“An object at rest remains at rest and an object in motion remains in motion with the same speed and same direction unless acted upon by an unbalanced force.” - Newton’s first law
Human beings tend to perceive the world as being made up of immutable points and concepts, this provides a sense of stability. As children they are eager explorers and as adolescents and young adults seek to challenge and change their environment as a part of establishing themselves but eventually there comes a point at which most set their views and their self-image and go no further without upheaval. Sometimes this conflicts with a world which leaves things behind: the elderly woman who doesn’t understand kids these days and doesn’t want to, the disenfranchised rustbelter who laments an economic policy of laissez-faire abandonment or the office manager who can’t keep up with technology. An unwillingness or inability to move with change that is soon steamrollered by the cruel passage of time.
The emotional pollution of this conflict pools in quiet, almost-forgotten places building up like black mold. Left alone it does more harm than good, emitting a localised gravity of inflexibility that mires people already struggling to fit an unfamiliar world and those trying to change things. You can skim it off if you know how, not only will this alleviate the problem (a little, human stubbornness is a bigger issue) but collect enough of it and the blue, tarry substance will provide you with a +20% shift to magickal attempts to keep something as it is. Alternatively if it forms a critical mass a caretaker will emerge.
Caretakers are creatures of stasis and frighteningly literal. They latch on to a physical place, called a locus, maintaining it exactly as it is - given the conditions they are created in a caretaker is more likely to keep something in a ruinous state than pristine. Many loci gain a reputation as haunted. It isn’t unfair, aside from the power to restore the locus to its original form (at the time of adoption) a caretaker is very territorial and telekinetic. They behave like poltergeists, dangerous ones. That old hospital that never gets torn down which all those kids died in last year? A caretaker dropped them down an elevator shaft for repeatedly graffiting the maternity ward. It got chalked up as misadventure.
You can get on one’s good side if you’re willing to play ball. More than one person sleeping rough has fallen under the protection of a caretaker by working to keep their surroundings "clean". Beware however, taxing a caretaker’s abilities repeatedly can earn its wrath if it comes to see your presence as a catalyst for change no matter your intention.
Destruction of a caretaker’s locus puts an end to it, a change that can be a symbol of reform or drag people under or both depending on the circumstances. Add 2d10+10% to any active objectives based on altering the local environment for doing so. All of them, not just yours. Alternatively if you’re able to attach one to a location you’re trying to protect take a 1d10+5% bonus.
Caretaker, Violent Inertia
Wound Threshold: 50. Caretakers are immaterial and invisible (to anyone who can see them they look like two-dimensional whirlwinds that sweep over the environment without touching anything), you’d better have weird magick or be willing to destroy the locus if you want to finish one off.
Emotional Inertia 50%: A caretaker emits the same gravitational aversion as the substance that birthed it. Oppose all rolls related to changing its locus (be it convincing city hall to finally tear the place down or doing it yourself) with this identity.
Restoration 20-80%: Starts at 50%, with a successful roll restore a percentage of a damaged locus’s original condition or heal a caretaker equal to the sum of the result and shift a 10% value from this identity to Destruction.
Destruction 20-80%: Starts at 50%, treat as a Struggle attack with a weapon bonus applicable to the environment. Also shift a 10% value from this identity to Restoration on a successful roll.
Human beings tend to perceive the world as being made up of immutable points and concepts, this provides a sense of stability. As children they are eager explorers and as adolescents and young adults seek to challenge and change their environment as a part of establishing themselves but eventually there comes a point at which most set their views and their self-image and go no further without upheaval. Sometimes this conflicts with a world which leaves things behind: the elderly woman who doesn’t understand kids these days and doesn’t want to, the disenfranchised rustbelter who laments an economic policy of laissez-faire abandonment or the office manager who can’t keep up with technology. An unwillingness or inability to move with change that is soon steamrollered by the cruel passage of time.
The emotional pollution of this conflict pools in quiet, almost-forgotten places building up like black mold. Left alone it does more harm than good, emitting a localised gravity of inflexibility that mires people already struggling to fit an unfamiliar world and those trying to change things. You can skim it off if you know how, not only will this alleviate the problem (a little, human stubbornness is a bigger issue) but collect enough of it and the blue, tarry substance will provide you with a +20% shift to magickal attempts to keep something as it is. Alternatively if it forms a critical mass a caretaker will emerge.
Caretakers are creatures of stasis and frighteningly literal. They latch on to a physical place, called a locus, maintaining it exactly as it is - given the conditions they are created in a caretaker is more likely to keep something in a ruinous state than pristine. Many loci gain a reputation as haunted. It isn’t unfair, aside from the power to restore the locus to its original form (at the time of adoption) a caretaker is very territorial and telekinetic. They behave like poltergeists, dangerous ones. That old hospital that never gets torn down which all those kids died in last year? A caretaker dropped them down an elevator shaft for repeatedly graffiting the maternity ward. It got chalked up as misadventure.
You can get on one’s good side if you’re willing to play ball. More than one person sleeping rough has fallen under the protection of a caretaker by working to keep their surroundings "clean". Beware however, taxing a caretaker’s abilities repeatedly can earn its wrath if it comes to see your presence as a catalyst for change no matter your intention.
Destruction of a caretaker’s locus puts an end to it, a change that can be a symbol of reform or drag people under or both depending on the circumstances. Add 2d10+10% to any active objectives based on altering the local environment for doing so. All of them, not just yours. Alternatively if you’re able to attach one to a location you’re trying to protect take a 1d10+5% bonus.
Caretaker, Violent Inertia
Wound Threshold: 50. Caretakers are immaterial and invisible (to anyone who can see them they look like two-dimensional whirlwinds that sweep over the environment without touching anything), you’d better have weird magick or be willing to destroy the locus if you want to finish one off.
Emotional Inertia 50%: A caretaker emits the same gravitational aversion as the substance that birthed it. Oppose all rolls related to changing its locus (be it convincing city hall to finally tear the place down or doing it yourself) with this identity.
Restoration 20-80%: Starts at 50%, with a successful roll restore a percentage of a damaged locus’s original condition or heal a caretaker equal to the sum of the result and shift a 10% value from this identity to Destruction.
Destruction 20-80%: Starts at 50%, treat as a Struggle attack with a weapon bonus applicable to the environment. Also shift a 10% value from this identity to Restoration on a successful roll.
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