...................................454
  The Deeds of the Binder ................454
  Knight Path Miracles .....................455
  Otherworldly Miracles ..................458
  Legends and Dreams .....................460
  Wuxia and Secret Arts ...................462
  The Shepherd’s Way ......................463
  Miracles of Emptiness ...................466
  Transcendent Experiences .............468
  
   
  IX
  chapter 13: 
  a WIsh-chang’d World .....................471
  The Rules of a Wish ..........................472
  Making Answer to the Bleak .............476
  Tricks of Play ....................................482
  capter 14: mIraculous arcs .............485
  Arc Powers ........................................486
  Frantic ............................................487
  Immortality ....................................488
  Sickly .............................................489
  Wounded Angel .................................490
  Dramatic ........................................490
  Devices ..........................................490
  Divine Health ................................490
  (Cage for a) Blasphemy .................491
  Empowered Wounds ......................491
  Recover ..........................................492
  Supreme Invocation .......................492
  Salvation ........................................492
  Union .............................................492
  Become Somebody ............................494
  The Wages of Sin ...........................495
  Shared Experience .........................495
  Your Truth .....................................496
  Adaptable .......................................496
  Unstoppable ...................................496
  Unstoppable (Powered Up) ...........496
  Commanding Aura ........................497
  Reject .............................................498
  Touchstone .....................................498
  Reject/Touchstone (Powered Up) ..499
  Reality Syndrome ..............................500
  Shared Experience .........................501
  Dreams Made Flesh .......................502
  Childish Dreams ............................502
  A Little Push ..................................503
  System ...........................................504
  Someone Else’s Rules ...................504
  Shared Experience (Powered Up) .504
  Purpose ..........................................505
  Example System: 
  the “Wishing Map” ........................506
  Child of the Ash .................................508
  Set the Mood .................................509
  [Mood]-Splosion ...........................509
  Wicked Mode ................................510
  Box: Wicked Mode (Powered Up) 510
  Kaiju Form ....................................510
  Mortal Form ..................................511
  Shed Scales ....................................511
  Shed Scales (Powered Up) ............512
  Defensive Shield ............................512
  Defensive Shield (Powered Up) ....512
  Natural Weaponry ..........................513
  Elemental Connection ...................513
  Non-Euclidian ...............................514
  Attention Control ...........................514
  Bramble .........................................514
  
  XX
  Spiritual .............................................515
  Elemental Warning ........................516
  Illusions .........................................516
  Spirit-Sense ...................................516
  Spirit-Speaker ................................516
  Spirit Boost ....................................517
  Divine Mantle ................................518
  Spirit-Shaper ..................................518
  Chastise .........................................518
  Summons .......................................518
  Secret Wisdom ...............................519
  Destiny-Shaper ..............................519
  Creature of the Light .........................520
  Tireless ..........................................520
  Well-Lit..........................................520
  The Auctoritas Magister ................521
  Appear ...........................................522
  Transfix ..........................................522
  Obsession.......................................522
  Open the Vault ...............................522
  Fade ...............................................523
  Appear (Powered Up) ....................523
  Transition .......................................523
  Ritual .............................................524
  Inspire ............................................524
  Creature of Fable ...............................525
  Between the Boundaries ................526
  Iconic .............................................527
  Superior Hunter .............................527
  Cut the Soul ...................................528
  Resemble .......................................528
  Declare ...........................................528
  Summons .......................................528
  Blind ..............................................529
  Revelation ......................................529
  Peace ..............................................529
  The Ace..............................................530
  Tireless ..........................................530
  Cool Bonus ....................................530
  The Ace ..........................................531
  Push Yourself .................................531
  Legendary Master ..........................531
  Determination ................................532
  Anime Moment..............................532
  Sentimental ........................................533
  Miraculous Ease ............................533
  Haunt .............................................533
  Lend Spirit .....................................534
  A Waking Dream ...........................534
  The Treasure’s Call ........................534
  The Shepherd’s Blessing ...............534
  A Fearsome Blessing .....................535
  Combo Move .................................535
  Wish ...............................................536
  A Keeper of Gardens .........................537
  The World, Like Clay ....................537
  Toxic ..............................................538
  Land-Rule ......................................540
  The Great Magic ............................540
  Guide .............................................540
  Perk Bonus ....................................541
  Guardian ........................................541
  Symbiote ........................................542
  Empower .......................................542
  Accursed ............................................543
  Sanctuary .......................................543
  MP Bonus ......................................544
  Falling From the World .................544
  The World-Breaker’s Hand ...........545
  Nourishment ..................................545
  Damaged ........................................546
  
   
  XI
  Primordial ..........................................547
  Unnatural Action ...........................549
  Scry ................................................549
  Digest.............................................550
  Bindings.........................................550
  Shared Witness ..............................551
  A Distant Mood .............................551
  A Distant Mood (Powered Up) ......552
  Shared Witness (Powered Up) .......552
  Evocative Transformation/ 
  Transform and Devour ..................553
  Tokens of Your Power ...................554
  Bindings (Powered Up) .................554
  reference: maIn characters
  The Best Friend ...................................48
  The Prodigy .........................................71
  The Idol ...............................................72
  The Child of the Sun ...........................73
  The Troublemaker .............................223
  Ogre-Sensei .......................................239
  The Practical Teacher ........................240
  The Principal .....................................242
  The Ideologue ....................................248
  The Marvelous Wish-Granting 
  Engine ................................................270
  The Magical Detective ......................275
  Nightmares’ Angel .............................301
  The Dream-Witch ..............................311
  The Wishing Boy (or Girl) ................475
  The Angel of Fortitude ......................538
  reference: sample skIlls
  (Superior) Fortitude Rat ....................208
  The Kichi Family Magic ...................210
  The Sosunov Family Magic ..............212
  The Titov Family Magic ....................215
  Affinity for (an Element) ...................217
  Cat-Speaker .......................................219
  Claimed by the Sea ............................220
  (Superior) Dreamer............................221
  The Yatskaya Family Magic ..............223
  Ghost Magic ......................................234
  (Superior) Vampire ............................236
  Superior Vitality ................................236
  Superior Physical Control .................237
  Deviant Science .................................241
  Fox-Eared Magic ...............................258
  (Superior) Holiness............................261
  (Superior) Spiritual Energy ...............262
  (Superior) Plant-Spirit .......................264
  Long-Necked .....................................264
  (Superior) Celestian ...........................286
  (Superior) Wind-Spirit .......................286
  Superior Walking Fields Spirit ..........291
  Rider Necromancy .............................294
  Changeling.........................................295
  Night-Craft ........................................296
  Superior Immortality .........................426
  
  XII
  XII
  reference: poetry
  Excerpt: La Belle Dame Sans Merci .252
  The Thirteenth Station .......................255
  Excerpt: The Bohemian Girl..............255
  A Far and Sunless Land ....................268
  An Interpretation of the 
  Katha Upanishads .............................269
  An Ominous Dialogue (I) ..................269
  Baroque .............................................275
  The Chimney-Sweeper .......................276
  An Ominous Dialogue (II) ................276
  Falling Stars ......................................314
  Excerpt: The Tyger ............................314
  The Toad ............................................328
  Excerpt: Visions of the Daughters of 
  Albion ................................................328
  They Look Away .................................480
  Excerpt: The Tao te Ching .................481
  Index .....................................................555
  
   
  1
  
  22
  
  Introduction
  3
   
  Introduction
  Sometime after the world drowned I found myself on one of the 
  boats that go to Town.
  I didn’t know yet that the world had fallen.
  Being and nothingness were swallowed, both of them, by the 
  tidal wave of the Outside, but I hadn’t noticed yet, because I’d 
  been living in one of the places that got covered by it, and so I’d 
  stopped existing in any kind of defined way for a little while.
  Then one of the exploring boats found Suzhou, where I’d been 
  living. It made Suzhou exist again, more or less. It stopped being 
  a wild, chaotic delirium and became a place again... more or less.
  I don’t think I was fully real again yet when I boarded.
  I didn’t wake up, not all the way, until the boat crested the 
  horizon of Big Lake and I saw the dockside settlement of For-
  titude for the first time. Then it was like my heart woke up, and 
  everything that had been black and white became color, and the 
  textures of the world came back, and sound had richness and 
  deepness once again.
  It wasn’t because I’d been unreal, exactly.
  It was part of it, I think, but only part of it. It was because... 
  it was because as soon as I saw Fortitude I understood that work 
  would be rewarded; that things had a beautiful simplicity; and that 
  I had a home.
  I guess that if you’re reading this then you are real. As I write 
  this, you are mildly notional, of course. You can’t possibly be as 
  real as the wood of the buildings, the depth of the air, the sounds 
  of fish being sliced open and the smell of marlin cooking on a 
  limestone slab. You’re part of the diffuse potential of “you could 
  be reading this.”
  But by the time you actually see this I guess you must be 
  someone real. You must be a real, physical person, in one of the 
  reclaimed regions, and maybe not even knowing that the world 
  was lost. You might not even realize that you’ve been cheated, 
  that there could be—
  That there was more.
  So come. Come to a little place called Town, in the middle 
  of nowhere, circled by its reborn sun. Come, at least in play, and 
  maybe in person if you can stand giving up some of the modern 
  luxuries, and feel what it’s like to really live.
  There is so much to experience here. You could live.
  
  What is this?
  44
   What is this? 
  The Chuubo’s Marvelous Wish-Granting Engine RPG is a guide-
  book to finding magic and wonder in your everyday life. It’s de-
  signed for telling charming little fantasy stories, heart-lifting and 
  soul-cheering stories, things to leave you with a smile; as well, of 
  course, as a couple of doses of laughter, adventure, and fun.
  For this game, I’m targeting forum and tabletop play—any-
  thing where you can have a permanent physical record of events. 
  You can have fun with this stuff in a real-time online game but it’s 
  going to be a little more difficult!
  The Wishing Boy (or Girl)
  And let’s start by imagining you as a pretty ordinary kind of person.
  Just an ordinary kid, living on an ordinary street. If you’re usu-
  ally older than a kid, well, bear with me. Get younger? Or at least 
  imagine yourself a little younger than you actually are. Just an 
  ordinary kid, in a kind of modern part of a kind of rustic Town.
  You get ordinary grades. You do ordinarily well at sports. You 
  like to sit out on the sidewalk of your street and eat ice cream 
  or play jacks or talk to your friends or pet the neighborhood cat. 
  You’re named something bland like, I don’t know. If you’re a boy, 
  maybe Chuubo or something? If you’re a girl, how about Sho-
  kyou, instead?1
  You’re normal and you have no trouble fitting in.
  You’re ordinary and you like it that way.
  But just because you’re not very strong, and you’re not very 
  smart, and you’re not very fast, and you’re not even very char-
  ismatic, and you are, in fact, pretty much all-around ordinary in 
  every sort of way, that doesn’t mean that you can’t go down to the 
  vacant house at the end of your cul-de-sac and go in and close the 
  door and unroll your plans and get out your saw and hammer and 
  nails and wood and build a Marvelous Wish-Granting Engine that 
  grants wishes. 
  Because, obviously, in fact, you can.
  You did.
  It’s right there.
  The Game
  That’s the kind of game this is. That’s the kind of character you’ll play.
  You don’t have to actually play a kid with a wish-granting en-
  gine, of course. That’d be a bit weird after a while. In the first ma-
  jor campaign for this game, The Glass-Maker’s Dragon, you’ll 
  have a total of eight standard options, in fact—
   
  ŭ Chuubo or Shokyou, with their wish-granting engine;
   
  ŭ Seizhi Schwan, their best friend;
   
  ŭ Rinley Yatskaya, troublemaker;
   
  ŭ Leonardo de Montreal, the master of deviant science;
   
  ŭ Natalia Koutolika, hero and ice queen, best of her mortal gen-
  eration;
   
  ŭ Principal Entropy II, his hands dripping with his father’s blood;
   
  ŭ Miramie Mesmer, the dream-witch; and
   
  ŭ Jasper Irinka, the daughter of slain Jade Irinka, angel of the 
  houses of the sun.
  1 Warning: names may not be ordinary in non-participating locations.
  Not to mention variants, characters from various supplements, 
  and characters that you’ll design yourself—
  But at the core of it all?
  At the heart of it?
  This is the kind of game where your wishes come true.
  Town
  This game is set in Town. It’s a pretty nice place, surprisingly 
  rustic, with about 165 square miles of settlement and suburbs and 
  80,000 people2 calling it home.
  At its core, Town is
   
  ŭ Fortitude, a sweet, laid-back pastoral region;
   
  ŭ Horizon, the ruins of a vampire’s “Night London;”
   
  ŭ Big Lake, that spans the worlds, and its 
   
  ŭ Little Island— a jewel in that endless lake;
   
  ŭ Arcadia, a dazzling whirl of fun and magic;
   
  ŭ Old Molder, left over from the age of progress;
   
  ŭ Bluebell Park, a lurid place of alien magic; and
   
  ŭ the Walking Fields, dotted by scattered settlements; 
  and beyond and around all of that is the Outside. 
  Town used to be a youkai place. It used to be a monster town, 
  home to creatures that served the gods of dream and nightmare. 
  It used to be in darkness, every day, as it had no sun. But then 
  humans came sailing over the Lake—first from Russia, then from 
  Japan, and later elsewhere; and Alexandrel Celdinar built Night 
  London; there was a grand age of deviant science and strange 
  wonder, and one day Jade Irinka showed up.
  She was the sun.
  She’s dead now. She’s dead, and we all almost went with her. 
  But we didn’t. The sun came back—there are a handful of differ-
  ent stories as to the reason—and that pretty much brings us up to 
  the present day, in Town.
  What is this for?
  This is a system to help you tell stories. It’s a story of a beautiful 
  place. It’s an ideological tool, too, it’s totally propaganda, because 
  I do have a purpose here, in writing it. 
  I want you to heed the call if you ever hear it. 
  I want you to come to Town if you ever find it. I don’t want 
  you to be scared or disbelieving. I don’t want you to be dismis-
  sive. It’s a beautiful place and it needs a few more people, good 
  people, like you.
  2 Depending on how you count the ghosts, vampires, ogres, rats, dryads, 
  robots, fairies, and youkai, I suppose.
  
  Chapter 1: Play  
  
  66
  
  Basic principles
  7
   
  Basic Principles
  preamble
  The Chuubo’s Marvelous Wish-Granting Engine RPG is a game 
  of pretend.
  It plays out in the course of a conversation. It can be an online 
  conversation or a bunch of people sitting around a table. It can 
  have props or it can do without. But fundamentally, the core of 
  play is a bunch of people talking.
  Most people are playing a single character—their PC or Avatar.
  If you’re doing that then your fundamental power is the right 
  to take actions. You can use your game traits to do stuff. You can 
  say, “I do this,” or “I do that,” meaning your character by ‘I.’
  This doesn’t mean that your actions will do what you want 
  them to.
  It just means—
  The game is built on the assumption that you can always 
  do stuff. 
  This isn’t philosophy or a manifesto. It’s just how the rules are 
  designed. You could have an ability that helps you wake up fast, 
  so you’re allowed to use your abilities even when you’re asleep. 
  You could have a character who’s really good at reacting quick-
  ly—so nothing ever happens “too fast for you to react.”
  Sometimes your actions are pointless. Sometimes you’re try-
  ing to do stuff that is just plain beyond what your character can do. 
  If your character is a normal human, and you take an action like 
  “I catch that falling star,” then maybe all that happens is that you 
  run down the beach and realize too late that it’s actually extremely 
  far away. If your character is on a fishing boat in a storm trying 
  desperately to bring a forty-foot halibut in, and you take an action 
  like “I play a quick game of tennis,” then maybe all that happens 
  is that people blink at you and then say, “OK, and, moving on.” 
  (Or ask a question like, “Wait, what?”)
  But if you’re playing then you have access to the game rules 
  and your abilities. You’ll be able to use Skills (pg. 64), emote (pg. 
  18), take quest-related actions (pg. 87-88), and earn XP (pg. 10)—
  if you’re in the game, if you have a PC, then you have full access 
  to the rules. 
  Conversely, if you lose control of your PC so thoroughly that 
  you can’t act— 
  If your PC dies, and the game doesn’t just pick up with you 
  playing their spirit out in the bleakest regions of the Outside where 
  the dead things go; or if they’re possessed by some evil witch 
  or dream-poison and you’re not in their driver’s seat; or even if 
  they’re just so thoroughly beaten that they’re part of someone 
  else’s story now—
  Then you’re no longer playing them. All conditions like that 
  mean that you don’t have a PC any longer, and you’re just a spec-
  tator until you get them back or make a new one. You’re never 
  actually playing a character that you can’t control.
  One player—maybe one or more players in a big game—does 
  things a little differently.
  They’re called the HG (or “an” HG). They’re the final arbiter 
  of rules stuff that affects or changes your abilities, but more im-
  portantly, they’re not playing a character. They don’t have a PC 
  or an Avatar.
  Instead, they play the world.
  What this boils down to in the end is that the HG’s role is to 
  describe what happens as a result of how you act. Often the HG’s 
  descriptions will look a lot like the people in the world are taking 
  actions, and that’s fine—it’s even normal. The HG can pretend 
  that some kid you’re playing hockey with has a Hockey Skill, like 
  a PC would, and is using that to take actions, like a PC wound, 
  with a certain numerical level.
  But that’s not what’s really going on! That’s just how it looks.
  The rule is... players take actions, the HG describes  
  what happens. 
  Gaming Terminology
   
  ŭ PC or Avatar—Player Character. Your Avatar in the 
  world of the game.
   
  ŭ NPC—Non-Player Character.
   
  ŭ Main Character—this term isn’t actually standard. A 
  Main Character is someone at the heart of the story, in-
  cluding all PCs but some NPCs as well.
   
  ŭ IC—“IC” actions are taken by your character, “in char-
  acter.”
   
  ŭ OOC—“OOC” actions are things you do as a player, “out 
  of character.”
   
  ŭ HG—this term isn’t actually standard. The HG is the 
  “Hollyhock God,” this game’s equivalent of the Game 
  Master.
   
  ŭ Chapter—this term isn’t completely standard. This refers 
  to a short unit of play with a relatively coherent beginning 
  and ending, usually taking 15-90 minutes of tabletop play 
  or a week or two on a forum. 
   
  ŭ Chuubo’s Marvelous Wish-Granting Engine—this term 
  isn’t actually standard. This is the general term for the 
  game rules we’re using, e.g. “In a Chuubo’s Marvelous 
  Wish-Granting Engine game, you’ll have 8 points of 
  Skills....”
  
  An overview of Play
  88
   An Overview of Play 
  Here’s what happens in a Chuubo’s Marvelous Wish-Granting 
  Engine game.
  First, your group will choose a genre (pg. 17) and a concept 
  (pg. 16) for the game. Then, with the exception of the HG, each 
  player creates a single suitable character to play. 
  These characters will have collections of Traits such as Skills 
  (pg. 64) and Connections (pg. 73) representing their areas of com-
  petence. They may also have mundane or miraculous Perks (pg. 
  81, 390) and Arc Traits (pg. 59, 390) that represent some of the 
  stories that they have “lived through” prior to the beginning of 
  the game. These Skills, Connections, Perks, and Arc Traits work 
  more or less like the Traits in any other RPG; that said, a charac-
  ter’s baseline areas of competence are less central in the Chuubo’s 
  Marvelous Wish-Granting Engine RPG than in many comparable 
  games, and we’re going to focus more on the dynamic evolution 
  of your character than on any particular static state. For instance: 
  The “XP” or experience points (pg. 10) that your character 
  uses to advance and improve their abilities is first and foremost a 
  dramatic pacing mechanism for the game.
  Your character will be on at least one quest (pg. 80) at all 
  times; anything that your character is working on in their life, or 
  working through in their life, can be a quest. These quests com-
  bine into larger Advancement Arcs (pg. 388-389) that organize 
  and reward the stories of your character’s life. Except for the brief 
  transitional periods between those stories, when you don’t know 
  for sure what Arc your character will be on, your character will 
  always be on exactly one Advancement Arc.
  Over the course of play you will have many opportunities to 
  collect XP, which you’ll care about because XP helps you to ad-
  vance through your character’s quests and Arcs. You’ll often earn 
  XP from:
   
  ŭ evoking a character-specific emotion from the other players 
  (pg. 46, 60);
   
  ŭ doing things that express a particular quest (pg. 87-103); or
   
  ŭ participating with the other players in telling the ongoing sto-
  ry of the game through genre-specific (and occasional out-of-
  genre) “XP Actions.” (pg. 11, 21-45).
  Some of these XP sources let you earn an XP every 15 real-world 
  minutes, up to a maximum of once per in-game scene. Others let 
  you earn an XP a limited number of times in each of the story’s 
  “chapters” (pg. 7, 12). 
  Often when someone earns one of these chapterly XP, and 
  almost always when they’re completely out of valid chapterly 
  options for XP, their character “fades into the background” for a 
  little while (pg. 12)—not necessarily departing play, or even being 
  less bombastic and active than they were, but letting go of enough 
  of their hold on the spotlight (the players’ attention) that the HG 
  can advance the clock or calendar and the other PCs can grab the 
  opportunity, if they’ve needed one, to act. 
  Thus, in each chapter of the game, you’ll experience a couple 
  of XP Actions from each player, roughly round robin; possibly 
  one or two quest actions from each player; and have the oppor-
  tunity to take several or a few of these actions yourself. Mean-
  while, as the chapter is playing out, you’ll have the chance to earn 
  additional XP from various every-15-minute/per-scene options, 
  with a bias towards the sillier and more fun options having an 
  every-15-minute limitation on them and the solemner and more 
  meaningful options having a 1-2x/chapter limit.
  Afterwards (or, OK, sometimes during) the HG can retroac-
  tively give the events of a chapter a bit more structure and mean-
  ing by assigning one or more PCs a point of an “Issue” (pg. 12, 
  139-202) relating to that chapter’s events. In the medium term, 
  these Issues build into subplots and character mini-arcs before 
  resolving themselves; in the long term, the chapters will be orga-
  nized into larger “books” (pg. 12) that represent the stories or the 
  seasons of your game. 
  As you progress through these chapters and books and Issues 
  of your game, your accumulated XP permits you to complete and 
  resolve the various quests that you’re on. Each time that that hap-
  pens (that is, each time that you complete a quest) you’ll earn a 
  “Perk” based on what happened and what that quest was about. 
  You’ll also earn or achieve (or sometimes a better word might 
  be “suffer”) some resolution to something in your character’s life 
  deriving from that quest’s place in your character’s Arc. 
  For instance, the third quest in an Otherworldly Arc (pg. 410, 
  406) focuses on something that’s trying to change you; whatever 
  else happens when you complete the third quest of an Otherworld-
  ly Arc, and no matter what that quest actually was, you’ll always 
  discover a part of yourself at the quest’s ending that hasn’t been 
  changed, and apparently won’t be changed, by the stuff that’s been 
  going on. That’s the mandated outcome, result, punishment, and/
  or reward of an “Otherworldly 3” quest, whatever that quest itself 
  might have been—that you’ve found something in you that’s still 
  unevolved, untwisted, undeveloped, or unmarred. 
  After finishing your quest, and taking care of its Perk and out-
  come, you’ll usually look for a new quest to follow it up with or 
  to replace it—although you can let that matter sit for a little while 
  if you’re busy, well, playing, and you don’t have to replace a com-
  pleted quest if you’ve still got plenty of other quests going on.
  Eventually you’ll hit a certain minimum XP target from all 
  of your completed quests, and you’ll also reach a certain mini-
  mal level of resolution in the story of your character’s life. At that 
  point you’ve completed your Advancement Arc. This gives a per-
  manent and substantive upgrade to your character’s abilities and 
  afterwards you enter into a brief transitional period wherein you 
  don’t necessarily know—not until you finish the next quest, any-
  way, and maybe not even then—what story Arc you’ll next be on.
  One of your character’s stories has ended; their next story con-
  tinues from there.
  
  9
   
  
  Quests and Experience
  10
  10
   Quests and 
   
  Experience
  Chuubo’s Marvelous Wish-Granting Engine tracks all the things 
  that your character is working on or through, the various projects 
  and efforts and struggles in their life, as “quests.” If you’re trying 
  to learn the flute, that’s a quest. If you’re building a little ship, 
  that’s a quest. Even more abstract life things like living through 
  a tough time and taking care of a shrine or park can be a quest—
  They’re the targets of your time and focus, in whatever form.
  The big thing you’ll be doing during play is making progress 
  on these quests; and to do that, and to move forward with your 
  life, you’ll need to earn “experience points,” or, XP.
  There are three major sources of XP in this game:
   
  ŭ Action XP (aka Group XP) comes from taking various actions 
  that advance the story. It goes into a group pot that will be 
  shared among the players and you can spend your share on 
  any quest.
   
  ŭ Emotion XP comes from evoking certain emotions and 
  semi-autonomic responses from the other players. For in-
  stance, 
   
   if your character type is “hapless,” you can get XP from 
  making other players head-desk. 
   
   If your character type is “stoic” in enduring awful things, 
  you can get XP from evoking an aww!
  Emotion XP goes to specific players, and you can spend it on 
  any quest.
   
  ŭ Bonus XP (aka Quest XP) comes from the quests themselves. 
  If you want to learn the flute, you need to practice; practicing 
  the flute, ergo, is the kind of thing that earns bonus XP specific 
  to that quest.
  You’ll be earning these XP at a steady pace throughout the 
  game—the rate will depend on how exactly your group plays, but 
  we’re basically talking 2-3 times per hour in a tabletop game or 
  every 2-3 scenes in an online game, with occasional special bo-
  nuses pushing that up. 
  
  Action XP
  11
   
  Conditions, Actions, 
  and Details
  Here’s the internal anatomy of an XP action.
  It has a condition. That’s the circumstance where you can 
  use it. For instance, the trigger for a “Shared Action” is that 
  you encounter someone who’s doing simple, honest stuff—
  you know, studying, or fishing, or whatever.
  It has an action—the thing you do to get the XP. In this 
  case, say: you reach out to them.
  In a few cases it also has a special consequence—some-
  thing that happens because of the action that isn’t just “my 
  character does/feels/experiences X.”
  Normally at that point you add an XP to the group pot, 
  play out the XP Action and the rest of the scene, and then fade 
  into the background so that somebody else can act. If there’s 
  anything more to it than that, I’ll mention additional details 
  and consequences in the description of the action!
   Action XP 
  Sometimes in play there’s a choice of paths—between something 
  meaning, something mattering, and something kind of fading into 
  a diffuse blur of stuff.
  Action XP exists to open those meaning/mattering paths a 
  little wider.
  The rules won’t always get this right. In fact, I’m not even 
  really trying to get it 100% right. Think of these rules more as a... 
  freeway network through the space of story. Sometimes you’ll get 
  stuck on the road and it’ll go past your destination. Sometimes 
  you’ll have trouble crossing from one side to other. 
  The freeway system isn’t there for this specific trip to this spe-
  cific place.
  It’s just here to make it a little easier, on average, to get where 
  you need to go—even if that means that you get stuck or blocked 
  at other times.
  Here’s how it works.
  Sometimes you’ll find yourself in an identifiable situation—
  one of the 3-5 that I’m going to ask you to keep in mind, or one of 
  the other 13-15 that’ll be floating around in the rules in case you 
  happen to notice that they’re going on. You’ll spot one of the 3-5 
  conditions that let you do something in your particular genre of 
  game, or your HG or group’ll realize that this is a perfect use for 
  one of the out-of-genre actions.
  In that case, you’ll have the chance to take an XP Action—
  You’ll do something, and earn an XP for the group.
  For instance, in a Pastoral game, you’ll be watching for op-
  portunities for...
   
  ŭ Shared Action (pg. 21)
   
  ŭ Shared Reactions (pg. 21) and
   
  ŭ Slice of Life (pg. 22).
  If you’re in a Gothic game, you’ll still want those three actions, 
  but you’ll also be on the lookout for opportunities for 
   
  ŭ Obsessive Action (pg. 24).
  You usually won’t use the full rules for, say, monologuing and 
  taking a Decisive action (pg. 38-39), because those rules are more 
  specific to epic and adventure fantasy, but even in a Pastoral game, 
  you can dig them out if you’re reminded of them and you think 
  they’ll fit.
  The Group XP that you get from XP Actions goes into a shared 
  “pot” that you can divide up among the players at any convenient 
  breakpoint during play. If there’s XP left over after a division, 
  it stays in the pot; at the end of the session, the HG should add 
  enough XP to the pot to make the final division even out.
  Session Goals
  At the beginning of the session, particularly if the players or 
  characters are or might be having trouble figuring out what to 
  do with themselves and which quests matter, I recommend the 
  HG ask each player to define a session goal.
  This is a wish or dream that will be guiding their charac-
  ter’s heart for the session.
  It will tie directly into character motivation: the same 
  thing in the character’s heart that pushes them towards that 
  wish and dream drives them towards the XP they can earn in 
  play. It’s the thing inside your PC that makes them willing 
  to face trouble, adversity, and the like when the opportunity 
  arises and drives them to connect to people in a more pas-
  toral game.
  
  Issues
  Fading
  Time
  12
  12
   Issues 
  Taking an XP Action can earn you a point of an “Issue”—a little 
  story, a dramatic movement in your character’s life, that moves 
  forward from there. (The full rules for Issues are found beginning 
  on pg. 139.)
  For instance, take the Slice of Life XP Action.
  It’s pretty tame. It doesn’t require much. It’s just you out there 
  in the world, taking in the things around you, and feeling an emo-
  tional response. You might think that there’s no narrative move-
  ment there; but I like to think that we can do something with it 
  anyway. So if the scenes are cool, even a laid-back Slice of Life 
  scene’ll get you a point of an Issue.
  What does it say about a character that they’re spending a lot 
  of time out in the world feeling things? 
  What kind of story are they in?
  My favorite Issue for that is the Something to Deal With Is-
  sue. You have some baggage you have to deal with, something in 
  your psyche or your life. That’s why your life’s slowed down and 
  why you’re so wrapped up in your moods. And the first few times 
  you’re doing Slice of Life stuff and get +1 to the Issue, you prob-
  ably have no idea what that little-i issue even is. But I’m thinking 
  that by the time you’ve had the Issue on your plate long enough to 
  get to level 4-5? 
  You’ll know. You’ll know what’s going on with you, and you 
  can resolve it, and all that time you’ve spent emoting responses to 
  tasty food and sad events and cool vistas will make more sense.
  That’s how an Issue works.
  In a fast-paced tabletop game you might wait a while between 
  doing an action and getting an Issue. You might get an Issue that 
  sort of summarizes everything everybody’s been doing rather than 
  a specific response to your cues. Even there, though, it’s basically 
  the same idea:
  Do quiet stuff, get the Issue for people who do quiet stuff.
  Get in a lot of trouble? Grow towards being a Hero!
   Fading 
  After an XP Action, a character normally “fades into the background.”
  This is a conceptual trick used to explain why you’re not off 
  doing a zillion other things; why, having savored a view or bonded 
  with a friend or gotten worked up into a spiral of obsession, you 
  can relax and feel done for the next third or half of a chapter.
  You’ve faded.
  The XP action casts its shadow over everything you do, for-
  wards and backwards from that moment, for a third to two thirds 
  of a chapter each way.
  For instance, you’ve been exploring a haunted house. And you 
  came around a corner, and you saw a face just before the flashlight 
  went out. It wasn’t actually anything scary—just some old rags, as 
  it turned out—but that Discovery Action earned you a group XP 
  and left you freaked out for a while.
  You’re still freaked out now!
  After a while, you unfade, and you’re back to being an active 
  character once again.
   Time 
  Games of Chuubo’s Marvelous Wish-Granting Engine play out 
  in a series of “books”—stories or seasons—lasting about 2-5 ses-
  sions of tabletop play, dozens or hundreds of meaningful events, 
  and often 2-13 weeks in the game. A long quest will typically take 
  about a book to complete, and your most impressive powers can 
  typically be used 1-2x/book (with additional uses costing a re-
  source.)
  In the shorter term, the game divides into a series of chapters, 
  each covering a couple of significant events in the life of each 
  PC and roughly 15-90 minutes of tabletop play. Many of your 
  powers will have limited uses per chapter, again with additional 
  uses costing a resource. In particular, your supply of “Will”—
  willpower, gusto, and cope—is tied to chapters; you’ll spend 
  your Will over the course of a chapter, and renew it when a new 
  chapter starts.
  If you’re wanting to know how much of your life an XP Action 
  should cover—
  How big a part of your life it becomes totemic for—
  The answer is that your character can take around two XP Ac-
  tions per chapter. In a Pastoral game, that means two XP Actions 
  a week, and each one probably sets the tone of your life for 2-5 
  days. In a Gothic game, chapters aren’t so regular: you might have 
  one chapter representing a single fervent night and another repre-
  senting a slow and grueling season.
  Either way, you’ll get two XP Actions per chapter and you’ll 
  usually take them both.
  The rhythm of play might be expressed as a chapter beginning 
  with all the PCs looking for opportunities for action; the charac-
  ters finding definitive moments and fading into the background 
  one by one; one or two time-skips to later points in the chapter, 
  to give PCs the chance to take their second or their skipped-over 
  XP Actions; and then, when everyone’s done or the chapter’s time 
  frame is naturally drawing to an end, a final jump forward so the 
  next chapter can begin. 
  That said, you’ll probably wind up skipping one of your XP 
  Actions every now and then; and, on rare occasions, the HG or 
  group might find a situation so compelling that they push you to 
  take a third XP Action in a given chapter.
  
  Arcs
  13
   
   Arcs 
  The quests that you’re on are organized into larger-scale “Arcs”— epic stories of personal advancement. 
  I’ve broken these down into eight generic focuses—
  Blue or “Bindings” Arcs, focusing on sealed, bound powers: containment and targeted use of wicked, 
  forbidden, or dangerous things.
  Orange or “Knight” Arcs, wherein you take on a formal role and wield its perquisites and powers.
  Green or “Otherworldly” Arcs, connecting you to some great force of nature as another part of yourself, 
  and vice versa, often by way of dreams, nature walks, and communication with ally spirits.
  Red or “Storyteller” Arcs, focusing on telling stories that come true, or, more generally, on changing the 
  boundary between ideas and life.
  Golden or “Aspect” Arcs, wherein you develop and unleash new powers from your body, mind, and training.
  Purple or “Shepherd” Arcs, whereupon you learn to guard things, guide things, and wake powers in things. 
  Silver or “Emptiness” Arcs, drawing on the bleak, lifeless power of the far Outside and sometimes the more 
  vivid chaos of the near; and
  Black or “Mystic” Arcs, taking you outside of yourself; on these Arcs, you give yourself into the keeping of, 
  and walk in the footsteps of, higher powers.
  Each character will spend most of their career pursuing these Arcs. 
  For instance, looking back at some events in my own life, my 
  childhood was mostly silver Arcs and college mostly golden; my 
  last RPG, Nobilis: the Essentials, was written late in the course 
  of a multi-year Shepherd Arc; and if everyone in the world buys 
  a copy of this game and I am anointed with jewels and cherry 
  boughs and made the ruler of all things, with clothes cast out of 
  diamonds and a retinue of double gnus, that will doubtless repre-
  sent the beginning of a glorious Storyteller Arc.
  An Arc lasts 3-5 quests, but in practice it can go a little more 
  than that because when you map the formalism onto the play ex-
  perience and they don’t quite fit together, the play experience gets 
  to win. 
  Completing one quest will usually earn you a “Perk” like 
  a cute new power, power-up, or bicycle; completing a full Arc 
  will provide a substantive holistic improvement to your entire 
  power set.
  
  Playing as the HG
  14
  14
   Playing as the HG 
  As the HG in a small game—with 1-2 other players, say—you 
  may find it worthwhile to create an Avatar of your own to play. 
  As the HG in a game of any size you may from time to time find 
  yourself temporarily “playing” as a miscellaneous character or as 
  “the world.”
  In these roles you’re always entitled but not obligated to use 
  the rules that are set up for players in such events. That is, you 
  are a player, so you can take 2 XP Actions per chapter; with your 
  own permission, theoretically, more. You are a player, so you can 
  emote. You are a player, so in theory in the person of your Avatar 
  or even of the world as a whole, you can take on a quest.
  You’re only one player, I should note, so you shouldn’t indulge 
  in this too deeply—
  You can imagine that each of the Main Characters has a set 
  of quests, but if you’re actually going to use the quest rules, you 
  should use them either for your personal Avatar or for “the world.” 
  You can imagine that everyone in the world is constantly going 
  around doing XP Actions in their own subjective realities, but if 
  you need to do more than two in any given chapter, or if you need 
  to do XP Actions without fading a little bit after them, you’d be 
  better off just giving the PCs some XP by fiat.
  But you are that one player, so you have access to the players’ 
  rules.
  There’s never any obligation here. This isn’t something you 
  have to do nor is it something you’re generally expected to do.
  Just, if it ever happens that something would be easier to re-
  solve or to understand if you, as the HG, were a player?
  Surprise!
  You are!
  
  CHAPTER 2: CAMPAIGNS
   
  Campaigns
  
  Power Levels
  16
  16
   
   Campaigns 
  The Chuubo’s Marvelous Wish-Granting Engine RPG is de-
  signed to handle a number of different genres and game concepts, 
  small though Town might appear. Before you create your charac-
  ters, before you start playing, you’re going to want to pick:
   
  ŭ a specific Region or game concept,
   
  ŭ a target power level, and
   
  ŭ a conceptual genre for your game.
  The standard concepts—the default stories to turn to if you just 
  want to “play a Chuubo’s game”—are these:
   
  ŭ A Fortitude Story—your characters live out their lives in 
  Fortitude
   
  ŭ A School Story—your characters attend School in Horizon or
   
  ŭ Coming to Town—your characters come from Earth or from 
  elsewhere to Town.
  Some of my other favorite pitches include:
   
  ŭ Adventures on the Far Roofs—your characters adventure 
  with the rats of Fortitude
   
  ŭ A Garden in Old Molder—visiting or living in Old Molder, 
  your characters discover things about themselves and the nat-
  ural world
   
  ŭ A Horizon Gothic—ghosts, mysteries, and obsessions haunt 
  the characters in Horizon
   
  ŭ An Outside Story—a trading or exploration ship sails through 
  realms of wonder
   
  ŭ Changed by a Wish—some wish-level effect has turned 
  Town into a land of, say, dinosaurs, and you run with it for a 
  complete short campaign
   
  ŭ “Stray Cats”—your characters get involved with the exorcists 
  and youkai of Arcadia
   
  ŭ The Walking Fields—larger-than-life characters live/adven-
  ture in the Walking Fields or
   
  ŭ Weekends in Arcadia—a game about your characters’ visits 
  to the Shopping District.
  You’ll also have the option of
   
  ŭ An Else-world Story—you play out a Chuubo’s-style game in 
  an original or borrowed setting.
  Note that it’s easy to adapt Chuubo’s to any world but you may need 
  house rules to adapt it to a different tone or sensibility. Without 
  house rules, it’s always going to be a measured game of difficult but 
  hopeful times, a game of growing up, whether your game is about 
  dungeon delvers, superheroes, space opera, wuxia, talking animals, 
  cosmic horror, weird time shenanigans, or wizards at school.
  Whatever you pick as your basic story, you’ll probably want to 
  refine it by taking early player ideas and running with them or by 
  consciously emulating and implementing some media that you enjoy.
   Power Levels 
  There are two standard power levels for a Chuubo’s Marvelous 
  Wish-Granting Engine RPG campaign.
  The first is the mortal level.
  At this level you play ordinary residents of one of Town’s Re-
  gions—normal kids, teachers, vampires, talking rats, shop foxes, 
  magicians, foreigners, laborers, Jotun, dryads, deviant scientists, 
  consulting detectives, long-neck people, exorcists, ghosts, and the 
  like—or the ordinary residents of wherever else.
  Characters like this won’t be gods, or at least not important 
  ones, and they probably won’t shake the world with their deeds. 
  They can be jaw-droppingly cool. They can be capable of some 
  pretty astonishing stuff. They aren’t even necessarily weaker than 
  characters at the miraculous level—but they’re fundamental-
  ly physical and mundane. They’re limited. In the final analysis 
  they’ll just be people.
  The second option is setting the game at the miraculous lev-
  el— in which case the players’ Avatars won’t just be people. They 
  will instead be something more. In a miraculous game, your 
  PCs’ll be archetypes. Symbols. They will be creatures of cosmic 
  import, even if their concerns are mostly local and even if they 
  happen to be people as well. PCs at the miraculous level are icons, 
  myths, and world-shaking heroes:
  Great forces of the natural and unnatural worlds, or the agents 
  or representations of such.
  
  Genres
  17
   
  Genres
  This game engine is built to support eight different genres of play. 
  The delineation between them isn’t a hard one—I think you’ll 
  need to choose one, but I also expect bits and pieces of the other 
  seven to show up in play, and that’s why I’m covering all of them 
  now.
  In no particular order, these are:
  Pastoral, focused on simple, honest living over the 
  course of many seasons;
  Gothic, focused on slow, brooding passions;
   Immersive Fantasy, set in a place of marvels;
  Techno, with a goofy, meta, stylized kind of play.
  The Road of Trials, where characters struggle against 
  impossible odds;
  Fairy Tales, for characters who flourish there;
  Epic Fantasy, focusing on the deeds of flawed, larger-
  than-life heroes; and
  Adventure Fantasy, with magic and danger around 
  every corner.
  The most important distinction between the genres is the XP 
  Actions that you’ll wield. In particular, each genre’ll give you 
  3-5 XP Actions that players can initiate on their own, while the 
  other 12-15 only come into play if the HG or group consensus 
  suggests them—
  If you’re in a Gothic game, then a player can just declare that 
  they’re overwhelmed by their obsessions or their passions and 
  throw an XP in the group pot; if you’re in a Pastoral game, that 
  only comes up as an option if the HG or the group as a whole 
  thinks it’s appropriate/fun.
  The second most important distinction is the length of a typi-
  cal chapter—Pastoral games, for instance, are designed to eat up 
  weeks, seasons, and even years; Gothic games are highly vari-
  able; but an Immersive Fantasy can escalate from a handful of 
  kids bumping around the shopping district to the end of the world 
  over the course of just 2-3 weeks.
  A “book” usually takes around 10 chapters or 3-5 sessions to 
  play through; if the genre doesn’t specify, assume that it takes 
  one of those. 
  On the Chuubo’s 
  Marvelous Wish-Granting 
  Engine Genres
  I should warn you that all these genres are handled in a way 
  pretty specific to this work. These aren’t generic rules for eight 
  different literary genres—they’re labels applied to eight genres 
  worth of stuff happening in Town and its environs.
  
  Pastoral
  Festivals
  Emoting
  18
  18
  Pastorals
  a genre
  Pastoral gaming is focused on slow, dreamlike play:
  You can think of it almost more as a memory of a long-ago 
  summer than something urgent that’s happening now.
  So I suggest
   
  ŭ a typical chapter length of a week;
   
  ŭ books that last a season;
   
  ŭ and occasionally stretching beyond that and playing out the 
  characters’ childhoods, golden years, or other periods you’d 
  normally just skip over at a pace of one chapter per season, per 
  year, or per multiple years.
  That means that in a typical week you’ll take about two XP Ac-
  tions and maybe a bonus action or two relating to your quests. 
  The time it takes to reflect and process a single XP Action can run 
  to 2-5 days. Picking up basic proficiency with a flute or a fishing 
  boat could take half a season; mastery would take plausible years.
  In play, of course, some of this reverses—just like your mem-
  ories, when you look back at them, Pastoral gaming seems to go 
  by pretty fast. If you have year-length chapters, you could play 
  out multiple years of your characters’ childhood or adulthood in 
  a single session; even with week-long chapters, you’ll barely turn 
  around after summer before Christmas decorations start going up.
   Festivals 
  Speaking of Christmas, festivals are a feature particular to Pas-
  toral play—
  They may show up in other genres, but not as frequently and 
  with less import. A festival week adds to your XP Actions—you’ll 
  get a bonus XP Action that week, with the intention being that you 
  spend it at the festival itself. 
  If you don’t have a suitable festival calendar handy, assume 
  there’ll be one every 7-8 weeks.
  The festival calendar in Fortitude, for instance, has:
   
  ŭ the flower-viewing festival in the fifth week of Spring;
   
  ŭ children’s day, in the ninth;
   
  ŭ the star festival, in the fifth week of Summer;
   
  ŭ the harvest and apple festivals in the tenth and eleventh weeks;
   
  ŭ a cleaning festival in the fifth week of Winter; 
   
  ŭ and a cultural festival, on the eighth.
  I’m not including Christmas or Pancake Week because the festival 
  eats the whole week—you don’t need an extra action to partici-
  pate in those. I’m also leaving off holidays like Halloween that 
  aren’t very important to the local culture—
  Town’s aware of Halloween; it’s begun to make itself known 
  here, thanks to sailors seeing video of festivities and such and 
  bringing the idea of it home, but it’s not important enough yet to 
  justify giving you an extra action for it in Fortitude. If you want to 
  participate you’ll have to make your own time!
  There are a few things using the festival rules that don’t appear 
  there, though—the festival in honor of the elderly, say; or Valen-
  tine’s Day, which can be like a festival if you’re in love. You’ll get 
  the bonus action in chapters like that if and only if the holiday’s 
  a festival for you.
   Emoting 
  Pastoral (and Gothic) games make heavy use of the concept of 
  “emoting”—
  Of consciously letting a certain emotion show. Maybe you get 
  angry, so you’ll say something like:
   
  ŭ “ ‘You bastard!’  ”
   
  ŭ “I’m kicking the wall” or
   
  ŭ “I emote anger.”
  ...not so much to cause an effect as to let the emotion play out.
  Or maybe your character’s happy, so you’ll smile. But the oth-
  er players might not notice you smiling, or they might think it’s 
  just you as a player, or they might assume for no real reason that 
  your character is putting up a front. So you say: 
   
  ŭ “Smile” or
   
  ŭ “I emote ‘happy.’”
  I don’t mean to imply this is a new concept in RPGs or anything. 
  It’s not! 
  I’m just calling it out and giving it a name.
  Your character can take physical actions. They can say things. 
  And also, you can emote:
  Take an emotion. Let it radiate. Let your character be  
  the vehicle through which that emotion expresses itself in  
  the world.
  
  19
   
  
  20
  20
  Emoting vs. Taking Action
  Unlike most actions, emoting isn’t physical and tangible. Often 
  you won’t be able to describe all of the elements of your charac-
  ter’s behavior that go into it. You’ll know a lot of them, of course, 
  but you should assume that there’s probably even more to it than 
  your character is consciously aware of—and even more than you 
  are. Emoting will come out in your body language, your voice, 
  your eyes, and the way you think and act.
  There are two key rules for emoting:
   
  ŭ You have to let the other players (in the scene) know what 
  you’re emoting.
   
  ŭ Emoting has to be honest.
  If you don’t keep those rules, you’re not emoting. I don’t know 
  what you’re doing but it isn’t that!
  Making it Clear
  The first rule: 
  To emote, you have to let the other players know what you’re 
  emoting.
  That means that if your feelings are too wordless, quiet, or sub-
  tle to express at a noisy gaming table, you’ll have to make them 
  explicit. You’ll have to actually say something like “I emote [ the 
  relevant feeling ].” If you’re trying to stay in character, and you’re 
  wondering what it means to say that, it just means that you’re 
  leaking enough emotion through your expressions and body lan-
  guage for other people to read.
  You don’t have to be that explicit if you can make your feel-
  ings obvious through play. You can just react to something, for 
  instance, and let the other players see your reaction, and that’s 
  often completely adequate as an emote.
  Often—but not always.
  Remember that if you are not going to make something an ex-
  plicit statement, and you want it to be an emote, you are responsi-
  ble for making sure that the idea gets across.
  You can express sympathy and shock with a muttered, “wow.” 
  Some people may even express their sympathy and shock by to-
  tally ignoring someone’s pain and rambling on about furniture. 
  That’s fine, when it comes to expressing your character, but it’s 
  not emoting.
  “Oh, my God, that’s awful, that’s so awful, is there anything I 
  can do?”—that’s the kind of thing you need to be saying for an IC 
  statement to qualify as emoting sympathy and shock.
  And bear in mind that it also works to say “Oh, my God, that’s 
  awful, is there anything I can do?” and then wait a beat and then, 
  when your character would be doing something difficult to convey 
  like squeezing a shoulder or feeling a silent burst of empathy, “— 
  I’m emoting sympathy and shock.”
  Keeping it Honest
  The second rule:
  Emoting has to be honest.
  This is not the game for sending off false emotional cues. 
  You can totally house-rule this at your table, if you and the oth-
  er players want to play through convoluted mind games, but at 
  its core, emoting is about sharing your character’s true feelings. 
  Don’t worry about being too obvious and open. The other players 
  and the HG will find ways to be confused about what’s going on 
  with your character’s head even if you give them a play-by-play 
  of your character’s internal monologue. Don’t worry about losing 
  the potential for problematic interactions, either. People can hurt 
  each other, and misunderstand each other, and have trainwrecks of 
  conversations even when they’re being honest, and in fact, it may 
  even make it easier.
  So you’re allowed to fake emotions in character—
  — but any time you actually say that you’re emoting something, 
  you need to be giving your character’s real emotional state. And 
  any time your character is giving a false impression, and someone 
  asks if you’re emoting, or fits things into some kind of rules frame-
  work where emoting matters, or whatever, you need to clarify that 
  you’re not emoting, you’re just talking and doing things.
  Emoting is for showing your character’s heart.
  Success and Failure
  Your emote does not succeed until somebody acknowledges it.
  Now, it’s possible that you don’t need an emote to “suc-
  ceed.” This game doesn’t currently include any sort of mini-
  game where you have to emote successfully four times within 
  a minute or whatever to earn a Watanabe candy. The rules that 
  demand that you emote, herein—they don’t require your suc-
  cess.
  I’m just saying!
  Physical actions tend to “succeed” by achieving a desired 
  physical result. Mental actions tend to “succeed” by giving 
  you correct, actionable information. Emoting “succeeds” 
  when the HG or another character acknowledges the emoted 
  feeling by responding. Maybe a PC comments on it. May-
  be they emote back. Maybe they just look over at you, sigh, 
  and nod. Maybe an NPC does one of these things. Maybe the 
  world itself responds—like, you shout that you’re not afraid of 
  Heaven, and then, a few seconds later, thunder rolls in.
  But if nobody at all notices, that emote is a kind of IC fail-
  ure on your part.
  I like there to be a beat—a pause of a second or two—
  between an emoting action and the response. If the response 
  is too quick, or too immediate, with a couple of exceptions 
  maybe like sweeping sad people up into hugs, the exchange 
  starts to feel like overlapping actions instead of like action and 
  response. Accordingly, a too-quick acknowledgement might 
  or might not count.
  Why Do You Need This?
  Here’s the three reasons I’m including the emoting rules:
   
  ŭ to give you a handle on the Slice of Life, Obsessive, Dis-
  covery, and Adversity actions, below;
   
  ŭ to legitimize a focus on the things your characters are feel-
  ing; and
   
  ŭ because people often find it a useful concept to keep in their 
  mental foreground in a Chuubo’s Marvelous Wish-Grant-
  ing Engine game.
  The last is also why I’ve gone into such depth!
  
  XP Action: Shared Action
  XP Action: Shared Reaction
  21
   
  Pastoral Actions
  There are three XP Actions that form the heart of a Pastoral game.
  You can do plenty of other stuff, and probably want to in order 
  to take care of all that stuff like “progress with your life” and 
  “fight scary monsters” and “get things done”—but these three ac-
  tions are what define the course of play:
  Shared Action, where you find someone who’s doing 
  something simple and honest—chores, studying, fish-
  ing, or whatever—and connect with them as they work;
  Shared Reactions, where you talk things through with 
  someone—sort out your head and/or theirs about stuff 
  that’s been going on; and
  Slice of Life, where you travel, admire the scenery, have 
  a meandering conversation about nothing in particular; in 
  general experience stuff and emote your reactions to it.
  You can think of these as in-game actions if you’re in a player 
  headspace and as descriptions of what the game thinks really mat-
  ters if you’re in a character headspace.
  Since this is the first XP Action I’m talking about, I want to make 
  special note—
  This doesn’t have to be a big deal.
  It’s not like you have to interrupt their cooking by grabbing 
  their hand in your two hands, looking soulfully into their eyes, and 
  saying, “I... want to connect with you.”
  It’s just... you know.
  You do something. You say something. You ask them what they’re 
  cooking, or if there’s anything you can do to help. Or, if you’re cook-
  ing, you ask them to stir something. If they’re doing martial arts pos-
  es, try to imitate them and work alongside them. If they’re packing, 
  and you can’t help because you don’t live there, hang out and chat.
  And in truth, what matters most is actually the movement in 
  your heart that says: I want to relate to this person!
  Everything else is details.
  Genres: Pastoral, Gothic 
  (in other genres you’ll need the HG or group to suggest this action)
  Genres: Pastoral, Gothic 
  (in other genres you’ll need the HG or group to suggest this action)
  Vulnerability and 
  Trust
  In general both Shared Action and Shared Reactions work 
  best if you make yourself a little vulnerable—if at some point 
  you do something that shows some level of trust for or weak-
  ness in front of the people around you, or if someone shows 
  that trust or weakness to you.
  As an optional rule, if the HG thinks that happened, they 
  can add a second group XP to the action’s rewards. I think 
  you should skip this for the first few sessions of the game but 
  add it in once you have a good handle on Shared Action and 
  Shared Reactions.
  Shared Reactions
  Condition: You’re having a relatively open discussion with 
  someone—something that touches on stuff that matters to 
  you, and isn’t just formalities and etiquette.
  Action: 
   
  ŭ Reach out to them. Try to connect. 
  PCs or NPCs?
  You can try to reach out or connect to either PCs or NPCs and 
  get the bonus XP.
  In a tabletop game, you should have a strong preference 
  for connecting to other PCs, both in terms of frequency and 
  the amount of time you put into a given interactions. In an 
  online game or LARP the matter is more ambiguous but it’s 
  still probably best to connect with the other PCs unless there’s 
  a high HG:PC ratio.
  Shared Action
  Condition: Someone’s doing something simple and honest, 
  like cooking, cleaning, or practicing their martial arts katas.
  You’re hanging out with them, socializing or helping.
  Or, you’re the one doing simple, honest stuff, and someone 
  else is interacting with you!
  Action: 
   
  ŭ Reach out to them. Try to connect. 
  
  XP Action: Slice of Life
  22
  22
  That moment will set the tone for your life for a while.
  Genres: Pastoral, Gothic 
  (in other genres you’ll need the HG or group to suggest this action)
  Slice of Life
  Condition: You’ve just had an emotional reaction—an  
  action or emote—to something in the world. (A tasty cake? A 
  pleasant view? A sorrowful scene?)
  Action: 
   
  ŭ The image/moment sticks with you; or 
   
  ŭ You get lost in that mood.
  The Pastoral Icon
  This is the Pastoral icon. I use it to denote all kinds of pastoral 
  and conceptually connected things.
  You don’t have to do anything about it. Just admire it. You 
  know. It’s kind of cool!
  The Setting Icon
  This is the Setting icon. I use it to denote all kinds of stuff 
  that’s related to... just living in the world. 
  You don’t have to do anything about it.
  It’s just... there.
  Sharing a Moment
  In general Slice of Life works best if you get two people emot-
  ing about something—even if it’s just as simple as you look-
  ing at the sunset and sighing, and someone else nodding and 
  agreeing, “Yeah.”
  As an optional rule, if the HG spotted a second person emot-
  ing, they can add a second group XP to the action’s rewards. I 
  think you should skip this for the first few sessions of the game 
  but add it in once you have a good handle on Slice of Life.
  
  Isolation
  23
   
   Isolation 
  So technically you can take all these actions more or less on your 
  own. This is an animistic game, so I’m not going to insist that you 
  have someone else there even for Shared Action—I mean, if you 
  must, you can take the world itself as your partner in that action.
  Even without that—
  You can go down to where someone’s working, and you can 
  try to talk to them, and they can completely ignore you. And you 
  can declare,
  “XP Action: I’m reaching out to them.”
  Even though saying that doesn’t change anything; and then they 
  still ignore you, probably, and eventually you go home.
  Or, you’re at home. You’re talking to your stuffed animal. 
  You’re having a frank, open conversation that you can’t have with 
  anyone else. And you decide,
  “XP Action: I’m trying to connect here.”
  That can happen.
  It’s a little sad. Just like being ignored is. It’s a little sad! But 
  it still sort of works. I mean, there’s something there that’s worth 
  playing out, if it’s going to happen anyway, you know?
  And even with slice of life—
  I mean, that’s not the same kind of problem. It’s not inherently 
  weird to have a Slice of Life where you are at home, and no one 
  else is there, and you eat a delicious sandwich, and emote, mm!
  Or clean your bathroom and emote, yuck!
  But if you decide:
  “XP Action: I’m losing myself in that mood.”
  ...and fade into the background after that? If that moment lingers, 
  if that’s what sets the tone for like half a week for you, if that’s a 
  core event in your life?
  That still isn’t a very good sign.
  So here’s the rule.
  In a Pastoral game, if you take one of these core XP Actions 
  and you don’t connect to anybody at all—you’ll pick up a point of 
  the Isolation Issue (pg. 171-174). 
  This isn’t a big deal. 
  It’s not even really a penalty. An Issue is even technically a 
  bennie of sorts. But it’s also something to help put you in a certain 
  headspace—in this case, the headspace of someone who’s more 
  and more isolated, but shouldn’t be.
  So it’s not a penalty, and I can even imagine you actively seek-
  ing it out for fun (as a player), but at the same time, even in the 
  very moment that you’re doing that, I want you to think of it as 
  something that you probably should avoid.
  In Other Genres
  In most genres, the only way you’ll do Shared Action, 
  Shared Reactions, or Slice of Life is if the HG or the group 
  really thought it fit—
  That it was a good moment.
  For that reason, outside the Pastoral and Gothic genres, 
  the rules for Isolation are optional and case-by-case. If you 
  can have a good moment eating a sandwich alone in an adven-
  ture fantasy, if the group says, “That was awesome! It should 
  be Slice of Life,” or whatever, then you shouldn’t feel like you 
  need to worry about Isolation.
  I mean, maybe you should! Maybe it’s Isolating! 
  But in the other genres, Isolation isn’t a core part of the rules.
  
  Gothics
  XP Action: Obsessive Action
  24
  24
  Gothics
  a genre
  Gothic gaming adds a spiral of obsession and a dash of depravity 
  to a typical Pastoral scene.
  Chapters here can range from a night to a season—there’s no 
  fixed calendar or pace. The movement of the game ebbs and flows 
  as to the passions of some cosmic beast: 
  One moment life is afire with inspiration and events flow with 
  a frantic haste; the next, the world has begun to dry out, the river 
  of inspiration sinks down into the earth, the mud of it dries, bub-
  bles, and crackes, and the world becomes sere, thirsty, and sore. 
  Weeks pass under a shroud of lifeless, brittle gray; months pass, 
  even, and nothing seems to move.
  To the XP Actions that we discussed before a Gothic adds one more:
  Obsessive Action, where you get worked up about 
  something—usually escalating slowly to the point of 
  obsession or paranoia.
  Obsessive Action
  Condition: You’re getting really worried or excited about 
  something. It’s taking up a larger and larger portion of your 
  character’s thoughts
  Action: 
   
  ŭ Tip over the edge into obsession; or,
   
  ŭ Just... kind of short out and shut down mentally. 
  You’re done.
  Note that even when you tip over the edge into obsession, you’ll 
  still fade into the background shortly afterwards, unable or at least 
  unlikely to make meaningful progress on your obsession for a 
  while.
  This is not an error.
  It is intentional.
  To pour all your effort into something and then not get any-
  where for a while is a key part of how obsession works.
  Genres: Gothic 
  (in other genres you’ll need the HG or group to suggest this action)
  ...gasp!
  It is a Melodramatic Icon!
  Are these things, these scattered treasures, which you have 
  discovered to be labeled with this icon, truly... melodramatic... 
  things? Or is this icon actually... misplaced, cruelly affixed to 
  the wrong events, the wrong quests, the wrong occasions?
  Tune in next time, dear reader, when I shall reveal the se-
  cret—the shocking secret—
  That I am judging melodrama, not by the way you act, but 
  by the way you react to what you see! That when the world 
  weaves its dizzying net around you, captures the senses, draws 
  up your breath, enspells you, ensnares you, makes you gasp, 
  aches and lays siege onto your heart —
  Dear reader! I shall confess it all! 
  Reaction Shots
  In general Obsessive Action works best when someone else 
  emotes their reaction to your going over the top—when your 
  frenzy or shutdown is interrupted, or possibly not interrupted, 
  by someone expressing their worry, fear, amusement, or what-
  ever at your obsession.
  As an optional rule, if the HG thinks that happened, they 
  can add a second group XP to the action’s reward. This doesn’t 
  even have to be immediate—it can happen a few scenes later, 
  when someone witnesses your obsession continuing to thrive.
  I think you should skip this rule for the first few sessions 
  of the game but add it in once you have a good handle on 
  Obsessive Actions.
  
  Gothic Isolation
  25
   
   Gothic Isolation 
  A Gothic game makes Isolation a little harder to pick up.
  ...not that you’re less isolated. Oh, no.
  Rather, it’s that being a little isolated and withdrawn is nor-
  malized. Pulling away from others to protect your stubborn pride 
  is standard. So being so thoroughly isolated that it’s worth taking 
  note of and tracking it as an Issue—
  That’ll take a little bit more.
  So here’s the new rule.
  If you complete any of the four standard XP Actions for this 
  genre—
   Slice of Life
   Shared Action
   Shared Reactions, or the new
   Obsessive Action
  — there are now three outcomes.
  Connection. You connect to somebody;
  Isolation. You succeed at what you’re doing, more or less; at 
  least, it doesn’t bite you. But there’s no one to share your victory. 
  You’re alone with it, or cut off from other people. No one but you 
  to appreciate it. You gain a point of the Isolation Issue (pg. 171-
  174), as before.
  or
  Failure. The action spirals out of control and bites you. Maybe 
  it failed because you were alone. Maybe someone tried to reach 
  you, but you pulled away, and everything blew up in your face. Or 
  maybe you were on your own, and you failed, and you don’t have 
  any reason to try to connect to anybody. 
  Why would you show someone that?
  Put as a simpler but far less intuitive rule:
  If your action made you miserable, it doesn’t give you Isolation.
  The Most! Passionate! Icon
  This is the Passionate icon. I use it to denote all kinds of stuff 
  that’s related to... obsession, passion, excitement, working 
  yourself up into a total frenzy of wherever this sentence was 
  supposed to end!!!! Over that! You know! thing!
  ...but you can ignore it.
  Yes. That is acceptable. Leave it be. It doesn’t need you any-
  way. It doesn’t require your attention.
  You may read on.
  
  Immersive Fantasy
  XP Action: Sympathetic 
  Action/Shock
  26
  26
  Immersive Fantasy
  a genre
  The streets are alive and full of magic. There’s wonder around 
  every corner. You can’t go half an hour without finding something, 
  if you look for it—
  A hopping umbrella tsukumogami? A mysterious book-shop? 
  Two cars made out of fire, racing through the pre-dawn streets?
  Immersive Fantasy is about knowing that you’re surrounded 
  by magic, yet being awed by it anyway. It’s the genre for people 
  who want to play in a world that’s endlessly exciting, amazing, 
  joyous, terrifying, and new.
  I’m pegging a typical chapter to a single morning, afternoon, 
  or night—like, the HG might announce them with:
   
  ŭ Morning: “A new day and a new chapter! What are you doing?”
   
  ŭ Afternoon: “The next chapter picks up after a refreshing 
  [walk/lunch/whatever]...”
   
  ŭ Night: “So, next chapter! It’s time for a [fun/terrifying] night. 
  Where are you?”
  ...but you might skip one or two of those depending on your 
  schedule, or lump them up and redivide them to get a one or 
  two-chapter day.
  I don’t want weird interactions between this pacing and your 
  powers, so I’m going to say that abilities that talk about “every few 
  hours” actually mean “every 15 minutes.” Powers that talk about 
  “every few minutes” actually mean about 15 seconds, instead!
   Experiencing the World 
  Immersive fantasies are built around three key XP Actions:
  Sympathetic Action, where you see someone who’s 
  all frozen up (from emotion, shock, a sudden change 
  of context, the spotlight suddenly on them) and you 
  express comfort, reassurance, or sympathy;
  Foreshadowing, where you pay a lot of attention to 
  something. After a while, you react or emote; and
  Discovery, where you’re exploring somewhere 
  you’ve never been, or trying something that you’ve 
  never done—and you find or learn something!
  There’s also a special variant on Sympathetic Action, where the 
  person who’s “all frozen up” takes the XP Action instead; when 
  that happens, it’s called 
  Shock.
  Again, you can think of these as in-game actions if you’re in a 
  player headspace and as descriptions of what the game thinks re-
  ally matters if you’re in a character headspace.
  If this is more important to their story than your own, or if you 
  can’t take an XP Action right now, you can also offer them the 
  chance to take an XP Action here (even if they’re too locked up to 
  actually “do” anything). Specifically, after you notice that they’re 
  frozen up, and when you’re offering them reassurance, comfort, 
  sympathy, or aid, say something like:
   
  ŭ “Is this your XP Action, and not mine?” 
   
  ŭ “Is this worth an XP Action?” or
   
  ŭ just show them an XP token questioningly or ask, “XP?”
  If they take you up on it, then this isn’t your Sympathetic Action 
  at all—it’s their XP Action, Shock. 
  The HG can offer this along with an NPC’s sympathy, comfort, 
  reassurance, or aid.
  Genres: Immersive Fantasy, Techno 
  (in other genres you’ll need the HG or group to suggest this action)
  A Furious Reaction
  In general Sympathetic Action works best if the person you’re com-
  forting explodes into emotion when you’ve comforted them—if they 
  shift gears from “frozen up” to “demonstrative” after you act. 
  When you comforted them, they were all deer-in-the-head-
  lights; but once you’re sympathetic—
   
  ŭ they collapse in tears;
   
  ŭ get angry at you;
   
  ŭ run away;
   
  ŭ melt in adoration;
   
  ŭ vent loudly; or
   
  ŭ step up to the plate and do something completely awesome.
  As an optional rule, if the HG thinks that happened, they can 
  add a second group XP to the action’s rewards. I think you 
  should skip this for the first few sessions of the game but add 
  it in once you have a good handle on Sympathetic Actions.
  Sympathetic Action
  Condition: You notice that someone’s frozen up from, e.g., 
  overpowering emotion, a sudden change of context, a sudden 
  spotlighting, or shock.
  Action: 
   
  ŭ Try to comfort/reassure them, offer them sympathy, or 
  physically help.
  
  XP Action: Foreshadowing
  XP Action: Discov-
  ery
  27
   
  Foreshadowing
  Condition: You notice that you’re paying a lot of attention 
  to something.
  Action: 
   
  ŭ Get caught up in it!
     Genres: Immersive Fantasy, Techno 
  (in other genres you’ll need the HG or group to suggest this action)
  Discovery
  Condition: You’re doing something you’ve never done, ex-
  ploring somewhere new, or investigating an anomaly. And 
  you notice that you’ve just found or discovered or learned 
  something unexpected!
  Action: 
   
  ŭ Declare that it’s neat, mysterious, or scary enough to 
  have an impact on you.
  Genres: Immersive Fantasy, Techno 
  (in other genres you’ll need the HG or group to suggest this action) 
  A Simplified Way to 
  Play It
  A lot of the time Foreshadowing is a relatively passive ac-
  tion OOC—you’re listening as another player or an HG does 
  their thing. Someone’s telling a story, or interesting events 
  are happening, or whatever, and you’re interested or at least 
  willing to hang out and listen as a player too.
  You don’t have to make a big deal of it to turn that into 
  an action.
  Just, next time there’s a pause when it might seem like 
  they’re checking for reactions or seeing if one of the other 
  players will interject, chuck an XP into the group pot, aside 
  something like “ ‘Foreshadowing’ or ‘Go on,’” and go back 
  to listening!
  A Delayed Reaction
  In general Foreshadowing works best if, after you’re 
  been caught up in something for a while, it gets to you 
  and you react.
  You emote. Or you do something big. You’re like,
  “But... that story. I’ve seen that sword!” 
  Or “How dare they? I emote berserk!”
  As an optional rule, if the HG notices you emoting or re-
  acting at least a little while after you announced the action, 
  they can add a second group XP to the action’s rewards. I 
  think you should skip this for the first few sessions of the 
  game but add it in once you have a good handle on Foreshad-
  owing Actions.
  It’s great if foreshadowing comes into play later on, in a 
  real way that’s even more important, but I’m not going to give 
  XP for that—basically because I, um... I don’t want you to 
  have to take notes.
  Reaction Shots
  In general Discovery works best when someone—it can be 
  you—emotes a response to what you’ve found.
  This isn’t a very difficult criterion. 
  It’s not like you’re not going to react most of the time anyhow.
  This note is just here to encourage you to fade to black on 
  the scream instead of the monster’s face, the oooo instead of 
  the wonder, and the “...what?” instead of the mystery itself.
  So, as an optional rule, if the HG thinks that happened, they 
  can add a second group XP to the action’s reward. I think you 
  should skip this for the first few sessions of the game but add it 
  in once you have a good handle on Discovery Actions.
  
  28
  28
  
  Hollow
  29
   
  Hollow
  For all three of these actions—Sympathetic Action, Foreshad-
  owing, and Discovery—you should aim for the feeling that you 
  are in the presence of something emotionally important. You need 
  to evoke a certain... quality, sometimes called “the mysterium fas-
  cinans” or “the mysterium tremendum”:
  That here is an experience that commands the attention.
  Here is something that fills you with the fascination or the ter-
  ror of chaos and the unknown. Here is a feeling that you can pic-
  ture, taste, or grasp at as a player, that you can vicariously experi-
  ence as a player rather than merely intellectualizing it (even if you 
  do not actually feel it for yourself). Something rich. Something 
  tangible. Something weighty, something inexpressible, something 
  that presses down against your inner tongue, admixes a heavy, 
  leaden stillness into the substance of your breath; or the opposite 
  thing, perhaps, the thing that is in motion, the thing that seizes you 
  with its motion, stirs you like a river surging strange and wild with 
  its wonder, pins you down with the crashing waves of it or shoves 
  you onwards with the current of it, fills you with it, makes you 
  want to rise and meet it maybe, drags you forward to it or holds 
  you still there as it rushes in—you cannot understand it, how such 
  a marvel as this can be!
  Here is a thing like that—
  Or maybe its lesser cousin, anyhow, some smaller mood but of 
  that flavor, like: this means something. I can feel this. This is sad. 
  This is joyous. This thing matters. This thing matters, after all.
  You can invoke these XP actions even if you don’t get a feeling 
  like that—
  Even if you explored a comfortable and safe territory; even if 
  you comforted someone who didn’t need it; even if you paid atten-
  tion to something you didn’t really care about, because, well, the 
  HG seemed to think it was important, or whatever, right?
  But doing so will increase the Issue, Hollow (pg. 162-165).
  As with Isolation, Hollow is technically a bennie but I’m go-
  ing to ask you to think of it as a price. This isn’t an Issue for 
  glorious fools or tragic heroes. This isn’t an Issue for people who 
  find wonder in the ordinary—if you can put yourself in your PC’s 
  shoes and feel wonder, or terror for that matter, genuine fascina-
  tion, then you should be fine, that should count, you shouldn’t 
  get Hollow, it doesn’t matter whether this stuff was objectively 
  a big deal.
  Instead you should get this Issue if you try to react, emotion-
  ally, but there’s nothing in you reacting. This Issue makes you 
  the kind of person who has trouble finding wonder anywhere, nor 
  fear neither—who is too hollow to understand beauty, maybe, too 
  hollow to feel fear, or maybe just the kind of person who thinks 
  they know everything, who thinks they’ve been around the block, 
  maybe, when they’re really just a frog in a well.
  This rule is in the player’s hands. The HG can veto your taking 
  Hollow for OOC reasons, like, if they don’t want to track it; and 
  they can hand it out based on the premise that the HG can hand out 
  Issues whenever they feel like it—but this rule, this decision as to 
  whether you really felt something during the XP Action?
  That’s going to be up to you.
  In Other Genres
  In most genres the only reason you’ll do these XP Actions is if the 
  mysterium is already there—if there’s nothing deep and mean-
  ingful going on, why does the group or HG think it’s important 
  to raid the Immersive Fantasy rules to give these actions weight?
  But justifications aside—
  Outside the Immersive Fantasy and Techno genres, the 
  rules for Hollow are optional and case-by-case. If it feels 
  right to have comforting somebody who has a splinter be one 
  of your XP Actions for the chapter, and to have that be Sym-
  pathetic and not Shared Action, then you don’t have to worry 
  about picking up Hollow.
  You still could, if that’s what feels appropriate. But in the 
  other genres, it’s not an intrinsic part of the rules.
  
  Techno Gaming
  30
  30
  Techno Gaming
  a genre
  Techno gaming takes your immersive fantasy and stylizes it—it’s 
  got the same basic genre concept, “the world around you is amaz-
  ing,” but it trades in its verisimilitude for a bunch of extra style, 
  symbolism, and cool.
  Chapters here mostly cover a whole day, but you’ll skip the 
  boring days—each chapter is one day from a weekend, holiday, 
  or adventure. You’re also going to start a new chapter for each 
  “big event”—the notional equivalent of a boss fight, for what-
  ever kinds of challenges you undertake—and depending where 
  you are in the day, you might start another chapter thereafter. 
  This could lead to a four-chapter weekend, for instance, re-
  sembling:
   
  ŭ Chapter: Saturday
   
  ŭ Chapter: Sunday
   
  ŭ Chapter: Boss fight!
   
  ŭ Chapter:... the rest of Sunday
  The Big Change (is not  
  actually rules-relevant)
  The big difference between Immersive Fantasy and Techno isn’t 
  actually going to matter in rules terms. 
  It’s just an expectation.
  Techno is going to make heavy use of two special-purpose XP 
  Actions that I’ll be talking about later on—
  (Triggering or Participating in a) Ritual, a special 
  event where things get a little weird and abstract, with 
  special game rules, psychedelic phenomena, and/or 
  strange in-character posing. Think magical girl transfor-
  mations, cinematic drug trips, and travel montages; and
  (Reacting to a) Transition, where things get so weird 
  and metaphysical that you go out of normal play entire-
  ly. Think stock footage, minigames, religious experienc-
  es, and random chapter-header poetry in novels.
  These are both pretty special-purpose, and they’re both ultimately 
  HG-triggered, so I can’t say that they’re Techno-specific or Tech-
  no-focused.
  Instead, I’m just going to advise you:
  They should be pretty common in a Techno game.
   Meaning in the Noise 
  A Techno game raises the bar for the Hollow Issue.
  If you complete any of the five standard XP Actions for this 
  genre—
   Sympathetic Action
   Foreshadowing 
  Discovery 
   (Triggering or Participating in a) Ritual or
   (Reacting to a) Transition
  — there are now three outcomes.
  Mysterium. It was meaningful. It evoked something.
  Hollow. You’re kind of pretending that your life has meaning, 
  but, at least for this action, it really didn’t. Pick up a point of Hol-
  low (pg. 162-165), as before.
  or the new option:
  A Pretty Noise. Sure, it didn’t mean anything, exactly, but it 
  was kind of cool.
  Basically, in a Techno game, you’re still aiming for that mysteri-
  um, that sense of wonder, but if the reason that you didn’t get it is 
  that things got so weird and stylized that you stopped feeling like 
  the stuff going on was really real?
  That’s OK.
  Heck, I’ll even be nicer—if you do an XP action, but it doesn’t 
  really get you on the gut level because you were pulled out of 
  things by OOC stuff? And you think it might have gotten to you, if 
  OOC stuff (whether “we were laughing too hard at OOC humor” 
  or “toddler aggro”) hadn’t gotten in the way?
  You don’t get the Hollow Issue. You just get the tasty group XP.
  
  The Road of Trials
  Breaking From Reality
  31
   
  The Road of Trials
  a genre
  This isn’t a place or a genre, really. It’s an interregnum. It’s some-
  thing that happens to you, something you have to get through—
  The scariest and most exciting parts of your life comprise the 
  Road of Trials.
  Are you lost in the distant reaches of the Outside?
  Shipwrecked, crawling to the shore of some little Big Lake 
  isle with one leg broken and nothing to protect you from the sun?
  Infected with the blood of a dead god?
  Stepping into the dark, ruthless, and fantastic underworld of 
  the manga artists, surrounded by ruthless shark-toothed gangsters, 
  critics, and editors that’d just as soon eat you as see you thrive?
  Becoming a parent?
  Going to war?
  On the Road of Trials, each new day will bring new challeng-
  es. Each chapter is a new challenge or a new day. You won’t keep 
  track of them, but the narrator might, e.g.:
  Day 1. Day 2.... Day 39. 
  “The Incident of the Squirrel.”
  “Danger Island.”
  Round 4—Fight!
  ...Day 62.
  Each book covers a new crisis, a new environment, a new tourna-
  ment, or the birth or resurgence of a terrifying enemy.
   Breaking From Reality 
  The road of trials is littered with psychedelia. When the relatively 
  stable reality of Fortitude, Suzhou, Baltimore, Seattle, or wherev-
  er suddenly gives way, you are said to break from reality—
  Things will happen that just shouldn’t happen.
  The story will slip out from under your fingers and reality will 
  fade into delirium.
  It’s a break from reality when there’s an epic transformation 
  sequence, robot or monster summoning, or musical number. It’s a 
  break from reality when you stagger along in a world warped and 
  wobbling from your fever; when people’s faces start falling off 
  and the walls start bleeding; when everything around you starts 
  growing tentacles; when a weird, stylized council gathers to cryp-
  tically discuss the issues of the day.
  Things get weird.
  How to Handle It
  In Chuubo’s Marvelous Wish-Granting Engine, a break from re-
  ality represents the temporary intrusion of another place’s laws—
  To fall into delirium is to fall into the grip of the Outside. To 
  daydream is, perhaps, to touch Celestia; to feel suddenly at home 
  in the world around you is to enter, in spirit, into Fortitude.
  This is a transient and principally experiential phenomenon.
  The marks that another realm can leave on your emotions, 
  memory, and ideas are stronger than what they can leave on a 
  rival physical world. So there’s a tendency, for instance, for the 
  wild chaos of Bluebell Park to fade away rather than leaving ev-
  idence—
  It may be that there was a sudden musical number or transfor-
  mation sequence, for instance, where Bluebell Park intruded upon 
  the world, but the effects of that intrusion will tend to fade away 
  under the scrutiny of a historian or a scientific mind as if most 
  of it were nothing but a dream. Recordings of its most elaborate 
  spectacles erase themselves or replace themselves progressively 
  with recordings of bland, mundane events. If the ground burst to 
  release robots, eerie statues, or magical streamers, it’ll be whole 
  and unbroken again two hours later.
  This coverup is not complete. I should clarify that. It’s not de-
  batable or dismissable: this stuff does happen. Now and again the 
  self-effacing quality of breaks from reality comes up against some 
  other quality of existence and, in consequence, it leaves tracks. 
  There are some videos that show this stuff happening, some doc-
  uments, some artifacts and testimonials in the libraries of Town—
  For every five hundred eyewitnesses or so, there’s often a sin-
  gle proven fact.
  So if you’ve ever wondered—like, you watch a magical girl 
  transformation sequence or one of those Final Fantasy-style attacks 
  and you think, how much of this do the characters experience?
  I can tell you that in this game it is experienced.
  Stuff the HG describes is stuff that the HG describes, you know? 
  And actions the players take are actions the players take. There’s no 
  way that one thing would be more valid than another, just poten-
  tially more canonical, more solid, more persistent in its being real.
  It’s just that some stuff might not be... super-sticky. It might 
  not be more than a metaphor, an illusion, an effect. 
  So a break could be a purely psychological experience—
  Or, on the other hand, completely literal and real. 
  And there are three magic phrases that the HG can say to help 
  put these things in context, so that players aren’t always wonder-
  ing what happened to the pink elephants that they lately saw.
  The HG’ll finish their description of what happens, and then...
  
  XP Action: (Suffer) 
  Adversity
  XP Action: (Suffer) 
  Corruption
  32
  32
  Three Magic Phrases
   “Let us never speak of this again.”
  This isn’t binding, but if the HG says this after a break from 
  reality, it means that you’re well aware that whatever they just 
  described “couldn’t” have just happened, didn’t just happen like 
  that, anyhow.
  But it feels wrong to focus on it further. 
  Just... let it be.
  “...surprising no one.”
  This is again not binding—the HG describes, the players act. 
  But if the HG says that, it means that it feels weird to question 
  the events. Of course there were pink elephants floating around 
  during that sugar rush. Of course that nap involved an elaborate 
  plummet onto a four-poster bed while dancers spun around with 
  red satin veils that became the sheets, in the middle of class.
  ...surprising no one.
  Why get worked up over it? That’s so embarrassing! That’s 
  like being that girl who’s always complaining about the henshin 
  transformations!3
  “And how it works? That’s your problem.”
  As a response to questions about a break from reality, the HG 
  may duck responsibility. Yes, things happened. Yes, they were 
  weird. Yes, they probably left distinct physical evidence. Yes, 
  those elephants may be hiding in the corner of the room now, ter-
  rified of the harsh weightiness of reality—or they may be eating 
  people, or already popped.
  It’s up to the players to decide what happens, or, it’s up to their 
  characters to figure it out!
  3  Jenna does a swirly gesture above her ear, as if to pretend that it’s just those 
  other people who can’t cope with having the entire neighborhood turn into 
  a backdrop cosmos just so that Jasmine Apocynum can change clothes.
   Stations on the Road 
  Four key actions earn you XP when you’re on the Road of Trials:
  (Suffer) Adversity: you experience something awful.
  (Suffer) Corruption, where something corrupts you;
  (Suffer) Trauma, where it’s all getting to you; and
   Never Say Die!, where you defy it all anyway.
  ...as you can see, it’s a pretty rough road.
  (Suffer) Adversity
  Condition: You’re in a really unpleasant place and situation. 
  It’s getting harder and harder to think of anything but how 
  much this really sucks.
  Action: 
   
  ŭ Tip over the edge into delirium: or
   
  ŭ Just... give up
  Genres: The Road of Trials, Fairy Tales 
  (in other genres you’ll need the HG or group to suggest this action) 
  (Suffer) Corruption
  Condition: You’ve just failed to completely defend against a 
  poison, possession, or other corrupting influence; or, some-
  thing’s just triggered/awakened an ongoing corruption.
  Action: 
   
  ŭ Experience surreal effects; then, the corruption/sick-
  ness gets stronger.
  Special Consequence:
  If you don’t already have one, you’ll pick up a “trigger”—
  Something that can happen to reawaken the corruption, 
  even if you get away from whatever is causing it right now. 
  For instance, a werewolf’s trigger is the sight of the full moon.
  Genres: The Road of Trials, Fairy Tales 
  (in other genres you’ll need the HG or group to suggest this action) 
   
   
  
  XP Action: (Suffer) 
  Trauma
  XP Action: Never 
  Say Die!
  33
   
  (Suffer) Trauma
  Condition: You’ve just failed to completely defend against 
  something really traumatic. This could be anything from 
  “seeing something horrifying” to “the psychic attack of an 
  elder god.”
  Or, something’s just triggered/reminded you of an ongoing 
  trauma.
  Action: 
   
  ŭ Experience surreal effects; then, your psychological 
  wounds deepen.
  Special Consequence:
  If you don’t already have one, you’ll pick up a “trigger”—
  Something that can happen to reawaken the trauma, even 
  if you get away from whatever is causing it right now. For 
  instance, if you’re traumatized by seeing bugs eating a dead 
  animal, then seeing similar bugs or food with a similar con-
  sistency might trigger a resurgence of this trauma and a new 
  Trauma action, later on.
  Genres: The Road of Trials, Fairy Tales 
  (in other genres you’ll need the HG or group to suggest this action)
  Genres: The Road of Trials, Fairy Tales 
  (in other genres you’ll need the HG or group to suggest this action)
  Reaction Shots
  In general Adversity works best when someone else emotes 
  their reaction to your troubles—when your suffering is inter-
  rupted, or possibly not interrupted, by someone expressing their 
  concern, horror, amusement, panic, or whatever at your state. 
  As an optional rule, if the HG thinks that happened, 
  they can add a second group XP to the action’s reward. 
  This doesn’t even have to be immediate—it can happen 
  a few scenes later, when someone notices that your tor-
  ment has yet to end.
  I think you should skip this rule for the first few ses-
  sions of the game but add it in once you have a good 
  handle on Adversity Actions. 
  Raising the Tension
  I find Never Say Die! most dramatic when it’s sprinkled with 
  little defeats. When, over and over again, the effort that you’re 
  putting out...
  Just isn’t enough.
  So each time that happens—
  Each time you seem to finally have a shot, or even a sure 
  victory, and then it’s overturned by a sudden, unfair bump in 
  the encounter’s difficulty—
  The HG should add another group XP to the action’s rewards. 
  This lasts from the time you throw yourself into the strug-
  gle to the time it ends with your victory or defeat. This is tech-
  nically optional and in the HG’s hands, but I encourage it to 
  happen every time. 
  (Or at least, more specifically, every time that the HG be-
  lieves that that’s what they just did.)
  “Experience Surreal 
  Effects”
  Corruption and Trauma work best when the world goes 
  weird—
  Both the “I’m in shock” kind of weird and the “the 
  moon’s just started bleeding” kind.
  Maybe it comes from the HG. Maybe it comes from 
  the player. Maybe it happens in the “real” world. Maybe 
  it’s just in the character’s head. 
  But it should happen.
  As an optional rule, if the HG thinks enough of that 
  happened to matter, they can add a second group XP to 
  the action’s rewards. I think you should skip this for the 
  first few sessions of the game but add it in once you have 
  a good handle on Corruption and Trauma.
  Never Say Die!
  Condition:  You’re completely overwhelmed and overmatched.
  Or, you’re willing to frame this conflict as if you are—
  you’re awesome, maybe, but doomed.
  Action: 
   
  ŭ Fight to the last drop of strength in your body!
  
  34
  34
  
  Illusion
  35
   
   Illusion 
  The core theme that unites these various actions is suffering—
  Each and every one of them is meant to end with you broken and 
  fallen down, even if you happen to have won or made it to safety 
  first. Each and every one of them is the story of how you get badly 
  hurt, how you suffer, of the terrible things that you endured.
  ...but I’m not going to actually require that.
  If at the end of the scene where you used an XP Action, it turns 
  out that you’re totally fine—maybe the threat was a paper tiger, 
  maybe someone saved you, or maybe it was a reasonably scary 
  event but some special case circumstance or rule sheltered you 
  under its aegis—
  That’s OK.
  It just means that you’re not actually suffering adversity, cor-
  ruption, trauma, or fighting to your last ounce of strength. Some-
  thing happens, sure, and you might even think that that’s what it is, 
  or experience it, but some part of it is maya—Illusion (pg. 144).
  These epic battles that you’re having, this awful suffering, this 
  corruption and this trauma—
  It’s not all entirely real.
  That’s not necessarily a bad thing, you understand. It could 
  mean that you’re making a mountain out of a molehill, which is 
  bad; or that you have a vivid, entertaining imagination, which is 
  good; or that you’re wrestling with metaphysical enemies instead 
  of real ones, which I guess is a little of both. It could mean that this 
  whole story that we’re seeing “on-camera” is a lie that you’re tell-
  ing the cops later, or a reconstruction from scattered evidence after 
  you later on hit your head. It could be that you’re an illusion—or 
  that you’re being protected from the threats you’re facing by some 
  power-player that hasn’t yet shown up in game.
  All I can really say is that at least some of what we “see” going 
  on in the game—
  It isn’t real. You thought it was real, but it was just a fading break 
  from reality. An Illusion. And that’s why it all came out OK.
  In Other Genres
  In most other genres, you’ll only be invoking these XP Actions 
  when they really seem to fit. That means that a Corruption or 
  Adversity Action with no real bite to it isn’t an oxymoron any 
  longer—it’s something that your HG, or group, has already 
  discovered to be a meaningful event in play.
  I’m not saying that you can’t pick up Illusion from that.
  I mean, maybe that’s why it’s a meaningful event, be-
  cause it hints at some deception.
  But you don’t have to pick up Illusion there; outside 
  the Road of Trials and the Fairy Tales genre, the rules 
  for Illusion are optional and case by case.
  
  Fairy Tales
  XP Action: (Suf-
  fer) Transformation/
  Metamorphosis
  Fairy Tales and Illu-
  sions
  36
  36
  Fairy Tales
  a genre
  A fairy tale adds an element of destiny or transformation to the 
  road of trials—
  You still struggle, and ultimately you’re still the pawn of forc-
  es beyond yourself, but much of it is neutral, bearable, or kind.
  Chapters are ad hoc, I think. 
  There’s no real pattern—most likely the other way around. 
  Chapters conclude when the PCs have used up their XP Actions 
  (and done anything else they specifically want to do before the 
  chapter ends); the end of the chapter brings patterned events, like 
  a new sunrise, sunset, info-dump, or the visit of a recurring men-
  tor/godmother.
  As noted, you’ll add a new element to the Road of Trials—a 
  fifth XP Action,
  (Suffer) Transformation/Metamorphosis, where 
  you’re  transformed or graced by some external power 
  in a fashion that isn’t, or isn’t necessarily, bad.
  Objectively, this is exactly Corruption; the difference is a matter 
  of tone.
  (Suffer) Transformation/
  Metamorphosis
  Condition: You’ve just failed to completely defend against 
  a transformational influence; or, something’s just triggered/
  awakened an ongoing metamorphosis
  Action: 
   
  ŭ Experience surreal effects; then, the corruption/trans-
  formation gets stronger.
  Special Consequence:
  If you don’t already have one, you’ll pick up a “trigger”—
  Something that can happen to encourage or reignite the 
  metamorphosis, even if you get away from whatever is caus-
  ing it right now. For instance, some characters will have their 
  transformation advance further every time they sleep. Other 
  characters will just be triggered randomly by the distant ac-
  tions of some god-monster NPC.
  Genres: Fairy Tales 
  (in other genres you’ll need the HG or group to suggest this action)
   
   Fairy Tales and Illusions 
  If you’re already living in a fairy tale, the bar for something be-
  ing so implausible there must be an Illusion is going to be set 
  pretty high.4
  If you complete any of the five standard XP Actions for this 
  genre—
  (Suffer) Adversity
  (Suffer) Corruption
  (Suffer) Metamorphosis/Transformation
  (Suffer) Trauma or
   Never Say Die!
  — there are now three possible outcomes instead of two.
  4  “That pixie just pulled one ring through the other! There must be some 
  trick going on!”
  Suffering. You wind up damaged or broken.
  Illusion. Some of your suffering appears to be unreal. Pick up 
  a point of Illusion.
  or the new option
  Transformed. You’re not damaged or broken, per se—but you 
  are altered. You’re alienated from your usual way of being. You’re 
  glowing and speaking disjointedly, or you’re finally at peace, or 
  you’re a foot taller and covered in feathers.
  It’s still damage from the perspective of the game, if you’re 
  curious—that’s all the kind of stuff that the wound system can 
  handle if it needs to, up to and including “being finally at peace.”
  But it doesn’t have to be damage in the sense of... well, con-
  ventional damage any more.
  In fact, you could even handle a typical devotional/spiritual sto-
  ry with this genre: instead of declaring it delusional, you can now 
  end a long night of spiritual struggle with a “transformation,” in 
  this case representing personal growth, salvation, hope, or grace.
  
  Epic Fantasy
  XP Action: Science, 
  Faith, and Sorcery
  37
   
  Epic Fantasy
  a genre
  Epic Fantasy focuses on the deeds of great and legendary he-
  roes. It’s about duels that last for ninety-nine days, punches that 
  shatter mountains, wrestling eight-headed dragons, locking death 
  in a jewel, standing in the center of town and calling out your 
  enemies, hunting for the holy grail or the elixir of immortality, 
  demanding the services of fire-shrouded angels, leading armies, 
  building worlds from dust and ashes, and making the most terrible 
  and horrible mistakes.
  It’s superheroic or Arthurian. Maybe a little shounen. 
  There’s a bit of the sagas in it as well.
  Most of all it’s about declaring what you’re going to do and 
  then doing it, and experiencing the consequences that befall. If 
  Pastoral is meant to feel like a memory, epic fantasy is meant to 
  feel like those moments when you throw caution to the wind and 
  just go for what you want and/or take a stand.
  I figure that each chapter is an episode, an event. A situation. 
  Like:
   
  ŭ In Which We Visit the Streets of Fortitude
   
  ŭ In Which We Sailed across Big Lake
   
  ŭ In Which There is a Battle
  There’s no real sense of time here, just as that psychological mod-
  el might have suggested; there’s just what you do and what hap-
  pens after. 
  Nothing more.
   Defining Moments 
  The three most important actions in an epic fantasy are—
  Science, Faith, and Sorcery Actions, where you 
  come up with a theory about how something works, 
  and then you test it out.
  Decisive Actions, where you decide to do something. 
  and
  Wicked Actions, where you decide to do something... 
  wrong.
  Science, Faith, and 
  Sorcery
  Condition:  You’re explaining or wondering how something 
  works.
  Action: 
   
  ŭ Propose an idea—an implication? loophole? a desper-
  ate hope?—& then test it.
  Genres: Epic Fantasy, Adventure Fantasy 
  (in other genres you’ll need the HG or group to suggest this action)
  “Science, Faith, and 
  Sorcery?”
  In a Science, Faith, and Sorcery action, your actions create a 
  new covenant. They bring new definition to the nature of the 
  world.
  You test your beliefs and in doing so earn power.
  The three concepts are completely different, of course. 
  Faith trusts that things will work out. Science isn’t sure—it 
  just wants to know! And Sorcery—well, Sorcery is what I’m 
  calling it when you decide to force the world into your desired 
  shape by act of will. Three really different things, that you do 
  for very different reasons, as very different characters in very 
  different states of mind...
  But they’re all the same action:
  You take a breath. You let it out. You step forward into the 
  world of the unknown.
  
  XP Action: Decisive 
  Action
  38
  38
  Decisive Action
  Condition:  You’ve been narrating or explaining your hopes, 
  dreams, plans, actions, or thoughts. Or, someone/something 
  else has been doing that for you!
  Action: 
   
  ŭ Take an action that you can’t retreat from—something 
  decisive or definitive!
  Genres: Epic Fantasy, Adventure Fantasy 
  (in other genres you’ll need the HG or group to suggest this action)
  Playing to the Crowd
  In general both Decisive Action and Science, Faith, and Sor-
  cery play best when there’s an audience—
  Not just a narration or explanation, but someone listening 
  to it and, at some point, making or emoting a response.
  So, as an optional rule, if the HG thinks that happened, they 
  can add a second group XP to the action’s reward. I think you 
  should skip this for the first few sessions of the game but add 
  it in once you have a good handle on Decisive and Science, 
  Faith, and Sorcery Actions.
  The Icon of the Magician
  This is the Defining Icon, the Icon of the Magician, the icon 
  of the player or PC in the process of self-creating and recreating 
  the world. It is the icon of strong decisions and powerful actions. 
  It is the icon of the scientist, the alchemist, and the celebrant.
  I’ll use this icon to mark up stuff where you say: “I will do this.”
  And stuff where you say: “This, I shall believe.”
  All the different kinds of things, really, where the player can 
  push forward and the HG doesn’t have to do much at all. All the 
  quests, and the XP Actions, and the other stuff where the moti-
  vation comes from a player and not from elsewhere in the game.
  This game is pretty player-driven anyhow. I don’t know for 
  sure that that thing that I’m talking about is not just everything 
  in the game. I mean, I’m not sure that the distinction I’m draw-
  ing here is actually a thing with a real, defined meaning.
  But I’m going to declare that it is!
  
  XP Action: Wicked 
  Action
  Turn 
  Back! 
  Turn 
  Back!
  39
   
  Wicked Action
  Condition: You’re doing something that you know IC that 
  you shouldn’t.
  It’s just not healthy! 
  Or, it’s wrong! 
  Action: 
   
  ŭ Fall into a delirious abyss of self-indulgence.
  Genres: Epic Fantasy, Adventure Fantasy 
  (in other genres you’ll need the HG or group to suggest this action)
  Turn Back! Turn Back!
  Turn Back!
  The most important feature—in all of these cases—is risk.
  The worth of the action is the worth of the gamble; if you’re 
  not taking a risk, then you can still take the XP actions of Epic 
  Fantasy, but they’re going to fall a little bit flat.
  It’s a valid act of Faith, for instance, to say:
  “I believe in you. I trust you. That is why I am going to loan 
  you this comic book, even though it would cost me three whole 
  dollars to replace if this transaction goes horrifyingly wrong.”
  And it’s Decisive to say: “I will not eat Indian for lunch to-
  day—though the Heavens fall!”
  But it is, as epic heroes go, perhaps just a little bit tame. 
  So here’s the rule.
  If you do that kind of trivial thing, that’s fine. It’s an XP Ac-
  tion. But if you do something bolder and more epic, you have a 
  chance at something more. 
  If the HG sees you walking into your doom—a normal course 
  for Wicked Action, perhaps, and a common one for the other 
  two—they may give you a fey intimation of the burdens to come. 
  They may cry out, through the voice of ravens, signposts, or robe-
  clad seers along the road: “Turn back! Turn back!”
  They may even lay out exactly what you face: 
  The consequence to come.
  And if they do this thing, and you turn back, then the action is 
  for nothing, of course; it’s not an XP Action at all. 
  But if you heed not their errant cry, they add another bonus 
  XP to the pot.
  At that point your doom is writ, but not necessarily a doom—if 
  the HG’s warning left you wiggle room, either on the odds or on 
  the meaning of it, you can still work around it. Or you can escape 
  it using the rules for fighting Bleak or wish effects (pg. 476-481, 
  472-475), below.
  ...But it is writ. The price is paid. It’s real.
  This... is the Lurid Icon
  “Experience Surreal 
  Effects”
  Like Corruption and Trauma, Wicked Actions work best when 
  the world goes weird—
  When your delirious descent into vice is accompanied by 
  the surreal and bizarre.
  Maybe it comes from the HG. Maybe it comes from the 
  player. Maybe it happens in the “real” world. Maybe it’s just 
  in the character’s head. 
  But it should happen.
  As an optional rule, if the HG thinks enough of that hap-
  pened to matter, they can add a second group XP to the ac-
  tion’s rewards. I think you should skip this for the first few 
  sessions of the game but add it in once you have a good handle 
  on Wicked Actions.
  Decisive Choices
  If you’re not in a position to make an irrevocable external 
  commitment to something, you can still bind yourself to it in 
  a Decisive Action. You can still say: “my decisive action is 
  choosing sides,” for instance, even if there’s nobody there to 
  care.
  But this does have to mean something.
  If you wind up breaking a commitment like this later, you 
  might wind up suffering a Serious or Deadly spiritual wound 
  (pg. 128), on account of having to betray a promise made to 
  your heart.
  
  Adventure Fantasy
  XP Action: (Be in) 
  Trouble
  40
  40
  Adventure Fantasy
  a genre
  An Adventure Fantasy is like an Epic Fantasy, except that the 
  heroes aren’t completely larger-than-life and awesome—
  They get into trouble. They’re down to earth. 
  They get scared.
  The first way I’m going to represent this is with a new XP 
  Action—in addition to the standard XP Actions for Epic Fantasy, 
  a Fantasy Adventure also offers:
  (Be in) Trouble, where something really scary is hap-
  pening.
  Like so:
  (Be in) Trouble
  Condition: A threat approaches!
  Action: 
   
  ŭ Be overwhelmed and overmatched.
  Genres: Adventure Fantasy 
  (in other genres you’ll need the HG or group to suggest this action)
  Lulls
  I find Trouble most interesting when it’s sprinkled with 
  lulls—moments of apparent safety—followed by heart-stop-
  ping moments of fear.
  So each time that happens—
  Each time you seem safe for a moment, and then it turns 
  out you weren’t—
  The HG should add another group XP to the action’s re-
  wards. This lasts from the time you first get into trouble to 
  the time you take your next XP Action, for this and all similar 
  threats. This is technically optional and in the HG’s hands, 
  but I encourage it to happen, either “every time,” “every time 
  the trouble is related,” or “every time the trouble gets bigger.”
   In Other Genres
  I’m not going to explicitly make Turn Back! optional in the 
  other six genres, since the HG has to decide to invoke it any-
  how—
  There’s no point in making an option an optional rule!
  That said, it’s less important in the other six genres, and if 
  the HG decides to use it, they can decide case by case or in 
  general whether it runs on the Epic Fantasy or the Adventure 
  Fantasy rules. 
  
  Trembling
  41
   
   Trembling 
  Adventure Fantasy lowers the bar for fear.
  No longer need the HG foresee bad things before they can cry 
  out, “Turn back!”
  In fact, much of the time, the bad end they warn you of—it 
  won’t come true at all. Oh, sure, it sometimes happens, but it’s not 
  a “fey intimation”: it’s just your fears. Or, if you’re not the kind 
  to be afraid, the inherent narrative fearsomeness of the situation.
  If you complete any of the four standard XP Actions for this 
  genre—
  Science, Faith, and Sorcery
  Decisive Action
  Wicked Action or
  (Being in) Trouble
  — and the HG warns you of impending doom, and adds an XP to 
  the pot, and you go forward, well.
  That bad thing might still happen. It might still be writ.
  Or, it might not!
  The Icon of Struggles
  This is the icon of Struggles—the icon of danger, adversity, 
  striving, and heroism. (At least, action heroism, you know, the 
  modern kind, the kind where you feel outmatched and either 
  frightened, hopeless, or doomed every step along the way.)
  You don’t have to do much when you see it.
  Just... maybe, try to be a hero? Or at least a little better than 
  the person you thought yourself to be. 
  
  Special-Purpose Ac-
  tions
  XP Action: Rituals
  42
  42
  Special-Purpose Actions
  a preamble
  There are two XP Actions that I want to handle a little differently. 
  They’re not really a part of the game in the same way as the others 
  because they’re narrative tricks.
  In character they represent stuff that’s impossible to process—
  Spiritual and transcendent experience, psychotic breaks, the 
  most surreal dream worlds, data dumps from superhuman minds, 
  sensory overwhelm, overpowering charisma or glory, psychic 
  self-alteration, awakening inner potential, or even perfectly ordi-
  nary stuff that can’t really be reasoned out like creating art, intro-
  specting, falling in love, shifting from vacation mode into work 
  mode, or enjoying a new piece of music.
  Stuff where just saying it in words either doesn’t cover it or 
  can’t.
  This stuff takes you outside of normal play, but I’d kind of like 
  to think of it as actions and give you a chance at group XP from 
  it, so... here we are.
  The two special-purpose actions I’ll be talking about today are 
  Rituals and Transitions.
  These are genreless—they only come into play if the HG or 
  group consensus wants them to. Otherwise you’ll skip the ritual 
  or transition and just have a bit of HG description of what happens 
  when... you do whatever... instead.
   Rituals 
  So I think that sometimes the world is weird. Sometimes acting 
  in the world gets weird. Sometimes the whole model of “I do 
  X, then I do Y, then I do Z” doesn’t seem on point, because 
  emoting and being metaphorical and being literal and proposing 
  what your character does and proposing what other people do 
  and stuff—
  Sometimes I think that’s all scrambled up.
  When you’re acting on a spiritual level or in a spiritual place. 
  When you’re playing mind games or social games with your 
  own identity. When you’re wrestling with metaphysical things 
  and problems that are too big for you. When you’re dealing with 
  something where reason and ego and all the normal parts of the 
  modern mind aren’t enough—
  I think that if you’re playing that out normally, something is lost.
  So sometimes I’ll ask the group for a Ritual Action instead.
  I’m modeling this pretty consciously on film techniques—on 
  the ways that anime directors, in particular, and film-makers, in 
  general, use repeated and abstract footage to achieve effects.
  Here’s the core of a Ritual.
  Each Ritual begins with a ritual phrase or symbolic action. 
  Maybe you’re casting a spell from a strange book. Maybe you’re 
  taking a special pose. Maybe you’re taking some necessary action 
  that opens a sailing path through the Outside.
  This only works if all the active players are paying attention 
  to you. This is a practical convention, because rituals break the 
  normal course of play so anyone who is playing in one needs to be 
  aware that it’s going on. But it’s also a meaningful criterion. It’s 
  part of how a ritual works.
  You arrest the players’ attention. You invoke the ritual—
  And the world stops.
  The world stops; play freezes; it must stop, or the ritual fails. 
  There is a requirement for a frozen, timeless moment in character, 
  and not just the suspension of normal play on the players’ part.
  The world stops, and the normal course of play stops, and for 
  a little while, you do something else.
  Genres: None  
  (you’ll only play out a ritual if the HG or group wants to)
  Invoking a Ritual 
  Without an XP Action
  In general a Ritual requires an XP Action to invoke. That said, 
  the HG always has the option to invoke a Ritual themselves if 
  someone says the key phrase, takes the key action, or if they 
  just feel like it. (They could even throw an XP in the group 
  pot as they do!) 
  For example, if a player suddenly needs to use a Ritual 
  Power late in the chapter, and the HG wants the power invo-
  cation to involve a Ritual, and the HG doesn’t want to give the 
  player a third XP Action for the chapter to use it with, it’s ap-
  propriate for the HG to wait for the player to use the standard 
  cue and then invoke the Ritual themselves.
  Ritual Actions 
  The Invocation
  Condition: You have the OOC attention of all of the players, 
  and there is an applicable ritual.
  Action: 
   
  ŭ Invoke a Ritual!
  
  43
   
  Prompts
  The metaphorical spotlight now moves from character to charac-
  ter. Usually the HG points to someone and gives them a prompt, 
  something to help shape and define the ritual, something like—
   
  ŭ “say something cryptic.”
   
  ŭ “a soul-beast is flying out of you; what does it look like?”
   
  ŭ “you. Play out your unleashed id in ritual actions.”
   
  ŭ “you’re in your worst nightmare; what are you doing?”
   
  ŭ “you’re being interviewed by an imaginary magazine or film 
  crew; their first question is ‘what made you decide to come to 
  Town and work with these people?’”
   
  ŭ “do something. It can be anything, even a normal action, but 
  the further it gets from ‘frolicking amidst the clouds and rain-
  bows’ the higher the Will surcharge will be.”
  Sometimes instead of the HG giving prompts, the spotlight will move 
  from character to character by informal group consensus instead.
  Ritual Actions
  Condition: You’re in a ritual. The spotlight’s on you, or on 
  someone in physical contact with you.
  Action: 
   
  ŭ Add a group XP to the pot and declare that your im-
  pending action is meaningful.
  When the spotlight’s on you, you take a ritual action or make 
  a ritual response5:
   
  ŭ stating or emoting your reaction to some recent event;
   
  ŭ emoting your reaction to the ritual;
   
  ŭ “posing” or otherwise showing off in some iconic fashion suit-
  ed to the spirit of the special effects or the ritual’s mood;
   
  ŭ taking actions that are specifically called out by a rules book or 
  the HG as part of the ritual;
   
  ŭ doing something that starts a different ritual—in particular, 
  invoking a symbol of your own power (like activating the 
  Marvelous Wish-Granting Engine)—and combining the two 
  rituals thereby.
  If two characters are in physical contact, they share a spotlight and 
  can interrupt one another here; otherwise, they should not.
  Genres: All 
  (if you’re already in a Ritual, 
  this is always an option.)
  Closure
  The HG decides who has the power to finish out the ritual and 
  what they have to do to do so. This mostly shouldn’t be a chal-
  lenge—it amuses me to imagine players sweating as they try to 
  figure out how to get out of the ritual, and if you’re running some 
  sort of weird existential horror game then it might even make 
  sense, but I’m assuming that the HG either tells people how to 
  end the ritual, or bends the rules until they manage it if people 
  start to flail.
  Afterwards, the HG describes the ritual’s effects.
  5  It’s sometimes possible to break the rules and take an ordinary, unrelated 
  action in here, but please only do this if you can make it awesome. Also 
  you’ll need to overcome a barrier—a level 2-5 Obstacle or Auctoritas, as 
  described on pg. 67 or 114.
  What is this for?
  Rituals are most important for:
   
  ŭ travel montages
   
  ŭ shopping montages
   
  ŭ clothing-selection montages
   
  ŭ training montages
   
  ŭ magical girl transformations
   
  ŭ invoking big powers
   
  ŭ launching giant robots
   
  ŭ and stylized, surreal student council meetings.
  But that’s not why I’m including them.
  I’m including rituals in the game because I want you to be 
  able to engage, if not on equal terms, on some terms with numi-
  nous forces. I want the Headmaster of the Bleak Academy (pg. 
  73) to be able to challenge your faith without mind-controlling 
  you. I want it to be possible to tell a story of healing a wounded 
  soul. I want you to be able to form complex, emotional bonds 
  with mecha if the game takes a sharp right turn into being a 
  mecha story. In short, I’m giving you rituals as a mode of inter-
  acting with things for which ordinary play falls short. They’re a 
  way to inject meaning into elusive, peculiar events!
  A Symbolic Icon
  
  44
  44
  Ritual Powers
  A handful of powers available to you in this game take the form 
  of Rituals. In order to invoke them, you’ll have to walk through a 
  Ritual Action of some sort. 
  I’m usually only requiring this for the most potent and mirac-
  ulous abilities. 
  There’s flooding a magical artifact with the wishing power 
  of your heart, which I’ll talk about on pg. 535 under the head-
  ing Combo Move; that’s epic and can have Town-shaking con-
  sequences and it usually takes a Ritual to perform. If you have 
  access to something like the eponymous Wish-Granting Engine, 
  that’ll generally require a Ritual Action to get it going as well. 
  But this isn’t strictly a power level thing, and you shouldn’t 
  feel obligated to treat it as such—it’s a matter of the nature, and 
  dramatic importance, of the event.
  Even a very basic application of a magical Skill could require 
  a Ritual every time, if that’s what the HG thinks is right—for in-
  stance, if you have a “Magical Girl” Magical Skill, changing cos-
  tumes with it is probably a simple Obstacle 1-2 magical action.
  ...but it could require a Ritual.
  Or it could be a Transition, an option we’re about to discuss!
  Unnatural, Alien, 
  Numinous, and Strange
  “This is my blood. It will change you, if you let it. It will make 
  permeable the barrier between you and the greater world.
  “I can’t stop it.
  “It keeps coming from my hands. It is because I am born 
  from my father, and my father slew the throne of God.
  “I can’t stop it; it is not mine, but rather yours. It is the world’s 
  gift to you, who have lost so much. I am touching it to you. I am 
  marking you with it. I am freeing you. Be no more what you have 
  been; release the grip of the old covenant upon you;
  “Renewed.”
  — Principal Entropy II, The Angel of Fortitude, 
  christening a new hall monitor at his School
  - Character Type earns: (Overacted) Shiver of Wonder/
  Terror XP -
  Emotion XP
  
  XP Action: Transi-
  tions
  45
   
   Transitions 
  Transitions are an alternate approach to the numinous and incom-
  prehensible.
  On occasion you may want to bring normal play to a stop—
  triggered either by IC or OOC events—and substitute a short read-
  ing for events in play.
  Here’s my pitch.
  I don’t think that RPGs need thematic poetry and whatever. 
  At most a game’s soundtrack plays that role. But I do think that 
  sometimes switching from looking at game events to... reciting 
  something outside the course of play... is the only way to express 
  the idea that what is happening is inexpressible.
  If you want to describe a tragedy that’s too awful to compre-
  hend—
  If you want to describe a brush with the divine—
  Just talking about how awful it is, how illuminating it is, how 
  big and impossible to understand it is, won’t work. Just talking 
  about how you can’t comprehend it won’t work. There are no 
  words to express “words can’t express this”—
  Except poems about related things. Except stopping talking 
  about the battlefield and its awfulness, or the vastness of the 
  touch of God, or the loss of a child, or the experience of becom-
  ing something more than human, whatever, just, stopping. Stop 
  talking about it, look away, and quote something else. Ground the 
  experience in something else, like a mind flailing for a way to 
  understand.
  If the point is that no description is adequate describing that 
  won’t work.
  Do something else.
  The kind of thing you’d need this for—
  I don’t know.
  Sometimes there isn’t anything you can say at all but
  Leaves, like the things of man, you
   
  With your fresh thoughts care for, can you?
  Transition
  Condition: You’ve just finished a transition.
  Action: 
   
  ŭ Become Thoughtful and Distant.
  Genres: All 
  (the HG invoking a Transition qualifies as approval)
   What is this for?
  In practice, when writing campaigns, I mostly wind up using 
  Transitions to give you a way to grapple with things of the 
  Outside, things of grief, and things that take you outside of 
  yourself—particularly since the shape of shapeless chaos is 
  notoriously difficult to grasp. 
  As weird as quoting poetry might be, it’s a better way of 
  handling an elevator ride to the top of some Outside-infested 
  building than saying “this is a really disturbing, metaphys-
  ical elevator.”
  Stoic
  “When I was a kid in Russia, my trainer wouldn’t let me have 
  flounder. He thought a growing girl should subsist on sawdust 
  and chips of ice.
  I dreamed of honey and wildflowers. But most of all of 
  flounder.
  I made a little flounder out of ice chips. [ wiggles a hand ] 
  I swam it back and forth, like this.
  In the end I could not eat it. It was... too precious to me.”
  — Natalia Koutolika, The Prodigy, 
   as played by Heather Sullivan
  - Character Type earns: Aww! XP -
  Emotion XP
  
  Emotions
  46
  46
  Emotions
  In Chuubo’s Marvelous Wish-Granting Engine, each character 
  has a “bonus XP emotion” or “bonus XP condition”—a particular 
  emotional reaction you’re trying to get from the other players. 
  This is ideally something that can be boiled down to a gesture, 
  involuntary vocalization, or emotional reaction easily overact-
  ed—you’re looking for, e.g.,
   
  ŭ Aww!  XP
   
  ŭ Face-palm/head-desk XP
   
  ŭ Fist-shaking XP
   
  ŭ “Oh no! (Name) is in Trouble” XP
   
  ŭ (Overacted) Speechlessness XP or
   
  ŭ (Overacted) Shiver of Wonder/Terror XP 
  Or some emotion that can be tangibly represented by handing you 
  an XP token, like:
   
  ŭ Putting my Faith in You (with this XP token) XP
   
  ŭ Offering you Comfort (with this XP token) XP
  Or something that needs a complicated explanation for what you’re 
  trying to play here, but which is physically pretty simple, like:
   
  ŭ Finger-snap and beckon over XP—this is a good one for nat-
  ural minions, whose exaggerated or long-suffering reactions 
  are a source of amusement to others. When your doom is pre-
  pared, they snap their fingers and/or beckon you over, knowing 
  you’ll put up with it but won’t jump in on your own.
   
  ŭ Fist-pump/Salute XP—you’re playing someone so bombas-
  tic and dramatic, with such recognizable catch-phrases, that 
  expecting people to cheer those catch-phrases on or celebrate 
  them with a fist pump or salute is actually reasonable.
   
  ŭ Thumbs-up XP—this is a good one if your life is pretty hard 
  but has good moments, at which times people are happy for 
  you and give you a thumbs-up.
  The most important feature of a bonus XP emotion is that it’s al-
  ways based on the players’ emotional reactions and not their char-
  acters’. If the players are deep in their characters’ headspace, then 
  there’s no real difference, of course—but when that difference 
  exists, it’s the players that you’re targeting here. I don’t care how 
  strong an emotion your group says that your character evokes; I 
  care about the emotion that your character actually evokes. 
  The second-most important feature is that the players can and 
  should exaggerate their reactions to make this pretty easy.
  Listen—I’m not looking for you to drive the players to tantrum 
  and fury while getting face-palm and fist-shaking XP. I’m not ex-
  pecting you to be able to get honest shivers of wonder and terror 
  from them as often as you can get an honest aww!
  It’s totally OK to exaggerate your emotional reactions for the 
  sake of giving people this XP. You should be ready to shiver at a 
  player with a “shiver” XP condition if you’re in the vicinity of 
  shivers at all. You should be ready to point and gape and work 
  your jaw when someone with a speechlessness XP condition says 
  something disconnected from reason and the world. Fist-shaking 
  should be more a matter of mock-outrage and shouting their name 
  in slow-motion than of actual rage—as long as there’s this honest 
  seed of... 
  I guess it’s the same underlying “noooooooo” as for face-palm-
  ing, but built up into a totally different mood.
  You can earn this bonus XP once per fifteen minutes of 
  real- time play. 
  I’m expecting you to earn it maybe once or twice per hour.
  As a general rule you should earn emotion XP from actions taken 
  in character. This is a soft rule—I don’t mind if you get the occa-
  sional bonus XP from things that are pseudo-IC at best, or even 
  completely out of character. (I mean, if I’m playing someone with 
  the “fist-shaking” bonus XP emotion, and sometime in the course 
  of play someone shakes their fist at me as a player and cries out, 
  dramatically, “Jennnaaaaaa!” then my getting the bonus XP isn’t 
  really bad.) 
  But at the same time, don’t get into the habit of thinking that 
  that’s what it’s about. 
  It’s not! It’s your character’s actions that are meant to earn the 
  actual emotion XP.
  
  CHAPTER 
  3: 
  C H A R A C T E R 
  BUILDING
   
  Character Building
  
  The Best Friend
  48
  48
  Character Building
  Now that we’ve covered the basic experiences and emotions of 
  the game, I’d like to take a bit to talk about how to build your 
  character.
  I’m going to start by explaining what a character build “looks 
  like” at the mortal and miraculous levels. I haven’t covered all the 
  rules for this yet, so if this is your first read-through, I don’t expect 
  you to get more than an impressionistic sense of how a character 
  works—it’ll make more sense after playing or reading the book. 
  A mortal character starts out with:
   
  ŭ 8 points of Skills (pg. 64)
   
  ŭ a level 1 Connection Perk (pg. 73, 390) to any PC whose play-
  er agrees that you should have one
   
  ŭ 2 Normal Health Levels and 1 Tough Health Level (pg. 124-125)
   
  ŭ 1 MP (pg. 112)
   
  ŭ a basic quest (pg. 62), and
   
  ŭ a bonus XP emotion (pg. 46)
  They’ll also start with a level 0 Advancement Arc (pg. 387)—a 
  story of character growth that’s just beginning—and it’ll come 
  with the following benefits:
   
  ŭ a level 2 Bond (pg. 116)
   
  ŭ an Affliction (pg. 119) tied to the Arc Trait’s rating (pg. 390)
   
  ŭ a level 0 Arc Trait (pg. 390), which isn’t inherently useful but 
  can grow later on; and 
   
  ŭ the ability to “advance” or “complete” this Arc by earning 
  about 120 XP (pg. 388), giving the benefits described on pg. 
  452.
  If you start the game at the miraculous level, characters will be a 
  little scarier. A miraculous character starts out with:
   
  ŭ 8 points of Skills
   
  ŭ 2 Normal Health Levels, 1 Tough Health Level, and 2 Divine 
  Health Levels
   
  ŭ a level 1 Connection Perk to any PC whose player agrees that 
  you should have one
   
  ŭ 5 MP
   
  ŭ a basic quest, and
   
  ŭ a bonus XP emotion
  To this each character adds a certain number of miraculous “Arc 
  Traits” and “Perks” (pg. 81-82). There’s some flexibility here—
  The HG can fine-tune the power level of a miraculous game 
  by deciding how many Arc Traits and how many Perks a PC will 
  get. (Technically the group decides this. But the HG is going to 
  need the best understanding of what all the PCs are capable of and 
  how their powers interact, so I’m putting the first and last call in 
  their hands.)
  In any case, a miraculous character gets the HG-determined 
  number of Arc Traits, e.g.,
   
  ŭ (default) “you can start with three points of Arc Traits”
   
  ŭ “you start with a level 1 Arc” or
   
  ŭ “you’re a formerly-mortal character, starting at level 0 of your 
  first miraculous Arc”
  ...and the HG-determined number of Perks, e.g.,
   
  ŭ (default) “in addition to the Connection stuff and anything 
  your Arcs come with, you can pick two free Perks suiting your 
  Arcs.”
  The character can now continue an established Arc or begin a new 
  level 0 miraculous Arc.
  Seizhi/Suzy
  Being a character is rough! Like, imagine: you’re a swirl of 
  conceptual detritus in some player’s head, and then bam, char-
  gen, everybody expects you to be this real and fully-formed 
  person! But no matter how bad your particular PC might have 
  it, no matter how unreal they might feel or how uncertain you 
  might be that you’ve got them quite right, they should count 
  themselves lucky. They’re not Seizhi Schwan!
  Seizhi Schwan was wished into existence right out of noth-
  ingness to be Chuubo or Shokyou’s best friend.
  In your campaign, there might or might not be a Wishing 
  Boy (or Girl)—a generic archetype title for someone who can 
  make wishes happen. Maybe they’re a PC. Maybe they’re an 
  NPC. Maybe they’re not even in the game at all!
  But if there is, if they are, then that wishing boy or that 
  wishing girl probably went down to their wish-granting en-
  gine one day and wished that they had a best friend. And then, 
  where there wasn’t, there was!
  That’s this Main Character. The Best Friend, usually 
  named Seizhi or Suzy Schwan. 
  And, quite frankly, as bad as it might be to be your PC 
  right now, you know, all unfinished and stuff? Your PC cannot 
  possibly be worrying about their sudden existence as much as 
  a typical Best Friend does every day.
  Seizhi Schwan, aka 
  The Best Friend
  
  The Character Cre-
  ation Process
  Step 1: Choose Your 
  Arc
  49
   
   The Character Creation Process
  Campaigns and setting books for the Chuubo’s Marvelous 
  Wish-Granting Engine RPG will often come with campaign- or 
  Region-specific character creation processes. If you don’t have a 
  relevant setting or campaign book, though, here’s what I’d recom-
  mend as the process for creating a new PC for this game:
   
  ŭ make sure that there’s a campaign concept already on the table;
   
  ŭ choose your starting Arc and first quest;
   
  ŭ choose your Skills;
   
  ŭ choose your special abilities;
   
  ŭ choose your bonus XP emotion; 
   
  ŭ fill in miscellaneous little details for your character; and
   
  ŭ choose a “basic quest” for your PC’s daily life.
  I’m going to assume that you already have a campaign idea taken 
  care of—I think it’s cool if you discuss it as a group, but I bet 
  that most of the time you’ll have that sorted by the time you’ve 
  actually agreed to play the Chuubo’s Marvelous Wish-Granting 
  Engine RPG in the first place. The HG will say, “Hey, I want to 
  run a Pastoral game on Little Island, who’s in?” or people will talk 
  about what RPG to play and someone will say, “Hey, we could be 
  Stray Cats in Chuubo’s.” or something like that.
  Assuming, then, that that’s taken care of—
  I’ll go over the next six steps now.
  Step 1: Choose Your Arc
  I want to start things off with something active—something that 
  leads straight into play. So the first step in character creation is 
  choosing your starting character Arc.
  What will your character’s life focus on in the early stages of 
  the game? 
  What’s your goal or your mission statement right now?
  Choosing Your Arc—Mortals
  Are you a mortal? Then you’ll start by picking the type of your 
  Arc—the kind of thing it is, which is in some respects also the kind 
  of thing you are right now.
  Pick... 
  Bindings if you want to work with weird and forbid-
  den stuff;
  Knight if you want to find or live up to your place in 
  society;
  Otherworldly if you’re torn between two worlds;
  Storyteller if you’re a larger-than-life, cinematic figure;
  Aspect if you’re striving to become better, stronger, 
  more;
  Shepherd if you want to guard, guide, or strengthen 
  others;
  Emptiness if you’re dealing with loss, hurt, or the 
  Outside; or
  Mystic if your fate is in the hands of some higher mor-
  tal or supernatural power.
  This turns into your starting level 0 Arc. If you’re in the process 
  of learning Shaolin Kung Fu, for instance, your character might 
  start out with the Arc
  Aspect (Shaolin Kung Fu) 0
  Or, if you’re a necromancer from beyond the world, you might 
  start off with
  Emptiness (Necromancer) 0, instead.
  In Their Own 
  Private World
  “I, me, I, Leonardo de Montreal, I have plunged myself re-
  peatedly down into the darkest depths of my own primordial 
  psyche and found there—at the tangled root of the spiraling 
  garden of my dreams—a place where the real world and the 
  world of nightmare twist together into a bottle without shape 
  or form and there one may fold through the What is Not into 
  the Is.
  I have made my dreams a blueprint for reality.
  I have ascended to the throne I have always occupied, in 
  some unknown Heaven; I have discovered myself as God.
  And who better? And who else? 
  There was never a better qualified; no, not among all the 
  scattered stars.”
  — Leonardo de Montreal, Nightmares’ Angel, 
  explaining why he drank the last of the milk and did not buy 
  any more.
  - Character Type earns: (Overacted) Speechlessness XP -
  Emotion XP
  
  50
  50
  Choosing Your Arc—Miraculous 
  Characters
  For a miraculous character, your power sets and your life’s stories 
  are tightly related—including your starting character Arc. If you 
  play through, e.g., the story Arc “Primordial,” you’ll evolve into 
  a divine spirit of the natural world and get powers accordingly; 
  conversely, if you want those powers or that evolution, you’ll play 
  through the Primordial Arc.
  So let’s start the character creation process with a look at the 
  powers your character is learning or developing right now—
  The evolution path that they’re on when the campaign begins.
  Maybe it’s something they’ve been doing for a while. Maybe 
  they’re just starting it now. Either way, based on what you want 
  your character doing, pick...
  Knight (Become Somebody) to find or live up to your 
  place in society;
  Otherworldly (Spiritual) to develop elemental powers
  Storyteller (Creature of Fable) if you’re becoming a 
  story or myth;
  Aspect (the Ace) if you’re striving to become super-
  humanly awesome; and
  Shepherd (Sentimental) to create magic stuff or have 
  magical pets
  If you’re willing to walk a path that may sicken you—a path ac-
  tively detrimental to your character’s health and well-being—then 
  you also have choices like:
  Bindings (Wounded Angel) if you practice deviant 
  science or forbidden magic;
  Knight (Reality Syndrome) if you’re developing 
  powers that you don’t understand; and
  Emptiness (Accursed) to take the first steps towards a 
  tragedy—towards becoming a living weapon with a 
  terrible life.
  If you’re actually turning into a god—into something divine, holy, 
  something so far beyond humanity that while you walk this path 
  you will be immortal, you can also pick...
  Otherworldly (Child of the Ash) and maybe possibly 
  turn into a giant monster;
  Storyteller (Creature of the Light) and become a sa-
  cred existence;
  Shepherd (A Keeper of Gardens) and rule one or 
  more magical places; or
  Mystic (Primordial) and become the incarnate and 
  generally inhuman form of some natural force, e.g., 
  evolving into the dragon of the wind or the ma-
  ny-armed goddess of Hope and the Sun.
  Which path are you walking when the story begins?
  Starting Quest
  Regardless of power level, you’ll now choose a quest to start that 
  Arc out.
  Turn to...
  pg. 52 if you’re on a 
   Bindings Arc (including Wound-
  ed Angel);
  pg. 52 if you’re on a 
   Knight Arc (including Become 
  Somebody/Reality Syndrome);
  pg. 52 if you’re on an 
   Otherworldly Arc (including 
  Child of the Ash/Spiritual);
  pg. 53 if you’re on a 
   Storyteller Arc (including Crea-
  ture of the Light/of Fable);
  pg. 53 if you’re on an 
   Aspect Arc (including The Ace);
  pg. 54 if you’re on a 
   Shepherd Arc (including Senti-
  mental/A Keeper of Gardens);
  pg. 54 if you’re on an 
   Emptiness Arc (including Ac-
  cursed);
  pg. 55 if you’re on a 
   Mystic Arc (including Primordial).
  Larger-than-Life
  “If there is one among you who has the courage, come up and 
  join me on this stage.
  I will kiss you and I will transform you. I will reach my 
  good right hand into your chest and I will pull out your living 
  heart. I will transform what is left of you into a giant robot, 
  and with that giant robot I will buy us freedom from this dis-
  mal reality’s chains.
  Do not despair. Do not let the world crush you. We can 
  do this. 
  All is not lost.
  You who were given to and mired in your misery. You who 
  had abandoned hope. Come stand before me. Set aside this 
  prison of your own making and I. will. make. you. good.
  Salute! Apocynum! 
  Salute! Apocynum!”
  — Jasmine Apocynum, the Ideologue, 
  organizing an escape from detention using a 
  conveniently-placed stage and mike
  - Character Type earns: Fist-Pump/Salute XP -
  Emotion XP
  
  51
   
  
  52
  52
  Starting Quest—Bindings Arcs
  If you’re on a Bindings Arc, then you can pick either of these 
  starting points:
   
  ŭ You’ve just been thrown into a new relationship with some 
  troubling power—e.g.,
   
   you’ve been assigned to watch a criminal, 
   
   you’ve been partnered with something dangerous, 
   
   you’ve been given responsibility for something dangerous, 
   
   you’ve captured something, 
   
   you’ve wound up spiritually entangled with something, or
   
   your parents are pressuring you into dating something
  that’s conventionally “wicked” or “disfavored.”
  So now you have to build a working relationship with 
  them. Who is it? What are they? What’s the problem?
  or
   
  ŭ You’re having a crisis of faith. You work with weird and for-
  bidden stuff. You find yourself worrying about whether you’re 
  an OK person anyway. Why are you worrying? Just how bad 
  is it? Are you facing the truth that you’re probably not OK, are 
  you worrying over nothing, or is your moral standing here a 
  legitimately troubling question?
  You can either create a custom quest for this (see pg. 55) or pick 
  one of the following quests from later in the book:
   
  ŭ Science! (pg. 344): you’re investigating something. What is it?
   
  ŭ Bind (pg. 320): you’ve just bound some horror and now you 
  want to redeem it.
   
  ŭ Mental Training (pg. 328): you’re studying!... maybe some 
  sort of wicked magic?
  If you have a new partner/relationship, completing this quest lets 
  you hammer out a working relationship with them. If you were 
  having a crisis of faith, completing the quest lets you reach some 
  kind of closure.
  You’ll then move on to a new quest (pg. 394): there’s some-
  body in need of your help!
  Starting Quest—Knight Arcs
  If you’re on a Knight Arc, then you’re starting the game with a 
  dream. There’s something you want to be. Something more than 
  you are.
   
  ŭ Do you want to be something abstract, like “a hero” or “awe-
  some” or maybe just “more?”
  If so...
   
   What kind of thing are you aiming for? 
   
   Who do you talk to about your dreams?
   
   Do you really believe that you can make it?
   
   What’s in your way?
   
  ŭ Or is there something in particular that you’re trying to be?
   
   is it something forbidden to you?
   
   something special, but not impossible?
   
   something you’re already studying to be?
   
   something you already are, like “an exorcist” or “part of an 
  important family” that you’re trying to learn to be well?
   
  ŭ Or are you already pretty successful at something, and it’s just 
  pushing it to the next level that’s giving you trouble?
  If so...
   
   what’s a particular sub-problem that can make you feel kind 
  of lost again? Like a newbie again?
   
   what’s going on that you’re spending your time dealing 
  with that?
  You can either create a custom quest for this (see pg. 55) or choose 
  one of these quests, if they fit:
   
  ŭ Adventure GET (pg. 354): adventure and become what you 
  dream of being!
   
  ŭ the Refusal of the Call (pg. 366): or are you resisting your 
  path?
   
  ŭ the Object (pg. 330): learn to look the part before you can be 
  the part!
   
  ŭ Mental Training (pg. 328): study hard! or
   
  ŭ Taking Care of a Small Child (pg. 339): it’s hard to find time 
  to become anything but a parent when you’re taking care of 
  small children, but you’re still allowed to forge a new destiny! 
  Let’s go!
  Completing the quest lets you put a name to the thing you want to 
  become, if you hadn’t, and also puts your feet on a legitimate path 
  towards becoming... well, that!
  You’ll then move on to a new quest (pg. 401): some vice or 
  weakness stands in your way.
  Starting Quest—Otherworldly Arcs
  If you’re on an Otherworldly Arc, then you’re starting the game 
  torn between two worlds. You’re having “otherworldly” experi-
  ences (usually dreams, but not always) that connect you to some-
  thing beyond and outside yourself.
  For instance, you might be... 
  Worrying
  “I could hear them talking in their low, rich voices. I could 
  feel the pulse of magic from their tattoos. I didn’t even have to 
  open my eyes to get the picture.
  “I was a prisoner of the Russian cyber-Mafia.
  “...again.”
  — Edony, The Magical Detective 
   as played by Diane Firth
  - Character Type earns: 
  “Oh no! (Name) is in Trouble!” XP -
  Emotion XP
  
  53
   
   
  ŭ having shamanic/spiritual/out-of-body experiences?
   
  ŭ or something closer to visits to a fairyland?
   
  ŭ or are you staying in the world, but with a connection to some 
  alien person or power?
   
   ...a mysterious enemy trying to manipulate you?
   
   ...a magical companion trying to recruit you?
   
   ...a distant person in distress calling out to you for help?
   
  ŭ or is it more that you’re transitioning from one world and life 
  to another, in what could be a relatively mundane way, and you 
  still have ties to the past?
  What works for you here? Does it tie to the campaign concept? 
  (If not, can it?) 
  Who are the major figures involved? 
  You can either create a custom quest for this (see pg. 55) or 
  choose one of these two, if they fit:
   
  ŭ Science! (pg. 344): Your dreams are calling you to a place of 
  danger...
   
  ŭ Changes (pg. 364): You are becoming someone else. Some-
  thing else.
  Either way, completing that quest tells you what you have to do 
  about this. 
  Usually this is something that both you and your PC will fig-
  ure out slowly as the quest draws towards its end. Other times, 
  you’ll pay off the XP for the quest and still won’t know what 
  you’re supposed to do; in that case, you or the HG should figure 
  out the way forward on the player level and then pass it on to 
  your character in a “burst of [IC] inspiration.” It’s also possible 
  that you’ve known the way forward all along and just didn’t have 
  the IC confidence or OOC authority to stand behind it until you 
  completed the quest.
  If for some reason you really don’t want to know the right 
  way forward, if you don’t like the implicit guarantee that you’re 
  going the right way from there on, completing this quest can also 
  offer you 2-3 different alternatives as to what you’re supposed to 
  do—in which case you’re allowed to guess wrong. 
  Either way, you’ll then move on to a new quest (pg. 408): you 
  struggle with your chosen path’s weight.
  Starting Quest—Storyteller Arcs
  If you’re on a Storyteller Arc, then you’re going to start out by 
  having fun. You’re a tourist. You’re a meddler. Maybe you’re a 
  newbie. You’re going to get involved in something neat. Maybe 
  you have already, maybe it started just before the game began—or 
  maybe you’re just about to find it!
  What is it?
   
  ŭ Do you already know what that’s going to be?
   
  ŭ Or are you planning to get involved with 
   
   whatever the PCs are doing 
   
   whatever is available to get interested in in the early part of 
  the game and/or
   
   whatever plot the HG throws your way
  and declare it “neat?”
  You want to be a self-propelled adventurer or a dedicated med-
  dler to get the most out of a Storyteller Arc—if neither of those 
  really fit you, if you rejected all of the above options, if you don’t 
  have a strong concept of what you want to do and you’re not flex-
  ible about throwing yourself into whatever plot comes your way, 
  you might want to go back and pick a new Arc.
  As for the quest itself—
  You can either create a custom quest for this (see pg. 55) or 
  choose one of these, if they fit:
   
  ŭ A New Job (pg. 318): it’s so exciting! 
   
  ŭ A New Hobby (pg. 316): which is even more awesome! 
   
  ŭ Fascination (pg. 376): someone is or is about to be alluring/
  fascinating to you. Are they a mythic figure that will lure you 
  into their world, or vice versa? or
   
  ŭ Adventure GET (pg. 354): you don’t know what you’re doing 
  yet, but you’re darn well going to find an interesting story to 
  get involved with—and then, get involved!
  In either case, the first “blush” of the adventure fades when you 
  finish the quest. It doesn’t necessarily start boring you or anything 
  but that’s the point where you become less of a tourist and more of 
  an active force in the plot.
  You’ll then move on to a new quest (pg. 414)—either “Taking 
  Charge” of the situation you’ve found yourself in or ignoring the 
  situation and doing things “Your [Own] Way.”
  Starting Quest—Aspect Arcs
  If you’re on an Aspect Arc, then the game starts with you stuck.
  You were making progress on... whatever you do. Whatever 
  you try to do, to be the best. You were a fighter or athlete trying 
  to get stronger, or a musician learning an instrument, a magician 
  learning the ways of power—or whatever!
  Only, now you’re stuck. 
  You’ve hit a wall.
   
  ŭ What are you trying to do? What are you trying to be?
   
  ŭ What’s the wall you’ve hit?
   
  ŭ And how are you trying to get past it?
  You can either create a custom quest for this (see pg. 55) or choose 
  one of these, if they fit:
   
  ŭ Mental Training (pg. 328): an intensive program of study
   
  ŭ Physical Training (pg. 334): rigorous physical training!
   
  ŭ Above the Fray (pg. 350): first, you need to clear your head 
  and take a while to think about some stuff that’s gone on or 
  happened to you.
   
  ŭ Beautiful and Far Away (pg. 374): your training’s fallen apart, 
  to be honest; you’ve retreated from the world to a secret place.
  When you complete the quest, you’ll be able to push past the bar-
  rier—past whatever’s had you stuck. You’ll be able to reach a new 
  level for the first time.
  Afterwards, you’ll move on to a new quest (pg. 422): some-
  one or something presents you with the option of a new way 
  of thinking.
  
  54
  54
  Starting Quest—Shepherd Arcs
  If you’re on a Shepherd Arc, then the story starts with your ordi-
  nary daily life. So tell me:
   
  ŭ Who are you?
   
  ŭ What do you do with yourself?
   
  ŭ What’s your daily life like?
  You’ll usually make a quick custom quest to start this Arc off (proba-
  bly a purple quest, “part of a simple and honest life,” pg. 55) but if it 
  fits, you can also pick one of the following from later on in the book:
   
  ŭ Connecting With Someone (pg. 324): you’ve been making a 
  conscious effort lately to connect to somebody. Who?
   
  ŭ Down (pg. 362): you’ve been having a really hard time lately.
   
  ŭ Beautiful and Far Away (pg. 374): you’ve taken to hiding 
  yourself away, recently, among your precious things.
  During this quest you’ll still be engaging in your ordinary life—no 
  matter how weird things get for you, your ordinary life will be con-
  stant. You might get taken away from the flow of things for a while, 
  but the baseline for your life doesn’t change. You don’t change.
  You’re still basically you. Your home and your life are still there.
  Completing the quest, though, marks a change in the pattern of 
  your life—towards or at the end of that quest, a new responsibility 
  falls on you out of nowhere. And you accept it, at least to a degree.
  Maybe that’s something the HG provides. Like, you hit the end 
  of the quest, you say, “OK, I’m done. A new responsibility falls 
  on me?” And the HG says, “Oh, OK, it looks like your cousin is 
  coming to live with you for a bit.”
  Or maybe there’s something that has come up in play—some-
  one who needs help, something that’s needed taking care of, what-
  ever; somebody has to step forward to do it—and when you hit 
  that quest endpoint, you realize: “Oh! That somebody who has to 
  step forward? That’s me.”
  Or, as a final option, if none of that applies, maybe complet-
  ing this quest makes you feel ready to grow and do more. If you 
  were selling stuff at fairs, it’s time to open up a shop. If you were 
  working on a ship, it’s time to apply for a promotion or take over 
  a ship of your own. If you were just a kid, doing random things, 
  maybe it’s just generally time to grow up a little and look for some 
  more work to take on?
  Anyway, at that point, you’ll take on a new quest (pg. 430): 
  given plot, life stuff, and your new responsibilities, can you keep 
  your life on an even keel? 
  Starting Quest—Emptiness Arcs
  If you’re on an Emptiness Arc, then there’s something you have to 
  live with. You’ve been touched by the Outside somehow.
  This can mean a lot of different things. Are you...
   
  ŭ touched by the Outside in the form of bleakness and non-being?
   
   depressed?
   
   emotionally numb?
   
   damaged, missing part of yourself?
  • your soul?
  • your heart?
  • your memories?
  • your name?
  • portions of your volition?
   
  ŭ touched by the Outside in the form of death?
   
   in that you deal with death too much?
   
   or just too much death recently?
   
   in that death magic has marked you somehow?
   
  ŭ touched by the Outside in the form of the Riders and the Bleak 
  Academy (pg. 73, 292)?
   
   poisoned by some sort of Rider magic?
   
   a pawn of some Outside power?
   
   a descendant of the Riders?
   
   a Rider who has chosen reality over the void?
   
   a Rider who hasn’t done that yet, but is sympathetic enough 
  that one day you might?
   
  ŭ touched by the Outside in the form of Outside-fueled magic?
   
   are you from one of the shrine families of Fortitude (pg. 
  210)?
   
   from some similar sacred family?
   
   do you travel the Outside to gain power?
   
  ŭ or are you a sailor or traveler who frequents it?
  In all these cases your first quest is really simple:
  Explore how you live with that.
  What are you living with? Who is supporting you in living 
  with it?
  It’s pretty easy to create a custom quest to start things off 
  (probably a gray quest, “part of the background of your life and 
  healing,” pg. 55) but if it fits, you can also pick one of the fol-
  lowing:
   
  ŭ Bind (pg. 320): you try to humanize some vampire, evil ghost, 
  or awful power.
   
  ŭ The Object (pg. 330): the story of your hat, diary, or flute.
   
  ŭ Physical Training (pg. 334): exercise will help you keep 
  control.
   
  ŭ Someone’s in Trouble (pg. 346): you stumble on someone 
  like you in some important way—can you help them out?
   
  ŭ Changes (pg. 364): you’re in the process of a transformation.
  Either way, the quest represents a time of contemplation and wres-
  tling with who you are and how the Outside touches your life.
  Completing the quest spurs you to make a change in your life. 
  What change? I don’t know!
  Afterwards, you’ll start on a new quest (pg. 437)—it could be 
  any number of things, but at the core of the quest, you pick up or 
  express an obsession. 
  Minion
  “And why am I the one carrying everything?”
  — Alucard Sunadori, the Vampire, 
  interrupting himself in the middle of a rant about 
  vampiric superiority to wonder why he’s the only one 
  staggering along with a zillion bags
  - Character Type earns: Finger-snap and beckon over XP -
  Emotion XP
  
  Step 
  1a: 
  Custom 
  Quests
  55
   
  Starting Quest—Mystic Arcs
  If you’re on a Mystic Arc, then you’re surrounded by portents. 
  Something is coming. Something is coming that will change you, 
  will make an end to the you that you are today.
  Do you know what that is? Is it something you’re planning or 
  is the game going to surprise you?
  You can either create a custom quest for this (see right) or pick 
  one of the following from later in the book:
   
  ŭ Down (pg. 362): this is a really rough time in your life. Magic 
  hasn’t shown up to save you yet, or at least, if it has, it has not 
  been enough.
   
  ŭ Changes (pg. 364): you’re in a process of evolution, and you 
  don’t know where it’s going yet!
  At the end of this quest, you’re confronted by a “miracle.” That is, 
  something that you couldn’t imagine happening—something that 
  would change everything if it happened—does.
  It could be something as simple as someone trusting or loving 
  or being honest with you. It could be as massive as a dead person 
  coming back to life. It could be something as unexpected as some-
  body blowing a trumpet and the walls all around you falling down.
  It doesn’t have to be a good thing, but it usually is. It doesn’t 
  have to be supernatural, although it usually is. 
  It’s just... a miracle:
  A wonder. A thing with incredible experiential weight—a thing 
  that you can’t go back from. A moment when you realize that you 
  were wrong about how the world worked—when someone you 
  were sure hated you saves you; when an angel steps in to shelter 
  you from a storm; when you’re forgiven for something you never 
  believed you could be forgiven for; or the moment when every-
  thing was good, everything was sunny and peaceful and happy, 
  and then the sky above you cracked open and a miles-long feel-
  er-leg from some insect slipped in.
  Afterwards, you’ll start on a new quest (pg. 444). 
  Step 1a: Custom Quests
  The rules for creating your own quests are found in the quest 
  chapter, but I wanted to take a moment in character creation and 
  give you a sense of how it will work.
  The easiest way to make a custom quest is to decide whether 
  the quest is...
   
  ŭ ...a way of thinking?
   
   You will spend a lot of time proposing relevant theories/
  ideas in play.
   
   If that sounds right, fill out the blue quest card from pg. 93.
   
  ŭ ...a private struggle? 
   
   You will maintain a false public front over private troubles 
  in play.
   
   If that sounds right, fill out the orange quest and flip cards 
  from pg. 99-100.
   
  ŭ ...a temptation or division between states? 
   
   You’ll have two very different moods/states in play.
   
   If that sounds right, fill out the green quest and flip cards 
  from pg. 96-97.
   
  ŭ ...a love or hate you have for something? 
   
   You’ll have a catchphrase/exclamation that you’ll use fre-
  quently.
   
   If that sounds right, or at least plausible, fill out the red 
  quest card from pg. 91.
   
  ŭ ...an exciting adventure? 
   
   Quest-related stuff will often go over the top!
   
   If that sounds right, fill out the golden quest card from pg. 
  (94-)95.
   
  ŭ ...part of a simple and honest life? 
   
   You’ll have a catchphrase that puts things in your ordinary 
  life’s context.
   
   If that sounds right, or at least plausible, fill out the purple 
  quest card from pg. 90.
   
  ŭ ...part of the background of your life and healing? 
   
   You’ll have a catchphrase that reflects your life’s current 
  state.
   
   If that sounds right, or at least plausible, fill out the gray 
  quest card from pg. (100-)101.
   
  ŭ ...something weird, symbolic, and mystical? 
   
   Fill out the black quest card from pg. 102.
  Copy or download and print the appropriate quest card and fill in 
  the blanks. Mark how much XP you want to put in it—if you don’t 
  know how you’d choose that, choose “35 XP.”
  So for example:
  You’re on an Otherworldly Arc. You’ve decided that your char-
  acter has a wicked changeling for an older brother. It’s feeding on 
  your life! That doesn’t quite fit either Science! or Changes so you 
  make a custom quest. Maybe it’s a private struggle, and you hide 
  what it’s doing to you? Or maybe it’s a temptation or division 
  between states: sometimes you’re free, and sometimes you’re its 
  mind-addled slave. You pick up an orange or green quest card, fill 
  in the blanks, and choose 35 XP as your target. 
  Someone Struggling 
  with Life
  “It’s just . . . I try so hard. I try so hard, you know? And yet 
  nothing ever gets back to the way it used to be.
  “I don’t even think it can.”
  — Miramie Mesmer, the Dream-Witch, 
  after another delay in the re-opening of her café
  - Character Type earns: Offering you Comfort 
  (with this XP token) XP - 
  Emotion XP
  
  Step 2: Choose Your 
  Skills
  Step 3: Choose Your 
  Special Abilities—
  Mortals
  56
  56
  Step 2: Choose Your Skills
  After choosing your starting Arc and quest, you’ll choose your 
  baseline mundane abilities—8 points worth of Skills.
  Schticks
  If you’re still working out who your character is, what their life is 
  about, you might first look over these possible schticks:
   
  ŭ Once-in-a-Generation Talent. You have a level 4 Skill. May-
  be even a level 5.
   
  ŭ Special Type. You’re a magical or not-quite-human character 
  type—in a Town game, for instance, you might be a ghost, 
  vampire, talking rat, shrine family member, deviant scientist, 
  dryad, Rider, dolphin girl, exorcist, robot, long-necked person, 
  or someone trained by a spirit of wind.
   
  ŭ Unique Magic. You have some unique magic Skill of your 
  own design, something that lets you do things that humans ar-
  en’t supposed to be able to do.
   
  ŭ Inhuman/Pulp Ability. You have an unusual Superior Skill. It’s 
  like magic in that it lets you do things that humans normally can’t, 
  but it’s not so much a trained Skill as an inhuman quality—you’ve 
  been chosen by something, or altered by something, or you aren’t 
  human, or maybe you live by your own genre rules in a certain 
  way. It’s best if you can relate this somehow to the premise for 
  the game, or vice versa—for instance, if you want a weird psychic 
  talent in a School-based game, maybe there’s a special class for 
  psychics and characters with weird talents and you can talk the 
  other players into making that a major or minor focus of the game.
   
  ŭ Incredible Cool. This is a relatively weak schtick in the long 
  term—it’s easy for other PCs to catch up to you in Cool—but 
  if you want to be really good at, well, being awesome and win-
  ning, starting with some points in the Cool Skill will help.
   
  ŭ Incredible People Skills. If you want to be a natural leader, 
  particularly a warm-hearted and generous one, you might want 
  to start out with some Shine.
  If you’re interested in playing a special character type, then you’ll 
  want to review the setting material on that character type and 
  any associated magical and Superior Skills. Otherwise, just keep 
  schticks that caught your interest in mind.
  It’s also probably worth taking a moment right now to think about 
  what your character is best at and whether that’s something they’re 
  really genuinely good at or just the best of their rough lot of Skills.
  Skills
  I’ll talk a lot about Skills on pg. 64-77, but choosing them is fun-
  damentally a freeform task—
  Figure out some things your character does or is good at. List 
  them. Those are your Skills.
  Now rate them from 0-5.
  In a spirit of expectations management: a 4-point Skill is a pretty 
  big deal. You don’t need a 4-point Skill to be good. You need a 4-point 
  Skill to be noteworthy. A level 5 Skill could make you a legend. 
  The usual range is 0-3.
  If you have a Skill that lets you push beyond human limits, 
  that can be but isn’t necessarily related to its number—instead, 
  you’ll mark such things as “Superior” or “magical” Skills. The 
  Skill in question is a Superior Skill if you can go past human lim-
  its because you’re not actually human or because you’re “just that 
  good.” It’s a magical Skill if you’re cheating somehow.
  If you have a Skill in... being generally awesome and unflap-
  pable, call it Cool.
  If you have a Skill in being radiant, inspirational, or vulnera-
  ble, a Skill that helps other people do things for you, call it Shine.
  When you’ve written everything down, massage your numbers 
  and choices until your Skill ratings add up to 8 points. 
  Aside
  For the most part you’re free to pick whatever Skills you like—
  If the other players are cool with your being Gilgamesh, you 
  can have Superior God-King 4 and I won’t mind!
  That said, do please make sure that your basic character con-
  cept fits the group and the game that people want to be playing, or 
  at least that it doesn’t disserve them. 
  Step 3: Choose Your Special 
  Abilities—Mortals
  Even at the mortal level, you’ll have two powers that transcend 
  your mortality—two traits that express not your mortal will and 
  your mortal Skills but rather stuff like “destiny,” “the human spir-
  it’s power to defy destiny,” and “the wishing power of the heart.” 
  Both of these traits are associated with your starting Arc, so if you 
  wind up unhappy with your character direction and drop your orig-
  inal Arc you’ll also have the chance to replace these two powers.
  Mortals—Choose a Bond
  The first ability is something that drives you forward, something 
  that strengthens you, a kind of passion. In game terms, this is a 
  level 2 “Bond,” as described on pg. 116. 
  Choose...
   
  ŭ there’s something you never do, that you can’t do;
   
  ŭ there’s something you always do, that you must do;
   
  ŭ there’s something that you’re driven to do.
  For instance, if you’re really in tune with the street dogs and cats 
  of Fortitude, and your starting storyline is a Bindings or Shepherd 
  Arc about that, then you might pick a Bond like:
   
  ŭ I can’t turn my back on an animal in need;
   
  ŭ I (must) sense an animal’s true intentions;
   
  ŭ I’m driven to spend time with my animal friends.
  It may seem a little weird that two of these are technically lim-
  itations or weaknesses, but don’t worry about that—a Bond will 
  make your life better regardless of whether it’s technically a 
  weakness or a strength.
  If you have a magical Skill, it’s common to relate the Bond to 
  that Skill—for instance, if you practice ghost magic, as discussed 
  on pg. 234, you might take a Bond like “I (am driven to) help 
  ghosts resolve their unresolved business.”
  What kind of Bonds fit your Arc? What kinds of Bonds fit your 
  character? 
  What’s your Bond?
  
  57
   
  
  Step 3: Choose Your 
  Special Abilities—
  Miraculous Charac-
  ters
  58
  58
  Mortals—Choose an Affliction
  You’ll also have an “Affliction” associated with this Arc. This has 
  the same basic format—
   
  ŭ there’s something you can’t do;
   
  ŭ there’s something you must do;
   
  ŭ there’s something that you’re driven to do—
  but it’s not a passion. It’s something cosmic. It’s a power, or a 
  destiny. At minimum it’s a hard, inescapable truth about who you 
  are and what you’re doing. It’s not arguable and it’s not driven by 
  your heart—if you have something like “I can’t turn my back on 
  an animal in need” as an Affliction, that means you’ll get up from 
  a coma and maybe even from death if you encounter an animal 
  in need.
  To give you a sense of how this differs from Bonds, I’m going 
  to revisit the cats-and-dogs example; for that, some suitable Af-
  flictions include:
   
  ŭ I can’t turn off my awareness of the animals of Fortitude;
   
  ŭ I (must) be connected to a great animal spirit;
   
  ŭ I’m driven—even destined—to spend time with a particular 
  pack.
  In play, the difference between a Bond and an Affliction is that 
  you’ll invoke a Bond yourself for bonuses or compensation while 
  it’s the HG who makes sure your Afflictions stay true.
  What kind of destiny do you have? What’s your role in the 
  cosmos? 
  What’s a hard, inescapable truth that you might have to face?
  ...and what’s your Affliction?
  Step 3: Choose Your Special 
  Abilities—Miraculous 
  Characters
  The next step, for a miraculous character, is choosing an HG-de-
  termined number of “Arc Traits” and “Perks.” 
  Introduction
  Here’s how to understand Arc Traits:
  Over the course of the next 8-15 sessions of play, the charac-
  ter Arc that you’re currently on will turn into +1 to an Arc Trait 
  and 3-5 “Perks” (little bonuses you’ll pick up on the way.) For 
  instance, if you’re on a Wounded Angel Arc, and your first quest 
  starts your partnership with something wicked/disfavored... may-
  be an evil AI?... then the story Arc that begins when you meet that 
  AI will eventually turn into 3-5 Perks and +1 to your Wounded 
  Angel Trait. 
  A miraculous character starts with some HG-chosen number of 
  Arc Traits—usually three points’ worth—and what that means, what 
  that’s really saying, is that your character begins with that history.
  If you have three points in miraculous Arcs, that means that your 
  character has already lived through three epic stories. If you start 
  with one point in miraculous Arcs then they’ve lived through one!
  Maybe those stories are related to what you’re doing now. 
  Maybe they’re not. That detail will be up to you.
  What parts of your character’s past qualified as epic stories?
  ...I don’t know! That’ll ultimately be up to you. But if you have 
  trouble figuring out how to boil your character’s history down into 
  the Traits you have to work with, imagine that you’re writing up 
  your character’s history as novels or short stories and decide: what 
  stories would you tell people first? 
  Spend a point on each one, in the order you’d tell them, until 
  you’ve run out of your points.
  Or, if you don’t know your character’s history yet—look over 
  the list below and figure out which stories you’d be most interest-
  ed in reading/watching about them? Again, spend a point on each 
  story, in the order of interest, until you’ve run out of your points.
  This approach could leave you short a couple of necessary 
  powers—for instance, you could wind up with a character that you 
  know has wings and can fly but without any Arcs that give them 
  wings or flight as a power. If so, I recommend going back and 
  working the missing powers somehow into your 8 points of Skills.
  Playing to Type
  Some players may prefer to choose their characters’ miracu-
  lous powers first, based on what they’d most enjoy playing, 
  and extrapolate the history backwards from that.
  In you’re that sort of player, here’s a basic guide to what the 
  miraculous Arcs in this book do:
  Accursed (pg. 543) gives you a tragic life and an incred-
  ible weapon;
  The Ace (pg. 530) makes you awesome with mundane 
  and Superior Skills;
  A Keeper of Gardens (pg. 537) is good if you like mak-
  ing NPC minions and props;
  Become Somebody (pg. 494) outfits you for a social role;
  Child of the Ash (pg. 508) gives you a giant war form 
  and some neat tricks; 
  Creature of Fable (pg. 525) eventually makes you a 
  terrifying bogeyman/huntress;
  Creature of the Light (pg. 520) eventually gives terri-
  fying levels of stage presence;
  Primordial (pg. 547) is great if you like coming up with 
  cool uses for strange little abilities and features, or if you 
  like being cosmically important.
  Reality Syndrome (pg. 500) has the F/X of ultimate 
  cosmic or story-breaking power but some serious limita-
  tions on how much you can exploit it;
  Sentimental (pg. 533) gives you collections of eccen-
  tric, unique abilities;
  Spiritual (pg. 515)  lets you command a player-defined 
  “element;” and
  Wounded Angel (pg. 490) trades wounds for custom-
  ized power sets of your own design.
  Feel free to choose your Arc Traits accordingly—or even to go 
  back and change your starting Arc so it fits!
  
  59
   
  Miraculous Characters—Choose 
  Your Arc Traits
  So here’s how to map those big stories of your character’s past to 
  Arc Traits. 
  For each of the most important stories in your character’s past, 
  put a point into... 
   
   Wounded Angel (pg. 490) if...
   
   your character tried to be better than they are, and failed
   
   your character dabbled in science, magic, or forbidden 
  powers
   Become Somebody (pg. 494)  if...
   
   your character had a role they were trying to fill
   
   your character fought to be normal and real when they 
  weren’t
   Reality Syndrome (pg. 500) if...
   
   your character was kind of delusional and goofy
   
   your character learned important lessons
   
   your character developed potentially story-breaking/god-
  like abilities
   Child of the Ash (pg. 508) if... 
   
   your character displayed an exceptionally deep sort of re-
  ality
   
   your character connected to a magical place, far away
   
   your character worried about turning into a giant monster, 
  or did
   Spiritual (pg. 515)  if... 
   
   your character spent a lot of time in dream-worlds and oth-
  er-worlds
   
   your character developed a deep connection to some “ele-
  ment” of the world, like Fire or Dreams or Recycling
   Creature of the Light (pg. 520) if... 
   
   your character developed into something inhuman, saintly, 
  and holy
   
   your character was a bit of a showoff at the story’s end
   
   your character was set apart and exalted in some fashion
   Creature of Fable (pg. 525) if...
   
   your character’s identity was compromised by a myth or 
  story
   
   your character acted like a mythic or archetypal figure
   
   your character fed off of others’ lives or natures to survive, 
  or hunted for food
   The Ace (pg. 530) if...
   
   your character fought hard to become “stronger”
   
   your character was basically an action hero
   
   your character was basically a pulp hero
   
   your character regularly achieved “flawless victory”
   Sentimental (pg. 533) if...
   
   your character collected magical things or animals
   
   your character created magical things
   
   your character studied an art or a craft
   
   your character’s good heart inspired others around them
   A Keeper of Gardens (pg. 537) if...
   
   your character claimed, maintained, or defended a magical 
  place
   
   your character created or summoned memorable minions 
  or props
   Accursed (pg. 543) if...
   
   your character retreated from the tumult of the world to a 
  special sanctuary
   
   your character fell under a terrible curse
   
   your character sulked and angsted over their awful fate
   
   your character didn’t sulk at all! But they showed their hurt 
  once or twice. Were they comforted, or did they suffer 
  alone? 
   Primordial (pg. 547)  if...
   
   your character developed unexpected inhuman features
   
   your character’s role in the cosmos and their identification 
  with some natural or philosophical force was really important
  Once you’re confident that you’ve chosen the right Arcs, or as part 
  of becoming so, review the Arcs you’ve chosen. Some of them 
  will have embedded character generation steps—for instance, if 
  you put points into Becoming Somebody, or even if you’re just 
  starting it now, you’ll want to choose a special Truth about your 
  character—as discussed, pg. 494.
  Miraculous Characters—Choose 
  Your Perks
  Characters in this game have access to a set of “Perks”—little 
  rewards and bonuses that they’ll pick up every few sessions. You 
  usually won’t keep them forever, since you’re only allowed to 
  maintain up to 8.
  Realistically, unless your character just fell out of the sky a few 
  minutes ago, you should have a full set of 8 of them. Even mortal 
  characters should have a full set of 8 of them, because, after all, 
  they’ve lived life.
  ...but I don’t want you to spend the time figuring out what your 
  character’s historically-developed Perks “should” be every time 
  you create a character. I don’t even want you to spend much time 
  figuring out what Perks you might want!
  By default a miraculous character starts with two free Perks. 
  So, if you know what you’re doing in this game, pick a couple 
  of Perks now—or, if the HG changed the number you get, pick 
  however many you should.
  But... if you’re not familiar with this game, if you haven’t 
  picked out any Perks before over the course of a campaign? Then 
  I suggest that you skip them for now. Later on, maybe between 
  sessions or during a break, look over the Perk lists on pg. 393-448. 
  If you see one that you really want, particularly one that you could 
  have plausibly picked up while pursuing your Arcs? Take it, up to 
  however many free Perks you should get.
  And if you don’t see any that grab you, don’t worry about it. 
  You’ll get up to 8 soon enough!
  
  Step 4: Choose Your 
  Bonus XP Emotion
  Step 5: Little Details
  60
  60
  Step 4: Choose Your Bonus 
  XP Emotion
  In Chuubo’s Marvelous Wish-Granting Engine, each charac-
  ter has a “bonus XP emotion”—a particular emotional reaction 
  you’re trying to get from the other players.
  Let’s pick yours!
  I suggest...
   
  ŭ Aww!  XP
   
   if you want incredible troubles piled on your back
   
   if you want to face them stoically
   
   if you want to be kind of cute and adorable in how you cope 
  with them
   
   if you have a tragic backstory
   
  ŭ Head-Desk XP
   
   if you want a good excuse to do kind of goofy stuff in play
   
   if people are always head-desking at your characters anyway
   
   if you want to not think things through very well
   
   if you want to have powers with a really high unintended 
  consequence risk
   
  ŭ Fist-Shaking XP
   
   if you want to be totally convinced you’re the center of the 
  universe
   
   if you like being a lovable jerk
   
   if you have an impulse control problem
   
   if your name is a good one to shout while shaking one’s fist
   
  ŭ “Oh no! (Name) is in Trouble!” XP
   
   if you plan to get in way over your head all the time
   
   if you’re irrationally convinced of
  • your own personal immortality
  • everyone else’s good intentions
  • the fundamental justice of the universe
   
   if you’re cute, underaged and/or undersized
   
  ŭ (Overacted) Speechlessness XP 
   
   if you want to be bombastic and over the top
   
   if you’re living in your own world
   
   if you’re absolutely convinced of your own righteousness 
  and logic
   
   if you overcome self-doubt with bluster and grandeur
   
  ŭ (Overacted) Shiver of Wonder/Terror XP
   
   if you’re older, bigger, and/or in a position of authority
   
   if you’re monstrous in some fashion
   
   if you’re the symbol or the spearhead of some cosmic principle
   
  ŭ Putting my Faith in You (with this XP token) XP
   
   if you’re a big brother/big sister archetype
   
   if you’re sincere and diligent
   
   if you’re earnest and heroic
   
   if you’re a lot skilled and just a little bit lucky
   
  ŭ Offering you Comfort (with this XP token) XP
   
   if you stress out a lot over your life
   
   if you’re a comparatively normal person
   
   if you have a big neurosis, trauma, sickness, or fear
   
   if your big successes are rare
   
  ŭ Finger-snap and beckon over XP
   
   if you’re a natural minion (in denial or otherwise)
   
   if other people are always roping you into stuff
   
   if you’re a fool for love or friendship
   
   if you wouldn’t know what to do with your life on your own
   
  ŭ Fist-Pump/Salute XP
   
   if you have a ton of catchphrases
   
   if you’re bombastic, larger-than-life, and dramatic
   
   if you have a genre
   
   if you don’t really act like (or think) the world around you 
  is real
   
  ŭ Thumbs-Up XP
   
   if you’re kind of sweet and kind of goofy
   
   if you’re a natural sidekick
   
   if you don’t believe in yourself
   
   if you think of others first
   
  ŭ Something Unique
   
   if you have a good idea for another emotion to evoke
   
   and a good hand gesture/sound for other players to use to 
  signal that emotion
  The goal is to get that reaction from the other players through 
  your character’s actions—e.g., if you have thumbs-up XP, and you 
  get other players to be happy for your character, and give you a 
  thumbs-up, you’ll earn an XP!
  Step 5: Little Details
  Next I have some miscellaneous questions about your character.
   You... don’t actually have to answer them. But you might!
   
  ŭ What’s their name?
   
  ŭ What’s a good 1-2-word summary of their academic ability?
   
  ŭ What’s a good 1-2-word summary of their athletic ability?
   
  ŭ Do you know their blood type?
   
  ŭ What’s their favorite food?
   
  ŭ What’s a zodiac or real animal that you think has a similar 
  nature to theirs?
  
  Step 6: Choose Your 
  Connections
  61
   
  Step 6: Choose Your 
  Connections
  Connections are basically a measure of how well you know and 
  get somebody. They’re also a measure of how good you are at 
  living somewhere or with someone.
  The backstory in your head doesn’t start you off with any Con-
  nections—
  The past is generally subject to revision and reinterpretation 
  right up to the moment that it matters in actual play—
  But that’s only true to the extent that your character is show-
  ing up “for the first time” in play. If there’s something about 
  your character that already has mindshare with the other play-
  ers—like, maybe you talked about them and their family a lot 
  before the game started, or they have specific ties to in-world 
  organizations, or if you’re borrowing a character from histo-
  ry, real life, or the media, or you’re taking over an established 
  NPC—then the HG should talk to you about what Connections 
  might be appropriate, and you might pick up a few starting 
  “Connection Perks” free. For instance, if you’re playing King 
  Arthur, and Merlin, Lancelot, and Guinevere are all around in 
  the game, then you should probably start Connected to them 
  by default!
  I’m also going to give you the option of starting with free Con-
  nection Perks to one or more of the other PCs—
  Specifically, you should talk to the players of the other char-
  acters, either now or after the first couple of sessions. If someone 
  agrees that you “should” be close to or comfortable with their 
  PC, you can get a free level 1 Connection Perk relating you to 
  their PC!
  
  Step 7: Choose Your 
  Basic Quest
  62
  62
  Step 7: Choose Your Basic 
  Quest
  Finally, in a typical Chuubo’s Marvelous Wish-Granting En-
  gine campaign, every character has a “basic quest” (pg. 450)—a 
  thing they’re always doing, in the background. Every now and 
  then this will earn you a precious memory or cool thing (a “Re-
  charge Token”)—specifically, at the end of each 15-XP repeti-
  tion of the quest.
  For now, imagine your character. Write down, or at least re-
  member, your answers to these questions:
   
  ŭ It’s just a random day. A random time. What are they doing? 
  What do you see them doing?
   
  ŭ If it’s something different—what’s the core of their character? 
  What do you want to be showing about them, all the time, that 
  might get lost if you just focus on their powers and their abili-
  ties and the dramatic stuff?
   
  ŭ What’s something that isn’t necessarily super-productive, isn’t 
  necessarily going to be “worth it” by standard gameplay mea-
  surements, but which you don’t want them to get discouraged 
  about because it’s who they are?
  Looking over all of that—
  What’s your basic quest? What’s the thing that they’re always 
  doing?
  Again, decide if it’s...
   
  ŭ ...a way of thinking?
   
   You will spend a lot of time proposing relevant theories/
  ideas in play.
   
   If that sounds right, fill out the blue quest card from pg. 93.
   
  ŭ ...a private struggle? 
   
   You will maintain a false public front over private troubles 
  in play.
   
   If that sounds right, fill out the orange quest card from pg. 99.
   
  ŭ ...a temptation or division between states? 
   
   You’ll have two very different moods/states in play.
   
   If that sounds right, fill out the green quest card from pg. 96.
   
  ŭ ...a love or hate you have for something? 
   
   You’ll have a catchphrase/exclamation that you’ll use fre-
  quently.
   
   If that sounds right, or at least plausible, fill out the red 
  quest card from pg. 91.
   
  ŭ ...an exciting adventure? 
   
   Quest-related stuff will often go over the top!
   
   If that sounds right, fill out the golden quest card from pg. 95.
   
  ŭ ...part of a simple and honest life? 
   
   You’ll have a catchphrase that puts things in your ordinary 
  life’s context.
   
   If that sounds right, or at least plausible, fill out the purple 
  quest card from pg. 90.
   
  ŭ ...part of the background of your life and healing? 
   
   You’ll have a catchphrase that reflects your life’s current state.
   
   If that sounds right, or at least plausible, fill out the gray 
  quest card from pg. 101.
   
  ŭ ...something weird, symbolic, and mystical? 
   
   Fill out the black quest card from pg. 102.
  Only this time you need 15 XP.
  Some Suggested Basic Quests
  Are you always...
   talking/thinking about your favorite thing, like
   
  ŭ animals?
   
  ŭ ships?
   
  ŭ manga?
   
  ŭ science fiction novels?
   
  ŭ cooking?
   
  ŭ your latest health fad?
   
  ŭ fresh air?
   
  ŭ the game of Go?
   
  ŭ historical trivia?
   
  ŭ candy?
   fretting over exaggerated fears?
   getting really worked up over your favorite thing?
   or some fear?
   or some ideological/conspiracy theory concern? or
   torn between two worlds or natures?
  Then that could be your basic quest!
   studying the world around you, scientifically?
   thinking about fate, destiny, and meaning?
   thinking about spirits, ecology, or gods?
   thinking about justice, morality, and the right?
   trying to live up to some virtue?
   trying to live up to some social role?
   wrestling with a dark or troubled past?
   working on and thinking about some job or life thing, like 
   
  ŭ housework?
   
  ŭ sailing?
   
  ŭ fishing?
   
  ŭ woodworking?
   
  ŭ gardening?
   
  ŭ martial arts?
   
  ŭ art? or 
   
  ŭ music? 
  
  Resources
  
  CHAPTER 4: RE-
  SOURCES
  Skills
  64
  64
  Resources
  I’ve talked about how characters are built and mentioned a number of Traits and abilities they might have. I’d like to take a few chapters 
  now and explain them—the rules and concepts that make your character run.
   Skills 
  A Skill is a simple description of something your character is good 
  at—one of the tools they use to solve problems in the world. It’s 
  normally a one-word summary of an actual Skill, like “Cooking,” 
  “Cook,” or “Teacher,” but it could be a philosophy like “People 
  are good” or a complex concept like “Discover a Convenient 
  Shortcut” or “There’s Nothing a Nip of Vodka Won’t Cure.”
  Each Skill is paired with a numerical rating from 0 to 5—e.g.
   
  ŭ Cooking 0
   
  ŭ People are Good 5
   
  ŭ Scholar 2
   
  ŭ Discover a Convenient Shortcut 1 
  You can even go lower, if you want to say how bad your character 
  is at something. I’ve never found a reason to go lower than -1.
  0 is the default Skill.
  Let’s say that you’re a human. Then you have a default level 
  0 Skill at basically anything that humans do that isn’t covered by 
  your other Skills. For instance, most characters have Brain Sur-
  gery 0. They’re not good at it, but they’re about as good at it as is 
  the average person on the street. 
  The Skill levels mean something like...
   -1► You’re not good with this, but you do/enact it anyway.
    0► You’re not comfortable with this, but you could try it.
    1► You’re familiar with how this works.
    2► You’re good at this.
    3► You’re professional level.
    4► You’re a once-in-a-generation prodigy or an elite, top-shelf 
  professional.
    5► You’re a legend, or should be.
  Gaming Terminology
  Nobilis—these rules are based on the rules from my earlier 
  RPG Nobilis: the Essentials, which focused more on cosmic 
  metaphysical conflict than on pastoral slice of life. 
  Of the two, Nobilis is a more technical game. It has 
  more precise handling for weird corner cases of the rules 
  and a rigorous power design system. Chuubo’s Marvelous 
  Wish-Granting Engine is a looser design, but I’m spending 
  more time explaining the hows and the whys.
  The biggest metaphysical and setting difference between 
  the two games is the formation of the Outside. In Nobilis, 
  I divided the world sharply into the real and the unreal—
  Creation, and the Lands Beyond. That division is much less 
  sharp in this game, which divides the world into the Known 
  (mostly Town and what survives of Earth) and the Unknown. 
  Not only is that line intrinsically blurrier but it’s a lot harder 
  to observe!
  That may be part of why you get stuff like the Riders (pg. 
  292) living peacefully in Town.
  You don’t need to know anything about Nobilis to use 
  these rules. This isn’t a Nobilis supplement. I just happen 
  to mention Nobilis, now and again, since it’s a part of this 
  game’s DNA!
  Gaming Terminology
  Trait—an OOC, rules-based representation of some ability or 
  quality your character possesses. Skills are one example of 
  a Trait.
  
  Actions
  65
   
   Actions 
  Here’s how Skills work in practice. You remember my mentioning 
  Will earlier?
  You have a pool of 8 Will.6
  When you take an action, you’ll pick one of your Skills to use 
  as the basis for that action. If that Skill isn’t an obvious choice, 
  you’ll want to describe what you’re doing in such a way as to 
  explain how it applies. 
  Then you’ll spend some Will from your pool, adding it to your 
  Skill number. 
  You’ll compare the total of [your Skill + spent Will] to the list 
  of things that you can do below:
  You can claim as many of these as you want, up to the level of 
  [your Skill + spent Will.]
  6  Some characters have a secondary pool of 3 “miraculous Will”—but 
  we’ll talk about that below!
  This chart is why I said that a level 3 Skill implied professional 
  competence, for instance—with Skill 3, even if you’re staggering 
  and completely out of spare cope, you can still do things “cor-
  rectly,” for some value of correct. It’s also why a level 5 Skill is 
  legendary: a single point of Will lets you do the kinds of tricks you 
  normally only see in action movies or the pulps.
  Note that the HG is allowed to give you more success than 
  you’ve earned—for instance, you’re allowed to be effective or 
  productive with a lower result than 4. Every time I come home 
  and open my door, I’m probably mustering a Skill total of like 0-1, 
  but I have tangible impact on the world anyway and sometimes 
  opening that door is even actively productive! That’s the leniency 
  of the cosmic HG. 
  Most of the time, for most purposes in this game, a 2-point out-
  come will be “enough.” But sometimes you’ll really want some-
  thing higher-level than that and it’s worth spending extra Will for 
  a guarantee.
  You can...
  0 or 
  less
  attempt to do things, but only make things worse;
  1 
  use your Skill in such a fashion as to please yourself 
  and make you happy;
  2 
  accomplish a task; have a tangible impact on the world;
  3
  do something “correctly;” impress people around you;
  4
  do something effective—something that moves you 
  closer to your goals;
  5
  do something productive—something that makes 
  your life better.
  6
  do something that looks dang good—impressive, 
  dramatic, and cool;
  7
  do something really effective, moving you a lot 
  closer to your goals;
  8
  do something really productive—it will make your 
  life a lot better;
  9
  do the “right thing,” for some fuzzy definition of right.
  
  Intentions
  66
  66
   Intentions 
  Your actions aren’t bound to any particular time-scale. They’re 
  not necessarily fire-and-forget. More often you’ll set yourself a 
  task or project—
  I call this an Intention.
  You don’t spend Will so that you can “swing a sword” or “turn 
  the oven on.” You spend Will to “win a fight” or “bake a cake.” To 
  “prove [yourself] a hero” or to “cook for the family this week.” 
  Maybe even to “live a full, fulfilling, happy life.”
  And sure, at some point during that happy, fulfilling life you’ll 
  probably swing a sword or two, turn an oven on, you know how it 
  is, but that isn’t all there is to living a happy life. There’s also, like, 
  um, you know. Other stuff! Like, you’ve got to type! 
  And, blow your nose!
  Even if you did just want to swing a sword once, and that was 
  all, you’d have to:
   
  ŭ first, get it moving;
   
  ŭ move it through its arc; and even then, you’d have to
   
  ŭ bring it to a stop.
  It isn’t just a single thing, you see. Not just a swing.
  Nothing mortal ever is.
  So the normal mode of operation in this system is that you take 
  your Skill, add some Will, and create a [Skill + Will]-based Inten-
  tion. This then hangs around for a while—until the chapter ends, 
  or until you finish, or until you stop doing it. It’s always there, 
  part of your life. If you splurge on a level 6 fitness program in a 
   Pastoral game, you could wind up doing some really impressive 
  exercise all week. If you’re ever just “doing” something in the 
  game without formally invoking the mechanics, it’s probably a 
  [Skill + 0] Intention—the rest of the time it’s either a bigger Inten-
  tion you forgot to spend Will on, a power, or a mistake!
  You can have two Intentions floating around at any given time.
  Strictly speaking the rule is you can be performing two actions 
  at any given time, and Intentions are a kind of action. They’re the big-
  gest, most important kind, because they’re the kind most people take.
  Will Spending
  Here are the amounts of Will you’re allowed to spend on an Intention:
  ► 0 Will - free!
  ► 1 Will
  ► 2 Will
  ► 4 Will - a strain on mind and body
  ► 8 Will - a potentially murderous strain on mind and body
  I’ve skipped some numbers there to help make Skills feel a little more 
  distinct and fluid—it helps each point of Skill make a difference in 
  what you’re capable of, rather than just feeling like a point discount.
  So if you’re wondering if you can spend exactly 3 Will or 5 
  Will or something?
  Nope!
  You can’t!
  Will Recovery
  There are four reasons why you might shed (stop carrying) one of 
  your Intentions.
   
  ŭ you finished what you were doing, successfully.
   
  ŭ you’ve given up.
   
  ŭ this chapter of the game is over. A new chapter means new Will 
  and new Intentions!
   
  ŭ you have too much to do and have to drop it now to make room 
  for something else.
  The first two cases are life-affirming—they represent natural end-
  points. It doesn’t matter if you’ve finished by saying “this is good 
  enough for now” or “Gah! This isn’t working!”: 
  You’ve finished. 
  That matters.
  If you spend 1+ Will on an Intention, and you can get to that 
  kind of ending—whether it’s victory, a good stopping place, or a 
  wall you can’t get past—you get one point of that spent Will back. 
  If it’s not like that, though—if the Intention just kind of 
  trails off?
  That’s not as good. You don’t get back the Will.
  As noted, at the beginning of each chapter of the game,7 you’ll 
  shed all of your Intentions and get back all 8 Will.
  7  For instance, in a typical Pastoral game, this is on Sunday’s dawn.
  Time Scales
  As noted (right), Intentions reset each chapter. What if you’re 
  doing something on a bigger time-scale?
  One option is to just pick it up again each new chapter—ev-
  ery chapter you make a new Intention and go out and deal with it 
  some more. That’s how some people get through their lives, par-
  ticularly if they’re not trying to get anywhere. Another option is 
  to lobby the HG to zoom out the time-scale of the game, if you’re 
  not the only one focused on stuff bigger-picture than a chapter.
  The last option is to take up the matter as a quest.
  The division between Intentions and quests is pretty much 
  conceptual. If something feels like a big, long-term project, 
  it’s a quest, even if you super-rush it and finish it in a chapter. 
  If something feels like a quick, short-term thing, it’s an Inten-
  tion, even if you wind up having to drop the Intention and pick 
  it back up again over the course of multiple books.
  Gaming Terminology
  Sustained Action—something you are currently doing.
  
  Miraculous Will
  Obstacles
  67
   
   Miraculous Will 
  A few characters have powers that make things a little easier. 
  They’ll glide through life, or at least, a specific part of life, without 
  it taking the normal toll on their energy and cope.
  I don’t want to just waive the Will cost for this stuff.
  Perfection won’t let you escape the fundamental experiences of 
  the game. No matter how smooth your life is, the Road of Trials will 
  still take its toll. Even the greatest genius has a finite weekly output 
  in a Pastoral game; an epic fantasy demands decisiveness; an im-
  mersive fantasy requires alertness, care, and attention to the world.
  So instead—
  If you have a power like this, I’m giving you access to a sec-
  ond pool of Will: a pool of 3 “miraculous Will.” This pool refresh-
  es automatically every time you complete an in-genre XP Action, 
  and every time you’re in a scene with somebody else who does.
  So, for instance, you’re in a Pastoral game. You’re in a scene 
  with someone who does a Slice of Life Action—
  You’ll refresh your 3 miraculous Will.
  Or, you’re in an Immersive Fantasy, and you make a cool 
  Discovery? 
  That’ll refresh this pool as well.
  No matter how many powers you have like this, there’s only one 
  pool of miraculous Will. If you have a power that lets you spend 
  miraculous Will to cook, then you can spend your miraculous Will 
  to cook. If you have a second power that lets you spend miraculous 
  Will to fight, then you can spend from your single pool of 3 miracu-
  lous Will to cook or fight. But it’s the same single pool in every case.
  You can use Will and miraculous Will on the same action. Or 
  not, if you’d rather not! If you lose track of which kind of Will 
  fueled a given Intention, don’t sweat it too much—you’re not sup-
  posed to use the Will recovery mechanic to funnel Will from your 
  miraculous Will pool to your regular one, but as long as you’re not 
  deliberately doing that, I don’t expect you to keep careful track.
  What is this for?
  I don’t want this to become standard-issue—it works against 
  the point of “8 Will per chapter”—but I suspect that if the 
  game runs long enough about half of the PCs will pick up 
  some access to miraculous Will. 
  “This is particularly easy for me” just seems like a com-
  mon sort of power to have!
  That’s why I’m giving it a prominent place.
   Obstacles 
  Not everything is easy. There’s a fundamental difference between 
  petting a lonely kitten while sitting right next to that kitten... and 
  petting it across the void of interplanetary space.
  One is practical.
  The other faces an Obstacle (level 4).
  In Chuubo’s Marvelous Wish-Granting Engine, an Obstacle 
  is a game mechanic representing the fundamental impracticality 
  of what you’re trying to do. Its rating summarizes how far you’re 
  having to warp the current definition of your Skill and circum-
  stances to apply that Skill to do this thing.
  Put another way, it’s a measure of how ill-equipped your Skill 
  is to do what you want to do.
  I mean—
  This is totally circumstantial. If you have a remote robot 
  arm for petting kittens, you can reasonably pet a lonely kit-
  ten from a bio-station around some moon of Mars. The light-
  speed delay might be a problem but it won’t stop you. So don’t 
  make the mistake of thinking Obstacles are an intrinsic part 
  of the task.
  It’s just...
  You’ve said something. You’ve declared an action. 
  Leaving aside success and failure, how reasonable is the idea?
  The basic scale of Obstacles looks something like:
  Obstacle 0. 
  This is a reasonable thing to do, particularly with  
   
  that Skill.
  Obstacle 1.  
  This is going to be rough.
  Obstacle 2.  
  This is going to be epic. Or a failure.
  Obstacle 3.  
  This isn’t possible, but if you squint, you can see 
   
  “possible” from there.
  Obstacle 4. 
  This is just plain goofy.
  Obstacle 5. 
  This is fundamentally, outrageously impossible 
   
  —it violates logic, thermodynamics, genre, or  
   
  something else close to the HG’s heart.
  Let’s implement this in the kitten example. You’re trying to pet 
  a kitten and make it purr. You are using your default, level 0 Kit-
  ten-Petting Skill. How rough is this going to be? 
  Some examples of how rough it could be, and the accompany-
  ing Obstacle, include:
  Obstacle 0.  
  The kitten is right there.
  Obstacle 1.  
  The kitten is skittish and does not want petting.
  Obstacle 2.  
  The kitten is in the open maw of a nearby shark.
  Obstacle 3.  
  The kitten is in a sealed, steel box.
  Obstacle 4.  
  The kitten is on Eris. (A dwarf planet populated by  
   
  a species of melancholy bat-people. And their kitten.)
  Obstacle 5.  
  The kitten is dead. Three years ago it fell into the  
   
  heart of the sun.
   
   
  Did it ever even exist at all?
  
  68
  68
  Here’s how this actually manifests in play.
  Obstacles are a “Skill Penalty.” 
  Before you claim any rewards, you subtract the highest appli-
  cable Skill Penalty from your Intention. So if I want to pet a kitten 
  and make it purr, and it is in a sealed steel box, my Intention rating 
  is [my Skill (0) + spent Will (0, 1, 2, 4, or 8) - the Obstacle (3)].
  Reasonably speaking this does less than nothing—
  I probably can’t even figure out how to start. 
  I poke the box, maybe. Maybe not. There are no guarantees. 
  The kitten may not even be alive. But let’s say I find a way to bring 
  my Lion-Taming 4 Skill into play. (Let’s also say that I have such 
  a Skill, even though I don’t.) And let’s say I put two Will into it. 
  Subtract 3 and we still wind up with me being able to pet the cat 
  “correctly”—as an elite Lion-Tamer, even the steel box doesn’t 
  stop me from impressing the people around me with my ability 
  to make it purr.
  But that’s not actually all that weird!
  I bet it’s like...
  I tap the box here. I tap the box there. I tap it here, and there, 
  and—
  There is now a purring coming from inside the box.
  This could happen! It’s absurd but not impossible. I have seen 
  similar events transpire. 
  Reasonable Applications
  or, “I blow up the earth with my mind.
  Cooking Skill 3 + 8 Will.”8
  Note that at no point here does the HG have to violate causality 
  or reason. There’s never anything that says that the HG has to let 
  my arm stretch between planets if I don’t have a stretchy arm or 
  pass through steel if I don’t have a way to do it. The Obstacle isn’t 
  there to say “petting kittens across time and space is difficult.” It 
  is difficult, but that’s not the meaning of the Obstacle.
  The Obstacle is there to say—
  “This is well outside the things you know how to do with your 
  Skill. Do you even know how to start? How to make something 
  happen? What you’re trying to achieve?”
  So there’s only a level 4 Obstacle to blowing up the Earth with 
  your mind. 
  It’s goofy but it’s not literally impossible—it’s not a per-
  petual motion machine or a paradox or anything. You can take 
  your Cooking Skill 3 and your 8 Will, or, I don’t know, maybe 
  your Glass-Making Skill would be better, but the point is, with 
  just those tools you can still get to a level 7 Intention despite the 
  nigh-impossibility of the feat.
  It’s super-effective!
  ...but that doesn’t mean that the world blows up.
  I feel that what should happen is something like this. Your 
  mental conception of the earthbreaker omelette—“you can’t blow 
  up the earth without cracking a few eggs”—actually causes trem-
  bling in the substrate. Lights blow out. Tables shake. People who 
  were scoffing just a few moments ago are looking a little worried 
  now; and if you want this worry to be useful in intimidating them 
  later, that’s cool, because that helps make your actions productive 
  (one of the benefits you can claim).
  Overall that image is sillier than I’d like, and less effective 
  than I’d like—
  But I’m actually pretty satisfied with this scene. I mean, in a 
  heavily realistic game it might be better to replace it with a dream 
  sequence and in a full-on comedy the Earth might actually blow 
  up just then9 but the whole trembling substrate, minor earthquake, 
  people worried thing? That seems like it’s a pretty fair response to 
  the Intention level that doesn’t tear the veil of reason away.
  So stuff could happen. Even with just a level 2 Intention, 
  something probably will happen.
  But, you probably still won’t blow up the world. The HG 
  doesn’t have to let you. “Really effective at using cooking Skill to 
  blow up the world with your mind” isn’t the most effective thing 
  in the world to be super-effective at!
  8  Now you’re cooking with gas!
  9  Strangelets.
  Sweet but Troubled 
  Kid
  “It’s really OK? I can have this?”
  Seizhi Schwan, the Best Friend, 
  doublechecking before actually chewing an offered 
  stick of gum 
  - Character Type earns: Thumbs-Up XP -
  Emotion XP
  
  The Meaning of a 
  Skill
  69
   
   The Meaning of a Skill 
   
  Discovery
  Part of the reason that we know that Cooking Skill can’t psychi-
  cally blow up the world is that the Skill has a plain, common-sense 
  meaning. 
  Not every Skill does. 
  And even a Skill like Cooking has a meaning that evolves over 
  time—if two cooks have this Skill, one may master the perfect 
  sandwich while another focuses on fancy high-tech foods. Their 
  Skills might both be called “Cooking,” and they each might be 
  able to learn to do the other’s tricks in short order, but the Skills 
  themselves are not the same.
  So let’s talk about how Skills differentiate and define them-
  selves during play.
  Consider a ninja faced with a blackboard and a complex sys-
  tem of linear equations on it. The ninja throws down a smoke 
  bomb, vanishes; when the smoke clears, a solution is written on 
  the board.
  Ninjutsu, to solve a system of linear equations. Can such a 
  thing be done?
  As noted, the HG is under no real obligation to allow it. It’s 
  obvious that the ninja can write something on the board during the 
  smoky interval, at least with an Intention 2+, but whether it’s cor-
  rect or not—well, equation no jutsu seems like an odd technique 
  for a ninja to have.
  They probably can’t get it right! Not even with a “correct ac-
  tion” (3+) Intention!
  ...unless they can. 
  Unless it’s well-known that equation no jutsu is one of the 
  techniques that they do have, maybe, or should. Or unless Chi ma-
  nipulation theory is actually grounded in systems of linear equa-
  tions, which all ninjas must learn to solve in an instant. Or maybe 
  even if they’re in a comedy game, because in a comedy game, 
  (insert task) no jutsu is probably fine.
  So the answer to my earlier question is, if your Ninjutsu can 
  solve systems of linear equations, then it can solve systems of 
  linear equations. If it can’t, then it can’t. It’s nothing to do with the 
  fuzzy, abstract division between ninjas and mathematicians; it’s 
  only about the concept and the history of that one particular Skill.
  What about Skills like “Excellence?” “Do Stuff?” “Dashing 
  Hero?” “Good Fortune?”
  Can they handle systems of linear equations?
  Again it’s not about an abstract comparison of the word or sen-
  tence fragment to the task at hand; it’s about the meaning of those 
  words, as established over time in play. The power of a Skill isn’t 
  determined by its name or even its number; it comes from the 
  credibility of your idea about how you’re using it, based on your 
  high concept for the Skill, your confidence as a player, and the 
  elements and outcomes established in previous events.
  So here’s how this works in play.
  When you start using a Skill, you need to construe it pretty 
  narrowly. You need to focus on the things that you know that it lets 
  you do, the things that are central to its concept; and if you haven’t 
  really determined that, then the first few things you do with it will 
  help to define that concept.
  However, over time, you’re allowed to stretch it out.
  You can shake it up a little bit, do something that’s pretty close 
  to what worked before, and that’ll be fine—just Obstacle 0, a nor-
  mal use of the Skill. And then you can push it a little farther than 
  that, and so forth, potentially down the slippery slope forever until 
  you’re using your “Architecture” to fly a car.10
  You can even learn to do harder, more out-of-reach things.
  If you stretch a Skill to an Obstacle 1-2 application, and suc-
  ceed at the underlying task, and you do that often enough, repeat 
  it often enough—eventually it stops having an Obstacle, or maybe 
  drops down from level 2 to level 1. It stops being really weird and 
  unusual. It becomes just a part of how you use that Skill.
  In sum, your Skills aren’t in their final form when you get 
  them. You can develop them, even if the numbers don’t change. 
  Getting the most out of your Skills is a learning process—you and 
  the HG will learn what they will be good for over the course of 
  the game.
  10  It branches off that thing with the pickles.
  
  Tools
  Confl ict
  Edge
  70
  70
   Tools 
  The opposite pole from an Obstacle is something that puts you on 
  firmer ground—something that acts as a guideline, as a stabilizer, 
  as a support team. 
  Something that makes you better.
  Chuubo’s Marvelous Wish-Granting Engine calls these 
  somethings Tools.
  Tools are pretty rare. Even a +1 Tool turns someone complete-
  ly unskilled into an amateur and lifts a professional up to the level 
  of the elite. A +2 Tool is radical; it makes your Keanu Reeves’ into 
  your Humphrey Bogarts, puts your local college physicist on a 
  level with Steven Hawking, and gives random people off the street 
  the illusion of reasonable competence at whatever the Tool is for. 
  That said—
  A lot of low-end mystical effects manifest as +1 or +2 Tools. 
  A shrine might offer +1 towards getting in touch with the spiritual 
  world. A magical cloak might be a +1 Tool towards concealing 
  yourself. The Meyer House is peaceful; it gives a +1 Tool bonus 
  towards a good night’s sleep.
   Conflict 
  The rule for handling conflict between Intentions is pretty simple.
  First, calculate the effects of Tools, Obstacles, and whatever.
  Then, compare the numerical ratings for the two actions. The 
  higher-level action “wins,” and the HG gives it the appropriate 
  rewards for its Intention rating. Then lower-rated actions get, well, 
  as much as is possible from what’s left.
  So for instance, if I have an Intention to take a shower, and you 
  have an Intention to shut off my building’s water, and you have 
  the higher Intention rating—well, at the very least, your action 
  resolves first.
  Our actions aren’t directly opposed. There could be water left 
  in the water tower. I could be perfectly content just trying to show-
  er and realizing that there isn’t water. But the point is, if your 
  Intention rating is higher, my shower is taken in a context of the 
  building’s water being off. Or maybe the water hasn’t even gone 
  off all the way yet and all you’ve done really is add an Obstacle to 
  my shower—that gets really ridiculously math-y and flow-chart-y 
  for a diceless RPG showering system, but it could arguably hap-
  pen.
  The point is, if my action has a lower number, then it’s taken in 
  the context of your action. It’s taken in a world where your action 
  is guaranteed success and mine, as yet, is not.
  If the two numbers tie—
  It’s really up to the HG. I suggest a bias towards “the defend-
  er,” if there is one, and after that towards “the most reasonable 
  victor,” but, basically, it’s just up to the HG which “wins” the 
  conflict and takes precedence.
   Edge 
  Sometimes a conflict is weighted. It isn’t fair. Somebody in a 
  bomber plane will probably win a fight with me even if I train for 
  like two years in mantis-style kung fu. Even if I become a much 
  better all-around fighter than they are due to an unconventional 
  mantis11 the fact that they have one jet, plus bombs, is an almost 
  unconquerable Edge.
  Edge acts as a Skill Penalty to the disadvantaged party; only, 
  it’s only a penalty for the purposes of resolving conflicts. It doesn’t 
  actually make them worse at what they’re doing. It just means that 
  they’re outgunned. 
  How outgunned? Something like...
  0 ► This is a fair fight.
  1 ► It’s a race, and you know the terrain (and they don’t.)
  2 ► It’s a jury trial and all the jurors are on your side.
  3 ► It’s a water balloon fight and you’ve got the last water balloon.
  4 ► It’s a foot race, and you have an armored motorcycle.
  5 ► It’s a game of “guess what Alexei will say next”... and you’re  
       Alexei. 
  11  Er, master. I mean, master.
  Note that an opponent’s Edge doesn’t stack with an Obstacle—
  they’re both Skill Penalties. So if you’re in a footrace against 
  someone who knows the terrain (Edge 1) and you haven’t had a 
  good night’s sleep in the past few days (Obstacle 1), their Edge 
  just doesn’t matter. If you’re a brawl against someone who can 
  fly (Edge 3) and you haven’t had a good night’s sleep in the past 
  few days (Obstacle 1), you’re at a -1 penalty in general and a -3 
  in terms of deciding who wins the brawl—but you’re not at a -4.
  In a normal contest, only one side has Edge at a time. This isn’t 
  100%—if you’re playing full-team basketball against a 2-person 
  team but the referees are completely on their side, it might be 
  more convenient to think of both sides as having 2-3 Edge instead 
  of neither side having any—but one side at a time is the normal 
  approach: the HG boils everything down to determine which 
  side has the actual advantage, and then, how much of one. This 
  is why I’ll sometimes talk about something giving you a certain 
  amount of Edge “in an otherwise fair contest”—powers like that 
  won’t mean as much if the deck is already stacked, in your favor 
  or against.
  
  The Ace
  Cool
  The Prodigy
  71
   
   The Ace 
  Some characters will develop the miraculous ability to... do ordi-
  nary, human things really well. It might be Skill-specific, making 
  them a miraculous doctor, knitter, or fisherwoman; or, they might 
  just be really good at everything.
  Sometimes I’ll call that, and particularly that last option, being 
  the Ace.
  I don’t really want to talk about miraculous abilities yet. I’ll 
  get to them! But not quite yet. I just want to talk for a moment 
  about the idea of a perfected or improved human because I’ll be 
  using it as a mental shorthand in discussing the ideas to come.
  Some perfected Ace, some once-in-a-generation prodigy—
  They wouldn’t always need to test themselves with Will and 
  Intentions to get things done. They’d be able to bypass all the 
  difficulties and just do things—but what things? Could they run at 
  thirty miles per hour? That’s not that much faster than Usain Bolt. 
  What about forty? Sixty miles per hour? One hundred? 
  Just how fast can they run? Just how much can they lift? 
  Could they outwrestle a dragon? Stare down a sea serpent? 
  Shatter glass with their spit at a range of twenty yards?
  Where exactly is the line for perfection?
  I think in some cases it’s OK to let that depend upon the play-
  er. I think that in some cases it might be OK to let a perfected or 
  enhanced human do something, but only if the player explains it 
  first—if they want to wrestle an elephant to the ground, they may 
  need more than just the declaration of perfection, but also a hand-
  wave like “elephant judo” or even something more realistic and 
  precise.12 It may take details and discussion to anchor one’s belief 
  to before one can imagine a perfected human doing any given 
  thing; the line may be a pretty mutable and circumstantial thing.
  I’m going to rely on it anyway, though—the line between per-
  fected and impossible Skill—so that’s why I’m defining how Aces 
  work herein.
  12  “Asiatic elephant judo”
   Cool 
  Cool is a sort of Skill with special rules. It’s pretty rare.
  It’s basically your ability to make whatever you’re doing look 
  easy.
  You don’t use Cool actively. Instead, anyone trying to hurt 
  you, embarrass you, corrupt you, co-opt you, or mess with some-
  thing you’re actively watching or protecting takes your Cool as a 
  Skill penalty to their mundane actions.
  This won’t stack with Obstacles or Edge, so it’s most useful 
  when you’re fighting on an apparently fair battlefield.
  The ratings look something like:
   
  ŭ Cool 0: Ordinary levels of Cool.
   
  ŭ Cool 1: You’re unrealistically cool, like “the cool one” in an 
  American sitcom.
   
  ŭ Cool 2: You’re unnaturally cool, an undefeatable villain or a 
  perfect knight.
   
  ŭ Cool 3: It’s like the world has a law that says you always win.
   
  ŭ Cool 4: Your luck and calm are both actively supernatural. The 
  world wants to go your way. Maybe you’re a saint. Maybe 
  you’re a devil. Maybe you’re just a key part of how this Town 
  should be.
   
  ŭ Cool 5: Nothing mortal ever troubles you. It’s not so much that 
  you can’t get hit or shot or poisoned or burned or embarrassed 
  or sick as that you don’t—it just doesn’t happen. It’s a ridicu-
  lous concept. You’re far too awesome.
  The Prodigy
  Fortitude is the home of the Prodigy, a supremely talented in-
  dividual. By default this Main Character is Natalia Koutolika, 
  a PC-aged girl from Russia, although you could substitute a 
  boy named Antony Yuryevich; the sophisticated French vam-
  pire princess Natalie Coutourier; the Spanish child of masked 
  adventurers, Natalia Cordova; the African princess Zeinaba 
  Kiros; or the somewhat older Ms. Mithrida Koutolika, a new 
  teacher at Horizon’s School.
  Despite my vague suspicions that they’ve been involved 
  with a secret KGB training program or something, I like her 
  family—Yuri and Lenya are pretty good people, and little 
  Sergey is adorable! Their home might even qualify as a “good 
  place:” a little kind, a little sacred, to the point where it has 
  protection against evil magic and the Outside—
  So why is the Prodigy herself so very cold?
  Natalia Koutolika, aka 
  The Prodigy
  
  Shine
  The Idol
  72
  72
   Shine 
  Shine is another Skill with special rules. It’s also pretty rare.
  Shine is being so inspiring, lovable, or commanding that peo-
  ple can do better at life when they’re doing things for you. Basi-
  cally, if it’s for your sake or to protect you or in the name of their 
  love for you or whatever—
  People can use your Shine instead of their own Skill.
  The ratings look something like:
   
  ŭ Shine 0: Ordinary levels of Shine.
   
  ŭ Shine 1: You’re unusually charismatic and inspirational.
   
  ŭ Shine 2: You’re easy to love and do things for. You’re easy 
  to respect.
   
  ŭ Shine 3: You’re amazing, and can inspire people to do amaz-
  ing things.
   
  ŭ Shine 4: You’re like a good fairy, everyone’s parent, or a trans-
  formational leader: you can help people towards productivity. 
   
  ŭ Shine 5: You’re like Helen of Troy—it’s not so much that you 
  can do awesome things as that people who do things for you 
  do... kind of epic things. Sometimes even epic things that you 
  may not want.
  A Bit of History
  In the old days Town was a youkai Town. It was a place of 
  giants and monsters, ruled over by the gods of dream and 
  nightmare.
  Best-loved of all who lived there were the swan people.
  Now when the humans came to Town and settled Forti-
  tude and brought their iron and their crosses with them, the 
  Jotun resolved to destroy them. Humans and youkai moved to 
  a condition of war—well, war for the Jotun and participating 
  youkai; a desperate struggle to survive, for humankind—
  Until one of the swan princes saw and coveted the clothes 
  that Elizaveta, a human, made.
  Such was the love the Jotun held for the swan people—
  such was the love everyone had for the swan people, in those 
  days, except perhaps humanity—that the Jotun then stayed 
  their hand, ended the war, and accepted the human presence 
  in Town. Now there are very few of them remaining, out-
  bred a thousandfold by their part-human descendants: these 
  days “Jotun” is more of a cultural identity than anything else, 
  though even a modern Jotun will have some trouble with 
  crosses and iron:
  And all for the sake of Elizaveta’s needle and a swan 
  prince’s love for clothes!
  The Idol
  The Idol (which is to say, the biggest mega-idol superstar 
  of all the students at Horizon’s School) is probably a mod-
  ern-day swan person—though why a magically lovable 
  swan person should suddenly appear after generations of 
  their being merely “pretty glamorous” is a mystery to me. 
  Perhaps it’s not actually got to do with the swan people and 
  it’s just that the Idol is just. That. Cool.
  Vain, maybe. Pretty sleepy. A little patronizing. Self-in-
  volved. A bit over-the-top with the fashion, really. There are 
  a few little personality faults. But still just. That. Cool. The 
  most beautiful, amazing, perfect, magical, incredible thing 
  you can imagine.
  By default this Main Character is either a PC-aged boy 
  named Soun Shounen or his PC-aged sister Soun Shoujo. 
  Soun Shounen, aka 
  The Idol
  
  Connection Skills
  The Child of the Sun
  73
   
   Connection Skills 
  Connection Skills are your reward for investing time in a place, 
  context, or person. (Or, in rare cases, in beloved possessions.) 
  They’re the sense of harmony, familiarity, the ability to click that 
  you can get from all those things. 
  They’re written as something like—
   
  ŭ Connection: the Suzuki Family
   
  ŭ Connection: Herakleides Vasili
   
  ŭ Connection: the Moon Catch Neighborhood 
   
  ŭ Connection: my Job at the Supermarket or
   
  ŭ Connection: the Headmaster of the Bleak Academy
  and, like most other Skills, they’re rated from 0 to 5 (or sometimes 
  a little less.)
  Connections are a restricted form of Skill—you use them like an or-
  dinary Skill but their default uses are defined for you automatically as:
   
  ŭ see into a (specific) person’s heart;
   
  ŭ act appropriately in that person’s company;
   
  ŭ trust that person;
   
  ŭ work well with them;
   
  ŭ enjoy their company; or
   
  ŭ remind them who they are, helping them fight off temptation 
  or something that’s changing them (particularly including the 
  power of the Outside.)
  Or, for a place/context—
   
  ŭ understand what’s going on there;
   
  ŭ fit into it;
   
  ŭ go with its flow;
   
  ŭ help keep its engine running;
   
  ŭ live your life in a place; and/or
   
  ŭ ritually reinforce a place and strengthen its borders against the 
  Outside or other alien forces.
  For ordinary people, the benefit of Connections is that you can 
  pick them up quickly—it can take years of effort to develop a new 
  Skill, while a new Connection “Perk” takes weeks or months. For 
  characters with access to miraculous powers, the benefits are more 
  variable: some characters will be able to leverage their Connec-
  tions to work wonders, while others will leave theirs to molder 
  and become increasingly isolated from the world.
  You have a default Connection 0 to just about everything. 
  From there, you can aim for... 
   
  ŭ Connection 1 once you’ve hit it off with somebody;
   
  ŭ Connection 2 once they become an important friend;
   
  ŭ Connection 3 if you think you’re great companions, allies, 
  and/or partners;
   
  ŭ Connection 4 if this is a really deep connection;
   
  ŭ Connection 5 if they are your sun and your moon, the better 
  part of yourself.
  For a place or context, you can aim for...
   
  ŭ Connection 1 once you’re starting to feel comfortable here;
   
  ŭ Connection 2 once you’ve started to understand how it works;
   
  ŭ Connection 3 if you’re immersed and totally know what 
  you’re doing;
   
  ŭ Connection 4 once you’re an elite master of this environment.
   
  ŭ Connection 5 if you’re becoming a kind of spiritual represen-
  tative thereof.
  If your Connection lags behind your emotional connection or your 
  mastery, it means that your connection is narrow—you have a 
  strong emotional bond, but you don’t have the breadth of accumulat-
  ed experience that the Connection Skill requires. Maybe that means 
  you’re not as connected as you thought. Maybe it means that you 
  haven’t put in the work yet. Or maybe it means that there’s a side of 
  this friend or context that you haven’t yet had the opportunity to see.
  The Headmaster of 
  the Bleak Academy and 
  the Death of the Sun
  The Headmaster of the Bleak Academy is one of Town’s bo-
  geymen. He’s a lot of different things in a lot of different sto-
  ries, ranging from “the lord of Death’s dominion” to just a guy 
  who runs a school. 
  He’s definitely one of the Riders, with his eyes all night and 
  falling stars, and it’s pretty likely that at some point he showed 
  up in Fortitude with “the dust of a far and sunless land” on his 
  feet, fell in love with or deceived Jade Irinka and vice versa, 
  and fathered the Child of the Sun.
  And in canon, he’s the one who killed Jade Irinka—it’s not 
  certain, but it’s the standard—
  It isn’t at all clear why.
  What is clear is that this act was in some sense the meta-
  physical origin of the Outside: that it drowned much of Cre-
  ation and all of the Lands Beyond Creation, much of existence 
  and all of nothingness, under the multicolored void.
  To the best of my knowledge this was on March 9, 1997, 
  inasmuch as Gregorian dates mean anything. I figure you 
  probably want to move it around some, maybe into antiqui-
  ty, maybe put it more recently, maybe you even want to have 
  it happen during play. I’m certainly not shy about having it 
  happen at different times in different stories; it was more of 
  a metaphysical than a physical event. But March 9, 1997 is 
  when Russia witnessed the corresponding total eclipse.
  By default the Child of the Sun is a PC-aged girl named 
  Jasper Irinka, although you could substitute a boy named Ra-
  ven. The first campaign will feature her as a helpful and kind 
  of goofy Main Character who occasionally grows weird but 
  pretty tentacle-limbs; she fell to Fortitude, doesn’t know how 
  to get back into the sky, and doesn’t quite grasp that she is 
  the new sun yet. Later stories will deal with the Headmaster’s 
  daughter, a teacher in Horizon; with the sky kingdom that Jade 
  ruled and Jasper fell from; and with the Bleak Academy itself.
  Jasper Irinka, aka 
  The Child of the Sun
  
  Magic
  74
  74
   Magic
  A magical Skill in Chuubo’s Marvelous Wish-Granting Engine 
  is a Skill that isn’t natural to you—it’s a Skill that lets you cheat, 
  a Skill that lets you break with the natural and normal rules of the 
  world. It’s a Skill that lets you do things that people, even your 
  potentially rather special sort of people, just oughtn’t be able to 
  do, and without the use of miraculous or wish power.
  Magical Skills mean that you’ve found a cheat code to the 
  world.
  Most of the time, in Town, that means that you’re using the 
  power of the Outside. The Outside isn’t just outside the physical 
  boundaries of Town. It’s outside the organizing principles of the 
  world as well. Using the power of the Outside lets you do things 
  that shouldn’t be possible, but—for whatever reason—they are.
  For characters with Ace abilities, for perfected prodigies with 
  mastery of every Skill, the most important feature of magic is that 
  they are not automatically good at it. Magic doesn’t work like 
  mortal Skills. It’s fundamentally alien. Ace abilities and Skills like 
  “Hero” or “Paragon” make you better at what you are; even for 
  magicians, magic is something you’re not.
  For everybody else, the most important feature of magic is that 
  it’s difficult.
  Everything that you can do with magic has some sort of Obsta-
  cle attached. A normal Skill has a set of standard uses. Like, run-
  ning—if you’re in good health, and wearing good shoes, and on 
  a decent road, you can just run. You don’t start facing Obstacles 
  to your running until you have a broken leg, or you’re on slippery 
  ice, or something of the sort. 
  Magic isn’t like that.
  Everything you want to do with magic is extraordinary. Ev-
  erything forces you to push past some sort of barrier. Sometimes 
  it’s a trivial barrier—a few of the “magical” techniques in this 
  book are so ambiguous or intangible that they’re barely breaking 
  the rules at all, and we’ll call those Obstacle 0—but the barrier 
  is always there. You’re never in optimal conditions for using a 
  magical Skill. It’s always something you’re not supposed to be 
  doing and can only do because some alien and supernatural power 
  intervenes.
  I’m implementing each magical Skill starting with a list of rel-
  atively standardized and specific techniques. In some cases this is 
  an extremely accurate portrayal and the underlying magic is built 
  on named techniques. In other cases it’s closer to a description of 
  how that school of magic looks from the outside.
  For instance, the Sosunov family in Fortitude has a secret tech-
  nique that lets them visit their loved ones in dreams. It lets them 
  do things like: 
  [Obstacle 1] 
  send and receive detailed information 
   
   
  through a loved one’s dream;
  [Obstacle 2] 
  sense unnatural forces at work on dreams;  
   
   
  and even
  [Obstacle 3] 
  send a dream forwards or backwards 
   
   
  through time.
  A typical Sosunov magician can communicate with a loved one 
  who is far away. An exceptional Sosunov can stay in communi-
  cation with dead loved ones, have extensive dream-conversations 
  with a future lover or a child not yet born, and even risk paradox 
  (and possibly a slightly higher Obstacle, at the HG’s option) at-
  tempting to change their own history. I know that some of these 
  things are studied explicitly as techniques but others just emerge 
  naturally from their general studies of dreams.
  As this suggests, the list of techniques isn’t the end-all and be-
  all of a magical Skill. All Skills have potentially unlimited appli-
  cations; magical Skills have potentially unlimited unreasonable 
  applications. You can expand this indefinitely and effectively use 
  any magical Skill to do essentially anything. However, you do still 
  have to maintain credibility—
  Experimentation, practice, or inspiration is required before you can 
  roll out a new technique. Mastering it—to the point where its Obstacle 
  level becomes reasonable—will take an enormous amount of time. 
  Some of the powers associated with the various magical Skills 
  are functionally mundane. For instance, the magic of the Yatskaya 
  family includes an Obstacle 0 power—
  [Obstacle 0] 
  reassure, befriend, or make peace with a cat 
   
   
  or cat-like spirit; 
  I don’t have the heart to tell you that you can’t reassure or befriend 
  a cat just because you don’t know the Yatskaya Family Magic; and 
  if someone like the Prodigy studied under the Yatskaya, she ought 
  to be able to learn to do this kind of thing perfectly. So some of the 
  lower-level powers aren’t actually magical; they occupy an in-be-
  tween state, where using them is kind of cheating and kind of not.
  Here’s how this is going to work.
  If a magical technique exists, and the HG agrees that you can 
  perform or approximate it—e.g.,
   
  ŭ you’ve seen it done, and you’re good at copying others’ tricks;
   
  ŭ you’re in a magical place or situation where it should be feasible;
   
  ŭ your Skills should let you do something similar, here—
  then you can use it, with a mundane Skill or some other magical 
  Skill, at +2 to the Obstacle. 
  This isn’t always the best option! You may be better off just 
  ignoring the magic and doing it your own way—for instance, re-
  assuring a cat is usually going to be Obstacle 0-1 anyway, so doing 
  it the Yatskaya way isn’t necessarily a good idea.
  But if you have a highly flexible Skill like Do Stuff and you’ve 
  seen Yatskaya doing their thing and you want to copy their tech-
  nique and soothe a cat—
  The Obstacle is 2.
  Connection to the 
  Outside
  As an optional rule, the HG can set the default Connection to 
  the Outside to -2.
  
  75
   
  Here’s another example.
  The Kichi family have magical scrying pools. They can look 
  into those magical pools, overcome a level 2 Obstacle, and leave 
  their body behind to wander Town as an incorporeal spirit. If you 
  have a spying and sneaking Skill like “Go Where I Like,” maybe 
  you ought to let yourself do that as well!
  Astral projection is normally Obstacle 2-4—it depends on 
  whether your HG thinks psychic powers are real or not—but hon-
  estly, it’s not likely to be that meaningful even if you overcome 
  that wall. The normal outcome of a vigorous attempt at astral pro-
  jection is that you have a daydream voyage, possibly augmented 
  by a sensitive instinct and a heightened data-processing ability. Or 
  maybe you break your mind-body connection and hurl yourself 
  off into disorientation, Bluebell Park, or the Outside. Or—
  I mean, well, all kinds of things could happen, but they’re 
  whatever would normally happen to a human throwing them-
  selves against an obstacle of that sort. Not magic.
  But if you’re at the Kichi Pools? If you’re willing to overcome 
  an Obstacle 4 (the normal Obstacle for the Kichi, plus 2)?
  I think you should have the same mostly-controlled experience 
  as they.
  If you do this often enough—five or six times a season, per-
  haps—then this application of your Skill might work its way down 
  to Obstacle 2-3, with the normal difficulty for the Kichi forming 
  the lower bound. Or it might make more sense for you to pick up 
  the Kichi Magic instead. That’s up the HG. It depends!
  Summing it up:
  You can sometimes use even the fully magical techniques 
  with a mundane Skill or a different, inappropriate magical 
  Skill—if it makes sense, and at +2 to the Obstacle. Sufficient 
  experience may reduce this to +0 or +1.
  Associated Bonds
  Most magicians have one or two “Bonds,” taboos or governing 
  principles that shape their life outside the domain of the magic it-
  self. For instance, if you practice ghost magic, you might be stuck 
  helping the ghosts resolve their unresolved issues in the living 
  world. If you practice the Sosunov magic, you have to be care-
  ful not to let yourself have nightmares or fall into delirium—that 
  could pull you, and the world around you, into the chaotic Out-
  side!
  The full rules for Bonds will appear on pg. 116; for now, just 
  assume that they’re something all Main Characters, most magi-
  cians, and a few non-magicians can have.
  Creating Magical Skills
  When assigning Obstacles to techniques, I like to use a “small 
  magic” to “ambitious magic” scale—
  [Obstacle 0] Mundane tricks
  [Obstacle 1] Small magics
  [Obstacle 2] Bigger magics
  [Obstacle 3] Ambitious magics
  —reserving Obstacle 4+ for pushing the limits/inventing new 
  applications, and deciding what “small,” “bigger,” and “ambi-
  tious” mean based on the magical Skill’s thematics. In general, 
  the Obstacles you pick can be up to two points lower (or, in 
  weird cases, up to three points higher) than they’d be for a 
  non-magical Skill. 
  I’d recommend starting with 5-12 total techniques. In terms 
  of what techniques are available—
  Honestly, you can pretty much put together any technique 
  list that seems suitable. If you want to play the Demiurge 
  and have omnipotence, omniscience, and omnibenevo(throat 
  clearing noises) as techniques, that’s fine; or, rather, it’s prob-
  ably not fine, talk to your HG and group before you play the 
  Demiurge! but it’s not an invalid magical Skill.
  
  Superior 
  Qualities 
  and Skills
  76
  76
   Superior Qualities and Skills 
  Superior Qualities and Skills are the other side of the coin from 
  Magical Skills. They’re abnormal or inhuman abilities that are 
  natural to you. 
  They let you break the rules for being human, by declaring 
  that you’re not.
  The Jotun have these. The dryads and vampires too. At that, so 
  do elephants, fish, and the bird-faced spirits of the sky. It’s not that 
  they’re alien. They’re not. Nor are they touched by the Outside. 
  They’re just not human—
  At least, not once they come into possession of a Skill like this. 
  (So why is the yardstick humanity? Why does that even mat-
  ter?
  ...the reasons are mostly OOC. There may be a cosmological 
  reason for humans or some human-like creature like the elves or 
  Riders to set the norm, but in practice, I’m just writing an an-
  thropocentric RPG. If the default character type were dogs, then 
  I’d write up humans as having amazing, supercanine Skills like 
  Superior Language and Superior Thumbs!)
  Each Superior Quality or Skill confers three advantages.
  The first advantage is that a Superior Quality or Skill helps 
  you win contests. If you can bring your Superior Quality or Skill 
  into play, it gives you Edge in an otherwise fair contest equal to 
  the rating of the Quality or Skill. For instance, the Yatskaya Skill, 
  Superior Cat-Speaker, will help you out in any contest where 
  being able to talk to cats, or being good at talking to cats, is key.
  The second advantage is that you can use a Superior Quality or 
  Skill as a regular mundane Skill. 
  This Skill can be broader than the circumstances that give the 
  Edge. 
  For instance, Superior Thumbs includes an implicit ob-
  ject-manipulation/tool-use Skill that makes even a thumbless or 
  thumb-occupied human good at doing that kind of thing. Humans 
  are better at soccer than ordinary dogs even if their thumbs don’t 
  give them an overpowering Edge. Superior Wings sharpen one’s 
  sense of 3-D motion and will make somebody a better airplane 
  pilot and swimmer if the wings don’t physically get in the way. As 
  a final example, Superior Cat-Speaker makes the Yatskaya good 
  at all kinds of cat-like activities; they don’t generally get their full 
  Edge in jumping, sneaking, or hunting contests, but they’re still 
  good at all of them.
  The third, and probably the most important, advantage of 
  having a Superior Quality or Skill is that it makes you abnormal 
  or inhuman. There are things that you can do without magic that 
  humans would need magic to perform. Forget improved piloting 
  skills and 3-D orientation: having Superior Wings means you 
  have functional wings. Forget the athletics and the occasional 
  edge-case Edge: having Superior Cat-Speaker means you can 
  talk to your cats.
  The higher the rating of the Superior Quality or Skill, the more 
  overtly supernatural this can be. The default expectations for this 
  in Chuubo’s Marvelous Wish-Granting Engine are:
  0► You’re within human norms.
  1► You’re unrealistically good.
  2► You’re like Rasputin (Superior Endurance 2) or Thumbelina 
  (Superior Tininess 2).
  3► You’re like a beast—bears have Superior Strength 3, great 
  cats Superior Reflexes 3.
  4► You’re something far beyond human—mountains have Su-
  perior Strength 4.
  5► Nothing mortal can stand against you—light, for example, 
  has Superior Speed 5.
  So, for instance, the various levels of Superior Wings would look 
  like this:
   
  ŭ Superior Wings 0. You have the same wings as any other hu-
  man. I guess those are like your eyebrows or your back hair or 
  something. Or the wings (dramatic pause) of your mind!
   
  ŭ Superior Wings 1. This might mean that you have function-
  al wings, but they’re really only good for hitting people with 
  or maybe helping you control and aim your falls. The kind of 
  wingspan it would take for a human to be able to fly is just 
  ridiculous, so at this level you don’t have that.
   
  ŭ Superior Wings 2. You can have working wings, but you 
  might need to make some concessions to realism. Maybe 
  they’re gliding wings, or maybe you exhaust yourself in just 
  a minute or two of flight. That still isn’t necessarily realistic, 
  you understand, and it’s not even supposed to be, but it affects 
  to realism by gesturing in its direction.
   
  ŭ Superior Wings 3. You can have working wings, and can fly 
  as well as any bird.
   
  ŭ Superior Wings 4-5. This only barely makes sense, really—I 
  mean, even in Dog Nobilis or Puppy Force where dogs are 
  the default character type, humans would only have Superior 
  Thumbs 2-3, you know? But maybe if your wings can let you 
  fly off with whole cities, or outrace your own sonic boom, or 
  something, you might have this level of Superior Wings. 
  These aren’t necessarily absolutely hard limits—like, I’m not go-
  ing to come to your house and lecture you if you try to get away 
  with functional Superior Wings 1 or if you want your incredibly 
  skilled aerobatic flyer to have Superior Wings 5.13 But in the first 
  case I’d probably be happier with your talking your HG into giv-
  ing you an extra point of Skills, instead, and in the second case, 
  maybe it’s worth sucking up the inefficiency and taking Superior 
  Wings 3 plus Aerobatics 5, or—maybe—just taking Aerobat-
  ics 5 as your base, starting with a hang-glider or something, and 
  working your way up to a power that gives you actual flight?
  Stuff like being the Ace—
  13  Unless I know you personally.
  Infuriating
  “I thought the party was for me.”
  — Soun Shounen, The Idol, 
  explaining why he punched out the newly-arrived 
  Belgian ambassador
  - Character Type earns: Fist-Shaking XP -
  Emotion XP
  
  77
   
  That is, stuff that makes you “better” or “perfect” with your 
  Skills—
  Enhances the abilities that are natural to you. Normally that’s 
  abilities “natural to a human,” but ultimately it’ll enhance what-
  ever you actually are. So you can generally use Ace abilities to 
  perfect the abilities that a Superior Skill gives you. If you contrive 
  to give a perfected human or enhanced skill-user a set of Supe-
  rior Wings 3 (or, for that matter, a biplane), they will fly it with 
  unnatural grace.
  Conversely, not having a Superior Quality or Skill doesn’t 
  mean anything.
  It’s not a good sign or a bad sign.
  A typical human doesn’t have Superior Thumbs and doesn’t 
  have Superior Wings. Yet they still have thumbs and not wings. 
  That’s not because of some arcana hidden in their Skills. It’s just 
  because... they’re a typical human.
  Put another way—if I suggest a Superior Skill below, or if 
  someone in your game has one, that doesn’t mean that normal 
  people don’t have that Skill. And it doesn’t mean that they do! If 
  some alien from a distant clothing-world has Superior Fashion 3, 
  that doesn’t mean that fashion is equally alien to humans. And it 
  doesn’t mean it’s not!
  It just means that I think being superhumanly fashionable is a 
  thing that an alien could be. 
  Hapless
  “Well, of course, wishing to have an ice cream didn’t work. I 
  mean, you can’t have an ice cream and eat it too.”
  — Chuubo, The Wishing Boy, 
  explaining why he wished to be an ice cream
  - Character Type earns: Head-Desk XP -
  Emotion XP
  
  78
  78
  
  CHAPTER 
  5: 
  QUESTS
   
  Quests
  
  Quest Description
  80
  80
  Quests
  Quests are the core character advancement and achievement 
  mechanism in a Chuubo’s Marvelous Wish-Granting Engine 
  RPG. You’ll use them to improve yourself, to connect to places 
  and people, and to make long-lasting changes in the world. 
  You’ll find quests particularly useful for livening up technical 
  and tactile activities and for getting a grasp on ambiguous ones. If 
  you’re studying aquaculture, for instance—learning to manage the 
  fish and shellfish of Big Lake—then quests will provide an OOC 
  eidolon for the technical details and hands-on experience that you 
  can’t really cover directly in play. If you’re learning to become 
  a more dependable person, the quest will provide you a way to 
  measure progress on something otherwise unquantifiable.
  Quests exist because a lot of life is about little things—tiny 
  moments, textures, and details; things that get stripped from the 
  experience of Town by the abstraction of play; by the conversion 
  of a PCs’ life into a player’s words and actions around a table. 
  Quests are their own kind of little thing, in turn: the player-level 
  equivalent to all the bitty ephemera that you don’t want to explain 
  in-game. You don’t have specific little body insights about wheth-
  er someone is comfortable in your company, or an exact number 
  for the optimum salinity level for raising lake snails, or names 
  for all the colors, sounds and moments of a PC recovering from 
  despair—you have accumulated XP towards a quest, instead. 
  Eventually you’ll accumulate “enough” XP (each quest has its 
  bank) and earn its rewards—stuff like life victories, new manga, 
  1/chapter abilities, and improvements to your abilities and Skills.
  In practice you’ll organize your quests into longer Arcs of 3+ 
  quests. I’ll talk about those later on!
   Quest Description 
  notes and examples
  Each quest starts with a note on how much XP it needs and some 
  metadata—
  For instance, a quest tagged with
  1: 
   
  2: 
   is a good starting quest for a Shepherd Arc and a good second 
  quest in a Storyteller Arc. It could be “the story of your ordinary 
  life—the everyday work  stresses, and pleasures that form the fab-
  ric of your days” (Shepherd 1) or just “ignoring the pressures on 
  you and just doing things your own way.” (Storyteller 2).
  I’m calling that metadata instead of actual data because you’re 
  not usually going to look it up from the tag—instead, you’ll either 
  find the quest while looking for a good Shepherd 1 quest, or a 
  good Storyteller 2 quest, or you’ll just use that data towards the 
  end of the quest to help get a sense of an appropriate reward for 
  completing it.
  After the metadata, the body of the quest starts with a high 
  concept description of what the quest is all about.
  Then there’s a section, “What You’ll Do,” that’s optional for 
  both of us. You can skip it if you don’t want it to apply and some-
  times I leave it out. It’s basically here to talk about the special 
  effects of the quest—
  The things you’re doing, or the signs upon your person, that 
  show you’re working on that quest.
  Then there’s another optional section, “What You’ll Know,” 
  that talks about the kinds of things that people who are on this 
  quest tend to learn or know about. You can generally assume 
  that if you’ve been on that quest for a while, you can use your 
  Skills (pg. 64, 69) to know or do that stuff—you don’t need any 
  other excuse to stretch your most appropriate abilities to cover 
  that. 
  Sometimes I’ll use a different section, like, “What Happens,” 
  to talk about the things that happen over the course of the quest. 
  You can push the HG to have those things happen, if they’re 
  otherwise not.
  For instance, here’s two versions of a quest to clean up an old 
  house and make it habitable again:
  
  Perks
  81
   
  Cleaning up an Old 
  House (version 1)
  25 XP Quest
  1: 
   
  2: 
   
  You’re cleaning up an old house to make it habitable again.
  What You’ll Do
  You’ll probably have some cobweb in your hair or on your shoul-
  der. You’re going to be harried and you won’t have much time 
  for getting together with people. You might get sick a lot—you’re 
  around a lot of dust and mold.
  You’re always inviting people over so they can see how far the 
  house has come.
  What You’ll Know
  You’ll know a lot about building codes in the Region.
  In Fortitude, for instance, you’ll know the building codes for 
  Fortitude—or, rather, more specifically, you’ll know that there 
  aren’t any. Not officially. But that there is some pretty intense if 
  hands-off oversight from the Fortitude Regional Council: they’ll 
  make sure you’re aware of the unofficial standards and best prac-
  tices documents floating around the local library and provide at 
  least gentle pressure against the house becoming or staying an 
  eyesore. In fact, they’re probably what made sure the house 
  you’re renovating came onto the market or into your hands in the 
  first place!
  (They’re not all-knowing or all-powerful or anything, just, 
  well, very interested in the state of the local buildings and streets.)
  Cleaning up an Old 
  House (version 2)
  25 XP Quest
  1: 
   
   
   
   
  2: 
   
  This is an adventure about finding friends in the most unlikely 
  places.
  What Happens
  This quest seems like it’s about cleaning, at first, but not long into 
  the process you’ll realize that you’re not alone. A study of your 
  environment leads you to discover a strange, displaced hedge-
  hog-man living in the basement—apparently he’s taken shelter 
  there because he’s being hunted by creatures from Outside. 
  You’ll make friends with him, over the course of the quest, and 
  have a strange adventure; but then he’ll depart, leaving you with 
  more questions than answers and a mostly-renovated house.
   Perks 
  a rules concept
  When you complete a quest, you’ll earn a reward!
  The Perk you’ll get is usually based on your character Arc. 
  For instance, let’s say that you’re on the fourth step of a typical 
  Knight Arc—
  “You’ve fallen short of who you wanted to be. You’ve erred, 
  or lost your path. Now you have to make amends, and grow.
  Outcome: Redemption is an ongoing process, but you’ve 
  made a start. If possible, an NPC acknowledges that. Either 
  way, the weight of guilt and wrongness on you lightens.”
  To finish the quest is to seize that outcome, which is pretty nice 
  in and of itself—but you’ll also get a bonus. One of the options, 
  for instance, is...
  Cool. You gain a new level 1 Cool Perk.
  This isn’t a fixed part of your character to the same extent as your 
  inherent Skills—you could, for instance, wind up losing this Perk 
  later. But for right now, if you take that option, your work on 
  redeeming yourself has earned you a point of Cool. If someone 
  comes along right now and tries to corrupt or trick you, they’ll be 
  facing a level 1 Obstacle that they might not expect!
  You might also get some benefit that isn’t a Perk proper—
  +1 to an existing Cool Perk, up to [a limit we’ll talk about 
  later, but basically, “the number of Arcs like this you’ve 
  done.”]
  So, if you’ve already done this Arc a few times, and you already 
  have a level 1 Cool Perk floating around, you can now upgrade 
  that Perk to level 2 Cool. 
  In a long game you’ll be able to take the Perk all the way to 
  level 5, evolving from an Umino to an Akio, from the Urkel to 
  the Fonz, from a Doogie Howser into a Barney, or even from a 
  Roseanne Rosannadanna all the way up to a Beatrix Kiddo, Ellen 
  Ripley, or Emma Peel.
  
  Quest Cards
  82
  82
  Perk Slots
  I don’t want characters to collapse under the weight of sixty-five 
  different Perks—I’m OK with you having a lot of different pow-
  ers, and a lot of different stuff going on in your life, but I’d like to 
  keep your concept relatively clean.
  So the rule is:
  You can have up to eight total Perks.
  After that, when you finish a quest, you can either pick a re-
  ward option (e.g. “+1 to an existing Cool Perk” or “move 1-2 
  points between skills”) that doesn’t require a new Perk, or sacri-
  fice one of your existing Perks to make room for something new.
  I’m not actually expecting this to be a problem for you—
  By the time you actually exhaust the potential of the advance-
  ment system you should be able to afford a few Perk slots that you 
  just use to hold your latest cool toy instead of stuff you intend as 
  permanent; also, the rewards from longer Arcs can potentially ac-
  cumulate indefinitely. If you ever wind up heartbroken because you 
  really desperately need nine Perks, though, it’s probably OK to trade 
  in the normal reward for an Arc for an additional Perk slot instead.
  Progressing Through an Arc
  Quest mechanics are asynchronous—you don’t always finish 
  quests in the same order that you start them, nor do you always 
  know in advance which of the quests your character takes on will 
  be the important, life-changing or life-affirming quests and which 
  will throw them down into the dark.
  Accordingly, the whole process of finishing a quest and choos-
  ing a Perk that fits its place in your Arc is going to be a little ad 
  hoc. The platonic ideal of an Arc is that you do 3-5 quests in order 
  for that Arc until you’re done; a Bindings Arc is a Bindings 1 
  quest, then a Bindings 2 quest, then a Bindings 3...
  But if you start a Bindings Arc, and then finish two quests in 
  short order, they’re probably both from the “same” phase of your 
  life—you’ll get two rewards from the Bindings 1 step. Maybe that 
  speeds you through Bindings 2 later, maybe it doesn’t. Sometimes 
  you’ll even notice that a quest that you’ve just finished really has 
  nothing to do with your Arc at all—it’s a “side quest,” as it were. 
  In a case like that, you’ll usually just take a Perk or other reward 
  that fits the quest, even if it’s a Perk from some completely differ-
  ent Arc—for instance, you might look at the metadata for Clean-
  ing Up an Old House, decide that when you did it it was kind 
  of like an Emptiness 2 quest (pg. 437), and take the appropriate 
  outcome and Perk.
  Ultimately you’ll finish the Arc after putting a certain amount 
  of XP in, as soon as you complete the next plausibly Arc-com-
  pleting quest. 
   Quest Cards 
  The mechanical heart of a quest in play is its quest card. This has 
  two key features—
   
  ŭ a progress grid of blank spaces, representing the XP cost of 
  completing the quest.
   
  ŭ a set of options for gaining quest-specific bonus XP. 
  Some quests have multiple options for this card.
  You can technically use a quest card straight from this book, 
  another book, or the Internet, keeping track of accumulated XP 
  elsewhere; but normally when you start a quest you’ll copy, 
  hand-copy, or download and print the quest card, filling in the 
  progress grid as you advance the quest.
  There’s a lot of flavor and ideas in the descriptions of the 
  quest, and you probably want to pay attention to it if you want 
  to maximize the fun and depth of experience of your game. But 
  in practice it’s all down to the card. Use the bonus XP conditions 
  on the card. Fill in the progress grid or accumulate the requisite 
  number of XP—
  Get the rewards.
  Bonus XP
  There are two basic models for quest-specific bonus XP. 
  The first model is the “any time” kind of quest—there’s some-
  thing simple that you can do at any time to bring the quest into 
  play. This’ll earn you a bonus XP. For sanity’s sake, you can only 
  earn this bonus once in each scene and only once per 15 minutes 
  of real-time play (approximately); this is over all of your quests 
  combined.
  The second model is the “storyline” quest—the quest is a 
  structured experience, with some specific goals to aim for and a 
  list of suggested actions. You can usually earn +5 XP towards the 
  quest by hitting one of the major goals, and even if you don’t, you 
  can earn one bonus XP per chapter by taking an action or setting 
  up a scene of the appropriate sort. 
  There’s no limit on how often real-time you can earn bonus XP 
  for a storyline quest, but I’m not expecting them to be balanced—
  even with the occasional +5 XP bonus, storyline quests are gener-
  ally a little harder and take you a little longer to complete. 
  Examples
  I’ll show you two “any time” quest cards and a “storyline” quest 
  card for the Cleaning up an Old House example, and then discuss 
  them in more detail below.
  
  83
   
  
  84
  XP
  Bonus XP
  You can earn a bonus XP towards this quest at any time (but only once per scene/15 
  minutes) by explaining some of what’s happened in the past scene—your being ex-
  hausted and shaking, your backpack being full of hammers, the reason you showed up 
  at a friend’s house in time to rescue them from a fire—as
  “It’s the house, you see.”
  Quest Flavor
  That’s why you were in the neighborhood. That’s why you’re sick. That’s why you’re 
  staring blankly at someone’s hallway. That’s why you didn’t have anywhere to sleep 
  and went over to visit them. It’s the house, you see.
  Pick some standard phrase to indicate this, it doesn’t have to be the one I just said, 
  and just use it or a close variant when you want to claim the XP.
  What’s yours?
  ______
  25
  Cleaning up an Old House 
  (Example 1)
  XP
  Bonus XP
  You can earn a bonus XP towards this quest at any time (but only once per scene/15 
  minutes) by proposing a theory about how something will help you with renova-
  tions. For instance, if you’re being attacked by zombies, you might exclaim, “Endlessly 
  reviving flesh! I bet this could fix my insulation problem!”
  Note that you have to actually consider this theory. I mean, it’s OK if someone stops 
  you, but the point isn’t to come up with something goofy to say, the point is to come up 
  with a goofy idea to think—or, put another way, to show that everything you encounter 
  is being filtered through the screen of “I’ve got to get this house into shape.”
  25
  Cleaning an Old House 
  (A Goofier Form)
  
  85
  XP
  Major Goals
  The HG can award you 5 XP towards this quest—
   
  ☐ if you are injured while working on the old house
   
  ☐ if you have a gathering of your friends there, and they pitch in.
  You can earn each such bonus once per quest, for a total of 10 XP.
  Quest Flavor
  1/chapter, you can earn a bonus XP towards this quest by:
   working on cleaning or repairing the old house
   
   sleeping over at a friend’s because your house isn’t ready yet
   
   telling an anecdote to your friends about the house and its condition
  You can combine this with an XP Action, but you’re not required to.
  25
  Cleaning up an Old House 
  (As a Dramatic Structure)
  
  Choosing 
  your 
  Quests
  Starting a Quest
  86
  86
   Choosing your Quests 
  Each PC can pursue up to four quests at any given time. 
  I’m not expecting you to need that for just the quests in a giv-
  en campaign—you’re only going to need two at a time for that, 
  maybe three if you find something cool on the side—but it’s very 
  easy to design new quests. An any-time quest should only take 2-3 
  minutes to put together if everything goes smoothly and 10-15 
  if there’s some HG-player disagreement or negotiation involved. 
  A storyline quest’ll take longer, but 10-20 minutes to hash out 
  something quick or 2-3 hours to make something worth sharing 
  publicly online isn’t an unreasonable time frame.
  Getting back to your four-quest limit:
  It’s on the high side for the content I’m giving you and it’s 
  definitely not something to think of as a quota you need to fill. But 
  I’m giving you four as an option, because there’ve been times in 
  my life where that’s fitting—where I’ve had, say, 
   
  ŭ Starving Artist
   
  ŭ Working on an RPG manuscript
   
  ŭ Far From Home 
   
  ŭ Working on a Fiction-based Blog
  and while I could think of other quests I might theoretically have 
  been doing, or combine two or three of them into a single quest, or 
  whatever, those four items just seem right to me as a quest-tinted 
  picture of a life.
  You’ll have a pretty free hand in choosing what your quests 
  are. Almost every quest is available to any character that wants 
  it, and hardly any quests have any sort of formal prerequisites. 
  Even the Arc structure is a way of saying: try to interpret what 
  you wind up doing this way, rather than “take these quests, in this 
  order, or else.”
  Fundamentally, a quest is just something you want your char-
  acter to be doing and working on, both during and between the 
  scenes of play. If you’re playing a pre-built character from, say, 
  Fortitude: the Glass-Maker’s Dragon, and the quests I’ve given 
  you don’t seem to fit you, feel free to raid other sources for any-
  thing else that seems better fit.
   Starting a Quest 
  Quests structure activities that your character is already doing or 
  things that you expect to have them do. That means that there’s no 
  white-armored knight waiting to ride up and escort your character 
  into a magical land of questing when you start a quest—there’s 
  just the things you... do. When you take a quest, you’re just say-
  ing, this thing is important, and I expect that my character is or 
  will be spending a lot of time on it in between game events.
  Here’s all you have to do to start a quest:
   
  ŭ Decide that you’re interested in a quest.
   
  ŭ Make sure you have fewer than four quests. If necessary you can 
  drop a quest (see “abandoning a quest,” below) to make room.
   
  ŭ Resolve to yourself that your character will pursue this quest.
   
  ŭ Tell the HG that your character is now on that quest.
   
  ŭ Write the quest’s name on your character sheet, print or copy 
  or create a quest card, or otherwise make a semi-permanent 
  record of the fact that you’re on that quest.
  For instance, you really like birds. You decide to start a quest to 
  learn more about the birds of Fortitude—well, done! Resolve that 
  you’re going to foreground that part of your life. Tell the HG that 
  your character is studying the bird life of Fortitude. Record this 
  information somehow. Copy, hand-copy, create, or download and 
  print a suitable quest card and bam! You’re on that quest.
  The other side of that is that starting a quest doesn’t give you 
  anything in and of itself. If you declare, for instance, that you are 
  now on the quest Taking Care of a Small Child (pg. 339), that 
  doesn’t provide a small child for whom you can now take care. 
  It just structures and surfaces whatever existing opportunities for 
  childcare you already had. If you’re playing the kind of game 
  where you can declare “I adopt a kid,” “I babysit a neighbor’s 
  child,” “I take care of my little sister,” or “HG, provide a small 
  child!” then the quest will help make that declaration worthwhile; 
  otherwise, I guess you are woefully providing childcare to your 
  chia pet, basement toad, or tiny egg.
  
  HG/Group Quests
  XP and XP Cost
  Bonus XP
  87
   
   HG/Group Quests 
  The HG also manages a pool of up to two “group quests.” These 
  are things that the players are doing as a group that the HG is 
  interested in treating as a quest. 
   
  ŭ any player can contribute XP towards the quest
   
  ŭ the HG chooses some number of players, and
   
   each chapter that many players can each earn 1 bonus XP 
  towards the storyline;
   
   each hour,14 that many players can each earn it 1 any-time 
  bonus XP.
  14 This could be 15 minutes as usual but that seems like it might get spammy.
  Group quests are almost always storyline quests with 1/chapter 
  options that the HG is interested in seeing the PCs pursue.
   
  ŭ the HG chooses, starts, and chooses whether to abandon these 
  quests.
   
  ŭ the quests don’t generally give Perks, Arc advancement, or in 
  fact any benefit save “cool stuff happens,” but if they do, the 
  benefits are shared with all appropriate PCs.
   XP and XP Cost 
  I’m calibrating the game on the following assumptions:
   
  ŭ a typical session runs 4 hours
   
  ŭ it gets through about 3 in-game chapters—sometimes 0 and 
  sometimes 10, but ~3
   
  ŭ you’ll earn about
   
   10 XP for casual play
   
   20-25 XP for focused, intense play
   
   35-40 XP if you’re focused and covering a lot of IC time
   
   50-60 XP if you’re focused, rushing, and everything goes right.
  Each quest has an associated XP Cost, which you can understand 
  in those terms.
  The XP cost for a quest measures how much work and time 
  it takes to complete the quest—the higher the XP cost, the more 
  effort you’d expect to put into the quest before you see real results. 
  If you’re college students or NEETs with a lot of free time then 
  you might get through 100 XP in a week of real-time play; if your 
  gaming group is full of busy people with awkward schedules, you 
  might manage 20-30 XP in a real-world month. 
  So when you’re looking at the XP cost for a quest, you can 
  understand it in that frame of reference—e.g. “50 XP? That’s a 
  couple of months of play!” Or “15 XP? I could get there in a single 
  session, even half a session, but it’ll probably take two.”
  I’ll normally write a quest’s cost under its title—for instance, 
  “Cleaning up an Old House,” above, is a 25 XP quest.
   Bonus XP 
  Each quest has a way—often, several ways—to earn bonus XP 
  specific towards that quest. I’m including these to make sure that 
  quests don’t drift into being just a background activity; while your 
  character is likely to do a lot of the work towards the quest be-
  tween scenes and sessions of play, I hope that you’ll care about 
  quests during the game as well!
  There are two models for this.
  Any-Time Quests. You can get a bonus XP at any time for this 
  quest with some variation on:
   
  ŭ saying a quest catch-phrase
   
  ŭ emoting a quest catch-... emote?
   
  ŭ using a sign or prop associated with the quest
   
  ŭ proposing a quest-related theory or idea
  There are cool details, and it’s all built around the notion that you 
  wouldn’t be doing this, saying this, emoting this, using that sign 
  or prop, whatever, unless events fit the quest—but mostly that’s 
  all there is to it. Just say something, or use a prop, and bam! I’ve 
  made this very simple and easy so that all of the complication can 
  come from the roleplaying around these events.
  You can get one XP like this every 15 real-life minutes (or 
  so), and at most once per scene. (That’s over all of your quests, if 
  you happen to have 2+ that work this way.) I’m expecting you to 
  get this maybe once per hour, maybe less, and 2-3 times per hour 
  when you’re really pushing it.
  Where Does XP Come From?
  You can earn XP from—
   
  ŭ XP actions (pg. 11);
   
  ŭ quest bonus XP (pg. 87-103);
   
  ŭ emotion XP (pg. 46).
  I’m calculating casual play as earning a bit under 2 XP per 
  chapter and 1-2 total quest bonus + emotion XP per hour. In-
  tense, focused play can earn 2-4 XP per chapter, 2-3 quest bo-
  nus XP per hour, and 2-3 emotion XP per hour instead.
  Storyline Quests. These quests have two ways to get bonus XP. 
  You don’t always have both.
  If there’s something in particular that I think would be cool to 
  have happen during the quest, or something that I want to high-
  light as a possible big event during it, I’ll write that in as a “major 
  goal.” If the HG thinks/agrees that you’ve completed one of these, 
  you’ll get 5 bonus XP, up to a quest-specific cap. You can ask the 
  HG and players for help in making these happen. You can’t 
  demand it, but it’s OK to expect!
  In addition, each storyline quest card lists a set of actions you 
  can take to earn 1 bonus XP per chapter from “quest flavor.” If you 
  find yourself performing such an action, you get the XP. The 1-XP 
  limit here is for that specific quest, so “try to get 1 bonus XP for 
  each such quest” should be on your chapterly agenda. 
  
  Any-Time XP
  88
  88
  If you don’t stumble into it naturally, you can declare that 
  you’re taking a “quest flavor” action, even if it’s not normal-
  ly something you can control—for instance, if your quest fla-
  vor includes something like, “encounter a Main Character while 
  you’re traveling the roofs of Fortitude” or “accidentally swallow 
  the crown jewels,” you can say that that happens, even though it 
  normally wouldn’t be in your power to declare.
  As usual, it’s up to the HG to describe what actually happens 
  when you take an action, so you and the HG do have to be on the 
  same page—I’m just clarifying that you can take the initiative on 
  quest flavor in a way that you can’t for its major goals.
  I’ve marked up the quest flavor with icons. There isn’t any 
  rules content to this—it’s just a tool to get you thinking in the right 
  directions. For instance, when I list an option like
   working on cleaning or repairing the old house
  it might remind you of the icon for Shared Action and Shared 
  Reactions—but it doesn’t mean you have to play it out that way, 
  it’s just an indication that I can imagine it as a Shared Action kind 
  of scene. If I put two icons, it means there are at least a couple of 
  different ways I can see it playing out; for instance, when I offer
   
  telling an anecdote to your friends about the house 
  and its condition.
  I’m saying that that that might be a Shared Reactions or a Fore-
  shadowing event. Or maybe it could be Sympathetic Action? I’d 
  probably go with Foreshadowing, but if your brain goes to Sym-
  pathetic Action or even Shepherding instead I’ve decided that I 
  do not mind. 
  Recording Bonus XP. I’m expecting you to copy or download 
  and print the quest cards and mark up bonus XP as you get it 
  on the XP grid—but it’s also perfectly OK to track this on your 
  character sheet, writing it on your character sheet next to the name 
  of the quest.
  In general I’m expecting you to get about 70% of the possible 
  bonus XP on a storyline quest—you’ll usually get your bonus XP 
  each week, and you’ll usually hit your major goals, but it won’t 
  happen every time!
   Any-Time XP 
  I want to take a chunk of this book now to talk about any-time 
  XP and how to choose the bonus XP condition for the quests you 
  create yourself.
  I think that there are eight basic ways to understand a quest. 
  I’ve paired them together with a set of icons and colors, but you 
  absolutely don’t have to understand that—the icons are conceptu-
  al/tactile links between related concepts in the system, not some-
  thing you have to worry about as special rules.
  Here’s a list of the quest types in their rough order of frequency:
  Work and Study: the quest is part of a simple 
  life—it’s about you doing or learning something in 
  a simple, honest way.
  Melodramatic: the quest focuses on the exagger-
  ated reaction you have to something you love/hate/
  whatever.
  Paradigmatic: the quest defines a paradigm or 
  context for you—it gives you a unique lens through 
  which to view and understand the world.
  Exciting!: the quest focuses on a passion or fear—
  it’s something you get overwrought about.
  Lurid: the quest is something that risks your iden-
  tity—you’re coping with something that calls you 
  to go somewhere else, to be somewhere else, 
  something that changes your state of being or lures you to vice.
  Struggle: the quest is about your character’s emo-
  tional and life issues writ large. It’s about some-
  thing that you can’t process, something that you 
  deny.
  Setting: the quest is part of the background of your 
  life—it’s something you live through, day by day.
  Symbolic: the quest is about so something weird, 
  vast, mystical, almost indescribable.
  Forum Games
  In a forum game, I’m expecting the “per scene” limit on emo-
  tion and quest bonus XP to be a bigger factor than the “per 15 
  minutes” limit.
  I believe that in a forum game it’s notionally possible to get 
  through 2-3 chapters and 20-25 XP in a real life week, but it’s 
  not going to happen; a more probable time frame is one chap-
  ter and 5-7 XP per month. If that’s how it works out for you, 
  consider slicing two fifths or three fifths off the cost of quests, 
  the cost of Arcs, and the +5 XP bonuses. 
  
  89
   
  I’m going to propose slightly different XP conditions for each, so 
  the first step in designing a quest is to look over the list of them 
  and figure out which one you want a quest to be. Sometimes it’ll 
  fit multiple options and you’ll have to read on and see which one 
  will inspire you more. All of these options boil down to something 
  you can just say or do, so ultimately “wanting your character to 
  still be cool, even though you do/say this a lot” is the major lim-
  iting factor.
  Pastoral and Passionate 
  Quests
  In some cases the three-word name for Work and Study quests 
  and the exclamation point for Exciting! quests winds up feel-
  ing a little awkward.
  So Work and Study quests are sometimes also called 
  Pastoral.
  And Exciting! quests are sometimes called Exciting or 
  Passionate quests instead.
  Gaming Terminology
  Scene—uh... 
  OK, look. A dramatic scene is a little hard to define in 
  general, and even more so when it comes to roleplaying. So 
  mostly I just want to be clear now that I’m using the term 
  more often that you haven’t missed a definition for scene. A 
  “scene” is just... a scene. One scene of the story. If I were 
  pressed, I’d say “a unit of stuff happening from the time a 
  situation is established, until the time the situation changes 
  in a way that resolves some narrative event.” But that’s not a 
  rule for you to memorize. It’s the definition that I’d give you 
  if I were pressed.
  You can use your own theory here for what a scene is!
  Whatever a scene is, a “scene” in this game is one of those.
  
  Quests: Work and 
  Study Quests
  90
   Work and Study Quests 
  Pastoral
  There’s something you’re working on. There’s 
  something you’re trying to build or learn or what-
  ever. There’s something you’re putting long-term 
  simple, honest effort into.
  To earn a bonus XP, you’ll take a scene where 
  stuff has already been happening, and you’ll re-
  frame it as you doing your regular thing. E.g., say-
  ing,
   
  ŭ “Of course, I’m a writer.”
   
  ŭ “I’m learning!”
   
  ŭ “I’m trying to help.”
   
  ŭ “Nothing less from a [your last name here].”
   
  ŭ “And that was another... mistake.”
   
  ŭ “Well, I’ll try anything once.”
   
  ŭ “Of course, as a brilliant detective, I had seen 
  through this already.”
   
  ŭ “Neither rain nor snow shall keep me from my 
  appointed rounds...”
   
  ŭ Emoting sparkle or ting! to show how amazing 
  you are.
   
  ŭ ...or something else?
  This becomes your suggested explanation—either 
  humorously or seriously—for recent events, suc-
  cesses, and/or failures, and your own part in them.
  XP
  Bonus XP
  There’s something you’re working on:
  ______
  You can earn a bonus XP towards this quest at any time (but only once per scene/15 
  minutes) by explaining away what you’ve been doing or trying for in the current scene 
  as part of that thing you’re doing.
  Pick a standard phrase to indicate this, and then just say that phrase or some close 
  variant when you want to claim the bonus.
  What’s your phrase?
  ______
  The idea is that by saying that, you either confirm that something is about the thing 
  you’re working on, or you make yourself a little goofy and perhaps overly earnest.
  This can be a 15 XP, 20-25 XP, or 35-60 XP Quest
  25
  20
  15
  35
  60
  Generic Quest 
  (Work and Study)
  
  Quests: 
  Melodra-
  matic Quests
  91
   Melodramatic Quests 
  Melodramatic!
  There’s something you react to strongly. There’s 
  something that really hooks you, that you really 
  care about. 
  Bonus XP for a quest like this comes mostly 
  from reaction shots—there’s something you do or 
  say or emote that indicates that the quest is going 
  on. There’s something you do to show that your at-
  tention has been caught and engaged by the scene’s 
  relevance to your quest-specific interests, peeves, 
  fears, or dreams, e.g.:
   
  ŭ “This is perfect for my book!”
   
  ŭ “I can’t accept this!”
   
  ŭ “Dazzling!”
   
  ŭ “Ooh, storytime! Dish!”
   
  ŭ “Of course, as a hero, I must face this boldly!”
   
  ŭ “Oooooooo”
   
  ŭ “It must be mine.”
   
  ŭ “This is the life. The life!”
   
  ŭ “Impossible. Unacceptable!”
   
  ŭ “So. CUTE!”
   
  ŭ “I won’t have it. Do you hear me? I won’t have 
  it!”
   
  ŭ “Fascinating.”
   
  ŭ ...or something else?
  XP
  Bonus XP
  There’s something that just rivets your attention when it happens; or when you think 
  about it; or when something fits your thoughts about it.
  Something you love. Something you fear. Something like...
  ______
  Pick a catchphrase for this. You don’t have to use the exact same catchphrase every 
  time, but it’s the core of your experience here. It’s what you say to show that your atten-
  tion has been totally caught.
  ______
  You can earn a bonus XP towards this quest at any time (but only once per scene/15 
  minutes) with an emote or a statement that goes basically like that!
   This can be a 15 XP, 20-25 XP, or 35-60 XP Quest
  25
  20
  15
  35
  60
  Generic Quest 
  (Melodramatic)
  
  92
  92
  
  Quests: Paradigmat-
  ic Quests
  93
  Paradigmatic Quests 
  Defining
  This quest is a way of thinking. It’s a special way of 
  modeling the world. You have a special way, at least 
  while you’re on this quest, and possibly long-term, 
  of modeling the world.
  Maybe it’s smart. Maybe it’s goofy.
  Maybe it’s science. Maybe it’s philosophy. 
  Maybe it’s a delusory belief! Or it could be some-
  thing emotional or circumstantial, like ignorance, 
  depression, optimism, alienation, or viewing every-
  thing through the lens of your impending child.
  Anyway.
  Your quest is a way of thinking. So you show 
  that by proposing theories about the world, deriving 
  from that style of thought.
  Your bonus XP condition is proposing a specific 
  kind of theory; you have to, e.g.,
   
  ŭ propose a theory about fate
   
  ŭ propose a theory about a mystery
   
  ŭ propose a theory about how to handle things
   
  ŭ propose a theory about how something works
   
  ŭ propose a theory about how to survive an attack 
  by tigers
   
  ŭ propose a theory about the natural world
   
  ŭ propose a theory about romance and attraction
   
  ŭ propose a theory about what’s going on around 
  you
   
  ŭ propose a theory about the Outside or the Bleak 
  Academy (pg. 298-314)
   
  ŭ propose a theory about the history of Town
   
  ŭ ...or something else?
  You do have to say it, or at least think it, in char-
  acter—the theory isn’t from you, as a player, it’s 
  something that your character is, at least momen-
  tarily, seriously considering in the world.
  XP
  Bonus XP
  There’s something you’re always thinking about. It’s a lens that you see everything else 
  through.
  ______
  You can earn a bonus XP towards this quest at any time (but only once per scene/15 
  minutes) by proposing a new theory about that thing you’re always thinking about.
  Make sure to actually stop and consider the theory—I mean, it’s OK if someone 
  stops you, but the point isn’t to come up with something goofy to say, the point is to 
  come up with new thoughts to genuinely consider.
   This can be a 15 XP, 20-25 XP, or 35-60 XP Quest
  25
  20
  15
  35
  60
  Generic Quest 
  (Paradigmatic)
  
  Quests: 
  Exciting! 
  Quests
  Quests: Off-Camera 
  Quests
  94
   Exciting! Quests 
  Passionate
  This bit’s about something that you get worked up 
  over. I mean, really worked up. It’s goofy. It engag-
  es you. You go over the top. 
  This is normally signaled by a sign, reading 
  Over the Top, which you hold up when you or the 
  natural course of events takes things over the top. 
  When... for some quests, for quests that go over the 
  top in comedic ways, it’s for when things get so 
  ridiculous that you just have to laugh.
  And for other quests? The ones that go over the 
  top in an awful way or a dramatic way?
  It’s for when you just have to make that kind of 
  pained whimper-laugh that you do when the misery 
  in your life goes over the top.
  The XP condition doesn’t have anything to do 
  with laughing or whimpering, though.
  It just means something like that, when you hold 
  up the sign.
  You’ll get the bonus XP itself when you do hold 
  up the sign—or, well, if you don’t have a sign like 
  that, or don’t want to do that, or can’t show it to 
  people, when you emote 
   
  ŭ This is over the top! or 
   
  ŭ I’m taking this over the top!
  This bonus XP condition is obviously pretty gener-
  ic—you could indicate any number of Passionate 
  quests with the same Over the Top sign—but for 
  a quest like this it’s usually going to be obvious 
  which circumstances have just gone over the top. If 
  you can’t tell whether it’s your passion for yakitori 
  or your love of exploration that has just gone over 
  the top—
  Well, that can’t happen every time, can it? 
  Surely it’s a special case!
   Off-Camera Quests 
  THE CAMERA LENS IS ON FIRE
  So there’s some quests that really should mostly 
  happen in the background. They’re not about you. 
  They’re not about what you do on stage or on cam-
  era. They’re just stuff that’s happening behind the 
  scenes. 
  Or maybe the quest is about stuff that happens 
  during play, but—
  You can’t drive it. It’s all up to the HG.
  I don’t like that.
  I don’t accept it! That’s not a good quest!
  Instead, I demand that you step up to the bat and 
  make goofy stuff happen. If you think your quest 
  is an off-camera quest or an HG-driven quest, treat 
  it as an Exciting! Quest instead; only, maybe, with 
  a bit more player agency and a bit less character 
  agency in taking things over the top.
  
  95
  Bonus XP
  There’s something you’re doing:
  ______
  ...and you get really worked up over it. Well, you do, or the world does. Ridiculous, 
  absurd things happen. Things get hectic.
  So, look. Arrange for a sign. 
  It should say “Over the Top.”
  You can earn a bonus XP towards this quest at any time (but only once per scene/15 
  minutes) when your quest, or its consequences, or what you do about it, gets a little 
  over the top.
  Or, for that matter, when you decide to make them a little over the top.
  When that happens, hold up the sign or otherwise declare/observe that things have 
  gotten over the top and you can claim the XP.
  You don’t even have to say anything in character! You just have to be willing to hold 
  up a sign. It’s even OK if sometimes you’re being ironic or making a suggestion instead 
  of an observation, as long as an observation is more typical.
   This can be a 15 XP, 20-25 XP, or 35-60 XP Quest
  XP
  25
  20
  15
  35
  60
  Generic Quest 
  (Exciting)
  O
  V
  E
  R
   
  T
  H
  E
   
  T
  O
  P
  
  Quests: Lurid Quests
  96
   Lurid Quests 
  Lurid
  You’re torn between two worlds or two selves. 
  There’s a seed of wickedness in you; or sickness; 
  or corruption; or maybe just another self, another 
  form, some flowering change; or pain.
  Or something’s calling you. Something’s pull-
  ing you.
  There’s a way you usually are. Maybe it’s a 
  good way, maybe it’s a bad way, I don’t know. 
  And then there’s this risk of... change.
  In the real world this is a continuum, but for 
  simplicity, let’s express this as a binary choice. 
  You’re in one state, or the other. You’re in con-
  trol, or you are lost. You’re the person you’ve been 
  trying to be, or the person you were. You’re sick, 
  or you’re OK. You’re transforming, or you’re not; 
  hurting, or you’re not; having whatever problem 
  it is happen... or you’re not.
  You can get the bonus XP when you flip be-
  tween states in active play—in the middle of a 
  scene. This can be something you say or emote—
  “I am now hurting” or “I am now a suspicious 
  character.” This is usually something you say or 
  emote, I bet.
  XP
  Bonus XP
  You’re torn between two worlds or two selves; between:
  ______
  and
  ______
  Ideally, you’ll make a sign for this—a reversible card, which you could in theory have 
  on the table in front of you in play to show which state you’re in. You can earn a bonus 
  XP at any time (though only once per scene/15 minutes) by flipping the card, showing 
  that you’re moving between the two states.
   If you can’t actually keep the card in front of you, holding up the card with the rel-
  evant side facing people or just saying or emoting something appropriate can earn you 
  the XP instead.
  Generic Quest 
  (Lurid)
   This can be a 15 XP, 20-25 XP, or 35-60 XP Quest
  25
  20
  15
  35
  60
  
  97
  ...but if possible, I’d like you to have a two-sid-
  ed sign.
  Keep it in front of you on the gaming table to 
  reflect the two states of your being. Have one side 
  that faces up when everything is OK and one that 
  you flip to when corruption, metamorphosis, trau-
  ma, wickedness, or the allure of some distant trea-
  sure gets to you. (You can also just flash either side 
  of it if there’s no room to keep a prop sign in front 
  of you at the table, or quote from it if you’re in an 
  online game.)
  I’m explicitly setting this up so that you’ll nor-
  mally get the XP from flipping to the “bad” side—
  since you can’t get a second XP in the same scene, 
  and you’ll often switch back to the good side be-
  tween scenes rather than during—but so that you will 
  sometimes get an XP from flipping it the other way.
  Some example signs include:
   
  ŭ Curious / Too Curious.
   
  ŭ Troubled / Free.
   
  ŭ OK / Haunted.
   
  ŭ Innocent / Suspicious.
   
  ŭ Human / Angel.
   
  ŭ Grounded / Daydreaming
   
  ŭ Sober / Drunk
   
  ŭ At Home in Fortitude / Called to the Bleak Academy
   
  ŭ Ordinary Kid / Obvious Delinquent
   
  ŭ Cautious / Tempted
  Side B
  Side A
  Two-Sided Lurid Sign Examples
  
  98
  98
  
  Quests: Struggles
  99
   Struggles 
  Struggle
  There’s something you don’t handle well. At least 
  not yet. 
  There’s something you don’t easily process.
  You’re messed up, and the condition you have 
  of being messed up like that... is the quest. When 
  you experience some emotion or situation like suc-
  cess, peace, a happy environment, or whatever, you 
  immediately self-sabotage. Or maybe it’s a nega-
  tive emotion, like: you feel fear, and immediately 
  begin suppressing and denying it.
  All you actually have to do here is emote or say 
  something to indicate that you’re feeling the emo-
  tion or being in the situation in question. But this is 
  another case where I’d like a two-sided sign. One 
  side, with the emotion, you show to the other PCs. 
  The other side has your inner monologue, e.g.:
   
  ŭ At Peace / You don’t have time for this.
   
  ŭ Hurting / Smile!
   
  ŭ I Know What I’m Doing / You don’t know what 
  you’re doing.
   
  ŭ In Control / You’re not in control.
   
  ŭ Serious, Professional Face / [Sudoku game, for 
  playing in your head]
   
  ŭ So Cool! / Why can’t I be cool?
   
  ŭ This is Good, Right? / I don’t understand. I 
  don’t... understand.
   
  ŭ Touched / This will end in pain.
  XP
  Bonus XP
  There’s something you’re trying to do or be. It’s probably even a good thing!
  ...but this quest comes with a psychological or social burden—a private cross to bear. 
  Something you can’t handle as well as you like to pretend. Something you have trouble 
  processing. When you’re saying or emoting this to everyone...
  ______
  Some deeply- or shallowly-buried part of you is actually thinking this:
  ______
  Create or pick out a two-sided sign: one side is your public face, the other shows your 
  hidden thoughts. You can earn a bonus XP at any time (though only once per 15 min-
  utes/scene) by expressing that emotion—normally, by holding up the sign.
  The back side of the sign reminds you of your flaws. If you’re not playing in a place 
  where you can actually hold up the sign, it’s OK to just remind yourself quietly of what 
  it says, or, if you must, ignore the back side in its entirety.
   This can be a 15 XP, 20-25 XP, or 35-60 XP Quest
  25
  20
  15
  35
  60
  Generic Quest 
  (Struggle)
  
  Quests: The Back-
  ground of Your Life
  100
   The Background 
   
  of Your Life
  Setting
  A Setting quest is about a stage in your life. It’s not 
  really about something you do. It’s about something 
  you just have to live through. 
  Some practical possibilities for Setting quests 
  include:
   
  ŭ become a “better” person
   
  ŭ deal with grief
   
  ŭ deal with trauma
   
  ŭ spiritual explorations
   
  ŭ self-exploration
   
  ŭ adjust to a new lifestyle
   
  ŭ find a way to forgive someone
   
  ŭ experience an inherently or consciously tempo-
  rary phase of your PC’s life—
   
   be grumpy for a while
   
   be overly happy for a while
   
   try hard to be popular and outgoing for a while
   
   buckle down for a while
   
   goof off for a while
   
   experiment with forbidden arts for a while
   
   recover from surgery
   
   wean off of cigarettes, and backslide at the 
  end of the quest
   
   wean off of cigarettes, and stay off of them 
  afterwards
   
   be dismissive of local culture for a while
   
   be really enthusiastic about local culture for 
  a while, instead
  I know this is going to sound weird but I don’t 
  think you can advance a quest like this just by 
  declaring progress, or by focusing your attention 
  inwards. 
  I’m going to say instead that the core of a quest 
  like this is something external that happens while 
  you’re on the quest. You still have to be the one 
  to do it, so it’s still something your character does, 
  says, or emotes; the bonus XP condition is going to 
  be your character reacting to that thing—but still. 
  It’s something outside you. Something sensory. 
  Something that takes your attention out into the 
  broader world. You emote some variant on: 
   
  ŭ “Listen to those birds.”
   
  ŭ “Look at those clouds roll in.”
   
  ŭ “I’m stretching my fingers and watching them 
  go in and out.”
   
  ŭ “I’m staring at the endless sky.”
   
  ŭ “There’ll be chunks of potato, onion, beef in the 
  soup tonight; and spice.”
   
  ŭ “I’m staring out across the lake.”
   
  ŭ “It tastes like rain.”
   
  ŭ “This tea is so bitter.”
   
  ŭ “This soup is so good.”
   
  ŭ “This sun is so warm.”
  Side B
  Side A
  
  101
  Ideally this is something you can say when the quest 
  is on your mind. Your character is recovering from 
  grief: you can’t do that by having a scene where you 
  stomp around emoting recovery from grief, but you 
  can look off now and then into the distance, hear the 
  sounds of the gulls over the lake, and say, “Dang, 
  just listen to those birds.”
  And earn a bonus XP for that; and move, bit by 
  bit, towards peace. 
  It’s possible that referencing a memory would also 
  work as a bonus XP condition here. Figure out a 
  certain kind of memory that you have, like memo-
  ries with a precious person or memories of a better 
  world, and then say or emote something like:
   
  ŭ “Remember the first time we came here?”
   
  ŭ “Remember when we got lost out by the north-
  ern beach?”
   
  ŭ “Remember when it was summer and the days 
  were long?”
  Either way, it’s saying or emoting your observation/
  catchphrase, or a close variant thereof, that earns 
  you the bonus XP for such a quest.
  XP
  Bonus XP
  There’s something you just have to live through, day by day.
  ______
  And there’s something—some experience or memory—that helps mark out those days. 
  There is something that draws your attention when this quest casts its shadow or its light 
  upon your life.
  You can earn a bonus XP towards this quest at any time (but only once per scene/15 
  minutes) by directing attention to this experience. This usually relies on a specific catch 
  phrase—e.g., your attention drifts to the birds flying out over Big Lake, and you say, 
  “Listen to those birds.”
  ...or whatever.
  What catch phrase do you use?
  ______
   This can be a 15 XP, 20-25 XP, or 35-60 XP Quest
  25
  20
  15
  35
  60
  Generic Quest 
  (Background)
  
  Quests: 
  Symbolic 
  Quests
  102
   Symbolic Quests 
  Symbolic
  There’s something that’s happening to you, but 
  you’re not really sure what it’s about. It’s meta-
  physical and ambiguous. You’ve been touched by 
  destiny and miracle and—
  Well, it’s not clear where that is going.
  The way to handle this, I think, is that when 
  you feel the touch of that destiny and miracle upon 
  you—when the weirdness has started—you need 
  to free-associate a bit on what’s going on in your 
  character’s head. Talk about images and sensations, 
  either emoting “I’m experiencing this / flashing on 
  this” or as things your character says. That’ll earn 
  you the bonus XP.
  The meaning of these rambles isn’t going to be 
  clear until towards the end of the quest—
  And maybe not even then, though by then you 
  should at least try to pull it together into some sort 
  of story and some sort of sense—
  So the fulfillment criteria here is the same for 
  each and every Symbolic quest.
  Try not to have two quests like this at the same 
  time; it won’t be clear which one to give the bonus 
  XP to when a strangeness like this arises.
  XP
  Bonus XP
  There’s something going on. You think it means... you think it... it relates to... 
  ______
  You can earn a bonus XP towards this quest at any time (though only once per scene/15 
  minutes) by declaring that you can feel the touch of it, the thing, the it, the miracle, the 
  strangeness, the dissociation, the unnameable, the it, the thing 
  —you can phrase it another way; just give some indication that you’re triggering this 
  quest condition—
  and then free-associating for a few moments about what your character is experienc-
  ing, feeling, thinking.
  Talk about being cold, or warm; talk about visions; whatever. Clenching muscles in 
  your arms. Hunger in the sky. Whatever. Random rambles and chill sensations across 
  your back, gnashing stars in the glory beyond the world. That kind of experience, the 
  taste of bugs chattering in the summer, and that brings you in a bonus XP for this quest.
  Generic Quest 
  (Symbolic)
   This can be a 15 XP, 20-25 XP, or 35-60 XP Quest
  25
  20
  15
  35
  60
  
  Storyline XP
  Spending XP
  Abandoning Quests
  103
   
   Storyline XP 
  Storyline quests are a little harder to break down into solid rules. Mostly I’m going to give you some rough guidelines here, below.
  Major Goals
  It’s worth note that the “major goals” for a quest aren’t necessarily 
  or even generally the character’s major goals. They’re my major 
  goals, or the HG’s major goals, or your major goals as the player 
  designing the quest.
  Storyline design isn’t in character, in other words; it’s done 
  from an authorial perspective.
  So the major goals are based on things like:
   
  ŭ this would be an awesome dramatic scene here;
   
  ŭ this would strengthen the feel of the quest;
   
  ŭ this is something that should happen as part of the quest story, 
  but the PC doesn’t know that;
   
  ŭ this would help to fulfill the dramatic purpose of the quest;
  as well as
   
  ŭ this is an obvious strategic/practical mid-point.
  You can use this to sneak all kinds of “wouldn’t it be cool if...?” 
  and “maybe this happens while...?” into the quest.
  My personal default is to give you about one major goal for 
  each 10 XP of quest, so you can earn half, or just a little bit under 
  half, of the quest’s XP from its major goals. That’s not a hard rule 
  on how quests have to work, though; it’s just my personal style.
  Quest Flavor
  Quest flavor is generally just a set of (potentially fun) scenes or 
  actions that you can imagine a character performing while on the 
  quest. I don’t mean the actions they take to do the quest—I mean, 
  the things that you’d expect someone on that quest to be doing. 
  You’re still designing from an OOC perspective, here! You’re still 
  trying to capture the mystique of the quest, inasmuch as it has 
  mystique: its appearance, what seems important from the outside, 
  more than what’s important in actual fact.
  There’s no hard rule for how many of these flavor options a 
  quest should have. I like to have at least three, because otherwise 
  the quest is just doing the same stuff over and over, and I’ve tried 
  to rein myself in before I go past one option per 5 XP—but if 
  you’re creating a quest, and you really need 20 different flavor 
  options, or can’t think of a reason to have more than 2, well, then, 
  that’s fine! 
   Spending XP 
  You can spend XP at more or less any time during the game to 
  complete a quest. If you have 5 XP floating around, and you’ve 
  earned 10 bonus XP on a 15 XP quest, you can complete that quest 
  immediately. You’re obligated to explain how it makes sense to 
  complete the quest right then—e.g., if Dorothy, in the hurricane 
  and on the way to Oz, wants to complete a fishing quest, she’d 
  better be fishing off of her porch and making some folksy obser-
  vation about what she’s learned—but as a general rule it can al-
  ways be done. There is one exception: as a sanity measure, I’m 
  going to allow the HG to veto XP expenditures during play. I don’t 
  mean “setting consistency and sanity” or “rules balance sanity.” I 
  just mean, if the HG is already juggling too many chainsaws and 
  plates, some of which are on fire, they have the right to tell you not 
  to spend XP bringing another big thing into play right then. Con-
  versely, towards the end of a session, the HG may want to actively 
  prompt people to spend XP on any quests they might want to finish 
  so that the HG can work the quest’s outcome into the ending or the 
  epilogue of the game.
  After the end of each session, and before the next session 
  begins, you’ll need to spend your accumulated XP on quests. 
  For instance, if you earn 18 XP during a 5-hour-long Saturday 
  game, then, after the game, you’ll have to divide that 18 XP be-
  tween one to four of your quests. If you decide at this point to 
  finish one or more quests, make sure to let the HG know. You 
  can also pick up new quests at this point, particularly if you’ve 
  finished one or more quests, and you can spend some of your ac-
  cumulated XP on these new quests as well. 
  If you and the HG like, you can work out “what happened” 
  with quests you finished and started at this time between the two 
  sessions. Otherwise, finishing and starting new quests “officially” 
  happens during the first chapter of the next session of play.
   Abandoning Quests 
  From time to time you’ll realize that your character isn’t inter-
  ested in a given quest any longer. They’re no longer that person 
  or they’re no longer in those circumstances. They’ve moved on. 
  They’ve abandoned the quest.
  You can abandon an ongoing quest any time you like. Once 
  you’ve done so, you’re no longer on that quest and it no longer 
  counts towards your four-quest limit. The story of the quest fin-
  ishes, to one extent or another—the HG can still use the story 
  elements as part of the ongoing game, but there is some sense in 
  which you both feel and actually are “done.” For a one-off quest, 
  you feel like you’ve done all that was in you to do; you can’t 
  do this right now: you’re done. For a repeatable quest, you’ve 
  decided that it’s not worth it or it’s not possible: maybe you’ll do 
  this quest again later, but for right now, you’re not going to have a 
  new plateau, a new level, or a new key defining moment, nor are 
  you going to for a while to come—and maybe that’s not so bad.
  Abandoning a quest costs you half of its invested XP, but you 
  get the rest back immediately to apply to whatever existing or new 
  quests you like. As an optional rule, the HG can give you some or 
  all of the rest at the beginning of the next book of play.
  
  Quest Completion
  104
  104
   Quest Completion 
  When you’ve paid a quest’s full XP cost, the “story” of the quest 
  completes. Whatever it was you were building towards, you’ve 
  accomplished it.
  Your Arc will tell you the quest’s final outcome and you’ll 
  choose from its list of rewards.
  —well, they’re all suggestions, so you might choose your own 
  reward, but usually that’s what you do. You’ll read the line that 
  says “Result:” “Reward:” or “Outcome:” and then you’ll skim the 
  list of Perks, Perk-improvements, and other rewards.
  Unexpected Outcomes
  On occasion you and the HG will have to do some thinking here.
  For instance, if you’re working on a quest to repair an old house, 
  it’s logical to assume that you come out of this with a house. On the 
  other hand, it’s possible that towards the end of the quest there’s a ter-
  rible fire, and suddenly there’s nothing left but some scorched land—
  And you’re sitting there with 24 out of 25 XP, so you tip in 
  another to complete it, because, darn it, that doesn’t change the 
  work that you put in.
  And at this point you’re going to want to figure out if the Perk 
  you get is a reflection of the cruel unfairness of the world or if you 
  and the HG should figure out some way for you to end up with a 
  new, cool home like you’d expected to have—
  Some eucatastrophe wherein, say, the HG tells you: “well, that’s 
  it for that project. But you know, your friend’s uncle’s looking to 
  move in with his children, he has this great little house he’s willing 
  to let go of cheap, and with the insurance plus some pitching in from 
  your friends you could have everything copacetic by next Friday....”
  You won’t ever technically have to work around stuff like this. 
  The Arcs are designed with a fair bit of abstraction precisely so I 
  never have to promise you a house I can’t give. I’m just saying, it’s 
  important to take a moment to reflect upon what should happen when 
  you’re approaching a not-immediately-intuitive end for a given quest.
  If You Started an Arc...
  Completing the first quest of an Arc marks the official beginning 
  of your journey. That’s the point at which you can say that your 
  character is “on” a given Arc.
  This usually earns you a level-0 Trait, representing the path 
  that you’ve just started, e.g.,
   
   Knight (Idol Singer) 0.
  That indicates that you’re on a Knight Arc, trying to be an Idol 
  Singer, and your current level of awesome at that is level 0.
  Ultimately you’re allowed to declare yourself on any color of 
  Arc after finishing any quest—you can complete a weird hand-
  made quest to cook 150 hamburgers and declare that you are now 
  connected to some great Otherworldly force (pg. 406)—but it’s 
  good manners to make sure that this makes sense.
  If You Finished an Arc...
  If you’ve crossed the XP boundary for your Arc, you gain a per-
  manent benefit of some sort. For instance, if you’re a PC without 
  access to miraculous powers, you’d get something like:
   
  ŭ +1 to the Arc-based Trait, like 
  Knight (Idol Singer)
   
  ŭ +1 to a Skill (pg. 64), +1 to a Bond (pg. 116), or a new level 1 
  Bond (pg. 116/452)
   
  ŭ a new level 1 Skill,
   
  ŭ you can optionally move a point from an existing Skill into the 
  new Skill, and
   
  ŭ if the Arc Trait just hit 3, gain a new Affliction (pg. 119/452)
  The Skill doesn’t have to be an exact match for the Arc, so you 
  could advance to, e.g.
   
  ŭ
  Knight (Idol Singer) 1, and gain
   
  ŭ +1 to your Bond “alcoholic” and
   
  ŭ a new level 1 Skill, “Totally Disillusioned”
  These benefits are inherent—you’ll never have to discard them 
  like you would a Perk.
  Closing Out Arcs in Good 
  Order
  I don’t want players to be unhappy because they finish a quest 10 
  XP short of the Arc and the next logical quest for them to take up 
  is a 50+ XP-costing brick.
  So when the Arc’s end approaches, you can talk to the HG 
  about these options:
   
  ŭ cutting or stretching a quest’s XP cost by up to 50%;
   
  ŭ finishing the Arc itself midway through the next quest with a 
  big insight, staying on the quest, and applying the rest of its XP 
  towards a new Arc.
  You can also abandon an existing Arc midstream; much as with 
  abandoning a quest, you’ll get back half of the invested XP—
  Not back back, since you’ve already earned Perks or complet-
  ed quests with it or whatever, but, you know, you can apply that 
  much as a head start on qualifying for your next Arc—
  And the HG can later, and optionally, give you access to the rest. 
  
  CHAPTER 6: THE 
  MIRACULOUS
   
  The Miraculous
  
  106
  106
  The Miraculous
  Depending on the campaign, characters may start with or acquire 
  access to miraculous abilities—powers that transcend causality 
  and process. These aren’t really things you do. They’re things you 
  learn to make happen.
  Things you can just... declare. 
  They can be really minor things, things that you could also do 
  with ordinary actions, like:
   
  ŭ “I take a step forward.” or
   
  ŭ “I wriggle around in whatever bag I happen to be trapped in.”
  But they’re more likely to be magical or transcendent stuff like—
   
  ŭ “I grow wings.”
   
  ŭ “I spin some straw into gold.”
   
  ŭ “I make a bridge of fire to span this river.”
   
  ŭ “I pull the information I need out of this stack of books.”
   
  ŭ “I make this harder for someone (raising the Obstacle).”
   
  ŭ “I make this easier (lowering or waiving the Obstacle.)”
   
  ŭ “I play this instrument perfectly.”
   
  ŭ “I run at eighty miles per hour.” or
   
  ŭ “I cast a veil of illusion to hide my bike.”
  The best thing about a miraculous action like this is that it al-
  ways happens. 
  There may be limits to its power. It can be opposed by a stron-
  ger miracle. Unless the power states otherwise, it has limited 
  reach—basically, it can affect stuff in the same Region, e.g. “For-
  titude” or “Little Island,” as yourself. 
  But it’s not like a Skill, where your action is “I try to do this” 
  or “I have this Intention.”
  A miracle can fail or be stopped or whatever, but the action 
  itself, the part that you just do, is “This happens.” You point at the 
  world. You tell it: make this so.
  Even if you shouldn’t be able to “take a step forward,” because 
  you’re sealed in an iron casket. Even if you shouldn’t be able to 
  “grow wings,” because... you’re a human or a rat or something, 
  and they don’t do that.
  You use the miracle.
  It is made so.
  The downside of a miraculous action is that you don’t have any 
  way to spend Will and buy your way up to a guarantee of “effec-
  tiveness,” “productivity,” or doing “the right thing.” Those guaran-
  tees are the currency of mortal actions—of fuzzy, organic, slippery 
  mortal actions, one thing one day and another thing the next.
  Miracles aren’t like that. 
  They simply are.
   Octopus Singer 
  an example Miraculous Ability
  Type: Miraculous Action
  Cost: 
   
  ŭ 0 MP—invoke this power by Big Lake, when there are octopi 
  nearby
   
  ŭ 1 MP—invoke this power by a different body of water, or 
  when octopi are far away
   
  ŭ 4 MP—invoke this power in an epic fashion, e.g. 
   
   summoning forth an octopus-like kaiju 
   
   summoning an octopus spirit
   
   calling forth octopi from rain puddles or other bodies of 
  water without them.
  Octopi are vulnerable to music—to certain songs that resonate 
  with their hearts.
  Sing near the Lake and invoke Octopus Singer and your song 
  will call them forth. It will draw them out miraculously; they will 
  crawl towards you, one after another, from the nearby rocks and 
  pools. Traditionally, to the people of Fortitude, this is understood 
  as the octopi praising the rare master of this technique and giving 
  their consent to be eaten.
  This power is a good Perk to pick up after a beach- or fish-
  ing-related quest—
  Most commonly from the first quest in a Knight Arc, where it 
  represents an unexpected talent that you discover in yourself, or 
  in an Otherworldly Arc where you meet an octopus spirit of some 
  sort in your dreams.
  
  107
   
  
  How Miracles Work
  108
  108
   Weathered 
  an example Miraculous Ability
  Type: Miraculous Action
  Cost: 
   
  ŭ 0 MP—weather damage 1/chapter
   
  ŭ 1 MP—use this ability a second or later time this chapter
   
  ŭ 2 MP—use this ability a second or later time in a handful of 
  hours
  This miraculous ability protects you from physical damage. 
  Invoke Weathered when you were just about to be badly hurt 
  and you can declare that you’re fine instead—that you’ve weath-
  ered it like an action hero or an old sea captain, with at most some 
  trickling blood, torn clothing, or some smears of sweat and soot.
  This power reduces the severity of a received physical wound 
  by about one level (pg. 126-128). The HG can veto its use if the 
  wound was already too trivial to worry about or so thoroughly 
  overkill that even being Weathered wouldn’t help.
  You’ll pick up defensive powers like this early in a miraculous 
  Aspect or Emptiness Arc and later on in some of the rest.
   How Miracles Work 
   
  Let’s go over how these examples work.
  Both Octopus Singer and Weathered are noted as being “Mi-
  raculous Actions.” 
  I personally like to think of miraculous actions as “tactical” 
  abilities, but you should probably think of them in the same way 
  that the characters do; that is, as expressions of:
   
  ŭ the wishing power of the heart; or as
   
  ŭ the power of the Bleak Academy, that hungers to unmake the 
  world.
  Here’s the basic rule for miraculous actions:
  A miraculous action automatically takes precedence over 
  any mundane action. It wins any direct conflict with a mun-
  dane Skill.
  This doesn’t always mean you win the larger conflict—for in-
  stance, if you sing forth an octopus from the nearby waters while 
  someone is trying to stab you, it may not actually... help. Even if 
  you’re in an octopus-catching contest instead of a knife fight, it 
  still might not help. If your opponent is using a vast steam-pow-
  ered fleet to trawl the whole area with awful octopus-nets, for ex-
  ample, the 0 MP version of this miracle won’t be enough. You’d 
  need the 4 MP version to actually catch more.
   Similarly, if you’re invoking Weathered in a talent competi-
  tion, the miracle wins any direct conflict with a mundane action—
  but unless you can bait someone into claiming that their ability 
  to damage you is their talent, it’s unlikely that this will be of use.
  Still...
  If a mundane action and a miracle come directly head to 
  head—if someone uses a level 15 mundane action with 5 Edge 
  to try to stop you from singing forth octopi, and you have Octo-
  pus Singer—the mundane action always loses. That’s important. 
  Mundane actions can never stop miracles from fulfilling the letter 
  of their effect. 
  Not every miraculous ability is a “miraculous action.” Other 
  options include “Imperial Miracles,” which are technically even 
  stronger; Bonds and Afflictions, which I’ll talk about later; and 
  miscellaneous oddball things.
  Let’s continue examining the example miracle abilities.
  After noting their action type (“miraculous action,”) these abil-
  ities list a set of costs in “MP” for various modes of use. This is 
  the fuel for miracles—MP, aka Miracle Points, aka “the wishing 
  power of the heart.”
  Octopus Singer is an example of a power where you spend 
  MP commensurate to the effects. You don’t need wishing power 
  to use the basic ability. You’ll only need a little if you’re outside 
  the power’s normal context, e.g., singing forth an octopus from 
  the southern California coast. You’ll need a lot of wishing power, 
  though, to sing an octopus out of a teardrop or out of your day-
  dreams of a lake.
  Weathered is an example of a power where MP affects its fre-
  quency of use instead. The power seemed a little excessive if used 
  continuously, so I’ve pegged it to the chapter—even a high-level 
  Techno hero can be brought down by sustained and focused fire; 
  the most weathered of Pastoral sailors, beaten down by a really 
  bad week. A power like this typically doesn’t get much stronger 
  when you pour MP into it, but you can spend MP to use it more 
  often than its native pace.
  After the table of MP costs and uses, the rest of the ability 
  descriptions explain what the powers actually do. As noted, this is 
  something that just happens—unless the power says so, you don’t 
  have to spend Will or do anything else.
  
  109
   
  Miracles That Help With 
  Mortal Actions
  A number of miraculous actions affect your mundane actions in 
  one fashion or another.
  Ace abilities, like I’ve mentioned, are built around improving 
  your mundane and Superior Skills towards perfection, or even be-
  yond it. If this kind of power fits your character’s themes, you 
  might get access to miraculous Will (pg. 67) for mundane actions, 
  improve your Intention ratings on a regular basis, enhance your 
  strength and speed, and have the option of intense, over-the-top 
  martial arts training to pick up temporary Superior Skills.
  Sentimental abilities enhance your connection to certain 
  objects, people, or things that are precious to you—you’ll learn 
  to evoke extra powers from or share your own abilities with the 
  things to which you have Connection 3+. You’ll also learn to visit 
  them in spirit, a power that could persist even after your death.
  More generally, a number of miraculous abilities have effects 
  that, while not directly connected to your Skills, wind up either 
  improving them or relying on them—e.g., a miracle might let you 
  call up a magical wind but then let you control that wind with your 
  Skills. Another might lower the Obstacles your mortal Skills face 
  when you’re in a meditative frame of mind.
  You can invoke a mundane action-affecting miracle and the 
  mundane action that it affects simultaneously, and doing so only 
  counts as a single action or thing. For instance, if you have a mira-
  cle that lets you form a [Skill+4] Intention without spending Will, 
  you can generally invoke the miracle and the Intention itself at the 
  same time. This is important, since you can only do two things at 
  a time, and you might have been doing something else!
  Imperial Miracles
  Imperial Miracles don’t cause a thing to happen; they state a des-
  tiny. They say: “this will happen,” “this has happened,” or “this is 
  happening now.”
  They’re like genre principles, or stuff written into the setting, 
  or directives from a higher authority. They don’t say how things 
  happen, not usually, nor do they make it happen, exactly. They just 
  say that it does.
  Physics changes; fate changes; destiny and circumstances—
  I mean, if you use an Imperial Miracle to say that there should be 
  a bridge across a certain river, there are a lot of ways it could play 
  out. You could stumble across a bridge that was “already there” a 
  few minutes later; or spiders could spin a silken bridge across it; or 
  the local Regional Council could decide to build a bridge there; or 
  the rainbow could shatter and chunks of it could fall from Heaven to 
  form a multicolored bridge. There’s usually a ton of leeway in the 
  details, is what I mean; the HG comes up with something that would 
  be cool, appropriate, or both and makes it work out somehow in play.
   The Door Into Memory 
  an example Imperial Miracle
  Type: Imperial Miracle
  Cost: 
   
  ŭ 0 MP—open the door into memory, 1/book
   
  ŭ 1 MP—open the door again, into the same person’s memories
   
  ŭ 4 MP—open the door into a different person’s memories (be-
  fore the book’s end)
  Here’s an example of an Imperial miracle. 
  Invoke The Door Into Memory and you can open a door 
  into someone’s dusty memories and physically go through. You 
  can take them or others with you. The door stays open as long 
  as you’re sustaining this power; if you stop sustaining the power 
  with you or someone else trapped on the other side, a path back 
  into the present must remain. 
  The HG decides the details of the world/memory interface, 
  and it can change from time to time; however, you’re usually 
  safe from “messing up the timeline” or damaging the person’s 
  mind and the HG should tell you if this is not the case. The high-
  er the Arc’s associated Trait when you pick the power up (e.g.  
  Otherworldly (Spiritual) 2) the smoother the experience is 
  likely to be: 
  At Arc 0-2, this power may well have baroque and unruly ele-
  ments and arbitrary limitations on what you can do or see or expe-
  rience in “the past,” but at Arc 4-5 this is much less of a concern.
  The expected application of this power is gathering informa-
  tion and treasuring lost things, but you can also use it to change 
  the modern world; there’s a quest for doing just that on pg. 326.
  
  Common Cost Struc-
  tures
  110
  110
   Common Cost Structures 
   
  Inherent Powers
  Type: [Variable]
  Cost: —
  Type: Miraculous Action [and possibly Major]
  Cost: 
   
  ŭ 0 MP—starting mid-scene, invoke this power 1-2x/scene
   
  ŭ 1 MP—starting mid-scene, invoke this power an additional 
  time
   
  ŭ 2 MP—starting mid-scene, invoke this power as often as you’d 
  like this scene
   
  ŭ 4 MP—invoke this power as often as you’d like this scene.
  Many powers that represent your natural, always-available abili-
  ties are free—there’s no cost to use them at all. Others are emo-
  tionally or spiritually keyed: you always “have” the power, but it 
  takes focus, or a certain mood, or energy:
  There’s something that means you don’t go all-out with these 
  powers unless you really care. These powers generally work start-
  ing mid-scene, meaning that you can usually start using them only 
  after some meaningful stuff has already happened in the current 
  scene. For instance, if you have the power to fly, but spend most 
  of your time on the ground, it’s probably built like the second 
  option above—
  It’s not impossible for you to start a tense conflict by grabbing 
  someone and launching into the sky, or to go back and forth be-
  tween airborne and ground-bound a lot, but it’s surprising for you 
  to do that in the same way that it’d be surprising for a random 
  schoolteacher to open a fight with a dangerous enemy by punch-
  ing it in the head.
  Gaming Terminology
   
  ŭ Mundane action or Intention—the kind of things people 
  do. We start out adrift and impractical amidst a welter of 
  chaotic sensation. Through a billion false starts and errors 
  we learn how to become ever-more effective, productive, 
  and humane, but we never quite reach perfection.
   
  ŭ Will—the power source for mundane actions. Our limited 
  supply of time, cope, and effort.
   
  ŭ Miracle—the kinds of things warring gods and demons 
  do. A flare of power rises from the heart and burns its truth 
  into the world. 
   
  ŭ Imperial Miracle—the kind of thing that world-dream-
  ers, subtle deities, and cosmic principles do. A wish whis-
  pers out from the heart to shape the world.
   
  ŭ MP—the power source for miracles and Imperial mira-
  cles. Sometimes I will speak of this as wish power, “the 
  wishing power of the heart,” or “the power of the wishing 
  heart to change what’s possible.” However for the mira-
  cles of the Bleak Academy I suspect it is not something 
  so glad. 
   
  ŭ Arc Trait—a Trait you pick up from pursuing a given 
  Arc, e.g. Knight (Idol Singer) or Aspect (perfect, uncon-
  querable Ace).
  These are keywords I’ll sometimes stick on the description of 
  a miraculous or Imperial ability:
   
  ŭ Bleak power—a miraculous ability drawing on the bleak, 
  unmaking power of the deep Outside and the Bleak Acad-
  emy. These powers usually make it easy to destroy, crip-
  ple, invoke despair, and curbstomp your opponents, but 
  there are special rules for resisting them on pg. 476-481.
   
  ŭ Major power—a miraculous ability capable of doing 
  epic things, extremely complicated things, and/or affect-
  ing large areas.
   
  ŭ Ritual power—a miraculous ability that triggers/requires 
  a Ritual when invoked, unless the HG waives that for 
  OOC reasons.
   
  ŭ Unreal power—a miraculous ability whose effects are 
  treated a little bit like a break from reality: after invoca-
  tion, if the world winds up in a weird state, the HG may 
  revise the lingering effects to something that makes sense 
  in the local reality. (For instance, creating a Klein bottle or 
  turning people two-dimensional is fine in the Outside, but 
  if it’s an Unreal power, and you invoke it in Horizon, then 
  things will drift back towards normalcy after the scene 
  and the power’s use end.)
  
  111
   
  Ultimate Techniques
  Type: Imperial Miracle or Major Miraculous Action [possibly 
  also a Ritual Power]
  Cost: 
   
  ŭ 0 MP—invoke this power 1/book
   
  ŭ 4 MP—use this power a second or later time in a book
  Type: Imperial Miracle or Major Miraculous Action [possibly 
  also a Ritual Power]
  Cost: 
   
  ŭ 0 MP—invoke this power 1/book
   
  ŭ 2 MP—use this power a second or later time in a given book
   
  ŭ 4 MP—use this power a second or later time in a given chapter
  Type: Imperial Miracle or Major Miraculous Action [possibly 
  also a Ritual Power]
  Cost: 
   
  ŭ 0 MP—invoke this power 1/book
   
  ŭ 1 MP—use this power a second or later time in a given book
   
  ŭ 2 MP—use this power a second or later time in a given chapter
   
  ŭ 4 MP—use this power a second or later time in a matter of 
  minutes
  Your high-end, most powerful techniques will often look some-
  thing like this. You’re meant to use them once per story, in a big 
  flashy way, but there are provisions for using them more often 
  when that fits. 
  Somewhat Less Ultimate Techniques
  Type: [Variable]
  Cost:  
   
  ŭ 0 MP—you may invoke this power 1/chapter
   
  ŭ 1 MP—do so a second or later time per chapter
   
  ŭ 2 MP—do so a second or later time in a handful of hours
  This is a pretty standard format for a power you’re meant to use 
  once or twice a chapter.
  Powers That Take Effort
  Type: Miraculous Action
  Cost:
   
  ŭ 1 MP (or sometimes 2 MP, or very rarely 4 MP)
  Some powers—almost always straightforward miraculous ac-
  tions—are atomic bursts of effort. You must spend a surge of wish 
  power for the power to invoke.
  Powers That Take Time to Invoke
  Type: [Variable]
  Cost:  
   
  ŭ 0 MP—you may invoke this power 1/chapter
   
  ŭ 1 MP—do so a second or later time per chapter
   
  ŭ 2 MP—do so a second or later time in a handful of hours
   
  ŭ 4 MP—invoke this power instantly.
  Power Description:... Over the course of a few minutes, you do 
  [[ something ]]...
  Type: [Variable]
  Cost:  
   
  ŭ 0 MP—invoke this power over the course of a few minutes
   
  ŭ [[ some ]]* MP—invoke this power instantly
  * usually 1, 2, or 4.
  The powers of immortal creatures often take time to use. You have 
  to gather and condense energy, destiny, and will, or otherwise 
  slowly shape the world.
  When you have a power that works after a few minutes, that 
  means that if there’s other stuff going on (as opposed to a pretty 
  dead scene, or a scene where everyone’s waiting on this power), 
  a few things have to happen while you’re setting it up. Ideally 
  this covers about 5 minutes of game time in a languid scene or 5 
  minutes of real time in a scene of fast-paced play—
  But there’s no reason to use a stopwatch for this unless you’ve 
  been watching too much Revolutionary Girl Utena.
  
  MP
  Recharge Tokens
  112
  112
   MP 
   
  The power source for miracle abilities is wish power, aka “Miracle 
  Points” or “MP.”
  Normal people don’t have much of this—
   
  ŭ humans on Earth don’t seem to have any. Maybe it’s one in a 
  thousand?
   
  ŭ most people in Town have 0.
   
  ŭ some people in Town have 1.
   
  ŭ I sometimes suspect the rats of having 2-3.
   
  ŭ gods and stuff have around 5.
  I’m going to set the default at 1 MP, but please note that a higher-lev-
  el game should definitely either start you at 5 MP or get you there 
  pretty quickly with a couple of free 2-MP bumps along the way.
  Simplified MP
  This is an optional way of handling MP for those without 
  many miracle powers.
  You have 1 MP to spend each session. 
  If you want more, ask the HG for one. If you want to save up 
  2+ MP for a particular power use, ask the HG what you’d need 
  to do.
  Full MP Rules
  You have a starting MP pool of 1 MP—or more, if the HG agrees 
  or you’ve earned additional MP during play.
  You’ll regain spent MP, to a maximum of your starting total, 
  at a rate of:
   
  ŭ 1 MP, at the beginning of each chapter; 
   
  ŭ all your MP, at the beginning of each book. 
  You can gain additional MP,  with no particular maximum:
   
  ŭ from Issues, such as Isolation (pg. 140);
   
  ŭ when Region Properties get you into trouble;
   
  ŭ from Bonds (pg. 116)
   
  ŭ when you spend 2-3 chapters diligently honoring a “Region 
  Property” (e.g. helping somebody find/make a home in Forti-
  tude, or helping the cats of the Yatskaya temple come and go, 
  as per pg. 205 or 220)
  In addition, there are a handful of abilities that improve MP but 
  only up to the starting total, and you can restore your MP to its 
  starting total by remembering, cherishing, and ideally monologu-
  ing about a Recharge Token (below).
   Recharge Tokens 
   
  Every now and then you’ll stumble on or work your way to some-
  thing precious to you. Something that you can hang on to. Some-
  thing misted over by the power of your heart—like a valley over 
  which clouds of the power of your heart, pink and purple and well-
  loved, hang low. 
  Something that you can turn your thoughts to when times are 
  hard.
  It could be a collectible figurine. It could be a precious mem-
  ory. It could be a token from someone that you love. It could be 
  a work that you’ve completed, like a story or painting or song or 
  something, or a work that you love to reread, look at, or listen to. It 
  could be a recipe or a memory of the smile of someone you cooked 
  for, if you love cooking. It could be a scar, if you love to fight.
  It could be a charm on a bracelet you wear.
  Something like that is a Recharge Token. It typically takes 
  you a short (15 XP) “side quest” to get one, and once per token—
  after earning it as a reward—you can call upon it to refresh your 
  Will and MP to their starting totals. (Or just your Will, if you hap-
  pen to have more MP than your default.)
  You don’t have to touch it. You don’t have to have it on you. 
  You just have to know that it exists, or existed, at least; that 
  you had it, once.
  I don’t expect you to accumulate too many of these, and I’m 
  pretty sure going past 2-3 that you haven’t used is going to be an 
  unfavorable choice, so I’m not going to limit this. You can have 
  as many as you earn through quests. Just write down somewhere 
  what precious things you have, and mark them somehow as de-
  pleted when you have called on them to Recharge.
  
  Miraculous Conflict
  113
   
   Miraculous Conflict 
  Like Intentions, Miraculous Abilities have numeric ratings—the 
  effective rating of your ability derives from the underlying Arc.
  Specifically, each time you complete an Arc you’ll raise an as-
  sociated Arc-based Trait, e.g.:
   
  ŭ
  Knight (Idol Singer) 0 => 1
   
  ŭ
  Otherworldly (Spiritual) 2 => 3 or
   
  ŭ
  Otherworldly (Can Turn into a Giant Snake) 2 => 3
  This also serves as the baseline rating for your Miraculous Abili-
  ties—a Perk is going to get its rating from the Arc that you learned 
  it from (or 0 if you abandon that Arc before getting to 1) and that 
  rating will serve as its baseline effectiveness in miraculous conflict. 
  Specifically, in the event of a conflict between two miracu-
  lous abilities, the miracle with the higher Arc rating “wins”—its 
  success forms the context in which the other miracle must oper-
  ate. This works for miracles just as it does for mundane Skills: 
  the higher-level miracle doesn’t necessarily erase the lower-level 
  miracle, and in fact most miracles will just glide past one another 
  with only the slightest friction from the clash, but where there is a 
  conflict, the higher-rated miracle’s needs come first. 
  There’s one special exception to this:
  I want to give a bit of an advantage to epic, world-shaking 
  powers, even at a lower Arc rating. 
  So one of the things you decide when getting a new power—
  well, one of the things that the HG decides, probably—is whether 
  a power is “Major” or not.
  Major Miraculous Actions have an numerical rating of 
  [their Arc + 3.]
  All other Miraculous Actions have a numerical rating of 
  [their Arc.]
  Massive, world-altering powers should always be Major. If you 
  can drown the world in a wave, that’s a Major power. The con-
  verse isn’t true. If you can cover anything with a teacup, caging it 
  and removing it from sight as a miraculous action, then that might 
  or might not be a Major power. 
  If you’re not sure, try catching a world-devouring wave under 
  your teacup!
  That’ll probably help you to tell.
  Conflict With the Other PCs
  After a while you’re likely to notice that the Arc rating for the oth-
  er PCs’ best abilities will tend to track pretty closely to your own. 
  This means that any regular conflict with another PC is likely to 
  end in a tie.15
  For the most part that’s intentional—it’s OK to sometimes 
  overwhelm or be overwhelmed by NPCs, but I’d rather you take 
  advantage of the semantics of your miraculous abilities when 
  fighting your opponents, not their rating. That said, if you’re read-
  ing the Miraculous Conflict section to figure out how to get a leg 
  up on the other PCs, there are four basic methods, from best (in 
  my eyes) to worst:
   
  ŭ bring in some strategic advantage like Strike (pg. 115) and 
  more specifically your Bonds (pg. 116).
   
  ŭ accept the numeric tie and pitch a story to the HG as to why 
  they should call it in your favor;
   
  ŭ put some work into developing a targeted, Major special tech-
  nique; or
   
  ŭ focus your character’s efforts on “leveling up” faster than your 
  rivals do.
  I’m a little nervous about the last one causing interpersonal prob-
  lems at the gaming table, but it is, in fact (and as long as you’re not 
  an OOC jerk about it), a thing that you can do in play.
  Conflict Between Imperial 
  Miracles
  It’s technically impossible for two Imperial Miracles to be “in 
  conflict”—even an apparent conflict between two prescribed des-
  tinies can, as story after story has demonstrated, work itself out in 
  practice. It’s like saying both “America must be west of Africa” 
  and “Africa must be west of America”—
  The world will only become round.
  In fact, in general, an Imperial miracle can’t be in conflict with 
  anything, so it doesn’t need a numerical rating at all. 
  That said, it is reasonable for the HG to assign a higher con-
  ceptual priority to the execution of the Imperial miracle with the 
  higher Arc, and some Imperial miracles will mention minor bene-
  fits or downsides to a higher or lower Arc.
  15 Except when one is using a Major ability and the other isn’t, or when 
  you’re in a campaign like Fortitude: the Glass-Maker’s Dragon where 
  it’s reasonable to imagine having one high-rated and one low-rated Arc, 
  or when one person has rushed ahead to the next Arc level and the other 
  hasn’t, etc. etc.—but I’m putting this in a footnote because the core point 
  is still an important one to make.
  
  Miraculous Edge
  The Auctoritas
  114
  114
  Miraculous
    
  Edge
  Now that we’ve established a baseline for miraculous conflict, I 
  should note that occasional effects grant something called Mirac-
  ulous Edge. This, like mortal Edge, affects the outcome when two 
  miracles come into conflict.
  Like mundane Edge, miraculous Edge applies to mundane 
  conflicts.
  Unlike mundane Edge, it also applies to contests of miracles. 
  For purposes of deciding the conflict, you’ll subtract your high-
  est applicable miraculous Edge from your opponent’s miracle’s 
  rating.
  Miraculous Edge doesn’t ever interact with other sources of 
  Edge. I mean, at all. It doesn’t cancel out or balance against your 
  opponent’s Edge. It doesn’t add to other sources of Edge or mirac-
  ulous Edge. It’s independent!
  In a miraculous conflict, you just get the best miraculous Edge 
  you get.
  In a mundane conflict, you calculate the appropriate mundane 
  Edge; and if your miraculous Edge is better, you get that instead. 
  It’s even possible that you could have miraculous Edge and be at 
  a mundane Edge disadvantage. 
  Weird! 
  But possible!
   The 
   
  Auctoritas 
  The miraculous equivalent of an Obstacle is the Auctoritas.
  Things that resist the power of the heart, or the power of the 
  Outside, are said to be sheltered or shrouded in the Auctoritas (or 
  “an” Auctoritas)—a shield rated 1 to 5 that keeps miraculous abil-
  ities out.
  Auctorita guard certain things against interference or prevent 
  certain things from happening. For instance, the Auctoritas might 
  prevent the power of the Outside from damaging a certain house 
  or park; or it might protect your ability to walk down a certain 
  street from any miracle that would stand in your way. 
  An Auctoritas differs from an Obstacle in that its primary 
  mechanism isn’t reducing the rating of opposing actions. In fact, 
  when opposing a typical miraculous ability, the Auctoritas doesn’t 
  reduce the rating of the miracle at all. Instead, it simply cancels 
  hostile miracles outright.16 
  Where there is an Auctoritas, the thing may not be done.
  ...at least not with the power of miracles!
  16  Or, well, keeps them from doing this particular thing. If you have a 
  miraculous lying ability, and you lie to a crowd, and one person is pro-
  tected by an Auctoritas, the others still hear the lie. This is a rarer case 
  than you might think.
  
  Strike
  115
   
  I should explicitly note that an Auctoritas doesn’t do anything 
  to stop mundane actions. For instance, a parent’s love might pro-
  tect somebody from the destructive, unmaking power of the Bleak 
  Academy. That’s an Auctoritas! But the Headmaster of the Bleak 
  Academy could still probably tie the kid’s shoelaces together 
  while nobody was looking. The kid would trip. It would be awful! 
  But it wouldn’t be miraculous. 
  It wouldn’t violate the shield of a parent’s love. 
  An Auctoritas can be associated with an Obstacle or other dif-
  ficulty. It can even be associated with an active miraculous power 
  that has the same general theme. It’s just that those things aren’t 
  part of the Auctoritas—like your hat isn’t part of your belt or vice 
  versa even though you will often wear both.
  So, anyway, you can think of an Auctoritas as a shield against 
  miraculous powers.
  If you need a counteragent to the Auctoritas? The tool you 
  need is something called Strike.
   Strike 
   
  You can spend MP on a 1-for-1 basis to add Strike to a miraculous 
  action. It doesn’t even cost you an action—you can just do it.
  Strike tears through an equal-leveled Auctoritas—if [your 
  miracle’s Strike ≥ the Auctoritas rating], the Auctoritas is entirely 
  ignored. It also counts as miraculous Edge.17 So let’s say you’re a 
  summer hero with a level 2 Arc Trait, 
  Storyteller (Hero of the 
  Beach). And you’re trying to break an endless winter. The winter 
  is fueled by a level 6 miracle and protected by a level 4 Auctoritas 
  (let’s say)—that’s terrifying!
  ...but it’s OK.
  17 Though note that miraculous Edge and Strike don’t add together.
  At least potentially—it’s OK!
  If you can get 4 points of Strike, e.g. by spending 4 MP, then 
  your miracle can ignore the Auctoritas and you’ll have 4 points 
  of miraculous Edge. That puts the two miracles roughly even: 
  it’s all in the hands of the HG. If you can get 5 points of Strike, 
  then you’re in a better position: it’s a win for the hero of the 
  beach!
  Auctorita don’t stack up, so 5 points of Strike is enough to 
  overcome any Auctoritas. That said, Strike is one of the rare Traits 
  that can go past 5—it’s technically limitless.
  
  Bonds
  116
  116
   Bonds 
  A Bond is like a super-Skill—it’s a rule that governs your ex-
  istence, all wound up in the wishing power of your heart. It’s a 
  law of your nature, guarded by some unconquerable pillar of your 
  being.
  Your will and drive, perhaps? True love? Or could it be a pri-
  mal fear, or loathing, or taboo?
  Bonds are character Traits with a rating between 1 and 5. The 
  core idea of each Bond is that there’s something about who you 
  are,
   
  ŭ something that you must do;
   
  ŭ something that you can’t do; or
   
  ŭ something you’re driven to do—
  that’s so strong that any time it comes into play, it fires up your 
  heart and burnishes your actions with wish power.
  Bonds are entangled with the destiny that flows out of you. 
  They’re extremely natural.
  A key rule for Bonds is that you as a player are always the one 
  who brings them into play. They’re not tools for the HG to wield 
  against you, even when your Bonds are hurting you, and they’re 
  not tools for the HG to use to help you with, either. You can’t have 
  a passive-voice Bond like “I can’t be talked about” (or “Nobody 
  can talk about me”); or rather, you can, but it’s not clear what 
  that would actually mean. It’s not binding on the HG, being your 
  Bond, so people will talk if they want to; and you’re the one who’d 
  have to resolve why that’s so.
   Conversely, even if you have a weird mystical restriction like 
  “I can never give my name to anyone,” that’s only a problem when 
  you want it to be. I don’t mean that it’s false or that you can turn 
  it on and off—you can’t. 
  I just mean, if you want to give someone your name, you just 
  have to come up with whatever handwave you want. “I’m not giv-
  ing you my name—I’m selling it to you, and I’ll be taking pay-
  ment later.” Maybe. Or even the great-great-grandmother of all 
  handwaves: 
  “Oh, I can do this, here, because... of some reason.18”
  18 Or “the” reason.
  Bonds and Actions
  In Chuubo’s Marvelous Wish-Granting Engine, you can apply 
  a Bond when 
   
  ŭ you’re trying to do what you must do
   
  ŭ you’re trying to do what you’re driven to do
   
  ŭ you’re trying to avoid doing what you can’t do
  or
   
  ŭ you and the HG just think that it probably applies
  and this gives you three key benefits—
   
  ŭ if you’re using mundane actions, and dealing with a conflict 
  or an Obstacle, you can add the Bond level to your Intention 
  level.
   
  ŭ if you’re using a miracle, you can add your Bond level to your 
  Strike. Strike from a Bond adds to Strike from other sources 
  (but not to Strike from a different Bond.)
   
  ŭ if the Bond gets you into trouble, the HG can award you with 
  Will or MP up to the numeric rating of the Bond.
  You only get these benefits from the highest applicable Bond. 
  If no Bond applies, you don’t get them!
  Bonds also offer two minor benefits—
   
  ŭ if you spend 2-3 chapters heavily focused on “serving” the 
  Bond, e.g. doing things that support its nature, you may re-
  ceive up to the Bond’s rating in MP.19
   
  ŭ notionally, you can survive off of serving your Bonds—the 
  Obstacle ranges from +1 to +4, but you can replace food, wa-
  ter, sleep, and even air with serving your Bonds if necessary. 
  You... probably don’t know that you can do this.20
  Bonds are technically a sort of miracle power, but since they have 
  their own ratings and their own meaning, they’re not necessarily 
  tied to a specific Arc.
  Here’s an example of a Bond:
  19 You can’t get Will this way because the Will refresh at the beginning of 
  a new chapter gets in the way. 
  20 I didn’t want to include this! It’s weird and niche! But I kept thinking 
  of epic long-term and comedic short-term uses that required it to exist....
  
  117
   
   Inquisitive 
  an example Bond
  Type: Bond, Level (     ) (“I can’t resist spying on things and peo-
  ple that interest me.”)
  Cost: —
  You’re a bit of a snoop!
   
  ŭ Invoke Inquisitive when you’re taking a mundane action to 
  spy on something or someone who interests you and there’s 
  some sort of Obstacle or conflict in your way—
   
   someone is trying to spot you, say;
   
   you’re using magic to spy on them; or
   
   you need to crawl out on the chimney rafters in utter silence 
  to get a good look—
  and you can add the Bond’s rating, (   ), to your Intention level. 
  You can only add this bonus from one such Bond.
   
  ŭ Invoke Inquisitive when you’re spying on something or some-
  one using a miraculous action and you can add the Bond’s rat-
  ing, (   ), to your Strike. Strike from a Bond doesn’t add to 
  Strike from other Bonds, but it does add to Strike from MP and 
  Strike intrinsic to a miracle.
   
  ŭ Invoke Inquisitive when snooping really gets you into trouble 
  and the HG may give you up to the Bond rating (   ) in Will 
  or in MP. You can also get this MP if you spend 2-3 chapters 
  focused on snooping hard!
   
  ŭ It is notionally possible for you to replace food, water, sleep, 
  and even air with snooping, e.g. surviving absurd lengths of 
  time in a cramped space or underwater if it lets you spy on 
  something. This gets unpleasant almost as fast for you as for 
  a normal person, though, and the Obstacles can range as high 
  as 4.
  
  118
  118
  
  Region Properties
  Afflictions
  119
   
   Region Properties 
  Each Region of the game has a list of Properties, each function-
  ing as local level 2 Bonds.
  For instance, in Fortitude, there’s a Property which says:
  “You have a home in Fortitude.”
  If you’re in Fortitude itself, that qualifies as a level 2 Bond for 
  you; you can invoke it to augment your mundane actions, give 
  Strike to your miracles, or put off your hunger because you know 
  you’ll soon be home. If for some reason having a home in For-
  titude gets you into trouble, you can earn up to 2 Will or 2 MP.
  Similarly, Horizon has the property
  “Each person in the School must experience exactly three 
  events between classes.”
  If you’re in School, then that’s a level 2 Bond. You can fudge 
  the meaning of ‘event’ as much as you like, allowing you to take 
  shameless advantage of the condition—but on some level it’s in-
  herently true.
   Afflictions 
  Afflictions are a kind of miraculous ability. They’re the last kind 
  we’re going to talk about for a while. 
  Each Affliction is tied to an Arc Trait.
  Afflictions are like Bonds in that they’re built to express truths 
  of your character’s nature. Unlike Bonds, though, and unlike many 
  other miraculous abilities, they’re larger than your character—
  they’re part of a destiny writ into and entangled with the cosmos.
  They’re a part of you, they’re something worked deep into 
  you, bone and soul, but they’re bigger than the wishing power 
  of your heart.
  An Affliction isn’t necessarily more impressive than a Bond in 
  its description—like a Bond, it’s just 
   
  ŭ something you must do;
   
  ŭ something you can’t do; or
   
  ŭ something you’re driven to do—
  and like a Bond, an Affliction can focus on something as trivial as 
  snooping, sleeping, or being able to burp really, unusually loud. 
  But, as noted, an Affliction is cosmic. 
  If you have an Affliction that says that your name is known 
  everywhere, then the bat-people of Eris know your name. If you 
  have an Affliction that says you “keep abreast of technological 
  developments,” you can swan down into the sewer-realm of some 
  tribe of technocratic ghouls, look over their most recent research 
  in tele-anthropophagy, and make insightful comments about their 
  previous papers and related research. 
  It covers everything.
  The other side of that is that the Affliction is enforced by the 
  HG. You can gently remind the HG about it, and often you’ll be 
  able to activate an Affliction yourself through some trigger—I 
  mean, if you have an Affliction saying that you can tap your shoes 
  together three times to fly home from anywhere, then you can in-
  voke this as a player by tapping your shoes together three times 
  and (if necessary) reminding the HG of this power—but it’s never 
  completely and entirely in your hands. Sometimes the HG will 
  bring a baroque grandeur or frenetic energy to their enforcement 
  of your Afflictions. Sometimes they’ll languidly toss out an action 
  or two, let others’ efforts oppose them, and then shrug and (on 
  behalf of the Affliction) call it a day. Sometimes, if they remember 
  or if you remind them, they’ll even use the Affliction against you, 
  e.g. having you fly home by accident because of your character’s 
  feet clattering together while they’re asleep on the electric train.
  Afflictions have three key benefits:
   
  ŭ the HG may invoke their power to do stuff—usually 1-2 mir-
  acles/scene, with a level somewhere around [Arc rating + 1], 
  but really, whatever actions they want. 
   
  ŭ the Affliction’s truth is guarded by an Auctoritas with a rating 
  equal to the Arc.
   
  ŭ if the HG uses the Affliction to get you in trouble, or notices 
  that it has done so, they may give you up to the Arc’s rating 
  in Will or MP.
  Note that you can get a little weird with the grammar here—for 
  instance, while it’s awful indirect, you’re totally allowed to build 
  a shapeshifting power as an Affliction: “I must be able to shape-
  shift.” (Or even “I can’t be a lame static-shaped mortal!”)
  You could even write that as “Affliction: Shapeshifter,” if you 
  wanted. 
  So why do I bother saying that there’s a must, can’t, or is driv-
  en to underneath it? I just want to ensure there’s a genuinely en-
  forceable rule.
  Mortals can have Afflictions, though it’s rare and special, 
  and can spend their MP to add Strike to the miracles that 
  these invoke. This is the only real use mundane characters will 
  have for their MP—the wishing power of the heart piggybacks on 
  a miraculous action, not a mundane one.
  The next page has an example of an Affliction, so you can see 
  how they might work.
  Why Arc + 1?
  I think it’s the right number!
  Strike doubles as miraculous Edge. An Affliction’s Auctor-
  itas is usually going to cancel any opposition without [Strike 
  ≥ Arc rating.] So by the time something has gotten past the 
  Auctoritas to contest the miracle itself, we’re talking about an 
  effective action level of 0-1. 
  I want there to be some cases where the Affliction still 
  wins, even though at this point it should usually lose. So that’s 
  why I picked [Arc + 1].
  
  120
  120
  Laundry in the Sun
  Type: Affliction (“It’s always sunny where I’m drying my laun-
  dry”)
  Cost: —
  Your laundry, once hung out to dry, must be hanging in sunny 
  weather conditions. (Alternately, you must have sunlight-like 
  weather conditions for any laundry of yours that you have hung 
  out to dry.)
   
  ŭ The HG will invoke Laundry in the Sun to defend any of 
  your laundry that you have hung out to dry against any effects 
  that would keep it from receiving sunlight (including rain, 
  snow, darkness, or someone murdering the sun.) Such an ef-
  fect will need [Strike ≥ the Arc Trait’s rating (   )] to succeed.
   
  ŭ The HG will invoke Laundry in the Sun when you hang laun-
  dry out to dry to ensure that your laundry is in a sunny spot, 
  or to preserve that condition when necessary. This typically 
  consists of a 1-2 miracles rated roughly [Arc rating + 1] (   ) 
  per scene.
   
  ŭ If Laundry in the Sun gets you into trouble, the HG may 
  compensate you by offering you up to the Arc Trait’s rating 
  (   ) in Will or MP.
  Afflictions and Arcs
  As an optional rule, Afflictions have their own independent 
  rating (from 0 to 5) instead of the rating of the underlying Arc.
  Breaking Afflictions 
  and Bonds
  If you know the mystic rules that bind somebody, you can use 
  that as leverage to crack those rules or attack the person in 
  question.
  Usually this is just semantic games—holding Ms. Hana 
  Moon’s flashlight on someone who can only die in the light 
  of the moon and the like—but in some cases, where a Bond or 
  Affliction represents a supernatural protection with terms that 
  the user can violate, you can target the Bond or Affliction di-
  rectly. You can trick or force someone into breaking the rules 
  that govern their life. 
  You can “break” their Affliction or Bond.
  As an optional rule, 
   
  ŭ If you can convince someone’s player that you’ve dam-
  aged or violated one of their Bonds, or forced them to 
  do so, then this wounds them—often a serious or deadly 
  wound (pg. 128), and often deactivating that Bond for at 
  least a chapter and more typically the rest of the book. The 
  details are pretty much up to them.
   
  ŭ If you can convince the HG that you’ve created a full-on 
  paradox or inconsistency in a Main Character’s Affliction, 
  or between two such Afflictions, this may wound the asso-
  ciated characters—again, often a serious or deadly wound. 
  This may also rip the involved Affliction or Afflictions 
  out of the weave of destiny, removing them entirely—the 
  target’s player (or HG, for NPCs) can choose whether to 
  keep an affected Affliction or sacrifice it in exchange for 
  receiving some other Affliction or power at a later, appro-
  priate date.
  
  Bonds and Afflic-
  tions
  Conventions
  121
   
   Bonds and Afflictions 
  It is the characteristic of both Bonds and Afflictions that they are 
  true. 
  I want to tell you why that is so, and how that is so, and why 
  it is the case that I call the latter “Afflictions” even though they 
  can be good.
  It is easy to believe that Bonds are somehow “weaker” than 
  Afflictions. “Less true.” They are not cosmic law; no HG enforces 
  them, no miracles enforce them; without a player to uphold them, 
  nothing “makes” them so. They are not the tools, the hands, or 
  the branches of the great and subtle power that moves behind the 
  surfaces of things. They are little, instead, they are little as you 
  are little, as your PC is little, they are limited to the reach of your 
  hand, your voice, your thoughts.  They are the smallest circle of 
  light around you while Afflictions are a great cosmic night.
  But Bonds are true—not as Afflictions are true, not as a truth 
  that is forced against you, pushed on you by the great machinery 
  of the heavens, but true in the way that by living we can make 
  things true. In the way that by being, and believing, and hanging 
  on to things, we can make things true. Little things. Big things. 
  Things that are good for us. Things that are bad for us. We can 
  make them true.
  It’s like...
  You know how oppressive states and situations are always 
  trying to erase and unmake the agency of the vulnerable and op-
  pressed, and yet there is something worked into the universe that 
  says, but wait, that agency is still there?
  It’s like that. 
  Bonds are slippery, naming the way that they are true is slip-
  pery, because it’s slippery to point out what makes someone who’s 
  systematically stripped of their strength, strong; systematically 
  stripped of their value, valuable; systematically treated as a cog in a 
  machine, a person instead. But that slipperiness doesn’t make them 
  less true. It just makes them easier to ignore. To simplify away. To 
  deny. And it is equally easy to habituate ourselves to Afflictions, to 
  think that some of them are “good” (or, for that matter, that some 
  of them are “bad”), as opposed to simply recognizing that they are 
  the things that are held to be true about you by the cosmos, and any 
  further judgment is meaningless to them, and even if they have your 
  name in them they do not necessarily care about you at all.
  I think it’s one of the strengths of the system that in the end 
  Bonds can beat Afflictions; that as comparatively weak as they 
  are, they’re the best way to beat Afflictions. As Solzhenitsyn sug-
  gests, and Genseric confirms: 
  One person who refuses to buy into the lie can bring the vastest 
  of edifices down.
  Conventions
  Each campaign has a list of Conventions, typically manifesting 
  as level 2 Afflictions associated not with a PC but with the HG 
  or the game.
  The 
  standard 
  conventions 
  for 
  Chuubo’s 
  Marvelous 
  Wish-Granting Engine are:
   
  ŭ Masks are extremely effective disguises and
   
  ŭ Turning into a giant snake will not help.
  The first convention means that the Student Council of Horizon, 
  for instance, can get away with putting on little masks and being 
  essentially unrecognizable—they could be your parents! Your en-
  emies! Other PCs! 
  The second convention reinforces one of Chuubo or Sho-
  kyou’s long-running woes, since “can turn into a giant snake” is 
  often a power that that character has.
  Feel free to add a few others; future campaigns may do so as well.
  Variable Afflictions 
  and Bonds
  A few of the Afflictions and Bonds you pick up through Perks 
  and miraculous Arcs are not linked to a specific number, or to 
  the level of the Arc Trait, but to the level of some Issue. As the 
  Issue rises and falls, so will their power.
  
  122
  122
  
  CHAPTER 
  7: 
  HEALTH LEVELS
   
  Health Levels
  
  124
  124
  Health Levels
  Sometimes people will attempt to inflict an undesirable effect on 
  your PC.
  Sometimes it even “hits”—you’re definitely hurt by this. But 
  what does this mean? And how should it play out? 
  What actually happens to you when it does?
  I think you should have a stake in this. I think you should 
  choose whether getting shot means staggering around bleeding 
  from the forehead, cursing the loss of your favorite whiskey flask, 
  or twitching on the ground in panic because of how close that 
  bullet was to your ear. I think you should choose whether getting 
  hit by a spell to make you fall in love makes you act all lovey-dov-
  ey, creepy and obsessive, emotionally mercurial, sweetly devoted, 
  enraged and fuming and fiercely maintaining the walls around 
  your mind, dizzy because of how it interacts with your previous 
  enchantments, completely casual and unaffected by your sudden 
  new love, or freaked out and twitching in a corner somewhere 
  from the sense of psychic violation that attends. I think you should 
  get to choose whether catching a glancing look at Medusa’s face 
  slows you down for a few days, turns you to rock when you’re not 
  paying attention, makes you a free-willed, mobile statue, or fills 
  your mind with the awful nightmares of stone.
  I think that if it’s a bad enough situation you should have to 
  work with the HG and/or the player whose PC attacked you on 
  this, but generally, I think it should be your call.
  To some extent this manifests as a second chance to “dodge”—
  If something bad happens to you then you’ve already failed to 
  use your normal resources to prevent it. But I think that if you’re 
  willing to acknowledge that something bad happened to you, it’s 
  OK for a partial or last-second escape to be included in the story 
  of that wound.
  All this—it’s mostly a PC thing.
  It’s not that NPCs can’t inflict undesirable effects on one an-
  other, or PCs on NPCs, but the point of Health Levels is to handle 
  stuff that affects your PC. And the reason that your PC is special 
  here isn’t because they’re important to the story, although they 
  are, but because you actually have two different stakes in their 
  fate:
   
  ŭ the stake of “I am playing them, and they don’t want to be 
  hurt;” or, put another way,
   
  ŭ the stake of “I don’t want them to be hurt”—but also 
   
  ŭ “I have my own ideas about what should happen to them here.”
  These rules look like normal RPG rules for mitigating damage, 
  like hit points or a damage track, but that’s not what they’re about, 
  not exactly. 
  They’re about making sure that the damage you take fits your 
  character concept.
  They’re about that last stake—about making sure that the aw-
  ful things that happen to your character, if awful things happen to 
  your character, happen in a way that satisfies you, that fits your 
  sense of the story and the kind of character that you want to play.
  For instance, if you have a kid, you might want to pick up 
  the Perk on pg. 430 that’ll let you use your own health levels to 
  protect them. That has nothing to do with your physical health. It’s 
  not being a meat shield. It doesn’t even have anything to do with 
  magical shields of parental love, although those do actually exist.
  It’s something that lets you say, “I want this child to be around 
  and safe. That’s how I want to play.”
  Because that could be a part of who your character is.
  I’m combining this stuff, this sense of your character and 
  the things that matter to them, with the actual damage system 
  and the ways you have of protecting your character from be-
  ing hurt. That’s because like most RPGs Chuubo’s Marvelous 
  Wish-Granting Engine expects and encourages you to think up 
  ways for your character to be cool. So it’s only natural that while 
  you have control over your character, you’ll ordinarily use this 
  extra power of yours to help your PC survive and flourish. It’s 
  only natural that there’ll be some overlap between the tactics of a 
  PC who wants to keep living and the tactics of a player who wants 
  to keep them cool. That’s why I’m letting you—not requiring you 
  to—use the damage system to let your PC weather great trials and 
  come out OK.
  Normal Health Levels
  Your character has some number of Normal Health Levels.
  Usually, 2.
  These are used to handle superficial wounds—cosmetic stuff, 
  mostly. Stuff that won’t stay with you for more than a week or 
  two. Things that might get you bloody, might get you dizzy or 
  confused, might make you cough or shudder, but stuff that won’t 
  actually hurt you all that much.
  They’re also your wound levels of last resort—like, if you run 
  out of all the other kinds, and something bad happens, even if it’s 
  not cosmetic, even if you’re being skewered or thrown into the 
  living flames, you can use a Normal Health Level to survive that.
  But mostly they’re for superficial wounds.
  Trustworthy
  “I suppose I must have managed it, somehow.”
  — Lilimund Cartaign, the Wish-Granting Engine, 
  explaining how she stole the Bleak Academy
  - Character Type earns: Putting my Faith in You 
  (with this XP token) XP -
  
  125
   
  Tough Health Levels
  Your character has some number of Tough Health Levels.
  Usually, 1.
  These are used to handle bad things that happen to you. Stuff 
  that gets in the way. Stuff like broken legs, pneumonia, love 
  spells, being turned into a toad, and all that. You can’t get as much 
  done with a broken leg, or as a toad.
  (Being a broken-legged toad has got to be the worst.)
  So, having a Tough Health Level makes you intrinsically 
  tough, and here’s why. As long as you have any kind of Health 
  Level, you can still cope with damage without losing your char-
  acter. But if you have a Tough Health Level, it can’t be wounded 
  by cosmetic stuff.
  So imagine that you’re a typical PC, and you’re in a fight or 
  whatever, and something a little bad happens. You get your foot 
  stomped on. It really hurts. That costs you a Normal Health Level. 
  And then your head gets beaten back into a mirror. Ow! That costs 
  you your other Normal Health Level. And then you get punched 
  in the gut and...
  And then...
  And then, nothing. You can’t lose your Tough Health Level to 
  that, and you don’t have any more Normal Health Levels. 
  You’re just fine!
  I mean, you’re still limping, because of that foot thing. And 
  there’s blood on the back of your head. But you can ignore that 
  gut-punch. It doesn’t matter.
  Now, if you live an active life, then eventually something re-
  ally bad will happen. You’ll get your leg broken or a three-foot-
  long hornet will sting your arm and you’ll lose your Tough Health 
  Level. 
  Then you’re vulnerable again.
  That said, I don’t want you to suddenly regret, at that moment, 
  when a gigantic, terrifying hornet has just stung you, that some-
  body stomped on your foot earlier in a fight.
  So at the very moment that you lose your Tough Health Lev-
  el—your last Tough Health Level, if for some reason you have 
  two—all the wounds in your Normal Health Levels go away, and 
  you get them both back.
  In short, before you can lose your character integrity or be de-
  feated you have to first lose your Tough Health Level and then 
  take two superficial wounds.
  Divine Health Levels
  Your character has some number of Divine Health Levels.
  Usually, 2.
  Well...
  That’s misleading. Characters with miraculous abilities tend to 
  have 2, and characters with miraculous abilities are the usual char-
  acters for the game. But if you happen to be playing an ordinary 
  mortal, your default is none.
  No Divine Health Levels! You’re not divine!
  ...Luckily, if you’re a mortal character in an epic campaign, 
  the campaign should have something set up to get you to 2 Divine 
  Health Levels without needing Perks or advancement, and in any 
  other campaign, you either shouldn’t need them or can ask the HG 
  to let you earn them in some other way.
  Anyway, if you have one, a Divine Health Level is even bet-
  ter than a Tough Level. You’ll only lose a Divine Health Level 
  to something that’s actually epically bad. Maybe someone uses a 
  weapon and a level 6+ Intention to cinematically slice you open 
  or blow your head off. Maybe someone uses level 6+ magic to do 
  something equally profound. Maybe you’re blasted by a miracle.
  The point is, as long as you have Divine Health Levels, you’re 
  still a PC. But you can’t lose them to ordinary stuff. So if you have 
  even one Divine Health Level, and you’ve lost your Tough Health 
  Level, and you’ve lost your Normal Health Levels—
  Until you take some epic damage, you can’t get hurt any more. 
  I mean, you may act hurt, but mostly, you’ve reached your 
  dramatic damage equilibrium or something. You’ve got as much 
  going on, on the damage front, as you can.
  Actually running out of Divine Health Levels cleans your 
  Tough Health Level of whatever wound was in it—you get it 
  back. It heals. So the only way to actually beat you, the only way 
  to completely take away your PC status and make you a pawn of 
  whatever higher or lower power wants to manipulate your body 
  and your mind, is to first take away your Divine Health Levels, 
  then your Tough Health Level, then your Normal Health Levels.
  There’s a reason I use the word “Divine”—this is survivability 
  and resilience comparable to a god’s.
  Defeat
  Run out of Health Levels and you are no longer a viable PC.
  That doesn’t mean your character is dead. (In fact, having 
  Health Levels doesn’t even mean your character is alive!)
  It just means that you’ve used up your vested interest in your 
  character’s fate. They’re a pawn of the HG and the other players 
  now. And while that could be fun to play, in theory, these rules 
  aren’t designed for it.
  So at that point—
  You’re not playing. The HG takes over and you’re just around 
  to kibitz and watch the game for a bit.
  At the next suitable lull in play, talk to the HG about how to 
  come back. Maybe your PC is salvageable—they can break free 
  of the enchantments on them, heal from their wounds, even return 
  from the dead. Maybe you can get control back in a week or two, 
  I mean, an in-game week or two, or by the end of the session, or 
  something.
  Or maybe they’re basically lost and it’s time for you to pick 
  out a new PC.
  You can come back into the game as soon as the HG allows 
  you to. You can even play a temporary PC for a while if the HG 
  thinks that your original PC will recover but not for a few seasons 
  of the game. As an OOC matter, I think you should get back in 
  by the beginning of the next session if you can, but, honestly, it’s 
  whatever works.
  
  Wounds
  126
  126
   Wounds 
  I want a game where witches can turn people into animals, mag-
  ic can summon down fire from the sky, love spells exist though 
  they’re not good things, people can be stabbed or shot or hit by 
  lightning, and if you spend too much time out there sailing you 
  could stumble on Medusa’s island and catch a glimpse of her hid-
  den face—
  But I also want you to retain your dignity and control over your 
  character’s concept.
  I want you to retain your PC’s capacity for action all the way 
  to the end. 
  So let’s turn our attention now to what it looks like when some-
  thing bad happens and you mitigate or express that incoming dam-
  age in a wound.
  Surface Wounds
  If something happens that messes you up, but not badly—if you’re 
  feeling it, but you could ignore it if a kid needed to get to the hos-
  pital or a monster was stalking you?
  That’s a Surface Wound.
  Surface wounds cover all the damage and problems that matter 
  when you’re trying to work and get things done but maybe not so 
  much on the battlefield or in a crisis larger than yourself. They’re 
  all the things like pulled muscles and the flu and grief and being 
  overworked and stressed.
  Things like this can only affect a Normal Health Level—they 
  can’t touch the rest.
  So you can only ever really have two of these conditions at a 
  time and they’ll go away the moment you lose your Tough Health 
  Level. But while you have them—well. They’re real, and they 
  mess you up.
  In play, I’m actually going to handle this as an advantage.
  I know that’s a little counterintuitive, but I want to put the bur-
  den on you to play the hurt here up. I can’t expect it to cripple you 
  and I can’t make the HG drag you down with it because I can’t 
  predict when you’ll be able to push past these wounds. So instead 
  I’m going to give you the option of being tough enough to just 
  ignore them but also give you an incentive to validate the effect, 
  to treat it and narrate it as something damaging.
  You’ll get your choice of:
   
  ŭ a +1 Tool on actions when you’re playing up the wound;
   
  ŭ a level 1 Bond related to the wound;
   
  ŭ if you and the HG can quickly agree on how it works, a level 2 
  Magical or Superior Skill related to the wound.
  Plus, when you take a Surface Wound, you’ll get a free reaction 
  shot—even if you’re already doing two things, even if you’re al-
  ready sustaining two actions, you can do something to show that 
  the attack or effect has gotten to you.
  When you take a Surface Wound you lose a Normal Health 
  Level. The wound heals in 0-2 chapters, normally at the end of a 
  chapter, at which point you’ll get that Health Level back. If you’re 
  already out of Normal Health Levels, you’re temporarily immune 
  to Surface Wounds.
  Ambiguous Wounds
  Sometimes you’ll take a very ambiguous wound. Like, you’ll get 
  punched or stabbed. You’ll hurt your foot. You’ll get sick or fe-
  verish. You’ll have a spell on you that “influences” you or affects 
  your mind. You’ll be depressed or have something really awful 
  happen.
  Just what this does to you—it is not clear.
  A detailed examination of what the wound actually is might 
  end up with it being brutal and terrible. That punch broke your 
  jaw. That stab wound went through your lungs. That spell has you 
  utterly, irrationally convinced that if you don’t do what its invoker 
  asks, your whole family will drown at the bottom of Big Lake. 
  You may “know” that that’s not true but your heart will feel it as 
  the given truth.
  Look under the skin of an ambiguous wound and you will 
  sometimes find something awful like that.
  ...or something pointless, a little bruise or a meaningless effect.
  ...or something that gives you an Obstacle 1. Now and again.
  I like details. I like the fact that if you get stabbed you get 
  stabbed in a specific place, and either it’s a place that hurts you a 
  lot or it’s a place that’s comparatively safe. I like the fact that if 
  something messes with your head, either it’s a temptation you can 
  easily ignore or a compulsion that you really can’t. 
  I mean, details like that are cooler than not having them. If we 
  didn’t have details like that we’d be Outside.
  But I don’t like the idea that picking these details is just the HG 
  making a quasi-random call, and I don’t like that two of those op-
  tions boil down to “I guess that attack wasn’t as cool as I thought.”
  So when there’s something like this, you have the option of 
  taking a Surface Wound.
  If you’re out of Normal Health Levels, then that Surface 
  Wound will just bounce off of you. That’s probably a reason 
  for the HG to take a second or two longer to decide whether the 
  wound is something more specific before handing it out.
  ...but, well, if it really is just “you get punched” or whatever, 
  then you roll with it, and you’re immune, and that’s cool too.
  Gaming Terminology
  Reaction Shot (Combat)—when you take a wound, even if 
  you’re already sustaining two actions, you can take an action 
  or emote that reasonably follows from that wound. I’m ex-
  pecting you to use this to stagger or grunt or scream or say 
  something snappy, most of the time, but it’s completely OK 
  to use the momentum to do something awesome if you think 
  that’s the best fit for the scene.
  
  127
   
  
  128
  128
  Serious Wounds
  A Serious Wound is something that gets in your way. It crip-
  ples your capacity for action in some respect—which can range 
  from “you’ve been ensorcelled and can no longer sing high-G” to 
  “you’ve been killed and can no longer do anything.”
  At the same time, it’s basically mundane.
  We’re not talking about falling into the magma chamber of a 
  volcano, being regurgitated alive by the unwolves, or having the 
  wrath of Heaven incinerate you. We’re talking about getting shot, or 
  falling off a third-story roof, or spending the night on an iceberg, or 
  something. We’re talking about magic, sure, but not the vast magic 
  out of legend; rather, the magic of someone pretty close to the level 
  of mortals. Someone who’s got to work hard to enchant you at all.
  A Serious Wound is something that a badass can handle.
  John McClane or Abe no Seimei—they would shrug it right off!
  The rules for a Serious Wound are very similar to the rules for 
  a Surface Wound, above. As a PC, taking a Serious Wound, you’ll 
  get a free reaction shot and a power. (If desired, you can even use 
  that power in the reaction shot itself.)
  For the power, you’ll have the following options:
   
  ŭ a +1 Tool on actions when you’re playing up the wound;
   
  ŭ a level 1 Bond related to the wound;
   
  ŭ a level 1 Affliction related to the wound; or,
   
  ŭ if you and the HG can quickly agree on how it works, a related 
  level 2-3 Magical or Superior Skill.
  This is mostly the same list as for Surface Wounds. I’m giving you 
  the option of an Affliction to help you out if you’re under heavy 
  fire from miracles and the chance to capture some weird curse’s 
  effect, if necessary, with a level 3 Magical or Superior Skill.
  Next, as part of the process of taking a Serious Wound, you get 
  to mitigate what happened. Choose one (or possibly more) of the 
  following options: 
   
  ŭ you give the wound a tight focus so that it doesn’t mess with 
  all your actions;
   
  ŭ you reduce the scope of the wound to something specific you 
  can live with, or mute its overall effect down to the same;
   
  ŭ you avoid the wound just in time, but you’re kind of trauma-
  tized by it;
   
  ŭ you avoid the wound, but hurt yourself doing so (in a different 
  way);
   
  ŭ you get a way to turn the wound “off” and “on;”
   
  ŭ you twist the effect into something mildly advantageous;
   
  ŭ you suffer the wound’s effects in a metaphorical or otherwise 
  non-literal way.
  I’ll go over these choices in a moment. I’ll note in advance, though, 
  that they’re not all meant to be equal. You’re not shopping the list 
  to find the least painful or the most advantageous. That wouldn’t 
  be much of a challenge. You’re looking for the one you think hap-
  pened, the one that feels the most right to you, or, if you can’t figure 
  that out, if you don’t know that, for the one that will be the most fun.
  When you take a Serious Wound you lose a Tough Health Lev-
  el. The Serious Wound heals in 0-2 books, normally at the end 
  of the book, at which point you’ll get that Health Level back. If 
  you’re out of Tough Health Levels, you can lose a Normal Health 
  Level instead. If you’re out of both Tough and Normal Health 
  Levels, you’re temporarily immune to Serious Wounds.
  (Or you’re utterly defeated, if Tough and Normal are all that 
  you have.)
  Deadly Wounds
  A Deadly Wound is just a Serious Wound that you get from a 
  particularly impressive or epic source. It’s something that should 
  outclass you—a nuclear weapon; a cloud of military-grade poison 
  gas; someone using really impressive weapon Skills like you’d 
  see in a kung fu movie to stab you; a scary, Major, or high-level 
  miraculous attack; or the supreme magic of an ancient, terrifying 
  sorcerer with plenty of time to work.
  Basically, something’s a Deadly Wound if shrugging it off or 
  even just surviving it makes you kind of a mythical and epic figure 
  yourself.
  When you take a Deadly Wound, you’ll get a reaction shot 
  and a power:
   
  ŭ a +2 Tool on actions when you’re playing up the wound;
   
  ŭ a level 2 Bond related to the wound;
   
  ŭ an Affliction, w/ rating tied to a relevant Issue or Arc Trait, 
  related to the wound;
   
  ŭ a level 3+ Magical or Superior Skill; or
   
  ŭ a miraculous ability.
  You’ll get to mitigate the wound, too, just as before.
  When you take a Deadly Wound you lose a Divine Health Lev-
  el. If you’re out of Divine Health Levels, you can lose a Tough 
  Health Level instead. If you’re out of Divine and Tough Health 
  Levels, you can lose a Normal Health Level instead. If you’re out 
  of Health Levels completely, you are defeated and no longer a PC.
  A Deadly Wound does not heal on its own, but you can pur-
  sue a relatively short quest (pg. 450) to reduce it to a recover-
  able Serious Wound. If this is still too slow for you, you may 
  undertake a longer quest to heal a Deadly Wound complete-
  ly—assuming it fits the events of the story, or can be made to fit 
  the events of the story, you can choose “healing a wound” as the 
  reward for a 35+-XP quest.
  If you’ve lost your last Health Level you can’t do a quest to get 
  better, but neither do you have to—either you can work out a way 
  to get back in the game or you can’t, but either way you don’t need 
  to bother with healing the wound!
  Defensive Wounds
  It’s normal to choose powers and mitigation methods that 
  make it a little harder to follow up on an attack. For instance, 
  if you’re being blasted by miraculous lightning, and you’re 
  worried that whoever is killing you can just keep blasting it?
  Pick some sort of level 1 Affliction that says that you’re all 
  lightning’d out!
  It’s boring to kill someone with the same attack three to five 
  times in a row anyway. Make them shake it up!
  
  Accepting a Wound
  129
   
  Ambiguous Wounds That 
  Are Definitely Bad
  In a few rare cases you’ll encounter an ambiguous wound that’s on 
  the Serious or Deadly scale. This is something like “you’re hit by 
  dark energy! ...which does something,” or “you fall into the vat of 
  strange chemicals. Have it affect you!”
  Strictly speaking it’s the HG’s job to give this more description 
  first—
  ...but if it really is just a generic effect, then they can hand it 
  out directly as a Serious or Deadly Wound and let your reaction 
  shot and choice of power determine what it actually is.
   Accepting a Wound 
  If you’re OK with something you do not have to take it as a wound.
  If someone curses you to earn two coins for every coin you 
  spend, say—
  Maybe you like that?
  I mean, that doesn’t even sound bad! Why would you think it’s 
  a wound? Maybe I said it wrong and that was actually a helpful 
  blessing from a friend!
  Or someone enchants you to grow wings.
  You might like wings!
  Or even stabs you. Someone stabs you—you don’t have to use 
  the wound system. You could just, you know
  ...be stabbed.
  And then maybe you go to do something, I don’t know, ride 
  a bike? And the HG makes that Obstacle 1. It’s not normally Ob-
  stacle 1 to ride a bike, it’s usually just like, um, riding a... just 
  like catching a fish. You know? Smooth as sailing once you know 
  the road. And then it’s a little harder all because you have been 
  stabbed. And it’s hard to stay conscious now and there’s blood 
  on the keyboard, I mean, gaming table, I mean, bicycle, bicycle, 
  and you try to stay conscious, and everything’s fuzzy and double 
  vision, and the HG gives that an Obstacle 2, and you stagger, and 
  fall over and go to the hospital and you finish your sentence. And 
  in the worst case now you’re dead and you have an Obstacle 4-5 
  to doing anything at all.
  ...but that’s a worst case. I mean, you’ll probably just get med-
  ical treatment and get better.
  I’m not recommending this for cases like stabbing.21 I’m just 
  saying that there’s a blurry line between wounds and stuff that just 
  happens, and the way I’m handling that line is to say that in most 
  cases you have a choice.
  The exception is stuff that only affects you through the wounds 
  system—
   
  ŭ ambiguous wounds, like “you’ve been punched” or “bam! 
  Mystery energy,” and
   
  ŭ Surface Wounds.
  These the HG can just hand out, if they like, to give them a proper 
  effect upon play.
  21  Well, the medical treatment part is OK. Get medical help if you’re 
  stabbed. But just accepting the wound—that I will not endorse!
  Insisting on a Wound
  Conversely you’ll have the option to insist on taking something as 
  a wound even if it might not otherwise be.
  Someone summons you with magic. They call you to a stone 
  circle, where they mean to make you a sacrifice. You don’t want 
  that to happen but it wouldn’t normally invoke the wound rules—
  it’s an action, not a lingering effect.
  Still, it does impede your capacity for action, however tem-
  porarily. In summoning you they are blocking your ability to do 
  much else. So if you want, you can stipulate that the effect lin-
  gers—bearing in mind that a wound for something like this is at 
  least Serious, and therefore will last at least until the end of the 
  season—and mitigate it as a wound.
  You’re no longer being helplessly summoned, even though 
  they presumably beat your defensive action level. You’re instead... 
  haunted, somehow, and persistently, by the magic of the call!
  Keeping a Wound
  As an optional rule, if you finish healing from a wound, but 
  want the story of the wound to continue, then the benefits can 
  remain over the course of an Arc or quest to pick up some 
  power like the wound’s.
  Unusual Wounds
  Normally you can only mitigate or insist upon a Serious or 
  Deadly Wound—you can’t escalate to the wound system to 
  fight off, e.g., a Scrabble loss unless that loss is a big enough 
  deal to inflict a Serious Wound. However, particularly but not 
  exclusively in Techno games, your group may wish to desig-
  nate certain categories of Surface Wounds as things you can 
  insist upon and/or mitigate: for instance, a game deeply con-
  cerned with football could let you ward off enemy touchdowns 
  by insisting on and then mitigating a new Surface Wound.
  
  Focusing a Wound
  Living With a Wound
  130
  130
   Focusing a Wound 
  option 1 for mitigating a wound
  You can use one of your health levels to take a wound that would have 
  been a whole-body or whole-life thing and make it a lot more specific.
  For instance,
  The Shattered Arm
  You’ve just been struck by a bear. Normally this would leave you 
  kind of whole-body in bad shape. But in this case, you roll with it.
  As you land, your arm shatters, but most of you is OK.
  The Hunger Curse
  You’ve just been enchanted to go hungry: no food shall cross 
  your lips.
  But that’s so vague!
  Let’s clarify it. I mean, obviously you can still drink, so you 
  can drink protein shakes. Right? Protein shakes: OK. And oh! 
  What about snacks? I mean, snacks aren’t food. Right?
  They’re snacks! 
  And you have a friend whose cooking is definitely not food. 
  Seriously. (Sorry, [your friend]!) This has been established. You 
  have told them this many times. And now you’ll have to go to 
  them and rely on it!
  I think a better way to put the curse is clearly “no hearty, prop-
  er meals shall cross your lips.” 
  Let’s go with that!
   Living With a Wound 
  option 2 for mitigating a wound
  You can use one of your health levels to turn a wound into some-
  thing that you know how to live with. Something that sucks, or is 
  kind of cool, or whatever, but which you can manage—something 
  that won’t really get in your way.
  Like:
  The Love Spell
  Someone casts a love spell on you.
  They come over. You welcome them in, of course. You’re un-
  der a love spell. You flop on the couch. You start playing a video 
  game. They ask you, “It worked, right? You love me now?”
  “Sure,” you say. “I love you. Whatever. Could you...”
  You wave your hand. You want them to move to the side. They 
  are between you and your game.
  “Just,” you say, “scooch over. You know. A little? Out of the 
  way? Love?”
  The Gunshot
  Oh no! You have been shot!
  But it looks like... you are OK, I guess? I guess you’ll just have 
  to bandage it, keep it clean, and try day by day to get by.
  The Werewolf
  You have been bitten by a werewolf. It is nerve-wracking. The 
  days of the month slowly tick past. Then... fear!
  You look up at the moon! The change is coming!
  Your eyes cross. Your nose twitches. The world goes weird. 
  Poof!
  You sprout a pair of adorable, fuzzy wolf ears! Maybe even a tail!
  The moonlight plays against the Twisting River: the water 
  chuckles over night-black stones. And as for you, after a while... 
  you say,
  “That’s it?”
  And a soft wind blows.
  Ghost
  You’ve been killed—erased from existence.
  But you’re just part-dead.
  You’re a ghost, with the ability to live in the ghost world and 
  make an approach from it to life. And in fact, for some reason—I 
  don’t know what it is, maybe it’s because of the circumstances of 
  your death—it’s even recoverable. If you can find your footing in life 
  strongly enough, if you can fit into the living world, you might return.
  Recovery
  Healing from a focused wound is typically a 
   Melodra-
  matic quest (pg. 91).
  Recovery
  Healing from a wound like this is typically a 
   Pastoral 
  quest (pg. 90).
  
  Avoiding a Wound
  131
   
   Avoiding a Wound 
  option 3 for mitigating a wound
  You can use one of your health levels to take the trauma of a near-
  missed wound instead of the wound itself.
  For a magical effect you manage to cling to reality but the 
  magic fills your dreams.
  For a physical effect you see a vision of what’s about to hap-
  pen just before it does, and you manage to avoid it. You twist out 
  of the way. You stop short of making a mistake. You don’t get 
  brutally hurt but it’s filling your mind just how sickeningly close 
  you came.
  If the circumstances allow, if it’s OK with the HG, you can 
  sometimes have this vision later: like, you have a near-miss but 
  don’t know it, and only later when you find out how close you 
  came does the wound take hold.
  This counts as a wound in all respects. You still have some-
  thing to recover from. But it doesn’t impede your physical actions. 
  Instead, you’ll only suffer from it in flashes of trauma, in dreams 
  and daydreams, and in magical environments.
  For instance,
  The Transformation
  A witch turns you into a duck. Only—you snap yourself awake a 
  moment later. That didn’t happen!
  But now and then there are little slips in reality.
  A duck is walking down the street—well, I mean, you are. 
  Someone shouts, “Duck!” and you respond, reflexively, “Qua!” In 
  dreams you are hanging out with your friends and then someone 
  notices. They tell you this, sternly, severely.
  “Did you realize you were a duck?”
  You hold up your I Am a Duck sign. I guess you did!
  The Spar Through the 
  Chest
  You’re on the Lake in a storm. There’s a blast of lightning. The 
  mast cracks and a lance of wood comes down to spear through y—
  No. That didn’t happen.
  You saw it coming. You got out of the way just in time. But 
  you keep seeing it happening, now. You keep feeling it, sliding in 
  through your chest, your lungs filling with blood, the awful pain—
  You think, maybe, in another world, in the real world, it hap-
  pened to you, and you died.
  The Curse
  You’re exploring a Horizon graveyard with a friend when you find 
  a hammer. You touch it and you realize that it’s the ghost of a 
  hammer that fell on its carpenter’s head and killed him. It didn’t 
  want to kill him! But it did.
  You fall under the curse of the hammer’s ghost.
  The moment you see your friend you realize it—you’ve been 
  cursed to kill them, or to be killed by them, just as the hammer 
  killed its friend.
  But—
  You and your friend. You’re too close for that!
  All that happens is that sometimes, when you see them, you 
  suddenly have horrible, twisted visions of how the two of you 
  might fight.
  Recovery
  “Healing” from an avoided wound is typically a 
  Strug-
  gle quest (pg. 99-100).
  
  Resisting Wounds
  132
  132
  Resisting 
   Wounds 
  option 4 for mitigating a wound
  You can use one of your health levels to fight an effect so fiercely 
  that the actual damage you take is from your escape or resistance 
  instead of the wound itself.
  For instance,
  The Giant Bird
  A giant bird swoops down to carry you off. You dive flat and lose 
  your hat, or a precious watch, or your new bike, instead.
  Darn that bird!
  You wind up with a level 1 Bond, I Can’t Have a Bike or I’m 
  Driven to Mourn my Bike.
  The Explosion
  You’ve been trying to understand a bit of deviant science. It... 
  doesn’t go well. There’s an explosion.
  You don’t want to get blown up.
  So you throw yourself out your window and break your leg. 
  Or you crouch behind a metal riot shield, only, the unpredictable 
  effects of the deviant science wind up merging the metal into your 
  hair and the skin of your arm.
  That’s “resisting the wound.”
  The Stone
  Billy Sovereign, the bully, attempts to break your will. He uses a 
  magical stone to try to shatter your mind and make you obey him. 
  But you fight him so hard that not only do you not obey him when 
  he gives you commands but in fact you’re magically blocked from 
  obeying any command that the person giving the order wants you 
  to obey.
  Stupid Billy Sovereign anyway!
  Recovery
  Healing from a resisted wound is typically a 
   Melodra-
  matic quest (pg. 91).
  
  B a c k - a n d - F o r t h 
  Wounds
  133
   
   Back-and-Forth Wounds 
  option 5 for mitigating a wound
  You can use one of your health levels to give incoming damage an 
  on/off switch. This is mostly suitable for magic and psychological 
  effects, but it could work for a physical wound if the wound has a 
  chronic rather than a persistent effect.
  The on/off switch here is almost always emotional.
  There’s something you feel, and the spell or whatever begins 
  to take effect. Between scenes, or when you feel a different thing, 
  it fades away.
  This effectively gives you an alternate form or mode.
  If something “should” keep you from moving, thinking, act-
  ing, or existing in that mode, choose:
  Ooze
  You’ve been melted down into ooze by a deviant scientist. Luckily 
  you discovered yourself to be a sentient ooze capable of indepen-
  dent motion and broke out of your vial and legged it—
  Er, oozed it—
  From the lab! Eventually you realized that being self-confident 
  and learning how to keep it together lets you mold yourself back up-
  wards into your human form. If your self-confidence frays and you 
  don’t know what to do, you start melting back into an ooze again!
  The Deer
  You’ve been turned into a deer!
  Calm tends to revert you back to normal. Fear tends to send 
  you bounding off. You have an inexplicable affinity for toast.
  The Sickness
  You’re really sick. Something is wrong with your system. It’s 
  weakened you. It’s brought you to bed. But the good air of Forti-
  tude—it’s strengthened you again. As long as you stick to a sim-
  ple, honest life, to taking things slowly and simply, to the Forti-
  tude way, you’ll be able to get around. When you let yourself get 
  too excited, too hurried, too alienated from the simple life that’s 
  giving you your strength—
  Your strength fades away and you have trouble keeping on.
   
  ŭ the change isn’t as bad as it “should” be. 
       (“The deer... has thumbs?”)
   
  ŭ you’re inexplicably effective in that form.  
       (“The deer... made toast?”)
   
  ŭ you’re surprisingly useful in that form. 
       (“Thank God we have a were-deer!”)
   
  ŭ you can recover your mind or mobility through, e.g.,
   
   concentration
   
   outrage
   
   other strong emotions
   
   need or
   
   will, or
   
  ŭ you gain some special power that lets you act. (“This deer... 
  is psychic!”)
  The Loyalty Spell
  You’ve been enchanted, bound to a witch or fairy as their loyal 
  knight—
  Until they make the mistake of asking you to do something 
  your heart can’t accept, or thanking you for something, at which 
  point you return to normal. Even when you have free will you’re 
  emotionally attached to them, though, since you still have a 
  wound; if you see them in danger or thank them, you’ll snap back 
  to being their loyal knight once again.
  Wavering Reality
  You’ve been unmade—well, mostly unmade.
  You must cling to the things of the world. You must live ful-
  ly, don’t let yourself get separated, isolated, alienated. If you do, 
  you’ll fall first into the ghost world and then into the Outside. 
  You don’t know how you get back from that. You only know 
  that sometimes, somehow, between the scenes of the game... you do.
  Recovery
  Healing from a back-and-forth wound is typically a 
  Lu-
  rid quest (pg. 96-97).
  
  134
  134
  
  Twisted Wounds
  135
   
   Twisted Wounds 
  option 6 for mitigating a wound
  You can use one of your health levels to twist or construe the dam-
  age of a wound as or into something useful. There’s still a down-
  side—there has to be a downside still—but mostly, it’s something 
  you can put to use.
  Like,
  Broken Fingers
  That guy thought that stepping on your fingers would put you 
  down. And it hurts, yes. But the fire of revenge that filled your 
  heart makes you more effective than even having one hundred 
  thousand fingers would!
  Seeing Medusa’s Face
  That glancing look at Medusa’s face—it could have turned a girl 
  to stone! 
  But not you. No. 
  You’re a glasses girl, and that means that all that happened to 
  you is that sometimes when you’re very still you turn into a statue 
  and sometimes when people stab you with softer things than stone 
  (like needles, or swords) they break.
  Poisoned
  You’ve been poisoned by a bad fish! But now you have a much 
  deeper insight into the mind of wickedness. 
  You can smell it in bad situations, sometimes, just like that fish.
  Possession
  That ghost or witch or whatever tried to take over your body, and 
  sometimes it still does control you, but mostly, it gave you acci-
  dental access to its own powers and knowledge!
  Vampire Thrall
  Similarly, that vampire tried to glamour you. He used those pow-
  erful eyes. But—
  He didn’t count on the fact that you’re dead certain you know 
  what he really wants better than he does himself.
  Recovery
  Healing from a twisted wound is typically an 
  Exciting! 
  quest (pg. 94-95).
  The Bleak Takes 
  Interest in the Real
  A witch is cursing random people in the crowd around you 
  with a withering death. But when she reaches you, she stops.
  “Oh, no,” she says, thoughtfully. “Not killing this one. This 
  one is... interesting.”
  As an optional rule, or if you’re playing fast and loose with 
  the existing rules, you can twist any wound from Outside or 
  bleak sources by declaring yourself suddenly overly inter-
  esting and relatable to the bleak power within them, which 
  makes them want to make you a minion, or fall in love with 
  you, or complain about their life problems to you instead of 
  following through with their declared attack. 
  It’s up to the player of the target (usually, the HG) whether 
  you can have this wound be their actual reaction/attraction to 
  you, or if it has to be a generic “attractive to the bleak.”
  
  Metaphorical Pow-
  ers
  Story Wounds and 
  Sickness
  136
  136
   Metaphorical Powers 
  option 7 for mitigating a wound
  You can use one of your health levels to make some effect on you 
  metaphorical instead of literal. This is mostly suitable for magic 
  and psychological effects, although you could combine this with 
  muting or avoiding a physical wound and that would give you a 
  reasonable effect.
  When I say metaphorical, I mean something like:
  Turned Into a Frog
  You’ve been cursed! Turned into a frog!
  And so you are.
  Green, you wear green now, it is the color of you; hop, you 
  hop, too, a lot more than you ever did. Your favorite candies now 
  are these little licorice bites. Sometimes you’ll be happy when you 
  buy a bag, you’ll offer to share them with people, you’ll pop one 
  in your mouth and you’ll say that “this candy’s pretty fly.” You’ll 
  have this habit of puffing out your cheeks when you’re thinking 
  now and of taking baths in ponds. Occasionally you’ll wander 
  around with a lilypad on your head.
  You’re a frog!
  Stabbed in the Heart
  You’ve been stabbed through the heart! ...wait, no. That didn’t 
  happen. It’s just a shallow cut.
  But somehow, your heart has gone cold anyway. Somehow it’s 
  hard to feel things now and especially difficult to love.
  Mystic Prison
  You were meant to be sealed in a mystic prison—a silver cage. 
  But it’s not you in there. It’s just a bird that sort of... represents 
  you. When the bird sings your heart lifts. When the bird is hurt 
  you suffer. When the bird is fed you feel a little more full. But 
  you’re not the bird. The imprisonment itself—it failed.
   Story Wounds and Sickness 
  Sometimes bad things happen to you because of... well, plot. Not 
  because of a tactical conflict or a hostile action but because that’s 
  where the story goes.
  If something happens to you for basically OOC reasons—be-
  cause the HG thinks it would be cool, or you think it would be 
  cool, or whatever—then you don’t handle it as a wound. You han-
  dle it as a dramatic thing, a narrative thing, an Issue—typically, 
  the Issue
  Sickness
  If it’s ambiguous, like, you were attacked by something as a 
  natural evolution in play, but you let it happen because it seemed 
  cool; or something bad happens that would probably affect you 
  anyway, but it’s only a definite thing because the HG is pushing 
  for it; or whatever?
  That can be handled either way, or even as both.
  As the name implies, a Sickness is usually bad, but it’s not 
  necessarily the case—perfectly normal human reactions to trauma 
  can qualify as the Sickness Issue, as can a positive or ambiguous 
  metamorphosis. 
  So let’s talk a little about how Issues work.
  Recovery
  Healing from a metaphorical wound is typically a 
  Set-
  ting quest (pg. 100-101).
  
  CHAPTER 8: IS-
  SUES
   
  Issues
  
  138
  138
  
  How an Issue Works
  139
   
  Issues
  Over the course of play characters can accumulate points in various Issues—
  Dramatic movements in their life, things building towards a resolution, each of them rated from 0 to 5. For instance, a cold or flu 
  or werewolf virus is represented by the Sickness Issue; meddling with forces beyond your comprehension, by (in) Over Your Head.
   How an Issue Works 
  general notes
  Each Issue comes with an embedded narrative arc. 
  The first three levels of the Issue are mostly for expressing 
  what’s going on with you—they are for establishing the calling, 
  the complex, the heroic journey, the vice, or whatever else is go-
  ing on.
  You are of course receiving the Issue and its increments over 
  the course of play—
  So it’s not the text of the Issue that’s doing the work of estab-
  lishing this, but rather its interactions with the events in the game. 
  By the time the Issue comes to a head at level 4, you should ideally 
  know what it’s “talking about” in the context of your game—not, 
  “I have Hero 4,” but “ah, the epic battle that I’ve been building 
  towards since I first got Hero 1 is finally ready to be resolved.”
  At level 4, the Issue kicks into high gear. This is also when 
  you’ll have your first real chance to finish out the Issue’s story, 
  “closing” or “resolving” it and receiving 4 XP and an MP. If you 
  do so, it isn’t necessarily all that dramatic—
  It’s a relatively dramatic moment, of course, but if your group 
  is really used to this game’s systems, you could potentially have 
  somebody closing an Issue every few hours of play.
  At level 5, if the player didn’t manage to close out the Issue, 
  things get a little more hectic, dramatic, and scary—but even then 
  it’s not necessarily a big deal. If it makes sense for it to be an epic 
  moment, then it’s an epic moment; if it makes sense for it to be 
  quiet and wrenching, then it’s that. 
  Closing out an Issue at level 5 gives the same 4 XP + 1 MP 
  reward.
  Full Implementation
  I’m going to start by giving you the full implementation of Issues. 
  This is a mechanic with high handling time, so it’s only suited for 
  forum games, play-by-email, solo games, and games very low on 
  immersion—
  If you’re playing tabletop or on IRC, and focused on in-char-
  acter play, you’ll want the simplified version in the next section.
  In any case, for now:
  If the handling time’s acceptable, after an out-of-genre or 
  particularly meaningful XP Action, the HG reacts. Their reaction 
  takes the form of an Issue point given to a PC involved in the 
  scene. There’s one Issue for a kind of “shrug, I dunno either” re-
  action, for instance—that’s 
   Mystery
  There’s another for a reaction like “that was peaceful, laid-back/
  bittersweet”—
   Something to Deal With
  And so forth.
  The player in question increments the Issue, reads the associat-
  ed instructions, and takes a card representing the new level of the 
  Issue to keep in front of them in play.
  Simplified Implementation
  If that’s too much bookkeeping or handling time for your game, 
  I’m going to suggest that you instead assign Issues once per chap-
  ter or once per natural breakpoint in play.
  The HG picks an Issue based on their strongest lingering im-
  pression from events, hands it out to all the players it fits (not 
  just the one most responsible, but also not just “everybody”) and 
  players can handle the updating as the lead-in to the next chapter 
  or section of play.
  Issue Cards
  The core of an Issue is built as advice—
  As a set of “Issue cards,” one of which is optionally kept in 
  front of you during play to remind you of the Issue’s influence 
  on the way your character thinks. (If you can’t do that, then the 
  cards are something to glance through during stuff for which your 
  character is quiet or not there, instead.)
  For the most part, the Issues won’t ask anything more of you 
  than that; you just have to maintain a rough awareness of your 
  Issues and how they affect you. 
  That said, at specific points in each Issue’s progression (often, 
  level 4 and 5), there’ll be more that you need to do; for that, see 
  the instructions below.
  
  140
  140
  140
  Genre-Based Issues
  Characters may pick up the specific Issues 
   Hollow
   Illusion and
   Isolation
  from the rules for their genre’s XP Actions; I wouldn’t give them 
  out too casually for other reasons, but there are plenty of miscella-
  neous circumstances that they’d fit.
  Characters may also pick up 
   Sickness
  through unusual channels.
  If you’re playing with the simplified version of the Issues, you 
  can wait to process that change until the next chapter or natural 
  breakpoint in play.
  Lowering an Issue
  Issues mostly go up during play, but you can reduce them in three 
  ways. The first two have to do with the reduced dramatic urgency 
  of an Issue after a session or story break, which lowers an Issue:
   
  ŭ by one point at the end of each book; and
   
  ŭ by one point at the end of each session, or, for continuous 
  games, each Sunday’s dawn.
  If you’re playing by the full rules, you’ll lose one point per Issue 
  at the end of the session and book. If you’re playing by the sim-
  plified rules, you’ll lose one point from whichever single Issue the 
  player judges to be least memorable in context—the one whose 
  current dramatic urgency is least likely to carry over to the next 
  session or story.22
  Resolving an Issue
  The third way to lower an Issue is:
   
  ŭ by “resolving” the Issue when it reaches level 4+.
  The actions you have to take to “resolve” an Issue are Issue-spe-
  cific, and are going to be described on the Issue’s card. Resolving 
  an Issue earns 4 XP and 1 MP and drops the Issue to level 0, after 
  which you can’t pick it up again for a while—
  What that specifically means is that if you’re about to pick up 
  the Issue again, and the HG thinks it’s too soon after you resolved 
  it, you... don’t!
  22   You can tweak the timing or the rate of Issue loss here if it doesn’t wind 
  up working out for you.
  Issues and MP
  Issues have a power in them that derives from the wishing heart, 
  the magic of various Regions, or the emptiness of the Outside and 
  the Bleak Academy. I don’t know if it’s precisely the same as wish 
  power from other sources, but...
  In practice, Issues will give you MP.
  In particular you’ll receive 1 MP from each Issue when—
   
  ŭ it reaches 1, 3, or 5;
   
  ŭ it causes trouble for you (as with a level 1 Bond);
   
  ŭ you “resolve” it.
  Issues can also save you MP. At level 4-5 they become ripe for 
  resolution; there’s something you can do to bring the story of the 
  Issue to a convenient and appropriate end. If you and the HG 
  agree that a given miracle would resolve the Issue, then the 
  dramatic weight of the Issue gives you an advantage—a 4 MP 
  reduction in the miracle’s cost.
  This is on top of the 1 MP that you gain for resolving the Issue. 
  If the miracle cost less than 4 MP to begin with, you may con-
  vert the rest of your discount to Strike.
  A List of Issues
  The standard Issues in a Chuubo’s Marvelous Wish-Granting 
  Engine game are...
   you’re in Over Your Head
   being a Hero
  Sickness, including cinematic transformation and 
  corruption
   Vice
   Mystery, where there’s some mystery around you
   a Complex, representing a neurosis or obsession.
  It Never Stops!, where your life is just plain ridicu-
  lous and it’s not your fault
  a Calling, representing something—initially, an un-
  known something—you must do.
   Something to Deal With, here meaning “baggage;” 
  and
   Trust, in untrustworthy powers.
  Gaming Terminology
  Session—it’s a “session” when the players get together for the 
  game. I’m targeting 4-hour sessions. Online games might or might 
  not have specific sessions.
  
  141
   
  
  142
  142
  There’s also three genre-specific Issues, which you’ll usually only 
  pick up based on the genre rules:
   being Hollow, unable to truly appreciate the world
   an Illusion hides the truth of your life even from the 
  HG and players; and
   Isolation.
  This list is far from comprehensive, although I think it covers 
  most of the important stuff; you can freely create new Issues for 
  your game. For instance, Fortitude: the Glass-Maker’s Dragon 
  will track the progress of an expedition far away by introducing 
  the Issue
   To the Island of Death!
   Which Issue Should I Give? 
  These Issues are part of the game’s conversation. Accordingly, as the HG, you can hand out any Issue you like, and here’s what you’re 
  conveying by doing so:
  If you can’t keep track of this many Issues, just look at the list oc-
  casionally and pick out one or two to have at the top of your mind.
  It’s totally OK for your impressions to adjust based on the av-
  erage game—
  If you’re playing a game that focuses on the PCs’ ordinary 
  lives, and this is the first time you’ve really done that in an RPG, 
  then I’d expect you to respond to a lot of stuff in the first few sto-
  ries with “ah, doing ordinary stuff, huh?”
  And it’s fine for that to mean you give your PCs 
   Callings.
  But if after a while, the PCs are heavily involved in a prize 
  pumpkin-growing contest, and it’s still pretty ordinary, but it 
  stands out from their ordinary lives for you as “Suspense! Doom! 
  Action!” or “This (pumpkin) is a pretty big deal?”
  It’s fine to give out 
   being a Hero or 
   Trust then 
  instead.
  In short, go with your actual responses here—don’t try to cre-
  ate some objective standard to hew to and then burden yourself 
  with the expectations that gives.
  “That was pretty laid-back.”
  +1 to       Something to Deal With
  Head-desk. Pause. Head-desk.
  +1 to        a Complex
  “This path that you are on... 
  might be the wrong path.”
  +1 to       Vice
  “Doing ordinary stuff, huh?”
  +1 to       a Calling
  “This is so mean to you guys.”
  +1 to       It Never Stops!
  “You guys are very active.”
  +1 to       Over Your Head
  “Suspense! Doom! Action!”
  +1 to       being a Hero
  “I’m... intrigued.”
  +1 to       Mystery
  “This is a pretty big deal.”
  +1 to       Trust
  “...You’re in trouble.”
  +1 to       Sickness
  
  Issue: Calling
  Issue: Hero
  Issue: Mystery
  143
   
  a Calling
  There’s something you’re going to need to do.
  There’s a task or problem or destiny waiting for you that you 
  won’t be able to ignore. You won’t know what it is at first. At least, 
  you probably won’t, at least not in detail. But you’ll figure it out 
  eventually. And in hindsight, when you look back on the story 
  afterwards, you’ll realize it was calling out to you all along.
  Here’s a simplified picture of the Issue and its progression:
  ► Your world is in good order.
  1► You feel like something’s been left undone.
  2► There’s something important left undone, and the world’s 
  gone a bit awry.
  3► Your heart is awake. The world is calling. You almost under-
  stand what you must do. 
  4► You can’t ignore this. You know what you have to do.
  5► This is really important. You have to do it, even if you’re 
  scared. Even if you die. 
   
   
  Your Calling
  You might have a Calling if there’s...
   
  ŭ someone you need to apologize to
   
  ŭ a window you need to repair
   
  ŭ a treaty that you need to broker or
   
  ŭ a lost treasure that you need to find
  Mystery
  Picking up the Mystery Issue means that there’s something myste-
  rious going on with you. People—you, the HG, the other players, 
  or maybe just the other players—will be aware that there’s some 
  mystery. It’ll become more important and more central to the scenes 
  you’re in over time. Then there’ll be a big or at least a little reveal 
  that brings some closure to that and adds a satisfying beat to the story.
  Here’s a simplified form of the Issue and its progression:
  ► Mystery has not yet touched your life.
  1► There’s a hint of something weird and mysterious.
  2► That mystery might matter.
  3► Something inexplicable is revealed behind the surface of the mystery.
  4► You stand at the doorway of revelation.
  5► The mystery is spiritual, unnatural, or otherwise fraught with 
  meaning.
   
   
  Your Mystery
  Mysteries have gathered around you, e.g....
   
  ŭ where did you come from?
   
  ŭ what is your real motivation and agenda?
   
  ŭ what secret are you keeping?
   
  ŭ are there really aliens living in the sun? and
   
  ŭ why does Big Lake have access to the seas of other worlds?
  becoming a Hero
  Picking up the Hero Issue means that your life is on course for a 
  climactic confrontation with a terrible adversary. You’re going to 
  face dangerous enemies, perilous journeys, and ultimately you’re 
  going to have to overcome some horrible foe, who at least seems 
  scarier than yourself, and probably at a large personal cost, in or-
  der to seize, rescue, learn, or win something precious.
  Maybe it’s larger-than-life. Maybe it’s just life-sized. But as 
  far as the stories of your life go, it’s going to be epic.
  Here’s a simplified form of the Issue and its progression:
  ► everything is under control
  1► you’ve shown some heroism
  2► you’ve decided to step up to the challenge
  3► you’ve met your enemy, and it terrifies you
  4► all seems lost—but wait...
  [ somehow you survive, and maybe even win, except that 
  now... ]
  5► you face a final, impossible challenge
   
   
  Heroic Challenges
  Pretty soon you might find yourself putting 
  everything on the line to...
   
  ŭ fight bullies
   
  ŭ conquer the Bleak Academy
   
  ŭ rescue somebody from Hell
   
  ŭ find the holy grail
   
  ŭ steal a dragon’s treasure
   
  ŭ or challenge a Mystery you haven’t even yet seen....
  
  Issue: Hollow
  Issue: Illusion
  Issue: Isolation
  144
  144
  Hollow
  Picking up the Hollow Issue means that you’re acting like your 
  life has meaning when, for you at least, it doesn’t. 
  You’ve lost some of the sense of wonder; some of your empa-
  thy; some of your terror.
  You don’t have it in you to really explore.
  This ends when the world, abhorring a vacuum, sends some-
  thing at you from an unexpected direction and you get hurt, trans-
  formed, or otherwise forced to care.
  Here’s a simplified form of the Issue and its progression:
  ► Your world’s pretty interesting to you.
  1► You’d rather have magic and color in your life but you’re ba-
  sically OK without.
  2► Your life is kind of muted. Things don’t matter as much any more.
  3► You’re actively cynical about the idea of anything mattering.
  4► You don’t really care at all any more. 
  5► You’re actively self-destructive.
   
   
  Being Hollow
  You’re on the road to trouble...
   
  ŭ hanging out with the wrong crowd
   
  ŭ being a bit too casual about making enemies
   
  ŭ being dismissive of magic and miracles
   
  ŭ thinking you know everything there is to know
   
  ŭ choosing a bland life over a vibrant one
   
  ŭ ignoring serious life issues and risks
  Isolation
  You’ll pick up Isolation when you reach out to people only to re-
  alize that you’re alone. At first you may accept it or even valorize 
  it, but eventually you’ll realize that you need to turn to somebody 
  else for help.
  Here’s a simplified form of the Issue and its progression:
  ► You’re fine.
  1► You’re only really lonely when you’re alone.
  2► You’re drifting a little bit apart from everyone.
  3► You’re becoming quieter, meeker, afraid to disturb the people 
  around you.
  4► Something’s wrong. You need help. You need to reach out to 
  somebody.
  5► Some Bleak power has your soul, mind, or heart within its grip.
   
   
  Being Isolated
  You’re drifting away...
   
  ŭ spending too much time in the places of the dead
   
  ŭ thinking of bleak and far-off things
   
  ŭ spending too much time alone
   
  ŭ turning to your imagination for company
   
  ŭ ignoring good chances to hang out with people
   
  ŭ pulling away because you don’t want to burden people
   
  ŭ feeling bad about yourself; unloved
  Illusion
  If you’re in the grip of an Illusion it means that there’s something 
  about your character that isn’t being shown in-game. 
  There’s something... off... about the events that we actually see.
  It could just be that there’s a piece missing. It could be that 
  they’re a doppelganger, a clone, or that you’re reconstructing the 
  story of what happened later on. There’s a narrative or plotting 
  trick here, in short, and this Issue builds up to its being revealed.
  Here’s a simplified form of the Issue and its progression:
  ► Seeing is believing.
  1► It’s hard to believe, but this part of your life actually happened.
  2► There’s some illusion or trick here.
  3► There’s something that rings false about the threats you face here.
  4► The trick is about to be revealed.
  5► ...and it’s going to change everything.
   
   
  The Illusion
  Are you...
   
  ŭ hallucinating some of this?
   
  ŭ secretly the cat’s-paw of a villain?
   
  ŭ a body double?
   
  ŭ someone else’s hallucination?
   
  ŭ being inserted into the story retroactively by a wish?
   
  ŭ yourself, time traveling from the future?
   
  ŭ fighting future-you, traveled back from the future?
  
  Issue: Something to 
  Deal With
  Issue: Sickness
  Issue: Complex
   
  145
  Something to Deal With
  Picking up a Something to Deal With Issue means that there’s 
  something nagging at you. There’s something that you need to 
  process. It’s not so much that there’s an action that you have to 
  take, although there’s usually a symbolic action at the end. It’s that 
  there’s some emotion you need to recognize or something in your 
  life you’re doing wrong, and you need to bring that to the surface 
  and deal with it.
  Here’s a simplified form of the Issue and its progression:
  ► You don’t have an Issue like that.
  1► There’s something nagging at you.
  2► You feel unsettled and off, and you don’t like it.
  3► Things are almost fitting together, but you can’t... quite... see 
  it, yet.
  4► You’ve put the pieces together. You know what you have to do.
  5► You know what you have to do, and you even know why you 
  haven’t done it!
   
   
  The Thing That  
  You Must Deal With
  There’s something lurking in the background of your life that 
  you haven’t really faced. Do you have...
   
  ŭ old baggage, memories, and wounds to sort through?
   
  ŭ fears to acknowledge and face?
   
  ŭ a situation you don’t know how to navigate?
   
  ŭ bad/wrongful ideas you need to realize that you’re having, 
  or
   
  ŭ errors that you have to notice that you’re making?
  Sickness
  Picking up a Sickness Issue means that there’s something wrong 
  with you. There’s something that has gotten into you that’s chang-
  ing who you are. You’re getting weaker and weaker and it’s get-
  ting stronger and stronger; but in the end, you’ll have to show your 
  true strength of character, either casting it out of you or learning 
  how to live with and integrate it into your identity.
  Here’s a simplified form of the Issue and its progression:
  ► You’re reasonably healthy and strong.
  1► You’ve been through a lot lately.
  2► You’re having a hard time hanging on to who you are.
  3► You’re weak, battered, and nearly broken.
  4► You have to defy what’s happening to you for the sake of 
  who you are.
  5► You draw on your wounds and transformations for a new 
  strength and self-definition.
   
   
  Your Sickness
  You might pick up a Sickness if there’s...
   
  ŭ something transforming you 
   
  ŭ something possessing you
   
  ŭ something traumatizing you
   
  ŭ something corrupting you
   
  ŭ something messing with your head
   
  ŭ something messing with your body
   
  ŭ something taking away your confidence in yourself
   
  ŭ something ruining your life or
   
  ŭ something making it harder to be yourself
  a Complex
  A Complex is basically a set of bad ideas that you can’t let go of. 
  They make you feel bad but having them feels good. They drive 
  you into a series of escalating bad decisions until your life falls 
  apart in complete disaster and disarray.
  Here’s a simplified form of the Issue and its progression:
  ► you know what you’re doing.
  1► you’re trying too hard.
  2► you’re driven to distraction.
  3► your life is falling apart, but you have a plan.
  4► ...that wasn’t a very good plan, now was it.
  5► you face epic inevitable disaster, but may be saved by an 
  equally epic grace.
   
   
  Your Complex
  You might wind up with a Complex if you’re 
  dealing with... 
   
  ŭ a fight you can’t win
   
  ŭ a problem you can’t handle
   
  ŭ an obsession with schoolwork
   
  ŭ an obsession with shopping
   
  ŭ an obsession with some mystery or
   
  ŭ relationship troubles?
  
  Issue: It Never Stops!
  Issue: Trust
  146
  It Never Stops!
  The It Never Stops! Issue is kind of like a Complex or obsession, 
  except not all of the irrationality is in you—some of it is genuinely 
  externalized into the world. Having this Issue means being caught 
  in a fundamentally irrational situation...
  Which means that even if you completely clear your head and 
  get over your obsessions and neuroses, irrational things will keep 
  happening. Fundamentally this means that you’re being oppressed 
  by an arbitrary and unjust power, but that power could be “genre,” 
  “the HG,” or “the whims of your significant other” as easily as 
  Malambruno or the Headmaster of the Bleak Academy.
  Here’s a simplified form of the Issue and its progression:
  ► You know what you’re doing.
  1► Things are... a little rough
  2► Things are getting kind of messed up here
  3► This is ridiculous, but at least it’ll be over soon, one way or 
  another
  4► How can this still be happening?!
  5► ...?!?!?!?!?!
   
   
  Absurd Challenges
  Are you dealing with... 
   
  ŭ ridiculous, ever-escalating fights and battles?
   
  ŭ absurd, ever-escalating romantic hijinks?
   
  ŭ horrifying, ever-escalating trainwrecks of a situation?
   
  ŭ or with something even worse?
  Trust
  Picking up the Trust Issue means that you’ve offered your trust 
  to powers beyond your own. You’ve signed on with the Student 
  Council or the Riders; bound yourself to a spirit, god, or totem; 
  joined a club or a sports team with unnatural resources; sworn 
  blood sisterhood or brotherhood with a powerful character; taken 
  up with one of the shrine families of Fortitude; or started dating 
  somebody scary and powerful enough to count. This Issue tracks 
  the trust you give such things over the course of the current story.
  Here’s a simplified form of the Issue and its progression:
  ► You’ve been pretty self-contained and self-assured thus far.
  1► You’ve shown or acquired a connection to some power out-
  side yourself.
  2► You feel comfortable relying on such powers.
  3► You’re enjoying that connection, that relationship.
  4► You relied on someone or something too much—it’s going to 
  betray or hurt you.
  5► You’ve been betrayed and hurt but you’re going to have to 
  trust again anyway.
   
   
  Trust
  You’ll pick up Trust by displaying the kind  
  of excessively trusting and open nature that...
   
  ŭ makes you vulnerable to spiritual powers
   
  ŭ gives you an excess of faith in humanity
   
  ŭ lets your family control your life and identity
   
  ŭ lets your peers push you around
   
  ŭ binds you too tightly to a figure of some power or impor-
  tance, or
   
  ŭ that makes you too certain in yourself and in what you 
  believe.
  The Name “Trust”
  The name might undersell this Issue a little. I could have called it, 
  maybe even should have called it, “playing with fire” or “spending 
  a lot of time using rituals” or “the world is really weird around you” 
  or “you’re OK with the company of angels, gods, horrors, and great 
  and terrible things.”
  Whatever.
  It’s just, it doesn’t feel like that to you.
  If it did, you wouldn’t have this Issue. If you gave all this stuff its proper 
  respect and fear, then this wouldn’t be an Issue. If it felt like the kind of stuff 
  that you should be getting Trust from, then... you wouldn’t be getting Trust.
  So for you, and this is the reason I’m giving it this name, it’s just Trust.  
  Your faith that the world is good. That you know what you’re doing. That 
  things are going to be OK.
  
  147
   
  Vice
  Picking up a Vice Issue means that you’re embracing something 
  that you probably shouldn’t be doing. You’re treating something 
  that’s actually kind of bad for you as if it were a Calling. This 
  produces progressively more phantasmagoric, epic, and staged 
  devotional scenes until eventually the world forces you to resist 
  temptation and stand up for the things you actually believe in. 
  So if you’re 100% genuinely convinced that your Vice is a 
  good thing, that booze or slacking or working for the Bleak Acad-
  emy or whatever is up there with friendship and honesty and hard 
  work on the list of virtues, don’t take a Vice! Explain to the HG 
  how you feel and take it as a Calling instead. 
  Here’s a simplified form of the Issue and its progression:
  ► You haven’t shown any stand-out vices for a while.
  1► You’re walking a troubled or risky course.
  2► You’re justifying it to yourself.
  3► This is screwing up your life. Wait. No. Let’s say, “spicing 
  up” your life. Oh yeah.
  4► You’ve got to shape up; somebody needs you. 
  5► You’ve got to shape up anyway, but your vice is what gives 
  you the key to save the day.
   
   
  Something You 
  Shouldn’t Be Doing
  You may pick up the Vice Issue if you’ve gotten into a habit 
  of...
   
  ŭ truly excessive slacking
   
  ŭ drinking, drugs, or smoking
   
  ŭ working too hard, or for the wrong people
   
  ŭ lying, cheating, or being cruel
   
  ŭ gambling or street racing
   
  ŭ collecting way too much yarn
   
  ŭ ...or even just staying up half the night playing games!
  Over Your Head
  You’ll pick up (in) Over Your Head when you stumbled into a situa-
  tion with more going on than you can easily understand and resolve:
  You’re trying to learn or understand something that confuses you. 
  You’ve walked into a morass of secrets, lies, and hidden motivations. 
  You’ve gotten involved, intentionally or accidentally, in a complex 
  conflict with people of good faith on both sides. You’ve found your-
  self in unknown territory, dotted with riddles and confusion.
  There isn’t a single great mystery behind it all, most likely; or 
  if there is, you don’t know it yet. There’s just a lot of little stuff that 
  you need to figure out. 
  You get more and more confused, more and more lost, or deep-
  er and deeper in over your head until finally everything clicks and 
  you understand exactly what you have to do and why you’re just 
  who this situation needs.
  Here’s a simplified form of the Issue and its progression:
  ► You’re comfortable with the world and you understand how 
  things are.
  1► You’re confused—something isn’t as it should be.
  2► You feel betrayed—something you relied on isn’t what it 
  should be.
  3► You were wrong—and your misunderstandings have put 
  something important in danger.
  4► You have an idea about what to do and how things fit together.
  5► You’ve just had the best idea. Seriously. This rules.
   
   
  In Over Your Head
  You’ve been stumbling across complicated and 
  problematic things, e.g., 
   
  ŭ shadows of mysteries and old guilts hanging over peoples’ head
   
  ŭ prophesies
   
  ŭ people you’re starting to fall in love with
   
  ŭ things you’re supposed to be studying that you just don’t get
   
  ŭ mysterious organizations hanging out around their School
   
  ŭ complex political situations and/or
   
  ŭ guns inexplicably prominent on the mantel...
  
  Issues in Play
  148
  148
  Issues in Play 
  This section’s here to tell you what to do when you have an Issue 
  at a certain level. The general instructions equivocate between be-
  ing IC and OOC; the card, on the other hand, is always23 meant 
  to be an IC representation of the influence of the Issue on your 
  character’s thoughts.
  You don’t have to agree with it. It doesn’t have to be your 
  thoughts.
  But it’s what the Issue is presenting to you, in your character’s 
  head, roughly as often as you look at or remember the card.
  At some points during the process the instructions might ask 
  you to “tell yourself” things, or to tell things to the HG and the 
  group. If there’s going to be a long pause before you can put these 
  ideas into action, make sure to write any key conclusions down!
  23 With one arguable exception.
  Malambruno
  The roofs of Notting Rather roll together into grassy hills; the 
  chimneys fade from brick to sod. The gutters have stopped up to 
  form a lake: the Gutter-Lake of Forms.
  There, past Nowhere Way in Notting Rather, Malambruno, 
  which is named Hatred, sleeps.
  There, in that fine and pretty place, it melds itself into the shin-
  gles and the trees; the river and the lake; the hills, the grass, and 
  even the sky and stars. It is made indistinguishable from the world 
  around it and the scent of its musk is sweet.
  Sleep not on Malambruno; breathe not its musk. It will make 
  you other than yourself.
  It will fill you with the seeds of its wickedness; it will give you 
  a monstrous form; and you will have no one to complain to but 
  yourself, o human child, for you slept on Malambruno, in Notting 
  Rather, past Nowhere Way, and by the Gutter-Lake of Forms.
  —from The Mysteries, for a Human Child, 
  by Filimer Augustine
  
  149
   Calling 
  Calling 1-2
  You feel like something’s left undone...
  Calling 1
  You feel like there’s something you need to do, but 
  you’re not sure what. You’ve forgotten, or you haven’t 
  ﬁ gured it out yet, or all the pieces haven’t come together 
  yet for you to act.
  Calling 2
  There’s something wrong somewhere.
  You feel like there’s something you need to do, 
  something you’ve forgotten or haven’t figured out.
  Maybe if you talked about it to your friends?
  Took a second look at your priorities
  and your routine?
  
  150
  Calling 3
  It’s like you’re finally starting to wake up. It’s like you’re rising above the straits of your ordinary life. Your heart 
  is speaking to you. The world is speaking to you. You can’t understand it quite yet—
  So while you have this card, don’t close your eyes to things. Not to anything.
  You have to be alert, open, and mindful until you understand what the world or your heart is telling you to do.
  Calling 3
  To hear your heart more clearly:
  connect with others &
  do the things you love.
  
  151
  Calling 4
  Just hit level 4? OK. Your path is clear.
  You know what’s wrong with the world. You know what hasn’t been done. You know what task has been left 
  unattended, or what wound has been left to rot. You know
   
  ŭ what you needed to do, and didn’t;
   
  ŭ what somebody else needed to do, and didn’t;
   
  ŭ what you did, that you oughtn’t’ve;
   
  ŭ what was done, that shouldn’t have been;
   
  ŭ what needed to be honored and trusted, that wasn’t;
   
  ŭ what needed to be fought, that wasn’t; or
   
  ŭ what needed to happen, somehow, only, it never did.
  Take a moment and tell yourself what that was.
  Then tell yourself what you have to do, now that things have gone this far, to try to make it right.
  Doing this thing will close out the Issue 
  & earn 4 bonus XP + 1 MP
  Calling 4
  You know what went wrong with the world
  &
  You know what it is you have to do.
  
  152
  Calling 5
  Just hit level 5? This Calling is harder, and scarier, and more important than you thought.
  It’s not going to be easy. Maybe it wasn’t going to be anyway, but now it’s definitely not.
  Now it’s going to be scary, and it’s going to be hard, and you’re going to have to do it anyway, because it’s 
  the thing that’s needing done.
  Remind yourself about what’s wrong with the world, and why. 
  (Or has it changed?... but you’ll have to go forward, with the new path, even if it has.)
  Tell yourself again what went wrong with the world. Tell yourself what you’ve got to do to fix it. Tell yourself 
  why you’re scared.
  Then face forward, find your opportunity for action, and do what must be done.
  Doing this thing will close out the Issue 
  & earn 4 bonus XP + 1 MP
  Calling 5
  You know what went wrong
  &
  You know what it is you have to do.
  
  153
   Complex 
  Complex 1
  You’re trying a little too hard...
  Complex 1
  Sometimes you get a little bit too excited,
   distracted, or weird.
  For your second, third, etc. Complex
  Complex 1’
  Sometimes, even when not indulging your other 
  Complexes, you get a little bit too excited,
  distracted, or weird.
  Is there something else going on?
  
  154
  Complex 2
  Just hit level 2? Time to decide what your Complex is about. 
  Like, for instance:
   
  ŭ what if you fail at life?
   
  ŭ what if you don’t get all As at School?
   
  ŭ what if people find out what you’ve done?
   
  ŭ what if somebody is eating your soul?
   
  ŭ what if you’re accidentally eating someone else’s soul?
   
  ŭ you don’t look good enough
   
  ŭ you’re not popular enough
   
  ŭ you want so much stuff and can’t afford it all
   
  ŭ why can’t everyone understand how important this mystery is?
   
  ŭ why can’t everyone understand the importance of eating vegan?
   
  ŭ why can’t everyone understand your deep connection to Mr. Spock?
   
  ŭ why can’t everyone understand how important it is to love?
  Pick something. One of these or something else. Or make the HG pick something.
  At the next chance, tell everyone—the HG, yourself, and by OOC communication or IC emote, the players—
  what it is. Even if you don’t want to! You’re too stressed and obsessed to keep this an actual secret.
  Complex 2
  There’s something you are
  not doing enough about.
  You have to try harder. Don’t give up!
  Say something like that to yourself, or even out 
  loud, right now. “I have to try harder on [[this 
  thing, whatever it is.]] It’ll be OK if I work harder.”
  
  155
  Complex 3
  What’s your plan?
  It wasn’t as easy as you thought. You’ve been trying really hard but you feel even further from success than 
  you did when you started. Maybe your standards got higher. Maybe your need got dire. Maybe you’re just falling 
  behind. But you can’t stop here.
  It’s time to start pushing harder.
  Figure out a plan. Figure out a magnificent, glorious, crazed plan. Then do it. And then the next plan. And 
  then the next plan, until you get to Complex 4, when everything...
  ...will probably work out OK.
  Complex 3
  Here’s your Issue
  ____
  ...but you have a plan. Did it fail? Come up with a 
  new plan. Keep going. You just have to make it to 
  Complex 4 and everything will definitely,
  definitely
  work out OK.
  
  156
  Complex 4
  Your Complex hit level 4? OK, Complex 3 kind of lied to you.
  A little.
  Things have not worked out OK. Not yet. 
  So...
  Think about what you’ve been doing wrong. Think about where you could go from there. Figure out what, in 
  that vein, you absolutely can’t afford to do. It made sense so far, but you have to stop before you do that. It will 
  lead to total disaster. Figure out what that thing that will lead to total disaster is.
  Tell yourself what that is. Heck, tell the HG and the other players.
  Then realize, as you say it, that wait. That isn’t necessarily a total disaster. That is... if you do it right, if you’re 
  lucky, if the world will smile on you just this once 
  ...why, that could actually work.
  Enacting your plan, and bringing disaster down on your 
  head, will close out the Issue & earn 4 bonus XP + 1 MP
  Complex 4
  Here’s your Issue
  ____
  ...but you have a plan.
  ...come on, world, just this once, just let it work!
  
  157
  Complex 5
  Your Complex hit level 5? OK, you can see your doom a’comin’ like the headlights of a train.
  What happened with that last plan? Did you not get the chance to pull it off before the stakes got higher?  Or 
  did it actually work, was it actually a good idea like you thought, only the world is so unfair that you have to top 
  it now with something else?
  Anyway.
  You know what you have to do. You are committed. There is no turning back now. You have to kick it up a 
  notch.
  Tell the HG and the players what you absolutely, positively can’t let happen. Tell them what you’re doing 
  all of this to try to prevent. Then explain your new, improved plan to make that happen. Er, well, not happen. 
  You know.
  Yeah. 
  That plan sounds good. It is just crazy enough to work.
  Perhaps your plan will bring “the thing you can’t let happen” right 
  down on your head.
  Or perhaps you shall be saved by grace; by providence; 
  by the unlooked-for, unexpected generosity and understanding of others.
  When this happens, either way, you’ll close out the Issue & earn 4 
  bonus XP + 1 MP
  Complex 5
  You know what you absolutely, positively can’t 
  let happen.
  You have a new, improved plan.
  It’ll work. It will work. It’s your last shot. It has to.
  
  158
   Hero 
  Hero 1-2
  You’ve shown some heroism...
  Hero 1
  There’s more to you than this. You haven’t shown 
  your full strength and power yet.
  Hero 2
  You’re a hero. When there’s trouble, head in that 
  direction.
  Exception: sometimes abandoning your responsibilities and heading 
  into “trouble” is the easy road. If that’s the case, then heroism might 
  be staying where you are. Don’t let that go to your head, though!
  
  159
  Hero 3
  Level 3, huh? Time to name your fear.
  You are facing something that terrifies you. Identify it. Name it. 
  Is it
   
  ŭ an enemy or hazard already encountered in the game?
   
  ŭ something that your enemies might do to hurt you?
   
  ŭ some principle or possibility that the threats you’ve seen represent?
   
  ŭ some weakness in your heart?
  Don’t think too hard about this if it’s obvious. Like, for instance, if you’ve been fighting Typhon (pg. 225), just 
  say “Typhon.” Don’t try to pretend you’re not scared.  Face your fear. Don’t look for a deeper meaning. Typhon 
  is scary!
  But if there’s no really dangerous enemy that’s shown their face, maybe the thing that terrifies you is “my 
  best friend getting hurt” or “some shadowy force I suspect behind all these disasters” or even just “pain” or 
  “disappointing everyone.”
  Whatever it is that you fear, you can’t beat it.
  Not now.
  Name something you can do to hold it at bay for a little while. Explain how you can get a temporary, tactical 
  victory.
  Tell the HG, at least, what the enemy is and what you can do about it.
  Hero 3
  You have named your enemy—
  ____
  —and you are afraid.
  
  160
  Hero 4
  All is lost. Tell the HG that.
  All is lost, or all is about to be. You’re about to have something horrible and unfair happen. 
  Either you’re about to 
   
  ŭ lose, and lose hard; 
   
  ŭ face the need to sacrifice yourself to get what you want; or
   
  ŭ confront your enemy in a pyrrhic battle, where you win but you go down fighting or some circumstantially 
  plausible variant thereof. 
  The HG can pick which of these happens based on the situation at hand. You should probably cooperate in the 
  latter two cases with helping that story come about.
  Hero 4
  Your enemy is
  ____
  and
  all is lost.
  Once your doom manifests,
  the HG can close out the Issue & you earn 4 bonus XP + 1 MP
  ...or they can choose to wait
  Hero 4: A Dirty Secret
  Here’s a dirty little secret. 
  “All is lost,” right? That’s what the card says. 
  But... there’s still hope. Sometimes, sometimes, when it seems like everything is lost, when it seems like 
  you’re doomed, or even already dead? Sometimes it’s not that way. 
  There is still hope.
  
  161
  Hero 5
  The hardest part is yet to come.
  Tell the HG that.
  Tell them—look. You need to claw your way to victory here. You need to climb back out of the darkness.
  You need to win what you were fighting for. Because this part? This part where you thought that all was lost? 
  (Were they?)
  This isn’t the hard part.
  The hard part is what happens next.
  If you haven’t won big yet, the HG needs to help make sure that you do, that you win something big in the 
  vein of what you thought you were after; they need to give you that...
  And then they need to throw at you the biggest threat so far.
  When you realize just how royally screwed you really are, 
  close out the Hero Issue & get 4 XP + 1 MP. 
  Also,
  you’re out of bubblegum
  Hero 5
  All is lost.
  OMG WTF BBQ
  
  162
   Hollow
  Hollow 1-3
  Things don’t matter as much to you any more....
  Hollow 1
  Who are you, really?
  Hollow 2
  Would anyone even notice if you were gone?
  
  163
  Hollow 3
  It’s OK if all there are is shadows. You can decide to 
  care about shadows.
  It’s OK if you’re not real, if this isn’t real, 
  if this is all you get.
  If, I mean, if... 
  I mean, that’s allowed to be OK.
  
  164
  Hollow 4
  Just hit level 4? OK. Nothing bad can possibly happen any more.
  Tell the HG that.
  Like, “No, seriously, the card says that I no longer have to worry about the minor threats in this setting, or, 
  like, seatbelts or responsible drinking or who I hang out with and stuff. Because you? You are not my Mom.”
  Or... well, something to that effect.
  You’re safe now! All those little things, whatever. Worrying about that stuff is just the kind of precaution 
  taken by wimpy players who don’t have the courage of their convictions. It’s just an imaginary world anyway. 
  They’re not your Mom!
  ...unless they are, in which case you should probably clarify that they’re just not your game Mom. Other-
  wise they might become upset.
  When you get an unexpected and unpleasant shock,
  and the consequences of reckless or egotistic actions
   catch up to you?
   the HG can close out the Issue 
  & you earn 4 bonus XP + 1 MP
  Hollow 4
  Nothing in this meaningless world can really hurt 
  you, anyway.
  
  165
  Hollow 5
  Just hit level 5? You can take that as proof that Hollow 4 was right.
  You’re still here, aren’t you? Nothing bad happened, did it?
  I don’t know if it’s because you’re secretly God Almighty incarnate in the form of whatever, or if you’re a 
  robot with no real emotions that nobody can therefore really hurt, or if it’s that all the magic and wonder in the 
  game is just paper tigers and illusions. 
  I don’t know, in short, if it’s because you don’t care, or because you shouldn’t care, or because you just don’t 
  have to.
  But frankly, at this point, you’d kind of like something to hurt you. You kind of want that. It would... I mean, 
  it would mean something.
  You know?
  Maybe it would let you feel.
  Haha. Licks lips, nervously. Haha. Yeah.
  When something terrible snaps you out of it,
  the HG closes out the Issue & you earn 4 bonus XP + 1 MP.
  Hollow 5
  It doesn’t even matter anyway.
  
  166
   Illusion 
  Illusion 1
  The ironic thing is that at this point, the “illusion,” if there is one, is the unbelievability itself. The stuff that 
  earned you this Issue?
  It really happened.
  It just seems like the kind of thing that never could.
  Illusion 1
  How does this stuff even happen?
  
  167
  Illusion 2
  There’s some kind of trick here...
  Illusion 2
  There’s something wrong here.
  Don’t try to name it yet. Just... watch for it. Catalogue the little 
  details that don’t match up, the things that don’t seem to make 
  sense. 
  Listen to people’s narratives for things.
  Where are they lying to you?
  Don’t trust the HG’s descriptions. I mean, mostly trust them. 
  They’re mostly good. But somewhere there is a single deceit.
  
  168
  Illusion 3
  Just hit level 3?
  You receive an immediate Serious wound: something is not right.
  See the wound system on pg. 126-128—
  But in practice, that means you’re going to want to choose one of the following:
   
  ŭ a +1 Tool on actions when you’re playing up the wound;
   
  ŭ a level 1 Bond related to the wound;
   
  ŭ a level 1 Affliction related to the wound; or,
   
  ŭ if you and the HG can quickly agree on how it works, a related level 2-3 Magical or Superior Skill.
  If you know what’s going on, if you know what’s wrong, then base the wound on that. 
  Otherwise...
  There is a story of a woman whose face was cut with swords, over and over, and she took no scarring; a torch 
  was thrust burning into her stomach, but it just went out; she ate nothing, nor drank she anything, and yet she 
  did not starve;
  For she was simply the reflection of a woman standing over the water, and not even a true woman, but a 
  shape of straw.
  If you don’t know what’s going on yet, then the wound boils down to: “I am merely an image on the water.”
  The Serious wound remains as long as you have Issue 3, and not a moment more or less.
  Illusion 3
  This is not real.
  +1
  temporary
  Serious 
  Wound
  
  169
  Illusion 4
  Just hit level 4?
  Heal the wound from Illusion 3, then re-inflict it; it’s scaled up now. It is Deadly.
  If you must, rewrite it, and change the power that you receive.
  The Deadly wound remains as long as you have Issue 4, and not a moment more or less.
  Illusion 4
  -1
  Serious 
  Wound
  +1
  temporary
  Deadly 
  Wound
  The skandhas arise from our sense-perceptions. The... 
  heaps and piles of our ideas.
  We know things and, knowing them, deceive ourselves: 
  And become ignorant.
  If you wish to lie to someone, show them a truth. Then 
  they will draw their own conclusions, and be deceived.
  When the truth is revealed and the illusion is broken,
   close out the Issue,
  heal the wound,
  and earn 4 bonus XP + 1 MP
  
  170
  Illlusion 5
  Just hit level 5?
  You are no longer playing your character. Instead, there is only an illusion.
  Choose:
   
  ŭ if you and the HG can quickly agree, you are now playing something that is not your character, but with an 
  established or easily-created build;
   
  ŭ you are now hanging out and kibitzing for a few scenes. You may earn emotion XP or claim quest bonus XP 
  but other than that you are not in play. 
  Illusion 5
  -1
  Deadly 
  Wound
       You are no longer playing your character, so this card is OOC.
  Talk to the HG about a time frame—something that works in the game, 
  something that puts pressure on them but doesn’t screw them over. Single-player 
  game? 10 minutes. Crowd of 8 players with a lot of stuff going on? 60-90 minutes. 
  Forum game? Maybe a week and a half. Forum game where you’re having fun playing 
  your alternate character? It could be as much as two months.
  But there is a time frame, and since you’re OOC it’s even a RL one.
  A clock is ticking. 
  Something shattering is going to happen to the illusion of your character, and your 
  own character is going to return, when that clock’s metaphorical alarm goes off. At 
  that point, you’ll also get 4 XP and an MP and the Issue’ll resolve. 
  +1
  Defeated
  
  171
   Isolation 
  Isolation 1-3
  You’re drifting a little bit apart from everyone....
  Isolation 1
  You are not alone. You’re not lost. You’re not messed up.
  Are you?
  Isolation 2
  Sometimes you think people don’t really get you.
  Like, you’re not there; like, you don’t matter;
  like, you’re a ghost.
  
  172
  Isolation 3
  You’re surrounded by beautiful people. Beautiful things.
  And then there’s you.
  It’s stupid, isn’t it? To feel so insecure. But you’re just 
  not cool. Not like them.
  
  173
  Isolation 4
  Just hit level 4? OK. 
  Something bad is about to happen.
  You’ve been pulling away. You realize that. You’ve let yourself get more and more separated from the 
  world.
  Tell the HG who you most want to protect—which of the PCs and important NPCs you’ve been trying hard-
  est not to burden. Tell the HG who you most don’t want to hurt or burden; and that that’s why, that not burdening 
  them is why, you sometimes choose to bear things alone.
  Then admit to the HG, “But I’m going to have to bother someone. I can’t do this on my own.”
  The HG will arrange a scene, soon, where you’re stuck—where there’s such a good excuse to ask one of 
  them, to reach out to them, to talk to them, that if you don’t, you’ll have to admit you’re too screwed up for 
  words. If it’s not obvious, the HG’ll even tell you when it’s that scene.
  Tell the HG that.
  “You’re going to have to set something up where it’s pretty much obvious that I should talk to them, ask 
  them, burden one of them, or whatever. And make sure that I know.”
  It’s so embarrassing!
  Once you do this,
   the HG can close out the Issue & you earn 4 bonus XP + 1 MP
  ...or they can tell you that it’s not that easy. That something 
  much bigger than you thought was wrong.
  Isolation 4
  You can’t handle everything alone. You’re going to 
  have to be a burden to someone. Dang it.
  The HG will give you an opportunity to reach out...
  
  174
  Isolation 5
  It wasn’t like you thought.
  This situation—it wasn’t like you thought. It was a lot worse, maybe, and maybe in some ways better. If 
  you’ve hit Isolation 5, that means that you weren’t just being neurotic when you isolated yourself. Either you’ve 
  been deceived, betrayed, and the people around you weren’t who you thought they were—or you’re under some 
  kind of magical effect or curse, something that’s dragging you away from everybody.
  You reach out to someone, and they don’t answer you, and there’s this terrifying emptiness in their expression 
  or in the way you feel.
  To fix it would take a miracle; it lasts until there’s a miracle, until someone or something reaches down into 
  your life, all unexpectedly, and saves you—or until the breaks between sessions whittle down your Isolation 
  Issue to something reasonable, I suppose.
  When a miracle breaks through your emptiness,
  the HG closes out the Issue & you earn 4 bonus XP + 1 MP.
  Isolation 5
  You are lost, until a miracle comes.
  
  175
   It Never Stops! 
  It Never Stops! 1-2
  Things are... a little rough right now.
  It Never Stops! 1
  There’s some over-the-top stuff going on.
  It makes it harder to just relax and be yourself.
  But you can handle it. You can stay cool.
  You can just, you know, help a little, or be a little 
  rebellious or snarky, or explain carefully why 
  you don’t want to be involved,
  and then you’re done, bam, in, out, simple,
  and you can go back to being you.
  It Never Stops! 2
  OK, maybe you’ve made some commitments. 
  Maybe they’re getting a little tough to keep. 
  But if you just stay focused, you know, stick to 
  what really matters, and keep moving forward, 
  you’ll totally resolve the whole thing soon.
  Everything is going to be fine.
  
  176
  It Never Stops! 3
  Just made it to level 3? Phew! It’s almost over.
  OK, so maybe the earlier levels of It Never Stops! said things would be fine. And maybe things are not, in 
  fact, fine. But there are some decision points coming up soon. This all has to end there. You’re going to win soon, 
  and if you don’t win, you’re going to lose.
  Soon as you can, figure them out. Tell them to yourself and probably the HG.
  Like:
   
  ŭ “After I fight this guy, it’s over, right? I mean, either I win, or I’m dead/beaten.”
   
  ŭ “After this test, it’s over, right?”
   
  ŭ “I’m going to risk it all on this one last chance to reach the Headmaster’s heart.” Or
   
  ŭ “At least once I finish this Malambruno-repelling ritual, it’s done.”
  Yeah.
  Pick some stuff like that.
  I mean, it sucks that things were this hard, and it sucks that you could still lose, but at least, you know, if you 
  lose you lose, and if you win you win, and then you’re free.
  It Never Stops! 3
  Just hang on a little longer.
  A little longer, and it’ll all be over.
  
  177
  It Never Stops! 4
  Just made it to level 4? I guess that settled it...
  But wait.
  Maybe you know this already. Maybe you’re just finding it out as you read. But the HG’s not going to let 
  you off so easily. 
  Did you fail? You’re going to get another chance.
  Did you succeed? That was just the second-to-last boss. Maybe even third-to-last.
  Or did you not even make it to the end before things unexpectedly got worse?
  I’m going to be straight with you here. Your job isn’t to win or lose. Not any more. Your job right now is to 
  accept that all this has changed you. It’s changed what you want, it’s changed who you are, it’s changed what 
  you’re fighting for.
  Figure out how you’re different. Tell yourself how you’re different. It doesn’t have to be a big deal. It’s 
  usually not a big deal. It can be like a quarter or a fifth of a big deal, you know? It can take a fair few runs at this 
  Issue before you’re all that different as a person. But it matters.
  It’s a deal.
  Figure out how to recognize, validate, formalize, or even celebrate your change. Tell yourself and the HG 
  what kind of scene you’ll need.
  When you’ve done this, you’ll close the Issue and receive 4 XP + 1 MP...
  or it’ll blow up in your face, and you’ll move on to level 5.
  It Never Stops! 4
  You’ve changed.
  You need to mark and express that change 
  somehow so you can get your head around it.
  It Never Stops! 4: A Note of Explanation
  Here’s how trying to mark and express that change might blow up in your face.
  You go and tell a friend, “you know, all this time, I’ve been fighting for you and telling myself I didn’t want 
  to; but, you know, I shouldn’t think that way. Because you? You’re worth fighting for.” 
  And then your friend says, “Surprise! I’m the final boss!”
  
  178
  It Never Stops! 5
  Just made it to level 5? It never stops!
  You were wrong. Whatever you thought about how you’ve changed? That was wrong. It’s not that easy, 
  that comprehensible. There’s something much darker or much brighter going on. It’s probably even outright 
  supernatural.
  Used to the supernatural? 
  Then it’s practically eschatological!
  Talk to the HG.
  Throw them some ideas. Get some back.
  Figure out what kind of scene will show how you’ve really changed, and then go play it.
  When you’ve done this,
  you’ll close this Issue and receive 4 XP + 1 MP.
  It Never Stops! 5
  You’ve changed. Really changed. 
  You are not who you’ve been.
  You need to do something to mark and express 
  that change so you can get your head around it.
  
  179
   Mystery 
  Mystery 1-2
  A hint of something weird and mysterious....
  Mystery 1
  There’s some mystery about you, or some mystery 
  that you’ll have to face. What is it?
  Mystery 2
  A lot of what’s going on with you and around you—it’s 
  all connected. It’s all connected back to this one mystery. 
  Is there something that you’re keeping secret?
  Or is it something that’s being kept from you?
  
  180
  Mystery 3
  You want to rip the truth out from where it lies—whether that’s the world, or your own heart—and show it to 
  people. But can they understand? Is it even possible?
  Mystery 3
  To move forward
  look for omens and signs;
  listen to stories &
  trust your own reactions to events
  
  181
  Mystery 4 
  Just hit level 4? OK. You stand at the doorway of revelation.
  You don’t necessarily know the answer to the mystery. But you know what answering it would mean. You 
  know what part of your life will never be the same—in a small way, or a big one—once the mystery is revealed.
  Tell yourself what that is. Or, if you don’t have time right now, tell yourself as soon as you get a chance and 
  you’re looking at this Issue.
  It’s that. Right?
  Now tell yourself what you have to do to reveal the mystery. What’s the step you can take that will bring it 
  to light. Do you have to share a secret with your friends? 
  Do you have to open a doorway you’ve been dreaming about? 
  Do you have to break into Lee Scathing’s lab at night?
  Doing this thing will close out the Issue &
  earn 4 bonus XP + 1 MP
  Mystery 4
  You know what you have to do, don’t you? Right?
  And you know what it will mean?
  
  182
  Mystery 5
  Did you hit level 5 before you could close this Issue? OK. This is a deeper mystery than you thought.
  It’s not just a mundane thing. Maybe you already knew that. But, either way, you now understand that it most 
  definitely is not.
  This is a spiritual thing. This is a numinous thing. This is, at the least, something that’s a little bit beyond 
  words and understanding. It’s like love, maybe, if we’re talking about things that aren’t necessarily supernatu-
  ral—you can say the word love, you can explain things by talking about love, but in the end the only way to un-
  derstand something like love is to take in the whole story of it and let it osmose slowly into your mind and heart.
  Tell yourself again what answering the mystery will mean. Has it changed?
  Tell yourself again what you have to do. Has that?
  And whether that’s changed or not, tell yourself something about why you think you cannot understand—a 
  few private words to yourself on what you think it means that here is something that defies simple understanding. 
  Tell yourself what it means that this is a deep mystery, and think about how to share that wonder with the other 
  players in play.
  Doing “what you have to do” will close out the Issue &
  earn 4 bonus XP + 1 MP
  Mystery 5
  The mystery is deep but... 
  You still know what you have to do, right?
  And what doing that will mean?
  
  183
   (in) Over Your Head 
  Over Your Head 1-2
  Something isn’t right....
  Over Your Head 1
  You’re starting to get a sense of what’s
  going on here. You’re building a picture in 
  your head, even if it’s hard to put it into words. 
  But there’s a problem.
  Something isn’t right. 
  There’s something here that just... doesn’t... fit.
  Over Your Head 2
  No. No, no, no.
  There’s something you’ve forgotten. Something you’ve over-
  looked. Something that isn’t right. This isn’t what’s supposed to be 
  happening.
  Look around you.
  This isn’t right. This isn’t what’s supposed to be happening. It’s a be-
  trayal. Even if things look like they’re going well, this isn’t right. You’re 
  going to have to figure out what to do, what to change, who to trust—
  And fast, because your instincts are warning you that this
   could all go wrong.
  
  184
  Over Your Head 3 
  Horror. Shock.
  You’ve made a terrible mistake. You’ve trusted the wrong person or the wrong theory. You’ve made the 
  wrong decision.
  You’ve misunderstood, and there’s going to be a terrible price. If you don’t do something, if you don’t think 
  this through, if you don’t come up with something, there’s going to be a terrible price, and it’s going to be your 
  fault.
  Look around you. Look at the terrible prices that are in the cards. 
  Which one of them is your fault? Why? Are you sure?
  What have you forgotten? What’s slipped past you? What aren’t you doing, what aren’t you getting, where 
  are you failing still?
  Over Your Head 3
  To fix this, you’re going to need your power.
  You’re going to need your genius.
  But most of all, you’re going to need to trust.
  People are good. The world is good.
  It will be OK.
  
  185
  Over Your Head 4 
  Just hit level 4? OK. You have an idea.
  You know how everything ties together. You know how you can make everything tie together. You know 
  what you have to do. Does it
   
  ŭ bring in something that was foreshadowed but forgotten?
   
  ŭ bring in several such things?
   
  ŭ test your courage and faith by trusting something—
   
   yourself?
   
   someone else?
   
   a theory?
  —that you didn’t dare to trust before?
   
  ŭ give someone else a chance to shine or prove themselves?
   
  ŭ show something that everybody already knew about the game in a new, interesting light?
  It doesn’t have to, but those are the key signs of a brilliant idea!
  Maybe you can see the whole picture now. Maybe it’s at the tip of your mind’s tongue. Tell the HG what you 
  do see. Tell the HG what bits of old foreshadowing you think you can bring in, who or what you’d like to trust, 
  what about the game or your old ideas you’d like now to rethink. 
  Then either tell the HG what your actual idea is, or work with them and maybe the other players to figure 
  the idea out.
  Finally, figure out how to test your theory or to put it into action!
  When you’ve done this, you’ll close out the Issue 
  and receive 4 XP + 1 MP...
  or it’ll blow up in your face, and you’ll move on to level 5.
  Over Your Head 4
  You’ve had a brilliant idea
  &
  You know how to test or implement it.
  
  186
  Over Your Head 5
  Did you hit level 5 before you could close out this Issue? Or did your idea blow up in your face?... OK. That’s 
  all right. You’ve thought of something even better.
  This is marvelous.
  This is transcendent. It makes you want to dance with glee.
  You know how to fix what just went wrong, or maybe, even better, you know how to use what just went 
  wrong to make things right.
  Tell the HG what this new idea is like. Tell the HG that “it will actually work, at least in part”—it says so 
  right here on the page!
  Then tell them what the idea is, or work with them and maybe the other players to define it.
  Implementing your new plan will close out the Issue &
  earn 4 bonus XP + 1 MP.
  Expect the HG to let your idea work, at least in part.
  Over Your Head 5
  You’ve had an even better idea.
  This—
  This is going to be beautiful.
  
  187
   Sickness 
  Sickness 1-2
  Some kind of unpleasant stuff’s happened...
  Sickness 1
  You feel kind of messed up. It’s harder than usual 
  to just be happy and have fun. It’s harder than 
  usual to cope with the little stuff.
  Life’s wearing you out.
  Sickness 2
  It’s like the world has it in for you. It’s like it 
  won’t let you climb out of this pit you’re in.
  You are losing the sense you used to have of who 
  you are and what you want to be.
  
  188
  Sickness 3
  You’re dissolving. You’re breaking. You can’t hold on to yourself any longer in the face of what’s happening to 
  you. Except—
  There’s something you don’t want to give up. There’s something you are having trouble giving up, even 
  though it doesn’t seem you’ll get to have it. There’s something keeping you from despair, or maybe something 
  that keeps pulling you out of despair every time you throw yourself back in.
  Name it. Identify it. 
  Is it
   
  ŭ a promise you want to keep?
   
  ŭ a truth or principle you won’t let yourself forget?
   
  ŭ something you refuse to do, or have to do?
   
  ŭ a person you want to stay yourself for?
   
  ŭ something you love about yourself that you won’t let go of?
   
  ŭ something you hate about the change that you won’t give in to?
  You can’t just let the world destroy you. At least, not this part of you. It’s not that you’re too strong to break here. 
  It’s just, you can’t. You don’t know how to let go of this even when you break. It’s like an anti-break got to you 
  first, something good or maybe even something awful that keeps you, somehow, stuck. 
  Sickness 3
  There’s something that you can’t give up. Re-
  member?
  But it’s not like that’ll save you.
  You have so many other things to lose....
  
  189
  Sickness 4
  Just hit level 4? You’re finding new strength.
  Tell the HG that.
  You’ve lost the stupid little things you were clinging to. Probably. You’ve been broken down pretty far. You 
  probably thought that all was lost, only, it wasn’t.
  You didn’t know, or maybe you’d just forgotten that it was there, but somewhere inside you you’ve found a 
  core of strength. You’ve found a steel core, a raging fire, or a perfected theorem somewhere deep within your 
  self.
  The next round of this battle, you’re going to show that inner strength.
  Sickness 4
  This is done now. You are your own person 
  now. You are going to fight.
  It doesn’t matter what it is. Mind control?
  Possession? Vampirism? Peer pressure?
  A really bad flu?
  The next time it shows its ugly head,
  you’re going to take it down.
  When that happens, you’ll close the Issue &
  earn 4 bonus XP + 1 MP &
  cast the corruption in question out of your heart, mind,
  body, and soul
  
  190
  Sickness 5
  Just hit level 5? You’re going to have to live with this.
  Maybe you tried to fight off whatever sickness you’ve got going on, and you lost. Maybe you didn’t get the 
  chance to fight. But you can’t win now. You might be able to suppress it, or deal with it some other story, but 
  you’re stuck with whatever’s wrong with you until the current story ends.
  But in that Sickness there is a chance at strength.
  Tell the HG that.
  Tell them—“look, you gave me Sickness 5, so this sickness isn’t just a weakness any longer. It’s not in charge 
  any longer. Whatever caused it isn’t in charge any more. It’s part of me now, and that means I control it, and here 
  is how it’s going to give me strength: ...”
  Or however you want to say it. 
  And then tell them. Tell them how it’s going to make you better. Tell them how it’s going to be a power for 
  you, at least until the story ends, and maybe again in the future if the sickness doesn’t go away. Tell them what 
  it’s going to do for you, for now. 
  The HG can set some boundaries, but in the end, they’re obligated to let you take power over the Sickness 
  and make it something substantively useful to you in play. 
  Are you cursed to turn into a toad? No—a were-toad, with toad powers. Is somebody enslaving your mind? 
  No—you’ve learned how to trick yourself into thinking whatever you want to do is what they really want from 
  you, and suddenly you have the best self-discipline and mental/physical control ever. Peer pressure? No, lead-
  ership. Best of all, you don’t have to make any concessions to this as a player: you’re still entitled to use your 
  powers to overcome your sickness, as often as ever otherwise you could.
  Sickness 5
  Why, if you accept this, it isn’t really
  all that bad.... 
  After the ﬁ rst use of your new abilities, you close out the 
  Issue & earn 4 bonus XP + 1 MP.
  You’ll keep the relevant power and problem until the current 
  story ends.
  [A level 4 Auctoritas blocks any attempt to take either the 
  power or sickness away.]
  
  191
   Something to Deal With 
  Something to Deal With 1-2
  There’s something nagging at you....
  Something to Deal With 1
  You keep thinking about things you don’t want to 
  think about. It’s uncomfortable.
  You want to distract yourself from it.
  Something to Deal With 2
  You keep thinking about things you don’t 
  want to think about. Your feelings are pushing 
  their way out of you. 
  It’s like a gigantic gum bubble blowing
  in your mind and heart.
  Everything around you seems
  a little bit unreal and far away.
  
  192
  Something to Deal With 3
  What happened? What’s coming to the surface? A memory, bubbling up? A principle, you’re not living up to? A 
  promise that you’d forgotten that you’d made? 
  And why do you actually—
  Why have you started actually feeling a little freer, like you’re starting to see how to find peace? 
  You can almost see how all the pieces fit together, you just need a little help from someone around you or the 
  world, you just need to see the right thing or hear someone to say the right thing that makes it all fall magically 
  into place—don’t you?
  Something to Deal With 3
  To understand what’s going on
  get out and be in the world
  explore
  react to what you find
  and watch how others are reacting.
  
  193
  Something to Deal With 4
  Just hit level 4? OK. You think you know what’s going on.
  You’ve figured out how it all ties together.
  Tell yourself now what you think that is. Or, if you don’t have time right now, tell yourself as soon as you get 
  a chance and you’re looking at this Issue.
  Yeah. That feels right.
  Now tell yourself what you have to do about that thing. Talk about it? Take action? Call a family member or 
  a friend? Go out in the sunshine?
  You know what you have to do.
  Doing this thing will close out the Issue &
  earn 4 bonus XP + 1 MP
  Something to Deal With 4
  You know how it all ties together.
  ...You know what you have to do.
  
  194
  Something to Deal With 5
  Just hit level 5? OK. You can face this now.
  You’ve figured out how it all ties together. You know what you have to do. 
  And you also know why you were still a little reluctant to do it.
  Tell yourself now why you weren’t ready to resolve this Issue before. Do that even if it’s “not your fault,” 
  like, other important stuff was happening or the HG didn’t give you a chance. 
  You weren’t quite ready before. Tell yourself why.
  Doing this thing will close out the Issue &
  earn 4 bonus XP + 1 MP
  Something to Deal With 5
  You still know what you have to do, right?
  Find time. 
  Do it.
  
  195
   Trust 
  Trust 1-3
  You sometimes seem awfully comfortable palling around with vast and spiritual things, gods and fallen angels, 
  magic, rituals, strangers, horrors, spirits, aliens, rats and foxes, the vampires, and the Outside...
  Trust 1
  You are not alone.
  Trust 2
  You can rely on others.
  
  196
  Trust 3
  The world is good to you.
  The people around you bring you joy.
  
  197
  Trust 4
  Just hit level 4? OK. Something bad is about to happen.
  Tell the HG which powerful NPCs you trust most—which you’ve given too much of your heart to. 
  Tell the HG how far you’re willing to go in trusting them.
  Then tell the HG, “I’ve presumed too much, somewhere. One of them is going to betray me.”
  The HG will arrange a scene, soon, where you can trust them in that fashion—possibly in a Science, Faith, 
  and Sorcery Action. You’ll trust them; you’ll gamble on that trust.
  But it won’t work out.
  That’s a truth for now—that is, the HG will come up with how it will go wrong, and why, and so if events go 
  awry and betray expectations, there’s a chance it will be OK. There’s still something you can hope for; I want 
  there to be, so that it can be folly and recklessness, rather than simply obstinacy, to trust.
  But unless things go really weird, and you should tell the HG as much, that trust will end in tears.
  Trust 4
  There’s someone or something you’ve already 
  promised yourself you’ll trust.
  The HG will ask you to demonstrate that trust, 
  soon.
  Once you do this, 
   the HG can close out the Issue & you earn 4 bonus XP + 1 MP
  ...or they can choose to wait
  
  198
  Trust 5
  You’ve been betrayed.
  If you don’t already know how you’ve been betrayed, if you weren’t there for it, if there wasn’t a scene, 
  then you’ll find out soon.
  You’ve been betrayed, and yet you’re going to have to trust again, because... because. Because that’s 
  who you are, maybe. Because there’s no choice, maybe. I don’t know.
  Tell the HG that.
  Ask them to set up the scene where you are or find out you’re betrayed. (Perhaps a good chance for 
  Foreshadowing or Sympathetic Action?)
  Ask them to set up the scene where you are or discover that you’ve been betrayed; and then work with 
  them, before or after that, to figure out why and how you decide (or are forced) to trust again.
  Trust 5
  How can you trust again?
  When you do,
  whether your second chance at trust is rewarded or punished,
  the HG closes out the Issue & you earn 4 bonus XP + 1 MP
  
  199
   Vice 
  Vice 1-2
  You’re walking a troubled or risky course....
  Vice 1
  There’s something you like to do, that you want to 
  do, that you’ve decided to do, and maybe other peo-
  ple don’t think it’s such a good idea, but so what?
  They just don’t get you.
  Vice 2
  You’ve got this kind of magical dream of what 
  your life would be like if you had a totally free 
  hand to indulge your “vice,” free of all the other 
  obligations and issues that get in your way.
  Sure, people might tell you it’d lead to disaster, 
  but no, it’d be this awesome, glorious vision.
  You get dreamy-eyed just thinking about it.
  
  200
  Vice 3
  Your dream-world is calling you, your vice-dreams are calling, but—
  There’s something that’s tugging on you, telling you that something in the rest of your life still matters. Name 
  it. Identify it. 
  Is it
   
  ŭ a friend or place or activity that needs you?
   
  ŭ something cool coming up soon you want to be clear-headed for?
   
  ŭ a matter of principle?
   
  ŭ or maybe you’re just too strong to get lost in vice, whether you want to be or not?
  You can’t just drift off into dreams, or gamble your life away, or burn yourself out working too hard on stuff that 
  doesn’t matter. This... thing, this something needs you.
  Vice 3
  There’s something that needs you. Remember?
  But it’s not like it’s a crisis. Not yet.
  There’s got to be time for one more bit of fun...
  
  201
  Vice 4
  Just hit level 4? Damn. You can’t keep this up.
  Tell the HG that.
  There’s someone who needs you to shape up. Or something. There’s a reason. You’re about to get dragged 
  out of your comfort zone. You can set some parameters in advance, but once you’ve done that, the HG is going 
  to call on you to
   
  ŭ be a hero instead of a slacker/druggie/drunkard
   
  ŭ be a good person instead of a liar/cheat/bully
   
  ŭ set aside a life-eating thing like
   
   gambling
   
   super-stressful work
   
   aiming for valedictorian
   
   nightmare science, or
   
   being a superstar
  so that you can be there for your friends
   
  ŭ drop a bad relationship/alliance because it’s gone too far, or
   
  ŭ ...whatever.
  And you’re going to have to take that call, because it’s going to be the right thing to do.
  When that happens, you’ll close the Issue &
  earn 4 bonus XP + 1 MP
  Vice 4
  You can’t keep this up.
  You know that.
  When the time comes, you’ll have to set aside your 
  Vice. It’s going to be the only right thing to do.
  
  202
  Vice 5 
  Just hit level 5? You’re going to have to make your own call.
  It’s time to go past the bottom of the bottle and out the other side of the glass. It’s the time to slack so hard 
  you spin the wheels of the world backwards. It’s time to dance with the devil until the devil can’t dance no more. 
  Listen. Just now, you were thinking that maybe you’d have to give up on your vice in order to attend to things 
  that matter more? 
  And, heck, maybe you still will.
  But first? 
  In your Vice there is the answer to your problems.
  Tell the HG that.
  Tell them—“look, you gave me Vice 5, so I’m going to be called on to set all this Vice stuff aside pretty soon 
  and tend to what needs tending. But I tell you, first, I’m gonna call on my Vice for power. I’m going to use my 
  Vice to do something amazing, maybe on point, maybe a little off of it, before I give things up. Here is how it’s 
  going to go down.”
  Or however you want to say it. 
  And then tell them. Tell them how your Vice will save the day. If you don’t know yet, make it up while you’re 
  talking. The HG can set some boundaries, but in the end, they’re obligated to let your Vice help you, just this 
  once, and throw the scene at you where it happens.
  Where it proves awesome.
  When this happens, you close the Issue &
  earn 4 bonus XP + 1 MP
  Vice 5
  Get ready, world.
  Your “Vice” is going to save the day.
  
  CHAPTER 9: SET-
  TING
   
  Setting
  
  204
  204
  Setting
  Come with me to a little town surrounded by the multicolored 
  void. It sits in the middle of no true thing, or nothingness, and it 
  is circled by its sun. It is a peaceful town. It’s sleepy. It’s practi-
  cally bucolic. It’s not involved in the carnival of great dreams and 
  bloody events that Creation so frequently becomes.
  You will have trouble leaving this town—though, oh! I should 
  call it Town—once you arrive. Beyond its borders is no human 
  place, but only the Outside. The Outside is a land reminiscent of 
  heat mirages, visions, and symbolic abstract art. It is brightly col-
  ored, fearsome, confusing, and difficult to navigate. Most impor-
  tantly it lacks that quality of existence that characterizes reality. It 
  isn’t a good place to go walking in for the same reason that novels, 
  or ideas, or mathematical theorems aren’t good places to go walk-
  ing in: that is, it’s a category error if you do. At the same time, if 
  you head out of Town by any normal road, you’ll find yourself 
  without a choice. A trick of topology has wrapped Outside all the 
  way around this little world and let you step from one to the other.
  Here in Town there is a lake. It’s called Big Lake.
  Big Lake is the best way to get in or out of Town. The sailors 
  know many secret routes that lead from the lake to other plac-
  es—to certain lakes on Earth and other worlds; to the dry mares 
  of the moon; to the river of a sleeping goddess’ dreams; and most 
  importantly to the sea. Big Lake doesn’t border directly on the 
  Outside, at least not the same way the rest of Town’s borders do. 
  You can walk around its edge without ever traveling Outside. It’d 
  take a long time, and you pass pretty close to the tangled edge, 
  but you can. Big Lake is structurally an inland body of water. But 
  the act of sailing Big Lake, in itself, opens the way to other lands. 
  Travel on Big Lake can fold up the world and bring you closer to 
  distant realms.
  The part of Town that I want to start with today is Fortitude—
  the first human settlement, down by the docks of Big Lake.
  Over the hills to the west, there’s more of Town—
  There’s Horizon, where Alexandrel Celdinar tried and failed 
  to build a second London, and there’s Arcadia, and there’s the 
  Walking Fields—
  But for me, it all starts right here in Fortitude, where Town’s 
  waters meet its shore.
  
  Fortitude
  205
   
  Fortitude
  Fortitude sits on the shore of Big Lake and brings its fish to Town. 
  Its fishermen know strange pathways in the Lake; they return as 
  often with nets of salt-water fish as fresh, and sometimes one re-
  turns with a fey light gleaming in their eyes and some monster 
  from Outside squirming in their nets; the people of Town call that 
  a “kaiju day,” and eat from the thing for days if it is wholesome 
  enough for sustenance.
  It is a measured place, a border place, and its time is set by the 
  slapping of the water on the shore. It’s a place of lake smells and 
  sea smells and the smells of cookery and home; for you can’t go 
  there without feeling the home-ness of the place close about you, 
  welcoming you in.
  The people are good there. They build strong communities and 
  they don’t need to lock their doors. They trust and support one 
  another and they’re always ready with a helping hand; but they’re 
  a little insular, a little bit out of synch with Town, as if the world 
  beyond the docks is just too fast and disconnected for them to 
  really grasp what’s going on.
  Area: ~120 square miles 
  Population: 40,000 
  (33,800 humans / 5,500 Fortitude rats / 400 vampires / 300 other)
   Lifestyle 
  Fortitude is a walking community—people don’t really think any-
  thing of a 2-3 hour walk to do some errand or another, as long as 
  it’s not raining hard, and maybe not even then. So the walks are 
  broad, smooth, and well-appointed with trash cans, and people’ll 
  smile or wave to you as you go walking by, and there’s always 
  cool places to stop in or things to see.
  It’s a welcoming community, too. It’s the kind of place that 
  likes to take in foundlings—not just as a metaphysical law, al-
  though it is that too, but as a cultural ideal. It’s a place where you 
  will find family, if you need one, and you’ll probably find some-
  thing a bit like family eventually even if you don’t.
  It’s a place that’s tamed gods to its rhythm, in the past, and 
  monsters, if the stories can be believed. It’s the kind of place 
  where good cooking and good sewing is more likely to change the 
  world than fighting with words or swords.
  There’s a lot of sunset or sunrise there—it’s not constant, not 
  really, that’s why it’s not on the Properties list, but sunset and 
  sunrise are popular, there. Like, they seem to start earlier and last 
  longer than you’d expect, and fill up a little more of any day. It’s 
  the softness around the edges of the place, I think, that goes with 
  the softer light.
  Fortitude is troubled by the dust that comes in from the Out-
  side. It blows in off the lake in little, pretty crystal shards. They’re 
  neat and they’re colorful but there’s a problem, which is to say, 
  that dust is a psychoactive toxin, so you don’t want too much of it 
  around. It’s attracted to people’s dreams, though, so people set up 
  dream-catchers to catch it and then either beat out the dust from 
  them on the street or take it to a temple for purification. If you let it 
  accumulate it can do some pretty weird things, like get rust started 
  on things that aren’t even metal.
  Properties of Fortitude
   
  ŭ Things must have simplicity.
   
  ŭ Things can’t move quickly.
   
  ŭ Work must be fruitful.
   
  ŭ People must remember where they come from.
   
  ŭ You have a home in Fortitude.
  Typical Genre: Pastoral
  
  206
  206
  
  Fortitude Rats
  207
   
  The fundamental culture of Fortitude is a Russian-Japanese 
  blend—Russian, because the first human settlers came over the 
  Lake from Russia; and Japanese, for a variety of historical reasons. 
  People have come over the lake from, frankly, all over, but those 
  two cultures are the biggest non-youkai influence on the place.
  Seafood is obviously a pretty heavy element of the diet—par-
  ticularly since the sailors of the place can reach almost any lake 
  or sea, if they’ve got a mind to, and bring in almost any body 
  of waters’ bounty as their catch. Fishing is a highly-regarded oc-
  cupation, if you live in Fortitude, and even families who aren’t 
  involved in fishing for a living often have a small boat they can 
  use to bring in an occasional catch.
  If you look around at random you might find yourself near the 
  post office or the laundromat; near peach trees in flower; near a 
  creaking dock like Kokoryov Harbor or by Hennessey’s Café; in 
  the Irinka Park and Gallery amidst the trees near Ceiba Quay; 
  in a maze of little nameless streets or “side-ways” with the occa-
  sional street vendor selling food; under the Sign of the Owl-Eyed 
  Seeker, Kodacha Elhaym’s mother’s shop; or on some great long 
  hiking walk past scenic moments looking down on the sprawl of 
  Fortitude below.
  Talking to your family or “family” in Fortitude is usually
  Shared Reactions
  You’re welcome to. They told you that once. They want you to 
  feel free to tell them about your life. 
  If you do, you can probably earn an XP or two by trying 
  to connect.
  Cooking, chores, and a lot of stuff in Fortitude is 
  Shared 
  Action
  You’re doing your thing—your simple, honest thing. You skip 
  ahead to the point where someone else shows up in scene, or 
  you go bother someone else who’s doing simple, honest stuff, 
  because you can’t earn XP for this alone.
  Then one of you reaches out. You try to connect.
  If you want the bonus XP, maybe one of you can make 
  yourself a little vulnerable? It doesn’t have to be much—even, 
  “Hey, could you stir this for a few minutes while I go hunt for 
  the vinegar? I don’t want it to congeal!”
  Walking through Fortitude is usually 
  Slice of Life
  Chores and conversations, too, are sometimes 
  Slice of Life
  Something stirs an emotion—brings out an emote. The mo-
  ment sticks with you.
  Outside-dust poisoning is usually 
  Obsessive
  If you get a faceful of Outside dust, or if you spend a lot of time 
  in Fortitude but forget to clean your dreamcatcher out, you 
  may get a little paranoid. You may start having nightmares, 
  maybe even when awake. 
  It builds up into you doing something over the top: you tip 
  over the edge into obsession.
   Fortitude Rats 
  a discussion
  The rats of Fortitude grow to a foot or more in length, plus that 
  much again in tail. They weigh a couple pounds. They often wear 
  pants, a cloak, and a sword belt, and their spine is twisted enough 
  that they can easily stand on hind legs.
  Most importantly, though, they’re people.
  They’ve woken up, and apparently brain size isn’t everything, 
  because they’re not noticeably duller or for that matter smarter 
  than the humans that I’ve known.
  Long ago Fortitude’s rats struck a bargain with its humans. 
  They bound themselves not to make too much trouble for humans 
  and in general to be the humans’ friends. In exchange, the humans 
  keep the cat population of Fortitude under strict control. There’s 
  some other stuff to the bargain, too—like, most doors have little 
  rat doors in or beside them so the rats can come and go; and a lot 
  of people keep their roofs nice and clean and sturdy, because the 
  rats like to use the roofs as roads; and the rats’ll warn people of 
  coming storms—but that’s more along the lines of unofficial cul-
  tural cooperation than part of the actual deal. In any case, matters 
  of treaty, mostly concerning the exact numbers and disposition 
  of local cats, are arbitrated in the court of the Rat King under the 
  hostel named “The Rat King’s Recourse.”
  The rats have their own ships and lanes of trade, though you’ll 
  usually only see them on the Lake at night; sometimes a hard-up 
  family of rats will take service with the human fishermen, doing 
  fine detail work and repairs on the ships, carrying a small portion 
  of the cargo, and using their superior sense of the weather to aid 
  the ships in travel. Children sometimes enlist for a year of ser-
  vice or seven years of regular training with the rats, learning their 
  culture and practicing their various skills in the warrens beneath 
  the docks.
  Interactions with the rats can be 
  Pastoral (Shared Action/
  Reactions)
  Try to connect!
  Interactions with the rats can be 
  Foreshadowing
  You see a rat. It’s standing dramatically on a roof, or doing 
  something else dramatic—they are extremely dramatic indi-
  viduals—or maybe it’s just doing something normal like hang-
  ing laundry or talking to a friend. 
  You get caught up in watching for a while. It does more 
  stuff. Then, you react!
  
  Shrine Families
  (Superior) Fortitude Rat
  208
  208
   (Superior) Fortitude Rat 
  an example Superior Skill
  Here’s a Superior Skill that I’d use not to represent an extraor-
  dinary ability—I mean, the Fortitude rats are extraordinary, but 
  there are thousands of them, and all of them are Fortitude rats—
  but as a convenient conceptual wrapper for all the ways in which 
  an alien species is different from the human norm.
  If you’re a Fortitude rat, then you’re good at all kinds of things 
  that humans aren’t.
  You can hear into the ultrasonic. You’re a heroic rooftop ad-
  venturer. You know how to get around Fortitude as a rat, and you 
  know rat culture more than human culture, and you understand 
  the sacred monster-god “Mysteries” of the rats24. This Skill counts 
  basically as the “Rat Lifestyle” Skill, with bonus Edge when you 
  bring your inhuman advantages into play. Note that this may or 
  may not balance out against your inherent disadvantages as a rat. 
  I mean, it’s definitely enough that I would lose a fair fight against 
  a rat, but I can think of at least two game designers who would 
  stand a chance.
  I think a Skill like this is also something of a force multiplier. 
  I mean, if you’re roughly equally Skilled in combat, then being a 
  rat when your opponent is a human is kind of a disadvantage, I 
  think. But if you’re really good at fighting, and your opponent is 
  just some out-of-shape writer or even a tough but untrained sailor 
  24 They don’t serve them. They fight them! But they’re still basically the 
  rats’ gods.
  kid? Then I think that gap in Skill makes being a rat not much of a 
  preexisting disadvantage, and then (for that reason) the Edge from 
  this Skill will make your victory look easy.
  This Skill makes sense at level 0-2, and maybe 3; here’s rough-
  ly what the levels mean:
  Superior Fortitude Rat 0: Your rat status is strictly honorary at best.
  Superior Fortitude Rat 1: You could make a case that a human 
  kid who trains with the rats might pick up this level of Skill, at 
  least until they grow up and get too Big. You could make that 
  case! I personally disagree, I think, because I think that’s blurring 
  nature and nurture too much, but I could totally be wrong. Any-
  way, this makes you a bit better at rat-stuff, and rat-wary, and good 
  at sensing the weather and traveling the roofs.
  Superior Fortitude Rat 2: This is about where I’d place actual 
  Fortitude rats—it’s a high enough Superior Skill to account for 
  their having actual inhuman advantages (like the ability to talk 
  “silently,” fit through small spaces, and chew, however slowly, 
  through concrete) while also retaining their fundamental similar-
  ity to humanity.
  Superior Fortitude Rat 3: This is where I’d place an epic rat 
  hero, I guess? Like, their equivalents to Lancelot, Enkidu, Hip-
  polyta, Julie d’Aubigny, and Robin Hood. 
   The Kichi 
  a Shrine Family
  Near the top of Fortitude’s western hill are the Kichi Sacred Pools. 
  You can make offerings at the pools if you want to ask the uni-
  verse for the safety and health of a loved one—it’s a way of telling 
  Heaven and the cosmos, please, let them be safe and well. Some-
  times you can also see glimpses of the future in them. 
  The Kichi family tend these pools. They refine Outside dust by 
  washing it in a sandalwood basin, straining it, mixing it with vari-
  ous herbs to set, and pounding the dried blocks back to dust again; 
  after seven repetitions, the diluted dust can be added to the pools to 
  preserve their potency. The process is slow and a little arduous and 
  works best on the higher grades of Outside dust, so they generally buy 
  commercial dust rather than helping to dispose of the lower grades. 
  The Kichi family residence is placed prominently and central-
  ly in the Moon Catch neighborhood low on the western hill. It’s 
  an hour’s hike or a twenty minute bike ride from there up to the 
  temple. Young and secular Kichi only go to the temple a few times 
  a month, but Kichi wishing to study the family magic or to help 
  tend the pools must bathe there in the morning and the evening, 
  ideally (though it’s OK if lateness or schooling or work interferes 
  with this) at the sunset and the dawn.
  Interactions with the Kichi are usually 
  Pastoral 
  Their work at the pools is usually just simple, honest stuff. 
  Maybe occasional Slices of Life.
  Interactions with Kichi are sometimes 
  Immersive Fantasy
  Sometimes, though, you’ll watch them at work in their pools, 
  or look into those waters yourself and see strange visions, 
  and you’ll slip into feeling something more ominous and 
  more vast. 
  Like there’s something meaningful and deep here going on.
  
  209
   
  
  The Kichi Family Magic
  210
  210
   Kichi Family Magic 
  an example Magical Skill
  The Kichi family facility with their pools is a magical Skill—the 
  Kichi Family Magic.
  Basic use of the Kichi Sacred Pools is available to everyone by 
  default. The pools are open to the public from an hour after dawn 
  to an hour after sunset, or by special arrangement. A normal person 
  trying to divine or purify themselves using the pools would face +2 
  to the Obstacle, but the following techniques are available:
  [Obstacle 0] 
  make a ritual offering and accompanying  prayer 
   
  at the Kichi Sacred Pools
  [Obstacle 0]  see strange and meaningful things in the water.
  [Obstacle 0] look in the water and know whether someone else 
   
  who has recently looked into the water has evil  
   
  intentions towards somebody you  love, and, if so,  
   
  who.
  [Obstacle 1] look into the water and sense whether  something 
   
  you love is threatened, and if so, get a general 
   
  notion of who/what, by who/what, and how.
  [Obstacle 1] improve the state of your mind, heart, and  soul by 
   
  bathing in the pools.
  The Kichi Family magical Skill also gives access to the following 
  supernatural techniques:
  [Obstacle 1]  turn off your need for air as long as you’re  meditating 
   
  or in a Kichi pool
  [Obstacle 1]  seem like a flock member or a non-threatening 
   
  herbivore to any nearby waterfowl
  [Obstacle 2]  looking into the water, see useful hints as to the fate  
   
  of someone who has caught your eye.
  [Obstacle 2]  looking into the water, see something of the character  
   
  and true nature of someone  who has caught 
   
  your interest. If there’s any compatibility between 
   
  the two of you at all,  you’ll fall a little bit in love—not 
   
  necessarily  romantic love, though. If there’s no 
   
  compatibility at all, or if something interferes  
   
  with the view, you’ll probably reflexively  become 
   
  really uncomfortable with the person you were  
   
  trying to connect to.
  [Obstacle 2]  leave your body looking at the water and slip 
   
  off to wander Town as a disembodied spirit.
  [Obstacle 2]  use the pools to purify something poisoned or  
   
  corrupted
  [Obstacle 2]  look into the pools and see a loved one and the 
   
  world around them, even if they are far away
  [Obstacle 3]  look into the pools, see a loved one, and  protect 
   
  that loved one or other loved ones visible in the  
   
  scene from danger, even from far away
  [Obstacle 3]  look into the pools and sacrifice a portion  of your 
   
  spirit to shield a loved one from a future danger. 
   
  You must spend at least 1 Will on this effect,  and 
   
  the Will you spend does not return to you until the  
   
  effect ends.
  Shrine Family Magic
  Shrine family magic comes from “the dust of the Outside:” par-
  ticulate chaos that blows in off Big Lake. It’s the stuff of enchant-
  ment and fairy tales, and a psychotoxin as well; something of a 
  public health hazard, really. Over the years it’s turned out that 
  the best ways of containing it relate to sacred practice, and thus 
  Fortitude’s shrine families, its mythic figures, and its hazardous 
  waste disposal professionals kind of merged into a single career.
  I’m going to tell you about the magical and Superior Skills 
  developed by five of these Shrine Families: 
   
  ŭ the Kichi, who process the dust heavily and then add it to 
  their sacred pools;
   
  ŭ the Sosunov, whose sacred meditation can neutralize the dust;
   
  ŭ the Titov, who must consume the dust directly to retain 
  their ability to feel;
   
  ŭ the Vasili, whose sacred rituals to honor their patron ele-
  ments involve the dust; and
   
  ŭ the Yatskaya, descended from a selkie but now much more 
  closely tied to cats, who mix the dust of the Outside into 
  their temple’s sacred incense.
  There’s much more on these families, as well as the Hayashi and 
  Watanabe, over in Fortitude: by the Docks of Big Lake, and 
  a little more in Fortitude: the Glass-Maker’s Dragon as well.
  Shrine Maiden (or Priest)
  Suggested Bonds
  Some traditional Bonds for Kichi magicians include:
   
  ŭ Bond: I can’t lie about love.
   
  ŭ Bond: I must follow my heart, placing personal loyalties 
  above duty. 
   
  ŭ Bond: I must honor the Kichi traditions.
   
  ŭ Bond: I must protect the Kichi Sacred Pools and I must 
  help visitors make offerings there. 
   
  ŭ Bond: I can’t resist spying on things and people that in-
  terest me.
   
  ŭ Bond: I must keep my body clean and pure, with regular 
  ablutions and a strict diet.
   
  ŭ Bond: I must fulfill my responsibilities as an important 
  person in the Kichi family.
   
  ŭ Bond: I must perform ritual ablutions and purification rit-
  uals regularly or feel intensely wrong.
   
  ŭ Bond: I am physically fragile and light.
   
  ŭ Bond: I must honor others’ secrets when I can.
   
  ŭ Bond: I am driven to tease others with my knowledge in-
  stead of sharing it openly and forthrightly.
  
  211
   
   The Sosunov 
  a Shrine Family
  The Sosunov family practices sacred meditation and empty-mind 
  techniques. These techniques are powerful enough to purify Out-
  side dust or calm an Outside storm—the chaos and confusion of 
  the Outside dissolves away before the opening of their inner eye. 
  Through this meditation, they may step outside the world of flesh 
  and travel into the world of dreams. It is the Sosunov tradition that 
  their ancestress Miruna Sosunov took this one step further and 
  achieved the supreme enlightenment, breaking free of the dream 
  that is the world and suspiring into nirvana. 
  (They also think that Miruna lingers in the world as a minor 
  goddess protecting both themselves and the family shrine. I think 
  this is not consistent but, then again, she’s not my ancestress. What 
  do I know?)
  The Sosunov practice pales their skin and hair: creams the cof-
  fee of a darker skin or makes lighter skin like chalk. It makes their 
  eyes weak against bright light, weakens their constitution, and 
  they begin to see spiritual things—by which I do not mean pre-
  cisely that they see mystical magical spirits, nor that they halluci-
  nate, but rather that their world becomes suffused with theological 
  portent and frissons of spiritual implication. They are sensitive in 
  the good and the bad meanings of the word.
  They become delicate, and refined. 
  In dream worlds the Sosunovs are very strong. They must, 
  however, control and portion that strength carefully. If they al-
  low themselves to suffer sufficiently bad nightmares or fall into 
  delirium they’ll drag the world around them temporarily into the 
  Outside.
  The Sosunov family is wealthy and important in Fortitude. 
  The wealth of the family comes from trade: the Sosunov magic 
  is ridiculously valuable to any merchant captain wishing to trade 
  between Fortitude and distant lands, and when there aren’t Sosun-
  ov captains taking this advantage for their own, there are Sosunov 
  sailors exchanging their services for a cut of the proceeds of the 
  run. 
  The Sosunovs aren’t really about sailing, though. They’re glad 
  of the wealth and proud to be part of the lifeblood of Fortitude’s 
  trading fleet, but it’s not who they are. Nor are they about keep-
  ing a shrine and disposing of Fortitude’s raw Outside dust, even 
  though they do that, and as important as that is. The core purpose 
  of their family—the heart of their family, the thing they think of 
  when they think about what it means to be a Sosunov—is that the 
  Sosunovs are the guardians of Town and Fortitude’s dreams.
  The Sosunovs aren’t the only shrine family with some facility 
  with dreams, but they’re the ones responsible for them. They’re 
  the ones who have to step up and fight it if something nasty gets 
  into people’s dreams from Outside or as the result of somebody’s 
  poorly-thought-out wish. That’s how the current heir’s grandfather 
  Julian Sosunov died, and their great-grandmother Nereid Sosu-
  nov too. They fought a faceless witch who lived in dreams, and 
  they took her down, but the dying witch took them down beside 
  her. Once or twice a generation, something like that happens—
  something from Outside, anyway, gets in, and must be fought. As 
  for crazy wishes from wish-granting engines or whatever messing 
  up the dreams of Fortitude, well, that hasn’t ever happened yet, 
  but obviously, it could.
  The Sosunovs are a healthy and prolific line. They have a 
  well-established main family, several cadet families, and ties to 
  many of the other important and well-off families in Fortitude. 
  They restrict the greatest secrets of their magic, and the treasure 
  room of their temple down by Twisting River, to the main fam-
  ily; otherwise, they are supportive of and generous with the ca-
  det branches and other close relations. Cadets and cousins of the 
  Sosunovs may study the Sosunov magic lightly, deeply, or not at 
  all as they so choose.
  Trouble in dreams is usually 
  Lurid (Wicked or Corruption)
  Something gets into your dreams from Outside. It tempts you, 
  corrupts you, or traumatizes you. The world gets weird.
  Interactions with the Sosunov are usually 
  Slice of Life
  A lot of what they do is just scenery—oh, look, this ship has a 
  Sosunov sailor! Oh, hey, that’s a Sosunov mansion. Oh, neat, 
  he’s pacifying that incoming storm!
  The moment sticks with you.
  
  The Sosunov Family Magic
  212
  212
  The Sosunov Family Magic
  an example Magical Skill
  Basic use of the Sosunov techniques does not require magic. The 
  Sosunovs learn mundane meditation and arts of spiritual connec-
  tion before they move on to truly magical endeavors. The first 
  three techniques are thus technically available to all characters. 
  Someone like Natalia Koutolika, the Prodigy (pg. 71), could use 
  these techniques on their own as soon as they understand that it’s 
  possible to do them; other characters can study them under the 
  Sosunovs, spend decades reinventing them, or improvise some-
  thing similar if it seems like it would be cool. (That said, using 
  a temple family secret technique with a mundane Skill or with 
  an inappropriate magical Skill adds +2 to the relevant Obstacle.)
  These basic non-magical techniques include:
  [Obstacle 0] purify Outside dust through meditation;
  [Obstacle 1]  calm the Outside to a very limited extent through  
   
  meditation;
  [Obstacle 1]  shape a dream that you’re already in.
  The rest of the Sosunov techniques, on the other hand, require 
  actual magic to use:
  [Obstacle 1]  appear in the dreams of a loved one;
  [Obstacle 1]  send and receive detailed information through a  
   
  loved one’s dream;
  [Obstacle 2]  use magic25 to attack or defend the spirit of an 
   
  entity in a dream you’re in (such as a spiritual 
   
  invader, the dreamer, or yourself);
  [Obstacle 2]  sense unnatural forces at work on dreams;
  [Obstacle 2]  break someone’s will down with drugs, ritual, or 
   
  sleep deprivation so that you and the target 
   
  may both enter the dreams of that person’s loved  
   
  ones;26
  [Obstacle 2]  enter any dream already thoroughly compro- 
   
  mised by other magical forces;
  [Obstacle 3] send a dream forwards or backwards through 
   
  time.
  25 With whatever special effects you can think of.
  26 This technique sounds and is really nasty but in practice it’s usually 
  an act of kindness. The Sosunovs don’t like breaking people and using 
  them as radios, but if someone you love is lost or trapped somewhere, 
  the Sosunovs might be willing to help you make contact with the person 
  that you’ve lost, and the only way they have to do this is by breaking 
  your mind and body down and dreaming through you like your soul’s 
  their glove.
  27 The most notable drawback to Sosunov magic. 
  Walking Between 
  Dreams
  It’s not easy but you can get into other people’s dreams, even 
  without the Sosunov magic.
  There are roads between the dreams of any two people who 
  are closely connected—e.g., you and your family, you and 
  your friends, even you and your rivals or the people you hate. 
  It’s not easy to travel them—it’s a difficult spiritual experience 
  with a very high Obstacle even for a lucid dreamer and you’ll 
  need at least a level 3 action to be anything more than a faint 
  presence at the far end. 
  But it’s possible!
  I figure it’s something like an Obstacle 3 to cross from 
  dreams or trance states into a loved one’s dream; Obstacle 4, 
  to reach a friend or rival’s dream; Obstacle 4 again, to reach 
  the dreams of somebody physically near you; and Obstacle 
  5 to get to a random person’s dream or out into the generic 
  dream-world of Town or Fortitude as a whole. Note that Sosu-
  nov magic is pretty restrictive about whose dreams they can 
  get into, so even a Sosunov would face a level 4 Obstacle to 
  get into a typical rival or acquaintance’s dream.
  Suggested Bonds 
  Traditional Bonds for Sosunov family magicians include:
   
  ŭ Bond: Nightmare and delirium can drag me and the world 
  around me into the Outside.27
   
  ŭ Bond: Miruna Sosunov looks out for me.
   
  ŭ Bond: I fear inadvertent enlightenment.
   
  ŭ Bond: I fall in love too easily
   
  ŭ Bond: I am not good at anything outside of temple life.
   
  ŭ Bond: I can’t let myself get upset, particularly not close 
  to bedtime.
   
  ŭ Bond: I must defend the dreams of Fortitude.
   
  ŭ Bond: I purify things around me when I meditate.
  
  213
   
  
  214
  214
   The Titov 
  a Shrine Family
  It is my judgment that the Titov family is a toxic nest. They are 
  not so much a family as an open wound. Here I literally mean the 
  family and not the individuals therein. There is not a one of them 
  that couldn’t be a good person, a worthwhile person, maybe even 
  a hero, if they weren’t trapped in the mess that is the Titovs.
  There is a secret under the Titov shrine. There is a prisoner 
  there that humans should not know or a treasure that humans 
  should not keep. 
  It warps them. It is tearing them apart. 
  It is leaving them loathsome to one another, and to themselves. 
  It is not clear to me whether the thing that they keep is inher-
  ently wrong and evil, or if it is only evil because of how it is seen. 
  It is not clear to me whether the path to their salvation is to accept 
  it, or to free it, or escape it. Because I do not know this I could not 
  help them; so perhaps it will fall to you.
  The Titov family magic lets them attract what they need. I have 
  heard their argument for not just using this power to fix them-
  selves. It is basically just fear. They’ll tell you that they dare not 
  ask for anything too great lest the cost be even greater. They’ll 
  be afraid that they’d break Fortitude, or Town, or all the world 
  if they called out for that which would free them from their suf-
  fering. And they’ll be afraid, and this part is legitimate, that they 
  wouldn’t live long enough to see it reach them if they tried.
  The cost of the Titov magic is emptiness. They lose the ability 
  to see themselves as people. They lose touch with their feelings—
  if not usually the feelings themselves—and feel only the broken 
  glass of their unhappiness. For them Outside dust is a palliative, 
  something they take to maintain an artificial sense of emotion and 
  keep themselves from just sitting and staring at the walls until 
  their prisoner breaks out.
  Anyway.
  Under the Titov family shrine—in poor repair, though kept 
  clean and open to the public by the family’s bitter pride—is an in-
  trusion of the wild chaos that is the Bluebell Park. Therein dwells 
  a thing they must protect or keep enchained.
  It is not clear to me what this is. Perhaps it is a gate—one of 
  the gates that Jasmine Apocynum, the Ideologue, seeks to open. 
  If so then she will not need to struggle for it: such a gate, in such a 
  place, will open of its own accord and when the time is right. Per-
  haps it is a holy thing: perhaps all of Fortitude and Town is noth-
  ing more than the holding place for the Crown of Thorns, the Ark 
  of the Covenant, the Agneyastra, or the pieces of Pandora’s box.
  Most likely it is a prisoner.
  Most likely it is a prisoner, immortal and chained, and wound 
  around the hearts of the Titov family like some abhorrent over-
  growth or net. Perhaps it is something sleeping that would be be-
  nevolent if it woke. Perhaps it is something broken, that would be 
  benevolent if it healed. Perhaps it is not. 
  In Fortitude: the Glass-Maker’s Dragon, the default as-
  sumption will be that it is a prisoner—specifically, a sacred 
  horror named Iolithae Septimian, whose lies (particularly if 
  she is ever freed) can supplant or become the truth. Howev-
  er, no matter what campaign you’re playing in, it’s ultimately 
  up to the HG and the players of any PC Titovs what’s down 
  there—it’s perfectly reasonable, if you want to shake things 
  up a bit, to have it actually be the Ark or a mystery warehouse 
  or a chained dragon or, well, nothing in particular at all! You 
  could even have it be something that shouldn’t be chained, like 
  a remnant of the sun goddess Jade Irinka or one of the Main 
  Characters nobody was using.
  Getting involved with the Titovs is often 
  Wicked
  It is possibly good, but I do not believe it can be healthy, to 
  involve yourself in their affairs.
  Getting involved with the Titovs is usually 
  Passionate (Ad-
  versity or Obsessive)
  They worry you. Or stress you out. 
  Getting involved with the Titovs can put you on 
  the Road 
  of Trials
  You get tangled into their affairs. Maybe it’s because you were 
  what they needed, and they used magic, and you came? 
  I don’t know. 
  You try to get out again, or you try to do whatever they 
  want you to do. You are an awesome, doomed, and suffering 
  creature. I’m sorry. You very well might survive it but it is 
  unlikely to have ended well.
  
  The Titov Family Magic
  215
   
   The Titov Family Magic 
  an example Magical Skill
  This is the magical Skill of the accursed Titov family, who hollow 
  their souls out with magic in order to perform the rituals that keep, 
  imprison, or guard whatever treasure or horror it is that resides 
  beneath their shrine.
  They are under an impossible burden.
  It is not surprising, therefore, that their magic gives them the 
  power to find or create what they need in order to bear it. 
  Unlike some magical traditions, the Titov magic is wholly un-
  natural; it contains no mundane techniques and you can’t dupli-
  cate any of it with a mundane ability or Skill. You might be able 
  to do something like a Titov technique with your own Skills—I’ve 
  seen mundane people “know what they can offer [someone] to 
  assure their willing cooperation,” for instance—but it won’t be an 
  echo or mirror of the Titov technique. It’ll be a different, mundane 
  route to a similar final result.
  Standard Titov techniques, and the accompanying Obstacles, 
  are:
  [Obstacle 0]  perform the rituals that keep bound the thing 
   
  beneath their shrine
  [Obstacle 1]  appear stable and calm while experiencing a psychotic 
   
  episode
  [Obstacle 1+] attract someone or something to them that they 
   
   need
  [Obstacle 1]  know what they can offer that person to assure 
   
  their willing cooperation
  [Obstacle 2]  know what they can offer that person that  would 
   
  make them not merely willing to cooperate but 
   
  unwilling to betray the Titovs under any reasonable  
   
  duress
  [Obstacle 2]  infuse an object with emotional meaning—make 
   
  even an ordinary work into great  art that gives 
   
  a sense of freedom or peace, or a simple knickknack 
   
  into a gift that brings great joy
  [Obstacle 3]  create a new person from the earth, if there is no  
   
  one that their magic may summon in answer to a 
   
  certain need.
  Characters created by the Titov magic generally have a Superior 
  Quality or Skill (pg. 76-77) that reflects their ability to answer a 
  certain need. Diána of the Titov, for instance, was created to heal 
  her sister Ezther’s arrhythmia; since no sufficient doctor existed 
  within reach, the Titov magic conjured her from the soil. She had 
  the Skill Superior Arrhythmia Physician 3 from the moment of 
  her birth, making her a competent general practitioner and super-
  naturally good at treating that one particular disorder. 
  The Family Titov
  I hesitate to go into too much detail on the modern family, so 
  instead I’m going to mix and match sources and give you the 
  Titovs of long-ago, from the days when Town was lost in night 
  and under Alexandrel Celdinar’s rule:
  The patriarch of the Titov family is Iskandar Titov. 
  His wife is Nirmala Titov.
  They are both deeply wounded by the Titov magic: Iskan-
  dar is brittle, prideful, and despairing of the Titovs and their 
  fate. Nirmala is essentially broken: calling forth a doctor to 
  heal Ezther Titov’s arrhythmia unmade her. 
  Their five children are:
   
  ŭ Jason Pyotr Alexei Titov, 
   
  ŭ Ezther Titov, 
   
  ŭ Soramir Titov, 
   
  ŭ Isabella Titov, and 
   
  ŭ Diána.
  Of these, Diána exists only by virtue of the Titov magic, called 
  forth from nothing to heal Ezther, summoned from the earth, 
  and never formally adopted into the Titov line. They’re a bro-
  ken, twisted mess of a family: Jason and Ezther possessive and 
  hateful towards one another, Soramir resenting the compara-
  tive physical weakness that puts him under his older brother’s 
  shadow, and Isabella mistrusted by all of them as too clever 
  by half and probably under the influence of the thing below 
  their shrine to boot. Diána is the saddest story of them all: 
  she conceives of helping and supporting the other Titovs as 
  the function of her existence, but they mostly regard her as a 
  lesser, artificial thing.
  They can’t get out from under it. Even if one of them es-
  caped, cut their ties and left, they’re all too important to one 
  another: someone would just find the person or tool they need-
  ed in order to bring them back.
  That’s how it was in those days of night; it continues, to 
  the now.
  Suggested Bonds
  It is through the Titov magician’s Bonds that the curse of 
  their magic—the hollowing of their soul and more precisely 
  their ability to feel their own feelings and recognize them-
  selves as people—manifests. Some traditional Bonds for the 
  Titovs include:
   
  ŭ Bond: I see through lies. or
   
  ŭ Bond: I think I see through lies.
   
  ŭ Bond: I see what people and things are useful for. or
   
  ŭ Bond: I see people (and things) as what they are useful for.
   
  ŭ Bond: I cannot escape these people [the Titovs].
   
  ŭ Bond: I am entangled with the thing beneath the shrine.
   
  ŭ Bond: The Titov magic changes me.
   
  ŭ Bond: I can’t connect to my own emotions.
   
  ŭ Bond: The dust or the thing beneath the shrine are chang-
  ing me.
   
  ŭ Bond: I must consume low-grade Outside dust to function.
   
  ŭ Bond: I am sick to death of this life: consumed with de-
  pression, obsessive self-loathing, and/or paranoia.
  
  216
  216
  
  Affi nity for (an Element)
  217
   
   The Vasili 
  a Shrine Family
  The Vasilis intercede between Fortitude, the sky, and the earth. 
  They are promised from birth to the rain, the wind, or the thunder; 
  the winter, the spring, the early or late summer, or the fall; the 
  earth, or the fire, or in rare cases to Big Lake. While there is a 
  Vasili pledged to a certain element it will treat Fortitude with more 
  kindness: in the generations that have had a fire-taming Vasili, for 
  instance, fire station records indicate perhaps 10% fewer fires and 
  almost 18% less loss of life and property damage altogether. It is 
  assumed though less well proven that this extends to Vasilis with 
  a different pact: that Big Lake was more fruitful until the recent 
  death of Nikhil Vasili, for instance; that the wind treats the ships 
  of Fortitude more kindly because Mayu Vasili is alive, that the 
  winters are milder because of Asuka, the springs more bounti-
  ful because of Gorou, and the earth more generally fruitful while 
  Herakleides Teófilo Vasili keeps his garden in the north.
  The Vasilis reconsecrate themselves with the use of Outside 
  dust, each in their own characteristic fashion. Mayu releases it, 
  trickle by trickle, into the wind. Asuka and Gorou intermittently 
  use handfuls of the stuff during the sacred dances they perform. 
  Herakleides, the current head of the Vasili family, mixes it into his 
  garden’s mulch; this is not a recommended gardening technique 
  and for all his power his own garden is finicky, unsatisfying, and 
  peculiar in its yields. Occasionally he’ll get something interesting 
  and magical out of it, sure, but mostly his garden is just a symbolic 
  labor that helps him to tend the earth of Fortitude as a whole. 
  The Vasilis are more a magical existence than practitioners of 
  magic in themselves. Their power isn’t something they wield, but 
  something that wields them. Their fates are spoken for and their 
  hearts are locked open in a joyous romantic innocence by their 
  sacred marriage to their element of the world. That isn’t a closed 
  marriage, of course, or more precisely, it isn’t an obstacle to an 
  earthly one—if anything, it’s the opposite. The Vasili are crazy for 
  love, growing up in a flurry of crush after crush and romantic dra-
  ma after romantic drama until they finally stumble on “the one.”28
  The Vasili sometimes perform rituals or dances. Watching one can 
  be 
  Foreshadowing.
  Time slips by as you watch the dance....
  Interacting with the Vasilis is usually 
  Shared Action
  They’re doing simple, ordinary things. You reach out to them. 
  You try to connect!
  Visiting Herakleides Vasili’s garden may be 
  Discovery
  You visit. You poke around. You find something unexpected 
  and new. It’s neat, or scary, or mysterious!
  28  Shockingly, they mostly actually do find this “the one.” I think this is 
  probably magic, but I’m not sure, since it’s not really a nature intercessor 
  thing. I’m definitely not sure what would happen if a Vasili were natu-
  rally polygamous. Presumably either: reality would crush their romantic 
  dreams; they would find “the two” or “the three;” or they would lock 
  into monogamy when the magic kicked in.
   Affinity for (an Element) 
  an example Superior Quality
  The Vasili bond to nature is a Superior Skill. It’s different for 
  each Vasili. For instance:
   
  ŭ Mayu has Superior Affinity for the Wind
   
  ŭ Mayu also has Superior Affinity for the Stability of the 
  Ground
   
  ŭ Asuka has Superior Affinity for the Winter
   
  ŭ Gorou has Superior Affinity for the Spring
   
  ŭ Herakleides Teófilo Vasili, who keeps a garden, has Superior 
  Affinity for the Earth
  The Vasili may use these Skills for influencing the weather/the 
  land/the seasons, for perceiving things about them, for surviving 
  in harsh conditions relating to their element, and for emulating or 
  taking advantage of the thing they’re bound to. Thus, Asuka may 
  use his Superior Affinity for  the Winter to win snowball fights, 
  cool someone’s fever, or mitigate a harsh winter. Mayu can use her 
  Superior Affinity for the wind to slip away from a pursuer, predict 
  the wind’s direction, and not fall over when the wind is blowing 
  hard. While there is a Vasili tied to a certain element, statistically 
  speaking, that element will be kinder to Fortitude as a whole.
  Superior Skills are generally inborn and inherent, so there’s 
  a natural floor and ceiling to any given Vasili’s ability here. 
  Most are born with 1-2 points of a given Affinity, and would 
  have to engage in some kind of horrible desecration of their 
  connection before it could fall lower. Most cap out at 2-4 after 
  growing up with their condition and training in how to use it 
  best; they’d have to do something pretty epic to take it past that 
  natural cap.
  For the most part, a Vasili’s Superior Skill will only give them 
  a supernatural Edge when that element is directly present. If snow 
  falls in late autumn, Asuka can use his Superior Affinity for the 
  Winter 4 to win a snowball fight, but it’s not until the beginning 
  of winter that he gets an additional 4 Edge, and that Edge vanishes 
  again the instant Pancake Week ends and Spring begins.
  
  218
  218
   The Yatskaya 
  a Shrine Family
  The history of the Yatskaya begins with Finley.
  He was a seal, most people say, and not a man: a seal, lured up 
  from the sea by his sea-captain wife. She stole his heart, or maybe 
  just his seal’s skin. They settled in an abandoned Jotun building 
  up on Maple Hill.
  For generations after that the sea still welcomed the children 
  of the Yatskaya.
  They’d find seal-skins or seal-shapes of their own, if they 
  wanted them. Nearly one in four turned their back on the land, 
  threw on their seal-sark, and swam out past the Lake into the sea. 
  Then it became one in six; one in ten; one every several genera-
  tions; and finally, today, they’ve left all that seal business behind 
  them.
  It’s been supplanted. It’s slipped from them. They’ve gone 
  over entirely into being creatures of the land—though not human 
  creatures. Not quite.
  If anything, they’re cats.
  It’s a problem! There’s this whole Fortitude culture thing and 
  rat-human alliance that makes identifying with cats a problematic 
  idea—
  But it is what they are.
  It is the Yatskaya tradition, you see, to mix the dust of the Out-
  side into their incense; the sweet-scented vapors of chaos hang 
  heavily about their temple; they grow up breathing it. Their tem-
  ple is like a ship at sea, cut off from the world around it, and there 
  are two special Properties there that apply:
   
  ŭ you can lose yourself in daydreams, and think them real. and
   
  ŭ cats come and go as they please.
  These Properties are real in that temple as Fortitude’s own.
  It’s estranged the Yatskaya from the world. 
  It’s bound them to the cats as peers.
  Growing up in that fog has kept them distant from human con-
  cerns; kept them strong, graceful, confident, and alienated even as 
  the seal-ways faded from Finley’s heirs. It’s given them the gift to 
  talk to cats and sometimes other life just like they can talk to their 
  distant cousins in the sea. It’s tied the Yatskayas to the alien pow-
  ers and Mysteries that dwell in cats’ and rats’ nightmares, subtle 
  thoughts, and dreams. 
  It’s changed and honed them to such an extent (with likely 
  Skill ratings of Claimed by the Sea 1, Superior Dreamer 2-3, Cat 
  Speaker 1-3, and potentially the Yatskaya Family Magic) that they 
  are good at hardly anything else.
  The Yatskayas run the Maple Hill Neighborhood Association. 
  Even without owning the land, they keep the whole area as a kind 
  of fastness. The houses there take after the Yatskaya temple style, 
  with low stone fences, shaded alleys, simple construction, and 
  maple trees in the gardens.
  In Maple Hill, people aren’t really big on the rats’ thousand-cat 
  quota. 
  The Yatskaya don’t like the idea of euthanizing a cat. 
  Nor would it do the area that much good to keep a feline cen-
  sus precisely: the rats don’t like the temple, they avoid the whole 
  Maple Hill vicinity, and they would never trust Yatskaya numbers; 
  rather than trying to get an accurate count, in fact, they just as-
  sume the place has three times the cats that it ought.
  Interactions with the Yatskayas are usually 
  Foreshadowing
  Perhaps you’re in the temple, and daydreams rise to fill your 
  world. Perhaps you’re watching on a lonely street as a Yatska-
  ya princess calls and speaks to a cat. Perhaps you’re listening 
  as one speaks a prophesy—though, they don’t actually have 
  any powers of prophesy, insofar as I’m aware.29 
  You get caught up in it for a while.
  Interactions with the Yatskayas are sometimes 
  Shared Action
  They’re a shrine family! They are totally capable of doing 
  good things—doing simple, honest things!—and of connect-
  ing with people while they do. They’re mysterious and subtle 
  and they smile at things beyond your shoulder or hidden in 
  your future30 but they’re also helpful, diligent, and kind. 
  So it is totally possible that your interactions with the Yats-
  kayas will be ordinary Shared Actions. It’s just not as likely as 
  you might hope!
   
  29  They do like to screw with people’s minds, though.
  30  And again I emphasize that they don’t actually know your future, they 
  just... they just kind of act sometimes like they do.
  The Watanabe
  another Shrine Family
  The Watanabe Family makes various candies out of refined 
  Outside dust. That sounds like they’re awesome Willy Wonka 
  types, but it turns out that they’re not. They’re...  mostly a cou-
  ple of old men with tiny glasses on their faces and a handful of 
  young apprentices in their shop. 
  Lily Watanabe, the current heir to the Watanabes, doesn’t 
  even work in their shop; she’s cool and all, I like her a lot! but 
  she’s unlikely to draw you into a dazzling world of love and 
  candy-related intrigue.
  Unless—I’ve been asked to mention this—you’re playing 
  an incredibly hot and successful boy in your early 20s, and not 
  playing a Watanabe. In that case you are “not merely allowed 
  but expected” to draw Lily Watanabe into a dazzling world of 
  love and candy-related intrigue.
  But anyway.
  Mostly this family is not a source of magic or excitement, 
  but just of Watanabes, which is to say, chewy little candies that 
  taste more or less like butterscotch.
  
  Cat-Speaker
  219
   
   Cat-Speaker 
  an example Superior Quality
  The Yatskaya family has many strange gifts; among them, the su-
  pernatural ability to talk to cats, understand cats, and make with 
  them a social/empathic bond.
  At the different levels of the Skill, that looks like this:
  Cat-Speaker 0: You can meow in a cat’s general direction. It may, 
  or may not, reply.
  Cat-Speaker 1: You can communicate with cats about as well as 
  a competent veterinarian who’s familiar with a given cat’s case 
  could.
  Cat-Speaker 2: Cats understand you about as well as a buddy 
  animal in a sidekick movie would, and vice versa. They’ll grasp 
  stuff like “get help” or “what do you think of this outfit?” and 
  are abnormally expressive in return, but you can’t hold an actual 
  conversation with them.
  Cat-Speaker 3: You can talk to cats as if you shared a common 
  language, including hearing meaning in their replies. Although 
  it’ll feel like you’re talking to them in English or Russian or Jap-
  anese or whatever, a lot of the time they’re actually communicat-
  ing via body language, and if you’re not actually looking at them 
  they’re much more difficult to understand. 
  Cat-Speaker 4: You can communicate verbally or telepathically 
  with nearby cats. It’s not a very profound mind-to-mind connec-
  tion but it is there.
  Cat-Speaker 5: All you need is eye contact—in that moment, it’s 
  like you and the cat are the same person, and can instantaneous-
  ly convey all the memories, ideas, and plans you’d be willing to 
  share with one another (and more.) You also have the weak telep-
  athy mentioned above when you’d prefer. 
  How smart is a cat?
  That’s something of a Chinese Room puzzle. This isn’t like 
  one of those jokes where you learn to talk to fish and discover 
  that all they’re ever saying is “I’m a fish! I’m a fish! ...I forgot 
  what I was saying. But I’m a fish!” Level 1 is sort of like that, 
  OK, granted. You’re good with cats, but what good is that? But 
  by level 2, you can already actively collaborate with a cat or ex-
  change opinions therewith, and by level 3 you can actively discuss 
  feline philosophy. The Yatskaya can teach cats how to play poker, 
  warn them about the future, or listen to and comprehend a cat’s 
  description of events.
  I mean, I know! Cats aren’t smart enough to play poker.
  But sometimes, in Yatskaya company, they’ll still win.
  This isn’t like it is with the rats. The cats haven’t woken up. 
  Animal lovers have been trying to prove since Fortitude was 
  founded that cats, birds, or whatever are as smart as rats and hu-
  mans—and failing. Cats aren’t people. Not like humans are peo-
  ple. They can’t play poker. They can’t do math. They can’t hold a 
  complex conversation or learn the details of Fortitude’s history. It 
  just doesn’t work like that.
  Except with the Yatskaya, for whom, sometimes, it sort of does.
  For the Yatskaya, for anyone with Cat-Speaker 2+, really, cats 
  are up there with mute seven-year-olds. And at level 3+ they’re 
  like people, who happen to also be cats. That’s as high as it goes—
  they don’t scale up to supergeniuses or anything, unless they hap-
  pened to already be supergeniuses for cats—but levels 4 and 5 in-
  crease the frequency with which they’ll behave intelligently when 
  out of your immediate sight.
  So that’s weird, right? 
  Impossible, right?
  The best explanation anyone has come up with so far for the 
  Yatskaya ability is that they aren’t quite living in the same world 
  as everybody else: they’re in a neighboring world, entangled 
  somehow with our own, where explaining things to a cat, in a 
  calm and even tone of voice, can actually work.
  Cat-Speaker also functions as a generic Skill at doing cat-like 
  stuff—hunting, fishing, athletics, hanging out in high places, ap-
  pealing to human sensibilities without giving in to their customs, 
  seeing in the dark, sneaking around, and so forth. It gives its full 
  bonus Edge when you’re talking to cats, in any circumstance 
  where talking to cats can possibly give you that much Edge—a 
  tense contest to convey information quickly to a cat is the Platonic 
  ideal case, although a battle in a battlefield with cat-activatable 
  turrets in the background is pretty close—and it gives some frac-
  tion of that Edge for cat-like activities when the Yatskaya is acting 
  sufficiently like a cat, taking a cat’s advice, or using a cat-specific 
  ability like low-light vision or super-jumps.
  
  Claimed by the Sea
  220
  220
   Claimed by the Sea 
  an example Superior Quality
  If you have this Skill, the water claims you.
  One of your ancestors belonged to the sea, or possibly to the 
  Lake, and the water calls you still. It speaks to you on some deep, 
  liquid level; sings softly to you in your blood and dreams—and it 
  makes a part of you want to lose yourself in it, to give up your hu-
  manity, to put on a seal-skin or shark-skin or whatever and swim 
  out endlessly into the waves.
  There aren’t many people with this problem in Town. There’s 
  a couple of pikeskin or flying fish rats, I’ve heard, and there’s 
  the dolphin girl. There’s Idril Nakano, who’s supposed to be an 
  octopus spirit. There’s the Yatskaya, who at one time were selkies; 
  though, that was generations and generations ago.
  Basically, what I’m saying is, it’s not all that likely that you’ll 
  have this, but here’s how the levels would look:
  Claimed 0: You’re not a selkie or a shark-were or whatever. You 
  can put on a fish skin or seal skin but it would just be gross. Don’t 
  do that. 
  Don’t.
  Claimed 1: The sea or the Lake calls you, but you couldn’t go 
  even if you gave in to it. You wouldn’t survive! 
  This level of Claimed extends the boundaries of what’s pos-
  sible for you in the water—it gives you a lung capacity, water 
  temperature tolerance, capacity for streamlined movement, and 
  feel for the water that a normal human can’t match! But on its 
  own, it doesn’t actually make you a very good swimmer. It’s all 
  talent and no Skill.
  This is whereabouts you’ll find the Yatskaya today.
  Claimed 2: The sea or the Lake infects you. You’re a creature of 
  it. The tides pull at your moods and your dreams are full of sway-
  ing kelp and crashing surf and of the great vastness of the depths. 
  This Trait lets you perform incredible, pulp-action feats in the 
  water—you can’t actually breathe underwater or go more than a 
  day or two without returning to land, but you’re an incredible, leg-
  endary swimmer and can hold your breath for an inhuman length 
  of time. You may be able to transform a little if you spend enough 
  time in the water, growing fins or scales or getting eyes better 
  suited to the depths. If someone said, “Oh, that girl/guy’s a seal” 
  or mermaid or whatever, people around you would probably be 
  half-tempted to believe. 
  Claimed 3: The water owns you, and you can breathe within it. 
  One day you will go back to it; or, well, that’s your destiny. That’s 
  what your body says to you. I suppose that you could possibly 
  decide to fight it off. 
  Cold water doesn’t bother you. Dark water doesn’t blind you. 
  Drowning doesn’t happen to you—although it might forcibly 
  change you, because at this level, you also have the ability to 
  physically transform into a sea creature and back again. Maybe 
  you put on a seal-skin or a shark-skin and turn into such a thing, 
  and cast it off again to become human. Maybe the water steals 
  your clothes and gives you a fishtail and gills but you keep your 
  basic human form, and your old clothing rematerializes when you 
  dry out. You can usually transform instantaneously, though you 
  may need to be underwater or to have some special prop to do it.
  The Lake or the sea is constantly tugging at the back of your 
  mind, calling you out to return to the water and to live there.
  Claimed 4-5: This doesn’t really happen; or, put another way, if 
  the sea or Lake has that strong a hold on you, you’ve probably 
  already gone.
  The Yatskaya Temple
   
  ŭ Things must have simplicity.
   
  ŭ Things can’t move quickly.
   
  ŭ Work must be fruitful.
   
  ŭ People must remember where they come from.
   
  ŭ You have a home in Fortitude. And
   
  ŭ Cats come and go as they please. 
   
  ŭ You can lose yourself in daydreams, and think them real.
  
  (Superior) Dreamer
  221
   
   (Superior) Dreamer 
  an example Superior Skill
  You’re good at handling surreal, unreal, chaotic, and dream-like 
  environments. You’re unfazed by the Outside, at home in Bluebell 
  Park, and wouldn’t be all that terribly disoriented if you fell into 
  Wonderland itself. You can dream lucidly, fall asleep or wake up 
  at will, and fend off mental attacks with ease. In addition to being 
  a Skill for handling yourself and staying oriented in such envi-
  ronments, Superior Dreamer gives an Edge in any conflict for 
  control over a dream-world or your own mental state.
  Note that it’s almost impossible to use this Skill to do stuff 
  in the waking world—it may help with art or storytelling, and if 
  somebody else telepathically assaults you or something you might 
  be able to turn the tables, but you can’t usually just shove people 
  out of the way when a bull is charging and say:
  “I’ll handle it! I’ll use my... dreaming!”
  The results would almost certainly be gory.31
  Level 5 doesn’t make much sense to me, and kind of risks the PC 
  escaping the conversation, but here’s how levels 0-4 would work:
  31 J is for Jenna 
  in all of her glory 
  Tramped down by a bull. 
  For bad puns about Gorey.
  Superior Dreamer 0: You’re able to fall asleep and dream. Usu-
  ally.
  Superior Dreamer 1: You’re a lucid dreamer, and good at coping 
  with strange things.
  Superior Dreamer 2: You’re really good at coping with strange 
  things.
  Superior Dreamer 3: You fundamentally know who and where 
  you are—either there’s something elemental about you, so that 
  you define yourself into being, or you’re just incredibly centered 
  and rooted. You can’t ever be completely lost or disoriented be-
  cause you’re always you, and wherever you go, there you are.
  Superior Dreamer 4: You pretty much understand nonsensical 
  worlds better than the real ones. You’re the kind of person who’ll 
  spread mayonnaise on two slices of bread just before the Outside 
  begins to rain sandwich meat, turn simulated worlds inside out to 
  trap the AI that’s simulating you, and casually play yourself when 
  you show up in other people’s dreams. In sum, your dream-world 
  power ranges from the cartoonish to the godly.
   The Ferry 
  that you sometimes ride in dreams
  Once it was one of the horses of the sun; but she died, and it fell 
  screaming into the Lake and lost its form; and now it is a wooden 
  boat, cold and quiet though still alive, with only a horse-head fig-
  urehead to remind it of its former shape.
  It roamed free for a while. Then the ferryman caught it and 
  taught it of the needs of Town. Now the ferry runs between For-
  titude and Little Island, leaving every three hours and slipping 
  across the Lake. It sleeps in Fortitude after dark: the last run to 
  Little Island is at 4:30 in the wintertime and 7:30 in the summer. 
  Between its final dock and sleep, the ferryman sits with it, singing 
  to it, cleaning it, or combing its wooden hair.
   Traveling on the ferry is usually 
  Slice of Life
  Experience the world and the water!
  On the holidays, it’s more like sailing the Outside (pg. 302)—
  Trouble when things get scary;
  Adversity when they get hard;
  Slice of Life at their best;
  Discovery when you’re encountering strange possibil-
  ities; and a
  Ritual, if you want to compress a long, epic journey 
  into a single furious scene.
  
  222
  222
  
  The Yatskaya Family Magic
  The Troublemaker
  223
   
   The Yatskaya Family Magic 
  an example Magical Skill
  Lastly we have the magical Skill of the Yatskaya, who have bound 
  themselves to the cats of Fortitude and sometimes bind themselves 
  to a handful of related spirits, archetypes, and Mysteries as well.
  The single, solitary, non-magical technique of this Skill is:
  [Obstacle 0]  reassure, befriend, or make peace with a cat or cat- 
   
  like spirit;
  But they are also familiar with such magical techniques as:
  [Obstacle 1]  see through the eyes of a cat or something they are  
   
  bound to;
  [Obstacle 2]  command a cat;
  [Obstacle 3]  bind themselves to an archetype or spirit connected 
   
  to cats; 
  [Obstacle 3]  speak to or become that archetype; 
  [Obstacle 3] attune to a specific cat they have a Connection with, 
   
  increasing their effective Cat-Speaker (pg. 219) with  
   
  regards to that cat to level 5 for a scene and level 4  
   
  for the rest of the story.
  [Obstacle 3   
  draw on a spirit to empower themselves; if  
  + restriction]  
  the resulting Intention is not 3+ the spirit  
   
   
  has the option of taking over their body and  
   
   
  actions for a time.
   
   
  [Obstacle 3    
  draw on a spirit to enchant or destroy
  + restriction]  
  something; if the resulting Intention is not   
   
   
  3+ the spirit will then automatically take  
   
   
  over their body and actions for a time.
  The Troublemaker
  So in the stories “Rinley Yatskaya” is the name of an epic fool, 
  the kind of guy you’d expect to see stealing the wind from the 
  Devil’s sails, inventing forks, and catching the moon in the 
  palm of his hand. He was a lovable troublemaker who wandered 
  through Town’s early days getting into all kinds of mischief.
  There’s someone a little like that in the modern day.
  By default, the Troublemaker is actually named Rinley 
  Yatskaya; apparently her parents, Goro and Shiori, decided to 
  tempt fate. She’s usually a girl a year or two under the PCs’ 
  age, although the name would of course work for a boy. The 
  modern Rinley’s just beginning to show the signs of walking in 
  her namesake’s footsteps and becoming a folk hero, a trickster 
  figure, someone awesome and goofy like the old Rinley was—
  sailing on a thimble, finding spending money under rocks, and 
  all that like, though she hasn’t really gotten used to it yet.
  But the thing is, she’s already figuring out what all y’all 
  will notice in time—that she can do this sort of thing, that 
  she does do this sort of thing, because the wishing heart has a 
  power in it to change what’s possible and what isn’t!
  This character could also be the youngest child of a differ-
  ent family—Rinley “Valentine” Kichi, snoop and matchmaker 
  extraordinaire; Rinley Sosunov, with more of a Buddha stories 
  and less of a tall tale vibe; Rinley Titov or Titova, summoned 
  from the earth to help contain what they keep hidden at the 
  Titov shrine (pg. 214-215), possibly prematurely, if it’s still 
  asleep or bound; or Rinley (Nicholas or Nicoletta) Vasili, with 
  a superior connection to the hearth or to the power of steam!
  Rinley Yatskaya, aka 
  The Troublemaker
  Suggested Bonds
  Growing up in the Yatskaya family temple leaves one strange. 
  Yatskaya, magician or otherwise, often develop Bonds. 
  Suggestions include:
   
  ŭ Bond: I don’t understand human ways.
   
  ŭ Bond: a little simple or naive
   
  ŭ Bond: I cannot fight without risking becoming animalistic 
  and berserk.
   
  ŭ Bond: Rats trouble me.
   
  ŭ Bond: I must look out for the interests of the cats I know.
   
  ŭ Bond: I am driven to lurk in high places and stare down 
  at people.
   
  ŭ Bond: I am drawn to water. 
   
  ŭ Bond: I hate water so much.
   
  ŭ Bond: If I don’t get my fourteen hours of sleep how do you 
  expect me to get through the day? 
   
  ŭ Bond: I like to play with my opponents.
   
  ŭ Bond: I act like I’m drugged, in a trance, or half-asleep 
  even when I’m not.
   
  ŭ Bond: I act really ridiculous when actually drugged, and it 
  doesn’t take much catnip to get me there.
   
  ŭ Bond: Insects are really tasty. And catching them is fun!
   
  ŭ Bond: I get really, really hyper sometimes.
   
  ŭ Bond: ooh shiny
   
  ŭ Bond: destiny’s patsy
   
  ŭ Bond: I have no destiny at all.
   
  ŭ Bond: I’ve bound myself with Yatskaya Magic to an an-
  cient cat god.
   
  ŭ Bond: I’ve bound myself with Yatskaya Magic to a Mys-
  tery feared by the rats.
   
  ŭ Bond: I’ve bound myself with Yatskaya Magic to the cats 
  of a given neighborhood.
   
  ŭ Bond: I’ve bound myself with Yatskaya Magic to a spe-
  cific cat.
   
  ŭ Bond: I’ve bound myself with Yatskaya Magic to the cats 
  of a non-Fortitude Region.
   
  ŭ Bond: I’ve bound myself with Yatskaya Magic to oversee 
  the death, birth, growth, territory, or other element of the 
  life of cats. 
   
  ŭ Bond: I am not good at anything outside of temple life.
  
  The Mysteries
  224
  224
   The Mysteries 
  If you hang out with the rats of Fortitude you’ll notice that they’re 
  heroic adventurers; or, well, that they think of themselves like 
  that. And you may wonder about this, and think it’s pretty silly, 
  because everything else aside, where do you even find adventures 
  to be heroic in, in a rustic place like Fortitude?
  And maybe if you’re a little wiser, you think, oh, they sail out 
  on Big Lake, and confront things in the Outside, and since the 
  Outside’s equally scary no matter what size you are, I’d guess, that 
  gives some credence to their claim.
  And they do do that. I mean, that kind of adventuring is real.
  The weirdest thing, though? That isn’t the core of it. That isn’t 
  where they do most of their adventures.
  They go out on the roofs of Fortitude and they take their secret 
  ways, and at some point the roofs stop being Fortitude roofs. 
  They start being “the Far Roofs” instead.
  Things get weird and magical and you have everything from 
  manna trees and witchlights to the horror that is Grayvale and its sun.
  There, above the world, where the world laws are—as far as 
  I can tell—the laws of Soma Village (pg. 297), the heroic rats of 
  Fortitude face, duel with, and study the god-monsters called the 
  Mysteries. They quest against creatures like the poisonous serpent 
  Typhon; against Goblin, terrible and cruel; against Harpy, though 
  they’ve slain her; or against the mind-killing Hedge the Fang.
  I’ll tell you more about these adventures later, when I’ve had 
  the chance to assemble all my notes. I just don’t want it to surprise 
  you when I do. Whether you’re gaming in Fortitude or just visit-
  ing, you should know this stuff is there!
  32  Down to Town?
  The Hayashi
  another Shrine Family
  The Hayashi Family is atypical for a shrine family—they’re 
  very mundane and down to earth32, over at the House of Crys-
  tal. They process the dust of the Outside by melting it into 
  glass, blowing the glass into form, covering it with a layer of 
  ordinary glass or lacquer, and letting the sun shine through it 
  over months or years to disinfect the magical substance inside. 
  The effects of this are so slow and subtle that they don’t count 
  as or require a magical Skill; instead, there’s a quest for it, 
  Glass Magic (pg. 464), which I’ll share with you a bit later on.
  Of note is their black sheep, Hayashi Hideo; the top floor 
  of his Archive/halfway house is in the shadow of a Mystery.
  The Archive of Professor Hayashi Hideo.
  
  225
   
  Rat-Lore of Typhon
  Typhon, who is named Outrage, is a great and terrible serpent. She dwells past Gallows 
  Way, in the Madcaps’ Nave below Dead Man’s Manor. There amidst the chaotic rising 
  and falling edges of the Nave she rages at the things that have done her wrong, smashing 
  the rooftops into kindling one day and coiling in deep, hidden places meditating on her 
  malice and dreaming of visitors to bite the next.
  Praksia the rat found her there. Typhon broke Praksia’s neck and hung her high. Praksia 
  danced, not dead but certainly not living, for seventy and seven days. Then the lightning 
  struck the tower where she hung, and Praksia slipped away.
  “I cannot stay,” she whispered, when to her family she’d returned. “For I am dead, and 
  Typhon will hunt me down. I cannot stay, but I will tell you her secrets, and you may 
  put them in your Books of Names.”
  -from The Mysteries, for a Human Child, 
  by Filimer Augustine
  The name of Typhon is
  Outrage-the fury of the privileged when intruded on by the weak
  The heralds of Typhon are
  storms; the scraping of scales on the roofs; the glint of gold in the distance; 
   the weak, intruding on the strong.
  The weapons of Typhon are 
  poisons; whips; disasters; and anything that moves like snakes
  You turn Typhon aside by
  hiding from her sight; meekness; willing service to her ends; 
  Typhon kills you by 
  breaking your bones; hanging you high; ripping you up; casting you down; and in any 
  cruel and wicked way
  Typhon is drawn to
  pomp; gold; glory; the vulnerability of prey in the aftermath of a disaster; those who refuse 
  her, reject her, or show her disrespect
  Typhon hungers for
  your love; your adoration; those who praise and adore her she treats more kindly, and 
  those who reject her or flee her she will never in her life forgive
  You may kill Typhon by
  stabbing her in the eye with a blessed spear; choking her on her own weight; acting to save 
  her from a real and genuine need
  Typhon is reborn when
  the storm is fiercest at Madcap’s Nave; when the Rat King dies without an heir, and a 
  new family must take the throne 
  compassion and empathy for those below you in their station
  You may escape the attention of Typhon by
  praising her as you defy her, until you prove yourself more trou-
  ble than you’re worth ; rejecting a gift that she has offered you 
  three times.
  when a legendary pearl forms around the 
  hatred and jealousy in a high-ranked or 
  otherwise fortunate person’s heart
  political 
  turmoil
  from Vittore's Book of Names
  
  Big Lake
  226
  226
  Big Lake
  Big Lake is an inland lake. It’s a place of mysteries and secrets—
  not the least of which the secret paths, shortcuts, and tricks that 
  the ferry and the fishermen use to reach the Outside and thence 
  the sea.
  For all that it’s a sizable part of Town, not much actually hap-
  pens on Big Lake.
  There is reputed to be a secret kingdom under or on the waters 
  which only manifests on specific occasions. Perhaps it is a king-
  dom of ghosts; or lake elves; or terrors from Outside; or ordinary 
  people who happen to live underwater. Perhaps it is an appearing 
  and disappearing island, or perhaps it is a fairytale underlake land. 
  I don’t know. I’m not going to go into it today. There could even 
  be more than one. 
  The water must keep its secrets, after all.
  Area: Immeasurable (443+ sq. miles) 
  Population: unknown
  Conversations on Big Lake
  Conversations about hopes and dreams are usually 
  Decisive 
  Action. 
  Celebrating something like a birthday out on the water is usually  
  Decisive Action.
  You talk about what you dream of. You talk about what you’d 
  wish for. It’s building towards a decision—what are you going 
  to do to bring about the world of your wishes and dreams?
  Talking about life is usually 
   Shared Reactions.
  You trail your hand in the water. You look at the sky. You talk 
  about things that have been going on, and you connect to the 
  people you’re with. You’re maybe more open than is safe. You 
  take a bit of a risk that way, make yourself a little vulnerable 
  that way, out on Big Lake.
  The water’ll keep your secrets, after all.
  Talking about nothing in particular while out on the water is usu-
  ally 
  Slice of Life.
  You talk. Something in the mirrored lake or your thoughts stirs 
  an emotion. 
  You get lost in the mood. 
  Properties of Big Lake
   
  ŭ The water must keep secrets.
   
  ŭ The water must breed dreams, stories, and myths.
   
  ŭ The water must swallow the wicked.
   
  ŭ The water cannot distinguish truth from lies.
   
  ŭ The water must yield its bounty to those who know it well.
  Typical Genre: Adventure Fantasy
  Ships
  The “six Kings” of the human ships of Fortitude are
   
  ŭ Kirillo, foremost among fishing ships;
   
  ŭ Tikhvin, the far-traveling merchant;
   
  ŭ Hiryū and Egretă, two venerable ancients; 
   
  ŭ The Wittenberg, famed, lucky, and adventurous; and
   
  ŭ The Kranmaru, aka “the Young King.”
  I’ve also heard much of the rat-ships Rule the Sea, Dragon-
  slayer, God of Big Lake, and Kaiju of the Heart.
  Some of the other ships that are currently at sail include St. 
  Peter’s Cross, the Sandpiper, the Great Lord Gadigan, and 
  the Neall Raemonn Price.
  
  227
   
  Magic and Trouble 
  on Big Lake
  This stuff is pretty rare. But it happens!
  Disposing of a body or an evildoer out on Big Lake is usually 
   
  Decisive Action.
  You talk a bit about what led you to this. Then you do it. 
  Then, maybe, you follow it in.
  The water must swallow the wicked, after all. 
  Trouble while out on the lake is usually 
  Trouble
  A storm rolls in suddenly. A giant Outside-bred sea serpent or 
  kraken attacks your boat. Something bad is coming, and you 
  are overwhelmed!
  Can you get away?
  Can you hide, and wait it out somewhere safe?
  If you can’t escape, can you win a little tactical victory, like 
  getting the anchor up before the storm gets there or stopping 
  the serpent from snapping your main mast?
  Trouble while out on the lake is sometimes 
  the Road of Trials
  The lake is big enough that you can have Adversity there, 
  too, even without crossing into the limitless Outside. You can 
  suffer adversity after a shipwreck, floating out there, alone. 
  There’s almost no sharks or human-eating fish because it’s a 
  freshwater lake—Outside-spawned creatures like the sea ser-
  pent I mentioned are aberrations. On the other hand, the Lake 
  touches on the Outside in many places so there are occasional 
  aberrations, and even, quite possibly, sharks. The lake is pretty 
  warm, compared to the sea, but if you spend long enough stuck 
  in it it will begin to feel quite cold indeed. The water’s usually 
  drinkable but sometimes it’s brackish or has a hint of Outside 
  psychotoxin in it. There isn’t much of a rescue organization 
  in Fortitude because shipwrecks are so rare, so you’ll have 
  to be pretty lucky or hope that you’re close enough to shore 
  to get to it in whatever direction seems the likeliest to swim. 
  You’re probably within a few miles of something, and even if 
  you go in exactly the worst possible direction you’re probably 
  only 10-13 miles away, but 13 miles is a really long way to be 
  swimming and that something you get to could be the Outside 
  and not the shore.
  The Lake’s big enough to have Adversity, and it can be aw-
  ful enough to give Trauma; and there’s enough Outside poison 
  out there to put you at risk of Corruption; but most of all—
  The Lake is a place of and for heroes; so most of this leads 
  you to Never Say Die!
  Waiting for something interesting to happen is usually 
  Fore-
  shadowing
  Stuff hinting at an underlake kingdom’s presence is usually 
   
  Foreshadowing
  You watch the sky and the water. You think. You feel. It seems 
  like something is going to happen. You wait for it. You get 
  caught up in that feeling, that impendingness.
  After a while something finally does happen; or maybe it 
  never does, and you get through the whole trip still waiting.
  Stumbling on something interesting is usually 
  Discovery
  What’s that? Wow! 
  The Net Breeds Dreams
  In a Pastoral game Town is unlikely to have Internet access. At 
  least, I haven’t found it.
  In other genres, though—Techno or Immersive Fantasy, in 
  particular—
  You might have more fun if it’s actually there. Is it just 
  getting started? Or has it been there for years?
  One model for a Town net is that you can get to the whole 
  Internet—it’s all “out there”—but like the physical world it 
  is mostly drowned in the Outside. A lot of webpages are just 
  plain surreal and disorienting stuff, and clicking on links too 
  unwisely can produce breaks from reality in the real. 
  Another option is to make it so you can’t see the Out-
  side-covered pages—
  They time out, or they 404, and so Town winds up with 
  intermittent access to a small, oddly-selected rim of the outer 
  world’s Internet, plus a little local private Internet of its own. 
  I figure all of this would be dolled up retro to match the BBS, 
  America Online, or maybe even the Geocities era. You could 
  even add a twist of better-than-Earth Internet on top of that, 
  local steam-based stuff, like request-anticipating pseudo-AI 
  that moves windows around and does little searches for you, 
  steampipe voice interfaces, or magic-based holographic dis-
  plays. The net would probably run on the world-laws of Big 
  Lake—“the net must keep secrets,” “the net must swallow the 
  wicked,” and so on, but there might be an edging of Fortitude.
  
  228
  228
  Working on Big Lake
  Exploring Big Lake and its paths is usually 
  Discovery 
  Now in the old days you could get across Big Lake and its secret 
  paths without even entering the Outside; but these days most sail-
  ors will settle for finding lakeways to interesting destinations that 
  don’t cross through too much of the fearful and difficult Outside. 
  You’re out there, exploring. Maybe it takes you a few days 
  or weeks to find each new thing, or maybe they’re coming one 
  after another like the rain. And here’s one now: something 
  new, something nobody’s seen before.
  What is it?
  Is it terrifying? Mysterious? Cool? 
  Doing nothing in particular while out on the water is usually 
   
  Slice of Life.
  You do whatever little things you’re doing. You make small 
  talk. You stare out at the horizon. Something in the mirrored 
  lake or in your thoughts or someone’s words stirs an emotion.
  The moment sticks with you.
  Fishing or boating work is usually 
  Shared Action
  You go out on the water. You do simple, honest things. You 
  connect with the other people on the boat. You trust them to 
  watch your back.
  Long Journeys
  This works pretty much like sailing the Outside, on pg. 302, in 
  particular since long journeys usually do cross the Outside.
  It’s...
  Trouble when things get scary;
  Shared Action for most of the trip;
  Slice of Life at its best;
  Discovery when you’re encountering something new; 
  and a
  Ritual, if you want to compress a long, epic journey 
  into a single furious scene.
   The Ritual of the Lake 
   
  an Example Ritual
  Here’s how you might sail out across Big Lake, through lands of 
  adventure, and then return.
  You’ll start with a ritual phrase like, “Weigh anchor!” or 
  “Sail away!”
  Then, assuming that you’ve met the criteria—basically, you 
  need the HG’s permission, and all the players have to have no-
  ticed that you’ve started a ritual—you and the other players start 
  in on a series of ritual actions:
   
  ŭ describing things you do aboard the boat;
   
  ŭ “posing” or otherwise showing off how your character inter-
  faces with nautical life;
   
  ŭ summarizing strange encounters or weird things that you see 
  or find—
   
   scary weather;
   
   strange weather;
   
   lashing waves;
   
   weird, magical islands;
   
   strange sea creatures;
   
   uncomfortable experiences;
   
   tall tales;
   
   daring adventures; and
   
   brushes with death
   
  ŭ talking about what you hope to find at the end of your journey; or
   
  ŭ invoking some unrelated symbol of power (e.g., powering up 
  a world-altering device or engine, or invoking a Ritual Power) 
  to merge the two ritual invocations together33.
  The ritual usually ends when someone uses the phrase “Land ho!” 
  and the HG confirms that that’s acceptable at this time. The re-
  sult and benefit is usually that the characters have safely traveled 
  across large portions of the Outside and arrived, either where they 
  wanted to go, or somewhere where the HG wanted to take them.
  33 I don’t actually expect you to combine Rituals very often, particularly 
  not for an OOC ritual like this one, but that’s exactly why I feel I have 
  to mention it every time I’m talking about a ritual lest the option be 
  forgotten. I’m expecting the rare payoff the one time it actually happens 
  in your game to be amazing.
  
  Horizon
  229
   
  Horizon
  This Region of Town is brooding and gothic. Built on three lay-
  ers of dead civilizations, it has the highest per capita population 
  of walking dead and monstrous residents of anywhere in Town. 
  Most of them are functionally harmless but living students are 
  advised to stay out of graveyards, catacombs and labyrinthine un-
  derworlds, turf marked as the possession of an unworldly tribe, 
  and the steam tunnels underneath the School. 
  As a rough demographic sketch, Horizon’s population is 
  roughly 57% human, 34% ghost, 6% vampire, and 3% monster 
  or “other.” The ghosts rarely leave Principal Entropy’s School, 
  however, so the visible demographics on the street are closer to 
  85% human, 9% vampire, and 6% monstrous—or as much as 93% 
  human during the day.
  The centerpiece of Horizon is Principal Entropy’s School, 
  and the Region is built both in and out of character to attend the 
  School’s needs. In a game focusing on older characters, you could 
  replace Horizon’s School with the University, Research Center, 
  Military Training Facility, or Office Building where the characters 
  spend their time; a modest academy in any other Region would 
  adequately fulfill the academic needs of Town. There are also var-
  ious houses, shops, parks, and other points of interest here.
  Area: 35 square miles 
  Population: 33,200 + 3,500 commuting to or boarding at School 
  (20,800 humans / 12,700 ghosts / 2,000 vampires /  
  1,100 unworldly creatures / 100 other)
  Properties of Horizon 
  and its School
   
  ŭ People must accept what is happening around them as normal.
   
  ŭ People must have some reason to worry.
   
  ŭ Each person in the School must experience exactly three 
  events between classes.
   
  ŭ You can never experience the “middle” of a class unless 
  extremely bored.
   
  ŭ Teachers must be obsessive, delusional, or wicked. 
   
  ŭ People must have school spirit unless recently hurt or bullied.
   
  ŭ There must be delinquents, bullies, and cliques.
  Typical Genre: Gothic
  
  230
  230
  The City
  Horizon is built in the style of Victorian London. It’s cleaner than 
  you’d expect, though, and has fewer people—you can find mas-
  sive slums and rookeries with all of three families sharing them, 
  stretching their gaily colored laundry lines between the crooked 
  windows and narrow ledges and giving even the little ones a suite 
  of the cramped rooms each. Most of the place is dated, baroque ar-
  chitecture but there are a few buildings of modern brick. The Re-
  gion is full of cemeteries, gargoyles (the not-alive kind), arches, 
  parks, patches of dead grass and living trees, fountains, towers, 
  wide roads, and neon signs. The standard transportation is hansom 
  cab, bicycle, or foot, although there are a handful of rickety busses 
  that serve Horizon or all of Town.
  Tunnels, ruins, and catacombs extend far below the city, full 
  of strange horrors and remnants. Everyone says you shouldn’t go 
  down there—the secrets there are best left buried.
  Exploring the forbidden places beneath the city is usually 
   
  Wicked
  You descend. The world becomes strange and unreal.
  Should you really be doing this? Doesn’t everyone say you 
  should not?
  The “worry” that the Region Properties require is usually  
  Obsessive Action
  You’re nervous about something. You get worked up over it. 
  Eventually you tip over the edge into obsession!
  ...or do you just kind of shut down, instead?
  Wandering around Horizon is usually 
  Slice of Life
  Something in the environment catches your attention. It makes 
  you feel something. 
  You get lost in the mood. 
  Unworldly Tribes
  The unworldly tribes of ghûls and ogres and other external or 
  primeval folk stake out various territories within Horizon. They 
  ooze forth from the corpse of a dead god buried somewhere in the 
  Region, or linger from primordial times, or lose some scrabbling 
  grip on the edge of the evil island (pg. 242) and fall from the Prin-
  cipal’s home onto Town. They band together in Horizon and claim 
  abandoned streets or buildings as their homes.
  Studying or befriending a member of the unworldly tribes de-
  stroys them. Under the pressure of either a competent investiga-
  tion or a strong relationship with a human, their skin thickens and 
  forms a crystalline cocoon; horrid noises and bright lights emerge 
  from deep within; and eventually a human hatches. For this rea-
  son they police their own numbers and minimize their tendencies 
  towards crime; SWAT teams might prove no threat to them, but a 
  single competent detective or social worker with an axe to grind 
  could humanize them all.
  Humanizing an unworldly creature against its will is usually 
   
  Wicked
  You wouldn’t normally think it’s OK to change someone’s spe-
  cies against their will, right? So if you think it’s OK when it’s 
  a ghûl, that could qualify as a Wicked Action. Even if you’re 
  right! You’ll start by willfully trying to “befriend” or investi-
  gate them. Then you’ll break from reality (pg. 31-32). Perhaps 
  the HG warns you of the possible costs of what you’re do-
  ing, but you just go ahead and do it anyway, because, I don’t 
  know, because ghûls eat human corpses and that’s just gross, 
  or whatever. 
  Wicked!
  Shared Action/Reactions can result in an accidental or un-
  planned befriending.
  When you connect with an unworldly creature during Shared 
  Action or Shared Reactions, that can move you closer to a 
  state of friendship. I don’t think that makes this wicked, de-
  spite what I said above, because I don’t think you can make a 
  legitimate connection out of the wickedness in your heart—at 
  worst, you can make a wicked or obsessive plan to befriend 
  them, followed by an actual honest connection:
  Two separate incidents, one vile and one good.
  
  231
   
  School
  School has no other name. Sometimes it’s called “The School” or 
  “Horizon’s School” to differentiate it from others. The rest of the 
  time the implied capital is understood. 
  It’s not an ordinary place.
  It is vast, baroque, and somber. It’s a lot bigger than it needs to 
  be—the grounds are a square mile, and most of that is one gigantic 
  building whose facade completely dwarfs you as you approach. It 
  has 6500 living students and over 12,000 ghosts and it would still 
  be spacious at a fifth of its size.
  It’s like walking into a land of giants, the first time you go to 
  School.
  Classes are usually 
  Foreshadowing
  Something catches your attention....
  Studying is usually 
  Obsessive
  You worry or get obsessed with your classes or assignments. 
  You get worked up over it, tipping over the edge into obses-
  sion. Does somebody notice and react to the way you’re going 
  over the top?
  Socializing is usually 
  Shared Reactions
  You work through your emotions about stuff that’s happened 
  or is happening. You connect with some other students about 
  it. Ideally, someone makes themselves a little vulnerable to 
  pick up an extra XP.
  Club and Team Activities are usually 
  Shared Action
  You do stuff together. You try to connect.
  Experiencing the baroque grandeur of the place is usually 
  Slice of Life
  It stirs up an emotion in you; you’re lost in the mood.
  Athletics
  With the occasional exception of a Night School team or a team 
  fielded by St. Vita’s School for Wayward Girls, School doesn’t re-
  ally have any rival schools to play sports against. Accordingly the 
  more popular sports have small internal leagues—hockey, basket-
  ball, tennis, and soccer in particular have managed to put together 
  leagues and ladders enough to have a small series of games every 
  year, and other sports keep trying. 
  Competitive games are often 
  Never Say Die!
  Protagonists have a surprising tendency to wind up the un-
  derdogs, over and over again, and the Chuubo’s Marvelous 
  Wish-Granting Engine PCs are no exception. Many games 
  will feature the characters defying the overwhelming power 
  of their opponents—narrating their actions as awesome and 
  doomed, ramping up every time the HG pushes them to fight 
  harder, and ending up exhausted whether they win or lose. 
  Coming up with reasons why a miraculous or otherwise pow-
  erful PC could even imaginably have trouble here is up to you! 
  (“You” mostly meaning the HG, but players who want these 
  Actions are actively encouraged to help with the brainstorm-
  ing—or even pitch the opposition themselves.)
  Practice is usually 
  Shared Action
  Of course.
  Competitive games are often 
  Slice of Life
  The sad truth is that many matches will not actually challenge 
  the PCs—particularly if somebody like the Prodigy or the 
  Idol is on their team and even vaguely motivated. Conversely, 
  a team limited to the less athletic characters like the Wishing 
  Boy may not stand a chance at all. Games that are foregone 
  conclusions, or where the major challenges fall on NPCs in-
  stead of PCs, are likely to play out as Slice of Life. 
  You experience the world. You feel something. You get lost 
  in the mood!
  
  232
  232
  Delinquency
  Much like athletes, delinquents and troublemakers traditionally 
  establish their place in the School hierarchy by ritually fighting 
  their way to the top as individuals and gangs in single- or dou-
  ble-elimination contests. They even have subtle markers sugges-
  tive of a uniform. They just don’t call it a sport. 
  Traditionally there hasn’t been much in the way of extramu-
  ral rivalry between the gangs of the different schools. The ladder 
  has been known: there’s troublemakers from School. Then there’s 
  the local unworldly tribes. They’re scarier. Then there’s Night 
  School troublemakers. They’re worse. Finally, there’s St. Vita’s 
  School for Wayward Girls; anyone from there is presumptively 
  if not necessarily the scariest and toughest badass within a mile. 
  Lately, with the Idol Soun Shounen asserting his supremacy over 
  School’s delinquents and making the previous toughs his minions, 
  there’s been some rumors going around that he could take on even 
  the bravos of the local unworldly tribes.
  Avoiding getting caught is usually 
  Trouble
  If you’re doing something you probably shouldn’t, the threat 
  of somebody catching you tends to loom. You’ll feel over-
  whelmed and overmatched. Can you run? Can you hide? Can 
  you duck part of the consequences?
  Maybe it’ll seem like you’ve succeeded, like you’ve gotten 
  away or saved what matters.
  ...but that could just be a lull before a follow-up shocker 
  when everything goes wrong!
  Delinquent-style fights and activities are generally  
  Never 
  Say Die! or  
  Slice of Life
  Much as with sports, the characters are likely to be over-
  whelmingly challenged or not challenged at all in any brawl 
  worth playing out.
  Ghosts
  Ghosts fill up most of the empty space in School.
  You can’t always see them. They have their own classes and 
  a tendency to fade from view. However, most of the time they’re 
  visible in the halls or classrooms as faceless people in a faceless 
  crowd. They have black “emotion” lines on their featureless heads 
  allowing you to appreciate their moods. If you become personally 
  acquainted with a ghost and spend sufficient time on the interac-
  tion, you may begin to see their actual face and features. Customs 
  vary over the years, but for the most part, the living students con-
  sider growing that close to a ghost unnatural behavior, marking 
  the face-seer as a freak, geek, or other personage outside of social 
  norms.
  Not every student is capable of seeing the ghosts at all. Some 
  are blinded to their presence by unknown phenomena; to these 
  students, and to everyone else from time to time, School is a vast 
  and echoing cathedral, unnaturally great, quiet, and cold, that urg-
  es the living by its emptiness to huddle together and move swiftly 
  through its halls.
  Interacting with ghosts is usually 
  Slice of Life or Discovery
  You emote in the vicinity of a ghost. Surprisingly, it emotes 
  back!
  Being unable to see ghosts is usually a 
  Sickness or 
  Vice 
  Issue
  Maybe you really can’t see them. Maybe you’re just willfully 
  refusing to see them because you find their presence traumatic. 
  What is it that you are not willing or able to see?
  The Ghost World
  Ghosts and people are naturally estranged from one another. 
  They do not interact. The human reality and the ghost reality 
  do not touch—ghosts interact with ghosts, and ghost-books, 
  and ghost-roads, and the like. Humans interact with humans, 
  and human-books, and human-roads, and the like. But the di-
  vision between the two worlds is not whole and entire. Some-
  times eerie sounds drift through from the ghost-world, or the 
  brighter lights of the human world will shine through amidst 
  the ghosts. Sometimes empathic sensations will transmit. In 
  certain moods and in certain places a human will be primed 
  to sense ghosts, or vice versa. The more they sense one an-
  other, the more real they become to one another, until first one 
  starts to see the ghosts, and then to share a physical reality 
  with them.
  It’s a setting conceit that the living world is “more” real 
  than the ghost world, and thus the living are more real to the 
  ghosts than the other way around. When a ghost sees a human, 
  there may be a shimmer or distortion between them, like the 
  ghost is looking upwards at the world through water; when 
  a human sees a ghost, the ghost itself seems indistinct, un-
  finished, and incomplete. The ghost world is a lower, vaguer 
  reality, more prone to time-skips, emptier of sensation, less 
  mutable, and more possessed by dream-logic. It is even pos-
  sible that the ghost world is nothing more than the memories 
  of the real. 
  
  The Ghost World
  233
   
  The Ghost World
   
  ŭ The Ghost World is cold and empty.
   
  ŭ The Ghost World does not change.
   
  ŭ The Ghost World echoes in the world of life.
   
  ŭ The Ghost World is full of memories.
   
  ŭ The Ghost World sees shadowy images and reflections 
  of the real.
   
  ŭ The Ghost World is unfinished.
   
  ŭ The Ghost World is incomplete.
  
  Ghost Magic
  234
  234
   Ghost Magic 
  an example Magical Skill
  Ghosts don’t really have powers—they’re just people, who are 
  ghosts—but a few of them are a little better at being ghosts than 
  others. This seems to be a magical Skill: hard, unnatural, and 
  draining for them.
  (Isn’t that just a little bit strange?)
  You can use Ghost Magic Skill to perform the following basic, 
  non-magical techniques:
  [Obstacle 0]  laugh an eerie, echoing laugh
  [Obstacle 0]  raise someone’s hackles
  [Obstacle 0] stare ominously
  [Obstacle 1]  walk silently. 
  [Obstacle 1]  see into the living world without bringing the two  
   
  worlds closer.
  It also gives you access to the following techniques, which are 
  actually magical:
  [Obstacle 1]  find someone who’s looking for you. 
  [Obstacle 1]  adopt special “ghost expressions” that human  
   
  faces can’t. 
  [Obstacle 1]  fade away from the living world when nobody is  
   
  watching.
  [Obstacle 2]  fade away from the living world, even in plain  
   
  sight, as long as the people watching you don’t  
   
  know you very well. 
  [Obstacle 2] turn translucent and mostly-intangible, able to 
   
  pass through things of the living world as long as  
   
  they don’t also exist in the ghost world. 
  [Obstacle 2] slip into someone’s dreams. 
  [Obstacle 2] stretch out your legs into an attenuated vapor,  
   
  allowing you to float off the ground or stretch up 
   
  to five feet taller. 
  [Obstacle 3]  reach into the living world from the ghost world  
   
  without materializing. 
  [Obstacle 3]  interact with specific objects while otherwise mostly 
   
  intangible. 
  [Obstacle 3]  steal someone’s life energy. 
  [Obstacle 3]  drag a living person temporarily into the 
   
  ghost world. 
  Suggested Bonds 
  Some Bonds that might work for a ghost include:
   
  ŭ Bond: I am bound to the place of my death.
   
  ŭ Bond: I lurk around the edges of the world.
   
  ŭ Bond: Every night I am hunted down, torn apart, and eaten 
  by other ghosts.
   
  ŭ Bond: I have unfinished business.
   
  ŭ Bond: I am always cold.
   
  ŭ Bond: I am shockingly normal and dull, considering that 
  I’m a ghost.
   
  ŭ Bond: I prefer others to take the lead.
  Some Bonds more common to living magicians who practice 
  ghost magic include:
   
  ŭ Bond: I am half a ghost.
   
  ŭ Bond: I keep slipping inadvertently into the ghost world.
   
  ŭ Bond: I have to help ghosts resolve their unresolved 
  business.
   
  ŭ Bond: I have nightmares every night.
   
  ŭ Bond: Ghosts that other people can’t see or hear are al-
  ways making me laugh or startle in inappropriate contexts.
  
  Vampires
  235
   
  Vampires
  At night, School becomes Night School. This is very much the 
  same except that instead of children, the students are either adults 
  taking special classes or vampires.34 
  Let me talk about vampires for a bit.
  Most people are scared of vampires; their movements and 
  spiritual emanations trigger the death-fear and the predator-fear 
  in the human soul. However vampires in the modern world typi-
  cally consume negative energy (worry, fear, and pain) instead of 
  blood; many of them have taken a moral stand on the matter, while 
  even those with an active taste for blood have the same opinions 
  on murder and assault as any other citizen of Town. If a vampire 
  wishes to reassure humans of their docility, they will drink “pil-
  low-teeth tea,” a concoction of octopus ink and various Horizon 
  herbs which makes their fangs squishy like marshmallows and 
  unable to rip open human necks. If they wish to deny humans 
  this reassurance they may wear T-shirts comically playing up their 
  ability to rip your neck open without breaking a sweat, instead.
  A vampire feeding on you is usually 
  Corruption or 
  Metamorphosis
  Having a vampire eat your worries is probably kind of pleas-
  ant, and I’ve heard good things of the whole blood thing as 
  well—but it’s still somebody changing you from outside your-
  self, so the HG might inflict a point of Sickness and the target 
  might take a Corruption or Metamorphosis Action. 
  Drinking pillow-teeth tea is usually 
  Corruption or 
  Me-
  tamorphosis
  Seriously, the stuff is the craziest thing a dentist has ever made 
  me drink. I imagine that if you got used to it, like, if you’re 
  using really small doses as a cavity prevention technique, it 
  might become a Slice of Life sort of thing. If you’re a vampire, 
  and you decide to drink it for the first time, or to stop drinking 
  it for that matter? That’s probably a Decisive Action, complete 
  with a monologue leading up to your decision. But usually? 
  The HG should treat it as an “attack” and potentially a Meta-
  morphosis, complete with all the trippiness that can happen 
  when local reality gets disturbed. 
  After drinking the stuff, your teeth are kind of, um, spongy 
  for a bit.
  34  Vampires, even vampire children, avoid School during the day because 
  they do not like catching on fire.
  The predator-fear usually triggers 
  Obsessive Action
  Vampires are almost always safe, and even when they’re not 
  the fear will feel exactly the same, so their threatening pres-
  ence probably doesn’t qualify as Trouble unless you’re a total 
  Horizon n00b. Instead, incidents where you’re really feeling 
  the vampire-fear provoke Obsessive Action. 
  Fear sweeps over you. You get worked up over it. You do 
  something over the top. Ideally, somebody notices and emotes 
  a reaction; or, maybe, the vampire catches you (and reassures 
  you, probably) or goes away, ending the Obsessive Action 
  scene.
   Investigating Night School is usually about 
  Discovery
  You explore. You find neat, scary, or mysterious things, and, 
  ideally, emote a response! 
  Note that you probably won’t find anything mysterious.
  I mean, maybe objectively, you would? But it takes a lot 
  for something to seem mysterious in Horizon, what with the 
  Property that “people must accept what is happening around 
  them as normal”—
  So finding something “neat” or “scary” is much less rare!
  Invoking vampiric power could be a 
  Ritual
  You’re probably not a vampire. Even if you are, it’s proba-
  bly just, you know, a thing. But if you are a vampire, and you 
  want it to be this echoing, uncanny, transformative power in 
  you, then calling on your vampiric nature could be a gothic 
  permutation of the standard magical girl transformation se-
  quence. You’d play something like that out using the Ritual 
  Action rules. 
  
  (Superior) Vampire
  Superior Vitality
  236
  236
   (Superior) Vampire 
  an example Superior Skill
  This is the Skill that lets a vampire eat negative emotions and 
  blood instead of normal food; lets them have vampire children; 
  gives you, if you are a vampire, the immunities and recuperative 
  properties of the living dead. It’s also a rough measure of how 
  intimidating and predatory humans find your body language when 
  you’re not actively disguising your true nature.
  The levels look like this:
  Vampire 0: You think of yourself as a vampire. You maybe act a 
  bit like one?
  Vampire 1: You’re vampire-like. You can get decent nutrition off 
  of blood, your night vision is good, you’re extremely resilient, and 
  your metabolism is extremely slow. This is a good level for some-
  one who almost died, but was saved by a bit of vampire blood, or 
  by connecting to a vampiric spirit, or something.
  Vampire 2: Are you a half-vampire? A young vampire? Unusu-
  ally alive? Your fangs are very small. If you plan to turn some-
  one else into a vampire, have medical assistance on hand, since 
  there’s a very high risk that you’ll just kill them. You can survive 
  starvation, asphyxiation, and drowning, but you need mortal 
  food and air to function. You also need a bit of blood or negative 
  energy now and then to keep your powers active. You give off 
  “this is a dangerous human” vibes and can smell blood from a 
  long way away. Your senses are generally keen and your night 
  vision is excellent.
  Vampire 3: You’re a vampire. You’re dead, but you walk. You can 
  survive off of blood or negative emotions. You can eat negative 
  emotions—sipping lightly from ambient worry, fear, pain, and 
  possibly jealousy or anger or whatever, or drinking these things 
  straight from someone’s mind. You don’t need air, you don’t need 
  food, you don’t need water, you don’t age, you heal quickly, and 
  your natural way of moving freaks people out. It is terrifying. 
  You have the sense of smell of a bloodhound and it’s even 
  better for blood. The rest of your senses are generally keen, but 
  not that much better than at Vampire 2.
  At this level you can make vampire children, although I don’t 
  know how—I have, um, not yet actually, um, interviewed a vam-
  pire on this subject. I assume it’s like in modern vampire fiction 
  but for all I know you just use a really goofy secret handshake and 
  then wibble the tips of their ears a lot with your fingers. I don’t 
  know! Your PC might not know either.
  Vampire 4: You are some sort of super-vampire or primordial 
  pre-vampire or post-vampire or something. I don’t know what 
  these are, but it’s such a common idea in fiction that if you’ve got 
  an idea of what that would be, I think it would be OK to use it.
  Vampire 5: You are a “living vampire.” I don’t know what this 
  means either! Except that it’s actually scarier than a regular vam-
  pire instead of weaker like you’d expect. 
  This is mostly just the Skill of being a vampire—it might include 
  strength and grace and stuff, but only when you’re using it to do 
  vampire-type things like hunting or pointlessly showing off for 
  a romantic interest and it doesn’t come with any Edge. For that 
  reason vampires often supplement this with two more Superior 
  Skills, discussed below, and a variety of Bonds, Perks, Afflictions, 
  and unique magical Skills to simulate the classic vampire abilities 
  like animal-summoning, transformations, or flight.
   Superior Vitality 
  an example Superior Skill
  This is the unnatural health and strength of the living dead. 
  Vampires are really strong. I’m benchmarking a typical vam-
  pire PC at the strength and vitality of a bear—that’s Superior Vi-
  tality 3. That’s both a skill “really strong/tough 3” and 3 points 
  of Edge in any mundane conflict where strength and toughness 
  comes into play.
  In the bigger picture this Skill looks something like:
  Superior Vitality 0: Mortal strength! What’s wrong with you??
  Superior Vitality 1: This gives you a small supernatural edge, but 
  not an awesome one.
  Superior Vitality 2: You can effortlessly overpower most hu-
  mans, but you’re still in the rough vicinity of mortal strength. You 
  can only do things that are realistic for “someone really strong.”
  Superior Vitality 3: You’re as strong and tough as a bear, and 
  maybe stronger. You can tug-of-war evenly with like 8 strong 
  guys. Given long enough you can probably break through metal.
  Superior Vitality 4: Your strength is pretty limitless. You can 
  crumple steel, drag tractors around, and so forth.
  Superior Vitality 5: Your strength doesn’t even make physical 
  sense any more: you can catch falling airplanes, bat elephants ca-
  sually out of your way, and it is vaguely possible that your jaw 
  is strong enough to bite holes in space-time. Characters like the 
  Prodigy may still be able to outwrestle you, but the HG can rea-
  sonably require them to give a stirring monologue or suffer a bit 
  of Trouble before they can make the attempt.
  
  Superior Physical Control
  237
   
   Superior Physical Control 
  an example Superior Skill
  Vampires are also pretty fast, dexterous, and graceful. I’m bench-
  marking this at Superior Physical Control 1, which isn’t any-
  thing to write home about, but you might consider giving up a 
  point of something else and buying your way up to 2, which would 
  put you up there with cinematic ninjas, martial artists, pulp heroes, 
  Robin Hood, and the like.
  In the larger picture, this Skill probably looks like:
  Superior Physical Control 0: Clumsy as the living!
  Superior Physical Control 1: You move with an unnatural grace 
  and precision, but you can’t do that much with it without another 
  skill to enhance.
  Superior Physical Control 2: You’re better than any human, but 
  the best gymnasts, runners, and fighters out there might be able 
  to almost keep up with you and edge out a victory by sheer ex-
  perience.
  Superior Physical Control 3: You can pour tea safely while on 
  the back of a bucking horse.
  Superior Physical Control 4: You can catch a single drop of wa-
  ter from a splash or throw a needle into the eye of a hornet.
  Superior Physical Control 5: Unlimited precision of movement, 
  which I guess means that you can do things like... um... sing a note 
  to cancel out the waveform of another sound, hide from somebody 
  searching for you in a closed elevator, paint photorealistic images 
  in seconds, and the like?
  
  238
  238
  Teachers
  Most of the teachers are just ordinary teachers. They’re messed 
  up or wicked, because that’s the law of Horizon, but they’re still 
  pretty ordinary—a teacher is more likely to be an obsessive pencil 
  counter than an obsessed collector of students’ skin; more likely 
  to believe themselves in 18th century France than to believe that 
  the world must be sacrificed to some wicked god; more likely to 
  be pettily cruel or ideologically evil than murderous, sadistic, or 
  monstrous. You might start the morning with a cat running home-
  room—not a talking cat, just an ordinary cat with a diploma from 
  a diploma mill; move on to a class with a muttering eccentric; 
  then, after a break for lunch, round out the afternoon with a de-
  viant scientist, a nihilistic unrepentant murderer on work release, 
  and a fervent breatharian nutritionist.35 You’d get to go home still 
  alive!
  That said, there are some teachers who are actively danger-
  ous to the children of Horizon: they’re just the meat and drink of 
  specific campaigns and encounters and not an assumed part of a 
  young character’s life.
  Class with a Deviant Scientist is usually a source of 
   Obses-
  sive worry
  Class with a Deviant Scientist can also be 
   Trouble
  Whether it’s Dr. Ellen Kinnegan with her botanical exper-
  iments or mild-mannered Mr. Hawke with his railguns and 
  robotics, there’s always the brooding sense hanging over the 
  class that something’s about to go terribly wrong.
  Class with the Unrepentant Murderer is usually a source of 
   Obsessive worry
  Obviously Mr. Red won’t jeopardize his work release just to 
  kill you, probably. He is very clear that those stains on the wall 
  are not blood, or not his students’ blood anyway. “Besides,” 
  he’ll say airily, “the Principal’s always bleeding. That could 
  totally be from him. Hahahahahaha.”
  Then he’ll look at you, very seriously and sincerely, and 
  say, like a lover, “Nothing matters, you know. Not even maths.”
  Class with the Self-Effacing Teacher is usually 
   Shared Re-
  actions
  It’s practically impossible to even remember this guy’s face, 
  much less his name, or to listen to whatever he’s trying to say. 
  Does he have eyebrows? Does he speak your language? Is he 
  even your teacher, or is this another class run by the cat? This 
  one time he showed up wearing a pink and lavender suit be-
  cause he wanted to tell people he was getting married, but he 
  lost your attention somewhere before saying to whom.
  Usually his world history class is an occasion for lively 
  discussion of sports, family matters, and love.
  35  Teach the controversy!
  Class with the Shriveled Teacher is usually 
   Adversity
  This is a wizened old man named Mr. Morgan. He has stone 
  fingernails that are long and sharp. He is cruel and extremely 
  good at justifying his cruelty; he is able to make an impeccable 
  case that almost anybody deserves whatever punishment he 
  feels like handing out, and according to legend can cow even a 
  hero into standing down. There is a rumor that if he ever gives 
  anybody an A+ or an honest compliment he will catch fire and 
  burn away.
  
  Ogre-Sensei
  239
   
  Ogre-Sensei
  Zoë Rosewood, aka Ogre-Sensei
  (The) Ogre-Sensei is very passionate about poetry, literature, 
  math, and the right of his or her unworldly cannibalistic tribe 
  to continue existing as themselves. This ogre is a very good and 
  challenging teacher except that sometimes in the middle of their 
  class when nobody is paying attention one or two students van-
  ish... and they are never seen again. 
  Could the teacher be eating them? 
  And why can’t the best minds and hearts of the student body 
  turn this ogre into a giant human egg?
  By default this Main Character is Mrs. Zoë Rosewood, but 
  you could swap her job and title with that of her husband, the 
  Principal’s usher and bodyguard Hugh. Other variations include 
  making her a risen ghoul or tank-model zombie instead of an ogre, 
  giving her a high-level special seminar instead of a class, or mak-
  ing her and Hugh fresh-faced School-age geeks smart enough to 
  teach one particular class during the current budgetary crunch. 
  Extracurricular interactions w/ the Ogre-Sensei are usually 
  Trouble
  She’s terrifyingly, freakishly strong—like, she can beat the 
  Prodigy in hand-to-hand combat. She can smell where you’ve 
  been for the last three days from up to a quarter mile away. 
  Her skin can turn a knife. Also, she eats people. Well, her 
  tribe does, anyway. And she thinks that’s their moral right.
  Ogre-Sensei’s class is usually 
  Foreshadowing
  She likes to pick topics that matter to people.
  Ogre-Sensei’s class is sometimes 
  Sympathetic Action
  You weren’t paying that much attention. Then, bam, suddenly 
  this class is very important. Like, you’ve just realized that one 
  of the students is gone. Or she’s casually mentioned something 
  directly relevant to your interests, like a discussion of what 
  your family was doing fifty years back or a story about some-
  thing you’re looking for.
  If you freeze up in shock, someone else can attempt Sym-
  pathetic Action.
  Extracurricular interactions w/ Ogre-Sensei are sometimes  
  Never Say Die!
  You refuse to accept that she’s too strong to fight and too some-
  thing to befriend or investigate and turn into a human egg. You 
  stand up to her. Maybe you even seek her out and stand up to her. 
  Never Say Die!
  Her rants about anthropophagy are usually 
  Slice of Life
  She will occasionally go off on a tangent about how complete-
  ly unfair and ridiculous it is to be a superior, amazing ogress 
  who is born to kill and eat humans and then have them turn out 
  to have this pompous spark of... something almost like person-
  hood or intellect inside their ridiculously mushy brain-meats. 
  How the moral binding to not eat things that have their own 
  experience of the matter is a ridiculous and unfair imposition 
  and how if anybody can construct a proper ethical argument 
  freeing her of it she will totally give extra credit. 
  Sometimes she will make this argument because she is pas-
  sionate. Sometimes she will do it because she is tired, dispir-
  ited, or drunk. And at such times she is oddly sympathetic, 
  because a desire not to kill and eat people is clear in her voice 
  even while she wavers intermittently into a rhapsodical de-
  scription of the delights of human flesh, but 
  no matter how sympathetic or troubled 
  she might get it is not going to rise 
  to the level of Adversity or Shared 
  Reactions; there is really nothing 
  that can be said, not by anyone ex-
  cept possibly another ogre, only 
  listening to her with whatever 
  expression shows up on 
  your face, on your face, 
  and maybe sipping from 
  a drink now and again, 
  and, when she winds 
  down 
  and 
  sighs, 
  sighing after her, 
  and looking out 
  into the distance, 
  and 
  saying, 
  “Ah.”
  Because 
  that’s 
  just how it is, isn’t it? 
  Life’s like that? Even if 
  you’re an ogre some- 
  times you can’t be mo- 
  rally  justified in  
  doing everything you 
   want. 
  
  The Practical Teacher
  240
  240
  The Practical Teacher
  Mrs. Senko, aka the Practical Teacher
  This Main Character is a very good teacher (probably covering 
  “rational thinking,” “citizenship,” or “topics in reason and phi-
  losophy”) but disapproves of childishness and imagination. The 
  Practical Teacher is always trying to convince students to aban-
  don their fanciful ideas and study hard so that they can go to the 
  Bleak Academy beyond the far Outside, for which this character 
  is a local representative and recruiter.
  This Main Character is normally Mrs. Senko, daughter of the 
  Headmaster of the Bleak Academy, but may also be Mr. Senko, 
  Jr., his grandson. Another possible variant is the Impractical 
  Teacher, who strives to madden students with whimsy and magic 
  until they flee to the Bleak Academy to escape the rampant chaos 
  of Horizon life. (Or maybe that isn’t the purpose at all—maybe 
  they just want to laugh at the students for breaking down!)
  The Practical Teacher’s class is sometimes 
   Decisive Action
  Perversely, the pressure of her practicality can result in your 
  thinking about, and talking about, your hopes and your wishes 
  and your dreams. If you can catch someone’s attention with 
  this while you’re laying out your ideas and hopes, and build 
  towards a decision or towards a decisive action, that’s a great 
  Decisive Action.
  The Practical Teacher’s class is usually  
   Corruption
  She will try to break you down. She will try to get her hooks 
  into your mind. 
  The Practical Teacher’s class is sometimes 
   Never Say Die!
  You refuse to give in. You refuse to bow to the ideology of the 
  bleak. You stand up to her, resist her power, and make a case 
  for wishing, childishness, and the imagination—or maybe you 
  just tell her off. This provokes, not a physical conflict, but a 
  philosophical, psychological, and verbal struggle—
  Never Say Die! 
  The Practical Teacher’s class is sometimes 
   Shared Reac-
  tions
  It’s also possible that you might become friends with her over 
  time and have classes where instead of Corruption or struggle 
  you wind up just kind of offering your alternate perspectives 
  on the kinds of things that have gone on. You work through 
  your divergent emotions and your ideas. You talk about how 
  you live your lives. You try to connect!
  
  Deviant Science
  241
   
   Deviant Science 
  an example Magical Skill
  There’s a pervasive strand of deviant science in Town, particularly 
  in Arcadia, Horizon, and Horizon’s School. It works like this.
  Deviant Science (aka Steampunk, Steam Science, or Science!) 
  is a magical Skill. That means that it can do basically anything—
  while it may look like it’s bounded in some fashion by the normal 
  limits of human or human-like activity, it isn’t. If you practice this 
  science, you can make a gyroscopically stabilized hand cannon or a 
  clockwork alligator that really cries. You can make a death ray. You 
  can make anything imaginable, really, with only one limitation: prac-
  tically everything you can do with this Skill faces an Obstacle, mean-
  ing that you’ll probably need to spend more Will than you’d like. 
  Harder stuff faces a larger Obstacle, and stuff outside the standard 
  steampunk thematics below usually gets a +2 Obstacle on top of that.
  Note that deviant science is a kind of engineering and not 
  just casting spells, so you’re going to need time to do your work. 
  Sometimes you can hurry it a little, but if the HG thinks you’re 
  pushing it too far you’ll take the “outside the standard steampunk 
  thematics” penalty on those grounds alone.
  This Skill starts with two techniques that aren’t really magical 
  at all—
  [Obstacle 0] Simple, practical, and realistic feats of engineering, 
   
  such as putting together a quick block and tackle.
  [Obstacle 1] Unrealistically extensive clockwork.
  I don’t think other PCs need magic or a +2 Obstacle to do these—
  characters like the Prodigy can perform these techniques perfect-
  ly, and really, for a normal scientist, even the vastest clockwork 
  projects are going to be Obstacle 2 instead of Obstacle 3.
  The next few techniques, conversely, are genuinely magical, or 
  at least, well, deviant:
  [Obstacle 1] Unrealistically elegant steam-powered machines
  [Obstacle 2] Self-motivated automata
  [Obstacle 2] Artificial limbs
  [Obstacle 2] Flying machines
  [Obstacle 3] Thinking machines
  [Obstacle 3] Death rays
  [Obstacle 3] Multi-purpose machines capable of dramatically  
   
  reshaping/resizing themselves
  I’m not ready to say that any given application here is impossible 
  to an ordinary engineer—Earth has plenty of flying machines, and 
  in fact some of almost everything else! I’m just going to say that 
  at this point, you’ve departed from normalcy. 
  That’s a problem for anyone trying to copy or understand your 
  work—
  But for you it’s a plus. It means you can do remarkable things. 
  If you want to whip up a zeppelin in your garage, the HG doesn’t 
  have to spend a few hours trying to look up whether that is a feasi-
  ble or an unfeasible project. I mean, I assume that either engineer-
  ing students at MIT build zeppelins in their garage on a regular 
  basis or that there’s some reason why it’s just not practical at all, I 
  assume this is knowable, but it doesn’t matter. 
  You’re a deviant scientist. It’s Obstacle 2.
  Similarly, if you want to build an actual artificial intelligence, 
  the HG doesn’t have to look up the state of modern AI; we don’t 
  have to have a discussion as to why it hasn’t lived up to its ear-
  ly promise or whether a true AI automatically self-improves to a 
  Singularity. The HG just has to work with you to figure out what’s 
  appropriate to your Skill and to Town.
  I wouldn’t put it past normal, non-deviant scientists to invent 
  some sort of death ray—probably sound-based or whatever? 
  Electricity?—but that isn’t relevant either. If you want a death 
  ray—sound-based, electricity-based, even remove the vital prin-
  ciple-based? Bam. That’s Obstacle 3.
  Wondering why I’m only going up to level 3 here?
  It’s because I’m reserving Obstacles 4 and 5 for steampunk ad-
  aptations of other magical Skills’ techniques. For instance, the Ki-
  chi family can astral project while staring into their magical pools. 
  That’s Obstacle 2. The Yatskaya can embody a spirit or archetype; 
  for them, that’s Obstacle 3. So a Kichi Pool Astral Projection Vapor 
  Engine, replicating the Kichi technique, would be Obstacle 4. Build-
  ing a Yatskaya-Style TYPHON Interface Battlesuit Mark I, sum-
  moning the spirit “Typhon” down into the wearer’s flesh: that would 
  be Obstacle 5. Most random stuff that isn’t listed above or emulating 
  an established technique from another magical Skill will be Obstacle 
  3-5; once you hit Obstacle 5, that’s as hard as anything gets.36
  A really good Horizon laboratory can function as a +1 Tool for 
  such a Skill as this.
  36  So why not just build an All-Powerful I-Win Button, if you’re at Ob-
  stacle 5 anyway? The answer: if you think your character can make an 
  All-Powerful I-Win Button, that is a better use of your time than a Yats-
  kaya-Style TYPHON Interface Battlesuit Mark I... but it’s not worth ru-
  ining your character concept for. All mundane actions, including actions 
  to use magical devices, are heavily filtered through the HG’s storytelling 
  techniques anyway, so it’s better to have a battlesuit that fits with the 
  game and your character’s story than something named “the All-Power-
  ful I-Win button” that does not! 
  Bonds You Might Have
  Common Bonds for a deviant scientist include such weaknesses as:
   
  ŭ Bond: I’m obsessed with numbers and measurements.
   
  ŭ Bond: I have a tendency to monologue.
   
  ŭ Bond: I prefer to do things the baroque and elaborate way.
   
  ŭ Bond: I can’t sleep when I’m inspired. I can barely eat.
   
  ŭ Bond: My hair looks goofy.
   
  ŭ Bond: I am unaware of normal social conventions.
   
  ŭ Bond: I automatically use my “outside voice” when 
  talking about science!
   
  ŭ Bond: I cannot resist a sufficiently compelling experiment.
   
  ŭ Bond: I am impelled to doom myself through my own hubris.
   
  ŭ Bond: I love my creations. My beautiful creations.
  And such strengths as:
   
  ŭ Bond: I am exceptionally good at making weapons.
   
  ŭ Bond: I am exceptionally good at making robots.
   
  ŭ Bond: I am at my best when building stuff with an animal 
  theme.
  
  The Principal
  The Principal
  242
  242
  The Principal
  Principal Entropy II, Magister, aka
  The Principal
  Once upon a time the Principal of Horizon’s School was Entropy 
  I, Magister—the King of Evil and all evil things. Having learned 
  that the world was doomed, he came down to Horizon and built 
  his School, there to cultivate students capable of becoming or cre-
  ating a new world.
  This he called the S.E.E.D. program.
  No sooner did the program begin to bear fruit than he did, 
  as well—a child by (some say) the Magistrix of the Third Age 
  of Creation, Attaris Ebrôt Appêkā, or (others say) by a mortal 
  woman; by the sun, then named Jade Irinka; or by God or the 
  Devil themselves.
  That’s this Main Character—
  By default, a 22-year-old male scholar named Principal Entro-
  py II, although you could make them secretly female, or the public-
  ly female Principal Attaris II, or cut back or increase their age.37
  Let’s assume this character is “Entropy II,” for now.
  He killed his father and he stole his job—
  Well, officially, Entropy I decided that he had to leave sud-
  denly, stripped off his bloody, knife-gashed fireproof garments, 
  handed them to his son as moving, family-connection type music 
  swelled, said, “Son, I’m going to need you to run the School while 
  I’m away,” jumped into the incinerator and flew up the chimney 
  and was off; his son clung so fiercely to those garments as he cried 
  that the blood permeated and became an element of his hands...
  —but let’s be realistic.
  He killed his father, and he stole his job, only to discover that 
  being Principal is not actually all that rewarding. Now his hands 
  drip eternally with blood and he must spend most of every day bur-
  ied deep in the Administration Complex of School handling paper-
  work, angry parents whose children have been eaten, suspended, 
  or otherwise unfortunate, and interpersonal issues at the School.
  These days Principal Entropy II lives on an evil island that 
  flies around the sun. It comes down from the sky in the morning 
  and double parks, or, rather, fifty-thousand-fold parks on his space 
  and the adjacent parking spaces in the massive administration lot. 
  Then he climbs down and it flies away until it’s time for the Prin-
  cipal to go home again at night. Fortunately for his faculty nobody 
  really uses cars in Horizon so as long as they remember not to 
  park their bikes in or call a hansom to the administration parking 
  lot these events are unlikely to do harm.
  Owing to the peculiar circumstances under which he assumed 
  his apparently hereditary office, Principal Entropy isn’t actual-
  ly that much older than the students at his School. He has very 
  strange ideas about how the School should be run but seems to 
  have good intentions—he is intent on turning out students capable 
  of handling anything life throws at them, and isn’t afraid to be 
  cruel and authoritarian to get there. His private office is guarded 
  by a labyrinthine trap-infested warren of strange halls and filing 
  cabinets; most students whom the teachers send to meet with him 
  must wait for him in the general Administrative Offices.
  In his tenure the S.E.E.D. program continues; evidently, the 
  world’s still under threat.
  37  “for budgetary reasons”
  Meetings with the Principal are usually 
   Immersive Fantasy
  For him it’s like Decisive or Science/Faith/Sorcery Actions:
   
  ŭ He monologues to you. He explains his perspective, and 
  builds up to a choice. Then, he acts!
   
  ŭ Or... he decides to trust you with something. So he explains 
  what he thinks you’re about, and what he thinks you’re go-
  ing to do, and then he gambles that you’ll do it.
  ...but he’s often an NPC, so I don’t think his epic actions matter 
  here. What matters is that you might feel sympathy for him; or 
  scared, intrigued, or puzzled by what he says; or that you may 
  find it a Shock!
  Or are they 
   Defining Moments?
  It’s also possible that you’re the one in the driver’s seat here—
  monologuing to or putting your faith in him!
  Being recruited into the S.E.E.D. program is often a 
   Defin-
  ing Moment
  Participating in the S.E.E.D. program is often 
   Shared Action
  S.E.E.D. functions a lot like any other School club—the club 
  mission, “to create a new world if this one gets destroyed,” is 
  great and epic and all but in practice involves sitting around in a 
  clubroom reading books, doing homework, and playing games. 
  The exceptions aren’t usually actions but long plotlines—
  Training missions or complex storylines where the Princi-
  pal or PC/NPC who runs the club tries to build up the partici-
  pants’ potential; attempts to move forward with world-creation 
  so the club will have something to show off at the cultural fes-
  tival; dangerous experiments like building a small prototype 
  world in the near Outside or reducing a basement lab to a state 
  of raw chaos; and being targeted by enemies from far away.
  Incidentally, the actual process of creating a new world 
  probably involves one student turning into a giant tree or other 
  axis mundi, another student turning into a crackling wall of 
  fire that surrounds it and keeps enemies at bay, and a few oth-
  ers becoming gardeners. Developing these harsh truths into a 
  plotline is left as an exercise for a reader or a later campaign.
  Going into the Principal’s labyrinth is sometimes a 
   Struggle 
  (Trouble or Never Say Die!)
  You’re driven by some unavoidable circumstance to head into 
  the labyrinth around Principal Entropy’s private office. But 
  you’re overwhelmed and outmatched!
  Or were you looking for trouble?
  Did you have an option? Could you have waited for him in the 
  Administrative Offices? That’s more likely to be Never Say Die!
  When he addresses the student body it is usually 
   Foreshad-
  owing
  He’ll say something that catches your attention. You listen for 
  a while. Then, you react!
  
  The Student Council
  243
   
  The Student Council
  Six shards of the first Principal Entropy—“the Six Sins”—rule 
  the Student Council of Horizon’s School. They wear masks when 
  about their official duties and hide invisibly among the student 
  body when they are not. They share the Principals’ dream of cre-
  ating a new world, but each has an alternate vision as to how it 
  should be done.
  They are:
  Lee Scathing, who runs the Disciplinary Committee. A blood 
  magician, he keeps tanks of the Principal’s blood in his labora-
  tory beneath the School and uses them to create poisons, refine 
  ordinary students into Hall Monitors, and craft new forms of life. 
  He objects to the S.E.E.D. program as too earthy, coarse, and hu-
  man, believing that only a perfected being of total innocence can 
  re-create the world.
  The Exultant runs the Travel Committee. He has learned the 
  ways of the evil world and the Outside. His sin is to love wick-
  edness precisely because it is wickedness; he adores the purity of 
  bad intentions. His grand dream is to poison the Headmaster of 
  the Bleak Academy with the stuff of the Principal’s evil island, 
  paralyzing him as a wasp might paralyze a spider, and using him 
  to host the eggs of newborn worlds.
  Owler thinks itself a God, and laughs at the pride and the 
  achievements of all other souls. It runs the Catering Committee. It 
  is a formless vitality: it has learned the trick of stepping from body 
  to body, possessing the new host and leaving the old host dazed 
  and confused behind it. It intends to create and become the new 
  world itself, reshaping its borrowed flesh; then it will abandon 
  its new world-host, leaving it stuck eternally in the shape of the 
  new Creation, while Owler parties with such allies and lovers it 
  can bring along as the new world’s eternal King and Queen.
  Mourning has no specified role on the Student Coun-
  cil. He is generally believed to be a vampire prince, able to 
  walk in day, and rejecting the pillow-teeth tea that would 
  indicate his refusal to harm mortals. He holds that it is from 
  a vast field of corpses that the new world shall be made; 
  he spends his life engineering the great battle that shall 
  give it birth.
  Glass Spider runs the Finance and Budget Com-
  mittee. He has a magic of naming to him, the power to 
  inject others with packages of compulsions, drives, and 
  programmed thoughts—though he must purchase access to 
  their minds from them for his more extreme and peculiar 
  endeavors. His belief is that it is not a student but a story 
  that will remake the world—a work of art, which he seeks 
  desperately to find someone to craft, that will, when 
  played out physically on the stage that is the world or 
  (more likely) the Outside, give rise to new substance and 
  new form. 
  Finally, Impious runs the Athletics Committee. The sin of Im-
  pious is to love the wounded, and their strength in surviving hard-
  ship, so much as to forget that there is more to them than just their 
  wounds. It is the belief of Impious that only a creature that returns 
  from utter ruination, from being utterly broken, can become the 
  seed of a beautiful new world.
  Working for the Student Council is usually 
  Wicked
  In a typical Horizon game the Student Council is very gray but 
  not actually evil—
  
  School Uniforms
  244
  244
  I mean, with the possible exception of Owler, they can all 
  maintain at least the façade of humaneness and more than a 
  façade of having a legitimate reason to exist. They should all 
  probably be thrown into a volcano or something, but there’s at 
  least a 30% chance that some of them are salvageable as peo-
  ple and a 5% chance that they’re necessary to saving existence 
  and humanity from being lost.
  So, working for them isn’t necessarily evil. They’ll tempt 
  you into it, they’ll try to sway you into it, and it won’t be evil.
  It’ll just be... bad.
  Unhealthy. 
  Not good for you at all.
  You may get an invitation. They may offer you a mask and 
  powers and a place among them, or a junior role assisting the 
  luminaries of the place. They may offer you an ordinary job, or 
  ask for your help with their secret agenda.
  It’s not healthy, so it’s Wicked, but I guess it isn’t neces-
  sarily wrong.
  Encounters with the Student Council are sometimes 
   the 
  Road of Trials
  Conversely, there’s always a chance that they are laughing and 
  brutal monsters, to a one.
  School Uniforms
  School has three standard uniforms, leaving aside accessories, op-
  tions, and gender divisions. These are colloquially known as the 
  living colors, the dead colors, and School colors.
  The first uniform is navy, white, and gold. This is for living 
  students born in Town. The crest for these “living colors” is the 
  ourokompos, a classical symbol made of knotted snakes that rep-
  resents life upon the world. School regulations forbid this uniform 
  and these colors to vampires, ghosts, foreigners, unworldly crea-
  tures, and residents of the Outside; this is enforced with penalties 
  ranging from detention to expulsion and, in one case, according to 
  rumor, with death.38 This uniform is also forbidden to locals un-
  fortunate enough to have been born on foreign soil, although the 
  penalties are less and students who moved to Town before their 
  third year of life or whose parents were both natives may apply for 
  an exemption on that basis.
  The second uniform is black and red. These are the dead col-
  ors, for foreigners and the walking dead. The underlying cultural 
  complex, which took me a while to tease out, is the notion that 
  ghosts and vampires are both immigrants from the land beyond 
  the grave. There may also be some xenophobia or at least patri-
  otic fever involved in this juxtaposition; I’m not altogether sure. 
  Though it varies from year to year, this uniform is generally more 
  daring than the first uniform in its cut and its style.
  Living students born in Town are forbidden to wear the black 
  and red, although there is an exemption available for second-gen-
  eration immigrants who consider themselves natives of a different 
  land. It’s not clear whether this uniform is available to someone 
  who dies and then comes back, to someone who might as well be 
  dead, or to characters of ambiguous homeland such as the nearer 
  straits of the Outside; it’s probably best to wear the black and gold, 
  below, while waiting for an exemption to go through. The crest for 
  38  I suspect that if this happened at all the circumstances were not as I 
  have heard.
  the dead colors is the red hand or the empty red sun, two classic 
  heraldic symbols for the Principal himself.
  The third uniform is black and gold. Any student may avail 
  themselves of these colors and this design; it’s something of a fail-
  safe, I think, although the student body has given it connotations 
  of elegance and formality as well. The crest for this uniform is a 
  symbol of sun and stars.
  School has separate athletic uniforms, but they’re not as strict-
  ly regulated (except within the individual teams) and they tend to 
  have both functional and aesthetic variations. The School animal 
  is the jackalope, a jackrabbit with antlers and a pheasant’s tail, 
  and many teams and several clubs have taken it as their mascot 
  and their blazon.
  ourokompos 
  (navy/white/gold uniform crest)
  "red hand" 
  (black/red uniform crest)
  
  Bluebell Park
  245
   
  Bluebell Park
  This Region is stylized, unsettling, and brilliantly colorful. It is a 
  shock to the senses.
  It is a haunted place.
  Wish spirits live here. They encourage people to dream, 
  to desire, to want things. That isn’t all, though. There’s some-
  thing darker, something that takes people out of themselves, 
  something that makes them less human and more their public/
  social identity—a place where you are perfected and taken 
  away from yourself, both at once, where your every move-
  ment becomes more dramatic, more confident, more emotion-
  al, and more precise.
  Bluebell Park is Town’s premiere destination for both ro-
  mantic walks and duels. This is not simply the choice of the 
  people of Town, but something of the Park’s nature—the place 
  is ambiguously located. It seems to drift into the path of those 
  who are seeking, or finding, a profound emotional experience 
  with another. It takes a certain conscious will or very careful 
  attention to one’s surroundings or one’s maps to reliably avoid 
  Bluebell Park at such times, and so the bulk of Town has learned 
  to live with it, even to value it. Two lovers, walking, will look 
  up, and see they walk in Bluebell Park, and smile; and “Shall 
  we meet in Bluebell Park?” is a standard invitation to either a 
  romantic walk or a duel, with the occasional memorable misin-
  terpretation in result.
  Love and battles open your heart to your partner or opponent. 
  In Bluebell Park, they also open you up to the archetypes and 
  symbols that live within yourself.
  Area: 275 acres 
  Population: ~5 + 11,000 wish spirits
  Bluebell Park
   
  ŭ Emotions must have a tangible impact on the world.
   
  ŭ People must honor customs and forms.
   
  ŭ Events must repeat themselves until something transfor-
  mative happens.
   
  ŭ The lake must be tranquil.
   
  ŭ Everyone must have musical talent.
   
  ŭ A terrible power must sleep among the bluebells by the lake.
  Typical Genre: Techno
  
  246
  246
  Who is Bluebell Park?
  Bluebell Park is the you that you don’t know. It’s the part of your-
  self that you hide from yourself. It’s the unleashed you, some-
  times; the real you, sometimes; the hidden you, sometimes. May-
  be those are the same things and maybe they’re not, but they’re 
  all faces it can wear.
  It may lock its gates against those who have high 
  Sickness. 
  They’re not really themselves any longer and so the Park rejects 
  them—even if it’s the source of their sickness, even if its meta-
  physical nature descends when they break from reality and the 
  sickness gets worse, it still bars them from the physical Park itself. 
  Conversely the Park may actively hunt down those characters  
  with high 
  Vice or 
  Mystery, moving through Town to place 
  its paths before them, reveling in giving them opportunities to in-
  dulge their wickedness or to learn more about themselves. The 
  Park is sickening, actively sickening, to someone who has issues 
  they’re not facing, and sometimes to anybody who is fighting hard 
  to control themselves and who they are.
  So when you go into Bluebell Park, that’s something you can 
  use to decide how it reacts. How do you feel about the parts of 
  yourself that you don’t usually see? Are they a wonder to you? A 
  horror to you? Something that you want to see?
  It’s not quite that simple, though, because you’re not the only 
  one in Bluebell Park. At least, not most of the time. Most of the 
  time, there’s someone else in there with you.
  Their emotions will reach you, if they want them to. They 
  can pierce you with them, bend you to their will with their words 
  and feelings alone. It’s dangerous to go into Bluebell Park with 
  someone, even if they think they’re not going to push you into 
  anything, because you’re dealing with not just them but their 
  inner truths.
  On the other hand, there’s a saying that we can never really 
  know anybody else; that we live alone and we die alone; that other 
  people are aliens to us, Outside creatures to us, sources of fear, 
  and mystery, and unease. That doesn’t have to be true. You can 
  see into someone’s soul. You can feel their heart. You can know 
  their truth.
  You don’t have to be alone. You can take the risk and you can ac-
  tually understand somebody else, if you’re willing to risk yourself.
  So, as the enemies of the world might say—
  Shall we meet in Bluebell Park?
  The South
  The southern portion of Bluebell Park is a heavily-landscaped 
  area built around a central lake or pond.  I don’t know what to call 
  it—it’s way too big to be a pond, practically half a mile long, but 
  it’s a skinny little thing, barely as wide as two football fields, so I 
  feel a little uneasy calling it a lake. 
  It’s a body of water, anyway.
  There’s a muddy grass rise that runs lengthwise down the lake. 
  I wouldn’t want to walk it but you could, you’d just get your boots 
  pretty wet. It’s not straight: it wiggles this way and that like it was 
  dividing up a yin-yang symbol.
  There’s a cobblestone walking path around the lake. There are 
  benches you can sit on. 
  There are shops around the lake—not that many, just a few. 
  There’s the Kago library and there’s Tavares’ café. There’s a sand-
  wich shop, a donut shop, and a gallery; an old broken-down and 
  burned-out smithy; a bookstore; and Flotsam Newspaper Supplies.
  There are trees and banks of flowers. There’s grass. The whole 
  area is surrounded by low white walls with red tiles on top.
  The Children’s Area
  Off to the west of the landscaped area is a small, lightly wooded 
  area with mostly-cleared dirt ground, animal-shaped statues, and a 
  low wall that surrounds it. In theory it is a viable place for children 
  to play while parents walk along the cobblestone way or duel upon 
  the bridge.
  Bluebell Park, 
  for the Shallow
  Maybe you’re not thinking right now. Maybe you’re relaxed. 
  Maybe your heart hasn’t been battered lately, maybe there’s noth-
  ing you’re really hiding from yourself, maybe your biggest secret 
  right now is that you’ve really got to pee.
  Have you been running, for exercise I mean, and your body’s 
  full of endorphins?
  Are you celebrating turning in a big assignment?
  Are you the Wishing Boy, maybe, in the full flower of the 
  Ordinary?
  For you, the Park will probably be a safe and shallow place. 
  You won’t find anything too strange there because there is noth-
  ing that you’re hiding from yourself. At worst, a little bit of the 
  sickness of the place will slip into you, and even that’s pretty rare.
   
  
  247
   
  For the shallow, visiting Bluebell Park is rarely 
  Trauma
  For just a moment the colors in this place were too bright, too 
  sharp, a little bit disorienting and disturbing. For just a moment 
  the smell was a bit too sweet. And maybe you start dreaming 
  about it later, maybe it seeps in and you dream jumbled, dis-
  ruptive dreams of those colors, those flowers, and those scents, 
  that wake you up sweating and make it hard to sleep again. 
  Maybe you see it sometimes, randomly, later, even when 
  awake, when you close your eyes.
  But, like I said, that’s rare.
  For the shallow, scenes in Bluebell Park are usually just 
  Set-
  ting (Slice of Life or Discovery)
  You see something. It stirs your emotions—how pretty! How 
  scary! How weird! 
  Bluebell Park, 
  for the Troubled
  You’re troubled. There’s something eating at you. There’s some-
  thing confusing you. You wander into Bluebell Park.
  It is a garden of strange symbols.
  It is trying to tell you... 
  What?
  Figuring out what it’s trying to tell you is usually 
  Immersive 
  Fantasy
  You walk the paths of Bluebell Park and they are full of strange 
  happenings and strange symbols. You see Foreshadowing, you 
  make Discoveries, and every now and then—
  You see something that freezes you up.
  Maybe you were with someone, and figured you were safe, 
  because why would the Park pay any attention to you when 
  you were with them?
  But you see something anyway. You round a corner and 
  there’s a statue of you; or you suddenly see a momentary, flick-
  ering vision of the person you’re with killing you; or some-
  thing else comes up that you absolutely can’t ignore, some-
  thing that you weren’t expecting. Maybe a dying wish spirit, 
  if you love them. Maybe a letter reaches you from a friend. 
  Maybe you realize, or at least think for a moment, that you’re 
  walking into the mouth of a giant wolf! 
  You freeze up.
  That’s an occasion for the person you’re with to take a 
  Sympathetic Action.
  Figuring out what it’s trying to tell you is sometimes 
  Epic 
  Fantasy
  Maybe you’ve seen some stuff and you think you’ve figured 
  out what it’s all trying to tell you. Maybe you take over the 
  scene from the beginning, saying, “Here is what I see.” 
  Anyway, you explain where you’re at in your head, and 
  what you’re seeing, and then you make a choice. And the HG 
  can allow that choice, and that private vision, and that’s going 
  to be Decisive.
  Or the HG can deny that choice, say—“that is what you 
  want to see, but here is what Bluebell Park actually shows 
  you”—and if you accept that, and it hurts you, then that must 
  have been a Science, Faith, and Sorcery Action; but if you 
  deny it, isn’t that a Wicked Action instead?
  Diligence and Repression, 
  in Bluebell Park
  Sometimes you’ve got something you’re repressing. Sometimes 
  there’s something in you or the world that you don’t want to face.
  Sometimes you’re diligent and serious and honest and brave 
  and good.
  You will hear something, then, like a high-pitched buzzing or 
  ringing sound. You will feel it, then, as you walk through Bluebell 
  Park—a stifling blanket of terror and darkness pushing in on you. 
  Everything will be wrong, wrong, wrong, and terrible. It will build 
  and twist within you.
  I think that this is supposed to actually be two different experi-
  ences, one for those in denial and one for those who are good. Not 
  many people have visited the Park both while in one state and not 
  the other, and then in the other state and not the one, and certainly 
  not in close temporal proximity, so it’s hard to say for sure. But 
  I’m told that it really is different, that it’s the difference between 
  having something twisting within you and being on a high plateau 
  without any air. It’s the same sweep of ever-worsening nausea and 
  I don’t belong here that you’ll experience either way, but it’s still 
  two different kinds of experience deep-down.
  I don’t know. I really don’t! But that is what I am told.
  This wrongness of Bluebell Park is sometimes 
  Trouble
  You’re freaking out. This place is making your head spin and 
  your ears ring. You’re starting to see something, to feel some-
  thing. Everything’s going weird. You have to get out of here. 
  Or—maybe if you can sit down, maybe if you can close your 
  eyes and wait it out—
  Or maybe you can fight for a limited, tactical victory. Just hold 
  out for 5 minutes. Just get through this for a little bit of the walk.
  Then suddenly you realize something like you have never 
  actually been yourself, you’re a puppet of a former self and the 
  only reason you don’t know it is that some monstrous machine 
  wiped your memory...
  After the lull, you see, comes fear.
  
  The Ideologue
  248
  248
  This wrongness of Bluebell Park is sometimes 
  Wicked
  You shouldn’t be here. It’s too vivid. It’s too strange. Your 
  world is going a little weird. You should run. You should get 
  out. But you don’t.
  Maybe you’re on a romantic walk with somebody. You 
  don’t want to embarrass yourself.
  Heck, you’re thinking. Maybe this isn’t even really un-
  healthy. Maybe this is... maybe this is what being in love feels 
  like? Maybe you’re not going out of your head, maybe this is 
  what being on a romantic walk with somebody you care about 
  is like? Everything smells so sweet. Hospital-sweet but sweet. 
  Everything is so bright. The person you’re with is so pretty, so 
  handsome. Their voice is so far away.
  You should run, but you don’t.
  This wrongness of Bluebell Park is sometimes 
  Corruption/
  Metamorphosis
  Or maybe it’s too late from the moment you get there. Maybe 
  it’s all eating into your head from the moment you get there 
  and the only thing to do is to enjoy it if you possibly can.
  Experiencing this wrongness is sometimes 
  Adversity
  You freak out. You run. Or fall down and throw up. It messes 
  you up. You do something that can only be called over-the-top, 
  considering that you’re just in a pretty, vivid park and not some 
  weird sort of Hell. 
  —and you tip over the edge into delirium.
  Shall We Meet in Bluebell 
  Park?
  It’s OK to visit Bluebell Park for a formal, pre-planned date or 
  any kind of duel even if you’re a good person or have something 
  you’re repressing. The Park will get involved with such things 
  but it won’t sicken you. What I mean is, if you happen to just 
  wander into the Park, willingly or otherwise, on a date, then it can 
  be a dangerous place; but if you arranged to go there, from the 
  beginning, it’s actually a lot safer. It’s also a lot safer for people 
  with dueling on their mind whether they meant to show up there or 
  not. It’s as if the challenge/invitation, “shall we meet in Bluebell 
  Park?” is a tonic against the poisons of the place.
  Preparing for a duel or date in Bluebell Park is often a 
  Ritual
  Shall we meet in Bluebell Park?
  Preparing for the duel or date is likely to be a Ritual. This 
  is particularly true if one of the characters thinks it’s a date and 
  the other thinks it’s a duel.
  The start of the Ritual is somebody answering the epony-
  mous question with their agreement. They nod, or say, “Yes,” 
  or “Fine,” or “OK,” or whatever. If they agree but can’t do it 
  just then, then the Ritual begins instead with someone remem-
  bering that moment—touching or looking at the clothes they’re 
  going to wear and musing, “Shall we meet in Bluebell Park?”
  Then you and other characters take a series of ritual actions—
   
  ŭ describing one of the things you do to prepare;
   
  ŭ stating or emoting your reaction to some recent event;
   
  ŭ “posing” or otherwise showing off in an iconic fashion 
  associated with the clothes you’re putting on;
   
  ŭ snarkily commenting on the process;
   
  ŭ talking about what your fears or dreams about what’s go-
  ing to happen; or
   
  ŭ Invoking an unrelated symbol of power (e.g., the Ritual 
  Power Combo Move on pg. 535) to merge the two ritual 
  invocations together.
  The ritual ends with someone dropping a handkerchief or other 
  cloth and saying, “Go.” At this point the two characters in-
  volved either meet at the gates of Bluebell Park, or, if at least 
  one of them expected a duel, they face one another on the 
  southern bridge.
  The principal benefit to the ritual is the possible XP there-
  from, plus the fact that the park won’t make you sick while 
  you’re there for one of these purposes, but you may also receive 
  a beautiful cut flower or other gift from an admirer in the park.
  The Ideologue
  Salute! Apocynum!
  Struck by a dodgeball, this Main Character achieved en-
  lightenment and realized that the world is a lie and an illusion. 
  Now it is the mission of the Ideologue to shatter the four mys-
  tical gates that protect that lie, opening everyone’s mind to 
  the True Thing beyond. Luckily, part of the dodgeball enlight-
  enment package includes a magnificent mansion in Bluebell 
  Park, shapeshifting ability, and the power to pull out people’s 
  hearts and turn the rest of them into a normally giant monster 
  to pilot against a gate.
  (Naturally this resolves or helps resolve whatever psycho-
  logical issues might have been troubling them.)
  This Main Character is usually (Princess) Jasmine Apocy-
  num, a PC-aged girl, but could also be a PC-aged boy named 
  (Prince) Jasper Apocynum. One weakness of her shapeshift-
  ing is that—most of the time, and regardless of what shape 
  she wears—she has “Riders’ eyes,” that is, a field of night 
  interrupted by falling stars rather than the whites, pupil, and 
  iris of ordinary human eyes. 
  She is the main character of the novel, Fable of the Swan.
  Jasmine Apocynum, aka 
  The Ideologue
  
  249
   
  Dueling, in Bluebell Park
  Shall we meet in Bluebell Park?
  A typical duel is held on the wooden bridge across the lake in 
  the southern portion of Bluebell Park. Melee weapons or unarmed 
  combat is the norm, and the legal code in Town doesn’t have a 
  dueling exemption for murder, but other than that there’s no de-
  fined protocol.
  Duels in Bluebell Park are usually a 
  Ritual
  The duelists must take their places on the bridge. Someone—
  ideally not a participant—begins the ritual by saying, “Go,” 
  and dropping a handkerchief if such a thing is available.
  The ritual plays out like an ordinary encounter, with the 
  following exceptions—
   
  ŭ You can emote or share a memory as an attack. The feel-
  ings in your heart will reach your opponent, and the emo-
  tion or memory will manifest physically in an effective 
  combat technique. This functions as a level 2 Bond and 
  gives the attack minor supernatural effects.
   
  ŭ Up to three times total, the participants can declare a 
  “remarkable defense” against some attack, avoiding its 
  impact. Instead of describing the consequence of the 
  attack, or allowing it to inflict a wound, the HG de-
  scribes weird symbolic things happening around the 
  park. (This will not defend against attacks with 3 or 
  more Strike.)
   
  ŭ As usual with a Ritual, you should expect to take turns 
  when acting—unless the HG tells you to speak, or your 
  characters are in physical contact, or you’re declaring a 
  remarkable defense, you should stay silent when some-
  body else is taking an action. The word “should” is inten-
  tional—this is a matter of form and courtesy and not an 
  absolute obligation.
  The duel ends after three remarkable defenses are declared. 
  If either participant is not satisfied, the participants may ex-
  change one final flurry of one action each. If the duel stops 
  before that point, the HG can point at participants and demand 
  they attack something (themselves, the other party, or whatev-
  er else seems appropriate) until three such defenses are used or 
  somebody takes an action with 3 Strike to interrupt or break 
  free of the ritual.
  
  250
  250
  Time Together, 
  in Bluebell Park
  Sometimes when you emote in Bluebell Park it is extra loud to 
  everyone around you. They can feel an echo of the emotion itself.
  Sometimes when you try to connect with someone, you do.
  Functionally this is just a Property of the Region—“Emo-
  tions must have a tangible impact on the world.” You can treat 
  such Properties as level 2 Bonds, adding +2 to relevant mundane 
  actions that have to overcome Obstacles—such as the Obstacle 
  preventing you from effectively conveying certain emotions or 
  feelings to others or the Obstacle keeping two peoples’ souls and 
  hearts disjoint. There isn’t always such an Obstacle, 39 but some-
  times there is, and it will range from 1-4 depending on how hard it 
  is for the target to understand you.
  You can lose yourself in someone else, here. You can fall into 
  the truths inside them and then you don’t have to be alone.
  You shouldn’t do this. You shouldn’t let someone do this, into 
  you. It’s wrong. 
  But if you want to, you can.
  Sharing emotions is sometimes 
  Decisive Action or Science, 
  Faith, and Sorcery
  Trusting someone with your heart—or trusting someone to 
  show you theirs, here in Bluebell Park where the emotion can 
  strike you fully—that’ll typically play out in a Defining Mo-
  ment. 
  A Decisive Action, maybe, where you explain the reasons 
  for your feelings, and then share your heart; or a Science, 
  Faith, and Sorcery Action where you build up to that moment 
  of trust. 
  Falling entirely into someone else’s emotions is usually 
  Wicked
  Letting someone fall entirely into your emotions is usually also  
  Wicked
  This isn’t healthy. You can touch someone’s soul here, but you 
  shouldn’t let it overwhelm you. 
  But you decide to let that happen anyway. 
  You decide to dissolve into them, or vice versa. There’s a 
  break from reality, weird special effects, as your souls touch 
  and one of you falls into the other. Maybe the special effects 
  are your perceptions of the spirits involved. Maybe they’re 
  things like: you’ve noticed hedges carved into the shapes of 
  people as you walk, but now they’re all looking away or cov-
  ering their eyes; or, the statue that showed two people talking 
  earlier now shows one of them eating or tied to or merging 
  with or seducing the other. 
  Maybe the HG tells you what could be at stake and gives 
  you a chance to back out. Maybe they lay out the risks for you. 
  If they don’t, or if you hear those risks and go ahead anyway: 
  that’s a Wicked Action.
  39 Sometimes you know someone well enough that they totally get you 
  even without magical intervention.
  Sharing emotions is usually 
  Shared Reactions
  You talk about something that’s been going on with you. When 
  your amped-up feelings reach someone’s heart, that’s usually 
  connecting with them, making yourself vulnerable, and them 
  making themselves vulnerable all at once, so this is really very 
  efficient as a Shared Reaction goes. 
  Gaming Terminology
  Canon flexpoint—this term isn’t actually standard. It just 
  means: this can only be determined in play. It’s something I 
  don’t know, but more importantly, it’s something you should 
  try not to know at first either, even if you’re the HG; wait for 
  it to become apparent to you through the course of play. 
  
  251
   
  The Abandoned Smithy
  There is an abandoned blacksmith’s shop near the pond. At one 
  point it sold weaponry for duels. At some point the blacksmith 
  committed an error. Now the shop is securely boarded up.
  The floor of the shop is rotten.
  The basement beneath it has no visible floor. There is only 
  darkness, on which a person may stand, and a door that leads by 
  unclear processes back to Bluebell Park. There in that dark space 
  the soul of the smith is suspended in agony and amidst molten met-
  al. He has been in Bluebell Park long enough that an archetypal na-
  ture overrides his will to be free of pain: he will not allow himself 
  to be freed or exorcised until “appropriate” circumstances occur.40
  Most of this information—along with several variations—cir-
  culates as rumor at the School.
  Conversations with the blacksmith are usually a 
  Ritual
  The start of this ritual: you go in. The world stops. At this point 
  you can’t interrupt players unless your character is in physical 
  contact with theirs or the HG points to you and tells you to 
  take an action.
  The character who went in probably stands in darkness next 
  to an agonized blacksmith spirit covered in molten metal. Oth-
  er characters who were in Bluebell Park probably experience 
  a sudden obstacle in the way of whatever they were doing—a 
  snowstorm, a windstorm, sudden blindness or infirmity, statues 
  bursting up from the ground in front of them when they try to 
  take a step, or swarms of bees. It probably doesn’t stop them 
  from acting, but it slows them down to the point they don’t finish 
  whatever they were doing until just after the ritual completes.
  When the spotlight is on you, you can do the following things:
   
  ŭ State or emote your reaction to some recent event;
   
  ŭ Emote your reaction to what’s happening in the ritual itself;
   
  ŭ Interacting with the obstacle, if you’re outside;
   
  ŭ “Posing” or otherwise showing off in some iconic fash-
  ion if you’re inside;
   
  ŭ Special actions associated with this ritual—
   
   Giving up or sacrificing something;
   
   Saying cryptic allusions to the smith, and receiving 
  a cryptic reply;
   
  ŭ invoking a symbol of your own power, mixing the asso-
  ciated ritual in.
  The ritual typically ends with the person inside stepping up 
  and doing something to the blacksmith. Kissing, embracing, 
  stabbing, slapping, spitting on, poking out the eyes of, or 
  reaching for (before pulling back your hand) the blacksmith 
  are all possible and suitable endings. If a person outside wishes 
  to end the ritual and complete whatever they were doing, they 
  need an action with at least 2 Strike. If the person inside wants 
  to ignore the ritual and free or kill or otherwise seriously mess 
  with the blacksmith, they need an action with at least 4 Strike.
  Participants in the ritual generally gain a point of Trust and 
  find some mundane reward waiting for them in their School 
  locker or mailbox the next day.
  40  Those circumstances are a canon flexpoint. It is in fact a canon flex-
  point whether that’s actually what’s inside the smithy at all.
  North
  The northern portion of the Park is a light deciduous forest. It is a 
  bluebell wood, and bluebells grow there even out of the normal sea-
  son—not in the depths of winter, perhaps, but a surprising coat of blue 
  flowers spreads between the trees in spring, summer, and most of fall.
  The weather is temperate here. Precipitation is rare.
  Mysterious roughly-carved stone statues scatter through the for-
  est. Most of them are abstract, vaguely mathematical shapes. A few 
  more resemble people or animals wearing strange clothing. Some of 
  them hold carefully covered or electric lamps that may be lit at night.
  Dirt paths lead between the trees.
  There are very few buildings in the wood—one emergency 
  shelter, two houses, and an extensive tree house and fire watch 
  post maintained by Horizon’s Park Association.
  Traveling the north woods is sometimes 
  Corruption
  You walk the woods in Bluebell Park. You travel through them 
  to get to a particular statue, or to get to a particular house, or 
  just to escape after having been abandoned there.
  The world goes weird.
  Is it the flowers? The scent of the flowers? Is it fairies or 
  wish spirits darting about in the woods?
  You’re changed.  
  Traveling the north woods is usually 
  Setting (Discovery or 
  Slice of Life)
  What do you find there? The image or mood you stumble on 
  will stay with you for a while.
  Examining the statues carefully is usually a 
  Ritual
  The statues represent something sacred.41 You stare at the statues. 
  You investigate them, or touch them, or try to catalogue them.
  The ritual is very simple:
   
  ŭ you describe how you’re examining the statues, and the 
  HG describes what you see or feel;
   
  ŭ you state or emote your reaction to some recent event, 
  while examining a statue;
   
  ŭ you “pose” near the statue in an iconic fashion;
   
  ŭ you invoke some other Ritual, merging the two;
   
  ŭ at some point, you ask, “Do we know what these mean?” 
  and the HG answers either:
   
   “That has not been determined” if even they don’t 
  know; 
   
   “That has not been revealed” if they think they do; or
   
   answers, if you have enough information now to know.
  The only reason not to ask the final question immediately is 
  that you’ll get more potential XP and have more fun if there’s 
  at least some meat to the scene!
  41  Just what? Another canon flexpoint: figure it out during the game.
  
  Excerpt: La Belle Dame Sans Merci
  252
  252
  A Text For Use in 
  Bluebell-Park-Related 
  Transitions: 
  Excerpt From 
  “La Belle Dame Sans Merci,” 
  by John Keats
  The First Duelist: 
  O what can ail thee, knight-at-arms, 
         Alone and palely loitering? 
  The sedge has withered from the lake, 
         And no birds sing. 
  I see a lily on thy brow, 
         With anguish moist and fever-dew, 
  And on thy cheeks a fading rose 
         Fast withereth too. 
  The Second Duelist: 
  I met a lady in the meads, 
         Full beautiful—a faery’s child, 
  Her hair was long, her foot was light, 
         And her eyes were wild. 
  I set her on my pacing steed, 
         And nothing else saw all day long, 
  For sidelong would she bend, and sing 
         A faery’s song. 
  She took me to her elfin grot, 
         And there she wept and sighed full sore, 
  And there I shut her wild wild eyes 
         With kisses four. 
  Wish Spirits
  Town’s wish spirits are natural spirits, like will-o-wisps and 
  flower fairies, that make people wish for things. They look 
  like glowing dots of light or shapeless ghosts made from pow-
  er. Sometimes they look like fairies if you look very closely. 
  They can’t generally speak but they can emote. They can en-
  courage people to wish for things, too—they have a Superior 
  Encourage Wishing Skill at level 2-3, although they can only 
  encourage people to want things that either the target or the 
  wish spirit already wants.
  They’re mostly based in Arcadia and Bluebell Park, but 
  they do show up elsewhere in Town: at the Titov shrine, in 
  graveyards and chapels, and in small gatherings in the Walk-
  ing Fields’ woods. They also like fireworks, so you might see 
  them on any festival where there are fireworks; they will often 
  float up into the sky and echo the fireworks displays with pat-
  terns of their own.
  It’s said that if you can “make friends” with a wish 
  spirit that you’ll be lucky all year—but they’re not really 
  social or able to communicate with humans, so the ques-
  tion of whether you’ve made friends with one or not is a 
  little ambiguous. They seem to have personalities, and to 
  like attention, and to react to your feelings, but they’re also 
  pretty mercurial and alien and hardly any of them can talk. 
  Think “empathic alien fireflies who like wishing hearts but 
  get bored of you pretty easily” and you’ll have a good sense 
  of what they’re like!
  Wish spirits are found everywhere in Town, but they are 
  most common here in Bluebell Park.
  Walking among the wish-spirits can be 
   Foreshadowing
  You watch them as they spin and play. They pulse with 
  emotion. They stir wishes in your heart. 
  Walking among the wish-spirits is usually 
   Slice of Life
  You watch them. You feel something. That moment sticks 
  with you.
  
  Arcadia
  253
   
  Arcadia
  Town’s shopping district, Arcadia, is a fast-paced whirl of fun, 
  materialism, and delight. It’s the place to go for new books, com-
  ics, games, toys, and clothes, not to mention food and fun. It’s got 
  karaoke, miniature golf, skate parks, regular parks, and an active 
  flea market, as well as Town’s only serious electronics depot, its 
  largest arcade, most of the best pancake and noodle shops, and 
  the best pie and meat bun shops, Mrs. Porridge’s and the Golden 
  Phoenix Bun Shop respectively, in Town. It’s designed to be the 
  kind of place you can lose endless hours to whether you have a 
  few coins in your pocket or a fresh week’s allowance or paycheck 
  to spend. 
  Most of the time when characters visit the Shopping District 
  they’ll either take a whirlwind trip through vistas of fun and some-
  what materialistic joy or they’ll settle down in some park, shop, 
  or restaurant for a meal with their friends. It’s a good place for 
  bonding experiences, for showing off how your character does 
  things, and, of course, for getting overly distracted by possessions 
  of various sorts.
  The Shopping District is where most of Town’s youkai 
  live—not that there are terribly many, of course, these days, but 
  those that there are mostly live here. It’s the kind of place where 
  fox-spirits sometimes dally with humans, umbrellas and old kites 
  sometimes turn into monsters, and fox-people, tree-spirits, and 
  teenagers meet up on the weekends to mill, dance, read books, 
  listen to music, and dress up in cosplay or visual kei.
  Area: 6 square miles 
  Population: 4,800 
  (4,450 humans / 250 youkai / 100 robots)
  Style
  The Shopping District is very modern. It’s all shiny. Everything 
  is glamorous. There’s a lot of big glass windows and a bit of neon 
  and even a few giant television screens showing advertising on 
  buildings’ sides. There are regular street performances. There’s 
  statuary (classic and modern) and cool architecture. Wish spirits 
  float through the air, even in broad daylight. Strange but inter-
  esting creatures lurk in the alleys and the corners—and are even 
  found running the shops! There’s plenty of room to walk on most 
  of the sidewalks, and there’s lots of nice trees planted along the 
  way, and there’s tile-and-fountain plazas and glorious parks and a 
  ton of cool little local stores.
  There’s a river running through the Shopping District. It’s a 
  pretty feature so there’s a lot of foot-bridges, riverside walks, and 
  river views. 
  The business section of Town is here. It’s not huge—really, 
  there’s only a few blocks to it, swollen up a bit with a contained 
  park or two and a handful of experimental projects—but it’s got 
  tall buildings, headquarters or local offices for a few big compa-
  nies, mansions, a train stop, and the twelve-story super-modern 
  Methodology Building that was briefly the tallest, and is still the 
  second-tallest, building in all of Town.42
  42  The tallest, of course, is the School.
  Properties of Arcadia
   
  ŭ Time must pass quickly, except during meals.
   
  ŭ You must spend more than you expected. 
   
  ŭ You must have a good time.
   
  ŭ You must be kind to others.
   
  ŭ You must want things you didn’t get.
   
  ŭ Boys must carry packages for girls.
   
  ŭ Stray cats must be fed.
   
  ŭ Nobody can experience wondering where money or 
  goods actually come from
  Typical Genre: Immersive Fantasy or Techno
  
  254
  254
  Shopping is rarely 
  Wicked Action
  The Shopping District is a reasonably healthy place in gen-
  eral, but every now and then you’ll see something that you 
  know you shouldn’t have or buy. Whether it’s a double um-
  brella (“for when one layer of umbrella isn’t enough”), a puff 
  of cotton candy bigger than you are, the deviant and sexually 
  overpowering music of Buddy Holly or the Beatles, or just a 
  rare comic that you know is out of your budget, buying it when 
  you know you mustn’t is potentially a Wicked Action. There 
  are a few stores (from “Poison & Candy” and “the Headmas-
  ter’s Daydreams” to “F.F.’s Magical Exterminators”) that you 
  probably shouldn’t even visit.
  Just how weird will the world get when you break from 
  reality?
  And will the HG warn you of the doom that is to come?
  Street performances are usually 
  Foreshadowing
  Something catches your attention. You listen or watch, star-
  tled. Then after a while you react!
  Usually, with: “Awesome!”
  Shopping and window shopping is sometimes 
  Obsessive Ac-
  tion
  You see something cool. You get worked up over it! You do 
  something over the top, tipping over the edge into obsession. 
  Ideally somebody notices and reacts.
  Sitting in a plaza with your friends and talking is usually 
   
  Shared Reactions
  You talk about stuff that’s happened or is happening. You reach 
  out. You try to connect.
  Shopping, window shopping, and wandering the District is usual-
  ly 
  Discovery
  You’ve just found something neat, scary, or mysterious!
  Gawking at the sights is sometimes 
  Slice of Life
  Something stirs an emotional response—“wow?” “I want.” 
  “that’s kind of freaky.”
  The moment sticks with you; or, you get lost in that mood!
  The Marvelous Electric 
  Train
  The Shopping District has nice wide asphalt roads for cars, but of 
  course there just aren’t that many cars in Town. Most of the actu-
  al transportation in Arcadia is ground-level electric trains. These 
  look very modern and super-cool—they have the visual aesthetics 
  of super-fast bullet trains—but their horsepower is unimpressive. 
  They go 40-65 kilometers per hour at best, not even counting their 
  frequent stops.
  If you’re waiting for the train, you probably want the NN, the 
  CU, or the 7C (aka the “Seven-Chen” or “Seven-Chan”) line. 
  Taking the train is usually 
  Slice of Life
  You hang out on the train. You share your emotional response 
  to the wonder that is electric trains. Perhaps someone else will 
  emote back?
  Taking the train is rarely a 
  Transition
  In a Techno game, or if the Shopping District and its marvel-
  ous electric trains become a big feature of your campaign, they 
  might become an occasion for stock footage! The wait for a 
  train, and the ride on the train, can be a frequently-repeated 
  clip in the “show” that is your game. Since you can’t actually 
  show that clip in play, you’ll want to read from an appropriate 
  text instead! 
  I’m going to include two possible texts for this transition. 
  They’re both pretty short, so you may want to replace them 
  with a text of your own soon after instituting this as a feature 
  of the game. In the meantime, though, read from whichever 
  seems more appropriate! If you want to give a sense of variety 
  or recurrence, you can limit yourself to short sections of text 
  on short trips and more or all of the text on longer trips, read 
  it a piece at a time if the characters are going to take multiple 
  trips in a day, and so forth.
  
  The Thirteenth Station
  Excerpt: The Bohemian Girl
  255
   
  First Text: 
  “The Thirteenth Station,” 
  by Jenna Moran
  We blur into the world of forms 
  And set aside ourselves
  Autumn colors rush by
  A leaf spins up
  By the tracks I can see my brother John 
  His teeth fell out 
  But his hat’s still on
  By the river there’s my sister Rhöne 
  Struck in the head 
  By a wicked stone
  I wish— 
  But no.
  In the sky on the clouds in the shadow of the sun 
  There’s my darling Chloe 
  (oh) Look at her run
  And there’s David down in the muck of the well
  And Alex under the carousel
  And there’s Heather in the sky on her horse of flame 
  And her sister Lauren who does the same
  I wish— 
  But no.
  And the sky opens up. It’s Leonard’s maw
  And Emily struck by the falling of his jaw
  And Margareta spins a top in the road 
  And on Rhöne’s stomach is a hopping toad 
  And the reaper reaps what the reaper’s sowed
  And Christina watches with a reaper’s patience 
  And the train barrels on towards the Thirteenth Station
  I wish— 
  But no.
  I pass them all on the railroad track
  I wish—
  But a person oughtn’t look back.
  Second Text: excerpt from 
  “The Bohemian Girl,” 
  by Michael William Balfe
  I dreamt I dwelt in marble halls 
  With vassals and serfs at my side. 
  And of all who assembled within those walls 
  That I was the hope and the pride.
  I had riches too great to count, could boast 
  Of a high ancestral name. 
  But I also dreamt, which pleased me most 
  That you lov’d me still the same, 
  That you lov’d me, you lov’d me still the same, 
  That you lov’d me, You loved me still the same.
  I dreamt that suitors sought my hand. 
  That knights upon bended knee, 
  And with vows no maiden’s heart could withstand, 
  They pledg’d their faith to me.
  And I dreamt that one of that noble host 
  Came forth my hand to claim. 
  But I also dreamt, which charmed me most 
  That you lov’d me still the same, 
  That you lov’d me, you lov’d me still the same, 
  That you lov’d me, you loved me still the same.
  
  256
  256
  Cosplay
  As noted, cosplay and visual kei are a common feature of the 
  Shopping District, particularly on the weekends. It has a bit of the 
  Harujuku spirit!
  Participating in Shopping District cosplay can be 
  Decisive
  You talk about why you’re choosing a given costume or co-
  splay style. You build up to a major decision, such as asking 
  somebody out, or a decisive action, such as going out in cos-
  tume for the first time. Then you make that decision or take 
  that action!
  Participating in Shopping District cosplay can be 
  Wicked or 
  Traumatic
  Turning into your costumes is a common theme in stories, so 
  maybe something like that could happen here. I don’t want to 
  think up the details because this probably isn’t what actually 
  happens.
  Participating in Shopping District cosplay can be 
  Shared Ac-
  tion
  You go do cosplay stuff with someone else. You connect over it.
  The Ritual of the Cosplayers
  Those are all valid options, but
  participating in Shopping District cosplay is usually a 
  Ritual
  It’s just like a magical transformation sequence, except that 
  getting ready usually takes a heck of a lot longer! You start the 
  sequence with a ritual phrase like, “Ooh, time to get ready” 
  or “Right! Get in the bathroom and help me dye my hair!” or 
  “OK, you brought the costumes!”
  Then you and other characters take a series of ritual actions—
   
  ŭ describing one of the things you do to prepare;
   
  ŭ stating or emoting your reaction to some recent event;
   
  ŭ “posing” or otherwise showing off in an iconic fashion 
  associated with your costumes;
   
  ŭ snarkily commenting on the process;
   
  ŭ talking about your excitement about the day or where 
  you want to go; or
   
  ŭ Invoking an unrelated symbol of power (e.g., activating 
  the Marvelous Wish-Granting Engine, or setting sail via 
  the Ritual of the Lake) to merge the two ritual invoca-
  tions together.
  The phrase that ends the ritual is usually something like, 
  “Perfect! Let’s go!” but sometimes that’s just an intermediate 
  step—the ritual could continue on to include the entire day 
  outing, replacing “describ[e] one of the things you do to pre-
  pare” with the new ritual actions:
   
  ŭ pose for a photograph;
   
  ŭ declare an activity during the day outing, such as “shop-
  ping at The Latest Thing” or “dancing in the park.”
  In addition to the potential group XP, the usual benefit and 
  outcome of the ritual is that you regain a bit of Will or even an 
  MP—but that’s up to the HG. Maybe it gives you a small pow-
  er related to your costume, or temporarily boosts a relevant 
  power or Skill, instead!
  
  Fox-Eared People
  257
   
   Fox-Eared People 
  There are over a hundred fox-eared people (“Tenko” or “shop fox-
  es”) living in the Shopping District. They descend from humans 
  and fox spirits. A few of them may even be fox spirits in disguise! 
  There are also often at least that many people in the Region who 
  dress as fox-eared people as part of their cosplay (“Feyfua” or “fake 
  foxes” is the standard term, although if I had my way it would be 
  either “cosukitsu” or “kōkokuko (advertisement foxes)” ).
  I hear that the existence of the feyfua is pretty weird if you are 
  actually a fox-eared person but that they accept it because if you’re 
  going to be exotic anyway you might as well be fashionable.
  Fox-eared people have fox ears as well as their regular ears. 
  The fox ears are larger and a little higher on their head. Fox-eared 
  people often have bright-colored hair and are almost always pretty 
  or handsome. Some of them also have fox tails. They tend to be 
  thin and a little bit short and they tend to dress in old-fashioned 
  Japanese or Chinese clothing. The fox-eared people believe that 
  their fox-spirit ancestors are still watching over them—that’s why 
  a human-Tenko child is almost always a full Tenko (when the mat-
  ing is fertile at all), and why if a fox-eared person cuts off their 
  fox ears their tail will fall off, their magic will wither, and they’ll 
  turn all the way human.
  In the early years of Town the fox-eared people had a reputa-
  tion for good luck, powerful magic, and good counsel. These days 
  their fortunes have waned—they’re more likely to be shopkeepers 
  or traveling entertainers than sorcerers, exorcists, generals, or the 
  idle rich. That said, the fox-eared people still have it better on 
  average than most—they enjoy better health, greater enjoyment 
  of simple pleasures, and have greater access to magic and money 
  both than is the average Townsperson’s lot. The Tenko look out 
  for one another, and none of them are likely to ever go hungry 
  for any reason except for pride. The downside, of course, is that 
  they’re a small and visually distinct minority in a Town too small 
  to vanish into and too big to stop meeting strangers in—even if 
  they’re more likely to face positive bigotry than negative bigotry, 
  I imagine a constant stream of double-takes, unearned admiring 
  sighs, people assuming that their lives are easy because they have 
  Tenko blood, and people wanting to touch their ears or tail gets 
  to them after a while. It’s probably worst for the pregnant ones, 
  because living surrounded by people who might at any moment 
  randomly decide to touch your ears, tail, or belly has got to be like 
  living in a war zone of well-intentioned invaders of your personal 
  space.
  Meeting an important fox-eared person is usually 
  Immersive 
  Fantasy
  There are important Tenko families. They engage in weird 
  politics. You don’t know much about it because you’re not a 
  Tenko. But maybe you’re about to!
  For them it’s like Decisive or Science/Faith/Sorcery Ac-
  tions:
   
  ŭ A fox-eared matriarch or patriarch calls you in and 
  monologues to you, in between puffs on their long pipe, 
  building up to some decision that they’ve made or the 
  role you have in their plans. Then, action!
   
  ŭ Or... they decide to trust you with something. So they ex-
  plain what they think you’re about, and what they think 
  you’re going to do, and then they gamble that you’ll do it.
  But the truth is, they’re NPCs, so I think what actually matters 
  here is that you might get caught up in their story; or sym-
  pathetic to them when they struggle; or that you’ll discover 
  some neat, scary, or mysterious thing, and spend a while lost 
  in thinking about it.
  Meeting your first fox-eared person is usually 
  Foreshadowing
  Something catches your attention. It’s—the ears! Or the tail!
  You watch, listen, follow, or pause to process and then run 
  up to them, startled.
  Tea in a fox-eared person’s shop is usually 
  Slice of Life
  You interrupt your conversation or drinking to emote a reac-
  tion to how serious and awesome and impressive it is. Look! 
  It’s a fox’s tea house! Or whatever. That’s so glamorous! You 
  also have the option to emote a different reaction instead, like 
  “This is ridiculous” “I’m not impressed” or “How tragic! I will 
  never have fox ears, unless I can persuade Chuubo to make an 
  appropriate wish. But they’re so fluffy!” 
  The moment sticks with you.
  
  Fox-Eared Magic
  258
  258
   Fox-Eared Magic 
  an example Magical Skill
  Some fox-eared people have a little bit of the magic of their 
  fox-spirit ancestors. Even powerful and fey Tenko probably only 
  have 1-2 points in Tenko magic, but if you want to bring a Tenko 
  prodigy or an actual fox-spirit into play, they might have more!
  The first four techniques are technically available to all char-
  acters. They don’t require magic or Tenko blood. Characters like 
  the Prodigy can learn these techniques on their own once they un-
  derstand that they can be done; other characters can pick them up 
  by studying the ways of foxes, spend decades reinventing them, 
  or improvise something similar if it seems like it would be cool.
  These four non-magical techniques are:
  [Obstacle 0] Contort to create a fox’s shadow on the wall with  
   
  your body or your hands;
  [Obstacle 1] Sharpen your hearing and eyesight;
  [Obstacle 1] Slip out of most handcuffs or bonds; and
  [Obstacle 1] Recognize holiness
  I’ve broken the Tenko techniques that require actual magic to use 
  into three basic styles: 
   
  ŭ Fire and Lightning Magic;
   
  ŭ Perception Magic; and 
   
  ŭ Transformation Magic.
  A typical Tenko magician learns one of these styles and has a +2 
  Obstacle penalty when using techniques from the others. All of 
  these styles have access to the four non-magical techniques.
  Fire and Lightning Magic
  [Obstacle 1] Make sparks out of thin air;
  [Obstacle 1] Summon a ball of harmless fox-fire to hover near 
   
   you or in place;
  [Obstacle 2] Create a burst of fire or jolt of electricity;
  [Obstacle 2] Control the movements of fox-fire;
  [Obstacle 3] Blast things with lightning or fire.
  Perception Magic
  [Obstacle 1]  Sharpen your sense of smell; 
  [Obstacle 1] Know the location of nearby dogs; 
  [Obstacle 2] Make your voice sound like the wind, the clinking  
   
  of coins, or fire; 
  [Obstacle 2] Trick the senses so that people who are not paying 
   
  attention think they see or hear what you want 
   
  them to see or hear;
  [Obstacle 3] Turn invisible;
  [Obstacle 3] Create complex, detailed illusions.
  Transformation Magic
  [Obstacle 1] Increase your beauty or poise.
  [Obstacle 1] Purify the sound you make when using a musical 
   
  instrument or your voice;
  [Obstacle 2] Take the shape of a fox, or turn back into a fox- 
   
  eared person;
  [Obstacle 3] Take other human or animal shapes.
  Tenko Bans
  Traditional Tenko Bonds include:
   
  ŭ Bond: Dogs terrify me.
   
  ŭ Bond: People are really weird about the tail and ears some-
  times.
   
  ŭ Bond: It takes a lot of concentration to hide my tail when 
  disguised as a human.
   
  ŭ Bond: If I’m separated for too long from my special mag-
  ical pearl I’ll die.
   
  ŭ Bond: I am not always in complete control of myself 
  around deep-fried tofu. It’s just too good!
   
  ŭ Bond: My ears are really sensitive—loud sounds can hurt, 
  and grabbing them is a submission hold!
   
  ŭ Bond: I’ll always repay a favor.
  Particularly disreputable Tenko may have Bonds like: 
   
  ŭ Bond: What is property to me? I take what I want and live 
  where I choose.
   
  ŭ Bond: I’m addicted to playing with human minds and 
  hearts.
  Tenko with Bonds like that are sometimes known as “Yako” 
  (field foxes/evil foxes) or “Jackasses” (evil donkeys).
  
  Tsukumogami
  259
   
   Tsukumogami 
  People say that if a household thing exists for a hundred years, 
  it’ll turn into a spirit—but time flies when you’re having fun! In 
  the Shopping District it might take only thirty years, or even twen-
  ty-five. Even though electricity repels most tsukumogami and 
  modern items are much less likely to turn into such a spirit, there 
  are still dozens of these artifact spirits lurking in Arcadia. Known 
  tsukumogami include—
   
  ŭ a pack of 6+ umbrella-spirits;
   
  ŭ a mated pair of awning-spirits;
   
  ŭ three broom-spirits, including one legal citizen working for the 
  Kinnoruto Temple;
   
  ŭ a lonely kimono-spirit;
   
  ŭ two lantern-spirits;
   
  ŭ at least two kite-spirits;
   
  ŭ a reclusive curtain-spirit;
   
  ŭ a eye-protecting goggles spirit;
   
  ŭ the “three sisters,” street sign spirits that point in confusing 
  directions;
   
  ŭ a bucket-spirit;
   
  ŭ an unknown number of sandal-spirits, typically found making 
  footstep-sounds in empty alleyways;
   
  ŭ a stone-bridge spirit;
   
  ŭ one of the extremely rare handgun tsukumogami, formerly be-
  longing to a visiting U.S. Marine. It is hunting the man or spirit 
  that killed its original owner;
   
  ŭ a guitar tsukumogami that claims to have been owned previ-
  ously by Elvis Presley;
   
  ŭ according to rumor, an entire row of buildings tsukumogami 
  that purportedly moves around or eats people while they are 
  shopping in its stores.
  It’s probably best to think of the tsukumogami in Town’s Shop-
  ping District as either mascots or citizens, depending on how in-
  telligent they are. In theory they could be vicious or dangerous. 
  In theory any quarter-century-plus object in the Shopping District 
  could randomly wake up as a malevolent demon-god and start 
  killing people one after another. In practice, you hardly ever have 
  to worry about tsukumogami attacks:
  The Regional Council for the Shopping District maintains a 
  two-person exorcist team (“the Stray Cats”) to snuff out any you-
  kai that turn murderous, and they’ll pretty reliably get there before 
  a newborn killer tsukumogami manages to take its first victim 
  down. They’re highly attuned to killing intent,43 they can sense 
  that kind of thing from miles away, and they’re grumblingly ef-
  ficient about keeping Arcadia and its people safe. The Gray Man 
  in the Methodology Tower and the Kittens (apprentice exorcists 
  training at the Kinnoruto temple) act as secondary layers of de-
  fense. 
  What this all boils down to is that parents tell their kids not to 
  play with the artifact spirits, because you never know, but they 
  don’t actually freak out too much if the kids defy them and do it 
  anyway. The tsukumogami that survive are pretty tame.
  43 Also to bad weather and impending fires, although weather and fire pre-
  paredness aren’t their actual jobs.
  Dealing with the “three sisters” and certain other tsukumogami 
  can be  
  Adversity
  Suddenly you can’t find your way around. Every time you look 
  at a street sign it’s different. You used to think that it was just 
  a mobile street sign youkai confusing you but now you think 
  there’s more than one, and that maybe one of them or all of 
  them can slide up onto a real street sign and confuse it. Or 
  is there an evil fox casting an illusion over the area? Are you 
  drugged or sick? Is this whole area sliding into the Outside? It 
  reaches the point where you just can’t cope!
  Suddenly encountering a tsukumogami is sometimes 
  Trouble
  Tsukumogami are mostly harmless, like I said. But geez. It’s 
  not like you know that the first time you round the corner and 
  there’s an umbrella creature looking at you. Then it hops to-
  wards you. It’s a looming, approaching threat! You hide. You 
  run. You fight for a limited, tactical victory. You shout, “But 
  it’s not raining!” There’s a lull, when it seems like things are 
  OK. Then a heart-stopping moment of fear!
  Trouble!
  Suddenly encountering a tsukumogami is usually 
  Foreshad-
  owing
  Something catches your attention. It’s a... wait, what is that? 
  You watch. You listen. It moves. It keeps moving. It’s a... 
  it’s a... thing. You react!
  Interacting with tsukumogami is often 
  Shared Action
  You do stuff. They do stuff. You connect over it. 
  Maybe one of you makes yourself a little vulnerable for 
  the extra XP, like, you reach out your hand to touch it even 
  though you don’t know where an umbrella keeps its teeth? Or, 
  the street sign lets you clean graffiti off of it?
  Interacting with tsukumogami is often 
  Discovery
  What strangeness have you just now discovered?
  Befriending a tsukumogami may give you opportunities for 
  Sympathetic Action
  Now and then a tsukumogami gets pretty Obsessive.
  It’s working on something or worrying about something. It 
  gets worked up over it. Eventually it goes over the top—usu-
  ally to the point where it’s just stuck, like a turtle flipped on its 
  back or a Roomba bumping a wall.
  At that point you can emote a sympathetic response and 
  help it over the hump.
  
  Exorcists and the
  Kinnoruto Temple
  260
  260
  Conflict with a tsukumogami is typically 
   Slice of Life
  Only for them, it’s more... Never Say Die!
  Here’s how it plays out when you try to kick a broom tsu-
  kumogami out before it’s finished the sweeping that it wants to 
  do; or when you try to refuse a lantern-spirit trying to take you 
  somewhere; or anything of that kind—
  You will have the upper hand.
  You will probably have so much of an upper hand that 
  there’s no point in fighting, per se. You are the winner here. 
  But no!
  It defies you!
  The HG grits their teeth and narrates the tsukumogami’s 
  every action as awesome and doomed. They will fight, oh, yes, 
  to their last drop of strength. You push them to fight harder and 
  harder with your overwhelming overmatchingness, throwing 
  them out physically, barricading the door against them, maybe 
  even taking up arms or using magical powers against them—
  But it won’t end until they’ve either won and persuaded 
  you or ended up broken and defeating and sobbing, inasmuch 
  as tsukumogami are capable of sobbing, upon the ground.
  Emote your reaction to all this. Hopefully somebody else 
  emotes too.
  The moment sticks with you.
  Exorcists and 
  the Kinnoruto Temple
  As noted, Arcadia maintains a small number of exorcists to han-
  dle situations where tsukumogami or other youkai go wrong. 
  They train at the Kinnoruto temple, which doubles as a neko-
  mimi-themed café and gift shop. They learn to make tea and sand-
  wiches, look good in cat ears, describe the history of the temple 
  and its neighborhood, tell fortunes, and hunt down renegade de-
  mons before they can hurt anybody. The exorcists-in-training are 
  usually called “Kittens;” the team name for the two exorcists who 
  currently collect a retainer for patrolling and keeping the Shop-
  ping District safe is “the Stray Cats.” As one might expect, they’re 
  a male-female pair of hardened, crass, and occasionally slovenly 
  exorcists who alternate between wearing sensible gray clothing 
  and wearing the cat-eared maid and butler costumes that they 
  trained in back in the day. There’s also a professional yin-yang 
  master employed by the business and financial offices to prevent 
  inappropriate use of magic and ensure the safety of the business 
  section—he’s traditionally called the Gray Man (or Gray Woman), 
  and the current Gray Man is a half-Excrucian gentleman (pg. 292) 
  with an office in the Methodology Tower.
  Interactions with the Gray Man are usually 
   Wicked
  You shouldn’t interact with him. I don’t know why. You just... 
  shouldn’t. It’s probably something to do with the job, since I 
  heard he was actually pretty cool before he took it on.
  Interactions with the Stray Cats are usually 
   Lurid
  They’ll offer you booze. They’ll entice you with their sexual 
  presence. They’ll encourage you to loan them money or let 
  them crash at your place. They’ll ask your help in tracking 
  down a tsukumogami that’s concerning them. These are bad 
  ideas. They are unhealthy and/or immoral! Maybe you get in-
  volved with them anyway. You break from reality. Things get 
  weird. Maybe the HG even warns you of disasters that’ll be 
  coming? 
  You keep going anyway. 
  That’s a fine Wicked Action right there.
  Or maybe: you’re in their company and you get exposed 
  to... well, something. Something wicked. Something that can 
  change you. You don’t defend perfectly. There are supernatural 
  or psychosomatic effects—again, a break from reality. Corrup-
  tion/transformation or trauma sets in. That’s a (Suffer) Cor-
  ruption, Metamorphosis, or Trauma Action!
  Interactions with the Stray Cats are sometimes 
   Obsessive
  They’re models for obsession, completely wound up in their 
  hobbies and their exorcism.
  That kind of behavior contages.
  So listen. Sometimes when you’re hanging out with them, 
  you’ll get a little bit neurotic. Dangerous youkai are scary. Ex-
  orcism is spiritually potent and therefore confusing. The Stray 
  Cats are incredibly aggravating. They’re also, I am dead seri-
  ous here, smoking hot. 
  So there are a lot of different reasons why you might, when 
  hanging out with them, get a little, you know, worked up. In 
  one way or another. And this can lead to tipping over the edge 
  into a delirium of obsession.
  Eating at Kinnoruto is usually 
   Shared Reactions
  The modern Kinnoruto costume is actually completely un-em-
  barrassing—they went upscale about 12 years back after an 
  incident with a pervert youkai, switching the Kittens from 
  maid- and butler-costume to formal exorcist kimonos, though 
  the Kittens kept the fake cat ears and sometimes the fake whis-
  kers or cat-paw gloves that their predecessors wore. So when 
  you’re lunching at Kinnoruto the whole nekomimi theme is 
  cute and pervasive but pretty much not a thing. You just... well, 
  eat, probably while talking to your friends about stuff that’s 
  been going on. You make a connection. Maybe you share a 
  secret or something, you know, something to earn you the vul-
  nerability XP? 
  That’s Shared Reactions.
  Visiting Kinnoruto is sometimes 
   Slice of Life
  You see something cool. You share your emotional response. 
  Somebody responds, and emotes their own reaction to the 
  scenery or to you, maybe?
  It sticks with you.
  
  (Superior) Holiness
  261
   
   (Superior) Holiness 
  an example Superior Skill
  Some shrine maidens, priests, exorcists, and monks have an inher-
  ent, shining spiritual energy or holiness.
  You use holiness principally to:
   
  ŭ show/display the truth;
   
  ŭ resist the influence of the Outside;
   
  ŭ anticipate and defend against dangerous youkai and killers;
   
  ŭ banish corruption, poison, and decay; and
   
  ŭ strengthen and heal those of good or innocent heart.
  In general you’ll lose some of the benefits of this if you don’t 
  maintain ritual and mental purity—you’ll always have your en-
  hanced insight, poison resistance, and resistance to the Outside, 
  but corrupt thoughts or failing to take the time and effort to stay 
  pure will cost you much of the rest. This loss, should you suffer 
  it, is fortunately not permanent; a few days of ritual cleansing and 
  consciously purifying your way of thinking can leave the most 
  corrupt and rowdy exorcist uncomfortably holy instead.
  This Skill comes with a small Edge against all youkai and un-
  natural forces but only gives its full Edge against the worst of 
  evils.
  Here’s what the various levels would look like:
  Superior Holiness 0: You’re only a little [[ holds finger and 
  thumb a little bit apart ]] holy.
  Superior Holiness 1: Your spiritual presence is palpable and pleas-
  ant—you can calm a sick baby with a touch or make a leaf spin 
  around in a cup of water by holding your hand nearby. You have a 
  small edge against the Outside and any particularly wicked monsters.
  Superior Holiness 2: You need no tools but your strong feelings 
  to chasten or scourge youkai, ghosts, and spiritual beings; in a pu-
  rified state, you may use those same feelings to heal or purify oth-
  ers, encourage plant growth, or to reach and inspire others’ hearts. 
  You can tell when someone or something is going to need you in 
  a struggle against unnatural forces and can download a general 
  plan of action for helping them from the cosmos itself. (This plan 
  might not be perfect, but it’ll be a good start.)
  Superior Holiness 3: You’re immune to most toxins, can endure 
  the Outside without flinching, and you’re overflowing with sacred 
  spiritual power. If you apply that power directly you may perform 
  miracles: plants bloom, sickness dissipates, and poisons and im-
  purities fade away before your outstretched hand. Randomness 
  distills down to meaning, with coins likely to land on edge or re-
  peat themselves and books likely to fall open on relevant pages. 
  Evil weakens. The world revitalizes and calms. 
  Superior Holiness 4: The world around you is full of great and 
  blossoming gladness and peace. You know what will touch peo-
  ples’ souls, and can often produce it. You can attract the beasts and 
  birds to listen to your sermons. 
  Superior Holiness 5: Your power is as limitless as Heaven’s: you 
  can raise up the dead, catch a stone monkey in the palm of your 
  hand, and speak such words as will live forever.  
  Exorcism
  The heart of an exorcist’s abilities is their Superior Holi-
  ness or Superior Spiritual Energy Skill—it’s not so much 
  a magic they practice as a magic that they are. There’s gen-
  erally no point in training as an exorcist unless you’re at 
  least holy enough to quiet a sick baby with a touch or pow-
  erful enough that a leaf on water will spin around when your 
  hand passes over the cup—that’s roughly Superior Skill 1. 
  The natural cap for an exorcist’s ability is level 2; a few 
  can push past that to level 3, and legendary figures at the 
  peak of their strength might make it to Superior Skill 4-5. 
  Developed properly, this Skill acts as a sixth sense for the 
  activity of dangerous youkai and other killers and increased 
  efficiency in fighting them—Spiritual Energy in particular, 
  since that’s what the Skill is for, but Holiness also gives a 
  good instinct for youkai movements and an Edge in attempt-
  ing to predict them. 
  In either case, in addition to their raw spiritual potency, 
  the Kittens are trained in hand-to-hand combat, simple ranged 
  combat, tactics, the history and taxonomy of the youkai, and, 
  of course, all the various Skills they need to work at a neko-
  mimi café.
  
  Some Miscellaneous 
  Youkai
  (Superior) Spiritual Energy
  262
  262
   (Superior) Spiritual Energy 
  an example Superior Skill
  Other exorcists have an inborn gift that makes them hostile to 
  ghosts, youkai, and evil magic. They have a spiritual radiance that 
  lets them touch on, feel, and dissolve the power of the intangible. 
  This Skill has three core effects:
   
  ŭ You may strike at the intangible, including magic;
   
  ŭ You may sense patterns and disruptions in the weave of things;
   
  ŭ You’re aggravating and attractive, a magnet for tsundere be-
  havior from those at all vulnerable to displaying it. (Which 
  often includes other characters with this Skill.)
  I’m not sure what level 5 looks like, but the first few levels of this 
  Skill would look like this:
  Spiritual Energy -1: You’re kind of unprepossessing and either 
  spooky, fragile, or meek. Spirits and youkai tend to like you but 
  they do not fear you. Not at all!
  Spiritual Energy 0: You can yell very loudly at a youkai that 
  makes you angry. Probably.
  Spiritual Energy 1: Your spiritual presence is palpable—you can 
  intimidate an animal, ghost, or intern with a glare, draw them near 
  with a wink, or make a leaf spin in a cup of water by holding your 
  hand nearby. You have a small edge against the Outside and any 
  particularly wicked monsters.
  Spiritual Energy 2: You have the raw power to sense evil, youkai, 
  magic, the power of the Outside, and other supernatural phenomena 
  within your Region. You have the raw power to strike at intangible 
  things, break spells with a touch, and see through illusions. This is 
  all clumsy and unreliable unless you have a different Skill to formal-
  ly train and channel your abilities, but the raw power to do it exists. 
  Even without other training, with this level of Spiritual Energy 
  you can resist evil magic, push intangible spirits out of your way, 
  and sense personally relevant evil in your immediate vicinity. 
  You’re a little magnetic, too: you attract people, but you also get 
  under their skin enough to irritate them. 
  Spiritual Energy 3: You have enough intuition to sense stuff like 
  pain, fear, discord, and the larger patterns like “something is prob-
  ably going to happen soon.” In short, your spiritual senses become 
  predictive and not just active once you train them up. Magic tends 
  to fray when you pay attention to it, making your attention painful 
  for ghosts and intangible youkai. You have a kind of sizzle to you.
  Spiritual Energy 4: You burn away magic in your presence—you 
  have to be careful and meditative or you might accidentally set 
  ghosts and fox-eared people’s ears on fire with a look. You’re ex-
  tremely high-contrast: people get obsessed with you super-easily, 
  whether they’re claiming you as a rival, enemy, friend, romantic 
  interest, or employee. You tend to just know how to get on some-
  body’s nerves or, conversely, on their good side. You can pick up 
  trouble coming from outside your Region—fully trained, though 
  that would admittedly take another level 4 Skill, you can probably 
  predict danger and magical threats as much as a century in advance.
   Some Miscellaneous Youkai 
  Here are some of the other youkai you might see about.
  Tree People. A number of the residents of the Shopping District 
  are bound in some fashion to one of the local sacred trees or 
  groves. The tree people have pale, refined features with a green-
  ish, bluish, or acorn undertone; long fingers; flowers or leaves 
  growing in their hair; a love of dance; and naturally quiet voices 
  that pain them, a little bit, to use. They tend to be extremely long-
  lived and require very little sustenance, giving them the freedom 
  to wander the District without formal residence or career, sleeping 
  in the branches of trees and resting at a temple on extremely cold 
  or dangerous nights. A few with longer-term ambitions study at 
  “Grains of Knowledge,” Dianne Lawler’s little school.
  Some of these “tree people” are plant spirits; others are or-
  phans or runaways “adopted” by the trees; a few are the children, 
  grandchildren, or descendants of someone like that, who chose to 
  inherit their ancestor’s connection to the trees.
  The Long-Neck People. Certain families of the Shopping District 
  have the power to stretch their necks to twenty, thirty, or even fifty 
  feet in length, their necks gaining incredible flexibility as they do 
  so. In the past they could only do this at night; since the death 
  of the original sun they’ve learned to do so even during the day. 
  There’s a common prejudice holding that long-neck people are 
  incorrigible tricksters and spies, and for this reason most of the 
  long-neck people keep their abilities a secret. Town being as it is, I 
  kind of suspect that they’re just normal people with a really weird 
  power, with maybe a bit of a self-fulfilling prophesy on the side, 
  but that’s not the kind of thing I can really know!
  Other Strange Creatures. People have also sighted large, strange 
  spirit-creatures with one or more eyes; bizarre monkey-human hy-
  brids; transforming beetles and spiders; a lightning dog, which 
  may or may not actually have been a pair of foxes; a blue ogre; a 
  gigantic foot, which demanded that the homeowner it descended 
  on wash it thoroughly; and a wild-eyed and mouthless creature in 
  cerements whose head bears tattoo-symbols of the sun and moon. 
  Some of these strange creatures of the Shopping District may be 
  tsukumogami, wandering members of the unworldly tribes (pg. 
  230), or unorthodoxies from Old Molder (pg. 279). Others are 
  unique existences, with no particular reason for existing save their 
  own. As with the tsukumogami, there’s a distant possibility that 
  any given strange creature is dangerous, but in practice that’s  a 
  once-in-a-lifetime threat. 
  Interactions with miscellaneous youkai are sometimes 
  Shared 
  Action
  You do stuff. They do stuff. You connect over it.
  Interactions with miscellaneous youkai are usually 
  Slice of 
  Life
  You’re out in the world. You see one of the tree people, or a 
  strange creature, or one of the long-neck people. Perhaps you 
  communicate in words, or perhaps just with emotes!
  
  263
   
  
  (Superior) Plant-Spirit
  Long-Necked
  264
  264
   (Superior) Plant Spirit 
  an example Superior Skill
  The baseline power for a plant spirit looks something like this:
  Superior [Plant Type] Spirit 0: You’re just a normal person who, 
  possibly, hugged a tree.
  Superior [Plant Type] Spirit 1: You have a few plant-type fea-
  tures. Your life is bound to that of a field, grove, or particularly 
  great tree—while it lives, your aging slows markedly at maturity; 
  if it dies, you’ll age ten years to every one. You don’t need much 
  food if you have sunshine. You’re good at dancing. You under-
  stand the moods and needs of plants.
  Superior [Plant Type] Spirit 2: You’re not a human or anything 
  like it—your default form is that of an invisible spirit distributed 
  across the whole of your field, tree, or grove. You can emerge 
  from this state with great difficulty to assume a semi-human form, 
  and may shift from there into a fully human form or back with dif-
  ficulty. Returning to spirit form is easy when at home and almost 
  impossible (Obstacle 4) anywhere else. Your human form is re-
  markably beautiful or, in rare cases, handsome. You may vitalize 
  plants with a touch, using this Skill as a botanical medicine Skill 
  that needs no tools, and you’re an excellent musician and dancer.
  Superior [Plant Type] Spirit 3+: At this level you may shift be-
  tween forms without effort. You may also have or learn the power 
  to assume additional forms, such as a swirl of petals flying on a 
  self-made breeze.
   Long-Necked 
  an example Superior Skill
  If you have this Skill, you are of the long-necked people—you 
  may stretch out your neck and twist and bend the lengthened neck 
  around freely (like a very strong tentacle with your head on the 
  end.)
  The levels of the Skill look like this:
  Long-Necked 0: You could have a pretty long neck. Like, I mean, 
  whoa. Or not.
  Long-Necked 1: You have a weird mutation—your upper spinal 
  column is incredibly squishy, resilient and flexible, as is the mus-
  cle and skin of your neck. You can twist your head around, some-
  times as much as 540 degrees, or stretch it out by up to a foot and 
  a half. If this is the limit of your potential, Long-Necked people 
  will find you adorably laughable, like a pudgy baby or puppy—it’s 
  like being a were-pug among were-wolves!
  Long-Necked 2: Your neck can stretch out to twenty or more 
  feet—maybe more, but at some point you start having trouble 
  keeping it upright because of weight and leverage issues. Your 
  neck hairs are very sensitive to air currents around them.
  Long-Necked 2 is the highest level you’ll see in Town, but I can 
  imagine going a little further:
  Long-Necked 3: Your neck is tougher and more compressible 
  than rubber, can stretch out like an elastic superhero’s, and is ful-
  ly flexible and practically self-supporting all along the way. The 
  biggest limit here is that “my head is half a mile away with my 
  neck stretched out between the two positions” is not always the 
  most tactically advantageous position; however, your neck hairs 
  are sensitive enough to “see” blocky shapes in their immediate 
  vicinity, and your neck is equally adjustable everywhere, so if 
  somebody tries to chop your neck in half or something you can 
  generally dodge and loop your neck around their sword handle or 
  whatever to stop them.
  Long-Necked 4: With practice, you may even learn to stretch 
  your neck through time, into one mirror and out another, or oth-
  erwise do the kinds of remarkable tricks that make long-necked 
  entities so legendarily fearsome.
  Long-Necked 5: Your neck can slim down to a monofilament 
  thread or puff up like a blowfish to shove buildings out of the way. 
  It’s strong as a titan, essentially unbreakable, has a kind of psychic 
  echolocation that maps everything around it, and can whip about 
  at supersonic speeds to practically anywhere you can see. You can 
  manifest an oni-mask type protective shell around your head it-
  self to keep it from catching on fire or exploding from pressure 
  changes or whatever during all this, making your head and teeth 
  basically as unbreakable as your neck.
  
  Places to Eat
  265
   
   Places to Eat 
  Wherever you go in the Shopping District you’re sure to find street 
  carts selling a variety of tasty food, coffee, tea, or cold drink plac-
  es, and random little sandwich, fish, barbecue, or noodle shops. 
  Here are a few places that I can vouch for!
  Mrs. Porridge’s Restaurant
  This restaurant is one of Chuubo’s favorites—it has comfortable 
  booths, a nice veranda, a range of amazing American-style dishes 
  like yakinuku sandwiches, fried onion slices, fried chocolate bars, 
  potato slurries, tuna noodle casserole, two-patty hamburgers with 
  or without the egg, and sweetened milk, plus, of course, the best of 
  all possible pies. It even has karaoke on Wednesday and Saturday 
  nights! It’s a great place to come when you have something to 
  celebrate with your friends.
  The Golden Phoenix Bun 
  Shop
  This incredibly tourist-y restaurant—the roof has Imperial dec-
  orations marking it as the residence of one of the highest nota-
  bles of the Forbidden City, but the owner isn’t even full-blooded 
  Chinese!—is nevertheless the source of the most delectable meat 
  buns in Town. And they’re so cheap! You can buy a bag of meat 
  buns and sit with them at the nearby benches or stroll through a 
  nearby garden. You can’t actually eat in, though: the closest you 
  can come is sitting on one of the four high stools directly under 
  the restaurant’s awning.
  Steam Noodles
  This is a pretty good noodle soup shop. It’s cheap, and the soup is 
  hot and good. The sign out front talks about a revolutionary noo-
  dle-steaming process but as far as I could tell when I ate there the 
  revolution changed nothing. Your soup comes with a small salad 
  but you have to get it yourself at an extremely uninspiring salad bar.
  Still, the noodles are good!
  The Clever Crab
  The crab was probably not actually that clever, since it was almost 
  certainly eaten. But possibly it was a Buddhist saint that wanted to 
  be eaten to help advance the enlightenment of other life. Or some-
  thing. (I couldn’t say.) This is a decent seafood, sandwich, and tea 
  place with metal chairs, lightweight tables. It has a bit of a Seattle 
  atmosphere, which is pretty much why I went in!
  Dunstan’s Pizza
  This classic pizza restaurant bears the name of St. Dunstan. When 
  the Devil troubled him at his smithy, St. Dunstan caught the Dev-
  il’s nose in his red-hot pincers. That flattened nose—according to 
  the legend of St. Dunstan’s Pizza House, deviating here from the 
  classic doctrine—inspired St. Dunstan’s cousin to invent the first 
  pizza spatula. Another version of the story holds that whatever 
  St. Dunstan was making melted down while he had his standoff 
  with the devil, flowing over the anvil to form a flattened spatula. 
  Either way, whenever you put a pizza into or remove a pizza from 
  a comparatively flat oven, you’re calling back to the legend of 
  St. Dunstan... 
  Or so the pizza house claims. These legends are almost cer-
  tainly complete fallacies, but the pizza is pretty good. You can 
  get a bucket of crisp French fries to go with it and a real imported 
  bottle of soda!
  God Pancake
  The logo for this pancake shop is a winged face floating above a 
  pancake, looking skyward, over a bed of clouds. Has the pancake 
  achieved godhood, or is it a god contemplating a pancake? It’s a 
  little hard to tell. Anyway, the classic “god pancake” is a thin blue-
  berry pancake with a puff of sugary whipped cream on the top, 
  a circle of thick lemon syrup, and grated raspberries around the 
  edge; you can get it with tea, a side of spring rolls or chicken bites, 
  and chocolate, or you can order it rolled up into a paper cone to go.
  Anything involving food is probably 
  Shared Action
  You do stuff while you’re eating, or you talk while you’re eat-
  ing about the stuff you do and want to do.
  Finding a new place to eat is usually 
  Discovery
  Is it neat? Mysterious? Or a little scary?
  
  Cutting-Edge Stuff
  266
  266
   Cutting-Edge Stuff 
  The Latest Thing
  One of the stores with a very strong mindshare among the students 
  at School and the kids of Fortitude is the Latest Thing. Its stuff 
  is actually generally out of the student budget—it’s targeted at 
  people who want “neat things,” and so it brings in a lot of weird 
  and fashionable stuff from Earth and the other worlds. Collectible 
  toys, brand-name apparel, strange foreign foods, the latest game 
  or CD to get a shipment into Town, and peculiar upscale magical 
  or technological goods all find their places on the shelves here. It’s 
  pricey, but the students love it anyway—they may not really be 
  able to go there to buy things, but it’s a great place to go to drool 
  over all of the awesome stuff!
  The Steamworks
  Obsessed with robots, cybernetics, mecha, battlesuits, super-
  computers, or artificial people? You’ll find ample fuel for your 
  obsession at the Steamworks, “a Modern Science and Robotics 
  Shoppe” tucked away down by the river in the Shopping District 
  at Town. Its principal clients are the businesses of Town, but 
  there’s a large sales area—the Steamworks Gardens—that’s tar-
  geted at casual shoppers and the younger crowd, selling toys, fad 
  items, and promotional devices, as well as giving talks about the 
  glorious future of Town and offering tours to “youth interested in 
  modern science.” Imagine an airy bazaar combining elements of 
  Italy, fairy-tale Baghdad, and a modern science museum. In every 
  corner of the gardens is something neat: dueling robot scorpions, 
  Tesla devices burning logos onto signs, gentle-voiced “speaking 
  engines,” or self-motivating gyrocopter fairies floating along the 
  ceiling cleaning the soot and pollen from the ceiling and the up-
  per air! Remote-controlled steamboats and one dragon-faced sub-
  mersible patrol amidst the liles of a cultivated creek. The goal of 
  the Steamworks Gardens is to be an irresistible magnet to any 
  child or geek with even the faintest interest in modern science, and 
  in this, it more or less succeeds.
  Comparatively out of sight is the actual devicery where the 
  engineers do their work. The Steamworks devicery is much more 
  interesting but infinitely less captivating than the Gardens—it’s 
  full of machines of impenetrable design, half-finished robots and 
  battlesuits barely distinguishable44 from modern art45, engineers 
  laboring over reams of plans, and young apprentices hauling coal, 
  twisting valves, and wriggling through vents to investigate vari-
  ous calamities, potential calamities, and disasters.
  Visits to cutting-edge stores are sometimes 
   Foreshadowing
  Something mobile or interactive catches your attention. You 
  admire or watch it or listen to the sales staff talk about it for a 
  while. Then you react! Later, perhaps it’ll become important 
  to the story. 
  44 If at all!
  45 Many will never function, you see, barring fundamental advances in 
  design, so they could be rightly understood as decorative in function.
  Visits to cutting-edge stores sometimes provoke 
   Obsessive 
  Actions
  You get obsessed with something. It’s just so cool! You get 
  worked up over it. You do something over the top, tipping over 
  the edge into obsession—do you spend money you don’t have? 
  Rant from a soapbox about how awesome it is? Try to steal it 
  from the shop? Or do you just kind of short out and shut down 
  over it, mumbling its name in intermittent awe or avarice as 
  you stumble dazedly through the streets?
  It’s best if someone else notices and reacts!
  Visits to cutting-edge stores are usually (about) 
   Discovery
  What wonder have you just found?
  Steam-Powered Robots
  The robots of the Shopping District are sleek creatures of brass 
  and copper. Most of them are clockwork organisms with a side of 
  steam and electric power, wrapped in a metal shell. They tend to 
  have articulated clockwork or flexible-cable limbs; glowing eyes; 
  legs, spherical wheels, low-temperature jets, or helicopter blades 
  for mobility; and a generically soulful appearance. 
  Robots are generally gentle, quiet and patient creatures. They 
  have decent hearts but lack the human need for company and en-
  tertainment. That isn’t to say there aren’t robots heavily motivated 
  to seek family, friends, attention, thrills, or fun, just that they’re a 
  lot less common than the comparable human archetype.46
  Roughly thirty robots in the Shopping District have achieved 
  citizenship and bought off their contracts with their makers; an-
  other seventy are in various stages of progression towards this 
  goal, still caught up in demonstrating or developing their intelli-
  gence or saving up the money for their independence. There’s no 
  outright exploitation of self-aware machines, what with engineers 
  holding the device-love towards their work and Town having 
  anti-slavery laws on its books, but the absence of standardized 
  medical care puts them in an awkward position—from a legal 
  perspective, what they’re buying when they buy their freedom is 
  not so much themselves as the maintenance contract that prom-
  ises them long-term survival, and the cost of their construction47 
  is simply folded in. I’m not entirely sure what will happen when 
  robots develop sufficient resources to handle their own construc-
  tion or repair—history suggests an unpleasant power struggle, but 
  46  There’s an ongoing philosophical struggle between the engineers and 
  robots wanting to target robot development towards even more peaceful, 
  content, and quiet robots that will love nothing so much as service to hu-
  manity and those who want to aim them more towards being human. On 
  the surface, this debate is about whether robot consciousness is human 
  consciousness, whether a truly docile robot consciousness is a crippled 
  personhood or a new kind of personhood, and whether a truly rebellious 
  robot consciousness would be an expression of humanity or simply fire-
  brand fetishism, but there are underlying strains of “How the hell does 
  friendliness actually work?” “Are we even capable of building perfectly 
  loyal or genuinely free-willed robots?” and “Is it better for humanity to 
  have a child-species that honors and serves it or a child-species that goes 
  beyond or even supplants it?” all mixed in.
  47  Offset by the marketing benefit that having them out in the world brings 
  their creators.
  
  267
   
  there might not be enough money, madness, or prejudice involved 
  to turn things messy.
  The District’s humanoid robots have a relatively standard 
  form, although it’s been refined and smoothed over time—an 
  untrained human eye is probably best off identifying specific 
  robots by their nameplates rather than trying to catch the subtle 
  differences in their shape. At a rough sketch, there are 60 self-
  willed or potentially self-willed robots demonstrating the current 
  standard humanoid form; 10 identifiably older and 5 identifiably 
  newer models; 8 undersized “chibi” robots; 4 gynoids with overtly 
  feminine features48; 3 sentient computers that are semi-mobile at 
  best; 3 hyper-mobile “explorers” designed around a head-sized 
  spherical shell with miscellaneous reconfigurable limb attach-
  ments; 1 self-aware train that mostly keeps to its standard route; 
  1 intermittently self-aware hive creature; and a handful of other 
  miscellaneous variants. Robots do not seem to be able to become 
  tsukumogami, although since most of them feature at least some 
  level of electric power and very few of them are older than the 
  quarter-century mark the evidence is ambiguous at best.
  48 This pretty much means “breast-bumps.” Steam and clockwork are ap-
  parently pretty poor technologies to work with when it comes to actual 
  sexual function, robot parturition is considered an unprofitable line of re-
  search compared to robot engineering, and most of the robots who have 
  a gender identity at all tweak their voicebox or clothing style instead of 
  their physical form.
   
  Debates over the future of robotics are sometimes 
  Science, 
  Faith, and Sorcery
  Will you trust the robots with a potentially rebellious future, 
  or humanity with the power to deny the robots their agency? 
  You think about this, explain what you know, come up with a 
  theory, and propose a risky test.
  Studying robots, or showing interest in their technology, is usually 
  Foreshadowing
  You’re hearing exposition or reading description about this 
  stuff, and you get caught up in listening, watching, or reading. 
  After a bit, you reach a new understanding or realization—and 
  react!
  Debates over the future of robotics are sometimes 
  Obsessive
  You worry about or become obsessed with the idea of a future in-
  volving recklessly dangerous or miserably enslaved robots. You get 
  worked up over it. You tip over the edge into outright obsession!
  Interacting with robots is usually 
  Shared Action
  You do stuff. They do stuff. Try to connect!
  
  The 
  Methodology 
  Building
  A Far and Sunless Land
  268
  268
   The Methodology Building 
  The twelve-story Methodology Building is a monument to the 
  glory and ambition of the Headmaster of the Bleak Academy. 
  It towers over Arcadia like a gnomon over a sundial or an angel 
  spreading its wings. It is His shadow that it casts, metaphorically 
  at least; it functions as the embassy of the Riders, the Bleak Acad-
  emy, and the Far and Sunless Land in Town.
  To stand in the shadow of the Methodology Building is to be 
  possessed of a wild, nameless longing for the end of things—for 
  unshackling, for a dreamless peace, for a thing that is beyond 
  childhood and personal existence and can only be discovered 
  somewhere in the far Outside. It sends a chill emptiness through 
  you but also makes you resonate to its calling; give up everything 
  you are, it whispers to you, and you may find eternity.
  That’s the vision offered to you by the Bleak Academy: some-
  thing soulless and wondrous, like a Heaven spun from steel and 
  glass. Something transcendent. Something bleak. Something that 
  can only ever be promises until you get there, and by then, wheth-
  er it’s a Heaven or a Hell, it’ll be too late to change your mind.
  Staring up at the methodology building sometimes invokes 
  a 
  Trauma
  It gets to you. It gets under your skin. Under the surface of 
  your thoughts. It makes you think things. You break from re-
  ality, just a little, as its shadow moves across the world. You 
  wind up scarred, touched, even a little changed.
   
  Staring up at the methodology building is rarely 
  Foreshad-
  owing/Sympathetic Action
  It catches your attention. You watch it for a while: the move-
  ment of the shadow as the day goes by, the lights in the win-
  dows, the people walking to or fro, or the dreams it wakes in 
  your mind. 
  It’s a long time later that you tear yourself away.
  Or: it catches your attention. You watch it for a while. 
  You’re distanced from yourself. Then—a shock! Someone 
  touches your shoulder. Something speaks to you in your mind. 
  You flounder. You try to get some defensive distance, perhaps? 
  You’re frozen up, in short, or messed up, and someone else can 
  take a Sympathetic Action.
  Staring up at the methodology building is usually 
  Slice of 
  Life
  That moment sticks with you. The mood of the place fills 
  you up.
  Taking the elevator in the Methodology building is usually  
  Symbolic (a Ritual/Transition)
  Sometimes visits to the Methodology building will give you 
  power. You ride in the elevator and the world stops and a voice 
  asks questions of your soul, and then—when you come to 
  your senses again, you’re not in the building any longer, but 
  something’s different. Something’s better. Something’s worse. 
  Something’s new. Maybe you’ve picked up your visa to travel 
  to the Far and Sunless Land. Maybe you’ve learned a terri-
  ble truth. Maybe you’re healthier, a sickness you had is gone 
  from your system, only now you have a strange compulsion to 
  set aside the things of your childhood and prepare for a long 
  journey. You won’t know what it’s going to be until you have 
  reason to find out! That’s a Ritual.
  If the HG prefers, then there may be something you need to 
  do or something that needs to happen, more than once, at the 
  top floor of the Methodology Building. This would make par-
  ticular sense if you end up allying yourself to the Headmaster 
  of the Bleak Academy, for instance, and travel there to consult 
  with him. In such a case the trip might be a Transition, marked 
  by “stock footage.” Imagine that there’s a clip out there on 
  youtube or something showing your character ascending the 
  elevator, with, presumably, dizzying views of the world out-
  side and beyond; since we can’t actually show that clip in play, 
  what with it not existing, you’ll recite from an appropriate text 
  instead. I’ve included some suggestions for appropriate texts 
  below. Note that some of them are pretty long, so you may not 
  want to use the whole text every time—just go for as long as 
  it feels right!
  First Text: 
  “A Far and A Sunless Land,” 
  by Jenna Moran
  “You don’t have to stay,” said the morning star 
  “Run away, run away, run away to a far 
  To a far, to a far, to a far, to a far, to a far and a sunless land.”
  “You can run,” said the sun, in the middle of the day; 
  “O I wish ’that they’d told me I could run away 
  Run away, run away, run away, run away, to a far and a peaceful 
  land.”
  “You can run away,” said the sunset’s light, 
  And it set its horizon in a hard flat line 
  “It’s OK, it’s OK, it’s OK, and you’ll find 
  A far and a sunless land. A far and a sunless land.”
  And the night rolls over and it makes me sick 
  It’s a trick, it’s a trick, it’s a trick, it’s a trick 
  And I wish someone’d told me I could run away 
  To a far and a sunless land.
  
  An Interpretation of the Katha Upanishads
  An Ominous Dialogue (I)
  269
   
  Second Text: 
  An Interpretation of the 
  Katha Upanishads
  Now a man, desiring a great reward, promised to give all that he 
  possessed to Death; and as he made these sacrifices, his son re-
  flected as follows:
  Unblessed are the worlds where a man goes after death 
  If the gifts he gives are barren— 
  If he offers all he has to the gods 
  But holds back the better part for himself.
  So he said to his father: “To whom will you give me?”
  And that is how it came to pass that Ketas, who was that man’s 
  son, was made sacrifice to Death. And as he went he turned and 
  he looked back upon the world of dying people, and living people, 
  and he saw that they were the same, and he said: “I go as the first, 
  but many more will follow.”
  A mortal ripens like corn; like corn, he springs up again.
  Now Death had not expected this visitor to his home; truly, 
  Ketas’ sacrifice was an unexpected gift even to the god of Death; 
  and so for three days and three nights, Ketas dwelt in the house 
  of death unattended. He received no drink and no food and no fire 
  was lit for him. He dwelt in silence and in darkness and the house 
  of Death was barren unto him. When Death returned, Death was 
  greatly struck by this, and cried out: “Hail to thee! You have dwelt 
  in my house three days and three nights without receiving food or 
  drink, and no fire was lit for you, and so Death shall grant to you 
  three boons, whichsoever you may choose.” 
  “O Death,” said Ketas, “may my father be freed from anger 
  to me; and may he know me and greet me, when I am dismissed 
  by thee.”
  “Through my favor,” said the voice of Death, “this thing is 
  done.”
  “O Death,” said Ketas, “teach me of the fire-sacrifice, that a 
  person may pass through Death and unto Heaven.”
  “I tell it to you,” said the voice of Death, “learn it from me; and 
  know that this is the attainment of the endless worlds, and their 
  firm support, which is hidden in the darkness.”
  Ketas listened to the words of Death, as Death explained, 
  and Ketas repeated it back as it was told to him; and Death was 
  pleased, saying, “For this I shall give you a second-and-a-half-th 
  boon, that the name of this sacrifice shall be your name hereafter, 
  and those who have three times performed this rite, and been unit-
  ed through you with father, mother, and teacher, and performed 
  study, sacrifice, and the giving of alms shall overcome birth and 
  death and obtain an everlasting peace and rejoice in the world of 
  Heaven beyond the reach of grief.”
  “You are generous, O Death,” said Ketas, and he bowed his 
  head.
  “Choose then,” said Death, “your third boon, and all shall be 
  accomplished.”
  And Ketas said: “There is that doubt, when a man is dead—
  some saying, he is; others, he is not. This I should like to know, 
  taught by thee; this is the third of my requested boons.”
  “On this point,” Death said, “even the gods have doubted 
  formerly. It is not easy to understand. The subject is subtle. O 
  great-spirited Ketas: choose another boon. O honored guest, I beg 
  you: do not press me, and let me off that boon.”
  “On this point,” Ketas agreed, “even the gods have doubted 
  indeed, and thou, Death, hast declared it to be not easy to under-
  stand, and another teacher like thee is nowhere to be found—sure-
  ly no other boon is like unto this.”
  “Choose sons and grandsons,” begged Death, “who shall live a 
  hundred years, herds of cattle, elephants, gold, and horses. Choose 
  the wide abide of the earth, be king of the wide earth, I shall make 
  thee the enjoyer of all desires—”
  But Ketas was not moved; and so Death was forced to speak—
  Third Text: 
  An Ominous Dialogue
  Night: What are you? 
  The Sleeper: I am that which dreams.
  Night: What do you dream of? 
  The Sleeper: I dream of peace.
  Night: You may have peace without existence. It grows and 
  blossoms in the far and sunless land. 
  The Sleeper: I dream of a peace that writhes and coils in rejec-
  tion of the dark.
  Night: You dream of agony.  
  The Sleeper: I dream of agony. I dream of pain.
  Night: What are you? 
  The Sufferer: I am that which conquers darkness.
  The Sleeper: I am in envy of the night.
  Night: How do you conquer darkness? 
  The Sufferer: I set myself on fire.
  Night: Some would say it were a kindness to smother such 
  painful flames. 
  The Sufferer: I am open to a third option.
  Night: You dream of agony. 
  The Sleeper: I dream of agony. I dream of pain.
  Night: What are you? 
  The Fire: I am that which laughs at nightmares.
  The Sufferer and the Sleeper: I am in envy of the night.
  Night: What do you dream of? 
  The Fire: A fall to the endless dark.
  Night: Is there no ground, then, to stop you?  
  The Fire: I shatter the ground when I strike it.
  Night: Is there no wind to slow your fall? 
  The Fire: I’m afraid it only speeds me on.
  Night: You dream of agony. 
  The Fire: I laugh at agony.
  Night: What are you? 
  The Fire: I am the envy of the night.
  The Sufferer and the Sleeper: I am in envy of the night.
  
  Inside the Marvel-
  ous Wish-Granting 
  Engine
  The Marvelous Wish-Granting Engine
  270
  270
  Inside the Marvelous 
   Wish-Granting Engine 
  If you pull back the layers of metal and machinery from around 
  the Marvelous Wish-Granting Engine’s heart, you’ll see a gate-
  way to a pocket world—
  Normally, a steampunk dimension, a clockwork world, that 
  runs on Arcadia’s rules.
  It has about 350 residents, mostly robots (or fairies or whatever 
  if you want to re-flavor it) but including a goodly population of 
  youkai. There are also many non-sentient or quasi-sentient inhab-
  itants, people or non-people anyhow to bulk out the feel of the 
  place—at least two or three thousand, but maybe more depending 
  on what you count. A handful of the residents just happen to live 
  there; the rest work behind the scenes to sustain the machinery and 
  keep its power of wishing alive!
  As in the Shopping District, life inside the engine is a fast-
  paced whirl of fun, materialism, and delight. The main dif-
  ference is that the business of the clockwork dimension isn’t 
  shopping, but rather maintaining the Marvelous Wish-Granting 
  Engine, so you can replace the general idea of shopping/ex-
  ploring Arcadia on pg. 254 with “maintaining the Region” and 
  replace the electric train with whatever transportation is appro-
  priate and you’ll have a pretty solid picture of how life inside 
  the Marvelous Wish-Granting Engine works. For instance, 
  shopping is very rarely Wicked and is usually Discovery—so, 
  you know, when you’re wandering the clockwork dimension 
  and thinking of getting involved with the stuff that’s going on, 
  that’s rarely Wicked, and usually Discovery!
  Most of the territory inside the Engine is fundamentally 
  metallic and mechanical, like a puppet-show city built by en-
  gineers, but balanced atop the spinning gears of the place are 
  pockets of ordinary reality, like Robin M’s Portion, Luke’s Un-
  likely Steamed Dumplings, the Killian Sideway, and the vast 
  “Sif-Comb49 Park.”
  Area: ~8 cubic miles of “stuff happens here,” 
  surrounded by infinite space 
  Population: 333 
  (300 robots / 30 youkai / 3 miscellaneous non-humans)
  49  Technically the SJFCCMB, or “Sarah Jane Forest-Clockwork Combi-
  nation Micro-Biome.”
  Lilimund Cartaign
  Ruling the clockwork world inside the Wish-Granting En-
  gine is a woman dressed in brass Victoriana with a metal 
  umbrella at her side. This Main Character is brilliant and 
  awesome and perfect, a muse of machinery: the grande dame 
  of invention and hard-working wish-granting goddess Lili-
  mund Cartaign!
  She doesn’t just live in the steampunk dimension tend-
  ing the machinery and helping grant wishes, though. She 
  pretends that, when she’s talking to Chuubo (or Shokyou), 
  because she’s not entirely certain it’s legitimate for her to 
  actually be out in the world doing anything else, but oh 
  is she ever out in the world. She’ll sneak out practically 
  any time she can be sure her creator won’t know! She is 
  the stealth do-gooder vigilante who fixes termite damage in 
  the night. She’s the secret heroine who’ll rescue kidnapped 
  children from some monster’s lair. She’s a glorious adven-
  turess who goes around getting into scrapes and building 
  things and fixing things and making things better and she 
  tries, very hard, not to let people connect the two pieces 
  of her life.
  It’s not that anything bad would happen. Not exactly. It’s 
  just... 
  The conversations that would follow if anyone knew her 
  complete story—both “So, um, you’re the spirit of a kid’s 
  magic engine?” and “So, uh, I accidentally made a scien-
  tist-hero? And it’s not, like, a glitch or anything?”—are just 
  so incredibly awkward!
  You can choose a different aesthetic for Lilimund and 
  the world inside the Marvelous Wish-Granting Engine. Her 
  player, or the HG if she’s an NPC, could choose a fairy tale 
  world, or a land of pulp adventure; instead; and she, a fairy 
  tale princess, or non-steampunk two-fisted adventuress! You 
  could even replace her with the standard male version, declar-
  ing that the world inside the engine is run not by a woman in 
  brass Victoriana but rather by Seizhi/Suzy’s older brother, sci-
  ence hero, adventurer, and possible underground tournament 
  luchadore Laodemus Schwan.
  Lilimund Cartaign, aka 
  The Marvelous Wish Granting Engine
  
  271
   
  
  Old Molder
  272
  272
  Old Molder
  This Region’s full of old metal, old buildings, and something 
  wonderful—of nature and color taking hold in the ruins where 
  industry used to reign. Amidst the crumbling brownstones and the 
  rusting cars is a resurgent beauty: wild and tame gardens creep-
  ing in to cover the broken streets, traders and scavengers hanging 
  bright fabric from the balconies of their upper-story homes, and 
  the gleaming golden metal of pedal-powered dragonfly-shaped 
  flying machines darting through the upper air.
  It all began in the Celdinar Mayoralty, when industry came 
  to Town. There was a time, though you’d hardly think it to see 
  Town now, when “progress” was a fire in people’s hearts—when 
  everybody’s dream, when everybody’s wish power, set itself on 
  a future painted in combustion, mass production, electricity, and 
  brass. A wave of modernity broke across Town and everyone’s 
  mind was burning with the promise of a car for every traveler, a 
  laundry machine and dishwasher for every home, machine-made 
  clothing for every man, woman, and child, and palace-zeppelins 
  and clockwork servants for every family of note. Old Molder was 
  the production center, the beating industrial heart of Town.
  Then it stopped.
  People’ll blame the earthquake, if they’re talking casually, but 
  the histories say that Old Molder actually was half-dead already 
  by the time the earthquake hit. There were people coming in every 
  day from all over the world, caps held to their heads and faces 
  bright with hope and skill and promise, but there weren’t enough 
  of them; and the established families of Town were turning against 
  Old Molder’s development, more and more, as they realized just 
  how much their lives would have to change; and the factories were 
  terribly unlucky, or poorly managed, I don’t know which; and the 
  local workers, and the ship-captains who brought the new blood 
  in, grew disillusioned day by day. The future was dying anyway, 
  drop by drop, and then the earthquake hit.
  Old Molder shattered, and Town left it to rot, and eventually 
  the wild moved back in.
  Area: 2.5 square miles 
  Population: 1,200 
  (1,150 humans / 20 clockwork people / 30 miscellaneous non-humans)
  The Population
  Old Molder’s been settled over the years since by people who 
  can’t find a place in Town. That usually means people with a 
  reason not to settle down—people who value being eclectic or 
  independent in one way or another. This includes runaways from 
  Horizon, young adults from Fortitude trying to establish them-
  selves away from their family, hippies and bohemians, deviant 
  scientists, misanthropes, near- or semi-human creatures difficult 
  to categorize, a handful of unfortunates, and just enough in the 
  way of ne’er-do-wells, criminals, and predators to give the place 
  an unsavory air. It’s a favored destination for Horizon’s orphans, 
  who are rarely entirely sanguine about the attrition rate as com-
  pared to the adoption rate at Horizon’s two orphanages and would 
  rather have done with the whole region; some of them organize 
  into Dennis’ gang50, while others, like the Magical Detective, 
  make a play for an independent existence.
  In practical economic terms, the population breaks down 
  roughly as follows:
  What do the people of Old Molder do for a living?
  ~60% (live a) Subsistence/Independent Lifestyle 
  ~30% Commute/Trade with Town  
  ~5% 
  Scavenge/Trade 
  ~3% 
  Engineering/Tinkering/Metalworking 
  ~1% 
  Utility/Construction/Maintenance work 
  ~1% 
  Something criminal, weird, or miscellaneous
  About 700 of the residents live a subsistence lifestyle—individu-
  als, families, or small groups grow their own food, make their own 
  clothing, homestead their own condominiums or factories, and 
  in general provide for themselves without depending on others. 
  There’s a lively scattering of small markets throughout the Region 
  and people trade regularly with neighbors and wanderers, but such 
  trade is for conveniences and luxuries, not necessities. Another 
  350 or so make their living off of strong ties to the rest of Town—
  they live in Old Molder but make a daily, weekly, or seasonal 
  50 A gang of orphans, run by a young man named Dennis. It was hard 
  enough to get the name; if there’s anything exciting, horrifying, or even 
  interesting about him, I don’t know it. 
  Properties of Old Molder
   
  ŭ People must act strangely.
   
  ŭ People must want to climb up to the rooftops.
   
  ŭ People must abandon things they don’t really need.
   
  ŭ Strangers must act worse than they really are.
   
  ŭ People must make a mess anywhere that is completely clean.
  Typical Genre: Immersive Fantasy
  
  273
   
  commute to the rest of Town to work, trade, or otherwise obtain 
  the necessities of life. Somewhere in between are about 70 scav-
  engers who hunt through the ruins and wilderness of Old Molder 
  for scrap metal, herbal medicines, and interesting treasures from 
  the industrial days; these they then trade with locals for useful 
  goods or take out to the rest of Town to sell. There are about 35 en-
  gineers, tinkers, and metal-smiths whose skills are useful enough 
  in Old Molder to put food on their table without doing anything 
  else; 20 Utility Men51 whose contributions to the public good en-
  title them to pretty much anything they might happen to need, on 
  pain of social censure for the stingy; and a scattering of full-time 
  shop-owners, criminals, and special cases.
  Most of Old Molder is technically owned by some family or 
  other back in Town. Sometimes someone even shows up with the 
  paperwork to claim their rights—a building newly sold to some-
  body who’d rather have formal ownership before moving in, a 
  dreamer with a big idea for the real estate, or a technical landlord 
  in financial difficulty looking for a quick bit of cash. This can 
  lead to long-standing disputes or immediate aggressive action but 
  it’s more likely to resolve both peaceably and quick; the Regional 
  Council of Old Molder is empowered to strip land rights from out-
  siders or cut the electricity and plumbing to locals if either takes 
  intransigence too far.
  Talking to the Utility Men is usually 
  Foreshadowing
  The Utility Men are impressive roving troubleshooters, even if 
  their particular post-apocalyptic domain is smaller than some 
  university campuses. When they bring news, a warning, or 
  a mention that they’re going to be working in your area, it’s 
  probably relevant to your interests! 
  Subsistence is usually 
  Shared Action
  You’re doing your thing—your simple, honest thing. You skip 
  ahead to the point where someone else shows up in scene, or 
  you go bother someone else who’s doing simple, honest stuff 
  (because you can’t earn XP for this alone).
  Then one of you reaches out. You try to connect!
  Scavenging can be 
  Shared Action
  If you’re bringing new blood along while you look for inter-
  esting things in the wilderness of Old Molder, that’s probably 
  Shared Action.
  Scavenging is usually 
  Discovery
  You explore. You find neat, scary, or mysterious things!
  Scavenging can also be 
  Slice of Life
  You know what you’re doing. The wilderness is just backdrop 
  to you. You see something cool or poignant or whatever. 
  That moment sticks with you.
   
  51  The term is regrettably considered unisex.
  Visiting a local tinker, engineer, or metalsmith is usually 
  Slice 
  of Life
  There’s fire, or cool metal things or blueprints, or apprentices, 
  or whatever—something a little interesting to interact with.
  Trading at the local markets can be either kind of 
  Setting 
  Action (Discovery or Slice of Life)
  You see something interesting or meaningful and the image 
  sticks with you.
  The Yellow Stair
  The earthquake split the road from Horizon to Old Molder open 
  and tilted them apart. The Horizon side sank down a little bit and 
  Old Molder lurched back; there’s now a cliff where once they 
  were contiguous. It’s twelve feet tall where the main road once 
  ran.
  Ascending and descending that cliff, for the sake of those who 
  walk between Old Molder and the School, there is a yellow metal 
  stair.
  Commuting to and from Old Molder is usually not an Action 
  at all.
  Most of the time you’re going to just skip to a scene in Old 
  Molder or Town.
  Returning to Town is sometimes 
  Slice of Life
  If you’re traveling with someone, then heading back to Town 
  from Old Molder can be a Slice of Life (like most travel scenes 
  can.) Find things to comment or emote on in the scenery that 
  you pass, and hope that one of your traveling companions will 
  do the same.
  Commuting to Old Molder is sometimes a 
  Transition
  If you’re going to climb the Yellow Stair “on camera,” it’s time 
  to get out the stock footage! Assume that there’s a nice clip out 
  there on youtube or something of your character ascending the 
  yellow stairs and walking across the broken streets and into 
  the Old Molder garden. Since you can’t actually show that clip 
  during the game, you’ll need to use a Transition instead.
  The Utility Men
  The Utility Men consist of the Spark Men, who provide elec-
  tricity; the River Men, who keep the plumbing in good order; 
  the Ombudsmen, who handle miscellaneous points of difficul-
  ty; and the Bridgers, who salvage scrap metal from below and 
  use it to extend wirework walkways and bridges between the 
  various buildings’ upper floors.
  
  274
  274
  
  The Magical Detective
  Baroque
  275
   
  I’m going to include three possible texts for the Yellow Stair  
  Transition. When you’re climbing the Yellow Stair, someone of 
  the HG’s choice—probably you—reads from the text that seems 
  most appropriate. If you don’t want to take the time to figure this 
  out in play, and you didn’t think about it in advance, then just read 
  the first one and ignore the other two for now!
  First Text: “Baroque,” 
  by Jenna Moran
  If the earth hated you, it wouldn’t be a joke. 
  You would be in serious trouble. 
  It could engulf you. 
  It could hit you with a rock. It’s got wolves on it. 
  It could wolf you. 
  It’s got wild boars on it. It could boar you. 
  Then it could wolf you. 
  Then it could hit you with a rock. 
  Then take some magma from its core, you 
  Know, erupt, erupt, it could! 
  And burn you up.
  If it dismally tolerated you, then it would swallow 
  All your works. 
  Then they’d be hollow. 
  Then it would hit you with a rock, but smalla 
  Than the rock with which it hits a hated foe 
  You know.
  And when you were gone 
  It would flower over 
  And green would fall across the roads you’d made 
  And trees would rise to tower over 
  All your works, and crumble 
  Them with all their roots, engulf them, 
  Cover them in boars, or wolf them, 
  And your buildings would no longer matter 
  Save as trellises: the wire ladders 
  Would spill over with the fruit of its great vines
  And if it loved you 
  Then it would go pretty much the same, 
  Except when you were gone, and all your brass was fallen 
  And the clouds of smoke 
  Consumed by pollen 
  And the brownstones crumbled 
  And the towers fell
  In the forests you would see steel and brass 
  Dragonflies arise, and glass 
  Flowers blooming, and coal-eating elephants 
  To belch forth the savory of your smoke.
  If she remembers she will remember you baroque.
  The Magical Detective
  One day an unregistered orphan stumbled into Town, wrapped 
  in a cloak of night. This Main Character is usually Edony 
  Marguerite, a young elf—the only “elf,” to my knowledge, 
  in all of Town, although there are rumors of some sort of king-
  dom under the Lake—but you could replace her with a catgirl 
  or foxgirl or even a young werebear boy named Luther (with 
  adorable little bear ears!), if you’d prefer.
  The reason you can do this so easily is that the origin of this 
  person is essentially unknown:
  The road that the Magical Detective took to get to Town 
  was so very long and hard that they’ve lost all memory of 
  what came before, or even how they got there—there’s just 
  this vague sense that there was fire, and pain, and they were 
  so very, very tired, when they staggered into Town at last. The 
  fire is scary to remember, and the pain is awful, but it’s the 
  exhaustion that gives them nightmares:
  How can a person be that tired and still alive?
  They even lost their teddy bear somewhere along the way. It 
  was more precious to their heart than life itself, but they lost it.
  The road was hard!
  The Magical Detective has a vague sense that they have 
  a purpose here. A mission. That they weren’t just lost—they 
  came here to do something. To fix something. To save some-
  one. Maybe it involved “taking on cases” to help random 
  people? Saving them from themselves or from other people, 
  solving mysteries, and in general fixing Town? Maybe it did 
  and maybe it didn’t, but it sounded plausible enough that the 
  Magical Detective hung out her shingle as a detective—
  She’s on the case!
  This Main Character is 60-70% of the typical PC age and 
  lives in horrifying poverty in an abandoned Old Molder apart-
  ment. On occasion, when a parent is absolutely necessary for 
  social or legal reasons, the spirit of the Wish-Granting Engine 
  (pg. 270) will help the Magical Detective out by pretending to 
  fill that role. For instance, that’s how they got the paperwork 
  for School filled out, allowing the Magical Detective to sneak 
  in and attend a class or two now and then!
  Edony Marguerite, aka 
  The Magical Detective
  
  The Chimney-Sweeper
  An Ominous Dialogue (II)
  276
  276
  Second Text: excerpt from 
  “The Chimney-Sweeper,” 
  by William Blake
  When my mother died I was very young, 
  And my father sold me while yet my tongue 
  Could scarcely cry ‘weep! ‘weep! ‘weep! ‘weep! 
  So your chimneys I sweep, and in soot I sleep. 
   
  There’s little Tom Dacre, who cried when his head, 
  That curled like a lamb’s back, was shaved: so I said, 
  “Hush, Tom! never mind it, for when your head’s bare, 
  You know that the soot cannot spoil your white hair.” 
   
  And so he was quiet; and that very night, 
  As Tom was a-sleeping, he had such a sight, -  
  That thousands of sweepers, Dick, Joe, Ned, and Jack, 
  Were all of them locked up in coffins of black. 
   
  And by came an angel who had a bright key, 
  And he opened the coffins and set them all free; 
  Then down a green plain leaping, laughing, they run, 
  And wash in a river, and shine in the sun.
  Third Text: 
  An Ominous Dialogue
  The Rising Sun: 
  I remember when I could see the fac- 
   
  tories below.
   
  I liked that. I liked shining down 
   
  And shimmering on the glass and cars.
  The Falling Man: 
  And making their steering wheels hot.
  The Rising Sun: 
  Do you have a point?
  The Falling Man: 
  Just saying. If you’d like I could  
   
  remove the smoke 
   
  Sear it from the sky 
   
  Send an astonishing all-devouring 
   
  noisomely-coiling cloud-bird after it 
   
  Expose the steel like naked malice to 
   
  your eyes.
  The Rising Sun: 
  That is all right, I think.
  The Falling Man: 
  It is?
  The Rising Sun: 
  The matter has been attended to. 
   
  Though—
  The Keeper of the Storms: 
  Though?
  The Rising Sun: 
  Now that the smoke has cleared, this  
   
  moldering junk pile does not seem to be  
   
  quite as I remember it to be.
  The Keeper 
  Yes, well. 
  of the Storms: 
  embarrassed look 
   
  The matter is resolved; and should  
   
  remain that way.
  The Rising Sun: 
  If it does not?
  The Keeper of the Storms: Then I fear what has been kindled in 
   
  this place.
  The Garden
  The earthquake cracked the ground, shattered the roads, broke and 
  sprayed rubble across Old Molder. The most dangerous portions 
  were covered over or fenced off; none of it was ever really re-
  paired. Instead, the lower world of Old Molder, everything below 
  the second or third story of the buildings, became the Garden.
  Nature has reasserted itself here with unnatural speed and 
  force; to look at the clusters of knotweed and blue flowers grow-
  ing by the broken-asphalt pools is to think that centuries and not 
  decades have passed since Old Molder’s breaking. Green climbs 
  the ruins of the buildings, and even over some still occupied and 
  whole; stands of young trees give way to near-jungle here and 
  there; and, to the fascination and (frankly) horror of such biol-
  ogists as visit Town, the Region has given rise to new species of 
  insects, lizards, and flowering trees unknown elsewhere, with ma-
  jor deviations from the norm. These “Molder Anomalies” include 
  four-foot lizards, only occasionally poisonous; silver-colored 
  bees; “shamblers” (large shamrock-shaped shade plants, which 
  unfortunately do not actually shamble); and the Molder swallows, 
  gliding/flying lizards who would be a reasonable evolutionary 
  link between lizards and birds if we didn’t already have birds 
  around.52 I’ve also heard rumors of weirder things, ranging from 
  living swamps to crabs that occupy abandoned cars and rework 
  scrap metal into leg-extensions for this shell.53
  It’s not just nature responsible for Old Molder’s garden, of 
  course. There are people involved too. There’s a pervasive impe-
  tus in Old Molder to seek the heights that for many natives verges 
  on compulsion. People don’t like being down on the ground here: 
  so they’ve given up on standing and walking on the streets, on the 
  ground levels of buildings, and in the empty warehouses, and use 
  them pretty much entirely for cultivating food instead. Corn and 
  soybeans are most common in fenced-off or otherwise contained 
  properties, but edible plants including fruit trees, berry bushes, 
  wood sorrel, and violets have escaped their reservations, probably 
  with human help, and grow throughout the Region now.
  Getting poisoned by a Molder anomaly lizard is 
  Adversity
  They’re not really dangerous, in the sense that you have to be 
  pretty unlucky to get bitten by one of the lizards, and unluckier 
  still for it to be poisonous—even if you’re randomly sleeping 
  on the Old Molder ground or poking anomalies with sticks you 
  are most likely safe. That said, if it happens, then your life re-
  ally sucks for a bit. The scene often fades to black on you once 
  you’ve gotten tired enough from all the vomiting that you start 
  to hiccup and/or cry.
   
  52 Which we totally do.
  53 I am going to assume that people are making this up, or, failing that, 
  that some person is converting used cars into freaky crab-shaped pro-
  to-tanks. You know that you’d do that last thing if you had the time. Ev-
  erybody would yell, “Look out! Tank!” when you marched into Town, 
  but then they would say, “Or, wait! Maybe it’s a giant crab! Or a new 
  car! Crark! It’s a crark! (Crab-car-tank.) Run!” But by the time they have 
  figured out what to call you you have already dipped them in melted 
  butter and croaked out in your crark voice from your synthesizer, “See. 
  How. You. Like. That. Pitiful. Biped. :: In. Soviet. Old. Molder. King. 
  Crab. Butters. You!” It would be, to coin a phrase, crarktastic.
  
  277
   
  Gardening, farming, and keeping or driving out bees is usually 
  Shared Action
  This usually isn’t hard enough to qualify as adversity or trou-
  ble but isn’t laid-back enough to fall under slice of life either. 
  It’s just you, walking your path. Doing ordinary stuff.
  Try to connect!
  Exploring the Garden is usually 
  Discovery 
  What is this that you have found?
  Enjoying the Garden is usually 
  Slice of Life
  You know what you’re doing. Old Molder is just a backdrop to 
  you. Take some food and a friend down on a picnic, maybe, or 
  something, or climb up to the roofs for a better view. Anyway, 
  you’ll need to see something cool or wondrous or poignant or 
  whatever, and then emote your reaction to it. And that moment, 
  that mood?
  It lingers.
  Old Molder’s Web
  Now it’s more or less impossible to avoid the ground entirely 
  when growing food, but there’s a bit of a cultural thing in Old 
  Molder against traveling on it. Scavengers go below. Animals 
  go below. The Utility Men go below, when they must. People go 
  below for special reasons and for special occasions. People go-
  ing about their daily business, though? They’d much rather keep 
  themselves to the heights.
  Old Molder was already prone to second- and third-story pe-
  destrian walkways before the earthquake hit. The people building 
  the place were very excited about filling the streets with cars, but 
  also a little nervous about them—you know how people can be—
  so here, in the heart of Town’s industrial district, people made it 
  pretty easy to get from place to place without crossing paths with 
  the machines. Some of the high walkways shattered in the earth-
  quake; a surprising number of them didn’t.54 Still, there weren’t 
  enough left, or for that matter to begin with, to support a fully 
  second- and higher-story lifestyle.
  Things are different now.
  For decades now people have been salvaging scrap metal 
  from the Garden and the unused buildings and using it to build 
  out the space between buildings with Old Molder’s Web—a series 
  of shiny wire-grate walkways, bridges, and occasional suspend-
  ed market squares connecting the various upper-story residences 
  with one another and with the tops of the shorter buildings. The 
  Web got its name from the classic painting by Mr. Holmstock 
  showing the sunset from a tall building and the wire laid out like a 
  spider-web burning with orange-lit dew; in truth, from most roof-
  tops, it looks more like a corn maze than a spider’s haunts, for 
  which I personally am grateful.
  54  It was really a very convenient earthquake in some respects. 
  Finding a good view of the web is sometimes 
  Decisive Action
  This isn’t for seeing the web, like, spotting a walkway from 
  underneath. That’s trivial. This is for finding a good place to 
  see most or all of it from, from above.
  As you struggle to find a good place to do that—it can actually 
  be pretty hard when you’re a newcomer to the area, or if there’s 
  some obstruction on your usual route—you talk with someone about 
  your life and what’s on your mind. You catch their attention, which 
  is probably pretty easy because they’re bothering to accompany you 
  on this search. Then you finally see the web, and it’s amazing, and 
  as you’re looking down across the sweep of the shining web and all 
  Old Molder, you reach and then announce a decision. 
  Or do you do something decisive then and there? But I 
  don’t know what that could possibly be unless you’re going to 
  grow fiery wings or something or push your traveling compan-
  ion off of the roof.55
  Finding a good view of the web is usually 
  Slice of Life
  You admire it. Or you’re a freak and you express your disap-
  pointment. Freak! Then someone else emotes, in response to you 
  or to the web. That’s a good moment to treat as a Slice of Life.
  You’ll remember that moment.
  Walking on the web is usually just 
  Slice of Life
  Find things to comment or emote on in the scenery as you go, 
  and perhaps those images will stick with you too.
  The Dragonflies
  A piloted dragonfly ornithopter treading the upper air is a char-
  acteristic sight of Old Molder. The ornithopters are compellingly 
  beautiful: golden, gleaming in the sun, deceptively ethereal and 
  fragile in appearance, hovering and flitting through the sky much 
  as real dragonflies do. They’re brutally difficult both to steer and 
  to keep skyborne, I understand, so there’s never more than a few 
  of them visible at once—but once you spot one it’s hard to look at 
  anything else until it lands. 
  55  Disclaimer: do not push people off of roofs.
  The Lurker 
  Sometimes ornithopters and their pilots just vanish. It’s not 
  common—once or twice a decade, at the most. It’s still a little 
  puzzling, because Old Molder is not that big, and the orni-
  thopters are pretty visible. You’d expect them to go down in 
  flames, or at least in screams, but you wouldn’t expect them to 
  vanish. For this reason people talk about “The Lurker,” some 
  kind of combustion-powered monstrosity hidden in Old Mold-
  er that hunts down and devours ornithopters and their pilots. 
  I’m pretty sure this is just the local equivalent of an urban 
  legend, but it’s such a good excuse for Trouble that The Lurker 
  probably ought to exist in some form or other in your game. 
  Amy Sutedja’s “Unorthodox Record,” while presented 
  non-traditionally in the form of a manga, is probably the de-
  finitive study of this and other Old Molder myths.
  
  278
  278
  
  279
   
  The body of an Old Molder flyer is about 30 feet in length. 
  Each wing is about 20 feet of golden filigree with something like 
  soap bubble or, well, insect wing, stretched between the gaps in 
  metal to make the lace of the wings airtight. Most of the power 
  comes from pedaling; there’s a small onboard engine in some de-
  signs, but it’s not so much for regular use as for emergencies like 
  a nasty wind or a suddenly locked-up leg.  (The engineers of Old 
  Molder are pretty good with engines, but it’s not good luck to rely 
  on an engine here, and nobody likes a purveyor of bad luck.) An 
  Old Molder flyer is more likely to rely on winding for its power 
  than combustion, and some models for the weaker-legged take an 
  hour or two of winding for each fifteen minutes of free flight.
  Words can’t express how much I love these things. They’re awe-
  some. If you’re incredibly strong and fit and ideally engineering-mind-
  ed and you ever find yourself in Old Molder, please take one out into 
  the upper air for me and tell me how it goes. Conversely, please don’t 
  take one far outside it—they don’t take to the air outside Old Mold-
  er very well. It’s not so much that they don’t work in, say, Horizon, 
  and you do get occasional daredevils flying an ornithopter into School 
  and back, but the crash and casualty rates start skyrocketing once you 
  leave the environment of Old Molder. Some of this is aerodynamics 
  and weather patterns and the like; some of it seems to be that the things 
  are only barely safe and functional in their native state. Their apparent 
  ability to function reliably within Old Molder is then the consequence 
  of a peculiar local blessing of luck, of dharma, or of fate.
  Flight is almost never  
  Trouble
  The idea of something chasing you, or a disaster getting ever closer 
  while you’re flying, is pretty awesome and dramatic, but you can’t 
  really have very many scenes like that in Old Molder unless the 
  skies become a lot more dangerous or, maybe, safer.56 Anyway, a 
  scene like that would work basically like this: trouble looms. You 
  flail, trying to mitigate the problem, or maybe you try to run away 
  or hide from some sort of aerial danger. You seem safe—until... 
  There’s a terrible moment of fear!
  Flight is often 
  Foreshadowing
  You’re up in the air. Something down below catches your at-
  tention. You fly closer, your attention caught. Then you see—
  something more! Something interesting! You react!
  Flight is sometimes 
  Shock
  ...or at least, it can be if there’s someone who can talk to you—like, 
  if you’ve brought a small walkie-talkie or radio with you, or you’re 
  in magical communication with somebody, or someone’s flying 
  another flyer next to you, or you’ve got a Fortitude rat or some 
  other extremely low-mass personage with you as your copilot.
  If you do have someone who can talk to you, you can have 
  a flight scene that starts with you just kind of soaring, enjoying 
  the air. Or, if you like, with you sweating and pedaling, totally 
  exhausted, taking the ornithopter somewhere where it needs 
  to go. Then bam, suddenly you realize that what you’re seeing 
  is absolutely shocking. You try to get some mental or physi-
  cal distance. You fail, at first. Someone expresses concern or 
  sympathy. (That’s why you need someone else around.) Their 
  concern shakes you out of a mental lock-up or helps you push 
  past a physical difficulty, and you can act again!
  56  To encourage people who really shouldn’t be flying to get out there 
  and get into trouble.
  Flying is often just 
  Shared Action
  You do stuff. You connect with the world and the air and your 
  flying machine. You make yourself a little vulnerable, e.g., by 
  flying way high in the sky in a fragile pedal-powered drag-
  onfly-shaped ornithopter. Or by making yourself emotionally 
  vulnerable. You know. Whatever.
  This is probably isolating, but, heck, maybe you actually 
  do connect with the world.
  Unorthodoxies
  Historically Old Molder has attracted an uncharacteristic num-
  ber of Town’s “unorthodoxies”57—semi- or non-human people 
  of more or less unique circumstances, character, and extraction. 
  At present these include Nataniel Oldman, an amoeboid gardener 
  entity alleging shoggoth and nature spirit ancestry; the Morrow 
  Square mass mind; a comatose mutate whose electrified skin pow-
  ers much of the Region (the alternative, letting him radiate freely 
  until his building burned down, is seen as even less humane); and, 
  of course, the Magical Detective. 
  Trying to help the electrified man is usually 
  Science, Faith, 
  and Sorcery
  I figure that it is reasonable to come up with and test a theo-
  ry for what’s going on with him, because your PCs are pretty 
  awesome, but I can’t promise it’ll work out. So you talk about 
  what you know. Then you propose your theory. Then you put 
  yourself at risk—maybe you risk electrification, maybe you 
  just risk your moral standing—testing your theory out.
  Meeting an unorthodoxy is often 
  Foreshadowing
  You’re out in Old Molder. You meet someone/something strange. 
  It catches your attention and its strangeness gives extra weight to 
  whatever it might say. You listen. It says or does something more.
  Visiting an unorthodoxy you know well is often 
  Shared Re-
  actions
  Once you know them, of course, they’re just a friend. So if you 
  visit them and hang out, it’s probably to talk about stuff that’s been 
  going on in your lives. You connect with them. One of you makes 
  yourself a little vulnerable, maybe? That’s Shared Reactions! 
  Moral debate about the electrified man is usually 
  Shared Re-
  actions
  I’m not really recommending you get into this, because the guy 
  is unconscious so you’re more likely to project player-level 
  opinions onto the matter than to react naturally to social cues 
  in character. But if you do find yourself debating this, that’s 
  Shared Reactions. If someone gets too worked up it might 
  bridge over into Science, Faith, and Sorcery instead!
  57  I feel a little weird talking about them like this. Because they’re people. 
  But this is a storytelling game, and this is how it works in stories, and 
  I’m using one unorthodoxy with permission and making up the other 
  two, so. Um. Something.
  
  Little Island
  280
  280
  Little Island
  Little Island is a storybook island near the middle of Big Lake. 
  Fluffy sheep dot its green hills. Clouds float across its bright 
  blue sky.
  It’s Town’s memory of itself, I think, in a way.
  To live on Little Island is to live in a story of the idyllic past. 
  It’s a place of your youth, of the golden what-used-to-be. Because 
  there’s a Little Island, the people of Town get to say, ah, the old 
  ways aren’t really gone, those days aren’t gone, they’re not lost 
  and they’re not forgotten. The past never really went away, they 
  say, it just moved to Little Island.
  It’s a clean and healthy place. It’s a true place. It’s beautiful. It 
  isn’t in the past because it hates progress or is against the modern 
  world or anything like that. It just hasn’t caught up to the real 
  world yet.
  It has a temple at its heart. It’s a temple to Jade Irinka, who 
  was in those days, as I’m sure you will remember, the goddess 
  of the sun.
  The spirits of the wind laugh and play among Little Island’s 
  wind farms’ spinning blades.
  The people grow their grapes, catch their fish, raise their fami-
  lies, and tend their sheep, and it’s all as it ever was, all as it always 
  used to be; and they who live on Little Island never know the 
  sunless night.
  Area: 8 square miles 
  Sheep: 1600+ 
  Population: 155 (130 humans, 25 wind spirits) 
  The Golden Days of Fable
  Life on Little Island is simple and pastoral. It’s a peaceful place 
  and it’s bathed in the light of Town’s bright sun.
  The houses are mostly made from piled, mortared stones. The 
  roofs are dark shingles. Most houses have picket fences that sur-
  round them.
  Not every house has running water. There isn’t much in the 
  way of electric. There’s a tiny branch library on Little Island, ba-
  sically a depot for relaying books in and out of Town, and Mary 
  Margaret Cherry takes the post by once a week. There’s no phone 
  service or cell phone coverage at all, but the locals, of course, 
  don’t mind—what’s the point of a telephone, after all, except to 
  have people bothering you all the time? 
  And why wouldn’t you just walk a few miles and have a visit 
  if there were someone you wanted to see? 
  Most of the families of Little Island keep herds of sheep, but 
  Little Island is also home to fishers, vine-dressers and farmers, 
  and a family of priests and priestesses. There’s also the Merrons, 
  the closest thing Little Island has to rebels, who keep a small 
  vegetable garden, tend the port for the ferry, and run the inn and 
  general store.
  Now Little Island is a folksy place, a once-upon-a-time kind 
  of place, and you can tell because there’s a narrator—someone 
  to tell the stories of the place. You have to work pretty hard to be 
  conscious of it when you’re there, and so it’s up to the HG and the 
  players exactly how much of this element to bring in.
  Still, it’s not the kind of place where you get there and you’re 
  all “what do I do now?”
  There’ll be a voice to remind you what, somewhere in your 
  soul:
  Now on a day like this, Shokyou thought, there’s nothing for it 
  but to go and watch the wind-spirits at their play... 
  Little Island
   
  ŭ Things can’t change before they’re ready.
   
  ŭ Things must show their true natures.
   
  ŭ Things can’t lie.
   
  ŭ Things must be beautiful.
   
  ŭ The sun must shine brightly.
   
  ŭ You can never experience the night.
  Typical Genre: Pastoral
  
  281
   
  And if you ever need to help fix a sheep’s sprained leg, or find 
  help when you’re in trouble, or build a picket fence, why, there’s 
  the narrator right there to help you, explaining the way people 
  handle troubles like that on Little Island.
  The Mermaids and the 
  Seals
  People sometimes spot mermaids or seals in the rocks near Little 
  Island. Sometimes the mermaids sing. The people of Little Island 
  don’t trouble them—at most, they nod or wave—for such is the 
  custom of the isle.
  Spotting a mermaid or seal is usually 
  Foreshadowing
  It catches your attention. You watch or listen for a while. It 
  does stuff. Then you react—and it slips away. 
  I’m not 100% certain the mermaids are real and not a 
  special effect of some sort; and if they are real, then there’s 
  probably a reason people don’t bother them, so trying to catch 
  them might not be wise. So that’s why this is a Foreshadowing 
  Action and not something more interactive. Then again, it’s 
  your game! You know best!
  Life on Little Island is usually 
  Shared Action
  You do simple, honest things. Like, watch over the sheep, 
  or fix a broken window, or dust the house. You connect with 
  somebody else over it—or, if you’re alone, with nature itself. 
  You make yourself a little vulnerable, because if you can’t trust 
  the people around you, either you or they don’t belong on Lit-
  tle Island! That’s a Shared Action.
  Life on Little Island is sometimes 
  Slice of Life
  Something in the scenery catches your attention. You emote an 
  emotional reaction—to the brightness of the day; to a fine new 
  ribbon you have in your hair; to a sheep that’s behaving more 
  finicky than is his or her wont. Or you sight a mermaid or a seal 
  in the Lake, or the face of your sweetheart in the clouds—and 
  rather than watching it and getting all foreshadowy, you just 
  share your joy in that! 
  Maybe someone responds, and follows up with an emote 
  of their own?
  That’s a Slice of Life.
  Visiting
  The most common reason for visiting Little Island is as a stu-
  dent of School, on a field trip—normally that’ll happen during 
  the summer when the days are longest and the Island most acces-
  sible. On a field trip to Little Island students may experience the 
  old-fashioned lifestyle of the place, pet the sheep, roam the hills, 
  see the fields of grapes, and help out with traditional chores such 
  as sheep-shearing or maintenance on the major buildings. It is a 
  rare treat to witness one of the evening rituals, since of necessity 
  this requires staying overnight on Little Island and may even re-
  quire staying for several days.58 
  PCs might also visit Little Island to forget some trauma or 
  trouble, visit friends (met at School?) who live there, or take some 
  action at the temple pertaining to the matter of the sun.
  Healing spiritual wounds with a visit to Little Island is 
  Pastoral
  A visit to Little Island can be good for the mental health. You 
  don’t necessarily spend your whole time there actively “heal-
  ing,” but now and again, you’ll talk to someone, or maybe just 
  the world/narrator/HG, about what happened and why you 
  were broken enough to need the trip: Shared Reactions.
  And you’ll also probably do Shared Actions and Slice of 
  Life Actions while you’re there!
  58 If something’s going to keep the priestess from performing it, she might 
  not always know in time to send people home.
  The Goji
  The fifth hour of Town’s day is bound to the Goji family of 
  Little Island: it’s a lucky hour for them, and those who know 
  them often find their thoughts turning to the Goji at five 
  o’clock.
  Bethany Lennox
  Those who find that the simple life does not suit them even-
  tually depart from Little Island—though, it can take a while. 
  There’s a story that Bethany Lennox realized one day that life 
  on Little Island wasn’t quite to her tastes. Seven generations 
  later, her great-great-great-great-great-granddaughter finished 
  putting everything to rights and saying her goodbyes and took 
  the ferry over to Town for good.
  “You Can Never 
  Experience the Night”
  The natives don’t tend to comment on this explicitly, but Little 
  Island is always sunny and the nights are kind of elusive. It’s 
  not so much that they don’t happen, because obviously they 
  must. It’s just that apparently nobody ever looks around and 
  realizes, “Hey, I’m on Little Island, and it’s night.” Sometimes 
  it’s because the narration just skips to 
  The next morning...
  But other times it’s much subtler than that. 
  The bright sun of day is an intrinsic part of life experience 
  on Little Island. In the summer, it gives rise to a languid heat; 
  in spring and autumn, aromatic breezes temper its heat; and 
  in the winter, the sun shines sharp and clean in the winter sky 
  through days that seem somehow far too short. If there wasn’t 
  the sun, would the island even really be there?
  
  282
  282
  Scenes on Little Island are usually 
  Shared Action
  If you’re stranded and out of your element on Little Island, 
  someone can help you. Helping you is a simple, honest thing, 
  and they can connect with you over it, and maybe they even 
  show you some trust if that’s what you need, or accept your 
  trust if that would work better. Either way, that winds up being 
  a Shared Action.
  Or maybe you’re in your element. Then it’s just like liv-
  ing here. You do simple, honest things. Like, help watch over 
  the sheep, or visit the temple, or hang out with your field trip 
  group, or wander the hills and admire the scenery. You connect 
  with somebody else over it—or, if you’re alone, maybe with 
  nature itself. You make yourself a little vulnerable. That’s a 
  Shared Action too!
  Scenes on Little Island are sometimes 
  Slice of Life
  Something in the scenery catches your attention. You emote 
  an emotional reaction—to the vastness of the hills, to their 
  greenness; to the clouds, or the calmness of the sheep, or the 
  splashing of the Lake. Someone responds, and follows up with 
  an emote of their own. 
  The moment lingers.
  The Temple
  In the center of Little Island is a valley. It is reachable by dusty 
  paths, kept up but poorly, and marked along their way by bird-
  houses tied with sacred cords. At the end of that valley a steep 
  esplanade ascends the hillside and becomes a great long stair, 
  leading finally to the grounds of the temple to Jade Irinka, who 
  was the sun.
  The courtyard of that temple is vast and its architecture is stone 
  and in the main hall of the temple is a twelve foot statue of Jade 
  Irinka, six-armed, crowned by the sun, and bestowing a quixotic 
  smile on those who visit her in these days after her death. Laid 
  often but not quite always at her feet are flowers and smaller gifts; 
  behind her is a great tapestry showing the island and the sun, and 
  to her sides are gongs.
  There has always been a family here whose duty it is to tend 
  the temple and honor Jade Irinka. It’s possible that the temple will 
  move on to honoring Jasper Irinka now, the Child of the Sun, but 
  in a typical campaign that hasn’t happened and probably won’t—
  either the new sun is too new and the world still doesn’t know it 
  should be worshipping her, or she’s gotten used to it and decided 
  that the temple should keep to the old ways and uphold her moth-
  er’s memory and honor her as if she’d never passed away.
  In short, the only way this is going to become a temple to Jas-
  per instead of to Jade is if that happens during play.
  Thus it is that there is no temple to the modern sun, only a 
  small devotional in a side room for those who wish to honor it; 
  and the rituals of the temple still honor the dead sun, the lost an-
  gel, Jade Irinka who passed away.
  The only major change since the era of Jade Irinka is that the 
  main entrance to the temple, which once faced east, now faces 
  west; and how this should have happened, or why it did not re-
  quire a more extensive change in architecture, even the priestess 
  of the temple does not know.
  
  Celestia
  283
   
  Once upon a time it was possible to travel from the temple to 
  the realm of the sun—to ascend through an archway that opened 
  behind Jade Irinka’s statue to the higher realm. This is no longer 
  so; if the tapestry is cast aside, and the arch opened by the ritual of 
  passage, it leads to nowhere good.
  The narrator does not speak in the vicinity of the temple. 
  There is only silence from the heavens, there, that you may 
  better hear what may be speaking in your heart. 
  Pausing part of the way to the temple and talking is usually 
  De-
  cisive Action
  You discuss the things that led you there. Then you make a 
  choice!
  The walk to the temple is usually 
  Slice of Life
  You see evocative things along the way, or you learn some-
  thing about a traveling companion. The moment sticks with 
  you; the mood lingers.
  Attempting to enter Jade Irinka’s realm is usually a 
  Transi-
  tion
  This may change if you’re in a campaign where Celestia (see 
  box) is accessible—
  Then you may find yourself in a war zone, perhaps, as-
  sailed by the night-wyrms of the Bleak Academy; or in an 
  unmarred paradise; or in an empty, inexplicable ruin that you 
  may rebuild.
  But if the sky kingdom remains inaccessible, then this is 
  simply a Transition:
  You experience hints of a nightmare world, of shadowy 
  powers, of endless, biting wind; you read from an Outside-re-
  lated Transition, e.g., the ones on pg. 314 or 480; the entire 
  experience is painful, incomprehensible, and inexplicable, and 
  not one that you are 100% certain to have survived.
  The Sky Kingdom 
  (“Celestia”)
   
  ŭ You must reconcile the divided and the antithetical.
   
  ŭ You must keep things in good order.
   
  ŭ Your emotions must have a tangible impact on the 
  world.
   
  ŭ The lake must be tranquil.
   
  ŭ You must see far, and see clearly.
   
  ŭ You must have a talent for expression.
   
  ŭ A terrible beauty must reside in everything, though it 
  may hide beneath the surfaces of things.
  At one time there was a kingdom in the sky—a deep, a 
  true, and a paradisiacal land.
  It has drifted away from us with the death of Jade Irinka. 
  At the time of this story, even her successor, the Child of the 
  Sun, does not know how to reach the kingdom of the sky.
  But its touch lingers; sometimes I think that with the 
  right route you could climb the limestone cliffs of the 
  northern beach forever, and maybe one day reach the sky.
  
  284
  284
  Wind-Farms and 
  Wind-Spirits
  Little Island has a bit of electric—mostly for refrigeration, sew-
  age treatment, ventilation, and charging up boat motors, although 
  the power outlets in the inn can save a trip to the mainland if a 
  kid wants to charge their DS. If you ask a Little Islander where 
  the electric comes from, they’ll explain with a straight face that 
  they get static electricity from rubbing sheep—they’ve been tell-
  ing that joke to visitors for years, and they’re not going to stop 
  until they’ve sheared it bare of every last wisp of humor—but the 
  more correct answer is the wind farms that cover several of the 
  island’s hills. 
  Little Island’s wind farms have attracted wind spirits to 
  them—fairly important wind spirits, if their own accounts are 
  trustworthy. These aristocratic spirits treat spinning the windmill 
  blades as a game or contest and squabble over whose “territory” 
  in the region is the best. Many of the people of Little Island have 
  a hereditary blessing from these spirits, or even a bit of wind-spir-
  it in their own bloodline, which inclines the wind to treat them 
  kindly. Those who don’t have such a blessing are best advised to 
  avoid the squabbling princes and princesses of the air—they’re 
  noble of heart and have no real desire to hurt anybody, but they’re 
  also prickly, fickle, possessive, and playful, and prone to dream 
  up clever tricks.
  If you’re troubled by wind spirits, you can earn a substantial 
  respite by tossing a hat or ribbon into the wind and daring them to 
  chase it, or offering it to the “noblest” of those that torment you. 
  Unfortunately, this only postpones the problem—leaving your hat 
  in the possession of wind spirits can slowly deplete your solid 
  material grounding and infect you bit by bit with the nature of the 
  wind. This is not inherently bad so much as invasive, peculiar, 
  difficult to control, and a bit open-ended in how long it may last 
  and how far it may go.
  Giving your hat to the wind is usually 
  Science, Faith, and 
  Sorcery
  You tell the wind about the hat, or your friends about the trick, 
  or the narrator proposes that this is a thing that you will do. 
  You test the theory that they’ll leave you alone and that you’ll 
  get what you want if you do it!
  Giving your hat to the wind sets the stage for later 
  Corrup-
  tion or Metamorphosis
  You find yourself unexpectedly touched by the nature of the 
  wind. Reality gets a little weird. Corruption or transformation 
  sets in.
  Being troubled by the wind is usually 
  Obsessive Action
  You get worried or worked up about it. The wind-spirits stress 
  you out with their tricks; or, you decide to repay them with 
  tricks of your own. You go a bit too far, a bit over the top. 
  Someone notices! (Or does something happen to render the 
  matter pointless, instead, like the Headmaster wandering up 
  and unexpectedly killing off the wind?)
  Enjoying the company of the winds is usually 
  Shared Reactions
  You share news with them. You connect with them, or with oth-
  ers nearby. You make yourself a little vulnerable, whispering a 
  secret to them or letting them play temporarily with your hat. 
  Enjoying the company of the winds can be 
  Slice of Life
  You hang out. Something moves you to emote. Someone else 
  replies! 
  Wind-Charmers
  Certain cherubic innocents possess something called “the 
  wind-charm”—wind-spirits love them and treat them kindly. 
  The weird thing is, the wind-charm is heritable. Even an ex-
  tremely worldly jerk, supposing they had a sufficiently cheru-
  bic ancestor, may possess the wind-charm. This is measured 
  by the Skill Superior Connection to the Wind 1. It probably 
  shouldn’t rise past level 1 barring a pact of some sort binding 
  one’s spirit to the wind or a truly legendary fairy-tale friend-
  ship or love for the wind.
  By default, wind-spirit blood is a Defining or Setting Perk 
  (pg. 391-392), making you “Seventh Earl of the North-North-
  west Morning Breeze” or whatnot, with no attached magical 
  powers and no real use for a shepherd or shepherdess except to 
  establish their position in local wind-spirit society and maybe 
  contact a relatively recent ancestor for help at need. It doesn’t 
  even really make them safe around wind-spirits or particularly 
  palatable to wind-spirits not directly related to their line—it 
  just makes sure that the danger is the danger of extended fami-
  ly politics rather than the danger of randomly becoming an in-
  teresting new toy. Someone with wind-spirit blood may wind 
  up with Superior Wind-Spirit 1-2 and/or Superior Celestian 
  1-2, as described on pg. 286, making them substantially more 
  like the wind spirits themselves and even potentially allowing 
  them to turn into the wind and fly.
  
  285
   
  
  (Superior) Celestian
  (Superior) Wind-Spirit
  286
  286
   (Superior) Celestian 
  an example Superior Skill
  This is the Skill of those whose natural home is the upper air—
  those whose spirits dream of the sky kingdom where lived Jade 
  Irinka, before her death.
  Normally you’d need to spend a complete story in the sky 
  kingdom to pick this up but since it doesn’t seem to be there any 
  longer, since you can go higher and higher and just find, well, sky?
  I’ll let you pick this up some other way.
  The “Air” of Celestia
  In the old days, when the creatures and bird-faced spirits of the 
  sky kingdom visited Town, an “air of Celestia” would linger upon 
  them. While the air lingered, 
   
  ŭ mortals saw the spirit’s actions as the actions of a bird, the 
  wind, the heat, the snow, or something else like that, and 
  wouldn’t recognize the spirit as a spirit unless they actively, 
  consciously looked.
   
  ŭ even then, mortals had difficulty seeing the spirits unless the spirit 
  spoke to them or threatened them or something that they cared for.
   
  ŭ the Properties of Celestia continued to apply to the spirit
   
  ŭ the spirit resisted (but did not wholly ignore) the Properties of 
  other places.
   
  ŭ while the air of Celestia lingered around a spirit, it smoothed 
  their passage back into the upper world. 
  The Skill Itself
  So the levels of this Skill look something like:
  [Superior] Celestian 0. Sometimes you dream of the endless sky.
  [Superior] Celestian 1. You seem to have boundless energy, 
  though technically you don’t. You like climbing a lot and you’re 
  absurdly good at it. You occasionally have whole conversations 
  while asleep. Birds like you. You fade into the background when 
  seen in the distance. When you depart Celestia, an “air of Celes-
  tia” clings to you for up to half an hour.
  [Superior] Celestian 2. When you depart Celestia an “air of Ce-
  lestia” lingers about you for up to three full days and three full 
  nights. You need only a crumb or two of food a day, and either 
  you don’t need sleep at all or you can sleepwalk with great vigor 
  and intelligence.
  That’s actually as far as it goes—proper Celestians only had two 
  levels of this Skill, so I don’t even know what a third level would 
  mean. Possibly you’d need... a crumb or two of food a week and 
  you’d be so awake that you’d bleed coffee? I. don’t. Know!
   (Superior) Wind-Spirit 
  an example Superior Skill
  Between the lower world and the upper world there was a glassy 
  medium which the Lady Irinka called Heaven’s Lake, Heav-
  en’s Shell, or the Hull of the Sky. Across this medium blew the 
  wind-spirits, shaping it and re-shaping it according to their whims 
  and plans. Now that art is lost, together with Heaven’s Lake and 
  the kingdom in the sky; but the wind-spirits still have powers that 
  touch upon it and the Skill (Superior) Celestian 2. 
  Their more wind-spirit-specific powers are represented by (Su-
  perior) Wind-Spirit, a Skill ranging from level 1-4 and generally a 
  lot more customizable than the rules below suggest—if you want 
  to have a wind-spirit that’s a specialist in blowing out flames, or 
  capable of violent storm winds but only for short durations, or able 
  to turn completely into wind but only into a gentle breeze, that’ll be 
  completely fine! You can strengthen or specialize these abilities a bit 
  or weaken them quite a lot without breaking the rules of the game. 
  Here’s what the levels of Wind-Spirit look like:
  Wind-Spirit 0. You are not a wind-spirit. Possibly you have a bit 
  of wind-spirit blood in you but how could anybody tell?
  Wind-Spirit 1. You’re faster than most people. You can use “light 
  foot” practice to make it seem like you’ve cut up to two thirds off of 
  your density and mass—but technically this is balance-related trickery 
  and deceptive strength, rather than an actual reduction in density, and 
  if you’re ever unconscious or paralyzed you revert immediately to your 
  normal weight. You’re hard to visually track. You can interact with the 
  glassy medium as if it were rubber instead of the usual thick glass.
  Wind-Spirit 2. Choose:
   
  ŭ You can adopt a wind-shape, difficult to see and identify and able to 
  squeeze down or expand outwards by a factor of about two-fold. or
   
  ŭ You can control or wield a wind that blows around you.
  Either way, you can reduce your mass to a fraction of an ounce, 
  or to anything between that and your normal mass. If you give 
  in entirely to instinct (that is, to the HG) as to where you’re go-
  ing, you can fly at up to 25 miles per hour. You can interact with 
  the glassy medium as if it were thick pudding, rubber, or glass.
  Wind-Spirit 3. You can turn into wind and blow where you wish. 
  You can be, or control, a gale. You choose many of the material 
  properties of the glassy medium around you. 
  Wind-Spirit 4. You’re comparable to one of the twelve emper-
  ors59. You can turn into a hurricane-force wind to fill most of a 
  Region, blow for weeks without tiring, and do tricks like briefly 
  turning a hand into a violent wind to blast enemies away with or 
  sculpting the glassy medium into a miles-long path or an elaborate 
  sculpture with just a puff of breath.
  59 The greatest of all winds, responsible for blowing for weeks on end, 
  shifting whole regions worth of cloud, and capsizing or speeding along 
  even the strongest ships. They include three humanoid winds, the wind-
  dog Emperor Chou, the “Waking Dragon” Eme, and the Seven Sleeping 
  Emperors, dozing wind-dragons who go about their work by a process 
  of unconscious action. They probably won’t show up in play, but the 
  wind-spirits talk about them quite a bit!
  
  The Walking Fields
  287
   
  The Walking Fields
  To the west sprawl the Walking Fields that are Town’s agricultural 
  base. The land is wild here, full of animals and plants and life, and 
  waiting, and ready—
  Though for what I am not sure.
  It’s the kind of place where sometimes the rocks that you grow 
  up climbing will groan and creak and stretch and wake and regard 
  you with their craggy eyes; and humph, perhaps, and settle again, 
  and tumble back to sleep. It’s the kind of place where you can 
  imagine that at any moment the houses will loose themselves from 
  the burden of the ground and sail through the fields like ships. It’s 
  the kind of place where just a moment ago, something happened; 
  or in just a moment, something will happen, if you wait; a child 
  lost, or an empire gained, or a dryad chased from the brambles by 
  a wild and monstrous hunt.
  That’s how it seems, anyway, although in truth most of the 
  time I’ve spent there nothing particular happened at all.
  It’s a place under a burden of destiny. It’s a place that’s filled 
  with the Call—with something that’s been waiting, something that 
  will demand something of you, or take something from you, or 
  give you a gift that you cannot repay.
  It’s an autumn place. It’s mostly fields, but there are thick 
  stands of trees and there are wide-spanning meadows. The colors 
  here are gold and brown—gold-brown grass, and brambles; gold-
  en wheat and calfskin-colored trees; brown-gold birds and crisp 
  gold autumn leaves, and all in the sun’s warm glow. 
  It’s beautiful. It’s vast and open and full of the little things—of 
  birds and small animals and insects. It’s a place that’s speaking 
  to your heart.
  Area: 760 square miles 
  Population: 20,000 
  Properties of the 
  Walking Fields
   
  ŭ Animals are wise.
   
  ŭ What happens is what has always happened.
   
  ŭ You will meet with others in the proper Hour.
   
  ŭ What happens is what must happen.
   
  ŭ There is something you were supposed to do.
   
  ŭ Things are not as you remember them.
   
  ŭ The world is bigger than you imagine, and full of more 
  brightness and tragedy.
  Typical Genre: Adventure Fantasy
  
  288
  288
  Out in the Wild
  There’s a lot of pretty scenery out there in the Walking Fields, at 
  least if you like stuff like brown-gold grass and little birds and 
  hedgehogs and free-range goats or deer and foxes and iridescent 
  insects and spiderwebs swaying on wind-blown stalks.
  Wandering the Walking Fields is sometimes 
  Decisive
  You’re out in the world. You think through stuff. You talk 
  through stuff. You come to a decision, or you act!
  Languid days in the Walking Fields are usually a lull in the  
  Trouble
  Languid days in the Walking Fields are sometimes 
  Shared 
  Action
  There’s a weight of destiny here. Even the peaceful days don’t 
  feel like a casual Slice of Life. They don’t feel ordinary. They 
  feel like something’s coming.
  The world is asking you for something.
  Or talking to you about something.
  It’s always trembling on the verge of something happening.
  So even if you’re just hanging out enjoying the scenery, 
  it doesn’t feel like a Slice of Life. It feels like you need to 
  connect to somebody, or the world; or, if not, like trouble is 
  coming (back) soon.
  Exploring and admiring the animals is sometimes 
  Setting 
  (Slice of Life or Discovery)
  You see something—some glimpsed animal, artistic arrange-
  ment of branches and wind-blown grains, fairy fluttering 
  from a flower, spider catching an insect, or scrap of cloth flut-
  tering amidst some leaves. Or you feel something, a breeze 
  or emotion.
  It sticks with you.
  Weather
  There’s a lot of rain in the Walking Fields. There’s a lot of sun, 
  too. There’s always at least a little wind. The weather shifts pretty 
  suddenly so a lot of the buildings have big eaves to them—that’s 
  so you can run under them in a storm.
  Sudden rain is usually 
  Sympathetic Action
  You’re not really paying attention to the sky. Or you are, but 
  you don’t realize just how fast the storm is coming. Then wham, 
  lightning in the distance. Or whoosh, rain all over the place. 
  Somebody in the scene kind of reels, confused and taken aback, 
  because they’re shocked. And you notice, and you’re all sym-
  pathetic and like: “Come on, dummy! We’ve got to get inside!” 
  That shakes them from their shock and they make a dash for it. 
  That’s your Sympathetic Action!
  Watching the rain from safety is usually 
  Slice of Life
  Later, the weather clears up!
  Houses
  The houses of the Walking Fields are made of good, solid stone. 
  The stone gets stacked up and white plaster seals the cracks to 
  make it prettier.
  Some of the storehouses, mills, and barns are pretty tall. They 
  look like lighthouses or the masts of ships.
  The houses and shops always lean a little—I mean, there’s this 
  impression, I think, even when they’re new. It’s like they’re want-
  ing to move. It’s like they’re eager and waiting and wanting to 
  be free. I imagine them talking to one another at night, the wind 
  carrying their voices, saying: 
   
  O if the earth would only let me free, 
   
                 the wind could catch me and I’d sail away!
  The roofs even have figureheads, like ships. They have a sweep 
  like the Viking longships and the front of them comes forward to 
  the figure of a horse, or a dragon, or a woman, or a fox, or a bear, 
  or whatever else!
  I think there will come a night when they really do slip free 
  from the bonds of the world and glide like ships through the Walk-
  ing Fields; though I cannot say what that will mean, or what will 
  happen after.
  On the Way to the Door
  There’s often a fence around a house. It tends to lean.
  Sometimes the fence is just around the house and its main 
  yard. Sometimes it covers a lot of ground. But the house won’t 
  be in its center, not if the fence is large. You’ll be able to see the 
  house from the front gate.
  There’s often something, some structure or object, between 
  the gate to the fence and the front door, off to the side of a dirt 
  or a cobblestone road. A bicycle rack? A wooden table for eating 
  outdoors? An anvil? An old wagon wheel? A meat drying rack? 
  Laundry?
  It’s a halfway marker, and that’s something in the culture of 
  the place—a thing to say, here the wild meets the tame. Something 
  that you can meet the fairies at, or a prince of the animals, or what-
  ever, that isn’t the fence (so they don’t feel kept out) but isn’t your 
  front door (so you don’t have to invite them in.)
  
  289
   
  
  290
  290
  A Bit of Space
  There’s a long way between houses. You’re said to be “rubbing 
  elbows” with someone if you can see their house from yours.
  A house you don’t know is sometimes 
  Trouble
  Destiny reaches its fingers out for you. You could try to run, 
  but would that work? You could try to hide. You could try to 
  assert control. But something is coming, something is luring 
  you in. Ghosts? Murder? Someone who needs you? With your 
  cooperation the HG builds a sense of horror and threat.
  Often it seems like everything’s fine—right before the next 
  heart-stopping moment of fear!
  A house you don’t know is usually 
  Foreshadowing
  Something’s off. Something’s unexpected. A flash of color from 
  the bird’s nest under the roof. A fox catches your eye. You see 
  the rust on an abandoned wagon wheel. You look more closely. 
  The “more” that happens is the HG describing it more, going 
  into more depth. Or a sudden movement—the fox runs away. 
  The bird takes off. You lean over to touch the wagon wheel, at 
  the HG’s prompting, and it dissolves to rust. You react!
  A house you do know is usually not a scene at all, but possibly 
  Shared Action
  I mean, seriously, once you know who lives there, it is prob-
  ably just a house. But if you do have a scene focusing on the 
  house of friends or family in the Walking Fields, it’s likely 
  a Shared Action scene. You do your thing. Or someone talks 
  about their thing—“yeah, we spent months building this fence. 
  Had to bring in the wood from a fair ways north.” Anyway, 
  you bond over it.
  ...maybe with just “so, what do you think?”
  A house you don’t know is sometimes 
  Discovery
  You approach. You find neat, scary, or mysterious things. You 
  emote a response!
  Transportation
  There’s a lot of dirt roads through the Walking Fields.
  The people used to travel a lot by horse and cart, and then for 
  a while trucks were in vogue, but bicycles are the hip thing now. 
  They’re usually kind of cheap and poorly-made, but what does 
  that matter? You can go twenty miles in an hour! Or fifteen at an 
  easy pace.
  There’s a School bus that comes to the Walking Fields, but it 
  doesn’t go very deep in. Most folks who live in the Walking Fields 
  go to little 20-kid schoolhouses for elementary and middle school 
  and then either skip high school as too fancy or board in Horizon 
  during the week.
  Travel in the Walking Fields is generally 
  Setting
  Half the time it’s Slice of Life, just like in a typical place, but 
  there’s also a lot of Discovery when you’re taking a long bike 
  or walk in the Walking Fields. There’s always a neat bit of 
  something that you might see!
  Dryads, Field-Spirits, and 
  Flower-Spirits
  The spirits of nature are not common in the Walking Fields, but 
  they’re a real presence.
  The most common are probably the dryads and similar crea-
  tures. They may melt into the stand of trees, field of grain, or bed 
  of flowers that gives rise to them; emerge from it in a semi-hu-
  man, semi-floral form; or anthropomorphize themselves all the 
  way down to humanoid shapes with flowers in their hair, soft 
  voices, and a tinge of blue, green, gold, or acorn color under their 
  pale skin.60 They are excellent dancers, meager eaters, unnaturally 
  healthy and long-lived, and they bring fertility and vigor to the 
  plants wherein they dwell.
  There are fairies, too, and wise animals, but I’m going to leave 
  them in the HG’s hands for now.
  Dealings with the dryads and field and flower spirits are usually 
  Trouble 
  These creatures are the favored prey of the Excrucians (pg. 
  292, 294) and this Region’s genre skews towards adventure, 
  so a lot of the time, when you meet them at all, it’s because 
  they’re fleeing from the Excrucians’ Great Hunt.
  That’s not actually the biggest feature of their lives or any-
  thing—
  It’s just going to be a comparatively common encounter 
  type in play. And it’s likely to be Trouble.
  They can also be Trouble if you start messing with their 
  trees or territory—at that point the dryads and spirits can them-
  selves get a little scary. Even the nicest rose-spirits have their 
  thorns!
  60 “Pale” in that they appear somewhat ghostly and somewhat drawn—
  they’re not necessarily Caucasian.
  
  Superior Walking Fields Spirit
  291
   
  The Twig-People
  The twig-people remind me of stick-bugs, only beginning not 
  with an insect but with instead a human form. They’re brown and 
  green and big-eyed and their fingers are long knobby sticks.
  I think they are a different kind of dryad, or possibly that they 
  are immature or underaged dryads. 
  They live in the Walking Fields, anyway. They have a small 
  settlement, and there are some of them who wander. They trade 
  with the humans of Town. I’m not aware of them being able to 
  cross-breed with humans, which means that unless they are und-
  eraged dryads they’re one of the rare examples of an unambigu-
  ously intelligent, unambiguously tool-using, and unambiguously 
  non-human species in Town.
  Field-Dogs and Forest-Dogs
  Another common spirit type is the field-dogs and the forest-dogs. 
  These spirits are bound to a wide range of territory, or possibly 
  not actually bound to it at all—they roam freely through the trees 
  and fields. (There aren’t really full-on forests in the walking fields, 
  for clarity—that’s just what the woodsier dogs are called!) These 
  dogs don’t have a human shape at all, or even a fully mortal-look-
  ing dog form, but they do sometimes have a grasp of language. 
  Much more than with the dryads, their power over plants is out-
  right magic: when they choose they may bend trees or move their 
  branches to their whim or cause grass and flowers to grow in their 
  footprints.
  Dealings with twig-people, field-dogs, and forest-dogs are some-
  times 
  Foreshadowing
  You watch one. You listen to it. It does stuff. Maybe, if it’s a 
  twig-person or a bizarrely articulate forest-dog, it says stuff. 
  After you’ve processed for a bit what’s going on—you react!
  Dealings with twig-people, field-dogs, and forest-dogs are usually 
  Shared Action
  They’re doing simple, honest stuff. Connect to them.
  Taken Children
  Sometimes children in the Walking Fields vanish. I don’t know 
  why. You’ll find bits of their clothing left hanging on the trees. 
  Sometimes they come back.
  The taken children are not human any more when they return. 
  They’re shrunken, and their teeth are sharp, and their skin is hard, 
  and they wear red-dyed caps. They’re wise and they’re tricky but 
  they don’t know anything they don’t need to know61—they turn 
  into right proper exposition machines, they do, each of them only 
  able to say such truths as drive towards their purpose. They don’t 
  even necessarily know everything they need for that.
  For what? you might ask. What is their purpose?
  I can’t say, in general, because it varies. Sometimes the tak-
  en children have come back to save people who were in trouble. 
  Sometimes they’ve come back to clean up their old business—to 
  remove their last regrets in leaving by, say, telling their family 
  where to find a treasure of gold or buried oil under the Walking 
  Fields.
  There’s a story, though, that they have to catch and kill seven 
  mortal children before they can go back to being human again 
  themselves; and that some of those children, the third and the fifth, 
  become taken children themselves.
  Here’s my best guess. Children get taken by something. I don’t 
  know what. And some of them get offered a chance—a chance 
  to go back, and with exactly enough information to do what they 
  want to do. And maybe they do have to kill, or maybe they get 
  confused by the story and think that’s what they have to do, and 
  maybe some of them who choose the killing choice are wicked 
  and others are just too young to understand the full depth of what 
  that implies. But the big thing is, I think they’ve all bargained 
  with something for the right to come back and do, not what it asks 
  them, but what they’ve asked of it.
  61  Not counting some random woods-wisdom.
  Superior Agrarian
  The spirits of Celestia, otherwise very similar to the dryads 
  and the like, have a Skill that defines them as spirits of that 
  land. It would be reasonable to have a similar Skill for the 
  dryads, in addition to the general plant type Skill on pg. 264:
   
  ŭ [Superior] Walking Fields Spirit 1. You seem to have 
  boundless energy, though technically you don’t. You like 
  climbing a lot and you’re crazy good at it. You occasional-
  ly have whole conversations while asleep. Birds like you. 
  You fade into the background when seen in the distance. 
  When you depart the Walking Fields, an “air of the Walk-
  ing Fields” complete with a bit of its Properties clings to 
  you for up to half an hour.
   
  ŭ [Superior] Walking Fields Spirit 2. When you depart the 
  Walking Fields an “air of the Fields” lingers about you for 
  up to three full days and three full nights. You need only a 
  crumb or two of food a day, and either you don’t need sleep 
  or you can sleepwalk with great vigor and intelligence.
  I’m going to assume that they don’t need it. I’m going to as-
  sume that carrying the air of the Fields with them isn’t useful 
  in the same way that the air of Celestia is—for instance, it 
  doesn’t keep them from being seen by mortals, and it isn’t 
  necessary to make an easy crossing into the Walking Fields. 
  However, if you think that something like this is necessary or 
  useful, you can either roll it into the first two levels of [Supe-
  rior] Plant Spirit, or you can assign it to any local spirits as a 
  separately-purchased Skill.
  
  The Jotun
  The Excrucians
  292
  292
  So I think that while they’re weird little changelings, they’re 
  still enacting a human (or fox-person, or ghost, or ogre, or robot, 
  or whatever) will. 
  Dealings with taken children are sometimes 
   Science, Faith, 
  and Sorcery
  You explain your position and what you know about them. You 
  build up towards venturing a theory—that they can be trusted, 
  or they can’t. Then you risk yourself on that.
  Dealings with taken children are sometimes 
   Foreshadowing
  You watch one. You listen to one. It does stuff. It says stuff. 
  After you’ve processed for a bit what’s going on—you react!
  Dealings with taken children are usually 
   Shared Action
  The thing is, they’re kids. They’re not human kids, and there’s 
  a story that they kill kids, but they. are. kids. 
  So maybe your HG can sell them as mysterious and dan-
  gerous enough to get you into a Science, Faith, and Sorcery 
  or a Foreshadowing mood. But probably what happens is that 
  you show who you are in how you choose to handle damaged, 
  monomaniacal kids you find out in the Walking Fields.
  You do something simple and honest. And they’re there. 
  And if they interact with you over it, if they don’t just stay 
  shy and distant, you can connect with them, and that’s Shared 
  Action.
  Investigating the taken children leads to 
   Discovery
  You’re trying to figure stuff out. And there’s no real story or 
  XP Action here until you do, but when you do finally under-
  stand something or learn something, you can earn XP by de-
  claring it mysterious, scary, or neat!
  The Jotun
  The world woke up, one day, and found itself at the edge of 
  Town—
  Found itself with the tents of the youkai sprawled across it, the 
  markets and the revels that were there before ever humans came 
  to Town scattered upon it. And here is how the world woke up: it 
  cast up shapeless, unfinished giants from itself, still trailing their 
  spiritual tendrils back to the living land.
  These were the Jotun.
  They were species-less: they bred with insects, birds, clouds, 
  and rivers. Their children with humanity would one day be the 
  most numerous of all: would outbreed them, leave the original 
  Jotun a footnote on their own people’s history, and then merge 
  back into the thronging masses of ordinary humanity with only 
  a handful of families keeping the Jotun cultural identity alive—
  But back then, they were giants and near to gods; they were 
  strong as humans are not strong, magical as even the youkai were 
  not magical; they wielded the lightning and could roust up the 
  forests to a march. They were long-lived and durable creatures. 
  Some had specific gifts, others generic prowess, able to shape the 
  weather, speak terrible curses, enchant items, perform transforma-
  tions, turn invisible, and fly. The most powerful were also the most 
  vulnerable, however, poisoned by the touch of iron and driven 
  back by a brandished cross or the name of Christ.62
  Someone with the blood of the Jotun might have a Superior 
  Strength and Health Skill at level 1-3 as well as some sort of 
  magical Skill (pg. 74-77) or Superior “magical” gift. High levels 
  of these Skills will often correlate with apparent deformity and/
  or vulnerability to iron and the cross. The greatest of them might 
  even have access to the miraculous Arcs, Primordial or Child 
  of the Ash. 
  The Excrucians
  The Excrucians, or “Riders,” are a people of the Deep Outside. 
  They ride white horses. Their eyes are fields of night-black space 
  punctuated by the occasional falling stars.
  They sometimes come to Town in peace. They have a presence 
  there. They sometimes even mix with humans or other peoples, 
  giving rise to hybrids with intermittently Excrucian eyes. The 
  ones who wear business suits or “I ♥ Town” T-shirts or whatever 
  are safe enough to mingle with, even though technically they have 
  an agenda to destroy reality and their time spent in the Deep Out-
  side has likely driven them insane.
  In the Walking Fields, though, the important Excrucians aren’t 
  the peaceful visitors. There are a few Rider-blooded families that 
  matter there, sure, but mostly?
  There is the murderous Great Hunt. 
  The Great Hunt
  In the great hunt, the Excrucians ride in from Outside and what 
  they set their eyes upon they chase down and kill. Sometimes it’s 
  a bird or a fox. Sometimes it’s a spirit of nature. Sometimes it’s a 
  person. Once it was the entire Juuniji family, save only for those 
  hidden faraway at School.
  A typical hunting pack is a group of 3-7, although larger rid-
  ings have been known. They advertise themselves: they go about 
  accoutered for war, and they will sound a hunting horn. Perhaps 
  this is done in mockery of those they hunt, or as a way to increase 
  the challenge of the hunt. Perhaps it is something that is done to 
  clearly distinguish them from the others, for the sake of their more 
  peaceful kin.
  62 I’m not actually a Christian, or anything, so I can’t account for this at 
  all, but I’m not going to pretend this was some generic “faith” thing 
  either. They didn’t like the name of Jesus. The cross could send them 
  howling back into the night. The stories are very clear on this and some 
  of the people from back then are still around in one way or another to 
  tell them! 
  
  293
   
  
  Rider Necromancy
  294
  294
  Excrucian Riders
  A typical Excrucian rider has 8 Will and the following mundane 
  abilities—
   
  ŭ Equestrianism 2. They’re good with horses.
   
  ŭ Archery or Sword 2. They’re good with either the bow or 
  the sword.
   
  ŭ Sword or Archery 1. They’re familiar with the other.
   
  ŭ Woodcraft and Hunting 1. They’re familiar with hunting and 
  living in the wilds.
   
  ŭ Socialize 0. They’re not that good with people.
  They also divide two points between the following special Skills:
   
  ŭ Superior Torment. Superior Skill in inflicting torment and  
  encouraging despair.
   
  ŭ Rider Necromancy. Magical Skill in controlling the dead  and 
  deceiving the living.
   
  ŭ Changeling. Magical Skill in concealing themselves among 
  humans.
   
  ŭ The Night-Craft. Magical Skill in crafting nightmarish  
  minions.
  Encounters with the great hunt are usually a 
   Struggle (Trou-
  ble or Never Say Die!)
  Encounters with the great hunt can be 
   Adversity
  They hunt you. They torment you—you or something else near 
  you.
  You might fight for a limited tactical victory, perhaps. 
  That’d be OK even if you’re in Trouble. Try to escape, or hide, 
  or take down the lead rider, block their path, disarm one of 
  them, steal their hunting horn, warn the local farmers about 
  them, get someone that they’re hunting out of the middle of 
  the road, something. 
  Or you might go well beyond yourself and decide to Never 
  Say Die.
  Or you might simply suffer from their torments until you 
  fall into a delirium of pain.
  Encounters with local Excrucians are sometimes 
   Corruption
  They get to you somehow. They summon you to them, or poi-
  son you, or fill your mind with their own strange thoughts. The 
  world gets weird. You break from reality. Then, unless over 
  the course of the scene that follows you’ve managed to defend 
  yourself, you suffer a corruption or transformation of some sort.
   Rider Necromancy 
  an example Magical Skill
  This is one of the magical Skills of the Riders, or “Excrucians,” 
  who live in the deep Outside. It offers a comparatively limited 
  selection of techniques but it’s still pretty scary because they don’t 
  have to do much of anything to use it—if they can speak, if they 
  can move their hands, they can invoke this power. There is little if 
  any complication to its rites.
  Its basic, non-magical technique is:
  [Obstacle 1]  sniff out corpses, graves, and places of death at an 
   
  unnatural range 
  Known magical techniques include:
  [Obstacle 1] Speak in voices not your own.
  [Obstacle 2] Summon someone or something within a mile,  
   
  twisting its travels so that they lead to you.
  [Obstacle 2] Make a specific person unable to recognize something
  [Obstacle 2] Make something unrecognizable in general
  [Obstacle 3] Wake and bind a corpse or ghost into your service.
  Note that people can oppose effects like these with their own mun-
  dane actions—e.g., using a perception Skill to recognize something 
  through the magic. Effective Rider necromancy needs high-level 
  Intentions and thus tends to burn through its user’s Will fast.
  Suggested Bonds
  Traditional Bonds for the practitioners of this necromancy 
  include:
   
  ŭ Bond: I hunt from the twilight to the dawn.
   
  ŭ Bond: I may not harm those with whom I’ve shared my 
  drink.
   
  ŭ Bond: I forget that the dead are dead, and speak to or fall 
  in love with them.
   
  ŭ Bond: I cannot make emotional connections with the living.
   
  ŭ Bond: I may not raise the virtuous dead.
   
  ŭ Bond: My powers only function in wild, untamed, or bro-
  ken-down places.
   
  ŭ Bond: I am uncomfortable in reality, and soothed by the 
  Outside.
   
  ŭ Bond: I ride a pale horse.
   
  ŭ Bond: I may not wear machine-made clothes.
   
  ŭ Bond: I may only hurt those whose sins I can discover 
  and name.
   
  ŭ Bond: I flee my name, or the name of the Creator.
   
  ŭ Bond: Even if I was human once, I’ve picked up the “Rid-
  er eyes:” all night and falling stars.
  
  Changeling
  295
   
   Changeling 
  an example Magical Skill
  This is another of the Riders’ magical Skills. It gives you the pow-
  er to seem human even though you are not. 
  To slip in and live among the families of the Walking Fields, 
  or somewhere else.
  To take those eyes of night and falling stars and make them 
  green, or blue, or brown.
  Known magical techniques include:
  [Obstacle 1] Conceal your eyes behind an appearance of normalcy.
  [Obstacle 1] Fit in with the local humans; conceal the behavioral 
   
  signs of foreignness
  [Obstacle 1]  Conceal scars
  [Obstacle 2] Conceal and partially suppress wounds and sickness
  [Obstacle 2] Mimic a particular individual’s appearance and  
   
  mannerisms
  [Obstacle 2] Fit seamlessly into a family, so that they forget you  
   
  were not theirs
  [Obstacle 3] Poison someone with a shard of dream, driving  
   
  them into a psychotic break and filling their eyes  
   
  with night and falling stars.
  Many of these effects become quasi-permanent with regular use—
  the changeling doesn’t have to sustain the magic, but in theory 
  might find the effects fading and have to renew them later on.
  Suggested Bonds
  Traditional changeling Bonds include:
   
  ŭ Bond: I feast on the life of my family.
   
  ŭ Bond: People don’t like me.
   
  ŭ Bond: I can be exposed as a changeling through certain 
  hedge-magic tricks.
   
  ŭ Bond: I turn into an animal, insect, or spider at night.
   
  ŭ Bond: I’m driven to climb to high places.
   
  ŭ Bond: I can’t eat my vegetables.
   
  ŭ Bond: I don’t have a shadow.
   
  ŭ Bond: I have an extra eye on my stomach, and on the back 
  of my neck.
   
  ŭ Bond: I’m an inhumanly good kisser.
   
  ŭ Bond: I don’t breathe.
   
  ŭ Bond: I don’t feel pain.
   
  ŭ Bond: I’m not burned by fire.
   
  ŭ Bond: I’m burned by the touch of a friend.
   
  ŭ Bond: I forget that the dead are dead, and speak to or fall 
  in love with them.
   
  ŭ Bond: I am uncomfortable in reality, and soothed by the 
  Outside.
   
  ŭ Bond: I ride a pale horse.
   
  ŭ Bond: I may not wear machine-made clothes.
   
  ŭ Bond: I flee my name, or the name of the Creator.
  
  Night-Craft
  296
  296
   Night-Craft 
  an example Magical Skill
  The soil of the “ground” in the Bleak Academy is peculiar stuff—a 
  dank, unformed firmament, like the stuff of the unconscious mind, 
  like the stuff in the back of your head that you don’t think about.
  Rider children at the Academy learn to mold little life forms 
  from it, venomous and malformed things that fall apart, sloughing 
  off their skin and organs, to dissolve back into the primordial mud. 
  A few learn to make substance there, instead—to shape that noth-
  ingness into things. This art is not entirely lost from them when 
  they travel into Town:
  It is named Night-Craft, and one may use it together with bodi-
  ly fluids, shadow, mud, and soil to build minions and poisons even 
  in the world of forms.
  The common techniques of this Craft include:
  [Obstacle 1] Mold unusually sturdy things out of dirt, mud, and  
   
  sand.
  [Obstacle 1] Spin out your nightmares into steel-strong thread.
  [Obstacle 1] Distill shadow and soil into various nasty poisons.
  [Obstacle 2] Wake things you mold out of dirt, mud, and clay  
   
  into servants
  [Obstacle 2] Animate your blood or saliva, using will to move,  
   
  solidify, or liquefy them.
  [Obstacle 3] Given sufficient time, construct elaborate creatures  
   
  out of your blood, soil, and your nightmares.
  If you practice this art too much in Town, it will affect you; your 
  saliva and blood will become thick, black, and viscid, with a smell 
  like slightly rotten fruit.
  Suggested Bonds
  Traditional night-craft Bonds include:
   
  ŭ Bond: I always have dirt under my fingernails.
   
  ŭ Bond: My saliva and blood are distinctively black.
   
  ŭ Bond: I have a morbid imagination.
   
  ŭ Bond: My dreams leak out around me as water when I 
  sleep on the ground.
   
  ŭ Bond: My fingernails grow into claws no matter how 
  much I cut them.
   
  ŭ Bond: I remind people of their nightmares.
   
  ŭ Bond: People see their nightmares, and not night and fall-
  ing stars, when they look into my eyes.
   
  ŭ Bond: I forget that the dead are dead, and speak to or fall 
  in love with them.
   
  ŭ Bond: I am uncomfortable in reality, and soothed by the 
  Outside.
   
  ŭ Bond: I ride a pale horse.
   
  ŭ Bond: I flee my name, or the name of the Creator.
   
  ŭ Bond: I may not wear machine-made clothes.
  
  Soma Village
  297
   
  Soma Village
  Soma Village
   
  ŭ Truth arises from mystery, but the mystery remains.
   
  ŭ This moment is like no other moment. It is Now.
   
  ŭ Go and look, and you will see the vastness of the world.
   
  ŭ Go and look, and you will see events and landscapes 
  staged for you. 
   
  ŭ The world is showing you the pieces of your heart.
   
  ŭ Enchantments and spiritual forces haunt you.
   
  ŭ You may find peace with your misfortunes.
   
  ŭ You are at risk of becoming a legend, or a god. 
  Typical Genre: Pastoral or Fairy Tale
  Follow the Track north through the Walking Fields and out 
  of Town; into the Outside, and out again. It will take you 
  to Soma Village, in the shadow of Kailas Mantra’s peak.
  It’s a pretty little place. It’s a magic place. It’s full of 
  old, sun-bleached buildings, steep slopes, and majestic 
  views. There’s a monastery and a labyrinth and a bunch of 
  rustic houses and sheep and goats and ducks and St. Vita’s 
  Academy for Wayward Girls.
  I will tell you more of it, I think, but not right now; that 
  will come much later on.
  Area: 54 sq. miles 
  Population: 19,400
  
  The Outside
  298
  298
  The Outside
  The fundamental phenomenon of the Outside is that when you 
  leave Town, you wind up in a place that doesn’t really exist or 
  make sense. But if you learn the way around that place, it be-
  comes real, or you find yourself in reality, or something that 
  works like that. If you learn the way to Soma Village, for in-
  stance, then after a while you stop feeling like you’re Outside 
  when you’re on that road. It’s just a weird road that goes to a 
  weird satellite village of Town. The first time you sail to anoth-
  er world via Big Lake you’re passing through the Outside and 
  nonexistence; eventually, though, it’s more like “sailing a weird, 
  Outside-flavored magical route.”
  So... why? What’s going on? What does it mean?
  There are at least three ways to understand it. I don’t know 
  which is right!
  The first option is that the Outside is a pall of fear, deconstruc-
  tive chaos, and tension that falls over the places you don’t know. 
  It’s not really a physical phenomenon so much as a psychological 
  one. The Earth continues to exist, and people live their lives there. 
  Aelfscienne, Heaven, Hell, Jotunheim, all the places on what used 
  to be the tree of worlds—they’re all there. They’re all fine. There’s 
  just a barrier that keeps Townsfolk from really seeing it. Instead, 
  they see the Outside.
  The second option is that the Outside is a physical thing that 
  drowned the world, but that the world’s information was pre-
  served. So if you learn the way to sail to, say, Santa Cruz, then 
  you’ll find that everybody in Santa Cruz is still living as if the 
  Earth is real. But it’s mostly not—it’s mostly gone, mostly lost, 
  with just a few places like Town and the places that Townsfolk 
  have found still extant.
  The third option is that there never really was an Earth except 
  by implication. There never really was a World Ash, a Heaven, a 
  Hell. There was always only Town. As you travel into the Outside, 
  you can find pieces of Earth and other worlds there—but that’s 
  not because they existed. That’s because they congeal out of the 
  Outside when you with your preconceptions travel into the near 
  Outside and try to make sense out of it all.
  Visualizing the Outside
  Trying to picture what all this might look like?
   
  ŭ The Near Outside (level 1) is lightly surrealist.
   
  ŭ The Low Outside (level 2) is increasingly surrealist, symbol-
  ic, and a little abstract.
   
  ŭ The Low Outside (level 3) is orphic cubism.
   
  ŭ The Deep Outside (level 4) is geometric art, verging on neo-
  plastic composition (e.g. Mondrian).
   
  ŭ The Deep Outside (level 5) is a darker, more psychedelic style 
  of this.
   
  ŭ The Far Outside (level 6-7) is sort of Soviet/realist with a 
  limited color palette.
   
  ŭ The Bleak Academy is a standard, cool fantasy college cam-
  pus under a dark sky, and 
   
  ŭ the Far and Sunless Land is probably very clean and digital 
  “vistas”—e.g., a mostly barren CGI night sky with a bright red 
  star, that kind of thing. 
  
  The Near Outside
  299
   
   The Near Outside 
  Go a few miles down the Track, or sail out past where you can 
  see the land. Head past the farmers’ fields into the wild regions, or 
  catch a fever and set your soul free from its shell.
  You will find the Outside.
  The first layer of the Outside is confusing and stressful. It is fear-
  some and surreal. It is not dangerous. Not yet. It is simply... strange.
  The world contorts. It shifts. It stops playing by comprehensi-
  ble rules. It stops being a place that you know and understand. It 
  becomes... something else.
  The sky is full of multicolored clouds. Drip orange ink, purple 
  ink, and blue ink into water and you’ll see something like those 
  clouds. The wind is hot. The wind is dry. There can be rains and 
  snows and days of stillness but mostly the wind is dry and hot and 
  there is a barrenness to it, out in the Outside.
  The sun is strange. It is always a little strange, but in many 
  different ways. Sometimes it is absurdly geometric. Sometimes it 
  seems like clockwork. Sometimes it is smiling, and sometimes it 
  is swirling. Sometimes it has arms that are beams of light. Some-
  times its arms stretch down all the way to the horizon, and bend—
  though straight; you must remember that the world is three di-
  mensions projected down onto your eyes—to coil around the sky.
  There are always roads. Paths spread across the near Outside 
  like veins through a leaf held up against the light. They’re often 
  marked by road signs but no one I’ve ever met can read them—not 
  linguists, not cryptographers, not even angels, who mostly claim 
  that the signs have no meaning to them at all. They’re in no human 
  language, at the least, and probably not anything of Earth.
  The ground bends in strange ways, in the near Outside. 
  Trees tend to have white leaves, or leaves in many colors.
  There’s a children’s story feel to the place, I think—I once saw 
  a grove of trees with shoes hanging from them instead of fruit. 
  One time a drag racer motored by; it had no driver, which was 
  weird enough, until it had driven past; then I saw that it had no 
  back, it was just a front and single-side façade. 
  The Outside nullifies and betrays your expectations. There is 
  no predicting it. You are at the mercy of the world.
  Vital Stats
  Napkin math suggests to me that the first layer of the Outside is at 
  least as big as Fortitude, and that’s assuming that it’s just a mile-
  wide ring around Town. The truth is, while I don’t want to give 
  the impression that you can safely wander the first layer without 
  stumbling on the second, because you can’t, the first layer is prob-
  ably closer to 7-10 miles deep at the median—and presumably 
  there’s more of it around every pocket of reality still out there. 
  So we’re talking an absolute minimum of 120 square miles but 
  my practical expectation that its size is somewhere between 20 
  million square miles and, well, infinite.
  Its population is probably equally immense. It is possible to 
  stumble on someone else in the Outside. Not common! But pos-
  sible. So I figure there might be as many as 1-2 rootless drifters, 
  trickster figures, shamans, fever-dreamers, travelers, and heroes 
  per ten square miles of the first layer of the Outside. Napkin math 
  then puts me at a multi-million population consisting almost en-
  tirely of unique legends, terrifying names, and special cases—as-
  suming, of course, that it’s not infinite. That breaks my suspension 
  of disbelief something hard, though, so I’m going to say that it’s 
  closer to a few hundred, and maybe just a baker’s dozen, plus the 
  occasional scattered ridings of Excrucians who don’t actually live 
  there but do from time to time pass through.
  Note that people pretty much can’t settle in the near Outside—
  when I talk about rootless drifters and travelers, it’s for a reason. 
  If you spend long enough in the Outside that you learn its rules, it 
  stops being the Outside. If you find a settlement, it isn’t the Out-
  side—at most it’s an Outside-tainted view of a more normal world 
  underneath. When you get to know that place, it stops being the 
  Outside, and you fall into the normal world. I don’t know how 
  it works for the Excrucians: most likely it’s the same for them, 
  or exactly the opposite, because I do know that they don’t have 
  actual settlements in the near Outside either.
  Area: 120+ square miles (estimated 20,000,000-∞) 
  Population: 13+ (estimated 200)
  Properties of the Outside 
  (Level 1)
   
  ŭ You are disoriented.
   
  ŭ You are confused.
   
  ŭ There are subtle contradictions in the world around you.
   
  ŭ There are things that you can’t explain.
   
  ŭ The sun is distorted and strange.
   
  ŭ You can see. You can hear. You are in possession of your 
  senses.
   
  ŭ The Outside recedes and a normal world returns in the 
  paths and places you know well.
  Typical Genre: Adventure Fantasy or Fairy Tale
  
  300
  300
  Traveling the Near Outside
  Anywhere you can’t normally get to and anywhere you don’t nor-
  mally go can fill up with the Outside. You’re pretty safe in Town, 
  although the Outside’s always blowing in off Big Lake and seep-
  ing past the edge of the Walking Fields, but once you get outside 
  it, well, you’re Outside it, beyond reality, in the place of magic, 
  nightmare, uncertainty, and dreams.
  There’s only one real point to traveling Outside: to get through 
  it to somewhere else. You might be heading straight past the early 
  layers of the Outside to get to the Bleak Academy; or exploring 
  the landscape of wonders, looking for something sane; or, most 
  likely, tagging along with somebody who already knows the ropes 
  of where you’re going, and can lead you down paths that aren’t 
  even really Outside to them to get to the non-Town bits of reality 
  that scatter through the Outside like gems.
  You need to go through the Outside, usually, for instance, to 
  reach Soma Village or the other satellite villages by bus, car, bike, 
  or on foot. You need to sail through it to reach the seas of Earth, 
  the Moon, Eris, or other worlds. Given sufficient dedication and 
  determination, you could probably even reach somewhere further 
  from Town by land—I’m not familiar with any routes to major cit-
  ies, but you’d think that if Russia, or America, or China, or Africa, 
  or Greenland, or whatever, you’d think if they actually existed, 
  which they do, right? that you could get to one of them by road. 
  Even if Town is in Australia or something unexpected, you could 
  get to Sydney, right? You can’t just drive around in circles forever 
  in the Outback? Because if Town is just in the Outback then I will 
  be really embarrassed indeed.
  And OK, I lied. There’s one more reason you might travel the 
  Outside. It’s a rare one but it’s a real one. If you’re into magic 
  or meditation or spirit journeys or whatever, then sometimes the 
  Outside is the place to go. It can strip you from yourself. It can 
  show you your spirit. I’d say that Soma Village is usually better 
  for that, but maybe you’re the kind of shaman or totemic dreamer 
  who needs the vast emptiness of the Outside.
  Traveling with someone who knows the path is sometimes 
   Decisive Action
  Occasionally you’ll get a kind of symbolic path through the 
  Outside—a road that means something. Your guide explains 
  that, explains what it means or how they found out or whatev-
  er, and it leads up to an important choice or decisive action that 
  plunges you back into the world. There’s a story in Nobilis: the 
  Essentials of Semane Menheneott Pass, where the choice in 
  question is “which traveling companion do we throw off of the 
  world?”; for the most part, however, paths in the near Outside 
  are much safer than that, and the worst that’s likely to happen 
  is that you’ll have to admit whom you love, choose something 
  to give up, or apologize to somebody that you’ve wronged.
  Hunting for magic or wisdom in the near Outside is usually  
   Science, Faith, and Sorcery
  You talk about something that’s going on with you. You explain 
  what you know about it. Then you ask something, or for some-
  thing. You basically tell the world: look, judge me here; or, 
  look, give me what I need here; or, look, world, make the call. 
  You put yourself in a position where the world’s harsh judgment 
  might hurt, or at least sting a little, and then you wait to see what 
  the world will do. That’s a Science, Faith, and Sorcery Action! 
  
  136199 Eris
  Nightmares’ Angel
  301
   
  Being lost, feverish, or adrift in the Near Outside is often 
  Pas-
  sionate (Obsessive/Adversity)
  You’re worried. You’re confused. You get worked up and pan-
  icky. You tip over the edge into obsession or delirium! 
  Or maybe you just give up?
  Being lost, feverish, or adrift in the Near Outside is often 
  Never Say Die!
  Or: you’re overwhelmed by what’s going on. You defy it, defy 
  your confusion or your circumstances, and try to assert order 
  or reason on the world. You narrate your actions as awesome 
  and doomed, ramping up your struggle every time the HG rais-
  es the stakes, and at the end of it, win or lose—whether you’ve 
  made sense of things or otherwise asserted control over the sit-
  uation or not—you end up exhausted and probably fall down. 
  But: Never Say Die!
  Traveling with someone who knows the way is often 
  Shared 
  Action
  They lead the way. They talk about what they’re doing. You 
  connect.
  Exploring, looking for another island of reality ends with 
  Discovery
  What kind of reality did you find?
  Storms from the Outside
  The levels of the Outside behave a little bit like temperatures 
  of air. Currents in the Outside and shifts in the “pressure” can 
  send roiling clouds of the Outside into Town or plunge a section 
  of the near Outside suddenly into a deeper layer. You can see 
  these storms roll in over Big Lake or at the edge of the Walk-
  ing Fields; by the time they reach Town proper they are weather 
  in truth, rainstorms or hailstorms or hot dry winds accompanied 
  by spiritual phenomena and strange luck and a glittering trail of 
  the mildly toxic particulate essence of the Outside. In the near 
  Outside these storms are both harder to see and more dangerous. 
  Sometimes the spiritual pressure of the normal world rises and 
  becomes pervasive, your ears hurt and your nose may even bleed, 
  and the world snaps unexpectedly down into normalcy even if 
  you’re nowhere that you understand. More dangerous is when the 
  pressure “drops,” the void of the Outside seems to pull the breath 
  from your lungs, your ears ring, clouds race across the sky and 
  light and shadows whirl, and suddenly from some direction—of-
  ten difficult to see from the ground—a deeper layer of the Outside 
  washes in.
  Ordinary storms are usually just bookends for Slices of Life, 
  but storms from the Outside can portend situations of the follow-
  ing types.
  A storm in the Near Outside or a massive storm coming in from 
  the near Outside, is usually 
  Trouble.
  You see the first signs. You can feel it coming. It’s an approaching 
  threat. You run, maybe, heading for Town or a shelter or in a direc-
  tion you think is opposite the storm. You hunker down or freeze up 
  with panic. You try to do something to keep the storm from hitting, 
  maybe establishing a little bulwark of normalcy to turn it aside, or 
  generating spiritual pressure to mitigate the pressure drop—fight-
  ing for a limited, tactical victory at best. Maybe it works. More 
  likely it just seems to work, gives you a lull in the pressure before 
  a terrible moment of fear as the deep Outside washes in!
  Watching an Outside storm from the beach or the edge of Town is 
  usually 
  Foreshadowing
  It catches your attention. You watch it for a while. Things hap-
  pen. Then, you react! 
  It’s best if you see things in the storm that have the poten-
  tial to be actual Foreshadowing, but, if you don’t, maybe the 
  scene is just foreshadowing something about you, or people vs. 
  nature, or the upcoming presence in the story of the Outside.
  136199 Eris
  Eris is a massive dwarf planet orbiting the sun. It is populated 
  by melancholy, sentimental bat-folk convinced of the imminent 
  victory of evil but content to remain more or less humane them-
  selves on any given day. Their principal exports are music, li-
  quor, and carved bone divination sticks (which may or may not 
  be efficacious); their principal import is pillow-teeth tea, which 
  they consume for reasons as yet unknown. They give me a 
  vaguely Mythos vibe, except for the way that they’re not actually 
  incomprehensibly monstrous—I guess it’s something to do with 
  how they live their lives out there in the cold and barren dark.
  Purportedly the planet was set into its orbit by Nightmares’ 
  Angel, a nightmare scientist who returned to Town after a stint 
  at the Bleak Academy. By default this Main Character is a PC-
  aged boy named Leonardo de Montreal, although you could 
  substitute in a girl named Dulcinea de Montreal, a priest and 
  sorcerer with the last name d’Avignon, or an amazing me-
  chanical person named Leonardo or Dulcinea VII. 
  This Main Character is sometimes titled the Rival—it de-
  pends on whether they’re focused on showing up Chuubo with 
  their “Incomparable Nightmare Engine” or more engaged in 
  doing their own stuff.
  Leonardo De Montreal, aka 
  Nightmare's Angel
  
  302
  302
  Sailing the Near Outside
  It is a particular characteristic of the Outside on Big Lake that it 
  bridges distances—that, or, possibly, it’s a particular characteristic 
  of the Big Lake itself. Most of the routes people sail that reach 
  faraway lands pass through portions of the Outside—and if you’re 
  hoping to get to somewhere really far away, like Eris, you’re like-
  ly to need to pass through a part that’s relatively deep. If you’re 
  sailing it’s much more possible to avoid storms or ride their edge, 
  staying at a desirable level of reality—but the down side is that 
  if you do get rolled over into the Deep Outside, you could find 
  yourself anywhere, and lost.
  Sailing the Outside is a kind of traveling the Outside, so it can 
  be...
  Decisive, if you’re on a symbolic path;
  Science, Faith, and Sorcery, if you’re hunting for magic;
  Obsessive/Adversity, if you’re lost, feverish, or adrift—
  All these things as described a couple of pages prior. But more 
  often you'll see one of the actions below...
  Sailing the Outside is often 
  Trouble
  Threats approach. You tack away from them, maybe, or try 
  to ride them out, or do something to win a limited, tactical 
  victory. It depends what the threat is: giant sea creatures are 
  one thing; childlike divine entities riding storm clouds are 
  another; pirates, zombie pirates, and the ships of lost or cur-
  rent militaries are a third thing; and storms of various sorts 
  require a completely different approach than all of the above. 
  But no matter what it is, it’s something overwhelming—
  you’re outmatched!
  Sailing the Outside is often 
  Adversity
  Sailing the Outside isn’t limited to Trouble, though. It can 
  also provide more than its fair share of Adversity. You’re be-
  calmed, or short on food, or there’s a sickness in the ship, or 
  you’re lost, or creatures are tormenting the crew rather than 
  assailing it. You suffer, in short. When it gets to the point 
  where it’s too much for any normal person to bear, you tip 
  over the edge into delirium.
  Sailing the Outside is often 
  Shared Action
  You do simple, honest things on board the ship. Or maybe you 
  talk about the simple, honest things you want to do when you 
  get home or to where you’re going. You connect with your 
  fellow sailors over it. 
  At its best, sailing the Outside can be 
  Slice of Life
  You sail gently and sweetly through magical lakes, rivers, 
  cloudscapes, mists, and seas. You see something cool. You 
  share your emotional response. 
  It sticks with you.
  When things are weird but not terrifying, sailing the Outside can 
  be 
  Discovery
  You explore. You find neat, scary, or mysterious things!
  Or you can handle a long journey as a 
  Ritual
  You start with a ritual phrase like, “Weigh anchor” or “Sail 
  away!”
   Then you and other characters take a series of ritual ac-
  tions—
   
  ŭ describing things you do aboard the boat;
   
  ŭ “posing” or otherwise showing off how your character in-
  terfaces with nautical life;
   
  ŭ summarizing strange encounters or weird things that you 
  see or find—
   
   weird, magical islands;
   
   strange sea creatures;
   
   uncomfortable experiences;
   
   tall tales;
   
   daring adventures;
   
   strange weather;
   
   brushes with death
   
  ŭ talking about what you hope to find at the end of your jour-
  ney; or
   
  ŭ Invoking an unrelated symbol of power (e.g., the 
  Wish-Granting Engine) to merge the two ritual invocations 
  together.
  The phrase that ends the ritual is usually something like “Land 
  ho!” and the HG determines when and whether a given char-
  acter can call it out to bring the ritual to an end. The usual ben-
  efit and outcome of the ritual is, well, safe travel across great 
  swathes of the Outside to wherever the characters need to go. 
  
  303
   
  The Earth
   
  ŭ Its locations are relative;
   
  ŭ Its particulars are measurable;
   
  ŭ Its particulars are explainable;
   
  ŭ Its particulars exert causal force;
   
  ŭ Its events have causes;
   
  ŭ These causes are impersonal;
   
  ŭ These causes are amoral. 
  What remains of the Earth?
  It’s impossible to know.
  The Earth drowned in a tidal wave of the Outside—the 
  Unknown. And if we go to the places that we do not know, 
  to the places we cannot verify remain, then we will find 
  the Outside there waiting in all its roiling chaos. And if we 
  explore them, if we dig through them, if we hunt for the 
  sense and the understanding and the reason and the world 
  that remained beneath, then we will find something. We will 
  distill reality from the chaos—
  But was it always there, waiting? Was it buried, and 
  then restored? Is the Outside a real or a perceptual phe-
  nomenon? Is the place that is re-discovered the same 
  place that it was before, or is it remade to match the rem-
  nants of our conceptions?
  I don’t know. I cannot know. That was a casualty of 
  the Outside wave.
  What I can say is that most of the world carries on just 
  as it used to. There’s still television beamed into little com-
  munities, little solid communities, from the vast chaotic 
  drowned. There’s still mail service. There’s still phones. 
  There’s really no way you could even tell that it all drowned, 
  except maybe that things have gotten a little weirder, and 
  visitors a little rarer, and if you travel off the well-known 
  paths you’re liable to find yourself amidst the strange.
  
  The Low Outside
  304
  304
   The Low Outside 
  Vital Stats
  It’s impossible to really measure the “size” of the Low Outside; 
  proper dimensionality is a thing that it does not have. I can how-
  ever state with reasonable confidence that it is essentially unpop-
  ulated: I’d imagine that there are a few completely bizarre cases 
  where someone has set up a residence there in some fashion, but 
  even then, that’s probably more like an artistic statement or outpost 
  than a settlement; it just isn’t the kind of place where people live.
  Area: N/A 
  Population: δ
  Scenes in the Low Outside
  You can still have Decisive Actions, Science, Faith and Sorcery 
  Actions, Shared Actions, Slice of Life, and Discovery Actions out 
  this far, but they’re much rarer and generally better served by the 
  Near Outside.
  Traveling the Low Outside is usually 
  Passionate (Adversity 
  or Obsessive)
  You’re afraid. You’re mired in the unreal. In theory orienting 
  yourself and figuring out what’s going on drives the Outside 
  back—but it’s hard to do, and when you’re deep enough in 
  the Outside it isn’t that effective. Being out here is scary and it 
  hurts and it’s fundamentally hostile territory.
  You struggle through the Low Outside. It’s confusing. It’s 
  worrisome. It hurts. Yet you must fight: 
  Give up, and you will most likely fall further out into the deep.
  Traveling the Low Outside is sometimes 
  Never Say Die!
  You refuse. You won’t let this defeat you, overwhelming as it 
  is. You defy it!... defy your confusion or your circumstances, 
  and try to assert order or reason on the world. 
  Properties of the Outside 
  (Level 2)
   
  ŭ You are far from home. 
   
  ŭ You are frightened.
   
  ŭ Reality mixes with the abstract.
   
  ŭ Currents of emotion flow past.
   
  ŭ The sun is distorted and strange.
   
  ŭ To orient yourself is to drive the Outside away.
  Typical Genre: The Road of Trials
  The world becomes more stressful as the Outside press-
  es in. It becomes harder to distinguish between things 
  and experiences—when you’re not looking at things, and 
  sometimes even when you are, they fade into a welter of 
  sensation or bits of abstract form. Your ship can remain 
  entirely real while riding a wave that’s nothing more than a 
  wash of blue watercolor. You can spend an hour talking to 
  or running from a man before you really notice that he had 
  a metal sink instead of a face. The low Outside begins to 
  slip from the surreal into the lyrically abstract, and you’d 
  think you’d be able to laugh at that or play around with it 
  but underneath it all is this pulsebeat of  fear and distress. 
  It’s not a magical Toontown or fairy tale land. It doesn’t 
  feel like a magical Toontown or a cool abstract painting. It 
  feels like you’re being starved of reality. It feels like you’re 
  in a desert of sense, where the world itself is so desperate 
  to hang on to form and meaning that it’s using abstraction 
  and bizarreness to paper over its terrible lack.
  Properties of the Outside 
  (Level 3)
   
  ŭ You are lost.
   
  ŭ You are frightened.
   
  ŭ Abstract forms and swirls of color intrude upon the world.
   
  ŭ Currents of emotion flow past.
   
  ŭ The sun is bright and painful.
   
  ŭ To orient yourself is to push the Outside back.
  Typical Genre: The Road of Trials
  Abstract experience becomes a progressively greater fea-
  ture of the world as the Outside descends. After a while it 
  stops making rational sense at all—you may be able to hang 
  on to your own reality, your friends’ reality, your ship or 
  car or road’s reality, but everything else is just a maelstrom 
  of color, light, impressions, and emotional or spiritual or 
  occasionally even cognitive experience. You’re navigating 
  the nothingness, really, for all that there is an appearance of 
  somethingness. Your cues, your road signs, are feelings—
  even when there’s no longer such things as mountains, wind, 
  and trees, a skilled navigator of the Outside may recognize a  
  sensation like the taste of a coming winter, the warmth of 
  coming home, the smell or aching bones of an impending 
  rain, or the frisson of fear that is encountering a stranger 
  in the dark. You look up and the way the sun hurts you re-
  minds you of a stubbed toe, so you go onwards. When you 
  get the jarring sensation of being trapped in a place of loud 
  noises, it’s time to tack to the right! You travel through the 
  sense of a wild jungle; when you hit the sense or feeling of 
  a sunlit garden, instead, it’s time to adjust your course. The 
  language of the navigators of the low Outside is full of re-
  cords of sensations; they are the currents and the landmarks 
  for travel, whether they’re comprehensible enough to pull 
  you back to level 1-2 while you follow them or so subtle 
  that even when you “recognize” them you don’t understand 
  them and remain mired in the low Outside.
  
  The Deep Outside
  305
   
   The Deep Outside 
  Properties of the Outside 
  (Level 4)
   
  ŭ Everything is fragmenting.
   
  ŭ You cannot trust yourself.
   
  ŭ You are being judged by standards that you cannot un-
  derstand.
   
  ŭ The world simplifies as you progress into the void.
   
  ŭ The sun is a yellow circle, or some other simple shape.
   
  ŭ Somewhere, something hurts.
  Typical Genre: The Road of Trials
  Further out and the world begins to break down entirely. 
  There are no longer washes of abstract color and sensation. 
  There’s no longer even a real sense of self—or, rather, you 
  may retain your sense of personal identity and presence, 
  but there’s no longer reference points to ground that in. 
  Your body and mind and soul remain intact, but without a 
  clear interface between them and the world it’s not like you 
  can just look down at your hands and see them or think a 
  thought and “hear” it—the self you can directly perceive 
  through the fog of the Outside is rendered down to some-
  thing as simple and barren as the world around you.
  There’s a certain neo-plasticity to the place—you’ll of-
  ten find the composition of your perception aligning onto 
  the parallel and perpendicular, with hardly anything be-
  tween the vanishing lines that either run to meet at the hori-
  zon or refuse to ever intersect. You’ll feel yourself as a cir-
  cle or square of substance progressing along a track. You’ll 
  see things devolving or abstracting into the primary colors; 
  sounds organizing into pure tones; and scents relaxing and 
  differentiating into the key notes of kyara, rakoku, manaka, 
  manaban, sumotara, and sasora. It wouldn’t be surprising if 
  this were entertaining; it wouldn’t be surprising if it were 
  disorienting, frightening, and traumatic, like a sensory 
  deprivation experience; but in fact it’s something worse.
  As you enter the deep Outside it begins to pull at you. 
  It begins to catch at you. You start to have this dizzying, 
  terrifying feeling like it’s not the deep Outside but reality 
  that’s the mistake. You want to unravel the form and body 
  and reality that has been given to you and reach for some-
  thing empty and cold beyond it.
  The sensation of the deep Outside is thus characterized 
  as an overpowering demand, like the world has picked you 
  up and is shaking you, demanding to know, what is real?
  What does it even mean, for something to be real?
  Properties of the Outside 
  (Level 5)
   
  ŭ Everything is fragments.
   
  ŭ Everything is dissolving.
   
  ŭ You are alienated from yourself.
   
  ŭ You are driven.
   
  ŭ A mad drive pulls you to destroy yourself, to throw 
  yourself into the void.
   
  ŭ Somewhere, something hurts!
   
  ŭ You are not sure whether there is a sun.
  Typical Genre: The Road of Trials
  The world has fallen apart into geometry and psychedelia. 
  Reality unravels. You unravel. The world is pulsing bursts 
  of black and white, or chaotic diamond patterns, or a riv-
  en violet lattice on a field of unbeing. It is tearing apart 
  all the things you were attached to. It is freeing you from 
  yourself. You may lay down yourself at last. You may let 
  go of the burden you have been carrying all these years, to 
  be yourself. The clods of dirt, dung, and star-matter that 
  are the mortal flesh. All the pains and old wounds and old 
  abandoned dreams you’ve been carrying. Everything. You 
  can let it go. You can give it up and fall, ripped open like 
  a cannon-stung zeppelin, into the great endless emptiness.
  The world is hot. It fevers you.
  You are not sure if there is a sun, but somewhere, you 
  are sure, there is the sound of drums.
  
  306
  306
  Vital Stats
  It’s possible to live in the deep Outside. I don’t recommend it, you 
  understand, but the deep Outside won’t revert into normal reality 
  just from living there. You could theoretically build a house, a city, 
  a world full of people, and it wouldn’t necessarily force the deep 
  Outside into sense. It would be a place to live where you’d con-
  stantly be under the glaring eye of Unbeing and wouldn’t really 
  know what was going on, but I imagine that children could be born 
  there, and live out their lives there, and die, and never experience 
  anything else but fragments, external judgment, alienation, and 
  the urge to throw themselves into the void. They would doubtless 
  treasure their brief moments of falling into the low Outside and 
  being merely lost and frightened, but they would not know how to 
  take advantage of them save perhaps to seize that moment to learn 
  the shape of their own bodies and minds and find someone to love.
  It’s possible, and so the math says it’s inevitable—if there can 
  be cities, continents, and worlds lost in that void, then there must 
  be, and in infinite numbers. Yet it is our good fortune as people of 
  conscience in such a world as this that when it comes to the deep 
  Outside the math is not an infallible guide. I have heard that there 
  are cities, foundering in the deeps, so I will record the population 
  thus, but I refuse to believe that there are an infinite number of 
  them, or even a vast (if finite) number. There are no worlds that 
  float out there and know nothing of being real. It must not happen, 
  and it need not happen, so I will say that it does not. I suppose 
  technically that is an act of Sorcery (or maybe Faith) on my own 
  part.
  Area: N/A 
  Population: estimated 1,020,000 + δ 
  (20,000 Excrucians / 1,000,000 human unfortunates) 
  Scenes in the Deep Outside
  You can still have Obsessive and Never Say Die actions here. You 
  can still have any kind of action, really, and any kind of scene. But 
  when you get this deep the Outside is all about Adversity, lurid 
  Corruption, and Vice.
  Traveling the Deep Outside is usually 
  the Road of Trials
  You’re drowning. You’re losing yourself. If there were time, if 
  time were not kind of melting down into a misshapen globule 
  of timelikeness, then maybe you could spend a lot of it expe-
  riencing relatively tame if abstract scenery and phenomena—
  but the comparatively gentle experiences like “I know I am 
  wandering in a garden, and biting into an apple, even if all I 
  see is lines and a touch of green” are usually overwhelmed by 
  your awareness of your fragmentation.
  After a timeless time, you will realize that you are fall-
  ing apart. That you cannot take it any longer. You emote your 
  suffering, or the rigid control that holds that suffering at bay. 
  Then there’s a heart-wrenching moment when you realize that 
  no matter how hard you fight, you’ve lost something else—
  or where you give up, you give in, and turn your thoughts to 
  throwing yourself fully into the void.
  Traveling the Deep Outside is sometimes 
  Wicked
  You know you shouldn’t listen to the call. You know you need 
  to follow a known route through the Deep Outside, or, if there 
  is no such route, you know you need to get back to the lower 
  straits as soon as you possibly can. Anything else is unhealthy 
  and quite possibly immoral. But you do it anyway. You stay in 
  the Deep Outside, or follow the awareness within you to fur-
  ther regions yet. The world goes awry. You break from reality. 
  Maybe that’s just the HG talking up the abstract environment 
  you’re in, or you playing up your sense of dissolution. Maybe 
  it’s something else, like a brief dip into the Low or the Far 
  Outside or even a visitation from Soma Village or somewhere 
  else in Town. Maybe the HG even explicitly reminds you of 
  the cost of staying or going deeper into the Outside. You do 
  it anyway.
  That’s a Wicked Action.
  Traveling the deep Outside is very rarely a 
  Setting (Slice of 
  Life or Discovery) Action
  That said, it may be hard to resist going into a Slice of Life 
  or Discovery action on your first visits to the deep Outside 
  in play. It’s weird enough to be interesting, you know? You 
  see stuff. It sticks with you. You marvel, or you’re scared, or 
  you’re lost in the mood!
  It doesn’t fit, really, because the place is all about Adversi-
  ty, Corruption, and Wickedness—
  But sometimes gaming fun’s more important than is sense.
  
  The Far Outside
  307
   
   The Far Outside 
  Passing through the Far Outside is usually 
  Wicked
  The Gnostics propose that God is evil, and they seem to make 
  that theology work for them. The canon of Dadaist art includes 
  a urinal. There are philosophers who doubt their own con-
  sciousness, and people who aren’t hopeless admirers of Jack 
  Vance. What I’m getting at is that it takes all kinds of twisty 
  weird ideas to make a world, and I’m not going to say that it 
  has to be Wicked to court the Far Outside. It’s possible to wind 
  up in a mental place where you think the Far Outside is good, 
  where you can prove that, where going to the Far Outside is 
  just Shared Action; or maybe Adversity, but not Wickedness; 
  Obsessive, but not Wickedness; Decisive, but not Wickedness; 
  ...and so forth.
  But all that said, this place is a form of Wickedness, as 
  conventionally defined. It’s the opposite of wish power, and 
  thematically that means that having it be anything but Wicked 
  to seek it out is as weird as Gnostic theology or even Dada. 
  You have to work pretty hard to get to that point, and until you 
  do—to go to the Far Outside is to do something unhealthy and/
  or immoral.
  And you know what? 
  I’ll even give this place its own Wickedness variant, just 
  to make sure:
  Because this place is wrong.
  It’s wrong, but you go there anyway.
  Because it’s Wicked, because there’s a cost to go down 
  that path, I’m going to say you have a choice. I’m going to say 
  that you can fail out of the Bleak Academy’s test right there and 
  fall into reality—that if you turn against Wickedness, there at the 
  Gates, and decide you don’t want to fall into despair, you can actu-
  ally reject it and it will fling you all the way back to sanity, to the 
  Near Outside at the least. That Town is fundamentally reachable 
  from those gates, that someone who finds themselves there can 
  escape it, much more easily than from the Deep Outside.
  You can take your stand here, at the gates, and reject that Wick-
  edness; though, that isn’t a Wicked Action, of course, nor brings 
  the XP for one, since that isn’t any form of wickedness at all. 
  Properties of the Outside 
  (Level 6)
   
  ŭ Your wishes are dying. Your hopes are dying.
   
  ŭ The world is empty.
   
  ŭ The world is lifeless.
   
  ŭ The world is gray.
   
  ŭ You are alienated from yourself.
   
  ŭ The light of the sun cannot reach you.
   
  ŭ You can no longer hear the voice of your own heart.
  Typical Genre: Epic Fantasy
  In the far Outside, it is said, there is form again and space 
  again and time again, but to no avail. It is lifeless, bleak-
  ness, dreariness, and gray. The sky is reborn monochrome, 
  or sepia at best.
  It is real again, or like reality again, like realism, at the 
  least, but it is soulless.
  It is the soulless antechamber of despair.
  Properties of the Outside 
  (Level 7): 
  The Bleak Academy’s 
  Gates
   
  ŭ Your heart is dead. Your hopes are dead. Your wishes 
  are dead.
   
  ŭ You are gone all lifeless, cold, and gray.
   
  ŭ You are held in a long moment of weariness and decay.
   
  ŭ The world could drown and you would not care.
   
  ŭ A starry tide is rising. Let it rise. You stand
   
  ŭ Before the bleak and lightless gates of a Far and a Sun-
  less Land.
  Typical Genre: Epic Fantasy
  You are drowning in stifling conformity. In bleak perfection. 
  In facelessness, somberness, and despair. You are no longer 
  any sort of person at all, here, before the gates of the Bleak 
  Academy. You are a machine. You are a thing. You are a cog.
  This is a place without wish power. It drains it, sucks it 
  all away. This is a place without heart, at the heart of the 
  Bleak Methodology.
  It is the seventh level of the Outside, and you must pass 
  through here to enter the Bleak Academy or the farthest 
  reaches of the Outside.
  Wicked Action 
  (Variation)
  Condition:  You damage your hopeful, wishing heart.
  Or, you willfully indulge the prideful impulse to despair. 
  Action: 
   
  ŭ Fall under the Bleak Academy’s dismal spell.
  
  The Bleak Academy
  308
  308
  The Bleak Academy
  There are at least two perspectives on the Bleak Academy, and 
  here is why.
  You can understand the Outside as a mist of fear and trouble 
  over an underlying world. From that perspective the Bleak Acade-
  my is the pall that hangs over—well, Heaven. Perfection. Nirvana. 
  An endless, beautiful paradise.
  Its presence is then the most monstrous of crimes, because, 
  well, where there should be Nirvana, there’s the Bleak Acade-
  my. Where there should be a beautiful afterlife, there’s the Bleak 
  Academy. Where we should be able to aspire to be as gods, we can 
  only hope to be such mad gods as herein Leonardo de Montreal 
  became.
  Or maybe the Outside is the thing from which reality congeals. 
  In that case, the Bleak Academy is a primordial Heaven. A pro-
  to-Nirvana. It’s the thing that’s going to become the perfect future 
  of our dreams. Or could become that, at least, if the Headmaster 
  were on our side, or was defeated by someone who was.
  All that aside, though, what the Bleak Academy is... it’s some-
  thing worth attaining.
  Past the gates of madness and despair, instead of more mad-
  ness and worse despair, you find a True Thing that’s worth having. 
  That’s what, anyway, I think.
  Area: 4 square miles 
  Population: 20-60 (according to firsthand reports); 12,300 
  (according to the catalog) 
  (~80% Excrucian, 20% other)
  The Academy
  I assume it’s sort of like a school campus. It’s probably in the 
  model of a European campus or monastery, complete with an-
  cient architecture and mad-eyed scholars hiding in the stacks or 
  labyrinths. There are grad-students chained to their cubicles as 
  they process ancient, blasphemous texts, because that’s the place 
  where their nightmares led them. There are god-students in their 
  onmyouji hats floating amongst the clouds, exchanging thunder-
  bolts, because that’s the direction of their dreams. The place puls-
  es with a sense of hidden marvel but also of delirium. Its curricu-
  lum focuses heavily on independent study as each person builds a 
  Hell or godhood for themselves.
  I assume its walls are stone and brass and etched with figures.
  I assume its sky is sunless and alive with stars.
  Confronting the Headmaster is usually a 
  Defining Moment
  You talk about what led you to this confrontation. This leads 
  up to a defining choice or decisive action on your part.
  Or you talk about what you know about him. You propose a 
  theory about who he is, or who you think he should be. You put 
  yourself at risk to test that. That’s Science, Faith, and Sorcery!
  Confronting the Headmaster is sometimes 
  Adversity
  He binds you. He traps you. He is ahead of you at every turn 
  and he controls you. You suffer. It is breaking you.
  You tip over the edge into delirium—
  ...or do you give in?
  Properties of the Outside 
  (Level 8): 
  The Bleak Academy
   
  ŭ Here is the True Thing, beyond perception.
   
  ŭ Here the red world and the falling stars.
   
  ŭ Here is the dream that dreams do dream of.
   
  ŭ Here is the nightmare that nightmares hath.
   
  ŭ Here the wish that is beyond wishing.
   
  ŭ Here is the thing beyond the world; the Bleak Academy, that 
  is beyond the end of life.
  Typical Genre: Epic Fantasy
  
  309
   
  Studying at the Bleak Academy is usually 
   Corruption, 
  Metamorphosis, or Wicked
  If you are studying there, if you are trying to learn there, if 
  you are working with the Headmaster of the Bleak Academy, 
  then he has his hooks in you. He has the power to influence 
  you. And as that influence seeps into you, you will experience 
  supernatural or psychosomatic effects. Then, as you see the 
  outcome of your study, corruption or transformation will set in.
  I will set aside an exception: if you are a native here, or 
  Epic Fantasy is your native genre, then this is merely Wick-
  edness instead.
  Tours of the Bleak Academy are usually 
  Immersive Fantasy
  There’ll be wonders around every corner. Discoveries. Foreshad-
  owing. Things to freeze you up in shock and prompt a Sympathetic 
  Action. The mysterium fascinans and the mysterium tremendum: 
  here are things to awe you, to make you tremble, to make you fear.
  Confronting the Headmaster is sometimes 
  Never Say Die!
  His power is overwhelming. He is breaking you. But you defy 
  him. You struggle to remain yourself and overcome his power—
  Even in the Bleak Academy itself! 
  The College of War and 
  Nightmare
  The college of war and nightmare is where the weaponry of the 
  Bleak Academy is bred. Its students are those who harbor perverse 
  visions of creation—who have a thing that they wish to build, gen-
  erally in defiance of the world. There’s a pure major in this college 
  for those whose creation is not perverse, and may be built with-
  in or at least without crushing or stealing from the pre-existing 
  world; and there’s a practical major for those who are amoral, who 
  simply like to work the stuff of dream and nightmare and science, 
  and care not to which end their work is used.
  Most of the students, though, aim to be Warmains of the Bleak 
  Academy, and build their desired future in outright defiance of the 
  world. These are those who dream up night-wyrms to assail Ce-
  lestia, set loose horrors in the sea of the Outside, and gather up the 
  armies they will one day lead to conquer Town and put the Child 
  of the Sun to death; in some campaigns, they may already be 
  marching them, with a wound cut by their wickedness stretching 
  all the way from the College campus to the kingdom of the sky.
  The students here are in the mold of the Headmaster, with a 
  dream they dream of, and caring not whom it hurts.
  At first, the campus of War and Nightmare is generally 
  Trouble
  There’s horrors loose all around. Nobody exerts proper vigi-
  lance. Spend much time there and a threat will approach.
  Nor will it end with a single encounter.
  There may be a lull in the terror, but the pressure after, most 
  likely, stays on.
  Once you’re used to it, the campus of War and Nightmare is gen-
  erally 
  Slice of Life
  Eventually, you’ve gotten used enough to the place that it’s 
  safe for you. You wander the campus. You emote. You see 
  something piquant—oh, look, that chimera is eating its middle 
  head!
  The image stays with you.
  But it’s not a threat. Not any more.
  The College of Natural Phi-
  losophy
  The college of natural philosophy is home to those who study the 
  True Thing—who seek to understand the nature of existence and 
  the Far and Sunless Land. They learn a great and overpowering 
  love from that contemplation, for people and for things; but they 
  learn, too, that we have built the mortal world from lies. Town, 
  and Earth, and existence itself is to these philosophers a jungle of 
  deceit that we have put up to keep from seeing ourselves the way 
  we really are.
  They love us but they love not that lie.
  It is their aim, it is their zeal, it is the infection of their ideology 
  that they long to unmake the world for us. They dream to help 
  you forget the Eyes and Ears and Nose, the Work and Home and 
  School, the Trees and the Wind and the Laughter and the Hearts 
  and Hope.
  They think you marvelous, they who study the True Thing, 
  whatever it is they think you are—but they love not what you 
  think yourself to be. They will make you repent of it if they can, 
  strip you of it, show you not the self you see in the mirror but the 
  something alien that they know instead. And they and you will 
  laugh and you will thank them for it; but will it be you that speaks 
  those words, or something else?
  Scenes involving Natural Philosophy are generally 
  Epic 
  Fantasy
  You talk about the things that you know and you believe in. 
  You propose a theory. You risk yourself on that theory—on the 
  belief that the world, or a person, will honor and fulfill your 
  trust. That’s a Science, Faith, and Sorcery Action.
  Or you talk about the things you know and that you believe 
  in. This builds up to a choice or decisive action. That’s a De-
  cisive Action!
  Or there’s a bit of Wickedness—you’re persuaded that the 
  world’s a lie, but you cling to it, a little, anyway; or, you don’t 
  think that, you’re a hero of the world, you want to stand up for 
  it, but you admire or hang out with or hide among these the 
  enemies of the world anyway.
  
  310
  310
  
  The Dream-Witch
  311
   
  The Colloquium of Magi
   The third program is for those who have transcended the mortal 
  world63 and come to study at the Bleak Academy, but have not 
  elected in particular to join one of the other schools. It is a pro-
  gram created to liberate its students from the lingering ideas and 
  ideals of mortal life.
  It is normally the case that before they may go on to join one of 
  the other schools, or for that matter undertake an advanced study 
  in the Colloquium of Magi, the student is presented with a chal-
  lenge designed such that they must wholly break down who and 
  what they were before they can defeat it. Only when they have 
  shed the detritus of who they used to be can they move on.64
  Scenes involving the Colloquium of Magi are often 
  Obses-
  sive Action
  Setting aside mortality is hard. Dealing with those who are try-
  ing to set aside mortality is also hard. It’s like trying to achieve 
  enlightenment by banging your own head repeatedly into a 
  dodgeball—it’s a horrible lot of trouble, and you don’t get far!
  The College of Emptiness 
  and Dream
  The last college is home to the students of moral theory, law, righ-
  teousness, and the true emptiness that preceded the Outside. It is 
  home to those who find the world unsatisfactory and wish to mold 
  it towards their own bleak principles—those troubled by the sick-
  ness of our times, including both the worst dogmatic horrors and 
  the most starry-eyed idealists in all the Bleak Academy.
  The College of Emptiness and Dream is on the surface of an 
  egg, or possibly a writhing mass of gods in the rough shape of an 
  egg, or possibly an unborn existence, suspended in the middle of 
  nothingness by a series of golden cords. It is separate from the oth-
  er colleges, full of bleak wizards who set themselves apart, with 
  a gravity that is local in nature. Those who master its principles 
  become the Magisters or Strategists of the Bleak Academy; those 
  who are still in the process of learning them are called jurists or 
  students at Emptiness and Dream.  
  It is generally understood that the greatest athletes and most 
  fearsome theorists at the Bleak Academy will come out of the 
  college of Emptiness and Dream, while the more practical sorts 
  pursue either War and Nightmare or Natural Philosophy.
  Scenes involving Emptiness and Dream are often 
  Lurid
  You do something wicked or unhealthy or someone does 
  something wicked or unhealthy to you. Reality becomes un-
  stable. The truth molds to their principles. Things get really 
  weird. Then either you double down on what you’re doing, or 
  they go forward with hurting or changing you. Wickedness. 
  Trauma. Metamorphosis. Corruption. It’s all here, under the 
  aegis of Emptiness and Dream.
  63  That is, places like Eris or Town
  64  More or less like an ordinary thesis defense, I guess.
  The Dream-Witch
  Long ago a prodigy of despair and hatred—a “Magister of the 
  Bleak Academy”—came from Emptiness and Dream to end 
  the world. Its name was either Melanie Malakh or Reginald 
  Malakh.
  It seduced young Hideo, of the Hayashi family (pg. 224).
  Together they made a glass dragon, and taught it to hate the 
  world. But it shattered, instead.
  And so did the magister, Malakh.
  This Main Character is what’s left. The Dream-Witch is 
  usually a girl named Miramie Mesmer, but they could be a 
  boy named Reynard Mesmer instead. They’re not a prodigy 
  of despair and hate. They’re not the whole of the monster that 
  came to Town. They’re just somebody touched by its power, 
  or maybe a reduced version of that prodigy, withered into hu-
  manity and then bound (see pg. 320).
  An older, wiser, and more worldly Professor Hideo 
  Hayashi runs an Archive and a kind of halfway house for 
  troubled and unusual teens now. That’s usually where this 
  Main Character lives, along with four or five other found-
  lings; that said, if it’d be more fun for you, you could de-
  cide that one of the shrine families took the Dream-Witch 
  in instead.
  The default Miramie Mesmer is sweet but kind of anxious 
  and tightly wound. She’s trying to refurbish a manor down 
  the street from the Archive and set up an art shop, garden, 
  and café. Except for a vague association with masks, dreams, 
  glass, and Melanie Malakh, she’s really a pretty OK person—
  you shouldn’t judge her on her title alone.
  But there’s this ominous angle to her: it’s possible that 
  Melanie Malakh might still reform.
  The Dream-Witch isn’t necessarily a big part of Town’s 
  story as a whole but will be a key player in the first major 
  campaign, Fortitude: the Glass-Maker’s Dragon.
  Miramie Mesmer, aka 
  The Dream Witch
  
  312
  312
  Scenes involving Emptiness and Dream are sometimes 
  Fore-
  shadowing
  You’re walking along the trembling golden bridges to the col-
  lege at the egg. The camera spins around that shape in nothing-
  ness. The Headmaster’s voice whispers to you, maybe, about 
  the death of worlds and the birth of gods, the murder of Jade 
  Irinka, and a far and a sunless land.
  Something catches your attention.
  That may seem like a weird understatement, but you know 
  how it can be. Even the craziest marvels and most abhorrent 
  horrors can be normal. You can get used to them. But in this 
  particular case, you don’t. Something catches your attention. 
  Something reaches you. You listen to it, or watch it, or notice 
  it, or feel it. It keeps happening. Then you react!
  Scenes involving Emptiness and Dream are rarely a 
  Ritual
  The nature of the ritual will vary depending on events in play, 
  but it’s reasonable to imagine that you can find some way to 
  tap the power of the egg or call upon the wizards and Strate-
  gists of the College of Emptiness and Dream. However you do 
  so, it’s likely to play out in the form of a Ritual.
  The House of the Sun  
  (Hypothetical)
  The Headmaster of the Bleak Academy shot the sun; she died—
  But I am told that she is not dead. The Child of the Sun is 
  certain of it: there was some sort of miracle. Meta miracle, maybe, 
  since the sun was an angel. There was something.
  Somehow Jade Irinka is not gone.
  And it is my belief that if she is not gone, if she is not dead, 
  then she must have found herself fallen into the Bleak Academy 
  or the Far and Sunless Land.
  It could be either.
  Let’s call it a canon flexpoint what happened to her—I don’t 
  know, you don’t know, you’ll have to find out during play. Maybe 
  she did die. Maybe she put on Marx Brothers glasses and is sneak-
  ing around in Town. Maybe she fell into the farthest Outside and 
  is burning there.
  ...but maybe there’s a new-made House of the Sun in the Bleak 
  Academy, instead, dedicated to keeping her contained. Maybe 
  there’s a whole new College, a whole new line of eminences com-
  parable to the Strategists and the Warmains, named something like 
  “The Keepers of the Sun.”
  Maybe she’s struggling even now in their great spherical au-
  ditorium, struggling to burst free; or even wrestling, not against 
  the folk of the Bleak Academy, but against the True Thing or the 
  Emptiness itself, struggling to devour it or become a part of it 
  while the faculty aid or hinder her along the way.
  I don’t think that she’s weak enough that the Headmaster can 
  keep her captive personally. I think it’d take a whole campus, and 
  even then she’d be at all times on the verge of breaking free. I 
  think he’d need to funnel a ton of resources away from one of 
  the existing colleges in order to hold her, and the first Keepers 
  of the Sun would accordingly be ex-Warmains, ex-Philosophers, 
  ex-Strategists, or ex-Magi. Their students, though, if she doesn’t 
  break free, are likely to be something new. 
  The HG shouldn’t force a given genre for this stuff, but they 
  should pick one of the genres below to aim for when and if it 
  seems like you’re going to discover that this is what happened to 
  Jade Irinka.
  One possible genre here is 
  Epic Fantasy
  The House of the Sun is spun off from Natural Philosophy. 
  They hold her in a cage of lies, ideas, philosophy, and conceits. 
  She tells you about it. She whispers it to you. She tells you her 
  plans, her decisions, her choice. Will you help her? Can you 
  help her? What is the cost?
  Another is 
  Adventure
  They’ve found a way to kill her. Or, when they find out you 
  know she’s there, they’re going to kill you. Something like 
  that. You’re outgunned, outnumbered, and outmatched!
  But you?
  You’re going to win.
  A last option is 
   Gothic
  The struggle is constant. She is impossible to contain. Her 
  chains are impossible to break. Dealing with one of these dual 
  dilemmas obsesses you.
  You try to connect to her. You try to help her.
  But this is beyond you. This is impossible. There is nothing 
  you can do. 
  What you see in this place will remain with you for all the 
  years of your life to come.
  
  The Far and Sunless 
  Land
  313
   
  The Far and Sunless Land
  Beyond the Bleak Academy is the land the Headmaster comes 
  from—a land he claims, to Town at least, to represent.
  Maybe he’s its King. Maybe he’s an apostate, rebel, or reject. 
  Maybe he’s just an academic, missionary, or civil servant from that 
  place, who runs an outpost between the sunless land and Town.
  It’s a strange place to visit.
  You can. You can get a visa, and go out to the Bleak Acade-
  my, and get on its tour bus, and go on a ride through the endless 
  darkness, and marvel at a far and a sunless land. I can’t guarantee 
  that you’ll come back, and I can’t guarantee that you’ll come back 
  human, even if that’s the way you start, but—
  There is a place there, where the wind puts out the fires and 
  stars are falling from the sky. There’s a place beyond the Bleak 
  Academy where that which is eternal, ends. It’s real. It’s there. It’s 
  the farthest reach of the Far Outside.
  It’s there.
  It’s just a little hard for mortal eyes to see.
  Scenes in the Far and Sunless Land are usually 
  Shared Re-
  actions
  You talk about stuff that’s happened. You talk about the stuff 
  that’s in your heart. You connect with the people around you.
  The Far and Sunless Land is sometimes 
  Slice of Life
  Don’t expect the HG to describe what’s around you. They 
  might. They might not. It’s a lot to ask. But still, something is 
  there. It moves your heart. You get lost in the mood.
  The image... -lessness? 
  It sticks with you.
  Trying to pay attention to the actual vistas around you may trigger 
  a 
  Ritual
  It starts with a ritual action—pointing towards the furthest 
  Outside, or saying, “Oh! I see!” or, if you happen to be a Lewis 
  fan, perhaps, “Further up and further in!”
  And the world stops.
  Then you and other characters take a series of ritual ac-
  tions—
   
  ŭ Talk about memories that are dear in your heart.
   
  ŭ Talk about what you love about other people.
   
  ŭ “Pose” or otherwise describe how your character conducts 
  themselves on the trip.
   
  ŭ Say things you thought you’d never say.
   
  ŭ Quote bits of poetry that come to mind.
  And the HG replies with things like—
   
  ŭ “a candle flares; it is sheltered by your teacher’s weathered 
  hands, but the wind blows out the fire.”
   
  ŭ “the stars are falling, one after another, faster and faster, 
  until the sky is ablaze with light.”
   
  ŭ “a clock strikes its final hour.”
   
  ŭ “seek nothing, gain all.” 
   
  ŭ “reject nothing, transcend all.”
   
  ŭ “hold no conceptions, rule all.”
  (and then points to the next person they want to prompt for a 
  ritual action.)
  The ritual always ends with someone saying, “This is a far 
  and a sunless land.” And then someone else echoing it, to bring 
  the journey to its close.
  Properties of the Outside 
  (Level 9) 
  The Far and Sunless Land
   
  ŭ The wind puts out the fire and
   
  ŭ Stars are falling from the sky.
   
  ŭ That which is eternal, ends.
   
  ŭ Seek nothing, gain all;
   
  ŭ Reject nothing, transcend all;
   
  ŭ Hold to no conceptions, rule all—
   
  ŭ This is a far and a sunless land
  Typical Genre: Pastoral
  
  Falling Stars
  Excerpt: The Tyger
  314
  314
  65  My apologies to fellow Blake admirers for the mutilation of this poem; 
  I felt I could afford to clip some lines and make it a better fit to the Out-
  side, since you all know the real poem anyway.
  The Sun, in a Far and 
  Sunless Land
  So what happens if Jade Irinka wound up here, or if Jasper 
  Irinka decides to visit?
  That’s a canon flexpoint. I don’t know. You don’t know. You 
  can’t know. Something will happen. Something appropriate.
  And if you don’t know what happens? If you can’t think of 
  anything appropriate?
  Break the game there, stop, take 5-15 minutes, and when 
  you come back, the bit where you noticed the sun in a sunless 
  land, or where the Child of the Sun tried to get in, is over. 
  Congratulations. You broke the world.
  Working out what exactly happened, and how existence sur-
  vived that break, is something you can do later on, in flashbacks, 
  or as the resolution to an Issue, or something else like that.
  “Falling Stars,” by 
  Rainer Maria Rilke
  For general use in Transitions related to the Outside
  Do you remember still the falling stars 
  that like swift horses through the heavens raced 
  and suddenly leaped across the hurdles 
  of our wishes--do you recall? And we 
  did make so many! For there were countless numbers 
  of stars: each time we looked above we were 
  astounded by the swiftness of their daring play, 
  while in our hearts we felt safe and secure 
  watching these brilliant bodies disintegrate, 
  knowing somehow we had survived their fall.
  Excerpt65 from 
  “The Tyger,” 
  by William Blake
  For general use in Transitions related to the Outside
  Tyger! Tyger! burning bright  
  What immortal hand or eye  
  Could frame thy fearful symmetry? 
  In what distant deeps or skies  
  Burnt the fire of thine eyes?  
  What the hand dare seize the fire? 
  And what shoulder, & what art. 
  What the hammer? what the chain?  
  In what furnace was thy brain?  
  What the anvil? what dread grasp 
  (&) When the stars threw down their spears,  
  Did he smile his work to see?  
  Did he who made the Lamb make thee?
  
  CHAPTER 10: EX-
  AMPLE QUESTS
  Example Quests
  
  A New Hobby
  316
  Here’s a few more examples of what a quest might look like.
  A New Hobby
  35 XP Quest
  1: 
   
  2: 
   
   
  3: 
  or
  25 XP Quest
  1: 
   
   
  2: 
   
   
  4: 
  You’ve started a new hobby! Isn’t it about time you got into manga, or American television, or the 
  limitless world of Fortitude model car collecting?66
  Then this quest is for you.
  You can repeat this quest in a later Arc to continue your studies of the hobby or take them to “the 
  next level.”
  I recommend the 35 XP version for normal use. If you’re repeating the quest, though, and not really 
  trying to take things to the next level—if you just want to keep the hobby fresh and relevant in your 
  life—consider a short, 25-XP version instead.
  66 Almost. THREE. Manufacturers!
  XP
  Major Goals
  The HG can award you 5 XP towards this quest when...
   
  ☐ You’re dazzled by a visit to a great collection or store for this hobby;
   
  ☐ Someone demonstrates why you shouldn’t underestimate the depth of complexity 
  and heart put into this hobby;
   
  ☐ You become involved in a fan project for creating, modifying, distributing, or 
  building upon the things of this hobby.
  You can earn each bonus once, up to a total of 10 XP in the short version and 15 XP in the full.
  Quest Flavor
  1/chapter, you can earn a bonus XP towards this quest when:
  you’re enjoying or thinking about the newest thing you’ve bought for your hobby
  you have a geeky discussion with a fellow hobbyist
  you daydream hobby-related elements into the world around you
   you attend a large hobby-related gathering
  you put work into the hobby (e.g. organizing an event, working on a fan project, 
  building a model, or parsing a complicated story.)
  you experience the wistful sorrow of someone who can’t afford to buy the 
  latest thing
  You can combine this with an XP Action, but you’re not required to.
  A New Hobby 
  (Peaceful Version)
  25
  35
  
  317
  Major Goals
  The HG can award you 5 XP towards this quest when:
   
  ☐ you have a fierce, hobby-themed battle with someone;
   
  ☐ you get sick from spending too much time and money on your hobby instead of 
  carefully attending to rest, nutrition, and health;
   
  ☐ you receive and must carry forward “the dreams” and often the symbol or 
  nickname of a great geek/hobbyist who is retiring or stepping back from the hobby 
  due to, e.g., injury or the birth of their child.
  You can earn each bonus once, up to a total of 10 XP in the short version and 15 XP in 
  the full.
  Quest Flavor
  1/chapter, you can earn a bonus XP towards this quest by:
  working on hobby-related stuff
  getting worked up about your hobby
  supporting your hobby in ways you probably shouldn’t
  using your hobby or hobby-learned skills to help overcome the problems 
  in the rest of your life
  You can combine this with an XP Action, but you’re not required to.
  XP
  A New Hobby 
  (Passionate Version)
  25
  35
  
  A New Job
  318
  A New Job
  35 XP Quest
  1: 
   
  2: 
   
  You’ve just started a new career! You have taken your first steps into what is most likely a dazzling 
  world far bigger than anything you could have imagined.
  Are you entering the shocking maelstrom of the fish canning world?
  Are you working for an ex-enemy?
  Have you just founded the Fortitude Young Adults’ Detective Agency? Signed on daringly to help keep 
  the books at Cramsie Hospital in Horizon? Are you maybe even dabbling in customer service or in the 
  dizzying world of temps?
  Then this quest... is for you.
  XP
  Major Goals
  The HG can award you 5 XP towards this quest when...
   
  ☐ You uncover a secret fighting tournament (possibly actually just a bridge/dice 
  tournament or something) related to the job;
   
  ☐ You make a new friend, often a troubled kid, overburdened and meek person your 
  own age, or kitten;
   
  ☐ You use the first (or other long-awaited) money from the job on an unexpected 
  expense for someone else.
  You can earn each bonus once, for a total of up to 15 XP.
  Quest Flavor
  1/chapter, you can earn a bonus XP towards this quest when:
  the business struggles with money
  the authorities fail to understand your problems
   
  an enemy appears!
  a new client shows up
  an older mentor explains the dizzying scope of the work
  you’re transfixed with interest in something seemingly completely 
  unimportant, but related to the job
   
    that unimportant thing comes into play sometime later on
  You can combine this with an XP Action, but you’re not required to.
  A New Job 
  (Comedic/Stylized Version)
  35
  
  319
  XP
  Major Goals
  The HG can award you 5 XP towards this quest when:
   
  ☐ someone is injured or goes into labor at work and you help them to the hospital;
   
  ☐ somebody brings you snacks during a festival because you’re stuck at work;
   
  ☐ you have to take over for the person who originally taught you the ropes.
  You can earn each bonus once, for a total of 15 XP.
  Quest Flavor
  1/chapter, you can earn a bonus XP towards this quest by:
  working on relevant chores
  talking about your work
  doing or taking advantage of stuff you learned at work
   
   showing people your work at the office
  You can combine this with an XP Action, but you’re not required to.
  35
  A New Job 
  (Pastoral Version)
  
  Bind
  320
  Bind
  50 XP Quest
  1: 
   
    
  2: 
   
   
  3: 
   
    
  5: 
   
  I cannot say if this is possible on Earth. I cannot say if it is possible in Horizon, or Old Molder.
  But in places like Fortitude, like Little Island, and maybe even like Arcadia—
  It may be possible for even the worst of horrors to be redeemed. 
  So in this quest, you will imprison a defeated horror in a sacred place—in one of the well-loved 
  houses in Fortitude, in the Kinnoruto Temple in Arcadia, in the old temple on Little Island, or maybe 
  in the mystery world inside the Wish-Granting Engine—and there you will strive to teach it humanity 
  or humaneness.
  Witches, murderers, demons, and even cosmic horrors like the Headmaster of the Bleak Academy 
  can be rehabilitated in this fashion, although any non-consenting horror must first be thoroughly defeat-
  ed. Human and human-like horrors must also meaningfully and plausibly repent.
  What Happens
  You’ll set up containment of some sort for the defeated horror. This usually means restricting their 
  movements (at least at first), setting up some way to monitor their actions, and sealing, blocking, or 
  interfering with any dangerous superhuman powers they may have.
  Some horrors are genuinely naïve. They undervalue human life because it never really occurred to 
  them to do otherwise. Or perhaps it had occurred to them, a long time ago, but after millennia of evil 
  they’ve so thoroughly lost touch with the moral portion of themselves that they’ve reverted to a peculiar 
  kind of innocence.
  For creatures like this, the story of this quest usually has parallels with raising a child. It’s tradition-
  al—in stories, anyway—to trap them in a weak human body or a small, cute version of their normal 
  form. Even if you leave the creature physically intact, you’ll seal their power, mitigate the appearance 
  of threat they give, and possibly stifle or seal their more evil instincts. At this point even if the creature 
  retains a bad personality, boredom and pride will help to redeem them. Unsatisfied with an empty or 
  structure-less life, the horror will eventually seek out human company, imitate human behavior, and 
  inquire into the philosophical underpinnings of a humane existence. Like children, they are often petu-
  lant, contrary, or chaotic; like children, they are capable of randomly having fun with the essentials of 
  human existence; like children they are, ultimately, biddable. 
  Eventually bound horrors start to feel a real affinity with the values of their captors—and around 
  this time, they’ll usually recover or unlock some measure of their power. At this point they become 
  cognate to teenagers and express much the same range of behaviors: they become concerned with what 
  other people think of them; they struggle to establish space and independence for themselves; they 
  suffer from poor impulse control; and they adopt a teen archetype such as “self-loathing emo horror,” 
  “prideful jerk horror,” or “diligent mini-adult horror.” This is the most dangerous time for their reha-
  bilitation, as they’ll want things (whether “to redeem myself” or “to return to who I was before”) that 
  they’re not really ready to achieve; if they weather any appropriate trials and come to terms with their 
  nature, the quest completes.
  Other horrors weren’t naïve. They hurt people and they knew what it meant to hurt people. How-
  ever, as subjects for this quest, they’re presumptively salvageable—some combination of they had 
  limited choices and they’ve found genuine repentance makes it worth trying to save them, at the least. A 
  story like this requires a more psychologically realistic depiction of redemption and forgiveness, so it’s 
  going to be a bit harder to tell. Usually the horror that you’re binding will have to work hard: training 
  their self-control, working to repay their victims or society, practicing redemptive and self-disciplinary 
  labor, or some combination thereof. The horror will also need to talk through a lot of things with a 
  therapist, priest, parent figure, or confidant who accepts them. If you can get the horror’s buy-in first67 it 
  can help to shatter the root of their wickedness—breaking the pride, starving the gluttony, or impairing 
  the capacity for wrath that drove them to their acts. Eventually they’ll do something heroic or self-sac-
  rificing (either a single event or a long time of doing good things) that earns an appropriate measure of 
  forgiveness and acceptance and thereby ends the quest.
  67 Not so much a practical requirement as a way to make sure that you aren’t becoming a horror yourself.
  
  321
  XP
  Bonus XP
  You can earn a bonus XP towards this quest at any time (but only once per scene/15 
  minutes) by proposing a theory about how the bound horror should approach human 
  existence. This could manifest as:
   
  ☐ speculating about how to connect to the horror and make it understand the human 
  world;
   
  ☐ attempting to explain the human world to it;
   
  ☐ helping it understand how its past and future actions fit into the human context.
  ...but ultimately it just boils down to this: propose a theory, earn an XP.
  Your character must propose the theory aloud or, at minimum, in their official inter-
  nal narration—it can’t just be you, as the player, at the table, it has to be IC.
  50
  Bind 
  (Dramatic Version)
  Bonus XP
  Arrange for a sign. It says “Over the Top.”
  You can earn a bonus XP towards this quest at any time (but only once per scene/15 
  minutes) when your interaction with the horror gets, or the consequences of binding it 
  get, a little over the top.
  Or, for that matter, when you decide to make them a little over the top.
  When that happens, hold up the sign or otherwise declare/observe that things have 
  gotten over the top and you can claim the XP.
  You don’t even have to say anything in character! You just have to be willing to hold 
  up a sign. It’s even OK if sometimes you’re being ironic or making a suggestion instead 
  of an observation, as long as an observation is more typical.
  XP
  Bind 
  (Casual/Comedic Version)
  50
  
  322
  v
  O
  V
  E
  R
   
  T
  H
  E
   
  T
  O
  P
  
  Concentrated Awesome
  323
  Concentrated Awesome
  20 XP Quest
  2: 
   
  3: 
   
  4: 
    
  5: 
   
  You’ll usually only take this quest once you’ve gotten a level 4+ Connection with someone or somewhere—
  The quest is about being a total master of some environment or being totally in synch with a partner, 
  lover, friend, or even rival. It pretty much just focuses on how amazing, with that Connection, you are.
  XP
  Major Goals
  The HG can award you 5 XP towards this quest if there’s a scene where you’ve been cut 
  off somehow from your normal power sources, memories, or sense of self, but use your 
  deep connection to this environment to still be pretty awesome.
  You can earn this bonus once, for a total of 5 XP.
  Quest Flavor
  1/chapter, you can earn a bonus XP towards this quest by:
  having a montage of incidents showing off your situation mastery
  hanging out admiring the thing or situation
  exaggerated tongue-in-cheek drama about the thing in question 
  having a casual conversation while doing what “should” be exciting or 
  difficult things in the situation or with the person in question—e.g., arguing 
  over laundry or talking about stuff you’ve been reading with your Connection 
  4+ SO while fighting to stabilize a storm-tossed ship
  You can combine this with an XP Action, but you’re not required to.
  Concentrated Awesome
  20
  
  Connecting With Someone
  324
  Connecting With Someone
  25 XP Quest
  1: 
   
  2: 
   
   
  You’re consciously trying to make a connection with someone—to get to know them. You’re looking for 
  ways to deepen your understanding of them and get closer.
  Or, you’re consciously trying to fit into a place or situation. 
  You work hard. You pay attention. It’s a kind of dedicated, intentional learning.
  XP
  Bonus XP
  You can earn a bonus XP towards this quest at any time (but only once per scene/15 
  minutes) by declaring that what you’ve been doing in the current scene is to build your 
  connection with something or because you’re learning how to live with that person or 
  thing.
  Pick a standard phrase to indicate this, and then just say that phrase or some close 
  variant when you want to claim the bonus. For instance:
   
  ŭ “I want to know you a little better.”
   
  ŭ “I’m getting the hang of this place.”
   
  ŭ “I think we really connected.”
  What I recommend is figuring out what you’d say towards the end of the first scene 
  you’re really working on this quest in—if you find yourself saying something goofy, 
  like “Let’s work hard to be friends!” then your quest phrase will be goofy. If you’re 
  being all refined and stuff and wind up with just “I’m emoting, ‘yeah, you’re... pretty 
  OK,’” then that’s the phrase instead.
  Regardless, you find something that says—
   
  ŭ this scene? It’s an “I’ve been connecting” scene
  and then you say that, seriously or ironically, to earn a bonus XP for this quest.
  What do you say?
  ______
  25
  Connecting 
  (Casual Version)
  
  325
  XP
  Major Goals
  The HG can award you 5 XP towards this quest if you:
   
  ☐ get in trouble trying to reach out to or connect with the target of this quest;
   
  ☐ get in trouble trying to help the target of this quest, and it or they in some fashion 
  support you.
  You can earn each bonus once per (repetition of the) quest, for a total of 10 XP.
  Quest Flavor
  1/chapter, you can earn a bonus XP towards this quest by:
   listening to stories about (the target of this quest)
   
   consciously trying to connect with (the target of this quest)
  for a person:
   
   helping out with the daily life of (the target of this quest)
   
   talking about (the target)’s life, or sharing a bit of yours
  for a place/situation:
   
   exploring how to live in (the target of this quest)
   
   talking to people about how they live in/with (the target of this quest).
   spending time with the target and thinking about the parts of that that are 
  “different” from your usual life.
  You can combine this with an XP Action, but you’re not required to.
  25
  Connecting 
  (Dramatic  Version)
  
  The Door Into Memory
  326
  The Door Into Memory, as a Quest
  25 XP Quest
  1: 
   
   
  2: 
   
  3: 
   
  4: 
   
   
   
  You’ve learned to open a door into somebody’s memories (pg. 109)
  Now, you explore someone’s memories, in the hopes of changing something—either changing the world of 
  the present, if you’re really in the past somehow, or the way they feel about something, or the way that you do.
  What Happens
  There are relatively few stable elements to this kind of thing.
  I think that memory should mostly be a safe country to visit, but not always. Maybe you get hit on the 
  head early on and forget that you’re just visiting someone’s memories. Maybe you’re deliberately visiting 
  a place of trauma.
  I think there should be a light estrangement from events at first, like the world has trouble setting its 
  hooks in you, but that’s not certain either.
  I think it’s almost inevitable that you’ll meet yourself, if you were there, or your parents or ancestors, if 
  they were. Similarly I think it’s almost inevitable that even if you try to avoid the person whose memories 
  you’re visiting (and just spy on them, I guess), you’ll wind up “interacting” in the past.
  I think that the world is probably most detailed in the immediate presence of the person whose memories 
  you’re visiting—that the world beyond their knowledge fades easily into the Outside. You may also be an-
  chored to them in some respect, unable to get more than a few hundred yards away. That said, people have 
  more information about the world around them than even they may understand, and the power the Door 
  Into Memories fills in a lot of the rest.
  I think this quest plays out mostly as an investigation, but sometimes there’ll be a heart-breaking ele-
  ment—anyone you meet there arguably doesn’t exist, after all, and if they do, they are older now. Some 
  of them are dead. It can be pretty brutal. There can, of course, be touching elements too, since you’ll have 
  the opportunity to comfort people (or memories of them) whose traumas earned no comfort at the time.
  In the end there’s often a choice to make. I don’t know what kind. I don’t know how that makes sense 
  yet. But some kind of choice. And then you’re done.
  
  327
  XP
  Major Goals
  The HG can award you 5 XP towards this quest if there’s:
   
  ☐ a heart-wrenching scene in the past;
   
  ☐ an incredibly touching scene in the past.
  You can earn each bonus once each, for a total of 10 XP.
  Quest Flavor
  Once per chapter (...subjective, I guess), you can earn a bonus XP towards this quest by:
   making a friend in someone else’s memories
   having an ironic encounter
   having a goofy encounter with yourself
   having a great time with some lost attraction
  failing utterly to stay uninvolved with and out of sight of events
  having a sudden reason to worry that you can alter time or the host’s mind
  manipulating their memories
  doing something you really know better than to do in the “past”
   seeing something you’d much rather not
   
   getting stuck or lost and having to find your way out
   watching something historical play out
   having a meaningful conversation with a PC or important NPC in the “past”
   talking in the present about the things you’ve learned in the “past.”
  You can combine this with an XP Action, but you’re not required to.
  25
  The Door Into Memory
  
  Mental Training
  The Toad
  Excerpt: Visions of the Daughters of 
  Albion
  328
  Mental Training
  40 XP Quest
  1: 
   
   
   
  2: 
   
   
  3: 
   
   
  4: 
   
  5: 
  You engage in an intensive program of study. You vanish into piled books of lore, intensive 
  training, or a fully-occupying academic environment.
  I’m not going to tell you what you learn. I’m not going to tell you what happens. 
  That would be difficult.
  Instead I’m going to give you a little mental training of your own! 
  The Toad
  Once upon a time, there was a toad that swallowed a stone.
  Inside that stone was an entire world.
  Eventually the stone digested away and the world boiled out. Every time the toad hic-
  cupped there’d be roads or straw or wind and stars all over the place.
  What an unfortunate toad!
  —from Sineus’ Observations
  While scholars are generally in love with the story of Sineus’ toad, the general public hardly 
  remembers it—they just occasionally mention stuff like “swole like Sineus’ toad” or “choking 
  like a toad,” in the same tone they might use for “wow, almost got shaved by Occam’s razor!” 
  when they survive an improbable incident.
  A Verse
  `The lark does rustle in the ripe corn, and the eagle returns
  From nightly prey, and lifts his golden beak to the pure east,
  Shaking the dust from his immortal pinions to awake
  The sun that sleeps too long. Arise, my Theotormon! I am pure,
  Because the night is gone that clos’d me in its deadly black.
  They told me that the night and day were all that I could see;
  ...
  `But silken nets and traps of adamant will Oothoon spread,
  And catch for thee girls of mild silver, or of furious gold.
  I’ll lie beside thee on a bank, and view their wanton play
  ...
  `Arise, you little glancing wings, and sing your infant joy!
  Arise, and drink your bliss, for everything that lives is holy!’
  Thus every morning wails Oothoon; but Theotormon sits
  ...hear her woes, and echo back her sighs.
  —a bit of William Blake, from Visions of the Daughters of Albion 
  
  329
  XP
  Major Goals
  The HG can award you 5 XP towards this quest:
   
  ☐ In the unlikely event that you witness a toad swallowing a stone containing 1+ 
  worlds, or do so yourself;
   
  ☐ When grief or some monster haunts you in your studies;
   
  ☐ When something corrupts you or is eating you slowly;
   
  ☐ If you get the chance to use your increasing knowledge and diligence to help on a 
  major research project;
   
  ☐ If financial (or other pragmatic) reasons not to continue this training raise their heads.
  You can earn each bonus once, for a total of up to 25 XP, although I’d be surprised to 
  see you get more than 15 of these XP.
  Quest Flavor
  1/chapter, you can earn a bonus XP towards this quest when:
   you travel strange roads through campus
   you’re discovered sleeping on your books
   
   you join or do things with a strange group of students
   you study something in nature
   you build a project with 1+ other students
   you study or discuss your studies with 1+ friends
   there’s a montage of classes, term papers, tests, and/or other studies-related stuff
   
   you reflect on or discuss a bit of poetry
  You can combine this with an XP Action, but you’re not required to.
  40
  Mental Training
  
  The Object
  330
  The Object
  40 XP Quest
  1: 
   
   
  2: 
   
  4: 
  There’s some object that has become a big part of your life. It soaks up and comes to represent your life. It 
  could be a hat. It could be a detailed diary or journal. It could be a rare-won prize. It could be a nametag that 
  you don’t take off even outside of work.
  Basically there’s this thing that represents you, for a while.
  You can probably adapt this quest to basically handle an event, title, or connection that becomes the 
  center of your life, but it works best with an object, so you should probably pick a representative object 
  even then. Not a noble title but a writ of nobility; not a friendship but a friendship ring; not a party, but a hat.
  What You’ll Do
  When you’re on this quest you’ll keep the object handy at all times.
  If you’re taking detailed, careful notes on your life, then you’ll keep that notepad or diary on you con-
  stantly. If you’ve got a new addition to your outfit, you’ll wear it, rain or shine!
  You’ll notice that the object keeps getting involved in wacky misadventures.
  This is not the kind of hat that wants to stay on your head. At least for the duration of the quest, this is 
  a hat that wants to keep blowing away in the wind. This is a hat that gets confused with a different hat that 
  gangsters from Chicago are hunting for. This is a hat that becomes imbued with the power of the Bleak 
  Academy. That kind of hat. If it is a diary, then it’s the kind of diary that is always getting stolen, borrowed, 
  lost, or read.
  You’ll refer to the object a lot.
  It becomes a symbol. You hold it up a lot. If it’s a book, you read from it a lot. If it’s a journal, you write 
  in it but also read or cross-reference from past entries a lot. If it’s an umbrella, you’ll use it to emphasize 
  your every gesture. 
  You’ll play it up.
  Finally, you’ll treasure the object. You won’t let people mess with it easily. If you share it with anyone 
  it will be a powerful gesture of trust. If someone takes it from you they’d best be ready for your wrath! (Or 
  at least your simulated wrath, if no harm was actually done.)
  What You’ll Know
  You’ll know all kinds of stuff associated with the object. For instance, the longer you keep a journal or diary 
  the more surprised you’ll be at how little you’ve previously kept track of in your life and how much is going 
  on around you. You’ll be surprised at how many things you weren’t saying and how much you weren’t 
  noticing. The longer you wear an awesome hat, the more aware you’ll be of other people with awesome 
  hats around you—
  How did you live so long without tipping your hat to them? It’s amazing!
   
  
  331
  XP
  Major Goals
  The HG can award you 5 XP towards this quest if:
   
  ☐ your object is stolen;
   
  ☐ your object serves as a useful reference in deciding some conflict or solving some 
  mystery;
   
  ☐ the object helps you sort out your head on something;
   
  ☐ your object either contains some important secret, or people falsely believe it does.
  You can earn each bonus once, for a total of up to 20 XP.
  Quest Flavor
  Pick a Region. 1/chapter, you can earn a bonus XP towards this quest when:
   
   you use the object as the framing device for a monologue/montage
   the object is involved in an interesting incident from the daily life of the 
         Region
   you and the object witness a detailed, interesting sight from the Region
   people act goofy about you and the object
   you refer to your object for organization, inspiration, or security
  You can combine this with an XP Action, but you’re not required to.
  40
  The Object
  
  Keeping a Record of Your Life
  332
  Keeping a Record of Your Life
  20 or 40 XP Quest
  This section shows you how to adapt a generic quest like the Object to something more specific. In this 
  case, I’ve turned it into Keeping a Detailed Record of Your Life:
  You’ve always got a notepad, diary, or journal at hand; you’re always writing or sketching little observa-
  tions, ideas, or notes on current events. Is this just a personal record? Are you a scientist, artist, or writer? Or 
  are you trying to work through some problem in your life by keeping better track of what you do?
  If you’re here because you actually just wanted to start keeping a regular diary, an ordinary evening-writ-
  ing diary at home that doesn’t have much plot weight, I’ve included a simpler bonus quest card, Keeping a 
  Simple Record of Your Life, below.
  XP
  Major Goals
  The HG can award you 5 XP towards this quest if:
   
  ☐ your diary is stolen;
   
  ☐ your diary serves as a useful reference in deciding some conflict or solving some 
  mystery;
   
  ☐ keeping better track of events in your life helps you sort out your head on 
  something;
   
  ☐ your diary either contains some important secret, or people falsely believe it does.
  You can earn each bonus once, for a total of up to 20 XP.
  Quest Flavor
  Pick a Region. 1/chapter, you can earn a bonus XP towards this quest when:
   
   you use “dear diary” as the framing device for a monologue/montage
   you record an interesting incident from the daily life of the Region
   you record a detailed, interesting sight from the Region
   people act goofy about you writing a given incident down
   you refer to your notes for organization, inspiration, or security
  You can combine this with an XP Action, but you’re not required to.
  40
  Keeping a Detailed Record 
  of Your Life
  
  333
  e quest is about so something weird, vast, mystical, 
  almost indescribable
  XP
  You can earn a bonus XP towards this quest at any time (by only once per scene/15 
  minutes) by proposing a theory about how something is going to get framed in 
  your diary.
  The classic version of this is reinterpreting the events around you in a comedic fash-
  ion with stuff like “Dear diary, today my friend Jessie choked tragically to death on a 
  handful of French fries,” when that hasn’t even happened, or at least, Jessie isn’t actu-
  ally dead, just yet.
  Your character must propose the theory aloud or, at minimum, in their official inter-
  nal narration—it can’t just be you, as the player, at the table, it has to be IC. However, 
  you don’t have to belabor the fact that it’s a theory about how you’ll record something 
  in your diary—just saying it, as in the example above, is fine.
  20
  Keeping a Simple Record 
  of Your Life (20 XP variant)
  
  Physical Training
  334
  Physical Training
  40 XP Quest
  1:  
   
   
  2: 
   
  4: 
  You engage in rigorous physical training. Is there a big game, tournament, battle, or adventure coming up, 
  or is this just something that you do?
  What You’ll Do
  Someone engaging in rigorous physical training is always wanting to do a little more.
  It can be really hard to get started. And every time you take the training up another notch, that feels 
  almost impossible too. But once you’ve really gotten going—
  It’s hard to stop. It’s hard to pull yourself away from it. 
  You’ll feel preemptive guilt sometimes, when you think about stopping; guilt for how you might fail, 
  someday, and all because you didn’t push harder now. And training gives you clear direction and forward 
  motion... making it harder to face the rest of your life, which does not.
  Hm. What else?
  Someone engaging in rigorous physical training is always just coming in from a workout.
  You can obviously clean up before any formal occasion or appointment, but a lot of scenes will pick up 
  just as you’re coming back from your training. You’ll be sweaty in a lot of the game. You’ll have a towel 
  around your neck. That kind of thing. And if you’re not coming back from a workout, you were probably 
  heading out on your way.
  Someone engaging in rigorous physical training eats a lot, and eats weirdly.
  There’s something about a push for health that makes you want to drink things with raw eggs in them. 
  There’s something about training all the time that makes blending up a giant mug full of okra, ice, milk, 
  wheat grass, and cauliflower sound just peachy—and! Oh, that’s right! You should throw in a peach! 
  There’s something about heavy physical training that makes you not only a sucker for weird nutritional 
  ideas but also much more likely to be excited by random foods you hear mention of (because your body 
  remembers a trace element in them that sounds really good right now) and any legitimate but gross nutrition 
  approach.
  Someone engaging in rigorous physical training is generally troubled.
  It’s not that it makes you troubled, exactly, and it’s not that it’s something that troubled people do. Rath-
  er, it’s that the longer you spend running, stretching, doing weird training exercises, sparring, doing katas, 
  punching bags, and etcetera? The more that becomes the only expression for the stuff that’s boiling inside 
  you. It lets a lot of it out, but the rest just clots up inside you.
  It lingers.
  Inside you, it builds up.
  On the same note, someone engaging in rigorous physical training is usually taciturn.
  It’s not always that way! But as you get more used to expressing yourself with your body, you’ll wind up 
  with less need to express your existence in words.
  
  335
  XP
  Major Goals
  The HG can award you 5 XP towards this quest when:
   
  ☐ You get in trouble—someone tries to shut down wherever you’re training, or keep 
  you from attending it;
   
  ☐ Your training is interrupted with a chance to help deal with some disaster (where 
  heavy physical work is useful in prevention, mitigation, or recovery);
   
  ☐ You have a vision or flashback of some sort as you pass out from exhaustion.
  You can earn each bonus once, for a total of up to 15 XP.
  Quest Flavor
  1/chapter, you can earn a bonus XP towards this quest when:
   you wander home exhausted but happy after a lot of exercise
   
   someone comes upon you as you’re training and watches for a while
   there’s a training montage
   
   you struggle against a (training) barrier you can’t get past
   you bond with someone through fighting/competing with them
    you let out your emotions through exercise/training/practice
  You can combine this with an XP Action, but you’re not required to.
  40
  Physical Training
  
  Poisoned
  336
  Poisoned
  35 XP Quest
  3: 
   
   
   
   
  4: 
   
   
  5: 
  You’ve been poisoned by Outside dust, or maybe by something else. And from that point forward—
  you keep having these horrible visions, or possibly even real, physical manifestations, of yourself as 
  something else. 
  Something wicked. Some other you.
  Something wrong.
  What You’ll Do
  You’ll be haunted.
  You’ll be pale and drawn. You’ll be agitated. You’ll look tired. You will overreact to sounds. You’ll 
  be frightened of the dark. You’ll be frightened each time your friends depart that you’ll never see them 
  again. You’ll be afraid that someone will trust you and it won’t be you that they trust, it’ll be that thing. 
  But you’re afraid to tell people about that, or to have them really believe that, because what if they think 
  you’re it? Or what if you really are?
  You won’t be thinking clearly.
  I want to emphasize that. You’re not just floating through a sea of surreal experience on an iceberg 
  of your cold reserve. You’re not making clever, careful plans to foil your alternate’s attack. You are not 
  well. You won’t be well until it’s resolved. It’s possible that you’ll still be under threat when things 
  resolve, it’s possible that it’s all a misunderstanding, it’s possible that it’s all psychological or that your 
  duplicate is actually your friend, but for right now, you’re not in your right mind about what’s happen-
  ing. That’s an element of this quest.
  You won’t trust yourself.
  I don’t just mean the natural concern that arises when you see something that looks like you doing 
  things that you would not. I don’t just mean “there but for the grace of God go I, and I haven’t been 
  feeling all that graced.” It’s more that your identity is partially displaced onto your alternate. You won’t 
  know for sure that you haven’t been infected, changed, corrupted, perverted, stolen. You won’t even 
  always be completely sure that you’re the real and original you.
  Divided
  Self-Possessed
  
  337
  XP
  Major Goals
  The HG can award you 5 XP towards this quest when:
   
  ☐ something horrific happens to you because of this quest;
   
  ☐ you have a climactic confrontation with your “other” self;
   
  ☐ something happens to tie the “other self” to one of the other active stories or 
  quests.
  You can earn each bonus once, for a total of 15 XP.
  Quest Flavor
  1/chapter, you can earn a bonus XP towards this quest through:
   
   a dizzying vision of the enemy
   wrestling with your sense of self
   
   an impossible encounter
   
   dealing with some relevant internal baggage
    trying to understand what is happening 
   
   suffering a bout of more general sickness/hallucinations
  You can combine this with an XP Action, but you’re not required to.
  Poisoned 
  (Storyline Version)
  35
  XP
  Bonus XP
  This quest comes with a division of states—there’s the you who is stable, grounded in 
  the world, and is also the only you; and then there’s the you who is sharing existence 
  with at least one thing making dizzying defiance of the boundaries of yourself.
  There’s a sign (Divided/Self-Possessed) for this—a reversible card, which you could 
  in theory have on the table in front of you in play to show which state you’re in. You 
  can earn a bonus XP at any time (though only once per scene/15 minutes) by flipping 
  the card, showing that you’re moving between states—that you’re grounded and things 
  are fine, or that you’ve either gone into a state of distress or are actively being haunted.
  If you can’t actually keep the card in front of you, holding up the card with the rel-
  evant side facing people or just saying or emoting something appropriate can earn you 
  the XP instead.
  Poisoned 
  (Any-Time Version)
  35
  
  Preparing for a Festival or Event
  338
  Preparing for a Festival or Event
  35 XP Quest
  2: 
   
    
  3: 
   
  You’re getting things ready for a big upcoming event—I’m particularly thinking about Fortitude festi-
  vals, which include a number of events and attractions, but this is also a suitable quest to use if you’re 
  putting on a play and it can work in a pinch if you’re getting a party or concert put together. 
  This quest assumes that you’re working as part of a team, but it’s a cosmetic point—
  You can still use it if it is just you.
  What You’ll Know
  Why would they tell you anything? You’re only on the committee.
  What You’ll Do
  Someone who’s preparing for a festival event looks sleepless.
  You will be harried. You will be tired. As much as you ever do—I’m making allowances here for 
  the occasional always-cool-no-matter-what type—you will seem like everything is completely out of 
  control and about to fall apart at any minute. Even if it’s actually under control right this second, you’ll 
  probably have forgotten how to not look overwhelmed, harried, and out of your depth.
  You will give speeches about what the festival means or how it should be put together.
  The reason I’m listing this here instead of as part of the quest card is that there’s only one time when 
  this actually matters—that moment when it makes things gel for the players and HG, if they hadn’t 
  gelled before. Otherwise, it’s just part of the constant background noise of getting things ready: that 
  everyone, from the lowliest supreme festival manager to the loftiest volunteer stage hand, has opinions 
  and gives speeches on the task at hand.
  You’ll keep coming up with (OOC) and encountering (IC) new ideas for things that are part of the festival.
  The world of theater and events is a world of endless wonder. There’s always a new hitch, cool 
  thing, or thing that has to be done that you’d never thought about before it emerged.
  XP
  Major Goals
  The HG can award you 5 XP towards this quest when:
   
  ☐ You help to define/establish (for the players, I mean) an important part of what this 
  event will be about;
   
  ☐ It’s the week before the event’s supposed to happen and nothing’s ready!
   
  ☐ 0-3 days before the event, a huge problem comes up or remains! And then you 
  solve it.
  You can earn each bonus once, for a total of up to 15 XP.
  Quest Flavor
  1/chapter, you can earn a bonus XP towards this quest for:
   planning the layout (of festival booths, stage props & lighting, etc.)
   
   coming to consensus on the event’s biggest features (e.g., music, attractions)
   preparing and rehearsing for things
   constructing the things you’ll need (festival booths, props, costumes, &c.)
   
   posting bills
   
   getting people the equipment that they’ll need
   dealing with completely goofy problems
  You can combine this with an XP Action, but you’re not required to.
  35
  Preparing for a Festival
  
  Taking Care of a Small Child
  339
  Taking Care of a Small Child
  40 XP Quest
  1: 
   
  2: 
   
   
  5: 
   
  You raise and nurture, or help with, a small child. For our purposes, that’s anyone up to the age of 7—
  the final celebration of Shichi-Go-San marks the end of this quest’s efficacy and often the introduction 
  of the child as an independent Main Character or NPC.
  What You’ll Do
  You’ll spend a lot of time in little interactions with the kid. 
  They’ll be around. They’ll be the focus of small exchanges—you’ll pick the baby up, hug and 
  bounce it, talk to it, and put it back down to bed. You’ll answer random questions from the kid. You’ll 
  wipe their nose. 
  You’ll make faces at them—really, making faces back and forth to kids is where it’s at. You’ll play 
  little silly games. You’ll tell them your grandiose stories, and you’ll listen to their own.
  You’ll emphasize your connection to them.
  This is a big thing. You’re always calling a kid over and introducing them to other people, or show-
  ing other people things they’ve drawn; whatever. You’re explaining the kid’s fantasy world to others: if 
  they’re a knight, and their teddy bear is their horse, you’ll be the one to tell people that. Even if you’re 
  kind of annoyed by the kid (e.g., the kid is an obnoxious tag-along younger sibling, or you’re a really 
  tired parent) the tenets of your relationship with the kid are really important to you:
  You’ll be all “this is my kid sister, she’s really annoying and thinks goblins live in noses” rather than 
  waving her away like you’d wave away an equally annoying gnat. In fact, it’ll be intensely important 
  for you to spend time making it clear to people that this kid is the one who is annoying to you, and 
  exactly why: you want it to be as big a deal to others as it is for you.
  You’ll be tolerant. At least, if you’re in a relatively Pastoral campaign.
  I don’t mean tolerant of their behavior, per se. I don’t mean that you’ll let them do things they 
  shouldn’t be doing. That’s a minefield and I’m not even going to talk about it! I mean that you’ll be 
  tolerant of their existence; of their experience; of the fact that they’re there, and often want a lot from 
  you, and that their presence often means trouble and mess and makes demands upon your time.
  Unless you’re playing in a Gothic game, you’ll take them seriously—
  There are a lot of places out there where you might feel like you don’t have the time for kids. Like 
  the weight of kids on your daily planner pushes everything else out. Like you’re running all the time 
  just to keep the pieces of your life and theirs together, and can’t manage anything else at all. 
  That’s not how it usually is in Town.
  They’ll take up a lot of time! But you can still do whatever else you need to do, it’ll just take you 
  longer.
  Unless you’re in a Gothic game. Then you might really not have time.
  You’ll tend to be pretty trusting. 
  Town tends to let its kids manage a lot more of their own lives than you see in the modern West. 
  They’re not quite free-range but they’re on a pretty long leash and their parents’ll tend to take their 
  word as pretty good.
  You will get memetically infected. 
  The three most infectious sorts of catch phrase in the world are the ones that kids come up with, 
  the ones kids discover and repeat, and the ones that you accidentally come up with that infect a kid. A 
  suitably-aged kid can, with a mere half-hour’s exposure, corrupt an entire roomful of intelligent adults 
  into a peculiar, squamous clade liable to refer to feet themselves as boots (“two boots!”) and reject a 
  proposal for a hearty round of family-friendly boardgame play with an out-thrust hand and a declara-
  tion of No Monolopy!
  Finally, you’ll get a lot more tolerant for goop. Kids produce many variegated goops! Your toler-
  ance does not automatically reach the level of immunity—parental resistance to mess and unpleas-
  antness often plateaus at a kind of pained acceptance—but you’ll still get an order of magnitude 
  better at coping with someone randomly deciding to wipe their nose and then rub their hand clean 
  upon your face.68
  68 Because it’s gross to have mucous all over your hand!†
  †   Duh.
  
  340
  What You’ll Know
  Let’s start with some stuff that might not be obvious.
  You’ll learn which places near you are kid friendly and who has kids of their own. You’ll learn 
  many things that are basically magic tricks, like various ways of strapping babies to you, calming or 
  distracting kids, one-handed stroller folding and unfolding techniques, and the masterful interpretation 
  of patterns of silence and sound.
  You’ll know that Fortitude’s the best place in Town to take a kid to. Oh, sure, they’ll love Arcadia, 
  and most of Town is pretty good, but the thing about Fortitude is:
  The place is practically hostile to wickedness and adversity.
  For instance, tantrums are difficult here.
  Let me take a moment to savour that. Tantrums are difficult here. They fall under the same general 
  rubric as “wickedness.” Most of what kids do when they’re bad isn’t proper wickedness, and tantrums 
  often are part of being a kid and not wickedness at all, but... still. This is a place where screaming and 
  stomping your feet and all that feels a little silly even when you’re 2. It hardly ever happens. This is a 
  place where kids are inclined to be oddly tranquil and grounded from the day they’re born.
  Even better, adversity is rare. 
  That means not only is your kid probably safe right now, wherever they are—I mean, you can check, 
  obviously, I’m not saying you shouldn’t, but they probably are—but that you are only going to have like 
  half the mind-bendingly gross messes that you’d get with kids anywhere else. 
  Adversity. (in Fortitude) Is. Rare.
  On a similar note, don’t shop for childcare stuff in Arcadia. Get bio-diapers from a deviant scientist 
  in Horizon, or just use cloth. Import formula from Earth or breastfeed. If you go to Arcadia for your 
  childcare stuff you will end up broke. “You must spend more than you expected.” is not a spiritual prop-
  erty you want governing the process of raising a child. It’s bad enough on the rules for Earth!
  Be prepared for the kid to wander into the Outside. This will happen. You will have to retrieve them. 
  It’s an inherent part of youth, no more avoidable than wet beds, skinned knees, and runny noses. Trying 
  to stop it completely is likely to lead to bad places. Just... make them feel as safe as possible, during and 
  in advance, in order to maximize your ability to get them safely home.
  Now for the obvious stuff!
  Over the course of this quest, you’ll learn the kid’s interests. You’ll learn the state of their educa-
  tion—what they’re learning about, what they care about, what they already know, and what they don’t.
  You’ll know the names of their favorite toys and blanket, and where they get stored.
  You’ll know the books they like and the ones they don’t.
  You’ll know all about their health. If you’re a parent, you’ll know way too much about their health. 
  If you’re just helping out, you’ll know... a lot. Allergies, weaknesses, conditions, things that happened, 
  reasons to worry or not to worry, all that.
  You’ll know the patterns of their behavior—how they react to various things, and what you can 
  reasonably trust them with and what you oughtn’t.
  
  341
  XP
  Major Goals
  The HG can award you 5 XP towards this quest if:
   
  ☐ something happens to the child that gives you a reason to panic, but at some point 
  afterwards things are mostly OK.
   
  ☐ you celebrate Children’s Day, Shichi-Go-San, or Christmas with the child.
  You can earn each bonus once, for a total of up to 10 XP.
  Quest Flavor
  1/chapter, you can earn a bonus XP towards this quest by:
   taking the child with you on a walk, light chore/adventure, or to a PC gathering
   having a conversation with the child about something goofy
   
   having a conversation with the child about something surprisingly relevant
   
   teaching or telling stories to the child
   teaching or telling stories to the child about the PCs’ adventures
   having a meaningful conversation with a PC or important NPC about the child
   actively taking care of the child
  You can combine this with an XP Action, but you’re not required to.
  40
  Taking Care of a Small Child 
  (Dramatic Version)
  XP
  Bonus XP
  You make faces at that baby! You cuddle that kid, or let them drag you around, or an-
  swer their questions, or show them off.
  Basically you emote: 
  “Kid. Kid. ♫Kid kid kid♫.”
  or some variant thereof. 
  Anyhow, you can fuss over the child—or whatever you do habitually, which might 
  be squinting at them, wiping their nose, or rolling your eyes at them for an older sib-
  ling—for a bonus XP up to once per 15 minutes/scene.
  The best way to do this, I think, is to get a prop—probably a cloth doll or amiguru-
  mi, because those are easiest to fuss over. Don’t worry so much about what you say or 
  emote: pick up the prop and physically fuss over it for the XP! You can attempt to use a 
  real small child here but they are unruly, intermittently available, and demanding: they 
  may even require a share of the earned XP!
  If you don’t have a prop or child available, you can do without one: earn the XP 
  by saying or emoting whatever seems appropriate to show that you’re off in interact-
  ing-with-small-child world.
  If the environment is appropriate and the HG is OK with it, you can use picking up 
  the prop or saying or emoting whatever as a way of indicating that the kid in question 
  has just come onto the scene.
  40
  Taking Care of a Small Child 
  (Casual Version)
  
  342
  342
  
  Example Quest Sets
  
  CHAPTER 11: EX-
  AMPLE 
  QUEST 
  A Scientifi c Adven-
  ture
  Science!
  344
  Example Quest Sets
  Here’s a few examples of more generic quests, organized into self-contained sets that you could play 
  through sequentially or even more than once.
   A Scientific Adventure 
  preamble
  These quests form a generic structure to play through as a scientist, magician, or hard-headed person 
  of faith. 
  You’ll play through three to five of these quests, as fits your Aspect, Bindings, Emptiness, or Oth-
  erworldly Arc.
  Science!
  20 or 40 XP Quest
  1: 
   
   
  2: 
   
   
  4: 
  This troublesome situation has been dumped in your lap. It bothers you. But it also interests you as... a 
  scientist, or magician, or whatever you are. 
  There’s something here that wants an exploration by the brilliant mind of, well, you!
  There’s a problem here that’s worthy of your talents.
  XP
  Major Goals
  The HG can award you 5 XP towards this quest when:
   
  ☐ you fall under the burden of the quest: something explicitly puts the problem in 
  your hands, or you explicitly take it up;
   
  ☐ you construct some sort of defensive perimeter;
   
  ☐ you encounter Jade Irinka, the former sun, or the Headmaster of the Bleak 
  Academy;
   
  ☐ three chapters slip by without obvious IC progress on the quest.
  You can earn each bonus once, for a total of 20 XP.
  Quest Flavor
  1/chapter, you can earn a bonus XP towards this quest through:
   
   sympathizing with, or assisting, the outcast and the wrong;
   dreams calling you to a place of danger
   listening to stories of strange things happening in Big Lake;
   regaling people with a legend of some epic danger related to the quest—
  typically a legend invented by your player but occasionally forwarded from 
  previous discussions with the HG;
   
   complaining to the other PCs about the progress of your investigations/work;
   reluctantly allowing yourself to be dragged away from it; or
    reluctantly allowing others to get involved with it
  You can combine this with an XP Action, but you’re not required to. 
   
  40
  Science!
  
  345
  XP
  Major Goals
  The HG can award you 5 XP towards this quest when:
   
  ☐ you fall under the burden of the quest: something explicitly puts the problem in 
  your hands, or you explicitly take it up;
   
  ☐ you construct some sort of defensive perimeter.
  You can earn each bonus once, for a total of 10 XP.
  Quest Flavor
  1/chapter, you can earn a bonus XP towards this quest through:
   
   witnessing the fates of the wicked.
   
   dragging other Main Characters into your work.
   proposing new theories about the subject of your investigation or calling—
  e.g., the Outside, tsukumogami, Bluebell Park, the Bleak Academy, or the Titovs.
  You can combine this with an XP Action, but you’re not required to.
  20
  Science! (Simplified)
  
  Someone’s in Trou-
  ble!
  346
  Someone’s in Trouble!
  20 or 35 XP Quest
  1: 
    
  2: 
   
   
  Someone’s in trouble. Usually it’s a relative innocent and someone or somehow related to the meat of 
  your current Arc.
  You help them out!
  XP
  Major Goals
  The HG can award you 5 XP towards this quest when:
   
  ☐ You formally commit (aloud or in an emote) to trying to help this person;
   
  ☐ They open up to you while talking to you in their home or important haunts;
   
  ☐ Some element of their problem bridges from the metaphorical or emotional to the 
  real—e.g., a gate opens from their nightmares to the world, or a fear turns into a 
  curse, or someone who always gets a little too carried away gets physically carried 
  away shortly after a reference to that tendency.
  You can earn each bonus once, for a total of 15 XP.
  Quest Flavor
  1/chapter, you can earn a bonus XP towards this quest when you:
   catch eerie glimpses/foreshadowing of a threat to them
   
   have a sleepover/slumber party/visit to their dreams
   
   listen to them explaining their despair
   
   are shown one of their secrets
   
   hunt down some specific bit of trouble
   
   drag them somewhere they really shouldn’t be
  You can combine this with an XP Action, but you’re not required to.
  35
  Someone’s in Trouble!
  
  347
  XP
  Major Goals
  The HG can award you 5 XP towards this quest when:
   
  ☐ You formally commit (aloud or in an emote) to trying to help this person;
   
  ☐ Some element of their problem bridges from the metaphorical or emotional to the 
  real—e.g., a gate opens from their nightmares to the world, or a fear turns into a 
  curse, or someone who always gets a little too carried away gets physically carried 
  away shortly after a reference to that tendency.
  You can earn each bonus once, for a total of 10 XP.
  Quest Flavor
  1/chapter, you can earn a bonus XP towards this quest when you:
   identify or hypothesize about the “real” threat that will emerge
   
   feverishly work on an idea to help
   
   dig into their secrets
   
   invoke or bargain with some terrifying power to save them
  You can combine this with an XP Action, but you’re not required to.
  20
  Someone’s in Trouble! 
  (Simplified)
  
  Engineering!
  348
  Engineering!
  25 or 35 XP Quest
  3: 
   
  4: 
   
  5: 
   
  You know enough about what’s going on now that the problem is simply a matter of diligence. The title 
  of this quest is usually either appropriate or amusingly ironic; if it’s not, you can scratch out “Engineer-
  ing!” and substitute in “A Conscious Life.”
  You move forward in a thoughtful and organized fashion to solve the problem at hand.
  XP
  Major Goals
  The HG can award you 5 XP towards this quest when:
   
  ☐ You complete a major inventory, map, survey, or other exploration of the territory 
  (often dream- or dream-like territory) at hand;
   
  ☐ You work towards a reconciliation between apparent rivals, enemies, opposing 
  forces, or even with something oppressing you or someone you care about;
   
  ☐ You find a hidden well or spring of pure or untainted water.
  You can earn each bonus once, for a total of 15 XP.
  Quest Flavor
  1/chapter, you can earn a bonus XP towards this quest when you:
   clean, prepare a ritual space, or do maintenance work
   eat with someone strange in a literal or metaphorical cave
   
   catalogue or explore the territory at hand
   
   groom a dog or similar animal connected somehow to the quest
   
   are penned in somewhere by rain
   bear witness to strange visions
  You can combine this with an XP Action, but you’re not required to.
  35
  Engineering!
  
  349
  XP
  Major Goals
  The HG can award you 5 XP towards this quest when:
   
  ☐ You find or gain access to a major inventory, map, survey, or other exploration of 
  the territory (often dream- or dream-like territory) at hand;
   
  ☐ You’re recruited or asked for help by what had previously seemed to be a rival, 
  enemy, opposing force, or even oppressor;
   
  ☐ You find a hidden well or spring of pure or untainted water.
  You can earn up to two of these bonuses, for a total of 10 XP.
  Quest Flavor
  1/chapter, you can earn a bonus XP towards this quest when you:
   write off some portion of the situation as a loss, and trash/seal it
   imprison someone or something
   
  call upon some terrifying or mysterious power connected somehow to the 
  quest
   present yourself to “your public” in a dramatic pose for admiration; put on airs
   
   declare what must be done
  You can combine this with an XP Action, but you’re not required to.
  25
  Engineering! (Simplified)
  
  Above the Fray
  350
  Above the Fray
  20 or 35 XP Quest
  1: 
   
  4: 
   
   
  5: 
  You rise above the conflict and... mess... of things. You seek objectivity. Maybe you’re affecting to the 
  role of a god: deciding what something’s worth, where it comes from, and what its destiny should be. 
  Or maybe you’re just trying to think things through and understand what’s really happened (recent-
  ly/in your life).
  XP
  Major Goals
  The HG can award you 5 XP towards this quest when:
   
  ☐ You stand in a storm, overlooking a pit or dangerous depth;
   
  ☐ You stand before a dead power that was or is greater than yourself;
   
  ☐ You have a moment of spiritual insight and forgiveness, and are able to explain or 
  solidly commit to both.
  You can earn each bonus once, for a total of 15 XP.
  Quest Flavor
  1/chapter, you can earn a bonus XP towards this quest when you:
   trust yourself to a dangerous (and Arc-relevant) part of the setting, e.g., if the 
  Arc is focused on the Outside, going out to sail on or meditate in it.
   
   explore daily chores in that part of the setting
   
   deal with a child who lives/hangs out there
   
  get sucked into goofy fun there—a ridiculous game or silly experience, 
  despite a tense situation or environment.
  You can combine this with an XP Action, but you’re not required to. 
   
  35
  Above the Fray
  
  351
  XP
  Major Goals
  The HG can award you 5 XP towards this quest when:
   
  ☐ You enact a meaningful judgment—impose a penance, punish a criminal or enemy, 
  or forgive someone in an official capacity;
   
  ☐ You seek and receive some sort of divine guidance;
   
  ☐ You have a cathartic breakdown.
  You can earn up to two of these bonuses, for a total of 10 XP.
  Quest Flavor
  1/chapter, you can earn a bonus XP towards this quest  when:
  you review reports or records of a dangerous part of the setting, e.g., the 
  Outside or Bluebell Park, somehow relevant to the substance of this Arc.
   
   chores pile up while you figure out what to do
   
   someone cooks for you, brings you a hot drink, or puts you to bed
   
  in “walk and talk” decision-making scenes
  You can combine this with an XP Action, but you’re not required to. 
   
  20
  Above the Fray 
  (Simplified)
  
  Walking the Bound-
  aries
  352
  Walking the Boundaries
  25 or 40 XP Quest
  3: 
   
   
   
  5: 
  This quest explores the aftermath of the previous quests. It’s generally kind of slow and quiet—whether 
  you’re wrestling with the terrible damage that’s been done to you, or admiring the victories you’ve 
  won, this quest is all about having space and time to experience the matter in full.
  XP
  Major Goals
  The HG can award you 5 XP towards this quest when:
   
  ☐ You walk among flowers in a place where somebody died;
   
  ☐ You read or tell someone the stories of a place’s history;
   
  ☐ You share a precious drink or meal with someone, where “precious” is relative to 
  your available resources (and not necessarily absolute);
   
  ☐ You say goodbye properly to an old friend.
  You can earn each bonus once, for a total of 20 XP.
  Quest Flavor
  1/chapter, you can earn a bonus XP towards this quest by:
  tending a garden or caring for a bit of wilderness
  making repairs
  staring into a fire
  watching children or animals playing
  playing ball, Frisbee, or something of the sort
  having an encounter with something that seems at first to be dramatic and 
  scary, before turning out to be perfectly safe and friendly
  waking up with water dripping on you, moss growing on you, or an animal 
  nosing you
  You can combine this with an XP Action, but you’re not required to.
  40
  Walking the Boundaries
  
  353
  XP
  Major Goals
  The HG can award you 5 XP towards this quest when:
   
  ☐ You walk among flowers in a place where somebody died;
   
  ☐ You dream or share a story or two of a place’s history;
   
  ☐ You say goodbye properly to an old friend.
  You can earn each bonus once, for a total of 15 XP.
  Quest Flavor
  1/chapter, you can earn a bonus XP towards this quest when you:
  indulge in a lazy routine (e.g. wearing pajamas all day)
  indulge in slightly less lazy morning routines
  tend a shrine, grave, museum, or mausoleum
  are pointlessly cleaning or organizing, and a visitor interrupts
  play with a dangerous thing
  You can combine this with an XP Action, but you’re not required to.
  25
  Walking the Boundaries 
  (Simplified)
  
  Looking for Trouble
  Adventure GET
  354
   Looking for Trouble 
  preamble
  These quests form a generic structure to play through as an adventurer, two-fisted hero, or troublemak-
  ing kid—anybody actively looking for danger, excitement, and mystery! 
  You’ll play through three to five of these quests, as fits your Knight, Mystic, Shepherd, or Story-
  teller Arc.
  Adventure GET
  20 or 35 XP Quest
   1: 
   
    
   4: 
   
  You’re on an adventure!
  It can be sucky. Like, you could be poisoned. Or people could be dying. But you’re still all daz-
  zled by the newness and interest value of it all. It could be scary. It could be traumatizing. But it’s an 
  adventure!
  XP
  Major Goals
  The HG can award you 5 XP towards this quest when:
   
  ☐ Trouble starts or gets much worse in a well-staged way—whether that’s 
  accidentally walking backwards into an enemy camp, breaking into a supposedly 
  empty manor during what turns out to be a dinner party, or declaring that 
  everything’s fine as long as there aren’t any werewolves around just before 
  werewolves show up;
   
  ☐ Someone rescues you;
   
  ☐ You stand in a shadowed place and tell someone a secret, then run away before 
  they can react.
  You can earn each bonus once, for a total of 15 XP.
  Quest Flavor
  1/chapter, you can earn a bonus XP towards this quest when you:
   
   sneak into somewhere you shouldn’t go
   
    risk trouble by digging into somebody’s secrets
   
   drag others into your affairs/arrange their lives for them
   propose a theory about the underlying situation you’re in
   
   tell someone a story related to the underlying situation you’re in
   
   get into trouble trying to help somebody else
   
   risk trouble in the name of adventure!
  You can combine this with an XP Action, but you’re not required to.
  35
  Adventure GET
  
  355
  XP
  Major Goals
  The HG can award you 5 XP towards this quest when:
   
  ☐ You stand in a shadowed place and tell someone a secret, then run away before 
  they can react;
   
  ☐ Trouble starts or gets much worse in a well-staged way—whether that’s 
  accidentally walking backwards into an enemy camp, breaking into a supposedly 
  empty manor during what turns out to be a dinner party, or declaring that 
  everything’s fine as long as there aren’t any werewolves around just before 
  werewolves show up.
  You can earn each bonus once, for a total of 10 XP.
  Quest Flavor
  1/chapter, you can earn a bonus XP towards this quest when:
   
   you discover a secret
   
   you express your boredom and interest in adventure
   
   you drag someone somewhere they really shouldn’t be
   whatever trouble’s been dogging you shows up and/or escalates
  You can combine this with an XP Action, but you’re not required to.
  20
  Adventure GET 
  (Simplified)
  
  Let’s Doing!
  356
  Let’s Doing!
  20 or 35 XP Quest 
  2: 
   
   
   
  3: 
  The problem here is pretty massive, pretty complicated, pretty big. You’re going to try to bull through 
  it with sheer can-do gumption anyhow.
  Let’s doing!
   Introducing Arc Features in an Early Quest
  “Let’s Doing” often introduces a labyrinth, a dizzying height, and a few key NPCs that will feature later in 
  the Arc. It is in fact designed to help you introduce a core roster of characters and places for the Arc.
  ...but, for clarity, I’m not expecting you or the HG to nail down the Arc in advance here. I’m OK with the 
  HG introducing “an antagonist” or “a romantic interest” here without really knowing how they fit in yet or 
  even necessarily knowing that they will fit in. I’m OK with you randomly narrating a key figure or labyrinth 
  or story-relevant cliff into being. That stuff works!
  ...basically, if you already know something is going to be important to whatever story you’re playing 
  through, try to introduce it here; and conversely, if you have no idea where things are going or how this story 
  is going to end, try to introduce some heights, a maze or two, and cool NPCs.
  Major Goals
  The HG can award you 5 XP towards this quest when:
   
  ☐ You meet a new antagonist, ally, or romantic interest. (As designated by destiny/
  the HG—if someone unexpectedly becomes something like that, it may or may not 
  count);
   
  ☐ Three chapters pass without obvious IC progress on this quest. (That is, whatever 
  problem you’re trying to solve gets no closer to being solved.)
  You can earn each bonus more than once, up to a total of 15  XP.
  Quest Flavor
  1/chapter, you can earn a bonus XP towards this quest when you:
   
  narrate your impression of a PC, Main Character, Arc-related NPC, 
  labyrinth, high place, or key location for the Arc, as if explaining them to 
  a reader or video game player; you may do this IC or, if nobody minds, 
  suspend play for a moment and do it OOC. 
   
   drag other Main Characters into your quest-related activities/investigations
   
   grandstand about your reasons for being on this quest
   
   talk with somebody about your dreams for the future
   
   talk with somebody about death
   get hurt emotionally by somebody somehow involved in the story of this Arc
  You can combine this with an XP Action, but you’re not required to.
  XP
  35
  Let’s Doing!
  
  357
  XP
  Major Goals
  The HG can award you 5 XP towards this quest when:
   
  ☐ you’ve met, or seen, all the key players in this Arc.
  You can earn this bonus once, for a total of 5  XP.
  Quest Flavor
  1/chapter, you can earn a bonus XP towards this quest through:
   
   sympathizing with, or assisting, the outcast and the wrong;
  proposing new theories about the subject of your investigation or adventure—
  the Outside, Bluebell Park, the thing under the Titov shrine, or whatever else;
   
   complaining to the other PCs about the progress of your investigations/plans; 
  or
   reluctantly allowing yourself to be dragged away from them.
   
  You can combine this with an XP Action, but you’re not required to.
  20
  Let’s Doing!  
  (Simplified)
  
  Labyrinth Diving
  358
   Labyrinth Diving
  25 or 35 XP Quest
  2: 
   
  3: 
   
   
  5: 
  You’ve got a labyrinth to take on.
  Oh, sure, this can be metaphorical. You can navigate a maze of “social entanglement and cross 
  purposes” or a labyrinthine mystery.
  But you’re probably actually taking on a literal, actual maze. 
  The metaphorical aspect is probably just going to come into play with the way that your life stays 
  maze-like even when you’re not physically exploring a convoluted place—that even if you’re only 
  actually in a maze for like a few weeks total over the course of a season, it feels like the labyrinth 
  shadows the entire game.
   
  XP
  Major Goals
  The HG can award you 5 XP towards this quest when:
   
  ☐ You find or gain access to a major inventory, map, survey, or other exploration of 
  the territory at hand;
   
  ☐ You’re recruited or asked for help by what had previously seemed to be a rival, 
  enemy, opposing force, or even oppressor;
   
  ☐ You find a hidden creek, flow, or spring of pure or untainted water.
  You can earn each bonus once, for a total of up to 15 XP.
  Quest Flavor
  1/chapter, you can earn a bonus XP towards this quest when you:
  write off some portion of the situation as a loss, and trash/seal it
  imprison someone or something
   call upon some terrifying or mysterious power connected somehow to the Arc
   present yourself to “your public” in a dramatic pose for admiration; put on airs
   
   declare what must be done
   
   feed a stray cat
  You can combine this with an XP Action, but you’re not required to.
  35
  Labyrinth Diving
  
  359
  XP
  Major Goals
  The HG can award you 5 XP towards this quest when:
   
  ☐ You complete a major inventory, map, survey, or other exploration of the territory 
  (often dream- or dream-like territory) at hand;
   
  ☐ You make a friend in an unexpected place.
  You can earn each bonus once, for a total of of 10 XP.
  Quest Flavor
  1/chapter, you can earn a bonus XP towards this quest when you:
   
   hang out near a fountain or water feature
   eat with someone strange in a literal or metaphorical cave
   
   catalogue or explore the territory at hand
   
   are penned in somewhere by rain
   bear witness to strange visions
  You can combine this with an XP Action, but you’re not required to.
  25
  Labyrinth Diving 
  (Simplified)
  
  Climbing the Sacred 
  Mountain
  360
  Climbing the Sacred Mountain
  25 or 35 XP Quest
  3: 
   
  4: 
   
  5: 
   
  You ascend towards some personal victory or enlightenment.
  This probably doesn’t involve a literal ascent—there just aren’t enough things in Town that can take 
  an entire quest to climb. 
  That said, there’s often a literal ascent deeply symbolically connected to this quest. 
  You’ll be in its shadow, or climbing it, or thinking about it, quite a lot.
   
  XP
  Major Goals
  The HG can award you 5 XP towards this quest when:
   
  ☐ You release some guilt or burden that had been weighing you down;
   
  ☐ You struggle alone on an arduous and metaphorically “upwards” journey;
   
  ☐ The wind knocks you from a height;
   
  ☐ You are struck by an insight or revelation that changes everything
  You can earn up to three of these bonuses, for a total of 15 XP.
  Quest Flavor
  1/chapter, you can earn a bonus XP towards this quest when you:
   
  hunt desperately for solutions
   
  stagger on despite a wasting illness
   rise above/conquer some element of your situation
   
   show someone an amazing view or vista
   
   admire a distant bird, ornithopter, or zeppelin
   
   see the sun break through the clouds
   learn what it is that must be done
  You can combine this with an XP Action, but you’re not required to.
  35
  Climbing the 
  Sacred Mountain
  
  361
  XP
  Major Goals
  The HG can award you 5 XP towards this quest when:
   
  ☐ You release some guilt or burden that had been weighing you down;
   
  ☐ You’ve reached a “landing” (a place to stop and catch your breath) on an arduous 
  and metaphorically “upwards” journey;
   
  ☐ You are struck by an insight or revelation that changes everything.
  You can earn up to two of these bonuses, for a total of 10  XP.
  Quest Flavor
  1/chapter, you can earn a bonus XP towards this quest when you:
   
   rise above some element of your situation
   stare out at an amazing vista
   
   talk about something bad that’s happened to you
   
   talk, while feverish, to a bird, bird-like person, or bird-like entity
  struggle with sickness, weakness, rough environmental conditions, and your 
  own frailty
  You can combine this with an XP Action, but you’re not required to.
  25
  Climbing the Sacred 
  Mountain (Simplified)
  
  Down
  362
  Down
  35 or 45 XP Quest
  1: 
   
   
  4: 
    
  5: 
  This quest is your descent into the underworld. This is a scary time in your life, when you have to face 
  difficult truths and deal with painful things. At the end things can be good, but not during.
  During—
  ...they can get very bad.
   
  XP
  Major Goals
  The HG can award you 5 XP towards this quest when:
   
  ☐ You watch somebody die. It can be an animal but only if it’s emotionally affecting 
  (brutal, or an animal you cared about);
   
  ☐ You get into a fight with someone you care about;
   
  ☐ You break down from grief or shock;
   
  ☐ You get really, viscerally sick—it’s either life-threatening or really gross. You don’t 
  have to nauseate squeamish players by going into the sickness itself but you do 
  have to play up the toll it takes on you.
  You can earn each bonus once, for a total of 20  XP.
  Quest Flavor
  1/chapter, you can earn a bonus XP towards this quest when you:
   talk with someone about someone or something you’ve lost
   hug a large animal, e.g., a deer
   
   walk with the Headmaster of the Bleak Academy
   
   wander in a daze
   you can’t eat or drink, or can’t keep something down
   you fall apart a little, skipping your usual hygiene/self-maintenance tasks
   
   wander a graveyard or at the edge of a cliff
   
   lock yourself in a bathroom
   self-harm
  You can combine this with an XP Action, but you’re not required to.
  45
  Down
  
  363
  XP
  Major Goals
  The HG can award you 5 XP towards this quest when:
   
  ☐ You visit a throne room and stand before a seated (e.g.) King or Queen.
   
  ☐ You’re sent into an underworld, be it basement, cave, oubliette, dungeon, or literal 
  world of the dead;
   
  ☐ You’re hung on a hook, crucified, tied to a wall, suspended by telekinesis, used as a 
  scarecrow, or otherwise imprisoned or bound above the ground. Agony is optional 
  (you could be in a canvas sack that is hung from a hook, or stage-show-style 
  crucified); suspension and imprisonment are not.
  You can earn each bonus once, for a total of 15  XP.
  Quest Flavor
  1/chapter, you can earn a bonus XP towards this quest when:
   
   you have to abandon something precious, leaving it behind
   
   you’re lost
   
   you’re thirsty
   
   you encounter the dead
   
   you share a meal with someone while sitting on cracked stones
  You can combine this with an XP Action, but you’re not required to.
  35
  Down (Simplified)
  
  A Heroic Journey
  Changes
  364
   A Heroic Journey 
  preamble
  These quests form a generic structure to play through as a dreamer, mystic, or hero focused on their 
  cosmic role, destiny, and power to transcend who and what they seem to be. 
  You’ll play through three to five of these quests, as fits your Emptiness, Mystic, Knight, or Other-
  worldly Arc.
  Changes
  25 or 35 XP Quest
  1:  
   
   
   
  2: 
  Some big change is coming to you or someone near you. The world, or your body, or your soul, or that 
  of a friend—it’s shifting into a different state.
   
  XP
  Major Goals
  The HG can award you 5 XP towards this quest when:
   
  ☐ you have a traumatic transformation or dissociation scene in play, where your 
  reality gets weird because your true nature is changing or revealing itself.
   
  ☐ you see a confusing vision, nightmare, or premonition of your or someone else’s 
  death.
   
  ☐ you meet and get the chance to help a mysterious child find their way.
  You can earn each bonus once, for a total of 15 XP.
  Quest Flavor
  1/chapter, you can earn a bonus XP towards this quest when:
   
  wrestling with/expressing nameless feelings of loss that make you act 
  unnaturally
   
   trying and failing to burn things, to light them on fire
   
   getting confused about who and where you are
   listening to stories about things that were lost when Jade Irinka died
   talking with somebody about your destiny/nature and what it means
   talking with somebody about why there’s such a thing as death
   
  dealing with acne, braces, your period, ear infections, or other annoyingly 
  intrusive elements of physicality.
  You can combine this with an XP Action, but you’re not required to.
  Changes
  35
  
  365
  XP
  Major Goals
  The HG can award you 5 XP towards this quest when:
   
  ☐ There’s a scene where people are disapproving or bland but most importantly 
  unfazed by your showing up with extra limbs or unusual physical alterations, e.g., 
  a disdainful “Oh, that’s just like you to have those tentacles” or “Acne! Nobody 
  told me we were supposed to have acne today! (muttered) Showoff.”
   
  ☐ You meet Death, the Headmaster of the Bleak Academy, or some other feared 
  personage, but because you’re delirious or have reason to believe that it’s just 
  somebody dressed as them, you have a pleasant chat instead of anything else.
  You can earn each bonus once, for a total of 10 XP.
  Quest Flavor
  1/chapter, you can earn a bonus XP towards this quest when:
   dreaming of merging with a great and branching tree
   
   uncontrolled shapeshifting, possibly in a dream/imagination spot
   
   being surrounded by dancing shadows—the same
   
   noticing some weird mark or change in your body
  You can combine this with an XP Action, but you’re not required to.
  Changes (Simplified)
  25
  
  The Refusal of the 
  Call
  The Refusal of the Call
  20 or 35 XP Quest
  1: 
   
  2: 
   
   
  3:  
   
  You struggle to find a way out of the situation you’re in. You look for help. It’s not necessarily that you 
  don’t want to move forward—
  Often that’s the problem. But other times it’s just that you want to have a choice.
  You want to move forward along the path you’re on, but you don’t trust it and you really want to 
  keep your distance and be able to turn away.
   
  Major Goals
  The HG can award you 5 XP towards this quest when:
   
  ☐ you accept, or at least are clearly tempted by, someone’s offer to help you fight off/
  resist your destiny.
   
  ☐ you stand in the shadow of an enemy’s fortress or cathedral.
   
  ☐ you give yourself into someone else’s hands, making yourself terrifyingly 
  vulnerable either physically or emotionally.
  You can earn each bonus once, for a total of 15 XP.
  Quest Flavor
  1/chapter, you can earn a bonus XP towards this quest when:
   talking with someone about the principles that are the most important to you
   
   describing yourself as a helpless pawn of fate
   
   wondering if you’re actually good or evil
   
   trying to replace or repair torn clothing on a tight budget
   
   you’re overburdened—you work too hard, and with too little
   
   you get confused about who and where you are
   fretting over whether you’re actually on the wrong side
  You can combine this with an XP Action, but you’re not required to.
  XP
  35
  The Refusal of the Call
  366
  
  XP
  Major Goals
  The HG can award you 5 XP towards this quest when:
   
  ☐ you build or show a strong emotional bond to an “opposite number”—someone 
  working at cross purposes to what you will become.
   
  ☐ they offer to help you but you have to turn them down.
  You can earn up to two of these bonuses, for a total of 10 XP.
  Quest Flavor
  1/chapter, you can earn a bonus XP towards this quest when:
   
  pleading with an enemy to understand you
   
   exploring and having fun
   
   a phone rings but isn’t answered
   
  someone helps you while you’re throwing up (from overwork? Sickness? 
  Drinking?)
  You can combine this with an XP Action, but you’re not required to.
  20
  The Refusal of the Call  
  (Simplified)
  367
  
  The Belly of the 
  Whale
  The Belly of the Whale
  20+ or 45 XP Quest
  2: 
   
  3: 
   
   
  You’ve been swallowed up by literal or metaphorical chaos. You’re not always in active danger, but you 
  don’t really have a “normal” state to go back to—
  You’re out on a limb. You’re like somebody at a convention without money or a room to stay in, or 
  someone treading water in the middle of the sea. You’re like someone lost in an amazing mansion or 
  like somebody trapped in a spooky woods. The defining characteristic isn’t how bad things get, though 
  they can get very bad; it’s that you don’t have any compass, any map, or anywhere reachable and solid 
  to go.
   
  Major Goals
  The HG can award you 5 XP towards this quest when:
   
  ☐ you have a profound spiritual experience where you seem to blend into the world 
  around you.
   
  ☐ you’re trapped.
   
  ☐ you defeat an “opposite number” or rival, only to have a scarier enemy or problem 
  arise.
   
  ☐ you’re rescued by somebody
   
  ☐ you rescue somebody else.
  You can earn up to four of these bonuses, for a total of 20 XP.
  Quest Flavor
  1/chapter, you can earn a bonus XP towards this quest when:
   you stand barefoot in a high place, looking down at the world
   
   you get stabbed through the torso, possibly in a dream/imagination spot
   
   your hair grows in real-time, possibly in a dream/imagination spot
   you bring light in the darkness
   
   you comfort someone
   
   you sit by the water eating fried fish with one or more friends
   
   birds cluster around you
   you manage a contemplative moment between troublesome circumstances
  You can combine this with an XP Action, but you’re not required to.
  XP
  45
  The Belly of the Whale
  368
  
  XP
  Bonus XP
  This quest takes place in a context where you’re out of your element, where you’re 
  transforming or being transformed into something else.
  You can earn a bonus XP towards this quest at any time (but only once per scene/15 
  minutes) by proposing a theory about what will happen to you.
  Your character must propose the theory aloud or, at minimum, in their official inter-
  nal narration—it can’t just be you, as the player, at the table, it has to be IC.
  20
  25
  35
  This can be a 20 XP, 25 XP, or 35 XP Quest
  The Belly of the Whale 
  (Simplified)
  Bonus XP
  You’re dissociating from reality.
  You are dissolving into these places that you find yourself in. You are awakening a 
  strange new self inside. Everything is turning into teeth and rivers inside you.
  Something is being born.
  You can earn a bonus XP towards this quest at any time (though only once per 
  scene/15 minutes) by declaring that you can feel the touch of the impending miracle 
  upon you—you can phrase it another way; just give some indication that you’re trigger-
  ing this quest condition—and then free-associating for a few moments about what your 
  character is experiencing, feeling, thinking.
  Talk about being cold, or warm; talk about visions; whatever. Flare up the light in 
  you. Cut your teeth on cold. Have a greenness stuck in your mouth, somewhere, ugly, 
  stopping up your tongue as you try to pry it loose. That kind of hing. That brings you in 
  a bonus XP for this quest.
  20
  25
  35
  This can be a 20 XP, 25 XP, or 35 XP Quest
  XP
  20
  25
  35
  The Belly of the Whale 
  (Simplified, Variant)
  369
  
  The Trials of the Sun
  The Trials of the Sun
  25 or 35 XP Quest
  4: 
   
   
   
  You’re losing sight of yourself. You’re being pushed so hard by internal and external factors that you 
  can’t maintain a solid picture of who you are. 
  There’s no spare energy for it. 
  You don’t have time for it. 
  It’s all in flux.
   
  XP
  Major Goals
  The HG can award you 5 XP towards this quest when:
   
  ☐ You reclaim a lost legacy of a parent or mentor. 
   
  ☐ You humble some enemy, bending them completely to your will.
   
  ☐ You unleash, or are taken over by, a bleak power.
  You can earn each bonus once, for a total of 15 XP.
  Quest Flavor
  1/chapter, you can earn a bonus XP towards this quest when:
   
   your hands/arms sprout bladed vines, possibly in a dream/imagination  
   
       spot
   you merge with/devour someone else, possibly in a dream/imagination spot
   you experiment with powers that you shouldn’t
   
   you assert your power or your destiny
   
   you talk about your sense that there’s a hole in the world
   
   you wander in the dark, remembering some grief or loss
   you use an elaborate, magical-looking key
  You can combine this with an XP Action, but you’re not required to.
  The Trials of the Sun
  35
  370
  
  XP
  Major Goals
  The HG can award you 5 XP towards this quest when:
   
  ☐ You build a model, duplicate, icon, or eidolon of yourself.
   
  ☐ Someone else tells the story of how you lost or damaged some potential you once 
  had.
   
  ☐ Someone realizes that they were afraid of you for all the wrong reasons. (It’s OK 
  for them to wind up more afraid, less afraid, or about the same, as long as the 
  reasons change.)
  You can earn up to two of these bonuses, for a total of 10 XP.
  Quest Flavor
  1/chapter, you can earn a bonus XP towards this quest when:
   
   you transcend or apotheosize in some fashion.
   
   you or your player give a monologue about the nature of your power
   you propose an enemy’s fate
   
   you commune with an angel or the holy part of your nature.
   
   you perform some sacred chore (e.g. feeding a holy fire).
  You can combine this with an XP Action, but you’re not required to.
  Special Note!
  If the game and your powers don’t support literal apotheosis/angels, handle these 
  things as a spiritual effect—intangible and only sort of visible,  but nevertheless 
  “real” for purposes of the scene.
  25
  The Trials of the Sun 
  (Simplified)
  371
  
  Apotheosis
  Apotheosis
  20 or 40 XP Quest
  5: 
   
   
   
  This is your chance to meet, and become, your new yourself.
   
  XP
  Major Goals
  The HG can award you 5 XP towards this quest when you:
   
  ☐ Hold a representation of the sacred eternal—a philosopher’s stone, an elixir of 
  immortality, a key to the world—in your hands.
   
  ☐ Return to where you started the game or the Arc, find it ruined or damaged, and 
  rebuild/repair it.
   
  ☐ Meet something that could be considered “the other half” of yourself.
   
  ☐ Witness an eclipse.
   
  ☐ Swallow a lizard, enemy, or ally spirit whole.
  You can earn up to four of these bonuses, once each, for a total of 20 XP.
  Quest Flavor
  1/chapter, you can earn a bonus XP towards this quest when you:
   
   can’t find water
   
   fix something broken or unwhole
   
   eat hot cross buns or melon pan.
   guide someone else through a long journey or struggle
   dig up someone frozen and rescue them, possibly in a dream/imagination spot
   grow a new mouth or eye, possibly in a dream/imagination spot
   
   merge with a book of some sort, possibly in a dream/imagination spot
   pass through the gates of the Bleak Academy
  You can combine this with an XP Action, but you’re not required to.
  Apotheosis
  40
  372
  
  Major Goals
  The HG can award you 5 XP towards this quest when you:
   
  ☐ Wander strange, misty landscapes.
   
  ☐ Stare at a living creature frozen in or behind some sort of crystal.
   
  ☐ Release light from or open an eye in your forehead.
  You can earn up to two of these bonuses, once each, for a total of 10 XP.
  Quest Flavor
  1/chapter, you can earn a bonus XP towards this quest when you:
   
   shatter an enemy’s weapon barehanded
   
   possess or infiltrate an enemy or place with your spirit/energy
   fight imaginary enemies, hallucinatory enemies, spirits, or shadows
   
   talk to people about your dreams for the future
   call upon one of your big powers in a dramatic fashion 
  You can combine this with an XP Action, but you’re not required to.
  XP
  25
  Apotheosis (Simplified)
  373
  
  A Bittersweet Saga
  Beautiful and Far 
  Away
   A Bittersweet Saga 
  preamble
  Here’s another kind of Arc for a character trying to come out of their shell—
  Someone trying to learn how to engage with the world, or also, anyone trying to help another char-
  acter do so.
  You’ll play through three to five of these quests, as fits your Aspect, Emptiness, Shepherd, or Sto-
  ryteller Arc.
   Beautiful and Far Away
  20 or 35 XP Quest
  1: 
   
   
   
  2: 
   
  There is a secret place, somewhere beautiful and far away, that’s calling to you.
  It is an escape, a desperately needed escape from the world; but like all escapes, it can kill you if 
  you take it too far. And it is so very easy to take this one too far; and yet, you need it, so very much.
  This is the Arc’s Secret Place, and it is located in the Arc’s Setting.
  Often it’s a little unreal—you’ll visit it in dreams, or visions, or by traveling through the Outside.
   
  XP
  Major Goals
  The HG can award you 5 XP towards this quest when:
   
  ☐ Others stumble on your Secret Place.
   
  ☐ You establish a reason why you need the Secret Place—why it’s sustaining you, 
  why you’d be at risk without it.
   
  ☐ You establish a reason why the Secret Place is hurting you, breaking you, 
  damaging your ability to live an ordinary life.
  You can earn each bonus once, for a total of 15 XP.
  Quest Flavor
  1/chapter, you can earn a bonus XP towards this quest through:
   guiding someone through the Setting of the Arc
   talking with somebody about the Secret Place
   talking with somebody about what dreams are, as compared to reality;
   talking with somebody about whether the world deserves to exist, whether it’s 
  good or bad, or whether that even matters.
   
   get in a row with somebody over/about the Secret Place
   refusing to retreat to the Secret Place, even though things are very bad. or
   retreating to the Secret Place.
  You can combine this with an XP Action, but you’re not required to.
  35
  Beautiful and Far Away
  374
  
  XP
  Major Goals
  The HG can award you 5 XP towards this quest when:
   
  ☐ You demonstrate how you need the Secret Place—how it’s sustaining you, why 
  you’d be at risk without it.
   
  ☐ You demonstrate how the Secret Place is hurting you, breaking you, how it’s 
  damaging your ability to live an ordinary life.
  You can earn each bonus once, for a total of 10 XP.
  Quest Flavor
  1/chapter, you can earn a bonus XP towards this quest through:
   
   having a troubled dream
   
   talking with/ranting at somebody about the Secret Place
   
   babbling poorly-formed philosophy or metaphysics at somebody
   
   retreating to the Secret Place.
  You can combine this with an XP Action, but you’re not required to.
  20
  Beautiful and Far Away 
  (Simplified)
  375
  
  Fascination
  Fascination
  20 or 35 XP Quest
  1: 
    
  2: 
   
   
  3: 
  There’s someone or something that fascinates you—
  Both as a person (or entity) and as a power, a force of nature. You want to spend time with them. 
  You want to know more.
   
  XP
  Major Goals
  The HG can award you 5 XP towards this quest when you: 
   
  ☐ Express your fascination with someone or something dangerous and irresponsible.
   
  ☐ After that first reward, go a long way out of your way physically in order to study 
  the operation and mechanisms of somebody else’s powers (e.g., a field trip to 
  Horizon to watch the Wish-Granting Engine at work.)
   
  ☐ Make yourself terrifyingly vulnerable, e.g. as an act of social/romantic trust, an act 
  of folly, or as bait for a trap.
  You can earn up to three of these bonuses, once each, for a total of 15 XP.
  Quest Flavour
  1/chapter, you can earn a bonus XP towards this quest when you:
   confess a secret desire
   have a troubled dream about glass, magic, and the Outside
   
   investigate the shrine family magic for dealing with troubled dreams
   
   dream about a Main Character or Arc-related NPC
   
   hang out with someone you like while they do their thing
   get into goofy trouble for, with, or because of somebody else
   talk with someone about the various bad ends people can come to in fairy 
  tales, stories about wishes, and stories about witches 
  You can combine this with an XP Action, but you’re not required to.
  35
  Fascination
  376
  
  XP
  Major Goals
  The HG can award you 5 XP towards this quest when you:
   
  ☐ Witness something amazing, even by your standards.
   
  ☐ Get badly hurt when you weren’t expecting it.
  You can earn each bonus once, for a total of 10 XP.
  Quest Flavor
  1/chapter, you can earn a bonus XP towards this quest when you:
   
   investigate someone’s powers
   argue with someone about the proper use of some power
   
   express your fascination with somebody
   
  explain to someone, or argue with them about, the workings of shrine 
  magic, the Arc’s Setting, or the Outside
  You can combine this with an XP Action, but you’re not required to.
  20
  Fascination (Simplified)
  377
  
  This is So Surreal
  This is So Surreal
  25 or 35 XP Quest
  2: 
    
  3: 
   
   
   
  4:  
   
   
  Someone you’re involved with (a friend, SO, ally, minion, or dangerously seductive power) is using 
  their powers in ways that are just plain goofy. Often this quest is a reaction to wish powers.
   
  Major Goals
  The HG can award you 5 XP towards this quest when:
   
  ☐ You freak out—you have a minor or major psychological breakdown because you 
  can’t cope with these wishes;
   
  ☐ You give a monologue—often comedically serious IC, though not necessarily so 
  OOC—to explain why a wish is a bad idea;
   
  ☐ You receive some implausible honor or reward for your conduct in handling a 
  wish, or as part of the wish’s execution itself.
  You can earn each bonus once each, for a total of 15  XP.
  Quest Flavor
  1/chapter, you can earn a bonus XP towards this quest when:
   you’re seduced by the wonder and utility of a wish
   marveling at the way a wish changed the world 
   
   things get chaotic or absurd because of a wish
   
   you help some important place or person weather the course of a wish.
   
  you’re forced to break a personal commitment—use a power you hate, 
  break a promise, or whatever—in order to resolve or weather a wish.
  You can combine this with an XP Action, but you’re not required to.
  Special Note!
  Anything that can go wrong in the same way a classic wish can (including most 
  Imperial miracles and some magical spells) counts as a “wish” here.
  XP
  35
  This is So Surreal
  378
  
  Major Goals
  The HG can award you 5 XP towards this quest when:
   
  ☐ You freak out—you have a minor or major psychological breakdown because you 
  can’t cope with these wishes;
   
  ☐ You give a monologue—often comedically serious IC, though not necessarily so 
  OOC—to explain why a wish is a bad idea;
   
  ☐ You receive some implausible honor or reward for your conduct in handling a 
  wish, or as part of the wish’s execution itself.
  You can earn  up to two of these bonuses, once each, for a total of 10 XP.
  Quest Flavor
  1/chapter, you can earn a bonus XP towards this quest when:
   
   you reject part of a wish that would have been useful
   
   you get lost in the Outside
   
   things get chaotic or absurd because of a wish
   
  you’re forced to break a personal commitment—use a power you hate, 
  break a promise, or whatever—in order to resolve or weather a wish.
  you have nightmares full of the symbolism of your personal or Arc-related 
  traumas.
  You can combine this with an XP Action, but you’re not required to.
  Special Note!
  Anything that can go wrong in the same way a classic wish can (including 
  most Imperial miracles and some magical spells) counts as a “wish” here.
  XP
  25
  This is So Surreal 
  (Simplified)
  379
  
  This is Such a Bad 
  Idea
  This is Such a Bad Idea
  20 or 35 XP Quest
  2: 
    
  3: 
   
   
   
  4:  
   
   
  Someone you’re involved with (a friend, SO, ally, minion, or dangerously seductive power) has gone 
  on a bit of a power trip.
   
  XP
  Major Goals
  The HG can award you 5 XP towards this quest when:
   
  ☐ Someone normally trustworthy or goofy goes on a power trip and winds 
  up grinding you under their malevolent heel; or, more generally, you suffer 
  unpleasantly from their use of the power that they’ve seized;
   
  ☐ You’re put into an awkward, embarrassing, or at least highly goofy or counter-type 
  role by a wish, probably with details suggested by the HG and other players;
   
  ☐ You manage to become a “power behind the throne” or otherwise steal a portion of 
  the power in play over the course of a wish.
  You can earn each bonus once, for a total of up to 15 XP.
  Quest Flavor
  1/chapter, you can earn a bonus XP towards this quest when:
   
   ritually drawing on the powers the wish has given you
   
   enjoying the changed world, letting it corrupt you
   
   you overcome some obstacle in the world of the wish
   
  you’re forced to break a personal commitment—use a power you hate, 
  break a promise, or whatever—in order to resolve or weather a wish.
   
   you struggle with the circumstances of the wish
   
   the wish does something really strange to your life
  You can combine this with an XP Action, but you’re not required to.
  Special Note!
  Anything that can go wrong in the same way a classic wish can (including most 
  Imperial miracles and some magical spells) counts as a “wish” here.
  35
  This is Such a Bad Idea
  380
  
  XP
  Major Goals
  The HG can award you 5 XP towards this quest when:
   
  ☐ Someone normally trustworthy or goofy goes on a power trip and winds 
  up grinding you under their malevolent heel; or, more generally, you suffer 
  unpleasantly from their use of the power that they’ve seized;
   
  ☐ You’re put into an awkward, embarrassing, or at least highly goofy or counter-type 
  role by a wish, probably with details suggested by the HG and other players.
  You can earn each bonus once, for a total of up to 10 XP.
  Quest Flavor
  1/chapter, you can earn a bonus XP towards this quest when:
   
   things get really weird
   
   you give up and just go with it
   
   you’re forced to break a personal commitment—use a power you hate, 
  break a promise, or whatever—in order to resolve or weather a wish.
   
   there’s a big parade or festival
  You can combine this with an XP Action, but you’re not required to.
  Special Note!
  Anything that can go wrong in the same way a classic wish can (including most 
  Imperial miracles and some magical spells) counts as a “wish” here.
  20
  This is Such a Bad Idea 
  (Simplified)
  381
  
  You’ve Lost Them
  You’ve Lost Them
  20 or 45 XP Quest
  3: 
   
  4: 
   
  5: 
   
  Someone has lost a piece of themselves—something important.
  It could be a friend. It could be an enemy. It’s even vaguely possible that it’s you—that you are now 
  just a hollow shell or double of the person you used to be.
  You’re looking at this from the outside. 
  You might get it back, but you don’t think you can. Certainly you don’t know that you can, and you 
  can’t put any faith in it as more than a dream.
  And the important thing is—
  You feel responsible. If it’s a random person or an enemy you feel responsible because you had 
  something to do with it, or think you did. If it’s a friend, you hurt for them and want to help. If it’s you, 
  well, you’re not that person any more, but you have a kind of duty to carry on as if you were.
  Does that make sense?
  They are this Arc’s Lost Person.
  XP
  Major Goals
  The HG can award you 5 XP towards this quest when:
   
  ☐ You help to impersonate, construct a robot double for, or otherwise replace the 
  Lost Person;
   
  ☐ You get in some kind of completely unnecessary trouble because that person is 
  incomplete or missing;
   
  ☐ You get atypically emotional when it really sinks in that they’re gone, damaged, or 
  changed;
   
  ☐ Your first full or nearly-full book on this quest comes to an end.
  You can earn each bonus once, for a total of 20 XP.
  Quest Flavor
  1/chapter, you can earn a bonus XP towards this quest when:
   your life is a mess
   
   you struggle to understand the loss
   
   you talk to someone about memories, metaphysics, and the soul 
   
   you talk to someone about death
   
   you encounter some shocking consequence of a wish or similar power
   
   you watch somebody self-destructing
   
   you dream of shipwrecks and drowning
   
   you dream of the Lost Person’s true self, their real self, somewhere far away
   a week passes and nothing has gotten better
  You can combine this with an XP Action, but you’re not required to.
  45
  You’ve Lost Them
  382
  
  Major Goals
  The HG can award you 5 XP towards this quest when:
   
  ☐ You help to impersonate, construct a robot double for, or otherwise replace the 
  Lost Person;
   
  ☐ You get atypically emotional when it really sinks in that they’re gone, damaged, or 
  changed.
  You can earn each bonus once, for a total of 10 XP.
  Quest Flavor
  1/chapter, you can earn a bonus XP towards this quest when:
   
   someone soliloquys about the loss
   
   you communicate somehow with the Lost Person’s true self, far away
   
   you wander Fortitude1 with the Lost Person or with or as their stand-in 
   there are signs that things may be getting better after all
  You can combine this with an XP Action, but you’re not required to.
  1 
  or some similar Region in an out-of-Town game
  XP
  20
  You’ve Lost Them 
  (Simplified)
  383
  
  Something Heals
  Something Heals
  25 or 45 XP Quest
  2: 
   
  4: 
    
  5: 
   
  This quest is about an unexpected chance to find closure on something. Maybe it’s a stroke of good 
  fortune. 
  Maybe it’s the product of hard work. 
  Maybe it’s just something that had to happen, given time.
  XP
  Major Goals
  The HG can award you 5 XP towards this quest when:
   
  ☐ Someone comforts you in a time of need.
   
  ☐ You break your rules or patterns in a big way in order to help or save somebody 
  else.
   
  ☐ Something goes right, because of luck or fate or divine intervention or somebody 
  else—basically, because of not-you—when everything seemed lost.
   
  ☐ You absorb some power, force, place, or energy into yourself.
  You can earn each bonus once, for a total of 20 XP.
  Quest Flavor
  1/chapter, you can earn a bonus XP towards this quest when you:
   
   have a precious moment with something you thought that you’d lost
   
   talk with an old friend about your shared adventures 
   
   have an ordinary, happy day at your job or other place of work
   sit with someone and eat crackers and soft cheese
   
   stand in, or lean against, an arch overgrown with ivy
   
   watch a ship sail away across Big Lake
   
   dream of a faraway friend, loved one, or Main Character
   
   bid an emotional farewell—you or someone else is moving on
   
   show someone a wonder
  You can combine this with an XP Action, but you’re not required to.
  Something Heals
  45
  384
  
  XP
  Major Goals
  The HG can award you 5 XP towards this quest when:
   
  ☐ Someone comforts you in a time of need.
   
  ☐ You break your rules or patterns in a big way to show someone a kindness or take 
  them under your wing.
   
  ☐ You absorb some power, force, place, or energy into yourself.
  You can earn up to two of these bonuses, once each, for a total of up to 10  XP.
  Quest Flavor
  1/chapter, you can earn a bonus XP towards this quest when you:
   
   talk with someone about the things you’ve lost
   feed leftover meat to a stray dog 
   
   have a kind of over-the-top day at your job or place of work
   
   tell someone the stories of your adventures
   
   show someone a secret (often the Arc’s Secret Place)
  You can combine this with an XP Action, but you’re not required to.
  25
  Something Heals 
   (Simplified)
  385
  
  386
  386
  
  CHAPTER 
  12: 
  ARCS
   
  Arcs
  
  The Story of an Arc
  388
  388
  When the story starts, you might be pretty ordinary. Just an ordi-
  nary kid, maybe with a wish-granting engine or perfect mastery 
  of all forms of human achievement or whatever, but basically just 
  an ordinary kid.
  Or adult. Playing adults is OK, too, though this game is target-
  ed at playing teens.
  Or even a normal kid or adult, like, powers-wise, without anything 
  much more than a couple of cool abilities to keep you in the game.
  When the story starts, you might not be much, is what I’m 
  saying, particularly compared to what someone like you can be.
  But that’ll change, and the way it changes is through Arcs.
  On a Bindings Arc, you’ll learn to master terrifying powers. 
  On an Aspect Arc, you’ll train your mind and body to new heights. 
  An Emptiness or Mystic Arc risks a terrifying corruption; a Story-
  teller Arc can stylize you—it’ll make you as a myth!
  Here’s how this is going to work in play.
   The Story of an Arc 
  In concept and in hindsight, an “Advancement Arc” is a rigorously 
  ordered chain of 3-5 quests that leads from one major stage of 
  your character’s life to the next. You’ll tell the story of how your 
  character wrestles with the obstacle or, possibly, the wisdom that 
  holds them back from becoming more than they are—
  And conquers it.
  In practice, because I don’t want to chain play to rails, an 
  Advancement Arc as it is pursued is an XP target (somewhere 
  between 120 and 250 XP, probably69) and a conceptual target 
  (“reach a certain level of resolution on this stuff”), paired with 
  some recommendations about the kind of quests you might choose 
  to take along the way. If there’s a meaningful amount of story 
  pre-bundled with an Advancement Arc, as for some of the official 
  Advancement Arcs, then you might also have a few intermediate 
  conceptual targets—e.g., if I’m expecting an adversary to appear 
  in quest 1 and then cause problems in quest 5, it might be im-
  portant that they actually do appear even if you skipped quest 1 
  to start a potato farm instead—but even then, I’m expecting you 
  to blaze your own trail when necessary and fill in the gaps with a 
  simplified or “intermissory” quest if you manage to blaze past an 
  important trail mark.
  In any case, you’ll start the game with an Advancement Arc 
  pre-chosen. Later on, whenever you complete a quest that plausi-
  bly could be the starting quest for a different Advancement Arc, 
  you’ll have the opportunity to abandon the Arc you’re on and start 
  on that Arc instead. For instance, if you start play on a Bindings 
  Arc, and at some point you do a quest that’s a suitable first quest 
  for a Knight Arc, you can stop following the Bindings Arc and 
  start following the Knight Arc instead.
  I’d usually expect you to do this after reaching a good stop-
  ping point—after those 3-5 quests, or that 120-250 XP target, in 
  short, after you’ve just hit a milestone and fixed your progress in 
  the Arc to your character sheet—but if you and the HG can come 
  to an agreement on what happens to the XP you’ve built up so far, 
  you can do it at any time, and in theory you could do it with your 
  very first completed quest in the game.
  The rewards for the quests in a given Arc come in chains. On 
  a Bindings Arc, for instance, you’ll usually start by getting the 
  first Bindings reward, the “Bindings 1” reward. Then, assuming 
  there’s been a reasonable amount of play in between, the next 
  quest you complete earns the second Bindings reward, and so on. 
  There’s three common exceptions:
  First, the rewards for 15 XP quests are idiosyncratic: you’ll ei-
  ther earn a Recharge Token or activate a “project/quest miracle,” 
  69 The HG’ll choose whatever number seems right for their game—it can 
  even vary from Arc to Arc, e.g., with a discount for low-level Arcs, mun-
  dane Arcs, and accelerated training Arcs! The only thing they shouldn’t do 
  is discount or overcharge Arcs for a subset of players or PCs unless every-
  body involved is on board, and even this is a soft restriction in practice.
  as discussed on pg. 450 and 454. You’ll ignore these more or less 
  completely when following the chain of an Arc’s rewards.
  Second, if you complete two quests in “quick succession,” that 
  is, without a reasonable amount of play in between, then you and 
  the HG should discuss whether you get two similar rewards or 
  whether you moved forward between the two, and which of the 
  two plausible followup steps fits the quest you take on after that. 
  For instance, if you’ve done the first quest of a Bindings Arc, and 
  then you finish two more in quick succession, was the second one 
  step 3 or step 2, redux? Is the one after that step 3 or 4? In short 
  a simultaneous completion like that can hold you back—but this 
  isn’t meant as a punishment for finishing two quests at once, or a 
  potential reward, just a reasoned awareness that they seem to have 
  covered the same portion of your life’s story.
  Third, every now and then, you’ll find yourself doing a “side 
  quest”—something completely unrelated to the Arc. You’ll pick 
  up a Perk that seems appropriate to the quest (one of the Arcs it 
  fits better) and you won’t make any actual progress through the 
  quest chain in the Arc.
  Being On Two Arcs 
  at Once
  There are some benefits to an Arc that are intended to be ex-
  clusive. A miraculous character gets certain benefits for “ac-
  tively pursuing” an Arc, becoming Immortal, “Frantic,” or 
  “Sickly” as discussed on pg. 486-489; you’re only supposed 
  to have one of these benefits at a time. A mundane Arc gives a 
  new Bond and Affliction at level 0, and a miraculous Arc may 
  give level 0 powers; again, you’re only supposed to get this 
  benefit from a single, central character Arc.
  That said, sometimes it’ll seem like your character really 
  should be on two Arcs at once—that you can organize the sto-
  ries of your life into two distinct, coherent, and separate streams. 
  A lot of characters in fiction work this way, and you can 
  play this way if you really want. 
  I don’t support it officially because it’s all complicated and 
  stuff. Plus, in a short-term game it messes with your advancement. 
  But, if you want to have a major character Arc (that gets benefits 
  from being on the Arc, such as that Arc 0 Bond and Affliction 
  from a mundane Arc) and a minor character Arc that doesn’t get 
  those benefits, and progress separately along each of them, with 
  each finished quest adding XP to one or the other Arc—that’s fine. 
  You can even switch off which Arc is major and which Arc 
  is minor, with the HG’s permission, though usually only at the 
  completion of a quest and only after at least one of the Arcs 
  has reached Arc Trait 1. 
  
  389
   
  This is all something you can handle ad hoc, though, and your 
  XP is pretty much always considered to count—the worst state you 
  should be able to get into, by deviating from the Arc’s core pattern, 
  is having the HG or group insist that you completed a different Arc 
  than the one you claim to be on, or asking for you to top the Arc 
  off with a short, thematically appropriate quest before you’re done. 
  In terms of rewards, a 20-25 XP quest is likely to have a rel-
  atively minor reward. A 35-60 XP quest is likely to have a major 
  one. This is usually a matter of scope and applicability and not 
  raw numbers: a lifetime supply of mouthwash is a minor reward, 
  while a lifetime supply of whatever you might need from a given 
  convenience store is a major one. Most of the Perks and options 
  that I’ll discuss below give you some wiggle room for taking more 
  or less powerful options depending on the quest that you’ve done.
  Ultimately it’s up to you to figure out what you’ve earned, with 
  the HG and the rest of the group having a minor power of veto if 
  what you’re doing breaks their sense of the world or their sense 
  of the game.
  How do I decide which quests 
  count towards my Arc?
  The Arc is the story of your character’s life, so in theory any quest 
  you actually do is going to be part of it. That means that when you 
  finish a little side project like a 15-XP quest miracle or a run through 
  your basic quest, that’s considered part of the natural filler and body 
  of your Arc; when you finish a more meaty quest, you should always 
  look at it from the perspective of, “Do I think that this was the next 
  quest in my Arc?” and even if you decide that it wasn’t—
  That a quest that you started as a side quest actually was a side 
  quest, or a quest that you thought was your next Arc quest really 
  couldn’t be—
  The XP counts.
  In short, your 120-250 XP target is going to include the XP 
  from pretty much any quest you finish, and is often going to have 
  about 30% filler stuff that isn’t quite on point, much like a per-
  son’s life. The only thing to keep in mind here is that you do need 
  to reach some level of resolution on the story to actually finish the 
  Arc—it’s a flexible and mushy criterion and I suggest the HG be 
  deferential towards you on whether that actually happened, but it 
  is a criterion—and that you should try, when picking and finishing 
  your quests, to fit in at least a core three-quest Arc, however ab-
  breviated the last 1-2 quests there may be.
  The only case I can think of where a quest’s XP absolutely 
  shouldn’t count towards your current Arc is if it’s obvious to you 
  and everyone that it shouldn’t—that the quest was a distraction 
  from your life, that in a real sense it was something you shouldn’t 
  have been doing, something that was part of a different story, a 
  contrary story, and even then you might want to keep a record of 
  the XP from that quest sitting around somewhere in case you pick 
  up or turn out to be on that story later on.
  If you’re wondering why miscellaneous quests count towards 
  your Arc, incidentally, it’s because a story needs that filler space, 
  needs those quests that might or might not be a part of your Arc 
  and the little chibi-quests and projects that just reflect your experi-
  ence and actions in the world the Arc has formed for you—if you 
  get too focused on checking off boxes and not enough on explor-
  ing the metaphysical and metaphorical territory around you, your 
  stories might at first become lean and streamlined but eventually 
  they’d stop being stories at all!
  
  Arc Traits
  Mundane and Mirac-
  ulous Perks
  390
  390
   Arc Traits 
  Each Arc has an associated “Arc Trait”—something like:
  Bindings (Wounded Angel) 0
  Knight (Idol Singer) 5  or
  Aspect (The Ace) 2
  That would mean, more or less, “you’re a pretty cool ace and a top-ti-
  er idol singer but you’re not particularly a wounded angel at all!”
  The first time you dive into a given Arc, you’ll pick up a rating 
  of 0. You’ll only ever have one level-0 Arc—it goes away com-
  pletely if you abandon that Arc and pick up another one before the 
  Arc Trait hits 1.
  After completing a quest that takes you past your XP goal, 
  you’ll upgrade the Arc Trait by a level and receive some perma-
  nent upgrades to your power set. At the mundane level, this usu-
  ally means that you get a new level 1 Skill and +1 to a Skill or a 
  Bond. At the miraculous level, it means that you’ll get the powers 
  appropriate to the Arc’s new rating.
  For example, once you complete an appropriate quest to start 
  the Arc with, you could find yourself with a new Trait: 
   
  Bindings (Wounded Angel) 0. 
  That gives you access to its level 0+ abilities (pg. 490):
  Dramatic, Devices and Divine Health.
  Once you finish the Arc, you’ll have:
  Bindings (Wounded Angel) 1, instead.
  At that point, not only do you secure permanent access to the 
  first three powers—they won’t go away if you drop this for an-
  other Arc—but you’ll also gain access to the level 1+ power, 
  Blasphemy.
  After completing an Arc, you’ll start on a new quest chain, 
  either for the same Arc or for a new one. 
  The basic structure of an Arc is generally the same regardless 
  of the Arc and its rating—
  If you want to get Knight (Idol Singer) to level 5, you’ll do 
  five Arcs of 3-5 Knight quests, and the basic structure will repeat 
  itself each time (though with different quests). That said, it’s typi-
  cal for there to be some escalation in the Arc’s core thesis—
  From... 
   
  ŭ An Arc about life experience, to one about your work/actions;
   
  ŭ An Arc about your work/actions, to one about your place in 
  society;
   
  ŭ An Arc about your place in society, to one about purpose;
   
  ŭ An Arc about purpose, to one about meaning; 
  And after that you’ll start looking at the experience, work, place, 
  purpose, or meaning for a larger community or existence itself.
  Or not, of course—that’s a thought, not a law.
   Mundane and Miraculous Perks 
  As mentioned earlier, characters may have up to 8 Perks—the 
  medium-term rewards from individual quests.
  Each quest in each Arc’s chain offers a set of suggested Perks 
  and other benefits for mortals and another set that miraculous 
  characters can pick up. The latter is almost invariably better, but a 
  miraculous character can pick up a mortal Perk should they prefer. 
  In fact, technically, if your gaming group is OK with it, anyone 
  can pick up anything as a Perk from any quest—
  These are technically mere suggestions, although I’m expecting 
  you’ll use them directly most of the time and as inspiration the rest.
  Here’s the kind of options and suggestions that you’ll see.
  Adjustments
  You’ll sometimes have the option to rewrite an Affliction, Bond, 
  Perk, or whatever, or move points between your Skills. This 
  doesn’t cost a Perk slot—it’s just something you can do.
  Oddly, even though this is a very weak option OOC, it can be 
  one of the most powerful in the game—turning your Affliction 
  “I have bad knees” into an Affliction “I am the supreme cosmic 
  being” is a few seconds’ work with a number two pencil but can 
  be, IC, a pretty big deal.
  Recharge Tokens
  A quest may give you some number of Recharge Tokens. (Vari-
  able numbers mean that it’s up to the HG and the amount of XP 
  you spent on the quest how many you should actually earn.)
  This isn’t a Perk, and you don’t need a Perk slot to get it.
  Traits
  Most of the mundane Perks will offer you a Trait, e.g.:
   
  ŭ Bond perks give you a Bond;
   
  ŭ Cool perks give you Cool;
   
  ŭ Connection perks give you a Connection Skill;
   
  ŭ Magical Skill perks give you a magical Skill;
   
  ŭ Shine perks give you Shine;
   
  ŭ Skill perks give you a mundane Skill;
   
  ŭ Superior Skill perks give you a Superior Skill; and so forth.
  You can use these Traits just like the real ones on your permanent 
  character sheet, but they don’t add together—if you have Sailing 1 
  and a Skill Perk “Sailing 1,” the Perk won’t do you any actual good70.
  The exception is Traits that count resources rather than quan-
  tify abilities, e.g.
   
  ŭ Health perks, which give you a Health Level;
   
  ŭ MP perks, which improve your starting MP.
  Resources like those add to one another and to your inherent Traits.
  70 If you think you’ve found a way it does do you good during play, you 
  probably should ignore it. For instance, if something magically saps 
  your Sailing Skill, it should get both Skills. The only good it should ever 
  do you is if you later raise the Perk or lower the Skill.
  
  391
   
  Variable Traits
  A few Perks offer Traits that vary based on an Issue—a Bond 
  Perk, or sometimes an Affliction or other Trait Perk, that is pegged 
  to the current level of one of your Issues. It rises to 5 when the 
  Issue does; when you resolve the Issue, the Trait drops to 0.
  Later, the rise and fall will repeat.
  Improving Other Perks
  You’ll often have the option to improve an existing Trait Perk 
  when you complete a quest. For instance, particularly at the mun-
  dane level, you won’t just get, say, a level 5 Cool Perk—you’ll get 
  a level 1 Cool Perk, then increase it by +1 four times.
  Tricks and Magical Techniques
  You may simplify the process of stretching your Skills to cover 
  new applications (pg. 69) by taking an appropriate Perk. 
  A Trick enhances a mundane or Superior Skill—and naturally, 
  if you use that trick often enough, it eventually becomes a part of 
  your standard arsenal. I figure this is fast enough that you can ex-
  pect to keep these Perks for around an Arc, two at the most—after 
  that, you don’t need the Perk any longer, because it’s an estab-
  lished use for your underlying Skill.
  The same is true for a Magical Technique, which enhances 
  the options available for a magical Skill—but magic is harder to 
  use and more infrequently used, so I’m not expecting you to per-
  manently establish these techniques. That said, you can! I mean, 
  basically, as soon as people start forgetting that you have this tech-
  nique because of a Perk instead of just because it’s part of your 
  magic, you can talk to the HG about abandoning the Perk and just 
  making it part of your Skill.
  I just don’t think that will happen very fast.
  Accessory
  You can receive a cool thing as a Perk: a bike, car, television, 
  magic carpet, laser gun, robot landshark, god in a bottle, real-
  ly high-quality flute, or whatever. An Accessory Perk like this 
  counts as a temporary part of your character sheet, so you can take 
  a wound instead of letting it happen if someone tries to misuse the 
  thing, destroy the thing, or permanently take your cool thing away.
  Miscellaneous Bonuses
  A number of Perks offer miscellaneous bonuses, which pretty 
  much do what they say on the tin. If your Perk gives a +3 Tool 
  bonus to certain actions 1/book, you can get a +3 Tool bonus to 
  those actions once per book. If your Perk “powers up” an inherent 
  Skill by +1, then you count that Skill as one point higher than it 
  actually is!
  Miraculous Powers
  Most of the miraculous Perks will offer you some sort of power. 
  This is generally something that you’ll have to define yourself—
  Miraculous abilities are idiosyncratic and not limited by rea-
  son, so you’ll have to build them by emulating one of the exam-
  ples herein.
  Defining Abilities
  Powers marked with the 
  Defining Icon give you a limited play-
  er control over things outside your character. I’ve only provided 
  them at the mundane level, where they function as a gamble—you 
  offer a hope, theory, or guess as to how something works.
  Now, the HG describes and controls the world before you in-
  voke a power like this.
  And the HG describes and controls the world after you invoke 
  a power like this.
  So it’s a little difficult to make this a proper gamble. It’s awful-
  ly easy for this to be rigged behind the scenes, intentionally or not, 
  to keep the bet from being lost or won before you even make it by 
  an HG too ready to shoot you down or, conversely, so laid-back 
  that they’re happy to run with whatever you suggest. 
  So here’s what we’re going to do. 
  We’re going to say that when you invoke a Defining power, 
  whether or not this is to your advantage, the HG has to clear their 
  head for a moment and put their preconceptions aside before they 
  rule.
  Adaptable Abilities
  Perks marked with the 
  Struggle Icon represent adaptability 
  and willingness to work hard more than a specific reward there-
  of. They’re usually variable Traits that you can change sometime 
  each book.
  Weird Magic
  Powers marked with the 
  Lurid Icon let you do weird, mag-
  ical things with your ordinary Skills. Like all magic, this is un-
  natural—ordinary people can’t learn to do this stuff, even though 
  you’re using an ordinary Skill to do it, and it’s incompatible with 
  the powers of the Ace. 
  Insights
  Powers marked with the 
  Melodramatic Icon give you access 
  to HG hints on, e.g., NPC motivations, secrets behind the scenes, 
  and suchlike.
  Over the Top Stuff
  Even at the mundane level, powers marked with the 
  Passion-
  ate Icon are all about goofy, over-the-top, cinematic abilities. 
  Even though ordinary people shouldn’t be able to learn this stuff, 
  evidently they can, because it’s not magic.
  You’re just that awesome! Or, it’s martial arts!
  Pastoral Abilities
  Powers marked with the  
  Pastoral Icon track the subtle but 
  mechanically relevant changes you’ve made to the world over the 
  long course of one or more quests. 
  For instance, if there’s a kid who feels safer in your compa-
  ny, you could represent that as a Pastoral effect. If there’s a long 
  stretch where this is mechanically irrelevant you’ll generally treat  
  it as a 
  Setting Ability, instead, until it begins mattering again. 
  
  392
  392
  Setting Abilities
  Powers marked with the 
  Setting Icon represent your IC or 
  OOC investment in a certain portion of the setting—a weight of 
  authority or history that has accrued. 
  To keep this history and authority from being forgotten, a Perk 
  like this lets you ask the HG for a micro-update on what’s going 
  on there every (Perk-specific) interval of time.
  Mystical Abilities
  Powers marked with the 
  Symbolic Icon generally produce 
  raw effects—things just happen, disregarding the normal rules for 
  how things play out.
  At the mundane level, this makes you better at “going with 
  the flow.”
  Arc-Limited Rewards
  Particularly at the mundane level, rewards may require a cer-
  tain level of your Arc Trait to achieve. I’m expecting this to be 
  “your Arc Trait before completing the quest”—
  Since they’re all suggestions, I can’t enforce that or any-
  thing, and you can go with what feels right to your group, 
  but on the whole, if you complete your first Arc and you’re 
  looking to see whether you can pick up something that’s only 
  available at Arc 1+?
  You probably can’t, or at least, probably shouldn’t.
  You were Arc 0 for the duration of the quest, and I don’t 
  like the idea that the rewards available might depend on 
  whether you completed, or just barely fell short of completing, 
  the Arc. It’s actually reasonable for that to matter, in character, 
  but it’s too fussy, you know?
  Questions
  The suggested Perks are often pretty generic, so I’m leaving 
  the answers to a lot of questions in your hands. For instance, 
  there are some Perks that let you radiate inspiration, purity, or 
  whatever in an “aura”—but you’ll notice that the various Aura 
  Perks don’t answer questions like:
   
  ŭ “do people need to see me to be inspired by me?”
   
  ŭ “how far away can my radiant purity hurt the living dead?” 
  and 
   
  ŭ “can I target specific people and leave others unaffected?”
  That’s going to be up to what the Perk actually is, to how you 
  got it, and to the circumstances of earning and using it specific 
  to your game.
  That said, in cases where the exact definition and function 
  of a Perk is variable, and you pick something that isn’t very 
  useful? You can probably also assume that you can expand on 
  it and develop it with practice just like you could some sort 
  of Skill.
  
  Arcs: Bindings Arcs
  393
   
  Bindings Arcs
  Bindings Arcs focus on sealed, bound powers: you develop a 
  facility with containment and targeted use of wicked, forbidden, 
  or dangerous things. They look something like this:
   
  ŭ Quest 1 establishes you as the kind of person who does this.
   
  ŭ Quest 2 lets you help someone or do something important.
   
  ŭ Quest 3 lets you enact a big, decisive plan.
  Then, if you haven’t got enough XP to finish out the Arc, or just 
  plain want to do more, you can go on to do:
   
  ŭ Quest 4 where you remake the world into something more like 
  you think it ought to be. 
   
  ŭ Quest 5 where you explore the effects that that had.
  This Arc uses a really loose definition of “wicked, forbidden, or 
  dangerous.” I mean, we’re not just talking about someone who 
  calls up the powers of Hell, here; this is the Arc to use if you have 
  a pet wolf, command a division of not-100%-clean cops, or act 
  as the government handler for a reckless kid and their marvelous 
  wish-granting engine—
  If you’re someone whose genre is “the person who controls 
  dangerous forces,” I mean.
  If you’re the innocent playing with forces that would kill any-
  one else; or the pragmatist in control of a ruthless power; or the 
  selfish jerk riding the tiger; or the person who deals with edge and 
  liminal forces because there’s nobody else who can:
  That’s what this Arc is about.
   Bindings 1 
  1: 
   
  A Wicked Partner
  You have to work with, partner with, or tie your fate to something 
  wrong or in disfavor: a beast; Bleak power; cruel or disliked person; 
  taboo or ill-favored entity; or maybe a ghost, vampire, or witch...
  Reward: you’ve hammered out a working relationship with 
  them.
  Miraculous Perks and 
  Other Benefits (Choose 1):
  Maybe you get a powerful spiritual Bond to that creature?
   
  ŭ Leashed Fury. Gain a new miraculous power that lets you 
  mentally communicate with, and command, some beast or 
  “wicked” person. It’s probably 0 MP to talk to them but there’s 
  an MP cost or time delay to command them. There may be 
  a limitation or further cost when it comes to commanding a 
  person or violating the nature of a beast—whatever it takes to 
  make the players comfortable with things, I think.
   
  ŭ Bond. Gain a level 1 Bond Perk connecting you to the crea-
  ture.
   
  ŭ Gain +1 to a Bond Perk related to the creature or the quest.
  Maybe you’ve won some treasure or payment for working with 
  them?
   
  ŭ Accessory. A magically perfect possession—you can spend 
  miraculous Will when taking action with this treasure.
  Maybe you’re becoming weirder, yourself?
   
  ŭ Superior Skill. Gain a level 2 Superior Skill Perk representing 
  increasing alienation or inhumanity of some sort.
   
  ŭ An existing Superior Skill Perk (of that sort) rises to level 3.
  Mundane Perks and 
  Other Benefits (Choose 1):
  Maybe your relationship to that creature deepens?
   
  ŭ Connection. Gain a level 1-2 Connection Perk to a “wicked” 
  person or “beast.”
   
  ŭ +1 to such a Connection Perk (max 5)
   
  ŭ At Arc 2+:
   
   +1 to a Bond Perk that’s somehow related to the creature or 
  the quest, up to the Arc Trait’s rating
  Maybe you’ve won some treasure or payment for working with 
  them?
   
  ŭ Accessory. An expensive object or well-tuned machine.
  Maybe you’re becoming a little weird yourself?
   
  ŭ Superior Skill. Gain a level 1 Superior Skill Perk representing 
  increasing alienation or inhumanity of some sort.
  1: 
   
  Am I OK?
  You’ve long since started your work with wicked or disrepu-
  table things; you maybe even are one. You’re not sure how to 
  live with that. Does it make you evil? A bad person? Trouble? 
  Do you have a place in society?
  You’re thinking about stuff like that.
  Reward: you’ve come to terms with things, a little.
   Alternate Bindings 1 Quest 
  
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  394
   Bindings 2 
  2: 
   
  Deep Trouble
  There’s someone who needs your help, or something you must do, 
  because you work with the kinds of things you work with.
  ...Unfortunately, you have no idea what you’re doing. This is 
  big. This is complicated. Maybe leap in feet-first and hope to fig-
  ure it out as you go?
  Reward: you’re oriented now. You have a plan.
  Mundane Perks and 
  Other Benefits (Choose 1):
  You might earn a new contact or associate:
   
  ŭ Bond. Gain a new level 1 Bond Perk...
   
  ŭ Connection. Or a new level 2 Connection Perk...
  ...somehow connecting you to the person you helped, or someone 
  else connected to the quest.
  Or, since this Arc assumes that you’re working with animals, sol-
  diers, weapons, powers, or magic that you “shouldn’t,” maybe 
  you’ve learned to control them better and to make them safer for 
  others?
   
  ŭ Bonus. 1/chapter, this Perk acts as a +1 Tool for (choose one)...
   
   selectively not hurting people when using a particular 
  weapon or technique.
   
   imprisoning, punishing, or restricting the movements of a 
  dangerous servant, associate, or ally.
   
   quickly assembling and deploying a particular group of sol-
  diers, servants, or animals.
   
  ŭ
  “They Know Your Scent.” It’s not perfect but the powers 
  you wield will tend not to get out of control and hurt people 
  you care about—1/chapter, when the HG describes one of the 
  wicked people, alien powers, or animals that you work with 
  going wild and hurting someone, you can propose that they 
  sense, remember, or share your interest in that person instead. 
  The HG can accept or reject your idea, but has to clear their 
  head and take a moment to consider it first.
  Miraculous Perks and 
  Other Benefits (Choose 1):
  You might still get a new contact or associate:
   
  ŭ Bond. Gain a new level 1-2 Bond Perk...
   
  ŭ Connection. Or a new level 2-3 Connection Perk...
  ...somehow connecting you to the person you helped, or someone 
  else connected to the quest.
  Or you might get a new ability—
   
  ŭ Power. This is
   
   a power to protect someone from the kind of powers you 
  wield;
   
   a power to chain something related to the powers you wield;
   
   a power to punish something related to the powers you 
  wield; or
   
   a power to summon something related to the powers you 
  wield.
  And it’s
   
   a Major Miracle that you can use 1/book, or more often with 
  4 MP or to resolve an Issue;
   
   a smaller miraculous power that you can use 1/chapter, or 
  more often with MP;
   
   a power you can use every scene, but it has some roleplay-
  ing or circumstantial condition that the HG thinks would 
  be fun.
  For instance, if you work with insects, you could have a seasonal 
  power that banishes vermin from a large area for the season; or 
  a weekly ability to call upon a swarm of bees; or a power to kill 
  insects whenever you like by pointing in their general direction 
  and snapping your fingers. I’m lowballing the power level in those 
  examples; you can pick powers that are substantially stronger than 
  that if that’s what feels suitable to your game.
  2: 
   
  This is Fixable
  There’s someone who needs your help, or something you must 
  do, because you work with the kinds of things you work with.
  ...It’ll be tough, but you know what to do.
  Reward: you’ve tangibly helped them or made tangible 
  progress.
   Alternate Bindings 2 Quest 
  
  395
   
   Bindings 3 
  3: 
   
  You risk yourself on a complicated and difficult plan. Usually you 
  know what you’re doing, and you’re doing it right, but you’re 
  doing something so hard and complicated that you might lose 
  midway through anyway.
  Result: you win! ...unless you already lost. If you already lost, 
  finishing this quest results in the ongoing catastrophe staggering 
  to its natural halt.
  Mundane Perks and 
  Other Benefits (Choose 1):
  You might change your nature—
   
  ŭ rewriting one of your Afflictions
   
  ŭ changing the details of a Perk
   
  ŭ moving 1-2 points between your existing Skills, or to a brand-
  new mundane Skill
  Or you might attune yourself to an element—to something like 
  fire, shadows, plants, or one of the classic Spiritual elements (pg. 
  515) like “the insects and the flowers.”
   
  ŭ Elemental Attunement. Choose an Element to associate with 
  your Bindings Arc. 1/chapter, you may use this Element as a 
  +1 Tool for any reasonable action using or involving it.
  Or, starting at Arc 1, you might be able to learn a new magical 
  Skill tied to the Arc—something related to your bargains and 
  strange powers.
   
  ŭ At Arc 1+:
   
   Magical Skill. You gain a new level 1 magical Skill as a 
  Perk associated with this Arc. You may only choose one 
  such Skill for this Arc.
   
   Bond. You gain a new level 1 Bond Perk conceptually re-
  lated to one of your magical Skills or magical Skill perks.
   
  ŭ At Arc 2+:
   
   +1 to this Arc’s magical Skill Perk, up to the Arc Trait’s rating.
  Miraculous Perks and 
  Other Benefits (Choose 1):
  You might change your nature—
   
  ŭ Affliction. You pick up a new Affliction with a level tied to 
  this Arc.
   
  ŭ tweaking the details of 1-2 of your existing powers, making 
  them a bit more pleasant to use either IC or OOC but not actu-
  ally stronger or “better.” 
  Or you might power up a bit—
   
  ŭ Power Up. You can strengthen one of your existing powers or 
  make it easier to use. You can apply this Perk to one of your 
  inherent powers or layer it on top of another Perk.
   
  ŭ MP. This Perk adds 1 to your starting MP. (You also get an 
  immediate MP.)
  Or you might attune yourself to an element—to something like 
  fire, shadows, plants, or one of the classic Spiritual elements (pg. 
  515) like “the insects and the flowers”—
   
  ŭ Power. Choose an Element to associate with this Bindings Arc, 
  if you haven’t. You gain a new miraculous ability—normally 
  an every-few-hours kind of power, but it depends on what it 
  does—that gives you miraculous control over that Element. 
  You can pick one of the natural powers of the Spiritual Arc, 
  using it at a level appropriate for your current Arc Trait, but it 
  won’t improve further without replacing this Perk.
  Or gain some other new abilities—
   
  ŭ Skill. You gain a level 3 mundane Skill.
   
  ŭ Magician’s Path—
   
   Increase an existing magical Skill Perk to 3, exploring the 
  limits of your magic.
   
   Gain a level 1 Superior Skill Perk, as that magic changes you. 
   
  ŭ At Arc 2+:
   
   Skill: You gain a level 4 mundane Skill.
  
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  397
   
   Bindings 4 
  4: 
   
  You’re making a proactive choice or gamble. You’ve decided to fix 
  things, change things, or reveal the truth of how they already are.
  Reward: you made an impact. You changed things. Was it 
  right to do so? Time will tell.
  Mundane Perks and 
  Other Benefits (Choose 1):
  Maybe you’ve become something awesome? Something that can 
  legitimately define destiny? Just because you’re a mundane char-
  acter doesn’t mean that you can’t become an avatar of deity or the 
  ruler of the realm of nightmares—it just means you need to work 
  a lot harder!
   
  ŭ Apotheosis. 1/book, you can take on your full glory and power 
  and use this Perk as a +3 Tool for anything appropriate. You 
  may define this Perk in such a way that almost anything is 
  appropriate, or hew closer to a specific title or power, as you 
  and reason prefer.
   
  ŭ Arc 2+:
   
   Power Up. Increase an inherent Skill or Bond that’s rele-
  vant to this Arc by +1, up to the Arc Trait’s rating. (This is 
  always “+1, up to the Arc Trait’s rating” instead of a num-
  ber—if the Skill or Arc rating goes up, or even somehow 
  goes down, the Power Up changes appropriately.) This can 
  increase Shine, Cool, magical Skills, Superior Skills, and 
  mundane Skills, but only while you keep this Perk.
   
  Or maybe you’ve deepened your mastery of this Arc’s magic?
   
  ŭ Magical Technique. Gain a new Obstacle 2-3 technique asso-
  ciated with one of your magical Skills—ideally a magical Skill 
  Perk associated with this Arc.
   
  ŭ Arc 2+:
   
   +1 to an existing magical Skill Perk associated with this 
  Arc, up to the Arc Trait’s rating.
   
   +1 to an appropriate existing Bond Perk, up to the Arc 
  Trait’s rating.
  Or maybe you’ve just gotten cooler?
   
  ŭ MP. This Perk adds 1 to your starting MP. (You also get an 
  immediate MP.)
   
  ŭ Arc 1+:
   
   Cool. You gain a new level 1 Cool Perk.
   
   +1 to an existing Cool Perk, up to the Arc Trait’s rating.
  Miraculous Perks and 
  Other Benefits (Choose 1):
  You could learn a new alternate form or modality—you can be-
  come the expression of some great destiny-deciding principle and 
  bring that principle personally to bear:
   
  ŭ Power. You have a new ability—either an Imperial or Major 
  Miraculous ability—that you may use 1/book for free, or at 
  other times for a cost of 4 MP. This transforms you into some-
  thing theologically or metaphorically potent. For example, you 
  become an avatar of winter who can stalk through the world 
  bringing ice and snow, or an angel who can show people the 
  flaws in their lives, or a congealing power that can hold the 
  substrate of things together against a tide of the Outside. Usu-
  ally this functions as a wish (a specific but abstract wish, like 
  “I wish I were an avatar of winter”) or Bleak power, so you can 
  handle the details differently each time. 
  Or perhaps you gain an invincible, undying strength.
   
  ŭ Health. Gain a new Health Level as a Perk. This is normally 
  a Divine Health Level, but if you hurried through the quest or 
  don’t want more Divine Health Levels, you could get a Tough 
  or Normal Health Level instead.
   
  ŭ Power. Gain a new defensive power, probably roughly com-
  parable to Weathered.
   
  ŭ Bond. Gain a new level 4 Bond Perk, something that sustains you.
   
  ŭ Affliction. Gain a new Affliction that expresses that inner 
  strength.
   
  ŭ
  “Guess You’re Stuck with Me.” Gain a new, defined 
  mechanism for coming back from death or absolute defeat. 
  This operates on the player/game level rather than the char-
  acter level so it’s situationally better than immortality itself.
  Or you master some form of magic associated with the Arc:
   
  ŭ Power Up. One of your inherent magical Skills improves to 
  level 4-5 while you have this Perk.
   
  ŭ Improve an existing magical Skill Perk to level 4-5.
  
  398
  398
   Bindings 5 
  5: 
   
  The Aftermath
  You explore the consequences of a big decision you made for 
  somebody else.
  Result: it’s time to turn your attention to something new.
  Mundane Perks and 
  Other Benefits (Choose 1):
  This could net you a cool companion or minion:
   
  ŭ Connection. Gain a level 2 Connection Perk to a new/un-
  derused Main Character. This gains you a sempai-kohai rela-
  tionship with them and brings them into the game as your min-
  ion/pet/associate/friend rather than as an independent actor, 
  although you can’t expect that to stay true forever.
  Or you could get a stronger version of the level 2 Perks—some-
  thing to control and manage the powers that you wield:
   
  ŭ Bonus. 1/book, this Perk acts as a +3 Tool for (choose one)...
   
   selectively not hurting people when using a particular 
  weapon or technique.
   
   imprisoning, punishing, or restricting the movements of a 
  dangerous servant, associate, or ally.
   
   quickly assembling and deploying a particular group of sol-
  diers, servants, or animals.
   
  ŭ
  “I Have... Certain Resources.” You have powerful forces 
  under your control. To make sure that they don’t get forgotten 
  or drift off into irrelevance, 1/chapter you can invoke this Perk 
  and ask the HG to narrate what’s going on with them. (This 
  doesn’t have to be more than a sentence or two—“oh, your 
  soldiers are doing training and thinking about winter supplies” 
  would be enough.)
   
  ŭ
  “They Know Your Scent.” As seen on pg. 394.
   
  ŭ At Arc 1+:
   
   Bond: you gain a level 1 Bond Perk that helps you control 
  some wicked or taboo creature, person, or beast.
   
  ŭ At Arc 2+:
   
   +1 to a Bond Perk that helps you control some wicked/ta-
  boo creature, person, or beast, up to the Arc Trait’s rating.
  Miraculous Perks 
  and Other Benefits (Choose 1):
  This could net you a cool companion or minion:
   
  ŭ Power. You gain the power to summon, banish, and to a limit-
  ed extent control a new/underused Main Character.
  Or improve your health and strength:
   
  ŭ Health. Gain a new Health Level as a Perk. This is normally 
  a Divine Health Level, but if you hurried through the quest or 
  don’t want more Divine Health Levels, you could get a Tough 
  or Normal Health Level instead.
   
  ŭ MP. This Perk adds 2 to your starting MP. (You also get an 
  immediate 2 MP.)
   
  ŭ Power Up. You can strengthen one of your existing powers or 
  make it easier to use. You can apply this Perk to one of your 
  inherent powers or layer it on top of another Perk.
  Or do you improve your mastery over the powers you wield?
   
  ŭ Power. This is an impressive or even terrifying power to
   
   protect someone from the kind of powers you wield;
   
   chain something related to the powers you wield;
   
   punish something related to the powers you wield; or
   
   summon something related to the powers you wield.
  And it’s
   
  ŭ a Major or Imperial Miracle that you can use 1/chapter, or 
  more often with MP;
   
  ŭ a meaningful power you can use at any time for an MP;
   
  ŭ a meaningful power you can use 1-2x/scene, or more often 
  with MP.
  5: 
   
  The Axis of the World
  You become, or take up your mantle as, part of the axis of the 
  world—e.g., the chain that holds evil at bay, the order that 
  holds the world together, the power that binds all nightmares 
  or dreams away from reality or makes what is alive to live.
  Reward: you fulfill a key cosmos-stabilizing task.
   Alternate Bindings 5 Quest 
  
  399
   
  
  Arcs: Knight Arcs
  400
  400
  Knight Arcs
  Knight Arcs let you take on a formal role in society or the cos-
  mos and wield its perquisites and powers. They look something like:
   
  ŭ Quest 1 is about figuring out what you want to be.
   
  ŭ Quest 2 is about the vice that gets in your way.
   
  ŭ Quest 3 is an experience that shakes up your role.
  Then, if you haven’t got enough XP to finish out the Arc, or just 
  plain want to do more, you can go on to do:
   
  ŭ Quest 4 is about making up for your mistakes.
   
  ŭ Quest 5 is about becoming something better than you were.
  There are two ways to handle repeating this Arc. The first is just 
  to scale up the ambition. First you want to be a singer. Then a hit 
  singer. You know?
  The other option is to shift the kind of thing you are looking 
  for as you go, e.g.:
   
  ŭ “I want to be somebody.”
   
  ŭ “OK, I’m the lost heir to the throne of the lake elves. I want to 
  be good at that.”
   
  ŭ “OK, I’m well-loved royalty, but I want to make the world a 
  better place.”
   
  ŭ “OK, I’m doing well, but this’ll fall apart without me. I want 
  us all to be better.”
   
  ŭ “OK, I’m changing the world, but I want to understand why 
  the world was so messed up in the first place, and whether 
  changing it has a point!”
  Knights probably escalate about that fast in an epic game, but you can 
  feel free to take it a little slower if you’re focused on pastoral stuff.
   Knight 1 
  1: 
  You’re putting on airs. You’re dreaming big. Bigger than the life 
  you have. You’re aspiring, you know? 
  But you don’t really know how to get there.
  Reward: you’ve put a name to the thing you want to become, 
  and you’ve put your feet on a legitimate path to making that as-
  piration real.
  Mundane Perks and 
  Other Benefits (Choose 1):
  Sometimes that’s enough to shape you—to change who you are:
   
  ŭ Superior Skill. Gain a level 1 Superior Skill reflecting your 
  new aspiration or role.
   
  ŭ Arc 1+:
   
   Bond. Gain a level 1 Bond Perk tying you to the role.
   
   +1 to an appropriate Bond Perk, up to the Arc Trait’s rating.
  Sometimes, since you don’t know quite what you’re looking for, 
  you’ll wind up picking up some odd tricks along the way: 
   
  ŭ Bonus. 1/chapter, this Perk acts as a +1 or +2 Tool for some 
  niche ability—not being lost, holding your breath underwater, 
  juggling, or whatnot.
  If you haven’t changed much, maybe you picked up a mentor or 
  acquaintance or grew closer to one of your friends?
   
  ŭ Connection. Gain a new level 1-2 Connection Perk.
   
  ŭ +1 to an existing Connection Perk (max 5)
  Miraculous Perks and 
  Other Benefits (Choose 1):
  At the miraculous level, there’s a few different ways that this 
  might change you:
   
  ŭ Superior Skill. Gain a level 2 Superior Skill reflecting your 
  new aspiration or role.
   
  ŭ Affliction. Gain a new Affliction Perk with a level based on 
  this Arc.
   
  ŭ Power Up. Increase an inherent Skill or Bond that’s relevant 
  to this Arc by +1. (This is a modifier and not a number—if the 
  inherent Skill or Bond goes up, or even down, the Power Up 
  changes appropriately.) This can increase Bonds, Shine, Cool, 
  magical Skills, Superior Skills, and mundane Skills, but only 
  while you keep this Perk.
   
  ŭ Bond. Gain a level 1 Bond Perk reflecting your new aspiration 
  or role.
   
  ŭ +1 to an appropriate Bond Perk
  And again, you might pick up an odd trick or two along the way:
   
  ŭ Power. Gain a miraculous power covering some niche ability. 
  You’re never lost, you can breathe underwater, you can juggle 
  perfectly, or whatever. This is normally a free and even automatic 
  power, but the HG can impose an MP cost if you use it too often or 
  if you’ve picked a power a little stronger than they think would fit.
  This isn’t really any technically different from the last option, but 
  I wanted to highlight it. It’s possible that you’ll get better at com-
  municating with the people around you:
   
  ŭ Power. a 0-MP miraculous power for understanding and com-
  municating with people, such as Well-Liked in (Region) (pg. 
  401).
  
  401
   
   Knight 2 
  2: 
  This quest is a story of the thing that’s in your way. Think of it as 
  a “documentary”—it’s not about how you conquer your problem, 
  it’s just a tool to help explore what that problem is. 
  A vice? A weakness? An enemy? Or is it just that you’re kind 
  of raw and new?
  Outcome: this chapter of your life is over—things are about 
  to change. You’ve either just made a big decision, just gotten the 
  first big sign of that change, or you’ll do so tonight or tomorrow 
  morning.
  Mundane Perks and 
  Other Benefits (Choose 1):
  Is the thing in your way a vice? Maybe you pick up...
   
  ŭ Bonus. 1/chapter, this Perk acts as a +2 Tool for (choose one):
   
   indulging your vice;
   
   dodging the consequences of your vice.
   
  ŭ Magical Technique. Gain a new technique for a magical 
  Skill—something that your vice tempts you to use.
   
  ŭ Arc 1+:
   
   Magical Skill. Gain a level 1 magical Skill directly on point 
  for your vice—e.g., “Drunken Kung Fu” or “Gambler’s 
  Magic.” You may have only one such Skill tied to this Arc.
   
   +1 to this Arc’s magical Skill Perk, up to the Arc Trait’s 
  rating.
  Or more generally—you could pick up:
   
  ŭ Bond. Gain a level 1 Bond Perk representing your vice, weak-
  ness, or failing.
   
  ŭ Arc 2+:
   
   +1 to a Bond Perk representing your vice, weakness, or fail-
  ing, up to the Arc Trait’s rating.
  If none of that fits then you probably can’t power up your flaw 
  directly at the mortal level. Instead, you could try:
   
  ŭ Bonus. 1/chapter, this acts as a +1 Tool for doing something 
  that you learned to do during the course of this quest. What 
  is that?
   
  ŭ Connection. Gain a level 1-2 Connection Perk representing 
  your lifestyle in general, or to someone you interacted with a 
  lot this quest.
   
  ŭ +1 to an appropriate existing Connection Perk (max 5).
  Miraculous Perks and 
  Other Benefits (Choose 1):
  The simplest outcome for exploring your weakness, frailty, or vice 
  is to express it in a new Bond:
   
  ŭ Bond. Gain a level 4 Bond Perk representing your vice, weak-
  ness, or frailty.
  You could also gain in power a little:
   
  ŭ Cool. Gain a new Cool Perk at level 1.
   
  ŭ Power Up. Increase either your inherent Cool or an inherent 
  mundane Skill that’s relevant to this Arc by +1. (This is a mod-
  ifier and not a number—if the inherent Skill goes up, or even 
  down, the Power Up changes appropriately.)
   
  ŭ +1 to a Cool Perk
  Or maybe the “weight” of the quest—the sense of wrongness, and 
  impending change—piles up into a completely new power:
   
  ŭ Power. Gain a miraculous power that lets you destabilize 
  something or break boundaries—an Imperial miracle with 
  problematic connotations or a miracle with a slow but power-
  ful effect. For instance, you could learn to dissolve part of the 
  world around you into the Outside or gain a 1/book Imperial 
  miracle that lets you free anyone from anything that is impris-
  oning them or holding them back.
  Well-Liked in (Region)
  Type: Miraculous Action
  Cost: 
   
   0 MP—invoke 1-2x/scene to become instantly simpati-
  co with a (Region) NPC
   
   1 MP—invoke a third or later time per scene
  Pick a Region when you receive this power.
  People in (Region) know you and you know them.
  Invoke Well-Liked while talking to an NPC who lives in 
  (Region) and you’ll get an instant two-way surge of empathy 
  and fellow-feeling as well as a summary of what they’ve been 
  thinking about and doing for the past scene or hour of their life.
  
  402
  402
  
  403
   
   Knight 3 
  3: 
  The Challenge
  Something infects you or tries to change you. Something chal-
  lenges your conception of yourself.
  Result: You err. Or fall from grace. Or are changed. Or pos-
  sibly you grow.
  Mundane Perks and Other Bene-
  fits (Choose 1):
  Perhaps you wound up changed—
   
  ŭ rewriting one of your Afflictions
   
  ŭ changing the details of a Perk
   
  ŭ moving 1-2 points between your existing Skills, or to a brand-
  new mundane Skill
   
  ŭ Arc 2+:
   
   Variable Bond. Gain a Bond with variable level equal to 
  your Trust. Your changed self expresses itself more and 
  more as you open yourself to great powers, the world, and 
  numinous things.
  This quest often intensifies the contrast between you and the 
  world around you. So this might manifest as an “aura”—
   
  ŭ Defensive Aura: Pick a more specific special effect. 1/chapter, 
  your presence can shelter the people around you in some fash-
  ion. This is an action that you take that adds +1 to the Obstacle 
  (max 3) for relevant attacks.
   
  ŭ Support Aura: Pick a more specific special effect. 1/chapter, 
  your presence can support and help the people around you in 
  some fashion. This is an action that you take, that acts as a +1 
  Tool for others taking certain actions. In the event that your 
  presence would already normally be a Tool to those actions, 
  this improves it by a further +1 (max +3).
   
  ŭ Offensive Aura: Pick a more specific special effect. 1/chapter, 
  your presence can trouble those around you. This is an action 
  that you take that adds +1 to the Obstacle (max 3) for a certain 
  category of actions, such as “evil magic,” “breathing,” “speak-
  ing,” or “feeling at ease.”
  Starting at Arc 1+, you can pick something that this path, your er-
  rors, or some symbiotic alien power is turning you into. Let’s call 
  it your “Evolution.” It might take more than one Superior Skill to 
  express it (e.g., a wind-spirit might need Superior Celestian and 
  Superior Wind-Spirit), but you’ll have only one Evolution per Arc.
  You can choose:
   
  ŭ Superior Skill. Gain a new level 1 Superior Skill Perk relevant 
  to your Evolution;
   
  ŭ +1 to an Arc-related Superior Skill Perk, up to the Arc Trait’s 
  rating; or
   
  ŭ rewrite an existing Superior Skill Perk associated with your 
  Evolution.
  Miraculous Perks and 
  Other Benefits (Choose 1):
  Usually this quest has changed you in some way. So you might 
  pick up:
   
  ŭ Affliction. Gain a new Affliction Perk.
   
  ŭ Variable Bond or Affliction. Gain a Bond or Affliction Perk 
  with variable level equal to your Trust. Your changed self ex-
  presses itself more and more as you open yourself to great 
  powers, the world, and numinous things; betrayal might tem-
  porarily revert you.
   
  ŭ Bond. Gain a new level 3 Bond Perk.
   
  ŭ Transformation—
   
   Increase an existing Superior Skill Perk to 3, developing 
  your natural abilities.
   
   Gain a level 1 magical Skill Perk, as you learn to push it past 
  the limits of the natural.
  Or you might grow in strength through your adversities:
   
  ŭ MP. This Perk adds 1 to your starting MP. (You also get an 
  immediate MP.)
   
  ŭ Power Up. Increase an inherent mundane or Superior Skill 
  that’s relevant to this Arc by +1. (This is a modifier and not 
  a number—if the inherent Skill goes up, or even down, the 
  Power Up changes appropriately.)
  Or, as with the mundane Perks, your time in a high-contrast 
  environment might have taught something about you to shine 
  through—
   
  ŭ Power. You can invoke some sort of miraculous aura around 
  yourself, giving a defensive, offensive, or support effect to ap-
  propriate characters in your vicinity.
  3:
  A Fish out of Water
  You’re taken completely outside your normal context. Maybe 
  you try to stick to your role and vice and aspirations. Maybe 
  you take a break from them. I don’t know! Everything is dif-
  ferent for a while.
  Reward: This has a two-part reward:
   
  ŭ first, you have new inspiration about how to be what you 
  want to be and do what you want to do. 
   
  ŭ second, if there’s nothing preventing you—that is, if there’s 
  no pressing story reason why you have to stay out of your 
  element—it’s time to wrap things up and come back home 
  or back to normal.
   Alternate Knight 3 Quest 
  
  404
  404
   Knight 4 
  4: 
  You’ve fallen short of who you wanted to be. You’ve erred, or lost 
  your path. Now you have to make amends, and grow.
  Outcome: Redemption is an ongoing process, but you’ve 
  made a start. If possible, an NPC acknowledges that. Either way, 
  the weight of guilt and wrongness on you lightens.
  Mundane Perks and 
  Other Benefits (Choose 1):
  Conceptually, this strengthens you, frees you to move, or opens 
  your mind to new options and hopes. The world isn’t necessarily 
  quite so allegorical at the mundane level—sometimes, in the real 
  world, people will actually let go of guilt or whatever and not fly 
  physically free—but even so, I’m going to start with metaphori-
  cally resonant ideas.
  “Strengthening” you looks something like:
   
  ŭ Health. You’ve gained a new Normal Health Level.
   
  ŭ Trick. You’ve learned a new application for an existing Skill. 
  Sufficient practice will establish this as something that the 
  Skill actually does, at which point you will no longer need 
  this Perk.
   
  ŭ Magical Technique. Gain a new Obstacle 2-3 technique for 
  one of your magical Skills, ideally building on and enhancing 
  an existing technique.
   
  ŭ MP. This Perk adds 1 to your starting MP. (You also get an 
  immediate MP.)
   
  ŭ Accessory. You gain access to a useful defensive or force-mul-
  tiplying object.
   
  ŭ At Arc 1+:
   
   Cool. You gain a new level 1 Cool Perk.
   
  ŭ At Arc 2+:
   
   +1 to an existing Cool Perk, up to the Arc Trait’s rating
   
   +1 to an existing Bond Perk, up to the Arc Trait’s rating
  Freeing you to move looks something like:
   
  ŭ Accessory. You gain access to an unusual vehicle.
   
  ŭ Ticket. This Perk is a Superior Skill 1 granting you access to 
  a particular road, vehicle, place, or transportation method. In 
  short, your right to use it is so well-established as to give you 
  1 Edge against anybody trying to stop you.
  Enhanced insight would look like this:
   
  ŭ Bonus. You’ve learned a reasoning trick that you can apply 
  as a player—e.g., you’ve gotten good at flipping problems 
  around, following the money, doing Bayesian analysis, or 
  whatever. 1/chapter, this technique also acts as a +1 Tool for 
  reaching good results by doing that thing.
   
  ŭ
  “I’ll Explain Later”. You’ve learned specific secret knowl-
  edge, domain knowledge, or a reasoning trick that doesn’t 
  translate completely to the player realm—either because it’s a 
  big pile of disconnected esoteric knowledge or because the rea-
  soning trick is basically an occult handwave (e.g. “numeric cal-
  culations,” “Ars Morana,” “astrology,” or “what feels logical 
  here?”) Anyway, this can give you an insight into what’s going 
  on; 1/chapter, you can ask the HG what that insight reveals.
  Miraculous Perks and 
  Other Benefits (Choose 1):
  Again, your time on this quest may strengthen you—
   
  ŭ Health. Gain a new Health Level as a Perk. This is normally 
  a Divine Health Level, but if you hurried through the quest or 
  don’t want more Divine Health Levels, you could get a Tough 
  or Normal Health Level instead.
   
  ŭ Power Up. Extend the flexibility of a miraculous ability.
   
  ŭ Power Up. Make an existing miraculous ability Major.
   
  ŭ Power Up. Increase a level 2-4 Skill by +1. This can increase 
  Cool, Shine, magical Skills, Superior Skills, and mundane 
  Skills, but only while you keep this Perk and have an underly-
  ing level 2+ Skill.
   
  ŭ +1 to a level 2-4 Skill Perk, including Cool, Shine, Superior, 
  magical, and mundane Skills.
  Or lighten some of the burdens on you in general—
   
  ŭ Lighter Heart. 1/book, you can invoke this Perk as if it were 
  a Recharge Token. The HG may require you to do something 
  redemptive before this power becomes available again (that is, 
  once used, you must wait until a new book and until you’ve 
  done something redemptive again before this power is again 
  available for use.)
   
  Or give you a power useful for weathering trouble, seeing past the 
  surfaces of things, or getting from place to place—
   
  ŭ Power. Gain a relatively strong defensive, transportation, or 
  insight-related miracle. Talk to the HG about what’s appropri-
  ate for the game in terms of power and cost.
  
  405
   
   Knight 5 
  5: 
  You have it in sight now. You know where you’re going. This 
  is the quest that takes you that last step to becoming something 
  better than you’ve been.
  Reward: And now you’ve become that. If possible, an NPC 
  you care about acknowledges that. If not, then the universe does—
  one day, it’s just... done.
  Mundane Perks and 
  Other Benefits (Choose 1):
  The simplest way to reward yourself for this quest is to directly 
  change your character:
   
  ŭ rewriting one of your Afflictions
   
  ŭ rewriting one of your Bonds
   
  ŭ Bond. Gain a level 1 Bond Perk representing the change in 
  your character.
   
  ŭ Arc 2+:
   
   +1 to a Bond Perk representing that change, up to the Arc 
  Trait’s rating.
   
   Variable Bond. Gain a Bond Perk with variable level equal 
  to your Calling—usually an identity, a self, a person that 
  you become more and more as you live your ordinary life 
  and grow into your duty or calling, but which becomes less 
  important for a while once that calling is resolved.
  Often, though, you’ve changed in intangible ways—possibly too 
  subtle to express even with a Bond. This might manifest in the 
  game as:
   
  ŭ Connection. You’ve earned a level 2 Connection Perk to a 
  new/underused Main Character, who admires you for the 
  change.
   
  ŭ
  “I Really Am Different, Aren’t I.”: 1/book, you can in-
  voke this power and ask the HG to narrate an NPC’s thoughts 
  on how your character has changed. You can pick a specific 
  NPC, but normally you pick something like “someone friend-
  ly” or “someone with surprising insight.”
  If appropriate you receive this information IC—you acci-
  dentally read a bit of a diary, or some weird experiment with 
  telepathy happens, or you pick up the information in symbolic 
  form while in some weird dream-world or Bluebell Park or the 
  Outside. (If you’re in the Deep Under or on Little Island, it 
  may even be a genuine voiceover.)
   
  ŭ At Arc 2+:
   
   Auctoritas. Choose whether this Arc protects you from the 
  Bleak power of the Outside or protects some feature of your 
  character from the power of wishes. You gain a level 1 Auc-
  toritas protecting you, or that feature, against those effects.
   
   +1 to a previously obtained Auctoritas Perk of that form 
  (max 3)
  Sometimes the most important thing about this quest is something 
  you’ve achieved:
   
  ŭ
  “You may have heard of me.”: In this or a recently com-
  pleted quest, you’ve changed the world. To make sure that this 
  doesn’t get forgotten/drift into irrelevance, 1/book, you can 
  explain to the HG how you think it should play into the course 
  of events. They don’t have to go along with it, but they have to 
  listen; and that chapter or the next chapter, they have to narrate 
  how the change is playing into the course of events.
   
  ŭ
  “It’s a Living.” You have an important role in the world. 
  To make sure this doesn’t get forgotten/drift into irrelevance, 
  you can ask the HG 1/chapter to narrate something to do with 
  the politics of the role or someone being impressed by it. (This 
  doesn’t have to be more than a sentence or two—“oh, someone 
  comes by to ask for a favor again” or “you have to make a new 
  ruling or two on doctrine this week” suffices!)
   
  ŭ Accessory. Along the way you picked up a really cool trea-
  sure—something hardly anybody else in Town (or wherever) 
  possesses.
  Miraculous Perks and 
  Other Benefits (Choose 1):
  You’ve become a very different person:
   
  ŭ Variable Bond or Affliction. Gain a Bond or Affliction Perk 
  with variable level equal to your Calling. This is that very dif-
  ferent person that you’ve become—and will become to a great-
  er and greater extent as you live your ordinary life and grow 
  into your duty or calling, but which will lose its grip on you for 
  a while once that Calling Issue is resolved.
   
  ŭ Power. Gain a powerful utility power that takes a few minutes’ 
  work (or 4 MP) to activate: you can shapechange, or create 
  bridges, or change temperatures, or turn people into animals 
  or vice versa for a day.
   
  ŭ Swap. Ditch a magical or Superior Skill Perk and replace it 
  with a new one, level 4-5.
   
  ŭ Swap—
   
   Ditch a level 1-3 magical or Superior Skill; 
   
   Replace it with a new magical or Superior Skill of compa-
  rable level; and
   
   Take a new Power Up Perk that raises that new Skill to 
  level 4-5.
   
  ŭ You can also replace a level 4-5 Superior or magical Skill with 
  a new magical or Superior Skill at the same level without using 
  a Perk at all.
  Or maybe what’s more important is the things you’ve done along 
  the way?
   
  ŭ Affliction. Gain a powerful new Affliction that changes or ex-
  presses a change made in the world.
   
  ŭ Accessory. Gain a potent item of mystical regalia.
  Or that you’ve earned the loyalty of a new/underused Main Char-
  acter?
   
  ŭ Connection. As expressed with a level 2 Connection Perk.
   
  ŭ Affliction. Or an Affliction.
  
  Arcs: Otherworldly 
  Arcs
  406
  406
  Otherworldly Arcs
  Otherworldly Arcs take you outside yourself—they connect 
  you to worlds of spirit, nature, life and death, and other aspects of 
  yourself. You dream powerful dreams, communicate with spirit 
  allies, and become something other than you were.
  This almost always echoes the experiences of religious ecsta-
  cy—of holy trances.
  You fly from your body. You become one with storms or for-
  ests. You are eaten and torn apart by spirits, only to come back 
  with medicine. 
  This isn’t because the Arc requires you to be a spiritual person, 
  or to believe in that sort of thing, or to follow a specific ecstatic 
  tradition: rather, that’s just what this kind of Arc is like. Internet 
  browsing? Magical training? Intensive psychiatric rehab? Learn-
  ing to control a giant robot?
  This is the way they play out.
   
  ŭ Quest 1: dreams and otherworldly experiences connect you to 
  some external power.
   
  ŭ Quest 2: the path you’re on scares you; burdens you.
   
  ŭ Quest 3: something is devouring you; growing inside you; tak-
  ing you over.
  That’s a pretty horrifying place to leave it, but a lot of the time it 
  does plateau there—you finish the Arc, and you’ve been marked 
  by it, but you’re still here. Maybe you’ll go back for another 
  round? Maybe you’ll do something else.
  Or maybe you haven’t gotten enough XP to finish out the Arc 
  yet, or maybe it just can’t end there, you can’t make it. You have 
  to go on to do:
   
  ŭ Quest 4: you’re lost to yourself. You’re not you any longer.
   
  ŭ Quest 5: you reconcile with someone or something you’ve 
  been fighting.
  There’s also an alternative ending quest where you merge with 
  some great spiritual force and become its exemplar, avatar, or kin.
   Otherworldly 1 
  1: 
  Troubled Dreams
  You’re having dreams or otherworldly experiences that connect 
  you to something beyond and outside yourself.
  Afterwards: you know what you have to do about this—a path 
  you are called to walk, or something you must do to keep these 
  experiences under control. It is possible that you’ve found 2-3 op-
  tions; if so, it is possible to choose wrongly.
  Mundane Perks and 
  Other Benefits (Choose 1):
  Did you also develop a power related to your dreams?
   
  ŭ Superior Skill. Gain Superior Dreamer 1 as a Perk, represent-
  ing your increased facility in handling surreal and dream-like 
  environments.
   
  ŭ Magical Technique. Gain a new Obstacle 2-3 technique 
  for one of your magical Skills, ideally something relating to 
  dreams.
   
  ŭ Bonus. You have some sort of power relating to dreams or 
  visions. For instance, you might be extra-creative in the hour 
  after waking up, or occasionally “feel” the right direction to 
  go or thing to bet on, or learn to do very well without sleep. 
  1/chapter, this Perk acts as a +1 Tool for doing something 
  like that.
  Did you meet and form a connection to some sort of ally spirit?
   
  ŭ Bonus. 1/chapter, you can call upon your ally spirit as (choose 
  one):
   
   a +1 Tool for a narrow set of actions;
   
   a +1 Tool for any action, but only when your spirit is “near;”
   
   a +1 Tool for any action, but with some consequence—the 
  spirit affects you.
   
  ŭ Superior Skill. Gain a new level 1 Superior Skill derived from 
  harboring that spirit inside your body, mind, or soul.
   
  ŭ Connection. Gain a new level 1-2 Connection Perk connect-
  ing you to that ally.
   
  ŭ +1 to an existing Connection Perk connecting you to that ally 
  (max 5).
  1: 
  The Hole in the World
  There’s something wrong with the world. Chaos has slipped 
  into your nice ordered existence, or maybe something’s al-
  ways been wrong and you’ve just now realized that you care.
  Afterwards: you know what you have to do. It is possible 
  that you’ve found 2-3 options instead of one; if so, it is possi-
  ble to choose wrongly.
   Alternate Otherworldly 1 Quest 
  
  407
   
  Or did you attune yourself to an element—to something like fire, 
  shadows, plants, or one of the classic Spiritual elements (pg. 515) 
  like “the long days of summer”?
   
  ŭ Superior Skill. Gain a level 1 Superior Affinity to that ele-
  ment.
   
  ŭ Connection. Gain a new level 1-2 Connection Perk connect-
  ing you to that element.
   
  ŭ +1 to an existing Connection Perk connecting you to that el-
  ement (max 5).
  Starting at Arc 1+, you can define a magical Skill for this Arc. You 
  can only have one such Skill for this Arc.
  Are you beginning to learn that magic from your dreams?
   
  ŭ At Arc 1+:
   
   Magical Skill. Gain a new level 1 magical Skill Perk for 
  this Arc.
   
   Bond. Gain a new level 1 Bond, related in some fashion to 
  one of your magical Skills or magical Skill Perks.
   
  ŭ At Arc 2+:
   
   +1 to a Bond Perk or magical Skill Perk, up to the Arc 
  Trait’s rating.
   
   Variable Bond. Gain a Bond Perk suitable for this magic 
  with variable level equal to your Trust. Your magic becomes 
  stronger and stronger as you open yourself to great powers, 
  the world, and numinous things; betrayal and mistrust, if it 
  resolves the Issue, might strip you temporarily of this power.
  Miraculous Perks and 
  Other Benefits (Choose 1):
  Did you gain a power relating to dreams (or possibly just gener-
  ally “altered states?”)
   
  ŭ Power. You gain a new miraculous or Imperial power relating 
  to this stuff—e.g.,
   
   you can peer into someone’s dreams while conscious, 
   
   you can send someone a message in dreams,
   
   you can touch someone to invoke a shared vision,
   
   you can touch someone to inflict a hallucination,
   
   you can access miraculous Will while sleepwalking,
   
   you can access miraculous Will while in Bluebell Park,
   
   you can do research at a miraculous library in your dreams,
   
   you can “wake up elsewhere in a cold sweat” instead of 
  taking a wound, 1/book
   
   you can protect people around you from spiritual attack 
  while dreaming, 
   
   you can spirit-walk while dreaming, or
   
   an Affliction that everyone around you falls asleep when 
  your REM sleep starts
  Or build a deep connection to some element of the world?
   
  ŭ Superior Skill. Gain a level 2 Superior Affinity to that ele-
  ment.
  You’ll often meet a spirit or ally in your dreams or on an other-
  worldly journey. It could be a mentor or helper, but it often is or 
  creates a symbiote that sets up shop inside your body, mind, or 
  soul. 
  So the last power option we’ll talk about here is based on that:
   
  ŭ Power. You gain a new power based on this ally or spirit: typ-
  ically something you can call upon 1/chapter (or more often, 
  if you spend 1-2 MP) 
  
  408
  408
   Otherworldly 2 
  2: 
  You’re on a scary or difficult path. Part of you is resisting—cling-
  ing to the way things used to be. Even if you’re on this path by 
  choice, it’s scary, or hard, or against your natural way of thinking, 
  or costing something you really hate having to give up.
  Afterwards: You release some of that. More of you accepts 
  that you can’t go back.
  Mundane Perks and 
  Other Benefits (Choose 1):
  You’ll often find yourself saddled with an unwanted responsibility 
  or power—
   
  ŭ Bonus. This is a power that lets you fix—heal, repair, or pro-
  tect—something that you didn’t really want to be responsible 
  for. 1/book, this Perk acts as a +3 Tool to doing so.
   
  ŭ Bonus. This is a power that lets you get or access somewhere 
  unusual—somewhere you don’t or at least didn’t actually re-
  ally want to be able to go. 1/chapter, this power acts as a +2 
  Tool for getting there.
  Or you’ll gain a bit more Connection to the ally spirit we men-
  tioned in step 1—
   
  ŭ +1 to that Connection Perk, if you had one.
  Or you can explore the idea that this is a vice, or that a vice is 
  holding you back—
   
  ŭ Bond. Gain a level 1 Bond Perk representing your vice, weak-
  ness, or failing.
   
  ŭ Arc 2+:
   
   +1 to a Bond Perk representing your vice, weakness, or fail-
  ing, up to the Arc Trait’s rating.
  Miraculous Perks and 
  Other Benefits (Choose 1):
  At the miraculous level, the unwanted responsibilities and powers 
  you’ll pick up are a bit more extreme:
   
  ŭ Power. Gain a miraculous or Imperial power that lets you fix 
  something—heal, repair, or protect something—you didn’t re-
  ally want to be responsible for fixing.
   
  ŭ Power. Gain a miraculous or Imperial power that opens paths 
  to somewhere you didn’t really want to go.
  Or you might strengthen your ally spirit:
   
  ŭ Power. Gain a power (typically a 1/book Imperial miracle) 
  from an ally or spirit met in dreams or during an otherworldly 
  experience.
   
  ŭ Power Up. +1 to your Connection to your ally spirit, even if 
  that Connection is 0, and to the extent feasible they become a 
  useful NPC rather than a background character and powerset. 
  You might express a vice or acquire a curse:
   
  ŭ Bond. Gain a level 4 Bond Perk representing your vice, weak-
  ness, frailty, or curse.
  Learning or getting a little better at magic is possible, since you’re 
  on a difficult path:
   
  ŭ Magical Skill. Gain a level 2 magical Skill Perk.
   
  ŭ Skill. Gain a level 2-3 mundane Skill Perk for a weird and kind 
  of magical or at least unusual Skill. 
  If none of that fits, maybe clinging to your past will improve one 
  of your existing Skills:
   
  ŭ Power Up. Increase an inherent mundane or magical Skill by 
  +1, to a maximum of 3. (This is always “+1, to a maximum of 
  3” and not a specific number—if the inherent Skill goes up, or 
  even down, the Power Up changes appropriately.)
  
  409
   
  
  410
  410
   Otherworldly 3 
  3: 
  Something is trying to make you into something else.
  There’s usually a sense that it’s trying to take you over, devour 
  you from within, kick you out of your life, or something. 
  Or maybe it’s the other way around: maybe it’s pulling you.
  Result: You find a part of yourself that hasn’t changed, or 
  won’t.
  Mundane Perks and 
  Other Benefits (Choose 1):
  This quest often changes or marks you—
   
  ŭ you can rewrite an Affliction or Bond;
   
  ŭ you rename and adjust a Skill, or move a point from one inher-
  ent Skill to another;
   
  ŭ Superior Skill. You gain a new level 1 Superior Skill, reflect-
  ing inherent inhumanity.
   
  ŭ Arc 2+:
   
   +1 to an appropriate Bond Perk or Superior Skill Perk, up to 
  the Arc Trait’s rating.
  Or teaches you something strange—
   
  ŭ Magical Technique. You express the quest’s effects on you by 
  gaining a new technique for an existing magical Skill.
   
  ŭ Power Up. One of your mundane or Superior Skills gains a 
  supernatural twist. You can invoke this power 1-2x/book to 
  treat that Skill as a level 2 Superior Skill for the duration of a 
  scene (complete with up to 2 Edge and the ability to do border-
  line-supernatural things.) In addition to its other effects, spend-
  ing a Recharge Token automatically refreshes your available 
  uses of this power.
  Or perhaps you become a more dangerous opponent even for mi-
  raculous things?
   
  ŭ Accessory. You gain a rare weapon.
   
  ŭ Arc 1+:
   
   MP. This Perk adds 1 to your starting MP. (You also get an 
  immediate MP.)
  Miraculous Perks and 
  Other Benefits (Choose 1):
  Perhaps the most important thing is that you’ve found a key part 
  of yourself and who you are:
   
  ŭ MP. This Perk adds 1 to your starting MP. (You also get an 
  immediate MP.)
   
  ŭ Power Up. Set an inherent level 1-5 Superior Skill to level 4. 
  (This Perk does not change with the Skill value, as long as it 
  remains positive.)
   
  ŭ More than Human. Gain a level 1 Superior Skill Perk show-
  casing the inhuman element of what you’ve found about your-
  self, and also gain one of the following (potentially using a 
  second Perk slot):
   
   Improve an existing mundane Skill Perk to level 4.
   
   Power Up. Set an inherent level 1-5 mundane Skill to level 
  4. (This Perk does not change with the chosen Skill’s value, 
  as long as it remains positive.)
   
  ŭ Variable Affliction. Gain an Affliction Perk with variable lev-
  el equal to your Trust. The more open you are to great powers, 
  numinous things, and the world, the better you’re able to ex-
  press yourself.
  Or perhaps what really matters is how you’ve changed—
   
  ŭ Affliction. Gain a new Affliction Perk.
   
  ŭ Power Adjustment. Change an existing power, making it 
  stronger but also either harder to control or more rarely avail-
  able. When you discard this Perk, you can choose whether to 
  discard the power adjustment or make it permanent.
  The experience might have made you a more dangerous opponent:
   
  ŭ Accessory or Power. Gain control of a powerful weapon.
   
  ŭ Power. Your touch becomes a powerful weapon of some sort.
   
  ŭ Superior Skill or Power. You’ve learned a powerful destruc-
  tive or transformative technique—a miraculous power you un-
  leash in short bursts or a level 2-3 Superior Skill Perk that lets 
  you do something like throwing lightning or playing a style of 
  Chess so cold that it lowers your opponent’s body temperature 
  or ices over the room. This is often based on one of your ex-
  isting Skills—that is, you’d get Superior Ice Chess 2-3 on top 
  of an inherent Skill in Chess, or a lightning-throwing ability 
  on top of and as an extension of an inherent mundane ability 
  with Martial Arts.
  
  411
   
   Otherworldly 4 
  4: 
  You’ve lost a key part of your sense of self.
  You look for a way to get that back.
  Reward: you discover that it wasn’t really gone. If that’s ob-
  servably impossible—e.g., you’re mourning a severed limb—you 
  discover either that your terminology was off and what you were 
  really missing was something else that isn’t gone, e.g., the sense 
  of yourself as a whole person or your ability to play an instrument; 
  or, you find a potential in you to recover it.
  Mundane Perks and 
  Other Benefits (Choose 1):
  When the dust settles you might find yourself with a new power 
  that you hadn’t had before:
   
  ŭ Superior Skill. Gain a level 1 Superior Skill Perk representing 
  something you’ve gained and learned from this process.
   
  ŭ Trick. You’ve learned a new application for an existing Skill. 
  Sufficient practice will establish this as something that the 
  Skill actually does, at which point you will no longer need 
  this Perk.
   
  ŭ Magical Technique. Gain a new Obstacle 2-3 technique for 
  one of your magical Skills.
  Or we could focus specifically on the power to exist, the power to 
  be yourself, that you have found:
   
  ŭ Bonus. 1/book, you can use this power as a +3 Tool for doing 
  something that fits your core nature and/or competencies—ba-
  sically, you can now be yourself super-hard and to exceptional 
  effect.
  Or on how good that feels:
   
  ŭ Gain 2-3 Recharge Tokens.
  Miraculous Perks and 
  Other Benefits (Choose 1):
  Finishing this quest may grant you a neat inherent power:
   
  ŭ Power. You get a relatively inherent miraculous power—e.g., 
  flight, or the ability to snap your fingers and have a target in 
  sight range get blasted with lightning71.
  Or it might increase the potency of one of your existing powers: 
   
  ŭ Power Up. Extend the flexibility of a miraculous ability.
   
  ŭ Power Up. Make an existing miraculous ability Major.
   
  ŭ Power Up. Set an inherent level 1-5 Bond to level 4. (This 
  Perk does not change with the Bond’s value, so long as it re-
  mains nonzero.)
   
  ŭ Power Up. Increase a level 2-4 Skill by +1. This can increase 
  Cool, Shine, Superior Skills, and mundane Skills, but only 
  while you keep this Perk and have an underlying level 2+ Skill. 
   
  ŭ +1 to a level 2-4 Skill or Bond Perk, including Cool, Shine, 
  Superior, and mundane Skills.
  (I’ve omitted magical Skills intentionally in that last entry—mag-
  ical Skills, after all, are fundamentally powers alien to you, and 
  this quest’s reward is finding yourself!)
  Or this quest might offer you access to a deep store of inner 
  strength—
   
  ŭ Lighter Heart. 1/book, you can invoke this power as if it were 
  a Recharge Token. The HG may require you to do something 
  that reminds you of who you are—some characteristic or af-
  firming activity—before this power becomes available again. 
  (That is, once used, you must wait until a new book and until 
  you’ve done something identity-affirming before this power is 
  again available for use.)
  Part of losing and then recovering yourself could unlock a new 
  alternate form or modality:
   
  ŭ Power. You have a new ability—either an Imperial or Major 
  Miraculous ability—that you may use 1/book for free, or at 
  other times for a cost of 4 MP. This transforms you into some-
  thing theologically or metaphorically potent. For example, you 
  become an avatar of winter who can stalk through the world 
  bringing ice and snow, or an angel who can show people the 
  flaws in their lives, or a congealing power that can hold the 
  substrate of things together against a tide of the Outside. Usu-
  ally this functions as a wish (a specific but abstract wish, like 
  “I wish I were an avatar of winter”) or Bleak power, so you’ll 
  be able to handle the details differently each time.
  71 You can probably invoke this power at any time for an MP or maybe 
  you get 1-2 free uses per scene, starting mid-scene, and can use it more 
  often or earlier in the scene than that by spending MP. See the powers of 
  the Ace or Child of the Ash on pg. 530 or 508 for a good sense of what 
  a person’s “inherent” abilities might be like.
  
  412
  412
   Otherworldly 5 
  5: 
  Live Together, Die Alone
  You reconcile with someone or something you’ve been fighting. 
  Result: you help them find peace, acceptance, or find their way 
  back from being lost.
  Mundane Perks and 
  Other Benefits (Choose 1):
  This process often strengthens you and makes you hale:
   
  ŭ Health. You’ve gained a new Normal Health Level.
   
  ŭ MP. This Perk adds 1 to your starting MP. (You also get an 
  immediate MP.)
   
  ŭ At Arc 1+:
   
   Cool. Gain a level 1 Cool Perk.
   
   Shine. Gain a level 1 Shine Perk.
   
   +1 to an existing Cool or Shine Perk (max 3).
   
  ŭ At Arc 3+: 
   
   Health. You’ve gained a new Tough Health Level. 
  You may also physically change, becoming someone completely 
  different—not so much from the quest itself, unless you choose 
  the alternative version, as from the culmination of an entire Arc:
   
  ŭ you can take your inherent Skill points spent on mundane 
  Skills and Superior Skills and re-divide them between (new or 
  old) mundane Skills, Superior Skills, and Shine.
  Miraculous Perks and 
  Other Benefits (Choose 1):
  At the miraculous level, this quest might still strengthen you and 
  make you hale:
   
  ŭ Health. Gain a new Health Level as a Perk. This is normally 
  a Divine Health Level, but if you hurried through the quest or 
  don’t want more Divine Health Levels, you could get a Tough 
  or Normal Health Level instead.
   
  ŭ MP. This Perk adds 1 to your starting MP. (You also get an 
  immediate MP.)
  Or the cumulative weight of the Arc and its insights might grant 
  you a new power—
   
  ŭ Power. Gain a flexible miraculous power, typically either a 
  miraculous power you can use every scene or some sort of 1/
  chapter or 1/book Imperial miracle—I’m thinking something 
  like “can see through deception,” “can find a way,” or “can 
  bring stories to life.” 
   
  Or it might physically reshape you into something extremely pow-
  erful:
   
  ŭ Affliction. Gain a new Affliction representing your new form 
  (e.g. “Affliction: I am the phoenix.”)
   
  ŭ New Form—
   
   you can take your inherent Skill points spent on mundane 
  Skills and Superior Skills and re-divide them between (new 
  or old) mundane Skills, Superior Skills, and Shine.
   
   you also receive 1-3 power-up Perks, each adding +1 to one 
  of your new Superior Skills.
  5: 
  Blurring the Boundaries
  You merge with some spiritual force. You become its exem-
  plar or its host. You are you and you are also that.
  Result: you’ve grown into who the new combined-self you 
  will be.
   Alternate Otherworldly 5 Quest 
  
  Arcs: 
  Storyteller 
  Arcs
  413
   
  Storyteller Arcs
   
  Storyteller Arcs focus on telling stories that come true, or, 
  more generally, on changing the boundary between ideas and life.
  A Storyteller Arc will go something like this:
   
  ŭ Quest 1 is told in a mood of interest and excitement.
   
  ŭ Quest 2 is more of a mood of determination, stubbornness, or pride.
   
  ŭ Quest 3 is more about confusion, puzzlement, and being a little lost.
  And maybe you finish that up and you’re not lost any more. You 
  pull everything together. You solve it and you tie it up with a bow.
  Or maybe you haven’t gotten enough XP to finish the Arc yet, 
  or maybe it just can’t end there, you can’t make it.
   
  ŭ Quest 4 is more about transcendence—rising above the world 
  and yourself.
   
  ŭ Quest 5 is more about katabasis—about a mythical descent 
  into the underworld, place of death, or the coast. (That is, 
  “dealing with grief” and “become queen of the beach” both 
  work well.) Less metaphorically, you have something really 
  rough to deal with and you deal with it here.
  I’m not implying that transcendence is always followed by a fall 
  here—it’s perfectly plausible for you to do quest 4 and finish the Arc 
  there without needing to go on to do quest 5. What I am implying is 
  that if you do find your Arc unfinished after reaching that summit, 
  you’ll probably have to fall a lot farther than just “back down.”
   Storyteller 1 
  1: 
  You’re excited about the future. You’ve found or gotten involved 
  in something neat!
  Result: Bored now? Or still awesome? You’ve gotten used to 
  it either way.
  Mundane Perks and 
  Other Benefits (Choose 1):
  Maybe you’ve learned to see things in a new way?
   
  ŭ
  Dramatic Vision. 1/chapter, you can invoke a special vi-
  sion mode72 that lets you see highlighted dramatic information 
  about things—e.g., a readout of a person’s stats as they’d be in a 
  computer RPG or sports almanac; information on people’s blood 
  type, zodiac animal, and favorite foods; a free labeling of trouble-
  makers vs. sheep; notes on romantic compatibility; and the like. 
  This technique is considered to be magic.
  Or maybe you’ve learned to handwave one of life’s little incon-
  veniences? 
   
  ŭ
  Dramatic Life. You’re a little stylized. 1/chapter, you can 
  waive a level 1-2 Obstacle for some particular unrealistic thing 
  you do, e.g.,
   
   changing clothes in the blink of an eye;
   
   wandering the sewer without getting dirty;
   
   people not noticing the giant axe you’re always carrying 
  around; or
   
   using staplers, guns, pez dispensers, etc. without ever re-
  filling them.
   
  ŭ Magical Technique. You’ve learned a new Obstacle 1-2 technique 
  for one of your magical Skills that lets you do something cool.73
  72 If sight isn’t your primary sense, or you have a good idea as to how it 
  would work, you can have a special mode for some other sense instead.
  73 Putting these two Perks next to one another makes it look like you’re 
  meant to use them together, when in fact it’s more that you just can use 
  them together—you can totally use Dramatic Life for magic, and an 
  Obstacle 1-2 technique to do “something cool” is particularly likely to 
  fit well, but Dramatic Life is meant more for overcoming Obstacles on 
  mundane Skills.
   
  ŭ Trick. You’ve learned a new application for an existing Skill. 
  Sufficient practice will establish this as something that the Skill 
  actually does, at which point you will no longer need this Perk.
  Or, just possibly, you radiate awesome?
   
  ŭ At Arc 1+:
   
   Shine. Gain a new level 1 Shine Perk.
   
  ŭ At Arc  2+:
   
   +1 to a Shine Perk, up to the Arc Trait’s rating
  Miraculous Perks and 
  Other Benefits (Choose 1):
  Maybe you want a stronger version of the Dramatic Vision/Dra-
  matic Life perks, above?
   
  ŭ Power. Gain a miraculous version of “Dramatic Vision,” 
  above—a special visual mode that lets you see highlighted 
  dramatic information about things.
   
  ŭ Power. Gain a miraculous power that waves away some cir-
  cumstantial obstacle, e.g. allowing instant clothes changes or 
  making sure everyone ignores the giant axe you’re always car-
  rying around.
  Maybe you’ve become a little more stylized? 
   
  ŭ Affliction. Gain a new Affliction Perk.
   
  ŭ Variable Affliction. Gain an Affliction Perk with variable lev-
  el equal to your Mystery. The less others understand you, the 
  more powerful your ways become.
   
  ŭ Magical Skill. Gain a level 2 character-trait or genre-trait 
  magical Skill, e.g. 
   
   “can always have flip-charts”
   
   “the power of friendship” or
   
   “gun magic”
  Or, just possibly, you radiate awesome?
   
  ŭ Shine. Gain a new level 2 Shine Perk.
   
  ŭ +1 to an existing Shine Perk.
  
  414
  414
   Storyteller 2 
  2: 
  Taking Charge
  You’re taking charge of a situation.
  Result: an enemy/opponent praises you, threatens you in a 
  vaguely flattering way, or tries to recruit you.
  Mundane Perks and 
  Other Benefits (Choose 1):
  Did you learn something new or reveal a new aspect of your char-
  acter?
   
  ŭ Magical Technique. You’ve learned a new technique for one 
  of your magical Skills.
   
  ŭ Trick. You’ve learned a new application for an existing 
  Skill—probably something you succeeded or failed at during 
  the course of the quest. It’s now one of your normal applica-
  tions of the Skill; sufficient practice will establish that to the 
  point that you’ll no longer even need this Perk.
   
  ŭ +1 to your Connection with a sidekick, friend, ally, rival, oppo-
  nent, or treasure (max 5).
  Have you shown something odd about the way your life works?
   
  ŭ Superior Skill. Gain a level 1 Superior Skill. You’re too awe-
  some to be real.
   
  ŭ Rewrite one of your Afflictions.
  Did you impress others?
   
  ŭ Connection. Gain a new level 1-2 Connection Perk.
   
  ŭ Accessory. Get, claim, or receive a new cool item.
   
  ŭ At Arc 1+:
   
   Shine. Gain a new level 1 Shine Perk.
   
  ŭ At Arc  2+:
   
   +1 to a Shine Perk, up to the Arc Trait’s rating.
  Miraculous Perks and 
  Other Benefits (Choose 1):
  Conceptually, the reward for this quest is a plot hook. Maybe it’s 
  a cool car or mecha. Maybe it’s a destiny. Maybe it’s just a hairdo.
  Whatever it is it operates kind of symbolically—
  Possibly it’s magical symbolism, like, your hairdo is Winter, 
  and you can flip your hair to make it snow; or possibly it’s more 
  of a metaphor, like, your car is your heart, and so when you rev up 
  your courage you also rev up its engine to do astonishing things 
  (and when you love someone, your car will show up when they 
  need it even if you aren’t there.)
  How do you express this power?
   
  ŭ Affliction. Gain a new Affliction Perk.
   
  ŭ Variable Affliction. Gain an Affliction Perk with variable lev-
  el equal to your Vice Issue. The more you distance yourself 
  from the ordinary world, the stronger your plot hook becomes.
   
  ŭ Power. Gain an appropriate miraculous ability that you can 
  use on a regular basis—e.g., something that costs 1 MP per use 
  no matter how often you use it, or that you can use 1-2x/scene 
  for free and more often with MP, or whatever.
   
  ŭ Magical Skill. Gain a new level 2-3 Magical Skill Perk.
   
  ŭ Superior Skill. Gain a new level 1-2 Superior Skill Perk.
   
  ŭ Bond. Gain a new level 2-3 Bond Perk.
   
  ŭ Power Up. Increase an inherent level 2-3 mundane Skill to 4.
   
  ŭ Accessory. Gain a magical or supertech thing.
   
  ŭ Connection. Gain a new level 3-4 Connection Perk linking 
  you to some sidekick or treasure.
  2: 
  Your Way
  You’re ignoring the pressures on you and just doing things 
  your own way.
  Result: you’ve attracted dangerous attention and/or 
  trimmed down the problem to an approachable space. Usually 
  it’s both, one during the quest and one when it ends.
   Alternate Storyteller 2 Quest 
  
  415
   
   Storyteller 3 
  3: 
  You’re in a confusing situation! You must traverse a labyrinth, 
  maze, or noir mystery. Or, if not literally any of these, that’s what 
  it feels like!
  Reward. You’ve cut through the confusion. You’ve found 
  what you needed to know, and either:
   
  ŭ Tied everything up neatly with a bow; or
   
  ŭ You’ve got your eyes on your prize and you know where to go 
  but you’ve got a ways to go before you actually get it.
  Mundane Perks and 
  Other Benefits (Choose 1):
  So if you think back to the labyrinthine mazes of confusion you’ve 
  had in your life—puberty, high school, your first job—you may 
  find that you emerged with something that would have looked an 
  awful lot to your pre-labyrinth self like a superpower. I don’t mean 
  that the whole experience is good, or anything, just that the reward 
  for getting through it often is!
  I’m thinking stuff like:
   
  ŭ shapeshifting
   
  ŭ venom
   
  ŭ control over an Element (fire, shadows, plants, &c.)
   
  ŭ incomparable beauty
   
  ŭ incomparable strength
   
  ŭ the ability to petrify people with a glance
  Now, I want to stick to relatively low-end powers here, so you’d 
  probably implement this with something like:
   
  ŭ Bonus. You can invoke your superpower 1/chapter as a +1 Tool. 
  For instance, your face and body are just malleable enough that 
  it can help you a little with something once per week, or you 
  can glamour up your beauty or strength for an action now and 
  then, or use your “petrifying glare” as a Tool for intimidation or 
  for winning a contest by slowing an enemy down.
   
  ŭ Magical Technique. Gain a superpower as a new technique 
  for one of your magical Skills.
   
  ŭ Superior Skill. Gain a quasi-superpower as a level 1 Superior 
  Skill.
   
  ŭ Trick. You’ve learned a new application for an existing Skill. 
  Sufficient practice will establish this as something that the 
  Skill actually does, at which point you will no longer need 
  this Perk.
  If you want something stronger, I’d suggest:
   
  ŭ rewriting an Affliction or Bond
   
  ŭ moving 2-3 points from your inherent Skills (of any sort) to a 
  brand-new Superior Skill.
  Miraculous Perks and 
  Other Benefits (Choose 1):
  Again, I’d like to focus on the idea that you pick up a new “su-
  perpower”—
   
  ŭ Affliction. Gain a new Affliction Perk.
   
  ŭ Superior Skill. Gain a level 3-4 Superior Skill Perk.
   
  ŭ Power. Gain a direct, potent miraculous power which you can 
  use quite often, such as: 
   
   shapeshifting
   
   venom
   
   control over an Element (fire, shadows, plants, &c.)
   
   incomparable beauty
   
   incomparable strength
   
   the ability to petrify people with a glance
   
  ŭ Power. Gain a sleeping power hidden in some body part—
  I’m specifically thinking of tattoos sealing something in your 
  arm or a weird eye behind an eyepatch—that you can activate 
  roughly 1/chapter (or more often with MP spending). You’d 
  choose this instead of just having a “can use all the time” pow-
  er if you wanted:
   
   something a little too powerful for you to be using all the 
  time at this Arc level;
   
   an indirect tactical power like “a forest of needles hidden 
  in my arm.”
  If the quest marked or cursed you in addition to giving you a re-
  ward, the HG could offer you a free level 1 Bond or Affliction 
  Perk as well as the benefits above. You don’t have to take it! They 
  don’t have to give it! It’s just a possible bonus that you could get.
   
  
  416
  416
   Storyteller 4 
  4: 
  The Ascent (1)
  You’re ascending. You’re going beyond the world, rising past 
  your limitations, reaching for some transcendent height.
  ...because you’re chasing someone, or you have something 
  you have to obtain.
  Reward. You catch them. You obtain it. You’ve surpassed the 
  trials of the peak.
  Mundane Perks and 
  Other Benefits (Choose 1):
  Maybe you’ve just obtained a treasure or technique:
   
  ŭ Accessory. This quest has won you a cool object of some sort.
   
  ŭ Magical Technique. Gain a new Obstacle 2-3 technique for 
  one of your magical Skills.
   
  ŭ Trick. You’ve mastered a new application for an existing 
  Skill. Sufficient practice will establish this as something that 
  the Skill actually does, at which point you will no longer need 
  this Perk.
  Or maybe you’ve become more comfortable in whatever envi-
  ronment you were in—for a literal climb, I mean something like 
  “mountains” or “the climber’s life,” but for a metaphorical climb, 
  it’s probably whatever context you spent most of the quest living in:
   
  ŭ Connection. Gain a new level 2 Connection Perk to a relevant 
  context.
   
  ŭ +1 to a relevant Connection Perk (max 5).
  Or maybe you’ve just picked up that distant and world-conquering 
  air of the kind of people who climb a spiritual peak:
   
  ŭ Superior Skill. Gain Superior Inscrutability 1 as a Perk.
   
  ŭ Health. You’ve gained a new Normal Health Level.
   
  ŭ MP. This Perk adds 1 to your starting MP. (You also get an 
  immediate MP.)
   
  ŭ At Arc 1+:
   
   Cool. Gain a level 1 Cool Perk.
   
   Shine. Gain a level 1 Shine Perk.
   
   +1 to an existing Cool or Shine Perk (max 3).
   
  ŭ At Arc 3+: 
   
   Health. You’ve gained a new Tough Health Level.
   
   Auctoritas. Choose whether this Arc protects you from the 
  Bleak power of the Outside or protects some feature of your 
  character from the power of wishes. You gain a level 1 Auc-
  toritas protecting you, or that feature, against those effects.
   
   +1 to a previously obtained Auctoritas Perk of that form 
  (max 3)
  Miraculous Perks and 
  Other Benefits (Choose 1):
  Often, on completing this quest, you’ll gain a pretty strong de-
  fense against people figuring you out—
   
  ŭ Power. You have some defensive power—e.g., an equivalent 
  to Weathered that you can invoke, not against physical dam-
  age, but against people learning the truth about you or seeing 
  through your masks; or an inherent low-level Auctoritas+Ob-
  stacle pair that makes that harder; or an ability that automati-
  cally stuns/dazes/messes with people who see the truth about 
  you.
  Or you’ll win some treasure or technique:
   
  ŭ Accessory or Power. Gain a magical item or power suited to 
  what you were looking for in undertaking this quest in the first 
  place.
   
  Or you’ll gain in health and strength:
   
  ŭ Health. Gain a new Health Level as a Perk. This is normally 
  a Divine Health Level, but if you hurried through the quest or 
  don’t want more Divine Health Levels, you could get a Tough 
  or Normal Health Level instead.
   
  ŭ MP. This Perk adds 1 to your starting MP. (You also get an 
  immediate MP.)
  Or perhaps, having seen the top of the world, you seem to shine:
   
  ŭ Shine. Gain a new level 2 Shine Perk.
   
  ŭ +1 to a Shine Perk.
  4: 
  The Ascent (2)
  You’re ascending. You’re going beyond the world, rising past 
  your limitations, reaching for some transcendent height.
  ...because that’s what you decided to do.
  Reward. You reach the top—or your target, anyway, or as 
  high as you can go—and gain some level of self-confidence, 
  self-acceptance, or release.
   Alternate Storyteller 4 Quest 
  
  417
   
   Storyteller 5 
  
  418
  418
   Storyteller 5 
  5: 
  The Descent
  You’re doing rough, terrible work. You’re facing hard truths of 
  death, guilt, embodiment, meaning, identity, and failure.
  Result: you complete the work; you can go on with your life.
  Mundane Perks and 
  Other Benefits (Choose 1):
  It’s not the point. It’s not why you were doing it. But you may very 
  well have changed the world.
   
  ŭ
  “You may have heard of me.”: In this or a recently com-
  pleted quest, you’ve changed the world. To make sure that this 
  doesn’t get forgotten/drift into irrelevance, 1/book, you can 
  explain to the HG how you think it should play into the course 
  of events. They don’t have to go along with it, but they have to 
  listen; and that chapter or the next chapter, they have to narrate 
  how the change is playing into the course of events.
   
  ŭ
  “It’s a Living.” You’ve become someone important. To 
  make sure this doesn’t get forgotten/drift into irrelevance, you 
  can ask the HG 1/chapter to narrate something to do with the 
  politics of the role or someone being impressed by it. (This 
  doesn’t have to be more than a sentence or two—“oh, someone 
  comes by to ask for a favor again” or “you have to make a new 
  ruling or two on doctrine this week” suffices!)
   
  ŭ Accessory. Along the way you picked up a really cool trea-
  sure—something hardly anybody else in Town (or wherever) 
  possesses.
  Or perhaps you’ve just changed yourself:
   
  ŭ Alternate Identity. You are now living two lives—as yourself 
  and as a new/underused Main Character. At first the changes 
  are small: when you’re in your alternate identity, you move 2-3 
  points of your inherent Skills to different mundane, Superior, 
  and magical Skills. (You can change your Cool, but your Shine 
  should stay the same.) In the future, though, you can choose 
  to apply new Perks and non-Perk quest bonuses like “you can 
  rewrite your Affliction” to only a single identity.
  Both characters should always have this Perk.
  You can take this again for a third, &c. life if you like.
   
  ŭ At Arc 1+:
   
   Cool. Gain a level 1 Cool Perk.
   
   Shine. Gain a level 1 Shine Perk.
   
   +1 to an existing Cool or Shine Perk (max 3).
   
  ŭ At Arc 3+: 
   
   Auctoritas. Gain a level 1 Auctoritas Perk protecting you 
  from the Bleak power of the Outside.
   
   +1 to a previously obtained Auctoritas Perk of that form 
  (max 3)
  Miraculous Perks and 
  Other Benefits (Choose 1):
  Again, you may have changed the world:
   
  ŭ Affliction. Gain a powerful new Affliction that changes or ex-
  presses a change made in the world.
  Or become a very different person:
   
  ŭ Affliction. Gain a new Affliction representing your new self 
  (e.g. “Affliction: I am the god of death.”)
   
  ŭ New Form—
   
   you can take your inherent Skill points spent on mundane 
  Skills and Superior Skills and re-divide them between (new 
  or old) mundane Skills, Superior Skills, and Shine.
   
   and also receive 1-3 power-up Perks, each adding +1 to one 
  of your new Superior Skills.
  Or become two different people:
   
  ŭ Alternate Form. You gain an alternate identity as a new/un-
  derused Main Character. Think of this as choosing or building 
  a new PC—if everyone’s playing awesome near-gods, you are 
  now playing two awesome near-gods. If you’ve all just scraped 
  your way to the miraculous level, so has your new PC.
  Playing two Main Characters works like this:
  You can only control one character at any given time. They 
  share a pool of Health Levels, since those are mostly a player 
  resource, but the wounds themselves affect one or the other.
  Other resources (Will, MP) vary by character if possible. 
  If this becomes too much of a headache for you or the HG, 
  you’ll fall back to a single pool of each. If that becomes too 
  much of a headache—e.g., one of your characters has special 
  rules interacting with MP—use a single pool, except that the 
  backup character always has 2-3 left if they haven’t done any-
  thing themselves.
  Choose which character you’ll use for advancement. (You 
  can change this choice between stories.) The HG advances 
  your other character at roughly the same rate. If they don’t 
  have time/interest in doing that, or you really don’t like their 
  choices, fall back on advancing both characters down the same 
  Arc and assigning them the same Perks, possibly with different 
  details.
  That said, please make sure to keep this Perk active on both 
  characters.
  You can gain more than two identities, but only if your ex-
  isting identity is a hit—that is, if other players are independent-
  ly playing off of it to dramatic or comedic effect on a reason-
  ably regular basis. If you’re the only one getting anything out 
  of this Perk, I’d ask you to not take it again74.
  74 Yes, this is weird
  
  419
   
  Or you’ve gained a useful and meaningful power:
   
  ŭ Power. Gain a powerful utility power that takes a few minutes’ 
  work (or 4 MP) to activate: you can shapechange, or create 
  bridges, or change temperatures, or turn people into animals 
  or vice versa for a day.
   
  ŭ Accessory. Gain a potent item of mystical regalia
  5: 
  Torn
  You’re torn between two loyalties.
  Result: you make a choice between them; if you’ve already 
  done so, you come to an acceptance of it.
   Alternate Storyteller 5 Quest 
  
  Arcs: Aspect Arcs
  420
  420
  Aspect Arcs
  Aspect Arcs are the ones where you develop and unleash new 
  powers from your body, mind, and training.
  They play out sort of like this:
   
  ŭ Quest 1 is your struggle against whatever’s been holding you 
  back.
   
  ŭ Quest 2 challenges your way of thinking.
   
  ŭ Quest 3 is a bunch of weird social obligations getting in your 
  way.
  Sometimes followed by:
   
  ŭ Quest 4, an epic struggle against something out of nightmare; 
  and maybe
   
  ŭ Quest 5—time spent lost in the dark.
  Wondering where on the Arc you get the goofy kung fu train-
  ing stuff? Where you get thrown into the deadly pit of Death or 
  Kung Fu, or forced to wrestle alligators until you master alligator 
  stance, or flung amidst the bladed clockwork ballet training dolls 
  until you learn ballet, or taught the “No-Shadow Step?”
  The answer is pretty much “at any time, but it’s off the main 
  path of the Arc”—that’s going to be handled as “quest miracles,” 
  which we’ll discuss on pg. 454 (top) and pg. 462.
   Aspect 1 
  1: 
  You’re blocked. Frozen. Stuck. There’s something you can’t get past.
  Reward. You push past it.
  Mundane Perks and 
  Other Benefits (Choose 1):
  Maybe your heart grew a little stronger?
   
  ŭ Bond. Gain a level 1 Bond Perk related to the moment that 
  you fixed things.
   
  ŭ Arc 1+:
   
   +1 to an appropriate Bond Perk, up to the Arc Trait’s rating.
  Or you picked up a mentor?
   
  ŭ Connection. Gain a level 1-2 Connection Perk to a mentor.
   
  ŭ Bonus. Your mentor’s given you some sort of gnomic advice. 
  1/book, this Perk counts as a +3 Tool when its meaning falls 
  into place and you act on it.
  Or, maybe, you’ve learned to do something amazing?
   
  ŭ Magical Technique. You’ve learned to do something that, to 
  be honest, you shouldn’t actually be able to do. This acts as a 
  level 2-3 Obstacle magical technique for one of your magical 
  Skills.
   
  ŭ Trick. You’ve learned a new application for an existing Skill. 
  Sufficient practice will establish this as something that the 
  Skill actually does, at which point you will no longer need 
  this Perk.
   
  ŭ Bonus. You’ve pushed past a key block with heart, will, and 
  the power of your “Chi.” 1/chapter, you may “channel Chi” 
  into something you have a level 2+ Skill in, spending 1 MP 
  as a +2 Tool.
  Learned to do something a little bit ridiculous?
   
  ŭ
  Dramatic Life. You’re a little stylized. 1/chapter, you can 
  waive a level 1-2 Obstacle for some particular unrealistic thing 
  you do, e.g.,
   
   changing clothes in the blink of an eye;
   
   wandering the sewer without getting dirty;
   
   people not noticing the giant axe you’re always carrying 
  around; or
   
   using staplers, guns, pez dispensers, etc. without ever re-
  filling them.
  Or become a little bit more protagonistic and awesome?
   
  ŭ Bonus. You can sometimes feel when someone is in trouble 
  and needs you. 1/book, this acts as a +3 Tool for showing up 
  at the right moment to rescue/help someone, including “being 
  aware that it’s worth trying to do so” and “realizing the im-
  pending crisis early enough to be in position to do something 
  about it when it happens.”
   
  ŭ Arc 1+:
   
   Bonus. You’ve demonstrated an undying will. 1/book, you 
  may escalate your defense against an environment or cate-
  gory of attacks up to the level of a miraculous action. This 
  lasts while you sustain the relevant Intention.
   
   Cool. You gain a new level 1 Cool Perk.
   
   +1 to an existing Cool Perk, up to the Arc Trait’s rating
   
  ŭ Arc 2+:
   
   Variable Bond. Gain a Bond Perk with a variable level 
  equal to your (being a) Hero Issue. This represents the dar-
  ing, forceful, or tricky nature that pushed past the difficulty 
  you encountered. That expresses itself more and more in 
  you as your Hero Issue and this Bond’s power rises; after 
  the “main story” of that Issue ends, though, and the Issue 
  temporarily reverts to level 0, there’s a period where the 
  Bond has no effect. 
  
  421
   
  Miraculous Perks and 
  Other Benefits (Choose 1):
  Again, the simplest way to push past whatever was holding you 
  back is a Bond:
   
  ŭ Bond. Gain a level 1 Bond Perk as part of the quest’s result, or
   
  ŭ +1 to an appropriate Bond Perk
   
  ŭ Variable Bond. Gain a Bond Perk with a variable level equal 
  to your (being a) Hero Issue. As above, this represents the dar-
  ing, forceful, or tricky nature that pushed past the difficulty 
  you encountered.
  Or you could improve in raw Skill or general untouchability:
   
  ŭ Cool. Gain a new Cool Perk at level 1.
   
  ŭ Power Up. Increase either your inherent Cool or an inherent 
  mundane Skill that’s relevant to this Arc by +1. (This is a mod-
  ifier and not a number—if the inherent Skill goes up, or even 
  down, the Power Up changes appropriately.)
   
  ŭ +1 to a mundane Skill or Cool Perk
  Or your efforts as you pushed against your limitations might net 
  you a cool new power:
   
  ŭ Power. Gain a miraculous power, typically costing 1 MP to 
  use, that lets you channel your “Chi” or heart power to perform 
  some specific miraculous feat.
   
  ŭ Power. Gain a defensive power, typically comparable to 
  Weathered.
   
  ŭ Power. You automatically sense when someone is in trouble 
  and needs you, if the HG remembers. This power is a miracu-
  lous action and comes with free Strike equal to the Arc Trait’s 
  rating. 
  Or special effect:
   
  ŭ Power. Gain a miraculous power that waves away some cir-
  cumstantial obstacle, e.g. allowing instant clothes changes or 
  making sure everyone ignores the giant axe you’re always car-
  rying around.
  
  422
  422
   Aspect 2 
  2: 
  You’re presented with the option of another way of life or another 
  way of thinking. 
  Result: you have an insight: you see or hear something that 
  you wouldn’t have been able to before.
  Mundane Perks and 
  Other Benefits (Choose 1):
  This might change your nature—
   
  ŭ rewriting one of your Afflictions
   
  ŭ changing the details of a Perk
   
  ŭ moving 1-2 points between your existing Skills, or to a brand-
  new mundane Skill
  Connect you to somebody—
   
  ŭ Connection. Gain a new level 1-2 Connection Perk tying you 
  to a romantic interest, mentor, or rival that you’ve spent time 
  with during this Arc.
   
  ŭ +1 to such a Connection Perk (max 5).
  Give you a pretty straightforward power-up—
   
  ŭ Bonus. You’ve practiced a trick for one of your favored Skills. 
  1/chapter, this Perk acts as a +1 Tool for a relevant situation 
  and that Skill.
   
  ŭ Trick. You’ve learned a new application for an existing Skill. 
  Sufficient practice will establish this as something that the 
  Skill actually does, at which point you will no longer need 
  this Perk.
  Offer you an alternate approach to certain problems:
   
  ŭ
  Magic. You’ve learned a tricky alternate approach to prob-
  lems. Gain a magical technique you can use with an otherwise 
  mundane Skill 1/book.
   
  ŭ
  “This isn’t even my final form.” You can spend an MP to 
  adopt an “altered mode” that reverses 1-3 Afflictions, Bonds, 
  or Skills, or that replaces/alters a single Affliction, Bond, or 
  Skill in a more complicated way. This lasts until you spend 
  another 2 MP or the chapter ends.
   
  ŭ Ticket. This Perk is a Superior Skill 1 granting you access to 
  a particular road, vehicle, place, or transportation method. In 
  short, your right to use it is so well-established as to give you 
  1 Edge against anybody trying to stop you.
  Or teach you something strange:
   
  ŭ Magical Technique. You express the quest’s effects on you by 
  gaining a new technique for an existing magical Skill.
   
  ŭ Power Up. One of your mundane or Superior Skills gains a 
  supernatural twist. You can invoke this power 1-2x/book to 
  treat that Skill as a level 2 Superior Skill for the duration of a 
  scene (complete with up to 2 Edge and the ability to do border-
  line-supernatural things.) In addition to its other effects, spend-
  ing a Recharge Token automatically refreshes your available 
  uses of this power.
   
  ŭ At Arc 1+:
   
   Magical Skill. You gain a new level 1 magical Skill as a 
  Perk associated with this Arc. You may only choose one 
  such Skill for this Arc.
   
   Bond. You gain a new level 1 Bond Perk conceptually re-
  lated to one of your magical Skills or magical Skill perks.
   
  ŭ At Arc 2+:
   
   +1 to this Arc’s associated magical Skill Perk, up to the Arc 
  Trait’s rating.
  Miraculous Perks and 
  Other Benefits (Choose 1):
  You might change your nature—
   
  ŭ Affliction. You pick up a new Affliction with a level tied to 
  this Arc.
   
  ŭ MP. This Perk adds 1 to your starting MP. (You also get an 
  immediate MP.)
  Open yourself to new worlds or ways of being—
   
  ŭ Power. You gain some power that functions as an alternate 
  shape or mode.
   
  ŭ Power. You gain a power for moving between worlds or ways 
  of being that is:
   
   easy to use—highly applicable and relatively cheap to use 
  at least 1/chapter 
   
   probably kind of inflexible—a single trick.
   
  ŭ Magician’s Path—
   
   Increase an existing magical Skill Perk to 3, exploring the 
  limits of your magic.
   
   Gain a level 1 Superior Skill Perk, as that magic changes you. 
  Or simply become a more dangerous opponent:
   
  ŭ Accessory or Power. Gain control of a powerful weapon.
   
  ŭ Power. Your touch becomes a powerful weapon of some sort.
   
  ŭ Superior Skill or Power. You’ve learned a powerful destruc-
  tive or transformative technique—a miraculous power you un-
  leash in short bursts or a level 2-3 Superior Skill Perk that lets 
  you do something like throwing lightning or playing a style of 
  Chess so cold that it lowers your opponent’s body temperature 
  or ices over the room. This is often based on one of your ex-
  isting Skills—that is, you’d get Superior Ice Chess 2-3 on top 
  of an inherent Skill in Chess, or a lightning-throwing ability 
  on top of and as an extension of an inherent mundane ability 
  with Martial Arts.
  
  423
   
   Aspect 3 
  3: 
  You’re dealing with stressful, bizarre, and confusing social situ-
  ations75.
  Result: you finish up your latest obligation, optionally come 
  home and take your literal or metaphorical shoes off, and learn 
  something shattering.
  Mundane Perks and 
  Other Benefits (Choose 1):
  In general you’ll wind up with a power that you don’t really 
  want—
   
  ŭ Bonus. 1/chapter, this Perk acts as a +2 Tool for something 
  you didn’t really want to be good at—something embarrassing 
  to you or something that tends to get too much responsibility 
  put on your shoulders.
   
  ŭ Superior Skill. Gain a level 1 Superior Skill Perk that you 
  didn’t really want—similarly.
   
  ŭ
  Foe Yay: Pick an enemy, rival, or antagonist. When they 
  are cooperating with you, this Perk acts as a +1 Tool. If you 
  ever become friends, colleagues, or teammates, this Perk re-
  verts to an ordinary Bonus, and you may thereafter only use 
  it 1/chapter.
   
  ŭ Accessory. Gain a neat thing that everyone around you is real-
  ly impressed by that you didn’t want, like a plasma TV when 
  you don’t like television or a new car when you can’t drive. 
  Include some reason you can’t just give it away or loan it out 
  on a permanent basis, although letting people use it surrepti-
  tiously is probably fine.
   
  ŭ Trick. You’ve learned a new application for an existing 
  Skill—usually, something social or something party-trick-
  style weird. Sufficient practice will establish this as something 
  that the Skill actually does, at which point you will no longer 
  need this Perk.
  But you could also get a little better at handling weird situations:
   
  ŭ rewrite one of your Skills, Bonds, or Afflictions
   
  ŭ Connection. Gain a new level 2-3 Connection Perk for navi-
  gating an environment that doesn’t really suit you or dealing 
  with a person you claim not to like. Unlike the stuff above 
  it’s probably not actually that bad—you’re probably more in 
  denial about liking it or them than you are actually unhappy 
  with your new ability.
   
  ŭ +1 to such a Connection Perk.
   
  ŭ Arc 1+:
   
   Cool. You gain a new level 1 Cool Perk.
   
   +1 to an existing Cool Perk, up to the Arc Trait’s rating.
  75 Your best friend wants you to romantically intercede for them. With the 
  person you love, to boot! Or, there’s factional conflict at your school or 
  temple. Your parents have ridiculous expectations of you. You’re living 
  at the house of your worst enemies.
     ... stuff like that!
  Miraculous Perks and Other Bene-
  fits (Choose 1):
  Again, you’ll generally wind up with a power that you don’t really 
  want—
   
  ŭ Bond. Gain a level 4 Bond Perk representing a failure, vice, 
  or trauma.
   
  ŭ Bond. Gain a level 2 Bond Perk representing a minor obli-
  gation.
   
  ŭ Power. Gain a power for seeing into the mind or heart of your 
  natural enemies.
   
  ŭ Power. Gain a power that echoes one of your antagonists’ 
  tricks.
   
  ŭ Power. Gain a useful power that’s hard to control once un-
  leashed—something that spreads chaos, raises emotional in-
  tensity, invokes fire, or summons vicious beasts.
   
  ŭ Accessory. Gain an awesome item that’s bound to you but 
  doesn’t fit you—a blood-thirsty sword for the dainty socialite, 
  magical tiara for the warrior, or soccer cleats for the hopeless 
  nerd.
   
  ŭ Superior Skill or Magical Skill. Gain a level 2-3 Superior or 
  magical Skill Perk based on your unnatural awesomeness at 
  something kind of embarrassing. Or at something that people 
  will demand you do more often once they find out you’re great 
  at it.
  But you may also get a bit more raw power:
   
  ŭ MP. This Perk adds 1 to your starting MP. (You also get an 
  immediate MP.)
   
  ŭ Cool. Gain a new Cool Perk at level 1.
   
  ŭ Power Up. Increase either your inherent Cool or an inherent 
  mundane Skill that’s relevant to this Arc by +1. (This is a mod-
  ifier and not a number—if the inherent Skill goes up, or even 
  down, the Power Up changes appropriately.)
   
  ŭ +1 to a mundane Skill or Cool Perk
  Or you might make a truce with an established and not all that 
  terrible enemy:
   
  ŭ Foe Yay (Miraculous): this power acts as a level 4 Connection 
  Perk with a former enemy and as a Power Perk that allows 
  you to unleash some power when you work together. This also 
  implicitly puts you on a “no maiming or killing one another” 
  footing, which should be fairly reliable from both sides, al-
  though obviously breaking with that is possible if circumstanc-
  es or story so require.
  
  424
  424
   Aspect 4 
  
  425
   
   Aspect 4 
  4: 
  This is an epic struggle with something terrifying and supernatural. 
  Result: you win. Sometimes you’re left stranded and far from 
  home, sometimes you get a victory parade; sometimes there’s 
  more to do, sometimes it’s 100% triumph; sometimes the HG 
  has to delay your victory a few scenes or invoke silly tropes like 
  “but that wasn’t the real big bad” to stop play from grinding to a 
  halt, and sometimes your victory is pure awesome. But, no matter 
  what?
  You win.
  Mundane Perks and 
  Other Benefits (Choose 1):
  Do you pick up a weird new trick?
   
  ŭ
  Hax. You’ve learned some trick that makes you a puzzle to 
  be solved in combat—some trick that makes you unbeatable 
  by mortals unless they work around it first. You can invoke 
  this power 1-2x/book to impose an Obstacle 4 on any attempt 
  to beat you without such a workaround. In addition to its oth-
  er effects, spending a Recharge Token automatically refreshes 
  your available uses of this power.
   
  ŭ Magical Technique. Gain a new Obstacle 2-3 magical tech-
  nique.
   
  ŭ Offensive Aura: Pick a more specific special effect. 1/chapter, 
  your presence can trouble those around you. This is an action 
  that you take that adds +1 to the Obstacle (max 3) for a certain 
  category of actions, such as “evil magic,” “breathing,” “speak-
  ing,” or “feeling at ease.”
  Or do you just get tougher?
   
  ŭ Health. You’ve gained a new Normal Health Level.
   
  ŭ Accessory. You gain access to a useful defensive or force-mul-
  tiplying object.
   
  ŭ MP. This Perk adds 1 to your starting MP. (You also get an 
  immediate MP.)
   
  ŭ At Arc 1+:
   
   Cool. You gain a new level 1 Cool Perk.
   
   +1 to an existing Cool Perk, up to the Arc Trait’s rating
   
  ŭ At Arc 3+: 
   
   Health. You’ve gained a new Tough Health Level.
  Miraculous Perks and Other Bene-
  fits (Choose 1):
  The most common benefit here is that you’ll gain a “trick”—a 
  weird technique, the result of your training, that makes you a puz-
  zle to be solved for anyone who’d want to go against you. May-
  be you can ignite yourself with fiery Chi hot enough to melt any 
  weapon that strikes you, maybe you can control every sword in 
  the room, maybe you can trap people in their minds or make them 
  feel what you want them to feel, maybe you can switch places au-
  tomatically with any of your paper “duplicates.” This is normally 
  a combat-focused technique, mostly meaning that you can’t relax 
  and enjoy yourself while using it.
   
  ŭ Power. You gain such a power as a miraculous ability, usually 
  something you can use regularly.
   
  ŭ Affliction. Or you gain it as an Affliction that is always on or 
  activates automatically in certain situations.
  Or you may just become generally hardier:
   
  ŭ Health. Gain a new Health Level as a Perk. This is normally 
  a Divine Health Level, but if you hurried through the quest or 
  don’t want more Divine Health Levels, you could get a Tough 
  or Normal Health Level instead.
   
  ŭ Power. Gain a new defensive power, probably roughly com-
  parable to Weathered.
   
  ŭ Bond. Gain a new level 4 Bond Perk, something that sustains 
  you.
   
  ŭ Affliction. Gain a new Affliction that expresses that inner 
  strength.
   
  ŭ
  “Guess You’re Stuck with Me.” Gain a new, defined 
  mechanism for coming back from death or absolute defeat. 
  This operates on the player/game level rather than the char-
  acter level so it’s situationally better than immortality itself.
  
  Superior Immortality
  426
  426
   Aspect 5 
  5: 
  You’re lost in the dark. 
  Result: you find your way home, maybe even with some trea-
  sure, maybe having left something good behind—
  But the experience has changed you.
  Mundane Perks and 
  Other Benefits (Choose 1):
  You’ve come out of your time in the dark with something neat:
   
  ŭ Trick. You’ve learned a new application for an existing Skill. 
  Sufficient practice will establish this as something that the 
  Skill actually does, at which point you will no longer need 
  this Perk.
   
  ŭ Accessory. Along the way you picked up a really cool trea-
  sure—something hardly anybody else in Town (or wherever) 
  possesses.
  Or, you’ve been purified, exalted, made immortal and transcendent:
   
  ŭ Superior Skill. Choose between Superior Immortality 1 or 
  Superior Holiness 1.
   
  ŭ Arc 1+:
   
   +1 to a Superior Immortality or Superior Holiness Perk
   
  ŭ Arc 2+:
   
   Power Up. Increase your inherent Cool, Superior Immor-
  tality, or Superior Holiness by +1, up to the Arc Trait’s rat-
  ing. (This is always “+1, up to the Arc Trait’s rating,” and 
  not a number—if the Skill or Arc rating goes up, or even 
  down, the Power Up changes appropriately.)
   
   Auctoritas. You gain a level 1 Auctoritas protecting you 
  from the Bleak power of the Outside.
   
   +1 to a previously obtained Auctoritas Perk of that form 
  (max 3)
  Miraculous Perks and 
  Other Benefits (Choose 1):
  You’ve become better at something:
   
  ŭ Power Up. Increase an inherent Skill or Bond that’s relevant 
  to this Arc by +1. (This is a modifier and not a number—if the 
  inherent Skill or Bond goes up, or even down, the Power Up 
  changes appropriately.) This can increase Bonds, Shine, Cool, 
  magical Skills, Superior Skills, and mundane Skills, but only 
  while you keep this Perk.
  Reached out to an antagonist:
   
  ŭ Power. You gain a limited power to call upon the support of 
  your enemies in some fashion, or, to duplicate one of their 
  common or signature powers.
  Or improved your health and strength:
   
  ŭ Affliction. Gain a new Affliction Perk with variable level 
  equal to your (being a) Hero Issue. This represents the quality 
  in you that brought you back from being lost in the dark. It 
  expresses itself more and more in you as your Hero Issue and 
  this Affliction’s power rises; after the “main story” of that Is-
  sue ends, though, and the Issue temporarily reverts to level 0, 
  there’s a period where the Perk has no effect.
   
  ŭ Health. Gain a new Health Level as a Perk. This is normally 
  a Divine Health Level, but if you hurried through the quest or 
  don’t want more Divine Health Levels, you could get a Tough 
  or Normal Health Level instead.
   
  ŭ MP. This Perk adds 2 to your starting MP. (You also get an 
  immediate 2 MP.)
   
  ŭ Power Up. You can strengthen one of your existing powers or 
  make it easier to use. You can apply this Perk to one of your 
  inherent powers or layer it on top of another Perk.
  Or did it cost you something?
   
  ŭ Affliction. Gain a new Affliction Perk with variable level 
  equal to your Sickness. This represents the damage done to 
  you by your interlude lost in the dark. As your Sickness rises, 
  the damage expresses itself more fully; when you resolve the 
  Sickness Issue, the damage recedes for a little while. 
  Superior Immortality
  I’m not giving a full description of this Skill—it’s just a Skill 
  that you can use to do the kinds of things that being immortal 
  would let you do, with Edge in the kind of contests that being 
  immortal gives you an edge in. 
  That said, the levels look something like:
   
  ŭ Level 1: You’re good at surviving. 
   
  ŭ Level 2: You’re terrifyingly tough, though ultimately mortal.
   
  ŭ Level 3: You have functional immortality, but the cause is 
  some pretty specific magical, biological, or technological 
  kind of thing: that is, you have a spell, or a weird body 
  structure, or redundant backups, or something, that makes 
  you immortal—immortal enough to walk around in tanks 
  of hydrochloric acid or ignore/survive explosions, any-
  way—but it’s not good enough to make you actually im-
  mune to death if someone finds a way for you to die.
   
  ŭ Level 4: You have theological or fated immortality: you’re 
  just not supposed to die.
   
  ŭ Level 5: You have logical immortality—for some reason, 
  killing you would be nonsensical, or would require/release 
  infinite energy, or would break the rules of physics as they 
  are known.
  Bear in mind that at all levels an Immortality Skill can be beat-
  en by the unmaking power of the Bleak Academy or the pow-
  er of the wishing heart to make the impossible possible—in 
  short, even level 5 Immortality actions might not protect you 
  against damage from miracles.
  At levels 1-2 you may wish to think of Superior Immortal-
  ity as “Superior Healing” or “Superior Never Seems To Die” 
  instead of as actual immortality.
  
  Arcs: Shepherd Arcs
  427
   
  Shepherd Arcs
  Shepherd Arcs teach you to guard things, guide things, and 
  wake powers in things. They’re about taking care of others.
  Usually that starts like this:
   
  ŭ Quest 1: you’re living your ordinary life...
  and then a new responsibility falls on you out of nowhere.
  And one can debate whether the real beginning of the Arc is quest 
  1 or that moment at its very end when suddenly everything is dif-
  ferent.
  After that, anyway, there’s
   
  ŭ Quest 2: you struggle with stuff.
   
  ŭ Quest 3: you face, and conquer, some trouble from your past.
  That’s the simplest form of the Arc. After that, your life could 
  slip back to its normal course. Or, of course, you could go a little 
  further:
   
  ŭ Quest 4: you travel strange worlds, fight epic battles, and oth-
  erwise face big tests.
   
  ŭ Quest 5: you’re living a totally awesome, over-the-top life.
  This is pretty optimistic stuff; there’s generally a lot of annoyance 
  and difficulty in the XP actions for the quests, but on the whole, 
  these are deeply uplifting Arcs where you get the chance to do 
  what you love and love what you do. Even when you get dragged 
  down, even when you give up on the stuff you love, these are the 
  Arcs where that doesn’t stick—
  Where you rise up, inevitably, driven by new ideas or good 
  fortune, and get back to doing what you care about again.
  Making Stuff
  There are a number of different game mechanics that you 
  could use to build or make something. You could formulate 
  an Intention to “build this thing,” or just “to work on it.” You 
  could use a relevant miracle. You could build something slow-
  ly, over time, as a quest or even a full Shepherd Arc. Because 
  part of creation is the will to build things “right” or “correct-
  ly,” you may find yourself wondering which game mechanic 
  is the right one to use.
  In this, regrettably, I cannot help.
  This is a game about how to live your life. This is a game 
  where your thoughts, and the players’ thoughts, on how life 
  should be lived matter—and creating stuff cuts too close to 
  the bone, at least for me, for there to be a single answer on 
  how to do that well. Sometimes dedicating a quest to building 
  something is a foolish waste of energy and devotion; other 
  times a full three Arcs won’t be enough. Sometimes trying to 
  get something done with a single Intention is just ridiculous; 
  other times, it’ll be just right. The game can’t tell you how to 
  make things. It can’t tell you the right way to build things. All 
  the game can tell you is that a single level 4 Intention is effec-
  tive, a single level 5 Intention is productive, a miracle makes 
  something happen, and a quest earns you a Perk and advances 
  your Arc. For the rest, you’ll have to come up with your own 
  life philosophy about how much work to put into what and 
  when, and go with that.
  
  428
  428
   Sheperd 1 
  
  429
   
   Shepherd 1 
  1: 
  This is the story of your ordinary life—the everyday work, stress-
  es, and pleasures that form the fabric of your days.
  Result. A responsibility falls on you out of nowhere.
  Mundane Perks and 
  Other Benefits (Choose 1):
  Have you made a given place (say, a shrine, park, or home) a little 
  healthier or happier?
   
  ŭ
  “It’s like a home to me.”: This Perk tracks your work on 
  a given project or place. 1-2x/book, you can invoke it to have 
  the HG describe the environment there—this isn’t necessarily 
  more than a few sentences; it’s just something to evoke that it 
  is still there and your work still stands.
  In addition, you can pick one of the benefits below. You can 
  add other benefits to this Perk, or allow other players to add 
  their own benefits thereto, with further quests (and without us-
  ing a new Perk slot):
   
   It gains +1 Auctoritas against the influence of the Outside 
  (max 3)
   
   It gains +1 to the Obstacle for using certain types of magic 
  (e.g., “discordant,” “hostile and unwholesome,” or “fire”) 
  there (max +3, max 5).
   
   Being there now gives a +1 Tool bonus (max +1) to—
  • feeling happy
  • feeling at home/making others feel at home
  • feeling at peace
  • taking shelter from your past
  • getting along with others who live there
  • connecting to the spiritual world
  • encouraging dignified, traditional behavior
  • connecting to people
  • sleeping well
  • keeping things clean
  • purifying things
  • getting organized
  • getting comfortable
  • finding what you need
  • last-minute saves
  • overcoming attempts at sabotage or
  • something else (as appropriate)
   
   You and the HG agree on some small but cool mundane 
  action that may now be taken using the Connection to this 
  place as the underlying Skill.
  If you dispose of this Perk the benefits will fade over time—
  roughly one quest’s worth every four books, barring NPC in-
  volvement to sustain them, but really, it’s up to the HG and 
  their willingness to track stuff. Alternately, another player who 
  has contributed or plans to contribute in the near future to this 
  Perk can take it over themselves.
  Did you make a new, or deeper, spiritual connection with something?
   
  ŭ Bond. Gain a new level 1 Bond Perk.
   
  ŭ Connection. Gain a new level 1 Connection Perk.
   
  ŭ Superior Skill. Gain a new level 1 Superior Skill Perk—a 
  “Superior Affinity,” e.g. “Superior Affinity to Birds” or “Su-
  perior Affinity to Winter,” connecting you to some element or 
  portion of the world.
   
  ŭ gain +1 to an existing Connection Perk (max 5).
   
  ŭ At Arc 2+:
   
   +1 to an existing Bond Perk, up to the Arc Trait’s rating.
  Do you get a little stronger?
   
  ŭ Accessory. You’ve picked up a cool thing or lifestyle improve-
  ment.
   
  ŭ Skill. Gain a level 1 mundane Skill Perk.
   
  ŭ Arc 2+:
   
   Power Up. Increase an inherent mundane Skill that’s relevant to 
  this Arc by +1, up to the Arc Trait’s rating. (This is always “+1, 
  up to a maximum of the Arc rating”—if the Skill or Arc rating 
  goes up, or even down, the Power Up changes appropriately.)
   
   +1 to an existing mundane Skill Perk, up to the Arc Trait’s 
  rating.
  Do you build or create something cool?
   
  ŭ Accessory. You’ve built something cool.
   
  ŭ
  “It’s coming along.” You’ve substantively advanced a 
  project too large to finish with just this quest alone, and will 
  complete it before the end of your current Arc. Much like with 
  an Accessory Perk, this Perk protects that progress with your 
  health levels—you can take a wound instead of accepting it 
  if something happens to undo the progress that you’ve made.
  You can replace this Perk with a different one if the story’s 
  direction changes so thoroughly that this Perk’s promise (that 
  you’ll complete the project this Arc) is no longer sound.
  Miraculous Perks and 
  Other Benefits (Choose 1):
  Did you make a new spiritual connection with something?
   
  ŭ Bond. Gain a new level 1 Bond Perk.
   
  ŭ Connection. Gain a new level 2 Connection Perk.
   
  ŭ Power Up. Increase an inherent Connection by +2, up to a 
  maximum of 5.
   
  ŭ Gain +1 inherent Connection to something.
   
  ŭ (or, if you’d really rather) gain +1 to an existing Connection Perk.
  Or some element of the world?
   
  ŭ Superior Skill. Gain a level 2 Superior Affinity to that element.
  Or did you, maybe, learn to see things in new ways?
   
  ŭ Power. Gain a miraculous version of “Dramatic Vision” (pg. 
  413)—a special visual mode that lets you see highlighted dra-
  matic information about things.
  
  430
  430
   Shepherd 2 
  2: 
  You’re having a little trouble keeping your life on an even keel.
  Result. You’re doing OK, but there’s a big challenge coming up.
  Mundane Perks and 
  Other Benefits (Choose 1):
  Has your work changed you? Bound you to something?
   
  ŭ rewriting one of your Afflictions
   
  ŭ rewriting one of your Bonds
   
  ŭ moving 1-2 points between your existing Skills, or to a brand-
  new mundane Skill
  Deepened your Connection to something?
   
  ŭ +1 to an existing Connection Perk (max 5)
   
  ŭ at Arc 2+:
   
   +1 to an existing Bond Perk, up to the Arc Trait’s rating
  Stretched the limits of your existing magic and knowledge?
   
  ŭ Trick. You’ve learned a new application for an existing Skill. 
  Sufficient practice will establish this as something that the 
  Skill actually does, at which point you will no longer need 
  this Perk.
   
  ŭ Magical Technique. Gain a new Obstacle 2-3 technique for 
  one of your magical Skills, ideally building on and enhancing 
  an existing technique.
  Sharpened your senses?
   
  ŭ Superior Skill. You have a level 1 Superior Skill Perk repre-
  senting your sharper senses.
  Or given you the chance to make life better for someone else?
   
  ŭ
  “It’s OK, I’m here.”: This Perk tracks the support and 
  guidance you give to a particular NPC. That NPC can use your 
  presence as a +1 Tool for (choose one)
   
   feeling at home
   
   feeling safe
   
   being safe
   
   feeling at peace
   
   connecting to the spiritual world
   
   doing things in the traditional, proper way
   
   connecting to other people
   
   sleeping well
   
   keeping things clean
   
   being organized
   
   being comfortable
   
   being good
   
   finding what they need or
   
   something else (as appropriate)
  If the NPC has access to you, and hasn’t had noticeable prob-
  lems with those things lately, you may ask the HG 1/chapter to 
  narrate their receiving the benefits of success—that is, a sen-
  tence or two showing the NPC feeling at home, feeling safe, 
  being safe, feeling at peace, etcetera.
  This Perk has an additional benefit when used to support 
  children and pets: you may use your own Health Levels to pro-
  tect them from damage. This doesn’t mean you can use your 
  physical health to protect them—just, if someone randomly 
  shows up and dumps them into a volcano, you have the right 
  to use a Health Level to say “and now they’re captive of the 
  volcano spirits!” or something instead of their just being dead.
  This Perk was created for use with children, but as long as 
  you choose appropriate benefits it should be fine for use with 
  pets, friends, students, romantic interests, and allies.
   
  ŭ Expand an existing “It’s OK, I’m here.” Perk by giving the 
  target:
   
   another thing you act as a Tool for;
   
   +1 Auctoritas against the influence of the Outside (max 3);
   
   +1 to the Obstacle for using hostile magic against them 
  (max +3, max 5)
  This does not increase the frequency you can invoke the power 
  or allow you to push that Tool bonus past +1.
  Miraculous Perks and 
  Other Benefits (Choose 1):
  Has your work changed you? Bound you to something?
   
  ŭ Affliction. Gain a new Affliction.
   
  ŭ Bond. Gain a new level 1 Bond Perk.
   
  ŭ Connection. Gain a new level 2 Connection Perk.
   
  ŭ A Shared Path—
   
   Increase an existing Bond or Connection Perk by 1, deepen-
  ing your connection to someone or something.
   
   Gain a new level 2-3 mundane Skill Perk, representing 
  something you worked on or learned or studied together.
  Have you gained some feature or quality relating to the things and 
  places you’ve been working with?
   
  ŭ Superior Skill. Gain a new level 2 Superior Skill Perk.
   
  ŭ Power Up. Increase an inherent mundane or Superior Skill 
  that’s relevant to this Arc by +1. (This is a modifier and not 
  a number—if the inherent Skill goes up, or even down, the 
  Power Up changes appropriately.)
  Have your senses sharpened?
   
  ŭ Power. Gain a modest sensory ability relating to something 
  you’ve been taking care of—e.g., improved smell if you’ve 
  been spending a lot of time with a hunting dog, or a sense for 
  the depth of water if you’ve been maintaining a pond.
  
  431
   
   Shepherd 3 
  3: 
  Absolution
  There’s something haunting you from the past, but you’ve got the 
  chance to make it right.
  Result. It’s the most amazing thing. You do.
  Mundane Perks and 
  Other Benefits (Choose 1):
  Have you grown stronger?
   
  ŭ Power Up. Increase an inherent Skill or Bond that’s relevant 
  to this Arc by +1, up to the Arc Trait’s rating. (This is always 
  “+1, up to a maximum of the Arc Trait’s rating,” and not a 
  number—if the Skill or Arc rating goes up, or even down, the 
  Power Up changes appropriately.) This can increase Shine, 
  Cool, magical Skills, Superior Skills, and mundane Skills, but 
  only while you keep this Perk.
   
  ŭ Ticket. This Perk is a Superior Skill 1 granting you access to 
  a particular road, vehicle, place, or transportation method. In 
  short, your right to use it is so well-established as to give you 
  1 Edge against anybody trying to stop you.
   
  ŭ Accessory. Gain something cool that you’d been wanting for 
  a while.
  Learned a marvelous secret?
   
  ŭ
  “Trust Me.” You know something of the pattern of fate 
  and the meaning of the world. This can give you an insight 
  into what’s going on; 1/book, you can ask the HG for a flash 
  of sourceless, oblique insight about the current problem, and 
  you’ll receive something like that by the end of the following 
  chapter.
  Lightened your heart?
   
  ŭ MP. This Perk adds 1 to your starting MP. (You also get an 
  immediate MP.)
   
  ŭ Shine. Gain a level 1 Shine Perk.
   
  ŭ Gain 2-3 Recharge Tokens
   
  ŭ At Arc 2+:
   
   Gain +1 to an existing Shine Perk (max 5)
  Or evolved into something greater than you’d been?
   
  ŭ
  “It’s a Living.” You have an important role in the world. 
  To make sure this doesn’t get forgotten/drift into irrelevance, 
  you can ask the HG 1/chapter to narrate something to do with 
  the politics of the role or someone being impressed by it. (This 
  doesn’t have to be more than a sentence or two—“oh, someone 
  comes by to ask for a favor again” or “you have to make a new 
  ruling or two on doctrine this week” suffices!)
   
  ŭ You can rewrite one of your Afflictions
   
  ŭ You can rewrite one of your Bonds
   
  ŭ You can move 1-2 points between your existing Skills, or to a 
  brand-new mundane or Superior Skill
  Miraculous Perks 
  and Other Benefits (Choose 1):
  Have you taken on a new role as one of the forces that keep the 
  world running? Evolved into something grander than you were?
   
  ŭ Affliction. Gain a new Affliction Perk.
   
  ŭ Connection. Gain a new level 4 Connection Perk.
   
  ŭ Power. You gain a relatively strong defensive, transportation, 
  or insight-related miracle. Talk to the HG about what’s appro-
  priate for the game in terms of power and cost.
   
  ŭ Power. Gain an Imperial miracle, probably with a problematic 
  element—something that comes with a job to do, a responsi-
  bility.
  Become generally stronger?
   
  ŭ Power Up. You can strengthen one of your existing powers or 
  make it easier to use. You can apply this Perk to one of your 
  inherent powers or layer it on top of another Perk.
   
  ŭ Power Up. Increase a level 2-4 Skill by +1. This can increase 
  Cool, Shine, magical Skills, Superior Skills, and mundane 
  Skills, but only while you keep this Perk and have an underly-
  ing level 2+ Skill.
   
  ŭ +1 to a level 2-4 Skill Perk, including Cool, Shine, Superior, 
  magical, and mundane Skills.
  Or lightened the burden on your heart?
   
  ŭ Lighter Heart. 1/book, you can invoke this power as if it were 
  a Recharge Token. The HG may require you to do something 
  that reminds you of who you are—some characteristic or af-
  firming activity—before this power becomes available again. 
  (That is, once used, you must wait until a new book and until 
  you’ve done something identity-affirming before this power is 
  again available for use.)
  3: 
  An Extraordinary Life
  This is the story of your extraordinary life—the larger-than-
  life magic, battles, and wonder that form the fabric of your 
  days.
  Result. A chance at greater happiness falls on you out of 
  nowhere.
   Alternate Shepherd 3 Quest 
  
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  432
   Shepherd 4 
  4: 
  You’re facing a big challenge or adventure.
  Result. It ends, leaving you battle-hardened or refreshed and, 
  either way, ready to face the trials of your ordinary life.
  Mundane Perks 
  and Other Benefits (Choose 1):
  Did you pick up something completely unexpected on your ad-
  venture?
   
  ŭ Bonus. You’ve got a devastating move you can pull out of your 
  pocket for doing something you hardly ever do—e.g., a kung 
  fu trick or near-perfect pitching skill for a scholar, or the ability 
  to shift gears and become a politician for a delinquent. You can 
  invoke this move 1-2x/book as a +2 Tool for the relevant Skill. 
  In addition to its other effects, spending a Recharge Token au-
  tomatically refreshes your available uses of this bonus.
   
  ŭ Trick. You’ve learned a new application for an existing Skill. 
  Sufficient practice will establish this as something that the 
  Skill actually does, at which point you will no longer need 
  this Perk.
   
  ŭ Defensive Aura. Pick a more specific special effect. 1/chapter, 
  your presence can shelter the people around you in some fash-
  ion. This is an action that you take that adds +1 to the Obstacle 
  (max 3) for relevant attacks.
   
  ŭ Support Aura. Pick a more specific special effect. 1/chapter, 
  your presence can support and help the people around you in 
  some fashion. This is an action you take that acts as a +1 Tool 
  for others taking certain actions. In the event that your pres-
  ence would already normally be a Tool to those actions, this 
  improves it by a further +1 (max 3).
  Or did you just learn the normal kind of stuff?
   
  ŭ Power Up. Increase an inherent Skill or Bond that’s relevant 
  to this Arc by +1, up to the Arc Trait’s rating. (This is always 
  “+1, up to a maximum of the Arc Trait’s rating,” and not a 
  number—if the Skill or Arc rating goes up, or even down, the 
  Power Up changes appropriately.) This can increase Shine, 
  Cool, magical Skills, Superior Skills, and mundane Skills, but 
  only while you keep this Perk.
   
  ŭ Skill. Gain a new level 1-2 mundane Skill Perk
   
  ŭ Connection. Gain a new level 1 Connection Perk
   
  ŭ +1 to an existing Connection Perk (max 5)
   
  ŭ at Arc 2+:
   
   +1 to an existing Bond Perk, up to the Arc Trait’s rating
   
   +1 to a mundane Skill Perk, up to the Arc Trait’s rating.
  
  433
   
  Miraculous Perks 
  and Other Benefits (Choose 1):
  At the miraculous level, the ordinary things you’d pick up include 
  stuff like:
   
  ŭ Skill or Bond. Gain a new level 2-3 Bond, mundane Skill, 
  Cool, or magical Skill Perk.
   
  ŭ Power Up. You can strengthen one of your existing powers or 
  make it easier to use. You can apply this Perk to one of your 
  inherent powers or layer it on top of another Perk.
   
  ŭ MP. This Perk adds 1 to your starting MP. (You also get an 
  immediate MP.)
  Or you might learn something off-the-wall:
   
  ŭ Power. You can invoke some sort of miraculous aura around 
  yourself, giving a defensive or support effect to appropriate 
  characters in your vicinity. You could also have an offensive 
  aura, although that’s rarer.
   
  ŭ Power. Gain a flexible Imperial power that does stuff you 
  weren’t ever really looking to be able to do—telepathy if 
  you’re kind of a physical person, ownership of Excalibur for 
  an academic, the ability to make half-plant half-robots, what-
  ever.
   
  ŭ Power. You gain an astonishingly powerful Imperial power, 
  but it’s seasonal (or, if appropriate, 1/book) and doesn’t do 
  stuff you ever really wanted to do. You learn how to flood For-
  titude, e.g., or bring back dead gods. You can experiment with 
  this power to try to find uses for it; that’d be a quest.
   Shepherd 5 
  5: 
  You’ve become a new person—a stronger, better person. Isn’t it 
  awesome?
  Result. You create or do something amazing and revolutionary.
  Mundane Perks 
  and Other Benefits (Choose 1):
  Have you created some wonder?
   
  ŭ Accessory. You now possess a potent magical wonder.
   
  ŭ Connection. Gain a level 2 Connection Perk to a new/un-
  derused Main Character and one of the following relationships:
   
   you created them.
   
   you dazzled them with your work.
   
   you rescued them or found a way to provide for them, and 
  you’re now their keeper and guardian.
  They come into the game as your minion/pet/associate/friend/
  creation, and not as an independent actor, although they may 
  stretch their wings and become their own person in good time.
  Do you practically glow with awesome now?
   
  ŭ Shine. Gain a new level 1 Shine Perk.
   
  ŭ At Arc  2+:
   
   +1 to a Shine Perk, up to the Arc Trait’s rating.
  Miraculous Perks 
  and Other Benefits (Choose 1):
  Are you dipping your metaphorical toe in the waters of cosmic 
  power and conflict?
   
  ŭ MP. This Perk adds 2 to your starting MP. (You also get an 
  immediate 2 MP.)
   
  ŭ Divine Path.
   
   Increase an existing Bond Perk to level 5.
   
   Gain a new Superior Skill Perk at level 2, representing some 
  quality you express on the cosmic stage.
  Have you built a deep and true relationship with someone or 
  something?
   
  ŭ Connection. Gain a new level 3-4 Connection Perk.
   
  ŭ +1 to an inherent Connection.
  Strengthened your natural virtues?
   
  ŭ +1 to an inherent Bond.
  Become a better mentor and guardian?
   
  ŭ Cheer Them On. 1/book, you can invoke this power to give 
  someone else a recharge (as if they’d just spent a Recharge 
  Token.) The HG may require you to weather a trial of some 
  sort before this power becomes available again. (That is, once 
  used, you must wait until a new book and until you’ve faced 
  some trial yourself before this power is again available for 
  use.)
  Or have you just created something amazing, and that’s all?
   
  ŭ Accessory. Gain a potent item of mystical regalia.
   
  
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  Arcs: 
  Emptiness 
  Arcs
  435
   
  Emptiness Arcs
  Emptiness Arcs draw on the bleak, lifeless power of the far 
  Outside and sometimes on the more vivid chaos of the near.
  They’re generally character and setting pieces—
  While stuff does happen in them, and you do change and grow 
  during them, the change is handled delicately; the focus of the 
  story is a slice of life exploration of the basic status quo. That 
  means something like:
   
  ŭ Quest 1 explores how you live with what you are.
   
  ŭ Quest 2 explores your obsession with some person or problem
   
  ŭ Quest 3 puts you in an impossible situation and watches as you 
  crack under the strain.
  Sometimes you’ll follow this with:
   
  ŭ Quest 4, where you face a brooding presence of the unnatural; 
  and maybe
   
  ŭ Quest 5, where you find answers or reach closure on something.
  Emptiness  Arcs assume that there is something wrong with 
  you or the world around you. There’s something hollow, alien, 
  broken, or twisted. You’re corrupt, or sick, or you have this dam-
  age or trauma in you that you can’t ever completely fix.
  It doesn’t have to be an objectively bad thing.
  It doesn’t even have to be a subjectively bad thing—it will 
  always be there, for you, with you, but it doesn’t have to haunt 
  you. You can get past it. But it’s the thing that means that some-
  times, no matter how many years go by, your friends or family or 
  lover or whatever will wake up to find you sitting on the edge of 
  something, unable to sleep, staring out at the world, because there 
  is this thing that hurts and you don’t know how to completely heal.
  This is your Arc’s Curse.
   Emptiness 1 
  1: 
  This quest is about the daily routine of living with the chaotic, 
  evil, alien, or Outside-touched elements of your life. It may also 
  touch on the lives of others in similar situations. A big focus on 
  clothing, mealtimes, and having philosophical discussions while 
  sitting on the edge of a cliff is common.
  Result. You make a change in your life.
  Mundane Perks 
  and Other Benefits (Choose 1):
  Maybe your commitment to that forthcoming change is really 
  strong?
   
  ŭ Bond. Gain a level 1 Bond Perk reflecting that change in your 
  life.
   
  ŭ At Arc 2+:
   
   Variable Bond. Gain a Bond Perk with variable level equal 
  to your (in) Over Your Head Issue. The more you get out 
  there in the world and do stuff, the more powerful this Bond 
  becomes; after you finish a big adventure, though, and the 
  Issue resolves, you might slack a bit on this side of yourself.
  Maybe you’ve broken through into a new way of approaching 
  your life?
   
  ŭ Trick. You’ve learned a new application for an existing Skill. 
  Sufficient practice will establish this as something that the 
  Skill actually does, at which point you will no longer need 
  this Perk.
   
  ŭ Magical Technique. You’ve learned a new way to solve your 
  daily problems. This is a level 1-2 Obstacle magical technique 
  for one of your magical Skills.
  Maybe you’ve demonstrated that you’re pretty cool, but also a 
  little bit detached and alien?
   
  ŭ Superior Skill. Gain Superior Inscrutability 1 as a Perk.
   
  ŭ Cool. You gain a new level 1 Cool Perk.
   
  ŭ Connection. Gain a level 1 Connection Perk to someone 
  you’ve been talking to about all this stuff.
   
  ŭ At Arc 1+:
   
  
  Limitless. You’ve demonstrated an undying will. 1/
  book, you may escalate your defense against an environ-
  ment or category of attacks up to the level of a miraculous 
  action. This lasts while you sustain the relevant Intention.
   
   +1 to an existing Cool Perk, up to the Arc Trait’s rating
  Maybe you’ve strengthened or found new uses for your al-
  ready-extant weirdness?
   
  ŭ Bonus. You can draw upon your alien/unusual nature to suc-
  ceed at ordinary life. 1/chapter, when taking an action you 
  have a level 2+ Skill in, you may spend 1 MP and use your 
  inherent weirdness as a +2 Tool.
   
  ŭ Bonus. Something in you hungers. 1/chapter, this Perk acts as 
  a +1 Tool for sensing when there’s something that can feed or 
  soothe that hunger.
   
  ŭ Bonus. Your Curse is a little bit infectious sometimes. 1-2x/
  book, this Perk acts as a +2 Tool for sharing your melancholy, 
  corruption, flu, or whatever, with someone else. In addition 
  to its other effects, spending a Recharge Token automatically 
  refreshes your available uses of this power.
   
  ŭ Bonus. There’s a touch of strange fate on you—a thing you’re 
  meant to do or be. (Name it.) 1/book, you may invoke this Perk 
  as a +3 Tool for achieving something important to (or at least 
  related to) that fate.
   
  ŭ At Arc 1+:
   
   +1 to an appropriate Bond Perk, up to the Arc Trait’s rating.
  
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  436
  Miraculous Perks 
  and Other Benefits (Choose 1):
  Did you learn something new?
   
  ŭ Magical Skill. Gain a level 2 Magical Skill relevant to your 
  experiences with this Arc.
   
  ŭ Power. Gain a subtle power for deceiving others about your 
  intentions—e.g., something that waives the normal rule that 
  emotes must be honest 1/chapter (and you don’t have to de-
  clare when you use it), or a low-level Auctoritas against being 
  seen through by others, or a power that lets you hide your feel-
  ings even from yourself.
  Is your new path strengthening you?
   
  ŭ Health. You’ve gained a new Normal Health Level.
   
  ŭ Cool. Gain a new Cool Perk at level 1.
   
  ŭ Power Up. Increase either your inherent Cool or an inherent 
  mundane Skill that’s relevant to this Arc by +1. (This is a mod-
  ifier and not a number—if the inherent Skill goes up, or even 
  down, the Power Up changes appropriately.)
   
  ŭ +1 to a mundane Skill or Cool Perk
   
  ŭ +1 to an existing Bond Perk
  Do you gain new powers related to your Curse?
   
  ŭ Power. Spend an MP to infect something near you with some 
  element of your Curse.
   
  ŭ Power. You can sense something that can feed or help you.
   
  ŭ Power. Gain a defensive power, comparable to Weathered 
  (pg. 108).
  
  437
   
   Emptiness 2 
  2: 
  There’s something you can’t stop thinking about—it absorbs your 
  thoughts, it obsesses you, it’s sucking you into the abyss of its 
  enigmas, emptiness, and strangeness.
  Outcome. Your ordinary life stops feeling safe/normal/OK to you.
  Mundane Perks 
  and Other Benefits (Choose 1):
  Have you learned to crystallize the Curse inside you into a power?
   
  ŭ Rewrite one of your Bonds or Afflictions to suit.
   
  ŭ Superior Skill. Gain a new level 1 Superior Skill Perk reflect-
  ing your unnatural qualities.
   
  ŭ Trick. You’ve learned a bizarre new application for an existing 
  Skill. Sufficient practice will establish this as something that the 
  Skill actually does, at which point you will no longer need this Perk.
   
  ŭ Bonus. Your power tempts you to do wicked things. 1/chapter, 
  this Perk acts as a +1 bonus for (choose one):
   
   ...manipulating people?
   
   ...tempting others into your vice?
   
   ...spying on people?
   
   ...finding someone’s weakness?
   
   ...taking something from others?
   
   or something else of that sort?
   
  ŭ Bonus. Or is your power simply to destroy? 1-2x/book, this 
  Perk acts as a +2 bonus for breaking, crushing, smashing, or 
  otherwise ruining physical or emotional targets. In addition to 
  its other effects, spending a Recharge Token automatically re-
  freshes your available uses of this power.
   
  ŭ
  “This stuff just happens.” 1/book, when taking unop-
  posed action, you may invoke this power as a level 6 Intention. 
  Opposition from a level 2+ Intention76 causes this power to 
  automatically fail, but also refreshes its use. 
  Have you learned more about chaos and the Outside than you’d 
  really wanted to know?
   
  ŭ Connection. You know the ways of the Bleak Academy (or 
  a similarly fearsome enemy with a connection to your alien 
  nature.) Gain a level 1-2 Connection Perk thereto.
   
  ŭ +1 to that Connection (max 5).
  After a wound, or simply becoming brittler, have you constructed 
  better defenses against the world?
   
  ŭ Shelter. Home isn’t safe enough; you retreat to somewhere 
  else or somewhere specific within. This Perk is a Superior Skill 
  1 that grants you access to the place you consider to be your 
  shelter, protects you while inside it, and makes it harder for 
  trouble to follow you “home.”
   
  ŭ Bonus. You’ve learned to shrug off the occasional bit of nasti-
  ness. 1/chapter, this Perk acts as a +1 Tool for defending your-
  self against social or emotional attacks.
   
  ŭ Health. You’ve gained a new Normal Health Level.
   
  ŭ Cool. You gain a new level 1 Cool Perk.
   
  ŭ At Arc 1+:
   
   +1 to an existing Cool Perk.
  76 Level 1- Intentions might not necessarily affect the outside world at all, 
  so I’m not letting them disrupt your groove.
  Miraculous Perks 
  and Other Benefits (Choose 1):
  Have you learned some of the secrets of the world’s enemies (or 
  your own?)
   
  ŭ Power. Gain a miraculous or Imperial power that in some 
  fashion lets you spy on or tells you the secrets of the Outside 
  and the Bleak Academy, or some other relevant and probably 
  malign force.
  Gotten stronger and more alien?
   
  ŭ An Alien Strength. 
   
   Gain a new level 1-2 Skill or Superior Skill Perk—you’ve 
  changed;
   
   ...but that change fits together with the person you already 
  were. Gain +1 to an existing Skill or Superior Skill Perk.
  Have you learned to crystallize the curse inside you into a power?
   
  ŭ Affliction. Gain a new, uncomfortable but practical Affliction.
   
  ŭ Bond. Gain a level 4 Bond Perk representing your vice, weak-
  ness, or frailty.
   
  ŭ Power. Gain a miraculous power that, while in itself com-
  pletely under your control, tempts you by the very fact that 
  you have it to do wicked things that you’d rather not do. (E.g., 
  mind/emotion control, the ability to inflict bad luck, or any-
  thing that makes your personal issues worse, such as invisibil-
  ity or telepathy for the kinds of characters who’d abuse them.)
   
  ŭ Power. A power to exaggerate or alleviate something like your 
  “curse” in others.
  
  438
  438
   Emptiness 3 
  3: 
  You’re trying to cope with an impossible situation. This quest 
  spends a lot of time on your emotional state, your memories, and 
  your history as you do.
  Result. You remember something important that you’d forgot-
  ten, and make a decision on how to deal with it.
  Mundane Perks 
  and Other Benefits (Choose 1):
  This quest often changes or marks you in little ways...
   
  ŭ you can rewrite an Affliction or Bond;
   
  ŭ you rename and adjust a Skill, or move a point from one inher-
  ent Skill to another
  Or big ones:
   
  ŭ Apotheosis. 1/book, you can draw on the power of the mark 
  or change this quest made in you as a +3 Tool for anything 
  appropriate. You may define this Perk in such a way that al-
  most anything is appropriate, or hew closer to a specific title or 
  power, as you and reason prefer.
   
  ŭ Arc 2+:
   
   +1 to an appropriate Bond Perk or Superior Skill Perk, up to 
  the Arc Trait’s rating.
  Or gives you a deeper Connection to someone:
   
  ŭ Connection. Gain a level 1-2 Connection Perk to someone 
  your memories have been lingering on.
   
  ŭ +1 to such a Connection Perk
  Or the quest teaches you something strange:
   
  ŭ Magical Technique. You express the quest’s effects on you by 
  gaining a new technique for an existing magical Skill.
   
  ŭ Power Up. One of your mundane or Superior Skills gains a 
  supernatural twist. You can invoke this power 1-2x/book to 
  treat that Skill as a level 2 Superior Skill for the duration of a 
  scene (complete with up to 2 Edge and the ability to do border-
  line-supernatural things.) In addition to its other effects, spend-
  ing a Recharge Token automatically refreshes your available 
  uses of this power.
  Starting at Arc 1 this quest might open up a new magical Skill tied 
  to the Arc—something tricky and unnatural drawing on the power 
  of your Curse and the Outside.
   
  ŭ At Arc 1+:
   
   Magical Skill. You gain a new level 1 magical Skill as a 
  Perk associated with this Arc. You may only choose one 
  such Skill for this Arc.
   
   Bond. You gain a new level 1 Bond Perk conceptually re-
  lated to one of your magical Skills or magical Skill perks.
   
  ŭ At Arc 2+:
   
   +1 to this Arc’s magical Skill Perk, up to the Arc Trait’s 
  rating.
  Miraculous Perks 
  and Other Benefits (Choose 1):
  Often you’ll find yourself changed or strengthened:
   
  ŭ Affliction. Gain a new Affliction Perk.
   
  ŭ MP. This Perk adds 1 to your starting MP. (You also get an 
  immediate MP.)
   
  ŭ Power Up. Increase an inherent Skill or Bond that’s relevant to 
  this Arc by +1. (To a maximum of 5.) This can increase Shine, 
  Cool, magical Skills, Superior Skills, and mundane Skills, but 
  only while you keep this Perk.
   
  ŭ Magician’s Path—
   
   Increase an existing magical Skill Perk to 3, exploring the 
  limits of your magic.
   
   Gain a level 1 Superior Skill Perk, as that magic changes 
  you. 
   
  ŭ +1 to an existing Skill or Bond Perk.
  Or you’ll suddenly see something about someone else that you’d 
  never expected:
   
  ŭ Power Up. This Perk sets one of your existing Connections 
  (whether Perk or inherent) to level 4.
  Or you’ll learn a strange new power:
   
  ŭ Power. You may transform yourself into something else, gain-
  ing access to a small number of special abilities while in that 
  form.
   
  ŭ Power. You gain access to a powerful “curse”—e.g. De So-
  lis Solidera, which is a set of words I have just now strung 
  together out of nowhere that probably means something like 
  “of the frozen sun” or “of the sun’s soldier” or “the soul is 
  flowing time, made still”—that functions as a deus ex machina 
  of a sort. When you first use it, it’s an Imperial miracle with a 
  very specific application, but you can spend Recharge Tokens 
  to develop and broaden its power over time.
  If your Arc Curse is a magical curse, the two curses are 
  probably related; if your Arc Curse is “despair” or “poisoned,” 
  they may or may not actually relate.
   
  ŭ Superior Skill or Power. You’ve learned a peculiar adapta-
  tion—a way to use a mundane Skill to command one of the 
  elements of the world. This often manifests as a level 2-3 
  Superior Skill Perk that lets you do something like Cooking 
  meals that speed or slow time as they’re consumed or as a 
  miraculous power to manipulate some element, based on a 
  power from a miraculous Otherworldly Arc (e.g., something 
  based on Spirit Boost on pg. 517, with costs based on your 
  current Emptiness Arc level), but adding a mundane action 
  requirement to its MP cost.
  
  439
   
   Emptiness 4 
  4: 
  You deal directly with something unnatural—pacifying it, taming 
  it, or maybe struggling and losing against it. 
  Reward. You find “the key to the world”—something myste-
  rious but which seems to hold the key to making your life, or the 
  things around you, have more value to you.
  Mundane Perks 
  and Other Benefits (Choose 1):
  Again this quest often changes or marks you in little ways.
   
  ŭ you can rewrite an Affliction or Bond;
   
  ŭ you rename and adjust a Skill, or move a point from one inher-
  ent Skill to another
  Finding the key can be internal and psychological, but often it’s 
  kind of a big (objective) deal:
   
  ŭ
  “You may have heard of me.”: In this or a recently com-
  pleted quest, you’ve changed the world. To make sure that this 
  doesn’t get forgotten/drift into irrelevance, 1/book, you can 
  explain to the HG how you think it should play into the course 
  of events. They don’t have to go along with it, but they have to 
  listen; and that chapter or the next chapter, they have to narrate 
  how the change is playing into the course of events.
   
  ŭ Support Aura: Because you found the key to the world, your 
  presence can support and help the people around you in some 
  fashion. (Pick a more specific special effect.) 1/chapter, you 
  can take an action to invoke this Perk and it will act as a +1 
  Tool for others doing whatever this aura supports. In the event 
  that your presence would already normally be a Tool to those 
  actions, this improves it by a further +1 (max +3).
   
  ŭ Accessory. Along the way you picked up a really cool trea-
  sure—something hardly anybody else in Town (or wherever) 
  possesses.
  Even if it’s not a physical thing, or even if you give it up later on, 
  you might seem more glorious than you were:
   
  ŭ Shine. Gain a level 1 Shine Perk.
   
  ŭ Defensive Aura: Pick a more specific special effect. 1/chapter, 
  your presence can shelter the people around you in some fash-
  ion. This is an action that you take that adds +1 to the Obstacle 
  (max 3) for relevant attacks.
   
  ŭ At Arc 2+:
   
   Auctoritas. Gain a level 1 Auctoritas protecting you against 
  the bleak power of the Outside.
   
   +1 to a previously obtained Auctoritas Perk of that form 
  (max 3)
   
   +1 to an existing Shine Perk, up to the Arc Trait’s rating.
   
  ŭ At Arc 4+:
   
   Defensive Aura: 1/chapter, you may share your Auctori-
  tas against the bleak power of the Outside with people and 
  things that are near you.
  Miraculous Perks 
  and Other Benefits (Choose 1):
  This may just provide a relatively simple power up:
   
  ŭ Affliction. Gain a new Affliction Perk.
   
  ŭ Power Up. You can strengthen one of your existing powers or 
  make it easier to use. You can apply this Perk to one of your 
  inherent powers or layer it on top of another Perk.
  Or it may establish you as something terrifying to reckon with:
   
  ŭ Power. You gain a nasty power costing either 2 or 4 MP for 
  a standard use and giving you a truly absurd effect—you can 
  unwind time, bind everyone around you into being puppets 
  to your will, or something like that. This is generally built as 
  an Imperial Miracle or as an Affliction that you can turn on 
  and off.
   
  ŭ Power. You have access to an aura of unholy glory—a Major 
  Miracle that can intimidate or awe the people around you. Pick 
  an emotion that you can inflict on people. The aura itself is 
  usually a 1/chapter power, usable more often for 1-2 MP, but 
  if you’re aiming for something particularly flexible (e.g. tar-
  geting individuals in crowds or emotions like “I want to please 
  this awesome person with this aura”) it may have a standard 
  use of 1/book instead.
   
  ŭ Accessory. You gain access to a place or item of vast power, 
  which you can deplete seasonally by pulling a vast power out 
  of it. This power is an Imperial miracle you can invoke 1/book, 
  or at other times for a cost of 4 MP; you may “train” or “shape” 
  the power to a new form, changing what this power actually 
  does, with 3-10 chapters of prep work and mundane actions.
  
  440
  440
   
   Emptiness 5 
  5: 
  Solutions
  You find out what to do, moving forward.
  Reward. You gain a sense of completion.
  Mundane Perks 
  and Other Benefits (Choose 1):
  The simplest way to reward yourself for this quest is to directly 
  change your character:
   
  ŭ rewriting one of your Afflictions
   
  ŭ rewriting one of your Bonds
   
  ŭ Bond. Gain a level 1 Bond Perk representing your character’s 
  new equilibrium.
   
  ŭ Shine. Gain a level 1 Shine Perk.
   
  ŭ Arc 2+:
   
   +1 to a Bond Perk representing that equilibrium, up to the 
  Arc Trait’s rating.
   
   +1 to a Shine Perk, up to the Arc Trait’s rating
  Often, though, you’ve changed in intangible ways—possibly too 
  subtle to express even with a Bond. This might manifest in the 
  game as:
   
  ŭ Connection. You’ve earned a level 2 Connection Perk to a 
  new/underused Main Character, who admires you for who 
  you’ve become.
   
  ŭ Gain 2-3 Recharge Tokens
   
  ŭ At Arc 2+:
   
  
  “I’ll be OK.” This is a level 2 Connection Perk to what-
  ever life you’re living. You can change what kind of life-
  style that refers to 1/book.
   
   Lighter Heart. 1/book, you can invoke this power as if it 
  were a Recharge Token. The HG may decide that this power 
  comes from some element of your everyday life and require 
  you to indulge in that for a while before this power becomes 
  available again (that is, once used, you must wait until a 
  new book and until you’ve spent enough time doing your 
  everyday thing before this power is once again available 
  for use.)
  Or maybe the change in you is pretty darn tangible—maybe the 
  closure or answers that you’ve found have resulted in your totally 
  becoming a creature of the Outside or the Bleak Academy.
   
  ŭ Superior Skill. Choose between Superior Immortality 1 (pg. 
  426) or Superior Dreamer 1.
   
  ŭ Arc 1+:
   
   +1 to a Superior Immortality or Superior Dreamer Perk
   
  ŭ Arc 2+:
   
   Power Up. Increase your inherent Shine, Superior Immor-
  tality, or Superior Dreamer by +1, up to the Arc Trait’s 
  rating. (This is always “+1, up to a maximum of the Arc 
  rating”—if the Skill or Arc rating goes up, or even down, 
  the Power Up changes appropriately.)
   
   +1 to this Arc’s magical Skill Perk, up to the Arc Trait’s 
  rating.
  Miraculous Perks 
  and Other Benefits (Choose 1):
  Is there an ability you no longer need?
   
  ŭ Swap. Ditch a magical or Superior Skill Perk and replace it 
  with a new one, level 4-5.
   
  ŭ Swap—
   
   Ditch a level 1-3 magical or Superior Skill, replace it with 
  a new magical or Superior Skill of comparable level, and
   
   Take a new Power Up Perk that raises that Skill to level 
  4-5.
   
  ŭ You can also replace a level 4-5 Superior or magical Skill with 
  a new magical or Superior Skill at the same level without using 
  a Perk.
  Have you grown stronger?
   
  ŭ Power. You gain a new, flexible Imperial power.
   
  ŭ Health. Gain a new Health Level as a Perk. This is normally 
  a Divine Health Level, but if you hurried through the quest or 
  don’t want more Divine Health Levels, you could get a Tough 
  or Normal Health Level instead.
  Or gained the power to escape your circumstances?
   
  ŭ Affliction. Gain a powerful new Affliction.
   
  ŭ Connection. Gain a level 2 Connection Perk to, and the loyal-
  ty of, a new/underused Main Character.
   
  ŭ Accessory. Gain a potent item of mystical regalia.
   
  ŭ Power. You gain a potent miraculous transportation power, 
  comparable to Appear (pg. 522)
  5: 
  Answers
  You tackle a mystery that’s been bugging you for a long time—
  something where not knowing has been driving your character 
  Arc and hurting you. It’s often a social or emotional thing, or a 
  senseless crime, but it could also be a scientific mystery. 
  Reward. You find the answers that you needed.
   Alternate Emptiness 5 Quest 
  
  441
   
  
  Arcs: Mystic Arcs
  442
  442
  Mystic Arcs
  Mystic Arcs take you outside of yourself; you give yourself 
  into the keeping of, and walk in the footsteps of, higher powers.
  They typically start like this:
   
  ŭ Quest 1 is a confused and ominous time—it’s in the shadow 
  of events to come...
  ...and then there is a miracle.
  I think of that time as like a river seen through glass. It’s full of 
  motion and darkness and there is beauty in it but you can’t see 
  where it’s going until you’re there.
  Once the miracle strikes, you’re bound to some Principle—
  you’re giving yourself into the service of Love, or Justice, or Pro-
  tection, or whatever. The Arc then continues like so:
   
  ŭ Quest 2 showcases a tempter, someone who wants to lure you 
  from the path.
   
  ŭ Quest 3 is a rough, scary time of your life. Everything is confusion.
   
  And maybe you need another quest or two to finish things out:
   
  ŭ Quest 4 is about you falling off that path, falling into darkness.
   
  ŭ Quest 5 is about your creation of a new miracle yourself.
  This is a pretty bleak Arc in its quest descriptions but you 
  shouldn’t think of it like that. The thing about all of this is that 
  hope and miracles are a constant, thrumming presence in this Arc. 
  There are good things all around you in this Arc, waiting for you 
  to accept them, waiting for you to need them, waiting for you to 
  make them or whatever, I don’t know. The point is, this isn’t an 
  Arc about despair.
  It’s an Arc about how terrifying the world and miracles can 
  be; and that’s intended to make the things that sustain you matter 
  all the more. 
  I don’t know what respite or solace you will get when you 
  are on this path; but if you are on this path, then it will make you 
  greater by the presence of the things you have faith in and the 
  powers that you serve, and so that respite and that solace must 
  somehow and eventually be enough.
  That’s all I can give you in game mechanics. That it must even-
  tually, somehow, be enough.
  Anything more wouldn’t be faith, or hope, or strength; it’d 
  only be causality.
   Mystic 1 
  1: 
  This quest is built of portents. You know something is coming. 
  You can feel that something is coming.
  The person you’ve been... is going to have to die. And some-
  thing new, be born.
  Result. You are confronted by a miracle.
  Miraculous Perks 
  and Other Benefits (Choose 1):
  The passing touch of a miracle often changes you:
   
  ŭ Superior Skill. Gain a new level 2 Superior Skill Perk.
   
  ŭ Affliction. Gain a new Affliction.
   
  ŭ Bond. Gain a level 1 Bond Perk related to the miracle or events.
   
  ŭ Gain +1 to such a Bond Perk.
  Or leaves you in possession of an ally or item with a useful ability, 
  often related to transporting or protecting you:
   
  ŭ Accessory. Gain such a magical item or ally.
  Mundane Perks 
  and Other Benefits (Choose 1):
  Does the passing touch of the miracle change you?
   
  ŭ Rewrite an Affliction or Bond.
   
  ŭ Superior Skill. Gain a new level 1 Superior Skill Perk.
   
  ŭ Trick. You’ve learned a new application for an existing Skill. 
  Sufficient practice will establish this as something that the 
  Skill actually does, at which point you will no longer need 
  this Perk.
  Do you emerge from these struggles with something that can lift 
  you up, transport you, or shelter you from the storms?
   
  ŭ Accessory. You gain access to an unusual vehicle.
   
  ŭ Accessory. You gain access to a useful, often lightly magical, 
  tool for self-defense.
   
  ŭ Accessory. You gain access to an unusual, but loyal, servant.
   
  ŭ Ticket. This Perk is a Superior Skill 1 granting you access to 
  a particular road, vehicle, place, or transportation method. In 
  short, your right to use it is so well-established as to give you 
  1 Edge against anybody trying to stop you.
   
  ŭ Magical Technique. Gain a new Obstacle 1-3 technique as-
  sociated with one of your magical Skills—something for 
  self-protection, summoning an ally, or traveling about.
  
  443
   
  
  444
  444
   Mystic 2 
  2: 
  You’re courted and tempted by your “opposite number”—by 
  someone who’s playing in the same basic cosmology you are, but 
  for the other team.
  Someone with a decent pitch, too—
  If you’re fighting for Love, for instance, then you won’t get 
  a growly enemy dude who fights for Hate and sticks to “’cause 
  Hate is awesome” as their argument. You’ll get someone awesome 
  and seductive who happens to stand for Hate; or someone clever 
  enough to make a good play to get you to hate someone; or, most 
  likely of all, you’ll face off against Science, Reason, Duty, Dispas-
  sion, or Will and not against Hate at all.
  Result. Your life falls apart. You’re betrayed by something you 
  had faith in or you’re abandoned by your own “side” in some fash-
  ion. Your spiritual pleas go unanswered.
  Mundane Perks 
  and Other Benefits (Choose 1):
  Have you built a deeper connection to your enemies?
   
  ŭ
  Foe Yay: Pick an enemy, rival, or antagonist. When they 
  are cooperating with you, this Perk acts as a +1 Tool. If you 
  ever become friends or colleagues, however grudging, this 
  Perk reverts to a Bonus, and you may thereafter only use it 1/
  chapter.
   
  ŭ
  “They Know Your Scent.” It’s not perfect but your op-
  posite number will tend not to get out of control and hurt peo-
  ple you care about—1/chapter, when the HG describes your 
  opposite number doing something cruel to someone you care 
  about, you can propose that they either hesitate out of courtesy 
  or develop a matching interest (a desire to have your friends, 
  family, etc. as friends, family, &c. of their own), instead. The 
  HG can accept or reject your idea, but has to take a moment 
  to consider it first.
   
  ŭ
  “I Know How They Think.” You have a pretty deep in-
  sight into how your opposite number operates. 1/chapter, you 
  can ask the HG for a hint about what your opposite number is 
  thinking, or, conversely, have an imagination spot where your 
  adversary gives what their honest advice would be in a situa-
  tion like this.
   
  ŭ Connection. Gain a level 1-2 Connection Perk to your oppo-
  site number.
   
  ŭ +1 to such a Connection (max 5).
  Or become something a little different yourself?
   
  ŭ Trick. You’ve learned a new application for an existing Skill. 
  Sufficient practice will establish this as something that the 
  Skill actually does, at which point you will no longer need 
  this Perk.
   
  ŭ Superior Skill. Gain a level 1 Superior Skill associated with 
  your Principle.
   
  ŭ Shine. Gain a level 1 Shine Perk.
   
  ŭ Rewrite an Affliction or Bond.
   
  ŭ At Arc 2+:
   
   +1 to an existing Shine Perk, up to the Arc Trait’s rating.
  Miraculous Perks 
  and Other Benefits (Choose 1):
  Have you built a deeper connection to your enemies?
   
  ŭ Connection. Gain a level 3 Connection to your “opposite 
  number.”
   
  ŭ Power. Gain a copy or reversed version of one of the powers 
  that they’ve shown themselves to possess, at an effectiveness 
  appropriate to your current Arc Trait.
   
  ŭ +1 to an appropriate Connection Perk.
  Given yourself over to the hand of the divine?
   
  ŭ Affliction. Gain a new Affliction.
   
  ŭ Power. You gain access to a powerful technique, alternate 
  form, or living weapon that functions as a deus ex machina 
  of a sort. When you first use it, it’s an Imperial miracle with a 
  very specific application, but you can spend Recharge Tokens 
  to develop and broaden its power over time.
  Or is the glory that accumulates your own?
   
  ŭ Shine. Gain a level 1 Shine Perk.
   
  ŭ +1 to an existing Shine Perk.
  
  445
   
   Mystic 3 
  3: 
  Your life’s a mess, and you’re not sure what to make of things, but 
  over the course of this quest you hammer out a plan for moving 
  forward.
  For putting together a new life. A new purpose. A new plan.
  Result. Your plan falls apart. Things get confused and out-of-
  control and the whole affair sort of ends with you feeling carried 
  along by events. You might get to do something awesome, but 
  it doesn’t feel like you had much of a chance to be consciously 
  decisive in how it all played out.
  Mundane Perks 
  and Other Benefits (Choose 1):
  You’ll usually emerge from this quest with a new, holy power—
  basically, something that sustained you or saved you when you 
  lost control of events. This is often an aura:
   
  ŭ Defensive Aura: Pick a more specific special effect. 1/chapter, 
  your presence can shelter the people around you in some fash-
  ion. This is an action that you take that adds +1 to the Obstacle 
  (max 3) for relevant attacks.
   
  ŭ Support Aura: Pick a more specific special effect. 1/chapter, 
  your presence can support and help the people around you in 
  some fashion. This is an action you take that acts as a +1 Tool 
  for others taking certain actions. In the event that your pres-
  ence would already normally be a Tool to those actions, this 
  improves it by a further +1 (max 3).
   
  ŭ Offensive Aura: Pick a more specific special effect. 1/chapter, 
  your presence can trouble those around you. This is an action 
  that you take that adds +1 to the Obstacle (max 3) for a certain 
  category of actions, such as “evil magic,” “breathing,” “speak-
  ing,” or “feeling at ease.”
  A mildly supernatural power:
   
  ŭ Bonus. 1/chapter, this Perk acts as a +1 Tool that represents 
  (choose one)...
   
   a surge of strength;
   
   a healing, calming light;
   
   a will to rebuke or exorcise the wicked;
   
   a kindness that can help people move past their guilt;
   
   a power to grant peaceful sleep.
   
  ŭ Superior Skill. Or, gain a level 1 Superior Skill Perk for some-
  thing of that sort.
   
  ŭ
  Luck. 1-2x/book, you can invoke this power for a bit of 
  good luck. It doesn’t always work, but the HG must always 
  take a moment to consider the possibility that good luck will 
  strike. In addition to its other effects, spending a Recharge To-
  ken automatically refreshes your available uses of this power.
  Or a more generic holiness:
   
  ŭ Superior Skill. Gain a level 1 Superior Holiness Perk.
   
  ŭ At Arc 2+:
   
   +1 to your Superior Holiness, up to a maximum of the Arc 
  Trait’s rating.
  You may also get through things on your own strength:
   
  ŭ Trick. You’ve learned a new application for an existing Skill. 
  Sufficient practice will establish this as something that the 
  Skill actually does, at which point you will no longer need 
  this Perk.
   
  ŭ MP. This Perk adds 1 to your starting MP. (You also get an 
  immediate MP.)
   
  ŭ Health. You’ve gained a new Normal Health Level.
   
  ŭ At Arc 2+:
   
   Variable Bond or Skill. Gain a Bond or Skill with vari-
  able level equal to your It Never Stops! Issue. The tougher 
  things get, the stronger you become.
   
  ŭ At Arc 3+:
   
   Health. You’ve gained a new Tough Health Level.
  Note that Superior Holiness gets weird at level 4-5; I’m giving 
  you the option, but I don’t actually recommend taking it that high.
  Miraculous Perks 
  and Other Benefits (Choose 1):
  Did some higher power reach down to save you, blessing you with 
  a new power, in the end?
   
  ŭ Power. Gain a power that symbolizes holiness in some fashion—
   
   an aura of fire or glory or light
   
   access to vast strength
   
   the power to heal
   
   the power to rebuke or exorcise the wicked
   
   a sword that can cut the guilt or sadness from someone 
  without hurting their flesh
   
   the ability to shield yourself and someone else
   
   the ability to grant peaceful sleep
   
  ŭ Power Up. One of your existing mundane Skills improves to 
  level 4-5 while you have this Perk.
   
  ŭ Power Up. Extend the flexibility of a miraculous ability.
  Or did you make it on your own?
   
  ŭ MP. This Perk adds 1 to your starting MP. (You also get an 
  immediate MP.)
   
  ŭ Power. Gain a power related to luck or survival in some fashion.
   
  ŭ Variable Bond or Skill. Gain a Bond, Skill, or Superior Skill 
  with variable level equal to your It Never Stops! Issue. The 
  tougher things get, the stronger you become.
  
  446
  446
  
  447
   
   Mystic 4 
  4: 
  There’s a hole in the world. Or at least a hole in the way your life 
  is put together. It’s partly psychological but it’s symbolized by a 
  very real monster, trap, curse, demon, or miraculous effect.
  Result. You manage to suppress it with the help of your family 
  and friends. Or, if you’re completely cut off from all of those, by 
  the intervention of a higher power or an unexpected friend.
  ...It’s probably not a permanent solution.
  Mundane Perks 
  and Other Benefits (Choose 1):
  Are you clawing your way up towards the realms of great and holy 
  things, even as your life falls apart at the edges?
   
  ŭ
  Glory. 1-2x/book, you may take on a subtle glory and in-
  crease your Shine to 4. This is an action you must sustain for 
  its effect. This power refreshes automatically when you spend 
  a Recharge Token.
   
  ŭ Apotheosis. 1/book, you can take on your full glory and power 
  and use this Perk as a +3 Tool for anything appropriate. You 
  may define this Perk in such a way that almost anything is 
  appropriate, or hew closer to a specific title or power, as you 
  and reason prefer.
   
  ŭ Gain 2-3 Recharge Tokens
   
  ŭ Arc 2+:
   
   Power Up. Increase an inherent Skill or Bond that’s rele-
  vant to this Arc by +1, up to the Arc Trait’s rating. (This 
  is always “+1, up to a maximum of the Arc Trait’s rating,” 
  and not a number—if the Skill or Arc rating goes up, or 
  even down, the Power Up changes appropriately.) This can 
  increase Shine, Cool, magical Skills, Superior Skills, and 
  mundane Skills, but only while you keep this Perk.
   
  Or maybe you’ve just gotten a little cooler?
   
  ŭ MP. This Perk adds 1 to your starting MP. (You also get an 
  immediate MP.)
   
  ŭ Arc 1+:
   
   Cool. You gain a new level 1 Cool Perk.
   
   +1 to an existing Cool Perk, up to the Arc Trait’s rating.
  Miraculous Perks 
  ther Benefits (Choose 1):
  You’re losing yourself in it sometimes—it’s hard not to drown in 
  it, sometimes—but when you are at your best, perhaps you can 
  act as a conscious medium and expression for some holy force: 
  enlightened, exalted, as if everything has become easy—
   
  ŭ Power. You have a new ability—either an Imperial or Major 
  Miraculous ability—that you may use 1/book for free, or at 
  other times for a cost of 4 MP. This transforms you into some-
  thing theologically or metaphorically potent. For example, you 
  become an avatar of winter who can stalk through the world 
  bringing ice and snow, or an angel who can show people the 
  flaws in their lives, or a congealing power that can hold the 
  substrate of things together against a tide of the Outside. Usu-
  ally this functions as a wish (a specific but abstract wish, like 
  “I wish I were an avatar of winter”) or Bleak power, so you can 
  handle the details differently each time. 
   
  ŭ Lighter Heart. 1/book, you can invoke this power as if it were 
  a Recharge Token. The HG may require you to spend some 
  time meditating on and practicing holy things (or whatever fits 
  your Arc) before the power becomes available again (that is, 
  once used, you must wait until a new book and until you’ve 
  done something redemptive again before this power is again 
  available for use.)
  Or perhaps you gain an invincible, undying strength?
   
  ŭ Health. Gain a new Health Level as a Perk. This is normally 
  a Divine Health Level, but if you hurried through the quest or 
  don’t want more Divine Health Levels, you could get a Tough 
  or Normal Health Level instead.
   
  ŭ Power. Gain a new defensive power, probably roughly com-
  parable to Weathered.
   
  ŭ Bond. Gain a new level 4 Bond Perk, something that sustains 
  you.
   
  ŭ Affliction. Gain a new Affliction that expresses that inner 
  strength.
   
  ŭ
  “Guess You’re Stuck with Me.” Gain a new, defined 
  mechanism for coming back from death or absolute defeat. 
  This operates on the player/game level rather than the char-
  acter level so it’s situationally better than immortality itself.
  4: 
  Things Are OK
  Trouble? Whatever. Awful trouble? Whatever! You’re going to 
  stay happy and optimistic. Ganbatte! 
  Outcome. You get a shattering piece of news. Your efforts 
  fall to pieces in your hands. This probably means that you or 
  somebody you care about is dying.
   Alternate Mystic 4 Quest 
  
  448
  448
   Mystic 5 
  5: 
  This is your struggle to live as a better person; to be a blessing 
  unto others, in spite of everything. To be the light of a miracle.
  To make things right.
  Result. Unknown. Call it a canon flexpoint—if you’re ever 
  going to find out that it was all worth it, or all for nothing, it’s at 
  the end of this quest. If you’re ever going to find out that your 
  faith has value, or that it was all a lie... it’s at the end of this quest. 
  There’ll be some campaigns where which one’ll happen is obvi-
  ous, but others where it might surprise you!
  Mundane Perks 
  and Other Benefits (Choose 1):
  Has your success changed the world forever?
   
  ŭ
  “You may have heard of me.”: In this or a recently com-
  pleted quest, you’ve changed the world. To make sure that this 
  doesn’t get forgotten/drift into irrelevance, 1/book, you can 
  explain to the HG how you think it should play into the course 
  of events. They don’t have to go along with it, but they have to 
  listen; and that chapter or the next chapter, they have to narrate 
  how the change is playing into the course of events.
   
  ŭ
  “It’s a Living.” You have an important role in the world. 
  To make sure this doesn’t get forgotten/drift into irrelevance, 
  you can ask the HG 1/chapter to narrate something to do with 
  the politics of the role or someone being impressed by it. (This 
  doesn’t have to be more than a sentence or two—“oh, someone 
  comes by to ask for a favor again” or “you have to make a new 
  ruling or two on doctrine this week” suffices!)
   
  ŭ Accessory. Along the way you picked up a really cool treasure—
  something hardly anybody else in Town (or wherever) possesses.
  Earned you a boon companion?
   
  ŭ Connection. You’ve earned the loyalty of a new/underused 
  Main Character, and a level 2 Connection Perk thereto.
  Made you a little bit epic?
   
  ŭ
  Dramatic Survival. Gain a single Divine Health Level. 
  Once wounded, this can never heal until such time as you have 
  access to miraculous Arcs. 
   
  ŭ
  Dramatic Travel. You’re a little stylized. 1/chapter, you 
  can waive a level 1-2 Obstacle between you and getting some-
  where where something interesting is happening. 
  Given you a certain je ne sais quoi?
   
  ŭ Shine. Gain a level 1 Shine Perk.
   
  ŭ At Arc 1+:
   
   +1 to an existing Shine Perk
  Or just changed you into something else?
   
  ŭ You may rewrite one of your Afflictions
   
  ŭ You may rewrite one of your Bonds
   
  ŭ You can take your inherent Skill points spent on mundane 
  Skills and Superior Skills and re-divide them between (new or 
  old) mundane Skills, Superior Skills, and Shine.
  Miraculous Perks 
  and Other Benefits (Choose 1):
  Have you become something numinous and divine? One of the 
  axes or axioms of the world?
   
  ŭ Power. Gain an extremely flexible Imperial power.
   
  ŭ New Form—
   
   you can take your inherent Skill points spent on mundane 
  Skills and Superior Skills and re-divide them between (new 
  or old) mundane Skills, Superior Skills, and Shine.
   
   you also receive 1-3 power-up Perks, each adding +1 to one 
  of your new Superior Skills.
   
  ŭ Affliction. Alternately, transfigure into something new and 
  gain an Affliction to represent that new form (e.g. “Affliction: 
  I have become the Queen of Fire.”)
   
  ŭ Shine. Gain a level 2 Shine Perk.
   
  ŭ +1 to an existing Shine Perk.
  Have you found yourself in control of a precious resource?
   
  ŭ Accessory. Gain a potent item of mystical regalia.
   
  ŭ Loyalty. Gain the loyalty of a new/underused Main Character, 
  as:
   
   a new level 2 Connection Perk; 
   
   a new level 2 Bond Perk; or
   
   +1 to an existing Connection or Bond of that sort.
  Or have you transcended a normal feature of the mortal condition?
   
  ŭ Power. Gain an extremely useful transportation or defensive 
  power—something that boils down to “of course I can show 
  up there/of course that can’t hurt me.”
   
  ŭ Swap. Ditch a magical or Superior Skill Perk and replace it 
  with a new one, level 4-5.
   
  ŭ Swap—
   
   Ditch a level 1-3 magical or Superior Skill, replace it with 
  a new magical or Superior Skill of comparable level, and
   
   Take a new Power Up Perk that raises that Skill to level 4-5.
   
  ŭ You can also replace a level 4-5 Superior or magical Skill with 
  a new magical or Superior Skill at the same level without using 
  a Perk.
  
  449
   
  
  Chibi-Quests
  450
  450
   Chibi-Quests 
  A handful of quests don’t really fit into the Arc structure—
  They’re marked with the generic logo 
  instead of an Arc; they’re always or almost always side quests; 
  as a rule, you’ll need 15 XP if you want to finish one, and you’ll 
  earn a different kind of reward.
  Projects
  Chibi-quests are the way Chuubo’s Marvelous Wish-Granting 
  Engine handles stuff that you’re doing for instrumental or tem-
  porary effects—
  Stuff that you’re putting energy and time into that won’t, on its 
  own, have long-term effect.
  For instance, if you pick up a part-time job at a grocery, you’ll 
  definitely get some Skill in doing stuff there, and if you were al-
  ready financially OK, you’ll pick up some financial leverage—but 
  if you quit, and look at your character sheet and your life, you’re 
  not going to see a major change in circumstances or one of your 
  tiny handful of Skill points invested in being a grocer.
  If you clean up and get really organized; if you set up a formal 
  partnership to get a business off the ground; if you do a ton of 
  studying for an impending test—
  Whatever.
  That’s all good stuff to do, and it all has impact, but if it matters 
  at all a year from now, it won’t be for itself but for what it allowed 
  you to do. A chibi-quest like this is usually an any-time quest with 
  the same color as your Advancement Arc; it will cost 15 XP; and 
  it will have one of four possible rewards:
   
  ŭ a temporary level 2 Skill.
   
  ŭ a temporary +1 Tool bonus on appropriate things.
   
  ŭ (if it happens to be better) a temporary, Arc-appropriate Perk. 
  or
   
  ŭ you’re healing a little faster from an ongoing wound (pg. 126-
  128)—it drops a level in severity. 
  You keep a quest like this active after finishing it, as one of your 
  four possible quests, and you keep the reward for as long as you do.
  Characterization
  Characters often have a 15-XP side quest that they stay on for mul-
  tiple stories—or rather, as soon as they finish it, they start it again. 
  This is called your character’s “basic” quest.
  For instance, one of Town’s Main Characters, the Wishing 
  Boy, defaults to having a quest to just... have fun with friends 
  and make precious memories. This hunger is never completely 
  satisfied—it just earns a reward every 15 XP.
  A quest like this does a couple of things for you.
  First, it gives something to think about when you’re not able 
  or willing to actively move forward on the big plots in your life. 
  If you’re someone like the Wishing Boy, for instance, and you 
  don’t know what you should be doing, you can look at that quest 
  and it’ll tell you: relax, set the rest aside, and have some fun with 
  your friends.
  Another thing a basic quest does for you is give you a little 
  progress meter that runs even when you’re not doing anything 
  important at all. Just playing your character and ignoring the quest 
  should still get you 1-3 bonus XP for it a session; eventually, your 
  character will grow from the quest no matter what you do.
  If you play a lot of tennis, that could be a basic quest for you. 
  Or if you spend a lot of time looking after your cats. Rinley Yats-
  kaya’s basic quest is telling and listening to stories; Miramie Mes-
  mer’s basic quest is feeling aggravated and under siege.
  For me it seems to be writing fantasy & SF & RPG stuff. I was 
  writing when I was 9. I was more into bad poetry and bad comics 
  when I was younger than that, but it was still basically the same. 
  I was writing when I was starving and I was writing when I was 
  successful and I was writing when I should have been doing other 
  things. I’ve made friends by writing and I’ve lost them by writing. 
  I met Excrucians and Powers, I came to Town and hung out with 
  rats and magic, I saw the sun rise over Grayvale and I ate manna 
  from the tree, and still I’m writing!
  It hasn’t changed.
  It’s my chibi-quest!
  But maybe I’m being too kind to myself. Maybe the thing I do 
  is actually freaking out unnecessarily. Or being overwhelmed by 
  ambient sound. Or making random, goofy connections between 
  unrelated concepts. Or never quite making it to things going well, 
  but never quite having them fall apart on me either with any final-
  ity. Maybe it’s even something bitter, like not doing all the things 
  that I’m not doing because I put my energy into writing instead. 
  Or maybe it’s something uplifting, like, maybe I actually get to 
  make people feel happy in my company or with my words often 
  enough that it could count as a thing, as the thing, that I chibi-do.
  What is it for you in real life, do you think?
  What’s the thing your character does?
  The standard reward for a basic quest is a Recharge Token—a 
  precious memory or keepsake that you can call upon exactly once 
  in the middle of a chapter to refresh your Will and “wish pow-
  er” (MP) to full. There are also miscellaneous other things in the 
  game that you might be able to use a Recharge Token for—mostly, 
  and this is kind of me cheating, things I’d like to charge you some 
  XP for but also allow you to do on the fly, like expanding the use 
  of a deus ex machina power (see pg. 438 or pg. 501/506). 
  
  451
   
  
  Mortal Arcs
  Miraculous Arcs
  452
  452
   Mortal Arcs 
  For a mortal PC, level 0 Arcs come with the following benefits:
   
  ŭ a level 2 Bond
   
  ŭ an Affliction tied to the Arc Trait’s rating and
   
  ŭ a level 0 Arc Trait, which isn’t inherently useful but can be-
  come so later on.
  Each completed Arc gives a mortal character:
   
  ŭ +1 to the Arc Trait
   
  ŭ +1 Skill Point to an existing Skill, +1 to an existing Bond, or 
  a new level 1 Bond
   
  ŭ a new level 1 Skill, and 
   
  ŭ you can optionally move a point from an existing Skill into 
  the new Skill.
  The first Arc usually takes 120 XP to complete; after that, the HG 
  should set the target based on the advancement rate they or the 
  group as a whole would like.
  If you reach Arc level 3, you’ll also get a new Affliction tied 
  to that Arc.
   Miraculous Arcs 
  At the miraculous level there is more distinction between the 
  Arcs; each has a power uniquely its own.
  I’ll give you one example for each of the eight colors below, 
  plus a few extras—
  All of them fairly generic, so as to allow you but not to expect 
  you to create your own.
  Character Growth 
  for NPCs
  I don’t want to give the impression that the PCs are normative. 
  The rule is that an NPC has whatever abilities the HG thinks 
  that they ought—but the normative expectation is that an ordi-
  nary person gains a single Skill or Bond point per Arc, doesn’t 
  get any free Bonds, and has no access at all to Afflictions. Nor 
  do they accumulate the benefits they do get indefinitely—major 
  transition points in their life (such as puberty, graduation, and 
  meeting the PCs for the first time) effectively start a “new cam-
  paign” for them, refactoring their character sheet back down 
  towards 8 points of Skills, a possible Bond, and 0-2 Perks.
  Even in a mortal game, in short, PCs and the other Main 
  Characters will tend to start stronger and grow faster than the 
  NPCs around them.
  Miraculous Rewards 
  for Mundane Quests
  Talk to your group and HG about it; if they’re OK with it, 
  you may be able to sacrifice the Skill/Bond part of a mundane 
  Arc’s rewards for a small miraculous ability like Well-Liked 
  (on pg. 401) or Octopus Singer (pg. 106).
  
  453
   
  
  Quest Miracles
  The Deeds of the 
  Binder
  454
  454
   Quest Miracles 
  Characters with established miraculous Arcs gain access to a new 
  range of possible chibi-quests and projects. These are the “quest 
  miracles:” 15-XP or occasionally slightly-more-than-15-XP side 
  quests with the color and the flavor of their Arcs. 
  These are slow miracles, miracles of effort, miracles wrought 
  by work, despair, and dreaming over a good length of time. Not 
  the kind of thing that you’d do in miraculous combat, not the kind 
  of thing you can do just by pointing at the sky, at the sea, at some 
  mountain, and yelling, “Bam!”
  —but the kind of thing that you’d use if you wanted to cart a 
  mountain away a pebble at a time, only, planning to finish it in 
  weeks or months or labor instead of the great slow aeons. These are 
  the powers you’d use to build a bridge to Heaven brick by brick, or 
  summon rain by consciously gathering up the clouds, or find a path 
  through thought and effort by which to send a lost spirit to its home.
  A great work like this is usually piggybacked on an any-time 
  quest: when you’ve flipped your sign, or said your catchphrase, or 
  gone over the top, or whatever, 15 times, the miracle self-invokes.
  You’ll pick up your options for quest miracles like this from 
  your Arcs.
  Each color of miraculous Arc, at each level, offers a possibili-
  ty or two for quest miracles, and you’ll retain access to the earlier 
  levels’ quest miracles if you’d like. A few miraculous Arcs, like the 
  Knight Arc “Reality Syndrome” (pg. 500-507), have specific addi-
  tional options of their own. The options I’m going to list here aren’t 
  actually the end-all and be-all of your options, either way: you can 
  always negotiate with the HG to do something miraculous that your 
  character ought to be able to do, or at least attempt, and—unless the 
  HG disagrees strongly about its possibility in the world—you can 
  probably get it done with a sufficiently expensive quest. If you’re 
  willing to go all the way to 50-60 XP, you can probably earn both the 
  effect and an appropriate advancement along the course of your Arc!
  You don’t have to stay on the Arc to have access to its quest 
  miracles—once you’ve, e.g., hit Arc Trait 1 on a Storyteller 
  Arc, you can always do the appropriate quests.
  Quest Miracles and MP
  If you’re questing for a miraculous action, it won’t generally have 
  an additional MP cost. The quest itself pays the price, and it’s 
  invoked automatically at the end of a short-term quest.
  Quest Miracles, Conflict, and Strike
  Unlike most quests, you don’t have to put away the quest card 
  when you complete a quest miracle—although the HG is within 
  their rights to insist on your doing so at the end of an IC season 
  or an OOC book.
  Instead, on completion, the miracle is “sustained” for as long 
  as you keep it an active quest.
  You don’t need a separate action to invoke or sustain it and 
  you can add Strike to it later on if you’ve encountered unexpected 
  opposition or an Auctoritas.
   The Deeds of the Binder 
  Bindings
  Quest miracles for a Bindings Arc are usually 
  Paradigmatic 
  (pg. 93) any-time quests.
  Arc 0-1
  Quest miracles at this level focus on imbuing some of yourself, or 
  some of some occult power, into an object, person, or thing. This 
  is typically well-controlled while the quest miracle is sustained 
  and then fades into the HG’s hands thereafter—
  Not necessarily becoming completely uncontrolled, or even 
  less effective, or anything, just that it can if the HG wants it to.
  Arc 2
  Quest miracles at this level focus on summoning out some larger 
  power from one of the things you have bound—often opening a 
  gate or portal or transforming a place in some eldritch way.
  If you want to create a new artifact—a wonder of magic or 
  science—you can generally do so, from this point forward, with a 
  45-XP quest. In addition to creating the artifact itself this acts as a 
  quest miracle to unleash that larger power.
  See Glass Magic, on pg. 464, for an example of how this kind 
  of thing might work.
  Arc 3
  Quest miracles at this level focus on conjuring servants, reshaping 
  regions, and constructing fortresses; the results are usually chillingly 
  effective while the miracle is sustained (or when you invoke a fol-
  low-up miracle) and quirky/idiosyncratic/mildly rebellious otherwise.
  Arc 4
  Quest miracles at this level are massive ritual attacks on your ene-
  mies—you’ll chain them, bind them, destroy them, or transform them, 
  although if they have Health Levels or the HG treats them as having 
  Health Levels then they may negotiate a mitigation of the effects.
  Arc 5
  Quest miracles at this level tend to focus on reshaping the entire 
  cosmos and setting new principles for it; this is sadly a slower and 
  more expensive process than the typical quest miracle, possibly 
  costing 35 or more XP, and to some extent its very open-ended-
  ness makes it more vulnerable to the HG’s choices about what to 
  allow, but the end result is still pretty good.
  
  Knight Path Mira-
  cles
  455
   
   Knight Path Miracles 
   
  Knight
  A miraculous Knight Arc is typically going to feature:
   
  ŭ at least one Truth—something definite and certain about you;
   
  ŭ a Failing—something that is holding you back; and
   
  ŭ a Role—something that you will aspire to.
  Quest miracles are usually 
  Struggles (pg. 99-100) built around 
  these three ideas.
  Arc 0-1
  Your quest miracles generally involve trying to be someone better. 
  If you know who you want to be—if you’re a candidate for the 
  Horizon Student Council, or the Fortitude Regional Council, or 
  you’re learning to be a veterinarian, or you’re planning to be a 
  rock star, or whatever—then you practice or think about your role 
  and try to figure out how to do it right.
  If you don’t know that yet, you work on trying to be whatever 
  you think you should be trying to be today—honest, “cool,” dili-
  gent, dangerous, whatever!
  At the end of the quest, you’ll get your choice of:
   
  ŭ an insight that helps you understand what you need to do (and 
  which is typically a +1 Tool for emulating that role, attaining 
  that virtue, or doing something context-specific that’s relevant 
  to your Arc situation while you sustain the quest); or
   
  ŭ a kind of metaphysical/social armor that displays your worth—
  it becomes blatantly obvious that you are on this path and that 
  your Truth (whatever it is) is true. 
  If absolutely necessary—I guess if you’re infiltrating Hell 
  or something?—you could make your Failing obvious instead 
  or as well.
  Here’s an example: you’re lost and adrift in a distant land—Shan-
  gri-La, Kentucky, or even Mars! No one is going to care there that 
  you’re (e.g.) a candidate for the Fortitude Regional Council with 
  an exemplary history of honesty. But you could use this miracle 
  to make it obvious to anyone who even looks at you that you’re 
  a civic-minded and honest person. Your virtue pierces the walls 
  between social worlds.
  For Arc 0-1 
  Struggles  I recommend the “Fake it Till You 
  Make It” signs on pg. 456.
  Arc 2
  Quest miracles at this level focus on doing things “appropriate” to 
  your role. If you’re training to be a knight, that could mean pull-
  ing swords out of stones and defeating knights in darker armor. If 
  you’re an magical star princess apprentice, instead, it might mean 
  manifesting Town-defending force fields from the wishful pow-
  ers of people’s hearts! If you’re planning on being a veterinarian, 
  though, this might be a little unimpressive—
  I mean, you can probably stop a plague that’s running ram-
  pant in the canine population or something, which is awesome, 
  but only if there is such a plague; or invent a new veterinary tech-
  nique, maybe, which is also awesome but pretty hard to give actu-
  al meaning to in-game.
  Still.
  The point is, if there is something that’s established in play as 
  the kind of thing that someone in your role does—if you’re the kind 
  of person that does pull swords out of stones, or reliably save fanta-
  sy kingdoms, or fly across the timewinds in a ship made of fragile 
  dreams, or negotiate with the Kings and Queens of the birds, basi-
  cally, if the game has established anything like that as being true?
  This is the level at which you can back that up with a quest 
  miracle.
  The “Fake it Till You Make It” signs on pg. 456 are also suited 
  for an Arc 2 
  Struggle.
  Arc 3
  Quest miracles at this level draw on some external power. Ideal-
  ly it’s something that’s already granting you power—a knight’s 
  patron saint, say, or the magic of your company credit card, or a 
  symbiote that lives inside you. But you could also use this quest 
  itself as a way of declaring:
  “I, as someone in this Role, am entitled to invoke and call upon 
  the power of (X)!”
  ...where X is something like a patron saint, or alien entity, or 
  secret weapon, or symbiote inside your chest.
  This power usually manifests an amped-up version of one of 
  your existing powers or Perks.
  The quest is normally a 
  Struggle. Evoking this power is 
  agonizing, traumatic, or disorienting, but you keep control, e.g. 
  showing an Agony sign from pg. 457.
  Arc 4
  Quest miracles at this level tend to make the world around you 
  flourish or otherwise transform it in accordance to your role. 
  It’s plausible that when you get there this will feel like the kind of 
  thing that works best as a 
  Pastoral or 
  Exciting quest. (Or  
  it might still be best suited for an agonizing 
  Struggle quest 
  using the signs on pg. 457.)
  Arc 5
  Quest miracles at this level focus on empowering or redeeming 
  others—you can pull them from their ordinary or fallen lives and 
  give them a new role in service to your own.
  This is usually a bit of a blast from the past, quest-wise—these  
  Struggles will usually use the “Fake it Till You Make It” signs 
  again.
  
  456
  456
   Fake it Till You Make It 
  Side B
  Side A
  Calm
  !!!!asdfasdfaegoihaergF*CK
  Side B
  Side A
  It’ll be
  OK
  (You don’t know what you’re doing.)
  Side B
  Side A
  I Know 
  What I’m 
  Doing
  (You don’t know what you’re doing.)
  
  457
   
   Agony 
  Side B
  Side A
  Calm
   I can hear it
  whispering in my head
  Side B
  Side A
  Given my position... 
  I could hardly do 
  anything less
  (Where am I?)
  Side B
  Side A
  I’m 
  Fine
  (Please make it stop.)
  
  Otherworldly Mira-
  cles
  458
  458
   Otherworldly Miracles 
  Otherworldly
  Otherworldly Arcs generally connect you to and make you an ex-
  emplar and servant of some fundamental force—
  Your Element or Estate.
  For instance, you might develop a deep connection to Fire, 
  Roads, Daydreams, or Sloth.
  The quest miracles for an Otherworldly Arc reflect that, using 
  Lurid (pg. 96-97) any-time quests wherein your thoughts drift 
  away to the realms of your Element or your Element shows its 
  nature in your countenance.
  Arc 0-1
  Typical quest miracles at this level are divinations—you try to use 
  your dreams to find something out from or about the Element you 
  are connected to.
  Arc 2
  Typical quest miracles are protective—you stabilize situations 
  against the influence of the Outside, heal spiritual wounds in 
  things, and strengthen something’s spirit. Your element must 
  somehow be involved. 
  These are Major Miracles by default.
  Arc 3
  Quest miracles at this level expand your control over your El-
  ement—if such suits your Element, they allow you to summon 
  up epic, Town-shaking storms; conjure endless summers; reshape 
  streets and grow buildings whole and entire from the ground.
  These are Major Miracles by default.
  Arc 4
  Quest miracles at this level are epic miracles for driving your El-
  ement away or limiting its presence somewhere—you can erase 
  species, turn manifestations of your Element invisible and intan-
  gible, and the like. Such a miracle it might have been that ended 
  the age of progress here in Town.
  These are Major Miracles by default.
  Arc 5
  Quest miracles at this level allow epic-scale adjustments to the 
  “state” of things with regards to the Element you’re bound to—if 
  it fits your Element, you can afflict a nation with storms or change 
  what it means to dream.
  These are Major Miracles by default.
   Weather Mantra 
  an example Quest Miracle
  Type: Miraculous Action, Major, Quest Miracle
  Cost: —
  You may conjure up weather effects—summon storms, winds, or 
  droughts. You can call up and befriend a spirit of the weather; they 
  will stay beside you for a week or two before they fade. In general 
  you may work any number of effects involving creating weather, 
  summoning weather, or bringing weather patterns to pseudo-life. 
  However, each use of this power requires a 15+ XP quest, such as 
  Bring the Storm, below. 
  This is a miraculous ability appropriate for characters with a 
  suitable 
  Otherworldly Arc at 3+. By “suitable” I mean that not 
  every spiritual character connects to the weather—if your other-
  worldly path connects you to fire, or water, or wishes, or music, 
  or something, then weather manipulation might not be an appro-
  priate quest miracle for you. It’s also possible that you’ll have a 
  unique Otherworldly Arc that’s particularly inappropriate for this 
  kind of thing, even though it is about the weather, or a unique Arc 
  of some other sort that this fits.
  
  459
   
  XP
  Bonus XP
  You’re summoning a storm.
  This quest comes with a division of states—there’s the you who is grounded in the 
  world around you, and then there’s the you whose mind can be suddenly snapped away 
  from the here and now into the chaos of the coming storm. Your thoughts may suddenly 
  be snatched from you and blown about as the clouds that you’re dragging closer rip 
  from their leashes. You’ll be vague and unfocused for a while when that occurs.  
   I’ve made a sign for this—a reversible card, which you could in theory have on 
  the table in front of you in play to show which state you’re in. You can earn a bonus 
  XP at any time (though only once per scene/15 minutes) by flipping the card, showing 
  that you’re moving between states—coming down to earth or being ripped out into the 
  storm.
   If you can’t actually keep the card in front of you, holding up the card with the rel-
  evant side facing people or just saying or emoting something appropriate can earn you 
  the XP instead.
  Bring the Storm
  25
  Distant Storms
  Here and Now
  
  Legends and Dreams
  460
  460
    
   Legends and Dreams 
  Storyteller
  Quest miracles for a Storyteller Arc are usually 
  Melodra-
  matic (pg. 91)—you’re always admiring yourself in mirrors and 
  lakes, seeing omens, reacting strongly to the good or bad charac-
  ter of others, and the like. You’re disdainfully cynical or in love 
  with the world or something in it and surrounded by the substance 
  of miracles. 
  Arc 0
  Your life is just a bit too stylized to be real. You’ve got access 
  to “the power of friendship,” or sparkle-cam, or unlimited am-
  munition, or convenient clues—whatever. Or you’re turning into 
  something mysterious and awesome, and that numinous nature 
  shrouds you.
  Quest miracles at this level take the form of genre-appropriate 
  attempts to solve a given mystery or problem, but they aren’t nec-
  essarily very powerful—you’re guaranteed to get at least a hint 
  or a small victory, but not necessarily anything worth the quest.
  Arc 1
  You’ve got some mysterious, magical, and awesome stuff going 
  on with your life. You’ve got plot hooks. 
  Quest miracles at this level tend to improve you with extra plot 
  hooks: story-specific powers, bonuses, or upgrades that’ll become 
  unreliable when you abandon the quest and go away entirely at 
  the end of the story.
  Arc 2
  You can manifest yourself in places where you’re not. Rumors 
  spread. Signs of your coming presence appear. Then there you 
  are, equipped with a temporary level 2 Connection to someone or 
  something, pre-integrated into the place or person’s life. If your 
  target is a person, the miracle also gives them a temporary level 2 
  Connection to you.
  Optionally, you may then feed off of your target, wounding 
  them with this miracle in some desired fashion.
  Arc 3
  You may use quest miracles at this level to transform others’ lives. 
  You act as a cathartic influence on their lives, getting them out of 
  their rut, helping the broken take power over themselves again, 
  shaking the cruel from their foolish ways. This can involve your 
  other powers or just... being yourself.  
  This tends to work better on random NPCs than Main Char-
  acters—it’s not that it can’t work on a Main Character, but if the 
  HG or player wants to let you change a Main Character’s heart, 
  they’ll usually either let you do it for free, let you do it with in-
  game work, or demand a lot of XP. And if they don’t want you to 
  do that, you probably can’t! Wanting a short quest to prove your 
  intentions is pretty rare.
  Arc 4
  As you ascend into Arc 4 on a Storyteller Arc, you tend to become 
  something of a dilemma—a contradiction. You wind up pulled 
  between two competing forces and the ultimate direction of your 
  loyalties gets muddy. 
  You can’t resolve this on your own. For that, there’s something 
  you need from the people around you.
  At this level you’re a catalytic, transformative force that pulls 
  people into your own story; and usually, that story is in a state of 
  unresolved tension between two opposing poles.
  Quest miracles at this level manifest or banish things that “fit” 
  one of the two stories you have going on. 
  Arc 5
  Quest miracles at this level break down barriers that stand in the 
  way of your will, shape the Outside to that will, create powerful 
  servants and artifacts (sometimes even at the Main Character lev-
  el), and twist fate. They express the wishing (or bleak) power of 
  the heart that can make the impossible, possible—
  The way to get a handle on what they can and can’t do is to 
  imagine that they’re a metaphor on a grand scale for some force you 
  serve. If you’re Law, then they can bind vast regions into order; if 
  you’re a representative of Love, you can shatter sea walls and trans-
  form animals into people; if you’re a representative of Despair, you 
  can dim or douse all light and bring cities tumbling down.
  
  461
   
  
  Wuxia and Secret 
  Arts
  462
  462
   Wuxia and Secret Arts 
  Aspect
  Quest miracles for a miraculous Aspect Arc are usually 
  Excit-
  ing—you can use the generic Exciting quest on pg. 94-95. 
  Arc 0-1
  Quest miracles at this level train you temporarily in some sort of 
  special martial arts ability or secret art—typically manifesting as 
  a temporary level 2 Superior Skill. For instance, you learn the im-
  plausible Roleplaying Martial Arts style, which gives you edge in 
  a martial arts duel while you stay in character, or the No-Shadow 
  Punch to “throw” your punches a few feet beyond your fist, or a 
  special Life-Awakening Cooking style that infuses your soup with 
  enough heart power to wake a wounded hero or old grandmother 
  practically from the dead.
  (But not all the way from the dead, and they should rest again 
  when they can, because as a Superior Skill 2 this has to make some 
  concessions towards realism.)
  Arc 2
  Quest miracles at this level are still “special techniques,” but now 
  they can be goofier: you train in Chi techniques that approximate 
  animalistic or monstrous abilities or do supernatural martial arts 
  things (as a level 3 Superior Skill) or that change your body in 
  ways appropriate for a persistent miracle.
  This quest is an implicit claim that any—human? Are you hu-
  man?—whatever you are, if their heart is sufficiently heroic, can 
  get to this technique with the appropriate training regimen. How-
  ever, you don’t have to make this claim with a straight face; you 
  just have to be willing to make it.
  Arc 3
  Quest miracles at this level manifest spiritual auras around you 
  that have strong effects. You can typically direct these effects 
  with your mundane or Aspect-enhanced actions—if you surround 
  yourself in a storm of spirit swords, you can attack people with 
  them using your mundane actions or your other Aspect powers.
  Arc 4-5
  Quest miracles at this level teach you invincible (and often, kind 
  of goofy) perfect techniques. You can take the kind of stuff that 
  your higher-end Aspect powers let you do—e.g., the stuff from 
  Determination and Anime Moment (pg. 532), for an Ace—and 
  learn to do it on a regular basis.
  Unfortunately, because these powers are a single miracle, us-
  ing this power is a little tricky. You can’t turn it on and off because 
  as a quest miracle, it’s already on; instead, you’ll have to:
   
  ŭ Declare an automatic trigger for its activation, like “I flash-step 
  when it’s helpful in fighting [[some particular enemy]];” or
   
  ŭ Activate/control the power with your mundane actions, mean-
  ing that someone could theoretically outfox even your perfect, 
  invincible action by being smarter than the brain behind it.
  Starting at Arc 5, or at Arc 4 if you’re willing to put some extra 
  XP into the quest miracle, you can take these techniques past the 
  local level—powers like Anime Moment might not let you take 
  action extending beyond your vicinity and the scene, but these 
  quest miracles can.
  
  The Shepherd’s Way
  463
   
   The Shepherd’s Way 
   
  Shepherd
  A Shepherd’s path generally relates to:
   
  ŭ a Craft—some work of mortal Skill that you have taken to 
  magical levels. 
   
  ŭ a collection of things and people you have a spiritual connec-
  tion to: your Treasures.
   
  ŭ a collection of places you have a connection to: also called 
  Treasures, or, Gardens.
  Do you guard and watch over animals, buildings, family, or 
  friends? Do you empower your works of art? Do you have a col-
  lection of magical gear from which you evoke potent effects? Do 
  you fish up magical fish, then feed them to the people you care 
  about? Duel your enemies using magical kites?
  That kind of stuff is the Shepherd’s path.
  Quest miracles for a Shepherd Arc are usually  
  Pastoral—
  you can use the generic Pastoral quest on pg. 90. 
  Arc Level 0
  Your quest miracles at this level usually focus on training or im-
  proving things, making them unnaturally responsive and alert (for 
  animals) or convenient and functional (for places). This creates a 
  +1 Tool, which is only really better than a mundane quest miracle 
  in that you can share the benefits with others.
  You can use your Craft in some fashion to teach animals or peo-
  ple borderline supernatural techniques. For instance, you might put 
  them through bizarre cinematic martial arts training, magical train-
  ing, use your Treasures in some weird fashion to improve them, or 
  have many long, heartfelt conversations about what they’re really 
  capable of until that turns out to include ventriloquism, charm, tradi-
  tional Damascene smithcraft, or whatever else you’d like. This gives 
  them the equivalent of a Superior Skill 2, which remains part of them 
  from the time you finish the quest to the time you set it aside. If you 
  want to teach your dog hang-gliding or a person how to become un-
  noticeable using the Shadow Step, this is the appropriate technique.
  If you want to do this, and you don’t have an appropriate 
  Arc-related Craft, you can probably get away with it as long as 
  you involve your Craft into things somehow. You can train them 
  against or with your fish or kites or glasswork or whatever else.
  Arc Level 1
  Your quest miracles at this level tend to transform your Treasures, 
  physically and spiritually, unleashing their “true form” or “true pow-
  er.” Or, if the Treasure is already magical, you activate, revitalize, 
  and control its powers without necessarily initiating a transformation.
  If you want to create a new artifact—a wonder of magic or 
  science—you can generally do so, from this point forward, with a 
  45-XP quest. In addition to creating the artifact itself this acts as a 
  quest miracle to unleash its true power.
  See Glass Magic, on pg. 464, for an example of how this 
  might work.
  More generally unless your Arc has a weird condition for get-
  ting Treasures, a 45-XP quest is usually enough to both obtain/
  create and then miraculously activate a new Treasure.
  Arc Level 2
  Quest miracles at this level focus on quiet moments of beauty—
  they’re about bringing a good closure to things through... basical-
  ly, being Santa, or a good witch, or the secret angel in the shadows 
  who makes everything come out OK.
  About turning your skills and position and talents to the end of 
  making things end well.
  You can think of the result as a miracle that declares that the 
  relevant actions, including the stuff you’ve already done towards the 
  quest, will lead to moments of beauty and positive closure. The stan-
  dard failure mode, if the opposition is too strong, is for it to produce 
  results that are only happy endings, moments of beauty, or positive 
  closure in the most bittersweet, vaguest, or most ironic sense.
  Still, if you beat any countermiracles or Auctorita, a happy 
  ending is guaranteed! There’s a reason Santa’s never lost his hold 
  on the winter throne.
  The quests themselves are normally 
  Pastoral, but in some  
  cases a generic 
  Paradigmatic or 
  Exciting quest may be 
  more fun.
  Arc Level 3
  Quest miracles at this level let you find, temporarily have around, 
  and invoke the powers of epic versions of the kinds of Treasures 
  you already have around. That is, if you normally have a pet bear 
  that can be pretty awesome, these quest miracles are what you’d 
  need to wake up one of the nearby hills that happens to be a sleep-
  ing bear. (Then, later on, after the quest miracle is finished, the HG 
  can explain away how the hill gets back in place and why nobody 
  much mentions it with “let us never speak of this again.”)
  If you usually invoke PCs as your Treasures—e.g., bringing a 
  special power in them out—then you probably shouldn’t go around 
  finding more epic versions of them to use. Instead, these quests 
  scale up the power you can get from them; if that winds up overlap-
  ping with or duplicating an ability you have through other channels, 
  such as A Fearsome Blessing (pg. 535), well, you have my regrets.
  Arc Level 4-5
  Quest miracles at this level are creative—you build things that have 
  cosmic meaning and applicability. They’re usually concretized Af-
  flictions: while they exist, even once the miracle subsides, a new con-
  vention governs the world. Perhaps you wish to give people hope: 
  you erect a stone; and then for a long time after, a person may come 
  and pray before that quest-made stone to have the burden of their life 
  lifted from them. Something transformative will then happen; those 
  who dreamed of the sky too often, for instance, might learn to fly.
  Sometimes these quest miracles create local concretized Prop-
  erties instead: while the physical structure remains, a Property 
  locally prevails.
  
  464
  464
  Glass Magic
   
  an example Quest Miracle
  Type: Miraculous Action, Quest Miracle
  Cost: —
  You may bring out the hidden power in a piece of glasswork, mak-
  ing something ranging from a glass that’s just extra-pretty or a 
  little lucky to an artifact opening into a mirror-world or a window 
  into dreams. Each use of this power to forge a new wonder re-
  quires a 45-XP quest such as The Mirror-House below.
  You must also create the actual glass, which makes this quest 
  difficult to complete in less than a book and often stretches it out 
  to several—although a good glass-working Skill and a willingness 
  to challenge Obstacles might let you finish a small piece in a time-
  frame measurable in chapters.
  This power is a permanent transformation in the glass but your 
  precise control over it is limited: you’ll need to keep the quest 
  active to maintain that control, or recover it later with a smaller, 
  15-XP followup quest miracle. Otherwise the results become a 
  little unpredictable or “muted”—less likely, no matter how clever 
  your plan, to have a major impact on the game or on others’ lives. 
  This “muting” functions as a level 3 Obstacle in the way of getting 
  productive things done using that artifact’s power.
  Glass Magic is a miraculous ability suited to characters with  
  an appropriate 
  Shepherd Arc at 1+.
  Simpler Work
  If the desired effect is comparatively minor—the limits here are 
  the HG’s call—you don’t need a miraculous Arc; a glass-making 
  Skill will suffice!
  An example of such an effect is the Blessing-Piece, below.
  Glass Magic and Perks
  I want to clarify what you’re doing here, because it would be 
  easy to misunderstand. The 30 XP surcharge isn’t for a mechan-
  ical advantage, although it may produce one. It isn’t to buy you 
  access to a Perk, although you’ll have the option to get one.
  The bonus for doing the 45-XP version isn’t a game mechanic. 
  It’s that you’ve created a wonder, in glass.
  It’s likely that you’ll want to choose a Perk that fits this cre-
  ation. That’s probably necessary to make this a Treasure that you 
  can use in the future. And that Perk might help you work around 
  the level 3 Obstacle—or, then again, it might not. If you’re late 
  in an Arc and can talk the HG into a Perk like “Accessory. Gain 
  a potent item of mystic regalia,” then maybe the glass has big, 
  always-available miraculous powers, regardless of quests or 
  your other abilities; if you’re at the beginning of an Arc and/
  or your miraculous Shepherd Arc is low-leveled, maybe all you 
  get is that it is a Treasure; or maybe you’re making the glass as 
  a gift for a friend and never expected a new Treasure yourself.
  None of that is the point.
  That’s all a system implementation of the results of the 
  quest, and it matters, but the 30 XP surcharge isn’t for a thing 
  you do in the rules system.
  It’s for creating something. It’s for a great work.
  
  465
   
  XP
  Bonus XP
  You’re building or taking control of a looking-glass that serves also as a portal—
  an opening to a reﬂ ected copy of the glass-maker’s shop where you work. It’s a 
  place where you can seal away glasswork too dangerous to keep in the physical 
  world and let it temper for a while in the light of the reﬂ ected sun. You might also 
  use it to keep a secret room that stores rare treasures in or to duplicate objects (with 
  a left-right ﬂ ip) by pulling them through the glass.
  You can earn a bonus XP at any time (though only once per scene/15 minutes) by 
  proposing a theory about how you should construct or revitalize such a glass. This 
  can be technical or just a vague discussion of the world, light, glass, the Outside, and 
  reﬂ ections. 
  Imbuing the Glass
  If you are creating the mirror-house rather than simply invoking its power, this quest 
  costs an additional 30 XP.
  The Mirror House
  15
  45
  XP
  Bonus XP
  You’re designing, building, or evoking the power of a piece of glasswork that expresses 
  your strong feelings for someone—your wish for their safety and prosperity and health, 
  your blessings upon them.
  You can earn a bonus XP at any time (though only once per scene/15 minutes) by 
  explaining what you’re doing in a scene or what you’ve been doing through this lens—
  “I’m thinking of [name’s] future.” or
  “I want to make [name] something special.”
  The idea is that by saying that, you either confirm that something is actually about 
  your  good wishes for that person and your work on this particular piece of glass, or  you 
  make yourself seem a little goofy and perhaps overly earnest.
  Imbuing the Glass
  If you are creating the blessing-piece rather than simply invoking its power, this quest 
  costs an additional 30 XP.
  15
  45
  The Blessing-Piece
  
  Miracles of Empti-
  ness
  466
  466
   Miracles of Emptiness 
   
   
  Emptiness
  Quest miracles for an Emptiness Arc are usually 
  Setting—you 
  can use the generic Setting quest on pg. 100-101.
  Arc Level 0-1
  Quest miracles at this level tend to create minions—shikigami, 
  imps, helpful spirits, floating-mask spirits, animated objects—that 
  are not terribly useful for most things but which accurately ex-
  press something in your heart. You can:
   
  ŭ Kill them once they fully manifest, purifying your heart;
   
  ŭ Use them as a sympathetic link to some part of yourself you 
  wish to magically strengthen, or to some inner demon you 
  want to face and learn to live with;
   
  ŭ Use them as messengers;
   
  ŭ Use them to siphon 1-2 MP from a willing or unsuspecting 
  associate who keeps the shikigami close to their heart or sleeps 
  beside it; later you can wring it out for the MP and use it again;
   
  ŭ Empower them to perform simple chores and functions.
  The minion itself usually appears at the beginning of the quest; 
  however, it is not until the quest miracle completes that it becomes 
  useful or performs its proper magical function.
  While you sustain the miracle the minion is effectively a part 
  of your character—you have a say in what happens with it. After-
  wards, it’s still a loyal minion that’s linked to you, but someone 
  could, e.g., subvert it with the appropriate coin77.
  Arc Level 2
  Quest miracles at this level tend to create gates, labyrinths, and 
  pocket worlds—they create twisted spaces where things do not 
  behave properly. There is a tendency for these, too, to express 
  something in the heart, so that navigating them teaches you some-
  thing or gives you an insight; if the actual value is in the naviga-
  tion, in the insight or the power that you acquire by navigating it, 
  then the labyrinth or world or gate itself will tend to open at the 
  beginning of the quest, and the navigation complete for the first 
  time at the end; otherwise, the world or gate typically appears at 
  the end of the quest.
  As with a minion, the twisted spaces are effectively a part of 
  your character while you sustain the miracle—you could even 
  defend them from attack with your own Health Levels, if you 
  so chose.
  77 Watanabe candies?
  Arc Level 3: Quest Miracles
  Quest miracles at this level tend to transform you into something 
  that can express your strong feelings—you take on a numinous 
  or monstrous form, warping reality as you go, and pursue some 
  aim; then, when you fail, or when you’ve exhausted the cathartic 
  power, you dwindle back to yourself. Often there is a lingering 
  effect on your mood and spirit. There may even be a small physi-
  cal legacy of this technique, a silver armband or single remaining 
  wing or something; this would increase the cost of the quest to 20 
  XP for a near-pointless alteration and 45 XP for something that 
  comes with a useful Perk.
  Arc Level 4: Quest Miracles
  Quest miracles at this level allow you to exalt someone else—to 
  open their eyes to a beautiful or terrible truth, to refine their spir-
  it, to show them something astonishing. You shatter a chain on 
  them, free them from some delusion, and/or give them an absolute 
  power to pursue their goals or follow some path. If you tightly 
  constrain what this power does, it’s an ordinary miracle; if you 
  describe the power’s effects in sufficiently loose terms, so that 
  it’s fun to imagine a potential opponent using semantics or sym-
  bolism rather than raw power to oppose it, it escalates to a Major 
  miraculous power.
  Here’s how it works.
  Near or even at the beginning of this quest, you can show the 
  target something amazing but inexpressible—
  You can show them that you have something to offer, and be-
  gin refining their spirit.
  The quest then plays out over a series of conversations, obser-
  vations, or shared encounters. When or soon after the quest com-
  pletes, they finally get it—you open their third eye or whatever or 
  sever their chains.
  Arc Level 5: Quest Miracles
  Quest miracles at this level typically shape a new comparative-
  ly-mortal identity for yourself, a person destined to accomplish 
  something specific before shaking themselves off and returning 
  to being you.
  Normally this miracle takes effect at the end of the quest and 
  you then sustain it over the course of your mortal experience; 
  however, as with previous Emptiness-based quest miracles, it’s 
  possible to enact the effect itself at or near the beginning of the 
  quest and have it be comparatively troublesome or useless to 
  you—a source of play, not power—until the moment that the 
  quest is complete.
  
  467
   
  
  Transcendent Expe-
  riences
  468
  468
   Transcendent Experiences 
   
  Mystic
  Quest miracles for a Mystic Arc are usually 
  Symbolic—you 
  can use the generic Symbolic quest on pg. 102. 
  Each of these Arcs will usually bind you to some Principle—
  love, or pain, or freedom, or something else.
  Arc 0-1
  Quest miracles at this level get you inspiration or small new pow-
  ers to help you solve a problem that you’re facing. Over the course 
  of the quest, you’ll develop a unique extension to your normal 
  thematics and abilities that helps you with the problem.
  For instance, let’s say you’re Principal Entropy (pg. 242) 
  and you’re stumped about how to recreate this really good lemon 
  coffee cake you had once, so you undertake a quest miracle. You 
  normally bleed mutagenic blood from your hands, and you’re nor-
  mally in the company of evil creatures, so, those are your normal 
  thematics. 
  Based on that...
  Over the course of the quest, you might begin to bleed colors, 
  evil bees, and the like. As the quest evolves, you and the HG will 
  work on ways to tie the original semi-random effects more tightly 
  into the quest: the bees will become increasingly adept at cooking, 
  and the blood thing increasingly relevant, until near the end of the 
  quest your hostel room’s ceiling is covered with a growing lemon 
  coffee cake hive and your blood, spilled on a recipe book, will 
  naturally pervert it into an accounting of appropriate cakes.
  Arc 2
  Quest miracles at this level dissociate you from yourself—you’re 
  ripped from your life, given a new form, insights, powers, and 
  location, in some fashion that fits your Principle and the Arc. It’s 
  usually a tradeoff between control and power: if you just let the 
  hand of fate work through you, then you’ll do some pretty awe-
  some things, but really, it’s just the HG doing them. If you insist 
  on total control over the process, it’s like, you can maybe hear a 
  few whispered words of the world talking to itself, walk through a 
  wall or two, or gain a temporary level 1-2 Superior Skill.
  No matter what, you’ll probably hear a secret and wake up 
  somewhere you weren’t expecting to be.
  Arc 3
  Quest miracles at this level create powerful blessings and invisi-
  ble/elusive servants—mystic forces go to work on the land, par-
  ticularly when you’re not around to see it, to make things more 
  like you feel they ought to be. They may also open paths and cre-
  ate dramatic displays—by which I mean, vast Biblical plagues or 
  singing choirs of angels, which are specifically intended to “be 
  awesome” rather than “produce a specific effect in-game.”
  Arc 4
  Quest miracles at this level are massive ritual effects on your en-
  emies or sometimes on your domain (on the things you claim the 
  right to govern or protect)—you’ll burn them, purify them,  pro-
  tect them, or shape them into weapons of war, although if they 
  have Health Levels or the HG treats them as having Health Levels 
  then they may negotiate a mitigation of the effects.
  Arc 5
  Quest miracles at this level generally focus on establishing divine 
  law—raising a sanctuary and mini-realm if you don’t have a larger 
  one; creating purposive buildings and landscape features within 
  it; setting forth new Properties and determinations for your sanc-
  tuary, realm, or followers; empowering faithful servants; creating 
  mystical objects embodying part of your power; and so forth. You 
  can in short do the things suited for a divine entity to do, including 
  bringing out low-end Mystic powers in others.
  
  469
   
  
  470
  470
   Fly Away 
   
  an example Quest Miracle
  Type: Miraculous Action, Quest Miracle
  Cost: —
  You may take on the shape or Properties of a spirit bird for a 
  time—
   
  ŭ A spirit bird wears the air of Celestia (pg. 286);
   
  ŭ A spirit bird soars over the world;
   
  ŭ A spirit bird may travel into dreams;
   
  ŭ A spirit bird may guide you;
   
  ŭ A spirit bird represents freedom, faith, and hope;
   
  ŭ A spirit bird may find what you’re looking for;
   
  ŭ A spirit bird is in service to the sun.
  You’ll choose how much of a bird you become, and whether you 
  leave your body behind or transform it. However, each use of this 
  power requires a 15-XP quest or more.
  Only one element of this is a miracle, so if you decide to swirl 
  a cloak of feathers around you and turn into a spirit bird to hunt for 
  something that you’ve lost, you don’t get to miraculously guide 
  people and awaken hope—but while the miracle is sustained the 
  HG may allow you Superior Qualities rated 1-3 to do appropriate 
  things, including wriggling your way into someone’s dreams or 
  guiding someone to a revelation. Just how powerful this is gener-
  ally depends on how human you remain—if you grow a few white 
  feathers in your hair, then you’re probably stuck with the original 
  miracle and maybe one Superior Quality of 1. If you leave your 
  body helpless somewhere you’ll probably be able to waltz in and 
  out of dreams; if you physically transform, then that’ll be possible 
  but harder. 
  If you want to wear an air of Celestia for more than three days’ 
  time—so that people don’t recognize you as someone acting with 
  conscious agency, tending to dismiss your actions, powers, and 
  presence as just an ordinary bird—that’ll have to be the focus of 
  your miracle.
  This is a miraculous ability suited to characters with a suitable   
  Mystic Arc at 2+. 
  XP
  Bonus XP
  You’re dissociating from reality.
  There is something reaching towards you as if from a vast distance away. There is 
  something struggling inside you to change its form.
  Like a chick trapped within its shell—
  You will let the sun and the wind and the Lake and the air and the changes inside 
  you break you free and give you another form, something that will make answer to your 
  needs.
  You can earn a bonus XP towards this quest at any time (though only once per 
  scene/15 minutes) by declaring that you can feel the touch of the impending miracle 
  upon you—you can phrase it another way; just give some indication that you’re trigger-
  ing this quest condition—and then free-associating for a few moments about what your 
  character is experiencing, feeling, thinking.
  Talk about being cold, or warm; talk about visions; whatever. Clenching muscles in 
  your arms. Foxfire in the sky. Whatever. Random rambles and chill sensations across 
  your back, the sun full in its glory in your head behind your eyes. That kind of experi-
  ence, the taste of the wind in your teeth, and that brings you in a bonus XP for this quest.
  Fly Away
  15
  
  CHAPTER 13: A 
  WISH-CHANG'D 
  WORLD
   
  A Wish-Chang'd World
  
  The Rules of a Wish
  472
  472
  Many Imperial miracles are strictly strategic. They add Properties 
  to a Region. They affect the user’s own Traits. They change the 
  world, and they cannot be opposed in changing the world, but 
  their power isn’t so much cosmic as narrative—
  They play out like acts of deity, but a deity subtle, nuanced, 
  and restrained.
  The Chuubo’s Marvelous Wish-Granting Engine RPG calls 
  an Imperial miracle a “wish” if that sense of restraint isn’t there. 
  A wish is a potentially limitless game-changer. If you wish for 
  something impossible like “I wish it were twenty years ago;” or 
  something world-changing, like “I wish everyone was a rat”—it 
  happens. It becomes.
  The rule here is simple—
  A wish changes the setting.
  Basically, you should pretend that the wish was written into the 
  campaign material all along. 
  If someone wishes that a pirate ship would sail into port, then that’s 
  like the HG suddenly remembering: and at this point in the campaign, 
  I’m supposed to have a pirate ship sail into port. They make this as 
  cool and dramatic or as boring and plausible as they want.
  If someone has a wishing coin, and doesn’t realize it, and they 
  wish for everyone to be dead? Then all the players should figure 
  out who their PC is in a dead Town. Does the Dream-Witch be-
  come a ghost? Is the Principal now a floating skull? The HG can 
  take the lead in figuring this stuff out but they don’t have to.
  If Chuubo over in Horizon fires up his Wish-Granting Engine 
  and wishes for something vague, like, “I wish that everything was 
  OK,” then the meaning of that wish might not be obvious at first. 
  Play it out as something weird I wrote: look, Jenna wrote that 
  “everything’s OK in Town,” so this too must be OK.
  This is mostly in the HG’s hands at first. The HG is the one 
  who describes the world. So while players can help the HG figure 
  out what happens, the only part where players really have to have 
  a say is the part where a wish retroactively changes their PC.
  As usual, the HG can assign miracle or mundane action levels 
  to individual effects of the wish—“oh, this wave of fire is a level 
  4 miracle, this bat flies up as a mundane action”—but ultimately 
  it’s just their job to play the new world that the wish has set forth.
  However, I want wishes to be plot arcs that everyone can par-
  ticipate in exploring. If a martial artist accidentally breaches from 
  meditation into the steampunk space inside the wish-granting en-
  gine and wishes for everyone to get super martial-arts and have a 
  battle tournament, then I don’t want the HG to have to make every 
  call on the powers people get and the way the fights play out. I 
  don’t want the players or even the PCs to just feel like passengers.
  So here are six rules that are almost always true of the worlds 
  and effects that wishes create.
  A Daring Heart...
  Dangerous experiments and gambles are the best way to find any 
  special powers that you have in a world shaped by a wish. 
  Basically, if a wish gives you such a thing, you need to unlock 
  it with the acts of epic fantasy:
   
  ŭ
  Science, Faith, and Sorcery Actions
   
  ŭ
  Decisive Actions and
   
  ŭ
  Wicked Action 
  or through
   
  ŭ
  Developing or resolving an Issue colored blue.
  If these actions are out of genre, but the HG thinks that such a 
  special power should or ought to exist, then they should be lenient 
  about letting you take them—any big gamble, risk, or act of faith 
  that you engage in should lead to an epic Action or opportunity for 
  a blue Issue. Conversely, if the HG or the group as a whole decides 
  to handle some element of a wish as an epic fantasy-styled Action, 
  or by handing out blue Issues, that should be a cue that a special 
  power might exist.
  Not every wish does this, not even then. I mean, just because 
  Shokyou wishes for Leonardo to shut up doesn’t mean de Montre-
  al now gets special miraculous shutting up powers78.  Not even in 
  an epic fantasy-themed game!
  But if there are such powers? Well—
  Often, before a wish will let you fly, you’ll have to first climb 
  up to a height, and jump.
  78 Though, a girl can dream....
  Wishes as Quests
  Wishes that principally affect the future, and in a vague way, 
  are good material for quests. If someone wishes to have a pi-
  rate adventure, or for another PC to have a pirate adventure, 
  or to get good grades this year, or to conquer the Earth, or 
  whatever, then playing out how that actually happens would 
  probably be a quest or even an Arc.
  The Rules of a Wish
   
  ŭ A daring heart may unlock its hidden treasures.
   
  ŭ A wish shapes itself to who you are.
   
  ŭ Your enemies are terrifying but not unbeatable.
   
  ŭ Changing your nature takes time
   
  ŭ It takes time and effort to learn and master the new world. 
   
  ŭ Emotional resolution mirrors itself in the resolution of 
  the wish.
  
  473
   
  A Wish Shapes Itself...
  If it becomes necessary to resist a wish in order to remain yourself, 
  you may take a wound. You have the right to say:
  “Yes, this wish says that I shut up. But I won’t.”
  This is usually a Serious or Deadly wound if you’re working 
  around part of the wish. If you are trying to tear free of the wish 
  completely, it’s one of the most difficult things in the game—
  You’ll take two Deadly Wounds, and no matter what you do to 
  heal them they’ll last until the end of this book and the next. But 
  you can do that, and if you do do that, then you’re immune to the 
  power of that and any substantively similar wishes until those two 
  wounds heal.
  Your Enemies...
  If a wish accidentally leaves Town under the boot of an autocratic 
  despot, or floods it with a gigantic wave, or a bunch of fiendish 
  ghosts, then those things can be legitimately scary—even for the 
  toughest PCs. 
  But not unbeatable.
  There is always hope for a wishing heart. In sum, there’s an 
  implicit promise that you can find a road to victory, and that if 
  you do, the worst of the losses suffered along the way might prove 
  illusory or at least recoverable.
  Mechanically that means the following:
   
  ŭ
  play generally shifts to the Road of Trials
   
  ŭ
  resolving an orange Issue always buys an opportunity for 
  victory
   
  ŭ
  (in general, resolving any Arc, Issue, or quest can do the 
  same.)
   
  ŭ
  enemy action tends to inflict Sickness and not wounds
   
  ŭ
  bad situations are opportunities for dramatic suffering 
  rather than principally mechanical fights.
  It’s worth note that two of the nuances of the Road of Trials—the 
  ubiquity of breaks from reality and the threat of the 
  Illusion 
  Issue—give players and the HG more wiggle room for recovery 
  even when hope is blatantly lost. 
  Changing your Nature...
  Changing a person’s nature takes time.
  A real world-changer of a wish—“I wish that we were all kids 
  again”—might have an instant effects on how everyone looks, 
  sure. That might change instantly, at least to whatever extent the 
  players are good with.
  But actually changing who a person is—that happens more 
  slowly. Whether it’s the outright corrosive influence of “you’re 
  now a werewolf” or “you’re now a nice person” or the subtler 
  process of acclimating to a fresh new childhood or a shiny pair of 
  wings, that change is... well... a little slow!
  That means:
   
  ŭ
  if the wish torments you into changing, it often takes 3+ 
  Adversity Actions.
   
  ŭ
  if the wish corrupts you, it does so slowly, over 3+ Cor-
  ruption Actions.
   
  ŭ
  if it changes you in a neutral/positive fashion, 3+ Meta-
  morphoses.
   
  ŭ
  most changes worth tracking play out as Sickness and not 
  as wounds.
  If these actions are out of genre, but the wish should change who 
  you are, then the HG and the group should be lenient about allow-
  ing them. Conversely, if the HG or the group as a whole decides 
  to handle some element of a wish as you suffering from Adversity, 
  Corruption, or Metamorphosis (or, to a lesser extent, if you find 
  yourself fighting it off with Never Say Die!) you should take that 
  as a sign that the wish is trying to change you.
  It Takes Time and Effort...
  It’s pretty common for a wish to offer characters new Skills or new ap-
  plications for their existing Skills—if you become a farmer, then you 
  should have a farming Skill. If you become a giant robot or romantic 
  lead, you might even pick up a relevant Superior Skill or Bond!
  The best way to figure out the rules for a wish and cultivate 
  powers like this is simple, honest living. Invest thought, work, dil-
  igence, attention, and study in your new life. Talk to your friends 
  about it. Live in the wish-chang’d world.
  The second-best option is the shortcut:
  Desperate, frenzied, and obsessive striving, resulting ultimate-
  ly in a breakthrough—or so you can hope.
  In short, to figure out powers like these, perform Pastoral and/
  or Gothic acts:
   
  ŭ
  Shared Action
   
  ŭ
  Shared Reactions 
   
  ŭ
  Slice of Life and maybe
   
  ŭ
  Obsessive Action
  or build up
   
  ŭ
  an Issue colored purple or gold.
  If these actions are out of genre, but the HG thinks they’re ap-
  propriate, then the HG should be lenient about letting you take 
  them—any sufficiently simple, honest scene should lead to a Pas-
  toral Action or opportunity for a purple Issue. Any sufficiently 
  obsessive scene should lead to an opportunity for Gothic Action 
  or an Issue colored gold. Conversely, if the HG or the group as a 
  whole decides to handle some element of a wish with Pastoral or 
  Gothic-styled Actions, or by handing out purple or golden Issues, 
  that suggests that wish-based Skills, Skill applications, Superior 
  Skills, and/or Bonds of some sort can probably be found.
  Benefits like these will tend to fade away at the end of the 
  book, and new tricks for your existing Skills will go back to hav-
  ing Obstacles, even if the wish is a permanent change to Town. If 
  you’re actively working to sustain these abilities, though, and on 
  a quest that will give you access to these abilities as a reward, the 
  HG is allowed to let them linger while you do.
  
  474
  474
  
  The Wishing Boy (or Girl)
  475
   
  Emotional Resolution 
  Mirrors Itself...
  A giant octopus attacks Town! You’ve just been turned into a giant 
  robot (by a wish) and sent to fight that octopus.
  Whatever will happen now?
  In an Adventure Fantasy, of course, it’s a fight! Combat ac-
  tions! Decisive Actions! Science, Faith, and Sorcery! 
  Or, if it’s too scary or too wimpy, Trouble79!
  But if you’re not playing an Adventure Fantasy, then there’s a real 
  chance that the octopus-robot fight is going to be cinematic but not 
  actually terribly exciting. Random excitement is out of your genre! 
  You’re going to fight it, sure, because that’s what the wish says you’ll 
  do, but there isn’t a narrative buildup for a big fight, so you’ll have to 
  either create that build-up during the fight or ignore it and focus on 
  the personal or social issues that you actually care about:
  You’ll start seeing things about the fight that matter to you. 
  Things that make it relevant to your Pastoral, Gothic, Epic, Tech-
  no, or whatever life. 
  Did it just knock over a building that you cared about? Now 
  the fight’s about anger, or saving civilians. Did it just remind you 
  of an old friend that you used to do mock-fights with? You miss 
  them! The way you keep throwing off the tentacles when they 
  wrap around you—is that symbolic of your commitment issues? 
  Is it actually time, maybe, that you settled down? Is that what the 
  octopus fight is trying to tell you?
  You’ll see things, in short, that integrate the battle into your life. 
  That’s what matters—
  The fight itself can be on autopilot, for all you care, and in fact 
  to some extent it is, because, after all, there was a wish.
  Seeing meaning in the events of a wish like this is usually go-
  ing to be an act of Immersive Fantasy80:
   
  ŭ
  Foreshadowing 
   
  ŭ
  Sympathetic Action/Shock or
   
  ŭ
  Discovery
  And once you’ve done that, as you do that, you’ll tie the resolution 
  of the wish increasingly to the proper resolution of the stuff that’s 
  going on in your heart. That could just mean a big decision, par-
  ticularly in epic fantasy where the octopus really isn’t a match for 
  you anyway; or it could mean the resolution of an emotional Issue; 
  or it could mean that you’ll automatically beat the octopus as soon 
  as you find a way to use the fight to connect to your friends; or 
  even that you’ll lose, and you’ll have to lose, because that’s what 
  the octopus in your heart is telling you to do.
  And now I’ve made it sound all weird, and sometimes it is, but 
  mostly it isn’t.
  Mostly it’s that when you understand what’s going on here, 
  you reach a point where you’re like: “at last, I can forgive this 
  person” or “that’s why I hate this octopus! It’s reminding me of 
  79 Wait, you might say. “Too wimpy?” Here’s why you’d use Trouble if the 
  octopus is too weak: you’re a player, right? And you’re steamrolling the 
  octopus? And maybe you don’t really want to be, because tension and 
  Trouble are cool? Then this is a good time to add in some tension, some-
  thing to leave you overwhelmed and outmatched, which is something 
  that the Trouble action lets you do. Maybe your engine goes critical?
  80 Technically it’s probably “an act of magic realism” or something, but 
  bear with me.
  my father!” or “Mr. Octopus, you’ve just put your tentacles on a 
  comic book store, and that is one step too far.”
  And then you punch it into space, or, you know, whatever, and 
  it isn’t weird at all.
  As in the previous cases, if these Actions are out of genre, but the 
  wish seems like it should work like this, then the HG should be le-
  nient about letting you take them. Conversely, if the HG or the group 
  as a whole decides to handle some element of a wish with Immer-
  sive Fantasy-styled actions, this suggests that the wish as a whole is 
  best handled as a source of meaning rather than a source of events.
  Aside
  Please note that I’m expecting the typical wish to be on the or-
  der of “I want this party to go well,” “I want to catch the biggest 
  fish ever,” “I wish I had a beachfront house,” “I wish everything 
  would be OK,” “I wish I had some new DVDs,” or whatever.
  It’s just that giant octopi happen, and sometimes turning 
  everyone into robots or vampires is the only logical response.
  Chuubo/Shokyou
  One day a perfectly ordinary child with no particular talent 
  or ability broke into the empty house on that child’s street, 
  unrolled a sheaf of plans, picked up a hammer and nails, and 
  built a Marvelous Wish-Granting Engine there.
  What does it do? I’m glad you asked!
  It grants wishes.
  One wish every chapter or so, sometime after the chapter’s 
  start.
  As any child would, this child went a little mad with power, 
  wishing for ice cream, a best friend, and a nice sweet sunny 
  day without even thinking of the terrible consequences that 
  could befall...
  But, well.
  Perhaps they were not so terrible?
  It’s a few weeks, months, or years later, after all, and 
  Town’s surviving yet.
  This ordinary child is usually the PC-aged Chuubo, the 
  Wishing Boy, but could be Shokyou, the Wishing Girl, in-
  stead. The best friend they wished for is normally a PC-aged 
  boy named Seizhi Schwan, but could be a girl named Suzy 
  Schwan instead. They live over the hills in Horizon but visit 
  the other Regions now and then.
  Chuubo, aka
  The Wishing Boy
  Seizhi Schwan, aka
  The Best Friend
  
  Making Answer to 
  the Bleak
  476
  476
   Making Answer to the Bleak 
  The Rules for Fighting 
  the Bleak Academy
   
  ŭ A gamble may save you, if luck is kind.
   
  ŭ You may cling to that which becomes unmade.
   
  ŭ Corruption builds slowly.
   
  ŭ A fierce, passionate struggle can hold the Outside at 
  bay.
   
  ŭ An honest effort survives.
   
  ŭ To see is to engage in a dialogue with the seen.
   
  ŭ You may draw the curtain before the stage goes dark.
  There is a bleak power of despair that yearns for everything’s un-
  making. There is something out there beyond the world, some-
  thing in the nature of the Outside, that looks upon the world and 
  finds therein no good.
  This is a different problem than a wish. It’s not that the power 
  of the Outside, or the Bleak Academy, or personifications of death, 
  or unweavers, or anti-wolves, or the worst of the Rider magicians, 
  or whatever—
  It’s not that they’re mechanically unstoppable.
  It’s just that if you happen to lose, it’s really bad. If you don’t 
  have a defense against a power that would simply unmake you, or 
  would break you, that’s...
  Really bad.
  Sometimes you’ll have that defense. Sometimes you’ll have 
  something in you that can with raw numbers and actions protect 
  you against unmaking.
  Other times you must turn to something different with which 
  to make an answer to death, dissolution, the creeping Not. To fight 
  back you will need to rely on the intrinsic virtue of the world: that 
  it is real, and beautiful; that life is worth having; that it’s worth 
  living. You must stand by your belief that the world has a point, 
  that existence means something, and that it can’t and shouldn’t all 
  just drown in the endless sea of the Beyond.
  That you have a point, that you mean something, that you 
  shouldn’t be lost.
  And neither should your friends, or even the littlest and worst 
  of things.
  A Gamble May Save You...
  Faith and trust are always gambles. So are science, love, and sor-
  cery in their own degrees and ways.
  If you’re being overwhelmed by a power of the Bleak Academy, 
  you can pivot from death to a defining moment by spelling out what 
  you believe in. Give a dramatic monologue that says what you’re 
  gambling on in the face of death, what you’re putting your faith, 
  love, or trust in—and then take a risk in the name of that belief.
  Or as much as a risk as you can, anyway—you might not have 
  anything left to lose!
  In an epic fantasy, or an adventure fantasy, or any game where 
  the players and the HG find your monologue cool enough to allow 
  this, you can turn a dramatic monologue like that into: 
   
  ŭ
   a Science, Faith, and Sorcery Action
   
  ŭ
   a Decisive Action or
   
  ŭ
   a possible resolution to a blue Issue
  ...and then the HG has to stop and think about what you’ve done. 
  They can’t just go with their first reaction, whether that’s “that 
  can’t possibly stop this attack” or “yay, you win.” They have to 
  take a moment to let your monologue sink in to their conscious-
  ness in peace.
  Then they decide.
  And look. Sometimes they’ll decide against you, you know? 
  This won’t always save you. Sometimes it’ll even doom you. 
  Sometimes it’ll even take away whatever little other chances you 
  might have had. 
  That’s what it means that you’re gambling. 
  That’s what it means that even faith and love and trust, even 
  solid scientific conjecture, and certainly sorcery are risks.
  But it could save you.
  And if the HG decides that yeah, this saves you, that overrides 
  all the rest of the rules on what beats what.
  
  477
   
  You May Cling...
  Here’s another way to hold off the power of death, unmaking, and 
  the Bleak:
  Embrace that which is being destroyed, or that which is doing 
  the destroying. Cling to it. Try to hold the destruction at bay as 
  you do so.
  Host a last desperate struggle to stave destruction off.
  In an adventure fantasy, on the road of trials, or in any game 
  where the group or the HG lets you, this turns the threat into:
   
  ŭ
  Trouble
   
  ŭ
  Never Say Die! or
   
  ŭ
  a possible resolution to an orange Issue
  The actual destruction is put on hold for the next little bit of play. 
  Instead, the pressure on you and the problem you’re facing gets 
  worse and worse. You can try to do other things while this is hap-
  pening, you can try to take advantage of the stay of execution, but 
  trying to win anything more than the smallest tactical victories as 
  the pressure rises is almost certain to fail. Even if you don’t lose 
  immediately, you’re losing;
  And it leads to this terrifying moment when it seems like all 
  is lost.
  This moment is also an opportunity for a certain kind of miracle.
  That is:
  The HG, or the player of the PC whose action wields the power of 
  the Bleak, must then stop and take a moment to consider relenting. 
  They don’t necessarily have any new reason to. 
  There’s no special emotional power here to make them relent. 
  Just, they have to stop for a moment, and consider whether they 
  will. And the character in question has something like that mo-
  ment’s pause to consider, IC, too—a moment in the spiritual cen-
  ter of them, where they can make a choice. If there is anything left 
  in them capable of that.
  If they don’t relent, then, well, this attempt failed. The HG 
  could conceivably give you a chance at a heroic countermove, or 
  conversely have you fail even harder than you otherwise 
  would’ve—but that’s not part of this rule. That’s just a part of HG 
  discretion in the abstract.
  Corruption Builds Slowly
  Changing a person’s nature takes time.
  This isn’t really a way of fighting the power of unmaking. I 
  just wanted to make it clear that this is as true for the power of the 
  Bleak Academy as it is for the Wish-Granting Engine. Changing 
  someone, corrupting them, transforming them—it takes time.
  Cutting out all of someone’s good qualities, for instance, to 
  make them a bad person? 
  Cutting out their memories to make them an innocent, and then 
  filling their head with lies?
  It takes time.
  On the road of trials, or in a fairy tale setting, that means:
   
  ŭ
   most changes worth tracking play out as Sickness and not 
  as wounds.
   
  ŭ
   if it’s corrupting you, it does so slowly, over 3+ Corrup-
  tion Actions.
   
  ŭ
   if it changes you in a neutral/positive fashion, 3+ Meta-
  morphoses.
   
  ŭ
   if it’s breaking you, it often takes 3+ Trauma Actions.
  And that also means:
   
  ŭ many such changes get thrown off/rejected after the Sickness 
  Issue hits 4;
   
  ŭ players can use the wound rules and can sometimes use the 
  player-defined elements of a Sickness Issue to mitigate or de-
  fine what the power of unmaking actually does to their PC.
  In other genres, you may see some of these benefits. You probably 
  will—but I cannot say.
  A Fierce, Passionate 
  Struggle...
  Here’s another way of fighting the Bleak Academy.
  Let’s say you’re being erased from existence. But you don’t 
  want to go.
  So you fight. You name and claim all your mistakes: all the 
  things you do wrong, the things you’ve screwed up, all your errors 
  and your selfishnesses. Because they’re real. You name and you 
  remember everyone who loves you, everyone who’d miss you, 
  everyone whom you’d be torn away from. 
  Because that’s real too. 
  You say what you love, what you hope for, what you dream 
  of. You say what you’ve wanted your future to be. What matters 
  to you. That stupid little thing you forgot to say to someone you 
  cared about the other night.
  Do it. Tell the world what it’s costing it, to lose you. Tell the 
  world and the Bleak Academy what will be gone.
  And heck.
  You can do this, you can fight like this, even if it’s just your 
  natural science paper on sandpipers that’s getting blasted out of 
  reality. You can tell that paper what it is. What it really is. How it 
  came to be created. What it means. You can talk about all the good 
  Tactical Timing
  Incidentally, I don’t want to encourage meaningful tactical 
  benefits or drawbacks to rushing or lingering over conflicts 
  using these rules. So please assume that they can play out as 
  fast as they should play out to keep this from turning into a 
  cheap victory for either side in the larger tactical picture. 
  If you need to slow them down a little more than that to 
  make the story go well, well, the HG can let the winner—
  whichever, of existence or unmaking, comes out ahead—win 
  a little more effectively to make up for whatever time these 
  rules have cost.
  
  478
  478
  times you had together. You can talk about what paper is made out 
  of, or the fact that you don’t know but that it comes from trees or 
  something. You can talk about the hand cramp you had when you 
  were writing all those words and clauses down.
  Further and further. Over the top and then, when a new top 
  shows up over the mists beyond the peak of that first mountain, 
  you go over that top, too.
  In a Gothic story, or on the road of trials, or in any game where 
  you can sell the group or HG on it:
   
  ŭ
  Obsessive Action or Adversity may replace dissolution—
  you tip over the edge into delirium or obsession instead of los-
  ing what you otherwise would.
   
  ŭ
   the resolution to a golden Issue, even though it usually in-
  volves bad ideas on your part, is often antithetical to the Outside. 
  An Honest Effort Survives
  That which is made well survives well. That which is built and 
  maintained through simple, honest effort and the dedicated heart 
  is strong against the Outside.
  This mostly means that things that people take good care of have:
   
  ŭ a certain level of Auctoritas which protects them against at-
  tacks by the Outside;
   
  ŭ a certain level of resilience, as if they had a small number of 
  PC-style Health Levels.
  Sometimes it also means that all you need to do to hold the Out-
  side at bay, death at bay, the Bleak Academy at bay, to fight off 
  nothingness itself—
  Is something simple and honest. Something that reaffirms the 
  world.
  Something orderly. Something patterned. Something true.
  Doing this at the last minute isn’t anywhere near as effective 
  as taking care of something over months and years, but maybe if 
  you can tap into a bigger reservoir of effort and heart then you 
  can still invoke a temporary level 1 Auctoritas or a miraculous 
  partial survival. 
  Do you want this? Then:
  Do your chores. Talk about your feelings. Contextualize the 
  Outside as a sea and sail it. Contextualize it as a mountain and 
  climb it. Walk your way through a private ritual, like a kata or 
  cleaning a gun. Brush and floss. Scrub behind your ears. Do your 
  homework. Read Blake or Rilke to the chaos. Take someone’s 
  hands and promise you’ll be together, forever, somehow, even if 
  you’re both utterly unmade.
  In short, in a Pastoral or Gothic game, or any game where you 
  can sell the HG or group on it,
   
  ŭ
  a Shared Action
   
  ŭ
  expressing your love, your friendship, or even some other 
  feeling through Shared Reactions, or
   
  ŭ
  resolving a purple Issue
  can affirm and protect the reality around you; and if the HG de-
  cides that it’s sufficient, particularly for Issue resolution, you may 
  be able to stand against the weight of the Outside. 
  At least, against its weakest, Strike 0 manifestations! (And 
  heck. If you’re invoking true love or true friendship or lifelong 
  practice or something like that, you might even get a temporary 
  level 2+ Auctoritas or a temporary bump in the level of an existing 
  Auctoritas now and then!)
  To See...
  Here is another sometime answer to the power of the Bleak.
  The power of unmaking is typically philosophical or meta-
  physical. It rests on something like “the world dissolves into form-
  less, tumbling chaos,” “the world was never there at all,” or “this 
  is unworthy of existence.”
  But to see a thing is to enter into a dialogue with it. 
  To see a thing that is formless is to see its form. To see the 
  world being destroyed because it was never there at all is to 
  see a thing which happens; a destruction which cannot justify 
  itself by its own terms. To witness a judgment is to put pressure 
  upon it: unwitnessed, it may speak of itself as eternally, cosmi-
  cally just; before an audience, it must actually validate its own 
  existence.
  What I mean here is that emotionally honest and humble obser-
  vation of what’s happening when a power of unmaking strikes... 
  can reverse it, sometimes.
  It’s hard! It’s scary! But if you stand there and say what you 
  see, if you speak the chaos and the Outside and the unmaking back 
  at itself as it devours you, as it kills you or what you care about—
  Then there is a chance at a eucatastrophe. At an anticatastrophe.
  Because afterwards, when the metaphorical or literal waters 
  have stilled, the HG must consider whether your truth has poi-
  soned the lie of the Bleak; whether your compassion has poisoned 
  its cold malice and uncharity; whether that dialogue with you has 
  spread through death and unmade it, unwoven it, turned it into 
  something more like strands of death-colored cloth than death, a 
  show of endings and not an ending at all.
  There is a chance that instead of an unmaking—whether that 
  means “you are gone” or “it is gone” or something as simple and 
  small and silly as “you take a wound”—
  That the metaphorical flood-waters will draw back, and ev-
  erything will be OK. Sometimes even better than OK. Sometimes 
  you’ll even have something more than you started with, some-
  times you’ll have even won a treasure back from the unreal, from 
  the shattering, from the unmaking, from the counteracted power 
  of the multicolored void.
  In a Pastoral, Gothic, Immersive Fantasy, or Techno game, 
  or in one of the others if you can sell the group or HG on it, you 
  can use
   
  ŭ
  Slice of Life
   
  ŭ
  Discovery
   
  ŭ
  Foreshadowing
   
  ŭ
  Sympathetic Action or
   
  ŭ
  the resolution to a red or gray Issue
  to perform this act of description and reclaim (or possibly reclaim) 
  the world.
  
  479
   
  
  They Look Away
  480
  480
  You May Draw the Curtain...
  The last option for dealing with the destructive and dissolutive 
  qualities of the Outside is to go into a sort of a spiritual fugue. You 
  choose not to see what happens. You choose not to know what 
  happens. Ideally you invoke this before the HG describes what 
  happens. You experience it in disjointed, symbolic terms, instead 
  of as cold hard facts, and the metaphorical curtain falls.
  Rather than watch as the Headmaster of the Bleak Academy 
  snaps his fingers and your heart vanishes from your chest, or For-
  titude cracks in half and drowns under the tidal wave of the Out-
  side, or whatever, the game turns away to a bit of poetry81.  What 
  actually happens is not shown.
  This isn’t always possible, and it obviously needs the HG to 
  go along with it—
  Basically, to play along when you say, “Um, can we draw the 
  curtain here instead?”—
  But if it works, play skips the actuality of the scene and moves 
  on to some “meanwhile” or “later.” The game leaves the actual 
  result of things in doubt until the next occasion to have them for-
  mally described. 
  Further, the HG is encouraged to let that result be at least a 
  little kinder than one would have expected theretofore. Generally 
  you’re not dead, for instance, even if your heart was destroyed; 
  rather, you’re clutching your chest, staggering, and having trou-
  ble connecting to who you are. Generally there are survivors, for 
  instance, even if Fortitude was cracked and flooded; the highest 
  buildings endure, and there are boats—
  Or whatever.
  And so on.
  Formally speaking, this is an attempt to invoke a 
   
  ŭ
  Transition
  Suitable Poetry
  I’d recommend against long poetry readings here. 1-3 verses 
  should suffice; if that leaves more of the poem you’ve chosen, 
  then pick up that poem again from the last line read or the next one 
  after the next time a Transition like this comes up.
  I’m making a point of this specifically because one poem I 
  really like for this specific purpose is the Rime of the Ancient 
  Mariner, and let me be frank: you’re not going to interrupt your 
  heart-deletion or even Fortitude’s full destruction with a complete 
  recitation of the Rime of the Ancient Mariner without making ev-
  ery other person at the table a little restless.
  I mean, unless your group has a real Coleridge thing.
  So anyway, the poems I’d recommend for this are:
   
  ŭ The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, if your group is one in three;
   
  ŭ La Belle Dame Sans Merci (particularly IV-XII)
   
  ŭ The Tao Te Ching
   
  ŭ A Far and a Sunless Land (see pg. 268)
   
  ŭ They Look Away (below) or
   
  ŭ Some poem the HG has picked to be a “campaign theme.”
  81 This sounds totally stupid when I say it like that but honestly I’m pretty 
  sure this is good gaming practice.
  They Look Away
  Here’s a short piece I’ve designed for this specific Transition, al-
  though please do not expect me to be comparable to Coleridge. 
  Because that’d be pretty unfair!
  I’ve marked some suggested breakpoints with numbers. If 
  you’re going to play out Transitions like this a lot, you can read 
  one section per Transition, and at the next Transition, move on 
  to the next. If it’s a one-time thing, just read the first one, or pick 
  whichever section catches at your eye.
  They Look Away,
  by Jenna Katerin Moran
  (1) There is a city there, full forty miles squared
  Dug out with oxen, dragging great jagged rocks;
  Risen up from the bones of the Earth
  And the back of a cloaked man who is walking towards it
  Where Jotun dandelions were
  (2) It swallows that man. It crunches him up, the teeth of the 
  city:
  Great granite bones
  Like a heat shimmer, he moves into it and he is gone,
  A paste it swallows down
  …
  And overhead high brass reflections
  Around the bulging of the sun
  (3) There it is said there is no death, and no plants grow from 
  the ground;
  (4) Meals are disbursed in dry biscuits from the maws of the 
  granaries
  Great night-black insects crawl upon the walls
  Disease passes through but then it passes
  (5) And they who tire of it they rise up
  The devoured of the city, the given up for a second eating, and 
  becoming
  The re-devoured of the sun.
  There in that land, in that place, there is no death and there is 
  no greenery.
  They are beyond sorrow and are beyond repentance. 
  They are made hard by that land, like stone.
  If there are women there I have not seen them.
  The children are stretched gaunt.
  The men do not look at you. They look away.
  
  Excerpt: The Tao te Ching
  481
   
  A Bit of the Tao te Ching
  For the Tao Te Ching reading here, I’m fond of j.h. mcdonald’s 
  translation—for instance, the first few times it comes up, you 
  might start with:
  Tao te Ching 1
  (1) The tao that can be described 
  is not the eternal Tao. 
  The name that can be spoken 
  is not the eternal Name. 
  The nameless is the boundary of Heaven and Earth. 
  The named is the mother of creation. 
  (2) Freed from desire, you can see the hidden mystery. 
  By having desire, you can only see what is visibly real. 
  Yet mystery and reality 
  emerge from the same source. 
  (3) This source is called darkness. 
  Darkness born from darkness. 
  The beginning of all understanding. 
  
  Tricks of Play
  482
  482
   Tricks of Play 
  The Rules for Conflicts
   
  ŭ A player can always act.
   
  ŭ A player can interrupt an unacceptable act.
   
  ŭ A flurry waives the concept of going first or last.
   
  ŭ A stalemate can be broken.
   
  ŭ Action happens in the context of the now.
   
  ŭ Sometimes things just are.
  Sometimes the casual gameplay of taking your actions as you see 
  fit will leave you uncertain how things should play out. 
  What happens if somebody takes a unitary action to “burn 
  [your PC] alive?”
  What happens if there’s a standoff, where everyone wants to 
  see somebody else’s action before they move?
  In this context there are six rules—player-level rules, mostly, 
  though they do have some meaning in the game—to help you turn 
  your character concept into actions.
  A Player Can Always Act
  Somebody does something nasty while you’re asleep. Somebody 
  takes the kitten that you want to pet, boxes it up, and ships it off 
  to Eris in a rocket. Somebody makes an attack “too fast to see.”
  What can you possibly do now?
  The rule here is pretty simple—
  You can do... whatever you can do. If you have a power that 
  lets you pet that kitten, even though they’re on Eris, you can pet 
  that kitten. If you have a power that says you can wake up quickly 
  when you need to, you can wake up in time to stop that nasty act. 
  If you have a power that lets you interrupt someone moving too 
  fast to see—
  Well, you can do that too.
  It doesn’t matter that they’ve already described it—taken 
  action, as a PC, or declared the truth of things, as the HG. It 
  doesn’t matter. If necessary, you can always answer that with: 
  “Not so fast!”
  That doesn’t mean you do or must have the power to pet that 
  kitten, wake up from that sleep, or stop such an attack. It just 
  means that you can’t be denied the right to try. The HG in par-
  ticular can arbitrarily make all your actions fail, I mean, it can be 
  brutal, but they can’t stop you from taking those actions first in 
  the game.
  A Player Can Always 
  Interrupt an 
  Unacceptable Act
  One thing that means is that sometimes you’ll have to interrupt 
  what was going to happen in order to use your defense. For in-
  stance, somebody declares a unitary, atomic miracle:
  “Your house just blew up.”
  You’d like to invoke something like Superior Spiritual En-
  ergy 4, that is, the power to see this kind of disaster coming in 
  advance. But they’ve already spent, say, 4 MP on blowing up your 
  house.
  Your defense, in this case, interrupts them—
  The HG unwinds their action to before the MP was spent. 
  They can still take it, as per the above, but if you have a way to 
  defend yourself (by, say, making your house out of marzipan, if 
  their explosion miracle is weak against the sugared), then they’ll 
  get the chance to re-evaluate their choice in the light of the new 
  informational state.
  You might want to phrase this in play as: “I need to interrupt 
  that.”
  A Flurry Waives the Concept 
  of Going First or Last
  If you’ve noticed that taking turns isn’t working—that you’re in-
  volved in a conflict, but the action that gets taken first at the player 
  level is going to be less effective than the action that follows it up 
  and so people are progressively moving towards a waiting game—
  You can call for a flurry of action instead.
  In a flurry, you still choose your actions, and the HG still 
  chooses what happens; but there’s an implicit assumption that 
  everyone involved is watching the others and can change their ac-
  
  483
   
  tions throughout the course of that moment to better fit the actions 
  the others take. In short, during a flurry, after hearing someone 
  else’s action, you can change out the details of your action with-
  out a new expenditure of Will, consumable resources, or MP. You 
  also have the option to completely discard your action, sacrific-
  ing whatever resources you already spent on it, and do something 
  completely different instead.
  For instance, you throw rock; they throw paper; but ah, no, you 
  threw scissors; though they, apparently, threw rock.
  Of course, that’s a stalemate, so let’s not leave things with 
  the players exhausting themselves proposing new outcomes and 
  choices until one of them cons their way into victory (“It’s rabbit 
  season!”)—
  If the battle doesn’t converge towards a stable equilibrium, that 
  qualifies as a Bleak effect supervening on both sides’ actions and 
  forcing a stalemate to emerge. 
  A Stalemate Can Be Broken
  It’s hard to do, but you can break any stalemate—whether it’s a 
  stalemate in a flurry, which I’ve just noted as Bleak, or a big-
  ger-picture stalemate in a conflict spanning hours of play. 
  The first may be broken, of course, with the rules for fighting 
  the Bleak:
  Rather than simply conceding that you both threw rock, or that 
  you couldn’t manage to pull off a fair RPS contest, you could 
  give a passionate soliloquy about why you trust in paper, and then 
  gamble on it. A gamble may save you, if luck is kind.
  Or maybe you could attempt to invoke a Transition—to draw 
  the game’s metaphorical curtain over the final throw of the game. 
  You may draw the curtain before the stage grows dark.
  If you’re fighting someone back and forth and, while you’re 
  taking sequential actions and not trying to flurry, it’s still getting 
  kind of samey and pretty much determined to be a tie? You can 
  treat that as a wish. You can look for emotional resolution to the 
  stalemate—emotional resolution mirrors itself in the resolution of 
  the stalemate.
  Or you could try to develop new powers based on the fact that 
  you’re locked in an endless struggle with somebody:
  A daring heart may unlock its hidden treasures.
  You can treat the conflict, in short, as somebody wishing: “I 
  wish these two would get stuck in an irresolvable conflict” and 
  figure out how you should proceed from there.
  These aren’t rules that you’ll want to use every time. Some-
  times you just need to play out that RPS game out of character; or 
  accept a tie; or have the PCs get a little bored and break off their 
  endless fight. 
  But if it matters? 
  If you have to have a winner? 
  The wish- or Bleak-fighting rules will apply.
  
  484
  484
  Action Happens in Context
  Someone’s just used an effect you can’t possibly defeat. They’ve 
  set fire to your building, say, and you don’t have anything strong 
  enough to oppose the action or the miracle that they used.
  That doesn’t preempt your action, though.
  You might look at your options and say: “But I can’t do any-
  thing. I don’t have the numbers for it.”
  But that isn’t true. The only thing you can’t do is make their 
  action not work. You can still take any action available to you on 
  the premise that the building is getting set on fire. If you want to 
  leave the building, say, they don’t get to stop you unless “burning 
  the building with you in it” was part of the action they took. If you 
  want to fireproof your room quickly using a fireproofing miracle, 
  they don’t get to stop you unless “burning everything in the build-
  ing” was a part of the action they took.
  In short, your actions aren’t taken in the context of their num-
  ber, with their higher number necessarily winning; even if their 
  number is higher, so your actions can’t defeat it, or miraculous 
  when you’re limited to mundane actions, or whatever, your ac-
  tions aren’t taken in the context of their number but the context of 
  what their action does.
  This is why, even though there’s nothing I can do to stop the 
  moon from tiding up the waters all the time, and nothing I can do 
  to stop the great figures of the world from throwing around level 
  7+ actions, nothing I can even do to stop some random person 
  from miracling at me, I can still take actions: because all that said, 
  my life is my life, it’s just within the context that those things 
  create.
  I don’t have to be able to beat the moon unless I’m actually 
  trying to stop the tides!
  Sometimes Things Just Are
  The last rule that I’d like you to remember is that not everything 
  is a player action. 
  If the HG decides that you throw yourself out of the way of 
  a gunshot, that doesn’t count as you taking an action to throw 
  yourself out of the way of a gunshot. You can either accept that 
  description, or take an action to change it, but the HG can’t put 
  their words in your mouth.
  If the HG decides that you hear a noise while asleep and it 
  wakes you, again, you don’t have to spend an action to hear that 
  noise. It doesn’t count as you spending an action to hear that noise. 
  It’s just the HG describing something that you hear, and then de-
  scribing something that happens (your waking up) as a result.
  Actions like this—things the HG does on your behalf, like 
  “you hear something,” or does against your behalf, like “you re-
  flexively shudder and draw back”—are called reflexive actions. 
  Most of your senses invoke reflexive actions: you might need an 
  action to listen or look, but not to hear or to see. Afflictions invoke 
  reflexive actions: you might need an action to use a Skill, but Af-
  fliction-based stuff just kind of happens.
  These things aren’t things you do, even if they’re described by 
  the HG as things you do. They’re not even things you do if you use 
  some player-level rule to make them happen.
  They just... are.
  They’re a part of the HG’s realization of the world.
  
  CHAPTER 14: MI-
  RACULOUS ARCS
   
  Miraculous Arcs
  
  Arc Powers
  486
  486
  Miraculous Arcs
  The last thing I want to cover in this book is some of the Miracu-
  lous Arcs themselves—powers and paths you can develop in this 
  game.
  There’s strictly speaking an unlimited number of these—
  I’m only even like 80% sure that they’ll all fit the eight colors 
  I have. So you shouldn’t look at this list as exhaustive. Instead, 
  these are examples and starting points. I do expect that most PCs 
  will stick to these, or to Arcs written up in later supplements, be-
  cause that’ll save you some work and means you won’t have to 
  run everything past your group—but the core thing here is that 
  these aren’t the paths but some paths you could walk.
  They’re also examples for miraculous powers in general—
  I’d recommend that when picking up miraculous powers as 
  Perks you look at the kinds of things other Arcs might give you 
  at your current Arc Trait level and base your new power on that.
   Arc Powers 
  Certain miraculous Arcs offer particular benefits to characters 
  while, and only while, they are being pursued. 
  In particular—
   
  ŭ certain Arcs are for those who cling to their mortality despite 
  their power; you earn the MP-regeneration power Frantic (pg. 
  487) when you follow Arcs like these.
   
  ŭ other Arcs are for the slow intrigues of immortals on the mi-
  raculous stage; you become immortal, and earn the power Im-
  mortality (pg. 488), when pursuing those Arcs.
   
  ŭ a few Arcs are for those beyond questions of mortality; these 
  offer Sickly (pg. 489) or maybe (in later books, or for play-
  er-created Arcs) something else. 
  
  Frantic
  487
   
   Frantic 
  a Miraculous Ability
  Type: Special
  Cost: —
  You’re never so resilient as when you’re terrified. 
  You may take the 
  (Be in) Trouble Action any time you can 
  meet its condition. Doing so earns you 1 MP, up to a maximum 
  of your starting MP. Each additional group XP that you earn from 
  this Action also earns you an additional MP.
  
  Immortality
  488
  488
   Immortality 
  a Miraculous Ability
  Type:  Miraculous Action, Major
  Cost: 
   
   0 MP—damage or enchantment has only temporary, appro-
  priate effects on you
   
   1 MP—you totally recover and shrug everything off 1-2 
  times mid-scene
   
   2 MP—starting mid-scene, you shrug off attacks and other 
  effects like they’re paper tigers
   
   4 MP—you’re basically unaffected by the world around you
  You’re immune to damage that breaks your paradigm—essential-
  ly, you can only die or take an injury when and how it fits your 
  character. 
  For better or worse, when Immortality applies, any wound you 
  take fits itself to your native F/X and heals automatically between 
  scenes—or mid-scene, if you spend MP. If something that’s too 
  powerful for Immortality to counter wounds you, you’ll still tend 
  to heal the resulting Surface Wounds in a scene, Serious Wounds 
  in an hour, and Deadly Wounds in 0-2 chapters.
  You can limit your immortality to a conditional version—
  Either because it makes sense to do so, or because wounds 
  in this system tend to come with cool powers up until the point 
  where they kill you. In that case it’s up to you how quickly you 
  heal the wounds your limited Immortality lets through.
  Despite all that talk about things getting past your Immortality, 
  or things your Immortality lets through, this power makes you 
  ridiculously tough—I mean, if...
   
  ŭ Someone hits you?
   
  ŭ You forget to eat for three months?
   
  ŭ You’re hit by a nuclear barrage?
   
  ŭ People are pouring molten steel over your head?
  You can probably just shrug it off!
  Maybe you get a bruise. Maybe you look hungry. Maybe you 
  actually take one of those chapter-length wounds from radiation 
  sickness or whatever and wind up hiccupping miserably all the 
  time like people who are hit by nuclear barrages will do. May-
  be you have steel poured all over you, and it hardens, and now 
  you’re stuck in place; but then you spend MP, or the scene ends, or 
  whatever, and whatever your F/X are for getting out of steel (e.g., 
  “when nobody’s looking, I turn up again, just fine” or “I reform 
  nearby from vacuum energy”) they come into play.
  Bam!
  You’re fine.
  You’re also immune, as that last case might suggest, to most 
  adverse effects in general—Immortality defends you against at-
  tacks, against things that cause harm, and not just against gross 
  structural damage. However there are four exceptions to this com-
  prehensive protection that I want to call special attention to:
   
  ŭ You can still suffer from the Sickness Issue—it’s just that the 
  individual manifestations of turning into a werewolf or being 
  turned to the service of evil or whatever are fit to your Immor-
  tality’s special effects.
   
  ŭ The state of being confined is only considered wound-like if 
  it’s boring or keeps you out of play. Sufficiently interesting 
  captivity just doesn’t count82. 
   
  ŭ Extremely deadly stuff, like nukes, volcanoes, Imperial mir-
  acles, and other Major miracles of similar Arc level can still 
  hurt you. Your wounds will still be much less severe than a 
  reasonable person would expect, and they’ll still heal in two 
  chapters or less, but if someone uses an orbital mass driver to 
  shove the spear of Longinus through your guts, you will get a 
  terrible wound.
   
  ŭ Occasionally I’ll introduce an effect that lets you take some 
  action at the cost of “a terrible wound,” or that seals a wound 
  so that no effect can heal it. If you’re doing something like that 
  to yourself, Immortality will not heal such wounds. 
  Conditional Immortality
  If you’re on an Arc that promises Immortality, you are potential-
  ly eternal, invincible, and immortal.
  You could be like the default Wishing Boy (or Girl)—nothing 
  really hurts you, although you may show cosmetic effects like torn 
  clothing, bruises, and mind-control-induced whirly eyes. Even 
  those wounds tend to heal as soon as nobody’s looking.
  Or you could be more like Harpy, who is named Disdain; 
  you could kill her if you made a game of it, a party of it, if you 
  laughed as you killed her, and that’s why she’s dead now, the rats 
  they killed her, and no more does she haunt the Stagger of Roof-
  tops down by Lethwillam Sore. But if they hadn’t laughed, then 
  she’d’ve survived.
  You could be like the default Principal, who can be torn to 
  shreds but takes no harm therefrom—
  Or you could be like the kaiju the fishermen occasionally bring 
  in to Fortitude, who turn aside most of the harpoons that come for 
  them, who struggle mightily in the nets, who are arguably Immor-
  tal in that there’s no specific effort sufficient in itself to kill them, 
  but who eventually are caught, suffer, and die because it is natural 
  for them to do so—creatures whose Immortality is not so much 
  bounded by conditions as exhaustible, able to be burned out.
  Anyway, the point is, being on an Arc like this gives you a 
  rules-set based Immortality. It’s not perfect: even aside from the 
  conditions you choose, it’s just a powerful miracle, and there are 
  certain methods—e.g., Afflictions, the Auctoritas, and stronger 
  miracles—to overcome its force. 
  But when you’re starting an Arc where you’ll have it, you 
  should decide how limited it will be.
  82 This rule isn’t here to make it easier to capture you, incidentally, al-
  though it certainly does that—it’s here to help explain why you can 
  potentially escape a bodysuit of hardened steel without breaking it but 
  can’t then casually slip it back on.
  
  Sickly
  489
   
                             
   Sickly 
  a miraculous ability
  Type: Special
  Cost: —
  You are prone to trials and your life is a sorrowful thing. Once per 
  session you may declare yourself under attack by corruption or 
  trauma, invoke a suitable
   
  ŭ
  (Suffer) Corruption or
   
  ŭ
  (Suffer) Trauma
  XP Action, and automatically pick up a point of Sickness unless 
  your Sickness Issue is either at 5 or has just recently been resolved.
  
  Wounded Angel
  Dramatic
  Devices
  Divine Health
  490
  490
  Wounded Angel
  Wounded Angel is a miraculous Bindings Arc. It’s suited for 
  characters who tried to be good and perfect and awesome, but 
  didn’t make it. Or characters who are currently trying, but are 
  finding it really quite hard! 
  This Arc offers the following abilities:
   
  ŭ Dramatic
   
  ŭ Devices
   
  ŭ Divine Health
   
  ŭ Blasphemy (starting at Arc 1)
   
  ŭ Empowered Wounds (starting at Arc 1, improved markedly 
  at Arc 2+)
   
  ŭ Recover (starting at Arc 1)
   
  ŭ Supreme Invocation (starting at Arc 3)
   
  ŭ Salvation (starting at Arc 3)
   
  ŭ Union (starting at Arc 3)
  In addition, Main Characters receive the power Sickly (pg. 489) 
  while actively pursuing this Arc. 
   Powers 
  Dramatic
  Type: Imperial Miracle
  Cost: —
  You have a fate—a kind of karmic role. You tend to show up in 
  certain kinds of scenes. It’s something like, you tend to show up 
  when people are being wicked; or when they’re expressing a wish 
  for vengeance; or when they need you; or when they’re at their 
  best; or when they’re at their worst; or when innocent children are 
  threatened; or when people talk about you; or whatever. Some-
  thing like that.
  You can choose which kinds of scenes we’re talking about, and 
  if you’re not sure when you start this Arc, you can let things play 
  out for a bit before deciding while you try to figure out what’s fits.
  This isn’t really a very useful power—this game assumes that 
  in general everyone has the power to choose what scenes they 
  appear in, barring being explicitly locked out or tied up elsewhere, 
  and this doesn’t come with any inherent ability to circumvent 
  those states. But just because it doesn’t give you any more rights 
  as a player doesn’t mean it doesn’t make it a little more functional 
  and cool to appear in those scenes—it can shift the footing from 
  “wait, you’re here?” to “of course you’d be here.”
  Devices
  Type: Special
  Cost: —
  You’ve a collection of pacts, devices, tattoos, infernal creatures, 
  mysterious servants, or something of that sort. You have, in short, 
  a theme.
  Pick one Skill—usually a magical Skill; you can change this 
  Skill later on if it doesn’t fit.
  You get a +1 or +2 Tool for using that Skill when you properly 
  employ your pacts.
  Divine Health
  Type: Special
  Cost: —
  You receive an additional Divine Health Level, plus one further 
  additional Divine Health Level for each level you acquire of this 
  Arc.
  For instance, at Arc level 3, you’d have a total of +4 Divine 
  Health Levels. 
  This isn’t as cool of a gift as it might seem, since you’ll wind 
  up committing a number of them to the powers of this Arc later on.
  
  (Cage for a) Blas-
  phemy
  Empowered Wounds
  491
   
  (Cage for a) Blasphemy
  Arc 1+
  Type: Imperial Miracle
  Cost: —
  There is something particularly nasty bound inside you. It’s usu-
  ally the price for some of your other powers, and you’ll pick it up 
  at the end of your first miraculous Bindings Arc, or somewhere in 
  the early portions of the next.
  It’s something required in order to advance along the Arc.
  If you ever lose your last Divine Health Level, that nastiness 
  will get out. Maybe it’s a red world bound inside you and when it 
  rages out everything around you will bleed, suffer, and catch fire. 
  Or maybe you’re more like Nightmares’ Angel: the sky will fill 
  with stormclouds, the ground will seep with foul water, and you 
  will begin to vomit out poison, rotten chunks of wood or flesh, and 
  corrupting spirits from your mouth and your hollow chest. May-
  be your inner blasphemy is unique: if you lose your last Divine 
  Health Level, everyone nearby will lose their souls, or their heads 
  will explode, or the world will revert to 18th dynasty Egypt all 
  around you, or candy will start raining from the sky. Evil candy. 
  Candy, that is bad!
  This blasphemy functions as a wish, basically. 
  It’s a wish for something terrible and awful to be unleashed.
  On the bright side, it’s a disincentive for anybody to kill you; 
  and if they do hurt you badly enough some interesting things will 
  happen. 
  The thundercloud to that silver lining, though: you have this 
  terrible thing inside you.
  If you permanently wound your last Divine Health Level us-
  ing Empowered Wounds, below, the blasphemy is freed, but if 
  it is then dealt with, you can postpone its return indefinitely by 
  refusing to recover from your wounds and avoiding anything that 
  would earn you a new Divine Health Level.
  Empowered Wounds
  Arc 1+
  Type: Imperial Miracle
  Cost: 
   
   0 MP, 1 Divine Health Level—empower one wound per 
  book
   
   4 MP, 1 Divine Health Level—empower one wound at any time
  You can take a ritual wound to bind something to yourself, turn-
  ing it into a power source. I’m designing this power in light of 
  the most effective and generic version, which takes any wound or 
  attack that comes in and declares it a ritual wound, but if you’d 
  rather have a less reactive or violent aesthetic, that’s OK too—
  You could, for instance, cut yourself or open your soul in order 
  to let spirits in, or to swallow animals whole, or to let in divine 
  inspiration, or something of that sort.
  Regardless, the regular or ritual wound removes one Divine 
  Health Level from your character sheet, binding it inextricably to 
  the wound, but gives you the following abilities:
  Arc 1+: A new miraculous ability, usually something you can 
  use 1/chapter or at any time;
  Arc 2+: 
   
  ŭ a new Imperial ability that helps or strengthens you—that 
  is, its focus must be on you, not on attacking or changing 
  someone or something else; and
   
  ŭ optionally, a third ability that completes or competes in 
  some fashion against one of the other two.
  You have rough control over the kinds of powers you get, but may 
  have to experiment some to fully define or discover them. These 
  powers replace the normal benefits of a wound (pg. 126-128).
  Empowered wounds cannot heal and no one can free you from 
  them save yourself—you must invoke Recover, below, before any 
  healing effect of any sort can lift the burden from your flesh or 
  soul.
  If you’re confused about how to handle wounds and removing 
  a health level from your sheet, proceed as follows:
   
  ŭ If the thing you’re transforming isn’t a wound, take a wound or 
  use it to wound your highest remaining Health Level anyway.
   
  ŭ If you just wounded a Normal or Tough Health level, swap the 
  wound with the wound in a Divine Health level.
   
  ŭ Remove the new wound and the Divine Health level simulta-
  neously from your character.
  
  Recover
  Supreme Invocation
  Salvation
  Union
  492
  492
  Recover
  Arc 1+
  Type: Special
  Cost: —
  You may stop empowering a wound at any time, allowing you—po-
  tentially—to recover from conditions acquired in play. The associat-
  ed powers go away and you gain a new, wounded Divine Health Lev-
  el. You do not immediately heal; rather, healing becomes possible.
  As a special exception to ordinary procedure, self-healing 
  powers may remain active long enough to help you recover from 
  the wound that created them. For instance, if someone cuts off 
  your head, it’s perfectly legitimate to 
   
  ŭ take a cool temporary power where your head flies around and 
  a slower 1/chapter power “neck viscera hands” that lets you 
  knit your spine back together; 
   
  ŭ fly your head around for a while enjoying the thrill of decap-
  itation; and then,
   
  ŭ when being a head in the game gets boring, disempower the 
  wound, hook your neck viscera hands in, and start healing. 
  Suffering is a power source for you: it’s painful and awful and you 
  do not like it one bit but it is rarely incapacitating for very long.
  Supreme Invocation
  Arc 3+
  Type: Imperial Miracle, Ritual Power
  Cost (Arc 3): 
   
   0 MP—invoke this power 1/book
   
   4 MP—use this power a second or later time in a book
  Cost (Arc 4): 
   
   0 MP—invoke this power 1/book
   
   2 MP—use this power a second or later time in a given book
   
   4 MP—use this power a second or later time in a given 
  chapter
  Cost (Arc 5):
   
   0 MP—invoke this power 1/book
   
   1 MP—use this power a second or later time in a given book
   
   2 MP—use this power a second or later time in a given chapter
   
   4 MP—use this power a second or later time in a matter of 
  minutes 
  Once per book, you may use an empowered wound as justification 
  for a wish-level effect—wish that something is so, and tie it themati-
  cally to the wound, and it becomes so. Normally this is instant but if 
  the connection to the wound is ephemeral or vague then the process 
  takes some time. For instance, if a head wound compromises your 
  memory, you might be able to use this power to erase an incident 
  (for the most part) from the memory of Town. Ultimately, you can 
  probably do anything at all here: the question is, what do you want to 
  wish for? And how can you tie this to your core and current wounds?
  Salvation
  Arc 3+
  Type: Special 
  Cost: — 
  Once per campaign, you may offer salvation to someone when all 
  is lost, using your power of Binding to connect to them in some 
  way and see them through. This functions as an Imperial miracle:
   
  I wish there were something I could do to help here, to  
   
  make even this hopeless situation work out.
  Except for the HG, a given player can only invoke this power once 
  per campaign, even if they later change PCs; after that, if you play 
  a different character who reaches Arc 3+ in a Bindings Arc, the 
  HG will choose who, when, and if you save; you can prompt them 
  if they don’t seem like they’re getting around to this, and you can 
  veto their choice if it doesn’t fit you, but you cannot invoke this 
  power a second time on your own. 
  Union
  Arc 3+
  Type: Imperial Miracle
  Cost: 
   
   0 MP—connect to a specific character 1/book
   
   4 MP—use this power a second or later time in a book 
  After using Salvation to rescue or connect to somebody, you may 
  invoke this power once per book while talking to (or, if you can’t 
  talk, using the most practical communication method available 
  with) them.
  Your earlier sacrifice will come into play somehow. Your target 
  will gain 1 point of inherent Connection with you (up to a max-
  imum of 5) and their Connection with you will rise to 5 for the 
  remainder of the scene. 
  Their player has the option to reject these benefits, in which 
  case the power does not invoke.
  
  493
   
  
  Become Somebody
  494
  494
  Become Somebody
  Become Somebody is a miraculous Knight Arc. It’s suitable 
  for characters who know what they want to be but haven’t gotten 
  there yet, as well as anyone who has gotten somewhere but has 
  much further to go.
  The Become Somebody Arc offers the following abilities:
   
  ŭ The Wages of Sin
   
  ŭ Shared Experience
   
  ŭ Your Truth (starting at Arc 1)
   
  ŭ Adaptable (starting at Arc 1)
   
  ŭ Unstoppable (starting at Arc 2)
   
  ŭ Commanding Aura (starting at Arc 2)
   
  ŭ Reject (starting at Arc 2)
   
  ŭ Touchstone (starting at Arc 2)
  In addition, while you are pursuing Become Somebody, you have 
  the special power Frantic (pg. 487). You can rename this power if 
  you are more stoic than “frantic” might suggest.
  These powers are going to be a little different for everyone—
  or, more precisely, they’re going to play out differently depending 
  on who you are and who and what you are trying to be. When 
  you’re thinking of starting this Arc, or during the first quest that 
  starts you on that path, you should:
   
  ŭ choose a Truth;
   
  ŭ think about options for your Failing; and
   
  ŭ think about options for your Role.
  Until you’ve done that, some of these powers won’t work very well!
  Choosing Your Truth
  Before you can really become somebody, you need to know a little 
  something about who you are.
  There has to be something about you. Something that isn’t ex-
  actly like everybody else.
  That is this Arc’s Truth.
  It’s probably a good thing. Like, you’re... 
   
  ŭ honest?
   
  ŭ brave?
   
  ŭ true?
   
  ŭ quick-thinking?
   
  ŭ clever?
   
  ŭ well-prepared?
   
  ŭ of good heart?
   
  ŭ chaste?
   
  ŭ loving?
   
  ŭ diligent?
   
  ŭ strong?
   
  ŭ an excellent baker?
   
  ŭ extremely kind to children and small animals?
   
  ŭ or something else?
  But it could be a bad or kind of neutral thing like...
   
  ŭ you’re incredibly lazy
   
  ŭ or mean
   
  ŭ or, you almost won that big soapbox derby a few years back!
  So, what’s your Truth?
   
  ŭ                                                                                                    
  Starting at Arc 1, you may buy additional Truths by spending 
  one Recharge Token each. If you think you’re both valiant and 
  honest, for instance, this is the way to prove it so.
  Choosing Your Failing
  You’ll also want to choose a Failing—something in you that 
  makes it hard to live up to who you want to be. 
  Is it...
   
  ŭ something serious, like
   
   pride
   
   recklessness
   
   cruelty
   
   greed or
   
   dissipation?
   
  ŭ something minor but which needs fixing, like
   
   poor planning
   
   poor motivation
   
   overconfidence
   
   easily tempted or
   
   excessive materialism?
   
  ŭ something that isn’t a real vice, but which you think of as your 
  tragic failing anyway, like
   
   being too beautiful (legitimately)
   
   being too beautiful (under the false impression that you are)
   
   looking too plain
   
   being a robot
   
   being an unreal or imaginary creature
   
   having red hair
   
   being a vampire or
   
   being short? 
  What’s yours?
   
  ŭ                                                                                                    
  Choosing Your Role
  At some point—ideally before the end of the first Arc, and cer-
  tainly before your first use of powers like Shared Experience—
  you’ll want to work with the HG to find your Role.
  This is basically—who and what are you trying to be?
  Are you trying to be 
   
  ŭ a heroic doctor? 
   
  ŭ a knight? 
   
  ŭ an idol? 
   
  ŭ a teacher?
   
  ŭ a ninja?
   
  ŭ a cop?
  Or are you already something—let’s say, a god or goddess? Roy-
  alty? A vampire?—and you just want to learn to do it “right?”
  
  The Wages of Sin
  Shared Experience
  495
   
  Or are you aiming for a more specific title?
  Do you want to 
   
  ŭ take over as head of the Student Council at Horizon’s School? 
   
  ŭ be the Guardian of Time? 
   
  ŭ the Prince of Bees?
   
  ŭ Magical Star Princess Vega?
  You’re not actually limited to “real” positions here—
  That is, you can just declare yourself the Guardian of Time and 
  slowly develop suitable powers—
  But you’ll grow in power a lot faster if you don’t have to invent 
  your own role. That’s why I say that you should work with the 
  HG, because it’s better to be “the Custodian of Time” that’s a real 
  thing that people in your position can be than to be “the Guardian 
  of Time” if that isn’t.
  So anyway...
  Don’t answer until you want to, but... what’s your role?
   
  ŭ                                                                                                    
   Powers 
   
  The Wages of Sin
  Type: Miraculous Action
  Cost: 
   
   1 MP at Arc 0—see the influence of a Failing
   
   0 MP at Arc 1+
  There’s some failing—some vice you’re trying to overcome, and 
  to some degree have.
  Because you’re intimately familiar with it, you can see its 
  signs even when they’re not obvious; invoke the Wages of Sin 
  and you can see the vice and its influence on a situation, as if it 
  were flowing water, livid fire, or glowing thread. 
  Shared Experience
  Type: Miraculous Action
  Cost: 
   
   2 MP at Arc 0—understand the part of a person that shares/
  resembles your Role
   
   1 MP at Arc 1
   
   0 MP at Arc 2+
  You’re not alone.
  Knights aren’t the only ones who fight for the right. Magical 
  star princesses aren’t the only ones who believe in the power of 
  wishes. Guardians of Time aren’t the only people who care about 
  time not coming unstrung, and there are plenty of honey farmers 
  who don’t qualify as a Prince or Princess of Bees but who care 
  about the health of the bees around them anyway.
  Invoke Shared Experience and you’re in tune with those people—
  Or, well, with that part of them, anyway.
  This functions as a temporary Affliction with a rating equal to 
  the Arc. What that means is that the world will sometimes just... 
  give... you insights into this stuff, into that part of what makes a 
  person tick. If you’re the Prince of Bees, and a honey farmer near 
  you has a passing thought about using a different floral basis for 
  their honey, you’ll know—it’s like, you’ll recognize that look. If 
  you’re Magical Star Princess Vega, and you have to make the call 
  on whether to trust someone in a crisis, you’ll be able to see the 
  part of them that’s thinking about how to defend the hopes and 
  wishes of the world against the oppression of the Outside (or, if 
  you don’t see anything like that, you’ll know it isn’t there.)
  Plus, it means that if someone wants to hide this stuff from 
  you—if a drug-addicted Rider wants to hide their secret from the 
  Marquis of Addiction or whatever or someone wants to keep the 
  Prince of Bees from spotting a honey farmer in a crowd? They’ll 
  need to use a miracle with [Strike ≥ your Arc Trait.]
  This only works for seeing the part of people that’s like your 
  Role so you will have to choose a Role before it becomes practi-
  cally useful as a power.
  
  Your Truth
  Adaptable
  Unstoppable
  Unstoppable (Pow-
  ered Up)
  496
  496
  Your Truth
  Arc 1+
  Type: Auctoritas
  Cost: —
  There are certain things that are simply true about you. They resist 
  the power of miracles, wishes, and the Outside. 
  Write down a two-point bullet list, starting with:
   
  ŭ I am [your Role, e.g. “the Guardian of Time”]
   
  ŭ I am [your Truth, e.g. “honest.”]
  These are protected by an Auctoritas with rating equal to the Arc 
  Trait. If you buy additional Truths (as noted on pg. 494, you can 
  spend a Recharge Token to do so), they are added to the list. 
  Adaptable
  Arc 1+
  Type: Special (activates an Affliction when used)
  Cost:
   
   2 MP at Arc 1—belong somewhere you hadn’t
   
   1 MP at Arc 2
   
   0 MP at Arc 3+ 
  You’re learning to handle yourself in a wide variety of situa-
  tions—whether it’s wandering the Far Roofs or traveling back in 
  time, you can spend 0-2 MP and basically make yourself at home.
  While you sustain an action, you have an Affliction that’s ba-
  sically:
   
  ŭ “I belong here.”
  This has the following effects:
   
  ŭ you have at least a +1 Tool bonus to doing whatever you 
  should be doing;
   
  ŭ you get your Arc Trait’s rating (    ) as a free Connection to the 
  environment;
   
  ŭ the HG will sometimes throw miraculous coincidences and 
  bursts of inspiration in to help you out;
   
  ŭ you’ll have a lot of trouble remembering that this isn’t always 
  who you are and where you lived.
  Also it takes a pretty powerful miracle (with at least [Strike ≥ your 
  Arc Trait]) to forcibly make you feel out of your element. 
  Unstoppable
  Arc 2+
  Type: Special (activates an Auctoritas + Obstacle when used; can 
  wound)
  Cost: 
   
   2 MP at Arc 2—strip the world of its ability to oppose your 
  performance of your Role
   
   1 MP at Arc 3
   
   0 MP at Arc 4+
  Invoke Unstoppable while you’re acting in the person of your 
  Role and expressing that to somebody else—
  You do need someone to express it to, so the only thing you 
  can use this for in the absence of communication is to facilitate or 
  cause communication—
  And you become really hard to stop.
  Opposition falters in the face of how good you are at being 
  your Role; an Auctoritas equal to the Arc defends your action and 
  your ability to communicate it, and an Obstacle equal to the Arc 
  prevents anyone from actively impeding your expression or com-
  munication of that Role with mundane actions.
  
  Commanding Aura
  497
   
  Commanding Aura
  Arc 2+
  Type: Special 
  Cost: —
  While Unstoppable is active, you can infect people with your 
  ideas, values, and purpose. The exact manifestation depends on 
  your Role—
  The people around you will reflexively respond to your 
  self-presentation.
  They’ll become more like you, or more fit to you, depending 
  on the role. You infect them with your own call to heroism, or 
  twist them into minions to your deviant science, or sweep them up 
  as followers in your path. You’ll choose how this works when you 
  first use this power, but you can adjust the details later on.
  This is a terrifying power.
  I mean, if you’re a shining hero or a great leader, then yes, you 
  can use this to make people better than they are. But even then if 
  you push it too hard you can literally brain-bend people into being 
  cogs in your machine. If your Role isn’t something awesome like 
  that, then it’s going to be kind of creepy every time.
  Think of the effects of this power as a non-physical “wound.”
  You “wound” the structure of their identity with your values 
  and ideas. If they’re an NPC they can give in and go along with 
  it or take the equivalent of what, for a PC, would be a wound. If 
  they’re a PC, the target almost has to take a wound, because this 
  power is directly targeting the self-determination that Health Lev-
  els and the wound system represent.
  You do not have to invoke this feature of Unstoppable. 
  Those targeted by it will know instantly if you do. After that,
   
  ŭ a few seconds of conversation can dazzle someone and give 
  them a Surface “Wound”;
   
  ŭ a few minutes can build that up to a Serious “Wound”;
   
  ŭ a few days with a captive audience can give them a Deadly 
  “Wound.”
  This power is basically a mundane action that has special rules 
  while Unstoppable is in force, so how much control you have over 
  the process and how readily it applies to whole crowds is up to your 
  action level and the HG. If you’re targeting a PC, their player also 
  has a lot of say about what exactly the wound that they take does.
  Note that this action is protected by the Auctoritas, so even 
  immortal characters will need to use Strike or mundane actions to 
  resist it.
  Charisma or Magic?
  Sometimes when I’m writing social mechanics I’m neutral or 
  equivocating on this point, but this particular power is totally 
  a psychic attack. It’s not quite mind control—there’s a key part 
  of it that uses your ordinary communication skills and mun-
  dane performance of your role—but you are softening them 
  up first with weaponized enthusiasm. 
  
  Reject
  Touchstone
  498
  498
  Reject
  Arc 2+
  Type: Special (activates an Auctoritas + Obstacle when used)
  Cost:
   
   4 MP at Arc 2—make things less like you, or exile them 
  from the story of your Role
   
   2 MP at Arc 3
   
   1 MP at Arc 4+
  If you ever have a reason to, you can also do the opposite of Com-
  manding Aura—invoke Reject and you can force someone to be 
  less like you or make them less fit to support your role. De-minion 
  people, brain bend them out of being cogs in your machine, force 
  them to cut ties with you or think for themselves or be your rivals 
  or enemies: whatever not being like the targets for Commanding 
  Aura would make them be. 
  While you sustain this power, it basically puts an Obstacle and 
  Auctoritas the Arc Trait’s rating in the way of the target being like 
  you, or in the way of their fitting to and supporting your Role, as ap-
  propriate. Further, you can use your mundane actions (as per Com-
  manding Aura) to push them even further away, towards some oppo-
  site point—a few seconds of conversation can escalate that rejection 
  to a Surface “Wound,” a few minutes to a Serious “Wound,” and a 
  few days or so (with a captive target) can escalate it to a Deadly. 
  By social convention you may apply this power to things as 
  well—while you can’t use your Commanding Aura directly to 
  make a fully inanimate object respond to your role, you can Reject 
  an object as unfit to your story, placing an Obstacle and Auctoritas 
  of the Arc Trait’s rating in the way of the target seeming like you, 
  seeming connected to you, or plausibly/functionally fitting to and 
  supporting your Role—for instance, if you feel that vegetables have 
  no place in a deviant scientist’s refrigerator, you can simply make 
  it impossible for someone to find the right place to put them there.
  Touchstone
  Arc 2+
  Type: Special (activates an Auctoritas + Obstacle when used)
  Cost: 
   
   4 MP at Arc 2-3—fake a deep connection with someone
   
   2 MP at Arc 4
   
   1 MP at Arc 5 
  You can bind yourself to something (or someone). You can fit 
  yourself to it, making it a touchstone to reality for you, a place 
  where for however short a time you genuinely belong.
  While you sustain this action you have an effective level 4 
  Connection to that thing, and any miracle that would break this ef-
  fect or disrupt your use of that Connection needs at least [Strike ≥ 
  Arc rating] to succeed. Mundane actions to drive a wedge between 
  you and the target would face a minimum Obstacle of that level.
  You can invoke Touchstone and your first mundane action 
  with the new Connection simultaneously.
  Commanding Aura 
  (Powered Up)
  Arc 3+
  Type: Special
  Cost: 
   
   4 MP at Arc 3-4—take “Commanding Aura” to a new, ter-
  rifying level
   
   2 MP at Arc 5 
  Spend a total of 4 MP on your Unstoppable ability83 and you can 
  force a break from reality—
  The world goes weird. Reality distorts.
  Your Commanding Aura becomes a monstrous, overwhelm-
  ing force. Before your targets can attempt to resist—before op-
  tions like “physically run away,” “close down physical channels 
  of communication,” or even “give in” are available—they have 
  to play through a terrifying or goofy chase, haunting, or impact 
  sequence first. 
  That is, a break from reality. 
  You’re like some creature from horror or of religion: you batter 
  their senses and their mind.
  Now, the downside of this is that you can’t actually apply the 
  effect of Commanding Aura to them until the sequence ends.
  The upside is that this actually happens. It’s dream-sequence-
  like, but it’s actually real. Or at least, it’s a break in the nature of 
  the real. If you glow with divine glory and angels sing your prais-
  es, you actually glow with divine glory and angels sing your prais-
  es. If you have to chase somebody, you can warp your physical 
  body, crawl through televisions and appear around corners, and 
  have your words thunder through hallways and impinge directly 
  on people’s minds. Basically, you can use all kinds of horrible 
  special effects as long as they have the effect of underlining your 
  Role and making it easier to communicate with your target. Use 
  the mundane action system if you want to achieve any other ben-
  efit from this—e.g., scaring someone besides your target, fixing a 
  broken television, using the singing angels as a signal or message, 
  or winding up closer to where you wanted to be.
  83 Or 2 MP, at Arc 5.
  
  Reject/Touchstone 
  (Powered Up)
  499
   
  Reject/Touchstone 
  (Powered Up)
  Arc 4+
  Type: Special
  Cost: 
   
   4 MP at Arc 4-5—power up Reject
   
   4 MP at Arc 5—power up Touchstone  
  At Arc 4, you may power up Reject in the same fashion as Com-
  manding Aura above.
  At Arc 5, you can power up Touchstone—it becomes some-
  thing that gives you, essentially, an on-demand soulmate or true 
  companion relationship. This comes complete with the dramatic 
  freedom to appear in any scene they’re in and vice versa; to take 
  wounds for them and vice versa; and, as the most powerful effect 
  available in this Arc, to talk the HG into letting you do other things 
  expressing your connection to that target. You may use the same 
  sort of dramatic special effects, and the same system for accom-
  plishing unrelated things with them, as for Commanding Aura 
  (Powered Up).
  
  Reality Syndrome
  500
  500
  Reality Syndrome
  Reality Syndrome is a miraculous Knight Arc. It’s suitable 
  for kids and adults whose peculiar beliefs in their own special 
  powers not only get the better of them but of everybody else.
  Basically, if you’re on this path, you’re hax.
  You cheat at the world. More than magical Skills do. More 
  than practically anybody. You have something that means that 
  your wildest flights of imagination just might represent the truth.
  When you’re thinking of starting this Arc, or during the first quest 
  that starts you on that path, you should:
   
  ŭ choose some kind of Experience you’ll learn to share with 
  those around you;
   
  ŭ choose the nature of your impending reality-breaking Hack.
   
  This Arc will grant you the following abilities related to your Ex-
  perience:
   
  ŭ Shared Experience 
   
  ŭ Dreams Made Flesh
  And characterize your Reality-Breaking Ability as:
   
  ŭ Childish Dreams (at Arc 1, and sometimes after)
   
  ŭ A Little Push (at Arc 2, and sometimes after); or a
   
  ŭ System (starting at Arc 3)
  Augmented later on with:
   
  ŭ Someone Else’s Rules (starting at Arc 4); and
   
  ŭ Purpose (at Arc 5).
  Finally, Main Characters receive the special power Sickly (pg. 
  489) while they are actively pursuing this Arc. 
  Choose Your Experience
  Each Reality Syndrome Arc features a normally private Experi-
  ence that you may share with others. It could be—
   
  ŭ something elaborate and narrative, like:
   
   “my memories”
   
   “my daydreams”
   
   “my delusory life”
   
   “my plans” or
   
   “the legends about me.”
   
  ŭ something that’s kind of external, like:
   
   “this flavor that I am tasting”
   
   “my criminal record”
   
   “my social status” or 
   
   “my shadow.” 
   
  ŭ something that you’re doing, like:
   
   “who I am pointing at”
   
   “what I am paying attention to.”
  It’s not the most important thing about you, but it’s a starting 
  point. What’s yours?
  Choose Your Hack
  Each Reality Syndrome Arc also comes with a reality-breaking 
  power. Something egregious, ridiculous, and unlimited. One trick 
  that’s just plain qualitatively off the charts, something that justifies 
  entire strategies just to deal with it, and even then, your enemies 
  and rivals can never be entirely certain that they have.
  Something like the Wishing Boy’s Wish-Granting Engine.
  Like the Ideologue’s ability to borrow the powers and Traits 
  of others.
  Something impossible, ridiculous, unbounded, deep.
  What’s yours?
   
  ŭ Can you make your wishes come true?
  ...actually, let me stop there for a moment. That’s this book’s 
  theme. That’s probably the one that you should be on this path for. 
  Walking this path should normally give you your own version of 
  the Wishing power. 
  Can you make your wishes come true?
  ...or do you have something else?
   
  ŭ Can you control causality?
   
  ŭ Can you skip around freely through time?
   
  ŭ Can you copy others’ powers?
   
  ŭ Can you change the rules of local reality?
   
  ŭ Can you move at near-light-speed without boredom or exhaus-
  tion?
   
  ŭ Can you foresee the outcomes of every move everyone around 
  you makes?
   
  ŭ Can you take a normal power so far past the limits of reason 
  that even something normal like “really good baker” or “tele-
  kinesis” becomes a reality-breaking threat?
   
  ŭ Or something I didn’t think of at all?
  Whatever it is, it means that in alternate worlds where your par-
  ticular group’s game is the subject of a massive Internet fandom, 
  there are people right now shutting down whole “who’d win” 
  fights by claiming that of course it has to be you, because how 
  could anyone or anything beat that?
  
  Shared Experience
  501
   
  Quest Miracles 
  (Addendum)
  Arc 0-2
  At this level you may wish to pursue the typical quest miracles for 
  a miraculous Knight Arc.
  Arc 3-5
  Generally at this point you have a fully-functional reality-break-
  ing Hack going on, so you won’t need quest miracles to do even 
  the most absurd stuff any longer; and if the point of the quest mir-
  acle is to work around the genre conventions and the limitations 
  of your Hack—
  Well, that’s going to be kind of counter to the point.
  So instead, at this level, you’ll usually use quest miracles or 
  Recharge Tokens to shift and change the limits of what you 
  can do with your Hack—to expand what you’re allowed to do. 
  For instance, if you’re Chuubo or Shokyou, quests are what you 
  need to expand the “wishing map” (pg. 506-507) that defines the 
  safest elements of your power.
  I’m not going to forbid you to use the standard Knightly quest 
  miracles here;
  I just don’t think that they’ll be best.
   Powers 
   
  Shared Experience
  Type: Imperial Miracle
  Cost (Arc 0-1): 
   
   0 MP—1/book, you can share your experience with others.
   
   4 MP—you can invoke this power at another time 
  Cost (Arc 2): 
   
   0 MP—1/chapter, you can share your experience with others
   
   1 MP—use this power a second or later time per chapter
   
   4 MP—invoke this power instantly.
  Cost (Arc 3+): 
   
   0 MP—after a few minutes, you can share your experience 
  with others
   
   4 MP—you can invoke this power instantly. 
   
  You can share your private Experience of something with others. 
  Your daydreams; your philosophy; your physical sensations; the 
  things you taste. Memories. Control over your left arm84. Guilt 
  and blame.
  Whatever!
  This takes a few minutes’ work; you have to sharpen and focus 
  on your own experience of that thing. Then a Region Property 
  manifests in your immediate vicinity—either:
  You can Perceive and Adjust (your name)’s Experience of 
  (experience type) or
  You Share (your name)’s Experience of (experience type)
  84 Idle hands are everybody’s plaything! Let’s all do our best!
  You can only use one of these, but you can experiment with both 
  of them when you first get this power to see which fits you best.
  For example, if you’ve chosen to let other people perceive and 
  adjust your daydreams, then they can physically move elements of 
  your thought balloons around and converse with characters you’re 
  daydreaming about even if you have headphones in and can’t hear 
  their words yourself. If you’ve chosen to share control over your 
  left arm, then everyone in the victinity can take mundane and mi-
  raculous actions using your left arm.
  You can use this power offensively, but because it’s a Region 
  Property, doing so is at the mercy of the target’s player’s inter-
  pretation of what you do. That is, if you blind someone with your 
  daydreams or burden them with your guilt, they treat that as an 
  effective level 2 Bond; if they don’t want to play along, they don’t 
  have to do something to resist you—they just have to explain the 
  matter away OOC.
  
  Dreams Made Flesh
  Childish Dreams
  502
  502
  Dreams Made Flesh
  Arc 1+
  Type: Miraculous Action
  Cost (Arc 1-2): 
   
   0 MP—1/book, you can manifest your experience physi-
  cally.
   
   4 MP—use this power a second or later time per book
  Cost (Arc 3): 
   
   0 MP—1/chapter, you can manifest your experience phys-
  ically
   
   1 MP—use this power a second or later time per chapter
   
   2 MP—use this power a second or later time in a handful 
  of hours
   
   4 MP—invoke both Shared Experience and this power 
  instantly.
  Cost (Arc 4+): 
   
   0 MP—every few hours, you can manifest your experience 
  physically
   
   1 MP—use this power a second or later time in a handful 
  of hours
   
   4 MP—invoke both Shared Experience and this power 
  instantly
  After invoking Shared Experience, you may invoke Dreams 
  Made Flesh to manifest that experience physically. This has the 
  following effects:
  Descriptive Experiences. For an experience that’s mostly de-
  scriptive, like “daydreams” or “memories,” you can pull some-
  thing from that description and use it in a comparatively peaceful 
  interaction with the world. You can, for instance, climb a fictional 
  ladder or ride a fictional cloud chariot. However, you shouldn’t 
  try to inflict serious wounds on people—even a direct attack with 
  a rocket launcher pulled from dreams shouldn’t do much more 
  than cosmetic damage or a Surface Wound at the worst. Maybe it 
  fires a dud; maybe it stuns the target, surrounds them in a cloud of 
  smoke, but they should be basically fine.
  Possessive Experiences. For an experience that’s more of a... 
  fact of your existence, like “things I am tasting,” “my criminal re-
  cord,” or “my phobia of snakes”... you can share it with everyone 
  around you directly. 
  They experience or possess it as sharply as you!
  Active Experiences. For an experience that’s more active, like 
  “pointing at someone” or “paying attention to someone,” you ef-
  fectively take that mundane action on behalf of everyone in your 
  vicinity. They can overcome this with their own Intention if they 
  don’t want to do it, or shelter behind Obstacles that would mute 
  their Intention but not your own, but otherwise, well, they do it 
  even as do you.
  Childish Dreams
  Arc 1
  Type: Imperial Miracle
  Cost: —
  You’ve learned to capture and express childish desires—
  “I want that!”
  —through the medium of your reality-breaking power. The 
  standard rules85 are these: 
   
  ŭ this power enhances a mundane Intention to fetch something, 
  create something, or otherwise fulfill an immediate and vis-
  ceral desire;
   
  ŭ that specific enhancement is “it is feasible for you to use your 
  Hack to do this.”
   
  ŭ you can use this power more or less at will.
  The effects of this power last only as long as you can sustain in-
  terest (an Intention or, if appropriate, some other sort of action), 
  after which they fade away, you discard them, or reality reverts. 
  In some cases other characters may augment their own Intentions 
  with this, essentially “managing” you and your power.
  For instance, at this level, time travelers and speedsters can 
  pop over and grab almost anything that catches their attention, 
  generally without even seeming to move at all. Pure wishful hearts 
  pop tools and treasures out of nowhere. People who can copy the 
  powers of others tend to show off for a few minutes by doing 
  something like what they’re watching someone else do, then lose 
  interest.
  This power normally evolves into A Little Push when you 
  reach Arc 2—if necessary, you can keep Childish Dreams, but 
  normally it will go away or become cosmetic at that time.
  85 It’s possible these won’t work for your particular idiom for some reason.
  
  A Little Push
  503
   
  A Little Push
  Arc 2
  Type: Imperial Miracle
  Cost: —
  You’ve learned to support fairly simple activities and obliga-
  tions—chores, school projects, and social interactions—with your 
  reality-breaking power. Basically, when you’re doing something 
  fairly local and simply defined and it just isn’t working out like 
  you want—
  When you’re not getting the level 2-5 Intention result that you 
  want, either because of conflict or an Obstacle or because you just 
  don’t have the Skill and Will you need and the best you can do is 
  try your best and hope for HG leniency that didn’t come—
  You can declare that such is the situation, figure out how your 
  power could support it, and use your Hack for that. This is usual-
  ly something you can do once per chapter, although it recharges 
  when Will does (e.g. from a Recharge Token.)
  Individual uses of this power tend to carry you to a climactic 
  and victorious moment in a very narrow task and tend to fade or 
  fall apart soon after or when pushed outside those boundaries; a 
  term often bandied about is “Cinderella Syndrome,” where your 
  magic does great work getting you to the ball (as it were) but starts 
  to fall apart once the official night of the ball has ended and the 
  morning of the ball begun.
  Some classic examples of this power include:
   
  ŭ using your reality-bending magic to mop the floor, potentially 
  getting into trouble but only after it’s already clean;
   
  ŭ using your Hack to dry clothing for a big date in a hurry, and 
  then—
   
   nothing particularly bad happens?
   
   it takes a little damage that you only notice on the way 
  home?
   
   it suddenly reverts to being wet and soapy after a kiss?
   
  ŭ using your control over causality to win a Chess game
   
  ŭ borrowing another person’s powers and Skills to participate 
  in a School play, only to have them desert you after a climac-
  tic scene or become unreliable when you start playing around 
  with them for other things.
  Your free-form Intention support powers evolve into a more tacti-
  cal System as you reach Arc 3, and your access to A Little Push 
  tends to go away, become cosmetic, or become just another part of 
  your System power at that time.
  System
  
  System
  Someone 
  Else’s 
  Rules
  Shared 
  Experience 
  (Powered Up)
  504
  504
  System
  Arc 3+
  Type: Imperial Miracle, Ritual Power
  Cost: —
  You’ve systematized your reality-breaking power—you’ve 
  learned, created, or internalized a set of rules and limitations that 
  let you use it on a tactical, thoughtful level.
  This typically works like so:
   
  ŭ you have a limited palette of “safe” uses
   
  ŭ you can buy others with quests
   
  ŭ you’re reliant on a set of props—phrases, techniques, places, 
  tools, and the like
   
  ŭ incorrect use is dangerous—it’s usually possible, and poten-
  tially useful or necessary, but it’s intrinsically likely to create 
  problems for you.
   
  ŭ there may be associated drawbacks or curses
  Basically, your power is contextualized by a set of rules—it lives 
  in its own little semantic milieu and you can expect both that the 
  HG and other players will exploit this for comedy, drama, and 
  interest and that your enemies will use the rules of that milieu to 
  restrict you.
  At this level the power is typically “for” bringing a scenario to 
  life: a what-if of some sort. Whether or not that fits your specific 
  power, though, there’s definitely an instrinsic structure: a System 
  comes with codified ways of invoking your power, things that you 
  can but shouldn’t do with it, risks, prices, and miscellaneous rules.
  A time-based limitation like “this power can be used once per 
  chapter” is almost universal—
  You use the power, and then you face the consequences for up 
  to a chapter; use the power, and face the consequences for up to a 
  chapter; and so forth.
  The two standard examples of Systems are:
   
  ŭ Chuubo’s Marvelous Wish-Granting Engine, which grants 
  one wish a chapter, and comes bundled with a “map” of rea-
  sonable applications. You can expand that map with quests or 
  wish for things that are off the map, but the further off the map 
  you go the more risk there is of things going terribly wrong;
   
  ŭ the Second Skins power, which you can use once per chapter 
  to copy another person’s powers, Skills, and Perks and add 
  them to your own (as the eponymous “Second Skin”). You 
  generally need to study that person with a quest before you 
  can borrow their powers—usually, 15 XP can add a random 
  NPC to your list of skins, a Perk costing 20+ XP can add a 
  non-miraculous Main Character to your list, and a Perk costing 
  35+ XP can give you access to the powers of a peer. You can 
  keep the new powers indefinitely, or at least until the chapter’s 
  end86, but if someone commands you to do something for them 
  in the name of the Skin you’re wearing you have no choice 
  save to obey or lose the powers themselves.
  86 But only one skin at a time! Or two, counting your own.
  Someone Else’s Rules
  Arc 4+
  Type: Imperial Miracle
  Cost:  
   
   0 MP—1/book, define how someone else may help you 
  work around your System.
   
   4 MP—do so at another time 
  You may work with others to bypass elements of your System. 
  I’m categorizing this as something that uses wishing rules, even 
  though technically it’s a little weird for Imperial miracles to 
  change how other Imperial miracles work—
  But basically, it boils down to: 
   
  ŭ “I wish that working with this person would help me do some-
  thing cool.” Or
   
  ŭ “I wish that there was a person whom I could work with to get 
  around this particular limitation, and that I’d have some way of 
  finding out who they are.”
  The former version is usually a little weaker than a 15-XP quest 
  to expand your limitations, but that’s really up to your group; the 
  latter can be arbitrarily useful, but the more power you want, the 
  more awkward the working relationship is likely to be.
  Shared Experience 
  (Powered Up)
  Arc 4+
  Type: Special
  Cost:  
   
   0 MP—you may invoke Shared Experience on someone 
  else’s experience 1/chapter
   
   1 MP—do so a second or later time per chapter
   
   2 MP—do so a second or later time in a handful of hours
   
   4 MP—do so instantly. 
   
  After a few minutes contemplating somebody’s else’s experienc-
  es, you may invoke this alternate version of Shared Experience 
  to share their experience. 
  You may have 
   
  ŭ the power to share what you think is their experience (possibly 
  augmented by divination or mundane/Connection actions) or 
   
  ŭ a power to share their actual experience 
  You only have one of these, but you can experiment with both 
  options when you first get this power to see which fits your char-
  acter best.
  You may and probably should use this in combination with 
  Dreams Made Flesh.
  
  Purpose
  505
   
  Purpose
  Arc 5
  Type: Special 
  Cost:  
   
   0 MP—bypass the limitations of your System 1/book
   
   4 MP—do so at another time 
   
  You have seen beyond some of the limitations of your System; 
  once per book you can waive one limitation on your reality-break-
  ing power:
   
  ŭ Invoking it without the normal props, tools, or invocations;
   
  ŭ Ignoring the normal time limits on its use; or
   
  ŭ Waiving the general restrictions on incorrect use, replacing 
  them with this: that the power is cosmically inclined to go 
  wrong to the extent, and only to the extent, that it tries to force 
  what ought not be forced.
  In general you can only waive one limitation at a time, although 
  the HG can bend that at their option.
  
  Example 
  System: 
  the “Wishing Map”
  506
  506
   Example System:the “Wishing Map”
   
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  ŭ a little lonely sometimes  
   
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  PC1
  PC2
  PC3
  PC4
  Chuubo
  Inventor of the Marvelous 
  Wish Granting Engine
  peaceful
  enjoys life
  Figure 1: Starting Wishing Map
  (You’ll use this to make wishes come true!)
  If you’re playing Chuubo or Shokyou, your power of wishes will 
  be based on the Wishing Map, which is in turn built on your re-
  lationship to the other PCs. You start, as shown above, with the 
  raw power of being a peaceful kid who enjoys life and is a little 
  lonely sometimes.
  For anything more, you’d talk to each of the other players ei-
  ther before or after the first couple of sessions. Get a single phrase 
  from each of them to summarize what they think of your PC or 
  what their relationship with them might be.
  This is the basis for your Wishing Map!
  Every wish you make flows from something on this Map. 
  For instance, there’s “enjoys life” written up there on the left. A 
  nice, sunny day would help you do that, so you could go up to the 
  Wish-Granting Engine and wish for a nice, sunny day. Becoming 
  the Mayor of Town, or bringing Picasso back from the grave—
  that would be harder for you, because by the time you’ve come up 
  with a justification like “I’m a little lonely, so I wish Picasso back 
  from the grave” you’re on very thin ice with the wishing power of 
  the heart that allows the Engine to work at all.
  That said, if nobody but undead Picasso will do, you do have 
  two things in your favor:
   
  ŭ an extremely tenuous wish will probably still work—it’s just 
  that it’s more likely to go horribly wrong instead of just enter-
  tainingly wrong.
   
  ŭ you have the power to add phrases to the Wishing Map in play.
  Once you’ve gotten one phrase from each PC, you can spend Re-
  charge Tokens for additional phrases—or, if this Main Character is 
  an NPC, the HG can just add a phrase or two in every now and then.
  
  507
   
  Suggested Phrases
  Here are some possible descriptions of Chuubo, taken from “For-
  titude: the Glass-Maker’s Dragon.” Note that these are just my 
  guesses! The other PCs, and even the NPCs, could have very dif-
  ferent ideas about who Chuubo is and what he is about.
   
  ŭ The Best Friend thinks Chuubo... 
   
   is Seizhi’s best friend
   
   needs someone to watch over him
   
   is kind of goofy
   
   is fun to talk to
   
  ŭ Nightmares’ Angel thinks Chuubo... 
   
   is frustratingly simple-minded
   
   does not grasp the seriousness of the situation
   
   is secretly everything Leonardo wishes he could be
   
  ŭ The Troublemaker thinks Chuubo...
   
   has a grand destiny
   
   has a good smile
   
   is fun to play tricks on
   
  ŭ The Dream-Witch thinks Chuubo...
   
   holds the key to her lost memories
   
   is honest, good, and kind
   
  ŭ The Prodigy thinks Chuubo...
   
   is a pretty ordinary kid
   
   is a good guide to Town
   
   is deeply suspicious
   
  ŭ The Child of the Sun thinks Chuubo...
   
   is very down-to-earth
   
   needs help
   
   reminds her of herself
   
  ŭ The Angel of Fortitude thinks Chuubo...
   
   should be planted and turned into a tree of worlds one day. 
  Yes. That.
   
   is making pretty improbable claims with this whole 
  “Wish-Granting Engine” thing
   
   is an admirable child
   
  ŭ Seizhi’s Best Friend
   
  ŭ                                        
   
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  ŭ                                        
   
  ŭ his example will help me  
  understand ordinary humans
   
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  ŭ a little lonely sometimes  
   
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  ŭ he harbors a sin
   
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  ŭ he secretly wished me to Town
   
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  The Best 
  Friend
  Chuubo
  Inventor of the Marvelous 
  Wish Granting Engine
  peaceful
  enjoys life
  Figure 2: Example Wishing Map
  (You’ll use this to make wishes come true!)
  The Child 
  of the Sun
  The Angel 
  of Fortitude
  The Prodigy
  
  Child of the Ash
  508
  508
  Child of the Ash
  Child of the Ash is a miraculous Otherworldly Arc. It’s suit-
  able for characters who are exceptionally real—characters so 
  thoroughly themselves, so indomitably real, that if they lost them-
  selves in the depths of the Outside new worlds would congeal 
  around them.
  The Child of the Ash Arc offers the following abilities:
   
  ŭ Set the Mood
   
  ŭ [Mood]-Splosion
   
  ŭ Wicked Mode
   
  ŭ Kaiju Form
   
  ŭ Mortal Form
   
  ŭ Shed Scales (at Arc 1+)
   
  ŭ Defensive Shield (at Arc 2+)
   
  ŭ Natural Weaponry (at Arc 3+)
   
  ŭ Elemental Connection (at Arc 3+)
   
  ŭ Non-Euclidian (at Arc 4+)
   
  ŭ Attention Control (at Arc 4+)
   
  ŭ Bramble (at Arc 5)
  In addition, Main Characters receive the power Immortality (pg. 
  488) while actively pursuing this Arc. 
  There’s some foundational choices you should make before, or 
  soon after, starting this Arc. When you’re considering this Arc, or 
  during the first quest along its path, you should:
   
  ŭ think about the conditions for your Immortality (pg. 488);
   
  ŭ choose your preferred Element (or, more conventionally, en-
  vironment);
   
  ŭ choose an appropriate Mood; and
   
  ŭ choose your future kaiju form.
  These choices will define how this Arc plays out for you.
  Choosing Your Element
  Like most Otherworldly Arcs, a Child of the Ash Arc connects 
  you to an Element or Estate—typically, and specifically, you be-
  come a creature of:
   
  ŭ “the woods primæval”—dense, tangled forest and its life
   
  ŭ “the concrete jungle”—brownstones, cracked sidewalks, dan-
  delions, and wire fences; children walking to school under a 
  beating sun
   
  ŭ “the labyrinth of steam”—tangled pipes, valves, and steam-
  punk machinery
   
  ŭ “the first city”—ziggurats, mud-bricks, and flickering 
  high-hatted ghosts; or
   
  ŭ “the hammering of the storm”—a raging storm pounding on 
  the doors and windows to get in.
  You don’t have to choose one of those exactly, and in fact I ha-
  ven’t really given you more than impressionist details to choose 
  one of them with, but it’s something like that. You become a crea-
  ture of a possible world. You become the creature of a notional 
  endless or at least egocentric reality: a reality that can think of 
  itself as the sum total of things and stand as an island in the chaos. 
  An arrogant little world, and one that can manifest itself, in 
  bits and pieces at least, in Town.
  Choosing Your Mood
  This path comes with an associated Mood—an emotion you can 
  evoke in the area around you. Do you...
   
  ŭ create a sense of peace and calm?
   
  ŭ shroud things in darkness, shadow, and despair?
   
  ŭ order, regiment, and light the world?
   
  ŭ fill things with a sense of confusion, incomprehensibility, and 
  wonder?
   
  ŭ ...or something else?
  Choosing your Kaiju Form
  Finally, this Arc comes bundled with a “kaiju form”—you’ll have 
  the power to turn into some sort of giant monster, robot, beast, or 
  numinous being.
  This isn’t a good idea.
  Seriously! I don’t recommend it! Particularly not a giant snake. 
  Turning into a giant snake doesn’t help! But I don’t recommend 
  going kaiju for anybody, snake or not, not until like Arc 2 at the 
  earliest. 
  ...But you can.
  Pick your form.
  Are you...
   
  ŭ a really long snake? 
   
  ŭ A firebird? 
   
  ŭ a congeries of unholy energies? 
   
  ŭ a thing of wings and hands and faces opening and closing are 
  they all? 
   
  ŭ a standard mecha? 
   
  ŭ a giant crocodile? 
   
  ŭ maybe an octopus, in a hat?
   
  ŭ ...or something else?
  If you wind up really unhappy with this you can usually change 
  it with a quest—particularly the kind of quest that would let you 
  rewrite an Affliction or other character Trait.
  By default your kaiju form uses the same basic character sheet. 
  If you want to differentiate your kaiju form from your normal 
  form in a way more profound than the powers of this Arc allow, 
  you can talk to the HG about how to get a Perk that functions like 
  the “Alternate Identity” Perk on pg. 418, or, all else failing, use 
  that Perk.
  
  Set the Mood
  [Mood]-Splosion
  509
   
   Powers 
   
  Set the Mood
  Type: Imperial Miracle
  Cost: 
   
   0 MP—given time, you can evoke a certain mood.
   
   4 MP—you can invoke this power with a word.
  Invoke Set the Mood and the Arc’s Mood will spread. For in-
  stance, if your Mood is “peaceful,” things become progressively 
  nicer and quieter around you.
  After a few minutes, this qualifies for a Region Property in the 
  setting for this scene—e.g.,
  Things Become More and More Peaceful.
  You can also invoke this power in a targeted fashion to affect a 
  specific target. This isn’t an absolute effect, but after a few min-
  utes, the target has a moment of being... as much of that mood as is 
  possible under the circumstances. This is pretty much “whatever 
  the target’s player or the HG thinks is the closest feasible result”—
  For instance, if your Mood is “darkness and despair,” then you 
  won’t be able to apply it to a sunbeam. Sunbeams don’t do dark-
  ness and you’d need a more absolute power to get them to do 
  despair. If you were targeting a motorcycle, though, you might be 
  able to put it into shadow and make its running engine sound kind 
  of tired and dismayed. If you were targeting a person already in-
  clined to despair, they could easily wind up sitting in a shadowed 
  corner crying into their hands, but if they’re a cheerful person on 
  a good day you might not be able to do much more than give them 
  a moment of doubt.
  [Mood]-Splosion
  Type: Imperial Miracle
  Cost: 
   
   0 MP—1/book, invoke a “[Mood]-splosion”
   
   4 MP—use this power a second or later time in a book
  Once per book, you may evoke the Arc’s Mood on a grand scale. 
  This functions as a wish, though a fairly specific one—e.g., for an 
  Orderly Mood, it works something like:
   
  I wish this [[ situation/place/thing ]] would be clean,  
   
  organized, and well-lit!
  Or, for a Peaceful Mood, 
   
  I wish this [[ situation/place/thing ]] would just calm  
   
  down!
  Like a wish, it gives the HG and the group as a whole a lot of 
  leeway in deciding what that means. For instance, if you wished 
  an atmosphere of peace and calm onto a war zone, the HG and the 
  group would have broad discretion as to whether its soldiers, e.g.,
   
  ŭ stop fighting
   
   to admire the sunset
   
   to have a party
   
   to have peace talks
   
   because the entire battlefield freezes over in ice
   
   because the wind scatters them to the four corners of Town
   
  ŭ or keep going, but start using really quiet weapons and whis-
  pered battle cries
  The time it takes to invoke this effect is variable but cosmetic—it 
  never takes “too long” to invoke, so it’s just a matter of whether it 
  makes more sense for you to stand there making soothing gestures 
  for a few minutes (or whatever) or not. If you’re spending 4 MP, 
  you can set this time frame yourself, including “instant.”
  
  Wicked Mode
  Box: Wicked Mode 
  (Powered Up)
  Kaiju Form
  510
  510
  Wicked Mode
  Type: Imperial Miracle
  Cost: — 
  You have a defined if fairly prosaic means of “monstering out”—
  e.g., taking off your tie and tying it around your head to show that 
  you’re ready to rock; fishing brass knuckles out of your purse; 
  gelling your hair into spikes; drawing lines on your face with mud; 
  donning an orange robe that you keep with you in your backpack; 
  or slipping red contacts onto your eyes. You do something that 
  shakes up who you are and totally reverses your Mood.
  Instead of being peaceful and laid-back, you’re now ready to rock.
  Instead of being orderly and refined, you’re now chaos incarnate.
  Instead of being a creature of the incomprehensible, you are 
  now an avatar of revelation.
  As described, this mode is a function of your mortal form, but by 
  overcoming a suitable Obstacle, you can invoke Wicked Mode 
  even when transformed into something else. 
  Kaiju Form
  Type: Imperial Miracle
  Cost (Arc 0-2): 
   
   0 MP—become a kaiju over the course of several minutes
   
   4 MP—become a kaiju instantly
  Cost (Arc 3): 
   
   0 MP—become a kaiju over the course of several minutes
   
   2 MP—become a kaiju instantly
  Cost (Arc 4): 
   
   0 MP—become a kaiju over the course of several minutes
   
   1 MP—become a kaiju instantly
  Cost (Arc 5): 
   
   0 MP—become a kaiju.
  You have the power to take on an alternate form—a large, powerful 
  alternate form. You can become a gigantic monster, beast, or being.
  The change takes a few minutes.
  Once completed, it’s permanent—you need a different power, 
  Mortal Form, to revert.
  Early Days. This power starts out kind of goofy and unhelpful. 
  You don’t turn into a cool giant monster or whatever. You can 
  pick up some pretty good reach—growing to a couple of stories in 
  height or length up to a hundred and some yards—and you might 
  wind up with wings or something, so all that’s cool. In general this 
  power can change what’s feasible for you in the same way that a 
  level 1-3 Superior Skill might, but it doesn’t actually give you that 
  Skill and there’s generally a level 1-2 Obstacle to doing complex 
  things with your new limbs or abilities.
  This is probably worst for those like the Wishing Boy whose 
  natural alternate form is a giant snake—it’s practically a cosmic 
  law that turning into a giant snake never helps anything—but even 
  if you turn into a giant jewel-headed octopus or whatever you’re 
  likely to wind up knotting your tentacles if you try to get clever. 
  There’s a reason that giant jewel-headed octopuses don’t run 
  the world!87
  Later On. After sufficient practice, or automatically when you 
  reach Arc 2, you start to be the cool kind of kaiju. You no lon-
  ger have the Obstacle to using your alternate form properly and 
  you can even weasel around world-rules like “turning into a giant 
  snake never helps” and School campus regulations like “turning 
  into a giant octopus merits only the darkest of detentions!”
  (My recommended excuses include:
   
  ŭ “it’s not turning into a snake that’s helping! It’s my wishing, 
  snakeful heart!” or
   
  ŭ “bah, it’s more like I stop turning into a human!”
  But what really matters isn’t the specific excuses so much as the 
  fact that around now the HG should start being inclined to actually 
  buy them.)
  87 Several, actually.
  Wicked Mode 
  (Powered Up)
  Type: Imperial Miracle
  Cost: — 
  At Arc 4, there is no longer an Obstacle to using Wicked 
  Mode while transformed: you can freely adopt the spirit 
  of gelling your hair into spikes even if you don’t have 
  gel, hands, or hair.
  
  Mortal Form
  Shed Scales
  511
   
  Mortal Form
  Type: Imperial Miracle
  Cost (Arc 0-1): 
   
   0 MP—1/book, between two chapters, revert to your 
  non-kaiju form
   
   1 MP—switch back a second or later time per book
   
   2 MP—switch back mid-chapter (over the course of a few 
  minutes)
   
   4 MP—assume your non-kaiju form instantly
  Cost (Arc 2): 
   
   0 MP—revert to your non-kaiju form between chapters
   
   1 MP—switch back mid-chapter (over the course of a few 
  hours, unobserved)
   
   2 MP—switch back mid-chapter (over the course of a few 
  minutes)
   
   4 MP—assume your non-kaiju form instantly
  Cost (Arc 3-4): 
   
   0 MP—revert to your non-kaiju form over the course of 
  several hours, unobserved
   
   1 MP—switch back over the course of a few minutes
   
   4 MP—assume your non-kaiju form instantly
  Cost (Arc 5): 
   
   0 MP—revert to your non-kaiju form over the course of 
  several minutes
   
   2 MP—assume your non-kaiju form instantly
  Turning back into whatever you were before—that’s a little hard-
  er. You need to get away from Main Characters at the end of a 
  chapter, go somewhere unobserved, and work at it for what can 
  take you days. In fact, for a while, it’s so difficult that it may well 
  be worth having someone talk you back to normal as the resolu-
  tion of an Issue instead of paying the normal cost.
  Turning back, like turning into a kaiju in the first place, is per-
  manent; you don’t have to sustain an action.
  Shed Scales
  Arc 1+
  Type: Miraculous Action
  Cost: 
   
   0 MP—starting mid-scene, adjust your kaiju form’s scale 
  1-2x/scene
   
   1 MP—starting mid-scene, adjust your kaiju form’s scale 
  an additional time
   
   2 MP—starting mid-scene, adjust your kaiju form’s scale as 
  often as necessary this scene
   
   4 MP—adjust your kaiju form’s scale as often as you’d like 
  this scene.
  Your kaiju form has become indifferent to scale. Are you three 
  stories tall? Skyscraper tall? Or just barely small enough to fit into 
  someone’s house?
  ...maybe a little of both?
  You can invoke Shed Scales to ignore a size-related Obsta-
  cle88 up to the Arc Trait’s rating while taking a mundane action. 
  This automatically re-scales you to somewhere between insect- 
  and Regional scale where taking the relevant action with the 
  relevant level of success is feasible, and you stay that size until 
  you leave kaiju form or use this power again.
  Starting around Arc 4, you’ll occasionally find that insect- to 
  Regional-scale isn’t really sufficient for what you want to do—
  you’re trying to grab the moon from the sky or swim in someone’s 
  bloodstream, say, and you’re in a relatively real environment 
  where a Region- or insect-sized person can’t do that kind of thing.
  In such a case you’ll want to use the power-up, below.
  Note that you’re allowed to use this power even if there’s an 
  [Obstacle > the Arc rating], but it won’t negate or even reduce the 
  Obstacle so you might have a hard time.
  Some characters with this power stop having a fixed size at 
  all—
  Let the HG know if you’re OK with them fudging your size 
  now and then, and when that might tend to happen.
  88 Including square-cube-law-related Obstacles and most strength, weight, 
  and flexibility-related Obstacles, but only if the HG can figure out a size 
  that makes the action feasible.
  
  Shed Scales (Pow-
  ered Up)
  Defensive Shield
  Defensive 
  Shield 
  (Powered Up)
  512
  512
  Shed Scales 
  (Powered Up)
  Arc 4+
  Type: Imperial Miracle
  Cost: 
   
   0 MP—1/book, scuttle the limitations on your kaiju form’s 
  size.
   
   4 MP—use this power a second or later time per book.
  Starting at Arc 4, you may invoke Shed Scales to reach truly ri-
  diculous sizes—not as a matter of practice, but now and again.
  This power functions as a wish:
   
  I wish I could get [[ big/small ]] enough to take 
   
  [[ intended action. ]]
  I’ve phrased it as a wish to make it a little more flexible in terms of 
  how long this effect lasts, how you achieve it, whether you’ll get stuck 
  at the new size, and so forth. Normally, you’ll grow or shrink to an 
  excessive extent “naturally,” and then have to undergo some extreme-
  ly laborious process to return to normal, but it’s really up to events.
  Defensive Shield 
  Arc 2+
  Type: Imperial Miracle
  Cost: 
   
   2 MP—when your kaiju form is wounded mid-battle, estab-
  lish a defensive element
   
  When your kaiju form takes a wound in a battle situation, you can 
  waive the normal rules for the advantage that you get and instead 
  construct a “defensive feature”—something evocative of technol-
  ogy, magic, or your Element.
  You’re sheathed in living shadow; or, you raise a local force 
  shield; or, cyclones or orbiting drones defend you from that at-
  tack. Essentially, instead of the wound, you twist the attack into a 
  point-defense wish:
   
  I wish I’d had something effective to deal with that 
   
  threat.
  You’re the authority on your own thematics but, as always with 
  the wish, the exact manifestation is in the HG’s hands.
  This power lasts until the end of the scene, or until the wound 
  heals if it heals during the scene; after that, the shield fades to the 
  potency of an ordinary wound.
  Defensive Shield 
  (Powered Up)
  Arc 5
  Type: Special
  Cost: —
  At Arc 5, when you invoke a “defensive shield,” you may restate 
  the wish as:
   
  I wish I had something that could deal with all the  
   
  threats currently coming at me.
  Further, you can usually expect that combat with your kaiju form 
  will operate at a time scale such that this is useful. I mean, it’s up 
  to your group and the HG! But you can expect it.
  
  Natural Weaponry
  Elemental Connec-
  tion
  513
   
  Natural Weaponry
  Arc 3+
  Type: Miraculous Action
  Cost: 
   
   2 MP—starting mid-scene, make a miraculous attack in 
  your kaiju form
  1 MP at Arc 4
  0 MP at Arc 5
   
   4 MP—make an immediate miraculous attack in your kaiju 
  form.
  In your kaiju form you can now make physical attacks essentially 
  anywhere within reach that you can focus your attention. If you 
  don’t have a proper ranged attack by nature, figure out something 
  appropriate to the aesthetic of your Element and form.
  This power is meant to be a basic sort of weapon—you stab, 
  or pummel, or spit acid, or, at most, set people on fire with a look. 
  The scary part of this power is just that it’s brutally fast and effec-
  tive. If your weapon starts getting flexible (e.g., if you can choose 
  between stabbing people or gluing them in place, or if your range 
  of poisons includes lethal, painful, and medicinal, or if you can 
  turn people into animals with your eyes) the HG may ask you to 
  dedicate your next appropriate Perk slot to the idea.
  You can automatically use (the normal version of) Shed Scales 
  with this attack with an effective Intention level of 6. This does 
  not require a separate action or MP. At Arc 4+, you may automati-
  cally use Non-Euclidian as well, and at the same level.
  Elemental Connection
  Arc 3+
  Type: Imperial Miracle
  Cost: 
   
   0 MP—connect to your Element 1/book
   
   4 MP—use this power a second or later time in a book
  You may invoke this power once per book to open a cosmos-span-
  ning Connection to some instance of your Element.
   
  ŭ You may gain an point of inherent Connection to some crea-
  ture or place belonging to your Element, or give that creature 
  or place a point of inherent Connection to you;
   
  ŭ Your mutual Connection rises to 5 for the remainder of the 
  scene;
   
  ŭ You may communicate with the target—normally, using 
  emotes, but at this level of Connection that should be as good 
  as speech—for the remainder of the scene.
  This power has inherent Strike equal to your Arc rating.
  
  Non-Euclidian
  Attention Control
  Bramble
  514
  514
  Non-Euclidian
  Arc 4+
  Type: Miraculous Action
  Cost: 
   
   0 MP—starting mid-scene, adjust your kaiju form’s struc-
  ture 1-2x/scene
   
   1 MP—starting mid-scene, adjust your kaiju form’s struc-
  ture an additional time
   
   2 MP—starting mid-scene, adjust your kaiju form’s struc-
  ture as often as necessary this scene
   
   4 MP—adjust your kaiju form’s structure as often as you’d 
  like this scene.  
  Your kaiju form has become indifferent to geometry, at least to 
  the extent that you’re willing to let it be. Just how do those wings 
  made of wings work? How can you possibly chase someone down 
  your own throat? What does it mean that you’ve fallen asleep and 
  turned into a mountain range?
  Your normal mode has one of these two options—
   
  ŭ Symbolic Option: You can blend ambiguously into appropri-
  ate environments for your Element—it becomes weirdly hard 
  to draw the line between you and the mountain range, forest, 
  or apartment complex you’ve merged with;
   
  ŭ Lurid Option: You can go fully Escheresque and non-Euclid-
  ian, including getting into fistfights with humans and zeppelins 
  at the same time or opening portals in your own stomach to 
  crawl through.
  Your “wicked mode” has the other option instead.
  In both cases, this essentially waives the normal Obstacles 
  you’d face for doing that kind of thing. Instead, 
   
  ŭ Symbolic Option: the longer you stay blended in somewhere, 
  the harder it is for people to spot or target you but the harder 
  it is for you to become fully alert or active again in a hurry. 
   
  ŭ Lurid Option: each use of this power establishes something 
  about your current location and structure, and acting on that 
  information is Obstacle 0; other interactions between you and 
  the world have Obstacle 1-3 for others and for you based on 
  how complicated and abstract your position has lately gotten. 
  (Basically, if you chase someone down your own throat, you 
  can definitely fight them there without Obstacles, but if you 
  want to bite someone on the outside, even you are now at Ob-
  stacle 2-3 because wtf?)
  Attention Control
  Arc 4+
  Type: Miraculous Action
  Cost: 
   
   0 MP—over the course of a few minutes, construct some-
  thing that can make a mental or social attack for you
   
   4 MP—do so instantly 
   
  In your kaiju form, you can invoke this power to develop—“grow,” 
  really—a natural weapon that can make a mental or social attack. 
  This is specifically what you’d use to make a tool for fascinating 
  prey, pacifying them, and/or drawing them in or making psycho-
  logical attacks that spread your Mood. 
  Bramble
  Arc 5
  Type: Miraculous Action
  Cost: 
   
   0 MP—1/book, or when wounded, fill the area around you 
  with an ongoing effect
   
   4 MP—do so a second or later time per book, without taking 
  a wound 
   
  Once per book, or as a “defensive shield”-like alternative to 
  taking a wound, you can fill the area around you with a hostile 
  environmental effect. In practice, this plays out as a wish:
   
  I wish this territory around me were dangerous for  
   
  roughly [[ this reason. ]]
  
  Spiritual
  515
   
  Spiritual
  Spiritual is a miraculous Otherworldly Arc. It’s suitable for characters who feel a deep connection to some element of the world—
  It makes you an exemplar and servant of some fundamental 
  force:
  Your Element or Estate.
  For instance, it might connect you to—
   
  ŭ “the long days of summer”
   
  ŭ “the harvest season”
   
  ŭ “the wild hills”
   
  ŭ “the limestone cliffs”
   
  ŭ “the beaches and the stones”
   
  ŭ “the will of fire”
   
  ŭ “the happiness of celebrations”
   
  ŭ “the peacefulness of the heart”
   
  ŭ “the insects and the flowers”
   
  ŭ “the birds in the skies”
   
  ŭ “the roofs and their rat-roads”
   
  ŭ “the moonlight (and starlight)”
   
  ŭ “the rain and the thunder”
   
  ŭ “the drying of laundry”
   
  ŭ “the frost and the dew”
   
  ŭ “the bounty of the lake”
   
  ŭ “the bounty of the land”
   
  ŭ “the winds of the high places”
   
  ŭ “winter”
   
  ŭ “spring”
   
  ŭ “the hearth and home”
  Or to something stranger, such as 
   
  ŭ “the health of the trees”
   
  ŭ “the health of the teeth”
   
  ŭ “packages and the post”
   
  ŭ “the roads and the paths”
   
  ŭ “the snails of the beach”
   
  ŭ “the caves and the tunnels”
   
  ŭ “the stirring of the soup”
   
  ŭ “bicycles and carts”
   
  ŭ “canning and preserves”
   
  ŭ “the auroras and the rainbows”
   
  ŭ “rumors and reports”
   
  ŭ “the maintenance of the account books”
   
  ŭ “the cakes and the pancakes”
   
  ŭ “money and trading”
   
  ŭ “recycling and garbage collection”
   
  ŭ “the bends of the river”
   
  ŭ “steam and electricity”
   
  ŭ “the constellations”
   
  ŭ “the sakura blossoms”
  To connect you to your chosen Element, this Arc offers the fol-
  lowing abilities:
   
  ŭ Elemental Warning
   
  ŭ Illusions
   
  ŭ Spirit-Sense (starting at Arc 1)
   
  ŭ Spirit-Speaker (starting at Arc 1)
   
  ŭ Spirit Boost (starting at Arc 1)
   
  ŭ Divine Mantle (starting at Arc 1)
   
  ŭ Spirit-Shaper (starting at Arc 2)
   
  ŭ Summons (starting at Arc 2)
   
  ŭ Chastise (starting at Arc 3)
   
  ŭ Secret Wisdom (starting at Arc 3)
   
  ŭ Destiny-Shaper (starting at Arc 3)
  In addition, while you are pursuing the Spiritual Arc, you have 
  the special power Frantic (pg. 487) You can rename this power if 
  you are more stoic than “frantic” might suggest.
  
  Elemental Warning
  Illusions
  Spirit-Sense
  Spirit-Speaker
  516
  516
   Powers 
  Elemental Warning
  Type: Miraculous Action [ with free Strike = Arc level ]
  Cost: 0 MP
  You’ll know when something globally bad is happening to your 
  Element.
  For instance, if you become spiritually connected to “garbage col-
  lection and recycling,” you’ll know if something is about to happen to 
  strike at the very foundations of recycling—whether it’s an increased 
  efficiency to urban and suburban life that renders recycling redundant 
  or a nanovirus that corrodes recycling plants throughout the world.
  Or, if you wind up connecting to “the birds in the skies,” you’ll 
  know if something is going to happen to all of those.
  They’ll cry out to you. You’ll hear them wailingly birding or 
  recycling in your dreams.
  Technically you should get this warning whenever something 
  threatens the whole Element, everywhere at once; but that’s not 
  fun, so let’s do this another way. You’ll get the warning whenever 
  the HG remembers to give it, even if it’s just a local issue!
  Illusions
  Type: Miraculous Action
  Cost (Arc 0):
   
   1 MP—use this power (every few hours)
   
   2 MP—use this power a second or later time in a handful 
  of hours
  Cost (Arc 1+):
   
   0 MP—use this power (every few hours)
   
   1 MP—use this power a second or later time in a handful 
  of hours
  You can invoke a... sense of your element being present, or absent, 
  or doing something. 
  This is not a very strong power: all it does is create is an im-
  pression, a feeling. If someone stops and looks carefully, they’ll 
  be able to see right through the visuals. If they stop and listen 
  carefully, they’ll realize they were probably mistaken about the 
  sounds. In short, if people ignore the feeling that your element is 
  now present, or absent, or acting in the way you command, then 
  this power has no or minimal effect.
  Conversely, though, even if someone consciously tries to ig-
  nore you and this power completely, there will always be a dream-
  like sense of your element obeying your commands.
  For instance, if you’re connected to the Long Days of Sum-
  mer, you can make a room seem warmer or time seem to pass 
  more slowly. You can encourage someone who’s prepping drinks 
  in another room to pick summer drinks like iced tea. 
  Spirit-Sense
  Arc 1+
  Type: Miraculous Action
  Cost (Arc 1):
   
   1 MP—learn things about your element
  Cost (Arc 2+):
   
   0 MP—learn things about your element
  Starting at Arc 1, you can become extra-knowledgeable about 
  your element—just by looking, you can get a sense of the most 
  detailed and obscure arcana about how your element works. Even 
  if something is tangential to your element, you can use this power 
  as an extremely effective diagnostic tool.
  For instance, if your Element is the Health of the Trees, you 
  just have to look at a tree with this power active to know how old 
  it is, its disease history, and its expected lifespan; if you’re inter-
  ested in its height and climbability instead, this power is probably 
  worth a +1 or +2 Tool.
  You can sustain this power once invoked—if you want to wan-
  der a forest gathering information on many different trees, for in-
  stance, you can do that with one mundane action for the wandering 
  part and one miraculous action to invoke this power and keep it on.
  Spirit-Speaker
  Arc 1+
  Type: Special
  Cost: —
  While you have Spirit-Sense active, you can speak directly to the 
  things of your Element. To a limited extent, they’ll be willing to 
  do favors for you—generally the kinds of things you could ex-
  plain away as coincidence or imagination if you didn’t know that 
  powers like this existed. For instance, you could ask one of the 
  Long Days of Summer to last long enough for you to finish your 
  walk, or ask some Bicycle or Cart to slew out of control.
  To make sense of this power you’ll have to be in an animistic 
  mindset—
  If stuff like the Long Days of Summer did have the power 
  to act, and were in fact taking actions on a regular basis, what 
  kinds of things would they be able to do? It seems to me, in that 
  mindset, like they can be hotter or gentler, experientially longer 
  or shorter, more or less insecty or flowery, but that they definitely 
  can’t change how long they last by the clock by more than the 
  error margin (probably... half an hour?) on my vague awareness of 
  when a given summer’s day should end.
  
  Spirit Boost
  517
   
  Spirit Boost
  Arc 1+
  Type: Miraculous Action
  Cost (Arc 1):
   
   2 MP—boost your element 1/chapter
   
   4 MP—use this power at any other time
  Cost (Arc 2):
   
   1 MP—boost your element 1/chapter
   
   2 MP—use this power a second or later time this chapter
   
   4 MP—use this power a second or later time in a handful 
  of hours
  Cost (Arc 3):
   
   0 MP—boost your element 1/chapter
   
   1 MP—use this power a second or later time this chapter
   
   2 MP—use this power a second or later time in a handful 
  of hours
  Cost (Arc 4+):
   
   0 MP—boost your element, every few hours
   
   1 MP—use this power a second or later time in a handful 
  of hours
  You can invoke this power to miraculously strengthen your el-
  ement. The effects are limited to the neighborhood scale, more 
  or less, and should have some level of dream-logic to them—if 
  you’re strengthening the Will of Fire to melt through a steel wall, 
  it should take a few minutes; if you’re extending one of the Long 
  Days of Summer, you should have trouble holding it for more 
  than a couple of days, and the next few days will tend to blur by 
  in a rush. That said—
  You can be pretty awesome.
  
  Divine Mantle
  Spirit-Shaper
  Summons
  Chastise
  518
  518
  Divine Mantle
  Arc 1+
  Type: Miraculous Action [Special]
  Cost: 1+ MP 
  Spend up to the Arc’s rating in MP and invoke Divine Mantle to 
  give all your miracles, for the rest of the scene, miraculous “Edge” 
  equal to the MP spent. (This caps at a total of 3.) Miraculous Edge 
  works just like Strike, but it doesn’t add to Strike (you get which-
  ever is best) and it doesn’t break Auctorita. 
  When you invoke the Divine Mantle you are wreathed in an 
  aura of your Element—
  You’re obviously wielding spiritual power over it.
  This aura is a subjective/experiential radiance, like the Illusions 
  power gives, and not a matter of visible light or tangible effect.
  Spirit-Shaper
  Arc 2+
  Type: Miraculous Action
  Cost (Arc 2):
   
   2 MP—invoke or control your element (individual/house 
  scale)
  Cost (Arc 3):
   
   1 MP—invoke or control your element (individual/house 
  scale)
   
   2 MP—invoke or control your element (neighborhood 
  scale)
  Cost (Arc 4+):
   
   1 MP—invoke or control your element (individual/house or 
  neighborhood scale) 
   
  Invoke Spirit-Shaper to command the movements of your ele-
  ment or pull some of that element from your dreams/imagination/
  spirit into the world around. As with Spirit Boost, you can be 
  pretty awesome—just keep to relatively local stuff and make a 
  few nods to realism here and there.
  For instance, if your Element is the Limestone Cliffs, you 
  could probably dream a wall into being covered by limestone in 
  seconds or dredge a house a few yards into the air on a new-sprung 
  limestone cliff. Once you get to Spiritual 3, you can probably 
  bump a whole city block or all the houses on one side of a long 
  straight street up ten or twenty yards on a newborn cliff.
  Summons
  Arc 2+
  Type: Miraculous Action
  Cost (Arc 2):
   
   2 MP—summon a small instance of your Element from afar
   
   4 MP—invoke this power a second or later time within a 
  handful of hours
  Cost (Arc 3):
   
   1 MP—summon a small instance of your Element from afar
   
   2 MP—invoke this power a second or later time within a 
  handful of hours
  Cost (Arc 4+):
   
   1 MP—summon an instance of your Element from afar.
   
   2 MP—invoke this power a second or later time within a 
  handful of hours
  Invoke Summons and you can call something of your Element to 
  you. With the appropriate Element, you could 
   
  ŭ divert a small rivulet from the Twisting River 
   
  ŭ summon a statue
   
  ŭ call a specific piece of mail to you
   
  ŭ invoke a named spirit, or
   
  ŭ pull a known and named chunk of limestone from the lime-
  stone cliffs north of Fortitude to you from anywhere in the 
  same Region.
  Arc 4+. Starting at Arc 4, you can invoke this power to summon 
  large or unusually powerful instances of your Element.
  Chastise
  Arc 3+
  Type: Miraculous Action, Bleak
  Cost (Arc 3):
   
   2 MP—dissolve some of your element 
   
   4 MP—use this power a second or later time in a handful 
  of hours
  Cost (Arc 4+):
   
   1 MP—dissolve some of your element
  Invoke Chastise and some portion of your element just... goes 
  away. By default it melts over the course of a few minutes but 
  that’s just a genre thing—if you’re in a hurry, you can just snap 
  your fingers and it’s gone. 
  
  Secret Wisdom
  Destiny-Shaper
  519
   
  Secret Wisdom
  Arc 3+
  Type: Miraculous Action
  Cost (Arc 3):
   
   2 MP—know a little more than you should
   
   4 MP—use this power a second or later time in a handful 
  of hours
  Cost (Arc 4):
   
   1 MP—know a little more than you should
   
   2 MP—use this power a second or later time in a handful 
  of hours
  Cost (Arc 5):
   
   0 MP—know a little more than you should
   
   1 MP—use this power a second or later time in a handful 
  of hours
  Your tie to your Element gives you a secret wisdom.
  Invoke Secret Wisdom to know a little more about anything 
  that’s come up in play. If the HG doesn’t want to share, you can 
  generally come up with new information yourself! 
  As a special rule, if the HG isn’t sure you’re right—whether 
  they want to give you tentative information or are skeptical of 
  your proposed new bit of data—you get the MP back.
  Destiny-Shaper
  Arc 3+
  Type: Miraculous Action, Major
  Cost (Arc 3):
   
   4 MP—move your Element around inconspicuously, or 
  shape its destiny
  Cost (Arc 4):
   
   2 MP—move your Element around inconspicuously, or 
  shape its destiny
   
   4 MP—invoke this power a second or later time per book
  Cost (Arc 5):
   
   1 MP—move your Element around inconspicuously, or 
  shape its destiny
   
   2 MP—invoke this power a second or later time per book
   
   4 MP—invoke this power a second or later time per chapter
  You can change the destiny or context of your Element in a given 
  Region. 
  The destiny thing is a lot like a wish—you declare that some-
  thing is going to happen to some part of your Element, like, “on 
  this particular Long Day [sic] of Summer, I’m going to be King 
  of the Waves,” that’s basically a wish. 
  Only, because it’s not, because it’s a miracle, there are the fol-
  lowing differences:
   
  ŭ resisting is easier, 
   
  ŭ outright ignoring the effect inflicts just a single Deadly Wound 
  instead of two, 
   
  ŭ the effects are awesome but comparatively understated,
   
  ŭ the power of the effect is that of a Major Miracle while sus-
  tained, and
   
  ŭ once you stop sustaining the miracle, the power level normally89 
  fades to that of a series of mundane coincidences and Obstacles.
  When I say that you can change the “context” of your Element, 
  I’m talking about stuff like this:
  If you want to say that there’ve “always” been a couple of the 
  Long Days of Summer in the middle of Fortitude’s winter “to 
  keep the earth from getting too cold,” bam, you’ve got it, done.
  You’ve changed the context of those particular days.
  Or if you want to point at a given instance of Bicycles and 
  Carts and say, “That one’s mine” and make it true—
  This is the effect that you need.
  The nice thing about this power is that it’s extremely subtle. 
  You won’t get the old owner of the bicycle complaining to you—
  at most, they’ll wonder why they bought you a bicycle and failed 
  to give it to you until right then. You won’t get people surprised 
  by those mid-winter long days of summer; they’re right there on 
  the calendar of Fortitude, after all.
  Again, if someone fights this power, it works a lot like a wish, 
  except for the differences noted above.
  89 Once you stop sustaining the miracle, it’s in the HG’s hands, and they can 
  technically do whatever they want with it, including ignoring it immediately 
  or scaling it up all the way to wish level—but normally, it gets pretty weak.
  
  Creature of the Light
  Tireless
  Well-Lit
  520
  520
  Creature of the Light
  Creature of the Light is a miraculous Storyteller Arc. It’s for 
  characters infected by a shard of something supernal—something 
  higher and holier than the mortal world.
  It offers the following abilities:
   
  ŭ Tireless
   
  ŭ Well-Lit
   
  ŭ The Auctoritas Magister (at Arc 1+)
   
  ŭ Appear (at Arc 1+) 
   
  ŭ Transfix (at Arc 1+)
   
  ŭ Obsession (at Arc 2+)
   
  ŭ Open the Vault (at Arc 2+)
   
  ŭ Fade (at Arc 3+)
   
  ŭ Transition (at Arc 3+)
   
  ŭ Ritual (at Arc 4+)
   
  ŭ Inspire (at Arc 5)
  In addition, Main Characters receive the power Immortality (pg. 
  488) while actively pursuing this Arc. 
   Powers 
  Tireless
  Type: Miraculous Action
  Cost: 0 MP
  You are not human. You are made of sterner stuff.
  Arc 0. There’s something you do compulsively, obsessively, 
  something that’s potentially useful but not usually directly on 
  point to the affairs of play. Running all night, counting things and 
  doing paperwork, making traps, climbing things. You have access 
  to miraculous Will (pg. 67) when you give in to this obsession and 
  perform this activity without really thinking about it.
  Arc 1. You have conditional access to miraculous Will in a 
  broader range of circumstances, e.g., “as long as there’s an au-
  dience” or “when wrestling with literal or metaphorical chaos.”
  Arc 2. You have access to miraculous Will.
  Well-Lit
  Type: Imperial Miracle
  Cost: 
   
   0 MP—obtain the best reasonable lighting
   
   2 MP at Arc 0—declare lighting out of nowhere.
  1 MP at Arc 1
  0 MP at Arc 2 
  You are a creature of the Light and have the right to invoke Well-
  Lit and demand dramatic lighting from the world.
  The normal effect is that you’re simply in the best possible 
  spot to be well-lit—you’re supernaturally perfect at being in an 
  ideal being-spotlit location, whether that’s standing in a beam of 
  moonlight, making your way to the center of a stage, having star-
  light sparkle all around you, or having a giant beast with lamp-
  eyes look suddenly your way. If you’re trying to do this “natu-
  rally,” then it’s possible that the best reasonable lighting isn’t all 
  that great90.
  However, if you like, you can outright declare that there’s:
   
  ŭ a ray of sunlight to strike you full-on, even at night;
   
  ŭ a stage light out of nowhere;
   
  ŭ a nimbus of mundane or arcane light around you;
   
  ŭ a blinding glare behind you.
  And that’s an Imperial miracle.
  Why does this happen? It’s usually up to the HG. The two most 
  common explanations are “break from reality” or “shocking coin-
  cidence”—although, like most powers requiring unexpected work 
  from the HG, the HG has the right to handwave this or make you 
  figure out the explanation yourself.
  90 In keeping with this, as part of maintaining the illusion that this is “nat-
  ural,” this version of the power counts as a level 4 miracle and not an 
  Imperial miracle—if you’re just in the best possible spot, someone with 
  access to miracles could conceivably stop you from being well-lit.
  
  The Auctoritas Ma-
  gister
  521
   
  The Auctoritas Magister
  Arc 1+
  Type:  Imperial Miracle
  Cost: 
   
   0 MP—starting mid-scene, swathe 1-2 actions in the Auc-
  toritas Magister
   
   1 MP—starting mid-scene, swathe an extra action in the 
  Auctoritas Magister
   
   2 MP—starting mid-scene, swathe yourself + your actions 
  in the Auctoritas Magister
   
   4 MP—swathe yourself + your actions in the Auctoritas 
  Magister
  Starting mid-scene, you may invoke the Auctoritas Magister to 
  protect your mundane actions from the influence of miracles and 
  the Outside. This power shelters them behind an Auctoritas equal 
  to the Arc Trait’s rating—e.g., Auctoritas 2 when you reach level 
  2 in Creature of the Light.
  To a limited extent this protects your person—if your action is 
  defensive, or if something would hurt or transform you in such a 
  way as to impede your action. If you’ve spent 2+ MP, then your 
  body and mind are directly protected.
  What is this for?
  The Auctoritas Magister allows you to take actions so omi-
  nous and inexorable that they give even miraculous entities 
  trouble.
  
  Appear
  Transfix
  Obsession
  Open the Vault
  522
  522
  Appear
  Arc 1+
  Type: Miraculous Action, Major
  Cost: 
   
   0 MP—1/chapter, appear to someone you have a Connec-
  tion to
   
   1 MP—use this power a second or later time per chapter
   
   4 MP—appear in seconds instead of minutes, or even less 
  than that if dramatically required
  You may transport yourself to anyone you have a Connection to, 
  materializing over the course of a few minutes from whatever is 
  most evocative of or likely to have been mistaken as yourself. If 
  there’s nothing at all appropriate you can manifest with the build-
  ing sense and omens of your presence, instead.
  You depart in the same fashion at the end of the scene, fading 
  back into something that is revealed to not have actually been you 
  at all. 
  Transfix
  Arc 1+
  Type: Miraculous Action
  Cost: 
   
   0 MP—1/book, transfix those around you with your mun-
  dane actions
   
   4 MP—do so a second or later time per book
  Invoke Transfix to add a glamour to a slow and careful mundane 
  action—something without sudden movements—and you can 
  transfix those who are observing you, making it effectively im-
  possible for them to pay attention to anything else.
  Obsession
  Arc 2+
  Type: Miraculous Action
  Cost: 
   
   0 MP—1/chapter, invoke Obsession
   
   1 MP—invoke a second or later time per chapter
   
   2 MP—invoke a second or later time in a matter of hours
  Invoke Obsession as you act and your actions may obsess, en-
  trance, or otherwise provide a profound emotional effect on a se-
  lection of desired witnesses. It etches its way into their mind. This 
  is functionally a miraculous attack. 
  If this defeats them you may sketch out the details of the ef-
  fect; otherwise, it’s up to the target to decide how they process 
  the impact.
  You may invoke Obsession and Transfix simultaneously, pay-
  ing the higher relevant cost.
  Open the Vault
  Arc 2+
  Type: Imperial Miracle
  Cost: 
   
   0 MP—1/chapter, invoke Open the Vault
   
   1 MP—invoke a second or later time per chapter
   
   2 MP—invoke a second or later time in a matter of hours
  When interacting with someone, invoke Open the Vault and 
  name an emotion/experience and your actions dredge up a flash-
  back from your target—
  A specific experience, or a mélange of experiences, best fit to 
  evoking the desired mood.
  Your target’s player normally emotes the experience, although 
  they can abbreviate it (potentially as far down as “stuff”) if they 
  can’t think of anything interesting. Your target can take an IC ac-
  tion to keep these feelings from becoming obvious in-character, 
  or, if appropriate, use an ongoing Intention to do so; this, however, 
  faces an Obstacle equal to your Arc Trait. Thus, you can use this 
  power to prime the target for a certain mood or response (guilt, 
  despair, peace, happiness, liking or disliking something) and/or to 
  figure out bits and pieces of their past.
  Starting at Arc 4 you can target an entire crowd and “open the 
  vault” of a given emotion/experience for them.
  
  Appear 
  (Powered 
  Up)
  Fade
  Transition
  523
   
  Appear (Powered Up)
  Arc 3+
  Type: Imperial Miracle
  Cost: 
   
   0 MP—1/book, specify the circumstances around your ap-
  pearance
   
   2 MP—invoke this power a second or later time per book
   
   4 MP—invoke this power a second or later time per chapter
  Starting at Arc 3, you may specify thematic circumstances for 
  your appearance—
   
  ŭ “I appear as you are falling into despair.”
   
  ŭ “You realize you have wandered into my killing ground.”
  Pick the basic circumstances when you reach Arc 3, although you 
  can adjust the details or talk to the HG about changing them com-
  pletely at a later time.
  This power functions as a wish that arranges those circumstanc-
  es and then, as soon as they arrive, manifests you with Appear.
  Fade
  Arc 3+
  Type: Miraculous Action
  Cost: 
   
   0 MP—1/book, fade away into the Outside
   
   1 MP—use this power a second or later time per book
   
   2 MP—use this power a second or later time per chapter
  Over the course of a few seconds (or less, if dramatically neces-
  sary), you may slip away to the closest portion of the near Out-
  side, leaving behind only something that others had mistakenly 
  believed was you, as if you’d arrived by Appear—
  Even if you hadn’t.
  In many places91 there’s a level 2+ Auctoritas between you and 
  the near Outside, and you’ll have to invoke a Bond or spend extra 
  MP on Strike in order to escape.  If you’re actually in the near 
  Outside already, then this power functions as a neighborhood/vi-
  cinity-range teleport.
  91 Anywhere that isn’t regularly touched or troubled by the Outside, that 
  is, such as Horizon, Arcadia, Old Molder, western Fortitude, Little Is-
  land, and... I don’t know whether Bluebell Park counts!
  Transition
  Arc 3+
  Type: Miraculous Action, Major; Unreal
  Cost (Arc 3-4): 
   
   0 MP—1/book, non-interactively change the world accord-
  ing to your will
   
   4 MP—invoke this power at another time
  Cost (Arc 5): 
   
   0 MP—1/chapter, non-interactively change the world ac-
  cording to your will
   
   2 MP—invoke this power at another time 
  Construct a desire—an Intention—and invoke Transition, and 
  that desire plays out upon the world around you. For instance, if 
  you know that you’d have to prove yourself for a thousand years, 
  ten thousand, a hundred thousand years before someone would 
  consider trusting you with a secret, you could replace the world 
  around you with:
  “The world fades away. You’re in an endless, perfect gar-
  den. I’m there. You’re there. Everything’s at peace.
  I reach down. I pull a flower from the pool. I hold it in my 
  hands. I look up.
  “You can tell me,” I say. “It’s safe.”
  And it’s safe. It’s been a hundred thousand years since 
  there’s been any need for you to keep any secrets from me.
  And oh, you want to speak!
  [[ pause, during which they say whatever they think they’d 
  say then ]]
  ...A while later, the moment ends.”
  This is a solipsistic and non-interactive power; you can declare 
  actions and feelings onto other people, but you can’t change what 
  you do next based on their response. In short, except to the ex-
  tent that people may use counteracting effects or take wounds to 
  prevent portions or the whole of it from happening, things simply 
  happen as you originally willed.
  (“Don’t change what you do based on what happens” is gener-
  ally on the honor system in a tabletop game, since you’re general-
  ly invoking the power live in play. In fact, you can even massage 
  that rule for drama’s sake or by taking a wound yourself. The point 
  is just that even interactive things like interrogation and chess are 
  pre-scripted IC, so you can’t play them out dynamically.)
  This power ends with an equally forced scene break—that 
  is, afterwards, unless people are taking actions to avoid it, time 
  jumps forward by a variable amount as the world around you tries 
  to contextualize the actions that you took. 
  
  Ritual
  Inspire
  524
  524
  Ritual
  Arc 4+
  Type: Miraculous Action, Major; Ritual Power; Unreal
  Cost: 
   
   0 MP—1/book, interactively change the world according to 
  your will.
   
   4 MP—do so at another time
  Starting at Arc 4, you may interrogate the world in a different 
  fashion—
  You may produce hallucinatory experiences, travel to far plac-
  es, and explore the characters and intentions of others in a space 
  of altered reality that you and the HG construct together as a ritual. 
  Specifically, each book you can propose a new, general special 
  effect and concept for:
   
  ŭ Delving into a target’s psyche;
   
  ŭ Afflicting people with evocative (pleasant or unpleasant) ex-
  periences;
   
  ŭ Interacting with someone otherwise inaccessible (dead, fic-
  tional, or whatnot); or
   
  ŭ Traveling to certain places.
  and invoke it as a ritual as soon as you and the HG have worked 
  out how that ritual might function. Once defined, this works like 
  any other Ritual (pg. 42-43), save that you can always and only 
  invoke the ritual by also invoking this power. 
  As with Transition, this power ends with an equally forced 
  scene break—that is, afterwards, unless people are taking actions 
  to avoid it, time jumps forward by a variable amount as the world 
  around you tries to contextualize the actions that you took. 
  Example: Interactive 
  Flashbacks
  Your family was up to their chin in secrets relevant to the 
  evolving story of the game. You decide to create an “Inter-
  active Flashback” Ritual invoked by grabbing the table and 
  saying “The world wavers around me.” This bridges the game 
  into a luridly-colored reconstruction of your childhood where-
  in you interact with your family’s spirits and they tell you at 
  least three true things.
  The standard ritual actions here are:
   
  ŭ State or emote your reaction to some recent event;
   
  ŭ Emote your reaction to what’s happening in the ritual 
  itself;
   
  ŭ For you, savoring the memory;
   
  ŭ For other PCs:
   
   Flickering between reality and the flashback;
   
   Playing as children, elsewhere;
   
   Playing as children and encountering the “you” of the 
  flashback;
   
   Interacting as children (or at least their younger selves) 
  with the you of now or with your family’s spirits
   
  ŭ Demanding and receiving a first, second, or third true an-
  swer from whichever family member’s spirit is present;
   
  ŭ Invoking another Ritual to blend the two effects together 
  (e.g., if you’ve run out of those three questions, dragging 
  your family member to Bluebell Park to attempt to beat/
  duel them into a fourth forced answer.)
  Inspire
  Arc 5
  Type: Imperial Miracle
  Cost: 
   
   0 MP—1/book, invoke Inspire
   
   2 MP—invoke a second or later time per book
   
   4 MP—invoke a second or later time per chapter
  Invoke Inspire and you may give others hope and purpose—your 
  actions may awaken something good and lost in them. 
  If all this would take is a choice on their part—
  If the only thing that stands between them and a brighter, hap-
  pier life is that nobody’s used this power on them yet, or their 
  conscious choice to resist it—
  Then this functions as a straightforward miraculous attack. 
  Do that!
  If there’s something wrong enough with them or their life that 
  that would be a false and unpalatable hope, then this functions as 
  an Imperial miracle instead. This power always means something. 
  If you can’t inspire them by zapping them with your metaphorical 
  inspiration stick, you instead create a wish effect: a wish that this 
  miracle should be a presence in their life, and that it would offer them 
  something or drag them into something that does have meaning, does 
  give them hope, does offer them something better than they had.
  Gaming Terminology
  Unreal—An Unreal power is a power that you’re not sup-
  posed to be able to explain. It replicates the feverish unreality 
  of rituals, transitions, corruption, and the Outside and blurs 
  the line between experience, description, and action.
  Most of the time if a power leaves the world in an incon-
  sistent state, you’re supposed to figure out what that means.
  Not so here.
  Instead, if events involving such a power are sufficiently 
  bizarre, the world may write them off as a “break from real-
  ity,” and restore broken topology, sense, and causal chains 
  therefrom. For instance, if you twist a room around so that it’s 
  inside itself, the Outside’s fine with that; around the time that 
  you start wondering what that looks like from the other side 
  of the wall, though, Fortitude will be writing the whole thing 
  off as a dream sequence and Horizon will be postulating some 
  sort of writhing, reshaping box suspended on a needle in the 
  middle of some gloomy square.
  
  Creature of Fable
  525
   
  Creature of Fable
  Creature of Fable is a miraculous Storyteller Arc. It’s for 
  characters whose identity has been compromised by a story—char-
  acters who are becoming creatures of fiction as much as the real. 
  It offers the following abilities:
   
  ŭ Between the Boundaries
   
  ŭ Iconic
   
  ŭ Cut the Soul (at Arc 1+)
   
  ŭ Superior Hunter (at Arc 1+)
   
  ŭ Resemble (at Arc 2+)
   
  ŭ Declare (at Arc 2+)
   
  ŭ Blind (at Arc 3+)
   
  ŭ Summons (at Arc 3+)
   
  ŭ Revelation (at Arc 4+)
   
  ŭ Peace (at Arc 5)
  In addition, Main Characters receive the power Frantic (pg. 487) 
  while actively pursuing this Arc.
  
  Between the Bound-
  aries
  526
  526
   Powers 
  Between the Boundaries
  Type: Affliction, based on your Something to Deal With Issue
  Cost: —
  if you’re an NPC, then this is based instead on 
  someone else’s 
  Mystery / Illusion 
  You are a creature of stories, infected by a wild strand of the un-
  real, and sometimes your methods for doing things are a little un-
  believable.
  These are things that shape the backdrop of the story.
  They take place between its pages.
  I mean that in two senses. First, you’re not going to use this 
  power “during” play—it’s a power you’ll use between scenes and 
  in flashbacks. Second, they set the stage, rather than put things in 
  motion: notionally, you don’t use this power to launch attacks or 
  build weapons. I’m not going to say that you can’t, because there’s 
  not a bright line between setting the stage and starting things in 
  motion. I’m just going to say that that’s not what it’s for.
  It’s for stuff like:
   
  ŭ getting from place to place;
   
  ŭ coming up with a bit of cash or something valuable to sell;
   
  ŭ cleaning or clearing something;
   
  ŭ fixing a particular kind of thing—
   
   repairing clothes and things made of fabric;
   
   repairing broken-down machines;
   
   rewiring or repurposing machines
   
  ŭ constructing a particular kind of thing—
   
   setting traps;
   
   constructing towers;
   
   redecorating/redesigning a small building;
   
   gardening;
   
   setting up a campsite or
   
  ŭ reading up on something
  Pick one or two of these things that you’re good at to start with 
  when you pick this power up. However, you can treat this as 
  an application of your Storytelling Skill or some other, similar 
  Skill—basically, it applies your ability to tell the story of how it 
  happened. Accordingly, you can stretch the limits of this power by 
  practicing with that Skill or acquiring the Perk Trick.
  In terms of how it works, this power is premised on your 
  Something to Deal With.
  The more you spend time in peaceful and quiet places, doing 
  laid-back and bittersweet scenes? The more likely you are to ca-
  sually mention something outrageous that you’ve recently done.
  Any time you have 1+ points in the 
  Something to Deal 
  With Issue, the following rules apply:
   
  ŭ You can invoke your unusual methodology between scenes or 
  in a flashback to handle whatever it is you want to do either 
  automatically as a miracle or with player and HG collaboration 
  as a Ritual. It takes an Auctoritas of some sort or an opposing 
  miracle with [Strike ≥ your Something to Deal With] to pre-
  vent your work from completing.
   
  ŭ As a Ritual, it goes something like this: regular play stops for 
  a bit while you summarize or narrate the details of what you 
  do/did to complete this task. Other players can participate by 
  either:
   
   throwing in descriptions of things going on around you as 
  you do this;
   
   throwing in descriptions or suggestions of things you might 
  do as part of this;
   
   giving emotional reactions to the story; or
   
   contradicting your claims with a proposal of their own—
  explaining aloud why some part of your description can’t 
  possibly have happened or “revealing” the magician’s trick 
  of how you “actually” achieved some effect. 
   
  ŭ Of these things, only contradictions slow you down at all. You 
  can usually hand-wave a contradiction away by providing an 
  explanation of how you overcame that obstacle or why their 
  declared trick couldn’t possibly be what really happened, but if 
  a Main Character uses a miracle with [Strike ≥ your Something 
  to Deal With] to cast your story into doubt, or if they point out 
  that your story is going to bump into an Auctoritas of some sort 
  and you can’t explain your way around it, that stops you just 
  as completely as their using a miracle against the action itself.
   
  ŭ If you get into trouble because of something introduced with 
  the use of this power, the HG may award you with some num-
  ber of MP or Will up to and including your Something to Deal 
  With rating.
  If an NPC has this power, and the HG doesn’t want to track Is-
  sues for NPCs (which is the normal case,) then this triggers off 
  of someone else’s Issue instead—basically, the 
  Mystery / Il-
  lusion Issue of the character whose story they’re most important 
  in, or, if that’s not obvious, then that of whomever they’ve been 
  interacting with the most.
  
  Iconic
  Superior Hunter
  527
   
  Iconic
  Type: Imperial Miracle or Miraculous Action, Major
  Cost: 
   
   0 MP—maintain an iconic appearance, to the extent rea-
  sonable.
   
   1 MP—invoke a major miracle to revert your appearance 
  instantaneously.
  You have a particular appearance. A particular style. You’re so 
  messy it’s impossible to make you look neat, or, so practically 
  perfect that tar slicks right off of you. It doesn’t matter how many 
  hours people spend dolling you up, or, conversely, how long you 
  must trudge through the bog—
  Whether it’s fashionable, dorky, scruffy, pure, or “cool,” one 
  shake of your hair and one pat-down of your clothes and bam! 
  You’re back to yourself.
  This power has two models for operation.
  The free version is limited by reason. It’s an Imperial mira-
  cle, and it lets you resume your normal standard of appearance to 
  the extent reasonable, and via a visible progression that could be 
  stalled or held back by others if they fight. If your hair’s been shorn 
  by a marauding shorn-beast, it might not pop back to its full length 
  instantly; instead, you hold out your hand, someone tosses you a 
  wig, and you put it on, just in time for the wind to blow on a hat. If 
  you’ve been forced into an elaborate get-up for a marriage ceremo-
  ny, it might unravel slowly enough for panicking servants and rel-
  atives to keep on top of things until the moment before the pledge.
  If that’s unsatisfying, the second version lets you spend an MP 
  to invoke a major miracle that simply instantaneously rewrites 
  you as looking the way you ought to look.
  If you ever wish to change your iconic appearance you may 
  do so by spending a Recharge Token; when the book ends, or the 
  next book if you barely had any time to evaluate it, you’ll decide 
  whether to keep the new version of yourself or go back to the old.
  Superior Hunter
  Arc 1+
  Type: Superior Skill
  Cost: —
  If you have a spare Perk slot for it, you receive a free level 1 Su-
  perior Hunter Perk. This is a Superior Skill Perk useful in hunting, 
  tracking, riding, and archery.
  Arc 2+. If you have a Superior Hunter Perk, it automatically 
  powers up to your Arc’s Trait level.
  Cut the Soul
  
  Cut the Soul
  Resemble
  Declare
  Summons
  528
  528
  Cut the Soul
  Arc 1+
  Type: Miraculous Action, Major; Bleak
  Cost (Arc 1):
   
   1 MP—1/book, cut away someone else’s power
   
   2 MP—invoke a second or later time per book
   
   4 MP—invoke a second or later time per chapter
  Cost (Arc 2-3): 
   
   1 MP—1/chapter, cut away someone else’s power
   
   2 MP—invoke a second or later time per chapter
   
   4 MP—invoke a second or later time per scene 
  Cost (Arc 4+): 
   
   1 MP—1-2x/scene, starting mid-scene, cut away someone 
  else’s power
   
   2 MP—invoke a third or later time in a scene
   
   4 MP—invoke at the beginning of a scene 
  You have a way to twist or break the powers of others. You can 
  stop or mess with someone else’s miracles, magic, or supernatu-
  ral-themed Superior Skills.
  Invoke Cut the Soul when somebody uses a power in a way 
  you don’t like and it:
   
  ŭ defeats any lower-level miraculous action
   
  ŭ defeats some comparable miraculous actions
   
  ŭ defeats most supernatural mundane actions
   
  ŭ weakens most Imperial actions; and
   
  ŭ strips that power (e.g., “Iconic” or Perk: “X”) from their char-
  acter sheet for as long as you sustain this action.
  If you prefer to weaken or twist their power instead, you may be 
  able to do so. Talk it over with your group! 
  Resemble
  Arc 2+
  Type: Miraculous Action
  Cost: 
   
   0 MP—resume an impersonation used earlier in this chapter
   
   1 MP—impersonate somebody
   
   4 MP—impersonate somebody based on minimal evidence
  Invoke Resemble and you may infallibly take on and parrot the 
  mannerisms, style, and voice of someone else you’ve interacted 
  with this story. To whatever extent you have access to disguise or 
  shapeshifting, you may borrow their appearance as well. 
  If you wish to borrow the mannerisms, style, and voice of 
  someone you haven’t interacted with, but have some evidence 
  on—e.g., someone’s father or mother, after interacting with 
  them—you may do so at a higher cost.
  Declare
  Arc 2+
  Type: Miraculous Action
  Cost (Arc 2-3): 
   
   0 MP—1/book, invoke Declare
   
   1 MP—invoke a second or later time per book
   
   2 MP—invoke a second or later time per chapter
   
   4 MP—invoke a second or later time per scene
  Cost (Arc 4): 
   
   0 MP—1/chapter, invoke Declare
   
   1 MP—invoke a second or later time per chapter
   
   2 MP—invoke a second or later time per scene
  Cost (Arc 5): 
   
   0 MP—1/chapter, invoke Declare
   
   1 MP—invoke a second or later time per chapter
  Invoke Declare and you may force an emotional truth on one or 
  more of those who can hear you—e.g., “you’ve just lost the most 
  important thing in your life,” “you fear me,” or “you think you 
  might be in love.” 
  It’s effectively an emote taken on their behalf, and it will linger 
  with them, sticking with them, while you sustain the action and a 
  little after.
  Summons
  Arc 3+
  Type: Imperial Miracle
  Cost: 
   
   0 MP—1/book, summon someone to you
   
   1 MP—use this power a second or later time per book
   
   2 MP—use this power a second or later time per chapter
  You may send out a spiritual call to someone, drawing them to-
  wards you. This functions roughly as a wish: 
   
  I wish they would come and find me here
  although it tends more towards the low-impact sort of wish that adds 
  progressive Obstacles to moving away from you and progressive Tool 
  bonuses towards finding a path to you rather than teleporting them or 
  having long-haired glue-tongued cloud-riding demons sweep by, lick 
  them up, and carry them to you while cackling vigorously.
  You may name a desired time frame; otherwise, the assump-
  tion is that they must arrive within a day and a night and are likely 
  to arrive within hours. They will often see you in the distance 
  or hear you calling intermittently throughout the course of this 
  power’s work.
  Starting at Arc 4, you may use this to wake or call back the dead.
  
  Blind
  Revelation
  Peace
  529
   
  Blind
  Arc 3+
  Type: Miraculous Action, Bleak
  Cost: 
   
   2 MP—blind someone to something.  
  This is an aggressive miraculous attack; you may invoke Blind 
  and strip your target, potentially permanently, of their ability to 
  see, recognize, or understand something in particular.
  Revelation
  Arc 4+
  Type: Miraculous Action, Major, Unreal
  Cost: 
   
   0 MP—1/book, reveal an awful truth
   
   2 MP—use this power a second or later time per book
   
   4 MP—use this power a second or later time per chapter
  Invoke Revelation to change the nature of a scene—
  You declare retroactively that some aspect of the situation has 
  been hidden all this time, allegedly by some power like Blind, and 
  dramatically reveal the truth. For instance, someone stabs you? 
  No, that wasn’t you. That was their friend. 
  You were over there!
  Make an argument, tell a story to the world, about how this 
  happened—what really went on. This is technically a lie and an 
  illusion, and so you can pretty much declare anything you like 
  here; the only cost is that if your revelation is too outré, too far 
  off of the plausible, or too complicated, or your story isn’t good 
  enough, then as an Unreal power it will fade away soon thereafter.
  You may optionally use this power to declare the entire scene 
  unreal; it fades away as a dream or vision—none of this is hap-
  pening and all those present will wake up elsewhere with a gasp.
  Even then you must tell a story—
  Where were they? When did the break from reality begin?
  If your story is less tenable than the truth, then it will fade 
  slowly; by the time the individuals involved next go back to sleep, 
  perhaps, they will find themselves back where they were when 
  you confronted them, and it will be revealed only that you were 
  not there, having slipped off into the near Outside.
  Peace
  Arc 5
  Type: Miraculous Action, Major or Imperial Miracle
  Cost: 
   
   0 MP—1/book, invoke Peace
   
   2 MP—invoke a second or later time per book
   
   4 MP—invoke a second or later time per chapter
  Invoke Peace and you may grant it—may bring rest, solace, and 
  respite to something troubled; may allow someone to live with 
  something that is otherwise tearing them apart.
  If you believe that they are only resisting by choice—
  That there is only guilt and stubbornness that stands between 
  them and acceptance—
  Then this is a straightforward miraculous attack. Rest. Be at 
  ease. Let it go.
  But if you believe that they are right to be troubled; that there 
  is something unjust in their circumstances, or that they are be-
  ing hounded, driven, damaged by others, that letting it go would 
  be bad—then this is an Imperial miracle instead. Something that 
  grants them respite; something that expresses the wish:
   
  I wish things could be easier for you.
   
  or
   
  I wish that you could find peace.
  
  The Ace
  Tireless
  Cool Bonus
  530
  530
  The Ace
  The Ace is a miraculous Aspect Arc. It’s for people who are 
  basically awesome—people who have a supernatural or mythical 
  quality of being better at what humans (or whatever they are) do.
  If this were the only miraculous Arc out there, the Ace would 
  be the one who always wins.
  You wouldn’t be able to tell anything else about them! 
  Just, they’d be the one that seemed pretty normal, but for some 
  reason (flawlessness, timing, luck, or just plain grit) they’d keep 
  winning. Maybe now and again they’d recognize a non-dramatic 
  crisis as hopeless from the beginning, or they’d get backstabbed 
  by someone they care about or by a third act twist, but mostly 
  they’d just win.
  Usually they’d even get to win with their own kind of fight. 
  If they were the perfect fighter, then all the stories of their life 
  would, ultimately, end with them punching somebody in the face 
  or winning a martial arts duel. If they were the perfect rap battler, 
  stories would always end with their victory in a rap battle. A cook 
  could always win someone’s heart, or the judge’s, with cooking; 
  a singer, with singing!
  Or whatever.
  In the real world, the world where there are plenty of other 
  miraculous paths, being the Ace isn’t as much of a game chang-
  er—a high-level Ace is still probably the best at winning, but not 
  at reshaping the world. When it comes to hanging out in pastoral 
  environments and talking about geeky stuff, the Ace may even be 
  at an actual disadvantage!
  The Ace Arc offers the abilities:
   
  ŭ Tireless
   
  ŭ Cool Bonus (at Arc 1+)
   
  ŭ The Ace (at Arc 1+)
   
  ŭ Push Yourself (at Arc 1+)
   
  ŭ Legendary Master (at Arc 2+)
   
  ŭ Anime Moment (at Arc 3+)
  In addition, while you are pursuing the Arc The Ace, you have 
  the special power Frantic (pg. 487). You can rename this power if 
  you are more stoic than the term “frantic” might suggest.
   Powers 
   
  Tireless
  Type: Miraculous Action
  Cost: 0 MP
  Your extraordinary but mundane competence gives you a limit-
  ed access to miraculous Will (pg. 67)—a pool of 3 Will that re-
  freshes every time you perform an in-genre XP Action or share a 
  scene with somebody who does. You can spend this bonus Will to 
  enhance ordinary and Superior Skills but can’t use it to enhance 
  magical Skills. Specifically...
  Arc 0. You can use this extra Will for maintenance-type 
  chores—basically, for your daily routine and self-care. You don’t 
  have to use it, but if you want to, you can stay organized, on top of 
  homework, and looking good even in an emergency.
  Arc 1. You can use this extra Will for other mundane actions 
  with ordinary and Superior Skills as long as you act out being 
  really tired and pushing yourself too hard.
  Arc 2. You can use this extra Will freely with any ordinary or 
  Superior Skill.
  Cool Bonus
  Arc 1+
  Type: Special
  Cost: —
  If you have a spare Perk slot for it, you receive a free level 1 
  Cool Perk.
  Arc 2+. If you have a Cool Perk, it automatically powers up to 
  your Arc’s Trait level. 
  
  The Ace
  Push Yourself
  Legendary Master
  531
   
  The Ace
  Arc 1+
  Type: Miraculous Action
  Cost: 
   
   0 MP—starting mid-scene, take 1-2 enhanced actions 
   
   1 MP—see “Push Yourself,” below.
   
   2 MP—starting mid-scene, all actions are enhanced
   
   4 MP—enhance arbitrarily many actions for a scene.
  Starting mid-scene, you may invoke the Ace to enhance the occa-
  sional mundane action with a +1 Tool bonus. As with Tireless this 
  only improves actions taken with an ordinary or Superior Skill.
  You probably think of this IC as determination or the fruits of 
  long practice, but from a game standpoint this is “wish power”—
  the power of your heart molds you into someone more like the 
  person you want to be.
  You can invoke the Ace and the mundane Intention it supports 
  as a single action. Once you reach Arc 3, the mundane Intention 
  isn’t necessary any longer, although you’re still limited to the 
  things that are mundanely feasible for you and you can still use a 
  mundane action if desired (if, e.g., you happen to have it running 
  already and just want to pump it up a bit, or something.)
  Arc 2. At Arc 2 the bonus from the Ace becomes a +2 Tool.
  Arc 3. At Arc 3 the bonus is no longer a “Tool.” Instead, an en-
  hanced action is notionally “perfect”—you can invoke the Ace to 
   
  ŭ perfectly execute any act of mundane skill, e.g. fishing, type-
  setting, running, fire-eating, accounting, dancing, or planning 
  an invasion. This includes being effective, productive, and re-
  ally impressive with that action if you want it to be;
   
  ŭ automatically beat anybody’s mundane action with your own; 
  and/or
   
  ŭ execute an action with perfect timing and grace.
  Arc 4. At Arc 4+ you may augment this with:
   
  ŭ the strength of a bear and/or
   
  ŭ the mental speed and precision of a computer.
  This always at least doubles your mundane strength and precision, 
  so if you were already a bear with a cybernetic brain92 you’ll still 
  be a little more effective than you were.
  92 Don’t judge me.
  Push Yourself
  Arc 1+
  Type: Miraculous Action
  Cost: 
   
   1 MP—starting mid-scene, push yourself beyond the nor-
  mal limits of the Ace
   
   4 MP—do so at the beginning of the scene.
  Starting mid-scene, you can Push Yourself to take an action be-
  yond the normal limits of the Ace—basically, you take an imme-
  diate enhanced action as if your Arc Trait were one point higher. 
  Legendary Master
  Arc 2+
  Type: Miraculous Action
  Cost: 
   
   2 MP—starting mid-scene, take perfect control over your 
  body
   
   4 MP—do this at any time
  Starting mid-scene, you can invoke Legendary Master to per-
  fectly control and exert full strength through any and every part of 
  your body—including, e.g., your hair. This also includes a “light 
  foot” technique—you can move as if your body were much lighter 
  or heavier and make extremely long, precise jumps.
  You may choose to combine this with a specific action, which 
  then also receives the benefits of Push[ing] Yourself, or just flood 
  your body with this power in general93.
  93 You might think that the second option is always better, or, if you mis-
  understand what it’s doing, you might think that it’s always worse. It’s 
  neither! Keeping Legendary Master going is a “sustained action.” Ba-
  sically, in Chuubo’s Marvelous Wish-Granting Engine’s action model 
  you can be doing around two things at any given time. If you’re sustain-
  ing an action, that’s one of them—it uses half of your attention! So if 
  you just kind of power up into a Legendary Master, and then get into a 
  fight, you’re powering-up and fighting and that’s your two actions right 
  there—if someone asks a question, you don’t have the spare attention to 
  talk. In fact, you might not even really have the spare attention to notice.
  (This is a pretty soft limitation in some ways because “fight and talk” 
  is actually every bit as much of a valid action as “fight”—but only if the 
  talking is part of the fighting, or if you knew when you started fighting 
  that talking would be important too. If it comes up unexpectedly, you’d 
  have to stop fighting or stop powering up to reassess priorities.)
  
  Determination
  Anime Moment
  532
  532
  Determination
  Arc 2+
  Type: Miraculous Action, Major
  Cost: 
   
   4 MP—invoke an arbitrary miraculous strength and speed
  2 MP at Arc 4
  1 MP at Arc 5
  Invoke Determination at any time to give yourself whatever 
  power and speed you need to accomplish a task, even ridiculous 
  tasks like building a tall stone wall in 15 seconds or outracing a 
  jet. The task still needs to be notionally possible as an extension 
  of your mundane abilities—
  For instance, you can outrace most soft sci-fi lasers, because 
  outracing a red beam of light from a gun-like object just takes an 
  absurd level of speed, but against a hard sci-fi laser you’ll have 
  more trouble, and painting onto the sky is just plain out.
  Anime Moment
  Arc 3+
  Type: Miraculous Action, Major
  Cost: 
   
   4 MP—take an effectively impossible action
  You may invoke Anime Moment to do something outright im-
  possible (but mythically plausible) with local and short-term ef-
  fects (e.g., punch out a movie character from the audience, drink 
  a whole lake, surf on a sound wave.) This includes any relevant 
  benefits from the Ace, Push[ing] Yourself, Determination, and 
  Legendary Master.
  You may be able to do better than this with quest miracles.
  
  Sentimental
  Miraculous Ease
  Haunt
  533
   
  Sentimental
  Sentimental is a miraculous Shepherd Arc. It’s for characters 
  who treasure a set of friends, places, things, and creations so deep-
  ly that they can awaken (greater) powers from them.
  It offers the abilities:
   
  ŭ Miraculous Ease
   
  ŭ Haunt
   
  ŭ Lend Spirit (starting at Arc 1)
   
  ŭ A Waking Dream (starting at Arc 1)
   
  ŭ Treasure’s Call (starting at Arc 1)
   
  ŭ The Shepherd’s Blessing (starting at Arc 2)
   
  ŭ A Fearsome Blessing (starting at Arc 3)
   
  ŭ Combo Move (starting at Arc 3)
   
  ŭ Wish (starting at Arc 4)
  In addition, while you are pursuing the Arc Sentimental, you 
  have the special power Frantic (pg. 487).
  Arc Terminology
  Craft: your “Craft” is the thing you use to create, train, or 
  shape new Treasures. If you’re not the kind of person who 
  makes things, it’s “long heartfelt conversations.” You’re al-
  lowed to have more than one Craft, although you usually 
  won’t.
  Treasure: something is a “Treasure” if you’re spiritually con-
  nected to it by:
   
  ŭ a level 3+ Connection;
   
  ŭ a Bond that mentions it by name;
   
  ŭ a Perk like:
   
   Bond. (as long as it mentions it by name)
   
   Connection. (as long as it’s level 3+)
   
   Accessory.
   
  
  “It’s OK, I’m here.” (pg. 430)
   
  
  “It’s like a home to me.” (pg. 429)
  These are things that your heart treasures, and the proper sub-
  ject of your generic powers.
   Powers 
   
  Miraculous Ease
  Type: Miraculous Action
  Cost: 0 MP
  You have a limited access to your pool of miraculous Will (pg. 
  67). That is, like everyone else you have 8 Will to spend each 
  chapter to enhance your mundane actions—but if you are taking 
  certain actions involving your Treasures, you also have access to 
  your pool of 3 miraculous Will. Miraculous Will replenishes when 
  you complete, or are in a scene with someone who completes, an 
  in-genre XP Action.
  Arc 0. Pick a central person or thing for your life—ideally 
  someone who qualifies as a Treasure. If you are taking actions for 
  or with that person or thing, or that express your feelings for them, 
  you have access to your pool of 3 miraculous Will.
  Arc 1. Pick a second person or thing that you receive this ben-
  efit for. 
  Arc 2. You receive access to your miraculous Will when taking 
  any sort of action for or with any of your Treasures, or when doing 
  things that express your feelings for those Treasures. This replaces 
  the Arc 1 version, but you don’t have to upgrade immediately if 
  this won’t work better for you.
  Haunt
  Type: Miraculous Action
  Cost: 
   
   1 MP (at Arc level 0)
   
   0 MP (Arc 1+)
  When you are asleep you can project yourself into the company of 
  one of your Treasures. 
  You float around its physical body.
  You can perceive through its senses. If it has none, you can 
  dimly sense the world around it. If it’s asleep, you can perceive its 
  dreams. You can speak to it mind-to-mind, in total silence.
  Most importantly you can do this from any distance.
  When you project yourself more than a block or two you be-
  come “present” where the Treasure is. Any miracle that would 
  normally target your Treasure can optionally affect you instead of 
  or in addition to it. This ought to but doesn’t have to make sense—
  if you’re projecting your dream-self to your friend Ivan, for in-
  stance, and someone uses a miraculous action to stab him with a 
  sword, they can automatically stab you with a sword instead of 
  or in addition to stabbing him. They don’t have to explain how 
  that works. They don’t have to make sense of it. Ultimately that’s 
  all on you. Further, even after you stop using this power, you can 
  still be remotely targeted in this fashion until the end of the scene.
  
  Lend Spirit
  A Waking Dream
  The Treasure’s Call
  The 
  Shepherd’s 
  Blessing
  534
  534
  Lend Spirit
  Arc 1+
  Type: Special
  Cost: —
  While you are using Haunt you may choose to extend your abil-
  ities and knowledge to the important person or thing that you’re 
  visiting.
  This gives the following additional benefits to the person or 
  thing in question:
   
  ŭ they resist or outright ignore attempts by others to influence 
  their thoughts or actions, unless you are also under that in-
  fluence. 
   
  ŭ they gain a small amount of added mobility, at the HG’s discre-
  tion—a precious library can shift its books or shelves around 
  slowly, for instance, when this power is in force.
   
  ŭ they may call upon your abilities, powers, MP, and knowledge 
  in addition to their own. 
  People and things you lend your spirit to do not retain the knowl-
  edge, abilities, or powers that you share with them after you stop 
  lending them your spirit. In fact, their memories of events after-
  wards become muddled to whatever extent they actually drew 
  upon your knowledge and your abilities! Thus, if someone wants 
  to remember a secret of yours from when you lent them your spir-
  it, they'd have to write it down.
  A Waking Dream
  Arc 1+
  Type: Miraculous Action
  Cost: 
   
   1 MP—visit a Treasure astrally/spiritually while awake
   
   4 MP—do so a second or later time in a matter of hours
  You may detach a bit of your spirit and send it to someone even 
  while awake. While you do so, you’re aware of both your environ-
  ment and theirs. You can’t Lend Spirit while using this power, but 
  if you support what they’re doing, their mundane actions gain a +1 
  Tool bonus and (all else being equal) 1 point of Edge.
  The Treasure’s Call
  Arc 1+
  Type: Miraculous Action
  Cost: 0 MP
  You can now “hear” or “feel” when one of your Treasures needs 
  you or is desperately trying to reach you, no matter how far away 
  it might be.
  The Shepherd’s Blessing
  Arc 2+
  Type: Miraculous Action
  Cost: 
   
   1-2 MP (Arc level 2)
   
   1-2 MP, minus a 1 MP discount (Arc level 3)
   
   free (Arc level 4+)
  You can grant a single special power to any of your Treasures. If 
  you’ve already experimented with granting a power to something 
  via an Arc 1 quest miracle (pg. 463), the power here is probably 
  something similar, but smaller and more immediate in scope.
  If you spend 1 MP, the target can use that power as a mundane 
  action.
  If—
   
  ŭ you spend 2 MP, or you and the Treasure each spend an MP;
   
  ŭ the two of you agree on how to use the power; and 
   
  ŭ it’s something that helps and strengthens you
  —they can invoke the power as a miraculous action, instead.
  The first time you invoke the Shepherd’s Blessing for a given 
  Treasure, you define the power that it receives. From an IC per-
  spective, this isn’t really a choice—it’s just the power that “fits” 
  the Treasure: the power natural to it or the power you can most 
  readily evoke or imbue. From an OOC perspective you have a 
  pretty free hand, right down to giving a random tree the supernat-
  ural martial arts powers “that it had inside it all along” or awak-
  ening a deep knowledge of Russian literary traditions in your dog, 
  but you do have to fit your character’s aesthetic and that of the 
  Treasure at hand.
  
  A Fearsome Bless-
  ing
  Combo Move
  535
   
  A Fearsome Blessing
  Arc 3+
  Type: Miraculous Action
  Cost: 
   
   2 or 4 MP (Arc level 3)
   
   1 or 2 MP (Arc level 4)
   
   0 or 1 MP (Arc level 5)
  You invoke the special power you’ve granted to one of your Trea-
  sures in a stronger and scarier fashion.
  For 2 MP, you can invoke that power as a miracle to attack 
  somebody or inflict an unfavorable effect. 
  For 4 MP, you can invoke that power as a Major miracle to 
  help you, support you, attack somebody, or inflict an unfavorable 
  effect. It’s not just a +3 bonus to your action level—the effects 
  scale up, too, and you or the Treasure can do epic, world-shaking 
  things. This can risk the Treasure’s safety and health—often, you 
  or the Treasure will be wounded afterwards.
  For 4 MP, as an alternative, you can invoke the power of a 
  Treasure to accomplish... well, anything, really... as a miracu-
  lous action. This isn’t as epic, and might take a while, and in fact 
  could leave you sustaining an action for weeks, months, or years 
  if you’re doing something really complicated, but you can do it, 
  and it’s a miracle so hardly anything can stop your inexorable ad-
  vance.
  These costs diminish as your Arc level rises.
  Combo Move
  Arc 3+
  Type: Major Miraculous Action or Imperial Miracle, Ritual Power
  Cost: 
   
   8 MP, 1 Deadly Wound (Arc 3-4)
   
   4 MP (Arc 5)
  You can invoke Combo Move to supercharge the powers of an 
  innately miraculous Treasure with your own power, whatever that 
  might be. When it first becomes available, this ability costs 8 MP 
  and a terrible spiritual wound, which no effect can even begin to 
  heal for at least one book.
  This power is normally a deliberately shapeless deus ex machi-
  na—it solves the kinds of problems that you’d think, in a sto-
  ry, flooding something with wish power would solve. If you’ve 
  claimed a super-strong ogre as a treasure, then maybe you’re 
  flooding her strength with wish power to let her pull down the 
  sky or seize a storm and shove it back over the Lake. If you’ve 
  claimed the Child of the Sun as a treasure, maybe you’re flood-
  ing her with wish power to sear away an incursion of the Bleak 
  Academy.
  A more specific version of this effect, if you or the HG would 
  rather nail it down precisely, is an absolute force obeying two 
  rules:
  it must substantially alter the situation in your favor, even giv-
  en the miraculous and imperial forces in play 
  and
  it temporarily expands the powers of the treasure in question 
  in a fashion that evokes either your own character themes or 
  the general thematic quality of "wish power and wishes."
  This power normally requires a Ritual to invoke. It often runs on 
  wish rules, but it’s worth note that the two rules above supercede 
  the rules for a wish—it’s no good to say “well, changing a per-
  son’s nature takes time!” if that means this power doesn’t alter 
  the situation at all!
  
  Wish
  536
  536
  Wish
  Arc 4+
  Type: Imperial Miracle, Ritual Power
  Cost: 
   
   8 MP, 1 Deadly Wound (Arc 4)
   
   4 MP (Arc 5) 
   
  At most once per chapter, you may use one of your Treasures as 
  a cauldron of miracles and destiny—through it, you reshape the 
  world. When it first becomes available, this power costs 8 MP and 
  a terrible spiritual wound, which no power can even begin to heal 
  for at least one book.
  This functions as a wish, and can be a fairly generic effect—
  but the more your wish “fits” the nature of the treasure, the more 
  reliable and predictable the effects. In short, if you claim the Idol 
  (pg. 72) as a Treasure, and wish that you ran Fortitude’s TV station 
  (and that it had one), that’s probably easy; if you claim the Angel 
  of Fortitude (pg. 538) as a Treasure, and wish money would fall 
  out of the sky, that... is surprisingly unlikely to end well.
  This power usually takes a few minutes or hours to activate, 
  and in that time you’ll have occasional glimpses of what’s to 
  come. If these glimpses cause you to abort the power, you won’t 
  get the MP back, but you will stop the terrible wound.
  
  A Keeper of Gardens
  The 
  World, 
  Like 
  Clay
  537
   
  A Keeper of Gardens
  A Keeper of Gardens is a miraculous Shepherd Arc. It’s for 
  characters who learn to claim and maintain magical places as their 
  own.
  This is a glorious, soulless, and idealistic path.
  It makes you a gardener of cities, forests, swamps, lakes, seas, 
  and human tribes.
  A Keeper of Gardens offers the abilities:
   
  ŭ The World, Like Clay
   
  ŭ Land-Rule
   
  ŭ Toxic
   
  ŭ Guide (Arc 1+)
   
  ŭ The Great Magic (Arc 1+)
   
  ŭ Perk Bonus (Arc 2+)
   
  ŭ Guardians (Arc 2+)
   
  ŭ Symbiotes (Arc 3+)
  In addition, while you are pursuing the Arc A Keeper of Gardens, 
  you have the special power Immortality (pg. 488)
  Arc Terminology
  Garden: a “Garden” is a place linked to you by a Perk—spe-
  cifically, the Perk 
  “It’s like a home to me.” (pg. 429)
  You can claim a pretty big garden, but it should be at least 
  an order of magnitude smaller than a Region in scope. For 
  instance, the Angel of Fortitude (pg. 538) rules a garden in 
  Fortitude—its paved streets, and the space between the resi-
  dential streets and the houses. The Principal (pg. 242) rules 
  the garden named School.
  Treasure: your Treasures for this Arc include the Gardens 
  themselves, their key features, and any “guides” or “guard-
  ians” you create.
  Craft: your “Craft” is the ability set or Skill you’re most like-
  ly to use when you’re shaping your gardens.
   Powers 
   
  The World, Like Clay
  Type: Imperial Miracle
  Cost (Arc 0+): 
   
   0 MP—mold the things of your Gardens by hand, given a 
  few minutes’ concentration
  Cost (Arc 1): 
   
   0 MP—1/book, mold a large portion of your Gardens
   
   4 MP—mold a large area of your Gardens a second or later 
  time per book
  Cost (Arc 2+): 
   
   0 MP—mold your Gardens by hand near-instantaneously
  Cost (Arc 3): 
   
   0 MP—1/chapter, mold a large portion of your Gardens
   
   1 MP—mold a large area of your Gardens a second or later 
  time per chapter
  Cost (Arc 4): 
   
   0 MP—given a few minutes, mold a large portion of your 
  Gardens
  Cost (Arc 5): 
   
   0 MP—mold your Gardens as fast as you can visualize the 
  result 
  Invoke The World, Like Clay and you can shape the things of 
  your Gardens as if they were malleable clay. 
  After a few minutes of concentration, you may...
   
  ŭ mold them by hand; or,
   
  ŭ (starting at Arc 1 as a 1/book power) mold a neighbor-
  hood-sized area by dancing, drawing architectural plans, wig-
  gling your fingers, describing what you want, or whatever.
  This power uses your normal mundane abilities—probably us-
  ing some Skill like “Tinker,” “Art,” or “Domestic Skills”—but it 
  elides the normal Obstacle and waives the limits of human power.
  The World, Like Clay is a metaphysical, supernatural action 
  and not just psychic matter-molding so function will tend to fol-
  low form. If you stretch out a street lamp, the top stays lit; if you 
  squish the top bulb to nothing, the whole thing probably ceases to 
  be wired for power. If you give a mailbox a pair of eyes, it may 
  come to life; if you give a dandelion puff wings it may fly away94.
  The HG may elect to impose Obstacles specific to this pow-
  er—not, perhaps, the Obstacle 4 of “nobody can bring a mailbox 
  to life by squishing part of it to look like eyeballs” but at least the 
  Obstacle 1-2 of “bringing things to life is very hard.” In short, 
  these are Obstacles for things that the HG imagines that even a 
  metaphysical world-sculptor might have some difficulty with, and 
  reflect the overall tenor and tone of the game.
  94 In fairness it may do this even if you do not give it wings. That’s its 
  precognitive fitness!
  
  Toxic
  The Angel of Fortitude
  538
  538
  Toxic
  Type: Level 2 Bond
  Cost: —
  There is something toxic about you—something that can poison, 
  burn away, or change the world. You exude it, either continuously 
  or with a conscious act.
  For instance, the Angel of Fortitude’s “Change-Blood” is a 
  useful tool for eating through obstacles, poisoning things, sicken-
  ing things, mutating things, and transforming things. It is classi-
  fied formally as a blank toxin, meaning that it enhances the ma-
  lignancy of toxins and viruses it mixes with and exaggerates the 
  structural weaknesses of the things it touches rather than bringing 
  its own distinct effects to the table as a poison. 
   
  ŭ Invoke Toxic when you’re using the toxin as a practical tool 
  to overcome an Obstacle or win a conflict and you can add the 
  Bond rating (2) to your Intention level. You can only add this 
  bonus from one such Bond.
   
  ŭ Invoke Toxic when you’re using the toxin to enhance a mi-
  raculous action and you can add the Bond’s rating (2) to your 
  Strike. Strike from a Bond doesn’t add to Strike from other 
  Bonds, but it does add to Strike from MP and Strike intrinsic 
  to a miracle.
   
  ŭ Invoke Toxic when your use of the toxin backfires—as a 
  first-order effect, this can only happen when you want it to, 
  but as a second-order or indirect effect it can happen on its 
  own—and the HG may give you up to the Bond rating (2) in 
  Will or MP. You can also get this MP if you spend 2-3 chapters 
  in dedicated use or study of the toxin.
   
  ŭ  It is notionally possible for you to replace food, water, sleep, 
  and even air with the act of spreading your toxin. For instance, 
  if you’re a poison bird and can fly around as a cloud of ill 
  omen, spreading ill luck behind you—well, that’s probably 
  something you can do indefinitely, even when the sun goes 
  out and the food runs out and you’re left afflicting an empty, 
  cold, bland, lifeless world. This gets unpleasant almost as fast 
  for you as for a normal person, though, and the Obstacles can 
  range as high as 4.
  But... I’m nice....
  Toxic isn’t necessarily a bad thing. A high and holy character 
  can easily have it; heck, an angel can have this power, because 
  where an angel goes, the world is driven thereby to change. 
  And normally I’d totally let you rename it in such a case, like, 
  call it Catalytic or Transformative—
  Except really if there’s anyone who needs to remember that 
  this is a power to use with discretion it’s a Keeper of Gardens 
  who intends to be good.
  You do have the option to rename it Corrosive or Infec-
  tious, though, if you want to shift the connotation just the ti-
  niest little bit. Or to get a Power Up Perk to change it; or, of 
  course, to ignore this box in its entirety and rename the power 
  however you’d like!
   The Angel 
  of Fortitude
  There’s stories in Fortitude of a strange biker who travels with 
  monsters. Blood drips from his hands when he takes off his 
  gloves.
  Streets move sometimes when he walks or drives by—he 
  pulls them into a new arrangement.
  They say sometimes he’ll help people who are in need. Old 
  Mrs. Silva was dying and he poured a sort of respirating slime 
  down her throat to help her breathe. Young Heath couldn’t get 
  his dog to stop barking and the mysterious biker installed a 
  volume control on Heath’s whole house. And my friend Lilith 
  swears she saw him this one time fixing a pot hole in the road.
  So they call him the Angel of Fortitude. 
  By default this Main Character is the same person as the 
  Principal—a 22-year-old male scholar named Entropy II, the 
  female variation Attaris II, the secretly female Entropy II, or 
  a kid the PCs’ age. That said, this is just a guess of mine—they 
  could be two different people, particularly as NPCs.
  Principal Entropy II Magister, aka 
  The Angel of Fortitude
  
  539
   
  
  Land-Rule
  The Great Magic
  Guide
  540
  540
  Land-Rule
  Type: Special
  Cost: —
  You may shift 1-2 points from other Skills into the Skill “Superior 
  Land-Rule” upon starting this Arc, or back out again if you wind 
  up abandoning it.
  This is a Superior Skill that makes you good at wrangling the 
  native creatures from your gardens—keeping tabs on them, keep-
  ing them from getting into too much trouble, and protecting your-
  self from their violent potential. This Skill is principally used for 
  things like “I have an eye-eating dog-squid following me around, 
  but hilarious hijinx where people’s eyes get eaten don’t necessar-
  ily ensue.”
  In rules terms, this Skill is easiest to use when there’s some 
  social context for it—when the environment and situation support 
  your authority and are relevant to it. It’s easiest of all when you’re 
  trying to stop some creature of yours from seriously hurting some-
  one, transforming someone, or sacrificing itself for someone. If 
  all you’re trying to do is stop them from embarrassing you, doing 
  goofy things, causing a little bit of harm, wandering off, or getting 
  into a little bit of trouble, you might not receive the full Edge from 
  this Skill; and if you’re doing politics with it or trying to earn 
  respect from the sentient creatures of your gardens with it, you 
  might not have any bonus Edge at all!
  The Great Magic
  Arc 1+
  Type: Imperial Miracle
  Cost:
   
   0 MP, 1 Health Level—1/book, create a new Property for 
  a garden
   
   4 MP, 1 Health Level—do so a second time in a given book
  You may reshape the nature of one of your gardens, wounding 
  one of your Divine Health Levels to add a new Property thereto. 
  Eventually this becomes a natural part of the garden, although this 
  can take weeks, months, or years. In the meantime, your wound 
  does not heal normally; rather, you must voluntarily abandon the 
  magic before the wound can heal, and even then the Health Level 
  does not return for the remainder of the book.
  You do not receive a separate wound power when you use this 
  ability, although you may treat turning this power off as some sort 
  of spiritual damage and take a wound at the time that you do.
  Guide
  Arc 1+
  Type: Imperial Miracle
  Cost (Arc 1-2): 
   
   0 MP—1/chapter, construct or invoke a guide from the sub-
  stance of your Gardens
   
   1 MP—do so a second or later time per chapter
   
   2 MP—do so a second time in minutes
  Cost (Arc 3): 
   
   0 MP—construct or invoke a guide from the substance of 
  your Gardens
  You may impute the personality and knowledge of a “guide” into 
  something you’ve just shaped from a Garden with the World, 
  Like Clay.
  You create a living creature that is sufficiently aware and 
  knowledgeable to:
   
  ŭ instruct, guide, or lead others through its Garden;
   
  ŭ instruct others in some other principle or rule.
  For instance, you can construct a roly-poly bird that knows peo-
  ple should look both ways when crossing the street, can analyze 
  whether they’re doing so, experiences distress when they don’t, 
  and can even philosophize on why that might be important; or a 
  pageboy, pagegirl, or hopping lamp from the substance of your 
  realm to lead people from one place in it to another.
  You may use mundane means to summon an existing guide, 
  but it’s only guaranteed to still exist and be reachable by you if 
  you use this power to summon it again.
  
  Perk Bonus
  Guardian
  541
   
  Perk Bonus
  Arc 2+
  Type: Special
  Cost: —
  You receive a bonus Perk slot pre-filled with 
  “It’s like a home 
  to me.” (pg. 429) at Arc level 2.  Let’s call this a Garden Perk.
  (This normally increases your total available Perks to 9.)
  You receive another bonus Perk slot and Garden Perk at Arc 
  level 4.
  The HG may give you a free Garden Perk, or replace one of 
  your existing Garden Perks, if play suddenly moves to a new lo-
  cation—for instance, if the HG suddenly ships you all to Calcutta, 
  you shouldn’t have to do a quest just to have something to work 
  with there. This may come with a temporary Perk slot (“well, 
  you’re only here for the summer, so don’t worry about it”) but 
  won’t come with a permanent one.
  You can use these Perk slots for anything. I don’t think that 
  rule will come up very often, because seriously, you want at least 
  two gardens, but if it does come up, yes, you can fill them with 
  whatever you like.
  Guardian
  Arc 2+
  Type: Imperial Miracle
  Cost (Arc 2-4): 
   
   0 MP—1/chapter, construct or invoke a guardian from the 
  substance of your Gardens
   
   1 MP—do so a second or later time per chapter
   
   2 MP—do so a second time in minutes
  Cost (Arc 5): 
   
   0 MP—construct or invoke a guardian from the substance 
  of your Gardens  
  You may mold one or more “guardians” out of the substance of 
  your garden, kneading some principle or abstract thought from the 
  world of ideas into the creatures’ flesh.
  They become motivated to enact or enforce that idea.
  A guardian might aggress against those who defy a rule, or 
  simply help them to abide by it; might demand the solution to 
  some riddle, or simply give rewards to those who make answer 
  to it; might recite some description on demand or simply hang 
  around remembering it.
  You may mix together multiple principles but this makes 
  things more difficult—typically it’s just
   
  ŭ Obstacle 0-1 to work an entire canon of material into a guard-
  ian, but
   
  ŭ Obstacle 2-3 if you’re mixing together 2+ unrelated principles, 
  purposes, or foci.
  You use the World, Like Clay to construct these creatures, so 
  matters like “just what can they do?” and “how far can I stretch 
  ‘some principle’” come down to your mundane actions; the actual 
  effect of this power is that you can mix abstract ideas into that 
  clay. 
  Guardians may have special powers. Even though there’s an 
  Imperial miracle in play to change what’s feasible for you, this 
  pretty much follows the usual rules for mundane actions on your 
  part—for instance, if you want to put together a guardian with 
  some sort of time magic, you might need to practice for a bit and 
  work up to it. Once you’ve figured out what you’re doing, though, 
  a level 4 mundane action should be enough to make something 
  with cool time magic and a level 5 enough to make something 
  with time magic that’s definitely more of an advantage than a 
  drawback. Conceptually, a guardian almost always has mundane 
  powers, although a guardian that becomes an important charac-
  ter in its own right may start on a miraculous path, and you can 
  usually use a quest miracle to endow a guardian with miraculous 
  abilities.
  
  Symbiote
  Empower
  542
  542
  Symbiote
  Arc 3+
  Type: Imperial Miracle
  Cost: 
   
    0 MP—1/chapter, construct or find a symbiote from the 
  substance of your gardens
   
   2 MP—do so a second or later time per chapter
  You may create or dig up a creature from one of your gardens 
  suited to helping somebody—to helping them abide by some rule, 
  solve some riddle, or accomplish some task.
  This functions as something like a wish:
   
  I wish I had something to help you with this.
  As one might guess from the phrasing of the wish, the effects play 
  out over a space of time and what happens if you try to “help 
  someone” abide by a rule that they don’t actually want to abide 
  by is a little vague—
  It’s not that you instantly pull out a creature from your gardens 
  and bam, the problem is solved, so much as that you create some-
  thing that in potentia can fit into their life and provide a solution 
  to the problem that you see.
  A symbiote receives a Superior Fitting into their Lives 2 
  Skill for free—such a creature is automatically adept at insinuat-
  ing itself into the target fold.
  Empower
  Arc 4+
  Type: Imperial Miracle
  Cost: 
   
   0 MP—1/book, empower something to the Imperial level
   
   4 MP—do the same, at another time
  You can rouse the power of one of the guides or guardians of your 
  gardens, increasing their natural abilities—essentially wishing 
  that they would show a vast, situation-altering power.
  
  Accursed
  Sanctuary
  543
   
  Accursed
  Accursed is a miraculous Emptiness Arc. It’s for those who 
  have lost some portion of their natural comfort in the world—
  those who are being driven away from existence by some curse or 
  alienation woven into their nature.
  Accursed offers the following abilities:
   
  ŭ Sanctuary
   
  ŭ MP Bonus (starting at Arc 1)
   
  ŭ The World-Breaker’s Hand (starting at Arc 1)
   
  ŭ Falling From the World (starting at Arc 1)
   
  ŭ Nourishment (starting at Arc 2)
   
  ŭ Damaged (starting at Arc 2)
  In addition, Main Characters receive the power Sickly (pg. 489) 
  while actively pursuing this Arc.
  Arc Terminology
  Your Curse: there’s something broken in you—a part of you 
  that the Outside or some other bleak power infests.
  This is your Curse, and its manifestation is this:
  There is something wholesome and normal and good that 
  twists, for you, into something sick and awful. This is called 
  the Curse’s Trigger. Maybe you dare not dream, because your 
  dreams will turn into snakes of fire and crawl under your skin. 
  Maybe you can’t do simple, honest work, because if you do 
  simple honest work it gets tainted by the curse. Maybe you 
  can’t touch anybody, because that risks killing them, or you 
  can’t eat your vegetables, like, no tomatoes, no broccoli, not 
  at all, because you’d grow horrible shoulder-mounted toma-
  to-launchers and broccoli-lumps from your skin.
  There’s something you can’t actually live without, in short, 
  but—
  Well. You can’t do too much of it, either, or it’ll devour 
  you, with awful supernatural effects.
  Your Curse doesn’t necessarily hurt your capacity for ac-
  tion. Sometimes it does—I mean, you could have a curse that 
  disables you—but it could also just provide adversity while 
  leaving your effectiveness intact.
   Powers 
   
  Sanctuary
  Type: Miraculous Action, Major
  Cost: —
  You have a place you can retreat to when the world becomes too 
  much for you to bear. Its entrance is something symbolic—you 
  can get there by (pick one)
   
  ŭ wandering through any collection of books, records, and art 
  large enough to wander?
   
  ŭ heading down any lightless tunnel?
   
  ŭ drawing a door on any surface and then going through?
   
  ŭ crawling into any fireplace?
   
  ŭ feeding yourself through any keyhole?
   
  ŭ climbing any multi-story set of stairs?
   
  ŭ something else?
  In addition, there’s a specific entrance that works for everyone 
  else—which means, if you’ve chosen something like “feeding 
  yourself through any keyhole,” there’s one particular keyhole that 
  anyone can feed themselves through to reach your sanctuary, and 
  which also serves as or is in the rough vicinity of the exit from 
  your hidden place.
  There’s a level 2 Auctoritas guarding reality’s edge that makes 
  it a little harder to do stuff like this across that boundary—you’d 
  need 2+ Strike to enter your sanctuary from the Outside. More 
  generally, if there’s a spiritual barrier between you and the en-
  trance to your shelter, you’d have to travel part of the way on foot 
  or someone95 would need to break past that barrier with Strike 
  before you could get inside.
  95 Probably you.
  
  MP Bonus
  Falling 
  From 
  the 
  World
  544
  544
  MP Bonus
  Arc 1+
  Type: Special
  Cost: —
  You receive a bonus to your starting MP equal to the Arc Trait’s 
  rating.
  Falling From the World
  Arc 1+
  Type: Affliction, based on your 
  Sickness.
  Cost: —
  if you’re an NPC, then this is based instead on 
  someone else’s 
  Trust 
  Your Arc Curse falls upon you—slips down upon you. 
  There is a bleakness in you that drives you from the world. You 
  may oppose it while you have wish power (that is, MP) but when 
  you’ve spent your last MP, it will drive you from the world into 
  your sanctuary or the Outside.
  You have wide leeway to define the nature of the curse—what 
  triggers it, what it does to you, what advantages it might convey. 
  Often it involves your identity and transformations in some fash-
  ion. Often it externalizes something internal, emotional, or pri-
  vate. Regardless, though, it has the following basic form:
  Anytime you have 1+ points in the 
  Sickness Issue, the fol-
  lowing rules apply:
   
  ŭ There is something that the curse makes unpleasant for you. 
  It starts with minor stuff, stuff that could be coincidental and/
  or stuff you can just laugh off, but by Sickness 3+, the curse’s 
  effects are overtly supernatural and escalating.
  What happens?
                                                                                                     
   
  ŭ Your Miracle Points are your lifeline. If you have Sickness 1+ 
  and 0 MP, you have the following three choices:
   
   Somebody uses a miracle with [Strike ≥ your Sickness] to 
  help you out;
   
   Something happens that paralyzes you/renders you inef-
  fectual. Do you have an emotional collapse? Fall uncon-
  scious? Start screaming uncontrollably? Turn into a swarm 
  of HG-controlled bees? Pick a general option when you’re 
  choosing the curse:
                                                                                                 
   
   If neither of those things happens, you must head for your 
  sanctuary at best possible speed, often with some super-
  natural side effect (e.g., you’re drawn out into a long, thin 
  thread even before you reach the keyhole you’re going to 
  slip through). You’re allowed to pause briefly for things 
  like picking up a baby that’s just lying around on the street, 
  blowing out a lamp that’s about to set a room on fire, or 
  knocking on a doctor’s door and pointing the doctor to-
  wards a dying friend, but for anything less important or 
  more time-consuming than that you’re limited to meaning-
  ful glances and turning away. Maybe a few distracted noises 
  or moans. You’ve got to get away.
  If none of those things happen, if nobody uses a miracle with 
  enough Strike and you don’t become ineffectual and you don’t 
  head for your Sanctuary, the HG can do... curse-appropriate 
  things, generally even worse than the above.
   
  ŭ The HG will invoke your Curse to protect you from effects, 
  with the specific exception  of your sanctuary, that:
   
   stop the effects above from taking place;
   
   get in the way of the Curse’s Trigger; or
   
   ...well. Is there an or? Is there anything that your particular 
  Curse might defend you from?
  It’s still possible for something to happen that stops your 
  Curse, or gets past any specific defenses it gives you, but such 
  an effect would need [Strike ≥ your Sickness] to succeed.
   
  ŭ When this Affliction causes actual, meaningful trouble to you, 
  the HG may give you up to your Sickness in MP. However, 
  you must use these MP immediately; they fade at the end of 
  the current scene (or, if the current scene ends almost immedi-
  ately, at the end of the next scene where you take a meaningful 
  action.)
  In general you’ll pick up your first point of Sickness either from 
  Sickly, from trauma, or from people messing with you, and then 
  later points will come from the consequences of this Affliction. 
  You can also start the vicious cycle if someone tries to corrupt 
  you, or if you just get naturally sick!
  If an NPC has this power, and the HG doesn’t want to track Is-
  sues for NPCs (which is the normal case,) then this triggers off of 
  someone else’s Issue instead—basically, the 
  Trust / Isolation 
  / Hollow Issue of the character whose story they’re most import-
  ant in, or, if that’s not obvious, then that of whomever they’ve 
  been interacting with the most.
  
  The 
  World-Break-
  er’s Hand
  Nourishment
  545
   
  The World-Breaker’s Hand
  Arc 1+
  Type: Miraculous Action, Bleak
  Cost (Arc 1)
   
   0 MP—1/book, declare something unmade
   
   1 MP—unmake something a second or later time per book
   
   2 MP—unmake something a second or later time per chapter
   
   4 MP—unmake something a second time in a matter of 
  hours
  Cost (Arc 2)
   
   0 MP—1/chapter, declare something unmade
   
   1 MP—unmake something a second or later time per chap-
  ter
   
   2 MP—unmake something a second or later time in a matter 
  of hours
   
   4 MP—unmake something a second or later time per scene
  Cost (Arc 3+)
   
   0 MP—starting mid-scene, declare 1-2 things unmade
   
   1 MP—starting mid-scene, unmake a third thing
   
   2 MP—starting mid-scene, destroy as many things as you like.
   
   4 MP—destroy as many things as you like this scene.
  Your connection to the Outside imbues you with a terrifying pow-
  er of un-creation. Maybe you . . 
   
  ŭ point and something vanishes, poof, gone?
   
  ŭ snap your fingers and cast something into 
   
   the furthest depths of the Outside?
   
   a state of chaos and disorder?
   
   a sea of vivid nightmares?
   
  ŭ see the “weak point” in any structure that lets you touch it and 
  shake it apart?
   
  ŭ research and discover a shareable and infinitely advantageous 
  weakness?
   
  ŭ cover your target in a patina of corrosive Outside dust?
   
  ŭ wave your hand and something, anything, even a deck chair, 
  becomes suicidal and hurls itself into the path of destruction?
   
  ŭ revert things to a pristine, ancient, traditional form, or
   
  ŭ strip away years and memories from the target?
  Whatever your power is, it isn’t limited to unmaking things, either. 
  With the World-Breaker’s Hand you can burn the sparkle 
  from a child’s eyes or the footfalls from a cat. You can blast away 
  someone’s property of being loud or of being near you, unmake 
  the “heap” quality from a stack of sand, or cast your having lost 
  a fight into the deep Outside. You can flatten the bumps from a 
  bumpy beach or clip the gnarledness off a log. You can take away 
  somebody’s being a bad comedian, although this won’t make 
  them a good one; you can bleach the violence from a killer’s soul, 
  although this will not make them kind. If this doesn’t seem to fit 
  the way your power works you can define a variation (a “how you 
  handle abstractions”) for which it does.
  Note that while this is absurdly powerful it is also a bleak pow-
  er and as such is vulnerable to the standard antidotes to the bleak 
  (pg. 476-481); further, many things you do to a Main Character 
  with it could be reframed, instead, into some Deadly Wound.
  Nourishment
  Arc 2+
  Type: Miraculous Action, Major
  Cost: —
  You may replenish yourself by hiding out for a while in your sanc-
  tuary. Specifically—
   
  ŭ when you spend an XP Action there, gain 1 MP (max 8).
   
  ŭ when you skip one of your per-chapter XP Actions to be there, 
  gain 1 MP (max 8).96
   
  ŭ when you fail someone, miss an appointment, or otherwise let 
  something bad happen or cause something bad to happen be-
  cause you were in your sanctuary, gain 1 MP (max 8).
   
  ŭ when you come out of the sanctuary with 5+ MP, at least one 
  of which came from your sanctuary, you’re ready to face the 
  ordinary world again. In addition, 
   
   You may sustain a Major miraculous action that does cool, 
  useful stuff that is also in some fashion the antithesis of 
  your curse. Decide what this does:
                                                                                                  
   
   Plus, you get some neat bonus based on what the sanctuary 
  itself is:
                                                                                                  
   
   And finally, there’s often a disturbing but not necessarily 
  unpleasant visual effect:
                                                                                                  
  These benefits remain until you stop sustaining the action, 
  spend down to 4 MP or fewer, or suffer a specifically relevant 
  setback:
                                                                                                  
  Other characters may accompany you into the sanctuary, and exit 
  through its normal exit. Other characters may even use the hidden 
  room to gain MP and acquire the other benefits. However:
   
  ŭ only one person can gain MP from the sanctuary on any given day; 
   
  ŭ most attempts to enter the sanctuary without your presence and 
  consent fail,
   
  ŭ there may be weird special effects or curse effects for them 
  using it; and
   
  ŭ people who try to get into the sanctuary without you escorting 
  them occasionally get hurt97. 
  At Arc 5, the maximum MP you can get from this Sanctuary 
  rises to 13.
  96 If most of the game is XP-giving actions, this doesn’t actually cost the 
  players anything—you’ll just move on to someone else earning XP for 
  the group. On the other hand, if the HG has a lot of stuff going on that 
  isn’t earning XP, then maybe finding something you can do in there 
  (even if it winds up earning you Isolation, Illusion, or Hollow) would 
  be a better choice.
  97 The risk of failure and the risk of something going wrong are cosmo-
  logical constants; if a character manages to eliminate either risk, they 
  simply can't get into your sanctuary.
  
  Damaged
  546
  546
  Damaged
  Arc 2+
  Type: Special
  Cost: —
  You no longer recover 1 MP at the beginning of each chapter, 
  though you still recover MP up to your normal maximum at the 
  beginning of a book.
  Further, as a special rule, any effect that causes you a wound, 
  or fails to cause you a wound because you do not have the relevant 
  wound type available, also costs you one MP. If you run out of 
  MP while you have the Sickness Issue at level 1+, this weakness 
  interacts with the Falling from the World Affliction to drive you 
  into the comfort of your hidden room.
  I’m sorry this happens.
  It sucks.
  The World-Breaker’s 
  Hand (Powered Up)
  Arc 4+
  Type: Miraculous Action, Major, Bleak
  Cost (Arc 3+):
   
   0 MP—starting mid-scene, declare 1-2 things unmade
   
   1 MP—starting mid-scene, unmake a third thing
   
   2 MP—starting mid-scene, destroy as many things as you 
  like.
   
   4 MP—destroy as many things as you like this scene.
  At Arc level 4, the effects of your World-Breaker’s Hand power 
  become Major. This should allow you to win most straightforward 
  miraculous conflicts. It also enables epic, Town-shaking acts of 
  destruction — but only if they fit the established thematics for 
  your character and their powers or if you change those thematics 
  with a Power Up Perk.
  
  Primordial
  547
   
  Primordial
  Primordial is a miraculous Mystic Arc. It’s for those who are 
  transforming into some great and nameless power—some elemen-
  tal, supernatural force with an existence no longer really measur-
  able in human terms.
  This Arc tangles up an Element, a Mood or “Principle,” and 
  a physical transformation all into a single idea—it’s an artistic 
  evolution and not a rational one, turning you into a concept and 
  a symbol without the neat categorical distinctions of the logical 
  adult mind. The canonical example is the Child of the Sun, who 
  is becoming the Sun, and Hope, and also a primordial deity with 
  symbolic extra limbs. You might do that, or turn into an Earth/
  Ground/Soil-tied Dragon who also represents Peace and Stability, 
  or into a shapeshifting, amorphous siren tied to both Longing and 
  the Sea, instead!
  Primordial offers the following abilities:
   
  ŭ Unnatural Action
   
  ŭ Scry
   
  ŭ Digest (starting at Arc 1)
   
  ŭ Bindings (starting at Arc 1)
   
  ŭ Shared Witness (starting at Arc 1)
   
  ŭ A Distant Mood (starting at Arc 2)
   
  ŭ Evocative Transformation (starting at Arc 2)
   
  ŭ Transform and Devour (starting at Arc 2)
   
  ŭ Tokens of your Power (starting at Arc 3)
  In addition, Main Characters receive the power Immortality (pg. 
  488) while actively pursuing this Arc. 
  Choosing Your Principle
  This Arc comes with an associated Principle or Mood—a high 
  and holy, or at least exalted, cause you serve.
  Are you an agent of
   
  ŭ Freedom?
   
  ŭ Love?
   
  ŭ Truth?
   
  ŭ Hope?
   
  ŭ Mystery?
   
  ŭ or something else? 
                                                                                                  
  You’ll also want to choose a way of writing your belief in that 
  principle as a Region Property—something like:
   
  ŭ “You can claim your freedom.”
   
  ŭ “It’s OK to love.”
   
  ŭ “Love conquers all.”
   
  ŭ “The truth will out.”
   
  ŭ “The truth is worthwhile.”
   
  ŭ “There is reason to hope.”
   
  ŭ “You’re driven to tackle mysteries!”
   
  ŭ ...or...?
                                                                                                  
  Choosing Your 
  Transformation
  This Arc is transforming you into something, in the name of that 
  principle. 
  Are you becoming...
   
  ŭ a bird-faced sky-spirit?
   
  ŭ a prophet?
   
  ŭ an elemental spirit?
   
  ŭ an angelic being?
   
  ŭ a shapeshifter, claimed by the Lake?
   
  ŭ an emissary of the Bleak Academy?
   
  ŭ or something else?
                                                                                                  
  This ties you loosely to some Element of the natural world—
   
  ŭ the wind?
   
  ŭ the sky?
   
  ŭ the lake?
   
  ŭ the sun?
   
  ŭ twilight?
   
  ŭ shadow?
   
  ŭ the color gray?
   
  ŭ fire?
   
  ŭ the dawn?
   
  ŭ Church bells?
   
  ŭ or something else?
                                                                                                  
  If you pick a physical element like the sun or Church bells, this 
  usually extends to a conceptual area influenced by that element—
  sunlight, or the places where the bells are audible. In general, you 
  can think of your Element as a kind of Skill, in that you have a 
  great deal of freedom in defining its applications but have to work 
  at it to push those limits once defined.
  
  548
  548
   Powers 
   
  
  Unnatural Action
  Scry
  549
   
   Powers 
   
  Unnatural Action
  Type: Special
  Cost: —
  You aren’t just a person. You aren’t just one lonely little body in 
  the middle of nowhere not connecting to anything else.
  You’re... well, part of your Element.
  That means that you can use your Element to emote with. If 
  you’re a shapeshifter tied to the lake, you can sit by the sea and 
  move your hand and change the pattern of the crashing waves. If 
  you’re the goddess of the sun, you can cloud over to show that 
  you’re upset or illuminate something that’s caught your attention 
  with a sparkling sunbeam.
  With practice, you can also use your mortal Skills to take ac-
  tion “as” your element—not just casual emoting, but also con-
  scious action. Smash a particular sand castle with a wave cresting 
  from the lake. Search for something using a sunbeam, or write 
  kanji on the clouds. Darken the twilight, not to express a pensive 
  mood, but to make yourself harder to find.
  Initially you’ll be limited to things that are pretty normal for 
  your element—the idea is that the sun knows how to glitter and 
  shine and cloud over, but hasn’t ever really used its Skills to do 
  conscious stuff like using sunbeams as searchlights or writing on 
  the clouds. The lake knows how to have a sudden surge but not 
  how to targetedly attack a given sand castle or use its wave-mo-
  tion action to sift the beach for hidden treasure. 
  But, like any other use of mortal Skills, you can practice until 
  you’ve learned new tricks.
  The practical effect of this power is that if you say “I’m going 
  to have big surfable waves today” or “I don’t like this guy. I’m 
  going to glare at him all day from the sky and make him uncom-
  fortably hot” or something appropriate to your Element, the HG 
  should ask you for an action level instead of just squinting at you 
  with a dubious look98.
  98 If they squint at you anyway you should draw yourself up to your full 
  height, level an accusatory finger at them, and say, “You, sir, madam, 
  or other, are squinting at me in direct contravention of the instructions 
  of Jenna Katerin Moran. I hope you’re proud of yourself.” Then, stick 
  out your tongue!
  And run away!
  Scry
  Type: Imperial Miracle
  Cost: 
   
   0 MP—after a few minutes concentrating, use your element 
  to find something
   
   1-4 MP—speed this process up
  Spend a few minutes concentrating and you can invoke an Ele-
  ment-themed search method. This has two separate forms:
  First, you can send out your sight and hearing in a “mote” or 
  “speck” of your element which can dart around within the space 
  your Element covers. It can:
   
  ŭ move through your Element very quickly;
   
  ŭ focus your senses to see and hear from any specific place there-
  in. However, you can only see and hear things that are “within” 
  your Element—no matter how vivid or loud, you can’t actually 
  see or hear outside your Element’s boundaries.
  As a speck of your Element that can only really exist in your El-
  ement, your mote is invisible for most practical purposes—but it 
  does have unusual consistency of form and a bit of extra spiritual 
  thereness, so extremely alert characters may overcome a level 2-3 
  Obstacle and spot it anyway. 
  For ubiquitous Elements like sunlight on a sunny day or water 
  in Big Lake, it usually takes around an hour to search a Region 
  for a specific person-sized object that is visible to you. Sometimes 
  you're lucky or unlucky. It’s faster to find large things and things 
  you have an approximate location for, and it’s slower to find 
  things that are smaller or that spend less than an hour at a time in 
  your Element. (For instance, if your Element is rain, and you’re 
  looking for a puppy in the rainy season, and the puppy sensibly 
  spends most of its time indoors—it might take you a few days to 
  find it. Conversely, a large building is only going to take you a 
  few minutes!)
  If you’re trying to move your senses to a specific, known point 
  in the Region you’re in, and your Element is there, it takes a min-
  ute or less; a specific, known point anywhere in Town takes up to 
  five minutes. It’s slowed down a little if you have to jump between 
  non-contiguous patches of your Element, but not by that much.
  You can spend additional MP to hurry this process. This is up 
  to the HG—simply ask them, “can I get better results if I dump 
  some MP in this?” and they’ll either shake their head sadly and 
  apologize or say, “Sure, [1? 2? 4?] MP and I’ll skip most of the 
  concentration and get the mote right to where it needs to go.” 
  Make sure the HG knows that they can refund some or all of the 
  MP if there’s nothing to actually find, so naming a price isn’t nec-
  essarily a spoiler.
  You can optionally activate your other senses for use with this 
  power, including smell, touch, and any strange new senses your 
  nature might grant you (see below), but you are strictly unable to 
  use this power to sense things that are not in your Element. You 
  can’t even hear an air raid siren that's right next to your virtual 
  “ear” if it’s not within your scope.
  
  Digest
  Bindings
  550
  550
  The range of Scry is initially limited to Town, but you may 
  spend a Recharge Token to learn to connect to your Element in a 
  Region somewhere beyond it. If you want to widen the scope dra-
  matically rather than increasing it in bits and pieces a Perk might 
  be able to add disproportionately large chunks of territory to this 
  power’s reach.
  Arc 3+. Starting at Arc 3, you’ll pick up a secondary manifesta-
  tion. You can now spread your Element out from a known point—
  from yourself or from an existing reservoir of the Element—in 
  a series of branching tendrils that have a sense of touch. Adding 
  in sight, hearing, and other senses is essentially an incompatible 
  function: it’s not outright impossible to spread out tendrils and see 
  through them, but there’s a large Obstacle to the mundane sensing 
  action from the effort of concentration, sort of like feeling out 
  somebody’s face with one hand while typing a description of it 
  with the other.
  Arc 5. At Arc 5 you can now sense dimly from your element 
  rather than just within it—there’s a level 2 Obstacle in the way of 
  getting clear information, but you can. 
  Digest
  Arc 1+
  Type: Imperial Miracle
  Cost: —
  These are absolute and unquestionable truths:
   
  ŭ You can digest anything you eat over the course of 2-3 hours, 
  making it a part of you.
   
  ŭ There is nothing that is notionally impossible for you to devour.
  There are many things in the world that you have no idea how to 
  eat, like shadows, energy, and the moon. Like, you put a shadow 
  in your mouth, you close your mouth, you swallow—that doesn’t 
  work! What a crazy idea!
  ...but with the right help, the right power, or the right trick, it's 
  possible. No miraculous or mundane action, Affliction, or condi-
  tion can make it impossible for you to eat something, only very 
  difficult. Conversely, only the most dedicated effort that exploits 
  wish rules can stop you from digesting something that you’ve dis-
  covered a method to eat99.
  Your digestive system is abnormal and mystical; if you get poi-
  soned, you might still take a wound, but you have a really good 
  excuse to define that wound however you like. (e.g. jellyfish ven-
  om might make you translucent instead of paralyzing you; deadly 
  despair toxin might make you bleed shadows everywhere instead 
  of feeling despair.) If you throw up, you’ll tend to throw up the 
  stuff of your Element.
  At the HG's option, devouring something suitably magical and 
  powerful will give you MP, XP, or even a new Perk.
  99 Do I expect this power to come up very often? No! I absolutely do not. 
  But if your worst enemy ever transforms himself into an olive or you 
  find yourself morally obligated to devour God, the Devil, and the Deep 
  Blue Sea, you’ll thank me for specifying that digestion of this sort is 
  never notionally impossible.
  Bindings
  Type: Imperial Miracle
  Cost: 
   
   0 MP—after a conversation, bind to someone’s heart or vi-
  sion
   
   4 MP—skip the conversation & do this after a single (meta-
  phorical) glimpse of their heart.
  You have the power to “hold” someone else’s experience of your 
  Principle close to your heart.
  To start, you talk to them about that.
  If your Principle is Truth, talk to them about the truths that are 
  most important to them. If your Principle is Hope, talk to them 
  about their hopes and dreams. If your Principle is Grief, talk to 
  them about their sorrows.
  If you have a Principle that doesn’t fit that very well—
  If you’re not sure how to talk to someone about their “freedom,” 
  or, at least, if your sense of what that means falls a little flat—
  You can talk to them, instead, about the stories of the thing 
  you’re turning into, about your Transformation, and “hold” their 
  vision of that. Their sense of what an “Angel of Freedom” or 
  “Spirit of Justice” might be like. 
  (This is particularly effective if you’ve chosen something very 
  subjective to turn into, like a “serial killer of the urban legend 
  kind” or “a magical princess.”)
  While you hold their experience, your body changes and you 
  gain a power. This manifests as:
   
  ŭ an inconspicuous and probably pleasant physical or attitudinal 
  change and a tiny power, like a level 2 Bond or level 1 Supe-
  rior Skill, which you must “store” in an unwounded Normal 
  Health Level;
   
  ŭ a conspicuous but concealable physical or attitudinal change 
  and a larger power, like an Affliction, level 2-3 Superior Skill, 
  or a miraculous ability that you can use 1-2x/scene, which you 
  must “store” in an unwounded Tough Health Level.
  At Arc 2+, it can also manifest as:
   
  ŭ a disturbing and inhuman (though possibly aesthetic) physical 
  or attitudinal change, with roughly the same power level as 
  those stored in your Tough level, which you must store in an 
  unwounded Divine Health Level.
  For instance, if you connect to somebody’s dream of going into space 
  one day, maybe you’ll pick up “Martian” antennae and enhanced cold 
  and airlessness survival skills. (Or, because they’re antennae, the abil-
  ity to communicate with dogs100.) Or, after talking to someone about 
  Town’s stories of bird-faced spirits, you could grow soft wings of 
  light or a few feathers in your hair. The wings would use a Tough 
  level; the feathers, a Normal level; the antennae could go either way. 
  You can generally play around with these alterations and re-
  design them a little over the course of that conversation and later 
  ones. You don’t have to sustain this change as an action, but if you 
  take a wound in that Health Level, you’ll lose the relevant effect.
  100 I assume this is how antennae work.
  
  Shared Witness
  A Distant Mood
  551
   
  Binding to an Enemy
  Your Bindings power relies most fundamentally on insight—
  it’s not about the words that you hear from the person you’re 
  talking to so much as the channel that that conversation opens 
  to that person’s heart.
  If your target really doesn’t want to share their ideas or 
  experiences, doesn’t want you to bind to them with this power, 
  but is in communication with you, you can use the action sys-
  tem (usually, the mundane action system) to arbitrate whether 
  they reveal a glimpse of themselves anyway.
  The default assumption is that they probably do. It’s pos-
  sible for someone to keep up a good front in front of you and 
  avoid your access to their experience, and being taciturn and 
  “careful” helps with that, but it isn’t always enough.
  Shared Witness
  Arc 1+
  Type: Imperial Miracle
  Cost: 
   
   0 MP—someone whose experience you hold can tell you 
  what they’d want you to know
   
   1 MP—after a few minutes, know the rough location/status 
  of such a person
   
   4 MP—know this information immediately
  If you’re “holding” someone’s experience or concept of some-
  thing, it can give you insights into their life and circumstanc-
  es. For starters, they can emote to you from wherever they are. 
  There’s a level 4 Obstacle in the way of your parsing this to get 
  detailed information—I mean, there’s nothing inherently wrong 
  with someone emoting, “Wow, I sure feel stressed about the kid-
  nappers demanding that I go alone to 1642 Rue d’Angleterre,” but 
  parsing the address out of that is going to be difficult—but any 
  time they want to share with you, you can get the basics of their 
  emotional state.
  If you’re willing to spend MP, you can use this power to locate 
  someone whose experience you’re holding or to figure out how 
  they’re holding up. Specifically, you’ll learn their:
   
  ŭ rough location;
   
  ŭ near-exact direction; and
   
  ŭ their current level of your Mood and its inverse—for instance, 
  if your Mood is “grief,” you can get a reading on how much 
  grief and/or... joy?... they’re feeling at the time.
  You can keep checking as long as you sustain this action, and 
  you won’t need to spend additional MP—it just takes a few more 
  minutes (if you spent 1 MP) or a thought (if you spent 4 MP) 
  each time.
  A Distant Mood
  Arc 2+
  Type: Imperial Miracle
  Cost: 
   
   0 MP—use this power for someone whose experience you 
  hold 1/chapter
   
   1 MP—use this power a second or later time this chapter
   
   2 MP—use this power a second or later time in a handful 
  of hours
  Invoke A Distant Mood when someone whose experience or 
  thoughts you hold is in need of or at least lacking in your Prin-
  ciple.
  This has two possible applications—
   
  ŭ a small, literal application that you’ll have to define after 
  thinking about your Element and Principle and Transforma-
  tion: your Element manifests in some fashion to help them. 
  For instance, if you’re a creature of Earth/Stability, you 
  might be able to form earth bulwarks to help stabilize some-
  one’s environment. Or you might be able to grant them perfect 
  balance on an earthen surface, or have hands of earth catch 
  them as they fall—but not all those things, just the one that 
  seems to fit. You can learn additional applications with a Perk.
   
  ŭ a more metaphorical application that manifests as a temporary 
  level 2 Bond for them. For instance, the Earth Stabilizes You. 
  This is what you’d use if your target isn’t literally falling over 
  or having things fall down, but is feeling disrupted and unsta-
  ble and is somewhere where there’s an abundance of earth and 
  stone. They could then use the Bond to calm themselves, or to 
  help themselves think things through, or whatever else.
  
  A 
  Distant 
  Mood 
  (Powered Up)
  Shared 
  Witness 
  (Powered Up)
  552
  552
  A Distant Mood 
  (Powered Up)
  Arc 2+
  Type: Imperial Miracle
  Cost: 
   
   0 MP—1/book, do something awesome with A Distant 
  Mood.
   
   4 MP—use this power a second or later time in a book.
  Cost (Arc 3): 
   
   0 MP—1/book, do something awesome with A Distant 
  Mood.
   
   2 MP—use this power a second or later time per book.
   
   4 MP—use this power a second or later time per chapter.
  Cost (Arc 4): 
   
   0 MP—1/book, do something awesome with A Distant 
  Mood.
   
   1 MP—use this power a second or later time per book
   
   4 MP—use this power a second or later time per chapter
  Cost (Arc 5): 
   
   0 MP—1/chapter, do something awesome with A Distant 
  Mood.
   
   2 MP—use this power a second or later time per chapter
  Special: This power includes a free invocation of A Distant 
                 Mood.
  Once per book, you can use A Distant Mood to do something 
  really amazing.
  Pick 2-3 possible wishes that fit your general use of A Distant 
  Mood—for instance, if your usual Mood invocation is “the Sun 
  Lights the Path,” to give people hope, you might invoke the pow-
  ered-up version to illuminate a really good and really hopeful path. 
  This would manifest as one of the following wishes:
  I wish that there’d be something at the end of this jour-
  ney that’s worth the trouble.
  I wish that by the end of this journey you’ll understand 
  that you’re worth the trouble.
  or
  I wish that the sun would keep you safe on the course 
  of this journey.
  This tends to be a kind power—it’s more of a power to strengthen 
  than a power to harm—but it’s legitimate to handle this as a psy-
  chic attack. For instance, if someone doesn’t want to think they’re 
  worth the trouble, then that middle wish above would just be a 
  primordial psychic assault upon them that runs on wish rules. If 
  you’re the kind of melancholy siren of longing that summons peo-
  ple to the Lake to drown, that would be a miraculous attack as well.
  (Heck, it’d be an attack even if they didn’t drown, but just grew 
  cold and sprouted gills and had to live beneath the Lake thereafter.)
  Shared Witness 
  (Powered Up)
  Arc 2+
  Type: Imperial Miracle, [certain applications only:] Bleak
  Cost: 
   
   0 MP—know many things about someone whose experi-
  ence you hold 1/book
   
   4 MP—use this power a second or later time per book. 
  Once per book, if you’re “holding” someone’s experience or con-
  cept of something, you can invoke Shared Witness to know all 
  kinds of things about that person. Specifically, this power will tell 
  you how to give them/make them feel [[ your Principle. ]]
  For instance, if your Mood/Principle is Hope, it’ll tell you how 
  to give them hope.
  If your Mood is Sorrow, it’ll tell you what would make them 
  grieve.
  This tends to just give you whatever information the HG or 
  the target’s player thinks might be relevant to competently pursue 
  inspiring stability, hope, freedom, love, truth, or whatever in them. 
  However, if this starts getting into secret information or stuff they 
  don’t want to share, this may switch to Bleak rules—it becomes a 
  kind of corruption or breaking down of boundaries, and is resis-
  table as such.
  Once invoked this power usually remains in force until there’s 
  a substantive narrative payoff or the story ends—it’s not a one-
  time thing, where the HG or the target’s player has to think up 
  everything you might need to know right then or there; rather, it’s 
  a continual flow of information to back up your ability to inspire 
  them towards your Mood. The information will grow a little out-
  of-date if you stop holding their experience but (since some of it 
  represents an instant of deep understanding) it won’t actually stop.
  
  Evocative Transfor-
  mation/
  Transform and De-
  vour
  553
   
  Evocative Transformation 
  /Transform and Devour
  Arc 2+
  Type: Imperial Miracle
  Cost (Arc 2-3): 
   
   0 MP—an instrumental transformation 1/book
   
   4 MP—use this power a second or later time per book.
  Cost (Arc 4): 
   
   0 MP—an instrumental transformation 1/book
   
   2 MP—use this power a second or later time per book.
   
   4 MP—use this power a second or later time per chapter.
  Cost (Arc 5): 
   
   0 MP—an instrumental transformation 1/book
   
   1 MP—use this power a second or later time per book
   
   4 MP—use this power a second or later time per chapter.
  Once per book, when your Mood is far from you, when its oppo-
  site threatens to consume you, you can invoke Evocative Trans-
  formation or Transform and Devour and change yourself in a 
  fashion that fits your Transformation—
  In its most limitless, thematic sense—
  To answer the situation. There is something more raw and pri-
  mal to this than a wish: the key to your new power isn’t conceptual 
  or semantic, but rather this:
  This change must be instrumental in inspiring or invoking your 
  Principle, 
   
  or suppressing its opposite,
   
  in a meaningful and well-grounded way.
  That language doesn’t seem very primal in the generic case, but 
  that’s purely because “the generic case” isn’t a very primal idea. 
  The key to this power, the primal thing about it, is that you don’t 
  just, e.g., “create Hope.” 
  You become something that meaningfully improves your 
  chances of handling a situation—real, justified hope.
  You don’t just “create Longing.” 
  You create something or make yourself into something worth 
  longing for, by the standards of the game. If you’re an NPC siren, 
  and you’re trying to make a PC who is totally disinterested in 
  longing for you do so, you become something that can grant them 
  something they genuinely want.
  If you’re transforming to devour the despair in a beleaguered 
  army, you might become something that can raise their fallen 
  dead.
  You don’t just get a power to crush despair in the heart: 
  You get a power to crush the hopeless element of a situation.
  And to fulfill that rule, this means the new transformation 
  that comes upon you will have whatever powers the HG thinks 
  it must have, and they’re as easy or difficult to use as the HG 
  thinks appropriate, to guarantee that that rule applies. It might be 
  a +1 Tool when you need it. It might be a miracle. It might be an 
  overpowering wish-level effect. The only real limitation is that if 
  the transformation has a Bleak or Imperial power that overrides 
  ordinary miracles, or complex powers that need time and effort 
  to figure out, the standard wishing rules or Bleak rules will apply.
  Since it’s just 4 MP to invoke this power at any time, you can 
  often invoke it to resolve an Issue. It’s particularly common for 
  you to invoke Transform and Devour for resolution when you 
  have
   
  ŭ a level 4-5 Calling
   
  ŭ a level 5 Hero Issue
   
  ŭ a level 4-5 Over Your Head Issue
   
  ŭ a level 5 Sickness 
   
  ŭ a level 5 Vice
   
  ŭ an enemy that has just showily defeated you and your friends 
  twice
  ...and you’ll treat it as an Issue, and get the 4 MP discount for “re-
  solving an Issue” in that last case, even if you don’t actually have 
  a relevant Issue to resolve.
  The HG assigns the transformation to one of your Health Lev-
  els—normally to a Divine Health Level, but it can use one of your 
  subtler Health Levels if appropriate. The transformation displaces 
  a held experience if necessary and can even displace a wound. 
  However, if it displaces a wound, the change is temporary: it lasts 
  only as long as necessary to fulfill its function, and then, unless 
  the wound would have healed by then, the change goes away and 
  the wound returns.
  If you had an available, unwounded Health Level of the neces-
  sary level or above, you are absolutely allowed to keep the change 
  afterwards, for as long as you like. (Even into the next story, if 
  that’s what you’d prefer!)
  
  Tokens of Your Pow-
  er
  Bindings (Powered 
  Up)
  554
  554
  Tokens of Your Power
  Arc 3+
  Type: Miraculous Action
  Cost (Arc 3): 
   
   0 MP—1/book, you may pull some of your Element or Prin-
  ciple out of a situation and create a token from it, or unleash 
  it from a token formerly created 
   
   1 MP—do so a second or later time per book
   
   2 MP—do so a second or later time per chapter
   
   4 MP—do so a second or later time in a single scene
  Cost (Arc 4): 
   
   0 MP—1/chapter, you may pull some of your Element or 
  Principle out of a situation and create a token from it, or 
  unleash it from a token formerly created 
   
   1 MP—do so a second or later time per chapter
   
   2 MP—do so a second or later time in a single scene
  Cost (Arc 5): 
   
   0 MP—starting mid-scene, invoke this power 1-2x/scene
   
   1 MP—do so a third or later time in a single scene
   
   4 MP—release a powerful token as an Imperial Miracle, 
  instead.
  You can extract some portion of your Principle or Element’s pres-
  ence in a place into a physical object—wrapping up sunlight into a 
  gem, extracting the freedom or hope from a situation for use later, 
  and the like.  It becomes a token.
  Doing this usually takes a few minutes and the precision of 
  your efforts—
  Not its fundamental effect, but your ability to avoid overdoing 
  it or underdoing it if you’re doing something tricky or someone’s 
  struggling—
  Is based on a mundane action that you take.
  Later on you or someone else can release the bound Principle 
  or Element. You’re the one who has to supply the MP, so you can 
  veto the use of a token, but you don’t need an action or to be on-
  scene when it happens to do so; you just have to consent to a token 
  breaking and the Element or Principle in it getting free.
  Bindings (Powered Up)
  Arc 4+
  Type: Imperial Miracle
  Cost: 
   
   1 MP—1/chapter, you can “talk to yourself” and hold your 
  own experiences
   
   4 MP—do so a second or later time per chapter
  You’re no longer strictly dependent on others to transform—every 
  now and then, you can put together something based on your own 
  ideas. This can be as situational as you like: if right this second, 
  you’re longing for a lockpick, and you’re a shapeless Siren of 
  Longing, you can probably manifest, say, lock-picking hair.
  You don’t need to actually talk to yourself aloud, but you do 
  need to think things through properly and/or thoroughly feel a 
  given mood.
  
  INDEX
  555
   
  Bindings Arcs .....................................................393-398, 454
  Bindings 1 ..........................................................................393
  Bindings 2 ..........................................................................394
  Bindings 3 ..........................................................................395
  Bindings 4 ..........................................................................397
  Bindings 5 ..........................................................................398
  “Deeds of the Binder”........................................................454
  Decisive Action ..............................................................38-39
  (in) Over your Head ...........................................147, 183-186
  Paradigmatic Quests ............................................................93
  Science, Faith, and Sorcery ............................................37-38
  “They Know Your Scent.” .............................. 394, 444, [398]
  Wounded Angel ..........................................................490-493
  “You may have heard of me.” ...................405, 418, 439, 448
  Becoming Somebody .................................................494-499
  becoming a Hero ................................................143, 158-161
  Knight Arcs ........................................................400-405, 455
  Knight 1 .............................................................................400
  Knight 2 .............................................................................401
  Knight 3 .............................................................................403
  Knight 4 .............................................................................404
  Knight 5 .............................................................................405
  “Knight Path Miracles” .....................................................455
  Never Say Die! ....................................................................33
  Reality Syndrome .......................................................500-507
  Struggles/Struggle Quests ..........................99-100, [456-457]
  (Be in) Trouble ....................................................................40
  Child of the Ash .........................................................508-514
  (Suffer) Corruption .........................................................32-33
  Dramatic Life, Dramatic Vision ..................... 413, 420, [429]
  Lurid Quests ...................................................................96-97
  Otherworldly Arcs ..............................................406-412, 458
  Otherworldly 1 ............................................................406-407
  Otherworldly 2 ...................................................................408
  Otherworldly 3 ...................................................................410
  Otherworldly 4 ................................................................... 411
  Otherworldly 5 ...................................................................412
  “Otherworldly Miracles” ...................................................458
  (Suffer) Metamorphosis/Transformation ............. 36, [32-33]
  Sickness ..............................................................145, 187-190
  Sickness and Wounds ........................................................136
  Spiritual ......................................................................515-519
  (Suffer) Trauma ...................................................................33
  Vice ....................................................................147, 199-202
  Wicked Action .............................................................39, 307
  At the Bleak Academy’s Gates ..........................................307
  Creature of the Light ..................................................520-524
  Creature of Fable ........................................................525-529 
  Foreshadowing ....................................................................27
  Illusion................................................................144, 166-170
  On the Road of Trials ..........................................................35
  In a Fairy-Tale World ...........................................................36
  Melodramatic Quests ..........................................................91
  Mystery ..............................................................143, 179-182
  Shock ...................................................................................26
  Storyteller Arcs...................................................413-419, 460
  Storyteller 1 .......................................................................413
  Storyteller 2 .......................................................................414
  Storyteller 3 .......................................................................415
  Storyteller 4 .......................................................................416
  Storyteller 5 ................................................................418-419
  “Legends and Dreams” ......................................................460
  Sympathetic Action .............................................................26
  the Ace ..................................................................71, 530-532
  (Suffer) Adversity ...........................................................32-33
  Aspect Arcs ........................................................420-426, 462
  Aspect 1 ......................................................................420-421
  Aspect 2 .............................................................................422
  Aspect 3 .............................................................................423
  Aspect 4 .............................................................................425
  Aspect 5  ............................................................................426
  “Wuxia and Secret Arts” ....................................................462
  a Complex ..........................................................145, 153-157
  Exciting! Quests .............................................................94-95
  Foe Yay ......................................................................423, 444
  Hax ....................................................................................425
  It Never Stops! ...................................................146, 175-178
  Obsessive Action .................................................................24
  Off-Camera Quests .........................................................94-95
  A Keeper of Gardens ..................................................537-542
  a Calling .............................................................143, 149-152
  “It’s Like a Home to Me” ............................... 429, [533, 537]
  “It’s OK, I’m Here” ................................................ 430, [533]
  Sentimental .................................................................533-536
  Shared Action ......................................................................21
  Shared Reactions .................................................................21
  Shepherd Arcs ....................................................427-433, 463
  Shepherd 1 .........................................................................429
  Shepherd 2 .........................................................................430
  Shepherd 3 .........................................................................431
  Shepherd 4 ..................................................................432-433
  Shepherd 5 .........................................................................433
  “The Shepherd’s Way” ......................................................463
  Work and Study Quests .......................................................90
  Accursed .....................................................................543-546
  Background Quests ....................................................100-101
  Discovery ............................................................................27
   Index 
  
  556
  556
  Emptiness Arcs ...................................................435-440, 466
  Emptiness 1 ................................................................435-436
  Emptiness 2 .......................................................................437
  Emptiness 3 .......................................................................438
  Emptiness 4 .......................................................................439
  Emptiness 5 .......................................................................440
  “Miracles of Emptiness” ....................................................466
  “It’s a Living.” ...........................................405, 418, 431, 448
  Slice of Life .........................................................................22
  Something to Deal With .....................................145, 191-194
  ”Guess You’re Stuck with Me.” ........................397, 425, 447
  Hollow ................................................................144, 162-165
  In Immersive Games ............................................................29
  In Techno Games .................................................................30
  Isolation ..............................................................144, 171-174
  In Pastoral Games  ...............................................................23
  In Gothic Games ......................................................... 25, [23]
  Mystic Arcs ........................................................442-448, 468
  Mystic 1 .............................................................................442
  Mystic 2 .............................................................................444
  Mystic 3 .............................................................................445
  Mystic 4 .............................................................................447
  Mystic 5 .............................................................................448
  “Transcendent Experiences” ..............................................468
  Primordial ...................................................................547-554
  Rituals ...................................................................42-44, [30]
  Symbolic Quests................................................................102
  “This stuff just happens.” ..................................................437
  Transitions .................................................................. 45, [30]
  Trust ...................................................................146, 195-198
  Aces ...................................................................71, 74, [530-532]
  Adventure Fantasies ...............................................40-41, [37-41]
  Afflictions ..............119-121, 452, [128, 390, 463, 484, 495-496]
  “Air of Celestia, the” ............................................ 286, [283, 470]
  Alexandrel Celdinar ............................................4, 204, 215, 272
  Arcadia .....................................................................241, 253-271
  Arcs / “Advancement Arcs” .............................................387-470
  As Traits ..........................................................58-59, 390, 452
  General Rules .............................................................388-390
  Mortal/Mundane Arcs ........................................................452
  Starting and Stopping an Arc .............................................104
  Attaris Ebrôt Appêkā ...............................................................242
  Auctoritas, the ................114-115, 478, [119, 488, 496-498, 523]
  Auctoritas Magister, the .....................................................521
  Avatar ............................................................................. see “PC”
  Bat-People, Melancholy ..........................................................301
  Big Lake ....4, 226-228, 302, [101, 106, 204, 210, 217, 280, 301]
  and Quest Actions ......................................................344, 384
  Bird-Faced Spirits ...................................................................286
  Bleak Academy, the ........................ 296, 298, 307-312, 476-481, 
  [108, 240, 268, 301]
  Colleges and Colloquia ...............................................309-312
  includes the College of Emptiness and Dream, the College 
  of Natural Philosophy, the College of War and Nightmare, 
  and the Colloquium of Magi
  Bleak Power .................................................. 110, 476-481, [108]
  Defending against ...............................................135, 476-481
  Bluebell Park ......................................31-32, 214, 245-252, [407]
  and Quest Actions ..............................................345, 351, 357
  Bonds 116, 117, 121, 452, 473, [75, 119, 120, 126, 128, 390, 533]
  Bonus XP ....................................................... 87-88, 90-102, 103
  Book ............................................................... 12, 17, [18, 31, 66]
  Break from Reality ......................31-32, [35, 473, 498, 524, 529]
  Canon Flexpoint ......................................................................250
  Celdinar Mayoralty .............................................4, 204, 215, 272
  Celestia ........................................... 283, 286, [31, 309, 312, 470]
  Chapter ..............................................................................7, 8, 12
  Length in a Given Genre ........ 18, 24, 26, 30, 31, 36, 37, [37]
  Chuubo ........see “Main Characters: The Wishing Boy (or Girl)”
  Chuubo’s Marvelous Wish-Granting 
  Engine .............................................4, 270, 475, 500, 506-507
  College of (...) .....................................see “Bleak Academy, the”
  Conflict Rules........................... 70, 108,113, 482-484, [116, 454]
  Connections ...............................73, 109, 390, [74, 323-325, 429]
  Cool .................................................................. 71, 81, 530, [390]
  Deviant Science ................................ 4, 132, 241,[133, 238, 272]
  De Solis Solidera .....................................................................438
  Dogs ....................... 258, 291, [76, 262, 286, 348, 385, 463, 550]
  Door into Memory, the .............................................109, 326-327
  Dreams .............................. 49, 205, 211-212, 221, 299-301, 308, 
  [218, 269, 295, 296, 311]
  Entering/Traveling Between .....212, 221, 234, 346, 470, 533, 
  [374-375]
  and Otherworldly Arcs.............13, 52-53, 406, 458, [59, 407]
  and Quest Actions ......................344, 346, 348-349, 353, 359, 
  365, 374-375, 376, 382, 384
  Things Impacting Upon .....................131, 205, 220, 247, 516
  If playing dreams out normally is too, well, normal, see also 
  “Breaks from Reality,” “Rituals,” and “the Near Outside”
  Dryads ..............................................................262, 264, 290-291
  Earth, the .......................... 303, [3, 112, 204, 266, 298, 300, 340]
  Edge ........................................................... 70, 76, 534, [71, 114]
  Edony Marguerite ..see “Main Characters: the Magical Detective”
  Electric Train, the ......................................... 254, 255, [253, 267]
  Elements and Elemental Magic .... 217, 515, [395, 406-412, 415, 
  429, 438, 458-459, 515-519]
  Elizaveta ....................................................................................72
  Elves ..................................................................... 226, 275, [400]
  Emoting ................................................................................18-20
  & XP Actions .....................................................22, 24, 27, 33
  Emotion XP ...................................................................46, 60, 87
  Examples .......................44, 45, 49, 50, 52, 54, 55, 68, 76, 77
  Epic Fantasies ......................................................................37-39
  Eris ................................................................. 301, [67, 300, 302]
  Evil Island that Flies around the Sun, the .................... 242, [243]
  Excrucians ................................................................see “Riders”
  Exorcists and Exorcism .........................................259-262, [257]
  Exultant, the .....................................................................243-244
  Fading ................................................................................ 12, [8]
  Fairy Tales ...................................................................36, [31-36]
  Fairies ........................................................................... 290, [288]
  Far Roofs, the ................................................................. 224, [16]
  Far and a Sunless Land ........ 268, 298, 309, 313, 314, [307, 312]
  Ferry, the .........................................................................206, 221
  “Feyfua” ..................................................................................257
  Flurries ..................................................................482-483, [249]
  
  557
   
  Fortitude ......................3, 205-225, 340, [31, 106, 316, 320, 338]
  Fortitude: the Glass-Maker’s Dragon ........ 4, 214, 224, 311, 
  506-507, 565
  Festivals ...............................................................................18
  History ............................................................................72-73
  Kaiju fishing ..............................................................205, 488
  Maple Hill ..........................................................................218
  Moon Catch Neighborhood ...............................................208
  Northern Beach ..........................................................283, 518
  Regional Council of .............................................................81
  Residents .......................................................71, 311, 537-538
  Fortitude Rats ..................148, 205, 207, 208, 224-225, 226, 488, 
  [112, 218, 279, 450]
  “Claimed by the Sea” ........................................................220
  Fox-Eared People and Fox Spirits ........253, 257-258, 275, [262]
  Frantic .................................................................. 487, [388, 486]
  Gardens ................... 49, 217, 266, 272-277, 311, [242, 352, 526]
  and Shepherd Arcs ..............................................463, 537-542
  Genres .......................................................................................17
  Ghosts ....................229, 231, 232-234, [244, 261-262, 294, 393]
  Ghost Magic ......................................................................234
  Ghûls .......................................................................................230
  Glass Magic (example quest miracle) ..............................464-465
  Glass Spider .....................................................................243-244
  Glassy Medium, the ..............................see “the Hull of the Sky”
  Gods of Dream and Nightmare .................. 4, 72, 269, [276, 309]
  Goji, the ...................................................................................281
  Gothics ...................................................................24-25, [18-25]
  Gray Man, the .............................................. 260, 268, [292, 294]
  Group XP ...............................................10-11, see “XP Actions”
  Harpy, who is named Disdain .................................................488
  Hayashi Family ............................................................ 224, [311]
  Headmaster of the Bleak Academy, the .............73, 268, 308-309 
  312, 313, [240, 320, 344, 362, 365]
  Health Levels ................................................124-125, [390, 550]
  Starting ................................................................................48
  Normal Health Levels ........................................................124
  Tough Health Levels ..........................................................125
  Divine Health Levels ...............................125, [490-492, 540]
  Wounding ..................................................126-129, [130-136]
  see also “Wounds”
  Heaven’s Lake/Heaven’s Shell .................................... 286, [283]
  HG .....................................................................................7, 8, 14
  (Professor) Hideo Hayashi .............................................. 224, 311
  Horizon .................................................229-244, 273, [131, 204]
  History of ................................................4, 204, 242, 272-273
  Night School .............................................235-237, [231-232]
  Park Association of ............................................................251
  School ...........44, 72, 229, 231-234, 238-244, 281, 290, [275]
  School Uniforms ................................................................244
  Some Residents of ........48, 238, 239, 240, 242, 243-244, 475
  Student Council of .....................43, 121, 146, 243-244, [455]
  House of the Sun, the ..............................................................312
  Hugh Rosewood ................see “Main Characters: Ogre-Sensei”
  Hull of the Sky, the .................................................................286
  IC ...............................................................................................7
  Immersive Fantasies .............................................................26-29
  Immortality
  the Arc ability ......................................... 488, [388, 486, 497] 
  the Superior Skill ...............................................................426
  Imperial Miracle .......................................109, 110, 113, 472-475
  Impious ............................................................................243-244
  Intention ...................................................................... 66, 70, 110
  Internet ......................................................................... 227, [406]
  playing on the .................................................10, 88, 139-140
  Iolithae Septimian ...................................................................214
  Issues ..........................................................................12, 139-202
  Assigning Issues ..................................................... 142, [139]
  Issues and MP ....................................................................140
  Lowering an Issue ..............................................................140
  Jade Irinka .................... 4, 73, 280, 282-283, 312, [214, 242, 286 
  314, 344, 364]
  Jasmine Apocynum .........see “Main Characters: the Ideologue”
  Jasper Irinka ..........see “Main Characters: the Child of the Sun”
  Jotun ....................................................................... 72, 292, [218]
  Jurist (title) .............................................................................. 311
  Kaiju .............................................. 205, 488, 510, [508, 511-515]
  Kailas Mantra ..........................................................................297
  Keepers of the Sun ..................................................................312
  Kichi Family .........................................................208-210, [223]
  Kittens ...................................................................260-262, [259]
  Laodemus Schwan ...see “Main Characters: The Wish-Granting 
  Engine”
  Lee Scathing .....................................................................243-244
  Leonardo de Montreal ......... see “Main Characters: Nightmares’ 
  Angel”
  Lilimund Cartaign ....see “Main Characters: The Wish-Granting 
  Engine”
  Little Island ......................................................................280-286
  Ferry to ..............................................................................221
  Long-Neck(ed) People ....................................................262, 264
  Magical Skills ................ 74-75, 390, 391, [76-77, 125, 126-128]
  Magister/Magistrix (title) ................................................ 242, 311
  Magus/Maga  (title) ................................................................. 311
  Main Characters ......................................... 7, [75, 214, 339, 452]
  Landmarks, Stores, 
  and Other Attractions
  Archive of Professor Hayashi Hideo, the .......224, [311]
  Cramsie Hospital ......................................................318
  F.F.’s Magical Exterminators ....................................254
  Flotsam Newspaper Supplies....................................246
  “Grains of Knowledge” ............................................262
  Headmaster’s Daydreams, the ..................................254
  Irinka Park and Gallery.............................................207
  Kago Library, the ......................................................246
  Killian Sideway, the ..................................................270
  Latest Thing, the .......................................................266
  Old Molder’s Web ....................................................277
  “Poison & Candy” ....................................................254
  Rat King’s Recourse, the ..........................................207
  Robin M’s Portion ....................................................270
  Sign of the Owl-Eyed Seeker, the .............................207
  SJFCCMB, the ..........................................................270
  Steamworks, the (a Modern Science and Robotics 
  Shoppe) .................................................................266
  
  558
  558
  Main Characters (Standard)
  The Best Friend .......................................... 48, 68, 475, [270]
  The Prodigy ........................................................ 45, 71, [239]
  The Idol....................................................... 72, 76, 232, [536]
  The Child of the Sun ..........73, 282-283, 312, 547, [309, 314]
  The Troublemaker......................................................223, 450
  Ogre-Sensei .......................................................................239
  The Practical Teacher ........................................................240
  The Principal......44, 242-244, 537, 538, [239, 468, 488, 507]
  The Ideologue ..................................... 50, 214, 248, 500, [32]
  The Wish-Granting Engine ........................................124, 270
  The Magical Detective.........................................52, 272, 275
  Nightmares’ Angel ............................ 49, 301, 491, [308, 472]
  The Rival .........................................see “Nightmares’ Angel”
  The Dream-Witch ................................................ 55, 311, 450
  The Wishing Boy (or Girl)..............4, 77, 450, 475, 488, 500, 
  506-507, 510
  The Angel of Fortitude ........................... see “The Principal”
  Malambruno ............................................................................148
  Major Miracle ................................................................. 110, 113
  Melanie Malakh ......... see “Main Characters:the Dream-Witch”
  Methodology Building/Tower .................253, 259, 260, 268, 269
  Miracle ..................................................see “Miraculous Action”
  Miracle Points ...............................................................see “MP”
  Miraculous Action ................................................... 106, 110, 113
  Miraculous Edge .................................................... 114, [70, 518]
  and Strike ........................................................................... 115
  Miraculous Will ............................. 67, [109, 393, 520, 530, 533]
  Miramie Mesmer ....... see “Main Characters: the Dream-Witch”
  Mourning..........................................................................243-244
  MP ..................................110, 112, [115, 116, 119-120, 544, 546]
  Mrs. Senko ......... see “Main Characters: the Practical Teacher”
  Mundane Action  ..................................................see “Intention”
  Mysteries (of the Rats) ....................................................208, 224
  Harpy, who is named Disdain ............................................488
  Malambruno.......................................................................148
  Typhon .................................................................... 225, [241]
  Yatskaya Magic and the Mysteries ............................218, 223
  Mysterium tremendum/fascinans, the .......................................29
  Natalia Koutolika (and variants)  .......see “Main Characters: the 
  Prodigy”
  Nataniel Oldman .....................................................................279
  Near Outside, the ..................................298, 299-302, [242, 523]
  Nobilis: the Essentials ................................................13, 64, 300
  NPC .............................................................................................7
  Obstacles .....67-68, [70, 71, 74-75, 114-115, 116, 250, 429, 464, 
  496-498]
  Octopus-Related Material ..... 106-108, 220, 508, 510, [235, 452, 
  474-475]
  Ogres ............................................................ 230, 239, [262, 535]
  Old Molder .......................................................................272-279
  Lurker, the ..........................................................................277
  Morrow Square ..................................................................279
  Residents ......................................................... 275, 301, [279]
  Unorthodoxies ...................................................................279
  OOC ..............................................................................7, 30, 170
  Ornithopters .....................................................................277-279
  Orphanages and orphans ........................ 262, 272, 275, [49, 301]
  ourokompos, the ............................................................. 244, [98]
  Outside, the .......................................................481, [3, 7, 31, 45, 
  54, 64, 73, 74, 75, 81, 135, 195-196, 204, 205, 211, 227, 242, 
  268, 292-314, 379, 435-440, 476-480]
  dust of the .........................................205, 207, 210, 217, 336, 
  [208, 212, 214, 218, 224]
  Deep Outside ...................................298, 305-306, [292, 294]
  Far Outside ................................................................298, 307
  Low Outside ..............................................................298, 304
  Near Outside .......................................................298, 299-302
  sailing the .........................................................302, [300-301]
  See also “the Bleak Academy” and “Far and a Sunless Land"
  Owler ................................................................................243-244
  Pastorals ...............................................................................18-23
  PC  ..............................................................................................7
  Perks ..................................................................... 81-82, 390-392
  Pillow-teeth tea .................................................... 235, 301, [243]
  Principal Entropy I ..........................................................242, 243
  Principal Entropy or Attaris II ............see “Main Characters: the 
  Principal”
  Projects ....................................................................................450
  Puppy Force .............................................................................76
  Quest Miracles ......................................................454-470, [501]
  Quests .................................................................................79-104
  Any-Time Quests ..........................................................88-102
  Basic Quests ................................................................62, 450
  Bonus XP .................................................. 87-88, 90-102, 103
  Chibi-Quests ......................................................................450
  Completing Quests .............................................104, 388-448
  Example Quests ..81, 84-85, 315-385, 458-459, 464-465, 470
  Group Quests .......................................................................87
  Header Data/Metadata .........................................................80
  Spending XP on .................................................................103
  Starting/Choosing ................................................................86
  Storyline Quests ......................................................87-88, 103
  Reaction Shot (combat) ................................................ 126, [128]
  Recharge Tokens ............................................................. 112, 450
  Riders .......................................73, 292-296, 308-312, [248, 268]
  Rinley ........................see “Main Characters: the Troublemaker”
  Ritual Power ...................................................................... 44, 110
  Ritual Actions .........................................................see 
  Rituals
  Rituals, examples of
  Ritual of the Cosplayers, the..............................................256
  Ritual of the Lake, the .......................................................228
  Sailing the Outside.............................................................302
  Shall we Meet in Bluebell Park? .................... 248, [249, 251]
  This is a Far and a Sunless Land .......................................313
  Restaurant Guide
  Clever Crab, the ........................................................265
  Dunstan’s Pizza.........................................................265
  God Pancake .............................................................265
  Golden Phoenix Bun Shop ............................ 265, [253]
  Hennessey’s Café ......................................................207
  Kinnoruto Temple (and Nekomimi Café)...259-262, [320]
  Luke’s Unlikely Steamed Dumplings .......................270
  Mrs. Porridge’s .............................................. 265, [253]
  Steam Noodles ..........................................................265
  Tavares’ Café ............................................................246
  See also “Main Characters: the Dream-Witch”
  
  559
   
  Road of Trials, the ................................................................31-35
  Robots ...........................................................241, 266-267, [270]
  Sailing ............................................. 204, 205-207, 226-228, 302, 
  [221, 223, 298-301, 304, 384]
  Scenes .......................................................................................89
  School .......... see “Horizon: School”, “Horizon: Night School”,  
  and “Bleak Academy, the”
  Other Schools ............................................................262, 290
  S.E.E.D. Program ......................................................... 242, [243]
  Seizhi Schwan ..............see “Main Characters: the Best Friend”
  Sessions .....................................................11, 87, 140, [103, 112]
  Shine ........................................................................ 72, [56, 390]
  Ships ...................226, [16, 217, 218, 288, 302, one day, perhaps, 
  even 472]
  Rat-ships ....................................................................207, 226
  Shokyou ......see “Main Characters: The Wishing Boy (or Girl)”
  Shop Foxes ...................see “Fox-Eared People and Fox Spirits”
  Shrine Families ................................................210, 208-224, 311
  Sickly ................................................................... 489, [388, 486]
  “Six Sins, the” ..................................................................243-244
  Skills .....................................................................64, 69, [64-77]
  Snakes (including Roof Serpents, Sea Serpents, and Others) .... 121, 
  205, 225, 227, 244, 488, 510, [508]
  Soma Village .................................................297, [224, 298-300]
  Sosunov Family ...............................................................211-213
  Soun Shoujo & Soun Shounen . see “Main Characters: the Idol”
  Spirit Bird........................................................................286, 470
  Sports ................................................................... 231, [238, 413]
  St. Vita’s School for Wayward Girls .................... 232, 297, [231]
  Stalemates ........................................................................482-483
  Storms ................... 225, 288, 301, [207, 211, 350, 458-459, 508]
  Strategist (title) ............................................................. 311, [312]
  Stray Cats .................................................................253, 259-262
  Strike .............................................115, 116, 454, [114, 119, 140]
  Superior Qualities and Skills ...... 76-77, 215, 390, 462, [58, 109, 
  126-128, 463, 473]
  Affinity for (an Element) .................217, 406-407, 429, [284]
  Dreamer .......................................................... 221, [406, 440]
  Holiness .......................................................... 261, [426, 445]
  Immortality ............................................................. 426, [440]
  Land-Rule ..........................................................................540
  Plant Spirit .................................................................264, 291
  Wings ..............................................................................76-77
  Sustained Actions ........................................... 66, 454, 531, [126]
  Swan Person ..............................................................................72
  Techno .........................................................................30, [26-30]
  Tenko ............................see “Fox-Eared People and Fox Spirits”
  “Three Sisters, the” .................................................................259
  Titov Family ..................................214-215, 252, [223, 345, 357]
  Tools ........................70, 241, 391, 455, 490, 496, 531, [126-128]
  Track, the ........................................................................297, 299
  Trains .................................................... see “Electric Train, the”
  Trait ...........................................................................................64
  Arc Trait ..........................................................58-59, 390, 452
  Transition Actions ...........................................see 
  Transitions
  Transition Texts .........252, 255, 268-269, 275-276, 314, 480-481
  Treasures ................................463, 533, 537, [533-536, 537-542]
  Tree People .............................................................see “Dryads”
  Tsukumogami ................................................259-260, 267, [262]
  Turn Back! Turn Back! .............................................................39
  In the Adventure Fantasy Genre ..........................................41
  Twig-People ............................................................................291
  Twisting River ................................................................. 211, 253
  Typhon ......................................................................... 225, [241]
  Umbrellas .see “Tsukumogami,” or, umm, just look up umbrellas 
  online or something
  Double Umbrellas ..............................................................254
  Unorthodoxies .........................................................................279
  Unreal Power .................................................... 110, 524, [31-32]
  Unworldly Tribes ....................................................................230
  Vampires ...........................54, 235, 236-237, 243, 244, [71, 494]
  Vasili Family ................................................................ 217, [223]
  Walking Fields, the ........................287-296, [252, 297, 300-301]
  Fairies ..................................................................... 290, [288]
  Field-Dogs and Forest Dogs ..............................................291
  Great Hunt, the ........................................292, 294-296, [290]
  History ...............................................................................292
  Jotun ................................................................. 72, 292, [218]
  Residents ..............................................................................72
  Taken Children ...........................................................291-291
  Twig-People .......................................................................291
  Juuniji, the .........................................................................292
  Warmain (title) ........................................................................309
  Watanabe Family.......................................................... 218, [466]
  Weather Mantra (example quest miracle) ........................458-459
  Weathered (example miraculous ability) ..............108, [397, 416, 
  (420-]421, 425, (435-)436, 447]
  Well-Liked in (Region) (example miraculous ability) . 401, [452]
  Will .......................................................................................65-66
  Miraculous Will ...................................................................67
  Recovering/Gaining ..................................... 66, 112, 116, 119
  Wind-Charmers .......................................................................284
  Wind Spirits ..................................217, 284-286, 313, [280, 458]
  Wishes ............................................................472-475, [109-110]
  Wish Spirits .......................................................... 245, 252, [253]
  Witches ..................................................211, 311, [320, 376, 393]
  World-Breaker’s Hand, the ..............................................545-546
  Wounds
  Ambiguous Wounds ...................................................126, 129
  Deadly Wounds ....................................... 128, [129, 169, 488] 
  Defeat............................................... 125, 128, [170, 397/425]
  Serious Wounds ...................................... 128, [129, 168, 488]
  Surface Wounds .............................................. 126, 129, [488]
  Wounds and Sickness ........................................................136
  See also “Health Levels”
  XP  ..................................................................................10, 87-88
  XP Actions .....................................................................11, 21-45
  Yatskaya Family ....................................................218-223, [241]
  Yellow Stair, the ...............................................................273-276
  Youkai ..................72, 253, 261, 262, 264, 292, [4, 259-260, 270]
  See also “Fox-Eared People” and “Jotun”
  Zeinaba Kiros .....................see “Main Characters: the Prodigy”
  Zoë Rosewood ..................see “Main Characters: Ogre-Sensei”
  
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  560
   Quest Lookup Index 
  BIndIngs Quests
  1  ....Cleaning Up an Old House (81, 84-85), Bind (320-322), 
  Mental Training (328-329), Science! (344-345)
  2 ....................................... The Door Into Memory (326-327), 
  Taking Care of a Small Child (339-341), Science! (344-345), 
  Someone’s in Trouble! (346-347)
  3 ....................... Poisoned (336-337), Engineering! (348-349)
  4 ........Concentrated Awesome (323), The Door Into Memory 
  (326-327), Above the Fray (350-351)
  5 .............Bind (320-322), Walking the Boundaries (352-353)
  knIght Quests
  1 .. Mental Training (328-329), The Object (330-333), Taking 
  Care of a Small Child (339-341), Adventure GET (354-355), 
  The Refusal of the Call (366-367)
  2 .......A New Hobby (316-317), Physical Training (334-335), 
  Let’s Doing! (356-357), Changes (364-365)
  3 ....................Mental Training (328-329), Poisoned (336-337), 
  Labyrinth Diving (358-359), The Belly of the Whale (368-369)
  4 ... The Door Into Memory (326-327), Down (362-363), The 
  Trials of the Sun (370-371)
  5 ......Concentrated Awesome (323), Mental Training (328-329), 
  Climbing the Sacred Mountain (360-361), Apotheosis (372-373)
  otherWorldly Quests
  1 ........Cleaning Up an Old House (81, 84-85), The Door Into 
  Memory (326-327), Science! (344-345), Changes (364-365)
  2 .. Someone’s in Trouble! (346-347), The Refusal of the Call 
  (366-367)
  3 ...Mental Training (328-329), Poisoned (336-337), Walking 
  the Boundaries (352-353), The Belly of the Whale (368-369)
  4 The Object (330-333), Above the Fray (350-351), The Trials 
  of the Sun (370-371)
  5 ...........Bind (320-322), Engineering! (348-349), Apotheosis 
  (372-373)
  storyteller Quests
  1 ........Cleaning Up an Old House (81, 84-85), A New Hobby 
  (316-317), A New Job (318-319), Adventure GET (354-355), 
  Fascination (376-377)
  2 ...........Cleaning Up an Old House (81, 84-85), A New Hobby 
  (316-317), Bind (320-322), Concentrated Awesome (323), The 
  Object (330-333), Preparing for a Festival or Event (338), Let’s 
  Doing! (356-357), Beautiful and Far Away (374-375), This is 
  So Surreal (378-379), This is Such a Bad Idea (380-381)
  3 ..... Bind (320-322), Labyrinth Diving (358-359), This is So 
  Surreal (378-379), This is Such a Bad Idea (380-381)
  4 ............ The Door Into Memory (326-327), Mental Training 
  (328-329), Physical Training (334-335), Climbing the Sacred 
  Mountain (360-361), Something Heals (384-385)
  5 ...Poisoned (336-337), Down (362-363), You’ve Lost Them 
  (382-383)
  aspect Quests
  1 ...........................................A New Hobby (316-317), Mental 
  Training (328-329), Physical Training (334-335), Above the 
  Fray (350-351), Beautiful and Far Away (374-375)
  2 ......................................................................Cleaning Up an 
  Old House (81, 84-85), Connecting with Someone (324-325), 
  Mental Training (328-329), Someone’s in Trouble! (346-347), 
  Something Heals (384-385)
  3 ...... Bind (320-322),Preparing for a Festival or Event (338), 
  Walking the Boundaries (352-353), Fascination (376-377)
  4 Poisoned (336-337), Science! (344-345), This is So Surreal 
  (378-379), This is Such a Bad Idea (380-381)
  5 ........ Engineering! (348-349), You’ve Lost Them (382-383)
  shepherd Quests
  1 ............ Cleaning Up an Old House (81, 84-85), Connecting 
  with Someone (324-325), Down (362-363), Beautiful and Far 
  Away (374-375)
  2 .................................................. A New Job (318-319), Bind 
  (320-322), Connecting with Someone (324-325), Preparing 
  for a Festival or Event (338), Taking Care of a Small Child 
  (339-341), Let’s Doing! (356-357), Beautiful and Far Away 
  (374-375), Fascination (376-377)
  3 ..........................................................................Concentrated 
  Awesome (323), The Door Into Memory (326-327), Climbing 
  the Sacred Mountain (360-361), This is So Surreal (378-379), 
  This is Such a Bad Idea (380-381)
  4 ...............................................................................................
  Adventure GET (354-355), This is So Surreal (378-379), This 
  is Such a Bad Idea (380-381), You’ve Lost Them (382-383)
  5 ...............................................Concentrated Awesome (323), 
  Taking Care of a Small Child (339-341), Labyrinth Diving 
  (358-359), Something Heals (384-385)
  emptIness Quests
  1 ..A New Hobby (316-317), Bind (320-322), The Object (330- 
  333), Physical Training (334-335), Someone’s in Trouble! (346-
  347), Changes (364-365), Beautiful and Far Away (374-375)
  2 ........Cleaning Up an Old House (81, 84-85), A New Hobby 
  (316-317), Mental Training (328-329), Science! (344-345), 
  The Belly of the Whale (368-369), Fascination (376-377)
  3 .........Poisoned (336-337), Preparing for a Festival or Event 
  (338), Walking the Boundaries (352-353), The Refusal of the 
  Call (366-367), This is So Surreal (378-379), This is Such a 
  Bad Idea (380-381), You’ve Lost Them (382-383)
  4 ...................... Poisoned (336-337), Engineering! (348-349), 
  The Trials of the Sun (370-371), This is So Surreal (378-379), 
  This is Such a Bad Idea (380-381)
  5 .... Taking Care of a Small Child (339-341), Above the Fray 
  (350-351), Apotheosis (372-373), Something Heals (384-385)
  
  561
   
  mystIc Quests
  1 ...........The Door Into Memory (326-327), Down (362-363), 
  Changes (364-365)
  2 ............................................................................. A New Job 
  (318-319), Connecting with Someone (324-325), Labyrinth 
  Diving (358-359), The Refusal of the Call (366-367)
  3 ...............A New Hobby (316-317), Let’s Doing! (356-357), 
  The Belly of the Whale (368-369)
  4 ..............................A New Hobby (316-317), The Door Into 
  Memory (326-327), Adventure GET (354-355), The Trials of 
  the Sun (370-371)
  5 .........Climbing the Sacred Mountain (360-361), Apotheosis 
  (372-373) 
   Art Credits 
  Graphic Elements, Icons, Signs and Illustration on page 225: 
  Claudia Cangini
  Cover and Illustration on page 51, 153-157, 162-165, 187-190, 
  209, 229, 245, 267, 272, 278, 297, 419, 441, 493, 503, 517, 539: 
  Filippo onez Vanzo
  Illustration on page 1, 199-202, 285, 342, 389, 451, 469, 472: 
  Antonio Minuto 
  Illustration on page 2, 9, 34, 71, 73, 92, 98, 118, 122, 141, 148, 
  149-152, 171-174, 183-186, 205, 226, 275, 280, 287, 289, 301, 
  308, 434, 459 left,  467: 
  Elizabeth Sherry
  Illustration on page 6, 10, 25, 35, 44, 57, 72, 78, 114, 132, 138, 
  158-161, 179-182, 191-194, 195-198, 210, 216, 249, 253, 263, 
  271, 282, 300, 303, 311, 399, 409, 424, 428, 432, 449, 459 right, 
  461, 464, 475 left, 489: 
  Kirsten Moody
  Illustration on page 19, 38, 48, 61, 64, 83, 107, 127, 134, 166-
  170, 175-178, 222, 274, 299, 304, 305, 443, 446, 453, 474, 475 
  right, 479, 483, 497, 513, 527, 532: 
  Carlos Sneak
  Illustration on page 28, 41, 220, 238: 
  Ryo Kawakami
  Illustration on page 77, 206, 233, 239, 396, 402, 417, 521, 548: 
  Beatrice Pelagatti
  Illustration on page 89, 213, 386, 482: 
  Stefano Corrao
  Illustration on page 223: 
  Grace Berrios
  Illustration on page 224: 
  Roland Hansson
  Illustration on page 243, 248, 538: 
  Miranda Harrell
  Illustration on page 244: 
  Danni “Whinecraft” Beth
  Illustrations on page 283, 293, 310: 
  Paola Del Prete
  Logo and Illustration on page 450: 
  Brett Grimes
  
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  agreed upon” Loomis
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  D
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  Dawson
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  Mikkel “Hobbosnorken” 
  Keilhau
  Mischa Wolfinger
  Misha Handman
  Mistaya
  Moah
  Mojave Blue
  Monte Lin
  Morgan
  Morgan Hay
  Morgan Weeks
  N. J. Peters
  Nachiket Patkar
  Nancy Feldman
  Naomi Hemsley
  Nat “woodelf” Barmore
  Nate Brengle
  Nathan Agius
  Nathan Henderson
  Nathan Herring
  Nathaniel Southworth-Barlow
  Neal Tanner
  Neall Raemonn Price
  Neil and Stacy Laughlin
  Neil Felix Schulman
  Neil Moore
  Nic Webb
  Nicholas Aaron Feinberg
  Nicholas Peterson
  Nicholas Pratt
  Nicholas So
  Nick Brooke
  Nick G.
  Nick Kloski
  Nick Mathewson
  Nick Novitski
  Nick Pilon & Sasha Dillman
  Nicolas Brian
  Niels-Martin Trier Josefsen
  Nihar Nilekani
  Nityananda-rama dasa
  Nora Riley
  North Orange County Offline 
  Play Society
  Nyren Nabbit
  Oda Tomoe
  Oliver “Ahrimanius” Summers
  Oliver Bretschneider
  Oliver Charlton
  Oliver Peltier
  Oliver Stacey
  Olivier Bérubé-Fortin
  Olna Jenn Smith
  Oscar Rodriguez
  Oscar Ulloa
  Owen James Parish
  Owen Milton
  Pablo “Hersho” Domínguez
  Patrice Mermoud
  Patrick Barletta
  Patrick Chandler
  Patrick Holzman
  Patrick Ley
  Patrick McLeprechaun
  Patrick McMullin
  Patrick Prince
  Patrick Reitz
  Patrick Willette Healey
  Paul Echeverri
  Paul Strack
  Paula Toledo Palomino
  Paull Patterson
  Peter Aronson
  Peter Bensley
  Peter Gallagher
  Peter Hatch
  Peter Smith
  Peter Svensson
  Péterfy Áron
  Petr Jonák
  Petter Wäss
  Phil Wong
  Philip Barclay-Monteith
  Philip Minchin
  Philipp Neurohr
  Philippe “Sanctaphrax” Saner
  Philippe Debar
  Philippe Marcil
  Philippe Sigaud
  Phillip Ekberg and Nicole 
  Peters
  Phillip Lawler
  Pierre Coppet
  Pieter Spealman
  PK Levine
  Prakarn Unachak
  Pseudonomymmous
  Quasi
  Quinn “Monkipi” Wilson
  Rachel Bohac
  Rachel Collier
  Rachel E.S. Walton
  Rachelle Magil
  Raechel Lyn Coon
  Rafael Rocha
  Raiu
  Ralph Gadbois III
  Ralph Lettau
  Ralph Miller Jr.
  Rand Brittain
  Randel N. Evans II
  Randy Massey
  Raymond Wood
  Rev. Keith Johnson
  Reverance Pavane
  Rian Rezende
  Rich Warren
  Richard Hansen
  Richard Hunt
  Richard ‘Vidiian’ Greene
  Rick Harrelson
  Rick Wilson
  Rikard Molander
  Rinley Deeds
  Rob Ferguson
  
  565
   
  Rob Townsend
  Rob_K
  Robbie Hipschman
  Robert “Jefepato” Dall
  Robert Barrick
  Robert Burson
  Robert Carnel
  Robert Mackenzie
  Robert Montgomery
  Robert Slaughter
  Robert Vance
  Roberto Mandrioli
  Robyn Tyrfing
  Roger N. Dominick
  Roger TM
  Rojir McCrady
  Roland Hansson
  ron beck
  Rose Bailey
  Ross Willard
  Roy
  Russell Hoyle
  Ryan Junk
  Rylen Dreskin
  S. Ben Melhuish
  S. C. Israel
  S. Deniz Bucak
  S. Viswanathan
  Sabe Jones
  Sam Curry
  Sam Garamy
  Sam King-Walters
  Sam Widdowson
  Sam Zeitlin
  Samuel Dail
  Samuel King
  Samuli Lappalainen
  Sarah Fairbanks
  Sarah Jane Koegler-Clarke
  Sarah Morgan
  Sarah Perry-Shipp
  Sarcalistic
  Sarn aska
  Satchel
  Scott Dockery
  Scott K. Johnson
  Scott McDaniel
  Scott Shapiro
  Sean ‘Ariamaki’ Riedinger
  Sean Callahan
  Sean Carroll
  Sean Demory
  Sean Dunstan
  Sean K.I.W. Steele/Arcane
  Sean Leventhal
  Sean Mattox
  Seana McGuinness
  Sergio Rodriguez
  Seth A. Surber
  Seth Harris
  Seth Silvernail
  Shane Donnelly
  Shane Jackson
  Shannon Leigh Crock
  Shaun Clamp
  Shay Stringer
  Shoplifter
  Silvio Herrera Gea
  Simon Fernandez
  Simon Geard
  Simon Gough
  Simon Ward
  Simon Wilkins
  Sky Reid-Mills
  Soreth
  Sparrow
  Stéphane Bura
  Stephane Drouin-Moreland
  Stephen Cheney
  Stephen Dewey
  Stephen Lea Sheppard
  Steve Lord
  Steve Moore
  Steve Zelenty
  Steven Robert
  Steven Schwartz
  Stevie Lantalia Metke
  Stoney
  Stuart MacGillivray 
  Svend Andersen
  Sydney Schaffer
  T. Amber Bezpalko
  Tamsin Mehew
  Tannyx et Miettinator
  Taper Wickel
  Taylor “2coats” Alcock
  TechnocratJT
  Ted Kelly
  Ted Williams
  Temple Phoenix
  The Letter “T”
  The Mordak, Hollow God
  The Speedwagon Foundation
  The Wyzard
  Theodore Morgan-Major
  Theodore Suzukawa
  theSWEEN
  Thomas Barto
  Thomas Castiglione
  Thomas J Behrens Jr
  Thomas Slaughter
  Thomas Sniadecki
  Thomas Stewart
  Thomas Wolf
  Tibicina
  Tili Sokolov
  Tim “6ix/7even” Sweeney
  Tim Ellis
  Tim Hodge
  Timothy Lam
  Timothy Walsh
  Toast Peters
  Tom Ladegard
  Tom Wilkinson
  Tony Koford
  Tony Love
  Tony Lower-Basch
  Topher Gerkey
  Torsten Bernhardt
  Travis Foster
  Travis Leyenaar-Misson
  Trent Aaron Kemish
  Trip Space-Parasite
  Tristan Hendrick-Beattie
  Trygve Lie
  Tucker McKinnon
  Two Steps
  Tyler Howard
  Tyrell Neufeld
  Ubiratan Pires Alberton
  Vahn Kergonan
  Valtiel
  Villum W. Lassen
  Vivian Abraham
  Vivian Paul
  Volkan Eke
  wadledo
  Wajanai Snidvongs
  Walter F. Croft
  Warren M.P. Tusk
  Will Lamming
  Will Thompson
  William Bradford Spencer
  William G. Parker-Adams
  William Mansky
  Xavid
  Xavier Aubuchon-Mendoza
  Xthulu
  Xyas
  Yiftach Shilo
  Yoshi, Tobie and Rocky
  Yuri Kavalerchik
  Zach Welhouse
  Zachary Johnson
  Zak Strassberg
  Zed Lopez
  Zenia
  강생이
  and
  林立人 Lin Liren.
  Without you—and the few of you who I couldn’t reach, or who asked not to be mentioned—this book just wouldn’t exist. 
  So thank you! So very much!! So: thank you all!
  Jenna Katerin Moran
   Looking for More? 
  Other products in the Chuubo’s Marvelous Wish-Granting Engine transmedia project include:
   
  ŭ the novel Fable of the Swan,
   
  ŭ the setting book Fortitude: by the Docks of Big Lake (early 2015) and
   
  ŭ the campaign Fortitude: the Glass-Maker’s Dragon (early 2015)
  Recommended works by other creators include:
   
  ŭ Heartwarming anime like Aria, Azumanga Daioh, Haibane 
  Renmei, Kanon, Kino’s Journey, My Neighbor Totoro, and 
  Laputa: Castle in the Sky
   
  ŭ As well as more daring choices like Angel Beats, Princess 
  Tutu, Revolutionary Girl Utena, Shingu, and Spirited Away
   
  ŭ Transmedia works like Higurashi no Naku Koro ni, Umineko 
  no Naku Koro ni, Homestuck, and the Touhou Project
   
  ŭ Western animation like Adventure Time and My Little Pony: 
  Friendship is Magic
   
  ŭ Movies like Babe, The Goonies and the Princess Bride
   
  ŭ The Young Wizards novels by Diane Duane
   
  ŭ The Senyaza series by Chrysoula Tzavelas, and
   
  ŭ The Weather Warden series by Rachel Caine
  
  566
  566
  Welcome to the 
  Chuubo’s Marvelous Wish-Granting Engine RPG—
  a game of heroic innocents growing up against a backdrop of 
  strange events and haunting landscapes.
  Come drink tea, explore your new home, and fight strange horrors. 
  Come argue over television shows, shop for the latest thing, 
  read books mined out from the literary veins under the earth, 
  and challenge Death. 
  Meet the reborn sun. Feast on giant monsters. 
  Stress over your homework, your family, 
  and love.
  Welcome to a game that’s designed to run away with you. 
  To take the little things you think and do in play and turn them 
  into ever-escalating stories.
  A guidebook for finding magic and wonder in an ordinary life. 
  
SOURCE: textdata/thevault/Chuubos Marvelous Wish Granting Engine/Chuubos Marvelous Wish-Granting Engine.pdf