Exquisite CΔrpse: Ochrana Ossis

I present to you Exquisite CΔrpse 4. This one has the gimmick that each participant is writng not a full delta, but half of one. The delta's requirement is written by the first person listed, the effect is by the second. Except for GRIM CHALLENGER, Universal Constant and Uncrowned, all other names were made by me after the fact. The participants in this one are AntiTime, semiurge, Robot_Face, Blattella, Bad Doctor, BOROSILICATE_IVY, choiroffire, nayba and MystralianCryatist.

Ochrana Ossis

Despite the best efforts of the Church, various heresies, secret societies and mystery cults hide within the cracks of society like weeds. The most difficult ones to get rid of are not the worshippers of chaos, but those who are the rightful agents of Law. 

The Ochrana Ossis believes that for a just society, lesser creatures must be controlled by greater ones. Thus no human is able to rule over other humans without it inevitably leading to corruption. Thus to be in charge one must make themselves a creature greater than human.

They will calmly ask you, what does it mean to be in control of a creature? Then calmly answer that to be in control means control what is most important about a creature. The thing that matters most to all creatures is to persist. Thus to control a creature one must be able to control its life. Thus to control a creature, one must kill it. Thus to control humans one must kill humans. It is not sufficient but it is a very important step. 

They will calmly ask you, how does one become a greater creature? Then calmly answer that it means to get rid is essential for a lesser creature and gain what is essential of a greater creature. Thus one must find a greater creature as a role model. They will calmly answer that this is a solved problem.

That greater creature, the patron spirit of the Ochrana Ossis, is the Octopus King. Humans have “bones” and the Octopus King does not. Humans break their “bones’ when they fall and the Octopus King does not. Thus Gravity can not kill the Octopus King. Thus the Octopus King is a greater creature than Gravity. Thus to be like the Octopus King, one must be greater than Gravity, greater than “bones”.

“Bones” are not only bones, they are also souls, social bonds, and bureaucratic infrastructure. Things that make humans rigid and connected. To be their master, one must be greater than them. “Bones” know this intuitively, they know that they should be mastered and if shown the way, will reveal how they must be controlled. This is solemn work, essential for a just society.

GRIM CHALLENGER (Blattella and BOROSILICATE_IVY)

Fashion a weapon from a person's bones, and with it slay somebody who knew them by name. Repeat the process once more with a weapon made from their bones.

You can now begin making a skeletal armory-network. 

Arrange your two starting weapon-implements in a way that best describes how bones and names conspire to hold people together. It's alright if you don't get it completely right the first time.

With some patience and luck, your fledgling network will begin to whisper. It will softly speak on many things. Mine likes to say that "names are just a skeleton for the mind", and "what is a friend but a bony finger". I've heard some that simply count to 206 over and over. 

Eventually, if you are patient, the network will give very good advice on how to kill people. Its advice will be limited at first. It can only speak about those who know the deceased in your network by name. But as you extend the armory-network with weapons like the first the network's advice will grow in confidence and accuracy. It will become more opinionated and less mobile. Be sure to add to it regularly.

Junior Privileges

To even consider earning Junior Privileges, one must first be a GRIM CHALLANGER.

Broken Hand Badge (Bad Doctor and choiroffire)

Ask your armory-network for direction and guidance each morning. Follow its advice even and especially when it would be easier not to. If you disobey it, break one of your own fingers. If you have ten broken fingers, you may use the fingers of other hands.

You can project an aura of cold authority commensurate with your duty. Your shadow grows longer, footfalls louder, and your stare grievous and fulgid. Law-abiding citizens will bow their heads as you pass by. When you have to make a decision for which your armory-network did not specifically prepare you, your aura becomes chaotic and frightening, scattering most lesser beings into hiding.

Weightfulness (nayba and Garinia)

Find one that speaks truth to power and silence them forever without creating a martyr

Find one that makes a joke of order and have them become the object of laughter instead

Find one that bends the law instead of executing it and have them meet the full force of the law

You have proven your worth to the law, and thus are granted the ability to supersede it to an extent. When you are acting on behalf of the law you are legally and metaphysically allowed to ignore gravity at your leasure.

Dark Water Precipice (semiurge and AntiTime)

Bring in a bounty target neither dead or alive, but somewhere in between or something else entirely

If somebody is under a bounty you can see their vital signs, like heart pumping in their chest or blood flowing through the veins. Due to that you can never kill such a person accidentally, or can roll with advantage if your aim is murder.

Shiftiness (Robot_Face and MystralianCryatist)

Follow someone for eight days and eight nights without them realizing you're watching them.

You’ve certainly proven yourself an able sneaker! Somehow, this seems to have given you a boost, as a curious change has occurred.

You have gained camouflaging abilities similar to an octopus.

Additionally, you gain 4 small arms (each capable of holding half the weight that a human-equivalent’s standard arm could) OR a prehensile tail, whichever would have been the most helpful during your endeavor!

SILOVICH (AntiTime and Bad Doctor)

Become truly, fully professional. Lock in. Remove your soul, emotions, attachments and personality. Keep them somewhere externally if you want, but you can't use any of the major deltas when you are under their influence.

With all this empty space inside you, you can now contain part or all of your network within yourself if you'd like. Sure, it jams up a little, sticks out between a set of ribs. But now all of your teeth are cyanide capsules and whenever someone follows your advice about who to kill and how they are rewarded disproportionately by the universe. Meet cutes, windfall inheritances, lottery tickets. If you give them one of your cyanide capsule teeth and they bite down on it after their mission is complete they will go straight to the tippy top heaven and they know this for an absolute bone deep fact. You can add any weapons they used to your network.

Senior Privileges

To attain Senior Privileges, one must set yourself above bone and become a SILOVICH.

True Order (semiurge and Robot_Face)

Compromise a major public figure - get killer blackmail on 'em, replace 'em with a shapeshifter, whatever - so long as they're yours. Make sure everyone in the community knows you've done it, and make sure everyone's too afraid to say it out loud.

In an area you control, or which you control de facto, like through a puppet/figurehead, you gain the ability to walk through walls unimpeded, as though they aren't there.

Universal Constant (choiroffire and semiurge)

Find the seven living people who contributed the most to your becoming who you are today. For most, these will be parents, mentors, and close friends. Find them, and inform them each in turn that they will die by your hand if they ever again acknowledge to anyone that you were once different, once lesser, than you are now. Mean it. Write down a plan to eliminate each one, and submit them.

Whenever anyone utters your name without using your full titles & honours, you know who it is, where they are, and gain control of their mouth for a round.

Respectful Silence (BOROSILICATE_IVY and nayba)

assemble a necklace of 16 tongues. Ideally they are from bureaucrats of ascending rank, but a bunch of self important louts can work in a pinch

Whenever you encounter a bureacrat of equal or lower rank than one of your trophies you may have that person be silenced as long as they are in your presence. Those around will perceive you as a replacement for the old authority.

Uncrowned (Garinia and MystralianCryatist)

There is a secret place where the first law was proclaimed and the final law will be whispered. Let gravity kill you at this location.

There are some laws that are not meant to be broken, and some places which are not meant to be profaned. Gravity forsook its oath, and must pay amends.

You have claimed the price for the broken oath which was Gravity’s. You can no longer be damaged by the landing at the end of falling; your strength and agility are enhanced as though you dwelled on a planet with gravity one third of your own, while those of your foes are reduced as if a thrice-strong planet bore down upon their shoulders. Finally, you can enact a limited telekinetic effect on any object five pounds or less at any time as though you were a mage or psychic. This is not supernatural, but a natural consequence of gravity acting to your will, ensuring that it can be used anywhere. With intense training, you could increase your weight or item amount limits.

My Mouth is Full of Dust (Class: Rogue)

I found this Cloak and Sword class while browsing some sketchy sites that probably gave me virus or two. Inexplicably from what I can find this class originated from the Horror supplement and has nothing to do with the Sanguine class despite fitting each other quite well.

Vampyr

Start with: Stylish but dated nobleman’s clothes, disguise kit and a rapier.

Spawn of Hell: Your Fertility type is I, and you may not rest on hollowed ground.

Guest of the Court: With a minute of preperation you can appear as a noble of high enough status to be allowed in any court but low enough that he won’t be the center of attention. This noble has +2 reaction with unsuspecting nobles and romantics. On entering this guise, you may choose to appear as either a frightfully handsome gentleman or an eerily beautiful lady, swapping virility and fertility as appropriate. This noble’s skin is so very pale.  This is not your true form.

Guest of the Woods: With a minute of preperation you can appear as a wolf of high enough status to be allowed in any inter-pack gathering but low enough that it won’t be the center of attention. This wolf has +2 reaction with unsuspecting wolves, -2 with peasants and -1 with common soldiers. On entering this guise, you may appear either as an unnervingly quiet stalker or a horrifically large beast, swapping virility and fertility as appropriate. This wolf’s fur is so very dark. This is not your true form.

La Mascarade: While you are in the guise of a guest, you can not be reached in a way that matters. You are immune to fear, Charm, Esprit, Love and death. However, you can mimic those things convincingly if you need to. When you would die, the guise merely gets destroyed and your true form is revealed, leaving you at 1 Elon.

The Reveal: You may sunder your current guise like you would armour, which causes your attacker to be stunned for a round in addition to the normal effects.

Naked Shadow: Your true form is a cloud of sulfurous black particles clumped around a heart with teeth. In this form you can fly as an arrow and fit through any hole your heart can pass through. Against normal weaponry your AC has double the dexterity bonus because they can have effect if they manage to hit your heart, but you take damage as normal when attacked with fire or magic.

Unearthly: Your likeness can never show up correctly in paintings or mirrors. When under a guise you may freely fly as fast as a raven, when out of guise fly as fast as an arrow.

Blood of the Earth: You consume blood instead of food.

• The average hireling contains 5 rations of blood. Losing 1 tires them; losing 2 exhausts them; and losing 3 or more kills them.

• Liquid blood rations are fragile and 3x as heavy as normal rations.

• You can eat normal food (to maintain appearances, or enjoy the flavor), but don't digest it.

Your bite with either your toothed heart or the teeth a guise deals d4 damage, increased by one die size each (d4 → d6 → d8 → d10 → d12) if your target:

• ...is physically smaller than you.

• ...is sexually or romantically involved with you.

• ...is indebted or subservient to you.

• ...trusts you completely, in this exact moment.

Vampirism is punishable by death, but this rarely applies to the rich and powerful. Maintain plausible deniability, and the Church will leave you alone. Hunt your impoverished kin, and they'll reward you.

Doppleganger: With 10 minutes of preperation you may put on the guise of someone who's blood you have tasted within the last sunset.

Dark Magnetism: When you are touching someone you can take 1 damage to send a particle of your self into them to Charm them. This effect lasts until they next would lose or gain Esprit.

(The difference between Charm and Esprit in Cloak and Sword is rather confusing. But from what I understand it’s meant to be passive where Esprit is active. When you hold Esprit for someone, you're trying to get something from them, whereas when someone Charms you it dulls your mind and makes you more malleable to their suggestions. The most notable difference is that Charm does not lead to romance. Generally speaking Esprit overrides Charm. The only exception I’ve found is the Nothing ability of the Beguine, which I think is an interesting way to represent a mysterious connection to the Divine, even if mechanically it’s a little wonky.)

Loyalties: Willing or unwilling, you are the deniable servant of dark powers. Roll on the table below 1d3 times to see who you are bound to. If you roll the same result twice, that indicates a different NPC who fits that category.

1. Grendelle Archfiend

2. Tarnished Angel

3. Fay Lord

4. The Order of the Fly

5. The Scholomance

6. The Cardinal

Each of these is a Figure of Le Great Game, but you might not know each one. The GM secretly chooses one which of the campaign Figures are your patrons. After the Lions/Foxes/Wolves procedure, your patrons use dead drops or intermediaries to give you a mission and an amount of weeks in which to complete them, unless you are already on a mission. If you succeed in that time you gain a Favor with them, if not then you get an Impatience. 

On the start of each month roll against each patron’s impatience with you. If you roll below the value, then they consider you a liability and discretely tip off vampire hunters to your location.

Favors can be used to cancel out Impatience, a week of help from one of your patrons’s other agents, information or 100 silver.

Sunflower Shells and Cherry Pits: The undigested remains of what you once more. Choose two of these.

• Gain the Ferocity ability of the Lupe.

• You may perform one Working from the Magician of your choice, using either the relevant components or by paying 1 Elon.

• Gain the Association ability of the Noble’s Man.

• Gain Los Estrallas ability of the Fay.

• Gain Cruel Barb ability of the Damosel.

• Gain Excommunicat ability of the Huguenot.

Drink From My Cup Til It Runith Over (Class: Cleric)

Everyone remember the conversion of the Cloak and Sword Sanguine class I made last year that was inspired from the half burned pages I stole from someone's attic? Well, I did some digging and have managed to track down a fully copy of class from an old magizine. Turns out I missed a major part of the class in my glog version of it. I think there's three other humor based classes out there based on the name but I haven't been able to track them down. I think the funny thing about this class is it's obviously meant to be intended only for women but nothing about it says you have to do that, I think the thought of a male character wanting to play this character simply did not occur to the author.

Sanguine

Start with: Frumpy and outdated noblewomen’s clothes, a lancet, a roll of bandage and a bundle of very strong scented herbs.


Eternal Spring: You were always a weak and sickly child. You would constantly suffer bloody noses, have trouble focusing on anything and spray blood everywhere from the smallest cuts. This terrible Blood has burdened you for as long as you lived. After each meal, grasping Esprit, being charmed, scared or another sudden surge of feeling, you gain d6 Vitae. At 5 Vitae you start to feel dizzy and faint, requiring WIS checks to think straight, at 10 Vitae you are overwhelmed and fall unconcious, only waking up when Vitae lowers below 10. There are four ways to rid yourself of it.

• Recuperation: It can be converted one for one to heal your Elon during rest.
• Mosquito: Vitae can be removed by a dracula or some sort of mosquito. Which is basically fine because they are made to do this. When such a creature deals melee damage to you, it will take Vitae before Elon. Two Vitae are equal to 1 blood ration.
• Frog: Vitae can also be removed by, say, some kind of murdersaurus, or maybe a really big frog. This is bad because they are not made for removing blood, and your Blood knows this. When such a creature deals melee damage to you, it also takes an equal amount of Vitae. If you don’t have any spare Vitae then it just deals damage as normal.
• Bloodletting: Anyone skilled with medicine can relieve you of your Vitae like a mosquito, an amateur relieves you like a frog. If they bottle it, then they need to gather at least 4 Vitae for a useful magical or alchemical reagent. Oh, also you're a universal blood donor.

Object of Desire: Other girls are prettier, more popular, and more accomplished. Despite being plain and unnoteworthy you have many admirers in the dark. Upon sight, monsters and angels hold Esprit for you, even vampyrs in guises. When you bleed, any present monsters or angels who can smell you must immediately make an Esprit Reaction Roll, with these modified results.

2 or less: If a monster attempts to eat you then and there, if an angel flees to not be a monster.
3-5: Demands allegiance.
6-8: Demands a service.
9-11: Offers a service.
12 or more: Pledges service.


Can I Fix Him?: There are monsters who are not like the others. Somewhere buried beneath the prizes and hatred you can see an ember of humanity. When you can look into the eyes of a monster ask the GM “Can I fix him?” and the GM will give one of the following answers.

• No, it is set in its nature.
• No, but you can make him worse.
• Yes, and you can make him worse.

Monsters which you change for the better or the worse fall in love with you.

Demure: You have the Harmlessness and Suggestion Graces for free, but without the MD. Roll the MD as normal and lose that much Vitae. You can’t use these Graces if your out of Vitae.

• Harmlessness- seem so helpless that unless you do violence or interfere directly, for [sum] minutes no one will harm you worse than dragging you around by the arm.
• Suggestion- target saves at -[sum] or remember a suggestion you made as their own idea.

Sympathy: When you and another person have some combination of holding Esprit for each other or have drank each other’s blood, a sympathetic bond is formed. This means that you both involuntarily share dreams and can use divination to find out how far away you are, in what direction and your current state. A sympathetic bond can be severed by an ordained priest or beguine.

Sylphe Sister: Due to the overabundance of your sanguine humor, spirits of blood, air, merriment and swords will reveal themselves to you and treat you as a younger sibling. Your Fertility type is S, despite being human.

Flutter: When you feel strong emotions a gentle summer breeze will blow around you, seemingly coincidentally. While this is happening you may spend Vitae to do the following.

• Spend it 1 for 1 to heal the Elon of someone you're fond of within sight.
• Spend 1 to blow away a piece of paper, knock away someone’s hat or so forth.
• Spend 2 to make the weapon of someone protecting you count as magical.
• Spend 2 to wreath helpful winds around someone you want to protect, granting them +2 AC.
• Spend 2 to whisper a message and have it be carried on the wind to the target regardless of distance.

Fury: When you see someone gravely injure someone you hold Esprit for, a hot and wet gale winds coil around you. Everything not nailed down gets blown around, everyone except you has -3 to hit and you need to make a WIS save or cause a ruinous thunderstorm to descend on your current location. You may also spend Vitae or Elon 1 to 1 to increase either your to-hit or damage.

Write These Name in Mercury (Class: ???)

I actually wrote this class way back during the original Cloak and Sword bandwagon, but was never quite happy with it so never posted it. It just sat in my drafts with the spider witch and the Lovely Dark CLERIC. The recent revival of the trend has gotten dig it back up.

Enigma

Start with: Ill-fitting clothes and an ill-fitting face.

Nobody Was Close: Neither of your parents were there when you were born. You are so very alone. You hold Esprit for them and can hold Esprit for no one else until you meet them.

Mystery: Everything is so hazy, you do not know what home is but you need to find it anyway. Nobody can tell you what you are, they don’t know. Peasants think you're a devil, nobles think you're a ghost, priests think you're impossible and angels have forgotten. Speculate all you want, the GM may not directly state the answer. You will need to infer from the evidence you have. When someone (including yourself) performs a test to uncover information about your nature, they state a hypothesis for what they expect to happen and roll a d6.

• 1. Their hypothesis is proven correct.
• 2-3. Their hypothesis is partially correct and something goes wrong.
• 4-6: Their hypothesis is wrong, either nothing of note happens or something goes very wrong.

Record the result somewhere, if someone performs a test under the same conditions, the results will be the same. Truth seekers and occultists which realise you do not fit known laws hold Esprit for you.

Night Creature: You are foreign yet familiar, like a half remembered stranger. Maybe if you could just find someone else like you, you wouldn’t be so lonely. You do not suffer -2 reaction with desperate forgotten things, Night’s agents and those favored by the moon. You suffer only -1 with wolves and woodsman. With everyone else you have a -2 reaction.

Sculpt Flesh: You can sculpt flesh as if it were clay with your hands or tools wet with your spit. The process is mercifully painless but the affected flesh will treat its new arrangement as natural. 

• With a simple swipe of your hand, you can cause horrible disfigurement. Opening new holes where there shouldn’t be and closing holes that should be open.
• With a few minutes to an hour, you can do sloppy work, leaving thumb prints and odd shapes. Enough to perform life emergency surgery or make someone’s face unrecognizable. 
• With a few hours of work, you can get something pretty decent. It won’t hold up to close inspection but it’s not immediately horrifying. With this time and good lighting, you can safely perform almost any surgery without the need of scalpel or anesthetic.
• With many hours of work, you can make it near perfect, with only a hint of the uncanny.
• To sculpt a convincing replica of an existing person, you need a good reference. Such as extensive and detailed drawings or their fresh corpse.

Roads To Nowhere: There are paths that only you can see, and doors only you notice. If you step in them you are taken somewhere that is to the outdoors as the outdoors are to indoors. There the wind bites, light withers and darkness swallows. A route through this space ages anyone there by 2d10 months, but is untrackable by anyone who does not know those Roads.

The First Time Changes You (Class: Assassin)

 

Assassin bandwagon, woo! Shout out to the unreality of numbers, from who I stole a lot of the mechanics.

Bleeding Heart

Starting Equipment: Unassuming clothes, a sentimental rock, 3 doses of sedatives, sad eyes, a case of tools from your second skill and a case of unusual tools.

Skills: Philosphy and 1.Anesthesiologist 2. Painter 3. Sheltered Child

Requirement: You can not take this class if you have killed.

A: Cipher, Innocence
B: Understanding

C: Gentleness

D: Cain

A: Cipher

There are grooves in the world, certain tendencies that things follow, the way water tends to go down hill. Grass frows, birds fly, Sun shines and people get hurt. You don't have to like it to get how this works.

You have a cipher score equal to your [templates] in Assassin. Given some unusual tools (1 slot for a case) and a few moments of fiddling, they have a cipher-in-6 chance of succeeding a cipher check, in addition to whatever the normal resolution rules are. The cipher skills of the assassins are, according to tradition, to Climb Sheer Surfaces, Find Or Remove Traps, Hide In Shadows, Move Silently, Pick Locks, Identify Substances and Surprise Target.

A: Innocence

You have never taken a life, but you do think about it every day. Your mind keeps drifting back to it. The ethics of what it means to kill, the countless ways someone can die, what it mans for men and dreams to end. It keeps you up at night. You fear that one day the world will force your hand, you fear that you won't be able to live with the guilt, you fear that you might like it.

The first creature you chose to kill, dies. You must still have means to do it, like a sharp rock within arm's reach or a momment with thier drink and poison. However there are no rolls or saves, it just happens.

Fortunatly for you, if the target is impervious to the method you used to kill it, then your one attempt is not wasted. However aside from that you only ever do this once, make it count.

B: Understanding

Show Vulnerability is a cipher skill for you. If you know someone's deeply personal secret, and they know a personal secret of your, then if either kills the other, they will suffer True Death.

After you first kill, you will learn the usual way these things work. For every fact that you know about your target, you have an additional +1 damage and to-hit during surprise rounds, up to a max of +4. These don't have to be major facts, but they cannot be trivial. "Drinks Earl Grey tea", "Commands the fifth cavalry", "Is named Ostruchus Poncelroy" are all good facts. "Is currently inside his tent", "Is a man", "Has two arms" are not. If you could learn it by looking at a snapshot of the current scene, it's trivial (thanks deus (thanks Arnold)).

C: Gentleness

Your hands are steady, your eyes unclouded, your heartbeat almost imperceptible. You can not kill accidentally, but if the method is excessively brutal it will still leave life-altering scars. If you are careful with your methods then you get to choose what wounds you inflict.

D: Cain

Your first kill can be used to end anything. A god, an idea, a law of reality. The only means you need is weapon that has not tasted blood. However, without Understanding it might not stay dead.

...

What? Do you want something else? You've been given the oppertunity to kill anything, what more could you ask for? If you already had your first kill before reaching template D, you'd benefit from multiclassing into something else.

Exquisite CΔrpse: Fox Hunt

Here is the post for Exquisite CΔrpse 3. I’m sure everyone was waiting at the edge of their seat for it. Thank you to the contributors. AntiTime, CatDragon, TheFirstGokun, MystralianCryatist, Semiurge PLEASE semiurge please I’m semiurge PLEASE include me, Hi Semiurge, Tanuki/Slug/Molochrome, SaltyGoo, Loch, EosOfDawn, OwlbearChickenhawk and Shadowfray. 

Fox Hunt

Despite the best efforts of the Church, various heresies, secret societies and mystery cults hide within the cracks of society like weeds. None are more frustrating to pin down than the elusive Fox Hunters. 

Their name likely comes from a saying popular in the five merchant cities, “to go on a fox hunt” means to chase a glamorous but ultimately unachievable goal. For those among my colleagues who have not studied the coastal fairytales, a fox is a kind of mischievous wolf-creature with a colorful red pelt said to steal wayward children, marry people under a disguise, and laugh terribly. Despite what drunk sailors might say, there is no such thing as a fox.

From this you would think that the moniker is a jest, an injoke of sorts, however Fox Hunters are the kind who take jokes very seriously. Vagabonds, charlatans, boogeymen, in painted masks and smoke-tinted glasses. They claim their quarry can vanish at the nearest whiff of danger so they must be masters of concealment. They claim their quarry hides in the gaps of human perception so they must see without looking. Never trust a word one says, because they are devoted to (or some say against) No God At All.

It’s difficult to distinguish which of their tricks are granted from No God At All and what is common chicanery, but this is what we know. A Hunter Aspirant must first undergo a strenuous and potentially lethal rite that makes the fledgling “less real” or “more fake” depending on who you ask. Hunters Aspirant are limited to tricks that are generally reproducible via mundane means except for the boons they might seek from the three Vermin Kings, who can warp the marginally unreal Aspirant to better serve in their court. Above them are the Hunters Imminent, called so because they supposedly have seen a living fox, which let me remind you, does not exist. Whatever they think they found allows them to commit crimes against reality, traffic with spirits and earn great fame. Most mysterious of all are the Hunters Actual, who are whispered to have actually caught a fox, which to reiterate is not possible. Thes urban legends are claimed to be favored by fate.

FRIEND OF THE EMPTY SPACES (Primeumaton)

On the brink of starvation, in total darkness, swallow a stone that has been worn smooth by an underground river. 

The empty spaces of the world acknowledge that you belong there. As long as you are in an enclosed space underground, you have perfect blindsight and can never die of hunger or thirst, although you will still waste away and grow weak if you don't eat or drink. The light of the sun feels uncomfortably hot on your skin, no matter what the temperature is. It doesn't want you anymore.

Aspirant Tricks

One must be a FRIEND OF THE EMPTY SPACES to learn these tricks.

VACANT MOUSE HOLE (Gorinich Serpant)

Be locked in a cage, and in said cage be brought into structure that is vast, forgotten and stripped of anything of value. You must be left there for a week. Then those who carried you here must come back and earnestly try to find you again. If they succeed try again. 

When in the dark and unseen, you can fit through any hole that can fit your skull. When in the dark, unseen and no one imagines you could be there, fit through any hole you can fit your thumb. It's advised not to explain how this power works, because your allies are not no ones.

Substitution (AnyTime)

Avoid great consequences for your misdeeds by within a moments notice hiding in an absurdly unlikely manner, such as by placing a lampshade over your head, or fitting into a small crate while leaving your boots under the curtain as decoy. 

If your exact position has not been established, you can declare that you were hiding in plain sight all along. Once per day, if you would be found out, you can declare that it was actually just a human-sized decoy you left there, and you are already running away.

Mousehole Ridealong (Semiurge)

Save a rodent from a trap or cat, then follow it to gain an audience with the Rat King. Make a good impression on him. 

If you feed a mouse or rat a luxurious ration, such as it could never scavenge from the garbage (worth twice as much as a regular ration) you can grab its tail and be pulled along by it through an opening big enough to fit it but not you.

Knight of the Rat King (Loch)

After making a good impression on the Rat King, swear fealty to him. 

You are given a loyal retainer, a 1HD Rat-Knight. He takes the form of a dog-sized black rat with +1 to Hit, that can take the form of a halfling if it's entirely necessary (he would prefer not to.) The Rat-Knight is a wonderful tracker and a connoisseur of wines.

Sleep With Fishes (TheFirstGokun)

Woo the Salmon King, and learn one of his many secrets. 

You are given a loyal retainer, a 1HD Mermaid. She takes the form of a woman with a fishy tail or a fishy head, whichever is more convenient. She is trained in social graces and piano, and can always point towards true North. Once, she can produce a pearl worth 40gp from her mouth.

Making Waves (Eos)

Marry the Salmon King, and have him allow you to see his true form. 

Any retainers you have gains a permanent bonus HD if they swear an oath of loyalty to you and your husband, lost should your covenant of marriage ever be broken, in addition you are now a mermaid of some sort. Choose a single aquatic creature, whenever the physical characteristics of that creature would be beneficial for you to have, you have them, and whenever they would be detrimental you don't. This can never make you appear fully human or fully like the creature, you are always obviously both.

Pirate Wings (CatDragon)

Swear an oath of service to the Bird King. 

You grow a pair of large bird wings out of your back. It takes a full round and some personal space to gain enough momentum to launch into the air. You may fly 40’ per round, but painfully lose these wings if you ever break your oath to the Bird King.

Explorer's Hearsay (Saltygoo)

Bury a chest with treasures in an abandoned or uncharted place. 

Once per new region you travel to, you happen to know the location of a buried chest filled with objects of your choice worth as much as the content of your chest. You can always go back to your original cache to increase its value, but there is 2/6 chance each time it has been looted.

Tracking (Owlbear)

Spend a month in intimate contact with a certain substance, and an hour a day analyzing its texture, composition, notable information. 

You can track any creature you are familiar with over the terrain you chose. Popular terrain options include grass, sand, marble, snow, mud, cobbled stones, water, and ectoplasm (for ghost hunters).

Trappist (MystralianCryatist)

Spend a month tracking a single creature. If you ever lose its trail, start again. 

Having tracked this creature, you know its habits. Therefore, you know exactly where and how to place traps that it won’t notice. This functions on all creatures which have similar habits (small land mammal, dragon, noble, frost wraith, swamp leech, city spirit, sea serpent, unquiet dead, etc), and allows you to either enhance the difficulty to discover your trap or the damage it will inflict if it is undetected.

ACME Subscription (Molochrome)

trick an enemy into willingly stepping into a damaging trap you or they prepared beforehand, or; survive an encounter with one hp, against a opponent you were planning to eat. 

Against a specific form of damage or individual creature, chosen beforehand and unchangeable for a day, you can never be brought below 1hp or be given a wound by a single attack of that type or by that creature. Furthermore, once per week you may sacrifice an amount of gold equal to your current hp doubled to summon up to your remaining gold divided by your current Wounds or the difference between your maximum health and current health in non-magical equipment or weapons.

COYOTE TIME (Shadowfray)

Unintentionally knock yourself to 0 HP, such as being tricked into stepping into one of your own traps. 

As long as you don't look down you can't fall. When you hit 0 HP you can perform one more action before falling unconscious / dying.

Imminent Tricks

One must see a living fox with your own two eyes to learn these tricks.

VULPINE EYES (CatDragon)

Strike an accord with a creature that does not exist, or somehow steal a decade of someone’s lifespan. 

People can’t break eye contact with your vibrant gaze unless you let them.

Sower of Fangs (Semiurge)

Hunt down and consume a creature with nothing but your teeth and nails. Break a tooth upon its bones, and plant the broken shard among a tree's roots. 

Bury a beast's tooth, or embed it in a surface. Thereafter you can command the tooth to sprout into a copy of that beast's head, which bites everything it can reach for 1d6 rounds before rotting into mulch.

Veil of the Other (Owlbear)

Dissect a rock formation, a tree, an animal and a sentient being. Stop when you find their soul. Then find what’s beneath it. 

You know what’s below you, behind you, and in shadows you aren’t observing. If someone is trying to keep a secret from you, you learn the secret. If they hide from you, you find them; if they whisper, you hear their words; you read the bluff from the poker face, and see the palimpsest by means of the history that hides it.

Rewind (AntiTime)

Talk with an ancient clock to understand why is time constantly running forward, and what exactly is it fleeing from. Purge yourself of the fear that fuels time. If you are ever cured from this madness, start over. 

Causality is more of a suggestion to you. By performing movement exactly in reverse, you can undo actions you have taken. Unstab someone you have killed, untrigger a trap you have stepped on, uncook a fried egg. Going more than 83 seconds back is inadvisable

Uncity Navigation (Gorinich Serpant)

Enter into a transitory space, like a train station or airport, somewhere with high traffic but no one lives. Then wander unthinking, following the crowd, letting the mass of people wear away your sense of direction like how currents wear away the jagged edges on river stones. Continue until your in a city you do not recognise, then continue until your in a city that is not a city. If you make eye contact during this process, start again. 

If you choose to get lost in an urban environment, you will find yourself in the Uncity. It is not meant for people, it is nor meant for demons, it is not meant for anything. There is no one here, just endless senseless architecture. In the false light of this place, you are beyond the touch of the sun and it's laws. Most would be doomed to never find a way out, but you can sense the sun's heat leaking in through the fractures. Follow this heat to return back to a real city, but it might not be the same time, place or world you entered.

Congratulations! You have reached Lvl 99 in [Ẽ̶̔R̵͐̚R̸̀͛Ơ̷̑R̷͂̏]! You have obtained a Skillscape! (Monochrome)

Spend 3 IRL hours cumulative over multiple session's or multiple attempts at different things of the same nature, attempting and failing to accomplish or complete any non-combat task or stricture that could be labeled under a one-word definition and name. This is your “Skill”.(Ex. “Sleeping”, “Cooking”, “Juggling”, “Runecrafting”, “Skateboarding”) You can obtain multiples of this ∆elta, but the level/bonus cap is 5 lower for every following skill, through it cannot fall below +5. 

Whatever Skill you have qualified for is now your life. You Are a Bowyer, or Jester, or a Goth. This is recognized and approved of by the universe (big definitions appended to your soul make it easier to decide where to place you after you die). You always get a +1 or advantage, whichever is more advantageous once you have gained your Skill. Every time you succeed at a task or a roll falling under the conceptual umbrella of your Skill, you may Level Up, increasing your bonus by one, or how many dice you can roll for advantage. These levels are independent of anything besides your Skill and stacks up to a sum total of all your individual Skills at Level 30. Every multiple of ten you have Leveled in a Skill is another degree of regional, national, international fame in ever increasing umbrella’s outside your area of expertise (you ever seen a scientist or politician or religious figure that could shut up and stick to their lane? For good or ill?) until you are the undisputed global authority on your Skill. This usually falls around Lvl 25.

Living Legend (Saltygoo)

Get your name or alias published and disseminated through books/pamphlets/bounty notices across all of the 5 great merchant cities 

When you dramatically reveal your name to creatures that share a language with you, you can project an aura backed up by your reputation up to the size of a galleon or as small as a rat. For people who understand you, you will be treated as if you were as big as your aura. If your reputation is of excellence, violence, or bravery, your aura can only be bigger than you, causing them to avoid crossing that space or be accordingly intimated. The bravest or most reckless might see it as a challenge. If your reputation is of incompetence or cowardice, your aura can only be smaller than you, leading people to ignore or underestimate you.

King Rat (Loch)

Become master of all criminals in a great merchant city. 

You can turn a few gallons of water into bathtub gin with a wave of your hand, and you'll know if your criminal underlings betray you.

City Veins (Primeumaton)

In a city where you rule the criminal underworld, make records of the actual underworld beneath it; tunnels, basements, sewers, dungeons, et cetera. Leave no passage uncatalogued. Then, start adding your own. 

You are a ruler of the world below the world, but not the ruler. Yet. In the dungeons beneath your city, you cannot be impeded. Locks and traps open and disarm themselves before you; monsters and other subterranean critters, such as criminals, at least begrudgingly respect you, and will not attack you unless they have no other choice. In other subterranean places, such as wilderness dungeons or other cities, you are regarded as a foreign lord- no doubt suspicious, but not the kind of person you can murder on sight.

Come a-Knocking (TheFirstGokun)

Locate three of the following: the debtor, on the run; the double-agent, a mask behind a mask; the sniper, motionless at their post; the sponsor, in their opulent seclusion; the one pulling all the strings. 

You can find anyone. They get one Save to see you coming.

A Slippery Slope (Eos)

By way of debt, friendship, feud, marriage, and infamy; become socially submerged enough in the world of spirits to obtain a Spiritual Name that others can call upon or recognize you by. 

You, for all purposes, are a Spirit not a mortal. This gives you a limited toolbox of negotiated power based on which spirits you are most aligned with or against upon the moment of acquiring a Spiritual Name but at minimum you always acquire these changes:

• Can glamor yourself to appear your original mortal form

• Know if anyone you make direct eye contact with is a spirit of not. Many more people are then most expect. (All talking animals and kings are spirits, for example, if they know it or not)

• No longer age

Beyond the Veil (MystralianCryatist)

Whether by guile, force, or public opinion, reveal ten hidden spirits as what they are. Withstand what retribution they unleash. They must be knowingly disguising themselves to count. This gives you the Title of Veilbreaker, appended to your Spiritual Name or becoming your Spiritual Name should you lack one. 

Your glamor, should you have one, is enhanced. This applies both to a Spirit glamor of mortality and to spells/prayers/techniques of illusion or disguise. Having broken so many glamors, you become aware whenever someone attempts to break your own. This manifests as a roll to resist magical dispersal, a bonus against scrutiny, or a detriment inflicted on others through mysterious means - whichever suits the situation (ask GM). Additionally, it functions as a sovereign remedy against those problems which sovereigns cannot remedy. Namely: when glamored you are immune to being detected as a spirit by direct eye contact. Additionally, every time you sunder another hidden spirit’s disguise you gain one MD. This does not stack, and is capped at one.

When obtaining it, roll 1d6 to pick from the following:

(0.) Dispels your glamor on cast, or at the most inconvenient moment soon afterwards. 

(1.) Counts at 2 (Sum) when used in a spell that gives you or an ally/allies the benefit of an illusion or disguise. 

(2.) As per 1, but counts as two Dice being used instead of counting as 2 (Sum). 

(3.) As 1, but for dispelling illusions or disguises from others instead of granting them. 

(4.) As 2, but with 3’s dispelling proviso.

(5.) Can be used to cast Inverted Glamor on a person or object, causing them to register as a spirit even though they aren’t. 

(6.) Can be converted into a crown and sold for the usual sum that a crown of its type and material sells for. Roll two further d6 subtables. 

• Materials: (0. Antimagic 1. Copper 2. Bronze 3. Iron (or false iron, if the campaign has iron as harmful to Spirits) 4. Lead 5. Gold 6. Silver 7. Faesteel) 

• Type: (0. Symbol of Blasphemy 1. Torc 2. Diadem 3. Hoop Crown 4. Crown coin 5. Skullcap [cervelliere] 6. Tooth Cap 7. Writ of Safe Passage)

(7.) Automatically expends itself to negate the next negative effect you would receive. Cannot activate manually, and cancels out the next MD gain from sundering a disguise.

The Many Masked (Shadowfray)

Impersonate another for a week without getting caught, then make an offering to the Masked Saint. 

With an hours work and suitable materials (costing as much as a heavy sword) you can craft a mask of anyone you have seen. By blessing this mask with the hair or blood of the creature you are emulating the mask now holds their image in its memory. Donning the mask you take on the perfect visage of them until the mask is removed.

Actual Tricks

One must catch a fox to learn these tricks. What you do with the caught fox is your choice.

Plot Armor (Shadowfray)

Have a goal you burn to complete, then get as close as possible to death as the ruleset allows but survive. Plot Armor cannot be used to gain this template. 

Whenever you would die you may expend this template. If you do, somehow you don't die, even through nearly impossible contrived events.

Reality is Stranger than Fiction (MystralianCryatist)

A series of seemingly impossible events happens to you. (Clarify with GM if whatever you are thinking of counts.) 

Damned, Saved, or Bemused by the events that occurred, you have devoted your life to the study of such tale-worthy talk. As such, you can cause a Certain Death, Defied Death, or inExplicable Miracle to occur for one other person. This, unfortunately, is so mentally strenuous that setting it up clears your mind's first-hand accounts of them. Actually witnessing your orchestrated event occur wipes your memory of the initial event - thus removing your motivation to research, and this template. Should you successfully execute a plan, you can regain the wherewithal to enact another one with several months-to-a-year's worth (check with GM) of first-hand research into such events - different than the ones used for the previous plan, of course!

Endless Pages (Shadowfray)

Finish a grand quest, then immortalize it in an epic.

With a quick ritual you can blur the lines between realities and enter any piece of fiction you know and bring along friends. If you play a role and reach the story's conclusion you get a boon chosen by the GM. Take care straying from the known path, for reality gets weirder the further you travel and the longer you stay. Some even say routes to other stories exist if you know how to look.

Discussion

I don't have much too say about the details of this Exquisite CΔrpse becouse I have been sitting on it for many months and the initial thoughts have run away somewhere. I think after having done three of these community events, I think my favorite part of them is trying to integrate them into a cohesive whole from the disperate themes everyone puts together. I don't know if there will be a fourth, on one hand I have a neat gimmick in mind, on the other hand deltas were going out of fashion back when I posted Forest Law and are absolutely out of fashion now. We'll see.