This post requires the Reliquaries book to make sense of.  You are warned.

Thirty Silver Coins

Somewhere someone finds an old coin.  It may be a clear Roman silver denarius.  It may be a tarnished and blackened disc that is barely recognizable as metal.  Regardless the coin is oddly cold to the touch, as if it had just been removed from a freezer.  Despite that it feels comfortable as if something had just slipped loose from their mind, something bothering them.  And then the voice appears.  Rough or kind, sly or direct, it varies with the coin but consistent.  Each coin is different.  The legend is that Judas Iscariot betrayed his brethern and fled with thirty silver coins.  he died alone in a field, his guts exploded and his coins scattered as they fell.  Some say he rose himself damned, while his coins were gathered by a magician who bound thirty damned souls or thirty fallen angels into them.  Others laugh at this.  Thirty?  How many have really been seen?  A dozen at most?  Well, some are held by the church.  The arguments can persist for hours as obscure texts are cited and references made to odd cults.  And the arguments are fairly friendly, a recurring thing among antiquarians familiar with the dark items of the world.  They don’t laugh if they find one though.

The entities in the silver coins may or may not be angels but they are creatures of pure intellect, bound to the coins and unable to effect the world around them except through the will of their owner.  Once touched with the skin the coin may speak to the owner through a psychic link by implanting a part of its own consciousness in the mind and brain of its owner.  After that the consciousness has all of its victim’s lifetime to teach them, to convince them to take up the coin and invite in the full awareness of that entity.  What follows are two separate sets of power.  One is for a coin that has been touched, where the entity is trying to corrupt the wielder.  Alone that is a powerful artifact.  Most who have touched a coin can hope for nothing more than by pure will power to ignore the voice, the voice of an ancient tempter who knows human nature and its variants well.  Time tends to favor the one who knows how to manipulate virtue as well as vice and blurs the line.

Reward Temptation – This power has no chance of failure with the coin, it always succeeds with the coin’s awareness bolstering the wielde’rs though an exceptional success only occurs on the wielder’s own roll.  The degeneration that this encourages certainly helps when they eventually succumb and fully take up the coin.  And the coin does deliver power though it may not fully explain the cost.

Soul Inheritance – This power offers much of the intangible temptation to the coin holder as it allows them great skill in one area.  Which category of skills can be boosted depends upon the coin, not the wielder and most are mental though a few are social or physical.  Ultimately, those can increase physical skills are the least dangerous and mental the most.  Many of the coins can teach very obscure magical knowledge if mental skills are their forte through their bonuses.  Many coin holders have gained skills as sorcerers, alchemists, body thieves, skin changers and more.  Unsurprisingly for those who value their own self above all else they often seek a way for immortality quickly.

Is the voice of the coin a damned magician, an ifreet or a fallen angel?  Answers have varied but all those listed are skilled liars and they may not even know themselves.  It is rumored that a soul fully corrupted by the coin becomes one with it, knows all its secrets and bound to join it before death.  Such a soul if redeemed would know how to destroy it but by then they do not want redemption.  Only a wielder who out of virtue willingly abandons the coin can be free it of it and although cases have been documented they are also rare and none fully corrupted have.  No established magic can destroy the coins though legends claim that each does have a bane.

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This entry was inspired by the Order of the Blackened Denarius from The Dresden Files.  However, I took the coins in a different direction and was inspired to make them a more subtle bit of shadow in the world, an enabler rather than being raw vibrant power unlike those Harry Dresden has to face.

The Hombyr Index (relic rating 4)

Durability 1, Size 2, Structure 2

Description: This massive tome, measures larger than an unabridged dictionary at 50 square centimeters on each side and nearly 25 centimeters thick.  The binding and paper are those typical of 19th century professional book making and the cover is cured deer leather.  Although the pages are obviously worn and old, bearing numerous markings of smudged fingers, exposure to light, even a few scratches and rubbed ink the pages are not brittle, everything is legible, and the binding is strong.  It’s language is English and someone with experience might notice some conventions that betray 19th century scholarship.  The title page reads, in the same text as the rest of the book, “An Index of Specialized Bibliographic and Cartographic Materials of the Special Collections Library of the University of London with Notations and Additions.”  The verso gives a publication date of 1878, no publisher and lists “Robert Hombyr” as the editor.

Background: According to legend the Hombyr Index was compiled by a librarian at the University of London in the mid 19th century who was a member of many occult societies.  The librarian built an index of many obscure occult works along with summaries and notations to aid in his research.  He also left open pages and long blank spaces to add more notes as he worked after having it printed.  His last act before he died was to type it himself on a type writer he had built specifically to the task with many odd keys to accommodate the specials sigils he sometimes needed.  According to legend he even attended art classes to develop the skill to do any needed illustrations himself.  He then learned how to bind the book himself and left additional space left for someone else to add to it.  He died within weeks peacefully in his sleep from no obvious source but stress from a handful of chronic ailments and age (he was 78) were cited.

The book was left to the the special collections library who added it to the ready reference shelf.  Within a few years the book had disappeared and next appeared in the 1910s in New York City.  From there it has shown up twice more.  It has been sold, stolen and inherited.  Every owner has expanded it and it always seems to have more room and oddly over time each owner’s hand writing slowly evolves to almost exactly match the odd typewriter strikes of the original work.  Many have noted that small tears and ink spills that impair the text seem to repair themselves over time.  The more morbid believe that it may take a price from its owner to keep itself healthy.  Certainly many owners have complained of odd allergies and aches after coming into possession of the tome.

Storytelling: The Hombyr Index is not a grotesque boon of power.  If anything it’s power is actually fairly subtle in that it simply aids in research but is exhausting to use.  However, demand for it is broad from mages researching rotes to vampires researching wyrm nests to changelings seeking a keeper’s bane to werewolves seeking understanding of the borderlands – knowledge is power.  A current owner isn’t necessarily a mystic though.  The book could have been inherited less interested in its mystic value than its fiscal worth or perhaps is unaware entirely.  Among mystic circles its value multiplies with the resources of those who own it, meaning that it is even more valuable to someone who has amassed a great library than a neonate.  This means that a powerful mage or leader of an occult community could have a lot to gain from taking it or coming to a complimentary arrangement with a younger member of the community.

Effect: Enhance Research, Wits + Academics.

The Hombyr Index is a useful compliment to any other research materials just as any added index is but a bit more.  Oddly no matter how obscure the work, the language, or publication the Index has entries for it.  Even new books are somehow in it.  As a result it has the effect of doubling the bonus of any related research materials.  Effectively any library that grants a bonus to a supernatural or magical research roll is doubled to a maximum of +4 by someone using the Hombyr Index.  This does not aid in the researching of new rotes, blood sorceries or other magics but at the Storyteller’s discretion may give half the bonus rounded up based on aiding in related research if not the magic itself.  Even magical tomes are indexed in the Hombyr Index though most of the writers did not understand the magical principles and thus there are many more omissions and failures there.  Additionally, use of the Index will cut any extended time research rolls in half that primarily use bibliographic or cartographic data as their basis.  Many maps are cited as well and in the last thirty years possessors have begun adding electronic notations citing databases and web sites as well as the traditional serials and monographs.

Cost: 2 Willpower + 2 Bashing Damage.  The index is a massive and obscure work though very useful and it takes intense concentration (willpower) to use it.  This intense concentration does in fact cause its own physical stress to match the mental stress.

If the book is ever damaged it will drain health from its owner to repair itself, the damage manifesting as odd allergic attacks and arthritic pains.  Some less careful owners find this to be a greater problem than others do.

Here Jim is in all his mechanical glory.  I used material from Savage and Macabre, Ancient Mysteries, The Rage, Armory, Armory Reload, Shadows of Mexico, Vampire the Requiem and World of Darkness to build this character.  Aside from the issue of a character undergoing cyclical torpor to keep his blood potency down and maintain his humanity it was also interesting to build a combat monster with restraint, who had once been a shaman and who fought like a werewolf as that was who he learned combat from.

If I have time I will post about his spirit totem and a later version of what Jim might look like if he recruits a new pack, has the benefits of a totem (currently Eyes Among the Stars is withholding his favor until Jim accomplishes some tasks) and the pack tactics that could come from that.  But I’m going to do some new posts first with some other ideas.

For more info look in these posts as well:
About Jim http://khallam.heyokastudios.net/?p=157
History http://khallam.heyokastudios.net/?p=146
Dire-Wolf Devotion http://khallam.heyokastudios.net/?p=160

Vampire Stat Template

Clan: Gangrel
Bloodline: Dead Wolves
Covenant: none
Embrace: ?
Apparent Age: 22

Mental: Intelligence 3, Wits 4, Resolve 5
Physical: Strength 5, Dexterity 5, Stamina 5
Social: Presence 2, Manipulation 2, Composure 4

Mental Skills: Academics 1, Investigation (Dreams) 2, Medicine 2, Occult (Spirits, Werewolves) 4, Science 1
Physical Skills: Athletics (Running) 4, Brawl (Claws) 5, Drive 1, Stealth (Darkness) 5, Survival (Tracking) 4
Social Skills: Animal Ken (Birds, Wolves) 2, Expression (Oration) 3, Intimidation 3, Persuasion (Negotiate) 2, Socialize 2, Subterfuge (Hiding Emotions) 3

Merits: English 2, Spanish 2, Status City 3, Brawling Dodge, Combat Style (Talon and Fang) 5, Combat Style (Evasive Striking) 5, Tenacious Consciousness, Swarm Mind (Rat), Swarm Mind (Bat)

Willpower: 9
Humanity: 4
Virtue: Fortitude
Vice: Lust (for enacting the sensations of his life)
Health: 10
Initiative: 9
Defense: 4
Speed: 15
Size: 5

Blood Potency: 4
Vitae/per Turn: 13/2
Disciplines: Auspex 5, Celerity 3, Vigor 4, Animalism 4, Sublunario 4 [all moon phases], Resilience 5, Protean 5 [2: water, wood, natural stone, processed stone, natural soil; 4: wolf, bat, rat, raven, coyote, owl]
Devotions: Gargoyle’s Watch, Languar’s Denial, Wolf-Man, Dire-Wolf, Instantaneous Transformation, Partial Transformation

Dire Wolf (Protean 4 [wolf form], Resilience 2, Vigor 2)

Jim staged a guerrilla war against werewolves for centuries.  In full war form his strategy was simple – avoid them, and let their rage run out.  However, very often the wolves fought in urshul form with no human society to encourage them to stay in humanoid form.  Jim’s solution was simple – he countered by developing a discipline that built on his Protean’s wolf form to give himself a counter part to an urshul form.

Cost: 1 Vitae (in addition to the base cost for Protean 4, so 2 Vitae total)
Dice Pool: no roll necessary
Action: Instant

The cost of Dire Wolf can be spent in 1 round or spread out over several if the vampire can not spend 2 vitae in a single round but it also prolongs the transformation.  The Dire Wolf form lasts for a full scene and interacts with other disciplines and devotions just as Protean 4 would.  The Dire Wolf is usually one size larger than the vampire themselves (size 7 total) and will gain two extra temporary health boxes in addition to three bonus perception dice, +1 lethal bite attack, a +1 lethal claws attack, may make a bite attack without grappling a foe and doubles the character’s speed.  In the modern nights however this form is obviously unnatural and the vampire does not have a lupine’s advantage of lunacy to protect it from random onlookers.

Kindred interested in surviving are recommended to also activate any vigor, resilience and any celerity they have if they are battling werewolves.

This power costs 24 experience points to learn.

About Jim

The timing of Jim is good. I’ve thought about Jim for a long time.  He’s a powerful and interesting NPC and as a result he’s also a delicate challenge for entry into a game.   While it is nice to put that sort of ancient into a game because it is cool you also don’t want to totally over shadow players.  The timing is also good because the mechanical issue that first brought Jim to my mind came up on the WW forums yesterday.  Someone asked if there were any 6th level disciplines.  I replied that there were and gave a mechanical run down of high level disciplines in the nWoD.  Then they asked if there were any examples out there or player made ones.  One poster commented that they wouldn’t bother since with torpor wiping out things above 5 they were an XP sink.  I can both understand but disagree with that stance.  Ironically, Jim is a creation of exactly that philosophy.  But, Jim is also a creation of an immortal spirit with a very different view of things.

Let me explain.

My argument for exploring high level disciplines is based on a number of factors.  One, high level powers can be very cool and allow a lot of player customization of their character and the fact that a player’s experience and goals can be quite different from their character’s shouldn’t be ignored.  Secondly, the idea that characters will automatically think in terms translatable to game mechanics, think that long term (250+ years excluding diablerie) when many may lose their unlives in that time, identify this as thier own best interest (versus accumulating wealth or knowledge for example) and act in their best interests consistently.  Humans don’t, nor do vampires.  Finally, let’s use an analogy.  Let’s say that the danse macabre is a war.  You can sacrifice so many battles focusing on a long term strategem that you lose the war by attrition.

So, about Jim.

There are a few things to understand about Jim.  One is that he is a monster.  He is built as you’ll see in his stats with over 1,200 points of experience is ancient but his focus has also been narrow.  Sure, he knows a great deal but if you’re looking for secrets that encompass the entire ancient world, the Strix, vampire origins, or far more than you won’t find it here.  What you will find is a combat monster.  It isn’t that Jim is maxed out – there is certainly more that could be done but among his various abilities you will find a vampire who has hunted werewolves for thousands of years.  What he really wants though is family.  He wants to remember being alive.  He wants to see the eyes of children like those of his neices and nephews, children he will never have himself.  At heart Jim is still the shaman of a clan among the great forests that over many centuries migrated south and west.  His Auspex was gained from his shaman powers translating into his vampiric existence.  He hasn’t just hunted on the front lines of a war but night in and out hunted the sands and forests of his existence for the chance to murder.  He is still capable of love, compassion and trust but hunting and violence come more easily now.  Only the fact that those he has hunted have deserved it and the guidance of his totem have kept him from degenerating in humanity.

However, he is also a stranger to the danse macabre.  Until recently he never saw the powers of Dominate, Nightmare or Majesty, never saw Nosferatu, Daeva, Ventrue or Mekhet.  He never heard of the traditions, only the laws given by Eyes Among the Stars.  He doesn’t have much in the way of social merits yet.  His City Status comes from sheer notoriety and he doesn’t know how to accumulate power yet either.  He certainly isn’t a mindless bruiser but he will have a learning curve.  Opprotunities will present themselves and some such as the chance to the learn the Coils of the Dragon will be tempting.  In Khallam he has the chance to make friends again, to find himself part of a society and perhaps refind a part of himself, the shaman, that he hasn’t had much cause to connect to since he became his people’s premier warrior against the Pure.  He has a duty though, to find any that remain of his people and any that remain of the Pure.  He will nurture one and exterminate the other.

He also has the ear of a spirit.  Eyes Among the Stars talks to Jim, the only remaining member of the pack.  At first others of Jim’s blood joined the werewolves and eventually only vampires were left.  His connection to the spirit is very strong.  And the spirit’s goals are it’s own.

Attempts have been made to validate Jim’s story and his tribe of origin but so far all have failed.  If there is any evidence buried in the deserts around Khallam it hasn’t been found yet and it may never be.

Here is what is known.  Shortly after Byron arrived in Khallam a vampire, who looked Indian, appeared and claimed to have just risen from torpor.  The two quickly became friends as werewolves attacked.  The werewolves were members of an indiginous Indian culture.  The vampire who took the name Jim claimed that they had after thousands of years of war had destroyed his people.  Jim was grim, admitting that the battle had ranged over vast distances and his people’s nation had changed names and even languages over that great period of time.  He was born in a place of vast verdant forests but he would stay here where his people had finally met their end.  Jim stayed through the 1920s but it was after he went into torpor again that the werewolves felt emboldened and attacked.  Jim rose again briefly in the 1960s and 1970s but returned to torpor for reasons no one really understands.  Whenever asked Jim would reply cryptically that he was waiting.  In 2009 Jim has risen again and now cryptically will  respond that it is the time to remain.

Appearance: Back Again Jim is a short man, only 5′ 6″ tall and lanky.  He has a dark, dark tan that few people ever see anymore and some might think him black except for his clear aboriginal American features.  Jim’s soul is ancient and if anyone doubts that they only have to see his eyes and peer into them.  He is so old now that Jim doesn’t have to put up barriers.  He will expose his heart to the world but those seeking to capture some secret from him are in danger of falling in.  His soul has aged with him, he can still remember joy and happiness but he has not experienced them in a present tense in so long.  He can still invoke the memories though and do so with a ferociousness that puts shame to the most bon vivant Daeva.  And he knows battle.  Even as a mortal man Jim was intelligent, even wise.  As an ancient kindred he has felt the death of more enemies, dangerous ones, than he can remember and ritualized the experience.  Every footstep, every word, ever breath taken to speak seems like a ritual with Jim, something redone, considered, calculated, planned and done from experience.  It is unnerving for younger kindred to watch an elder so old that he watches the world as if everything is something he can remember from before, every action something done so often he can do it with the precision of an olympic swimmer’s stroke.

The truth of Jim’s history is impossible to verify. Although short his torpors have been numerous enough to put any recollection in doubt regardless of apparent clarity. Industrious kindred can piece together this tale. It isn’t that Jim considers any of it a secret but while he once told great tales by firelight it has been several centuries sine he had any regular conversation, and centuries before since he had anyone that could actually be called a companion.

Jim was born with the gift of second sight, was bright and had a gift for oration and was a competent if not enthusiastic hunter. By the time of his birth the Forsaken of his people (all Hunters In Darkness) had been locked in war with the Pure of another people for longer than memory provided for. However their births had faltered and while many seemed born of wolf blood few with the changing gift came into the world. It was Jim who met in a vision a great spirit called Eyes Among The Stars.

It was Eyes who offered Jim a contract. Jim never speaks of the offer but will tell the result. The tribe discovered that the Pure had tainted them and a curse was upon them. Eyes offered an option for survival. A warrior from a southern land would be near soon. He was tainted with a demon but it gave him strength too and made him need blood. Let the werewolves feed him and he could embrace the wolf blooded and make warriors. The tribe debated. They chose only one to die – Jim. After a few years the stranger moved on and Jim sired new warriors and passed on what he had learned. Eyes Among the Stars passed on laws and soon became the patron of the tribe.  These laws kept the new guardian kindred among their families, made them responsible to the tribe as well as apart, and though they never knew it kept them weaker and their torpors short.

Until Khallam arose Jim hadn’t known there were other vampires. The Gangrel who embraced him had come from the south but where is still unclear. Jim is of a bloodline with ties to werewolves.  In Mexico the bloodline is called the Dead Wolves but it is obviously far older than modern Mexicans claim. Why did this vampire want the blood of werewolves?  Was he of this bloodline already, sire it or did Jim? Not even Jim claims to know.  Perhaps they aren’t even the same blood but a mystic example of parrallel evolution.

But tonight he has awoken.  In a campaign the rush to contact Jim would be significant.  Dreams and portents will tell of Jim’s awakening.  Although he lacks the deep blood and powers of an ancient, the breadth and completeness of his prowess could shift matters greatly for any faction that claimed him.  For his part Jim is disinclined to join any covenant though he might be convinced.  Eyes Among the Stars still exists and speaks to Jim.  Jim wants to see the Forsaken return and will speak to Byron about the nature of werewolves once he learns that they are not unique to this area.  The age of modern movies and media will teach Jim a lot.

Failing to bring the Forsaken to Khallam Jim will try to assemble a pack of his own, of other Gangrel, perhaps even embracing again.  Buried within history books someone might even discover that not all of Jim’s people died.  The earliest Anglo settlers found a small family that survived the last of the Pure’s raids while Jim was sleeping.  Jim would pay much for this information and even more for those who could find the descendants of those few.  Jim will not leave the area, not while the Pure exist so he might need agents – to find the families, to find Forsaken, for many things.  JIm has much he could do.  He is a powerful ally and knows a great deal about werewolves, spirits and Protean powers that he could teach as well.

He would also willingly play on your basketball team.  He loves midnight pickup games of basketball, a game that reminds him of his human life.  Indeed, much of Jim is defined by his lust for his once living days, his willingness to throw himself into that which might remind him of what it felt like to once breathe.

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