Chapter Five:
Denouement

The explosion knocked her down, though she was more than a block away from the building where Dominic had tracked the assassin. She saw a bright orange red balloon expand and burst, casting off a fragile tenement crust. Rebecca struggled to her feet and ran forward, dodging smoking brick and cinder comet debris.

Shielding her face from the inferno, climbing into the wreckage left by Dominic's bomb, she could feel his life straining to rebuild his body under the blazing ruins.

Rebecca gathered her strength, focusing on that place that is not a place, changing her perception of her environment. On another level of sensing, the flames, the stifling heat, the smoke, receding. Push-pull the alteration into clear focus. The fire was not raging; after the initial explosion only a few combustibles had ignited.

It was so.

The sirens were close when she found him. Lifting a section of wall, she recoiled in disgust at what was left of him. Right side gone, legs tattered, fleshy rags. The bones of ribcage and hip protruded from his bleeding, smoking torso, his face unrecognizable. She knew it was him, possessed that knowledge, saw him among twitching sinew and open veins.

She dragged him to her car, gagging from the smell of burning flesh. By the time she put him in the back seat, his wounds had closed, the bleeding stopped. He would live.

Experience

Youth and Skill are no match for Old Age and Treachery

• Proverb

Player Characters are as distinct from the players as the characters in a story are from the author. It is not enough to simply say, "My character is just like me," although this type of game can be an interesting experiment. The point is, your character is not you. You have things in common with your character, you may identify with your character in many ways, and indeed you should. But you are not your character any more than Herman Melville was Captain Ahab. Your character will have good days and bad days, great successes and traumatic failures, and you should share in these achievements because they would not be possible without you, but don't let the bad days get to you.

One of the ways a Player Character (even one which started out quite similar to its player in outlook or temperament) will grow to become increasingly discrete from the player is through the adventures the PC embarks upon. The very act of battling another Immortal, with the outcome meaning the True Death for one of the combatants, will change the perspective of the character significantly. This process of watching a character grow and develop is a gratifying one.

Gaining Karma

The evil that men do lives after them,
The good is oft interred with their bones.

• William Shakespeare, Julius Caesar

Part of the power elder Immortals hold over their younger fellows in certainly due to the lethality gained from centuries of practice at the art of combat. Death is the great equalizer, even among those who call themselves Immortal. It is not simply efficiency in combat which earns respect among other Immortals, however. With lifetimes spanning several centuries, most elder Immortals have gained wisdom and breadth of experience that few mortals can attain. The cunning born of practical experience makes such ancients far more dangerous than even the most skillful mortal duellist.

Karma is measured in two ways. "Unspent" Karma is Karma that has been accumulated by the character through role-playing or through the slaying of another Immortal, but which has not been used to increase the character's attributes or Task Rolls. "Earned" Karma is the total of all Karma the character has ever acquired, both spent Karma and unspent Karma. It may be worth pointing out that Karma, in the numerical sense, is simply a game convenience like Rank. Player Characters do not know that Jacqueline has a Strength Rank of three and twenty-two earned Karma. Numbers in these cases are simply used to give the players a common frame of reference for comparing the abilities and experience of their characters. The characters themselves would find the concept of a fixed measurement of one's experience rather ludicrous. How can one put a meterstick on the life experience of a person? Nonetheless, the scheme of measuring Karma is a convenient one, because it lets us compare characters' relative experience objectively, and it forms a fair basis for simulating the wisdom and improved skills a character learns over time.

Awarding Karma Table

Role-Playing

. . . people are the truly dreadful and frightening things, as far as I'm concerned.

• Jenny Holzer

Karma is a way to measure the sum of a character's experiences. At the end of a game, or a series of games, the Game Moderator will distribute to each player a few points of Karma. Karma points are similar in nature to the character points used to build the PC when it was first created, and the number of Karma granted to the player by the GM is dependent upon how well the player role-played during the game. Under normal circumstances the players will all receive the same amount of Karma, with the player who did the best role-playing occasionally receiving an extra point.

The Rapture

There is no sure foundation set on blood
No certain life achiev'd by others' death.

• Shakespeare, King John

When an Immortal slays another of her kind, the tremendous life-energy released from the dead body explodes in a storm of light and sound. Some of this energy is absorbed by the victor, causing a sensation of ecstasy and enhanced perception equal to no other human experience. So overwhelming is this experience, called the Rapture, that it has been mistaken for divine inspiration on more than one occasion. Once the initial brilliance and euphoria has passed, a small part of the life force of the departed Immortal remains behind with the survivor, granting her a portion of the power and wisdom attained by the deceased.

In game terms, when one Immortal kills another, or when one Immortal is nearby when an Immortal dies, the survivor will be stunned by the flow of energy into her body for a number of Turns equal to her Psyche. Immortals with greater Psychic capacity are more affected by the influx of the dead Immortal's life force. After the initial swoon has worn off, the Immortal will have gained a portion of the deceased's total earned Karma. For every ten Karma earned by the dead Immortal, the victor gains one Karma (rounded up, in the slayer's favor). If the slain Immortal had accrued no Karma, the victor still earns one point of Karma. Karma earned in this manner is in all ways identical to the Karma the character gains at the end of a game session, and may be spent in exactly the same way.

Using Karma

I have more memories than if I were a thousand years old.

• Charles Baudelaire, Les Fleurs du Mal. Spleen

Sometimes it may be difficult to separate your character's problems and setbacks from your own. After all, when the character speaks it is you who are speaking, and when you make a good tactical decision it is the character who benefits. It is only natural to grow protective of a character you have spent hundreds of hours playing and creating over the past several years. But when the end comes for your character, as it inevitably will, do not mourn overlong. The glory in a life lies not in its length, but in its depth.

Statistic Cost Table

Ability Cost Table

Increasing Expertise

In a practical sense, the player increases the Rank of her character's Statistics, Abilities, and Accents through the expenditure of Karma. The mathematics of using Karma in this way are fairly straightforward, and are similar to the use of character points spent during character creation. The amount of Karma required to raise a Rank or an Ability by one point is a multiple of the current Rank. Increasing a Statistic by one costs the Statistic's current Rank multiplied by ten, and increasing an Ability by one costs that Ability's current Rank multiplied by two. Thus, if a character has a Stealth Ability Rank of three and wants to increase its rank to four, it costs six points of Karma to do so.

Increasing a character's skill or prowess should never be a matter of simply "spending the points." The purpose and object of Legacy is to create a story of adventure and passion; for most people, simple mathematics does not fulfill this goal. Successfully mastering a new skill, becoming more adept at feats of strength or intelligence, and overcoming difficult obstacles in the pursuit of enlightenment are not merely blanks to be filled in on a character's sheet. It is vital that each expenditure of Karma to increase a Player Character's Ranks, or to decrease or "buy off" a PC's Negative Accents, be role-played out during the game.

Obviously, it's not necessary to go step by step, role-playing through the hours of practice and self-discipline required to raise a character's Athletics Ability Rank by one. Exactly how the character's increased athletic prowess is woven into the story is up to the Game Moderator and the player. The GM should only allow the player to spend Karma on attributes the character has had the need or desire to improve upon during the game. Perhaps the character failed miserably at an attempt to Stealth around, and decides to practice sneaking up behind people. Maybe the character succeeded beyond all expectations when she tried to Seduce the prison guard, experiencing an epiphany in how to get others to respond positively to her.

Whatever the Karma is spent on, it should make sense in the context of the game and the story. Abilities which the character has never used or in which she has never expressed an interest do not spontaneously increase overnight, nor does a character's Strength simply grow larger and larger without limit as she grows older. The amount of Karma spent and what it is spent on should be reasonable and consistent with the type of character and the story. No single Statistic or Ability should be increased by more than one Rank in a single game session, and the GM should ensure that the player does not spend all of her character's Karma on combat-related traits at the expense of the quality of the game.

Non-Player Characters receive Karma, as well, although its distribution is probably not as formal as it is among Player Characters. NPCs need to grow and become more powerful as time passes just as PCs do. Allies of the PCs have adventures of their own, and their Karma should reflect this. Enemies of the Player Characters should gain Karma, as well. An enemy who is constantly becoming more dangerous is much more interesting, and adds long term enjoyment to the game. The GM should occasionally review her cast of recurring NPCs to ensure that their skills are improving in proportion to their experiences.

Tipping the Scales

Karma may also be used to alter the odds in any given situation. Any time the player is required to make a Task Roll, she may spend one point of Karma for a +1 Task Modifier. There is no direct limit on how many points of Karma may be spent on a specific Task Roll, nor on how many Karma may be spent for this purpose in a game session. There is a practical limit, however, since Karma is a limited resource. Spending Karma to alter the character's chances of success at a Task is the same as spending it to increase an Ability, in that the points are gone once they are spent.

Karma may also be used to alter another character's Task Roll, but only if the Task directly concerns the character to whom the Karma belongs. Thus, a character hiding in the bushes behind the house of a Monitor could spend a point of Karma to impose a -1 Task Modifier upon the Perception Task Roll of an armed sentry trying to find her. A character trapped on a narrow ledge could spend a point of Karma to add a +1 TMod to the Strength Task Roll of another PC who is trying to pull her to safety. As long as the Task Roll directly affects a PC, the character may spend Karma to affect the roll.

Only the most important of NPCs have the ability to use Karma to tip the scales in this manner. It is the central role of Player Characters in the story that allows them to tilt the laws of chance in their favor. We have all seen enough movies and read enough books to know that sometimes the main characters succeed at nearly impossible tasks, or are narrowly missed by snipers who had a clear shot. This is Karma in action, and only villains of epic proportions should be allowed to use it this way. It can be a heart-stopping moment when a PC realizes that the villain she is facing is also capable of forcing the hand of fate.

Prestige

Karma has importance beyond its customary use to increase a character's competence in her chosen fields of endeavor. Karma is a measure of the overall experience and power of a character, and it will influence how she is treated by other Immortals. Through the Foreboding, other Immortals will usually have a vague of idea how experienced the character is, or how long she has been around. Older Immortals will have greater respect for a young Immortal who has gained a significant amount of Karma. Similarly, it would be difficult for an elder Immortal to intimidate a younger Immortal if the upstart senses the elder has Karma roughly equal to her own.

As such, it is important for the player to keep track of both "unspent" Karma, which has yet to be used to increase the character's attributes or Task Rolls, and the character's "earned" Karma, the sum of all Karma, spent and unspent, that the player has ever been awarded while playing that character.

Necessary Evil

No one knows what it's like
To be the bad man
To be the sad man
Behind blue eyes. . . .
But my dreams are not as empty
As my conscience seems to be.

• The Who, "Behind Blue Eyes"

Villains are an essential part of most fiction genres. The villain gives the main character someone to fight, and serves to illustrate the main character's philosophy by contrasting it with an opposing view. By providing a foil for the protagonist, the villain fulfills a vital function in the construction of the story. An adversary gives purpose to the character's life, and allows us to associate the character's problems with a tangible obstacle that may be overcome.

Villains may range in power depending on the needs of the storyline. Villains capable of taking on several Player Characters would have to be much faster, stronger, and better in combat than the typical PC. Villains who would fight the characters individually, or who gang up on the group of PCs, would have abilities approximately equal to those of the Player Characters. Powerful single opponents make it easier for the Game Moderator because she only has to keep track of one person instead of several, and it makes it easier to plan things like contingency get-aways. Some adversaries could even be weaker than the PCs, and dangerous only when attacking by surprise. These types of opponents can be a great challenge, because they are usually smart enough not to get caught in a fair fight.

Motivations

I'm the bad guy? How did that happen?

• Michael Douglas, Falling Down

The most effective villains are those that have a lot in common with the protagonist. Sherlock Holmes and Professor Moriarty were both brilliant, but the Professor used his brilliance for the pursuit of personal power, while Holmes used his mind to help others (an oversimplification, but it makes a good example). A particularly meaningful villain is one with which the protagonist can sympathize. Perhaps the antagonist desires revenge for a vile act perpetrated against someone she loves. Certainly the protagonist would sympathize with the villain's plight, but not to the extent that innocent people should suffer for the heinous crime. These are some examples of villainous motivations, but the inner demons which drive people to desperate acts are endless. Read the newspaper for ideas, and you will be astonished at how depraved human beings can be.

Revenge

He was already dead. He died a year ago, the moment he touched her. They're all dead. They just don't know it yet.

• Brandon Lee, The Crow

The antagonist has been wronged, or someone she cares about has been wronged, and she wants to punish those responsible. Perhaps she wants to punish people who know the people responsible. She may just want to get revenge on anyone who reminds her of the wrong that was committed, and she may not be very choosy about whom she wreaks her vengeance upon. Often, the original crime is a case of misunderstanding, and the Player Character can struggle to sort it out before too many people get killed.

Power

Absolute rule engenders conspiracy, which alone can overthrow it. Yet absolute rule is the final fulfillment of conspiracy, a gigantic plot of one man against everyone else. This is what keeps the power-challenge dialectic in perpetual motion.

• David Pryce-Jones, The Closed Circle

One of the oldest motivations is the quest for limitless power. Personal power, financial power, and political power all involve controlling other people. The most immediate example of the quest for power is the pursuit of the Legacy. The antagonist may even delude herself that she only wants power so that she may do good, but when innocent people have to suffer, the PCs might decide to interfere. This can tie in to the theme of the individual versus society: does the end justify the means? Is it worth sacrificing the rights of the few for the greater good of the whole? If the villain's ultimate motives really are noble, the characters may have trouble deciding whether to help or hinder her.

Ego

Come, son of Jor-El! Kneel before Zod!

• General Zod, Superman II

The villain may be motivated by a poor self-image, and seek to improve her self-esteem by humiliating or preying upon those around her. This could take the form of kidnapping a character's loved ones and leaving cryptic clues as to their location, where the air is running out or the loved one's cell is slowly being filled with water. The antagonist could be content to commit grandiose crimes, stealing priceless treasures from museums or private collectors. It could even manifest itself in an insatiable need to challenge every Immortal who crosses her path.

Madness

Human flesh, ground down, rolled up, and smoked for bommie. . . .

• Homeless man, Milwaukee 1990

The villain could be a raving lunatic. Perhaps she thinks she is the incarnation of death, who has come to reap the lives of the unworthy. She may suffer from delusions, wandering through a nightmarish landscape only she can see, striking out at the devils which plague her. The villain could be a latter-day Inquisitor, ruthlessly hunting down Immortals because she believes they are the spawn of the devil. The adversary could even have multiple personalities, and be hunting herself. The depths of a human being's potential for madness are endless.

Alien

"Evil" spelled backwards is "live," and we all want to live, now don't we?

• Mok, Rock and Rule

The villain could be a supernatural entity, with ambitions that violate normal conventions of reason or sanity. Perhaps a Warlock is working to collect arcane texts and bizarre artifacts to complete some experiment on the nature of reality. A sudden outbreak of kidnappings, where the victims are all virgins, might mean a mortal is trying to make a pact with the forces of darkness. There are also people who do evil simply for evil's sake, with no other underlying purpose. Alien motivations include anything that does not really make sense to anyone but the perpetrator of the crime, and tends to overlap quite a bit with the motivation of madness, above.

Flesh and Blood

Gunter: "You think he will catch the jaguar, Herr Doktor? It is a big cat. Most deadly. Most efficient."

Dr. Gargunza: "Oh, yes. Compared to the gentle herbivores it feeds on. And therein lies its fatal flaw, Gunter. It imagines that it is invulverable. And it isn't."

• Alan Moore, Miracleman

The most common adversaries of the Player Characters will probably be mortals and Immortals who oppose the PCs for personal reasons. Old rivals, jilted lovers, bounty hunters, and the like, all make reasonable antagonists. It will make the GMs job easier if each character begins the game with a unique personal enemy, in addition to any antagonist the PCs may share as a group. This will facilitate creating adventures during the early stages of the campaign.

Since the Player Characters start out inexperienced, it is likely that their Immortal opponents will be more powerful than the PCs, requiring the characters to use their wits to avoid getting killed. Mortals pose less of a threat, unless they are aware of the Immortals' nature and know how to inflict the True Death upon them. In this case, mortals are a very real danger, since they do not have any compunctions about ganging up on an Immortal and overpowering her.

The Techno-Gothic world is also home to beings other than humankind, some of which have no love for the children of Eve. The Nosferatu and the Chimerae are the most well-known among mortals, having been the subject of innumerable novels and films, but other even less wholesome entities lurk in the shadows at the edges of mankind's vision. The most sanity-threatening of these are grouped together under the category "Dwimmerlaik," but this may be misleading. There are as many varieties of Dwimmerlaik as there are insects on earth, and all evidence seems to indicate that they cooperate with each other as often as they oppose each other.

Somewhere between mortals and monsters lie the Warlocks, beings who may or may not be human. What little is known about them indicates that they are locked into a battle as hopeless as the War of Ages, but to what purpose no one knows. Some Immortals have stumbled across the Warlocks' battles with each other or with the vile Dwimmerlaik, but accounts of these conflicts are filled with impossible or unexplainable events, and the accuracy of this testimony cannot be verified.

Mortals

No ascent is too steep for mortals. Heaven itself we seek in our folly.

• Horace, Odes

Many an Immortal has been lured into a false sense of security by fighting mortal opponents, forgetting that a sword swung by a mortal hand still cuts as deep. Mortal adversaries range from normal folks to highly trained combat veterans. Powerful enemies will often use mortal dupes as cannon fodder, throwing their lives away in an attempt to wear down an Immortal's stamina and resolve. If captured, such pawns rarely know anything useful about who sent them or why.

Mortal Non-Player Characters can be created quickly and easily using the Quick-Start character generation rules for mortals. This works just like the Quick-Start rules for mortal and Immortal Player Characters, but most Non-Player Character mortals are much weaker and less skilled than Player Characters because PCs and their major adversaries are assumed to be extraordinary.

Some examples of typical mortals follow, to give the GM and the players an idea how their characters compare to mainstream humanity. Of course, these are only examples, and humanity is mind-bogglingly diverse. The GM should try to make each mortal an individual, both on paper and in personality.

Quick-Start Mortal NPC Table

Sedentary Mortal

Sedentary mortals are typically overfed and don't get enough exercise. They are competent at their profession, and they usually have a couple of hobbies at which they are proficient.

Sedentary Mortal

Active Mortal

Active mortals get regular exercise, but they are not trained for combat. They are healthier and tend to live a few years longer than sedentary mortals. Like sedentary mortals, they are usually competent at their job and whatever hobbies they pursue. Active mortals are what most Immortals consider "normal" mortals.

Active Mortal

Police Officer

Police officers are usually athletic mortals with a strong Presence who are skilled at paperwork. They are trained at hand-to-hand combat and in how to use a firearm, but most police rarely fire their pistols at living targets.

Police Officer

Kung Fu Master

The kung fu master spends a lot of time exercising and practicing her martial art. Many kung fu masters have above-average Presence, which comes from the self-confidence born of being able to kick someone's butt. Some kung fu masters follow eastern philosophies of calm and non-violence. Most kung fu masters have a job other than kung fu, but some earn a living by teaching their art to others.

Kung Fu Master

Psychic

There are some rare mortals who make a living at being Psychic, but by far the majority of mortals with Psychic Abilities keep their gift hidden and use it to further their mundane careers. They may be sedentary or athletic, and they usually have one or two Psychic Abilities with which they are skilled in addition to their mundane profession.

Psychic

Shock Trooper

The shock trooper is an experienced, combat trained mortal. The shock trooper is tough, savvy, and willing to kill without thinking too much about it. Most shock troopers are in the military or police forces, but a few are just deranged civilians.

Shock Trooper

Immortals

Dying
Is an art, like everything else.
I do it exceptionally well.
I do it so it feels like hell.
I do it so it feels real.
I guess you could say I've a call.

• Sylvia Plath, Lady Lazarus

The greatest threat to an Immortal is from other Immortals. No one is free from the War of Ages, and no one can hide from it forever, although some try. For the most part, the rules of Immortal etiquette ensure a reasonably fair fight when the inevitable confrontation comes, but there are Immortals who only obey tradition when it is to their advantage. Just as there are saints and psychopaths among mortal humankind, the same is true among Immortals. The price of survival is eternal vigilance.

Some examples of typical Immortals follow, to give the GM and the players an idea how their characters compare to the rest of Immortal humanity. Of course, these are only examples, and Immortals are as varied and unique as are mortals. The GM should make a special effort to make each Immortal an individual, both on paper and in personality. Immortal NPCs should never be faceless "cookie-cutter" villains, whose only purpose in the story is to give the Player Characters someone to fight.

Quick-Start Immortal NPC Table

Post-Modern Immortal

Post-Modern Immortals are those born since the Industrial Revolution. Most of them maintain a pretense of normalcy, keeping a regular job and an assumed identity. Many Post-Modern Immortals have living relatives whom they keep an eye on, even if they do not openly communicate with them.

As children of the technological age, Post-Modern Immortals are not surprised at the staggering leaps science is making. To these youngest of Immortals, this is perfectly normal. Post-Modern Immortals are typically less concerned with etiquette and protocol than elder Immortals, particularly American Post-Modern Immortals. Most Post-Modern Immortals take for granted that women and men are equals, and the majority of educated younger Immortals think prejudice is an anachronism belonging to a previous century.

Post-Modern Immortal

Modern Immortal

Modern Immortals were born between 1600 and 1900 AD. They do not tend to be as superficially cynical as Post-Modern Immortals, but they have seen the wars of mortals get progressively more bloody and widespread as each century passes, and this often causes a certain fatalism in their outlook. Nationalism and racism were dominant concepts during the Modern Immortals' era, and some of them still look on other nationalities and ethnic groups as inferior to their own. The widespread religious fervor which held sway during the Medieval era diminished somewhat in the Modern era, when educated people downplayed or dismissed religion as a superstitious crutch for the masses. Nevertheless, many social concepts taken for granted in the United States of the twenty-first century, such as women's suffrage and equal protection under the law, are still fairly novel ideas to traditionalist Modern Immortals.

Modern Immortal

Medieval Immortal

Medieval Immortals were born during the Roman Catholic Church's long domination of Europe. Many still cling to that ancient institution, attributing the perceived breakdown of civilization to the secularization of the West's governments. However, some Medieval Immortals are more open-minded about the ills of society, acknowledging the great benefits modern medicine and relative political freedom have brought.

Medieval Immortal

Imperial Immortal

Imperial Immortals were born during the approximately one thousand years of the Roman Empire. They have been alive so long that many modern devices seem nothing short of miraculous. Some Imperial Immortals have tried to keep up with modern developments in science and invention, but most of them simply use the gifts of technology without worrying about how they work. Sadly, many mortals do the same thing.

Imperial Immortal

Antediluvian Immortal

Antediluvian Immortals, were any to be found, would be stronger and wiser than most mortals could ever hope to become. Antediluvians would be likely to see mortals, and even younger Immortals, as vastly inferior to themselves. It is probable that such ancient creatures, these powerful entities which predate every mortal government on earth, would sneer at the suggestion that mortal authorities or institutions have any dominion over them. However, any Antediluvian who has survived for so long would be wise enough to keep her existence a secret from mortals, and probably from other Immortals, as well.

Antediluvian Immortal

Dwellers in Darkness

Welcome, kindred glooms!
Congenial horrors, hail!

• James Thomson, The Seasons

From the abominations that gnaw the roots of the world to the sharp-toothed beings that lurk in the shadows of skyscrapers, humankind is not alone on earth, nor are they the apex predators they imagine themselves to be. The creatures who haunt the fringes of humanity's cities and myths do not all prey upon human beings, but none of them love us. Humankind has hunted the dwellers in darkness relentlessly since the dawn of time, whether or not they bore us any threat. Now the most any mortal can hope from these beings, some of whom are older than the oldest Immortal, is to be ignored.

Nosferatu

We are immortal. And what we have before us are the rich feasts that conscience cannot appreciate and mortal men cannot know without regret. God kills, and so shall we; indiscriminately He takes the richest and the poorest, and so shall we; for no creatures under God are as we are, none so like Him as ourselves, dark angels not confined to the stinking limits of hell but wandering His earth and all its kingdoms.

• Anne Rice, Interview with the Vampire

Nosferatu are the most well-known creatures of darkness coexisting with human beings, because they actively seek out mortal companionship. Once mortal human beings themselves, Nosferatu (or Vampires) have been infected with a quasi-mystical disease which kills the body of the victim, but infects and strengthens the life force so that it may animate the dead body. The disease is transmitted through the blood; to become a Vampire, the victim must either consume several liters of contaminated blood within a span of a few days, or get a large amount of the diseased blood in an open wound. Immortals are immune to the disease, due to both their amazing resistance to illness and their strengthened life force.

Once infected, the mortal's body slowly dies over the course of several days. A few hours after death, the body will regain consciousness as it is animated by the corrupted life force of the victim. Over the next month or more, the body will become tough and preserved, and difficult to damage. The Strength of a Nosferatu is considered Severe Defense instead of Casual Defense, as it is with living beings. Vampires have advanced recuperative abilities, much as Immortals do, but it takes Nosferatu much longer to re-grow severed limbs or heal damage caused by fire than it does for Immortals.

Nosferatu require the blood of living humans to survive. They must consume roughly one liter of human blood per week to retain their ability to reason; deprived of blood, they will lose the ability to control their blood-lust and will savagely attack anyone who comes near. For a Nosferatu, drinking blood is a sensual, even sexual, experience. They tend to pick their victims with care unless their need for blood is desperate. Rarely will a Nosferatu kill a victim, as this would draw unwanted attention from mortal authorities.

A Nosferatu deprived of fresh human blood for more than a few weeks will slowly wither and eventually turn to dust. The energies emitted by the sun have a similar effect: the vampire can survive only a few minutes of direct exposure to the sun's rays before weakening, and the creature will dry out completely within a few hours, turning to dust.

Nosferatu have potent powers over the minds of the living; all Vampires have at least three Psychic Abilities. Most of the more exotic legends concerning Nosferatu can be explained as creative use of the Psychic Mask or Illusion Abilities, but some rare individuals do possess unique powers beyond the standard Psychic Abilities.

The blood of Immortals is of great benefit to Nosferatu, granting them increased Strength and the ability to survive without additional nourishment for weeks rather than days. Fortunately, Immortals are highly resistant to the Nosferatu's mental powers (double the Immortal's effective Psyche when resisting a Nosferatu's Psychic attack), making them difficult prey for the blood-suckers.

In writing up Nosferatu, the GM should use the same Quick-Start table used to create NPC Immortals, depending on how old the Vampire is. For example, a Nosferatu created in the Middle Ages would be written up using the appropriate Stats of a Medieval Immortal. All Nosferatu have the Accents Light Sleeper, Night Vision, and Psychic. Unusual individuals may have another Accent, as well.

Young Nosferatu

Chimerae

Nothing in the world lasts
Save eternal change.

• Honorat de Bueil, Marquis de Racan, Odes. The Coming of Spring

Chimerae (singular "Chimera") are the creatures around which such legends as doppelgängers and werewolves arose, and they inspired movies such as Invasion of the Body Snatchers. Chimerae have no set physical form, as far as can be determined, existing only to mimic the forms of other beings. To duplicate another creature, a Chimera must digest it, after which it can alter its appearance and behavior to that of its victim. The impersonation is uncanny; the Chimera is able to absorb some of the memories and personality of the victim, making it difficult to detect the deception. Those close to the victim may have a bad feeling about their loved one, or sense that she has somehow "changed," but mortal authorities won't believe the truth without proof.

In game terms, all Chimera have the power to change their appearance as with the Psychic Ability Mask at a Rank of no less than 5. However, they are only able to use this Ability upon themselves, and their physical body actually changes. This is not, in fact, a Psychic power, but a physical one. It costs a Chimera no Psychic Reserve points to change forms, nor is there a limit on how long it may maintain a certain appearance. Once it has taken a form, its Statistics are limited by the form it has chosen: a Chimera which mimics a small child would only have the Strength of a small child until it changes to a stronger form. Abilities are handled similarly: a Chimera which ingests a mathematician would only have the knowledge of a mathematician while it is in that form.

A Chimera can duplicate any creature it has recently ingested, as long as the Chimera is of approximately the same size as the victim it wants to duplicate. However, the number of forms the Chimera is able to remember is limited by its natural Intellect Stat: it can remember the forms of a number of victims equal to its Intellect. Most Chimera have an Intellect Rank of 2 or 3. As the Chimera ingests new victims, the form and knowledge of its former victims is forgotten, but the Chimera can chose which forms are forgotten and which are remembered.

If a Chimera should be wounded, every fragment of the creature retains the sentience of the whole. A severed limb will become a new and separate entity, with its own personality and instincts for self-preservation. This is one of the few certain ways to discover a suspected Chimera's true identity: a tissue sample from a Chimera, or even a few drops of blood, will react to stimuli as a distinct creature, without regard to the safety of the Chimera from which it came. In a crisis, a Chimera may even tear itself into smaller pieces so that some of it may escape from danger. The only way to harm a Chimera is to burn or dissolve it in a powerful acid; normal weapons which slash or pierce will not cause any damage to a Chimera, since the organism would simply be broken into smaller pieces.

A Chimera must ingest its mass in living creatures every cycle of the moon in order to survive. If a Chimera is unable or prevented from ingesting new living material, it will begin to slough off portions of itself as it slowly dies, losing half of its mass every cycle of the moon. Theoretically, the Chimera would cease to exist after approximately two years without food, but this theory has never been put to the test.

Chimerae have no natural weaponry other than that possessed by the forms they mimic. They will use any means at their disposal to render their prey unconscious, after which they will flow over and absorb the victim. The prey must still be alive in order for a Chimera to gain any sustenance from it.

Dwimmerlaik

He took the stars in his hands
And as he shattered them, he'd shout. . . .

• Blue Oyster Cult, "The Great Sun Jester"

The creatures known collectively as Dwimmerlaik (rhymes with "swimmer-lake") are a varied lot. Dwimmerlaik come in all shapes and sizes, some intelligent while others have only an animal cunning. Some Dwimmerlaik appear to be human, while others have tentacular bodies which writhe obscenely. What they have in common is a hatred of all things living, and they are all at least as old as the earth. Dwimmerlaik do not appear to be native to our continuum, and flagrantly violate our physical laws. Reality sometimes flows and distorts like a fever dream in the presence of Dwimmerlaik, warping the mind and body of any mortals who come into contact with them.

In game terms, Dwimmerlaik have the Psychic Ability Illusion at a Rank no less than 1, but when a Dwimmerlaik alters reality it is physical reality which is changed, not simply the perception of it. This is, in fact, both a Psychic and a physical power, and although it does cost the Dwimmerlaik Psychic Reserve points to manifest it, the effects are permanent.

The force which animates Dwimmerlaik is of a fundamentally different nature than that which inhabits mortals, Immortals, and even such creatures as Nosferatu and Chimerae. It is this life force in earthly beings which Dwimmerlaik detest and seek to destroy, and this force serves as some protection against them. If a Dwimmerlaik attempts to directly alter a living being, that being's Psyche Stat is applied as a negative Task Modifier to the Dwimmerlaik's Task Roll. Beings with an unnaturally strong life force, such as Immortals and Nosferatu, double their effective Psyche when resisting a Dwimmerlaik's reality-altering attack.

Dwimmerlaik are not social creatures, nor are they as common even as Chimera, which are rare in the extreme. Were it not for the diversity of form and power among Dwimmerlaik, it could be credibly postulated that there exists but a single one of the abominations. This is unlikely, however, given the range of Dwimmerlaik types encountered over the ages.

A Dwimmerlaik is difficult to damage; all Casual and Severe damage inflicted upon a Dwimmerlaik is halved before any of the creature's defense is applied. Some, but not all, of the Dwimmerlaik have natural Severe Defense or a Psychic Shield, as well. Sunlight does not seem to cause any direct damage to these creatures, but it does cause them pain. They keep to the darkness whenever possible. This aversion to the light of the sun has saved several unfortunates who have blundered across a Dwimmerlaik's lair.

Dwimmerlaik

Warlocks

What we perceive is not Nature itself, but Nature revealed through our method of questioning.

• Heisenberg

Warlocks are an enigma to Immortals as much as Immortals are an enigma to mortals. They appear to be human, but they have reality-warping powers seemingly identical to those of the Dwimmerlaik. From the few reliable accounts of interaction between Warlocks and Immortals, it seems that many Warlocks have been driven partially mad from their powers, or perhaps it is this madness which grants them their powers: no one knows. It also appears that nearly all Warlocks are Psychic, or have powers which closely mimic Psychic Abilities.

It is known that several of them have lived hundreds of years, yet they are not Immortals. On more than one occasion, an Immortal has stumbled across a battle between a Warlock and a Dwimmerlaik, yet it is also known that there are Warlocks who seek to gain dominion of the earth through the use of their powers. It would appear that the only obstacles to these Warlocks' dreams of conquest are other Warlocks.

In writing up Warlocks, the GM should use the same Quick-Start table used to create NPC Immortals, depending on how old the Warlock is, although Warlocks as old as Medieval Immortals are as rare as Antediluvian Immortals. For example, a Warlock born in the seventeenth century would be written up using the appropriate Stats of a Modern Immortal. Most Warlocks have the Accent Psychic, and many of them have a Mental Impairment Negative Accent. Unusual individuals may have other Accents, as well.

Warlock

Powers and Principalities

#6: "What do you want?"
#2: "We want . . . information."
#6: "You won't get it."
#2: "By hook or by crook, we will."

• The Prisoner

Individually, human beings are not much of a threat to most Immortals. Yet when mortals bind together, the heavens shake and the earth trembles. Just as the peasants stormed Frankenstein's castle, Immortals live in fear that if humankind discovers them, they will rise up and destroy the monsters in their midst. Fortunately, the teeming masses have yet to discover their elder siblings, and Immortals go to great lengths to keep it that way.

Yet there are some organizations, collectively called Monitors, that either suspect the existence of Immortals or have certain knowledge of it. Each group or institution seems to be operating independently, and most are probably unaware that the others have similar information. The goals each organization pursues may be quite different, but they are all threats to Immortals, and it is only a matter of time before an Immortal character comes into conflict with one of them.

Governments

Most governments have an agency or a division of an agency dedicated to investigation of paranormal activities (the infamous "Men In Black"), with special emphasis placed upon Psychic Abilities. The increasing number of proven cases of people with Psychic Abilities has allowed these agencies to garner more respect and receive increased funding, and has allowed them to devote more people to investigate unexplained phenomena. Fortunately, it appears as though Immortals have managed to conceal their presence from these agencies so far, but the growing power and efficiency of government bureaucracies is making this task increasingly difficult. In the United States, the National Security Agency and the Federal Bureau of Investigation are the two organizations most dangerous to Immortal anonymity.

The NSA, an enormous information-gathering agency, sifts the files from sources as diverse as state Departments of Motor Vehicles and magazine subscription lists, looking for anomalies or unusual trends. The main reason Immortal activities have not been noticed by the immense NSA computers is that it hasn't occurred to anyone to program the database search routines to look for them. The inconsistencies and anomalies pointing to Immortal activities will continue to pile up until a connection is made, leading mortal investigators to the only reasonable explanation: that Immortal beings are living among humankind.

The FBI has investigated Immortal affairs from a different perspective. While the NSA gathers mundane information, and has yet to put the pieces together leading them to the awareness of Immortals, the FBI has the responsibility to probe the causes of various Immortals' battles. When two Immortals clash, resulting in the True Death for one of them, the dispute almost always comes to the attention of the mortal authorities. If the decapitated body is left behind by the victor, an FBI investigation will invariably follow. The FBI has records of such deaths going back as far as 1812, and some FBI experts suspect a cult of assassins is responsible. Thus far, the truth behind the killings has eluded them.

CORE

CORE International is one of the largest corporations still based in the United States of America. Originally a waste-management company, CORE has expanded until it has subsidiaries in nearly every industry, from entertainment to weapons manufacturing, from banking to pharmaceuticals.

In 2013, CORE captured a terrorist who attempted to bomb their corporate headquarters. The terrorist, an Immortal named Griffith, was trying to avenge ecological damage a CORE petrochemical company caused in southern Mexico. While questioning the terrorist, CORE's interrogators realized that Griffith's wounds were healing nearly as rapidly as CORE security could inflict them. It was only a matter of time before the interrogation bore fruit, and Griffith told them nearly everything they wanted to know. Griffith remained in CORE's bio-research laboratories for years and was subjected to a broad range of tests while CORE technicians tried to discover the source of Griffith's incredible regenerative ability.

During an experiment, the researchers severed Griffith's head to see whether the body would grow a new head, or the head would grow a new body. To their disappointment, Griffith died, but CORE has not stopped searching for others like him, and a shiny new laboratory has been prepared for the next subject.

De Schola Arcanum

The secret order of scholars and philosophers which was to become De Schola Arcanum, or more simply "De Schola," began in Athens over two thousand years ago. De Schola has grown since then, and it now has branches in Vienna, London, and Philadelphia, in addition to the original chapter in Athens.

De Schola is still a secret order; membership is by invitation only, and the invitation is given to a select few. The charter of De Schola dedicates the organization to understanding the world around them, and in recent years the bulk of new members has been scientists rather than philosophers. Physicists and geneticists, as the vanguard of mankind's exploration of the universe, are greatly respected by De Schola.

However, De Schola has always been interested by parapsychological studies, as well. Ghosts, demonology, faith healing, and psychic manifestations are all typical subjects of investigation for De Schola members. It is only natural that Immortals would eventually come under De Schola's scrutiny. Fortunately, De Schola members are sworn to observe and not to interfere. De Schola Arcanum probably has the most extensive amount of information on Immortals of any Monitor group, but they refrain from acting on this information. For De Schola, knowledge is an end in itself.

The Order of the Golden Light

The Order of the Golden Light came into being in India during Britain's occupation of that country. Gathering members from a variety of castes, the Order combined elements of thuggee death-worship with Buddhist asceticism to form a small group of fanatic assassins. After India's liberation, the Order expanded into an international quasi-religious terrorist group, selling death to the highest bidder. The assassins of the Order worship death in all its forms, and they have accrued faithful acolytes from all over the world.

Assassins of the Order of the Golden Light are rigorously combat-trained and thoroughly brainwashed. Not all members of the Order are experts with every form of warfare, but no facet of the art of death is unrepresented among them. They live to serve, and only death can erase the stain of failure. Those that succeed are rewarded with more difficult assignments; the rest die trying.

To these paladins of destruction, Immortals are the vilest mockery of all that they hold sacred. Any Immortal who comes to the attention of the Order will be ruthlessly hunted, and great honor and a favored place in the afterlife is guaranteed to any assassin of the Golden Light who helps rid the earth of such a pestilence by killing an Immortal. Fortunately for Immortals, the Order does not have the vast resources of the government or the wealth of information possessed by De Schola Arcanum.

Campaign

Sample Scenario

This metropolis has all the symptoms of a mind gone berserk.

• Isaac Bashevis Singer, The Cafeteria

To give you an idea of what a Legacy campaign looks like, here we have set up for you a brief outline of a Legacy: War of Ages storyline, with a few characters, plots, settings, and subplots. If you plan to be the Game Moderator for this campaign, you should revise and expand this section so that it will mesh better with your players and the way you all prefer to play. The more thought you put into the campaign and the players' place in it, the more fun it will be for everyone. A lot of this campaign, particularly the NPCs, was designed specifically for the characters played by Lloyd, Phill, and Susan, so you will have to make some changes to make it appropriate for your players and their characters. Having fully developed, well thought out Non-Player Characters also makes it easier for you to have them react believably to any surprises the players may spring.

Follow Beth, the Game Moderator in our example, as she develops her ideas for this campaign. If you disagree with her, then modify her ideas however makes sense to you, or toss them and come up with something completely new. Use as little or as many of the suggestions here as you like, but whatever you do, use your imagination. Make the game unique to you and your players. One of the most important traits of a good Game Moderator is knowing what ideas of others to adopt, and which ones to throw away.

Conception

This campaign was the brain-child of Beth, who was visiting some college friends in Richmond, Virginia. Richmond immediately impressed her with its conflicting images of progress and decomposition. Some of the oldest buildings in the United States are in Richmond, sometimes only blocks away from both glass-sided skyscrapers and fire-gutted slums. Richmond also has one of the highest murder rates of cities in the United States, which would help keep the more violent activities of the players from being too conspicuous. On the razor's edge between the past and the future, Richmond sits: a city in decay.

Beth decides that Richmond is the perfect setting for her Legacy campaign. It is large enough to add a cosmopolitan landscape and a multitude of plots to the game, but small enough to retain a feeling of intimacy and territorialism among the players and their enemies. Washington, D.C. is two hours to the north, and Virginia Beach, a tourist area, is two hours to the south, presenting Beth with diverse opportunities for interesting settings. By placing the setting of the game so close to the capital city of the USA, Beth can incorporate the conspiracies and intrigues of world-class power-mongers, as well as the schemes of villains of a more mundane nature.

To make it easier on Lloyd, Phill, and Susan, who are all new to role-playing, Beth decides to set her campaign in the Techno-Gothic present, rather than the future of the early twenty-first century. This will make the players more comfortable, and make it easier for them to "get into the heads" of their characters without worrying about learning the rules of a new and alien society, even if that society is heavily based upon the one they know. Later, after they are more familiar with Legacy and role-playing in general, she might run a campaign set in the early twenty-first century, but for now the present holds more than enough challenges.

Dramatis Personae

Major Genevieve d'Estaigne

Beth starts creating her campaign by thinking about Non-Player Characters who will inhabit her world and give the game a personality. The first character she has an idea for is inspired an assassin in a spy movie. The character is brilliant, fearless, funny, and has absolutely no conscience. Beth names her Genevieve d'Estaigne. Since d'Estaigne has a very modern set of values (or lack of them), Beth decides that d'Estaigne is not a very old Immortal. After playing with the idea, Beth decides to make Genevieve a Modern Immortal.

Later, when Lloyd wants to make up a Modern Immortal as well, Beth decides that Genevieve was a Major in the French army while Lloyd's character Ian was in France. As far as Ian knew, Major d'Estaigne was a male Immortal, since she masqueraded as a man while she tried to acquire power in post-Revolutionary France.

Currently, Major d'Estaigne operates behind-the-scenes in Washington, manipulating politicians and organized crime figures with blackmail and assassination to increase her wealth and personal power. When she discovers that Ian is in Richmond, she will begin keeping an eye on him.

Beth isn't sure whether Major d'Estaigne will be an enemy of the Player Characters, or whether she will come to be an ally. It would be possible for her ask the PCs for aid against a common foe, or to help them in a time of need, just to establish a history with the characters. In this way, she could use them in a later plot as pawns, or at the very least have them to call on in an emergency. Perhaps the Major could get romantically or sexually involved with one of the PCs (or both), complicating matters even further.

Major d'Estaigne

Modern Immortal

Esteban

The next character Beth thinks of is inspired by a hat: a round hat with a wide, flat brim. Holding the hat, Beth imagines the man wearing it in a dark overcoat with wire-rim glasses. His eyes are bright beneath the brim of the hat, and his thin smile is simultaneously grim and humorous. She names him Esteban.

Esteban is not interested in mortal power and wealth as d'Estaigne is. He sees himself as the Immortal incarnation of Law, and makes a living as a bounty hunter. Esteban enthusiastically supports the various conventions of Immortal etiquette, and eagerly hunts down Immortals accused of breaking those traditions. He even goes to great lengths to obey or avoid laws passed by mortal authorities, although he firmly believes himself to be superior to mortals.

Esteban's zeal in enforcing Immortals tradition doesn't stem from a humanitarian nature. He believes that the Conclave is approaching, and hunting down renegade Immortals is the best way for him to prepare for it without prematurely making enemies among his peers.

Beth decides that Esteban should be close the level of the players, so she makes him a Post-Modern Immortal. He was born in Serbia around 1900, and migrated to the USA in the early months of World War I. He hasn't been back to Europe since then.

As with d'Estaigne, Beth isn't sure whether Esteban will be an ally or an antagonist for the Player Characters. Perhaps he will hear about one of the characters violating one of the tenets of Immortal etiquette, such as Single Combat. This could be a false rumour, circulated by another Immortal, such as d'Estaigne, who is not above sowing the seeds of discord among other Immortals for the sheer fun of it, or it could be a plot by one of the Monitor groups to pit Immortals against each other. If the rumour is true, the character guilty of such an offense will have a hard time convincing Esteban that there were extenuating circumstances, particularly if there weren't any. Another possible "hook" for bringing Esteban into a game would have him question the PCs about another Immortal, for whom he is looking. He would warn the young Immortals about this treacherous Immortal, and counsel them (with thinly veiled threats) against granting the transgressor any aid. It would be up to the players to find out the truth of the situation, and decide what to do about it.

Esteban

Post-Modern Immortal

Nicholas Shaeffer

Beth bases Nicholas Shaeffer on the feelings she got while visiting the Holocaust Museum. Beth decides that Shaeffer is a mortal survivor of the Nazis' attempt to exterminate "undesirables" during World War II. For many years, he hunted Nazi war criminals, until the day he tracked down the Immortal named Helmut Meister. Meister had been a high-ranking Nazi officer who would come to the concentration camp at which Shaeffer was confined. Meister and certain of the Nazi doctors would perform cruel, sadistic experiments on the prisoners. After the war ended and the pitifully few survivors were freed by the Allies, Shaeffer swore he would have vengeance upon Meister and the other Nazi butchers.

Shaeffer tracked Meister to Washington, D.C. in the early 1980's, where his quarry was using the name Hamilton Masters. Shaeffer was shocked: Meister had not aged a day. At first, Shaeffer wondered if he had found the son or grandson of the man he was hunting. For days, he followed Meister everywhere, until finally his quarry noticed his shadow and turned the tables.

Meister's henchmen caught Shaeffer and brought him to Meister's palatial mansion in Arlington, Virginia. Meister recognized Shaeffer from the camp, and thought it delightful that Shaeffer had spent his few remaining years tracking down criminals whose crimes were long forgotten. Meister showed nothing but contempt for Shaeffer, his life, and his mission. Nicholas was certain that Meister would have him killed, but instead the former Nazi bid his goons to let "the harmless mortal" leave.

Shaeffer has spent his time since then trying to find out how Meister has lived so long without aging. Twice, Shaeffer has witnessed what appeared to be ritualized sword fights. On both occasions, Meister apparently killed his opponent and decapitated him, then was consumed in a storm of energy. Before he dies, Shaeffer wants to find out who or what Meister really is, and what his existence means. Then Shaeffer will kill him, and cut off his head.

The Player Characters might encounter Shaeffer accidentally while he is spying on Meister, or Shaeffer might discover somehow that one of the characters is an Immortal, like Meister, and seek to enlist that character's aid in destroying Meister. Perhaps Shaeffer will assume that all Immortals are as evil and power-hungry as Meister, and the players must either convince him otherwise or be forced to kill him as he hunts them down. If the PCs could convince Nicholas that they are, in fact, a force for good opposed to Immortals such as Meister, Nicholas could serve as a tremendously useful ally. He has more experience tracking people down and dealing with international bureaucracies than some Immortals ten times his age.

Nicholas

Exceptional Mortal

Helmut Meister,
a.k.a. Hamilton Masters

Having made up Nicholas Shaeffer, Beth needs to create his nemesis. Beth immediately realizes that Meister presents her with an opportunity to create a truly epic villain, one who is smart, strong, and politically powerful. Anyone who would set free a known enemy, one who had devoted his life to tracking down Nazis and bringing them to justice as Shaeffer had, would have to be supremely confident. Beth decides that Helmut is a truly old Immortal: an Imperial.

So what does Helmut want? Power. It chafes him that Immortals must forever be in the shadows, using puppets and pawns instead of wielding direct political power over the mortal masses. Who could rule humanity better than one who has the experience of two thousand years of living among them? Who better than he who had lived to see the height and fall of several empires? Who, indeed? Helmut Meister wants to rule, and he thinks he is close to achieving this end. He is gathering other Immortals who share his views, and placing them in important political posts. Soon, perhaps even before the end of the twentieth century, he will have enough behind-the-scenes control to seize power in the United States, while of course maintaining the centuries-old fiction of popular elections.

Perhaps Helmut will contact the players and try to enlist them in his cause, of course making it sound as reasonable as possible. He would try to play upon their morals, or lack of them, and portray his goals in whatever manner would make them seem most attractive to the PCs. The PCs might stumble on Meister's plots some other way, perhaps intervening in one of the minor nefarious plans of his operatives. If the PCs' curiosity is aroused, they could investigate and trace the source of the plot higher and higher, uncovering ever greater acts of violence and manipulation until the trail leads to Helmut himself. Helmut is not above threatening the friends or families of those he wants to control, and he has more than enough hired thugs to carry out the threat; the players would risk a great deal in opposing him.

Meister

Imperial Immortal