Sp re

The City
i
Must Fal
l

G rant H owitt and C HristopHer t aylor

Copyright © 2018 by Grant Howitt and Christopher Taylor.
Published by Rowan, Rook and Decard Ltd.
First Edition Rules, Fifth Anniversary Printing (2023)

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed,

or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording,
or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permis-
sion of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical
reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law. For
permission requests, write to the publisher at the address below.

Rowan, Rook and Decard

6 Long Lane, Stannington
S6 6EE, United Kingdom
www.rowanrookanddecard.com

Printed in Latvia.

ISBN: 978-1-913032-33-3

Writing and design: Grant Howitt and Christopher Taylor

Illustrations: Adrian Stone
Layout: Minerva McJanda, Alina Sandu
Proofreading and copy-editing: Harry Goldstone
Sensitivity reading: Helen Gould
Map: Tim Wilkinson Lewis
Production: Mary Hamilton
 FIFTH ANNIVERSARY EDITION, 2023

By Grant Howitt and Christopher Taylor, 2018

Let me stop you for a second, and just give you a warning.

Probably, you’re excited to run a game of Spire for the same

reasons that I was: the high concept of players working together
as a doomed resistance cell. The character classes, with their
generous, psychedelic powers. The city itself, which overflows
with secrets, imagination, and possibility.

But just a heads-up. What lingers in my memory, a year since

my campaign of Spire ended – with my players’ characters
all either dead, in hiding, or spiritually shattered – isn’t any
of these things. Instead, what I mostly remember from my
campaign is this:

Hatred.

Never in my life as a gamesmaster have I seen a table of players

so heaving with hatred for their enemy.

On the one hand, this shouldn’t be a surprise. A sense of in-

justice is shot through Spire, from character creation, to the
design of each city district, to the very rules themselves, which
seat players on a greased chute towards annihilation. And of
course, the aelfir are marvellous antagonists, slimy creatures
of ego that would be pitiable if they weren’t so cruel.

But all the same, I ended up surprised at how, for all of the
colour, creativity and wit in this book, it was hatred that
powered my campaign of Spire, and hatred that meant my
players felt no hesitation in crashing their characters against
impossible odds.

So let me make a request for you, reading these words. On

behalf of my players? Give the aelfir hell.

Quintin Smith
Writer & Presenter
Shut Up And Sit Down, People Make Games
 CONTENTS
Welcome to Spire 1 Districts and Factions of Low Society 123
DERELICTUS123
The World of Spire 3 PERCH125
THE GARDEN DISTRICT 129
The Rules 9 THE WORKS 131

Skills and Domains 16 Districts and Factions of the Occult 135

THE VERMISSIAN 135
Equipment 19 THE HEART 139
THE GUILD OF MORTICIANS 145
Bonds 22 THE NECROPOLIS 148
THE MIDWIVES 152
Combat 24 EXAMPLE DEMONS 157

Characters 29 Districts and Factions of Order 161

AZURITE33 THE CITY GUARD 161
BLOOD-WITCH37 THE ALLIED DEFENCE HQ 163
BOUND41 THE COUNCIL 167
CARRION-PRIEST45
FIREBRAND49 Districts and Factions of Religion 169
IDOL53 THE CATHEDRAL OF OUR GLORIOUS LADY 169
KNIGHT57 THE MINISTRY OF OUR HIDDEN MISTRESS 172
LAHJAN61 THE SECT OF OUR CRIMSON VIGIL 175
MASKED65 PILGRIM’S WALK 177
MIDWIFE69 THE SOLAR BASILICA 178
VERMISSIAN SAGE 73 NEW HEAVEN 181
EXTRA ADVANCES 77
Running the Game 185
Districts and Factions of Academia 91
THE BENEVOLENT ORDER OF WISDOM AND Blood and Dust 195
DISCOVERY91
THE HIGH ELVEN UNIVERSITY OF DIVINE Appendices 212
MAGIC95 1: RANDOM ITEMS AND EVENTS IN SPIRE 212
THE ACADEMY OF GYWNN-ENFORR 97 2: THE NEW GODS 215
3: DROW GLOSSARY 232
Districts and Factions of Commerce 99 4: RUMOURED GOATS OF SPIRE 233
THE NORTH DOCKS 99 5: KNOWN ARCOLOGIES, AND DISCOVERIES
THE SKY DOCKS 102 FOUND THEREIN 234
THE BLUE PORT 107 6: ANTAGONISTS 235
7: SUGGESTED MEDIA 236
Districts and Factions of Crime 109
Special Thanks 237
Districts and Factions of High Society 115
AMARANTH,FROZEN HOME OF THE HIGH Index 238
ELVES115
IVORY ROW 117 Character Sheet 242
THE SILVER QUARTER 119
 WELCOME TO SPIRE
This is Spire. A mile-high city in the land of Destera, ruled by cruel high elves, in which the drow – you, and
your family, and your friends – have been oppressed for centuries. A nightmare warren of twisting passages
and structures, built and rebuilt, atop itself. A city of a thousand gods. The furthest bastion of a terrible and
burgeoning empire. A structure of unknown make that houses a blistering, rotten hole in reality at its centre
where the sane dare not tread.

WHAT IS SPIRE?
You have joined the Ministry of Our Hidden Mistress, a
paramilitary cult that worships a forbidden goddess, and
sworn in blood to avenge the wrongs placed upon you and Spire is a roleplaying game. If you’ve never played one
your people. You have made an oath to fight the high elves, before, it’s pretty simple, even though it can sound a bit
to subvert and capture their resources, and to take Spire intimidating. You play it gathered round a table (or on an
back into dark elf hands once more. online chat program) with your friends. One of you takes on
It is a cruel and thankless task, and your family would the role of the gamesmaster (or GM) – they’re in charge of
most likely report you to the city guard if they found out what coming up with the basis of the story, adjudicating how the
you did at night. But it is a task you have sworn to perform, world works, and acting as the supporting cast, villains and
and you will kill for it. You will die for it, too. the city itself. The other players will each take control of a
single character (or Player Character, or PC) who, together,

CONVENTIONS IN THE TEXT

will be the protagonists of the story of fantasy revolution
that you’re all going to tell. They’ll control that character,
making decisions for them and speaking as them, and help
D10 A ten-sided dice. them get into exciting trouble.
The story of Spire is one of rebellion.You and your friends
D8 An eight-sided dice. will become drow freedom fighters, clawing back their city
through subterfuge, sedition and brutal violence. They will
D6 A six-sided dice. have to risk their relationship with their community to save
it from the cruel overlords of Spire – what are they prepared
D3 A six-sided dice with the result halved to lose to libe-rate their people? Who are they prepared to
(round up). hurt, or kill, to see Spire under drow control once more?

DX
BEING A GAMESMASTER
A variable dice type.

Situation A single scene of roleplay, give or take If you’re reading this book, odds are that you’ll be the games-
– this is not an exact term. master – that’s the way things tend to go in this hobby. As the
gamesmaster, you’ll be in charge of physically managing the
We use male, female, and the non-gendered pronoun “they” game (i.e. where and when it takes place, who plays, and so
throughout this game. We use “dice” to refer to both single on), you’ll create the antagonists, you’ll describe the world, and
and multiple dice. you’ll dictate the pace of the game. If this sounds like a lot of
work, don’t worry – it’s easy, and it’s fun, and we’ve written a
whole chapter to help you out later on in the book (p. 185).
2 Welcome to Spire

BEING A PLAYER WHAT IS FANTASY?

If you’re invited to be a player in a game of Spire, then it’s We use “fantasy” as a shorthand to describe tales of swords
your job to help the gamesmaster and the other players and sorcery – elves, dragons, goblins, knights, floating castles,
make a brilliant story full of ups and downs. You’ll create dwarven gold hoards, magical staves, and so on. In Spire,
your character (which is a pretty quick and easy process, we’ve put our own urban twist on fantasy, exploring what
and we’ll guide you through it) by selecting a class – like happens when you put standard fantasy tropes in a city.
a profession or identity – and making a few choices within Here’s where Spire differs from standard fantasy:
that. Once you’ve got a character, it’s up to you to get them
into (and maybe out of) trouble, and tell an engaging story We’re not off to the wilderness. Assume that every game
with the other players. of Spire takes place within, or at least on, the walls of the
When you play, describe what your character does, titular city, unless something goes wrong. There’s more
and the GM will react. Occasionally, you’ll have to than enough inside to keep you entertained, we hope.
roll dice (when something’s at stake that you’d rather
not lose) but most of the time you’ll just have a conversation There’s no morality system. No-one thinks they’re the
focusing around telling a story in a grim fantasy world. bad guy. Everyone believes their actions are justified. No
While playing, you can refer to your character in the third spell is going to let you detect whether someone’s Chaotic
person, such as: “Desaine walks over to the guard, draws herself Evil or not, which is useful, because you might have to
up to her full height, and asks him to move out of the way.” do some reprehensible things to free your people, and lie
Or you might talk in the first person: “I’ve had enough to your family about it.
of this. I storm over to the guard, straighten out my back,
and say: ‘Excuse me, sir, but we have permits that allow us There aren’t any monsters. You’re not going to be kick-
to be here.’” ing in doors and shanking orcs, safe in the knowledge
Or you might do both. It’s up to you – the only wrong way that they aren’t people, and are therefore fine to kill.
to roleplay is if you don’t enjoy yourself while you’re doing it, Everything you’ll struggle against in Spire is, or once
or if you upset the other players at the table out-of-character. was, a person. A bad person, perhaps, but still a person.

Magic is hard. Magic costs something to cast; it withers

PLAYING THE GAME your body, your mind, and sometimes more esoteric re-
Most of the time, when you play Spire, it takes the form of sources too. Divine magic – that is, magic sanctioned by
a conversation between the players and the gamesmaster – a church or temple – tends to be reliable and less dan-
the gamesmaster describes the world, the players describe gerous, but also less potent, than occult magic. Occult
the actions of their characters, the gamesmaster reacts, and magic can melt the side of your brain off, but maybe also
so on. For most of the game, you won’t be using rules or do it to someone else too.
mechanics at all.
However, when a player character makes an action that’s Magic items are rare. Most people will go their entire lives
risky, dangerous or important – or the gamesmaster thinks it without seeing a magic item; the knack for making them
would be interesting to see them struggle – then we use dice has been all but lost, and those that exist today are ancient
to see if they succeed or fail. The gamemaster shouldn’t ask and unknowable or cobbled-together and unreliable.
the player to roll unless there’s something at stake.
When your character performs an action and the games-
master asks for a roll, you’ll roll at least one ten-sided dice
(hereafter called a D10). The higher you get, the better your
character succeeded, and the less stress they took as a result
of attempting the action.
Stress is bad, as it represents all kinds of minor negative
effects on your character. The more stress you accrue, the
more chance you have of it ticking over into something se-
rious. Luckily, there are lots of different ways of removing
stress, but more often than not you’ll find yourself choosing
between your own safety and the success of the revolution.
 THE WORLD OF SPIRE
Spire is a mile-high impossible city, older than anyone can remember. Two hundred years ago, the high elves – or aelfir, strange and
beautiful masked creatures from the far north – took it from the dark elves after a brutal and bloody war. Now, they graciously allow
dark elves, or drow, to live in the city if they perform four years of service to an aelfir lord once they come of age. From Spire, the
aelfir continue their conquest down to the south, and are caught up in a bloody struggle with the hyena-faced gnolls of far Nujab
that they fight with armies of ingenious human mercenaries.

THE DROW
The drow live in underground cities and covered towns THE LAND OF DESTERA
to the west, for thanks to the ancient curse that span them Destera, once ruled by the drow noble house of the
apart from aelfir, they are burned by sunlight. Their skin same name, is largely made up of temperate highlands
(which is dark black, ashen grey or alabaster white – they are and black-grey slate mountains. In spring and autumn,
a monochromatic race) blisters and weeps when exposed to rains roll in from the mountains to the north and drench
the sun. Those who wish to go outside during the day must Spire and the surrounding farmland; in summer, it is
don hats, headscarves and cloaks, and smoked eyeglasses, baking hot; and winters are short but harsh.
or risk sustaining rash-like burns and searing pain. To the north, the high elves still hold their ancestral
Rather than bearing a foetus until it is fully devel- homes – great fortresses of ice and thorn, defended by
oped as most mammals do, drow produce two or three legions of devoted warriors – and the land is trapped
small, fleshy eggs that must be carefully tended to and in a perpetual winter, and time itself grows slow and
nurtured over six months until the baby within is grown brittle in the cold. Far across the inland sea is the
enough to survive outside. The job of nurturing the Eastern Domain, ruled by the Wanderer-Kings of the
unborn falls to the parents and a caste of spider-blooded humans, who build homes around ancient arcologies
drow known as Midwives, who hold moderate political sway and plunder them for secrets to defend themselves
within Spire. It is in part through this communal raising pro- against the beasts that plague their lands. To the distant
cess that drow derive their strong sense of community, which south, the gnolls maintain a desert civilisation, the
is reinforced through aspects of their most active religions. crown jewel of which is Al’Marah – a cosmopolitan
Drow form an underclass in the city, subjugated by the city that stands fast against the heat of the sands – and
aelfir, and work in a variety of menial roles – either for a closer to Spire, the mountain region of Nujab sees
pittance, or unpaid as part of their durance. The majority weekly skirmishes between gnoll outlanders, nomadic
of drow live and work in the cramped environs of the Works drow from the neighbouring lands of Aliquam, and
and the Garden District, but some have mastered the art of the armies of the high elves.
ascending in an aelfir-dominated Spire and live comfortable And to the west, the Home Nations of the drow
lives in the Silver Quarter or serve as experts in the centres burn, wracked with a civil war that has spanned
of academia towards the top of the city. generations and killed hundreds of thousands of dark
elves. Refugees spill out from the splintered borders
and flood into Spire on the promise of safety and
security – but few, if any, find it upon arrival.
4 The World of Spire

4
The World of Spire5

THE AELFIR
No-one can say for sure what led the high elves to curse half DROW TRADITIONS
of their number millennia ago and turn them, over time, into What follows is a loose collection of traditions prac-
the drow. But meet a high elf and talk to them for a while and ticed by drow in Spire – a mix of Home Nations
you’ll see that such arcane cruelty is entirely in their nature. customs and modern culture.
The aelfir – as they prefer to be called – have magic Wearing clothes that cover the skin, and dark
running through their veins. They are creatures of blazing glasses that protect the eyes, is a necessity for drow
and beautiful colour whose feet barely touch the ground who wish to spend any time outside during the day.
when they walk and whose perfect hair flows as if caught in Wealthier drow, usually those in league with the aelfir,
a gentle wind. While some deign to spend time among the will use parasols or shades to hide from the sun. Many
populace of Spire at large, most of them live their lives in drow choose to cover most of their skin whenever
walled districts of perverse and audacious luxury. they are out of their homes, whether it is day or night.
Artificial light is important to the drow, and most

THE CURSE
make a habit of carrying a candle and matches with
them wherever they go.
Some say that the drow are not cursed – that they were Taking malak, a mild depressant, after work or
never aelfir, that they could never endure the touch of the before sleep is commonplace among the drow, but
sun’s light, that they were born underground as a different recent aelfir legislation has made it a serious crime
species entirely. But these radical drow historians are rare to possess or deal the drug.
in Spire, because they are often persuaded to say otherwise The traditional drow diet consists mainly of fungi,
and reinforce the accepted wisdom that the dark elves are algae and the sort of scuttling insects that spend their
changed, deformed high elves – and wind up dead if their lives living in the stagnant pools found in caves. Given
evidence to the contrary becomes too compelling. No-one that Spire is a more cosmopolitan city, the average
can say for sure where the race originated from, but the drow will consume bread, meat, rice and spices on
aelfir seem keen to maintain the status quo. a semi-regular basis.
A customary drow greeting is to ask after the health

THE HUMANS
of a person’s family (or “fanmi,” in the patois) before
you ask after their own. Not many folk respond with
Humans die young – at the age of sixty, or so, compared to a full list of symptoms – usually they just say they’re
the drow who stay vital until around their hundredth birth- “well” and carry on – but it’s considered polite to ask.
day and then quickly turn to dust, and the aelfir who extend In the Home Nations, and definitely in the Duchy
their lives with sacred rituals and dark surgeries well into of Aliquam, women are regarded with a higher esteem
their second century. This short lifespan has filled humans, than men. In Spire, drow are largely egalitarian with
the aelfir reckon, with an insatiable desire to discover and regards to gender.
build, to create and leave marks upon the world.
The humans, originating from a vast island far to the AELFIR TRADITIONS
east, discovered the ancient arcologies of those who came The aelfir are a proudly traditional people, and they
before – and unlike the aelfir and drow who kept the strange can afford to be, because they’re in charge. Here are
artefacts found within as curiosities and trinkets, they broke some common aelfir customs, although radical high
them down and retro-engineered the technology into their elves might refuse them:
own inventions. • Always wear a mask in public. The more of
As a result, humans invented the gun, and things have your face it covers, the better.
never really been the same since. They form the bulk of • Pay your respects to the Solar Pantheon, not
the aelfir mercenary armies, and can commonly be found the Old Gods, who were weak and powerless
in Spire. before their might.
• Take regular ice baths to cool the blood and
soothe the mind.
• Never lower yourself beneath a creature of another
race; to do so is an affront to your majesty.
• Make beautiful things and display them
prominently; improve nature with your
handiwork.
6 The World of Spire
The World of Spire7

THE MINISTRY
The Ministry does not officially exist. Drow are permitted, The secret society devoted to her is known as The
and indeed encouraged, to worship Our Glorious Lady, Ministry of Our Hidden Mistress, or just The Ministry, and
their mother-goddess the moon who they believe watches they are sworn to destroy and subvert the dominion of aelfir
over them from the night sky. She grants her people – who within Spire. Working in enemy territory, they strike at the
cannot endure the touch of the sun – light, restoration, assets and allies of the high elves and fight a shadow war
inspiration and solace. against their overlords to dethrone them from the council
But: in dark caverns and secret basements, in shadowed and run them out of Spire for good. Each minister, for
back-rooms and hushed safehouses, they have begun to wor- that is the name of the operatives who serve her, is trained
ship a different goddess. The dark side of the moon, never in combat, stealth, and misdirection after being carefully
seen by drow eyes, is known as Our Hidden Mistress, and recruited from the populace of Spire. They are revolution-
it is she who fills the drow with the strength to resist their aries fighting an impossible battle, but that will not stem
oppressors, unseen and unheard. She is a goddess of poison their fervour.
and lies, a goddess of shadows and secrets, and a terrible
and powerful creature indeed.

WHY IS SPIRE HERE?

Spire has been here, as far as anyone can tell, fore-ver. The gnoll horizon-breaker Ossiliex the Charmed con-
Every record that survives of ancient times that mentions jured it into being millennia ago to capture a great
it gives no clue to its creators, but only its inhabitants; and multifaceted djinn, focus and manipulate its oth-
for a long time, it was thought of as a mountain, and for erworldly energy, and thus create the world.
all intents and purposes it may as well be. What follows
is a list of prominent theories explaining the origin of Spire is the tip of the extradimensional ovipositor from
Spire, though none of them are anywhere near locating which world-eggs are produced, and this one has near-
definitive proof: ly been disgorged entirely.

Spire grew out of the ground as an organic object, a great The city is a prokatakos machine that fell into disuse and
tree of flesh, and now it is long-dead and the bones disrepair eons ago, but its function would change the
and flesh fossilised to rock (this view is popularised by world forever should it somehow be activated.
necrofusimancers: mystics who say they can work the
magic of undeath on the building’s corpse). Spire is a unique and beautiful musical instrument built
by the god of music, who once played it with the winds
Spire was once a towering creature that stalked across the and rain, but now the races living on and within it
landscape; it is still alive, but sleeping, perhaps waiting block the pipes and it no longer works.
until the intelligent races of the world (that it views as
bothersome parasites) die out and leave it alone. The ancient sorcerer-kings of the drow used their un-
knowable magics to coalesce Spire out of falling moon-
The prokatakos, a distant precursor race, built it as a cap light, intending to use it to build a bridge to the moon
atop something terrible – a permanent demonic in- and commune more deeply with their goddess. The
cursion, a site of grim sacrifice on an unimaginable bridge, it seems, was never finished.
scale, and the strange design is intended to dissipate
the harmful energies of the rift beneath. It is the reflection of a city on the moon, a grimy and
broken inversion of something perfect and glittering
It is the larval form (or the dormant form) of some kind far above.
of deity, and said deity can be birthed or awoken given
the correct impetus. Spire is a vast consensual hallucination that all entities
within accept as real.
Ancient elves built it as a means of plumbing magic from
the depths of the earth to light a signal fire for the It’s just a really big building.
gods, and thus brought religion to the world.
8 The World of Spire

THINGS TO KNOW
Before you start play, here are some things to know about your characters, the city, and the people around you.

Subvert, don’t destroy. Wrest weapons from the hands of You are going to hurt people. That’s unavoidable. It’s a
your enemies and turn them against them. Recruit cells crime for you to spill blood, but it’s “justice” when they
from other organisations, even ones that work against you, do it. The city guard are drow, just like you – desperate,
and use them as tools. If you kill someone in authority, and hungry, and tired, but they’re duty-bound to stop
someone will replace them and they’ll probably be worse; you. Who are you going to hurt to get what you want?
turn them, instead, through blackmail or threats or brib- Who won’t you hurt? What will you do to preserve the
ery, and use them. You can’t rule over ashes; you want secrecy of The Ministry and your mission?
the city to be standing when you’re done. (Still: when
it comes to it, don’t be afraid to resort to bloodshed, There’s always another level. You can’t win this. Listen:
especially when your cover is on the line.) you can take a street back, sure. Maybe even a district.
But if you make too much noise, take too much territory,
This is not a kind world. There are soft and gentle parts someone much bigger and more dangerous than you
of it; there are easy lives, but you don’t have one.You were will notice, and they’ll turn up and destroy you. So it’s
born into an underclass within an underclass. You have slow work, and you have to subvert rather than destroy,
struggled for everything you have, and even then someone and that leaves you with risky assets all over the map,
probably tried to take it away from you. You have been and when you finally secure a victory, one of two things
handed such a bad lot in life, in fact, that you have joined happens: either it gets taken off you by your enemies or
a radicalised cell who worship a forbidden goddess and your superiors, or it causes you untold problems, and
murder people in order to get revenge. suddenly you’re the bastards in charge, oppressing people.
But that’s how it goes, and better you than them. Right?
You are brave. People don’t know what they want or,
moreso, what they need. The drow need freedom, and Your own family would sell you out. You know what
you’re the one to give it to them, even if that means hid- ministers do? Ministers get people killed. Ministers
ing your actions. You are most likely lying to your loved used to meet in the cellar of the bar down the road,
ones, sneaking out while they sleep, and stockpiling illegal and then the Solar Guard showed up and burned it
weapons under your bed. You are living one wrong step to the ground with everyone inside. Ministers abduct
away from death every second of your life. and kill people for reasons that no-one can fathom. Mi-
nisters draw the attention of the watch, and the aelfir,
This is going to kill you. One way or another, you are on the poorest, most downtrodden districts of Spire. Far
going to die doing this. Maybe you’ve made your peace better, then, to report a cell to the authorities, and gain
with it, and maybe you’re lying to yourself and saying whatever rewards are offered for doing so – better job
that you’re smarter than everyone else, but if you stay prospects, a pocketful of sten, maybe even a nicer flat
active in the Ministry, you’re going to wind up dead or further up-Spire.
mad or destitute or all three. The best hope you’ve got
is offloading the danger onto someone else, earning the The ministry would sell you out. The Ministry are not
promotion to Magister, or retiring. But no-one really your friends. They can’t afford to allow you to mess up, or
retires. So you burn bright, as best you can, and try to to let information slip – they’ve invested so much in getting
make a difference. as far as they have today, and their work has barely started.
If you get something wrong and it causes pro-
blems, the Ministry will quite gladly give you false
information and send you into a trap to confuse
their enemies.
The Rules9

THE RULES

CORE MECHANIC and can’t think of anything fun that would happen if she failed, so
When your character performs an action and the games- they describe the crowd turning as one to face Justine as she walks
master asks you to roll, roll a D10 then consult this chart: in. A few people stop drinking their beer and nudge their mates.
Chris goes on to say that he wants to track down the informant he’s
1 Critical Failure (take double stress) been told hangs out in the bar, and Alex sees that there’s something
at stake here, so they ask him to roll. He rolls a D10 and gets a 6 –
2–5 Failure (take stress) Success at a cost. Alex says that Justine finds the informant, but that
their entrance drew some attention from the authorities.
6–7 Success at a cost (take stress)

8–9 Success (take no stress) PARTIAL STRESS

Sometimes you’re just rolling to avoid taking harm and not
10 Critical success (inflict +1 stress for each 10 trying to achieve anything else in particular – you test to
you roll) see if you can hang onto your mind after seeing something
horrific, to avoid damage from someone taking a swing at
If you have the skill you need, roll another D10. you, or to escape from a burning building. On a 6–7 result
on such an action, you still take stress, but it’s one dice type
If you have the domain you need, roll another D10. lower than usual. The same rules apply when you’re trying
to buy something for cheap.
If you have mastery over the action, skill or domain, roll

DIFFICULTY
another D10. (Mastery doesn’t stack – you can only use
it once per action, no matter how many sources you get it
from. You don’t need a skill to benefit from mastery when If an action is difficult, the GM subtracts dice from your pool
using it, although usually you’ll have both.) equal to the difficulty – difficulty ranges from 0 (standard) to
2 (very challenging). Surprise or ambush is a common reason
You’ll use the highest dice result you roll to resolve the to subtract dice; an NPC’s skill level is also represented by
action; the other dice don’t matter, unless they show 10 and their difficulty, which applies to all rolls made against them.
you’re inflicting stress on someone else. No matter how high the difficulty of a task is, if it’s at all
possible, you’ll always roll at least 1 dice. For each point of
Don’t roll if there’s nothing at stake; if the character could difficulty that would take your dice pool to zero or below, the
do it, it works, and if they couldn’t, they don’t. result is downgraded by one step on the core mechanic table.

Only roll if the character has something to lose, which is Example: A character with a dice pool of 1 attempts a difficulty
represented by marking stress. 2 action. This would leave them with a dice pool of -1. They roll
a single dice, cross-reference the number rolled with the table,
Example: Chris is playing Justine, a supernaturally-beautiful and then downgrade the result by two steps. If they roll a 10, this
occultist/artist known as an Idol. He describes his character walk- counts as a 6–7 – a success, but one that causes them to suffer
ing into a seedy bar down-Spire, trying to attract the attention of stress. Tackling a challenge of this magnitude without aptitude
everyone inside. The GM, Alex, reckons this is entirely possible makes success difficult and loss inevitable.
RULES IN BRIEF

++
1. BUILD DICE POOL

0
Start with 1D10
+ + 0
Relevant Skill
0
Relevant Domain
+ 0
Relevant Mastery
+
0 0
+1D10 per Helper -1D10 per Difficulty

2. ROLL DICE POOL

9 7 3 1

If the dice pool is reduced to 0 or fewer, roll 1D10.

3. DETERMINE SUCCESS AND FAILURE

Check your highest dice:

Critical Success. Deal stress to an adversary Crit Success.

Failure
Failure using your equipment’s dice. Deal +1 stress.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Take 2x You and any helpers take stress to an appropriate Resistance. Take no stress.
stress.

If your dice pool was reduced to 0 or fewer in step 2, reduce your result by one tier:
8–9 to 6–7, 6–7 to 2–5, etc.

4. TAKE FALLOUT
If you took stress, the GM will test for fallout like so:

LOWER THAN
ROLL 1D10 TOTAL STRESS?
NO NO FALLOUT

YES
2–4 TOTAL STRESS MINOR FALLOUT

FOR LESS LETHAL FALLOUT

RULES, SEE P. 13 PC TAKES FALLOUT 5–8 TOTAL STRESS MODERATE FALLOUT

9+ TOTAL STRESS SEVERE FALLOUT

The Rules11

GROUPS REMOVING STRESS

For each character that assists you, if they have a relevant skill You can actively remove stress from your character in one
or domain, add 1 to your dice pool – but they take stress the of three ways:
same way you would. (There is a limit to how many characters
can aid you on any given action, determined by the GM.) For • You can lay low to remove all stress suffered, but the plot
group skill actions (such as sneaking in somewhere), choose will move ahead without you, and things will occur that
one player to lead the group – if they succeed, every other are outside of your control.
player rolls with mastery. • You can act to remove stress in a particular category by
narratively spending time doing something that would

STRESS
remove stress (i.e. borrowing money from a friend to lower
Silver stress, visiting a doctor to lower Blood stress etc).
When you act and something goes wrong, you’ll take stress Remove D3, D6 or D8 stress depending on the lengths
to one of your resistances. There are five kinds: you go to in order to recover.
• You can refresh by acting in accordance with your
Blood Physical damage and exhaustion. character’s refresh action, outlined by your class or your
additional abilities. When you refresh, remove D3, D6 or
Mind Mental stress, instability and insanity. D8 stress depending on how fully, and how dramatically,
you fulfilled the requirements of your refresh action.
Silver Loss of money or resources.
Also, suffering fallout reduces the amount of stress your char-
Shadow Loss of secrecy, government and police acter carries – it shifts from abstract to definite. When you
attention, damage to cover identities. suffer minor fallout, remove 3 stress; when you suffer moderate
fallout, remove 5; when you suffer severe fallout, remove 7.
Reputation Loss of social standing in a group or
community. Example: Ana is playing Harold, an aging Lajhan (a priest of the
drow moon goddess). Harold’s total stress is getting pretty high after
Sometimes it will be stated outright what kind of stress evading some city guard patrols – especially his Shadow stress – and
a situation doles out – for example, when a Lajhan casts Ana has a few options for how to lower it.
a spell, most often they’ll be asked to mark stress against Firstly, Harold could lay low, removing all stress from all
Mind as they channel the vast energies of their goddess. If resistances; the GM decides that this would give the city guard a
it’s not clear where stress would go, the GM and the player chance to uncover one of the group’s hidden caches of weapons,
can work it out together. and it would be confiscated.
Situations inflict stress on players relative to the risk and Alternatively, Harold could act to remove stress from his Shadow
danger involved; this is determined by the GM. Breaking resistance; for example, bribing a sympathetic guard to say he’s fled
into a low-rent slum in Derelictus will cause D3 stress on the area, convincing a local bar owner to provide him an alibi, or
a failure; it’s D6 to infiltrate a gung-ho Red Row bar; and burning evidence. This would remove D3, D6 or D8 stress from
it’s D8 if you’re sneaking into somewhere really important, Shadow, and exactly how much is up the GM.
like the Duke’s personal paddle-steamer headquarters in the Finally, Harold could use the refresh action from his class: Help
Docks. If you’re fighting someone (or running away from Those Who Cannot Help Themselves. During play, Harold takes
them) and you take stress, you’ll usually take stress equal great lengths to protect those hurt by the aelfir, putting himself in
to the amount that their weapon inflicts. danger as he does so. As above, this would remove D3, D6 or D8
If you are fighting multiple enemies at once and suffer stress, but it can be removed from any resistance as Harold finds the
stress, take +1 stress for each enemy after the first. strength to continue with the rebellion.
Each time you take stress, the GM will roll a D10 to see
if you suffer fallout; definite, codified negative effects. If the
D10 rolls lower than your current total stress, you’ll suffer
fallout (detailed below).
12 The Rules

KEEPING TRACK ADDITIONAL RESISTANCE SLOTS

The GM keeps track of the player characters’ stress. This Each character will have additional resistance slots against
has two effects: 1) it makes it much easier to roll for fallout, certain resistances determined by their class and their abili-
and 2) it shifts stress from a mechanical effect into a narra- ties. Stress marked in these additional resistance slots doesn’t
tive description. When the GM allocates stress to a player count towards the character’s total stress for the purposes of
character, they should describe what’s happening in-world determining fallout; they’re “free.” Armour also functions
– not just say the number and move on. as additional resistance slots for Blood; you can learn more
If a player wants to know how much stress they’re suffer- about it in the equipment section (see p. 19).
ing from, the GM can either tell them numerically (which These slots will be described in abilities as “+X [Resist-
is simple, if a bit boring) or, again, describe it in narrative ance],” so “+1 Blood” would give you access to an additional
terms. Rather than saying “You’ve got 4 stress marked against slot in Blood that isn’t counted towards fallout.
Mind and Blood each,” the GM could say “You can feel your

FALLOUT
heartbeat ringing in your ears. You taste tin in your mouth.
You can’t focus on what anyone is saying.”
The GM can ask players to keep track of their own stress Each time a player character takes stress, the GM checks for
and roll for their own fallout, but in practice they tend to fallout – to see if there’s any kind of ongoing, serious effect
forget about the second part. It’s up to you; we prefer it this at play. The GM rolls a D10 and compares it to the current
way, but it might not work for your group. total stress marked against the character’s resistances – if the
result of the D10 roll is lower, the character suffers fallout.
The level of fallout depends on the amount of total stress
the character had when the fallout triggered:
SPECIAL STRESS SITUATIONS
2–4 Stress Minor Fallout
THE CURSE
If a drow is caught in bright sunlight without proper 5–8 Stress Moderate Fallout
protection, roll Resist or suffer D6 stress to Blood or
Mind immediately. If they have the proper protection, 9+ Stress Severe Fallout
it’s D3 stress per day. Minor incidental exposure, over-
cast days, or sunset/sunrise inflicts 1 stress. It’s rare Work out what happens based on the type of stress that
for a drow to die of sun exposure unless deliberately triggered the fallout; usually that’s the resistance type that
restrained or surprised. has the most stress marked against it. If there’s a mix, or it’s
not clear, go with whatever sounds more interesting.You can
choose from the list below or make up your own.
MAGIC Remember: On minor fallout, remove 3 stress; on moderate
There are two kinds of magic: divine, which is fallout, remove 5; on severe fallout, remove 7.
sanctioned by a church or temple and uses established If you’d like, you can allocate two fallout results from the
rites and ritual, and occult, which hacks into the category before the one selected instead. (So: instead of being
ambient levels of unknowable energy and rewires Knocked Out, you can be Bleeding and Panicked.) You can
them into strange and powerful patterns. also upgrade fallout from one stage to the next if a character
Divine magic doesn’t require a roll to cast: you suffers fallout from repeat sources. (So: if a character who’s
simply mark the stress, roll for fallout, and use the already Bleeding suffers further minor fallout during the
effect listed in the ability description. When you cast an same fight, you can get rid of that Bleeding and give them
occult spell, make an appropriate roll (usually listed in a moderate result instead, like Broken Limb.)
the ability itself) – if you suffer stress from this action,
you suffer D6 stress minimum. (But you might not
suffer any stress at all!)
The Rules13

You, or an ally, can mitigate Blood or Mind fallout with

an appropriate Fix check (see p. 16); minor fallout can LESS LETHAL FALLOUT
be removed, but anything moderate or above can only be As it stands, the system for resolving fallout is pretty
stabilised and managed unless you receive long-term care. lethal. If you’d like to make your game more survivable
Magical sources can also cure fallout, rather than remov- (or, more accurately, limit the amount of misfortune
ing stress: 3 stress to repair minor fallout, 5 stress to repair lumped upon the player characters) then you can treat
moderate fallout, and 7 stress to repair severe fallout. (But each resistance as a separate entity when it comes to
severe fallout generally isn’t the sort of thing that you “cure.”) calculating total stress. (So: if a character has 4 Mind
Non-Player Characters (NPCs) mark stress like players, stress and 6 Blood stress and takes another 1 stress
but they only have one resistance. When an NPC takes total to Mind, the GM needs to roll lower than 5 to inflict
stress equal to their resistance, they flee the situation, drop fallout – the Blood stress doesn’t factor in at all.)
out of the conflict, or do whatever it is the players want
them to do.

MINOR FALLOUT
Minor fallout comprises short-term, low-impact effects.

Bleeding [Blood] Weird [Mind]

You’re leaking. Until you get proper medical care, each time You do something unsettling that bothers normal people
you make an action, mark 1 stress against Blood before you – obsessive behaviour, singing to yourself, fulfilling a
roll the dice (but don’t check for fallout). strange compulsion at inappropriate times. At the earliest
opportunity, the GM can declare that your weirdness puts
Stunned [Blood] a useful NPC off you (and probably your allies, too). Once
You take a blow to the head, or are winded, giving your this happens, remove this fallout.
enemies opportunity to act. If they want to get away from
you, they can do so while you stagger about and gather Lash out [Reputation]
your senses; otherwise, you can’t use the Fight skill to earn You’re pissed off. You immediately lash out at the source
additional dice for the remainder of the situation. of stress, no matter whether or not this is a sensible idea.

Adrenaline [Blood/Mind] Lie [Reputation]

Your instincts kick in and you do something stupid. If Trying to justify your actions, you tell a lie that will cause a
you’re trying to get away or de-escalate, you lash out at your problem this or next session.
opponents. If you’re trying to fight, you get panicked and
retreat. This is only momentary, and fades after a moment Compromised [Shadow]
– long enough for a single, immediate action. A friendly NPC asks you to justify your strange behaviour.

Tired [Blood] Rumour [Shadow]

You struggle to stay awake, and you overlook something Word of your actions gets around the area. The GM and
crucial in the current situation. The GM works out what it the other players should work out three statements that are
is, and it comes back to haunt you before the session is over. whispered about you in bars and taverns: two true, one false.

Panicked [Mind] Debtor [Silver]

Your heart hammers in your chest. Choose: either leave the During the next session or later in this one, an NPC who
scene and calm down, or make things difficult for everyone lent you money will call in a favour.
else around you and increase the difficulty of all actions
performed nearby to you by 1. Pawned [Silver]
Until the end of the next session, you lose the use of one
Shaken [Mind] piece of equipment that’s important to you.
You can’t focus on what you’re doing.You may not gain dice
from Domains until you take time to calm down.
14 The Rules

MODERATE FALLOUT
Moderate fallout represents serious problems that are ongoing or acute.

Broken Arm [Blood] Permanently Weird [Mind]

Your arm breaks under the strain, and splintered bone juts up As Weird, but: it lasts until you get proper treatment, and
through your skin.You can’t use the arm until it heals (which the GM can trigger it whenever they like. You can suppress
will take a month or so, or require powerful healing magic). the effects of this fallout for a scene by marking D3 stress
against Mind.
Broken Leg [Blood]
Your leg bones splinter and crack. You can’t walk without Phobia [Mind]
crutches for a month or so, and you’ll automatically fail any You acquire a phobia of something related to the stress
Pursue attempts. Any action where you’d need to be quick you suffered – a person, an item, a place, a situation, or
on your feet (fighting, dancing, climbing) is either impossible something even more abstract. You will avoid the subject of
or suffers from an increased difficulty. your phobia whenever possible, and if you have to interact
with it, difficulties are increased by 1.
Knocked Out [Blood]
You fall unconscious for several hours, during which time Humiliated [Reputation]
your enemies get an advantage. You make a total fool of yourself.You can’t make use of any
allies associated with the actions that pushed you into fallout
Freak Out [Mind] until you prove yourself once more in their eyes.
You lose it, and attempt to kill (or at least drive off) whatever
caused your mental break.You won’t calm down until you’re Vendetta [Reputation]
restrained, it’s destroyed or flees the scene, or you’re knocked During the next session, or later in this one, an NPC from
unconscious. this session will return with a vendetta against you.

Memory Holes [Mind] Arrested [Shadow]

You did things that you can’t quite recall. The GM and You are caught and arrested by the guard and put in a jail
every player aside from you work together to determine cell, awaiting proper questioning for your crimes.
what you did that you blocked out from your mind while
you step outside of the room, or during downtime. These are Criminal [Shadow]
generally pretty awful things, and they can have happened You are accused of criminal acts, whether true or not, and
up to a year ago in game time or immediately upon suffering wanted posters featuring your face and name are put up
fallout. Your character has zero memory of the events, but throughout the district in which you committed the crime.
everyone else involved knows what happened. If the crime is particularly exciting, your name and face may
make it into the papers.

Watched [Shadow]
BOND FALLOUT At any point from now until the end of the next session,
Bonds are relationships that player characters have the GM can decide that someone tailing you watches you
with each other or non-player characters; and in perform an action; they can tell you which action if they
the case of NPCs, they can suffer stress and fallout wish. This will come back to haunt you before long.
as though they were a Resistance. (In this text, we
use “bond” to refer to both the relationship and the Sold [Silver]
person with whom the relationship is shared.) As it’s You’re forced to sell off something valuable to pay your
tracked separately from regular stress, NPC bonds debtors. Work out with the GM what you’re forced to sell.
get their own section for fallout on p. 23.
Services Rendered [Silver]
You’re forced to sell your skills to a third party to pay your
debtors, and the work is not pleasant. Work out with the GM
what your character doesn’t want to do but is prepared to
in order to make ends meet.
The Rules15

SEVERE FALLOUT
Severe fallout can mean the end of a character’s story – or represent a huge change in it. They are permanent, lasting
effects that may have an impact on a character’s allies and bonds as well as the character themselves.

Chosen [Blood] Wrath of the Sun Gods [Shadow]

You pass out and awaken in a half-dream state before Your operations are uncovered by the Solar Guard, the grand
your god (and if you haven’t devoted your life to a god, inquisitors of the aelfir church, and you are hunted. Many of
someone else’s god) and you can strike a bargain with them your NPC bonds are dragged out into the street and shot.
in exchange for your life. If you accept their terms, you Your friends dare not speak your name.
return to consciousness (changed, always changed) and if
you don’t, you slip away into death. Destitute [Silver]
You are utterly without material resource, and deep in debt
Dying [Blood] to several bad people.You have one last chance to gather up
You’re dying. Choose: do something useful before you die a vast sum of money or resources to pay back your creditors,
(and roll with mastery, because this is the last thing you’ll or you’ll end up dead, mauled beyond recognition by loan
ever do) or desperately try to cling onto life (and lose sharks, or sold off into some Red Row sweatshop.
something vital in the bargain).
Turned [Silver or Shadow]
Obsessed [Mind] You have sold out your allies in exchange for massive bribes
Your mind splinters and shards until it is razor-sharp and to get you out of debt, or to lessen your own punishment.
barbed, focused on a single goal.You are now Permanently You are now working for one of your enemies as well as
Weird (as above), but when you attempt to achieve your goal the Ministry, and you may be asked at any time to perform
you roll with mastery, and the difficulty for all other actions favours or rat out your team-mates. The only way out of this
increases by 1. Once you achieve your goal, your mind gives is to come clean (and be killed by the Ministry), completely
under the strain, and you are forcibly retired. eliminate the enemy forces who have leverage on you, or
take the next skywhale out of Spire and never look back.
Renegade [Mind]
Your mind shattered by the stress of your actions, you turn
against the Ministry and all it stands for (the precise reasons
why are up to you and the GM). This is not immediate; the CREATING YOUR OWN FALLOUT
fallout represents the first crack in the dam of your mind. Feel free to create you own fallout results specific to
Over the next few sessions, play out your descent. Should a particular situation once you’ve got a handle on the
you survive, you join a rival faction, or become one unto system – this list can’t, and shouldn’t try to, cater to
yourself, set against the cell. every potential situation. As a guide, Minor fallout
is generally resolved within a day or so; Moderate
Reviled [Reputation] fallout takes longer, or has minor permanent effects;
You are expelled from somewhere important to you, and you and Severe fallout can redirect a character arc or
can no longer return on pain of death (or, in more civilised introduce an entirely new facet to it.
society, arrest). People in the district will spread stories of When you create fallout of your own, it’s important
how utterly reprehensible you are throughout the city. to consider the effect it will have on the game. Forcing
a player to “sit out” and miss taking part is rarely
Burned [Shadow] fun for them; similarly, anything which imposes a flat
The Ministry decides that you are no longer worth the risk penalty to all rolls encourages them not to act until
of employing, and after feeding you some false information, the fallout is removed. Try to focus around pushing
sells you out to your enemies. Good luck. the story forward instead of punishing the characters
and/or players.
16 The Rules

SKILLS AND DOMAINS

Your character will have access to skills and domains when the game begins, and have the opportunity to gain more
through advancement. There are no levels or values in these – you either have them or you don’t.

SKILLS
If you possess a skill, when you perform the action associated with the skill, roll another D10 and pick the highest.

Compel: When it comes down to it, all success in life can situation, or collection of information to come to useful
be achieved by getting people to do what you want. Use conclusions based on your findings.
Compel to persuade, intimidate and charm people in an
attempt to get them to see things from your point of view. Pursue: Sooner or later, you’ll need to get away from the
authorities – or chase someone down to stop them telling
Deceive: As a minister, your public life is a lie, so it helps to the truth. Use Pursue to chase someone or something
be good at lying. Use Deceive to convince a person of a down, and track them if you lose sight of them. Pursue
falsehood, to carry off a disguise, or to falsify documents. is also used to escape when you’re being chased, or to
reposition while in dangerous territory.
Fight: Few people want to get into a fight, but Spire is a
dangerous place, and it pays to be able to handle yourself. Resist: You will face no end of hardships fighting for the
Use Fight to hurt and kill people (using weapons, or with Ministry, and those who can endure them are better off
your bare hands) and to avoid taking damage yourself, than those who can’t. Use Resist to withstand pain and
as best you’re able. exhaustion, act when you’re injured, resist torture and keep
your wits about you when others would lose their minds.
Fix: The city is crumbling from without and within, which
means it’s a good idea to make do and mend. Use Fix to Sneak: If no-one knows that you were there, no-one can
repair broken people, things and relationships, as well as accuse you of anything. Use Sneak to hide yourself, or
to build something. small items on your person, from the attentions of others.

Investigate: Secrets and information are Spire’s primary Steal: You can’t always afford what you need to fight the
currency, no matter what the gold-traders tell you, and aelfir, which means you need to find alternate means of
Investigate can help you find things that other people acquiring it. Use Steal to take things that aren’t yours, case
don’t want you to. Use Investigate to examine a scene, a joint, disable security measures and fence stolen goods.

KNACKS
If you possess a skill or domain and gain it a second time, you gain a knack – proficiency with a particular
facet of the broad spectrum covered by the skill or domain. Using a knack allows you to roll with mastery
but, as ever, you cannot gain more than one dice from mastery per roll.

SAMPLE KNACKS:
Deceive Low Society
Roll with mastery when you: Roll with mastery when:
• Create forged documents. • In the North Docks.
• Use a disguise. • Interacting with workers.
• Impersonate a named individual. • Blending in as part of Low Society.
• Drop a casual lie into a conversation. • Defending the people of Low Society.
The Rules17

DOMAINS
If you possess a domain, when you perform an action related to that domain, roll another D10 and pick the highest.

For example: the Academia domain lets you roll an extra dice when you leaf through old books or take part in a spirited historical
debate, but it also lets you roll an extra dice whenever you’re in an area associated with learning and higher education. If you’ve
got the Academia domain, you roll an extra dice when you sneak into a library, evade a university porter who uncovered your safe-
house, or track a scholar who is on her way to meet her secret contact.

Academia: Spire has some of the finest centres of learning Occult: The walls of Spire hum with strange energies, and
in the region, and perhaps the known world, if what you once you dig deep enough into the Heart, reality comes
consider “finest” covers experimental theology and practi- unstuck almost entirely. Any use of magic not sanctioned
cal aetherics. The Academia domain covers book-learning, by a church comes under the Occult domain, as do the
library use, and dealing with the peculiar personalities secrets hidden in the Heart, other dimensions, or the
and miles of red tape that come attached to institutions times of legend in the distant past.
of higher education.
Order: This domain encompasses those who keep the peace
Commerce: Commerce is the domain of buying and sell- in and around Spire, successfully or not – the city guard,
ing – some of it is haggling and appraisal, but a lot of it for the most part, but also the army and the Council
comes down to knowing where to go and who to talk to themselves. Depending on who a mercenary company
in order to get a good deal. Commerce districts include works for, and the sort of work they do, they’ll either be
the Blue Docks, the North Docks, the Sky Docks and Order or Crime. Outside of the jail, the military camp
anywhere you can buy or sell things. and the Council offices, there aren’t many districts of
Order – they operate in other districts and enforce the
Crime: Breaking the law is a popular pastime in Spire, and will of the aelfir upon the populace.
the Crime domain gives you an edge: it comes with know-
ledge of who’s who, how to carry yourself, how to pick out Religion: The city of Spire is a very religious one, with aelfir
a mark and how to stay one step ahead of the city guard. forbidding very few faiths (although the ones they forbid
Use Crime when you’re dealing with criminals – whether certainly matter to the dark elves). The Religion domain
investigating them or trying to work alongside them – or covers interactions with institutions devoted to faith and
in crime-heavy districts such as Red Row. knowledge of deities, and rites, of all kinds. Religious
districts include Pilgrim’s Walk, New Heaven, the Solar
High Society: Many of the aelfir, and those close to them, Basilica and the cathedral of Our Glorious Lady.
live in gilded luxury behind strong walls and ranks of
guards. Money and how to spend it is a big part of the Technology: The humans are the undisputed masters of
High Society domain, but more important than money technology, having vastly accelerated their advancement
is the indefinable quality known as class.You can have all through a culture of unearthing ancient katakos technol-
the money you desire and still not be accepted into the ogy from arcologies in their lands and retro-engineering
right clubs if you don’t know how to carry yourself – and it to build inferior, but still powerful, copies. The Tech-
with the High Society domain, you do. nology domain covers working with or repairing complex
machinery and dealing with groups or guilds that do
Low Society: Most of the city is covered by the Low Society the same; notable districts where it will come in useful
domain – these workers, labourers and craftsmen are the are the Works, parts of the Gardens, and the human-led
lifeblood of the city. They’re also the parasitic and workshy university of Gywnn-Enforr.
masses, depending on who you ask. Low Society districts
include the North Docks, Derelictus, Pilgrim’s Walk, the
Works, the Garden, Perch and anywhere else people are
struggling to survive day-to-day.
The Rules19

EQUIPMENT

Equipment, for the most part, lets you do a job. A lock-

pick lets you pick locks; climbing gear lets you scale a wall; BUYING AND SELLING
perfume lets you smell like a fancy courtier. Most equip- We didn’t want to make players count every sten and
ment you use will fall into the above category, and it has no queen in their pockets, so we abstracted the idea of
mechanical effect on the game. (Trying to perform a task money (and resources, favours and influence) into
without the proper equipment can increase the difficulty of the Silver resistance. It’s safe to assume that the more
the action, or even make it impossible.) additional resistance slots a character has in Silver,
However, when you acquire an item that matters to you, the better off they are – but the player characters
you’ll define two things about it that are special which mark in Spire aren’t ever going to be wealthy, not by the
it out from the many others like it. standards of those who oppress them.
Make a note of one negative aspect and one positive To buy items, the GM decides on the cost involved:
aspect, for example: D3 for minor purchases, D6 for moderate, and D8
for really expensive or exotic materials. Some items
• A beaten-up old cart with hidden containers for just can’t be purchased without expending a lot of
smuggling. effort to find a seller and do whatever it is they want
• An itchy rope made by the master rope-weavers of (that’s worth more than money) to acquire it. Then
Perch. the player makes a roll; usually Compel+Commerce,
• A bottle of gutrot liquor that tastes awful, but cleans but Deceive+Commerce could work if they’re trying
up old coins to a mirror shine. to pull a fast one.
• A fabulous cloak that provides little to no protection If the player rolls an 8 or more on their highest
from the elements. dice, their character managed to purchase the item
• A stout parasol in gaudy, unfashionable colours. without it causing a big impact on their finances; it
costs money, but they have enough to afford it. 6 or 7
If you take advantage of the positive aspect of the item, you means that they take the full stress rolled, but they get
roll with mastery on checks where you use it. If you’re forced the item. Usually, this stress will be applied to Silver.
into a situation where you have to rely on the negative aspect But what happens when they roll 5 or lower? They
of the item, the difficulty of the action increases by 1. still mark stress, but they don’t get the item. They
Weapons and armour have slightly more complex rules, might have had to grease some palms to set up a
detailed below (on page 20). However, if you don’t want to meeting (Silver), or endangered their reputation by
get too in-depth on combat, you can certainly use the above organising a buy, only to turn tail and run when the
rules for weapons too instead of tags; that’s up to your group. price is too high (Reputation). Maybe the city guard
get wind of someone trying to purchase unusual
goods and start poking around (Shadow).
As far as selling goes: make a roll to find a buyer,
and then remove either D3, D6 or D8 stress from
Silver (or Reputation) depending on how valuable
the item was.
Players shouldn’t have to roll to buy everything
they use day-to-day; as with everything else, the
gamesmaster should only ask for a roll if something’s
at stake and it could be interesting if they failed.
20Equipment

WEAPONS
Weapons inflict stress on targets based on their type. Most tag stack; if you managed to get Brutal three times, for
weapons have their stress dice in brackets after their name, example, then you’d roll four dice and pick the highest
but as a rough guide: when inflicting stress.
Concealable: When you attempt to conceal this weapon,
1 Stress Unarmed damage roll with mastery.
Conduit: Mark D3 stress to Mind to roll with mastery
D3 Stress Civilian or improvised weapons – when using this equipment for the rest of the situation.
knives, clubs, etc Dangerous: If your highest D10 shows a 1 or a 2 when
you use this weapon, it has exploded. Take D6 stress; the
D6 Stress Civilian or improvised weapons – weapon is destroyed.
knives, clubs, etc Defensive: While using this weapon, you gain an additional
Armour resistance slot.
D8 Stress Heavy or exotic weapons – Devastating: You cannot allocate stress inflicted by this
greatswords, cannon, etc weapon to armour, even if it has the Implacable tag.
Double-barrelled: You can use this weapon twice before
reloading, or fire both barrels at once to give the attack
RANGE the Brutal tag.
We assume that weapons can only be used up-close unless Extreme Range: This weapon can be used at extreme range.
they have the Ranged or Extreme Range tag. To use melee Masterpiece: This weapon’s damage dice increases by 1 step
weapons against an adversary at a distance, who knows you’re when used by someone with mastery of the Fight skill.
there and has a ranged weapon, make a roll (probably Sneak One-shot:You can only use this weapon once per situation;
or Pursue) to get in range without taking damage. it takes a very long time to reload.
If you outrange your oppone0nts – as in you are using Ongoing Dx: At the end of the situation, a character who
weapons with the ranged tag and they aren’t, or you’re us- took damage from this weapon must succeed on a Resist
ing weapons with the extreme range tag and theirs are only check or suffer an additional Dx stress.
ranged – you take a maximum of 1 stress per roll until they Parrying: Once per situation, when an enemy inflicts stress
are close enough to use their weapons efficiently. For more to Blood with you in melee combat, force the GM to re-
information on range, see the Combat section on p. 24. roll the stress inflicted.
Piercing:You cannot allocate stress inflicted by this weapon
to armour, unless the armour has the Implacable tag.
AMMUNITION Point-blank: When used at extremely close range, this
If a character has a weapon that requires ammunition (bolts, weapon’s damage increases by 1 dice size; at anything
bullets, arrows, etc) we assume that they have a ready sup- over medium range, it decreases by 1.
ply of ammunition for it – there’s no need to track each Ranged: This weapon can be used at range.
individual piece. Reload: Once you’ve used this weapon, it cannot be used
again until you spend time reloading it.
Scarring: Causes savage, ugly wounds on targets.
TAGS Spread Dx: If you succeed on an attack with this weapon,
Weapons may also have tags attached to them that mechanically you inflict half the stress you dealt to the original target
affect the way they’re used. Most tags will only take effect when to a number of other targets standing nearby, equal to
a player uses the weapon; as a rough guide, if a tag refers to roll- the result of your Dx roll.
ing dice, NPCs can’t use it. (Tags such as Piercing, though, Surprising: The first time you use this weapon in a situation,
can be used by both player- and non-player characters.) roll with mastery.
Stunning: If you succeed on an attack roll with this weapon,
Accurate: If the user takes a minute or so to set up the you may declare that any affected targets take no stress,
shot as part of an ambush or surprise attack, they roll but their difficulty is reduced to 0 until they gather their
with mastery when attacking. This is not possible once senses.
combat has started. Tiring: When you fail an action using this item, its damage
Bloodbound: Mark D3 stress to Blood to roll with mastery decreases in dice size by 1.
when using this equipment for the rest of the situation. Unreliable: When you fail an action using this equipment,
Bound:You can use Bound class abilities through this weapon. it cannot be used for the remainder of the situation.
Brutal: When you roll for stress with this weapon, roll two
dice and pick the highest. Multiple instances of the Brutal
Equipment21

ARMOUR
Armour gives additional Blood resistance slots to a character MAKING YOUR OWN EQUIPMENT
who wears or carries it, meaning that they can take more GM, it’s up to you to create the right weapons for
hits before succumbing to their wounds. Armour has tags your story. While we’ve listed plenty of examples
in the same fashion as weapons: throughout the book, both as part of the character
starting equipment and NPC descriptions, we want-
Assault: You may choose to mark 1 stress against this ed to let you craft the weapons you need rather than
armour; if you do so, you gain mastery to Fight on your trying to write an exhaustive list of every possible
next action. piece of kit in the game.
Camouflaged: The armour is designed to camouflage the To generate a weapon or piece of armour, pick
wearer in specific terrain; when they use Sneak in that out a stress dice for it, and attach as many tags
terrain, they do so with mastery. as you like (although more than four starts to
Concealable: When you attempt to conceal this armour, slow things down). Feel free to create your own
roll with mastery. tags, too, especially if they don’t have mechanical
Implacable: Piercing weapons do not negate this armour, feedback: Stylish, Terrifying, Flashy, and so on.
but Devastating weapons do. We’ve generated a few pieces of equipment below
Heavy: When wearing your armour, you may not use the to get you started.
Pursue or Sneak skills to gain additional dice.

WEAPON STRESS TAGS

Blunderbuss D3 Spread D3, Ranged, Point-blank, One-shot

Poison Blade D3 Ongoing D6, Concealable

Mattock D3 Brutal, Piercing

Aelfir Longbow D6 Masterpiece, Tiring, Extreme Range

Cat o’ Nine Tails D3 Scarring, Stunning

Gnollish Warhammer D6 Brutal

Yssian Parrying Blade D3 Parrying

Spireblack Bomb D6 Spread D6, Dangerous, Ranged, One-shot

Retroengineered Galvanic Arquebus D8 Extreme Range, Dangerous, Unreliable

Solar Guard Flashbang 1 Spread D6, Stunning - D6 Stress Versus Drow

Shrike Pistol D6 Piercing, Ranged, Double-barrelled

ARMOUR RESISTANCE TAGS

Iron Spider Weave 2 Camouflaged (The Works)

City Guard Riot Gear 4 Heavy

Minister’s Prayer 1 Concealable

Boiler Plate 2

The Duke’s Greatcoat, Possibly Enchanted 2 Implacable

 BONDS

Bonds are connections that the player characters share with Treat performing a favour as a normal roll. An NPC
other people, groups or organisations in Spire. A bond is a bond rolls 1D10, +1D10 if it’s within their area of expertise,
broadly positive connection, if perhaps a complicated one. +1D10 if it’s in their neighbourhood/home. If an NPC bond
GM, give out bonds to the characters as rewards for suffers stress when they roll to achieve a task, treat the rela-
recruiting allies or achieving objectives. tionship as a separate resistance allocated to the character
and allocate stress to it.

NPC BONDS Example: Lozlyn has an NPC bond with Jackson Crouch, a
You can ask an NPC bond to perform a favour on your be- heretical retroengineer who peddles moody galvanics on the streets
half – something that they wouldn’t normally do and which of Red Row. She asks him to lend her an experimental gun he’s
puts them, and the relationship, under stress and danger. been working on for an upcoming raid, and the GM rolls to
They’re under no obligation to do what you ask – and the determine the result of her request. This is within Jackson’s area
GM might ask for a check to get them to comply – but if they of expertise and also doesn’t involve him leaving his home district,
do so, they incur stress based on the scale of the favour asked. so the GM rolls 3D10.
Their highest dice is a 7, which means that Crouch entrusts
Lozlyn with the gun (for a while) but the relationship takes D3
stress. Crouch grumbles at the imposition, but hands over the gun,
SAMPLE STRESS LEVELS and asks her not to break this one.
1 Stress: Give advice or access to general information
within their domain; allow safe passage through You can remove stress from a bond by doing a favour for
space they control; offer temporary accommodation. your ally in return; the bigger the favour, the more stress
you’ll remove.
D3 Stress: Get you and your comrades access to a

HELPING OUT YOUR FRIENDS

private area or event; lend you a piece of equip-
ment; put in a good word with an authority in their
domain; turn a blind eye to minor transgressions. Once per situation, when you act in a way that benefits some-
one you share a bond with, you may do so with mastery.
D6 Stress: Gift you a valuable piece of equipment;
provide a safe haven for you and your comrades;
betray the trust of an outsider; turn a blind eye
to major transgressions; commit minor transgres-
sions; engage in moderate-risk actions.

D8 Stress: Betray a friend; commit major transgres-

sions; engage in high-risk actions; donate large
amounts of resources to the Ministry.
  23

BOND LEVEL BOND FALLOUT

There are three levels of NPC bonds: Individual, which is Bonds don’t count towards your total stress for fallout –
a single person; Street, which is a small-to-medium organ- they’re handled separately, each as their own track. At the
isation; and City, which is a district-wide organisation with end of each session, roll to check for fallout on each bond
considerable influence. that a player marked stress to that session. (If a bond is
temporary, such as one earned from a spell or class ability,
Example: Catspaw, a Knight of the North Docks, is Individual then roll for fallout when it is removed.)
level; Catspaw’s knightly order,The Riddling Pig, is Street-level;
the Knights of the North Docks are City level.
MINOR
A bond’s level reflects its overall capabilities, and the scale Mistake [Bond]
it works at. The GM and player are encouraged to use their Your bond’s actions raise suspicion. Mark D3 stress in
common sense here and judge fairly as to what an organi- Shadow.
sation of a given size might be able to achieve.
If a bond works against an entity with a lower level than Depleted [Bond]
its own, it does so with mastery. A bond can’t work against Your bond uses up their resources, suffers an injury,
an entity with a higher level than its own, so try to find a is upset with you, or is otherwise unable or unwilling
level-appropriate entity within it for them to tackle. to help you out. Next time you ask a favour of them, the
difficulty of the task they attempt is increased by 1.
Example: If the Order of the Riddling Pig went after a lone spy,
they’d roll an extra dice; if they took on a rival pub, it’d be a
normal roll; and they don’t have the sway to take on the Knights MODERATE
as an entire organisation. In Trouble [Bond]
Your bond finds themselves in trouble, and can’t be used

COMBINING BONDS
until the problem is resolved.

You can combine two bonds of equal level and similar Leak [Bond]
description to advance them to one bond of the level above. Your bond unwittingly gives out information that threatens
For instance, if you had a bond with Catspaw from the the operation. Mark D6 stress in Shadow.
previous example as well as a bond with Moore, a smuggler,
you could remove both and replace them with “River Folk”
as a Street-level bond.You’ve still got a connection with both SEVERE
Moore and Catspaw, but the individual connections are less Betrayal [Bond]
important to you than the relationship with the people who Mark D8 stress in Shadow. Your bond turns against you,
live around the river docks in general. although they will not tell you this until it is too late.

Made an Example Of [Bond]

Your bond’s connection to the resistance is uncovered, and
they are made to pay the price. They are dragged into the
streets and shot in public after being denounced for their
crimes and declared dead.
 COMBAT
Combat is handled as a conversation between players and the GM. The players describe their actions, whether they be movements,
attacks etc. The GM then calls for specific rolls. Actions taken during combat are always considered challenging, and as such, are
always rolled for.

MAKING ACTIONS IN COMBAT INITIATIVE

Most commonly, when a player character makes an action Spire doesn’t use rounds and turns; like every other part of
in combat, the GM will ask for a roll to determine the out- the game, combat is entirely narrative and time is flexible.
come – combat is tense, difficult and dangerous, and nothing The GM chooses who attacks first. Normally it will be
can be for certain. The most common skill that will allow very obvious who gets priority in a combat, but if it is not,
a player to add dice to their pool is Fight, but other skills ask the group who they’re most excited to watch fight first.
can be of use, too. Sneak can be rolled in place of Fight for After that person has acted, it’s up to the GM to involve
assassinations; Pursue can be rolled to chase down a fleeing every player at the table – even if they’re hanging back and
target, or evade a gang of enemies; Compel can be rolled to trying to stay out of the fray.
intimidate a foe into submission. If you want, you can just go clockwise around the table;
Domains apply as normal; the location in which the com- you can pick the front-line fighter types first and cycle back
bat is being fought and the enemies being fought against will to the others; you can ask the player who’s just acted who
dictate which ones are appropriate. Fighting a magician in they want to see act next; and so on. Pick a system and stick
a university could use the Academic or Occult domains, for to it, and make sure that you’re getting everyone involved.
example; brawling with an officer of the city guard in the However, there’s no limit on how many times a player
Silver Quarter could use High Society or Order. As ever, can act before others do; if it makes narrative sense for a
only one skill and one domain can be applied to any one character to act twice (say, pushing a guard down a flight of
roll, and it’s up to the GM and player to determine which stairs and then holding a door shut to stop reinforcements
ones are appropriate. from barrelling through it) then they can make the rolls one
Remember: the GM does not roll dice to determine the after another. Remember – every dice roll comes with the
success or failure of NPC actions - instead, the players must chance of taking stress, so more actions equals more risk.
roll to react to, counteract or avoid those actions. Generally
speaking, NPCs don’t take “turns” to act - their actions are
woven into the fiction, and represented by the stress and
fallout inflicted on player characters.
Combat25

RANGE
There are three ranges in Spire: melee, ranged, and extreme
range. Melee is fighting toe-to-toe in the same room; ranged
can reach between buildings, or down to the street from a
rooftop; extreme range is anything further than that, assum-
ing you can get line of sight to aim the shot.
If the players are outranged in a fight, they’ll need to
make an action to close on their enemies (or maybe more
than one, depending on how far away they are) – Pursue to
run in, Sneak to break line of sight and move stealthily, or
Fight to lead a charge and take advantage of available cover.
If the players outrange their enemies, they have the drop
on them; they’ll take a maximum 1 stress per action until
the enemies get close enough to use their weapons.

RELOADING
A lot of Ranged weapons have the Reload tag, and must be
reloaded between shots as they only carry a small reservoir of
ammunition. When a player declares that they’re reloading,
take the opportunity to describe the enemies using this weak-
ness against them – circling round to get a shot in, making
an attack against them, running off with some valuables,

STRESS
and so on. Players can make actions to avoid taking stress
while they reload if it feels appropriate to do so.
Weapons generally apply their stress to Blood; however, don’t

ARMOUR
be afraid to attack other resistances if appropriate. A hurled
insult or spectacularly grand miss might harm Reputation,
Armour provides additional resistance slots to Blood when or a sneak-thief might make away with some Silver.
attacked by something doing physical harm. Stress applied

POST-FIGHT
to the slots contributed by armour does not count towards
total stress when checking for fallout, so armour makes an
individual much hardier in combat. Stress marked to armour The aftermath is a time to pick up the pieces and take stock
is removed at the end of the situation. Specific tags such as of the situation. Remind players just how badly things went
Piercing and Devastating deal stress that cannot be applied for them; describe the lingering effects of fallout suffered.
to these free slots as they ignore certain kinds of armour, Let them know, in narrative terms, how much stress they
making them especially deadly. suffered and how close to death they came.
26Combat
Combat27

EXAMPLE FIGHT
Ganford (a Knight, played by Ziz), and Lozlyn (a Firebrand, He rolls a D6 and gets a 4. Applying 4 stress to Lozlyn’s Blood
played by Helen) have been trapped inside a tenement by the city resistance, he rolls a D10 to check for fallout; he gets a 6, so she’s
guard. The GM is Dominic. After a brief debate about evidence okay for now.
and show trials, the pair decide to fight their way out.
Dominic: You manage to throw yourself into cover, and
Dominic: There are about four city guards; two on the street you’re not hit by the crossbow bolts, but you do get wind-
below aiming crossbows through the windows, and two ed by the impact of hitting the deck, and your ears are
who’ve just kicked in the door and are carrying clubs. ringing from the gunshot. Ganford, what do you do?
Ganford, what do you do?
Ziz: I’m gonna throw this guy off me, drag myself to my
Ziz: I’m going to rush forward and swing my greatsword at feet and swing my sword at him. [She rolls three dice; her
the one on the left. I’ve got Low Society and Fight, so that’s highest is a 4.] That’s not enough, is it?
three dice. [She rolls three D10s; her highest dice is a 9.]
Dominic: Not by a long shot. You can’t swing your sword
Dominic: That’s a hit! Roll damage. properly in here, and it’s heavy. It has the Tiring tag, so
you’ll reduce the stress dice attached to it by 1 step – it
Ziz rolls a D8 and scores 6.The guard has 5 Resistance and 1 Ar- does D6 stress now until the end of the situation. Also,
mour. Subtracting from the Armour first, GM reduces the guard’s he clubs you in the arm for… [He rolls a D3, and gets a
resistance by the amount of stress that Ziz inflicted, bringing it to zero. 3.] 3 damage. Which is entirely soaked by your Armour,
reducing its value to 0 until you get out of the fight, but
Dominic: He’s dead – you’ve just killed a police officer. you’re unharmed. Lozlyn?
What does it look like?
Helen: I’m gonna rush forward and knock this guy off bal-
Ziz: I guess he wasn’t really expecting a Knight? So I charge ance before he does Ganford any more harm. [She rolls
at him and there’s a look of fear in his eyes for a second, 3 dice; her highest is a 7.] So I hit him, right?
and then I plunge the greatsword through his belly and
drive him back against the wall. Dominic: Yeah, you do. You’ve got a knife, right?

Dominic: He sputters up some blood and dies on your Helen: You bet.
blade; his mate shouts out: “Vennis!” and tackles you to
the ground. Lozlyn, what’s happening? Dominic: Okay, roll stress as though you were using the
knife; no reason you should roll less because you wanted
Helen: I’m gonna shoot him with my revolver. to describe yourself doing something cool.

Dominic: Cool, okay. As you do, the two guards outside Helen rolls a D3 and gets 3.
spot you through the window and open fire.
Dominic: You shove him off-balance, but you’ll take stress.
Helen: [Rolls 3 D10s; her highest dice is a 6.] Not good
enough. He rolls a D3 and gets 2, adding it to Lozlyn’s Blood stress, then
checks for fallout again.This time, he rolls a 5, so she suffers fallout.
Dominic: You still hit, but you’re going to take some stress Given that her total current Blood stress is 7, that means it’s Moderate
yourself. Roll your damage first. fallout. He reduces her stress by 5 as she received Moderate fallout.

Helen rolls a D6 and gets a 3. Dominic: As you knock him off-balance, you both fall out of
the door – and down the stairs. He pulls himself to his feet
Dominic: It’s dark. You snap off a shot into the melee and groggily, and you look down at your arm: it’s broken, and
you think you hit something, but it’s hard to tell what – your stomach lurches as you see bone jutting out of the skin.
Ganford, you feel the guard’s blood run down his arm
and into your armour, but he’s still going on adrenaline. Helen: Ugh.
Also, the windows shatter as crossbow bolts streak through
them. Let me roll damage… Dominic: Indeed. Ganford, you’re up!
28Characters
Characters29

CHARACTERS
HOW TO CREATE A CHARACTER HOW TO ADVANCE A CHARACTER
To make a player character in Spire, choose a durance from When you make a small change in the city of Spire, gain a
the list on p. 30-31: this is an indication of the sort of thing Low advance. When you make a moderate change in Spire,
your character was doing before they joined the resistance. gain a Medium advance. When you cause huge, severe and
Once you’ve selected a durance, select a class (they begin perhaps irreversible change in Spire, gain a High advance.
on p. 32) and two Low abilities from it. Choose a name The change does not have to be for the better.
and bonds, note down your free core abilities, select your Advances are selected from within your class, unless you
equipment from the options provided and you’re ready to go. want to multiclass.

BACKSTORY MULTICLASSING
You can determine as much, or as little, about your You may, if you wish, select an ability from a different class
character’s past and personality as you like before when you advance, but your advance counts as one grade
play starts – and it can really help to get a thorough lower (for example, making a moderate change to the city
understanding of who the character is so you can would let you gain a Low advance in the new class). If you
roleplay them better. choose to do so, you gain that class’s refresh ability as well.
However, we prefer to keep things vague. By You must have a way to learn the ability in-character, too – if
defining only broad truths about your character, you you’re a Knight and you want to purchase Bound abilities
give yourself enough basis for roleplay, but also leave with your advance, you’ll need to spend some time in Perch
things open to interpretation if you want to connect or at least with an existing member of the organisation.
them to other characters and events that might come
up during play.
30Characters

DURANCE
Although the aelfir occupied Spire nearly two hundred years Spire would not be the city it is today were it not for the
ago, they allow dark elves to live and work in the city in ex- thousands of unpaid workers who toil ceaselessly to keep
change for a durance – four years of indentured servitude to it running.
a high elf with enough money and influence to support them. Select one of the following durances to represent how
In exchange for those four years of free labour (and dark you spent your four years of service to the aelfir at character
elves are not permitted to choose how they spend their du- creation – feel free to create your own with the GM if you
rance, either), the aelfir in charge is expected to provide food, are interested in an origin that is not represented here.Your
clothing and shelter for their charge. Given the overcrowded domain will give you access to the additional resistance slots,
nature of Spire’s prisons, a period of durance is a common skills, or domains listed after the title. For more information
punishment for a crime – six months for minor infractions, on skills and domains, see p. 16.
and several years (if not decades) for serious crimes.
There are many kinds of durance: a dark elf whose family Acolyte: +2 Mind, Religion. You spent time serving as an
is in good standing with the aelfir will treat the durance as a assistant to an aelfir in the Solar Basilica or researching
sort of internship or apprenticeship, perhaps setting them up ancient gods in dusty temples.You have a broad awareness
for later roles as paid researchers, artists, military officers or of religious practices in Spire and are used to helping out
traders. (These drow are often supported by their families during casting of ritual magic.
during their durance, too, so they can afford to go without
pay for four years and not feel the bite of poverty too keenly.) Agent: +2 Shadow, Crime. You served as a connection be-
But the majority of drow are not in good standing with tween your master and the underworld, doing whatever
the aelfir, instead being third- or second-generation children needed to be done to ensure the success of their business
of immigrants from Aliquam or the Home Nations who enterprises.You are adept at covering your tracks, and in
reside in the damned undercity or the cramped confines of the know when it comes to the criminal element.
the Works, the Gardens or Pilgrim’s Row, and their durances
are not so kind. Once they are of age (around sixteen, but Builder: Fix, Technology.You designed and built things for
children as young as thirteen can be taken in desperate your master – machines, structures, bridges, elevators, and
times) they are rounded up by the city guard on Durance so on.You are well-versed in patching things together and
Day and herded up-Spire. Here, they will be bargained for, understanding the mysterious inner workings of devices.
and traded back and forth between monied Lords and La-
dies who pay a small donation to the city for each servant Dealer: Compel, Commerce. You bought and sold things
under their control. for your Lord, striving to get a good price, and are not
Not all drow perform a durance; some wealthy drow averse to applying pressure to get what you want. You
families “buy out” the young dark elf, making the donation know the best places to acquire goods.
to the city that their aelfir lords would (plus an additional
fee, of course), and many of those who live in Red Row or Duellist: Fight, High Society. You put your life on the
Derelictus are never spotted by, or deliberately hidden from, line, fighting for the honour of an aelfir lord during their
the guard who come looking for them each year. Those who debauched festivals, and you survived. You can comport
have hidden from the aelfir live uneasy lives, as the penalty yourself equally well in a swirling melee or a cocktail party.
for not serving a durance is exile, or worse.
What do drow under durance do? The Works runs on Enlisted: +2 Blood, Fight. You were a grunt – a front-line
indentured drow; legions of ashen-skinned, starving labour- soldier, wrapped in scarves to protect yourself from the
ers, hauling raw materials to furnaces, risking the loss of sun’s light, fighting a war far to the south against the
a limb in whirring machinery or a lung from breathing in gnolls.You are tougher than most, and can shoot straight.
atomised spireblack (see page 124). The Garden, save for the
few spots owned by independent deep farmers, is attended Guard: +2 Reputation, Order.You were one of the thousands
to by swarms of workers who pluck fruit from the vines and of drow forced to police Spire. This thankless task gave
stir the great, still vats of algae. The armies of the Allied you a reputation as someone who’s useful to know, and a
Defence Force, though they carry guns of human make and keen understanding of how to cut through bureaucratic
have aelfir leaders, are made up largely of indentured drow red tape.
soldiers swathed in protective scarves and goggles to keep
the sun’s light at bay.
Characters31

Human Emissary: Technology, Commerce. You dealt with Or, you didn’t serve an aelfir lord at all, and instead you:
the humans, a strange and short-lived race from beyond
the eastern ocean, and grew used to understanding their • Kept a low profile in Derelictus: +2 Shadow, Low Society.
strange technology before buying it off them. • Fought to protect your community: +2 Reputation,
Crime.
Hunter: Pursue, Sneak.You hunted wild beasts around the • Led a doomed uprising: Compel, Low Society.
minarets of the upper Spire; either you aided your master • Joined a cult or two: Religion, Occult.
in their hunts for sport, or you hunted alone for their table. • Toughed it out in Red Row: Fight, Crime.
• Fell in with a gang of thieves: Sneak, Steal.
Information Broker: +2 Shadow, Investigate.You applied • Spent your time in jail: +2 Blood, Crime.
your unique talents for your lord’s benefit, buying and • Hid in plain sight: Deceive, High Society.
selling information, secrets and allegiances to further their • Helped the Ministry wage their war: +2 Shadow, Resist.
political schemes. You have a keen eye for information,
and are hard to track down.

Killer: Sneak, Fight.You murdered the enemies of your lord SLAVERY?

in cold blood; strangling them with their silken bedsheets, Durance is a form of slavery, albeit a temporary form
pushing them off gilded balconies, or shooting them in the – although a drow can leave their post after four years
street.You have an aptitude for death, and going unseen. of labour, they will find it hard to acquire resources
and skills to make it on their own, and often wind up
Labourer: +2 Blood, Resist. You toiled in the enormous working for a pittance under the very aelfir who had
factories of the Works or the endless fields of the Garden them during their durance in the first place. Even
district alongside multitudes of other drow. It made you during their durance, a drow is still considered a
tough, and instilled a keen sense of rebellion in you. person, not property.
The topic of slavery – full slavery, where human
Occultist: +2 Shadow, Occult.You plumbed the depths of beings are bought and sold as though they were
arcane knowledge for your master, risking your sanity by commodities – is a difficult one to broach, and we’re
poring over forbidden tomes in an effort to unlock the not sure we’re equipped to do it. To that end, as far as
secrets within. You are used to concealing your activities we’re concerned, outright slavery is illegal in Spire the
from the authorities and decoding ancient spells. same way murder and theft are. Some people still do
it, the same way they do in the real world, but there’s
Personal Assistant: +2 Silver, Compel. You handled the not a great industry around it. If you want to explore
day-to-day business of your lord, giving you an unusual slavery in your game – and the moral implications
level of authority and a small stash of embezzled money of a city that made it legal, as well as an oppressor
that has nearly run out. who explicitly seeks to buy and sell the oppressed
– go for it, but that’s not a story we’re interested in
Pet: +2 Silver, High Society.You were kept as an objet d’art, trying to tell.
too pretty to put to work, and shown off at parties. You
have retained some of the trinkets and cash from your
previous life.

Sage: +2 Mind, Academia.You worked in one of the universities

up-Spire, or perhaps in a private collection, understanding
and distilling a broad array of topics for your master.You
have a wide understanding of the sciences and history.

Spy: Sneak, Deceive.You were employed as a spy, infiltrating

societies and guilds to spread misinformation and report
back on their activities to your lord.You are adept at lying,
cheating, and moving unseen.
32

<<Azurite class art>>

  33

AZURITE
“Everyone has a price. Even you, my Lord.”

You are a trader, deal-maker and hustler from the south docks, Resistances Silver +2, Reputation +2
clad in sacred blue and gold.You are welcome almost every-
where, and have connections all over Spire from previous Refresh Carry out a deal that benefits you more
business deals and debts owed. than it does the other party.

Skills
CORE ABILITIES
Compel, Deceive

Cut a Deal. You know anyone who’s anyone... Once per Domains Commerce, and either High Society or
session, set up a meet with an NPC who can acquire you Low Society
pretty much anything available in Spire. It won’t be free,
though, and odds are they’ll want a favour or a cut too. Equipment
Pick one: One set of blue robes, many layers
Heart’s Desire. ...And you know what they want. Once per
situation, pick an NPC that you can observe for a while. A smattering of gold jewellery made of
The GM will tell you what they want most of all right now. coins from overseas

Buckler of Azur (Armour 1, also counts

as a holy symbol)

Serious-looking club (D3, Brutal)

Three sets of beautiful robes and girdles,

each in slightly different shades of blue

Golden necklaces, nose-rings and

bracelets bearing the symbol of Azur

“Weapon”: Bodyguard, D6, Tiring.You’re

protected by an agent under your employ,
to make up for your lack of combat
prowess. When you receive this, name and
describe your bodyguard and note down
two things they hate.

Bonds
You have an individual-level bond with a member of the
downtrodden underclass. Name them, and name the thing
that’s most important to them.

You have a bond with one of the other PCs who you res-
cued from a dangerous situation. Describe the situation
they found themselves in.
34

ADVANCES
LOW MEDIUM
Golden Tongue. [Divine] You buy fluency in a language True Blue. [Divine] Blue is a sacred colour to Azur, and
from your god. Mark 1 stress to Silver to speak a language, Azur protects the faithful. As long as you’re wearing the
dialect or slang of your choosing for the next situation. sacred blue silks of Azur, your clothes provide Armour
You can’t read or write it, but you’re pretty much fluent 2. Mark D3 stress against Silver to increase this to 4 if
as far as speaking and understanding is concerned. you perform a half-hour ritual which makes your clothes
glitter like golden coins.
Ignoble Tactics. You have mastered the art of standing
behind someone bigger than you. Gain the Fight skill. Your Desperate Bargain. [Divine] Your god extends their pro-
bodyguard, if you have one, gains the Defensive tag. tection to all facets of your life, for a steep price. Once per
situation, after you take stress but before the GM rolls
Gold-Blooded. [Divine] You can buy your way out of anything for fallout, you may elect to mark 1 stress to Silver. If
– even gunshot wounds. Gain Religion as a Domain. Once you do, the GM does not roll for fallout, and you escape
per situation, allot stress to Silver when you’d normally repercussions for now.
allot it to Blood, or vice-versa.
Golden Quill. [Divine] All languages of the world are known
Hidden Stashes. You have dozens of caches hidden within the to Azur, and now, to you as well. As Golden Tongue, but
city limits. +2 Silver. In addition, once per session, gain now you can read and write the language, too. Mark D6
a (non-unique, mundane) piece of equipment instantly stress against Silver to make the change permanent.
as you retrieve it from a cache.
On the Toss of a Coin. [Divine] When all else fails, you can
The Golden God’s Arcana. [Divine] You put a coin under even the odds. When you make any action that requires a
your tongue as payment to Azur, who fills your mind with dice roll, mark 1 Stress to Silver to use this spell. Instead
knowledge. At the end of the rite, it disappears. Mark D3 of rolling your standard dice pool, toss a coin. Heads, you
stress in Silver to cast this rite; gain access to a Domain get what you want, take no stress, and you look good doing
that you do not have for the remainder of the current it. Tails, and you suffer a critical failure and double stress.
situation.
Azur’s Grace. [Divine]You are a master of the slightly crooked
Buy Friends. [Divine] You sacrifice a handful of sten, throwing deal, smoothing things over with divine aid. +1 Reputation,
them from the side of Spire, and beg Azur to put in a good +1 Shadow. Mark D3 stress to Silver to cast this rite;
word on your account. Mark D6 stress in Silver and beseech when you do so, remove D3 Reputation or Shadow stress
Azur to aid you in a short ritual. Choose an organisation marked against yourself or an ally.
– you are treated as having an individual-level bond in
that organisation until the end of the session, as Azur The G olden God’s Guidance. [Divine] Azur gifts you and
tweaks the golden skeins of fate to make a connection your allies with muscle-memory and training – but not for free.
between the organisation and yourself. Choose any skill – you now possess it permanently. In
addition, you learn the art of bargaining with your god
Glutton’s Coin. [Divine] You summon a magical coin that for proficiency in mortal tasks: you may mark D3 stress
curses the holder with insatiable greed. Mark D3 stress in in Mind, Blood or Silver to temporarily purchase a skill
Silver or Mind.You summon a coin that you imbue with from Azur. You, or an ally, gain the skill as a class skill
magical power. The first person to touch it other than until the next sunrise.
you will be possessed by a feverish desire to gain as much
wealth and items as possible before the next sunrise. Buy Loyalty. You drop a handful of jewelry down Azur’s well
in the Blue Docks and beseech your god to buy you some
connections. As Buy Friends, but the bond in question
is Street-level.
  35

HIGH
Buy Some Time. [Divine] It’s expensive, but you can buy back Buy Anything. [Divine] Nothing is outside of your remit as a
a minute of your time. Mark D8 stress to Silver to cast master trader. Gain mastery in Compel.You can now buy
this spell, which takes effect instantaneously. You travel a or sell anything to or from a willing participant – not just
minute back in time, and will probably meet yourself from goods and services, but skills, memories, stress marks,
the past depending on how far you’ve moved over the last injuries, relationships, time, etc. Both parties must be
sixty seconds. At the end of the minute, you and your past willing to make the trade.
self meld back into the same person as they cast the spell. If you mark D6 stress to Silver as part of casting this rite,
(If you stop yourself from casting Buy Some Time, you can still buy or sell anything – but transfer of property
then things get temporally difficult. Each of you marks is dependent on terms set out in a contract signed by both
D8 stress every minute until one or both of you dies.) parties. If the terms of the contract are broken, the transfer
is effective immediately.
Golden Handshake. [Divine] Everyone loves you, so long as
you buy them something nice. Gain mastery in Deceive. In Buy Power. [Divine] In a secret and shadowed ritual, you
addition, you learn the following rite of Azur: when you make a fire of bearer bonds and sacred incense and breathe
buy a present for someone, mark D6 stress in Silver to im- deep as Azur sneaks you into high society. As Buy Loyalty,
bue it with Azur’s good graces. Once they accept the gift, but the bond in question is City-level and the spell costs
they’ll treat you as a close personal friend until the next D8 stress to Silver to cast.
sunrise – or until the gift breaks, whichever comes first.
36
  37

BLOOD-WITCH
“I can hear your hearbeat, aelfir, and I hear terror.”

You are a ritual magician who has travelled to the dark Resistances Blood +3, Shadow +1
Heart of Spire, and brought back with you a strange and
debilitating blood disease that allows you to warp the natural Refresh Share a moment of intimacy with another
world with your essence. You possess dominion over blood, person.
and your unnatural countenance makes you a terrifying
figure to behold when riled. Skills Deceive, Resist

Domains
CORE ABILITIES
Occult, Low Society

Night Terror. You have a history of fear in the city of Spire. Equipment
Once per session, when you meet an NPC for the first You get: Athame (D3, Bloodbound)
time, declare that they have tried to intervene in your
affairs at some point in the past, and failed. They are now Several sets of tattered, weird-looking
terrified of you, with all the risks that entails. clothing

Echoes. [Occult] You can taste the intricacies of a person in A collection of occult ephemera
their blood. When you taste the blood of a creature, you
will learn something interesting or surprising about their Bonds
past or future. The blood must still be warm; the colder You have captured a creature and fed your diseased blood
it is, the less accurate and more disjointed the visions to it, turning it to your will and enhancing its intelligence.
will be. Visions of the future are inaccurate at best and Choose a small common creature such as a cat, toad, crow,
misleading at worst, but they will represent one potential snake, spider or raven, and gain it as an individual-level
future for the target. (You cannot derive any information bond. The creature has a physical tell that indicates it is
from tasting the blood of a cold-blooded creature.) under the influence of black magic, such as compound
eyes, additional legs, strange markings, or horns.
True Form. [Occult] Try as you might, you just can’t keep
the writhing terror inside yourself. Since returning from the You have tasted the blood of another player character, and
Heart, your true self pushes and boils beneath the surface learned a secret about their past (or future). What did you
of your skin. If you ever take moderate or severe fallout learn, and how often do you remind them of it?
of any kind, you shift into the form that the Heart wishes
you to be – a flickering zoetrope horror. Your fingers
twitch and flex and your movements are stop-motion and
disjointed; your shoulders pop and creak as they bend
at the wrong points and the stench of old blood fills the
air. You gain the Compel and Pursue skills, and anyone
with an ounce of sense will most likely run from you.You
may attempt to stop this change with a Resist+Occult
roll. Your true form lasts until the end of the situation.
You can mark D3 stress to shift into your true form
at any time.
38

ADVANCES
LOW MEDIUM
Arterial Spray. [Occult] You spit a curse in a thrice-dead Close the Wound. [Occult] Your saliva can sear shut
language and stinking, vitriolic black blood sprays out of a the wounds of others. Spit on a wound to heal it almost
wound or orifice. Mark 1 stress to Blood to cast this spell. instantly, leaving a knot of dark scar tissue where it was.
It functions as a (D3, Ranged, Spread D3) weapon. Mark D3 stress to Blood to remove D6 Blood stress from
a target other than yourself.
Blind Eye Curse. [Occult]You conjure a hex which manifests
as sigils crawling underneath your skin that beguile and con- Corpus Desan. [Occult] You fashion a concoction from the
fuse those who would try to stop you. +1 Shadow. Mark D3 blood of your allies, and ask them all to drink deep. Once it
stress to Blood to remove minor Shadow fallout; mark takes effect, you move as one being. Mark D6 stress to cast
D6 stress to Blood to clear moderate Shadow fallout; this spell; all other participants mark 1 Blood. Until the
mark D8 stress to Blood to clear severe Shadow fallout. next dawn, all those who gave their blood and drank of
the mixture can swap places with one another instanta-
Blood-Bound Companion. [Occult] You strengthen your neously, if both are willing; their bodies flex and change
bond with your familiar. Gain two of the following abilities: into one another with a noise like tearing meat.

• +1 Mind.Your familiar can talk to people other than you. Heart’s-blood Thrall. [Occult] Your cursed blood has warped
• +1 Blood. Your familiar can change its shape into any your familiar’s body almost beyond recognition, turning it into
similar-sized non-unique creature (but retains the tell). something truly monstrous. Gain two of the following abilities:
• Gain the Sneak skill. Your familiar can very briefly
shift to become incorporeal. • Your familiar confers three additional resistance slots
• Gain the Fight skill. Your familiar can be used as a to which you can allocate stress marked as a result of
(D6, Ranged, Surprising, One-shot) weapon. spellcasting.
• +1 Reputation. Your familiar can be used as a (D6,
You can take this advance twice, choosing different Ranged, Piercing, Unreliable) weapon.
abilities each time. • Gain the Steal skill. Once per session, you can see
through the eyes of your familiar and control its
Bloody Mask. [Occult] You mix your tainted blood with that movements for a situation.
of another, and daub sigils of glamour with it onto your brow • +1 Mind. While you sleep, your familiar whispers
and lips. Gain the Steal skill. Mark D3 stress to Blood to secrets about those around you into your ear. At the
cast this spell. Draw on your face with a mixture of your end of each session, ask the GM what tidbits your
blood and someone else’s: until the blood dries complete- familiar tells you.
ly, you will appear as though you are the other person to
onlookers. The spell won’t disguise your clothing, though. Lair. [Occult] Soaking up loose magic, the area around your
home transforms into a nightmarish realm – a shadowy warren
Blood Ward. [Occult] You slit your palm and slap it against of skittering creatures, of words daubed in shifting blood, of
the wall, leaving a bloody handprint that will lash out at an- corridors to nowhere. Your lair counts as a Street-level bond
yone who comes near. Mark D3 stress to Blood to cast this which can act in accordance with your desires – trapping
spell, which is instantaneous. The next person – friend intruders, remembering what occurs within its boundaries,
or foe – to come within arm’s reach of the ward before and finding items from nearby. When you apply stress to
it dries takes D6 stress. this bond, halve the level of stress inflicted.You can remove
2 stress from your lair bond by marking 1 stress to Blood.
Evil Eye. [Occult] You spin a hex on a target, guaranteeing
that three misfortunes will assail them. Mark D6 stress to Torrent. [Occult] You learn the secret of animating the blood
cast this spell – you must be able to see the target. The of another, turning it against them. Mark D6 stress to cast
next three times you or an ally roll against the target of this spell. For the rest of the current situation, you can
this spell in any way (attacking, defending against their pluck out the blood of a living target through their nose,
attacks, investigating, tailing, etc) the difficulty rating of eyes and mouth simply by gesturing at them. This gesture
the action is 0, and you roll with mastery. functions as a (D6, Devastating, Ranged) weapon.
  39

Mannequin Curse. [Occult] Your blood burrows inside other

people and plucks their puppet-strings. Introduce a droplet INFAMOUS BLOOD-WITCHES
of your blood into the target’s body, and you may mark Countess Beryl Aliquam the Third. Beryl was a
D3 stress to Blood to force them to perform a simple shoo-in for the council several decades ago, having
action – opening or shutting a door, walking in a certain emigrated from the nomadic nation of Aliquam
direction, speaking a few words. They are fully aware that during the Year of Eight Gods and quickly risen
the impetus for the action is coming from elsewhere, and through the ranks of Spire nobility. Unbeknownst
the actions aren’t precise – they can’t load, aim and fire to her companions, she had visited the Heart and
a gun, but they can certainly pull the trigger of a gun become a blood-witch, and an off-colour com-
they’re already holding. Once you have infected them with ment on her fascinator at a ball lead to a full
your blood, the spell remains active until the next dawn. heartsblood transformation and several untimely
deaths. She currently resides in Ivory Row as a
Wending Corridors. [Occult] You twist your enemies’ percep- guest of Lady Theryn.
tions of space and time into a nightmare distortion. Mark D3
stress to Blood to cast this spell. For the next situation, you Sister Griswold. Very active in the Crimson Vigil;
automatically succeed at all Pursue checks you undertake. furious, vindictive against the aelfir, enjoys de-
stroying whole noble houses in a single night by
plunging them into chaos and fire.
HIGH
A Dark and Blasted Land. [Occult] You understand the Doctor Serrys de Vire. Doctor De Vire was a
secret of your lair; that it lives in you, rather than the other great influence on medical research in Spire, pi-
way around. +2 Blood. As Lair, but if you spend D6 stress oneered many modern methods of anaesthetic
and spend half an hour concentrating, your lair recreates and disinfection, and is solely responsible for the
itself around wherever you are currently standing.You can hex-maladi plague of the Year of the Red Moon
move between this new lair and the original instantane- that saw the streets of Little Whitecross overrun
ously, but you can only maintain a single additional lair with needle-toothed ceiling-crawling mutants.
at a time. If you do not visit your new lair for a full week,
it dissipates and the area returns to normal. Somna. Grew tired of Spire and founded her own
patchwork version, deep in the Night City, over
Cheval. [Occult] You plunge your consciousness into the body which she rules.
of some poor unfortunate, and you steer them like a horse. +2
Blood. As Mannequin Curse, but: you gain full control Gore-Tooth. Used to rule Grist before the ghouls
of the target’s body for the period of the spell, and do not came in and took over; some say she still does,
have to mark stress to have them perform actions. They using them as enforcers and the lunatic demigod
have no memory of the actions they performed during King Teeth as a puppet ruler. Most blood-witches
the possession. For the duration of the spell, your original don’t eat children – Gore-Tooth does.
body is in a semi-conscious trance – you are only barely
aware of events that are occurring around your writhing, Maji-mal, Mother of Monsters. The arachnid
chattering body. terror known as Maji-Mal is the only known indi-
vidual to combine both blood-witch and midwife
Unkillable. [Occult] Death holds no power over you. +2 traits. Her lair (which travels with her through the
Blood. If you die as a result of fallout, you do not die. undercity) is riddled with the foetuses of tenderly
Instead, you reawaken in your lair on the morning of cared-for creatures, nightmarish combinations
the next dawn. If you do not have a lair, you are reborn of drow and spider and the nameless monsters
in the Heart, and this ability is removed from you (you that cavort within the Heart, and she takes great
may purchase it again). pleasure in dressing her spawn and providing them
with a proper education.
40
  41

BOUND
“Rope, secure me. Armour, shield me. Blade, bleed them dry.”

You are an acrobatic vigilante, accustomed to dealing quick Resistances Blood +1, Shadow +2
and decisive judgement to criminals. You worship the small
gods in your armour, your ropes, your weapons, and they Refresh Bring a criminal to justice.
take care of you.
Skills Fight, Sneak, Pursue

CORE ABILITIES Domains Low Society, Crime

Surprise Infiltration. Nothing can keep you out. Once
per session, insert yourself into a situation where you Equipment
are not currently present, so long as there’s some You get: Light leather armour (Armour 2)
conceivable way you could get in there. Ceremonial red binding ropes and mask
Sturdy leather gloves
Bound Blade. You have captured a god and forced it into your Climbing gear and ropes
blade. As a Bound, you gain a god-knife or god-axe blade
when you join the order, and bind a small god inside it Pick one: God-knife (D3, Concealable, Bound)
with a bloody and dark ritual. This weapon has the Bound
tag, and as such you can use your class abilities through God-axe (D6. Bound)
it. You can’t use your abilities through another weapon,
but if your Bound weapon is lost or destroyed, you can Bonds
create a new one with a night-long, exhausting rite held You have an individual-level bond with a member of the
back in Perch. downtrodden underclass. Name them, and name the thing
that’s most important to them.

You have a bond with one of the other PCs who you res-
cued from a dangerous situation. Describe the situation
they found themselves in.
42

ADVANCES
LOW MEDIUM
The Secret of Binding. [Divine] Your rope can form knots The Saint of Blades. [Divine] You loosen the bindings on the
that no other person can untie. Gain Fix as a class skill. In god in your blade, and it thanks you. Your blade’s damage
addition, your rope learns the secret of tying itself into dice increases by 1 step and it gains the Defensive tag.
permanent forms. When you tie a knot with your own
rope, it cannot be undone by anyone but yourself. (Others The Saint of Blood. [Divine] You sacrifice others to the god
can still cut the rope, though.) hidden in your blade. +1 Blood. In addition, your bound
weapon can drink the blood of others and fill you with
The Secret of Second Skin. [Divine] The god in your ar- vigour. Once per situation, when you hit with your weap-
mour watches out for you. Once per situation, when you are on, remove D6 stress from Blood.
attacked by an enemy and the GM would roll to inflict
stress, you take 1 stress instead. The Saint of Binding. [Divine] Your rope-god dances and
twists for you.Your rope animates as if of its own accord,
The Secret of the Crowd. [Divine] You can hide in plain tripping your enemies. It becomes a weapon with the
sight, so long as there are others around. +1 Shadow. When following stats: Damage D3, Stunning.
you wear your mask and stand in a crowd, you will blend
into the background (though not become invisible) unless The Saint of Hidden Faces. [Divine] To your oppressors,
you do something out of the ordinary to attract attention. all poor folk look alike; your mask uses this fact, and it will
be their undoing. Gain Deceive as a class skill. Once per
The Secret of Flight. [Divine] The god bound into your situation, you and another character who are both wearing
blade can make it soar like an angel. Your blade gains the masks may swap places with one another if you are both
following tags: Ranged, Piercing, Reload. (When you willing to do so.
reload, go and pick up your blade.)
The Saint of Ways. [Divine] No lock will impede your progress.
The Secret of Loose Tongues. [Divine] Your bottle en- Gain the Steal skill. When you wear your gloves and try
chants the liquor inside it, convincing those who drink to share to open a door, that door is unlocked and unbarred. It
their secrets. Gain the Compel skill. When someone takes works on windows and trapdoors, but not chests, display
a drink from your bottle, they will feel compelled to tell cases or safes – it only allows access to portals big enough
you about a crime they were involved in, or adjacent to. for an adult drow to fit through.
(You cannot turn this off.)
The Saint of Last Stands. [Divine]Your armour-god extends
The Secret of Fear. [Divine] You rattle the cage that its protection and watches over your comrades. +2 Reputation.
keeps the god bound in your blade, and it terrifies your Once per session, declare a room you are standing in as
enemies. Mark D3 stress to Shadow; your bound weapon under your protection. While in there, until you leave the
dice size increases by 1 for the next situation. room, any stress that your allies suffer to Blood or Mind
is reduced by 1 dice size.
The Secret of Lucky Breaks. [Divine] Your gods see to it
that you’re never without small luxuries. +1 Mind, +1 Rep-
utation. Your bottle always has a little bit of liquor left in
it, your crumpled cigarette packet always contains three
cigarettes, and your box of spireblack matches always
contains one match. (You can’t use this ability to give
out infinite cigarettes and booze to loads of other people
in an attempt to make money; the gods will resent the
abuse, and cease to aid you.)
  43

HIGH
The God of Slaughter. [Divine] The furious god in your blade
is barely restrained, and grows more powerful with each new
sacrifice. Gain mastery of the Fight skill. If you inflict Blood
stress with your blade on a mortal target, you kill them.

The God of Shadows. [Divine] Your mask hides you, even

from the light. +2 Shadow. At the start of a situation, you
cannot be seen unless you draw attention to yourself by
attacking or making a loud noise. You can return to this
state by marking D3 stress in Shadow or Blood.

The God of Perch. [Divine] The many gods of Perch smile

upon you. +2 Reputation. Gain mastery in Pursue. You
can walk on any solid surface as though it is flat ground,
and cannot fall unless you wish to. While in Perch, you
roll with mastery on all checks.

The God of Getting Even. [Divine] Your armour is a

vengeful god. As Secret of Second Skin, but a nearby
enemy takes the stress you would have taken instead and
you refresh D3.
44

44
  45

CARRION-PRIEST “Charnel feasts tonight, brothers! As do we.”

Part of the followers of Charnel – a heretical sect of death Resistances Blood +2, Reputation +2
worshippers who live atop Spire in the towers and oubliettes
of New Heaven – you believe that the bodies of the dead Refresh Complete a hunt and take your quarry.
should be eaten by sacred hyenas to ensure the safe passage
of their souls to the afterlife. Skills Pursue, Sneak

Domains
CORE ABILITIES
Religion, Low Society

Hyena. You have a companion hyena who obeys your com- Equipment
mands. At character creation, pick two commands that You get: Leathers and robes (Armour 2)
your hyena understands. At the start of your turn, choose Hyena (see Core Abilities)
one command to give to your hyena from the list that it
understands so long as it can hear you speak: Pick one: Heavy-pull crossbow (D8, Ranged,
Reload, Unreliable)
• Sic ‘em: When you launch a surprise melee attack Knife (D3, Concealable)
on a target, your attacks gain the Brutal tag.
• Scout: When you attack at range from a position War-cleaver (D6)
of hiding, your attacks gain the Brutal tag. Preyhook (D3, Ranged, Stunning)
• Growl: When you intimidate or drive away
someone, do so with mastery. Bonds
• Guard: When you take stress to Blood, take 1 less You have a street-level bond with the faithful of charnel
stress than the result rolled to a minimum of 1. – a collection of worshippers of the corpse-eater god who
• Fetch: When you hunt down a target that you can live in New Heaven. Name three of them, and what’s
see and hear, do so with mastery. weird about them.
• Scent: When you sniff around a scene for clues,
do so with mastery. You have a bond with another PC who you have helped
deal with a death – either by guiding them through the
Lay of the Land. You are a trained hunter, and others would grieving process or disposing of the body. Say who it was,
do well to heed your words. When you enter a dangerous and who died.
situation, you can name up to three features or opportu-
nities that your allies can take advantage of. The first time
you or an ally uses an opportunity, they roll with mastery
(for example: cover with a good view of the battlefield,
an exit, a badly-guarded door, a stack of barrels, etc).
46

ADVANCES
LOW MEDIUM
New Tricks. Your hyena is unusually well-trained. Gain the Ghost Speaker. Your connection to the World After is strength-
Compel skill. Choose two more commands that your ened through Charnel. +1 Mind, +1 Reputation.You have a
hyena understands. close connection to death and the afterlife. Take D3 stress
in Mind or Blood to activate this power for a situation –
Cackle. [Divine] You are a terror of New Heaven, and your you can see, speak to, and physically interact with ghosts
enemies quake at your approach. +1 Reputation. Mark D3 as though they were physically present in the scene. In
stress to Mind or Body to unleash a nightmarish cackle in addition, once per session, you find a ghost and talk to
concert with your hyena that strikes fear into the hearts them about the present situation – ask the GM who it is.
of your enemies (and anyone else within earshot). For
the next minute or so, if your enemies have a difficulty Red Feast. [Divine] You can eat of the dead as a sacrifice to
rating, it is one lower. the Laughing Death, who eases your sorrows. Communing
with Charnel, you can transmute the flesh of sentient
Murder of Crows. The sacred birds of death come to your creatures into your own at a cost of your own sanity.
call. Mark D3 stress to Mind or Blood to cast this spell, When you eat the flesh of a person, Refresh. You cannot
which you must do so with access to a large open interior use this action to remove Mind stress.
space, or the sky. You summon a flock of crows, ravens,
jackdaws, magpies and all kinds of corvids, who will do Massacre. [Divine] You, or an ally, become a conduit for
your bidding until the end of the situation. They aren’t Charnel to enter the world through blood and death. Mark
skilled combatants, but they can provide a distraction in D3 Blood stress and spend an hour sanctifying yourself,
a pinch, and you can talk to them in a weird, croaking or another, in service of Charnel to cast this spell. Each
dialect if you want to ask them to gather information or time you mark stress to Blood, every weapon you carry
watch an area. gains the Spread D3 tag so long as it does not possess
the Reload tag. This effect is cumulative, increasing the
Rip and Tear. When you corner your quarry, their death is swift. value of Spread by an additional dice size each time you
When you inflict stress in melee combat, re-roll the stress mark stress to Blood. This effect lasts for one situation.
dice if it shows 1. If it shows the maximum number (i.e. 6
on a D6, 8 on a D8), roll it again and add both together. Alpha. You hold great power over your sacred beast. +1 Repu-
tation. At the start of your turn, choose two commands
Dead Flesh. [Divine] You are well-liked amongst the slums for your hyena to obey.
of New Heaven, as you are able to make rotting food edible
once more. +2 Reputation. You can call upon Charnel to Form of the Corvid. You can shift your form into that of a
bless rotting or spoiled food, casting the decay out of it, lesser carrion-eater. +1 Shadow. Mark D6 stress to cast
and making it safe to consume, as a five-minute ritual. this spell. You channel Charnel’s power through your
body during an hour-long ritual, during which time you
Charnel’s Mark. [Divine] You channel the energies of the dress yourself in a cloak of black feathers you have made
God of Slow Death through your body and onto your foes. yourself. At the culmination of the ritual, you take the
Mark D6 stress to Blood or Mind to cast this spell on a form of a slightly larger-than-normal corvid (the specific
target within sight; a rune daubed in rapidly-drying blood type is up to you). While in corvid form you can use your
appears on their person. Until the end of the situation, skills and domains as usual, but the fact that you are a
you and all allies gain the Brutal tag when you roll to bird will limit their application somewhat. You certainly
inflict stress against them. can’t use weapons in combat.
You will return to your normal form at the next sunrise,
or when someone speaks your full name within earshot
– whichever comes first.

Red of Beak and Talon. Your crow-servants are as fierce

and murderous as you are. As Murder of Crows, but
the swarm of corvids count as a (D3) weapon with the
Ranged and Brutal tags. (You don’t need to purchase the
Murder of Crows advance to take this.)
  47

HIGH
Bloodhunt. [Divine] Once you’ve tasted blood, you are all but
impossible to stop. To activate this power, taste a target’s
blood and mark D6 stress to Blood. Until you sleep, or
until they die, you may step out from the shadows nearby
to them whenever you desire. They can protect themselves,
give or take, by eliminating all nearby shadows.

A Flock of Night-Black Terrors. The crows you summon

are Charnel’s chosen. As Red of Beak and Talon, but
the swarm counts as a (D6) weapon with the Extreme
Range, Brutal and Bloodbound tags. (You don’t need to
purchase the Murder of Crows or Red of Beak and
Talon advances to take this.)

Taste Life. [Divine] Dead flesh contains many secrets, and you
can unlock them in concert with your god. +2 Blood. When
you eat the flesh of a recently dead creature, Charnel
sends you visions regarding their life.You can learn their
identity, how they died, and their recent actions up to the
moment of their death. In addition, you gain permanent
access to one domain they possessed when they were alive.

Form of the Great Carrion-eater. [Divine] You fuse with

your sacred beast, becoming a divine monstrosity in service of
Charnel. Charnel blesses you with the ability to change
your body into that of a monstrous, slavering hyena. Mark
D6 stress to Mind: this is an extended process that takes
about 30 minutes to complete, and includes ceremonial
eating of flesh and communing with the spirit of your
animal companion as well as donning a sanctified hyena-
skin. During this process, you will physically merge with
your hyena companion, so you can no longer issue them
commands until the spell is ended.
You will assume the form of an unnaturally large and
muscled hyena for a day, during which time you will be
unable to speak intelligibly, but roll with mastery on Fight
and Pursue checks. While you are transformed, you gain
an additional 5 slots in Blood, and your claws count as D8
damage weapons, but you cannot use weapons, armour
or other equipment.
You cannot return to your humanoid form until the
spell wears off – you cannot end it early.
48

48
  49

FIREBRAND
“They can’t take us all on. Not all of us.
Tonight, we show them who’s really in charge.”

You are a revolutionary, a rabble-rouser, a dangerous criminal Resistances Reputation +3, Shadow +1
in the eyes of the authorities, who hangs out in the lawless
undercities of Red Row and Derelictus. As you gain power, Refresh Take something back from those who
the people of the city begin to worship you, and you can would oppress you.
bestow blessings on them by focusing their belief through
your actions. Skills Compel, Steal

Domains
CORE ABILITIES
Low Society, Crime

Lead From the Front. You excel when you’re under pressure. Equipment
When you have 6 or more stress in Shadow, gain mastery Pick one: Knife, sap, or brass knuckles
on all actions. (D3, Concealable)

Draw a Crowd. You can pull together a crowd at a moment’s Sledgehammer or pickaxe
notice. Once per session, you can draw a crowd to you (D6, Tiring)
in a matter of minutes. People will stop what they’re
doing, so long as it isn’t life-or-death, and listen to what Pick one: Crow-pattern revolver
you have to say. (D6, Unreliable)

Buzzard sawn-off
(D6, Reload, Point-blank)

Bonds
You have two individual-level bonds with folk who are
sympathetic to your goals. Pick two domains, and create
an NPC bond for each of them.

You have a bond with one of the other PCs who you
recruited to the cause. Say who, and say what it was that
tipped them over the edge.
50

ADVANCES
LOW MEDIUM
Fight the Power. You channel your anger into fighting the Me and This Army. You can cause a riot whenever you need
police, soldiers, the solar guard – anyone who’d stand against one. +1 Reputation. Mark D6 stress to Shadow or Repu-
you. Gain the Resist skill. When you engage in violence tation and spend fifteen minutes getting a crowd of people
against an enemy who is part of the Order domain (city riled up to turn them into an angry mob on the hunt for
guard, military, etc) you do so with mastery. blood and justice.You can direct them against a particular
target – or try to get them to perform a particular basic
Noble Sacrifice. You convince your allies to pay for victory action – during the speech, but once you fire them off,
in blood. Gain the Fight skill. If you spend a few minutes the situation is out of your hands.
getting everyone pumped up before a battle, you and
all your allies gain the Bloodbound tag on any weapon The People’s Champion. You are the rock around which the
you use. rebellion is anchored. +1 Reputation.You gain a street-level
bond based on the cadre of revolutionaries that follow
Force of Personality. There’s nothing you can’t do. Honest. you around, espouse your virtues and (if you’ve written
Gain the Deceive skill. Once per session, declare you any) hold up your manifestos as intellectual principles
possess a Domain or Skill that you don’t actually have – for life. When you ask this bond for a favour, the stress
you are treated as having access to it until the end of the dice is one size smaller than normal.
situation.Your natural bravado and charisma are enough
to carry you through, even with your lack of applicable Scapegoat.Your ability to shift blame is legendary. +1 Shadow.
knowledge. Once per session, when an NPC accuses you of wrong-
doing, you can automatically convince them that you’re
Always Outnumbered, Never Outrun. You are excep- entirely innocent and someone else (choose who) is re-
tional at getting the hell away from your problems. Gain the sponsible.
Pursue skill. When you flee a superior force, you do so
with mastery. Make an Example. Your fighting style terrifies your enemies.
+1 Blood.Your attacks gain the Brutal tag. In addition, if
Brothers in Arms. You inspire your comrades to greatness you take someone out of action in combat, the gruesome
and demoralise your foes. Once per situation, when you spectacle inflicts D3 stress on any other enemy that sees
and an ally are fighting side-by-side, declare you’re using it happen.
this ability. The next time both of you roll a Fight check,
both you and your ally can either increase your stress Friends in Low Places. You know the secret gestures and
dice by 1 size or decrease the enemy’s stress dice by 1 signs that mark a revolutionary. Once per session, make
size – choose before you roll. an Investigate check against an NPC. If you succeed, you
uncover evidence that they are allied to the revolution
Goddess’ Chosen. [Divine]You fight for the people, and Limyé in some way.
smiles upon you. Gain one low-level advance from the
Lajhan class. Untouchable. You take any measures to survive, and thus the
revolution will survive. Once per scene, if you suffer Blood
fallout, mark D3 stress to Mind and transfer the fallout to
a non-enemy NPC who’s in the scene instead. Whether
they willingly sacrificed themselves or you managed to
get behind them in time is up to you.
  51

HIGH
My Name is Legion. [Divine] You channel the adoration You Can’t Kill an Idea. [Divine] To carry on the fight, you
of the masses, and use that power to transform into a whole hide within the very concept of rebellion until you can strike
crowd of people. Gain mastery of Low Society. Mark D6 back. You can cast this spell instantly – often as a reaction
stress to cast this spell. You transform into a great crowd to someone attacking you or uncovering your hideout. It
of citizens – part illusion, part simulacrum and part real costs nothing to do so.
people who got caught up in the mix.You don’t have con- You transform into the idea of revolution, of hope
trol over the whole crowd, but you can “possess” anyone and resurgence, and your mortal form dissipates into
in the crowd and take over their actions (and therefore shadow.You become a song; a mantra; an image; an icon.
attempt to direct or manage the mob). You can’t take Wherever that idea is spread and believed in, you retain
Blood stress in this form, but the individual parts of the a sort of awareness. This action counts as laying low, so
crowd sure as hell can. all stress is removed from your resistances. While you
The spell lasts for an hour or so, or until the crowd is are in the form of an idea, you can influence the world
broken apart by outside forces. around you through your bonds (although you do so on
a semi-mystical level).
The Means of Destruction. [Divine] Your touch becomes When you choose to reform – which must be at least
anathema to your oppressor. Mark D3 stress to cast this a week from when you changed – mark D8 stress as you
spell. Any improvised weapon you touch (eg. work tools, coalesce out of the shadows to lead your people once more.
bolt-cutters, kitchen knives, crowbars, etc) inflicts D8
stress when used against your oppressors for the remain-
der of the situation, and gains the following tags: Brutal,
Devastating.

Iron Will. You know that your path of action is right and good,
and nothing can sway you from your course. +3 Mind. Gain
mastery of Resist. In addition, once per situation, when
you would take stress to any other resistance, you can
allocate it to Mind.
52

52
  53

IDOL
“Truth? What is truth, when you have beauty?”

You are a beautiful artist and revolutionary, and your Resistances Silver +1, Mind +1, Reputation +2
creations can reshape the world through bleeding-edge,
half-understood sorcery. Refresh Someone feels deeply moved when they
witness your art.

CORE ABILITIES Skills Deceive, Compel

Life and Soul of the Party. People flock to be near you.
Once per session, so long as there are people nearby and Domains High Society, Occult
a place to have it, you can create an instant gathering
with dancing, games, drinking, eating and chatting. The Equipment
party gives you mastery to persuade, deceive, or distract You get: Several sets of flattering clothing.
actions performed within it.
Tools to create and perform your
Glamour. Black magic and poise let you become whoever they chosen art.
want you to be. Once per situation, choose an NPC. Using
a cocktail of charm, practiced poise and semi-legal black Small gifts and trinkets from your fans.
magic, you change your appearance to represent their
ideal partner.You don’t get to determine what this looks A knife (D3, Concealable)
like – it’s entirely reliant on the person you’re targeting
– and you can end the spell by scrubbing off whatever Bonds
makeup you’ve applied and spending five minutes in front You have a street-level bond to your adoring fans. Name
of a mirror remembering what you look like. three of them, and what the group is most excited to see
Whatever your target prefers, you’ll always look like next.
you. If they’re obsessed with tall people, you’ll look tall-
er; if they like aelfir, you’ll look as though there’s some You have a bond with another PC who you know has
aelfir blood in you; if they’re mad about one particular feelings for you, even if they wouldn’t admit it. Describe
person, you’ll resemble them (but not enough to, say, the moment when you knew for definite.
pass as them).
54

ADVANCES
LOW MEDIUM
Centre of Attention. When you stride into a room, people Beauty is Truth. [Occult] Your art carries potent subliminal
take notice. Gain +1 Reputation. Roll with mastery when messages. You can bind a concept into a piece of art you
you attempt to get everyone in a situation to focus on create to implant a suggestion into the minds of everyone
you and you alone. In addition, describe three incredible who views it. Make a Compel+Occult check to create
outfits that you now own. or perform the piece. On a success, anyone who views
the art has the suggestion implanted in their minds, but
Grace. You try not to sully yourself with failure. You move with they’re not entirely sure where it came from.
such precision that fate herself gives you a lucky break
now and again. Once per situation, when you make a Untouchable. Your glamered form is so perfect that bullets
dice roll and one or more of the dice shows 1, you can spatter off it like rain. +1 Mind. You are so impossibly
re-roll the entire pool. beautiful that few people can bring themselves to touch
you, let alone harm you. You gain Armour 3 so long as
Who Are They? You are enigmatic in the extreme. +1 your beauty is on show.
Reputation. In addition, the first time you meet someone
who doesn’t know your name, you roll with mastery to Spite. [Occult] With a glance, you crush an enemy’s sense of
Deceive or Compel them. Once they know your name or self-worth and they lash out at their own body. You assault
see you for a second time, the spell is broken. an enemy’s mind with raw humiliation, and they attack
their own body out of shame. They must be able to see
Majesty. [Occult] You become so beautiful that none would you for this spell to take effect. Roll Deceive+Occult; on a
dare raise a hand against you. Gain +1 Silver. To cast this success, they mark D8 stress (Piercing) against themselves
spell, anoint yourself with pigments and regal jewelry. if they are carrying a gun or edged weapon, and D6 stress
Make a Compel+Occult roll: if you succeed, for the next (Piercing) if they have a blunt weapon or are unarmed. If
minute or so, you cannot be the target of attacks until they survive the attack, they will remember you.
you make an attack yourself. People can still block your
path, but they can’t grab or attempt to restrain you until Kill For Me. You can push people far past their limits. +2
the spell is broken. Reputation. NPCs you share a bond with will perform
any task for you, no matter how immoral or depraved –
Disharmony. [Occult] You turn your enemies against each all you have to do is ask.
other with whispered curses. Make a Deceive+Occult roll and
pick a target that can see and hear you. On a success, they Paint With Blood. [Occult] To you, even death is an art
will immediately inflict stress on their nearest ally equal form. Any weapon you wield gains the Conduit tag. When
to whatever weapon they’re holding (if any), believing wielding a melee weapon, you may use Compel+Occult
them to be an enemy. If they don’t have an ally nearby, to attack.
this spell doesn’t have any effect on them.
Render Unto Me. [Occult] The world is yours for the taking.
Instill Emotion. [Occult] Your art drives others to excess. If Once per situation, you can command an NPC to hand
you succeed at a Compel+Occult check when you perform an item they’re carrying over to you, and they must obey.
or exhibit your art for an hour or more, you may drive
a receptive crowd into one of the following: debauched
excess, utter sorrow or mind-numbing ecstasy.You can’t
direct them past this.

Incorruptible. Your mind is crystal, shining and pure, and

madness rolls off you and onto others. Once per situation,
when you take stress to Mind, a different nearby character
(chosen by the GM) takes it instead.
  55

HIGH
Happy to Help. Everyone wants to be your friend. +2 Soul’s Portrait. You portion off the ugly parts of yourself into
Reputation. Once per situation, declare that a target who a cursed work of art. You craft an image of yourself – or
can see and hear you becomes an individual-level bond something more abstract that you relate to yourself – that
until the end of the session. At the end of each session, acts as a conduit for all your sins and physical ailments.
make one of these temporary bonds permanent. While the artwork is intact your face cannot be marred
in any way, you will not age, you will stay beautiful, and
Perfection. You are the embodiment of perfection, striding any injuries you suffer will not be visible to all but the
through the world unburdened. You are utterly, mind- most thorough examinations. In addition to this, while
destroyingly perfect; bad luck and misfortune rolls off the artwork exists, gain 3 additional resistance slots in
you like rain off a slate rooftop. Gain two additional slots both Blood and Mind.
in every resistance. Each time you mark stress in your additional
resistance slots your image in the portrait becomes more
Truth is Beauty. [Occult] Your art is so powerful that reality haggard-looking and decrepit. Should the painting be
cannot stand against it. +1 Mind. Roll Deceive+Occult destroyed, or should you ever look upon the painting
and create a piece of art that embodies a suggestion; once it is complete, you will immediately suffer Moderate
this process takes about a week. If you succeed, the fallout. If the painting is destroyed, it will appear near to
suggestion becomes true as the world bends and twists to you (on your wall, through the post, on billboards, etc)
accommodate it. (The more outlandish the suggestion, and it will mock you until you die.
the higher the stress inflicted on the caster.)

OTHER ART FORMS

Your soul’s portrait doesn’t have to be a portrait, or even
a piece of physical art; it could be a play, or a song, or
a set of dance steps. It must be performed regularly
for it to work, and the more stress you place upon
it, the more deranged and perverse it will become.
56

56
  57

KNIGHT
“I swear to Our Lady, this hangover could bring down a skywhale.
Did we win?”

You are a member of an ancient order of knights who were Resistances Blood +1, Silver +2, Reputation +1
given the right to police the northern river docks of Spire.
Over the centuries, your order has splintered and become Refresh Engage in reckless excess.
ever more corrupt, and now you are little more than heavily-
armoured gangsters with a penchant for organised fighting Skills Fight, Compel
tournaments.
Domains Low Society, Crime

CORE ABILITIES Equipment

Pubcrawler. You bear an encyclopedic knowledge of where to You get: Knight Quarter-Plate (Armour 3, Heavy)
get drunk. Once per game, name a nearby bar, pub or
inn where you know the landlord (whether they like you Pick one: Greatsword (D8, Tiring)
or not is up to the GM).
Sword (D6)
Pick a Fight. You’ve spent many an evening sizing up the other
patrons in search of a decent brawl. Once per situation, ask Grackler Pistol (D6, Brutal, Ranged, One-
the GM who is the best person in the surrounding area shot)
to pick a fight with on one of the following conditions:
Knightly Lance (D6, Piercing, Surprising)
1. You want to win.
Bonds
2. You want to make a good impression. You have a individual-level bond with your squire – a young
dark elf serving you with an eye to becoming a Knight
3. You want to cause a distraction. themselves some day. Name them and say whether they’re
idealistic or cynical about the whole affair.
Law of the Docks.You carry a mighty weapon. As a Knight,
you are permitted to carry a large bladed weapon (or a You have a bond with another one of the PCs – you
lance) without getting in trouble with the city guard. and them used to go drinking, and still do on occasion.
Using it is another matter. Describe the wildest thing you two got up to on one of
your legendary nights out.
58

ADVANCES
LOW MEDIUM
Carouse. You make the best friends when you’re drunk. Armour-Kenning. You know that your armour is not just for
+1 Blood. When you get drunk with someone, you gain show. When you wear armour, you increase its value by 1
an individual-level bond with them until the next day. point until you take it off. Also, as you know just where
to hit people who are trying to protect themselves, any
Jouster. You are adept at running hard into dangerous weapon you carry has the Piercing tag.
situations. Gain the Pursue skill.You are experienced in the
art of high-speed combat; when you charge in recklessly, Raconteur. You know precisely when to get a round in.
your attacks have the Brutal tag. As Carouse, but it works as a Street-level bond, because
you get drunk with their mates as well.
Braggadocio. You are an accomplished liar, especially when it
comes to exaggerating your own abilities. Gain the Deceive Bring It On.You are used to being outnumbered in fights. Any
skill. Once per session, automatically convince an NPC weapon you carry (including your bare hands) that does
that you can achieve something (whether or not you’re not possess the Ranged tag gains the Spread D3 tag.
able to do it is immaterial).
Dirty Fighting.You have a wide variety of dirty tricks. Once
Knight-Admiral.You have achieved a high rank, and thus per situation, when you inflict damage on an enemy, you
command a portion of the fleet. +2 Reputation. Your order reduce their difficulty to 0 until they get away from you
bestows upon you a mighty mount – a rowboat. Name and catch their breath.
it. In addition, pick one: it’s fast; it looks good; it has a
swivel-gun on the prow (D6, Ranged, Reload); it doesn’t Do You Know Who I Am? You possess a bulletproof reputation.
leak much. Seats six (all of them rowing). Gain +1 Reputation. Once per situation, when you take
stress to any resistance other than Reputation, allocate
Bulwark.You and your armour share a special bond; it looks it to Reputation.
after you, you look after it. Once per session, clear all stress
marked to your armour. Right Place, Wrong Time. You have an almost supernatural
ability to get into fights that make your life more interesting,
Knight-Protector. You are adept at throwing yourself into even if they make it a lot shorter at the same time. Add the
trouble to save your friends. Once per situation, when a following condition to your Pick A Fight ability: 4) you
nearby ally would take Blood stress from an enemy attack, want to advance your current objective.You and the group
you take it instead. will definitely get a lead or an angle out of the fight, but
you have to win it first (or maybe just get out intact).
The Crowd Goes Wild. You’re used to fighting with the
support – or ire – of the crowd to keep you going. When Law of the Land. You are, technically, an officer of the law.
you have a crowd watching you, your attacks have the +1 Silver. Gain access to the Order domain.You are sworn
Brutal tag. In addition, when you win a fight in front of in by the Duke herself as a protector of the Docks; when
a crowd, refresh. you attempt to de-escalate a situation, you do so with
mastery.You can also arrest people, if it takes your fancy.

KNIGHTLY ORDER
As a Knight, you will be pledged to one of the
following orders, all of which coincidentally happen
to own at least one pub named after themselves:
The Questing Cock, The Drowned Sailor, The Thirsty
Maiden, The Wolf & Hound, The Kraken Bell, The
Fiendskin Tome. (Or: make up your own order.) You
will expected to perform quests on behalf of your
order (light extortion, hustling, bodyguarding), and
refusal can lead to your expulsion and loss of your
right to carry a large, bladed weapon.
  59

HIGH
All High-level abilities for the Knight focus around one or more quests. The precise nature of the quest should be worked out between
the GM and the Knight’s player, but they should be a) difficult and b) achievable. Quests will reflect the nature of the Knights that
you have established in your game; they might be doing their best to be chivalrous, or entirely self-serving.

Fortress Plate. [Quest] You begin the forging of the re- Pull the Sword from the Stone. [Quest] You travel in
nowned fortress plate. +1 Reputation. When you take on search of a legendary sword. When you accept this quest, you
the quest, you are tasked by your superior in the order gain the Resist skill and Occult domain as you are ritually
(or the Duke) to perform certain feats of courage and branded or tattooed with symbols of chivalric protection.
chivalry (or stealing a load of diamonds, whatever needs You must journey to the centre of Spire, find St Beneferas’
done that day); for each minor quest you complete, pick sword, and pull it from the floorboards of The Stone (a
one of the following upgrades: pub) into which he plunged it hundreds of years ago.
When you complete this quest, you gain a (D6, Brutal)
• Remove the Heavy tag from your armour magical sword; as it’s magical, you can use it to attack
• Add the Implacable tag to your armour ethereal creatures or those which are immune to normal
• Increase your armour’s value by 2 weapons. In addition, choose two of the following up-
• When you receive Blood fallout whilst wearing your grades to the sword:
armour, you inflict stress on all enemies standing close
to you: D3 for minor Blood fallout, D6 for moderate, • Inflict D8 stress
and D8 for severe • Gain the Ranged tag
• Gain the Stunning tag
You cannot pick the same upgrade twice. By the end of • Gain the Defensive tag
your last quest, you will have upgraded your armour to • Gain the Bloodbound tag
be a suit of the finest full-plate, adorned (by yourself or • Gain the Devastating tag
others) with inscriptions and images of your glories, some
of which may even be true. And one of the following “upgrades”:

Grail Seeker. [Quest] The memory of St Beneferas calls to • Demons and ghosts are drawn to the sword’s powerful
you, and you set out to become his successor. You take on a energies
quest to find The Grail, a legendary pub that is said to • The sword whispers eerie truths
lay beneath the silt of the North Docks. There you will • The sword glows blue near… something, you’re not
find St Beneferas, patron of the Knights, and share a sure, seems important though
drink with him. • You know in your heart that you are the true monarch
When you accept the quest, you are Seen by Damnou, of Spire
the dark elf trinity of goddesses, and she/they will protect
you. Once per session, when you suffer fallout, you can Slay the Dragon. [Quest] You attempt to slay death itself.
choose to ignore it. You are anointed with the legendary Spirit of St Beneferas,
Upon completion, St Beneferas bestows upon you the an impossibly-strong liquor distilled by a blind madman on
duty of ruling the Knights, finally passing on his duties. retainer to the Duke. Combined with the proper devotional
As he was a washed-up drunkard, eternally trapped under rites, you change – your touch heals the sick and binds
the river waters, the North Docks and the Knights therein wounds shut. Once per situation, you may remove D3
have come to represent him – degenerate and almost Mind or Blood stress on any character other than yourself.
useless. Now, as the you accept the helm of St Beneferas, You accept a quest to venture to the Heart of Spire, find
the docks will change to resemble you instead – both the nightmarish Dragon pub, and slay the vile guardian
for good and for ill. (This doesn’t count as a high-level that dwells there. Upon completion, the blight that the
change in and of itself, so you can’t use it to earn another Dragon spreads holds no dominion over you. Disease
high-level advance.) and poison no longer affect you. Your very presence, in
Gain the city-level bond North Docks. fact, causes plagues to cease and the sick to recover at an
accelerated rate. At the start of each situation, remove 1
Blood stress, and: you can no longer die.
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LAHJAN
“Our Lady protects, sweetness. Hold her in your heart
and she will soothe your passing.”

The Lajhan, or “silvered,” are the chosen of Our Glorious Resistances Mind +2, Reputation +2
Lady, the light side of the moon, whose light does not burn
the drow as the sun’s rays do. Lajhan serve her and spread her Refresh Help those who cannot help themselves.
wisdom throughout Spire, providing aid and nourishment
to the impoverished drow. Skills Fix, Resist

Domains
CORE ABILITIES
Low Society, Religion

Rite of Respite. [Divine] You create a place of stillness and Equipment

healing. Once per session, lead your allies in a recuperation You get: Ceremonial robes, a set of wooden and
session while you hold vigil. Describe how you create a silver jewellery including bracelets, anklets,
comfortable, healing environment and how you help them. earrings and circlets.
All allies present may restore 3 stress from Mind or Blood.
Pick one: L’od Nansan
Moonlight. [Divine] Limyé’s light shines forth from you. Your (The Order of Blood)
forehead gem (or necklace, or bracelet, etc) glows as bright- Knife (D3, Concealable)
ly as the full moon, casting a calm light into the darkness Healer’s kit (describe it)
that cannot be extinguished unless you decide to snuff it,
or you fall unconscious. The more ritualists casting this L’od Limyé-Anjhan
spell simultaneously, the brighter the light becomes. (The Order of Silver Light)
Moonsilver staff (D3, Conduit)

Bonds
AURAS You have an individual-level bond with an NPC member of
The art of aura reading is at least as old as the church the congregation who is sympathetic to your goals. Name
of Our Glorious Lady, most likely older, and it is not them, and what they’re getting out of the relationship.
an exact science. A character could study for years
under the blind Scryatrixes at the Lunar Temple and You have a bond with a PC who you’ve helped overcome
learn a fraction of what has been documented, and sickness, injury or addiction in the past. Say who it was,
argued over, in relation to the understanding of the and what the problem was.
patterns read in the souls of others. But, as a rough
guide – a person’s aura will shift, pulsing through
colours and shapes, and flashing though strange glyphs
and symbols, that the Lajhan should read as though
they were a fortune-teller interpreting the leaves at the
bottom of a cup of Nujabian tea. The undead show
up as strange, glass-like statues of themselves in aura
readings, and no-one’s quite sure why.
Example things that might show up in portents and
aura readings: the moon, in all its forms; birds, such as
owls, ravens, sparrows and hawks; the Moon Garden,
the drow land of the dead; crumbling towers, spires
and parapets; unearthly music; gleaming needles,
pins and scissors; gushing blood, organs and hearts;
thread and rope; ringing bells and guttered candles;
the drowned, and those who have died of exposure;
silver ivy and bone-white trees.
62

ADVANCES
LOW MEDIUM
Build Bridges. You sacrifice yourself for your allies. +1 Rep- Our Lady’s Kiss. [Divine] The goddess’ protection presides
utation. Before you roll for fallout on a bond, you may over your allies. When a nearby ally marks stress to Blood
mark stress on yourself to remove it from the ally – each or Mind, you may mark D3 stress to Mind to cast this
point you mark removes 2 points of stress from them. spell. If you choose to do so, the ally instantly removes
D6 Blood or Mind stress before the GM rolls for fallout.
Burn Bridges. You sacrifice your allies for the greater good. In addition, when you guide a person to a gentle death
Gain the Deceive skill as a class skill. When an ally per- in the arms of the Lady, refresh.
forms an action on your behalf, they may roll with mas-
tery – but if they do so and suffer stress, roll twice and Our Lady’s Curse. [Divine] You turn Limyé’s light into a
pick the higher value. weapon. When you cast Moonlight, as described above,
you may mark D3 stress to Mind to treat it as a dam-
Bedside Manner. Your ministrations engender trust. When age D6 weapon (with the following tags: Spread D3,
you heal someone, gain a bond with them until the end Stunning) until the end of the situation. Your jewellery
of the next day. bursts with a flash of bright, silvery light that incapaci-
tates enemies.
Friend to the Downtrodden. You can sense who most needs
your help. +1 Reputation. Once per situation, ask the GM Perfect Mirror. [Divine] You can remake your mind into a
which NPC is most in need of help, and they’ll tell you. psychic mirror. Mark D3 stress to Mind to cast this spell.
As part of an hour-long ritual devoted to the goddess,
Our Lady’s Calm. [Divine] You shine the calming light of you stare into a series of angled mirrors until your mind
Limyé over a situation, and tempers fade. Mark D6 stress becomes untethered from your consciousness, instead
to Mind to cast this spell.You, and anyone nearby to you, reflecting the minds of those around it with perfect grace.
cannot fight, or engage in violent actions, or move above Until the next sunrise, when you roll to affect an NPC in
a run, for the next minute or so – you can extend it for any way, you are treated as having all Domains that they
another minute by marking another D6 stress to Mind. have. (In addition, you are considered to have access to
any knowledge that those Domains would confer on you.)
Rite of the Silver Sanctuary. [Divine] You mark a room as
sacred to the goddess, barring the entry of trespassers. Anoint Rite of the Three Sisters. [Divine] You share misfortune
the walls of an area (the size of a large room) with silver between your allies. Mark D3 stress to Mind when you cast
pigment mixed with sacred oils and mark D3 stress to this spell.You and two allies take part in a half-hour ritual
Mind. If you are present in the area, you can stop or in which your blood is mixed with sanctified mercury
slow unwelcome guests from coming inside – if someone and daubed over your heart. Until the next dawn, when
attempts to enter the area and you don’t want them to, you or one of the other participants in the ritual mark
they take D6 stress. They can sense this beforehand and stress, it is divided equally between all three of you. If
choose not to enter if they wish. one of the members of the trinity falls unconscious or
dies, the spell ends.
Scryatrix Nascen. [Divine] You possess uncanny senses, and
take the first step along the path of the blind seer. Spend ten
minutes meditating and attuning to the area around you
to uncover strangeness or things out of place. You may
then ask the GM to reveal something hidden to you in
your immediate area: this can be an item, a motivation,
a pathway, etc. The GM will relay the information to you
as a vision or sensation, not hard data.

Further Lajhan advances, devoted to saints or hallows

of the order, can be found on p. 171.
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HIGH
Scryatrix Inanis. [Divine] You are accepted into the first circle Beyond the Garden Gate. [Divine] You can reclaim souls
of the Scryatrices, the blind seers of Our Glorious Lady. You from the embrace of Our Glorious Lady. +2 Mind stress.
must have the Scryatrix Nascen advance to purchase When you cast this spell, take D8 stress to Mind.You can
this advance. As part of an hour-long ritual, cover your bring a dark elf back from the dead, so long as their body
eyes with cloth and silver – preferably spider-silk and is largely intact. Communing with Our Lady in a long,
broad, curved eye-shields with Our Lady’s symbol on drawn-out ritual, you beseech her to return their soul
the inside of each. While you wear the covering, you can’t to the earthly realm for a time to complete their tasks.
see normally, but you can see the auras of people and For a full lunar month, the target returns to life and
places around you. Their auras show information about acts as normal. At the end of that month, they die once
them that they simply cannot hide, cluing you in as to more, and nothing can bring them back from the Moon
whether they’re under supernatural influence, undead, Garden, except for physically travelling there and freeing
or an occultist. them from death’s clutches.
For each point of stress you mark against Mind when
casting this spell, you are able to “see” one item from the Body of Silver Light. [Divine] You can change your body
following list: into pure moonlight. +1 Mind. Mark D6 stress to Mind. As
the culmination of an hour-long ritual, you dissolve into a
• Any bonds the character has, or any important roving patch of bright moonlight. In this form, you cannot
relationships if they’re an NPC affect the world (aside from illuminating it) and it cannot
• The target’s current numerical stress values affect you, but you can move great distances at astonishing
• The subject’s skills and domains speed (and bypass any barrier that lets light through). This
• Whether the target is undead, possessed or haunted form lasts until sunrise, or until you wish to dismiss it.
(or is a ghost)
• Whether the character has cast a spell in recent Our Lady’s Martyr. [Divine] While you stand, no others are
memory, and what it was allowed to fall. +1 Blood. Mark D6 stress to Mind to cast
• The character’s emotional state this spell.You glow with a brilliant, radiant light that fuels
the resolve of those around you; for the next scene, so long
The spell lasts until you remove the bindings. Increase as you stand in defence of the drow people and faith, any
the difficulty of all other tasks by at least 1 when doing ally standing nearby or closer to you does not have to roll
anything else, as you’re effectively blind – certain tasks, for fallout when they mark stress to Blood or Mind. At
like reading a book or looking for something in a painting, the end of the situation, or when you fall or flee, the spell
are impossible. ends and all affected must immediately roll for fallout.

Shimmering Image. [Divine] Your body shifts and warps like Scryatrix Demen. [Divine] You are a blind seer, and can
moonlight on a pool of water and twists the world around it. manipulate the connections that bind souls to the material
Whenever you mark stress to Blood, you and any nearby realm. You must have the Scryatrix Inanis ability to
allies roll with mastery on Sneak and Pursue until the purchase this advance.You join a cadre of Scryatrices in a
end of the situation or you mark stress to Blood again, ritual where you blind yourself with sacred silver needles;
whichever comes first. from now on, you no longer see normally, but instead
experience the world as a wash of strange visions and
stolen memories. For example: you can no longer read a
book, but you can “look” at it and absorb the memories
of the person who last read it, or the person who wrote it.
As a full Scryatrix, you have access to all the visions
listed in Scryatrix Inanis at all times. In addition, by
marking D3 stress, you can sever any one of the connec-
tions you see. If you sever a bond, that relationship withers
and dies; if you sever a possession, the spirit is flung from
the host’s body; and so on. You cannot sever stress in this
manner, but anything else is fair game, and may require
some creative interpretation between you and the GM.
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64
  65

MASKED
“Ah, my Lord, my apologies – these are the correct manifests, not the ones you
have there. I’ve had the delivery boy shot already to anticipate your desires.”

You spent your durance serving a high elf master in the Resistances Silver +1, Mind +1, Shadow +2
upper echelons of Spire.You are well-accustomed to wearing
a ceremonial mask in company, as all aelfir and their servants Refresh Show someone they should not have
are expected to do, and you are a master of subterfuge, going underestimated you.
unnoticed, and quiet acts of rebellion.
Skills Resist, Compel

CORE ABILITIES Domains High Society, Order

Smell Status. You know precisely who to talk to, or who to
take out, to get things done. Once per session, ask the GM: Equipment
“Who’s really in charge, here?”You can find out easily, or You get: Your Mask (describe it).
you already know thanks to your connections.
Two sets of nice clothing (describe them).
Servant to the High Ones. You spent years bowing and
scraping at the feet of the high elves. When interacting with Servant Mask (carries the sign of your
the aelfir, roll with mastery on social checks. old master).

Pick one: Hawk Duelling Pistol (Damage D6,

Piercing, Ranged, One-shot)

Dagger (Damage D3, Concealable)

Bonds
You have one street-level bond with the servants of your
old master. Name three of them and describe their jobs,
and note down your master’s name and the worst thing
they ever did to you or someone else under their power.

You have a bond with another PC who you assisted during

their durance. Who was it, and how did you help them out?
66

ADVANCES
LOW MEDIUM
Citizen’s Mask. When you need to be, you become one of the Mask of the Lover. You wear an exquisitely beautiful mask,
crowd. Gain the Sneak skill. When you wear your Citizen’s gifted only to those who carry themselves with the utmost
Mask, you roll with mastery when you’re attempting to grace and poise. +2 Reputation. Once per session, if you
pass yourself off as someone unimportant or beneath the so choose, an NPC falls for you. Tell the GM who.
attention of your target.
Mask of the Killer. You have a mask that you wore to carry
Institutional Falsehood. A single misplaced document or out the bloody business of your Lord. Gain +1 Blood. When
amended sentence can send ripples through an organisation. you wear this mask, your hands function as D6 weapons.
Gain access to the Academia domain. Once per session, The ritual to don the mask is a five minute process that
when you have access to the paperwork or employees of requires a quiet and calm area to perform – it can be
a particular organisation and five minutes to spare, you taken off instantly, however.
can disseminate a lie through the organisation that will
be widely believed until it is proven false. Mask of Plenty. [Occult] The mask of plenty is a favoured
tool amongst destitute nobles and scheming tricksters. +2 Silver
Inner Mask of Calm. You wall up your madness in other and gain access to the Commerce domain. When you
identities. + 2 Mind. In addition, when you suffer Mind wear this mask, you give off the impression that you are
fallout, you can disregard any effects placed on you from rich, famous and charismatic. People will treat you ap-
the fallout by removing your current mask. When you propriately, even if you give them reasons not to, and will
put the mask back on, the effects will resume. For each expect repayment for favours to be an easy task for you.
session you spend without wearing the mask, mark D3
stress to Mind. Mouthless Mask. [Occult] The most precise application of
grace, to some, is silence. Gain the Sneak skill. While wearing
One of the Staff. You’d be surprised how much chambermaids the mask (which is worn by clenching it between your
see. Gain the Deceive skill. Once per session, you can teeth – it has no straps), you can elect to make no noise
seamlessly blend into the household staff or employees when you perform any action – and objects or people
of an organisation or group and keep your ears open for nearby will be silent too.You cannot speak while wearing
information. For every hour you spend performing busy- the Mouthless Mask, for obvious reasons.
work (up to a maximum of 3), ask the GM one question
about the organisation that they must answer honestly. Mirror-Mask. [Occult] This scintillating mask clouds the
minds of others, tricking them into a sense of security. You
One Eye Open. A life of regular beatings and cruel “gifts” construct a delicate mask from mirrored glass and rare
have hardened you. Gain access to the Fight skill. Even spireblack amber, and when you wear it and talk at length
when you’re asleep or knocked unconscious, you have an to a target, they enter a peculiar trance where they believe
awareness of your surroundings. You suffer no penalties they’re talking to themselves. As such, they will have no
for being surprised or ambushed, you are broadly aware issue with revealing dangerous truths or plots. This ability
of your location even if blindfolded and moved around, only works when the target is alone – should anyone else
and any weapon you carry has the Surprising tag. enter the scene, the trance ends.

Dress for Success. A good cravat can cover all manner of sins.
Gain access to the Fix skill. If you spend an hour helping
an ally prepare before a difficult endeavour, picking out
their clothes and advising them on methods of approach,
they roll with mastery on Compel and Deceive checks
for the next situation.
  67

HIGH
Gestalt. [Occult] You understand the riddle of masks; that The Mask of Many Faces. [Occult] You train spiders to
they are more real than the faces they hide. You have craft- weave illusory faces over your own. Using old drow sor-
ed a true copy of your own mask, a long and harrowing cery from Ys, you capture and train the deep-spiders that
process using not a small amount of your own blood and scurry around the edges of the Heart, the rotten core of
skin. When another person dons your mask – a process Spire. While the spiders are living in your hair and on
that takes an hour or so, and one they do not have to your face, they can be instructed to weave a mask that
be willing to perform – until the next sunrise they are replicates any person (or any mask) that you have seen
controlled by your mind as though you were controlling before. The reproduction is almost perfect but it cannot
your own body. Your original body stays active during get wet, or withstand the heat of the sun, else it will fall
this time – you play two characters, both of whom are the away to nothing.
same person. When the wearer removes the mask, they
are entirely aware of the actions they performed while The Masterless Mask. [Occult] You become an avatar of
wearing it, which is the sort of thing that inflicts Mind the rebellion.You create a mask that is whispered of in aelfir
stress to say the least. circles – the Masterless Mask, terror of the aelfir, scion of the
Unlike other High-level advances, you can take Red Moon, who will visit their doom upon them. When you
Gestalt as many times as you wish, crafting a new mask wear it, you roll with mastery and inflict D8 stress when
each time. you attack an aelfir, regardless of what weapon you’re
using to do it.
Pantheon Mask. [Occult]Your masks are so artful as to trick What’s more, each night a drow in Spire prays to you
the gods themselves. You gain an uncanny ability to create to deliver them from their masters, refresh. Ten or so
masks that emulate the power of specific gods; to do so, people removes D3 stress, a hundred D6, and a thousand
mark D6 stress to Mind or Silver, and acquire something or more will remove D8.
of the faith to bind into it. When you create the mask,
you may bind any Medium-level divine advance into it,
and access it whenever you wear it. You may only have
one such mask at any one time, and must sacrifice your
current godmask if you wish to make a new one.
68

68
  69

MIDWIFE
“Of course I will fight for you; the web connects us all, brother.”

You are one of a line of ancient scholars and defenders of the Resistances Blood +2, Reputation +1, Mind +1
drow, blessed with an arachnid bloodline that you have been
taught to augment via sorcery and meditation. In addition Refresh Defend the defenceless.
to this, you are responsible for the future of your race: you
take care of unborn drow while they gestate in their egg- Skills Fix, Fight
sacs, watching over them and keeping them safe from harm.
Domains Occult, Low Society

CORE ABILITIES Equipment

Martyr. You sacrifice your life, inch by inch, to safeguard the You get: Ceremonial silk robes.
future of the drow. Once per session, when an ally takes
fallout, you appear nearby so long as it would be even Pick one: Twin razors
slightly feasible for you to do so. They ignore the effects (D6, Concealable, Unreliable)
of the fallout, and you take D6 stress to an appropriate
resistance instead. Weighted chain
(D3, Concealable, Stunning)
Protector’s Eye. Ancient instincts, bound into you by forgotten
sorcery, give you a measure of what a person really cares about. Bonds
Once per situation, ask the GM what a particular NPC You have a street-level bond with the Order of Midwives,
wishes to protect above all else. and are an active member. Name your immediate superior,
who does not know you work for the Ministry, and one
colleague, who does.

You have a bond with another player character, whose life

you saved when no-one else would. Say who, and what
they’d done to ostracise themselves from their community.
70

ADVANCES
LOW MEDIUM
Blessing of Ishkrah. [Occult] You weave a spell of protection Arachnid Body. [Occult] Your body changes to become more
over your allies, and inky spiders crawl across their skin. Gain beautiful and closer to the form of your patron. If you possess
the Academia domain. Roll Fix+Occult to cast this spell. Wall-Walker, Chitinous Shell, Eyes of Ishkrah or
On a success, your allies are under the protection of Ish- Venomous Mandibles, choose one.You no longer need
krah: the first time they suffer stress to Blood in combat, to roll to cast the spell, as your form changes permanently.
the enemy that caused the stress suffers D3 stress from You can take this advance up to four times, choosing a
arachnid nightmares assaulting their senses. different ability to make permanent each time.

Canticle of Remaking. [Occult] Intoning ancient psalms to Chitinous Shell. [Occult] Your skin shifts and hardens into
forgotten powers, you bind your wounds with strands of ethereal scintillating chitin on your command. Gain the Resist skill.
web. +1 Blood. Roll Fix+Occult to cast this spell. On a Roll Resist+Occult to cast this spell. On a success, gain
success, remove D6 stress from Blood on yourself, or D3 Armour 3 until the next dawn.
stress from Blood on another character.
Cocoon of Rebirth. [Occult] You smother an ally with a
Eyes of Ishkrah. [Occult]You grow additional eyes with which cocoon of magical silk, a process which takes several hours.
you can sense the threads of magic. Gain the Investigate Within this cocoon, they are remade into their ideal
skill. Roll Investigate+Occult to cast. On a success, you image, free from scars, madness and injuries. At the
see all forms of occult magic in the surrounding area as end of a week, cut them free (they are unable to free
shimmering webs of fate (including those around invisible themselves) – any long-term effects of Blood and Mind
creatures, or people observing you remotely) until the end fallout are removed.
of the current situation. You can follow these threads to
the point where the spell was cast. Summon Sweetlings. [Occult] You bring forth a swarm of
spiders from your clothing that swarm out over the surround-
Hands of the Mother. [Occult] At will, your hands become ing area. Roll Compel+Occult to cast. On a success, you
dangerous weapons as your nails harden and flexible plates summon a swarm of spiders. When you summon the
cover your palms. Your unarmed damage becomes (D6, spiders, choose one type of spider to summon:
Bloodbound).
• Watch-webs: These spiders have keen eyes, and
Pluck the Web. [Occult] You bind up tiny effigies of your foes whisper to you in the tongue of Ishkrah. They
with glistening silk, and force them to act upon each other. Roll function as the Web of the Mistress spell, but
Compel+Occult to cast this spell. On a success, any two they will stay in place for a week or so, and you can
connected entities or groups of your choosing (whatever move freely without breaking the spell. A tiny spider
their size, so long as they share a connection) immediately living in your ear canal will whisper what they see
act upon one another in whichever fashion the GM sees fit. to you, no matter how far away you are.
• Dagger-weavers: These spiders are fast, and swarm
Rite of Stilled Mind. [Occult] You have been taught the all over targets to inject their nightmarish venom.
secret art of decanting your madness into ink-black liquid that The swarm is usable as a (D6, Piercing, Spread D6,
you spit into vials. Once per session, remove an ongoing Stunning, One-shot) weapon.
minor or moderate Mind fallout result, or downgrade
one severe Mind fallout result to moderate. At the end of the spell, the spiders scuttle back into your
clothing or dissipate into the shadows.
Web of the Mistress. [Occult] Strands of silver magic extend
from your fingertips, and you sense the vibrations caused by any
intruders. Gain the Pursue skill. Roll Fix+Occult to cast
this spell. On a success, you gain immediate awareness
of everything in the vicinity – an area about the size of a
large building – even if you can’t see or hear it directly.
This remains in effect until you move, or are moved, more
than a step away from your current position.
  71

HIGH
Venomous Mandibles. [Occult] You sprout mandibles from Ishkrah’s Perfect Cocoon. [Occult] You know of a strange
your lower jaw, and drool an excruciating venom over your and beautiful spell that can undo all kinds of misfortunes by
weapons. Roll Fight+Occult to cast this spell. On a success, wrapping the subject in the blessed web of Ishkrah herself. As
until the next dawn, all your attacks with your bare hands Cocoon of Rebirth, but: it applies to any fallout the
or edged weapons gain the Brutal quality, and you can character is suffering from, not just Blood and Mind. In
spit your venom as a (D6, Ranged, Unreliable) attack. addition, the first time they undergo the procedure, they
gain +1 Blood.
Wall-Walker. [Occult] You conjure an additional set of legs
that grow out of your pelvis with the sound of cracking chitin. Purge. [Occult] Your form is perfect and inviolate, bound up
Roll Fix+Occult to cast this spell. On a success, until the with the sacred threads of Ishkrah. Once per session, imme-
end of the current situation, you roll with mastery on diately clear yourself of all Blood stress and all ongoing
Pursue checks, and may walk on any grippable surface Blood fallout.
as though it was flat ground.
No Magic but the Magic of My Mistress. [Occult] The
Weave the Web. [Occult] You can weave a bond between spells of inferior casters – and gods – are caught in your web
people who’ve never met, forcing them into each other’s destiny. like flies. Roll Fight+Occult to cast. On a success, any ef-
As Pluck the Web, but the groups or entities involved fect that originates from a magical source (be that occult
do not have to share a connection for you to affect them. or divine) is suppressed while you are nearby until the
end of the current situation. Minor magical effects are
completely undone, and you become immune to magic
attacks. (This will require some creative interpretation
from the GM to resolve.)

Form of Ishkrah. [Occult] You unbind your body’s bones

and reform them, painfully, into the form of a great and
terrible half-spider, half-drow. Roll Fix+Occult to cast. On a
success, you immediately gain access to Eyes of Ish-
krah, Hands of the Mother, Wall-Walker, Chi-
tinous Shell and Venomous Mandibles if you do not
already have them. In addition, when you act to defend the
future of the drow race or some unborn drow, roll six dice.
These effects last until the end of the current situation.
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VERMISSIAN SAGE
“I reckon I’ve got just the book you need – problem is it’s eight stations down
and five across, so you might want to bring provisions.”

The Vermissian is a grand failure – an attempt at a mass Resistances Mind +3, Shadow +1
transport network in Spire by over-funded human retroen-
gineers – that buckled the walls between worlds and fell into Refresh Uncover hidden information.
ruin. Now, in the mazelike tunnels and dead-end corridors, a
sect of drow historians is attempting to use the non-euclidian Skills Investigate, Compel
space to store information and relics of their home nations.
You are one such drow – a sage of the Vermissian Vault. Domains Academia, Occult, Technology

Equipment
CORE ABILITIES Pick one: Folding crossbow (D6, Ranged,
Back Door. You throw open a door and lunge through it into a Concealable, One-shot)
twisted metallic nightmare: home. Once per session, you can
find an entrance to the Vault no matter where you are in Spire Dagger (D3, Concealable)
(whether it was there before you started looking remains
unclear). Inside, you’ll find a collection of strange items Padded vest (Armour 1)
and peculiar books, many of which relate or come from
alternate histories, and some of which tell the truth. Any Bonds
non-Sage character who enters the Vault should roll Re- You have an individual-level bond with an academic,
sist+Occult or suffer Mind stress. researcher or guardian of the Vault. Name them, and their
specialty.
The Vault.You have access to the vast informational resources
of the sages. While inside the Vault, whether you accessed You have a bond with another PC – you know a secret
it through a Back Door or by normal means, you have about them. Say who it is, what the secret is, and whether
access to equipment that will allow you to perform an they know you know or not.
Investigate check on any subject. It won’t confer mastery,
but it will allow you to perform the check.

Obsessive Researcher.You spend every quiet moment filling

your brain with knowledge – knowledge which is often fleeting.
At the start of each session, gain a knack of your choosing
in any skill or domain, even if you don’t normally have
access to the skill or domain. At the end of the session,
you lose that knack. You can’t have the same knack two
sessions in a row; you get bored, and must expand your
mind in different ways.
74

ADVANCES
LOW MEDIUM
Find Connection. [Occult] You use the unique capabilities of Pocket Guide. [Occult] You bind the essence of the one
theVermissianVault to unlock secrets about a target. Once per surviving accurate map of the Vermissian into your mind.
session, declare that two NPCs are connected somehow Roll Investigate+Occult and ask the GM a question.
– ask the GM in what way. If you succeed, they will tell you where the answer lies
in the Vermissian Vault. Getting there will be a long
Dead Drop. You have a network of concealed caches, filled process (taking at least half an hour) and the answer to the
with useful equipment. +1 Silver. Once per session, find a question probably won’t tell you everything you need to
hidden stash of equipment that you, another scholar, or know, but there are no limits on the questions you can ask.
a version of you from an anomalous history has left in
place to prepare for this eventuality. The drop allows you Unspeakable. [Occult] You focus your mind and catch the
to equip a small group of people with generic equipment words before they escape their throat. +2 Mind. Focus on
to perform a particular task (e.g. lockpicks, dark cloaks, an NPC and roll Compel+Occult. If you succeed, they
matches and lanterns, food, etc). This equipment will will no longer be able to speak about a concept of your
never confer mastery. choosing – the words will escape them. This lasts until
the end of the current situation.
Mental Directory. [Occult] You can smell knowledge.
+1 Mind. Roll Investigate+Occult and ask the GM a Memory Blank. [Occult] You pluck unwanted events from
question. On a success, they don’t have to tell you the the minds of those around you. +1 Mind. Focus on a target
answer, but they do have to tell you the most straight- and roll Compel+Occult. If you succeed, they forget a
forward way of getting one. (For example:You can’t know specific, short, recent event. They will overwrite it with
the combination to a safe, but you can know that it’s events of their own invention that join up the gaps in
written down on a scrap of paper tucked into the over- their memory.
seer’s diary.)
Dynastic Memory. [Divine] You awaken the ancestral blood
The Locked Stacks. [Occult] You have access to the Locked in your allies. +2 Reputation. Mark D3 stress to Mind to
Stacks, a dead and dusty place where knowledge is interred channel the power of the ancient Houses of the Home
to an eternal rest. +1 Mind. When you visit the Locked Nations, and give you and your allies strength. The first
Stacks, you can attempt to suppress a single fact or time you use this power on a character, determine which
rumour – roll Compel+Occult. On a success, the infor- House they originate from by choosing it from the list
mation will begin to fade out of public knowledge unless on the opposite page. From then on, when you use this
someone makes a dedicated effort to make it known. power on them, they gain access to the relevant power
for the remaining situation. (This spell only functions
Thorned Tongue. [Occult] Untruths, in your presence, burn when cast on dark elves.)
like cinders. Roll Compel+Occult to cast this spell. On
a success, you can punish people for lying to you: for Vermissian Drop. [Occult] You plunge a target into the dark
the next situation, if someone lies to you (not through realm of the Vermissian, hopefully never to return. Roll Fix+
omission, but actively presents a falsehood) they mark Occult to cast this spell. On a success, you immediately
D3 stress as searing pain shoots through their body and plunge one nearby target into the depths of the Vermissian
stabs behind their eyes. This is enough to put most people through a hitherto-unseen trapdoor, hole or gap in reality.
off ever lying to you, if they know who you are. They may or may not be able to fight their way out and
find you afterwards, or cause problems whilst they’re
That Didn’t Happen. [Occult] Reality is malleable, in the inside, but they’re out of your hair for now.
right hands: yours. Gain the Fix skill. Once per session, re-
roll all the dice in your pool, as you reveal the events that
just happened to be false. You can try this trick a second
time, but you take D6 stress to Mind when you do so.
  75

THE HOUSES OF THE DROW

HOUSE EFFECT

Destera, the Weavers Spiders adore you and will perform self-sacrificing actions on your behalf.

Yssen, the Unquiet Blades If you wear no armour, your attacks have the Brutal and Surprising tags.

Malrique, the Unlidded Eye You cannot be surprised or ambushed.

Valwa, the Silver-blooded When you successfully Compel a target, gain a temporary bond with them.

Gryndel, the Crimson Hunter When you declare a target’s full name out loud and they hear it, you roll with
mastery on Fight and Pursue actions against them. You can only do this for
one target at a time.

Starys, the Drowned Kings You no longer need to breathe.

Aliquam, Repairers of Reputations At the end of the situation, remove all stress marked against Reputation.

Duval, the Grave Cold By focusing for a minute or so, you may not be seen so long as you remain
motionless and close your eyes.

Quinn, the Noble and Most High You can smell gold, silver, jewels and other items of value.

HIGH
Unreadable. [Occult] You snatch whole concepts out of your The Glass Library. You have access to the Glass Library, a
target’s mind, leaving them unable to comprehend basic truths. strange place that filters ambient information from Spire and
As Unspeakable, but the target cannot perceive the con- distills it into books, newspapers, scraps of information and works
cept of your choosing in any way. Depending on what of art. Gain mastery of Investigation. While you sit in the
you pick, this can be of no concern to the target (if they Glass Library, you can investigate any location in Spire
lose the ability to perceive, or even really understand the as though you had unfettered, uninterrupted access to it.
concept of, intruders) or terrifying (if they can no longer The Glass Library is also bathed in sunlight
interact with the idea of light). This spell alone won’t kill during the day due to a strange quirk of the information
a target, as the body works on more fundamental levels filtering process. Unlike normal sunlight, this does not
than the one you’re tapping into, but it can make it a lot burn the skin of dark elves, though many sages find it
easier. This lasts until the end of the current situation. uncomfortably bright.

Anastomosis. [Occult] You connect the power of the Vault to Rewrite. [Occult] Who controls theVault controls the past. Roll
the real world, letting alternate truths blossom into Spire. Gain Compel+Occult to cast this spell. Gathering your allies
mastery of Deceit. You can briefly let out the energies of in the Vault, you use the strange energies there to change
the Vault into the real world to spread false information. the events of the past. You, and each ally present, can
Roll Deceive+Occult. On a success, you create the world’s remove one ongoing fallout they are currently suffering
most believable lie; not only is the lie backed up by in- from, as well as refreshing D6 stress from any of their
controvertible evidence, but you can deliver it with such resistances. Any remaining stress can be reallocated to
weight that even the person it’s about could believe it’s any resistance on any member of the ritual.
true. The more audacious the lie, the higher the amount It is through your skill as a sage (and careful doctoring
of stress you risk taking. of newspaper reports and witness statements) that you
The lie is a lie, though, so it’s not possible to say that subtly tweak the past – the timestream can’t handle big
gravity doesn’t exist and have everyone float away into the changes, and tends to reject them out of hand. As such,
sky. But it is possible to have gravity as a theory widely this power can’t be used to mould the past into a more
debunked by the academic community, and replaced pleasing shape, except when it comes to who’s suffering
with something else that you have waiting in the wings, what stress.
if that’s something you’d like to do.
76

76
  77

EXTRA ADVANCES

These abilities aren’t limited by class.You can unlock access

to each set of advances by satisfying the requirement listed GENERIC ADVANCES
at the top of each entry, and then purchase them as you If you want access to a skill or domain, you can
would in-class powers. purchase it with a Low Advance. You can also use a
If you would like to start play with access to one of these Low Advance to gain +1 to any resistance. This isn’t
sets of advances, discuss the matter with your GM. It can a hugely exciting use of the advance, but it can help
safely be assumed that every player character has access to you use abilities that you’ve picked up from multi-
the minister set, given their allegiance. classing or extra advances.

CITY GUARD
Requirement: Serve, or have served, in the City Guard. Refresh: Make an arrest.

LOW MEDIUM
Weight of the Law. You wave your badge around to get what Everyone’s Guilty of Something. You know they did it,
you need. Take D3 stress to Shadow to roll with mastery and they know they did it; all you have to do now is apply
on your next suitable social interaction as you threaten leverage. Once per session, select an NPC. The GM tells
people with arrest. you what crimes they’ve committed (and they have com-
mitted a crime in recent memory, thanks to this ability);
Subdue. You’re used to hurting, but not killing, criminals. Any you have no solid proof, but a good hunch.
non-edged melee weapon you carry gains the Stunning tag.
Undercover Expert. You’re spent many a night undercover.
Cut Through Red Tape. You are well-versed in the draconic The first time you take Shadow fallout in a session,
legislation that permates Spire. +1 Reputation. When you ignore it.
attempt to navigate through bureaucracy, you do so with
mastery. Seen Worse Than This. Years on the streets of Spire have
hardened your mind. The first time you take Mind fallout
in a session, ignore it.
78 Extra Advances

CHOSEN OF THE HUNGRY DEEP

Requirement: Lose someone or something genuinely irre- Refresh: Destroy something of beauty, giving it to the deep
placeable. Attend regular ceremonies to the hungry deep as sacrifice. Someone who is beautiful will work too, as
at the Church of Absolution in Derelictus, or commune the deep doesn’t view people and things differently from
with it on your own terms at least once a week. each other – they’re all just matter.

LOW MEDIUM
Decay. [Divine] Your touch is poison. Mark 1 stress to Mind Rot. [Divine] The world tilts towards decay, and you are the
and touch the doorframe of a normal-sized house or fulcrum. Mark 1 or more stress to Blood or Mind up to
apartment; all foodstuffs in the building will become a maximum of 6. Through communion and whispered
spoiled and inedible, and potable water will be changed prayers, the corruption of the deep bubbles up around
into brackish, stinking liquid. Mark more stress to Mind the caster. For the next day, whenever a nearby character
to affect a bigger area. takes stress (including friendly characters), increase the
result by 1 for each 2 stress you marked during the cast.
Contagion. [Divine] You breathe virulent life into poxes. Touch In addition, wounds get infected, metal rusts, and damp
someone with a disease and mark D6 stress to Blood or creeps up the walls around you.
Mind. Additional people equal to the amount of stress
you marked will catch this disease before the dawn of Blessing. [Divine]Weapons moulder and crumble when brought
the next day. against you and your allies. Mark D3 stress to Blood or
Mind, and mark 1 stress to Blood or Mind on each other
Destruction. [Divine] You rust and decay items with but a participant in the ritual. You place your hand over the
kiss. Mark D3 stress and commune with the deep over a heart of each participant and ask the deep to bless them in
non-unique item, or part of an item (such as the lock in their endeavours; if they are attacked with weapons during
a door). Over the next few minutes, that item degrades the next situation, those weapons inflict stress as though
into nothingness. they were 1 dice size smaller as they rust, malfunction
and come apart in their attackers’ hands.

Truth. [Divine] You speak the nightmare truth of Spire in dark,

chattering syllables. Mark D3 stress to Mind and gesture
at someone within earshot while chattering in strange
tongues; you communicate to them the full majesty of
the decay that sits within the heart of Spire. Everyone else
who hears you marks 1 Mind stress; the target suffers D6
stress, or D8 stress if you’re right up in their face when
you talk to them.

Swarm. [Divine] You birth horrid creatures into the world.

Mark D3 stress to Blood or Mind and retch up a writh-
ing mass about the size of both of your hands clenched
together. When it hits the ground, it will explode into a
swarm of highly venomous flapping creatures which look
something between moths, horseflies, and maggots that
spiral around you. Anyone who approaches you takes D3
stress as a matter of course, repeated each time they act
in your presence. Most sensible people will just run away.
Extra Advances79

DEEP APIARIST
The Deep Apiarists are an occultist sect who count drow, CORE ABILITY
humans and aelfir among their ranks. They claim they alone Living Hive. [Occult]You accept the swarm into you, and be-
know the truth behind the Heart; that it is actively malev- come a living hive of bees. This has no in-game effect, aside
olent, a primordial force older than any god, and it must from being tremendously unsettling if discovered, but it
be constrained and controlled lest it break out of Spire and allows you to practice the other magicks of the Apiarists.
consume the entire world.
They will do this through the Hive; an otherworldly in-
telligence that manifests as glyph-marked bees. These bees LOW
are kept in hives, positioned around the Heart, that reinforce Repair. [Occult] The bees that live inside you patch up your
the spiritual and arcane wards that keep the Heart in check wounds with wax. At the start of each situation in which
– or so they say. you are present, remove 1 stress from Blood.
The true mark of induction to the apiarists is to become a
living hive of bees – to undergo a lengthy and hellish process Reassuring Whispers. [Occult] Your bees whisper directly into
that sees the apiarist’s organs replaced with waxen simulacra, your eardrum, telling you that everything is going to be okay.
and marks them out as agents devoted to the containment, Once per session, when you take a minute to commune
and potential destruction, of the Heart. with the swarm, remove D6 stress from Mind.

Requirement: Become inducted to the sect of Deep Apia- Release the Hive. [Occult] You flood the surrounding area
rists who are sworn to defend the city against the Heart with bees. +1 Mind. Roll Compel+Occult to cast this
by all means necessary, and accept the Hive into you. spell. On a success, a swarm of bees pours forth from
your clothing; these bees inflict D3 stress to anyone that
Refresh: Destroy an occult magician, an agent of the Heart, stands near you, and most sensible people will flee once
or an artifact that holds the unearthly powers from that the swarm takes flight.
place.
Assess Chaos. You gain an eye for the unpredictable. Gain the
Investigate skill and Occult domain. Once per session,
you can ask the GM what chaotic, unpredictable thing
is about to occur in your vicinity; you can try to stop it,
if you wish.

Sense the Heart. [Occult] Your eyes rearrange themselves

into strange and otherworldly patterns, allowing you to sense
the rot at the heart of the city. Roll Investigate+Occult to
cast this power. Your eyes shift into jet-black compound
lenses, allowing you to detect the insidious workings of
the Heart; you can sense anything that is of the Heart
(i.e. Hungry Deep cultists, blood-witches, needle-toothed
children, etc) within a street’s radius around you.
80 Extra Advances

MEDIUM HIGH
The Hive’s Blessing. [Occult] Your swarm marks ancient Smite. [Occult] Your body, writhing with unknowable forces,
glyphs and sigils in the air which punish those who would becomes anathema to agents of the Heart. Roll Fight+Occult
attempt to undo reality. Make a Fix+Occult roll to cast to cast this spell, and touch something that is of the Heart.
this spell. On a success, you project an aura of stability If you succeed, the creature you touched is encased in
and unchaos around yourself for the remainder of the crystal by a swarm of glyph-marked bees, and dies (or,
situation – any occult spells cast within your immediate if it is an object, it is rendered inert). Some Keepers like
vicinity, including your own, cause the caster to suffer an to surround their hives with the crystal statues of those
additional D6 stress from feedback. they have entombed as a warning to others; the corpses
do not rot, and some apiarists believe that their victims
The Queen’s Wisdom. [Occult] The queens of the Deep Bees are stuck forever in perfect stasis.
are the wisest of their ancient race, and yours speaks soft secrets
directly into your brain. +1 Mind. At the start of each ses- The Hive Mind. [Occult] You spread your mind out across
sion, pick one domain – you gain access to that domain. the swarm, and from them into others. Whenever you mark
If you already possess the domain, gain a knack in it. stress to Mind, you divide it as equally as possible between
yourself and all characters who are standing nearby. You
Pattern Theory. [Occult] You analyse the movements of may choose how the remainder of the stress is divided if
crowds, the pulse of galvanic energy in brains, the rhythm it does not divide equally, and you do not have to mark
of heartbeats; it’s all part of one perfect system. Once per stress to your own Mind resistance if there are more
session, when the GM asks you to mark stress as part nearby characters than the amount of stress incurred.
of a roll, declare that you’re using this power. Instead of
marking stress, rewind time to the point just before you
rolled the dice – what happened all took place in your
head as you extrapolated out the situation from known
parameters. You can’t repeat the same roll that you just
made if you do.

NOTEWORTHY QUEENS OF THE ORDER

The queens of the Hive have names unpronounceable by the tongue of elf or human; theirs is a language of buzzing
wing, of pheromone, of intricate and graceful dances. Within her own hive each queen is simply known as “Queen”;
on the rare occasions that bees from one colony must speak to another and refer to their rulers, their full names
are used. The process of pronouncing a Queen’s name in full can take upwards of an hour and involve tens if not
hundreds of bees, so amongst their order, the Apiarists use their own names for the queens.

Yellow-candle, Queen of the Hearts-Bloom hive, Querent, Queen of the Sunless Shore Hive, who is
who holds dominion over the largest grove of hearts- fondly named after the current duchess of Aliquam,
flower in Spire, and trades nectar with other colonies and brokered an uneasy truce with metal-weaving spi-
in exchange for mercenary support. ders from the Works to reinforce her monstrous hive.

Five-legs, Queen of the Darkfen Hive, who was Ashe, Queen of the Mansion Hive, who mastered
injured in a battle against the minions of the Heart the secret of fire and takes great pleasure in using it
two decades ago, and bears a finely-wrought silver leg against hornets or wasps she discovers in her domain.
to replace the one she lost.
Extra Advances81
82 Extra Advances

DEMONOLOGIST
You have delved too deep into the black arts and marred your MEDIUM
soul with the darkest of magicks – demonology. Practice of Construct Lesser Eidolon. [Occult] Using back-alley
demonology is punishable by death, or by extensive re-edu- occultism and improvised materials, you fashion a new eido-
cation and re-integration at the hands of skilled aelfir magi; lon – a vessel for demonic energy. Make a Fix+Occult roll
most who are caught performing demonic rites are never to build an eidolon for a demon whose name you know.
seen again, and if they are, they bear very little resemblance On a success, you create the eidolon; all stress marked
to the person they were before. against it is doubled.
The primary aim of demonology is damage control; those
who are aware of the forces inherent in the art do their best Mental Barrier. You have trained your mind to become a
to train themselves to resist the corruption and limit the fortress, and occult backlash will find no easy purchase there.
side-effects. There are more details of demons, what they When you mark stress from casting an occult spell, roll
can do, and eidolons – physical tools for interacting with a D3; reduce the stress you suffer by that amount.
those from beyond – on p. 155.
Minor Incursion. [Occult] You know a secret, forbidden rite:
Requirement: Find a source of knowledge that will allow how to channel raw demonic power into the world. Roll Com-
you to learn the art of demonology, such as the Greshkin pel+Occult whilst in contact with an eidolon to cast this
Codex or the work of heretic warrior-poet Tears-At-Sun- spell. On a success, an area the size of a house around
rise. the caster is filled with blistering unreality for the next
minute or so, killing everyone, and everything, that it does
Refresh: Perform an act communicated to you by a de- not drive irrevocably mad. This includes you.
mon you have interacted with. These are strange requests
indeed, and all of them are sinister and dangerous. You
cannot use these to refresh your own resistances, but HIGH
instead remove stress marked against the bond you share Brand Conduit. [Occult] You have learned the dark art
with an eidolon. of branding another with your resonance, through whatever
means, and they will act as your proxy. Roll Fix+Occult to
cast this spell on someone you have bound helpless before
LOW you. On a success, you have bound them to your occult
Beseech Demon. [Occult] You know the secret arts of making resonance. By focusing yourself, you can see through
deals with demons. Roll Compel+Occult to summon de- their eyes, and you can cast occult spells through them,
monic energy into an eidolon and activate it. Performing treating them as the point of origin. Through this, you
this spell successfully allows you to ask the demon for can avoid the immediate effects of an incursion.
favours in the same way as a standard NPC bond; it is
essential to function as a demonologist. Major Incursion. [Occult]You are in possession of one of the
most destructive weapons in the known world. How will you
Demonic Resonance. [Occult] You have trained your mind to use it? As Minor Incursion, but it affects an area the
be accommodating to many different forms of demonic energy. size of a district.
The first time you handle an eidolon, you do not mark
stress as others would – instead, refresh D6. Construct Greater Eidolon. [Occult] Using ancient tech-
niques and modern cunning, you have the almost unique ability
to craft an original, functioning eidolon. This functions as
Construct Lesser Eidolon, but the eidolon created
takes stress normally.
Extra Advances83

ENLISTED
Requirement: Serve, or have served, as a soldier in the Refresh: Have another character follow your orders, even
allied defence forces. when they’d rather not.

LOW MEDIUM
Keep Moving. There are more important things than pain. +1 Battle Leader.You lead the assault. When you inflict damage
Mind. Mark D3 stress to Mind or Blood; you, and any to an enemy in combat, all allies who attack that enemy
nearby allies, ignore the effects of minor fallout until the gain the Brutal tag for their attacks. This lasts until you
end of the situation. next act.

Squad Leader. You were a sergeant in the allied defence forces. Inspiring. You’ve seen people walk on broken legs.You’ll get out
+1 Reputation. Gain the Compel skill and Order domain. of this. As Keep Moving, but it works for the first moderate
fallout any allies suffer during the situation, too.
Martial Training. Hidden in your lodgings, you have a pro-
scribed military weapon stolen from the army. Gain the Fight Conduit.Your mind is theirs. (Requires The Sight.) +1 Mind.
skill and access to your military weapon – either a Leg- You uncover a hidden memory – you were implanted with
rande rifle (D6, Accurate, Ranged) or Raven long-gun a memetic virus by the Special Tactics corps. It allows
(D6, Extreme Range, Reload, Unreliable). Ownership occultists to use your body as a ritual proxy. If your allies
of this gun is illegal. have some of your blood to hand they can cast occult
spells through you, treating you as the origin point – and
The Sight. You received occult training, most of which you optionally the target. Stress taken as a result of the spell
can’t remember, at the hands of the Special Tactics Corps. is halved between you and the caster.
Gain access to the Occult domain and +1 Mind. When
you refuse a direct order from a superior in the corps, you
must pass a Resist+Order check not to obey it.

THE FAITHFUL OF KING TEETH

Requirement: Worship at the feet of the nightmare demi- Refresh: Eat the flesh of elf, man or gnoll. The more you
god King Teeth in Grist. Pay tribute to him in the form eat (and the tastier it was), the bigger the refresh dice.
of the flesh of elf or man or gnoll. Eat of the forbidden
flesh yourself.

LOW MEDIUM
Gorge. [Divine] You cram still-living people into your belly, Retch. [Divine] Your stomach acid is blessed by King Teeth,
where they die. When you take a target out of action or and it will sear through anything. Mark D6 stress to Mind
totally restrain them, you can immediately eat them whole or Blood to cast this spell.You vomit up about a bucket’s
by unhinging your jaw and forcing them into your guts, worth of hideously strong stomach acid over anything in
where they will squirm around and die. If you do this, front of you. It will melt through pretty much anything,
remove D6 stress, and anyone who sees it happen takes and it can be used as a D8, Devastating weapon against
D6 stress to Mind (D8 if they knew the guy). After you someone you’ve grabbed first.
eat them, you’re not good for much until you can digest
them – a process that takes about 8 hours.

Skitter. [Divine] Your nails distend into sacred talons. Mark

D3 stress to Mind or Blood to cast this spell.Your finger-
nails and toenails (don’t wear shoes) grow long, hard and
yellowed. Not only do they now count as D3 weapons,
but you gain mastery on any Pursue or Stealth checks
that involve climbing or hanging off ceilings. This lasts
until the end of the current situation, at which point they
will grow brittle and splinter off.
84 Extra Advances
Extra Advances85

GRANGOU
Far older than the upstart faiths of Our Glorious Lady and Stone Soup. [Occult] You gain nourishment from hope, not
the Solar Pantheon, grangou magic is an ancient and oral food. +1 Mind, +1 Blood. You no longer need to eat or
tradition that has been passed down from mother to son, from drink, and suffer no stress from not doing so. You can
father to daughter, since time immemorial. A cobbled-together extend this effect to your community (and anyone within
mix of hedge magic, prayers to slumbering gods and good its boundaries) for a week or so by making a pot of stone
old-fashioned cookery, grangou magic has been a mainstay soup; roll Fix+Occult to cook enough to feed everyone.
of drow communities since before the curse. A grangou is
often the central figure in impoverished drow communities,
especially when the Lajhan have failed to make an impact; MEDIUM
their magics ensure that all are fed, or at least feel no hunger, Infection Spreads. [Occult] A dark art, but: you can channel
and their hearth marks a place to return after a long day’s toil. injury and madness away from yourself and into your commu-
nity. +1 Mind. When you take stress to Mind or Blood,
you can choose to apply that stress to your community
Requirement: Be regarded as an important figure within bond instead of your own resistances.
your community, andlearn the secrets of grangou from an
existing practitioner. When you become a grangou, mark The Picture of Health. [Occult] No matter how grimy and
one of your Street-level bonds as your community. If you disgusting your domain is, you magic a glamour over it to make
lose access to this bond, you cannot use your grangou abil- it seem perfectly comfortable. Roll Deceive+Occult to cast this
ities until you regain standing or rebuild the community. spell. On a success, you cast an illusion over an area no bigger
than a house; all negative elements of the area (dirt, danger,
Refresh: Fix a problem in your community, or nip one in ugly art etc) are suppressed and replaced with something
the bud before it gets out of hand. that will instead lure a trespasser in and put them at ease.
This effect lasts for a week or so, or until someone bleeds
onto the ground in the area – whichever comes first.
LOW
Break Bread. Not everything the grangou do is magic; a lot of Bouyon Kon. [Occult] You know the old trick of putting horn
it is just good cooking and good conversation. +1 Reputation. and hooves in your goat stew to amplify the flavour and focus
When you share food or drink that you have cooked with the magical effect. As Bouyon Kabrit, but you can divide
someone, gain mastery on all social checks made against 6 additional Blood slots between up to six people however
them until the meal is over. you see fit. These additional slots last until the next dawn,
and you may only cast this spell once per day.
Bouyon Kabrit. [Occult] Your goat stew, already a traditional
drow comfort food, is imbued with magical power that lends
strength to those who eat it. +1 Reputation. Roll Fix+Occult HIGH
to cast this spell. On a success, you and up to five others Bouyon Kabrit San Kon. [Occult]Your cauldron holds ancient
may gain 1 additional Blood slot until the next dawn. secrets within its blackened iron, and you can bring people back
from the land of the dead. +2 Reputation. Roll Fix+Occult
Genius Loci. [Occult] Staring deep into the flames of your to cast this spell. Placing a corpse of someone from your
hearth, you connect to your community’s soul. Gain the In- community into your cauldron, you create a soup which
vestigate skill. Roll Investigate+Occult to cast this spell. is shared with the remaining members. Assuming they all
On a success, you speak with the spirit of your commu- consume it, the dead person will be reborn anew within the
nity – a zeitgeist comprised of the thoughts, fears and cauldron on the dawn of the next day. The returning char-
awareness of everyone within it. By focusing, you can acter loses all but one additional slot in Blood and Mind,
gain awareness of anything that happened within the if they have additional slots to lose, and it only works once
boundaries of your community within the last week as on each person; making the soup out of someone a second
though you were there when it happened. time creates a vile, bitter broth that curses the community.

Hunger Curse. [Occult] You instill your target with true Sacred Flame. [Occult] You reinforce the ever-burning flame
hunger and watch them wither away. Roll Deceive+Occult beneath your cooking pot that forms the heart of your commu-
to cast this spell. On a success, a target who can see and nity, making its inhabitants fight with zealous fury to protect
hear you is struck by your hunger curse; they take D3 it. Gain the Fight skill. When you and your allies fight in
stress, and their difficulty is reduced by 1 until they eat. defence of your community, all of your attacks inflict D8
stress and you gain the Brutal and Piercing tags.
86 Extra Advances

GREYMANOR INVESTIGATOR
R equirement : Pass an interview with the owner of Refresh: Solve a case assigned to you by the bureau.
Greymanor, Maxwell Roche.

LOW MEDIUM
Tripping Over Their Feet. Sometimes, getting beaten up is Everyone’s Got a Secret. No-one’s telling the whole
the best way to learn things. If you lose a fight, you can ask truth. Once per session, when you spend a few minutes
the GM three questions about your current investigation interacting with an NPC, ask the GM what their secret
that somehow connect to the fight. They should answer is (if they don’t have one, make one up). You don’t have
you honestly. hard evidence proving your hunch, but you know in your
heart that it’s true.
A Nose for Trouble. Civilised society is one bad decision away
from descending into chaos.You make those bad decisions. Once Too Drunk To Care. You’re a washed-up, worthless drunk
per situation, ask the GM what action would cause the who’s not ashamed to debase themselves if it gets them out of
most trouble. If you perform that action, roll with mastery. trouble. If you’re loaded on hooch and you take minor or
moderate fallout, mark D6 stress to Reputation and ignore
Smell Corruption.You know what strings to pull to get things the results of the fallout.
done. Once per situation, select an NPC. The GM will tell
you two ways in which they’re corrupt, one of which is true. HIGH
Take a Beating. You’ve been shot, stabbed and clubbed about
Thorough Investigator. You separate the wheat from the the head so many times that getting your nose broken feels like
chaff. Gain the Investigate skill. You know instinctively a godsdamn vacation. Gain the Resist skill. If you would
which clue is the most important in a given scene (if mark stress to Blood, at a value less than half your current
there is more than one clue). Blood stress, do not mark it.

A Damnou Walked Into My Office. One last job, and then

you’re out of the game. Within the week, the trinity of drow
goddesses known as Damnou will ask you to perform
your services on their behalf. The risk, and the rewards,
are impossibly great.
Extra Advances87

HELLIONITE LUCK-PRIEST OF STOLZ

Requirement: Attend a few sermons at Brother Hellion’s Requirement: Gamble an important part of your life – a
Church of the Gun on Kiln Street in Red Row. Own a partner, a limb, a sense – solely in order to offer it up
gun that you have named – crossbows and bows definitely to Stolz, if she wants it. Wear the sacred vestments of
don’t count. Stolz – scarves, ties and cloaks in many vibrant colours.

Refresh: Use your gun to get what you want. Refresh: Put your life, or the lives of your allies, at risk.

LOW LOW
Sacred Shot. [Divine] Sometimes, all it takes is one bullet. Second Chances. [Divine] You know a minor prayer to the
Inscribe the scriptures of Brother Hellion on a bullet and Goddess of luck, often used by gamblers. After you’ve rolled
mark 1 Blood or Mind stress. When you fire this bullet and dice to resolve an action but before play continues, mark
hit, it gains the Brutal tag. In addition, if the stress dice up to 3 stress (against any resistance you wish) and mutter
match, add them together and inflict that much stress. a prayer to Stolz under your breath. You may re-roll as
many dice as you marked stress.
Blessing of the Revolving Chamber. [Divine] You bind
your fortune to a spun cylinder. Mark D3 Blood stress to The Sacred Art. [Divine] You always know where to find
cast this spell and spin the chambers of a pistol with a some action. Once per session, you can find a gambling
revolving magazine, then roll a D6 and mark down the session where the stakes are interestingly high, or some-
number. For the next situation, if you would take stress how relevant to your ongoing story. In addition, when you
equal to this number, you do not take stress at all. take part in games of chance, roll with mastery.

MEDIUM MEDIUM
Virgin Birth. [Divine] Hellion’s miracles remove the need for Not Yet. The difference between life and death is a roll of the
powder and shot. Mark D3 stress and sanctify your gun dice. Once per situation, when the GM rolls for fallout
with your own, or someone else’s, blood as part of a half- on you or a nearby ally, make them re-roll their dice if
hour ritual.You call forth an angel of gunpowder to bless successful.
your weapon, and for the next situation, you ignore the
Reload tag on the weapon. The Goddess’ Shield. [Divine] Stolz smiles on you, and
your enemies weapons misfire or cause flesh wounds instead
Bound Devil. [Divine] You can summon dark and terrible of fatal injuries. Mark 1 stress to cast this spell. For the
spirits into weapons with an occluded rite that Brother Hellion next situation, when used against you, weapons use the
tries to hide from his congregation. Mark D6 stress to cast damage dice below the one they’d normally use (i.e. a
this spell over a gun; it permanently increases its stress D6 weapon becomes a D3 weapon).
dice by 1 step, but gains the Dangerous tag. (You can’t
cast this spell on the same gun more than once.)
HIGH
Avatar of the Fool. [Divine] No-one stops the Fool. Mark D6
HIGH stress.Your eyes flash through myriad colours, your clothes
Ballistic Avatar. [Divine] In your hands, guns are destruction float and flutter as though caught in a wind, and when
and will made incarnate. Mark D3 stress. Any gun you you move you leave the footprints of someone else. For
carry for the next situation you enter inflicts D8 stress the next day, the difficulty of all tasks you undertake is 0.
and gains the Piercing and Extreme Range tags.

The Saint of Bullets. [Divine] Every bullet in Spire loves

you like a brother. Bullets, or indeed anything fired using
explosives, no longer inflict stress on you. Each time
someone shoots at you with intent to harm, refresh D3.
88 Extra Advances

MINISTER
Requirement: Perform an act of great revenge in the name Refresh: Eliminate an enemy of the Ministry.
of Our Hidden Mistress, patron goddess of the Ministry.

LOW MEDIUM
Our Lady’s Grace. [Divine]You give more of yourself to Our Turn the Light. [Divine] You hide someone from the faithless.
Hidden Mistress in exchange for her protection. Once per Mark D3 stress to Mind and make the sign of the goddess
situation, after you take stress but before the GM rolls upon the subject’s head. As long as the target of this rite
for fallout, you may elect to mark 1 stress to Mind. If remains stationary, they cannot be seen by anyone who
you do, the GM does not roll for fallout, and you escape is not devoted to Our Hidden Mistress.
repercussions for now.
Shadowed Sanctuary. [Divine] You trap your foes in the darkness.
Whispers. [Divine] The secret cant of the ministers extends Anoint the walls of a room with spireblack pigment mixed
communication. +1 Mind. Mark 1 stress to Mind per with sacred oils and mark D3 Mind or Blood stress.
participant in the group.You lead a group in a ritual that Whenever someone tries to leave the room, you can roll
binds your voices to their Goddess, adorning each of their Compel+Religion to stop them – on a success, they are
throats with a thumb-print of charcoal. For the next day, knocked unconscious.You don’t take stress from this roll.
each member of the group can hear everything the other
members say as though they were whispering it in their Rite of Perfect Grace. [Divine] You cast away your iden-
ear, no matter how far apart they are. tity in favour of a more useful one. Mark D6 stress to cast
this spell; you need twenty minutes, sacred ink collected
Undo the Ancient Curse. [Divine] You no longer fear the from cephalopods that have never seen the sun’s light,
sun’s kiss. Gain the Resist skill. Mark 1 stress to Blood or and someone tied up and gagged in your cellar. Press
Mind per participant in this ritual. For the next situation, your thumbs into the ink and hold them over their eyelids
those who take part in the ritual no longer suffer harm until it dries; when it does, you will have a temporary
when exposed to sunlight. cover identity that checks out against all but the strictest
examination. That identity is based on but not identical to
Snuff the False Suns. [Divine] You extinguish the light so your the person restrained at the centre of the ritual. If they’re
work may go unnoticed. Gain the Sneak skill. Mark D3 stress married, sell rare books and belong to the Vire club, you
to Mind or Silver and pour a vial of sanctified ink onto the might end up as a divorced antiquarian who’s a member
ground. You extinguish all non-magical sources of light in of the Boating club. It’s not exact.
the immediate area around you. Magical light is temporarily Your paperwork and effects will shift and change to
suppressed until you leave the area; sunlight is unaffected. reflect your new identity; your friends and contacts will
still know who you are, you haven’t become an entirely
Our Mistress’ Blessing. [Divine] You can see clearly in the new person – just, from a bureaucratic point of view, you
city’s darkest corners. Gain the Steal skill. Mark 1 stress count as one. The effects of the rite last until you cast
to Mind or Silver and adorn the subject’s eyelids with it again; you can’t choose to dispel it. (So: you can’t get
sacred spireblack. When they close their eyes, they your “first” identity back. At least, not with this spell.)
can see in absolute darkness as though the area
was well-lit.
HIGH
Rite of Conversion. [Divine] You burn your target’s passions
to ashes, and build faith to the Goddess in their place. Having
restrained a target, you delve deep into the recesses of
their mind and rip their allegiances to shreds, replacing
them with a slavish devotion to Our Hidden Mistress.
At the end of this rite, the subject loves and will gladly
die for the goddess. (It is considered good practice for
magisters to have this rite cast upon them once a year.)
Unlike other divine spells, this requires a roll (Com-
pel+Religion) to cast, and even if you succeed, you must
mark D6 stress minimum after casting it. The subject also
takes D6 stress to Mind. You have no intrinsic means of
telling whether or not the spell has worked; you must
subject the target to further tests to ensure their loyalty.
Extra Advances89

SOLAR DEVOTEE VIGILITE

Requirement: Make a devotional pilgrimage to the Solar Requirement: Join the fanatic cult of the Crimson Vigil,
Basilica, or to one of the many great temples to the Solar and destroy something or someone who would oppress
Pantheon in the frozen north. you, in their name.

Refresh: Spend at least three hours in sunlight, the hotter Refresh: Destroy someone important (or something
the better (you don’t have to have your skin exposed for expensive) connected to your oppressors.
this to work).

LOW
LOW Eyes of Lekolé. [Divine] The Goddess’ word is fire. Mark
Father’s Vigour. [Divine] Father Summer’s bounty is without 1 stress to Blood to immediately start a fire somewhere
measure, and lends strength to the congregation. +1 Blood. Mark nearby with a whispered prayer to Lekolé.
D3 stress to Mind to cast this spell. At the culmination of
a ten-minute ritual, you and each character nearby to you Sigil of Our Wrathful Lady. [Divine] You transmute your
regain D3 Blood stress. body into a curse inflicted upon any aelfir that look upon it.
Mark D3 stress to Blood.You adorn your body with sanc-
Mother’s Blessing. [Divine] The Mother’s Mark is a sign tified blood and oil in mind-warping sigils of the Red God-
of great craftsmanship and reliability. +1 Mind. Mark D3 dess, including a large rune scratched into your chest. Any
stress to cast this spell. You bless the tools, weapons or aelfir who looks upon you immediately takes 1 stress, and
equipment of yourself or an ally during a half-hour ritual if you get close enough to touch them they take D3 stress
performed in total darkness. The first time they use those as a matter of course. If you attack an aelfir while in this
tools following the ritual, they roll with mastery, and this state, your attacks gain the Brutal tag.
benefit lasts for the remainder of the situation or until
they fail a roll using the equipment. Lekolé’s Insight. [Divine] You know the secret rages people
cradle in their hearts. Once per situation, select an NPC. The
Brother’s Eye. [Divine] You have joined a sect of anointed GM must tell you what would make them angry right now.
murderers. Gain the Fight skill. Mark 1 stress to cast this
spell. You anoint your weapon with sacred oils and bind
the grip with dead leaves that crumble under your palm. MEDIUM
For the next situation, when you inflict stress on a target Crucible. [Divine] You turn pain into yet more pain, return-
in combat, inflict 1 additional stress. ing it tenfold. When your total stress is 6 or higher, your
weapon dice increase in size by 1 step.

MEDIUM The Goddess’ Kiss. [Divine] You pray to Lekolé, asking her
Sister’s Fire. [Divine] Your body burns with the raw beauty for alms, but she is a cruel mistress. When you plunge part
of the Sister. Mark D6 stress to cast this spell. Your palm of your body into flame, roll a D6. On a 1–3, take that
glows with white-hot light that functions as a D8 damage much stress. On a 4–6, refresh that much stress.
weapon with the Piercing tag for the next situation. You
can mark 1 stress per attack to give it the Ranged tag.
HIGH
Mother’s Curse. [Divine] You damn a machine into inaction. Form of the Goddess. [Divine] You are fury incarnate.
Mark D3 stress and point at a nearby item with moving Invoking forbidden prayers to the Red Goddess, you
parts, intoning the wrath of Mother Winter. For the re- shift into a many-limbed wraith with eyes the colour of
mainder of the situation, that item no longer functions. fire, towering over other drow. This process takes about
a minute. In this form, you clutch burning swords of fire
and blood (which are D8, Devastating weapons) and
when you take stress to Blood, that stress is halved. This
transformation lasts until the end of the current situation,
at which point you take immediate severe Blood fallout.
90 Extra Advances

THE VYSKANT
You have been infected with the living mantid disease that is the Vyskant, and you will serve alongside them to welcome
the birth of your mother into the world in a beautiful cocoon of flesh.

Requirement: Visit the Cave and take the bloodsong into Refresh: Follow one of the mysterious orders you receive in
your body, whether willing or not. Alternatively, make dreams sent to you by the World-Mother. These include,
contact with infected blood, but you get a Resist roll but are not limited to: infecting a given person with your
to resist the infection if that’s the case. blood; hiding items in locations (for other infected to
collect); counting the number of white crows you see land
on a particular rooftop and then writing the number on
a wall in chalk; or drowning a load of cats and dogs and
burying them underneath the floorboards in the basement
of a seemingly random house.

Unlike other abilities, you don’t earn Vys abilities when you change the Spire. At the start of every session, the GM should
roll a D10 and add 1 for each session that has passed without you gaining a Vys advance. If the result is 10 or more, you
gain a random Vys advance. Roll D10 on this table. If you already have the advance rolled, reroll until you get a new one.

1 Bone Spurs. With a gesture, you can summon (D3) weapons to your hands that are formed of your own
bone made hard and sharp. If you spend 1 stress to Blood, these are D6 weapons insead.

2 Hypnotic Sweat. Your sweat becomes a potent hallucinogen, but not one that lasts for any time once removed
from the body, so it has to be licked off. It has no effect on you.

3 Skin Vibration. You can talk to others by touching your skin to theirs and delivering minute, precise vi-
brations through transparent prehensile hairs. If they’re also a Vys carrier, you can have
a normal conversation in a matter of seconds; if they’re not, you can only use words of a
single syllable, and it takes place at a normal pace, and they can’t respond.

4 Regeneration. Eager mantid claws kindly knit your wounds together from the inside. At the start of each
situation remove 1 stress from Blood.

5 Synthesia. You can hear light, feel sound, taste with your feet and any other number of strange com-
binations of senses and inputs. You can mark 1 stress to Mind to avoid being blinded or
deafened (or rendered unable to touch, taste or smell, if such a thing comes up) by rerouting
the sensation through other channels.

6 Carapace. Your ribs fuse and harden into a single strong but flexible shell, giving you +1 Blood.

7 Alien Calm. You can no longer take stress to Mind, but you’re not what most people would consider
“normal” any more. You automatically pass Resist rolls to maintain control of your mind,
but you can no longer cast spells that rely on marking Mind stress to cast.

8 As One. When you and another Vys carrier interact against a third party, you do so with eerie
precision. Once per situation, you can roll with mastery on any check as long as you’re
assisted by a fellow carrier.

9 Unearthly Song. You grow feathered nodules of bone in your throat that you can modulate to unleash a
high-pitched, keening wail that causes nosebleeds, clouds vision, and makes animals flee.
This counts as a D3 weapon with the Spread D6 and Devastating tags.

10 Choose. You may choose any of the above powers.

 DISTRICTS AND
FACTIONS OF ACADEMIA
THE BENEVOLENT ORDER OF
WISDOM AND DISCOVERY THE BROTHERHOOD OF THE UNLIDDED EYE
“No-one should go without knowledge,” proclaim the cries Demonology is a banned magick throughout all of Spire,
of the street-lecturers that cluster outside the Benevolent and in fact throughout any land the aelfir have dominion
Order, “for through knowledge we can better understand over – they view it as an utter aberration, an uncontrollable
the perfect creation of the gods, and in that act, become force of un-nature that has the capacity to rip the world in
closer to their majesty! Come one, come all, and receive the twain if not properly controlled. Demonologists, if found,
unimaginable blessing of wisdom for no charge to yourselves! are carted off to specially-built prison cells where they await
Education, prosperity, and piety for all!” processing, and few are ever seen again.
The Benevolent Order of Wisdom and Discovery is a free (Of course, the reports that the aelfir are using demonic
school, offering lessons in a wide variety of subjects taught by incursions as a weapon of war in Far Nujab, and elsewhere,
enthusiastic volunteers that range from practical concerns, should be regarded as rank anti-authoritarian propaganda
such as basic reading and writing or simple mathematics, to peddled by drow separatists.)
advanced courses in theoretical biology and applied theology. Which makes the business of the Brotherhood all the
It is a front for no small number of shadowy organisations, more dangerous, because their business is demons, and
many of which are even aware of the existence of some of the summoning thereof. They operate as a multilayered
the others; it is hard to find a school that isn’t a recruitment and almost entirely unknowable series of outer circles, in-
agency for a dark cult, insidious conspiracy or apocalypse ner circles, cabals and conclaves, each layer forswearing all
cabal, so students in the know do their best to learn what knowledge of the one above it but doing everything they can
they can and get out before they’re roped into murdering to enter it. Whether or not there’s a top level of authority
a city official or sacrificing a blind gutterkin on an altar of within the organisation or if the whole thing keeps spiraling
the hungry deep. Some of them even manage to succeed and cycling through endless levels, generated by an unseen
in doing so. hand, remains to be seen.
The Brotherhood specialises in assassination, smear cam-
paigns, blackmail and threatening families, but not in the
actual casting of spells – their demonology is almost entirely
theoretical, perhaps because they are aware of how dangerous
the whole affair is. The dark arts taught are supported with a
selection of classes concerning aetherics, practical occultism,
applied sociology and arcanomechanics, making it a solid
choice for poor, if gifted, intellectuals if they can withstand the
fallout of black magic. Those who enter the organisation find
it very hard to leave, even once their time as a student is over,
and no end of well-to-do drow owe some terrible favours to
the Brotherhood.
92 Districts and Factions of Academia

THE SISTERHOOD OF ILLUMINATION ON DEMONOLOGY

This off-shoot of the Church of Our Glorious Lady preaches The gnolls, far to the south, beyond the realm of Far Nujab
that the light she shines through the world is represented in their capital city of Al’Marah, have mastered the art of
not only by perceptible moonlight but the spread of infor- demonology to such an extent that it powers the majority
mation and understanding. Students take frequent trips to of their civilisation. Djinn (as they call demons), conjured
New Heaven or the Sky Docks to bathe themselves in the up through lenses of coloured glass and metal, are bound
light of the full moon, and thus absorb the wisdom that she into brass spheres that emit endless heat, that can spin and
shines down. hover under their own power, and can be unleashed as bright,
They, too, are demonologists, but as a matter of practical- destructive explosives.
ity rather than the occult darkness of the Brotherhood of the The drow haven’t openly used demonology for many
Unlidded Eye – they view demonology as knowledge, like any centuries, but when they did, they did so through the use
other, and to occlude or forbid knowledge on the grounds of ancient enchanted items known as eidolons: the Kraken
that it is dangerous is sacrilege. They have been at war with Bell that hangs over the North Docks; the Chaos Heart that
the Brotherhood for the last twenty years, infiltrating and beat arrhythmic within the chest of the nineteeth Sorcer-
subverting their complex hierarchies, and the Brotherhood er-King of Gryndel and was destroyed by the hero known as
have undertaken a series of brutal reprisals leaving many Unquiet; or the Knife, which could slit the throats of gods
high-ranking members of the Sisterhood dead, pinned to and realities alike.
their desks head-first with ceremonial nails. The aelfir have uncovered the arts of demonology from...
somewhere, perhaps from captured gnolls during their wars,
perhaps from an ancient goddess awakening beneath the
THE COLLEGE OF THE UNDYING LIGHT everfrost to the north, perhaps from deranged human ret-
Between the Brotherhood and the Sisterhood stands the roengineers driven out of their communities. Theirs is a
College of the Undying Light, a beacon of hope funded in summoning circle of flesh and blood, inscribed on the soul
part by the Solar Church of the aelfir. The college operates of unwitting casters, whispered into their ear as a memetic
on the principle that the cosmos and everything in it is curse while they sleep; they magnify the will of a single
a single godly being, or aspects thereof, centered on the demonologist through a network of drones, and rip open
great sun that provides heat, light and growth to the planet. a portal to wherever it is that demons come from, and let
With this understood, all knowledge and learning – all art them loose on the world.
and poetry – is but the god-being speaking to itself, better
understanding the majesty that it has wrought. They adore
knowledge, especially mathematics and physics, and work
closely with the retroengineers in Gywnn-Enforr to better RULES FOR DEMONOLOGY
understand the mysteries dug up from the arcologies of those If, for some reason, you come into possession of the
who came before. They have been working to calm the ten- means of summoning a demonic incursion of any
sions within the district, collaborating with the Brotherhood size, the materials needed to cast the spell are either
and Sisterhood as arbitrators and diplomats. tremendously rare, costly, or both. It will be difficult to
They are a bunch of lying, scheming demonologists. cast successfully, but should you succeed, every living
They, and the Brotherhood of the Unlidded Eye, and being in the immediate area around the caster, and the
the Sisterhood of Illumination, have either been infiltrated caster themselves (unless they are focusing their power
and subverted by or always were a front for illegal high elf through a conduit, as is done in the military) are dead.
demonology research, and those showing particular promise Or: worse than dead. The more powerful the spell, the
in all three branches are siphoned off to perform experiments wider the area affected. You have no control over the
in hidden, reinforced back-rooms and magically-occluded spell once it is cast, but it is unheard of to maintain an
test chambers. Many of them aren’t aware of the true nature open rift for more than a minute. For more details on
of their studies – their aelfir overseers endeavour to keep demonology, see p. 155.
the sum totality of the knowledge out of the hands of any Unleashing a demonic incursion is one of the worst
one researcher, instead dividing the process up into siloed things a person can do, and most wouldn’t wish it on
work-groups that, on their own, do not possess the ability their enemies. Watching it happen from a distance
to summon a military-grade incursion. It is slow going, but requires a Resist+Occult check with D8 Mind stress
the aelfir are long-lived, and time is something they have on a failure, and D6 on a success.
plenty of.
Districts and Factions of Academia  93

When they do so, it is horrendous to behold. The laws

of space and time come undone, becoming even less stable INTELLIGENCE SHARDS
and sensible than the space around the Heart of Spire: stone If you receive a shard of the Intelligence as a brain
melts and runs like wax, stray thoughts manifest as towering implant, on the off-chance it doesn’t kill you, you gain
nightmares, tentacles of shifting black crystal shimmer into access to all domains via the linked neural net of your
and out of existence, eyes rot in their sockets, and the very fellows. Each time you use a domain that you have not
substance of skin and bones fragments into scintillating earned through normal means, roll a Resist+Academia
songs. And then: as quickly as it came, it is over, and the check and mark D6 stress to Mind on a failure and
world snaps back into focus. Left in the corners of buildings D3 stress to Mind on a partial success.
and coughed up from the lungs of the afflicted is a trans- In addition, an uplifted member may commune
lucent-obsidian runoff known as sulphur that is processed with The Intelligence itself to try and discern a
and sold as a luxury drug in Spire. particular piece of knowledge, but it is dangerous
to do so as mortal minds were not meant to interact
on such a fundamental level with the crystal.You may
BRAZACOTT TECHNICAL INSTITUTE ask the GM a question – any question whatsoever
Brazacott is an organisation run in part from up-Spire fund- – and spend D6 days in deep communion with The
ing, relying on volunteer work from “proper” universities to Intelligence during which time you will be rendered
teach classes in engineering, information theory, sociology insensible in a cataconic, ecstatic trance. (You must
and biology among a wide variety of other subjects. The recruit other people to give you water and food during
students are noted for quickly grasping difficult concepts your trance, otherwise you will die from dehydration
with ease, as well as adopting a singular sense of fashion – or starvation. At the end of the trance, you lose one
grey scholarly robes and trousers, white head-wraps and stress slot in Mind – if you don’t have any, you suffer
dark glasses. immediate severe fallout. You now know the answer
It is a front, of course. All the decent schools under the to the question.
umbrella of the Benevolent Order are – but not for dark mag-
ic or forbidden religions, but for a group of academics that
bear implants of ancient crystal unearthed from an arcology
by human delvers in the recent past. These implants, driven
into the mass of the subject’s brain, amplify their thought Unable to restore the scrying-cabinets to working order,
processes and allow them to communicate between each and finding that most of the other crystal nodes were taken
other without the use of words, and over great distances, by or destroyed when the ancient race who built them fled
utilising the strange vibrations of the crystal shards. these lands, the humans have instead resorted to adapting
Some students undergo the process willingly – others the substances to resonate within the folds of the brains of
are forced into it, and roped into the scheme whilst un- intelligent creatures. Each carrier acts as an input to a great
conscious. The main crystal from which the implants are network, itself possessing knowledge that is far beyond the
chipped is known to its followers, if you can call them such ken of even the most ingenious human retroengineer, and
a thing, as The Intelligence – an experiment in long-dis- with each uploaded mind the organisation comes closer to
tance communication and information storage by those unlocking more and more ancient secrets.
who came before, and an unknowable intellect in and of The implanted (or “Uplifted,” as they call themselves)
itself. In the times before, humans theorise, each arcol- say that the resonance of the crystal in their brains can be
ogy would have a crystal node such as this – or several, strange, at first, and lead to nosebleeds, nightmares, halluci-
in the case of larger arcologies – which would allow the nations, and memory holes – but when they work in concert
inhabitants to share information and communicate in- with one another, or commune with the great overmind, the
stantly over distances of hundreds of miles using glass sensation is one akin to spiritual ecstasy.
scrying-cabinets.
94 Districts and Factions of Academia

94
Districts and Factions of Academia95

THE HIGH ELVEN UNIVERSITY Now, ranks of researchers spend day after day scanning

OF DIVINE MAGIC
the depths of the city in which they live and formulating
theories on why there is a weeping, ragged hole in reality at
The University of Divine Magic is considered by many aelfir the centre of it. A popular proposal is that chaos and dis-
to be the pinnacle of their civilisation to date. It is formed of order is the natural state of all things, and the structure of
a sprawling alabaster campus, laid out to some forgotten di- Spire is in the grand scheme of things far less natural than
agram lost in one of the many libraries; in places, classrooms an otherworldly force of corruption, and the Heart is just
and laboratories are packed together five or six high on top trying to address the balance. Or: it is the corpse of a god,
of each other with precarious marble stairways connecting and where gasses escape from its decomposing body, reality
walkways and corridors between them, or on occasion con- comes undone; or it is an escaped and mad demon trying
necting nothing in particular and spiralling away into the to work its way back into whatever nightmare realm from
ceiling. In other areas, large open plazas with fountains and which it originated; or it is an attempt by ancient drow sor-
seating areas overflow with students and professors sitting cerer-kings to contain the full extent of the curse that damns
in cafes, sipping Nujabian kafee and arguing over the latest their race, and should it ever become breached completely,
treatise on the divine. Merely finding your way from one side every drow will die a grisly death.
of the university to the other is considered an achievement None of these theories are correct.
worthy of praise, and accurate maps (which are rare) are sold
to desperate, lost undergrads at vastly overinflated prices.
THE INFINITE LIBRARY
The Infinite Library is a halo that encompasses the centre of
THE GRAND TELESCOPE, INVERTED the institution – a vast vertical circle visible for miles around.
Using their own ingenious scrying techniques and the cun- It is not actually infinite, though the aelfir that use it like
ning machine-work of the humans, the aelfir commissioned to think that it is, and it is a popular exercise in Paralogical
the building of a mighty telescope soon after their invasion Thought classes for a student to know that the library is
of Spire was complete. Positioned atop the university, the finite but to believe that it is infinite simultaneously.
enormous device allowed scholars to peer into the heavens Through clever use of architecture and its proximity to
and uncover the secrets hidden there – not only to follow and the arcane energies of the lunar font, it is actually a loop –
perhaps predict the seemingly pre-ordained paths the stars keep walking long enough and you will end up near where
carve through the cosmos, but to observe the movements of you began. The library is constructed on the inside of a
the curious creatures that live their lives far above the world. Möbius strip, and the single path wends its way through
Star-swifts, flitting and ephemeral, that come with the badly-ordered shelves crammed with the religious texts of
dusk and peck at the embers of the sunset; ascended sky- every faith known to Spire. The divine truths of prophets and
whales, pallid and enormous, that shed the bonds of earth madmen clog the shelves like driftwood damming a river.
and eat only the strange fruit that grows on the lower-hanging
strands of nebulae; and the moon-elves, black-eyed and frail,
who communicate by searing glyphs into the night sky with THE LUNAR FONT
smouldering biophosphorescence. Held in the centre of the Infinite Library is the Lunar Font:
(And that is not to mention the beings witnessed up there one of the greatest workings of the aelfir. Indeed, the Li-
whose very existence is cause for fierce debate. What of the brary itself seems to have originally been simply a support
impossibly huge void behemoths that create the shifting dark structure for the colossal array of lenses and fractured glass
behind the stars and whose eyes hold supernovae? What of all focussing light from outside of Spire to a single point.
the angels electric, who manifest in afterimages in the eye Here, moonlight is physically distilled and tempered, drip
after a lightning strike? What of those researchers who have by agonisingly slow drip, in miniscule vials coated in thick
gone irrevocably mad, their eyes burned out to blackened layers of spireblack to contain the light. The brightest moon-
sockets, who report they have looked directly upon the faces light of a summer night produces barely half a drop of this
of the Solar Pantheon or the Glorious Lady herself?) sacred liquid; during the day the window high in Spire’s wall
But: a small yet influential cadre of professors grew is firmly shuttered but at night it is thrown open, regardless
tired of spending their nights staring into the skies to view of weather or other external conditions, all in the hope of
the celestial, and instead argued that there was more to be gaining a little more distilled essence of the divine.
learned by focusing their energies on earthbound supernat- Half of this substance is shipped to the Solar Basilica
ural phenomena. And so, at great cost to the university, the where it is used in worship by aelfir mystery cults – an utterly
telescope was inverted and pointed directly, more or less, profane act to the drow. The other is transferred to New
into the heart of Spire. Heaven to the waiting hands of the Guild of Morticians who
96 Districts and Factions of Academia
use it in the creation of undying; it lends an impetus for the Now, the no-man’s land is mainly used as a place to
stilled blood of the patients to move once more, dragged posture and wave illegally-owned swords and pistols about
through their bodies by the energies of the moon far above without raising too much fuss – these are students and teach-
rather than pumped by their now-absent heart. ing assistants, not soldiers and gangsters, after all. But when
the wine flows freely – as it does in the quarterly festivals to
celebrate the changing hierarchy of the solar pantheon – then
THE CULT OF THE SPIRE ASCENDANT the halls ring out with screams and gunshots as old scores are
The city of Spire, the cult claims, was a god, and then it dragged up to be re-settled, and the campus security guards
died, and the aelfir are living in its corpse. Or: Spire is a god, know well enough to leave the entire area alone.
but it is not yet born. Or: it is a living bridge to the realm It is rumoured that a weathered and scarred Professor
of the gods. Or: it is a god, and it is dormant, and must be Westward-March-The-Faithful, forever embittered by the
awoken. (Or: not awoken, never awoken, unless you want shame of presenting in his sleep-mask, leads one of the
the world to end. But some people do.) factions in exacting a bloody revenge.
The Spire Ascendant is a loose collection of academics
and theologians that believe Spire is the physical form, dead
or alive or both, of a deity of some kind. (It certainly bears no STUDENTS
similarity to works created by any mortal hand on record.) Names: Jenkins, Serren, De Havilland
What unites them is a desire to bring Spire to life once more Descriptors: Already bleeding, Visibly drunk, Fighting to
and sit upon its right hand as angels or prophets, and they impress someone they fancy
have support that ranges all the way to the Council itself. Difficulty: All the gear, no idea. Difficulty 0
Resistance: 3, but they move in large-ish groups for safety
Equipment: Daddy’s spare duelling pistol (D6, Accurate,
INTERVIEW ROOMS Ranged, Piercing, Reload) or Mummy’s old
The interview rooms of the University are renowned through- cavalry sabre (D6)
out Spire and, indeed, the world. Here, great advances in
medicine and psychology take place every day – what most
do not know however is the nature of the rooms themselves, THE LECTURE HALL
and what lives inside them. Built of iron, stone, and glass, The Lecture Hall (and there are of course many lecture
each cell is the pinnacle of containment technology – often halls in the university, but this is “The” Lecture Hall) is
built specifically to contain the occupant if special needs a single colossal theatre where new theories and findings
must be met, using blessed moonsilver, specially-reinforced are explained to the learned elite of the university. Seat-
sandwalker leather, thrice-cursed hornwood or any other ing comfortably 6,000 students and professors (and 7,500
variety of natural or supernatural defences. Mutant crea- uncomfortably), a minor miracle of acoustics allows each
tures, intelligent gutterkin, grotesque spiders, pureblood attendant to hear the speaker as clearly as if they were sat
midwives, no small number of drow, gnolls and other horrors next to each other.
are contained here. They are subjected to tests, tortures, Attempting to book the lecture hall is another matter
interrogations and procedures every day of their extended entirely, subject as it is to bureaucracy even more arcane
lives. Notwithstanding the cruelty inflicted upon them, much than the rest of the campus; lectures are booked out for at
is learned from their suffering, and aelfir can only barely least the next decade, and many of them are taking place
understand the concept of cruelty when applied to lesser simultaneously. The de facto keeper of the timetable is a
races than themselves. diminutive drow servant known as Pao, currently serving four
concurrent durances for reasons she deigns not to mention;
the stress of the job has driven her quite mad, leaving her
THE BATTLEFIELD terrified of sudden movements, changes in temperature, loud
You don’t go to the Battlefield unless you’re called. (Or the noises or the wrong colour of ink, let alone the predations of
Front, or the Trenches, or whatever your form tutor calls it.) vicious aelfir professors attempting to shoehorn their class
What started out as an innocent prank twenty-five years ago into an already over-booked slot. She subsists almost entirely
(which saw the sleep-mask of Professor Westward-March- on sickly-sweet paste sucked out of tubes, which has rotted
The-Faithful swapped out for his professional mask, leading her teeth away to black stumps.
to the high elf equivalent of him turning up before the board Many students study at other universities in Spire
in his pyjamas) has escalated into all-out war between fac- hoping one day to acquire the qualifications needed to study
tions of students and allied fraternities, claiming the area of scheduling at the University of Divine Magic.
the campus between the dorm of the original perpetrators
and Professor Westward’s office as a battleground.
Districts and Factions of Academia97

THE ACADEMY OF GYWNN-ENFORR LITTLE WHITECROSS

A home away from home for many of the human retro- Whitecross is the human centre of commerce and religion
engineers that ply their trade in Spire, the Academy of – a huge arcology built within a hollowed-out mountain far
Gywnn-Enforr is a nexus for the development of prokatakos to the west where, centuries ago, the race first made their
technology. Unearthed from ancient arcologies deep beneath forays into the secrets that lie beneath the earth. In Little
the earth, these curious machines are examined and broken Whitecross, human-themed inns and bars ply their trade to
down into their component parts in an effort to understand an eager crowd, and the latest entertainments from the west
their inner workings. are performed on a nightly basis.
Currently popular are: a semi-improvised comedic play
concerning the trials and tribulations of the Wanderer-King
THE COMPUTATIONAL DIVISION Marazion the Wastrel; experimental galvanic projections
Humans believe that machines can think for themselves. The of light accompanied by traditional drums and pipes; and
aelfir regard this as nonsense, and the drow treat it with a Cross, a hugely-complicated human sport, that sees teams of
sort of wary disbelief, but the humans have pulled it off – in cunning players don protective suits and carry “non-lethal”
no part thanks to the discovery of The Intelligence, a vast firearms to compete in competitive recreations of famous
prokatakos crystal that resonates in such a way as to allow historic battles.
it to process information.
The Computational Division is largely a front for the cult
of The Intelligence – humans who implant the crystal into THE TOWER DIVISION
the flesh of their brains and become living data-nodes – who There are many who believe that Spire itself is of prokatakos
are detailed more fully in the Brazacott Technical Institute on make, and the argument holds water (even if it bares little
p. 93. Those who aren’t ready to sink mysterious ancient architectural similarity to other forerunner structures). So
rocks into their still-living brains are attempting to build the Tower Division seeks to understand the true nature of
devices that allow them to read the information processed the giant building, and perhaps apply this knowledge to
by the crystal on scrying mirrors, but successes are few research in other fields.
and far between, and the hivemind of the cult is difficult to The Tower Division, therefore, makes frequent trips into
fight against. the Heart, arguing that the structure of the city is either
generating it or containing it, and pays handsomely for those
who would guard its members through the surrounding
VOLATILITY RESEARCH DEPARTMENT lawless districts and guide them through the maddening,
Little is understood about the strange human technology nonsensical geography of the Heart itself. They have an
known as galvanics; fizzing, sparking devices that hum and impressively high turnover rate (with many members ending
glow with unnatural colours are tethered to machines and up dead, mad or both after their first trip down-Spire), and
power them with buzzing energy. (The methods for gath- so far, their efforts have been fruitless. Were it not for the
ering galvanic energy are many, and all of them unreliable, ceaseless campaigning of Professor Arkwright, who has very
but capturing lightning in copper and glass stacks or rapidly nearly completed his decade-long project of research into
striking specially-treated amber against itself to create sparks the hole in reality, the division would have folded long ago.
are the main two.)
At present, galvanic energy is a fringe science that many
humans regard as an amusing toy; they are, as a culture,
much more concerned with the serious business of mass
production, and constructing ever-more elaborate devices
that run on steam power. But, of late, galvanics has seen
something of an upsurge in popularity, and several noted
scientists within the Volatility Research department are in
talks with the aelfir paymasters of the army to create weapons
that harness this unusual energy source.
98 Districts and Factions of Academia
 DISTRICTS AND FACTIONS
OF COMMERCE

THE NORTH DOCKS

The Knights run the North Docks. In ages past, the Knightly The Knights display their servitude and allegiances (which
Order of St Beneferas swore to protect traders, travellers shift from season to season) on their property, armour and
and strangers with their lives, and in recognition of this, the even their skin with brightly-coloured pennants and stand-
Council of Spire saw fit to give them dominion over the river ards, proclaiming who they work for, who they’ve beaten up
docks, so they could better serve their people. (recently or in misty legend), who their dad beat up when
Now, no-one would recognise St Beneferas if he walked he was a lad, their personal crest, and – importantly – the
down the high street. The Knights are a quarrelling cadre of markings of the Duke, who rules them.
enforcers, extortionists and brawlers who dress up in gaudy The docks are a spray of colour and noise against the
armour, pay too much money for expensive broadswords grey stillness of the Spire wall, with boats docking carrying
(that they are legally allowed to carry, thanks to that ancient trade goods from far lands, drunken sailors blowing their
pact) and like to throw their weight around when it comes wages in Knight-run alehouses, informal jousts and melees,
to tithe collection, perceived slights against their honour, and the sort of round-the-clock mayhem that a traveller can
and contests of “Knightly” virtue. really get behind.

KNIGHTS THE DUKE

Names: Lookshy, Quince, Junkett “The Duke” is a hereditary title, usually passed on to who-
Descriptors: Swaying on their feet from the rum, More gaps ever killed the last Duke and got away with it. To save mon-
than teeth when they grin, Collects trophies ey and time, the Duke’s heraldry stays the same between
from soldiers they beat up and displays them occupants, and making changes to it – however small – is
proudly often frowned upon by everyone aside from the Guild of
Difficulty: 0 on the street, 1 if you take them on after a Crestmakers, who appreciate the business.
few drinks in their pub The present Duke used to go by the name of Westfall, and
Resistance: 5 she’s a drow with a strong Home Nations accent she tries
Equipment: Knight quarter-plate (Armour 3), a collection her best to hide. As is tradition for drow women, she has
of swords, lances, morningstars etc (D6, Bru- taken many spouses throughout her life – she has two current
tal), the occasional cheap dunnock pistol or husbands, both of whom are big, strong lads she reckons are
sawn-off sparrowhawk shotgun (D6, Ranged, far too stupid to ever try and overthrow her, and a human
One-shot) wife who goes by the name of Duchess. The Duchess very
much enjoys being the power behind the throne, although
it must be said that which throne she’s behind seems to be
of little concern to her.
100 Districts and Factions of Commerce

THE CASTLE (A cult in the docks worships the lost kraken as a god, or
An enormous decommissioned human military pad- rather infinite multi-faceted gods, of the river and ocean. They
dle-steamer, retro-fitted with luxurious interior apartments claim that their god is dead, but that he will rise again like the
and down-powered weaponry acceptable to the Duke’s aelfir tidal waters of the docks, and they scrape through mud and
paymasters (she could still level a street or two with the river-water to uncover relics of their deity – mirrored scales,
firepower at her disposal, mind). The Castle houses the obsidian-black teeth, strange and jagged bones – that will
Knights’ coffers, heaving with tribute, carefully guarded by appear with increasing frequency as his resurgence nears.)
the Duchess’ personal guard – hard-eyed men and women When the aelfir took Spire, there was only one bell re-
bristling with guard dogs, semi-legal firearms, and mili- maining in the city (the others by then were lost or protect-
tary-grade armour. ing other parts of the drow empire) and, even though it no
The castle is there primarily because, as laid out in the longer seemed to work, the Warrior -Poet New-Rivers-Broken
order’s original provision, their protection of the north docks demanded that it was split into two pieces and displayed in
extends to the rivers that surround them, and as such they the North Docks as a symbol of the invaders’ power.
form the entirety of Spire’s navy. What was once a fleet
of proud ships has been sold off and repurposed into im-
promptu pub extensions over the centuries, and now, aside SOLACE
from the Castle, the official navy of Spire is thirty (sturdy) A temporary home for the needy and abused, set up by a
rowboats, three gun-skiffs and a cannon that hasn’t been nameless and mysterious donor from up-Spire. Operating
fired in sixty years. with medicine and care of a surprisingly high standard,
Solace is a secular operation (a rarity in the Spire) with
no apparently ulterior motive – no sinister cult, no organ
THE RANGE harvesting operation on the side, no sacrificial altar in the
Originally, the Range was a row of thirty houses either side of basement, not even a shadowy recruitment agency for one
a winding backstreet. Enterprising Knight Wesley bought out of the many secret societies that scurry around behind the
the entire neighbourhood for a suspiciously low price nine scenes of day-to-day-life. Even the Ministry haven’t been
years ago and knocked out every non-supporting interior able to find any dirt on it yet, which must mean that who-
wall, forming one of the largest contiguous interior spaces ever’s in charge of Solace is very good at hiding their sins.
in the docks. Wesley went on to rename it the Range, set
up a bar on either side of the street, and hold the district’s
famous jousts down the alley in the centre. THE HEAP
(Horses are unfashionable and expensive in Spire, so A filthy nailed-together pile of leaking boats and improvised
jousts are normally performed on foot. Both parties strap rafts, filled with drifters and thieves, secretly run by a trio of
on their shiniest armour and a pair of heavy gauntlets, get vicious gnoll enforcers and a gang of unusually violent biolu-
blind drunk, and run as fast as they can towards each other minescent gutterkin with webbed feet and anglerfish mouths.
in an attempt to knock the other party over.) The Heap is docked just outside of the Spire’s city limits,
Also popular in the Range, now a popular night spot and repeated attempts to cut it loose or burn it down have
even with mid-Spire customers and boasting several view- been met with brutal reprisals from the normally placid
ing bridges built between the houses – are archery con- inhabitants, spurred on as they are by their gnoll masters’
tests (duels fought with blunted crossbow bolts), melee threats. Should those up-Spire ever get wind of the true na-
(a drawn-out and gruelling battle for territory, with teams ture of the Heap – that it houses degenerate abhumans – its
looking to force each other backwards) and Desang, a new destruction will be assured, so the gnolls keep tight control
and exciting school of theatre that boasts fights to the first over who gets in and out.
blood in every show, often with branching plots depending There are safer places than the north docks for a gnoll
on which character wins. to hide, though, so it can be safely assumed that they’re up
to something in the centre of the creaking, festering mess,
protected by a rag-tag army of burn-outs and junkies.
THE SUNDERED BELL
In ages past, the drow possessed seven strange bells which, in HEAP DENIZENS
times of dire need, would be rung to summon the kraken – a Names: Wazim, Ruchol, Fingers
dark and terrifying mass of tentacles and fanged maws that Descriptors: A goblin with visible trepanning scars, An
would burst from the seas and rivers to strike at their foes. injured soldier bearing tarnished medals, A
Modern scholars have drawn comparisons between ancient scabby half-gnoll in rags
depictions of the kraken and the effect that demonological Difficulty: 0
weapons have when used on military targets. Resistance: 3
Equipment: Rusty, filthy knives (D3, Ongoing D3)
Districts and Factions of Commerce101

THE HIGH STREET Most of the Knights in the order once sought sanctuary
Towering over the interior of the dock, the High Street is themselves. As part of the payment for their protection, the
built into the roof of the area (and therefore is among the Sceptre expects every woman present to learn how to fight
few places that never get flooded). Here, catwalks connect and defend themselves (as well as to extort money from the
family businesses and semi-permanent market stalls, sell- local populace and rough up merchants who look like they’re
ing exotic trade goods from overseas, clockwork, relics, pet carrying too much silver), and many of them go on to join the
megacorvids, books, atlases, globes, walking sticks, fine fur order in later life. As such, where many knightly orders are
coats and mementos of Spire for travellers to purchase. fronted by tall, handsomely-scarred looking men, the order
Ownership of the catwalks, which are not technically of the Carmine Sceptre is led and staffed almost entirely by
part of the docks, is a toss-up between Sir Grigori, a rangy broad-shouldered, middle-aged, impossibly violent women
drow with a missing eye and a mean streak a mile wide, and and their equally violent children. They have a reputation
Sergeant Holt of the Free Watchmen. as Knights-for-hire, willing to perform almost any job you
It’s not uncommon to see a member of either side pitched can pay them for, and they have few qualms about who gets
over the railing and tumble down into the water below or, hurt in the bargain.
if they’re unlucky, head-first into the deck of a riverboat. At present the order, and thus the bar, is managed by a
one-eyed woman called Mogs who is built like the building’s
front door – old, square, thick and heavily scarred but as
SANDERSON’S ARMS yet unbroken.
Sanderson, a human ex-Knight (although you never really
leave) has served his community and his Duke for the last
twenty years by operating a reliable weapons store. Nailed THE LAST LEG
to the pub sign outside his front door are his two original The Last Leg has never once paid for their beer. This is a
taxidermied arms, the skin and tattoos long-faded from matter of pride, and they declare it proudly, often whilst
exposure, and in their place he boasts two replacement arms drinking stolen beer.
– grey-white and hugely muscled – studded down their length Formed from the worst that the North Docks
with black market drow sliver technology. has to offer – ex-pirates, scoundrels, brigands, vaga-
Out front, he sells crossbows, shortbows, short-swords, bonds, and so on – and run by the indolent and immo-
clubs, brass knuckles and knives to any that want them. In bile Captain Porter, the Last Leg operates out of the
back, his role of official arms provider to the Knights allows river itself, built as it is into the half-sunken wreck of a
him to purchase and distribute military-grade swords and once-proud ship. The prow of the boat points up towards
armour to those with the right to bear such arms (and those the sky, and the order has rebuilt the internal sections (and
with enough money to convince him to look the other way). jury-rigged platforms onto the exterior) whilst maintaining
Underneath his shop, though, he runs a stellar trade in a loose collection of yachts and rowboats around the central
illegal firearms, ranging from discount Red Row Specials structure like a shanty town.
to surplus military Legrand rifles to barely-held-together The Order of the Last Leg is universally loathed by every
experimental Thunderfires from the academy in Gywnn-En- other Knightly order in their vicinity on account of their
forr. No-one has ever tried to shut him down; he’s just too acquisitions procedure – once every few days, when the
useful to the Knights, and he’s a scary customer to boot. beer has run out and the gang is down to their last dregs of
rum, they’ll detach the armada of small boats from the bar
and set sail in search of plunder on nearby trading vessels.
THE CARMINE SCEPTRE (Alternatively, they’ll embark on the sort of pub-crawl that
Between a slaughterhouse and the water’s edge, where the happens after the pubs are shut and involves loading as much
river runs red with offal and blood and strange lumps float to booze as they can into wheelbarrows and making off with it.)
the surface, the Carmine Sceptre holds dominion. Famously As such, the drinks menu at the Last Leg is unpredictable
regarded as one of the roughest, dirtiest bars in the Docks at best: one night they might serve discount aelfir honey-
– which is quite the title – the Sceptre holds an order of wine out of pewter mugs; the next, suspiciously murky beer
Knights made up exclusively of women. With their trademark stolen from a shipwreck three leagues up-river; the night
brand of tooth-shattering brutality, the Sceptre offer blanket after, nothing to drink, but instead a vast quantity of moody
protection to all women fleeing abuse – whether they were glimmer they half-inched off a luckless Azurite looking to
beaten by their husbands (which is one of the more common expand into black market pharmaceuticals.
reasons for seeking sanctuary), refugees from the civil wars
of Ys, on the run from the law, or dodging a Durance at the
hands of a cruel aelfir master.
102 Districts and Factions of Commerce

THE WIZENED WEASEL THE SKY DOCKS

Say what you like about Knights – they’ll kill you when you’re Perched near the top of the city, the Sky Docks is a hub of
standing up, and awake, and odds they’ll at least give you commerce for the upper half of Spire. Masked aelfir digni-
a fighting chance to arm yourself. Not so with the order of taries and their staff flock to exclusive boutiques offering
the Wizened Weasel. luxuries from faraway lands, food from the Garden district is
Seeing themselves as a cut above the other orders, the sold from carts in the centre marketplace, and illegal goods
Weasels enjoy the finer things in life: wine, haute cuisine, from Red Row – synthetic glimmer, concentrated malak,
classical music, other people’s property, and the sort of mur- counterfeit documentation and overpowered, unstable pistols
ders that don’t leave blood on their doublets. Where the other – flood through the black market, headed for the pleasure
orders have loosely-enforced codes of conduct that limit palaces of Amaranth and the Silver Quarter.
blood-shed to street brawls and disputes over territory, the In dark temples, foreign traders pray to foreign gods:
Weasels make a habit of stealing from, selling to and killing Ur’leth, the Star-Child; Ovass, the Wise Perching-Bird; The
whomever they please. There is no taboo they will not break Earth-Soul, a gnoll fertility god; and Plür, a giant slumbering
in search of profit and luxury; they are hedonists without god-toad which squats in the oasis at the centre of the desert
compare, combined with an iron will to get their hands on city of Plür. From great shelf-like staging posts, flocks of
their hearts’ desires – and they are very good at what they giant birds carrying messengers and delivery-boys flap back
do thanks to a screening and initiation process for members and forth, arcing down the length of the city and up to the
that rivals the Ministry’s. Each member of the Weasels has singing skywhales that bear strange goods from distant lands,
their own particular vice, and many build shrines to it in the entire place a fluttering web of trade.
their quarters; lust is to be controlled, and celebrated, and
treated with the utmost respect.
Squirrelled away in a narrow tower that juts out of the MEGACORVIDAE
main body of Spire itself, the Wizened Weasel Inn caters The genus megacorvidae refers to any number of types
to a discerning clientele – it is not unusual to see an aelfir of creatures, all of which display raven- or crow-like traits
entering the doors to partake of the tavern’s trademark roast but are a little larger than an adult drow. These great birds
goshawk and apricot, or for the Duke herself to pay a visit form the majority of the exterior transport system of Spire,
to meet with the Weasels. carrying goods, supplies and occasionally people up and
Those wanting to gain access without membership should down the outside of the city. They can’t fly upwards for very
come dressed appropriately, and with a coinpurse com- long with a load – they’re not especially strong – and so it’s
mensurate to the extortionate markup the Weasels place on significantly cheaper to go down or across than it is to go up.
everything they sell. At the door, they’ll be met by Lorens, a Breeding and husbandry of megacorvidae seems outside
haughty, if small, drow who is one of the most feared bounc- of the ken of aelfir, who animals tend to distrust (and few of
ers on the North Docks – where most doormen would pitch whom have the patience to bond with something that will
you into the waters of the river for misbehaving, Lorens will die within a decade). Drow, and in particular those with
reward even minor infractions of etiquette with the utter connections to House Aliquam, maintain the majority of
destruction of your reputation. the rookeries and endure their position close to the sun’s
light with traditional Crowsmen’s garb – multiple layers
of dark cloth, sometimes cut to look like feathers, and a
broad-rimmed pointed hat. Crowsmen are a dour and su-
perstitious lot, swearing fealty to a dark monarchy of corvid
fae-gods, and no-one outside the sect really likes spending
time with them.
Most megacorvids lack the intelligence of their smaller
brethren, losing something of the cunning through years of se-
lective breeding (and administration of sacred tonics), though
albino corvids of all types – both mega- and regular-sized – are
very clever, with some fine specimens able to hold a simple
conversation or play, but not win, games of cards.
Districts and Factions of Commerce103
104 Districts and Factions of Commerce

SKYWHALES
THE CORVID COURT, A FAE MONARCHY Roughly once a day or so, a skywhale will sail near the
The great and ancient monarchy known as the Corvid docks, and flocks of birds will fly up and collect goods from
Court lives in the branches of every tree and the echo them; the council have decreed that, following a disastrous
of every raven’s caw; they are brief, and fleeting, and accident where a flaming skywhale smashed into the city
cruel, and absolute. Creatures of staggering beauty twenty years ago, none of the beasts may approach within
and raw, unfettered hideousness, their forms shift a half mile of Spire.
and change like dappled sunlight, or the iridescence The skywhale is a strange beast indeed – a huge, bloated
of a bird’s wing. creature the size of a large house, with a small head perched
Queen Erebiah grants speed to those who push at the base of a swollen sac of stinking gas that keeps it float-
rose-thorns into their thumbs; Duke Vexantion collects ing high in the air. To feed, it has upwards of twenty long,
coins and shiny things, and will trade magical gewgaws trunk-like arms that caress the countryside beneath it as it
for particularly beautiful eyes; Prince Gallstack is a floats; these arms are stronger than they would appear, and
glutton, pure and simple, and will provide shelter in pluck great handfuls of leaves from trees (or the tree itself)
his otherworldly lands in exchange for a fat pig and upwards to the mouth, depositing it inside before returning
good conversation; Baroness Werrian-Sax has travelled gracefully to the ground. It mostly eats plant matter, but it
far beyond our world and the fae world that sits beside realises the nutritional value of meat and is not above devour-
it – to the gold and ivory Palace-realm of the Immortal ing a slumbering, injured or otherwise immobile creature.
Qu, the winding wet labyrinths of the World-Eater Skywhales are placid, docile creatures that prefer to avoid
Wyrm, the dimension where cats go when no-one’s conflict, and have very few natural predators – they can
watching – and she will speak of them, for a fee. simply hover upwards to avoid any land-based animals, and
But the Corvid Court punishes far more than only the largest of the megacorvids would stand a chance
it rewards, and the lives of their worshipers – the of injuring the creature’s thick, rubbery hide. Any creature
Crowsmen, who breed and tend to the giant corvids attempting to attack it risks reprisal from those whipping,
that sustain Spire – are riddled with strange actions dexterous limbs, and if it is too big to stuff into their mouth,
and beliefs that they swear will lend them a long life the skywhale will smash the offending creature into the
and help avoid disaster. A Crowsman will never say ground and float on its way.
“good-bye,” and get angry if they hear it, for to them For centuries, elves of all creeds (but especially the wind-
this is akin to a killing curse; some refuse to light a elves, who dwell in the clouds that cluster around mountains)
fire where no light already shines, for fear of angering have ridden the skywhales, using them for trade and, on oc-
the darkness; some believe that it is bad luck to start casion, warfare – although they are very slow, and prone to
or finish a bottle of spirits; and all of them let the first ignoring orders, so military applications are limited. The aelfir,
match in a pack burn all the way down to their fingers, unable to learn the knack of persuading the whales where to
giving the fey prince Little Lord Maryn his due so the go, have equipped them with sails made of stitched-together
rest of the pack will be blessed, and each match will leaves and walrus-skin, but steering one is not as simple a
keep its flame, even in the wind. procedure as guiding a ship through the ocean.
The skywhales sing when they are happy, or sad – they
expel thick, moist gas from their sac through a series of
fluted apertures along the lengths of their great bodies, and
emit a repetitive, keening song in time with their great, slow
heartbeats. The deranged Composer-General Hair-Smoul-
dering-On-Pyre’s masterpiece, viewed as one of the highest
works of aelfir art, requires a skywhale to sing the lead role.
It has never been successfully performed.
Districts and Factions of Commerce105

AIRLARKS THE INSTRUMENTALISTS

Nets hang under the exterior of the dock in an attempt Some fringe scientists believe that Spire is a great part-fin-
to catch people or things that fall through, but they are of ished musical instrument, played by the winds themselves,
cheap make and in disrepair, and it would be a fool indeed and that its songs lend great insight to the ways of the world,
who trusted their life to the Sky Dock nets. dimensions other than their own, and the secret paths of the
Nestled in the nooks and crannies of the net flit airlarks – future. These groups – of which there are seventeen different
people, mostly drow and the occasional young human, who factions, all embroiled in a nightmare web of betrayals and
command small armies of birds from the backs of strong, counter-alliances – are known collectively as Instrumentalists.
if simple, racing megacorvids. (Every airlark has dreams of Some, the Chords, prefer to spend their time listening
becoming a megacorvid racer, but none have the resources to the sound the wind makes as it passes over the build-
to make it big on the circuit.) These avian gangs flit back ing, extrapolating omens from the whistling breeze; others,
and forth beneath the net, plucking things that fall from the Post-Zephyrites, craft sculptures that hum and chime
mid-air or quickly tugging them to safety if they get caught throughout the night; others still, the Children of Spire, seek
in the nets. out old schematics and artwork of the city and try to restore
There’s not a great deal of profit in it, but a common it to how it was “originally,” and kill anyone who disagrees
airlark scam is to get an accomplice to shove someone off the with them by hanging them off the side of the docks to die
edge of the docks and then “rescue” them, taking whatever from exposure, starvation and the attentions of megacorvids.
reward the doubtlessly gracious unfortunate has to give Whether or not Spire is an instrument at all is a matter of
(and if they don’t offer a reward, most 'larks will toss them some debate, but these cults seem able to predict the future
tumbling down the city as a warning to others). A “'lark’s by listening to the whistling wind, or to “sing” to the city
favour” is a common term in and around the docks for a using eerie arcanomechanical voice modulators that unlock
gift or service performed on your behalf that ends up doing doors, reposition tunnels, and heal structural damage – so
you more harm than good. they might be on to something.

BALLISTAE
Remnants of a sky-war that never happened, the ballistae that
dot the outer rim of the sky docks are badly-maintained and
poorly-guarded. Few of the guards that patrol here would
even know where the ballista ammunition is kept (almost
all of it has been sold off for its metal tips) and almost none
of them are trained in the operation of such deadly siege
weaponry.
Still, they remain, mainly to dissuade any pirate-steered
skywhales from robbing the docks; while ancient and rusty,
even a glancing blow from one could rupture a skywhale’s
skin and send the whole thing, crew and all, crashing to the
ground far below.
They are backed up by a wide array of cannon with grape-
shot canisters ready to load, which are more commonly used
against rogue bands of megacorvid riders. One member of
each guard squad is entrusted with the maintenance and
operation of a shotgun so they can unleash a storm of pellets
into the air and down any lightly-armoured invaders.
106 Districts and Factions of Commerce
Districts and Factions of Commerce107

THE BLUE PORT

A sea of flashing blue cloth awaits the traveller on foot, or
beast of burden, who arrives in Spire. In the south port, also
known as The Blue Port, the merchants and traders dress in
blue scarves and robes, and dye their stall awnings the colour
of the midsummer sky. Even drow, who normally eschew
bright colours, are wrapped head-to-toe in different shades
of blue – from aquamarine to teal to sapphire to navy. It’s
seen as a mark of pride to have the brightest, or the most
unique, shade, and even the lowliest beggar will carry a scrap
of indigo rag for luck.

THE CUSTOMS HOUSE

The Blue Port has the tightest restrictions on entry anywhere
in Spire, as the council attempts to stem (or at least control)
the flow of illegal goods into the city. After passing a cursory
check at the main gate (which has not been closed since the
aelfir ordered it thrown open at the end of the war against
the drow), travellers with saleable amounts of produce are
directed through one of six paths that lead into the city itself.
At the gateway to these paths, customs officers examine
their wares and, depending on where they’re going, what
they’re selling, and how greedy or vindictive the customs
officer is feeling that day, they’ll be charged a handful of
sten or a portion of their goods in exchange for the right to
sell them in the city.
The gates that lead into the city are, from west to east:
Leadbetter, Hexaton, Jennisgate, Gryphon, Moongate and
Candlegate.
The customs house is, as one would imagine, staggeringly
corrupt. The current overseer, an ex-career city guard drow
who received the post as a promotion in exchange for destroy-
ing evidence on a number of high-profile murder cases, has
sworn to wring everything she can out of the post and retire fat
and happy.

THE LOW WALL BOARDING HOUSE

THE BAZAAR Built into the structure of the city wall itself, The Low Wall is
Outside the structure of the Spire itself but within the pro- multi-storey inn and cafe that welcomes all kinds of traveller.
tective walls of the city, traders ply their wares in a huge, Here, drow sit in shaded gardens and sip strong Nujabian
maze-like market called the Bazaar, or the Blue Bazaar. Folk kafee with human traders from far beyond the coast, and
from all over the known world come to buy and sell goods, swap stories and news from the outside world.
and most anything can be found here – in the open if it’s The lower five floors house a variety of rooms, storage
legal, and hidden deep in the warren of stalls if not. facilities and dormitories of varying price and quality, and
It’s said that it’s possible to walk from one side of the the upper levels – to which travellers cannot get access with-
bazaar to the other without ever seeing the sky, if you know out express permission of Devin, the ancient and cunning
which routes to take. Guides – ranging from professional or- drow that runs the place – are some of the most stable and
ganisations like the Guild of Middlemen and the Compasses, reliable smuggling routes into Spire, burrowing through the
to scrappy collections of have-a-go urchins – make a living main structure with tiny, torchlit passages that terminate in
from guiding people where they need to go and staying up a variety of low- and mid-Spire alleys and basements. Odds
to date on the latest information: who’s selling what, who’s are that if you see an inn within the walls of Spire called The
buying what, how to cut through dangerous parts of the Low Wall, or something similar, it’s part of the huge network
market, or how to lead people down the right alleys that’ll of tunnels that makes up what is (on paper) the largest bar
get them rolled for their coin-purses in exchange for a cut. for miles around.
108 Districts and Factions of Commerce

MERCENARY HOUSES THE AELFIR DISTRICT

Given the lawlessness of the lands around Spire, and the Walled off from the rest of the district, the aelfir district
lingering gangs of demobbed soldiers and bandits that prey (known as Uptown or Elftown to the traders in the bazaar)
on travellers outside of the city walls, it’s considered a wise is a quiet, dead place compared to the mad bustle of the
idea to hire a mercenary fighter or five to accompany a markets. When wealthy aelfir descend from their homes atop
caravan on long journeys. The council keeps a number of Spire to travel by land, they do so via this heavily-guarded
accounts active with the understanding that mercenaries district. Golden railings stud the grey-white streets, and
on retainer will patrol the Blue Port and keep trouble to a pavements are often covered with red or purple carpets
minimum while working in conjunction with the customs for the elves to walk on barefoot after they descend from
house to limit smuggling and illegal immigration. the Spiretop in a palanquin borne by a flock of muzzled
As such, policing in the Bazaar largely depends which megacorvids. Trees – strange and bound things that are
mercenary house is active at the time, and how well they’ve wire-wrapped from birth to grow in unnatural patterns – line
been paid. Surrounding the verdigris- and moss-covered the centre of the avenues, and masked staff members can
fountain of St Beneferas, the Guild of Free Swords keep occasionally be seen scurrying down sidestreets and back
the peace – and given their pride in their work, they keep alleys to serve their masters.
it efficiently and with an iron fist. Near Candlegate, a loose As the district is considered home to the aelfir, mask-wear-
collection of drow ex-special forces known as Greywall are ing is enforced, and to be seen with your face uncovered
in charge of enforcing customs regulations, and are famously is disgusting – tantamount to defecating on the floor of a
bribable and notoriously cruel. human’s house. Those who have business here, such as de-
The Blues, the Reformed Jaegers, the Storm Horses, livering expensive imported food to one of the sumptuous
the Gravediggers, the Ravens; each of these notable houses round-houses or carrying screeds of love poetry from one
maintains a presence in or around the Blue Bazaar in some besotted aelfir to another, must wear a mask displaying their
of the only bricks-and-mortar buildings that can be found allegiance and purpose, and navigate multiple patrols of
there. Anyone in need of some short-term friends with a black-helmed guards carrying tall, deadly elven greatbows.
penchant for efficient violence should look no further. Whenever a noble descends from the Spiretop, the people
of the marketplace gather to watch them in their finery and
coo at their legions of retainers. The aelfir, eager to be seen,
MERCENARIES have made sure that their approach into the port is viewable
Names: Steryn, Bastillo, Xenomos from a variety of locations – all guarded, of course.
Descriptors: A face covered in scars and bristly dark hair, Although lacking many of the comforts of up-Spire, much
Recently-bandaged wounds, Covered in of the aelfir district is similar to their home district of Am-
gaudy jewellery aranth on p. 115.
Difficulty: 0 on patrol, 1 if they’re riled up and out for
blood
Resistance: 6 THE AZURITES
Equipment: Half-decent chainmail and leather (Armour The Azurites have devoted their lives to buying and selling.
3), jackdaw pistols (D6, Piercing, Ranged, Clad in their trademark blue robes (and adorned with blue
Reload) and well-maintained swords (D6) scarves, hats, buckles, flowers and jewelry) they make a habit
of buying low and selling high, maintaining an awareness
of the markets, and knowing precisely who to sell what to.
Given their exposure to a wide variety of other cultures, they
all possess a brief understanding of many local languages
and dialects – and often have no problem picking up new
information or adapting what they know to fit.
As such, Azurites are in high demand from the Ministry,
who are always in need of agents who can cut a deal in any
language, persuade assets to perform unsavoury actions, and
lie through their teeth to get what they want.
 DISTRICTS AND FACTIONS
OF CRIME
RED ROW MOTHER MOON’S HAREM MEMBER
A bustling, smoky, fire-lit knot of activity, Red Row attracts Names: Dancing-Gil, Happy Lorenzo, Altruim
the best and worst the undercity has to offer. Demon- Descriptors: With a coil of razorwire wrapped around
summoning gnolls rub shoulders with powder-cheeked a gauntlet, Dressed in fine silks, Bearing a
drow nobles, filthy gutterkin wait tables, and retroengineers sutured-on mask
ply their dangerous wares on every street corner. Law and Difficulty: 2 if they’ve got the crowd on their side, oth-
order are strange, half-remembered concepts to many of the erwise 0
inhabitants, and while the Guard maintain a token presence Resistance: 7, and each time they take down an opponent,
down here, much of the day-to-day enforcement is carried refresh D3
out by gangs of armed humans and drow working for one Equipment: Beautiful, flashy weapons on chains or
of the three bosses who run the joint. ribbons (D6, Surprising), low-cut trousers,
Those bosses are Mother Moon, The Sisters, and Mr glitter
Winter, and sooner or later everyone in Red Row works
for them (whether they know it or not). Those under the
impression that they can operate independently are quickly
brought into their ranks or destroyed – headquarters burnt PEOPLE IN ARENA
to the ground, employees dragged into the fighting pits, Here are some of the people you might find in Arena
children nailed to doors, and so on. on any given night:
Still: it’s a hell of a night out, if you’re tough enough to • Miasmari, a drow gladiatrix jacked up on illegal sliver
survive it. biotechnology, impossibly strong, losing it, needs help.
• Proud-Shimmering-Beast-of-the-Dawn, an aelfir
ARENA pretty-boy brawler who is irritatingly good at
Built in a giant step-well, Arena is the undercity’s most fighting and managing several drug habits.
popular entertainment destination and murder-pit. Great • Masque, a cloaked and masked fighter wrapped up
smoking braziers that never go out – jealously tended by two in mystery who is in fact several people all wearing
rival gangs of rafter-dwelling gutterkin – light the vast space, the same costume at different times.
and the refugee gnolls who run the show put on nightly • Mataj Wall-the-Ice, a smiling aelfir tourist on a
brawls for a baying crowd of hundreds, if not thousands, of walking holiday of lower Spire who is all too happy
attendees. Public fights are usually fought to first blood or to part with his vast sums of money in exchange
first kill, with gladiators commonly betting on themselves in for a taste of under-spire excitement, and will try
a Kill match to get out of some horrendous debt. to lose his heavily-armoured escort at the earliest
While most of the gnolls hiding out in Spire resent the opportunity in search of fun. He is currently being
propaganda spread around by the high elves, the gnolls who taken for a ride by upwards of five interested parties,
oversee Arena through a web of human and drow enforcers all of whom are stopping people from killing and/
prefer to skew as closely to the rumours as possible: it’s better or robbing their cash cow.
for business. Their leader, a towering, demon-scarred elder
known as Mother Moon, is a learned sorcerer and academic,
but she carries herself with the air of an alpha predator and
makes sure none of her underlings are aware of her secret
libraries of aelfir poetry.
110 Districts and Factions of Crime

VORLOREN STANDARD GUTTERKIN

The last outpost of up-Spire control in the undercity and the Names: Pieces, Rock, Junker
furthest reach of the law, this ramshackle fortress – standing Descriptors: A mangy-looking dogboy, A kobold with one
alone, distant from the bustle of Red Row – is a popular arm, A blind and scarred aelfir
destination for officers who get ideas above their station, Difficulty: 0
upset the wrong people, or who simply can’t buckle down Resistance: 3
and get the job done. Equipment: Rusty knives, stolen hammers, rubble in socks
Manned by a skeleton staff of no more than twenty guards (D3, Unreliable)
at any one time, Vorloren Standard (so called because it is
built within the old premises of Vorloren Standard Warehous-
es and Shipping, and no-one has repainted the sign) is home L’ENFER NOIR
to drunks, losers, mad-eyed vigilantes and the occasional Catering to a more discerning crowd than the bloody dirt
naive sergeant with delusions of a safe undercity. of Arena, L’Enfer Noir is a multi-level den of extravagant
At present, the guards are at an uneasy peace with the sin and iniquity the likes of which would make the average
crime lords that run Red Row, and are little more than Spire citizen spit out their drink, and the average aelfir sit
another set of armed enforcers for their operations. They up and take notice.
crack down on minor infractions, clean up the less efficient The club is operated by The Gentlemen, who are from
gangsters, and try to stop the district from falling into ab- Elsewhere and speak in tight, precise voices with ticks and
solute chaos by breaking up fights and keeping the number whirrs like music boxes – and staffed by a cadre of sur-
of retroengineered guns on the streets to an acceptable min- gically beautified and homogenised androgyne staff. The
imum. At present, an all-out war between the overworked building encompasses multiple bars, a variety of bordellos
law-keepers of Vorloren Standard and Brother Hellion’s (offering everything from vanilla escapades for the average
zealous armed congregation is all but inevitable. attendee right down to the strangest delights available in the
trade – dancing toadgirls with questing tongues; bestial gnoll
doxies and stenboys with glistening fur reeking of pungent
VORLOREN STANDARD GUARD pheromones and sweat; a young man whose eyes shine with
Names: Lucas Stissy, Harry Lefren, Michelle Debwah the flames of angels at the moment of climax – and more
Descriptors: Visibly shaking, Up-gunned and wild-eyed, besides), several dancefloors with live music and not one but
Smiling creepily two grand stages, often running directly competing shows
Difficulty: 0, 1 if you take them on in their HQ with a lavish reward for the highest number of attendees.
Resistance: 5
Equipment: Vorloren Standard Armour (3), Not-tech-
nically-legal sword (D6), Red Row revolver L’ENFER NOIR STAFF MEMBER
(D6, Ranged, Dangerous) Names: Persistence, Temperance, Charity
Descriptors: Eerily identical androgyne beauty marked
out only by glyph tattoos behind their ears
THE GUTTERKIN Difficulty: 0
“Gutterkin” is a term for any small, greasy genetic throwback Resistance: 6
that makes its way to Spire, and the race – if such a term is ap- Equipment: Elegant, fashionable clothes, subdermal ar-
propriate – is only tolerated in the undercity. Needle-toothed mour (factored into resistance), retractable
rat-boys, patchy-feathered gullmen, stinking trash elementals, bonespur fingertips (D3, D6 when they’re at
filthy goblins, slimy gremlins, psoriasis-pocked toadgirls, resistance 3 or lower)
drow abortlings – they gather and fester in gaps between
the walls and under floors, stealing small items and ganging
up on lone, weak targets for food and money. THREADNEEDLE SQUARE
Official city stance on gutterkin – or Aberrants, as they’re At the north end of Threadneedle Square, past the rows and
known in official documentation – is to exterminate them on rows of desperate burnouts hustling travellers for change, past
sight. In practice, it’s rarely worth the bother, and gutterkin the cramped and noxious workshops, past the watchful guard
are a common sight among the poorest inhabitants of Spire. of mask-clad enforcers, atop the dilapidated warehouse that
creaks and crumbles, The Sisters rule. They enjoy the finer
things in life – silks, chocolate from the East, fine fruits, wine
and brandy, cigarillos from Far Nujab, pleasure-boys from
the Home Nations, draughts of corpse apple liqueur – and
they will have them by any means necessary. Their quarters
Districts and Factions of Crime111

drip with imported, slightly off-colour luxury – the tapestries FOLLOWERS OF THE GUN
faded and patched, the wine bitter, the tobacco dry and harsh. Names: Brother Cordite, Sister Pin, Initiate Chambers
The Sisters are, from youngest to oldest: the gangly and Descriptors: Has mad sunken eyes, Whispers to their re-
sleepless genius chemical engineer Harriet, jacked up on her volver between shots, Replaced teeth with
own supply; the grim accountant Victoria, who manages the shell-casings
day-to-day running of the business; and the glamorous Eliz- Difficulty: Most of these cultists are in need of a good
abeth, currently on her eighth husband, looking to found an night’s sleep and a hot meal. 0
empire and stop her legion of children from killing each other. Resistance: 4, 6 if you threaten Brother Hellion
They don’t deal the drugs themselves – except when it Equipment: Beautifully maintained pistol or rifle, (D8,
comes to especially large up-Spire shipments, which are Ranged) but (D6, Ranged, Reload) or (D6,
conducted over tea and barbiturates in their rooftop “gar- Ranged, Unreliable) in anyone else’s hands.
den,” a gaudily decorated ballroom-slash-meeting hall – and Gun will have a name
leave the majority of the work to legions of well-paid dealers,
leg-breakers and middlemen.
KOWZ-UDDER
Long ago, the Red Row Vermissian station known as Shud-
BROTHER HELLION’S CHURCH OF THE GUN der collapsed in on itself – it was badly constructed from
From a flyer, distributed widely to those who walk through inferior materials, as was most of the cursed network – and
Red Row: the building was abandoned to the lawless throng of settlers
“Come one, come all, to Brother Hellion’s Church of the Gun that populated the undercity. The sign outside, damaged in
on Kiln Street! Bathe in the glittering majesty of humanity’s the collapse, lost the first two letters. Then: Kowz arrived.
greatest gift from the gods – the firearm! Kowz is a hulking, broad-shouldered aelfir who proudly
“Captured fire, awaiting ignition in gunpowder! The holy refuses to get involved in politics, high society or wearing
rotation of chamber and barrel! The blessed incense of gunsmoke! much in the way of clothes – he follows the traditional ways
A bold and righteous power in the palm of one’s hand, greater of an ancient aelfir sect who find the constant soirees and
than could one ever imagine! Mighty lines of cannon, roaring backstabbing of their moneyed cousins in Spire tiresome
their defiance at the world, stamping man’s dominion over the and distracting.
unholy beasts of creation! Theirs is a brutal, semi-druidic life of enforced exposure,
“Each year, the sacred work of the retroengineers in Gywnn- survival of the fittest and frequent trials of strength and will
Enforr university uncovers more and more secrets hidden within – as such, he fits in well in the dangerous confines of Red
the workings of these perfect, ancient machines. Come worship, Row. Exiled from his house in the upper Spire due to his
believer, and have your sacred tools blessed by Brother Hellion – beliefs, he spent the majority of his fortune to purchase the
Brother Hellion who saw the face of Eternity in a shell-casing, rights to the property from Mother Moon a decade ago, and
Brother Hellion who heard the secret and percussive tongue of has established a base of operations for his sect. Where the
the gods in the crack-bang of flintlocks, Brother Hellion whose ancient tribes of his people would brave the desolate frozen
very breath is gunsmoke and whose tongue is barrel-hot with the wildernesses of the Northlands, he tackles the mind-warping
fires of creation!” horrors of the Vermissian.
The bar he fashioned on top of the Vermissian rent is more
It remains unclear whether Brother Hellion is a genuine of a means of funding these expeditions than anything else –
worshiper of a yet-undefined deity or an elaborate con-artist he wants for little, rarely eats, and spends much of his time in
with something up his sleeve, but he is amassing a congre- quiet contemplation of the nightmares he has seen and those
gation of the angry and powerless, given means to change he has yet to face. Drinks are cheap, accommodation is spare
the world through guns. He can frequently be seen walking but clean (for Red Row) and the energies of the Vermissian
the length of Kiln Street wreathed in spireblack smoke, bleed up and into the structure itself, leading to a regular
carrying his two sacred revolvers and flanked by a trio of audience of occultist wannabes and sages on their day off.
shotgun-toting daughters in heavy armour, preaching his He offers sanctuary to those who wish to lead a similar
gospel to a crowd of rag-tag gun owners and handing out life and cut away the luxuries of civilisation with exposure to
food, and bullets, to the poor. No-one’s tried to step in on impossible odds, and as such accepts a wide variety of staff –
his turf yet, but heaven help them when they do. exiled aelfir like himself, refugee gnolls from the mountains
For more information on advances granted by joining to the South, and drow who have lost everything and wish
the gunpowder congregation, see p. 87. to see how far they can push themselves.
To date, no-one has mentioned to Kowz what an udder
actually is, in case he gets upset.
112

DRUGS IN SPIRE
Drugs remain a perennially popular leisure activity, especially Mushrooms: The drow grow a wide variety of fungi in the
in the lightless, hopeless depths of a city such as Spire. Here is Garden district, and some of them are hallucinogenic. Noth-
a selection of drugs (both naturally-occurring and manmade) ing as potent or reliable as the manufactured drugs coming
that characters could find on a street corner, organised in out of Threadneedle Square, of course, but a wide variety
order of most to least common. Real-world drugs such as of mystic cults rely on strange-tasting tea brewed out of
coffee, tea, alcohol and tobacco are fairly common, if not psychoactive mushrooms to spice up their gatherings.
especially affordable for most of the populace.
Many rare or expensive drugs are illegal, and guards will
generally confiscate them and imprison the bearer. Most Dagger: A lucky-dip of drugs, veering towards grimy stim-
controversially, the council agreed to outlaw the manufacture ulants, sold throughout Red Row. A pouch of dagger –
and distribution of malak seventeen years ago – although it’s sold as a brownish, crystalline dust – could contain
it is relatively harmless, its prevalence amongst drow gave upwards of forty individual chemicals, depending on
them an excuse to arrest or bind into service almost any how many hands it has passed through before it ends up
drow who’d reached adolescence. travelling up someone’s nose. Users commonly get into
a lot of fights, and have a hugely over-inflated belief in
their own combat abilities when they do.
Devilsroot, or Root: A naturally-growing tuber that can
be chewed to release a stimulant, but has a bitter taste so
is more commonly brewed as a tea and sweetened with Godsmoke: Fungus that grows around churches and holy
sugar. Chewing root stains the teeth and is viewed as sites is harvested and dried to make this reeking dust that
unfashionable by many younger drow. is smoked rolled into cigarettes or packed into the bowl of
a pipe. It offers euphoric and pain-dulling effects, making
it popular with workers in the Gardens and the Works due
Chum: A black-red glistening liquid made from fish eggs and to the number of injuries sustained as part of their jobs.
guts using old drow techniques that has a similar effect
to strong alcohol. It smells even worse than you imagine,
and provides a dirty, messy high that’s all-too-common Malak: Mild depressant produced from blending two dif-
on the streets of Derelictus that border on the Heart. ferent kinds of algae; rendered down into a tincture and
applied to the tongue or dropped into a drink. Most
drow in the Home Nations take malak every day, but the
Maiden’s Prayer: Abortifacient made from bundles of criminality of the substance under aelfir rule has pushed
leaves that are steeped in water which is boiled and re- manufacture and distribution underground. Because it’s
boiled to increase the intensity of the mixture. Given that relatively easy to make, it remains pretty cheap.
drow don’t carry their young until birth, maiden’s prayer
is almost exclusively purchased by humans.
Glimmer: Prismatic crystals which grow in the recesses
of shrines to Demos, a goddess from a distant kingdom
that was buried beneath desert sands long ago. Instils a
blistering euphoria in users and an urge to dance and
sing, which explains the colourful displays in the streets
around the temples of Demos in Pilgrim’s Walk.
113

Carotid: Hallucinogen that grows in the manner of spire- Sulphur: Pitch-black runoff from demonic incursions, ren-
black in deep, dark parts of the city. Users report being dered down into crystals that are smoked in glass pipes.
able to see which parts of the city are “alive” – breath- Produces a monumental rush and skews the morality
ing, shivering rockskin and metalbones that make up the of the user, so that performing unpleasant or cruel acts
internal structure of the city. Not in high demand, but feels better and better the more you take. Usually tre-
a few artists took it a decade ago and painted elaborate mendously expensive, the appearance of cheap sulphur is
reproductions of what they saw, pushing it to brief pop- a sign of in-Spire demon-summoning – which is terrible
ularity. Some scholars believe it is not a hallucinogen at news for everyone.
all, and instead syncs the soul of the user with that of the
city so it can be seen as it truly is.
Ivory: Potent hypnotic harvested from the venomous tusks
of vicious narwhal-like amphibians that live far to the
Corpsefruit: A drow delicacy that grows only in the tainted, north. Very pleasant high, and appropriately expensive.
blackened soils of the Home Nations, sold in Hemlock Mister Alas, drow crime lord and owner of one-third of
Fruit Market in Derelictus. Brings hypnotic visions of (appropriately) the Ivory Quarter, makes a habit of never
the dead when eaten. taking anything else if he can help it.

Ambrosia: A manmade chemical from the laboratories of The Dose: Retroengineered from schematics unearthed
Threadneedle; intense, overwhelming hallucinogen that from the blighted Archology of Saltash, only a thousand
offers revelations and epiphanies to the user. In heavy or so of these crystalline pills exist within Spire. Human
demand from both high-ranking members of the Solar Ca- scientists believe that forerunners who came before the
thedral and any number of unhinged down-Spire zealots. young races of the world perfected the medication to re-
move the need for sleep – one pill would rearrange their
brains into a different configuration where it was simply
Blues: Small pills which make the user feel impossibly sad. no longer required. The human version available today
Primarily an aelfir drug, as many of them are unable to works, but only for a week or so, at which point the effect
naturally feel sad, and they would like to experience it of the lost sleep starts to catch up with the user – unless
out of curiosity. “Mourning” parties are fairly common they take another pill. Every serious user of the drug
among young high elves, with participants dressing up in Spire – there are around five or six – would die from
in black lace, spending inordinate amounts of money on withdrawal symptoms if they missed a dose.
elaborate death masks, and crying together in a dimly-lit
room while sombre music plays.
114 Districts and Factions of Crime
Districts and Factions of High Society115

DISTRICTS AND FACTIONS

OF HIGH SOCIETY

AMARANTH,
FROZEN HOME OF THE HIGH ELVES
Amaranth is home to the aelfir, and it is as strange and drow – is one of the most intimate a high elf can perform,
beautiful as they. Great palaces of cold stone reach from the and indeed many married couples will go their entire lives
polished marble floor to the glittering, star-studded roof; without seeing one another’s faces. It is not required as part
lush vermillion carpets line the streets, and soft magelight of the traditional notions of marriage, and many older aelfir
auroras flicker through the air to provide illumination as snow view it as frivolous and immoral.
falls from above; servants and messenger-birds flit back and An addition to a wide variety of occasion-specific masks
forth through shadowed back alleys, flashing identification – dinner-masks, drinking-masks, wedding-masks, poet-
emblazoned on their bodies to gain access through ranks of ry-masks, hunting-masks, sorrow-masks, love-masks, masks
black-armoured guards. Aelfir while away the hours creating to wear whilst looking into a mirror, masks to wear whilst
art, perfecting their work of gold- and silver-smithing, and sorting through other masks – each aelfir possesses a “true”
learning the secrets of the world from dusty tomes. mask, which is custom-made to their specifications when
The high elves, creatures of cold lands far to the north, they come of age. No matter what mask they’re wearing,
utilise miracles on an industrial scale to keep the entire dis- they will display their true mask somewhere on their body
trict chilled a handful of degrees above freezing. While they – on a hip or a shoulder, most commonly – to ensure that
do not feel the cold and make a habit of wearing as little as everyone knows who they are. Subsidiary masks (such as
possible, drow and human staff who spend any length of time those for feelings or events) are themselves beautiful works
in the district quickly adopt a variety of heavy robes, scarves of art, and wealthy or fashionable high elves will take great
and gloves to retain body heat as best they can. pains to never be seen in the same mask twice.
Servants must wear masks too, of course, but it is rare
that they are permitted to own a true mask unless they
MASKS prove themselves to be of singular worth – instead, they
Everyone in Amaranth wears a mask. To be seen in public bear masks with the sigil or name of their employers etched
with one’s face uncovered is unthinkable – all elves, and on it, along with a symbol that indicates their role in the
aelfir in particular, have a keen (some might say too keen) household or organisation.
sense of etiquette and to be so brazen as to show your face There is perhaps no end to the social requirements placed
to others, your emotions writ large across your face for all upon aelfir when it comes to mask-wearing, and there is no
to see, is despicably rude. The act of removing your mask in central guide to refer to – to write down systems of etiquette
front of another aelfir in private – not a servant, mind, or a is fine, although to do so without obscuring them in at least
116 Districts and Factions of High Society

three levels of allegory is seen as rather gauche, but to purchase THE SPIRAL GARDENS
and read such a book would be social suicide as an aelfir can High elves do not understand natural beauty. They can ap-
never be seen not to know precisely what they are doing at all preciate a sunset, for example, or the body of a lover, or the
times. Whether it is socially required to wear, say, a different colours of a flower’s petals, but they are creatures of artifice
mask for each course of a seven-course meal, or whether to do and design. They feel that everything can be improved by an
such a thing is the height of impropriety, is a matter of much elf ’s hand: that sunset should be viewed through stained-
whispered discussion at the meal itself. Most aelfir, quite unable glass windows; the lover’s body can be decorated with fine
to keep up with the constantly-shifting web of transgression and inks and jewelry; the petals would look better plucked off
celebration, simply do whatever they want as hard as they can the flower and frozen in ice.
and hope that their natural panache will carry them through. (The aelfir’s obsession with art, and belief their their art is
superior to that created by the gods themselves, has lead to a
cultural abandonment of landscape paintings. Almost every
painting made by the hand of an aelfir is a self-portrait in
WEARING ANOTHER AELFIR’S MASK some way, or includes the image of at least one other aelfir.
For all their cruelty and capriciousness, aelfir tend not To do otherwise would be a waste of paint.)
to wear one another’s masks as part of a deception: So aelfir gardens do not resemble gardens as most in-
to do so is a taboo of the highest order. This taboo habitants of Spire would think of them; they are sterile,
has no hold over drow or humans, though, so if they nearly-dead places, their plants twisted and bound to grow
are tall and slender enough to pass as a high elf, into strange patterns. There is nowhere to sit or spend time,
they’ll take any opportunity to do so if it’ll earn them for they are not social places for congregation – they are
something in the bargain (between seven and ten of more akin to living galleries of tremendously expensive art.
the hundred richest aelfir in Amaranth are, in fact, Should the plants that a noble chooses to display in their
humans or dark elves who have purchased or stolen spiral garden not grow under the frigid conditions found in
a mask from a luckless high elf and are seeing how Amaranth, they will construct glass-houses and heat them
long they can keep up the ruse). through hidden fires to ensure that their flowers grow larger,
more vibrant, and more beautiful than those of their rivals.
It is not uncommon to see a gnoll or two tending to a
spiral garden – in spite of the ongoing war with their nation
THE BLACK GUARD to the south. Gnolls possess a staggering affinity for agri-
The keeping of law and order in Amaranth is handled by a culture and cultivation of unusual plants which has allowed
small cadre of elite guards recruited from other parts of the them to survive, and indeed prosper, in the harsh desert of
city, each clad in black armour and carrying either a halberd their home. The aelfir make exceptions to the laws against
or a sword and pistol. They are dangerous, well-trained and gnolls in the hive for those of special skill, and have gone to
surprisingly loyal – perhaps because their captain, Maji great lengths to ensure that they can snap up the services
Eboh, is a reanimated undying drow who’s held the post of a particularly adept gardener – including, but not limited
for seventy-five years, and folk say that the Council them- to: murder, industrial espionage, border skirmishes, running
selves hold the jar that contains the still-beating heart that’s for Council, and commissioning opera.
keeping her alive. If you have a gnoll (and all the best aelfir do) then it’s
seen as good form to have them grow a plant which boasts
an astonishing poison – the necrotising widowept, heliswort
BLACK GUARD that brings swift oblivion, or maybe the writhing torment
Names: Hurrell, Wexen, Sarhan contained within the spiked leaves of the ennisroot – and
Descriptors: Has a full-face mask, Carries a custom-made cultivate the toxin to unnatural levels, perhaps grafting spe-
shotgun, Uses hand-signals cialised moonsilver spurs to the thorns of the plant the way
Difficulty: The Black Guard are elite warriors; tackling a human cock-fighter might attach steel spikes to the claws
them head-on is a difficulty 2 action, but if of their champion.
you’re sneaky about it it’s difficulty 0 Then, once a day – or more, if they can afford it – the
Resistance: 6 aelfir has a suitably large animal brought into the garden
Equipment: Black Guard Armour (3), Halberd (D6, and introduced to the plant, at which point it dies and those
Brutal) and Jackdaw pistol (D6, Piercing, watching applaud appreciatively. While most view quickness
Reload). On occasion, one of the squad mem- of death as the ultimate expression of poison’s beauty, some
bers will carry a Carog-pattern shotgun (D6, avant-garde garden critics hold up pain, the more fierce and
Point-blank, Reload) if they’re expecting trou- long-lasting the better, as the true mark of merit.
ble
Districts and Factions of High Society117

THE CRYSTAL TEMPLE the front lines of the conflict in Far Nujab to broker a trade
Standing proud above the district is a forever-frozen spike deal with the shadowed Duchy of Aliquam, and the heat
of crystalline ice and glass, positioned to best catch the sun’s drove her entirely deranged. Her appetites grew stranger
rays during the daylight hours. From this crystal pillar, the and more twisted by the day, and even her wealth and the
captured sunlight is filtered down through a series of ingen- subservience of her staff could not contain her desires. She
ious lenses and mirrors of human make to distil and intensify was finally put down by an abused courtesan who dashed
it before it is stored in great steaming blocks of everfrost. her brains out with a poker when she let her guard down.
Everfrost, dug up from beneath the icy homeland of
the high elves and imported at tremendous cost, is ice that
cannot melt through normal means – it is said that only

IVORY ROW
the apocalypse could melt it – but it can be carved and
cut, and stored in special containers built of lead and gold.
Time flows slow and strange inside the substance, and so Once, perhaps a hundred years ago, Ivory Row was a bustling
the distilled sunlight dissipates out within each block like hive of society – the place to see and be seen. It was found-
ink dropped into water. ed upon the efforts of three long-dead drow ivory magnates,
It is from these batteries that the aelfir clerics of the sun funnelling twisted unicorn-horn and hard-won tygre-tusk to
church draw spiritual energy to power the miracles that keep desperate buyers in the home nations. Row upon row of houses,
Amaranth so cold, even in the hottest summer. each more expansive and beautiful than the last, stretched out
to the district walls, and the streets at night were filled with the
sound of soirees and parties running on until the early morning.
ICE CAVES But Ivory Row fell out of fashion, and with the arrival
As cold as Amaranth is – it rarely creeps more than a few of the aelfir the nobles of the city emigrated to the gaudy
degrees above freezing – the ice caves are colder still. Here, and exciting Silver Quarter and, if permitted, the high-elf
aelfir, bright and vibrant creatures all, go to stop. dominated Kingdom. Street by street the district fell into
In hand-wrought caves of all shapes and sizes – from rent- quiet and slow, gentle decay.
ed rooms no larger than a bathtub to grand, twinkling private Now, Ivory Row is a shadow of its former self – those same
caverns of ice and snow riddled with traps and entrances huge mansions exist, still, but are crumbling and abandoned,
that only the owner can contort themselves through – the all owned by a trio of decrepit and stubborn landlords each
aelfir disrobe and submerge their bodies in water, cracking unwilling to give the other an ounce of control. Those few
thin sheets of ice to do so, and may even remove their masks surviving who do live here, unable or unwilling to move out,
(for many aelfir, especially older ones, this is the one time are trapped in a forgotten era of faded glory.
they permit themselves this transgression).
Bathing in ice is seen as old-fashioned by many younger
or more cosmopolitan aelfir, and some of them make a point THE SUNLIGHT COLLECTIVE
of never doing it at all. Common wisdom is that ice-baths Ivory Row’s strangest feature is a set of twenty-six shifting
extend the already long lives of the high elves, slowing their windows, their mechanisms unknown, that make slow and
heartbeats to a glacial pace and letting their blood flow predictable arcs across the outer wall of Spire and cast great
slowly like the sap of the pine trees that line the mountains fingers of light down into the dusty streets below. Several cults,
of their home. mainly made up of human retroengineers, have devoted their
It is noted (mainly by their staff after a couple of drinks) lives to studying the slow pilgrimages of these windows, seeing
that aelfir who take regular ice-baths seem calmer and less if they can replicate the technology elsewhere and, if not, at
cruel than those that do not, and while empathy is not a trait least if any sort of greater meaning can be derived from these
aelfir can possess, they seem more capable of understanding strange miracles of forgotten science.
the emotions of others at a certain logical remove. Perhaps it On the rooftops below the windows, though, the Sunlight
is something to do with the weather – those aelfir outside of Collective follows the pattern of the light through the district.
Amaranth, who have taken apartments in the Silver Quarter A loose gang of bohemians, poets, artistes and occultists, the
or choose to slum it in Red Row, are notoriously prone to Collective believes that the sunlight – when filtered through
fits of fury and sharp changes of mood, and rumour has it the unique (and largely unbreakable, and possibly self-heal-
that any high elf who travels further south than Spire for ing) glass of the windows above grants them inspiration from
any length of time goes strange. the gods themselves.
Though it has been suppressed by the Council, it is well The membership of this group of vagabonds can be
known that the distinguished and erudite aelfir diplomat roughly split down the middle into monied poseurs attempt-
Yennet Who-Stands-On-Beams-Of-Sunlight was sent to ing to fritter away their parents’ fortunes on elaborate drugs
118 Districts and Factions of High Society

and outlandish rooftop parties, and impoverished artists, THE THREE

models and creatives desperate to latch onto the movement The Ivory Quarter is owned by three landlords, each un-
to survive. (Almost every drow amongst the collective is willing to cede an inch of territory, and would rather see
an Idol, so called because a human or aelfir lordling in the the district crumble into ruin than have it taken over by
group has decided that they are too beautiful to ignore and one of the others.
thus sponsors their presence.) The cruel Lady Theryn Thorns-on-Silk rules over the
Joining one of these nomadic groups is seen as something northern district, orchestrating functions and parties at-
of a rite of passage for artists, both up- and down-Spire, and tended by nobles and artists as decrepit as the mansions
anyone who’s anyone in the last seven years has, at one point that house them – many of them having undergone undying
or another, run with the collective. Disgraced Warrior-Poet surgery long ago. Filled with strange music from at least
Petals-Cut-By-Razor spent six tumultuous months under a hundred years in the past and reeking of incense, these
the patronage of Prince Zion before launching her most soirees can last days at a time, with guests leaving to eat
critically-acclaimed work to date – We, The Ten Thousand, and sleep and returning once rested, while traditional aelfir
Stand Waiting Eyes Wet Before The Sunrise (which is both entertainments – opera, torture, torture opera – entertain
a controversial work of polyamorous high elven love poetry those that remain. She is famed for her kindness upon dis-
and an invasion plan for the gnoll city of Al’Arjhama) and covering the Hidden in her domain, asking only that their
subsequently fleeing to the undercity following a fatal dispute faces are covered with sutured-on masks, and they are then
between her fifth and seventh wives. invited to serve in her household or face exile.
The wicked Mister Alas, his ebon face etched into a
permanent rictus grin with strange drow surgeries, never
THE HIDDEN sleeps. He has perfected the art of staying awake, and no
Given the vast sums of money involved in Ivory Row, the longer needs to rest – but, according to his many servants, he
guard maintain a heavy presence here to ensure that unde- spends hours of his time locked up in his extensive quarters,
sirables are kept out, and the Sunlight Collective doesn’t reading books in long-dead tongues aloud and cursing the
cause too many problems past the occasional late-night party gods for their crimes against him, real or imagined. Incred-
or minor larceny. Their main duty is to guard the borders ibly wise and unbelievably callous, Mister Alas is the power
of the district to ensure that impoverished vagrants from behind much of Red Row, having lent money to most of
Pilgrim’s Walk or the Gardens down-Spire don’t try to take the owners and landlords in the district at some point in
homes in the vast, empty mansions. the past. He is responsible for the destruction of the guard
But there are many entrances to the district, and not stations surrounding it, and it is his political sway that sees
enough guards to watch them all, and desperate people the rancid undercity grow year on year, rotting away Spire
manage to break through on occasion and hide away in the from the inside.
creaking darknesses inside the enormous, semi-abandoned Finally, the devout Archbishop Wynn oversees the re-
structures. These people (known collectively as the Hidden) mainder of the district. A devotion to the aelfir sun cult
exist as parasites to the houses, hiding away in disused serv- not often seen in humans coupled with a vast inheritance
ants’ quarters and making markets in attics, spending their following his father’s untimely death in the far-away island
lives in fear of discovery by an inquisitive guard or a keen- of Berith’s Walk many years ago led him to quickly buy out
eyed member of the private security firms that occasionally the crumbling homes as the Ivory District was falling out
hunt through the houses looking for layabouts. of fashion. He is now an old man indeed, who refuses to
The punishment for trespassing differs depending on the extend his life with undying surgery, and spends his time
owner of the house – most commonly, criminals are roughed touring the vast, empty mansions, carried in a litter by a
up and shoved out of the district, but in particularly severe throng of bodyguards, henchmen, advisors and priests. He
cases (one security sweep found a family three generations is planning something monumental, and each day teams of
old in the cellar of the Marble Sanctuary; another discovered builders and artisans are ushered into his territory, but so
that a long-shuttered art gallery was full of forgeries, the far the rumours of a megacathedral to Father Sunrise taking
originals sold off to up-Spire collectors) perpetrators may up the entirety of his land are just rumours.
be indentured to the landlord for an unspecified length of
time or hanged by the neck until dead from the withered
branches of the trees in the central square of the district.
Districts and Factions of High Society119

THE SILVER QUARTER CLUBS

People come to the Silver Quarter to see, and to be seen. The Silver Quarter pays host to a hundred or more clubs
A glittering web of interconnected streets and buildings, devoted to giving people with too much time and money on
perpetually illuminated by ancient magelights covered in their hands something to do, ranging from inoffensive bars
coloured filters, the Silver Quarter is the destination for the on the edge of the district that charge a nominal “member-
rich and famous within Spire, and from beyond, to spend ship” fee for entry and require that diners wear a jacket, to
their hard-earned or easily-inherited cash on parties, luxury multi-layered, heavily-guarded and hugely-exclusive clubs
goods, expensive apartments and unique pleasures. deep within it.
Water is pumped up from the rivers of the north docks, The Order of St Perdita runs absurdly-lavish charity
purified, and spread throughout the district via a network balls and galas to direct money down-spire – and while the
of canals that are patrolled and fought over by several rival majority of the funds are in fact tied up in a complicated
gangs of boatmen. The boatmen do their best to keep their system of money laundering, some of it does indeed end
brawls and skiff-bys out of the public eye, for fear of upset- up in the hands of the needy, paying for poorhouses in the
ting paying customers. shadows of Derelictus, clothing the huddled masses of the
industrial districts, and to buy the forsaken guards in Verloren
some fresh boots and ammunition as they attempt to keep
THE HOUSE the peace in lawless Red Row. One of the most active mem-
Mesyé Só, a small-statured and intense drow, runs the House, bers, a moneyed drow known as Teja, takes great pleasure
and the House runs Silver Quarter. A collection of shell in rubbing shoulders with the the poor – unshaven guard
companies, gambling dens, bankrollers and landlords, the officers, swashbuckling Knights of the North Docks, wide-
House is part secret society and part organised crime syn- eyed Lajhan priests – and has been implicated in several
dicate, with Só firmly installed at the head after a series of badly covered-up romances with them, to boot. Many a ball
brutal takeovers in his youth. has been held in the honour of these fine gentlemen, and
Mesyé Só is rich enough to not have to mess people Teja has taken to the order with excitement and enthusiasm.
around, and as such his payments are generous and his The Boating Club, so called because it overlooks the
reprisals for betrayal are utterly, horrendously swift. He circular, ever-flowing Eternal Canal in a glass-bottomed
makes an especial habit of paying handsomely for danger- bridgehouse and not because they do much in the way of
ous, risky or stupid work to be carried out by contractors, boating, is where the best and brightest (and richest) stu-
preferring to protect his own staff by keeping them away dents from the universities and colleges within the city are
from the front lines. invited to socialise and engage in long, drawn-out games of
Perhaps, though, the most remarkable thing about Só is Orbit. Orbit, a recent invention, is a complex human game
his staff – they are almost exclusively aelfir, many down-on- played on a board with interlocking cogs that can spin the
their-luck or exiled from their own society. His bodyguards lacquered wooden playing surface in strange and unexpect-
are a cadre of ex-Skalds, wide-eyed razor-wielding battle ed ways – and the Ministry, as well as intelligence agencies
poets, who were disgraced following a shameful retreat in from the human nations, and some of the more pragmatic
the battle of Many-Rivers-Reaching; his personal secretary aelfir diplomats, have discovered that the skillsets for Orbit
is the forsaken stepchild of General Sun-on-Stone, an im- and espionage are largely one and the same, so recruitment
possibly intelligent woman who wears a series of vibrant into an agency is commonplace amongst those who prove
satin headscarves; his messengers and aides are the scions themselves worthy of membership.
of House Smoke-Within-The Frost, whose founder took off The Gilded Oyster, so called for their practice of eating
her mask at court seventeen years ago and thus doomed the the rare, gold-flecked prospector oyster harvested from the
family to a lifetime of shunning. rivers to the north of Spire, have an internal membership
structure more complicated and multi-layered than the
average ancient secret society. The Unmasked provides a
place for aelfir to remove their masks and show their true
faces, putting the debauchery of Amaranth to shame, as
visiting high elves engage in twisted sulphur benders and
wine-fuelled brawls. And there are more, hidden everywhere,
behind brass-plaqued doors and velvet curtains: the mischie-
vous Rotters, the coiffured gentlefolk of the Zebra club, the
cocktail-crafting Caraways, the flight-obsessed Feathers and
the ostentatious duellists of the Pistoliers.
120 Districts and Factions of High Society
Districts and Factions of High Society121

THRILLSEEKERS lived races; Stolz, who lives in the space between the heads
For those who wish to taste excitement but don’t have the and tails on coins, whose rituals are rolled dice and gathered
fortitude or self-destructive impulses to risk their purses knucklebones, who carries the prayers of a thousand thou-
(and lives) on the thrills of Red Row, the Silver Quarter sand desperate souls on her strong shoulders. The Hearts,
offers a set of conveniently accessible ways to broaden one’s who run the place, ensure that none of the games inside are
horizons – for the right price, of course. crooked and as such she has graciously extended her aegis
Primarily, it offers the second-broadest array of available to ensure that the club will never lose a sten to theft.
narcotics in Spire, second only to Threadneedle Square itself Stolz doesn’t have much in the way of churches or holy
where the majority of those narcotics were made. The guard, sites – she’s not the sort of goddess people normally erect
keen to maintain a pleasant atmosphere on the streets of the temples to – and so devout followers, normally relying on
district (but not overly upset troublemakers who may wish to personal hearth shrines and sporadic ad-hoc worship, flock
come back and spend more of their fortunes at a later date), to the Mermaid to give their thanks to her. And as the casino
operate a set of “cells”. These are handsomely appointed, has a two-drink minimum, the Hearts aren’t complaining.
furnished with ensuite provisions, and offer room service and For more information on advances granted by worshiping
therapeutic visits from healers and courtesans for the use of Stolz, see p. 87.
visitors who have let their passions get the better of them.
The Hearts, a cadre of devout and disheveled worshipers
of the luck goddess Stolz, run the Mermaid (detailed below) THE GAME
and several smaller high-stakes gambling ventures squirreled The game is played with cards, but no-one knows where
away in the recesses of the district. They run Stolzian mar- the cards come from; and they are as much an invitation
riages, too, where lovers are attached to special harnesses as they are a playing piece, because somehow they always
before being ceremonially shoved off the side of the tower. end up in the right hands – the hands of strange, obsessive
There is a chance that the harnesses are attached to nothing and devoted people with the sort of curiosity that gets them
whatsoever, and that one or both partners might tumble down killed. Upon the cards are the ancient legends of the dark
and dash themselves apart on the precipice below; should elves – the Kraken, that once defended the North docks; the
one partner not survive, Stolz clearly viewed the marriage as Lady who resides on the moon, and whose radiance shines
a bad omen. Should both survive – or both die – it has her down to bless the drow; the Spider, who squats black and
blessing. Records show no evidence of Stolzian divorces. fecund far beneath the earth’s surface; the Parasitic; the
There are a handful of fighting pits where one can go to Labyrinthine; the Eyes of the Chronicle; and so on.
witness a brawl or two, but none of them hold a candle to the Quite how it is played past this is a matter of much hushed
crimson-stained dirt of Arena; perhaps one or two places, if you discussion in back rooms and private carriages, of dead-
know the right person to ask, where you could see beautiful drops and anonymous letters, of secret societies within secret
young drow carve each other open with knives to the polite societies. Some believe that the game is played against the
clapping of a smoke-wreathed crowd, or the latest in aelfir tor- universe; some that it isn’t being played at all, and those who
ture opera too brash or ungraceful to make it big in Amaranth. consider themselves “players” are merely collectors, sifting
And, of course, if you wish to take matters into your through the scraps of something ancient and far greater than
own hands, there are clubs that provide that; the Vire Club they will ever be. There are three conflicting rulebooks in
hosts regular outings down-Spire to the shattered and bro- existence, two of which were written by the same person.
ken district of Derelictus, where the jaded elite can hunt Rounds of the game are played out over weeks and in secret,
the wretched abominations crawling out of the edge of the moves delivered in code by messengers and written in frag-
Heart. Or just people, if they’d prefer. Many do. ments on the walls of forgotten basements. Rules arguments
are settled by committee, but seeing as players are few and
far between and jealously guard their wins, they are more
THE MERMAID often settled by murder, poison and threats.
No-one has ever stolen anything from the casino known as How does one win the game? It’s not clear, and even
the Mermaid – not without dying, anyway. Two years ago, an less clear is what you get for winning. Occasionally, players
enterprising young drow tried to steal a pouch of gold coins disappear and don’t resurface; whether they won or lost
that a staff member had left foolishly unattended, and two days remains unclear. Maybe it’s a recruitment tool for some-
later he was found dead in the fountain outside of the casino. thing, a long-forgotten sect of the dark elves; maybe it’s a
Five years ago, a member of the Gilded Oyster visiting from clever hoax, perpetrated by someone with a printing press
Gryffid “accidentally” took a towel home in her luggage after and devious imagination; maybe the cards are just windows
staying at the Mermaid, and her carriage was struck by lightning to the past, bleeding out of the vast stocks of drow esoter-
on the way back to her home country, incinerating all inside. ica stashed away in the Vermissian Vault, and these are the
The Mermaid is under the protection of Stolz, great results of powerful sages using time-skipping magicks to
goddess of luck, beloved by the humans and other short- communicate with people in the present day.
122 Districts and Factions of High Society
 DISTRICTS AND FACTIONS
OF LOW SOCIETY

DERELICTUS
Buried in the bowels of Spire, Derelictus is a thrice-cursed The aelfir outlawed the fruit in Spire because of its nar-
mess of broken masonry, tunnels to nowhere, and wet run- cotic nature, and distribution has been driven underground
off from the layers above. Here, the dregs of the populace along with delivery of any other contraband product from
struggle to survive from day to day, killers stalk the streets, the Home Nations, such as the venomous and urbane whip-
and dark cults practice their wicked arts. What little light snakes, the hypnotic ink of albino cave squid, the vicious
there is down here is artificial, or carried by the populace, crystalline biomechanical implants known as slivers, and so
and the entire place is covered in shadows and dirty magic. on. In Hemlock Fruit Market, several treacherous under-
ground routes to the Home Nations terminate, and stalls
manned by opportunistic drow (and short-lived humans, who
HEMLOCK FRUIT MARKET have a penchant for delving underground to take things that
The corpsefruit, a drow delicacy, is a soft-fleshed and sick- aren’t theirs) dot the floor and walls of the enormous cistern.
ly-sweet thing with sticky yellow fibrous flesh and thick, Here and there, drow inns and bars – dimly lit by the
waxy scarlet skin. They are grown in the Home Nations, but bioluminescent creatures they’ve imported – offer a drink,
illegal here in Spire. The method of producing corpsefruit is a hot meal, and a place to stay, along with news from the
a closely-guarded secret, and six noble houses war over trade Home Nations, and the opportunity for homesick dark elves
routes, expert minds, shipments and graveyards – the one to immerse themselves in something approaching their cul-
place where corpsefruit can be grown. The drow say the fruit ture. It’s not much, but it’s the closest thing Derelictus has
captures the dreams of the dead beneath the earth, and that to a warm welcome.
the longer the dead have lain interred, the sweeter the flesh
and the more intoxicating the rush. There are no fewer than
eighteen drow operas in the popular canon which include
the dreams hidden within corpsefruit as a major plot point.
124 Districts and Factions of Low Society

THE CANNIBALS OF GRIST GHOUL

When you eat thinking-flesh, or talking-flesh – the flesh Names: Broken-Hand, Last, Miriam
of people – you begin to change. Over a number of years, Descriptors: Clutching a badly-sutured wound, Covered
your appetite for the forbidden meat increases, your senses in devotional tattoos to King Teeth, Wearing
sharpen, the tone fades from your complexion until you are their old clothes in an attempt at disguise
ashen-skinned, and your body becomes lean and muscular Difficulty: 0
and strong save for an elastic gut that can be distended with Resistance: 5
vast amounts of flesh; you become a ghoul. Cannibalism is Equipment: Nothing of value, save a few trinkets from their
banned on pain of capital punishment within the city walls previous life, but their long dirty claws backed
of Spire, but given that the city contains so many people up by ropey muscles are (D3, Ongoing D3,
and so few of them have enough food, it’s more common Brutal) weapons
than anyone would like.
(Of course, the Carrion-Priests – worshipers of Charnel,
the laughing god of corpses – are well-known for eating the CIVILISATION
bodies of the dead, and most of them avoid madness and Do you desire the teeth of a giant crow for your dark pur-
change. Instead, as is evident by all depictions of him, Char- poses? Do you want to learn the secret dance that the Fourth
nel takes that transformative energy into himself, appearing Sister whispers to her chosen acolytes, and that unlocks any
as a half-drow, half-hyena, with a great swollen gut and a door? Do you just need a drink? Such things are traded over
perpetually-smiling canine face.) (and under) the bar in Civilisation.
Ghouls congregate together, drawn to each other through Unlike almost every other tavern and esoteric market
scent – the sweet stink of rotting flesh exuding through their in Derelictus, Civilisation is run by an aelfir – one of the
pores – and mark their territory with bone shrines, taking unmasked, who has fallen from polite society, and no longer
up residence in corpse pits and harassing the crows and feels the need to cover their face – except on special occa-
hyenas that peck at corpses in New Heaven. But in Grist, sions. He goes by the name of Lith (derived from his old
shadowed and desolate Grist that clings to the north side high-class name, which no-one knows, or dares to utter in his
of Derelictus, lit by sickly mage-lights, they have formed a presence), and in addition to being a world-class bartender
community around a new god. and expert on the occult, he is a storyteller par excellence.
A hugely bloated and ancient cannibal known as King Civilisation is a popular spot for witless journalists and cu-
Teeth resides under the streets of Grist on a reeking pile rious travellers to Derelictus, for Lith’s tales of the terrors
of splintered bones and half-chewed limbs, and something that lurk in the shadows of the district are second to none;
about his power has drawn in these ghouls to worship him whilst serving above-average liquor, he’ll spin stories (and
as a god – and, because Grist sits so close to the heart, he even act them out a little), weaving the whole affair into a
can hear their prayers and grant them miracles in return, sort of theatre. The locals come to watch too, some nights,
and the process is driving him irrevocably and utterly insane. hoping to catch a reaction from someone experiencing Lith
A prayer to King Teeth can let you eat a person whole by for the first time.
detaching your jaw from your skull and pushing them, live On a given night, here are some of the topics on which
and screaming, down into your belly; or, if you are among you might hear him holding forth: the true names of demons,
the most devoted, produce a roiling mass of acid in your the secret language of corpse-worms, the pallid and bestial
belly that you can retch up – acid that will dissolve rocks cannibals of Grist, the secret roads to New Heaven, and
and melt platemail to the wearer’s skin in seconds. the location of the six midden Mistresses of the Vermissian.
The majority of the inhabitants of Grist are luckless, des- Some of them are even true.
titute individuals trying to survive from day to day, unable
to afford anywhere better to live. And so, in a token effort to
placate the ghouls that haunt the streets and stalk the roof-
tops, they have instituted a system of criminal prosecution
that sees offenders (or, in lean months, any outsider they
can catch) bound to stakes in the centre of town, awaiting
justice for their crimes at the hands of their cannibal masters.
For more details on advances granted by the worship of
King Teeth – if you’re interested in such a thing – see p. 83.
Districts and Factions of Low Society125

THE CHURCH OF ABSOLUTION PERCH

The Hungry Deep welcomes all. Here, close to the heart of People were never meant to live in Perch. Strapped, nailed
Spire, a cult of worshippers – exiled priests, madmen, burnt- and bolted to the outer wall of Spire, Perch is a patchwork
out drug fiends, and vile magicians – pay their respects to collection of ramshackle and scavenged buildings where
the strongest force in the multiverse: decay. Nothing can last those driven out of other communities try their best to make
forever – no god, no construction of man or elf, not even a living. Those who survive more than a month or two are
the ground upon which Spire is built. Everything will rot, some of the toughest, most resourceful folk in the city – and
and in this, everything will attain purity. There is no sin, no those born a couple of generations in are exceptional indeed.
strife, no struggle in the glorious embrace of nothingness.
The Church set up home in the ruins of an ancient ca-
thedral to no known god or goddess – it was one of the THE GUTTER
original structures that made up the city that grew into Spire The only stable structure in Perch is a great overhang from
over centuries. Now, they allow other followers of the truth a long-defunct sewer system, a grey stone lump jutting out
to reside within it, and protect their territory with vicious the side of Spire known as the Gutter. When masonry falls
guarding rituals and wards. Dark creatures scuttle through from above, raiders on megacorvids rush the town, or er-
wrecked stone pews and flap between leering gargoyles, while rant skywhales scrape against the city wall, the people of
shadowy figures whisper prayers and love into the darkness Perch rush and take cover beneath it until danger passes. In
that writhes beneath the cathedral – the heart. less desperate times, the workshops underneath the Gutter
They are lead by Mother Falling-Ash-On-Snow – the supply the town (and much of the rest of Spire) with rope,
only aelfir worshipper of the Deep on record. She is lean, producing around a mile of cord each week.
verging on gaunt, and such a powerful cleric of the deity Atop the Gutter is the Lady and Crow, an inn designed
that her body courses with energies of decay with every to provide something approaching comfort to travellers from
waking moment. Lights dim in her presence; dust and mould outside Perch, with rooms of a regular size and floors that
blossom on surfaces around her; stagnant water pools at her are roughly at right-angles to the Spire itself. The owner,
feet; the sound of buzzing flies surrounds her. She makes an ashen-faced drow called Skinner, takes care to import
frequent trips into the heart through the basement of the a small selection of luxury goods for the occasional visitor
cathedral, and returns each time with new instructions and with money to spend.
insight from the deep itself.
For details of abilities granted by worship of the Hungry
Deep, see p. 78. A LAND OF SMALL GODS
The main religion practiced in Perch is one of small gods
– of spirits living in everyday objects that can be prayed to,
CULTIST OF THE HUNGRY DEEP worshipped and begged for assistance. (It’s hard to worship
Names: Caelston, Loath, Drend one thing at a time when your temples keep falling off the
Descriptors: A refugee gnoll in a tattered cloak, Has milky- side of the building.) Bridges, floors, roofs and nets are
blind eyes and no teeth, Pallid-skinned and prayed to, and nearly every object is adorned with prayers
sunken-cheeked scratched into the surface and charms – feathers, beads,
Difficulty: 0 – The Hungry Deep doesn’t attract the best or coloured stones – bound with string and attached to it.
fighters, and membership doesn’t encourage While citizens of Perch certainly own large items – beds,
a healthy lifestyle mirrors, paintings, and so on – the common wisdom among
Resistance: 4, or 7 if they’re in so deep they’ve forsaken them is that anything truly valuable must be able to be
the luxury of pain carried with you, or better yet, bound into your clothing or
Equipment: Civilian weapons such as knives, clubs, heavy bags. Attachment to larger items is seen as foolish, because
rocks (D3), the occasional dodgy firebomb ownership cannot be guaranteed from day to day.
or explosive (D6, Spread D3, Ranged, Dan- Chief of all the spirits, though, are those that live in ropes
gerous, One-shot), maybe some bad armour – often the only thing that keeps an inhabitant of Perch from
(Armour 2, Heavy) tumbling to their death. A good rope is cared for and prayed
to, and hates being apart from its fellows – it’s bad luck to
not have at least one rope tied between you and something
solid. Knotted ropes can form sacred scripture, and the
especially religious wear harnesses of tied rope over their
normal clothing. (Ropes are commonly used as weapons,
too: garrotes, lassoes, whips, rope-daggers and clubs made
of heavily-knotted cords are commonplace.)
126 Districts and Factions of Low Society
Districts and Factions of Low Society127

THE GRAVEYARD OF SMALL GODS THE BOUND

Any object that is owned and loved (or hated) acquires a god As the city’s guards rarely venture out into the unstable
as a byproduct of existing, so the sepulchre-keepers in the lands of Perch, justice in the community falls to a small
graveyard of small gods – a series of tunnels carved into the group of vigilantes called the Bound. Wearing trademark
side of the Spire wall – take care of fallen or forgotten items harnesses and masks of red-dyed rope and carrying short,
that still possess a spark of the divine. Here, objects wait until sharp blades, the Bound operate as police and judges for
the priests have decreed the gods inside them have passed their community. Minor infractions are punished with re-
on, at which point they are sold back to the inhabitants of possession of personal items (and are fairly common), and
Perch – or anyone brave enough to visit – at prices that show bigger crimes call for destruction of the criminal’s shelter,
no clear understanding of market values, from the back of a exile, or – in the direst cases – severing of their rope-gods
rickety wagon (itself a god) once every month or so. with those short, sharp knives, and a ceremonial fall from
While the majority of the items resting in the graveyard are Perch down to the ground below.
personal goods (weapons, clothes, hats, ropes, etc) there are a (Those knives hold gods, of course, but unlike most
wider variety of weirder things tucked away in there, living out everything else in Perch, the gods are not naturally-occurring.)
the last of their years as faith in them slowly ebbs away from The Bound are actively sought out by the Ministry for
the world.There are altars, and holy books, and sacred symbols recruitment, given their natural inclination towards taking
from religions that died long ago – the priests try their hardest justice into their own hands and a need to maintain a lithe,
to acquire them, from within the city and without – and these athletic frame to move quickly through the unsteady terrain
may pass between keepers, and between generations, as the of Perch. The army, too, often sends recruiters up-Spire to
weight of gods leaves them as peacefully as possible. Perch in an attempt to lure members of the Bound into
active service in special regiments – the Flying 33rd, the
Knotsmen, the Red Ropes, and so on.
THE DOVECOTE The current leader of the Bound – if they can be said
Built into a void in the side of the Spire wall is the Dovecote, a to have a leader in any traditional sense of the word – is a
breeding farm for pigeons, doves, ravens and sparrows main- charismatic human known as Sawsail, who wields two blades
tained by a cadre of leather-coated and dropping-stained with terrifying, bloody efficiency and bears the scars of a
artisans. Megacorvids are expensive and large, so are rarely long career spent fighting in the gladiator pits of Red Row.
found here – but the best carrier pigeons can be, so the Under Sawsail’s leadership, the Bound have stamped down
Ministry maintains an anonymous account with several on crime, but are veering dangerously close to operating as
bird-masters to ensure that their operatives can communicate yet another protection racket.
over long distances without recourse to miracles.

BOUND VIGILANTE
Names: Kurt, Ana, Cho
Descriptors: Arms wrapped in leather cords, Smoking
pungent cigarillos, Wearing a flat cap
Difficulty: 1 on their home turf, and you’d be hard-
pressed to find them anywhere else
Resistance: 5
Equipment: Leather pads and tight-knotted rope (Armour
2), a savage-looking blade in which a god lives
(D6, Dangerous if you take it off them and
use it without desanctifying it first), ropes
and other climbing equipment
128 Districts and Factions of Low Society
Districts and Factions of Low Society129

THE GARDEN DISTRICT THE HANGING GARDENS

Spire is hungry, and the Garden feeds it. Acres upon acres If you are too poor to afford a proper funeral ceremony for
of land are given over to the production of food, the major- a dead relative up in New Heaven, you can always opt to
ity of it able to grow without access to natural light: algae, sell your loved one’s body to the Morticians, who will then
mushrooms, crustaceans, insects, grubs, and so on. The sell them on to the drow of the Garden district, who will
scant external space there is jealously guarded and given bundle the corpse up in spider-silk and leave it hanging in
over to the production of fruit, which the aelfir prize and their cool, winding caverns where they will grow bright red
pay a top price for. Throughout the twisting, multilayered mushrooms from it. These carnivorous fungi have dense,
depths of the district, quiet resentment is brewing between meaty flesh that is calorie-rich and nutritious, and those
two opposing groups – the traditionalist dark-farmers of the that can deal with the sensation of eating food that’s tended
drow, and the progressive retroengineers of the humans who to by spiders and has grown out of a dead body use it as a
have managed to manipulate mage-lights into producing heat source of affordable meals. (Down in Hemlock Fruit Market,
and light enough for conventional crops to grow without Hanging Garden mushrooms are something of a delicacy
ever seeing the sun. if they’re of a good strain, and food-stalls sell bowls of rich,
It is here, like all poor districts of the city, that the Ministry chewy broth made of these red fungi mixed with water, algae
holds great sway, and thanks to the scant policing from the and animal bones.)
city guard (supplanted, and some might argue replaced, by There are plenty of other places the drow grow mush-
enforcers hired by the larger farm conglomerates to protect rooms that don’t involve corpses – banks of gently moldering
their interests) the habitation in the Garden is an easy place wood and leaf-litter, collected from the external parts of the
to find a sympathetic contact and a place to lay low for a few district late at night, where fungi of all kinds spring forth:
days while the fallout from your latest endeavour blows over. mainly for food, though not exclusively. Although drug use
is largely illegal in Spire (unless you’re an aelfir, of course)
the contraband guards have problems telling one mushroom
THE DARK-FARMERS apart from another, and so hallucinogenic toadstools remain
The Garden thrums with the activity of the drow, who more a popular method of recreation throughout the lower por-
than anywhere else in Spire, consider this land their own. tions of the city, and in many vision-cults and mystic circles.
Living their lives far beneath the surface of the city, many
will never see sunlight (if they can help it) and take every
opportunity to shed the protective scarves and cloaks that THE HYDROPONIC VAULTS
their more cosmopolitan brethren use to endure the touch The humans dug out technology from the hoards hidden
of the sun. They favour bare chests and exposed forearms, in the prokatakos arcologies that facilitates crops to grow
often covered in tattoos declaring their allegiances, family without needing to feel the light of the sun – lenses and
vengeances, or their devotion to Our Glorious Lady. resonators that allow galvanic energy to be routed through
These farmers tend to huge copper vats of algae, lit by magelights to increase their output to a previously unim-
candlelight, in a variety of bright colours – lush crimson, agined power (strong enough even to burn the skin of the
eye-stinging yellow-blue, vibrant green – and charge a nom- drow, but not as badly as the sun itself).
inal fee for passage across them in rickety gondolas; they Though the magelights are as unreliable as any other ex-
husband swarms of chittering locusts and writhing grubs perimental human technology, there are mighty underground
to be ground down into a paste or powder and eaten; they fields of wheat and grain, and groves of fruit-bushes tended
shepherd flocks of crustaceans, scuttling and pallid crabs to by droves of engineers wearing smoked-glass visors and
and crawfish and weirder things besides, to be plucked from carrying sharp scythes. While the drow are thankful for the
the lightless caverns with nets and boiled until ready to eat. ready supply of affordable food – and anything beats a diet
But foremost amongst all their skills, and indeed one of of mushrooms and algae pulp – more radical dark-farmers
the fields in which the dark elves are the undisputed masters, have begun a campaign of sabotage against the humans,
is the growing of mushrooms. stealing bulbs and hurling wrenches into generators, hop-
ing that they can maintain their superiority as the primary
suppliers of food to the city.
130 Districts and Factions of Low Society

THE BEAST OF VAT A-67 THE CITY DRUIDS AND THE LIVING SPIRE
“Don’t go poking around the vats,” say the mothers to Every city in the world worth its salt has a handful of druids
their children in the Garden, “or the beast’ll get you. The that claim allegiance to the mystical spirit of the metropolis
beast loves eating naughty children who don’t listen to their itself, acting as a conduit for the collective power of the
mums.” Concealing imaginary monsters within the murky people, the infrastructure, the commerce and so on. They
depths of algae vats is a common parenting tactic, especially can summon blank-faced simulacra of city guards to protect
when unsupervised children near the production line have themselves, walk over wet slate roofs as though they were
such a high chance of getting injured or drowning. (Also, flat, even ground, and direct their ire via the city’s closest
depending on the parent in question, the beast might ven- equivalent to a lightning bolt – a cart, out of control, flat-
ture out of the vats to eat children who don’t go to bed on tening the victim.
time, or don’t eat all their vegetables, or who talk back to Spire has a handful of these, certainly, but it is so dense-
their dad, or who stay out after seven-bells; the beast can be ly-packed with myriad guttermages and renegade clerics that
remarkably mobile and devoted to parental justice.) they fade into the background. More worthy of mention are
But: the beast is real, at least in Vat A-67, and quite what the tight-knit cabal of druids who believe, rightly or wrongly,
it might be is the matter of some conjecture. It has tentacles, that Spire is alive, if dormant, or perhaps alive and incapable
that much is certain – and whatever it is, it doesn’t need to of movement, and they must attend to its needs and defend
eat very often, only taking a luckless worker (or a child who it from predators and parasites.
didn’t listen to their mum) once every month or two. But Located within the bounds of the Garden district, in a
the algae in Vat A-67 grows fast and rich, presumably as a grove enchanted by the sacrifice of countless animals, the
byproduct of the beast’s presence, and so the plant owners druids come together once a month and listen to the creak-
are slow to fix, or even acknowledge, the problem. ing and groaning of Spire, asking it for advice and guidance
(they also get loaded on hallucinogens and have a lot of sex
in there, too, depending on who you ask). When they emerge,
THE HERALD CORPORATION they have a vague plan as to what Spire wants that month
A recent addition to the ranks of farms and production based on visions and hunches, and enact it as best they can.
lines that make up the Garden, the Herald Corporation At present it seems to focus around sabotaging sections of
is a human-fronted enterprise that seeks to deliver food at the Works and attempting to liberate passing skywhales, but
affordable prices to the poor. A secular endeavour (which is odds are they’ll run up against someone properly dangerous
rare in Spire), the corporation has made great strides into soon enough.
providing cheap but nutritious bread to distribution centres
down-Spire, who sell heavy, dense loaves of dark wheat and
rye – known colloquially as heralds – for a half-sten apiece.
It is a front, of course, but not for any conspiracy that
its detractors might expect. The head of the corporation, a
human noble called Devin Quintrel, has been infected by the
blood-song of the Vyskant (an interdimensional mind-con-
trolling mantid hive-mind parasite) and he is working to
spread the disease throughout Spire. At present, reliable
infection can only be achieved through blood-to-blood con-
tact or by taking potential carriers to The Cave (p. 141),
and this is taking far too long. Quintrel aims to embed the
Vyskant disease in the bread it sells and spread it that way
(and as such is running the business at a considerable loss)
but, as of yet, infections are few and far between. However:
a stable strain cannot be far away.
Districts and Factions of Low Society131

THE WORKS THE PRINTING PRESSES

Blacktar smoke clings to every surface in the Works: a The Works is home to the largest number of printing presses
network of metal gantries, manufacturing plants and in Spire, and as such, is also home to the largest number of
storage houses, lined with workers who, eyes on the news organisations that have built up around them.
floor, shuffle through the smoky streets past chained- The Furnace is a lurid, sensationalist tabloid that prints
together indentured drow hammering on steel. outright lies from “sources close to the family” of whatever
It is here that the wheels of Spire’s industry turn. Almost scandal or tragedy has recently befallen the city; Ambrosia is
every inch is covered in factories or people, crowded and a pan-religious gossip rag that dishes the dirt on the hottest
dark and close and toxic – spend too long in the Works and young priests and templars on the scene today, as well as
you bring up sticky black tar with each cough. The noise leading softball investigations into new cults and uprisings;
is the worst part, though, and often deafening: powered the Silhouette, run by a well-to-do aelfir, details the com-
presses, the whine of lifts, the scrape of steel on steel and ings-and-goings of the high society of Spire; the Chronicle
the staccato howls of echolocating creatures. is both written and solely intended to be consumed by very
Gutterkin – a mishmash of goblin, dirt-gnome and weirder serious men in starched collars who like reading about fi-
things besides – scuttle underfoot and live in vents and pipes nancial trends; the Torch is aimed squarely at the working
and in the overhangs of warehouse eaves, eagerly waiting classes, with its up-Spire paymasters demanding favourable
for someone to rob, or eat, or both. But still – people live coverage to maintain order and discipline in the lower ranks;
here, poor and desperate people, and the Ministry finds and Liberate! (exclamation point required) is the foremost
many recruits among the drow who spend their lives in the and best organised pro-drow, anti-aelfir publication in the
cramped and dangerous conditions of the Works. city. While ownership of one of these thin pamphlets is not
illegal, it is certainly grounds for a beating and thorough
questioning by any guards that find it on you.
SPIREBLACK Given the danger in communicating openly, the Ministry
In the nooks and crannies of the Works a substance known (and no end of other secret societies and anti-governmental
as spireblack condenses out of the air, brought forth by groups) will submit classified ads, or pressure journalist as-
generations of ceaseless industry, and is scraped away by sets to write articles, that contain hidden messages in code.
the gutterkin (or luckless drow) who sell it for a handful of Indeed, last year, there was a famous Births, Marriages and
sten per bag. In its raw form, it is slightly flammable and Deaths page in the Chronicle which contained details on
faintly corrosive, and not much use to anyone aside from precisely zero real people; the papers don’t seem to mind
the poorest dregs in Derelictus, who burn it to provide light so long as they can continue charging for the privilege of
(and copious amounts of foul-smelling smoke). printing the words.
But refined, spireblack can be formed into explosives
(and, indeed, powers most low-quality guns in the city – it’s
not as stable as human gunpowder, but it’s a damn sight
cheaper). It can be fashioned into tablets or lozenges which
burn like lantern oil; percussive projectiles which explode on
contact with a hard surface; fuel for running generators or
engines; and remarkably cheap ink, which is used to print
salacious pamphlets filled with badly-spelled erotica and tales
of murder most foul known collectively as half-sten horrors.
Popular works among the half-sten horrors are The Duch-
ess’s Predilection, The Bound Avenger, The Beast of Vat A-67
and She-Priests of Lust: A No-Holds-Barred Investigation Into
The Cult Of Sister Spring (Fully Illustrated).
132 Districts and Factions of Low Society
Districts and Factions of Low Society133

GODS OF FIRE, GODS OF METAL, GODS OF PROFIT GREYMANOR SERVICES

Like all of Spire, the Works is a religious place; the cult of Three flights of stairs up, above a groaning and creaking
Mother Winter of the Solar Pantheon extends down here, printing press, is Greymanor Services. A dilapidated pub
as does worship of Our Glorious Lady among the largely sign showing a rather bleak looking castle and the word
drow populace, but the Works has its own gods to which it Greymanor in almost unreadable copperplate is the only
pays its respects. thing showing you’ve come to the right place – the sign
The God-Machine is a human-built device, deep in the itself was installed by the founder of Greymanor Services,
ruins of Whitecross far to the west. It was created in an a towering ex-knight called Maxwell Roche, who grew tired
attempt to build a deity using scavenged prokatakos logic of the docks and wanted to put his particular skills to use.
engines, overloaded with galvanic resonators that give it Greymanor is hirable for any and all domestic, industrial,
spasming bursts of unnatural, impossible intelligence – its political, or paying job imaginable, as long as it falls within
high-priests and engineers claim that it has godlike powers, the broad field of investigation. The company will happily
and they can discern its machinations through the sea of freelance for anyone with the sten to pay, and do more than
static it displays onto glass panes that surround it. There are their fair share of work for aelfir who don’t want to go to the
four or five churches to the God-Machine in the Works, most lower levels of the city.
of which are attended by expat humans and technology-ori- Roche has two unbreakable standards: firstly, he or his
entated drow (as well as no end of experimental theologians staff are paid for every case they take on, up front. Secondly,
from the University of Divine Magic up-Spire). they are bound by the letter of the law – while they’re not
There are shrines to the Forge-Father and Hearth-Moth- above throwing a punch or two to get information, and
er in many of the larger factories; these old aelfir gods of they’re certainly no fools when it comes to defending them-
creation, since driven out of popularity by the newcomers selves, their work tends to lead to arrests, and not widows.
of the Solar Pantheon, still see worship down in the Works. Following a series of (almost entirely fictionalised) half-
The Bound Seraph, less a god and more a powerful monster sten horrors about his work, Roche has seen an influx of
from drow history, is often called upon to help fires stay kids with aspirations of being a hard-bitten detective, and
lit and bellows to fan the furnace. The Masterless Mask, even though he’s expanding the business into additional
a dark elf folk hero, protects the downtrodden from their premises, he’s turning away far more people than he’s hiring.
oppressors, and they too are worshipped: shrines here and For more details on joining up to Greymanor and the
there, prayers muttered to curse your boss, bottles of strong advances that membership can provide, see p. 86.
liquor poured onto steaming-hot machinery and the vapours
inhaled as tribute.
And more besides are begged for aid: Incarnadine, fallen PTOLEMY BAY
sister of Azur, goddess of diamonds and deep mysteries; Ptolemy Bay sells guns. He sells huge amounts of guns,
Kuzrukh, whose bones are the mountains;Y’leth, the Dragon produced in-Spire, to people outside of the city who want
Sultan, Who Is The Heart of Every Machine; Molok, tower- to kill other people. Working largely outside of the realm of
ing giant of industry, whose spireblack eyes know only cruel governmental contracts, the devout Azurite provides weapons
profit; and finally, the Machine Heart. and ammunition to no fewer than sixteen different revolu-
tionary cells, many of them in the Duchy of Aliquam far to
the south, and also to the aelfir, the human mercenaries and
the gnoll hunter-caste warriors trying to stamp out those
revolutionary cells.
After a series of brutal takeovers, he has secured his po-
sition as one of the foremost arms traders in Spire, if not
the world, and owns large sections of the Works entirely.
The Ministry, aware of his equal-opportunities policy and
the rates he charges, would rather not use him to arm the
resistance in Spire, but sometimes, needs must.
134 Districts and Factions of Low Society

THE MACHINE HEART THE FORGE OF SUN-ON-WATER

This mostly human cult of strung-out inventors and fringe Hidden deep in the Works is a lonely forge; this blacksmith’s
scientists all agree on one thing: that the city of Spire, like workshop is plausibly the only one in the district that is not
the arcologies found buried beneath the earth, is a structure concerned with mass production. In the cramped, sweltering
made by the forerunner race known as the prokatakos (or room lives Sun-On-Water.
simply katakos). While this isn’t an especially unusual belief Sun-On-Water will one day be famous. She has redis-
within the city, the Harbingers differ from most in that they covered the ancient aelfir ways of blademaking: imbuing the
believe Spire is a broken prokatakos machine – and that they blades with sun and moonlight, purifying the metals and
are the ones to repair it. blessing them with the oldest rites the high elves know. The
They don’t know what it does when turned on. Many weapons are exquisite, and probably the most dangerous
believe that it is intended as a weapon of war, an unassaila- pieces of art in the whole of Spire. Only one so far has been
ble floating fortress; others think it is a device that rewrites found outside of her rooms: a gleaming and elegant dagger,
reality on an unimaginable scale, giving the powers of gods barely as wide as a drow’s palm, that will cut through tem-
to the mortal races; a select few reckon that it’s the last and pered steel as if it were paper. If anyone finds out who made
greatest work of the prokatakos, and whatever it did when it, Sun-On-Water will become the most precious commodity.
they turned it on moved them from here to somewhere else.
Or, perhaps, somewhen.
Scavenging prokatakos parts from distant arcologies (or THE PARLIAMENT OF GUTTERKIN
trading vast sums of money for them), the harbingers have Slish is a runt of a thing – a member of the much-despised
been quietly infiltrating factories for the last decade or so, gutterkin (a derogatory term for all goblins, gullboys, bog-
setting up redundancies in the design of manufacturing garts, gnoblars and other miscellaneous child-sized greasy
equipment that can be manipulated to divert their power humanoids that populate the world), it looks to be mostly
to a central location – the Machine Heart. made out of at least one crow, bent upwards into a scrawny
Here, deep within the smoking chaos of the Works, the human form. It caws and mumbles its way through the
Machine Heart beats with barely-understood alien technolo- tunnels of the Works, coughing and hacking up pieces of
gies wired into creaking networks of steam pipes and fizzing feather in an unassuming, if gross, sort of way.
galvanic resonators, and the cult has devoted their lives to But Slish has something that most gutterkin lack:
using it as a catalyst that will repair Spire and bring it back charisma. It has talked to the other gutterkin and engaged
to working order with them at the helm. So far, they are a in debate. It argues, and bites its opponents – but it doesn’t
long way off their goal, but priests of the Machine Heart maul them. It is hungry for the fight, for discourse, not
can reason with and control machinery in a way that they the kill. Gathering a band of other dirty-feathered birdfolk
never could before they devoted their lives to the enterprise around it, it has formed a group with a shared viewpoint –
– at their command, printing presses halt, cranes swing although quite what that viewpoint is is indecipherable to
like extensions of their arms, and lifts can haul many times the outside observer.
the weight they’re supposed to. The further they Slish has its parliament, and other gutterkin are coming
move from the Machine Heart, the weaker their influ- under its grimy sway, and rivals are rising up to act against
ence becomes. it, and beneath the streets and in the walls and crawlspaces
of the Works, a war is brewing – one that most of the inhab-
itants of the Works will never see.
 DISTRICTS AND FACTIONS
OF THE OCCULT

THE VERMISSIAN
The Vermissian is a grand failed experiment – an attempt ENDLINE
at a mechanised mass transport network throughout Spire. A rusted, precarious mess of discarded carriages and machin-
About a century ago, human engineers were tasked with ery, last visited by officials – according to the records – thirty
boring out tunnels in the structure of the city and building years ago. Since then, detritus from the junked network has
trains, powered by barely-understood unearthed katakos ended up down here, thrown on the pile of jagged metal
technology. and broken glass, like silt settling at the bottom of a river.
Had it worked, it would have revolutionised the way Given the vast scale of Endline, even though most of the
that people lived in Spire. But thanks to the overreaching exterior carriages have been stripped of all useful materials,
ambition of the humans who designed it, the cut corners on there is always a hope that something valuable is still sitting
the aelfir-funded drow work crews that led to tunnel collapses undiscovered at the centre of it, or in some long-forgotten
and thousands of injuries, and several notable pushes from pocket of machinery. To that end, scavengers swarm over
the owners of the existing transport infrastructures present the wreckage and defend their territory with vicious tenac-
in Spire, the Vermissian failed. The skeleton of the thing – ity, spilling blood over new finds or contested access routes
a network of unstable tunnels and half-finished stations, through the area.
unlit caverns full of junked train carriages, and miles of Here are several gangs of scavengers that will try to kill
maintenance ducts – remains, and as with all things in Spire, you and take your things upon entering endline: the acro-
the people put it to use. batic Crows, the coiffured and filthy Dandy-boys, the ra-
What’s more, Spire is a strange place, and the act of zor-fingered Merkers, the train-worshipping Kerberites, the
carving tunnels into it on such a grand scale – coupled with brash and boastful Butchers and a heretic sect of disheveled
the pulsating hub of psychic weirdness at the centre of the Carrion-Priests, exiled from New Heaven, whose arrival is
structure – has tweaked those tunnels several feet off-centre heralded by the howling of emaciated, spittle-flecked hounds.
of reality. Like a virus spreading through a body, the dark
energies of the Heart have spread through the city using the
veins of the Vermissian.
136 Districts and Factions of the Occult
Districts and Factions of the Occult137

POLARIS STATION THE TERROR OF CANDLEGATE STATION

Intended as the crown jewel of the Vermissian, Polaris Station Jutting out from the edge of Spire over the Blue Market,
is now a vast and crumbling ruin taken over by an organisa- Candlegate was one of the few exterior stations that was
tion of black market traders and smugglers who operate on built before construction on the system was indefinitely
the principle that anything (and anyone) can be bought and halted. Few go there now, aside from those truly desperate
sold. Using the tunnels of the network to transport goods to escape the authorities, because the station is the domain
through the city and to their stores, Polaris is one of the few of the Candlegate Killer – a terrifying and vicious figure,
places in Spire where the Azurite sect of gold-worshipping half legitimate threat and half urban legend, who has taken
trader-priests isn’t welcome. The current boss – a towering the Candle line as his own.
drow ex-soldier called Vex – has a habit of nailing Azurites There is a rite of passage amongst the Compass-boys of
to the great clock on the station’s facade with reinforced the Blue Market, who guide travellers through the shifting
sten coins through their wrists and ankles. passageways of stalls and shops, where a prospective member
Even with that considered, it’s a perfect place to buy must travel deep within Candlegate station and light – ap-
something if you don’t want any questions asked of you. propriately – a candle, placing it with the others that sur-
Just don’t wear blue when you visit. round the mural of the stations that make up the Vermissian.
Unlike most rites of passage, this is genuinely dangerous,
and about one in twenty boys doesn’t make it home from
THE LAST TRAIN the trek. There are mutterings among the Compass-boys
Legend has it that there’s one train still working on the rails of that they’re being sacrificed to something dark and terrible.
the Vermissian, powered by Goddess knows what, and it can-
not be stopped. Crewed by a collection of engineer-mystics,
the Last Train is kept in constant movement, screaming up BROOK STREET BRIDGE
distant tunnels and, if it can’t find rails to guide it, smashing Nestled on the barrier between down-Spire and up-Spire,
through obstacles and operating on raw momentum until it Brook Street bridge is hotly-contested territory as it pro-
finds some. The train is headed up with magelights blazing vides the only stable smuggling route for large shipments
through the dark, the furnace pulses with unknown energy of goods between the two halves of the city. At the centre, a
and the entire front car has been converted into an altar solid stone bridge twenty feet wide extends over a yawning
through which the inhabitants of the train bargain with, and void beneath, and armed guards patrol both exits.
sometimes steer, the locomotive. At present, the “up” side of the bridge is controlled by
Which is nonsense, obviously. But if someone needed corrupt guard officers in the pay of the Ivory Quarter’s Mis-
to get somewhere very quickly indeed, the Last Train would ter Alas, and the “down” side is also controlled by him, but
be the way to do it. through a series of false fronts and smokescreens ending
in lumbering Red Row enforcers packing scatterguns and
clad in thick dirty-black platemail, so he can charge people
THE SHRINE TO OUR LADY OF VENGEANCE to use it on both ends.
Deep in the tunnels towards the base of Spire, which are
long-flooded with effluvia and runoff from decades of misuse,
a cult of extremist dark elves operates a shrine to Lekolé,
the blood moon. It is rare for this sect (commonly known as
vigilites or crimsons) to maintain stable shrines or temples,
given that their religion is not only outlawed by the aelfir
but actively opposed by many drow – even those in the
Ministry – but here, in the crumbling ruins of a vermissian
station, they hold court.
Viewing all occult magic as an assault on the benevolent
energies of their mistress, the cult operate cells of agents
– many of whom might be someone you know – who si-
lence and kidnap magicians then drag them down here to
be drowned in the stinking mire, adding their fear and rage
to the burning braziers that line the altar in the centre of
what was once Godstreet Station.
138 Districts and Factions of the Occult
Districts and Factions of the Occult139

THE RATS THE HEART

If you need to get somewhere in Spire – but you can’t let There is a blistering, infectious, otherworldly rot at the centre
anyone see you get there, and speed isn’t an issue – then the of Spire; as though the structure is so alien, so impossible,
Rats can help you, for a price. A diverse bunch of outcasts, that the deeper one proceeds within, the less hold reality has
criminals, and gutterkin, the Rats (some of whom are ac- over the world. The Heart, deep below ground and nestled
tual rats) can lead you through the winding tunnels of the within mage-warped tunnels and flickering dead ends, is the
Vermissian, navigating the treacherous terrain and avoiding dead centre of the structure. Rational time and space – as
the most obvious threats. the rest of Spire knows them – are a long-lost memory to
Of course, that’s if they’re not on the take, and aren’t going the strange things that live there.
to deliver you to one of the many corpsehouses squirreled If it is impossible to map the city of Spire with any accu-
away in the system that supply bodies to the Garden district. racy, it is doubly impossible to map the Heart. Those guides
And if you don’t get one of the particularly deranged groups, that can be found, huddled in the corners of Derelictus bars
or show weakness or look even slightly robbable, else they’ll staring blankly into their liquor or perched in the ruins of a
slice your hamstrings, take your stens and get the hell out building on the edge of the Heart, eyes glinting in the dark,
of there. But sometimes you have to take what you can get. ply their trade through intuition, not memory. They feel the
A selection of Rats you might meet: Pox, a club-footed space of the Heart the way one would feel the skin of a lov-
drow with a fear of half-open doors; Spurrin, a warty gullman er, or warily eye a barking hound, and can smell the routes
who carves devotional items out of shinbones; Moppet, a they’re asked to take. Doors and passageways flicker in and
toadgirl with a wet sack full of unfertilised spawn, looking out of existence like faulty magelights; corridors constrict
for a partner; Greysen, a bent-backed disfigured aelfir poet; and crush trespassers; the floors buckle and undulate, their
Sinder, a human ringleader and guttermage with control surface somehow unbreaking.
over vermin. Many guides are blind, the dark having taken their sight
long ago, and few seem to mind. Some are entire family
units, their physical senses rotting away, bound together
THE VERMISSIAN VAULT with ropes and string, who will res-pond as one. None of
The drow Home Nations are in turmoil, torn apart by civil them are sane.
war and ancient rivalries. There is a cabal of sages, mages What follows is a description of things that can be found
and scholars who have taken it upon themselves to preserve in the Heart at any given time – and some things that find
what they can of the splintered, violent history of the dark travellers, and some things that cannot be found unless they
elves by securing it within the walls of the Vermissian. wish to be. Some of them are real, and some of them are
The Vault is a term for a collection of storage rooms and legends, and some are both.
libraries that the sect has created over the decades, using the Such is the way of the Heart.
unique powers of the Vermissian to hide things just out-of-
step with the real world. For those who know the way, there
are vast stores of knowledge and culture hidden within the
cracks of the tunnels – the Glass Library where informa- THE CITY BENEATH
tion coalesces like dew on leaves; the Locked Stacks, where The Heart holds no end of mysteries, terrors and glories.
knowledge is interred if deemed more useful dead than alive; If you’re interested in delving deeper into the red wet
the halls of the Gadoliv, mute and bandaged servants of the heaven that blossoms impossibly beneath the city of
Vault; the Great Museum, where artefacts from lost histories Spire, we wrote a whole book about it. Heart: the City
and impossible futures sit side-by-side; and the Anastomosis Beneath, Spire’s standalone sister game of body-horror
Device, which leaks lies into the world. and tragic ambition, should be available wherever you
Given their obsession with dark elf history and culture, purchased this book alongside assorted sourcebooks.
the Vault is of great interest to the Ministry, and the scholars
who tend it are often ministers themselves.
140 Districts and Factions of the Occult

BLOOD-WITCHES PEACE STREET

The Heart carries a disease, and those who wish to can Near the boundary of the Heart – as much as it can be said
bring it into their bodies. If an occultist is mad enough, to have a boundary – lies Peace Street, a community of drow
or perhaps desperate enough for a quick route to power, and some impoverished humans, who make infrequent trips
they can make a pilgrimage of sorts into the centre of the to Derelictus or Red Row to collect supplies, and who are all
Heart, where reality comes unbuckled, and commune with shunned and feared when they approach. For Peace Street is
the energies there. Few survive the pilgrimage, let alone the a strange place indeed, and it changes those who live there.
bonding process or the return journey. Lit by flickering lamplight, the street seems ordinary
For those who seek it out, it takes the form of a blood enough – which itself is tremendously out of the ordinary,
disease that warps their physical forms and bubbles under the for surrounding it is the typical environment of the Heart.
surface of their skin, deforming them into zoetrope horrors Trackless shifting lakes of dust, floating ruins, and caverns
with unnatural power over their own blood, and the blood that have never felt the touch of light and in which dark
of others – blood-witch. and hungry things dwell, border the quiet, suburban street.
On paper, the city of Spire is bound by law to declare In the houses, of which there are around fifty or so, each
any witch within its borders dead, and dispatch executioners family lives with the ghosts of their relatives side-by-side
to correct the oversight through sanctioned murder. But in with the living. Some of the spectres are as they were in
practice, the witches tend to keep to themselves and operate life but immaterial, but death is not always kind, and many
on the lowest rungs of society, and considering they can pluck bear the marks of their dying – jutting bone, dripping blood,
a gallon of blood out of your nose at a glance or summon a withered limbs or twisted necks. The families say they have
needle-fingered sprite that eats and replaces your first-born, always been here, and judging from the age of the ghosts that
the guards tend to leave them alone. sleep curled under beds and tucked away in attics, it would
seem that there is no “start date” for Peace Street – there is
always an older ghost to be found.
BLOOD-WITCH The inhabitants eke out a living as guides (although they
Names: Scylla, Kethys, Florence don’t like to go far from their families, and prefer to bring
Descriptors: Hovers just slightly off the ground, Blood them along on long journeys) and by salvaging unusual
drips upwards from her tear ducts, Carrying items from the Heart – moonstone ornaments, the bones
handfuls of half-dead mice of long-extinct creatures, art produced by no mortal hand,
Difficulty: 0, but 1 if you upset her ancient and potent spireblack amber, captured glowbugs the
Resistance: 6, 12 in her lair size of a drow’s clutched fist, and stranger things besides.
Equipment: Flensing blade (D3, Brutal, Bloodbound),
but also muttered hexes in languages that are
not only dead, but deliberately executed (D6, GHOSTS
Ongoing D6, Devastating, Ranged, Point- Names: Tallow-Ren, Herris, Lostlight
blank) Descriptors: Beheaded, Clearly someone’s mum, Accom-
panied by a floating spectral dagger
Difficulty: 0, for the most part
Resistance: 4, but you can’t hurt them with normal weap-
ons. Weapons made by aelfir hand circumvent
this rule for some reason
Equipment: Nothing tangible, but spectral chains and
claws (D3)
Districts and Factions of the Occult141

THE MOON GARDEN

It is written, in drow holy texts, that the souls of the poor BECOMING A VYSKANT HOST
unfortunate race will be freed upon death and travel, up If you welcome the mantid song that is the Vys into
through the night sky to reside in the Moon Garden, a sacred your blood, you will find yourself becoming detached
space of calm, where food is abundant, where the scorch- from your reality and lost in dreams of another, one
ing sun no longer burns their skin, and where their radiant sidestep away – a place where swaying towers wrought
goddess walks among them in a hundred forms. from glistening bone and gleaming muscle punch
And yet: the Moon Garden is here in Spire if you know through roiling stormclouds; where the song of the
where to look. When the moon hangs full far above the lightless Vys spreads through the air like blood in water,
expanse of the undercity, a seeker can find a gateway ringed projected by quivering resonant stems that pluck
with moonsilver-flecked ivy (which should never be touched, the air itself into uncanny shapes; where the ground
much less taken, lest the seeker themselves turn to glinting shakes with the perfect and terrifying breath of the
moonstone and be trapped forever, here) – and stepping worldmother, waiting here in a womb of her own
through this, and holding the Glorious Lady in their mind, building that pulses beneath the ground.
leads them to further gates, and further gates, each increas- You can find the rules for Vyskant infection
ing in beauty and intricacy of design, until they reach the on p. 90.
Garden. (The paths are filled with moonstone statues clutch-
ing handfuls of ivy leaves, it should be noted, their eyes end-
lessly shifting, their static mouths murmuring prayers for aid.)
The Moon Garden is a place of otherworldly beauty, and
above it shine strange stars, and the sphere of the world that GNOLL RESEARCH POST
holds Spire, and the Northern Kingdoms, and the human The gnolls of the southlands are secretive, and given that the
lands to the west, and Far Nujab and all the territory of the aelfir are at war with them over ownership of mountainous
gnolls far beyond, hangs in the sky. There is no colour here, Far Nujab, their presence in Spire is fraught with the danger
but the land is lit with bright moonlight, and shadowy figures of discovery by the Watch or the Solar Guard.
step between the trees and gaze calmly into shimmering re- Yet the gnolls are a curious people (and their reputation
flective pools. There are the spirits of drow that have passed as feral butchers is propaganda spread by the aelfir and, in
away, and they can be spoken to, and even bargained with, part, by the fearsome Mother Moon of Red Row and the
but they are not the same as they were in life. hidden masters of the Charnel cult in New Heaven). That
curiosity into the unusual has lead them to establish a base,
deep behind enemy lines, in the seclusion of the Heart. A
THE CAVE cabal of researchers under the leadership of Brother Pitch-
From the Cave the Vyskant came, a thousand thousand, teem- wood, an ancient and heavily-scarred gnoll professor, has
ing and hungry; and from elsewhere the cave came, and it been documenting the weirdnesses of the Heart for the last
brought with it the dust of centuries, of eons; it has always five years or so, and sending their findings back to their
been here, and it has not always been here, as have the Vyskant. headquarters in distant Al’Marah via bound djinns and
Listen: you will find the Cave, and if not you then some- subjugated angels of fire.
one like you, because that is what happens to the Cave – it The gnolls, understanding all too well the warping influ-
is found, the Vyskant are Known, and the world is never the ence of the vast energies of the Heart, have developed a sort
same again. And you will leave from the Cave, the spiralling of protective suit that all of their agents wear. These suits
etchings resonating in your mind like a struck bell, the weaving are fully enclosed, made from specially-treated sandwalker
patterns and sigils carved into the wall impossibly deep and leather and studded with protective charms that allow the
impossibly fine, and you will bring others here to show them, wearer to breathe clean air in the dankest of pits and resist
and they too will Know the Vyskant – and they will bring the unknowable power that bleeds out from the tear in reality
others, and so on, and so on, and each of them will carry the at the centre of Spire.
Vyskant in the space between the atoms of their blood. Brother Pitchwood and his assistants are not at all friendly,
Each day the Cave is found for the first time, and each day and have no qualms about silencing anyone who discovers
the resonances that the tiny mantis-like creatures brought their operations for fear they would be uncovered and driven
with them from a space that slipped between the seconds out with brutally effective gnoll weaponry – barbed prey-
on clocks echo throughout Spire, and each day their Mother hooks, gilded shot-cannon, and a wide variety of arcano-
comes closer to being born. It is a strange thing indeed that chemical bombs that ignite, disorientate or flash-freeze their
births its own mother, that lives as a song in the blood of foe. Still: if the rewards are right, they may be persuaded to
others, but the Vyskant are stranger than you could imagine. work alongside a group of ministers to help understand the
When the Cave is found for the first and final time, the strange depths of Spire.
creatures will call their faithful to where their mother will be
born, and from their flesh she will erupt glistening and pure.
142 Districts and Factions of the Occult
Districts and Factions of the Occult143

THE CORPSE PIT CARTER’S EXPEDITIONARY FORCE

Where do we go when we die? Most dark elves believe that Four hundred years ago, as the humans first made their way
they will travel to the ethereal Moon Garden; the humans, across the ocean and before their feats of retroengineering
a divided lot at the best of times, hold a multitude of beliefs saw them propelled to the heights of civilisation on a par
but many seem to believe that heaven lies beyond the last with the ancient elves, Excalibur Carter led a group of brave
horizon; and aelfir believe that their spirits will return to men and women into the depths of the then drow-controlled
the Soul Seas underneath the permafrost in the far north, Spire to explore the Heart. They never came back.
and that they will swim with their ancestors in scintillating But: they didn’t die, either. They cannot die. (A couple of
displays far beneath the ice, and confer their knowledge to them have tried it, but they just wake up unharmed in a few
the elders of the tribe through dreams and the movements hours.) They are trapped here, endlessly searching for the
of sea creatures. true centre of the Heart, to undo the terrifying wrongness
But, more pressingly, where do dead bodies go? Many that sustains their bodies. They look healthy enough – and
are picked apart by the gore-beaked ravens that haunt the four hundred years of wandering and exploration have given
towers of New Heaven, or else end up in a hyena’s belly in them vast experience and aptitude – but their minds are
the dense and winding streets below; some wealthy enough patchy to say the least.
to be interred are buried in the scant areas of dirt in the city; Should you need a guide, and you don’t wish to rely on
others are sold into the garden district and used as food for the blind, toothless lunatics who ply their trade in gutter-bars,
mushrooms or algae, serving the city in death one final time. you could do worse than Car-ter’s lot. Similarly, if you need
During the culls, though, where the Medical Corps of to know about anyone or anything in the reality-defying
the allied forces round up those struck with one of the many depths of the Heart, odds are they’ll know something of it.
illnesses that sweep through the undercity like fire through
dry paper, some dead and some nearly, and heave the lot of
them down into the Corpse Pit – a great chamber at the cen- THE SIGHTLESS BEES AND THEIR KEEPERS
tre of Spire that drops down into the very base of the thing. There are swarms of bees in the Heart, blind things, that will
Here, the corpses pile up, and rot, and rats and worms and never find a flower to feed from and whose bodies are hard,
blind shambling once-corvids pick at the mouldering flesh. black, and densely furred with curious white markings – and
Of particular interest is the worms – they are long and there are those who tend to those bees, a sect of devoted
thin and bone-white, almost fragile in their appearance, and apiarists, who protect the swarm with their lives. It is the
quest through mouths and noses to eat the brains of the bees that reinforce the barrier between the Heart and the
dead. A cult has risen up around the worms, because through outside world; they are creatures of structure and order far
centuries of eating brains and the influence of the Heart older than man or elf, and they will continue to build long
of Spire, they possess huge banks of knowledge. Eyeless after the “intelligent” races have died out.
priests, clad in the stinking vestments of the dead with skin To see someone killed by the bees is terrifying indeed;
like worm-eaten wood, take the creatures into themselves the creatures are without stings, but can enforce their
and let them excrete the wisdom of ages into their brains. structured reality on those who upset the swarm. Compacting
These men and women are undeniably mad (as the worms around aggressors in a dense, buzzing blanket, they dis-
often take more than they give when they enter the brain), perse moments later to reveal a perfect crystal statue of their
but they know things they shouldn’t be able to, and can even attacker, who is still alive in there, but will never move or
decant the worms into the brain of a fresh corpse and take speak again. The swarming grounds of the blind bees are
them back into their bodies to see what the corpse knew. dotted with such statues, and it is generally considered a
Of course, if you can’t trust the priests, you can always let kindness among the denizens of the Heart to shatter them
the worms burrow under your skin and dig into your brain. on sight.
144 Districts and Factions of the Occult

THE ENDLESS BACCHANAL VANISHING POINT

What is beauty? Beauty must be unusual. Beauty must In the art academies up-Spire, there are stock images
strive to break past the ideals of symmetry and acceptance. turned out on printing presses that teach students about per-
True beauty is art – it shocks, it challenges, it grabs the spective – pictures of perfectly straight streets stretching away
mind and refuses to let go. To see true beauty, and not the to nothing. At Vanishing Point, one of these streets is real.
watered-down prettiness of the up-Spire art or the base Standing on the X marked in the cobbles at the end of
comeliness of the courtesans in Amaranth, would shatter the street makes it look perfectly normal (if a little out-of-
the mind of all but the strongest intellectual. place for the Heart), but moving to either side reveals that
That is the theory of Nyr Dirtwise-Towards-The- the image shifts as though it were two-dimensional. And
Unshining-It-Flowered, and it is a theory shared by many yet, you can walk down the street, so long as you stay in
of the nightmare witches and hollow-souled hangers-on the middle of it.
that surround them. Nyr, once a jaded aelfir noble and the About ten minutes after you enter, you will spot a
third daughter of an ivory magnate, has descended into the wanderer in the distance, and soon you will realise that
depths of the Heart and come back changed – and more this is a copy of you, a fetch, and it will mirror your actions
beautiful, Nyr would argue. Transcending gender, social precisely and meet you in an embrace, then spin and carry
norms and the need for a regular humanoid shape, they on walking the way you entered.
resemble a black-and-white zoetrope horror as reality itself Continue down Vanishing Point and you will emerge
stutters and cracks around them. into Spire again, except: it is not Spire, it is a drawing of
Nyr has established a party of sorts, a popular destination the city, an imagining of it. Books are filled with gibberish,
for truly immoral aelfir or blood-witches who come back too and people are flat, and scenes are played out in loops.
strange to integrate into Spire proper, and it is ongoing. It It is a poor copy, this parasite Spire, and it is unsettling and
has been ongoing for twenty-seven years. Inside the weirdly unnerving to behold.
organic halls of Nyr’s “palace,” as they call it, experiments And yet: items brought back from this parasite city func-
that straddle the border between art and science are per- tion differently, doing what they are “supposed” to do. A
formed under a haze of narcotic smoke and the ear-splitting well-made pistol will never jam or misfire. A person’s copy
din of conjured music like nails on a blackboard. will not need to eat or drink or sleep. A key, blurry when
Why anyone sane would want to venture in is beyond viewed out of the corner of your eye, will easily fit the first
knowing – but, on occasion, people too important to lose lock you push it into.
go missing and are found there, and must be brought back.
But that’s easier said than done.

PLAYING AN UNDYING CHARACTER

THE MANSION If a character somehow becomes one of the undying,
The Mansion! A place of doors, and not of names. An they gain +2 Blood; they no longer feel pain, tiredness
endless parade of corridors, of white-masked guardians, or hunger. They don’t need to breathe, most poisons
of mind-blasted wanderers, of portraits of dead gods and and drugs will have no effect whatsoever on their bodies,
unborn children! and they cannot die of old age. In addition, they roll
To enter the Mansion, you must write your name on a with mastery on Resist checks, no matter the source.
scrap of paper and nail it to the great oak doorframe, adding However, something is… lost in the process, aside
it to the countless others that have walked through here. To from their heart; they become jaded and hollow
exit the mansion – well, you simply find the way out. Focus things, unable to satisfy themselves with passions that
on any door in Spire, place your hand upon a door-handle once thrilled them. In game terms, when they refresh,
in the Mansion, then simply open the door and walk through half the amount of stress removed (rounding up). In
– you will emerge from the door you imagined. If it doesn’t addition, magical healing – such as the blessings of
work first time, keep trying until it does. Our Glorious Lady, or the magic of the Lajhan – will
Alas, however – the Mansion keeps your name. It cannot not work on their animated corpses.
be spoken or written down while it is nailed to the front Depending on the professionalism of the surgeon
door, nor can you change it to another, and to use it again involved, the character may need regular check-ups
you must venture back, back down into the Heart and to and maintenance to make sure that their body is still
the Mansion again, and take your name from the wood. The functioning, and failure to attend these check-ups (or
hundreds, perhaps thousands, of names hammered into the a botched surgery) will result in their body crumbling,
portal show how often a traveller through the Mansion has rotting and coming apart. In game terms, once a
occasion to return. character misses a maintenance session, increase the
difficulty of all actions they perform by 1 until their
ravaged body is repaired.
Districts and Factions of the Occult145

THE GUILD OF MORTICIANS

Striding untouched and unchecked through the massed throng The surgery can only be performed on living participants,
of bodies in Spire are the Morticians, the administrants of and it freezes the subject at the age they elected to have
the thereafter. They run one of the most successful business the procedure performed (whether it is better to be made
ventures in the city in service to Mehror, the god of faded light. eternal at a young age and be forever beautiful, or wait un-
The Guild of Morticians is legally responsible for all dead til you are a little older and have experienced more of the
things in the city. Dressed in stark ceremonial black-and-white pleasures of life, is a matter of hot debate among the aelfir).
robes and a variety of monochrome tippets, chimeres, chasu- And, furthermore, it is not gentle – it ravages and stains the
bles, mitres, galeri and kalimavkorai, and bearing their spears body; it turns the eyes jet-black and the skin porcelain shot
of office, they are a fearsome sight to behold. Few would dare through with greyish veins; it takes away the ability of the
interrupt the business of a Mortician, especially one in full garb. body to heal through normal means.
The subject no longer needs to eat, or sleep, or breathe,
but the desire to do these things remains. Untethered by the
THE ADMINISTRANTS OF THE THEREAFTER possibility of death from old age, the mind of the undying –
The primary function of the Morticians is to properly dispose or the unending, or the pinned, or the oncewas – is allowed
of corpses, and thereby, ensure that the unquiet spirits of to travel to strange places, and while no-one returns from
the dead do not plague Spire. Under Spire law it is illegal the surgery precisely as they went in, within fifty years of
for anyone other than a Mortician to dispose of a body, so the procedure most subjects are unrecognisable from the
the guild has lucrative ties to the Garden district where it person they were beforehand.
sells on bodies to mushroom farms. Wealthier clients are While officially-registered surgeons and priests of Mehror
permitted to be torn apart by the corvids and vultures that give the heart back to the subject (or at least, they say they
cluster and flap about the turrets of New Heaven, and the do), there are less reputable practitioners of the art who’ll
very wealthiest are interred in one of the few patches of perform undying surgery on unwilling or desperate patients
unoccupied dirt in private cemeteries. and give their still-beating hearts to others for “safekeeping.”
(The aelfir view death as a very ugly business indeed, There are legions of enforcers both in the highest echelons
and don’t relish the thought of their bodies mouldering, or of Amaranth and the foulest dens of iniquity in Red Row,
being pecked apart by crows or eaten by hyenas, and so the undying and eternal, whose hearts are kept by their Lords
majority of high elves opt for a quick cremation.) and who do not feel pain, or need to sleep, and can guard
But: there is occult power hidden in corpses, an old magic of their masters forever.
teeth and bones, of woven hair charms and dead men’s hands,
and the Morticians deal in this too. Never officially, of course,
never on the books, but find a Mortician disreputable enough,
ask the right questions and flash the right bribes around, and
quickly enough you’ll find yourself in the back room of some
incense-wreathed temple to Mehror looking through display
cabinets of aelfir teeth and labeled fingerbones of the faithful.

UNDYING SURGERY
The real reason the Morticians are so powerful, though,
is that through intense ritual and centuries of dedicated
medical research, they have conquered death.
Access to the surgical process has a tremendously long
waiting list and is prohibitively expensive to the extent that
only the wealthiest amongst the inhabitants of Spire could
ever hope to afford it, but it cures the disease of death in
humans, drow and aelfir. In a process that takes three full
days of surgery and prayers, the priests of Mehror within the
guild remove the heart of the subject and replace it with a
totem – an item that is important to them, something which
symbolises their desires and drives, that can push them be-
yond the veil of death. The heart is packed in specially-treated
earth, and continues to beat when separate from the body;
should it be destroyed, the subject will perish.
146 Districts and Factions of the Occult

DEAD MEN WALKING THE GHOST PLAGUES

Due to a strange legal loophole, it is impossible and unlawful Twice in the last fifty years, the Morticians have faltered
to declare a death sentence on criminals or enemies of the city in their sacred duty due to internal conflict, arcane levels
within the boundaries of Spire, and while informal assassina- of bureaucracy or external competitors such as the Char-
tions are carried out on a weekly basis, the business of formal nel-worshipping sect of hyena worshipers that currently holds
execution has long been forbidden to the rulers of the city. half of New Heaven under their control. During these times,
But: by solving the loophole with another in kind, the the dead are stacked like firewood inside the corpse-halls of
council has put capital punishment back on the agenda. the Guild and last rites are rushed and incomplete. Angry
While the execution of an individual cannot be ordered by the ghosts, furious at the treatment of their mortal forms in
authorities of Spire, the Morticians are permitted to declare the hands of the Guild, appear with increasing frequency –
someone legally dead. If the person in question is actually standing mutely outside Mortician offices pointing inside,
alive, then this oversight in administration must be corrected draining the life out of bystanders in dark alleys, whispering
in-house by a cadre of serious, stony-faced men and women from patches of shadow into the ears of madmen.
known as Executioners. In addition to the bloody business Unfortunately, the prime target of the ghosts’ attentions
of killing bound and restrained prisoners, the Executioners is the Morticians, responsible as they are for their cursed
are responsible for the subdual, capture and final adjustment afterlife, and so an already dire problem quickly becomes
of those declared dead who are still at large. even harder to solve. Those killed by ghosts often become
The council, and those that support it, pays well for these ghosts themselves, thanks to the torment of the killing.
administrative corrections, because of the watertight legality Should the number of spirits reach a critical mass then the
of the methods involved. Most Executioners fall into one of spectral energy will begin to amalgamate in the form of a
two camps: bombastic rabble-rousers, who march at the head spirit host – a many-faced, towering incorporeal beast of a
of pitchfork-toting mobs and set buildings on fire to bring thing with tremendous psychic power, able to snap-freeze a
their quarry down, or quiet, unassuming individuals who use street to ice in a matter of seconds or scatter groups of men
disguise, hidden weapons and long-range crossbows to bring as if they were children’s toys.
the vital status of their prey in line with the official record.

EXECUTIONER SPIRIT HOST

Names: Rowan, Slate, Ashe Names: Individual names are lost within the horde,
Descriptors: In full ceremonial garb, Wearing small dark but it may refer to itself as We Who Are Lost,
glasses, In a conspicuously smart suit Those Who Have Returned or A Thousand
Difficulty: Executioners are hard-eyed men and women Broken Fingernails
who, if they don’t take pleasure in their job, Descriptors: A hivemind swarm of spectral orphans crawl-
are certainly very good at it. Every action you ing up the walls, The labourers caught in last
take against them is difficulty 1, minimum month’s tunnel collapse wielding industrial
Resistance: 8. Executioners will commonly surround rockbreaking equipment, A fanged centaur
themselves with angry mobs, each member made out of an amalgamation of drow and
of which has resistance 3 human body parts
Special: If an Executioner takes stress from an attack, Difficulty: 1, but you can’t fight it with mortal, un-
they can instead take 1 stress and remove enchanted weapons. Weapons or items of
a member of the angry mob that’s nearby fine aelfir make can hurt it though
or closer to them as their followers take the Resistance: 15 and, unless laid to rest, it will reform the
attack instead next night
Equipment: Executioners are permitted to carry whatever Equipment: Miscellaneous hurled items (D3, Ranged)
equipment they desire to perform their duty. and lumps of masonry or a terrifying chill
Common armaments are: falcon long-rifle touch (D8)
(D6, Accurate, Piercing, Extreme Range,
Reload) and knife (D3, Concealable), or:
chest-plate (Armour 3), military sabre (D6)
and burning brazier (D3, Ongoing D3). An-
gry mobs carry D3 weapons at best – clubs,
daggers, chair legs, boathooks etc.
Districts and Factions of the Occult147
148 Districts and Factions of the Occult

THE NECROPOLIS
Since the arrival of the Carrion-Priests, refugees of ghost SPEAK WITH DEAD
cities to the south, the Morticians have ceded control of huge Here are a handful of methods for viewing, speaking to
sections of New Heaven and retreated to what is now known or interacting with the normally-intangible spirits of the
as the Necropolis – a huge central chamber that connects dead that fill the Necropolis. Some of them even work.
the upper levels of Spire to the Garden district.
Built around a single vast vertical tunnel ringed with spiral • Hire a spirit board carrier, usually a bent-backed
stairs and corridors to dusty mausoleums, the Necropolis gutterkin or a penitent Mortician, who attaches a
is a dead and quiet place. Though patrolled by Morticians board covered in letters and common phrases on
and armed groups of devoted brethren, few trespassers enter their back and crouches in front of you, their arms
here; it is riddled with ghosts, and even those without the bent painfully behind themselves, scrabbling at the
ken of seeing the restless dead get a sense that something is board as they enter a trance and let spirits possess
awry the second they set foot within the chamber. Folk on them to talk to you by pointing at symbols
official business, such as visiting the grave of a loved one • Drink a specially-prepared draught, rumoured to be
or selling a body to the Hanging Gardens below, tend to run-off from undying surgery, that causes tremen-
conduct their affairs quickly and get back to the world of dous nausea and mild death-like effects, allowing
the living as soon as possible. spirits to interact freely with the user
• Cover yourself in raven bones taken from the Tow-
ers of Silence in New Heaven
MORTICIAN GUARDS • Catch and kill one of the biggest, meanest hyenas
Names: Quoth, Drendt, Pollax protected by the followers of Charnel, and wear its
Descriptors: Wearing black and white robes, Bearing the wet, uncured pelt
bones of their loved ones, Supported by ar- • Acquire an original Vermissian ticket officer uniform
cane-looking leg braces (of which there are four remaining) and an unstamped
Difficulty: 0 at the main gates; 1 as you approach the ticket from the maiden voyage of the Arterial Line
inner sanctums • Leap from the top of Spire and survive, and your
Resistance: 6 terrified ghost will manifest beside you and allow
Equipment: Heavy “ceremonial” curved swords (D6, you to talk to other spirits
Parry, Tiring), shields painted with icons of • Build a complete saint from bodily relics
Mehror (Armour 2) purchased in Pilgrim’s Walk and use it to compel
spirits into obedience

A CITY OF GHOSTS
Most folk cannot see ghosts; the Morticians know the trick,
and some Carrion-Priest rites can push the caster’s soul two
steps closer to death and allow them to talk to, touch and THE HALL OF ANCESTORS
even fight (or make love to) spectres. Unless a ghost holds a It was the fashion, once upon a time, for moneyed residents
strong enough resonance to manifest visibly in the physical of Spire to preserve their dead relatives by removing their
world, the majority of people will ignore them entirely, or internal organs, filling them with sawdust and treating their
sense them as an aberration: sudden temperature drops, a skin with noxious chemicals to ensure that they would stay
single whispered phrase, cracking glass, or ominous dreams. beautiful for eternity. These corpses would be given pride
To have the Sight and visit the Necropolis is to see it for of place in their homes (generally in some sort of realistic
what it truly is: a bustling city of the dead, overburdened with or idealised pose, such as hunting, singing, or delivering an
spirits that bicker and argue, that live their unlives as best inspirational speech) or, if the family didn’t have the space
they can before even their ghosts crumble away to nothing. or inclination to keep them at home, stored in the Hall of
Gangs of dead urchins gather on the spiral steps and hustle Ancestors situated towards the top of the Necropolis.
for ethereal coins; traders sell spectral jars of something High elves are mercurial, though, and when the current
from stalls that jut out of walls; nobles hover in mid-air, trend of cremation (or for the truly wealthy, aetheric abso-
too haughty to consider setting foot on the ground again. lution) came into fashion, the remaining stuffed corpses
Many are utterly insane by mortal standards, and their were sent down to the Hall and promptly forgotten about.
society works in a way that the living could never really hope The Hall of Ancestors is a grim place, now massively
to fathom, although a variety of Morticians have attempted under-funded and tended to by a handful of stewards and
to scribe books on the subject. They are jealous of the living, janitors as ancient and dusty as the corpses themselves.
and most resent any intrusion, though some may appreciate Moth-eaten, threadbare mauve carpet lines vast halls where
news from the outside world. the noble dead are stacked up like mannequins in a ware-
Districts and Factions of the Occult149

house – the fourth Chancellor-Viscount of House Gryndel UNDYING SURGERIES IN THE NECROPOLIS
is currently laid sideways over Lord Halcyon Stars-Softly- Chief among the sorceries of the Morticians is the trick of
Shine as he sits on his throne and pets a hunting hound that making someone undying – plucking out their heart and
is no longer there. replace it with a totem, turning their skin unaging and trans-
Three generations of minor Thespian-Legislators are lucent, pinning them in place at a year of their choosing. It
jammed into the same broom cupboard. A family of rats is de rigeur for a moneyed aelfir to have the surgery around
have taken up residence in the body of a beautiful aelfir girl their fortieth year, but unfortunate side effects (ranging
whose name has been lost to history, and they sneak out from moth infestation, to oily leakage around the eyes and
to steal biscuit crumbs from the nearby break-room a few nose, to the need for regular infusions of chemicals to stop
times a week. One half of a dancing couple holds out his the smell) mean that some put it off until later.
arms to the darkness, his partner long ago sold off to fuel a Those who take the plunge will travel to New Heaven
dark ritual in Derelictus. A group of stuffed drow servants or, more likely, to the surgeons of the Necropolis. In an
pantomime-weep around the body of a master who has effort to encourage competition and innovation (and due
since been relocated. to a loophole in the ordinances) each surgeon is officially
Few even among the Morticians visit here, and with good governed not by the Morticians but by themselves, leading
reason; it is a perverse place, and the mad spirits of the pre- to a wide variance in quality of treatment throughout the
served corpses collect in the rafters like mildew. district. Near the entrances, you’ll find desperate, semi-skilled
opportunists with enough money to rent a dingy office and
a stone slab, and while they offer competitive prices (or try
THE RETRO-ASTROLOGISTS to rip off unsuspecting rubes) their results are far from ideal.
OF THE OBSIDIAN ORRERY Further up-Spire, in warren-like offices of leather and im-
Seers have long looked to the stars to determine the path of ported mahogany, the elite surgeons cater to their clientele’s
the future; in the Obsidian Orrery, a sect of ghost-speaking wishes with utmost politeness and efficiency.
aelfir soothsayers has decided to take things into their own In the cigar-smoke-wreathed rooms of a top-tier undying
hands. Plunging a huge amount of resources (both physical surgeon, one can negotiate for all manner of modifications
and magical) into the project, they have created a fully-realised to one’s body to be performed at the same time as the main
mechanised model of the stars and planets that allows them to process itself – the unique energies allow for surgeries that
scry into the future with uncanny accuracy; where the night would kill a living creature, or at the very least come with a
sky may be obscured by clouds, or the smoke that pours from huge risk of rejection. Bundles of muscle, taken from luck-
the Works and the chimneys that stud the outer surface of less Red Row enforcers, can be grafted onto the arms and
Spire, the sky in the Obsidian Orrery (as it was named, due legs to allow for prodigious strength; the eyes of predatory
to the primary material in its construction) is always visible. creatures can be implanted in a patient’s sockets, sharpen-
But: the futures the Orrery’s astrologers scryed were not ing their perception; or, as is the latest fashion amongst the
always ideal, and they came together in agreement – if they truly wealthy, the body can be stripped down to component
could change the stars, they could change the future, and parts – exposed bone, muscle strung taught over a silver
sell good fortune to the highest bidder. With the cultural frame, organs encased in glass – all to expose the beauty of
inclination of the aelfir to believe their own work superior the surgeon’s work.
to the natural world, coupled with a cocktail of sacrifices
and narcotic-fuelled visions, the sect came to realise – in
their own way – that their map was more accurate than the THE LIBRARY OF SNUFFED CANDLES
real thing, and therefore could be modified and tweaked to Part of proper Mehror worship is to venerate things that
create futures that better suited them. once were but no longer are: the Prince of Snuffed Candles
Unsettlingly, it works. The mechanical stars work just adores the lost, the all-but-forgotten, the illegible etchings on
as well as the “real” ones far above, as far as the sect’s pre- a wind-worn gravestone. The Library of Snuffed Candles is
dictions are concerned, and they can be nudged into more part vault and part devotional temple, and its keepers make
favourable configurations. It’s not always perfect – sooth- it their life’s work to conserve and retain knowledge.
saying never is – but for the right price, the priest-engineers Here, there are the last of things – the only copies of
will don ceremonial overalls and reach their long, delicate cursed books, damned nearly beyond existence by a hundred
arms into the whirring machinery of the simulated heavens vengeful gods; full, illustrated family trees of the doomed
and pull. Stars will shift into and out of alignment, planets House of Starys, whose lords and ladies paid for their hubris
can be forcibly put into retrograde, and new constellations with the collapse of Fathom into the black waters of the
will blossom into focus. Cults waiting for the stars to be Shadowed Sea; and even people, kept in gilded cages, who
right can wait hundreds of years – or they can get together are the last speakers of a particular Home Nations dialect
enough silver to enter the Necropolis and bargain with the or the last monks of a long-dead goddess.
keepers of the Orrery for a beneficial night sky tomorrow.
150 Districts and Factions of the Occult
Districts and Factions of the Occult151
(And, of course, there are reams and reams of boring in- Becoming a priest of Mehror is one of the few ways that
formation, too, so long as it is obscure and there is only one of a drow born into poverty can hope to legally ascend the
it. The old laws and ordinances of Spire are held here, along social ranks in Spire; regardless of their origin, Morticians
with zoning information, police reports, terrible romantic are regarded with respect and often offered positions of
poetry, and so on. The most pious priests make no distinction relative power within the city (at present, they do not have a
between hidden codes, thousands of years old, carved in gold representative on the Council, but two of the seven members
tablets by godsblood avatars, and someone’s shopping list. are undying, and thus at least owe them a favour). But: the
But even then, they are not idiots, and realise the relative initiation process is tough, and few possess the devotion to
value of the information to others, and protect their treasures the arts of death and the required nihilism to make much
accordingly. It is not wise to break into the vaults of the most progress within the church.
prominent death cult in Spire; their curses are legendary, and
can wither a drow to dust in a matter of seconds should they
not speak the right pass-phrase when prompted.) CHOKE
Copying the information is forbidden, and reading it is In a land of grey robes and shadows, Choke is a riot of life and
frowned upon – the non-faithful are rarely granted access colour. Here, clinging to the sides of the narrowest part of the
without first gaining the authority to do so from the upper stairwell that forms the Necropolis, drow, humans and aelfir
echelons of the government (most break in, or forge the alike come to ply their trades. Primarily, the business of Choke
paperwork). But for the devoted and adventurous seeker is one of fortunes, and many who seek guidance make their way
– many of whom have joined the ranks of the Vermissian into the winding streets and rickety gantries looking for answers;
Sages – there is much to be found. this is a place suffused with the energies of death, and the walls
between worlds (and past, present and future) are weak here.
In the flashing colours and smoking lanterns of Choke,
THE CULT OF NECROFUSIMANCY you can have your palm read for a handful of sten, chat to the
There are those among the Morticians who dwell in the spirit of a long-dead loved one, or make contact with heretical
Necropolis (and elsewhere, but much of the sect is focused sects of Scryatrices who were cast out of the church of Our
within the guild) who believe that the city of Spire is the Glorious Lady for daring to seek the forbidden strands of
corpse of something ancient, long-ago turned to stone – that time and chance. Of course, not all of Choke is bright and
the cobbles of its streets are bones, that it held eyes in the colourful, looking to entice desperate travellers and separate
indentations along its side, that the huge, empty caverns them from their money; there are grave-robbers, some of
within once functioned as lungs. These magicians, straddling whom have done well enough to establish semi-permanent
the line between Mehror worship and black magic, propose offices and boutiques selling grave goods and “relics”, too,
that the city’s corpse can be manipulated like that of any along with a swarm of around a hundred or so rope-mak-
other creature – except, given the relative scales involved, ers, bridge-builders and scaffolders, many of whom have
on a much finer gradient than usual. been exiled from Perch, who keep the entire district from
Necrofusimancers are famed for reading omens in the collapsing into the void below.
patterns on the ceiling, praying over broken windows and
being unable to understand the people that surround them
as anything other than carrion-feeders or parasites – not a THE GRAVEYARDS
lot of fun at parties, in other words. But they are nigh-im- Hidden within the Spire, the dead lay at rest. While most
possible to catch if hunted; corridors shudder and close are heaped upon the Towers of Silence in New Heaven, or
sphincter-like behind them, they cannot get lost within the sold on to the Hanging Gardens to host fungal blooms, or
walls of the city, and they can sense their position and walk cremated in ceremonial fire, some sects and cultures present
quite comfortably in pitch-black rooms. in the city – many of whom are devotees of Mehror himself
– require their bodies to be buried in soft earth until the
flesh rots away. Given the lack of ground available in Spire,
THE GRAND TEMPLE OF MEHROR many choose to be buried in the foothills outside the city,
It is here that Mehror, the god of snuffed candles, the prince of but for those can that afford it there are spiderweb warrens
echoes, is worshipped, and all other temples built in his name burrowing through, and underneath, the districts of Spire.
are but a reflection of this great edifice, carved from the original In some places – the more exclusive areas – the ground
stone of Spire in ages past. Its coffers are stuffed with donations is well-tended, grass-like weavings cover the soil where be-
from funerals, devotional tithes from those who choose to neath the bones moulder and decay, and visits are well-or-
live their lives in service to the god, and illegal reselling of chestrated with offerings of light refreshments, devotional
mortal remains to occult practitioners. Located near the base readings, professional mourners-for-hire and on-site private
of the district, it is open to all – and given that the place is security to ensure that one’s grave goods aren’t stolen by
usually lousy with living worshippers, most ghosts avoid it. opportunistic grave robbers.
152 Districts and Factions of the Occult

Elsewhere, the soft earth churns with worms, and corpses THE MIDWIVES
are hurled into stinking mass graves by uncaring crypt-keep- If the legends are to be believed, when the drow were cursed
ers; in other corridors, the dry bones of the dead are num- with the affliction that drove them underground to flee the
bered and stored in drawers and cupboards, on shelves and sun’s light, they lost the ability to carry their young to term.
in sarcophagi, awaiting instructions from their heavenly Bargaining with ancient allies, they cast around desperately
masters. You are never more than six feet from a corpse, in to find a way to sustain their doomed race – and they found
Spire, it is said. it, in the form of Ishkrah, the fierce and conniving mother
of spiders. In exchange, Ishkrah’s children crept into the
drow’s bloodline, so they could be closer to the elves, and
become more beautiful than ever.
FORTUNE TELLING METHODS Whether this story is true or not, drow young emerge
Knucklebones, marked with sigils and tossed like from their mothers around a month after conception in a
dice, often onto “maps” covered in occult and ab- translucent egg-sac, and this sac is secreted away and fed
stract imagery that the caster interprets depending blood through its membrane for a further six months until
on which bone lands where. the young drow is ready to emerge. What’s more, some rare
drow carry spiderlike traits – additional limbs and eyes, thick
Scrying bowls and mirrors, devoted to the drow god- cartilaginous hairs on their forearms and palms, exoskeletal
desses – a bowl of clear water for Our Glorious Lady, a plates, mandibles, and spinnerets.
black-lacquered mirror for Our Hidden Mistress, and These strange elves are treated with a mixture of devotion
a vessel filled with warm blood for the Crimson Vigil. and fear by the drow community, but the majority of them
– if they survive gestation and the first few difficult years of
Sibyls and oracles who risk their bodies and minds by their lives – will join the Midwives, an ancient guild devoted
ingesting or inhaling vast quantities of psychoactive to the survival of the dark elf race.
substances to bring them closer to the divine.

Austromancy, whose practitioners line the gantries THE DARK ARTS OF ISHKRAH
and stairwells and listen to the winds howling up The midwives are trained, through meditation and occult
and down Spire, and blindly scrawl their predictions magic, to augment their spider-blood traits until they are
on their arms and bodies in hurried, inky scratches. truly terrifying to behold. Two extra eyes shift into eight,
providing uncanny perception; the fingertips and the soles of
A Malrique deck, so named after the seers of the the feet grow long gripping hairs, allowing them to effortlessly
drow House Malrique, which features elements from climb sheer surfaces; tough skin hardens to an iridescent
all nine noble houses of the dark elves and sets them carapace; faces distort into furred mandibles, dripping with
against each other in illustrative, allegorical wars. paralysing venom; arms and legs split into multiple limbs;
Played by two fortune-tellers at once, each taking and spinnerets pucker and blossom from abdomens, ready
a side, the events dictated in the cards as they are to weave fine webs of glistening silk to trap their prey.
played against each other refer to ancient wars be- A true mistress of the art – all midwives are female – can
tween the houses, as well as to events that have yet crack and remould their humanoid form into something
to come to pass. utterly other, a nightmare mixture of drow and spider, a
chittering, towering, arachnid-centaur horror that few can
An aelfir sect of haruspices who gut creatures and hope to best in combat.
examine their entrails to cast light on the future –
there is a sanctity in the innards of a creature, they
believe, unseen by mortal or divine eyes, and from
that they can extrapolate potential events. The more
unique the creature, the more accurate the foretelling,
and as such the aelfir have taken to procuring strange
gutterkin to sacrifice for their art – or, in the direst
cases, performing the act upon one of their own.
Districts and Factions of the Occult153

MIDWIFE It is not at all uncommon for a midwife and a blood-

Names: Shellae, Hekate, Ishkin witch to set up shop in the same territory – the midwife’s
Descriptors: Wearing a jewelled veil, Has two extra arms, clutch-cave lying within the borders of what the blood-witch
Wrapped in red silk considers to be her domain – and the resulting conflict is as
Difficulty: If you fight a midwife in her lair (and why bloody as it is long. (The blood-witch midwife, Maji-Mal,
would you?), her home advantage gives her is one of a kind, and her brood of hatchlings enchanted and
difficulty 2 on account of the webs and dark- fed with her own diseased blood are far, far away from what
ness. Otherwise, difficulty 0 any reasonable citizen of Spire would consider to be drow.)
Resistance: 6, or 10 if she’s in her lair
Equipment: None, save ritual and ceremonial garb and
instruments. But her attacks are either ven- BLOOD VINTAGES
omous fangs (D6) or multiple barbed limbs While some drow use only their own blood or that of their
(D6, Brutal) and she has D6 Armour, rolled midwife to feed their undeveloped children, it is considered
at the start of the situation, to represent how smart among high society to ensure that the fetus receives
much chitinous exoskeleton she can summon the best blood available. The precise nature of this blood is
to protect herself up to the midwife in question – some believe that the blood
of a strong animal, such as an ox or megacorvid, is the best
means to give nourishment; others swear by using the blood
STRUCTURE from one of the eight great dark elf houses to ensure that
The organisation of the guild depends largely on the level the child is given a proper upbringing.
of society in which they find themselves operating. Up- Vials of blood from dark elf heroes, preserved through un-
spire, where monied drow have handed their loyalties over canny means by the occult arts of the midwives, can change
wholesale to the aelfir, they function as live-in carers to guide hands for exceptional sums of money. A crystal philtre drawn
the family through the process of birth and caring for the from the Underqueen of Yssen on the eve of her victorious
undeveloped fetus as well as advising on the correct vintage battle at Crimson Tooth earned over ten thousand darnarian
of blood to feed it. in a private auction last year, and there is a well-known drow
In mid-Spire, the midwives operate incubation houses, folk tale about a beautiful assassin who seduces men of power
kept as best they can at the optimal breeding temperature, and influence before draining them dry to feed her children.
and guarded by a die-hard detachment of spider-blooded It is not uncommon for a drow of good standing who is
drow. These are some of the most valuable places to the down on their luck to sell their blood for profit, and even
drow race in Spire: each house can hold as many as half a less uncommon for a drow of poor standing to do the same
thousand unborn drow in different stages of development. and lie about their heritage. The libraries of the midwives
Midwives are therefore trained in not only medical care but have great tomes of lineage and augury that can determine
how to utilise their unique biology and occult arts to better the true nature of a drow’s blood: tomes that the interdi-
defend the future of their race. Anyone assaulting an incu- mensional scholars of the Vermissian are all too keen to get
bation house with an intent to abduct or destroy the unborn their hands on and protect.
children of their enemies will be faced with a tightly-knit
squad of many-limbed, mandibled terrors that scuttle along
the ceiling as though it were the floor and boast a carapace
tough enough to turn away sword-strikes and pistol-shot.
In the undercity – in the back alleys of Red Row and the
desolate streets of Derelictus – the midwives occupy a more
socially supportive role, offering medical and emotional
support to those who need it (and those who can afford it).
An undercity midwife is a terror to behold indeed – often
working alone, and often one of the more mutated and
strange of her kin, the midwife will defend the inhabitants
of her neighbourhood, both born and unborn, with vicious
tenacity. In a practice used by midwives throughout Spire,
undercity members of the guild in particular rely on assis-
tance from actual spiders to tend to the eggs and make sure
the membranes are intact.
154 Districts and Factions of the Occult
Districts and Factions of the Occult155

DEMONS
Demons come from an alternative plane of reality: a sort of MAKING A DEAL WITH A DEMON
writhing, roiling sea of madness and potential energy. When Communing with a demon is a complex process, involving
magi practice demonology, they build a vessel for this energy various rites and rituals that imbue an inert eidolon with
to occupy. Some of these vessels summon a particular demon, energy and awaken it. Once summoned, a demon will speak
or shape the incoming energy into a relatable form – the to the caster in whatever way it can – often it appears in a
jury is out on whether demons have personalities or whether waking dream, but it may manifest as a spectre or write its
those personalities are forced onto them by the vessel itself. intentions on the walls in blood. The caster should then state,
as clearly and concisely as possible, what act they want the
demon to perform on their behalf. Assuming the rites have
EIDOLONS been correctly observed, the demon will perform the task
An eidolon is a physical object that summons demonic force to the best of its ability.
into the caster’s presence. There is no such thing as a reliable, It is almost always a terrible idea. Demonology is a fast
modern eidolon outside of rare and closely-guarded gnollish route to power, but it comes at a cost – demons do not
technology – they are either ancient, unknowable artefacts understand the material world, and wind their fate around
in dire need of repair, or cobbled-together experimental the caster’s own, so any bargain struck with them inevitably
devices built by a cabal of heretical occultists and engineers. has horrendous side-effects. Practising demonologists take
An eidolon is a reflection of form, and demonic force will not great pains to distance themselves from the fallout of the
inhabit an object that does not match its resonance – they art, using protective rites or resorting to magical proxies on
vary from boxes that will fit in a drow’s pocket to room-sized which to offload the inevitable torment.
shattered bells to hidden mazes, far beneath the surface of
the world. (The aelfir, creative as they are, have mastered
secret songs that will turn any who hear them into a walking RULES
eidolon against their will.) Most eidolons that a demonolo- When you have bonded with a demon, you may ask favours of
gist will interact with are old, tattered things, handed down it as though it was any other NPC bond you possess – albeit
between student and master or stolen from the cold, dead a much more powerful one – by using the Beseech Demon
hands of the betrayed; making a new eidolon, especially a spell from the demonologist extra advance on p. 82.
stable one, is a rarer art than kindling an existing one into life. The player never rolls dice for the demon’s actions – the
Power channeled through an eidolon into real-world GM does, and does not necessarily have to tell the player
effects on a broad scale (for example, the Labyrinthine re- whether or not it has worked (demons are notorious liars). If
arranging the corridors of Spire into a more pleasing shape) the bond suffers stress as a result of the action, roll for fallout at
is known as suffusion. Instilling that power into a specific the end of the session as normal – however, because this is no
object or item and changing its properties (for example, the normal bond, it doesn’t use the normal bond rules for fallout.
Labyrinthine enchanting a key to open any door) is infusion. Instead, it uses the table below.
Both arts are dangerous, but neither compare to incursion – To remove stress marked against a demonic bond, the
the eidolon is used as a direct portal for the demonic energy, caster must perform acts on behalf of the demon as defined
and it spreads unchecked in a wide area, rewriting reality in during the casting. These often focus around things sacri-
a hellish, unpredictable nightmare. Aelfir war demonology ficed to the demon in a ritual manner, which might include:
focuses largely on incursions. people, animals, artefacts, relationships, memories, bonds,
skills, domains, additional resistance slots, knowledge, etc.
A suffusion will have broad, narrative effects. An infu-
sion, requiring an object or person to cast it on, will create a
FIRST CONTACT “magic” item – either it will have strictly defined abilities (a
The first time you commune with an eidolon and sword that can cut bonds) or it will have unusually impressive
make a bond with it, it burrows into you and wrenches qualities (a sword that is D8, Devastating). A negative infu-
secrets from your thoughts – mark D6 stress to Mind. sion, or curse, is also possible but more rarely cast. Neither
suffusion nor infusion is permanent, and most will not last
a full day before running out of power.
156 Districts and Factions of the Occult

DEMONIC BOND FALLOUT

NAMES OF KNOWN DEMONIC ENTITIES
MINOR Scholars have written many a tome regarding the
Backlash [Bond, Demonic] nature and names of demons, and the vast majority
The demonic energy, burrowing through your mind, earths of them are utterly useless. Most of the rest are just
itself in someone you know. An ally – if not necessarily a useful enough to be dangerous, and a select few
bond – is subject to a terrible fate, and it is your fault. You containing reliable, tested information on demons
will probably see it happen. If it is a bond or a fellow player, are jealously guarded. Here are a list of demons,
they immediately suffer Moderate fallout; otherwise, they’re some of which may even be real:
dead, or worse.
• The Eternal • The Warden
Anathema [Bond, Demonic] • The Grieving • Miasma
Animals hate you, and will become enraged in your presence, • The Blighted • The Lashing Wind
even if normally docile. There is no way to circumvent this. • The Vulpine • The Excoriator
• The Twin Courts • Knuckle-Crack
• Crow-Thing • Half-Face
MODERATE • The Just • The Knife
Resonance [Bond, Demonic] • The Infernal • The Crucible
Your body is wracked with demonic energy.You now function • The Lost Kingdom • The Guttered Candle
as an eidolon for your demon, and at least one other party • Lock
will be interested in capturing you and locking you away
forever; odds are, they will succeed, unless you die first.

Doom [Bond, Demonic]

You wish you were dead, but that’s not how this works.
Before the next dawn, you will suffer Moderate fallout in WHAT ARE DEMONS?
three categories of the GM’s choosing. • An ancient race that ascended beyond the need
for physical forms, and can be communicated
Aetheric Burnout [Bond, Demonic] with extra-dimensionally via magic.
Your mind rebels against the unnatural forces ripping through • The manifest form of drow sin.
it.You can no longer cast demonological spells, but you can • Whatever remains of the Prokatakos, imprisoned
teach someone else to do it. Aetheric burnout is the main forever beyond normal reality for their crimes.
reason that demonologists survive past their fortieth year. • The fragments of dead gods.
• The amalgamated souls of the dead, coalescing
into abstract intelligences.
SEVERE • A fiction; they are a magical force, and all names
Incursion [Bond, Demonic] and personalities are simply reflections of the caster
You become the conduit for an incursion; a nightmare realm and whoever built the eidolon.
bursts from your body, killing hundreds if not thousands of • The ancient Sorcerer-Kings of the drow, projected
people, and lasts for anywhere from a minute to an hour. into the future with unknowable magic power,
If you are lucky, you will not survive the experience, but working their schemes into the current day and
even if you do, you will not be able to function as a person awaiting their resurgence.
ever again. • What happens when an undying aelfir finally dies.
• Nothing but a hallucination brought on by too
A Smoking Crater of a Mind [Bond, Demonic] much exposure to ambient sorcery; demonology is
Suffer immediate Moderate Mind fallout.You can no longer simply an exceptionally dangerous, but otherwise
cast spells with the [Occult] tag. unremarkable, ritual occult magic.
Districts and Factions of the Occult157

EXAMPLE DEMONS
THE LABYRINTHINE THE SENTINEL
Here is the Labyrinthine, a maddening riddle of a thing, that The Sentinel is a great architect, a Lord of Watchtowers
confuses and twists the minds of elf and man alike – and, – it claims to have built Spire itself, but all demons are
moreso, rearranges the very structure of the city, plucks liars. The eidolon is a helm that fully encloses the face, and
corridor and passage from their rightful environs and plunges no eye-holes or mouth-holes can be made, and within it is
them into strange and unsettling orders in accordance with sweltering hot, and unseen talons caress the wearer’s eyes
its own unknowable desires. Should a sorcerer wish to step and tongue while they commune with the demon in silence.
between New Heaven and Derelictus in a matter of seconds, It is a furious thing, a creature of war, a lover of walls and
the Labyrinthine can assist; it is the King of Ways, the Prince unbreakable things.
of Portals, and all places are as one to it. Its chief power is to conjure structures from nothing in
Its eidolon is invariably complex; puzzleboxes, models of an instant, and many a sorcerer-king of the city-states of Ys
impossible buildings, interlocking metalwork, and so on. It has turned to the skills of the Sentinel in times of strife and
is said that the Labyrinthine is a place unto itself, perhaps war. These towers are strong, and of unknown make, and
all places, and amongst the worst of the curses that it can come fully stocked with sword and cannon and shot. Those
inflict is to trap a luckless soul within itself for eternity, who bond with the demon, who believe its lies and expose
forcing them into an endless prison; this is a common end their mind to its poison, may find themselves unwilling to
for magi who believe, wrongly, that they have the measure leave safe spaces, and suspecting all those around them as
of the demon. infiltrators.

THE FOURTH SISTER THE THRICE-HORNED

Legends speak of three sisters – a spinner, a weaver, a cutter Residing in the top half of a suit of plate armour, unwearable
– and they crop up throughout the old stories of the world. by man or elf (the neck too narrow and constricting, the
The drow position them in the night sky far above; the aelfir horns mounted on the helmet too heavy, the arms too many
speak of them in hushed tones, as they are the old gods of and spindly, the inside wreathed in spines and barbs), the
the north-lands, and must not be worshipped; and so on, Thrice-Horned is a granter of wishes steeped in pride and
and so forth. This is the fourth sister – a thief, a scoundrel, inadequacy – it can make the caster stronger, more charming,
powered by jealousy and pain and fear, spurned by myth better-off, taller, happier, and so on. It is haughty, and not
and turned rotten like spoiled milk. a little regal, and refers to a grand kingdom Elsewhere over
She can steal anything, from anywhere, and bring it to which it reigns – it does not like to grant favours, and does
the caster: a ring, a heart, a crown, a sword, a last breath. so only under duress.
Her eidolon is a pair of fine rings, linked together with silver The favours, of course, come with a price; the asker
chains; when worn, she manifests between them as a spectre, will find themselves in over their head, or struck down by
and the caster can feel her ghostly breath on their cheek. their hubris. An elf who wished for a silver tongue will find
Her bond is a curse, though, as is that of all demons; she themselves unable to tell the truth; a man who begged eternal
steals things from the caster, or brings them treats unasked life will be trapped beneath a heavy flagstone; the money that
that lead them into danger. lines an aelfir’s coffers comes from the pockets of dangerous
and armed men. But everyone believes they can put off or
avoid the consequences, and the Thrice-Horned is perfectly
happy to let them try.
158 Districts and Factions of the Occult

OCCULT FALLOUT
If you suffer fallout as a result of casting an occult spell, Needle-Toothed Child [Occult, Hex-Maladi]
being the target of an occult spell, or braving environments When you sleep, you cast this spell. A long-limbed, bony,
that are rife with ambient magical energy (the Heart, the needle-toothed creature unfolds from your mouth and crawls
Vermissian, a blood-witch’s lair, etc) then you might suffer out into the streets to wreak havoc, returning to creep back
occult fallout. The GM should feel free to draw results from inside you before you awaken. At first it will only get up to
the table below when appropriate. minor mischief (gutting cats, desecrating altars, etc) but it
Results marked as [Hex-Maladi] are infectious spells, or will soon graduate to assault, theft and murder. It has your
curses, that sit in your mind and wait until the right con- face. Killing it will not stop the infection; it will crawl out
ditions are met before spontaneously casting themselves. of you again the next time you fall asleep. You can trap the
Each time you cast the spell, the GM should roll a D6 – on thing, potentially – but it is canny, and can escape from most
a 6, someone else has contracted the disease as a result of cages given time, or simply starve itself to death.
your actions. If cornered, the creature has the following profile:
Removing occult fallout requires special training, and Resistance: 4
probably undergoing a painful process of blessing and Difficulty: 0
purification at a temple. Equipment: Needle-teeth and filthy claws (D3, Ongoing
D3)

MINOR Spell Magnet [Occult]

Fleeting Mark [Occult] Your soul’s resonance rings in time with magic, and it is
Until the next dawn, you bear a tell or mark that identifies drawn to you. If a nearby target marks stress from being the
the sorcery in your blood – horns, glowing eyes, glyphs subject of a spell, halve the stress between you and them.
wriggling over your skin, moths crawling up your throat,
and so on. When you need someone to trust you or treat Witch’s Mark [Occult]
you kindly while you bear the mark, increase the difficulty As Fleeting Mark, but the change is permanent.
of the roll by 1.

Heart on Your Sleeve [Occult] SEVERE

Until the end of the next session, any lies you tell cause the Fetch [Occult]
truth to appear as a tattoo on your skin or a pattern on your A copy of you, bearing some but not all of your memories
clothing. These will fade over time. and mannerisms, is trying to sneak into your life and replace
you. It is made of broken springs, animal bones and old
Unluck Curse [Occult, Hex-Maladi] clothes glamoured to look like you, and without specialist
Once per session, when you roll at least one 10 on a dice roll, training and magic, few will be able to tell the difference
the GM may activate this curse; your highest dice counts as between you and it. It will stop at nothing to permanently
a 1, instead, and some magical tell appears on your body to replace you.
let you know it was the hex-maladi.
Night Terrors [Occult]
A powerful blood-witch has taken notice of your powers,
MODERATE and wishes to recruit you to her coven. If you refuse, or do
Bone-Curse [Occult, Hex-Maladi] not work hard enough towards becoming a blood-witch
If you ever mark 3 or more stress to Reputation, you cast in her thrall, she will crouch on your chest each night and
this spell upon the person who the GM feels caused you watch you sleep, or try to sleep, and you will not be able to
to lose face; their bone-marrow briefly turns to writhing move until the morning.While in this mad, sleep-deprived
centipedes and stinging ants, causing D8 stress and filling state, all stress removed as a result of refreshing or other
them with excruciating pain. methods is halved.

Faery-Curse [Occult]
If you ever touch unforged iron or cross running water,
mark D6 stress. If you touch forged iron or cross still water,
mark D3 stress.
Districts and Factions of the Occult159
160 Districts and Factions of Order
 DISTRICTS AND FACTIONS
OF ORDER

THE CITY GUARD

Someone’s got to keep the peace. In Red Row, that job falls Which means, of course, that there are lots of strange
to several rival gangs of enforcers; in the Council chambers, laws that no-one obeys – no carrying a pig on Sunday in the
the black guard of the aelfir maintain a silent vigil, armed and North Docks, each able-bodied human in the Works is to craft
armoured with the best the city has to offer; in Perch, the jus- and give five arrows a week to the military HQ, a Spire-wide
tice-cult known as the Bound punish wrongdoers by kicking smoking ban, etc – but also that the waters of law have become
them off the side of the Spire itself. But, for the majority of the so impressively muddied that anyone in the city is arrestable
city, day-to-day law enforcement is handled by the city guard. at any time, and it’s a matter of how vindictive the guards are
It’s a thankless job. On one side, guards have their aelfir feeling that day as to whether they want to arrest them or not.
paymasters treating them like a personal staff, and arresting (For example: malak, a mild depressant taken in tincture
someone who might have connections up-Spire becomes a form by drow that is as popular as tea or coffee in the Home
nightmare web of etiquette that most guards simply don’t Nations, has been made illegal in Spire. Not because it’s
bother with. (Of course: aelfir are above the law, and they dangerous, or because the aelfir care about the side-effects
see it as a frippery that the lower races need to put in place it might have on users, but because it gave the guard a valid
to stop them from killing each other. No drow guard could excuse to search drow on the street and raid their homes
ever hope to arrest an aelfir, unless that aelfir was tremen- looking for evidence.)
dously unpopular and the guard in question brought a lot The guards’ main business is patrolling, and attempt-
of friends with them.) ing to stop outright law-breaking in public places, as well
On the other side, guards have the entire city trying to as breaking up fights that threaten to escalate into serious
break the law. And the average guard isn’t some hard-nosed, property damage or murder.
iron-willed bastard – they’re local folk who’re doing their For more information on joining the City Guard and the
best to earn a wage, and many of them are genuinely trying advances this provides, see p. 77.
to make Spire a better place to live. Odds are, if you see a
guard walking down the street in your neighbourhood, you’ll
know his name – or his sister’s name, or that his mum runs CITY GUARD
the bar down the road, and so on. Names: Reyen, Anton, Sallomme
The official laws of Spire are detailed in eighteen tomes, Descriptors: Wearing armour one size too large, Clutching
all of which are competitively updated by a Warrior-Poet a spireblack lantern, Carrying sandwiches in
and a Calligrapher-Attorney who were at one point married a brown paper bag
and are using the legal charter of the city as a battleground Difficulty: 0
for their old disputes. Resistance: 5
Equipment: Light armour (2), Club (D3) if they’re on
patrol or Halberd (D6, Brutal) if they’re on
guard duty, occasionally a jackdaw pistol (D6,
Piercing, Reload, Ranged)
162 Districts and Factions of Order

NOTABLE LOCATIONS THE SECRET POLICE

An outpost holds around 10–15 guard; a garrison can easily The average member of the guard isn’t big on investigation
support more than twice that number. These strongholds – and indeed, digging too deep into problems is dissuaded
are built primarily as defensive measures, giving the au- by their superiors in HQ – so any of them who want to get
thorities and the aelfir a place to hold up during periods of their hands dirty and start working out who did crimes and
insurrection, but they also provide weapons and armour for why and possibly how they can stop future crimes generally
the guard and limited incarceration facilities for criminals. has to do so pretty quietly, and on their own time too.
Still, there is a small collection of such individuals within
Vorloren Standard: Named after the old warehouse it’s the ranks of the guard – one every garrison or so, and more
built in, this is widely regarded as the worst posting in in objectionable postings – who believe that crime-fighting is
all of Spire as it backs onto the lawless district of Red more than breaking up fights at bars and making sure nothing
Row. The entire staff is made up of bloodthirsty lunatics, that gets thrown at visiting dignitaries makes it through the
social climbers who upset the wrong guard captain, and shield-wall. These individuals get together (usually over a
pretty much anyone who tries to investigate corruption
in the upper echelons of the organisation.

Greenway: Chief border control on the Garden, looking RELEVANT LAWS

to intercept the massive shipments of hallucinogenic Any crime against an aelfir is automatically worse than
mushrooms headed down-Spire to the undercity drug that same crime against a non-aelfir in terms of the
capital: Threadneedle Square. punishment, fine and investigation that follows (in
game terms, increase the stress dice one step when
Blackwater Link: Sole guard post in the knight-controlled players are trying to cover their tracks or evade justice).
North Docks, which attracts the sort of anally-retentive Generally speaking, any weapon that inflicts D6
stickler for paperwork that’s sick and tired of the Knights stress or higher is illegal to carry and own in Spire.
flaunting their authority without any sort of proper over- Upon finding such weapons, guards will confiscate
head. Their Letters of Notice are legendary, and they seem them and fine (or arrest) the owner.
to be on a quest to shut down as many bars in the region Knights of the North Docks are permitted to carry
as they can for Health and Safety violations. any edged weapon they want, as well as lances. This
upsets the city guard no end.
Highmoon Precinct: Defenders of the southern segment Firearm ownership is banned, and every gun
of the Works, who boast over three guns per officer and, in Spire is officially the property of the city, but
to be frank, an over-zealous desire to use them. thousands go missing or change hands every month.
Practicing demonological magic is highly illegal,
Our Lady’s Gate: A precinct made up of local boys and but it’s above the pay grade of the average city guard,
girls who protect the Cathedral of Our Glorious Lady who will probably defer the problem to more senior
in mid-Spire. Famously pro-drow, although not so much officers. Other occult magic is frowned upon by most
that they can be openly anti-aelfir. of the general populace, including the guard.
There are nine forbidden faiths, as laid out by
the council, and the punishment for membership
is execution, exile, indentured servitude, “extended
interrogation,” etc. The two most relevant of these
faiths are worship of Lombre (Our Hidden Mistress)
and Lekolé (Our Crimson Vigil) – the names of three
of the remaining five faiths can’t be spoken aloud in
Spire on pain of death, and indeed are stricken from
all but the most secret of records, so almost no-one
knows what they are.
Wearing of masks is required in aelfir districts (it
used to be Spire-wide, but it didn’t catch on) – namely
in Amaranth, the Elven Quarter in the Blue Docks, and
the Council chambers and surrounding area. Those
caught without a mask will be roughed up and evicted
from the area, or put in jail for a few days to think about
what they’ve done.
Districts and Factions of Order163

bottle of rotgut after the day shift, or strong coffee after the THE ALLIED DEFENCE HQ
night shift) and share information, looking to plot crime as At the base of the Spire, on the east between the North
it spreads across Spire and stop it before it worsens. Docks and the Blue Port, is the Allied Defence HQ – or the
The majority of them aren’t going to get anywhere, and Barracks, as it is commonly known – where the aelfir are
are cursed to a life of connecting newspaper clippings to- staging their ongoing war against the gnolls in the southlands
gether with red string on the walls of their one-bedroomed of Far Nujab.
flats, but some of them have a flair for investigation and It is a bustling hub of activity, swarming with soldiers
have uncovered some interesting things. Most of the time, and hangers-on – traders, dancers, weapon merchants, chil-
these lead back to aelfir interests (and as such have to be dren, cooks, and sex workers – that increases in security the
quietly ignored) but they are coming close to shining some closer one gets to the centre. Here, a hospital staffed with
light on the Ministry, and it’s a matter of time before they’re Lajhan priestesses with arms bloody to the elbows takes in
recruited, discredited or killed. the walking wounded from border skirmishes; there, a priest
of Brother Harvest leads a group of soldiers in prayer before
they march out of the great eastern gate; an aelfir Warrior-Po-
THE HIVE et stands atop the structure of the Spire and leads a unit of
Deep in the central structure of Spire, in the original bon- elite high elves in sword-drills and song recitals; skywhales,
erock, is the Hive. This is the guard’s primary jail and head- docked outside the city and manned by bare-footed wind
quarters, a brutalist grey slab of a building with a hexagonal priests, take on troops flown up by scarred megacorvidae;
honeycomb structure. Here, the guard corps meet with human Jaeger mercenaries, rich from war, spoil their lovers
dignitaries from up-Spire to provide an update on the pop- with wine and song.
ulace, and hold some of their most dangerous criminals.
Extended imprisonment is a rare punishment for commit-
ting a crime in the city, and the guard will more commonly GENERAL SNOW-ON-STONE
resort to exile and repossession of property, unpayable fines The army – referred to in general as the allied defence force,
that result in being forced into long periods of indentured although they haven’t defended anything sizeable in a century
servitude, or unofficial execution to deal with serious crimi- – is commanded by General Snow-on-Stone, a giant of an
nals. But some lawbreakers are worth more alive than dead, aelfir. Snow-on-Stone has bucked tradition by not pairing
and for them, the Hive has hands-down the most secure cells their military leadership with appropriate levels of artistic
in Spire, and perhaps the known world. mastery, opting instead to travel abroad in their youth and
Kept here, often indefinitely, are political or religious learn from the Wanderer-Kings of the humans, the High
prisoners who are too well-loved to risk martyring them to Sorcerers of the gnolls, the Lords of the Crimson Vigil of
a cause (the previous three leaders of the Crimson Vigil are the drow, and many other civilisations besides.
said to be inside, and plotting an escape); valued warriors (No-one is quite sure how long Snow-on-Stone has been
who cannot be controlled when among the populace of alive, or indeed whether they are still alive or have opted to
Spire; weird genetic aberants who are of particular interest undergo undying surgery. Their warded platemail, which
to the universities of natural science up-Spire; gnolls, want- they are never seen out of when in public, defies all scrying
ed for questioning on the wars to the south; and no end of attempts. Maybe there is more than one general. Maybe it is a
“experiments” or “pets” (owned by high-ranking aelfir who beautiful machine, a clockwork elf crafted with all-but-forgot-
cannot house these strange and powerful individuals within ten smithing skills in the frozen wastes to the far north. Maybe,
their own domain), known collectively as the Menagerie. some whisper, it is a human under the mask – or a drow.)
(The cells themselves are rigged to detach and fall away The General, then, is in possession of the broadest mili-
from the main building should the guard wish it, dropping tary knowledge in the known world, and coupled with their
the inhabitant into the depths of Spire along with the walls famous stoic pragmatism, they have led the armies of Spire to
of their prison, and crushing them utterly.) victory across the scattered gnoll tribes to the south. Standing
Most interestingly, the Hive has also given rise to some at the head of their army in their trademark angular stone
of the most advanced practical psychology in the city in mask, clutching two exquisite shot-cannon of human make
an attempt to understand the minds of those imprisoned in their gauntleted fists, the General is an imposing sight to
there – from a crimefighting perspective, in the case of the behold – especially when flanked by their honour-guard, a
guard, and from a purely aesthetic fascination in the case of cadre of highly-skilled aelfir soldiers, all of whom share the
the aelfir poet-interrogators that visit their muses and gain General’s no-nonsense attitude.
artistic inspiration from their cracked minds. The General has set their mind upon taking the gnoll
capital city. They believe it is only a matter of time until
this happens.
164 Districts and Factions of Order
SKALD UNITS
Before an aelfir becomes a Warrior-Poet – if they ever reach
that exalted honour – they join the skalds. An unpredictable
mix of writers, murderers, artists, drunks, glimmer-addicts
and berserkers, the skalds fight with whatever weapons they
desire, wearing whatever armour they feel like, and if it wer-
en’t for the fact that they are all skilled combatants they’d
wind up dead within seconds of battle starting in earnest.
Riding into battle on chariots pulled by horses (high-
ly-trained and restrained horses, as animals tend to distrust
elves) or leaping from the back of low-flying skywhales, the
skalds descend on the battle like a storm. They carry the best
weapons they can afford (unless they feel like roughing it
with a standard-issue sword) and are backed up by a broad
array of protective rites, weird occultism and hit-and-run
tactics that leave the enemy reeling.
There are tales of the skald being caught out in the open
and torn asunder by enemy fire, but there are far more tales
of them closing on entrenched enemy positions, whooping
and singing, and carving apart the opposition as though
they were pigs; of mystery cults devoted to Father Summer
knitting wounds back together, faster than the eye can see;
of swords flashing with white-hot light, burning enemies to
ash; and of luckless gnolls tearing out their own eyes and
stumbling, broken and bloody, through the battle, because
they bore witness to the unfettered beauty of the skald and
could no longer bear to look upon anything else.

THE ENLISTED
The drow make up the majority of the allied defence force,
and most present in the army are either conscripted as part
of their durance (and thus called Enlisted) or, having fin-
ished their time as an indentured servant, are unable to find
decent work elsewhere and choose to stay on in the army.
Drow skin is very sensitive to sunlight, and the majority of
the battles that these drow see are in the hot, dry mountains
to the south, so they tend to wear layers of loose, skin-cov-
ering cloth that protect them from the sun and also conceal
them among the rocks and dirt of the land in which they fight. SPECIAL TACTICS CORPS
While most drow start off their lives as soldiers with very As most of the enlisted would know them, the special tactics
little military training, those that survive the early battles corps are a small, tight-knit collection of elite troops carrying
quickly become capable fighters – useful for the period of exotic weapons (elven song-bows with arrows that pluck
their durance, but a serious problem when they are de- the last breath out of the victim’s chest like a flute; gnoll
mobbed and left to roam the city under their own steam. arcanotech devices that evaporate moisture at an explosive
The enforcers of Red Row (and the legbreakers of the Silver rate; unstable galvanic weaponry from Gywnn-Enforr that
Quarter) are almost all ex-military, and more than a match launches bundles of metal rods that can punch clean through
for all but the most hardened town guard. The Ministry is a building) backed up by a conclave of wild-eyed magicians
understandably keen to leverage this problem against the and specialists.
aelfir, but finds that many of the ex-soldiers lack the capacity Their missions are never discussed with the rank-and-file
for subterfuge needed to survive as an underground revo- troops, but of course there are rumours that they assassi-
lutionary. Those that do are afforded every assistance in an nate enemy commanders, blow up supply depots, hijack
effort to bring them on-side. skywhales, and so on. These rumours are, for the most part,
For more details on advances granted by joining the En- true. The Special Tactics Corps recruits the brightest and
listed, see p. 83. best soldiers available to carry out its bloody work.
Districts and Factions of Order165
But: the corps are magicians, dabbling in the dark arts
of the occult – and demonology, in particular. Forbidden
within the grounds of Spire (and indeed, officially forbidden
in war following the Accord of Serpent’s Tooth), this night-
mare sorcery is winning the aelfir wars throughout the south.
Using a network of conduits – agents implanted without
their knowledge with resonant lodestones that conduct de-
monic magic, or who have had the demon-song whispered
into their heads by specially-trained Warrior-Poets – the
magicians of the corps will start to weave their magic, mut-
tering incantations in long-dead languages, bringing the
World Beyond to a seething, festering, swollen boil against
their reality. Seeing that demonology almost always kills the
caster, these conduits are used as proxies to channel the
spell – and they are hidden within other units, or as spies,
or even within the ranks of the gnolls themselves if the corps
are lucky enough to capture a suitable subject alive.
When the time is right, the caster pushes against the
now paper-thin skin between worlds, and the conduit in
question erupts in a conflagration of unreality that leaves
no-one untouched; those unlucky enough to survive the
experience are invariably mad, unable to process even the
most basic stimuli, their minds utterly blasted away by the
force of the spell.
Depending on the scale of the engagement, the power
of the spell and the availability of suitable conduits, the
aelfir can plunge an entire town into the maddening realm
of demons, leaving no survivors but the buildings and re-
sources intact. It is only a matter of time before they have
the resources and skill enough to take on a city.

THE ORIGINAL SPIRE

The Spire grows. It heals over carvings, it extends
further towards the sky, it opens and closes new
passages. These are slow – geographically so,
barely noticeable in a lifetime – and could easily
be written off as the building settling, or reacting
to underground tectonic shifts, but: it is growing.
If it’s alive, it naturally follows that it must be using
something as fuel to grow, but no-one can work out
what that is. People, maybe? Blood, spilled hot on
the bone-white tiles that grow out of the original
floors? Sunlight, as though it were a great stone tree?
Also: spireblack, the sticky ichor that collects
around the Works, is found nowhere else in the
known world, and it seems to collect out of thin air
where smoke and industry are found. Perhaps the
Spire breathes, and spireblack is something akin to
phlegm or catarrh; the more that the Works expand,
and they do so every year, the richer the flammable
harvest is for the gutterkin that scrape the spireblack
off the walls.
166 Districts and Factions of Order

166
Districts and Factions of Order167

THE COUNCIL
The Council rules Spire. Operating as an arm of the High Councilman Drynn, the only human member of the coun-
Elf nation with very little oversight, these seven people are cil, who is (secretly) the chief communications node for
the final arbiters of all decisions in the city, and can vote on the prokatakos implant cult known collectively as The
any matter that they cannot come to instant agreement upon. Intelligence. The spy network under his control stretch-
They come to these decisions once a fortnight in one es throughout Spire and into the human lands beyond,
of the best-defended rooms in the city, a chamber deep and he has been known to be viciously pro-aelfir when
within the original bone-rock of Spire, flanked by legions the chips are down. Drynn is famously well-informed,
of black-armoured guards. The Council Chamber is re- presumably due to the fist-sized lump of aetherically-res-
markably austere, covered in more wards than the lair of onant crystal implanted secretly in his brain, but it seems
the most paranoid undercity blood-witch, and carved from that of late he has been resorting to drowning it out with
stark white stone that grows and changes with a mind of its strong drink.
own year-on-year.
The Council, according to the city laws, must always Lord Errin Jubilant-The-Devoted, an aelfir from a
number seven (and no more than seven), with dead or retired proud, noble (and tremendously rich) lineage who has
members being replaced through general agreement of the been dead for twenty years following successful undying
remaining members. surgery on his 75th birthday. Despite his pretence at being
a good and pious citizen (right down to wearing a full-
They are, at present: face mask, as is the proper way), his walking corpse was
infested by the blood-song parasite known as the Vyskant,
Lady Grendelmyn Stars-Softly-Shine is a devotee of The and he has spent the last decade quietly arranging things
Spire Ascendant, a semi-secret cult that believe that the to prepare for a full interdimensional invasion that will
Spire is a divine entity that must be awakened through see Spire turned into a glorious flesh-mother that heralds
ancient rites. She is a fair and just ruler, as far as aelfir the arrival of the Vyskant race.
go (which is to say not especially fair or just), but she is
prepared to sacrifice anything and anyone to see the city Lord Veq Light-Through-Splintered-Glass, also an
arisen as a god. undying like Jubilant-the-Devoted, is an old-school busi-
nessman who ensured his election to the council through
Archdeacon Many-The-Seedlings, who is a devout an interconnected web of allegiances, favours and black-
worshipper of the Solar Pantheon, and holds an impor- mail. He has huge business interests in the undercity, most
tant position within the church (though he rarely lowers notably Red Row but also Hemlock Fruit Market, and is
himself to deliver sermons outside of small, aelfir-only obsessed with keeping the organised crime in Spire under
congregations). He makes no secret of his devotion to his control. Veq has a habit of signing his lieutenants up
the cult, but he does conceal his blood-oaths to the cult for undying surgery against their will, and his chambers
of Brother Harvest, and his zealous opinions on ethnic are lined with the hearts of his underlings ready to be
cleansing – even within his own race. He is unspeakably destroyed at the first sign of insubordination.
beautiful (and wears a mask that shows much of his face
to emphasise this, in a flagrant breach of tradition), and Captain Wander-The-Lost is a Warrior-Poet, one of the
it is rumoured that he maintains his looks through the highest ranks an aelfir can attain in their peculiar mili-
dark rites of Sister Spring. tary and artistic societal structure. Despite (or perhaps
because of) their many achievements in the field of war-
Madame Fey-Aranyen is the only drow member of the fare and poetry, they have fallen into an ennui, and so to
council, a token gesture to the dark elves to give the counteract this they have become hopelessly addicted to
impression that they have some say in the governance blue – a human-made drug that allows the normally cruel
of the city. She is a midwife of some prowess, but years and thoughtless high elves to feel sadness. While this has
in chamber meetings have left her skills rusty, and she is improved their work no end, they are prone to fits of deep
almost entirely controlled by the other ruling members. depression, and it is rumoured that they only appear in
She cannot act openly in the support of the drow past public through a network of body-doubles.
meaningless, empty gestures.
168 Districts and Factions of Order

168
 DISTRICTS AND FACTIONS
OF RELIGION

THE CATHEDRAL OF
OUR GLORIOUS LADY THE SIX DARK ELF VIRTUES
Properly worshipped – as she is in most drow territories – Damnou is the most prominent of the dark elf deities,
the moon goddess is a being of three parts referred to as and it is rare to find a community of drow that do
Damnou. The facets that make up her entirety are Limyé, the not pay at least lip service to her – even the bestial
light, Lombre, the dark, and Lekolé, the shadow, or blood- followers of Charnel in their haunted necropoli,
moon. These three deities encompass what are commonly far from the home nations of Ys and indeed at war
known as the six dark elf virtues, and it is by these tenets with the Duchy of Aliquam, maintain shrines to her
that many dark elves live their lives and form the basis for alongside their rough-hewn altars of cracked and
their morality. gnawed bones. While she is worshipped in many
Yet worship of Damnou is forbidden in Spire under orders different ways, most forms of belief skew towards
from the ruling aelfir, and drow are permitted only to pay the six virtues of the dark elves that they believe, if
their respects to Limyé, Our Glorious Lady, the light side of embodied, allow for a good and pious life.
the moon, who espouses the virtues of Tenacity and Com-
munity. To worship the other two facets is to take on a death • Tenacity. Endure, even when events and your
sentence – and so, the old temples to Lombre and Lekolé long enemies conspire against you.
cast down, the crumbling and vast cathedral of Our Glorious • Community. Help others who need it, and
Lady forms the heart of the dark elf nation in Spire. welcome them into your home.
• Grace. Act with precision and reveal only what
you choose to reveal.
THE CATHEDRAL • V igilance . Maintain awareness and keep
The cathedral itself spans many city blocks, and there is no informed.
clear beginning or end to the structure; where once it stood • Sagacity. Learn from the lessons of those
proud in the centre of a grand square lit by burning braziers, who have come before, but come to your own
generations of rebuilding and repurposing have blurred conclusions.
the edges of the structure. Dormitories bleed into storage • Fury. When you commit to bloodshed, do so
rooms, egg-hatcheries colonise naves, and poor-house soup utterly and without fear.
kitchens steam away beneath the faded majesty of cracked
stained glass windows.
170 Districts and Factions of Religion
Districts and Factions of Religion171

In the depths of the temple, on creaking floorboards and THE MAINTAINERS

under dripping ceilings, is one of the most thorough histories Keeping the cathedral intact has not been easy, especially
of the dark elves outside of the Home Nations or Aliquam – with the aelfir attempting to let the church quietly die from
reams and reams of paper detailing family lineage, tapestries unpopularity so it can be completely replaced by the solar
of glories and tragedies, and maps of the lands of the great pantheon of their homelands – and the church simply doesn’t
rulers of the Home Nations painted with painstaking detail have the resources to fund a proper restoration. Instead, gangs
on crumbling plaster. The dark elves are a people under of priests and congregation under the name of Maintainers
threat, and the followers of Limyé believe that is it through liberate building material from construction sites, warehouses
togetherness and remembrance that they will endure. and (if needs be) existing structures, moving quickly and
Ceremonies and sermons are run on an ad-hoc basis quietly while others sleep, clearing out vast stores of bricks
whenever enough priests and/or congregation are in the and cement overnight.
same place, but the majority of observances to Our Glori- Any structure not bearing the iconic spiders of the church
ous Lady are done through good works – feeding the poor, of Limyé can be quickly disassembled and refitted deeper in
defending the defenceless, and protecting the drow of Spire. the grounds of the cathedral: the current offices of the Ma-
Having clothes that are too fine (or, in some sects, owning ji-Lalin, overseer of the temple, are made up of the remains
more than one set of clothes) is seen as wasteful when so of a theatre that dared to open on the borders; the beds in
many drow are going hungry. Many priests compete to live the L’od Nansan’s hospital are repurposed from an Ivory
the more sparse existence possible, favouring simple tin and Row boarding house; the reinforced tunnels that run between
wooden jewelry, rough woven robes, and inking their holy the inner sanctums of the church are Vermissian train cars,
texts onto their skin so as to never worry about losing them. ripped apart and rebuilt, stripped down to the bare metal.
Nearby builders’ merchants have upped their security in
response to the thefts, so they and the church have entered
something of an arms race.

NOTABLE HALLOWS OF OUR GLORIOUS LADY

All of the below advances are Medium advances, and available to the Lajhan class or any character who otherwise
devotes their life in service to Limyé and her chosen saints.

Hallow Hearts-Breath-Halting: unusually, this prom- Hallow Ambra: a scribe who wrote The Deyès-Liv, the
inent hallow was an aelfir who devoted her life’s work core religious text for Damnou worshipers; one third
to maintaining the worship of the traditional dark elf of the book remains in the Cathedral, the other two
religion in Spire. It is through her efforts (and fortune) are lost. Worship of Ambra is performed through ritual
that the cathedral still exists at all, and the anniversary calligraphy, making sanctified copies of what remains
of her death – she was burned on a pyre atop New of the Deyès-Liv.
Heaven after standing trial for sedition and heresy – is The Blessing of Ambra: Upon waking, mark 1
a day of mourning for the faithful of Limyé. stress to Silver and craft a page of beautiful text copied
The Blessing of Hearts-Breath-Halting: from the Deyès-Liv as the sun rises. This page of text
Mark D3 stress and spend ten minutes praying at a can be used as a (D8, Ranged, One-shot) weapon
shrine to Hearts-Breath-Halting. When you act against against creatures possessed by dark spirits or filled
an enemy of your religion for the next day, roll with with unholy power.
mastery.
Hallow Merik: a slave, serving under one of the wicked
Hallow Dee: a drow folk hero from long ago who car- rulers of the city-states of Ys, who dared to strike
ried a devout and injured captain to the Shrine at back at her masters and after years of abuse, and
Bachoux in shadowed Aliquam to deliver a speech who returned to life no fewer than four times to
which saved the nation from defeat at the hands of continue supporting her community and acting as
the aelfir. Veneration of Dee is forbidden, and involves an inspiration to her fellow slaves.
going for long periods of time without rest or food as The Blessing of Merik: Mark D3 stress to Mind
tribute to her sacrifice. and pray before an altar to Merik. If you would die
The Blessing of Dee: Once per day, as long as before the next sunrise, you do not die, and instead
you have not eaten or taken comfort that day, clear cling to life and endure through your injuries.
all marked stress in Blood.
172 Districts and Factions of Religion

HALLOWS THE MINISTRY OF OUR

HIDDEN MISTRESS
The church of Limyé encourages the veneration of hallows,
or saints – mortal individuals who have embodied the virtues
of Our Glorious Lady, often leading to their untimely death The drow will not continue to be humiliated by the aelfir;
at the hands of authorities. Given the anti-authoritarian they will plot, and scheme, and subvert the will of the aelfir
nature of some hallows, the official aelfir stance is to forbid until they are once more the rulers of Spire. This is the dic-
their worship and dismantle any hallow-shrines they find, tum of the Ministry of Our Hidden Mistress. Worshipping
but the followers of Limyé keep building them regardless – the forbidden goddess Lombre, the dark side of the moon,
hiding them away in cupboards, under floorboards, in attics they have formed a wide-reaching secret society devoted to
and behind furniture. ridding Spire of the cruel aelfir once and for all. They have
secreted themselves deep beneath the crumbling stonework
of the Cathedral of Our Glorious Lady, and hold strange,
AGAINST THE MINISTRY dark ceremonies in forgotten basements and mouldering
There is a growing movement within the cathedral that reck- crypts. Each level of initiation in the Ministry brings with
ons the Ministry is doing more harm than good by resisting it fresh revelations and terrible, terrible burdens.
the rule of the aelfir. Perhaps, they figure, it is better to go Ministers, as the members of this sect are known,
along with the rule of the high elves and enter their society, are recruited into cells by their superiors through a
with an eye to one day be viewed as equals. long observation and an increasingly difficult, and
The Ministry view this as cowardice at best and heresy at dangerous, series of trials. No-one joins the Minis-
worst; but it is a popular viewpoint, especially amongst the try without giving something up to do so, often at the
poorer, more vulnerable members of the congregation who behest of their masters within the organisation – the cell lead-
are more concerned about where their next meal is coming ers in the Ministry must have absolute faith in their charges,
from than the glorious resurgence of the dark elf race in and trust that they will act for the good of the organisation
their lost capital city. It’s not uncommon for those among if not for themselves, even under immense pressure.
the church, rather than hiding Ministry members away from Ministers, or at least those who have lived long enough to
the authorities, to out them as villains and terrorists who get a few years’ experience under their belt, face their duty
would endanger the future of what little community the with a grim determination. Theirs is not a glorious fight, and
drow have remaining. many of their friends and associates would gladly sell them
out to the aelfir for the promise of coin, a place to live, or
better job prospects. By their very existence they endanger
the lives of everyone around them, and it is hard to find a
drow who has not suffered some of the brutal reprisals that
the aelfir visit on any ministers, or their associates, once their
true motivations are uncovered.
But they have made the sacrifice of their own lives, and
perhaps the lives of their friends, to hopefully secure the
future of a drow-led Spire – not through military might or
sanctions, as they once did, back before their race was frac-
tured and crumbling at the seams, but through subterfuge,
grace, subversion and misinformation.
A dark moon rises, and with it, the Ministry of Our Hid-
den Mistress; and the aelfir should pray to all the gods that
they hold dear for forgiveness, for they will find none at the
hand the drow.
For more details on advances granted by worship of Our
Hidden Mistress, see p. 88. It is assumed that all characters
in a standard game of Spire will have access to these advances
as they have devoted their lives to service of the Ministry.
Districts and Factions of Religion
Religion173

CELL STRUCTURE The way it normally plays out is this: the potential recruit,
In an effort to contain breaches of security, especially given a curious soul, will begin to notice strange things around
the skilled torturers of the high elves, the drow have built them – secret handshakes, shady glances, supplies or people
the Ministry as a series of cells that may not be aware of going missing – and they will pry into the situation, often at
one another. Each cell reports to a magister, who will be in great risk to themselves or their associates. The sad truth is
charge of anything up to five or six active cells (and double that most potential recruits are caught up in the chaos that
that number of sleeper agents or potential recruits) operating follows the actions of the Ministry, and end up arrested or
in adjacent districts. The magister will, in turn, report to their dead or both, one after the other; that, or they report the
superiors, who will report to theirs, sending information ministers to the authorities themselves, and must be silenced
spiralling away within a series of ever-tightening circles of before they spread too much information.
security. Magisters do not like to receive bad news, and will But a handful are good enough to survive the initial re-
often refuse to give their charges means of contacting them cruitment, have the right intentions at heart, make contact
outside of regular reports in safe territory lest they lead their with the Ministry, and earn the attentions of a magister who
enemies straight to them. will begin the second stage of initiation which will make
If a minister – for that is what the field agents of the many of them wish they had never started poking around
Ministry are called by the populace – shows particular skill, the world of shadows in the first place.
they will be approached and offered a chance to become a
magister themselves, a role that again comes with a series of
punishing tests and sacrifices. If successful they will recruit
others as they were once recruited and spread the influence GRACE
of the drow throughout Spire. The virtue of grace is a fundamental aspect of dark
Cells are not offered much support from their masters, elf society and morality. Aside from the veneration of
save information and leads to follow up on; equipment and physical and social precision, the broader concept of
resources are hard to come by, and it is generally assumed grace is one of presenting only what you want others
that, whoever placed the request, someone more important to see, and acting in accordance with a variety of
further up the grapevine needs it more than they do. Opera- difficult codes of etiquette. Lying, as humans know it,
tives are encouraged to source materials using their initiative, can be seen as a good thing – extending the conceit of
and may be asked to operate for months or even years at a the “white lie”, the harmless falsehood that smoothes
time without direct contact from a superior. over complications, to whole relationships and facets
It is not entirely clear who is in charge of the Ministry, but of one’s personality. Truth is a fragmentary and
there are rumours: a turncoat aelfir, who has set the whole disparate thing, impossible to strictly define, and is
thing up to strike at their enemies; a cadre of ever-changing instead replaced with a web of conflicting viewpoints
and shifting masters, a dark contrast to the Council that that a virtuous drow can maintain effortlessly. This,
rules Spire; an undying drow, the fallen king of Destera, more than anything else, is the purest form of grace.
trying to reestablish his lost empire from centuries past; or It is grace that is espoused by Our Hidden
Lombre herself, clad in a thousand faces, guiding the drow Mistress, or Lombre, who manifests in the world as
to a new and wonderful future. the dark side of the moon that hangs in the night sky.
When she is represented in art or visits her worshipers
in dreams, she is a slender-limbed drow who bears
RECRUITMENT many faces, each different, that shift around her
The first requirement to joining the Ministry is simply to shadowy cloak; she speaks with perfect precision
know that it exists. With the aelfir suppressing worship of and forethought, never a word wasted, and she is
Lombre and branding any ministers it finds as “traitors”, impossible to trick or corrupt.
“heretics”, or “betrayers” while avoiding any mention of
the secret society itself, many drow – especially those new
to the city, or from slightly more comfortable walks of life
than standard – have never heard of the Ministry, or think
it a series of fairy stories peddled by idealistic idiots.
Even then, there’s no front door to knock on, no regional
representative in a cushy office to have a chat with – and the
Ministry, preferring its agents to be self-reliant and take the
initiative, waits for someone to track them down rather than
actively sending out feelers to recruit agents.
174 Districts and Factions of Religion

INITIATION T he R ite of C ommunity : The initiate is told to

Just as there are six virtues regarded as holy by the drow of Spire, approach a group of drow with which they share a bitter
there are six challenges set before each new recruit. These vary enmity and to help them selflessly for a full lunar month.
by magister, and are in no way official, but most initiation This can be in any form the initiate desires, so long as
rites are at least broadly similar to those outlined here. there is visible evidence of the assistance – while some
approach openly and beg for forgiveness, others oper-
The Rite of Fury: The initiate is told to act as their blood ate as shadowy benefactors who hunt down and punish
decides, and to exact vengeance for wrongs against them wrongdoers or donate money and resources to their once-
with violence; to spread fear of the drow, and show their enemies. (If the initiate in question does not have a bitter
unjust masters that the Blood Moon still shines. Many enmity, one will be provided.)
magisters supplant this rite with a cocktail of mind-alter- Who did you help?
ing drugs, such as the notoriously grimy stimulant known
as dagger, to encourage the initiate to act in accordance The Rite of Vigilance: The initiate will be instructed to
with their true emotions, leading to one brutal night of meet a magister – never their own – deep in the crush-
retribution that may – entirely coincidentally – see the ing din of the Works. Here they will be administered a
subject cut off from their previous life. draught that will knock them unconscious and told, once
Who did you hurt when you demonstrated your fury? they awaken, to track down the magister before the next
sunrise. The sheer volume of people moving through the
The Rite of Sagacity: The initiate is handed over to an Works is enough to throw off most tracking attempts,
agent of the Ministry who specialises in the stranger el- and deft magisters will spread false information around
ements of the city and the drow race – a spider-blooded to keep initiates off their balance.
matriach midwife, a dimension-shearing Vermissian sage, What mistake did the magister make that helped you track
one of the zoetrope horrors bearing sickness from the them?
Heart known as blood-witches, deep apiarists who whisper
prayers of protection to sacred swarms of sightless bees,
and so on – and told to study under them for a lunar
month. The Ministry ensures that the initiate’s eyes are HIERARCHY IN THE MINISTRY OF OUR
opened to the realities of Spire, and few survive with their HIDDEN MISTRESS
sanity and stability fully intact.
Who did you study under, and what did you learn? These are the ranks of the Ministry, from low to high:

The Rite of Tenacity: The initiate is taken deep beneath Neonate: Not a full member – one who is undergoing
the temple of Our Hidden Mistress, itself beneath the trials before their full initiation.
Cathedral of Our Glorious Lady, and must survive three Dormant: A retired or inactive member who is not
days without supplies or aid in the labyrinthine catacombs currently serving in a cell. Older ministers are often
that hang heavy with the stench of death and old bones. demoted to dormant status, but can be reactivated
What thought kept you alive, down amid the dead? at any time.
Minister: A member who operates actively in a cell,
The Rite of Grace: The initiate is provided the name and receiving orders from above but generally acting
location of a target who they must study over time and, on their own initiative.
eventually, become. While the magister will generally Magister: In charge of overseeing a number of cells
select a target who at least bears passing resemblance to and co-ordinating actions as best they can. Often,
the initiate, the matter of their close friends and family they will only meet their charges during briefing and
must be accounted for, and so begins a protracted peri- debriefing, and few like being contacted.
od of subterfuge that ends with the target ostracised by Exarch: A high-ranking operative in charge of several
their community, allowing the initiate to supplant them magisters. Each exarch has a hereditary title that re-
utterly. (And, of course, the target themselves must be places their true name when they take on the position.
dealt with: many initiates balk at the idea of killing an Oracle: A speaker for the weavers, wreathed in in-
innocent, and so kind magisters will select a target who cense and dark magic, tenuously connected to reality.
they feel is worthy of death.) Weaver: Those who weave the webs of fate and
Whose life did you steal? create the revolution. There are only ever three
weavers, and they are likely no longer mortal.
The Mistress: No-one but the weavers meet the
Mistress, and they have never said who she is.
Districts and Factions of Religion175

THE SECT OF OUR CRIMSON VIGIL

The blood moon, or hunter’s moon, hangs in the sky once For more details on joining the Crimson Vigil and the
each month and casts a dull, crimson light over the world. advances that such an act provides, see p. 89. Membership
It is this facet of the moon that the dark elves call Lekolé, or in the Vigil is fairly common in the Ministry, although most
Our Lady of Vengeance, and her form is a terrible thing to vigilites will keep it a secret.
behold: she is a many-armed, towering spectre of destruc-
tion, a fire-eyed wraith the colour of blood, and she preaches
purity through annihilation. NOTEWORTHY DIVISIONS OF THE CRIMSON VIGIL
There is no sin too grievous for her followers (commonly The Vigil operates in a decentralised cell-structure, with
known as vigilites or crimsons) to commit in service of her many cells being made up of a single member hidden as part
glory: they will kill hatchlings and children without a second of a larger organisation, but there are several off-shoots and
thought; they will put buildings or whole city blocks to the movements within the cult that bear mentioning:
torch; they will damn a hundred drow to painful deaths to There are the Drowners of Godstreet Station, hiding deep
hunt down and kill one aelfir who they view as an enemy of in the Vermissian, who propose that all occult magic is heresy
the people. Or: that’s what the papers say, at least. against their goddess and extinguish the lives of practition-
(It was not always this way, and indeed it is still not this ers in the flooded depths of the candle-strewn ticket office.
way in Aliquam, and Ys, and the other nations of the drow Almost directly opposed to them are the nameless sect who
where Damnou is worshipped. In her proper form as a trinity, seek to subvert and control the aelfir’s demonological im-
the Lady of Vengeance is tempered by the kindness of the plant technology to unleash a nightmarish storm of unreality
Glorious Lady and the grace of the Hidden Mistress. But upon Spire, and adjacent to those are the Resurectionists
in Spire, since worship of her has been driven underground, who believe that the only true path to salvation is to destroy
the sect has splintered and devolved into violent extremism.) Spire through the detonation of hundreds, if not thousands,
They secret themselves within resistance organisations of shaped charges placed on the foundations. The sect of St
and act as firebrands and saboteurs, pushing the subtle Hypakis, who is it said walked amidst great battles untouched
efforts of the Ministry (and several other revolutionary cad- by a single arrow or blade, preach conversion and blackmail
res, such as the Worker’s Rights Party, the Drow Liberation as a tool to extend their influence into the upper reaches
Front, and several houses of the Midwives) ever closer to of Spire. The True Order of Blood, a perversion of the sect
open warfare. They maintain cells of operatives, too, like the of Our Glorious Lady, operates a paramilitary resistance
Ministry but even more decentralised, and more than once force throughout Derelictus and the Works and specialises
in recent memory the two organisations have come to blows in executions of authority figures and guard patrols with
over the correct way to handle a situation. their trademark cut-down rifles.
But for the crimsons, it’s not about winning the war – it’s There is no end to the splinter groups within the broader
about fighting the battle. Each hurled firebomb is a prayer; organisation of the Crimson Vigil, and the true horror is that
each extinguished sorcerer a grand sacrifice; each pull of many of them will be made up of people who you know, live
the trigger an act of worship. Every year, more and more with, are married to, and so on. They have infiltrated every
angry young drow join the cult, and it is only a matter of aspect and level of drow society, and though their aims are
time before the aelfir campaign against them shifts from not dissimilar from those of the Ministry, their means are
propaganda and show trials to focused, all-out extermination. far, far different.

VIGILITES VIGILITE FIREBRAND

Names: Corvy, Huxton, Wesyll Names: Lux Meridian, Ignacius, Matchlock
Descriptors: Wearing a scarlet hooded robe, Clad in the Descriptors: Carrying devotional literature, Has set part
sacred red ropes of the Bound, Shirtless and of themselves on fire, Wears their manacles
covered in devotional tattoos as penance
Difficulty: The Crimson Vigil doesn’t attract the Difficulty: For all their bluster, firebrands aren’t any more
most skilled warriors – difficulty 0, unless skilled than those that follow them; difficulty
you’re trying to break their resolve, which is 0 or 2 if you try to get them to change their
difficulty 1 mind or back down, though
Resistance: 3 if you catch them unawares, 5 if they’re on Resistance: 6
the warpath Special: For each vigilite nearby, increase their Resist-
Equipment: Firebombs (D6, Spread D3, One-shot), clubs ance by 1
and knives (D3) Equipment: Red-painted jury-rigged shotgun (D6,
Ranged, Point-blank, Reload, Dangerous),
serious-looking knife (D3, Brutal)
176 Districts and Factions of Religion
Districts and Factions of Religion177

PILGRIM’S WALK
Here, the gods sit ten deep and five high. Pilgrim’s Walk is but, by the law of averages alone, some of the vast quantity
open to all who make it inside the city, past greedy customs of stuff that filters through Pilgrim’s Walk must be genuine.
officers and hungry bandits. It offers a welcoming embrace
to those of all faiths then immediately attempts to take them
for everything they’ve got. WARFARE
Twisting, leaking, dripping passages house a thousand Pilgrim’s Walk is an unstable location, and not just structural-
temples and fifty thousand poor folk wedged into tiny living ly – the faiths inside the rickety walls of the district coexist in
spaces between them. The corridors here, often far from the a confusing and undocumentable web of alliances, enmities,
exterior wall of Spire and therefore any natural light, are border disputes and imagined slights, and so leadership and
kept dark aside from the glow of altar candles and sputter- territory shift between factions on a daily basis. Control of
ing spireblack braziers carried around by hired torchboys, a church (and more importantly, of the meagre purses of its
their arms and faces scarred from a short lifetime of burns. congregation) is fiercely defended, and on more than one
In the darkness, workshops and poor-houses turn out occasion worshippers of a particular faith have shuffled into
low-quality goods, paying their workers little more than a the temple for their morning devotions to find that their
starvation diet and offering them a patch of floor to sleep on. usual high priest has been replaced with an entirely different
Wallets, clothing, devotional charms, “holy” water and images person preaching an entirely different religion, or cobbling
of saints flow out of Pilgrim’s Walk and into Spire, along with together a new one to try and keep everyone happy.
reams of sacred texts and evangelical pamphlets on tissue-thin The aelfir – and, by extension, the guard – are none
paper that spread the word of their gods far and wide. too happy about this state of affairs, and have ordered the
And – far away from the lights of the mainstreet, deep deployment of a fearsome police presence to monitor and
in the wet and shadowed heart of Pilgrim’s Walk, cults and suppress riot and insurrection within Pilgrim’s Walk. The
opportunists strike out at the humans that live there and guard themselves don’t relish the thought of venturing into
steal their blood, their organs, and their bodies, selling them the dark and deadly corridors of the side-streets, and so
on to the highest bidder, or consuming them in black rituals the faithful and the officers of the law can often be seen
to old and all-but-forgotten gods. clashing in open conflict before one side flees (either to the
safety of the guard house or anonymity of the backstreets)
and prepares to exact retribution on the other.
THE STREET OF GODS
The street of gods, or godstreet – a three-storey opening
that stretches snakelike through the district – is home to the
most successful (or the most enthusiastic) churches, and A FEW OF THE RELIGIONS CURRENTLY
a traveller walking down it can expect to be harassed and ACTIVE IN PILGRIM’S WALK
harangued with many offers of eternal salvation and abso-
lution from their sins at competitive prices. (So competitive, • The Church of All • The Congregation of
in fact, that often membership in a temple is free – but then • The Brothers of Kinship
the worshipper should take care to work out if they’re the Seclusion • Tyondarians
customer or the product in this transaction.) • The Great Eye • Our Marbled Lady
But: for all the grime and abuse, Pilgrim’s Walk is a place • The Stag Risen • The Temple Furious
of hope. Any faith (aside from the nine forbidden creeds, as • The Golden Serpent • The Church of the
denoted by the council) can find a place here and prosper • The Cult of the Vale Eight
if they can recruit enough followers and hang onto them. • Our Lady’s Bounty • Freeman’s Church
What’s more, godstreet houses more relics than any other • Order of the Stilled • The Society of Silver
part of the city – at least, if you took all the peddlars at their Pond • Heralds of the Prophecy
word. Between the bellowing priests and comely priestesses • Sisterhood of the • The Players of the
with worship-hither eyes, hawkers trailing groups of torchboys Eternal Queen Great Game
gesture for travellers to come down the side alleys and see • The Grimoire • The All-Conquering
their wares. Holy water and sacred symbols are easy to come • The Compass Rose Church of the One
by and hard to authenticate, but push further back into the • Spritanism and Only God
darkness and you’ll find the burial shrouds of saints, the fin- • The Tavian Sect • Heralds of Mordegone
gerbones of fallen gods, pickled demon tentacles, ceremonial • The Destrians • The Asbinian Heresy
aelfir blood-antlers, jarred spirits and bottled djinn from Far • The Munificent • The Hags
Nujab. Of course, most of these relics are utter garbage – con Gathering for our • The Dytoshian
jobs rushed out from the workshops that dot the district – Splendid Gilded Patron Iconoclasts
• Healers of the King • The Ossarians
178 Districts and Factions of Religion

THE SOLAR BASILICA

It is a matter of time, the guards say, before the orders
come through to clean out Pilgrim’s Walk once and for all. But
until they get the order – and the backup to support it – the The Solar Basilica is the grand seat of the theocratic power
law and the populace of the district exist in a tense stalemate. of the aelfir – their gods, brought down to Spire from their
cold and ancient homes to the north, demanded proper de-
votion, and so the high elves spared no expense in building
GEORGE a truly awe-inspiring temple to worship them.
George has joined more cults than he’s had hot dinners. He The area is divided up in a horseshoe-like shape, with
jingles when he walks (and he does so unsteadily thanks to temples to Mother Winter and Father Summer on the right
a lack of depth perception and terrible drinking habit) due and left flanking the grand entrance, and buildings devoted
to the mass of sacred symbols hanging around his neck. to Sister Spring and Brother Autumn behind them. In the
He’s been ordained in three different opposing factions of centre of the horseshoe is a dazzling white and gold square
the same heretical underchurch, and unwittingly managed dedicated to the Great and Undivided Sun where hordes of
to escape the holy war that claimed the lives of every other pilgrims of all races stream back and forth between temples
member. He has his palms read hourly, refuses to wear his to pay their respects to their gods. The entire place is built of
clothes the right way out, and occasionally employs a boy bright white and grey stone, colourful banners to the gods
to make the sign of Our Glorious Lady over his brow once and goddesses hang from walls, and sunlight shines in from
a minute, every minute, until he runs out of money. the open roof above.
Though he can’t remember it with any clarity, George
has joined almost every sect in Pilgrim’s Walk in an effort to
undo the bad fortune he suffered upon breaking a mirror at PRIVATE WORSHIP
the age of 23. He hasn’t found the right god yet – he is still Hidden behind the facade of the basilica, behind the myr-
destitute, still a washed-up drunk – but clearly something’s iad balconies and fluttering pennants, behind the throngs
going right for him, as he never gets robbed and always of pilgrims, are the sacred places of the aelfir in which only
manages to find somewhere dry and quiet, if not especially they are allowed to congregate and worship. Here, the public
comfortable, to sleep. The combined divine weight of lip face of the solar pantheon is thrown aside, and the “true”
service to a hundred gods is paying off – or maybe the green- faith is practiced as it was in times of old, and still is in the
eyed goddess of luck, Stolz, is looking out for him regions far to the north.

ASHTER AND QUINN THE SOLAR PANTHEON

It is hard to determine which of the two landlords that own The aelfir worship many gods, but their primary faith is that
the entirety of Pilgrim’s Walk is the worse specimen – whether of the Solar Pantheon – a family of four deities who represent
it’s the ghastly, long-dead and gas-bloated Undying known as different facets of the sun. Worship of the Solar Pantheon
Ashter or the blind, spindle-thin, rotten-toothed drow Quinn. is strongly encouraged, and insufficient piety is commonly
It is common wisdom that both of them are equally vile. used as a slandering tactic to gain political ground against
The territory of Pilgrim’s Walk is carved up between them, an opponent.
and each week thousands of half- and quarter-stens make
their way from collection plates and poverty boxes down to Father Summer, or Father Plenty, or Sunlight’s-
Ashter and Quinn’s voluminous pockets. The pair live lives Eternal-Vigor: Father is represented by a strong,
of perverse and mouldering luxury – Quinn eating gold- broad-shouldered, healthy-looking aelfir man in tradi-
flecked puddings off the backs of mewling, dumb captives tional dress – a colourful skirt, but barefoot and naked
and Ashter filling his devious brain with forbidden knowledge from the waist up – with his hair styled into a great halo
from his crumbling libraries – and, even though at face level around his head. (Aelfir gods are almost never depicted
the pair are rivals, equipping gangs of armed “faithful” and as wearing masks; seeing as most aelfir rarely, if ever, see
sending them in waves against the business interests of the another’s aelfir’s face, the artist most commonly uses their
other, they are in fact on good terms and often take coffee own as reference.) His domain is strength, growth, heart-
together in the private back-room of a neutral flophouse. iness and power – it is from him that all aelfir gain their
ability to withstand cold temperatures, their long lives,
and their tall, graceful forms. Father is seen as good-na-
tured and welcoming, and many festivals and feasts are
held in his honour.
Districts and Factions of Religion179
180 Districts and Factions of Religion

Mother Winter, or Mother Many, or Shifting-Eter- THE PALADINS

nal-Blessing: Mother is shown as a stern aelfir woman Located within the buildings is the office of the Paladins,
in her middle years, and she is dressed in many fine silks the militant arm of the solar pantheon, who devote their
and jewelry wrought from ice and snow. It is she that steers lives to service of Brother Harvest above all other gods. It
the sun through the sky, that speeds its passage during is these well-trained men and women, made up largely of
winter to freeze the world and slows it during summer so young aelfir, who hunt the Ministry and attempt to stamp
that crops might grow – she is a mistress of control and out insurrection from the drow in all its forms, and their
mastery, a creature of change and precision. From her, wrath is truly terrible to behold.
aelfir gain their mastery of the world and of their physical The battle-dress of the Paladins is gilded plate-armour
forms, and the power over temperature and ice that lets and white robes, and their weapons range from devastating
them control the climate in Amaranth. broadswords and hammers to keen scythes and sickles (the
favoured implements of their deity). These are backed up
Brother Autumn, or Brother Harvest, or Scythes- by the best firearms that the aelfir can afford, siphoned off
Cull-the-Weeping: Humans would describe Brother as from the military, and it is not uncommon to see a squadron
cruel: the high elves describe him with a word that best of Paladins bearing well-maintained military-grade pistols
translates as “perfect”. He knows nothing, but under- or shining, polished Legrand repeater rifles.
stands everything; he moves and acts with perfect grace Their fury is terrifying to behold, and their justice is swift
and intuition. He is a harvest deity, and it is by his hand and merciless. Operating a wide network of spies and inform-
that all who live must die. He is a reminder that all who ants, the Paladins will gather information on their targets
live must do so as beautifully and vitally as they can while over a number of weeks and months before formulating a
they do, and from him the aelfir gain their keen insight plan to utterly destroy them. Then, as dawn breaks, they
and calculating minds. (The popularity of undying sur- will march forth from their hidden sanctuaries, and visit the
gery within the aelfir community rubs against the tenets wrath of the sun gods on their targets in a series of brutal,
of belief espoused by Brother Harvest, and as such the calculating strikes that leave most enemies dead, fleeing the
sects devoted to him have been driven underground and city, or panicked and reeling. Associates are dragged out of
into radicalism.) their homes and shot in the street; rebel headquarters are
burnt to the ground; clerics to forbidden gods are slain upon
Sister Spring, or Sister-Sunlight, or Glowing-Melts- the altars of their masters, and their profane sites are made
the-Ice: Sister is a young aelfir woman of uncanny, un- pure through the righteous power of the sun.
paralleled beauty, and many high elf artisans dream of The one weakness of the Paladins is that they are few in
being asked to recreate her visage by a patron. She is number; they have a demanding recruitment and screening
fire, clarity, beauty, and change: a goddess of rebirth, process that few can pass. Given the breadth and scale of
new understanding and truth. Scholars and artists alike the resistance within Spire, they leave most of the work to
devote themselves to her, and it is rumoured that only the guard and only devote their attention to the most crucial
she can melt everfrost, the eternal ice that resides beneath cases, or the most dangerous rebels: to root out the Ministry,
the homelands of the high elves, and when she does this and forever purge all worship of the heretic goddess known
world will end and a new, unrecognisable one will blossom as Our Hidden Mistress, is their ultimate goal.
in its place, built by her hand. From her, aelfir gain their
artistry and perfect beauty.
PALADIN
For more details on worship of the aelfir Solar Gods – who Names: Strides-Across-Dawn, Hare-Dashing-To-
many drow devote themselves to, following the fall of Spire The-Hunter, Ten-Thousand-Loves
– see p. 89. Descriptors: Bearing many relics, Tied-back red hair, Read-
ing from the Third Book of the Harvest
Difficulty: The Paladins are some of the best fighters in
the entire city, and also the best equipped.
Difficulty 2 across the board, unless you can
even the odds somehow
Resistance: 7
Equipment: Paladin duty-plate (Armour 4) military-grade
legrand rifles (D6, Ranged, Piercing) or car-
og-pattern shotguns (D6, Ranged, Point-
blank, Reload) and nooses (D3, Debilitating)
as well as sun-bombs (Ranged, Spread D3,
Non-lethal) which they hurl into rooms before
attacking
Districts and Factions of Religion181

THE SUN-ON-EARTH NEW HEAVEN

Rumour has it that the aelfir are crafting something truly Atop the Spire, ten thousand prayer flags flutter and snap
wondrous, deep in the gilded caverns beneath the marble in the screaming winds and red-mawed hyenas prowl the
slabs of the basilica’s floor – a replica of the sun on earth, streets, ravenous and sacred. This is New Heaven, a place
summoned through devotion and sacrifice, and bound by the of worship, and a place for the dead.
ingenuity of human retroengineers. Should this plan succeed, Clustered throughout the district are pockets of worship
their church will be able to draw power from it to work their for gods of the wind and sky, of weather and lightning – a
miracles, the armies of the aelfir will be utterly unstoppable, masked and feathered cult devoted to capturing the winds
and their dominion over the planet will be all but assured here, a hermitage bristling with copper resonators that buzz
as a miniature sun glows in the sky above each detachment, and hum when thunder approaches there. It’s said that the
scouring darkness and inferiority from the world. oracles of the Goddess of the Twenty Winds can tell you
Or: it could explode, given that it is a half-understood when it’s going to rain, right down to the second, and if
divine conflagration they are attempting to recreate in the pressed they can shift oncoming weather patterns away from
mortal realm, and the resulting detonation could destroy Spire by abjuring them like demons with their mouths full
the entire top half of Spire and blind anyone who sees it for of dirt, and iron bars nailing their feet to the structure of the
hundreds of miles around. Spire. It’s said that the corvids here have learned to speak,
but they only do so in riddles and half-truths, and should
never be trusted. It’s said that, if one of true faith leaps from
the highest point in New Heaven and plummets towards
AVATARS the ground with no fear in their heart, they’ll be reborn as
The high elf gods, it is said, descend to earth to walk one of the blue-white doves that cluster around the steps
among the aelfir in their ancestral homes to the north, of the holiest temples.
and these creatures of divine beauty grace the aelfir
with their wisdom and take husbands and wives. The
exact way this occurs differs from region to region, EATERS OF THE DEAD
but the vast majority of them make use of an aelfir A popular belief in Spire, possibly because of the lack of soft
of good standing who, through ritual and trance, earth to bury corpses, is that dead bodies should be disposed
takes on the form of the god or goddess for a period of by carrion creatures and thus released back into the natural
of time and speaks with their voice. Few survive the order. (Cremation remains popular amongst aelfir, who often
cocktail of psychoactive drugs and divine strain that find the idea of being pecked apart by ravens distasteful.)
is placed on their body, but to be chosen as the vessel In special structures called Towers of Silence, a white-
of a god by the elders is considered a great honour robed sect of the Morticians carries the dead down devoted
for the high elf’s family. black-stone pathways and deposits them there to be eaten
In a land where the Lajhan can shift their forms by eagles, vultures, ravens and crows. The central proces-
into patches of moonlight and followers of Charnel sionary is rarely quiet, often with rival funerals jostling for
can transform into giant hyena-beasts through the space thanks to inaccurate and insensitive double-booking
power of their god, the idea of gods descending to policies common to many New Heaven morticians.
the mortal realm to bond with their followers is not But: in the last fifty years, a new religion has sprung to
entirely ridiculous. But: try as they might, the aelfir prominence – devotion to Charnel, a drow faith all the way
cannot summon their deities to Spire. Perhaps it is from the lands to the south, where Far Nujab borders with
the resonance of the place, or the tens of thousands the Duchy of Aliquam and wild dogs prowl the tall and empty
of other gods worshipped here, or that their pantheon streets of the dead in vast, bone-strewn necropoli. In New
is tied to the ice and frost of their homes. Heaven, the drow have released packs of hyenas that breed
and interbreed, doubling in number every decade. They are
charged with eating corpses to dispose of them with proper
reverence (if you aren’t eaten within a week of dying, they
say, your ghost goes bad and the smell attracts demons).
An uneasy peace holds between the Morticians and the
bone-clad, ghost-faced Carrion-Priests, but the hyenas grow
hungry and their hunting grounds expand year on year, and
rumours abound of gnolls hiding out deep in Carrion Row,
the centre of the new Charnelite necropolis.
182 Districts and Factions of Religion
Districts and Factions of Religion183

CHARNEL-SWORN HYENA PACK THE DRUIDIC CHORUS AND THE HIVEKEEPERS

Names: Sacred, Blessed, Hallowed, Wonder (yelled While the druidic faith might be common in the icy lands
out by their handler, who has a name like far to the north of Spire, and in the trackless deserts to the
Wresh, Al’esha, or Ahemain) south, it’s rare to find a devotee of the wild in the world’s
Descriptors: One eye, Dyed red hair, Facial barbs/ largest city. The presence of so much infrastructure and
piercings civilisation chafes against them like a yoke on a wild ox,
Difficulty: Hyenas aren’t especially skilled fighters: diffi- and pretty soon most druids that visit either flee to the
culty 0, but any attempt to escape from them uninhabited foothills to the south-east or go mad and try to
or hide your tracks is at difficulty 1 burn the whole thing down.
Resistance: 3 per hyena, who’ll usually run off rather than In New Heaven, though, enough of the structure is ex-
fighting to the death. If they have a handler posed to the outside world that small clans of druids, or
with them, increase their resistance to 5 each. druid-like worshippers, can maintain an existence here.
The handler has 5 resistance, too Tending to windowboxes and rooftop gardens, these dirt-
Equipment: Teeth and claws (D3). The handler has caked people with blazing eyes and filthy, matted hair prowl
Armour 1 (cured leather and bones), a heavy and sneak through the city streets, planting flowers and
crossbow (D6, Ranged, Reload) and a Nu- spreading seeds so that birds will visit the city.
jabian preyhook (D3, Ranged, Debilitating) Of all the birds that visit, though, the druids are keenest
to attract cloud-larks – tiny white birds that sing and twitter
at sunrise and sunset. The druids believe that the songs of
THE MOONSEEKERS OF GRIMALDI these birds, as complex and multilayered as they are, tell of
The Moonseekers are a devotional cult centred around the future, and of forgotten pasts, and of secrets far below
adoration of one man – the human inventor Grimaldi. This them in the lightless depths of the undercity. Two of the
loose group of yellow-robed zealots reveres him as a vision- council members make frequent visits to the druidic cho-
ary genius and provides for him by any means necessary, rus and ask them for guidance in exchange for rare seeds
and loudly sings his praises from the rooftops with each to grow in their gardens, so presumably their predictions
and every sunrise. “O mighty Grimaldi,” they howl, “O aren’t far off the mark.
magnificent and wise one! He who guides us skyward with There is a rival sect of druids, positioned against the
his graceful hand! He who the earth cannot hold! Praise be chorus and its keepers, who worship the intricate architec-
to our sagacious and benevolent master!” ture of beehives, and plant flowers to attract them to New
Grimaldi, a famous hermit and recluse, hides away in Heaven (and viciously guard the hives they build). Viewing
a well-defended tower on the north side of Spire where he the constructions and structured caste system of bees as
creates mechanical marvels for his worshippers, ever since evidence of civilisation emerging organically from nature,
he was exiled from the college of Gywnn-Enforr for reasons and not an abomination against it, they believe that there is
he never deigns to mention. His obsession (at present) is great wisdom to be seen in the buildings of bees, and that
flight, and his followers are often gifted with robes that let they reflect things that may not be seen by mortal eyes. They
them glide great distances and catch the wind, or spring- are viewed as heretics by their fellows and would be killed
heeled boots that propel them storeys into the air, or wings on sight were it not for the way that assassins tend to be
made of woven feathers, or strange tubes that explode and found, days later, their lifeless bodies grotesquely swollen
rocket away into the sky when lit. from a hundred bee-stings. For details about the powers
But he has spoken of late about flight of an entirely dif- and dangers characters might find in this sect, see p. 79.
ferent kind: he wishes to fly to the moon, to meet the strange
beings that live there and trade with them, bringing back
ethereal and cobweb-light moonsilver to Spire. His requests
to his followers, scrawled on scraps of yellowing paper or
whispered through cracked lips and his long grey beard, have
become more and more outlandish. Quite how he proposes
to reach the moon is unknown, but many people – even
those outside of his wide-eyed cult – reckon that if anyone
can do it, he can.
Currently, four of the seven most important power blocs
in Spire are sending agents to recruit, sabotage or assassinate
Grimaldi, but so far none of them have succeeded.
184 Running the Game
 RUNNING THE GAME

Gold-masked aelfir nobles, their gowns shifting through As gamesmaster, you have an important job in Spire –
myriad colours. Mad-eyed cultists, hungry for blood, tot- you’re in charge of everything that isn’t a player character.
ing sawn-off shotguns and smoking braziers. The sound That means non-player characters, but also the pacing of
of flute and drum music echoing through the dark halls the game, describing the imaginary world of the city, mod-
of Derelictus. Rain pattering against the slate and rope of erating arguments at the table, knowing the rules, making
Perch. A cannibal king on a heap of mouldering flesh. A sure everyone has fun and arranging when and where the
minister’s mother, finding their revolutionary materials, game itself happens.
and working out how long she can hide her daughter from If that sounds like a lot of responsibility, it is. But if that
the authorities. An interdimensional blood parasite that sounds like a lot of work, it’s not. We’re going to help you
manifests as a song. make running the game as easy as possible, allowing you to
Gamesmaster, you are all of the above and more. settle back, relax, and tell a story with your players.
186 Running the Game

THE BASICS GENERAL GM ADVICE

Roleplaying games are, primarily, a social activity, and as You never roll dice. Well – you roll dice to see how much
gamesmaster you’re in charge of making sure that the ex- stress you inflict on players, but that’s it. You never have
perience is a positive one for everyone sitting at the table to roll a dice to make something happen: you just say
– including yourself. Here are a few tools and methods you that it does, and it does. Players can resist, or fight back,
can use to help you do that: if they want – that’s where the dice come in.

Talk To Each Other. Talk openly with each other about Don’t make players roll dice unless they have to. The
whether or not you’re having fun. Check in with players rules of the game are intended to sit in the background,
every now and again to make sure they’re doing okay. and the majority of a session will be spent having a con-
Don’t be afraid to say when you don’t like something, versation in which you tell a story. If you feel the story
or you find something upsetting, or not fun. moving a certain way, let it – you don’t need to roll dice.
You might feel a bit embarrassed to talk to people about
limits (see Lines and Veils below) but establishing consent Something’s always at stake. Don’t ask the player to roll
is important, and makes for a better game, so do it. dice unless there’s something at stake – that is, unless you
can envisage a way the task would mark stress against one
Use Lines and Veils. Drawn from the Nordic LARP scene, of their resistances. If you can’t figure out what could
Lines and Veils are tools for letting other players know go wrong, and if you can but it’s not interesting, don’t
that you’re not okay with certain things happening in the bother asking for a roll.
game. A Line is something you outright don’t want at
the table, and a Veil is something that you’re okay with Make notes, then refer to them. They don’t have to be
happening in-game, but you don’t want to go into detail exhaustive, but try to write down whatever you or your
on it – you want to “draw a veil” over the scene, as it players say that you find interesting or that you think
were, to leave it as an implication. Spire can deal with will come up again in play. You won’t use all of it, but it
some difficult topics (racial discrimination, indentured helps to have it there.
servitude, oppression, murder, terror tactics, body horror,
mind control, etc) and it can be good to establish what’s Say yes. When a player asks a question, it’s an indication
on and off the table before you start. they want the game to go in a certain way. Try to say yes
to queries when you can, because it moves the story and
play onwards rather than stopping it in its tracks.

OUR LINES AND VEILS Fail forward. A failed roll isn’t a block in a storyline, it’s a
These are the general basic rules for any table we run: different branch – something always happens. Whenever
Lines: I don’t want to tell a story about: rape, child a player rolls the dice, change the world in some way as
abuse. a response, or give them some information.
Veils: I don’t want to go into detail on: torture, sex.
Re-use before you invent. Always try to use old material
(characters, locations, etc) that the players have interacted
These are useful tools but sometimes they can involve tell- with before rather than inventing new material, because
ing a group of strangers a list of your fears, which may not re-using established facts is how improvised stories gain
be useful for some, which is why we also advise that you… traction and weight. If the players establish a church as
their home base in the first game, call back to it every
Use the X Card. This is a tool created by John Stavropoulos, time they have a meeting. If they go shopping and meet
and we use it in all of our games. Take a card and draw a particular trader, have that trader crop up again next
an X on it, then place it in the centre of the table, and tell time they go shopping. It’s easy, and it works.
your players that if they don’t like something in the story
– and that goes for stuff you create or things that the other Ask questions, and listen to the answers. If you don’t
players do and say – that they can touch the card, and you know precisely what’s what in a particular situation (i.e.
all agree to stop doing whatever it was that upset them. if a player asks “Are there any dealers in the occult round
There’s no need to explain why at any point; it just stops, here?”) then feel free to turn the question back on the
and you don’t bring it up again. If this means that you players (“Tell me, are there any dealers round here? If
need to rearrange the plot or a character a little bit, so be there are, what are they like? If not, why not?”). Use their
it – that’s less important than any individual at the table. answers, everyone will feel more engaged with the story,
The X Card is great because it functions as a safe word and you didn’t have to do any work.
for roleplaying, and allows you to tackle some exciting
and upsetting subjects with the understanding that people
are encouraged to stop it if they’re uncomfortable.
Running the Game187

Don’t be afraid to change stuff. The players are going Punk. The system of governance isn’t corrupt, per se, in-
to change things – the city will not be the same at the asmuch as it’s openly unfair and cruel. The aelfir don’t
start of the campaign as it is at the end if you all do your care about the drow, and only keep them around as a
jobs right. To that end, if you want to rewrite part of source of labour and entertainment; you’ll find a good
the setting on the fly, go for it. Maybe all your Knights aelfir here and there, sure, but most of them – and the
are hollow suits of armour animated by sentient wasps. system which they built and perpetuate – hates drow
Maybe your Carrion-Priests flooded New Heaven with and affords them no opportunities. Authority doesn’t
vultures, not hyenas. Maybe the rivers are full of giant respect you, so why should you respect authority? Take
carp that people ride around. Maybe the gods descend everything you can get.
to the streets and walk among their worshippers. It’s all
up to you – whatever gets you and your players excited Brutal violence. Violence is kept on-camera, and it’s grim;
is the “right” way to play, not sticking slavishly to canon. bones snap, teeth are ripped out of jaws, blood gets every-
where, people soil themselves and die, messy and wet, in
forgotten dead-end alleys and unlit basements. Combat
THEME AND TONE is not glorious, even if it’s undeniably effective, and that
We’ve tried to establish a few themes and tones with Spire, person you killed has a name and loved ones waiting at
but to give you a hand with recreating them in your game, home and was probably just doing their job. Let players
we’ve outlined them below. You don’t have to choose all, or engage in violence, and then pull no punches as to the
indeed any, of these, but they’re what we’ve used to paint descriptions. Make them regret their decisions. Make
the world as we see it. their opponents pathetic and scared and shuddering and
humanised in their final moments. (And, if you can, give
People-as-things. What happens when you stop thinking every single person a name, and maybe have their friends
of people as people, and start thinking of them as things? shout it out when they die.)
The aelfir view all other races as animals, or worse, which
is why they’re the bad guys. But what about a character’s Uncomfortable decisions. What are you prepared to do
bonds – will the players sacrifice those to get ahead? Will they to take back the city? What constitutes an acceptable
lose sight of the people they’re saving, blinded by their duty? sacrifice? Are all aelfir worthy of death? What about their
allies? Present options to the players that will win them
Religion as power. There is a church on every corner, battles, but at horrendous costs.
and a shrine in every bedroom; everyone prays to some-
thing, because religion is one of the few available sources
of community and sanity that remains within the city. Two
of the three goddess-sisters that make up the prominent
drow faith in Spire have been banned by order of the aelfir,
driving those religions underground and into radicalism;
the Solar Pantheon, a bright and alien church that carries
with it the strange morality of the high elves, replaces them.
The Ministry is waging a holy war, in its own quiet way,
after the aelfir won theirs hundreds of years ago.

ARE THE GODS REAL?

Short answer? We don’t know. Long answer? There’s
no way of proving it one way or another. Magic is
real, for sure, but the fact that divine magic is just
occult magic that’s been practiced for centuries and
dressed up as religion suggests that maybe there’s
no such thing as a “god” in the way their followers
would believe there to be. Maybe the whole thing is
just interdimensional power from the same source,
and gods are just means of understanding it.
As the GM, it’s up to you, but seeing as we only see
what we want to see, and we only have our own senses
to process data, it doesn’t really matter whether gods
are real or not. It’s whether you believe in them, and
what that makes you do, that matters.
188 Running the Game

THE REVOLUTION
This is going to be an act of compromise with a lot of
back-and-forth; if you’re interested in telling a tense political
Your players are about to undertake something tremen- story of betrayal and deceit, whereas half of your players want
dously exciting: they’re going to try and overthrow the city to get in fights in the North Docks and the other half want
and take it for themselves (or: a district, or a street. But to scrub around the Heart in search of forbidden magic,
they’re taking the power back). You can break down a rev- none of you are going to enjoy yourselves. Work together
olutionary act into three parts: to figure out a way to marry the different ideas together; in
the previous example, for instance, you could have traders
Stage One: The Gathering Storm. You can’t run a selling illegal magic run-off from the Heart in the North
rebellion without information or supplies. In the first Docks, and various factions interested in stopping or con-
section, the players will uncover information about the trolling the trade.
world around them – who’s in charge of who, who can
be turned, who needs to be eliminated, and so on – as THINK IN TERMS OF CHANGE
well as recruiting people to the cause, knowingly or not. The advancement system in Spire focuses on changing the
city, so give your players the opportunity to change things.
Stage Two: The Strike. During the strike, the players push You can expect to offer a low advance in most sessions, a
their plans into action and attempt to affect a great change medium advance every three or four, and a high advance
in Spire for the good of the dark elves. People die, allies at the culmination of a multiple-game arc. In fact, thinking
are betrayed, guard houses are overrun, and whatever in terms of the changes and goals your players have access
factions have been roped in to draw attention away from to can be a good way to sketch out a campaign – start with
their operation smash into the authorities. Should things a high goal and work backwards from there.
go well, they’ll be in charge of something – or they’ll have
created a power void, and people will be looking to fill it.

Stage Three: The Aftermath. Once the dust settles, the

realities of the conflict set in. The players’ superiors come
asking questions and favours, or maybe take over the op- THINGS YOU CAN ASSUME PEOPLE
eration wholesale and push them into a different wing of WANT IF THEY PICK A PARTICULAR
the revolution. The authorities, if they’ve noticed the act,
will move to try and regain ground and must be resisted, CHARACTER CLASS
or wrong-footed. The realisation that their work is far Azurite: To make deals, to buy and sell things, to lie
from over, and will never be over, dawns on the players. and cheat, to sit at the sidelines while their pawns
achieve their ends
A lot of stories will boil down into this pattern: planning, Bound: To hunt villains, to sneak and steal, to fight
execution, and consequences. You’ll probably spend a lot against authority, to take the law into their own
of your time on the planning stage, because players like to hands, to be a hero of the people
amass information, and also because it gives you and your Carrion-Priest: To get involved with death and
group time to explore their characters and assess the lay of corpses, to be the underdog, to be wild, to intim-
the land before committing to a particular path of action. idate people, to fight and kill
Firebrand: To lead a revolution, to incite action, to
be charismatic, to fight authority, to be roguish
SOW THE SEEDS OF DISSENT: and try their hand at anything
RUNNING THE GATHERING STORM Idol: To engage in high society, to set up fancy par-
This is the stage of the game where you, GM, will have to ties, to talk their way into and out of problems, to
do the most work. You’ll need to flesh out a section of the create art, to control others
city that has the capacity to be turned against itself, and the Knight: To get in trouble, to be a have-a-go-hero, to
easiest way to do this is to ask your players directly what drink, to pretend they still have some kind of honour
they’re interested in doing. Lajhan: To help people, to heal people and commu-
A lot of gamesmastery guides will suggest that you try nities, to support the dark elf race, to search for
to second-guess and wrong-foot your players so the plot is hidden knowledge
a surprise, but we can’t recommend that; you’ll have a far Masked: To fight the aelfir, to engage in high society,
better time if you’re honest with each other. So don’t write to lie and use disguises, to engage in cruelty
the plot until your players have made their characters – or, Midwife: To defend the defenceless, to be an au-
better yet, do it at the same time. Ask your players what thority on drow culture and philosophy, to explore
parts of the city excite them, what they’d like to see their occult mysteries, to scare people
characters doing, and work it out together as a group. You Vermissian Sage: To uncover hidden mysteries, to
don’t need to tell them everything – some surprises are nice, explore the occult, to apply their knowledge and
after all – but you can save a lot of time and a lot of bored research solutions to problems
players by sketching out the rough ideas of the plot together.
Running the Game189

SUBVERSION INTRODUCE PEOPLE

It isn’t enough to just go and kick in some teeth and hope People are, in general, better than things. People can talk,
that you’ll dethrone the aelfir; there has to be something and lie, and give information; people can act on their own
that you can subvert, or bring under your control, that will volition, and react to events happening around them.
have a wider effect. If you can take out a dangerous and Whenever you can, put a name and a face to a concept if
corrupt (in the wrong way) guard captain, that’s all well you can, and let players talk to them. As ever, note down
and good, but there’ll be another five waiting to take her which ones the players are interested in, and re-use them.
place, and innocent people are going to get caught in the
crossfire. Far better to have someone to replace her waiting
in the wings – someone you’ve got blackmail material on, WHILE THE IRON’S HOT: RUNNING THE STRIKE
or who’s a member of the Ministry, or a who’s hapless rube Things are in place, and the players have an understanding
under your control, or preferably all three. (rightly or not) of how the world fits together. They’ve iden-
As the GM, it’s your duty to present items, structures, tified a weak point in the enemy’s defences and are attempt-
organisations and people that can be subverted; to provide ing to take advantage. Here’s how to make the most of that.
weak links when the players look for them, to offer them
weapons that they can turn against their oppressors. FIND A JOB FOR EVERYONE
Get nasty with it, too; create illegal chemical weapons Players will commonly find roles for their characters to fill,
that blind their targets and flood a district with noxious but – especially if things get violent – you might notice some
gas. Hand them a powerful magic ritual that will require players hanging back or letting the others get all the glory
the sacrifice of hundreds to cast. Offer them the support (and, as it just so happens, shoulder all the risk). It’s your
of a cell of unstable cannibal murderers. Have a skywhale job as GM to offer up problems and opportunities that can
packed full of explosives floating just off-Spire. You don’t engage everyone, and let them have their screen time.
have to force them to use these horrendous things, but you’ll
find it fun to watch them justify it. ASK DIFFICULT QUESTIONS
Nothing goes smoothly, and during the strike, people are
pressed for time. What are people prepared to endanger for
MISSION-BASED PLAY VS HOOK-BASED PLAY the sake of the revolution? Find multiple problems for the
As the player characters all belong to the Ministry, it’s en- characters to tackle at once; have them pulled in many dif-
tirely possible to strongarm them into plots and actions ferent directions, and have there be no right answer. Have
by having their superiors arrive and order them to do it. a villain flee and leave an ally injured and bleeding out on
This, however, doesn’t make for hugely satisfying play, and the street, and push them into splitting the party or making
can leave players feeling bereft of choice or impact on the a difficult choice. Have the police garrison they firebomb
plot, unable to do anything other than the predetermined be staffed by a skeleton crew, as the remainder of the guard
mission. It’s useful for one-shots, or to speed things up has been sent to crack down on their neighbourhood fol-
when play starts dragging, but we’re much more in favour lowing reports of rebellious activity. Not every scene has to
of using the Ministry as a catalyst. Encouraging players to present a horrendous cost (and nor should it), but it can
investigate a particular area, for example, or asking them help to add more drama to proceedings.
to tail a certain person and act on their initiative, can open
up stories that the players can look into at their own pace. CUT BETWEEN SCENES
Alternatively, you can look to draw characters in by con- Don’t be afraid to have multiple scenes running at once.
necting events to their interests and motivations; this is a nice Maybe one group of players stays back to hold off rein-
way to ensure that the story you have in mind will engage forcements and a second group runs off to spring their ally
them, at least at the beginning, even if it’s trickier than just from jail. Maybe a group of researchers is frantically look-
outright telling them in-character to go and do it. It’s not ing for a sorcerer’s weakness while the other half of the par-
a huge leap, though: going from “the Ministry tells you to ty sneaks through his house, aiming to interrupt his dark
investigate this bar” to “you’ve noticed that police presence ritual. As long as you can keep the pacing even, cutting
is unusually high around this bar, so you decide to check it between events can make sure that everyone feels involved
out” for a Firebrand or “you’ve noticed an unusually large and useful with regards to the strike.
number of unmarked crates going into this bar, so you decide
to take a look” for an Azurite, and so on.
Also, if you want to mix things up a little, you can de-
liver additional orders from the Ministry that complicate
or intensify the main storyline. What if the person they’re
tailing (and planning to assassinate) is vital to the revolution?
What if they receive a demand to requisition supplies from
the mansion they’re breaking into during an investigation?
What if they receive word that their Bonds have been talking
to the city guard?
190 Running the Game

PICKING UP THE PIECES: DIFFICULTY, AND HOW

RUNNING THE AFTERMATH
Once the dust settles and the blood has cooled, allow the TO APPLY IT
characters time to celebrate - or commiserate - but not too Difficulty is the one tool you have in your arsenal to use
long, as the city has a way of catching up with them. The against the player characters; for each point of difficulty a
aftermath should illustrate that everything has a conse- task has, the player will be forced to remove one dice from
quence, that victories are short-lived, and failures are cru- their pool before they roll. Seeing as the maximum pool
elly punished. size is four (save a few outlying exceptions), taking one or
two dice out of it can make a significant impact.
REACT TO THE PLAYERS’ ACTIONS Don’t be afraid to use difficulty on actions, especially if
You’ll want to consider what path of action different power you think succeeding cleanly is going to be tricky – it’s not
blocs might take – even ones that the players haven’t yet re- a fun story if the heroes get their way all of the time, is it?
alised are involved. Pushing the city guard out of one loca- When a player character attempts something that sounds
tion might result in them pulling out of the district entirely complicated, or that is risky but would give them a huge
and letting it govern itself, or establishing firm checkpoints benefit if they succeed, slap a point of difficulty on it.
and borders around the area, or handing the job over to Remember: if a player doesn’t have enough dice to lose
the army who suppress insurrection in a series of rapid, due to difficulty, you’ll limit their eventual success by one
brutal strikes. step for each dice they didn’t lose. For example: a player
When the players succeed, that means that a) someone has a dice pool of 2, and they attempt a difficulty 2 action.
will get in trouble for it and b) someone more powerful than This means that they’ll roll a single dice, and you’ll treat
them will be upset, and potentially take action. Have a think the result as though it was one step lower – so if they rolled
about the power structures involved in your story – who 8–9, you’d treat it as 6–7 instead.
are people answering to, and taking orders from? Who’s
manipulating events from behind the scenes?
You don’t have to play your hand right away, but if you DIFFICULTY RATINGS
do something, you should show a knock-on effect that it Difficulty 0: A standard task, if there is such a thing in the
has – or describe events that none of the characters can day-to-day work of the Ministry. It’s certainly not without
see, but that add complexity to the narrative by the players risk, and there’s definitely something at stake, but given
knowing about them. proper training and knowledge, the player can expect to
pull this off (if a task would be easier to achieve than this,
RE-INTRODUCE PEOPLE assume success is automatic).
Odds are, those people you brought in during the gather- Examples: Evading the attention of mobsters in Red Row;
ing storm are going to be affected by what just happened, finding a safe entrance to the Vermissian; buying an illegal
so don’t hold back on having them show that to the play- pistol from an arms dealer.
ers. There’s a world of difference between describing a
run-down neighbourhood suffering under the weight of Difficulty 1: Something, or someone, is making the action
increased police attention and describing a player’s Bond harder than usual. Even a skilled operative will struggle
turning up to the meeting, black-eyed and missing teeth, to succeed most of the time.
because they were caught trespassing after curfew. Examples: Escaping through knee-deep water; tracking a
target through the hustle and bustle of the Blue Market on a
festival day; resisting the interrogation delivered by a skilled

OTHER FACTIONS
aelfir knifemaiden.

An important part of helping Spire feel like a function- Difficulty 2: It doesn’t get much harder than this without
ing city, riddled with shadows and misdirection, is to put becoming an automatic failure, and even then, a character
in people other than the primary antagonists. On p. 235 with the best training and expertise will find themselves
there’s a table that lets you roll up random groups to throw relying on chance. Without, they’ve got no hope of pulling
into your plot – we recommend doing this, and then work- it off cleanly.
ing out how those groups would fit into the story and how Examples: Fighting in pitch darkness against enemies
they’d react to the player characters’ actions. It’s always who can see without light; sneaking into the heavily-guarded
interesting to have a neutral, turnable, or dupable third Council Chambers up-Spire; finding a safe route through
party to add complexity to a story and afford both you and the shifting passageways of the Heart to reach the Mansion.
the players additional avenues of plot.
Running the Game191

A GOOD VILLAIN A SAMPLE VILLAIN

Your story needs a villain. Preferably it needs more than Hertza Vex, a human Spire ascendant cultist, is looking to
one – a set of interlocking nested bastards, all of whom are awaken the structure of the Spire as a goddess. She is a re-
trying to tread on the drow to increase their own power cent arrival to the city, having taken a teaching post in Gy-
base. Although the crux of Spire is change – transforming wnn-Enforr university six years ago, but during that time
the city into one that they’d prefer to live in – it’s no fun to she has quickly risen through the ranks of her sect.
enact that change without someone to push against.
Villains can do some pretty reprehensible stuff, but re- What do they want? To awaken the god that dwells within
member: no-one thinks that they’re the bad guys. In their the city of Spire and sit upon its right hand.
eyes, the players are the villains – deranged cultists of one or How do they think they’re going to get it? By detonat-
more forbidden gods, worshiping at altars in lightless, flooded ing explosives within the structure of the city to rid it of
basements, robbing and murdering good hard-working folk. the parasites that live upon it and sap its energy.
Their actions endanger everyone in Spire, and if people just What crimes against drow have they committed to do it? She
toed the line and did what the city guard (and by extension, has blown half of Perch off the side of the city and has
the council) asked of them, everything would go smoothly. designs on the North Docks.
Here are a few questions to ask yourself about your villain: What happens when they get it? The city will awaken as a great
and terrible god, of an as yet unknown domain, and she
• What do they want? will be blessed by it.
• How do they think they’re going to get it? What weapons do they have in their arsenal? She is independently
• What crimes against drow have they committed to do wealthy, and uses her resources to bribe the city guard
it? into acting as enforcers for her schemes. She has also
• What happens when they get it? actively recruited members of the Crimson Vigil into the
• Who do they control? Spire Ascendant and uses them as blunt instruments in
• How do they hold power? dealing with people who pry into her schemes.
• What do they look like? Pick three words that define How do they hold power? Her positions within the university
them. and the Spire Ascendant allow her a great deal of sway
• What do they want to look like? Again, pick three in political situations. She rarely bothers herself with the
words. realities of enforcing her will.
• What does everyone say about them? What do they look like? Pick three words that define them.
• What’s their biggest secret? Hunched. Silver. Precise.
• Who do they love, and why? What do they want to look like? Again, pick three words. Flowing.
• Who do they answer to? Tall. Red.
• What are they scared of? What does everyone say about them? That she’s incredibly
smart, and ruthless when it comes to pursuing her
Some of these questions might not seem obvious in their academic aims.
application; they’re designed to not only position the vil- What’s their biggest secret? That she’s a member of the Spire
lain in the story, but to flesh them out as a person, because Ascendant, and is working to trigger an apotheosis. She
people can be dethroned and defeated. Everyone has a could never let it get out amongst her fellows.
weakness; everyone wants something other than their pri- Who do they love, and why? A student of hers, a young drow
mary goal; no-one acts perfectly logically all the time, and girl, called Esmer, because she’s young and beautiful and
the players can take advantage of that. Their cell doesn’t clever and asks difficult questions; her mother Carys Vex,
have the resources to take on, say, the crime lords of Red who resides in Ivory Row, who always wanted the best for
Row in a straight-up fight – but they probably have the her and is nearing the end of her life; her dog, Lucien,
resources to abduct their loved ones and use them as lev- who’s old but means well.
erage, or to prey on their insecurities to create an oppor- Who do they answer to? Her superiors in the sect. Primary
tunity. (Not that you’re going to encourage the players to amongst them is Lady Grendylmyn Stars-Softly-Shine,
kidnap someone’s mum and threaten to kill her, of course. a council member, who has suspected her of trying to
But give them the option, and let them consider it.) oust her for months now.
For henchmen, lieutenants, unwitting dupes or pawns in What are they scared of? That she’ll be found out, her academic
your villain’s scheme, you can go through the list above again career will be ruined, and her scheme to awaken the Spire
or answer the following shorter list of questions for them: (which she’s not entirely confident will work) will be
scuppered, and she’ll be exiled or shot for her crimes.
• Why were they chosen by the villain to serve?
• What sets them apart from the rest of their faction?
• What, or who, do they desire?
• What, or who, do they despise?
192 Running the Game

MAKING THE CITY YOUR OWN It could be more paramilitary, or more learning towards
Although we’ve taken great pains to make the city of Spire espionage, with characters receiving clear orders and be-
feel unique, we want you to change it. When you play ing expected to report back to their magister with regular
through your campaign, you should tweak and change any- updates. Magisters will use fieldwork terminology, and the
thing you desire – after all, the theme of the game is change, campaign will focus more on the realities of fighting an
and your players will be working to make as many changes undercover war in your home city than the mystical nature
as possible in an attempt to level up their characters. of the goddess.
Or it might be informal; the cultish stuff is there, sure,
but it’s all for the higher-ups, and there’s at least three levels
THE MINISTRY of command between the players and the ministers – the
How weird is your Ministry of Our Hidden Mistress? day-to-day happenings of rebellion occur in the back rooms
We’ve written the Ministry as a secret society crossed of bars, in bedrooms and kitchens, and few people swear
with a paramilitary organisation, and in play it tends to fealty to the goddess – this is about the future of the drow,
function more as a means of uniting players and delivering first and foremost, and practicality trumps everything else.
information without interfering much in play. But, in your
game, you can change that.
You could up the weird cultish elements of it, bringing VILLAINY
the circles of hidden knowledge and bizarre initiation rites How evil are the aelfir in your game?
to the fore (for example: run a prelude game where players They are, of course, the main villains in the story. But the
act out scenes from their initiation, and decide what they extent of that villainy, and whether everything you’ve read
learned, and what they lost). The magister, when they’re seen, in this book is true, is up to you.
is vague and mercurial and evades direct answers, and they Perhaps your high elves are full-bore pantomime villains
are a skilled ritualist with regard to the arts of the Mistress. who enjoy torturing innocent drow and lead debauched lives
Perhaps the exarchs or the oracles show up to throw their of senseless excess, drinking and smoking and rutting their
weight around, too, and it becomes apparent that players way through their sordid, glamorous existences. This is useful
are pawns in a grand game of chess. for one-shots, if you want to get your players motivated to
start kicking in doors and making trouble.
Running the Game193

Or: some of them are like that, sure, and some of them are Maybe they’re not evil, and the principle of durance is
normal people just like the players but they happen to have an old-fashioned embarrassment that most right-thinking
been born into immense privilege, and there’s a spectrum. aelfir are trying to move away from – but a handful of old
There are poor aelfir, sympathetic aelfir who help the Min- guard are keeping it going. Even if you served under an
istry, socialist aelfir, and so on. This is good if you want to absolute monster, most of the aelfir you meet are basically
skew the discussion of morality towards grey areas – the aelfir decent people.
aren’t demons to be banished, but people to be dealt with. Secondly – how villainous do the populace, on the whole,
Their power structure is evil, but most individuals aren’t. believe the Ministry to be? Are they noble folk heroes, striving
Perhaps they’re not evil as we’d think of it, but more alien to better the lot of their race? Are they a fringe cult of terror-
in nature. They don’t understand why drow are complaining, ist zealots who are going to get innocent drow killed, either
because this is the natural order of things. They can’t feel from their repercussions or directly from their actions? Are
sadness, and pain is a sort of fascinating and exciting expe- they largely unheard of – just a myth to scare aelfir children
rience to them, so they might genuinely be confused as to at night? Are they a false flag operation, set up by the aelfir
why you’re sad because they just killed and ate your dog. This themselves, to attract and control rebellious drow?
is a trickier one to pitch, but it works well if the aelfir aren’t A lot of this depends on the behaviour of the players in
the main antagonists in the story you’re telling – maybe the your game – after all, they’re setting the tone.
players are battling loyalist drow, or human cultists of the
machine god, and the high elves occasionally swan into the
plot, obsessed with the mirroring of the patterns exhibited MAGIC
in the night sky and in certain people’s irises, more weird How common is magic in your game?
and unknowable than inherently wicked. Perhaps magic is fiercely controlled by the state, with the
Council issuing licenses to practice it from on high. The city
guard are in charge of capturing illegal practitioners and
bringing them to justice – not only occultists who are un-
DOING HORRIBLE THINGS earthing the secrets of dark magic, but Lajhan and Azurites
Several of the abilities in this game feature mind- who will not, or cannot, pay their dues. Occult magic is all
control in some way; the high-level powers of the but banned throughout Spire, except in special units in the
Azurite, the Gestalt mask from the Masked class, army or research divisions in the universities, and those who
rites of Our Hidden Mistress and pretty much half dabble in it are seen as witches.
of the Idol’s powers involve reaching into someone’s Maybe each church and order of wizards is protective of
mind and rearranging what they believe to be true their own spells, not letting them into the hands of outsid-
and false. ers, and don’t like to cast spells in front of the uninitiated
Similarly, a lot of this game might focus around without good reason or first dressing them up in layers of
violence and betrayal. Odds are your brother-in-law secrecy and misdirection.
doesn’t know you’re a minister, and when he finds Or maybe the city is free and easy with magic, seeing it as
out he says he’s going to report you to the guard, a means of expression or a gift from the gods, and encourages
and you’re carrying a gun… what are you going to its use in public spaces. Most people know a trick or two: a
do? Are you going to let him? prayer to a sun god to help light a fire, a rite from a goddess
We didn’t want to outright state what’s good of pathways to ensure a door stays locked while they sleep,
and evil, but we wanted to measure the stress that a little black-market, black-magic lipstick to cast a minor
performing bad acts for good reasons (or even for glamour over themselves before they leave the house. These
bad reasons) can put on the fragile mortal mind. To cantrips have no in-game benefit, but simply make up the
that end, be generous when it comes to marking stress patchwork of everyday life.
against Mind if the character is performing morally
questionable or reprehensible acts (or just stressful
acts; sure, you might not be hurt as you scramble
out of the burning building, but that’s going to leave
you shaken).
As ever, we ask you to use your common sense
when assigning stress. If this is the first time the
character’s shot and buried a family member for the
sake of the revolution, that’s D8 stress. If it’s the fifth,
they might not take mental stress at all.
194 Running the Game
 BLOOD AND DUST

INTRODUCTION
Welcome to Blood and Dust! In this chapter, you’ll find BLOOD AND DUST
the setup for the Blood and Dust campaign, which you can [Read, or paraphrase, the following section aloud to your
expect to play for around five to six sessions. At the end players to bring them up to speed on events surrounding
of this section there are five pre-generated characters that the campaign.]
come with story hooks to draw them into the adventure The city of Spire is rotting from within and without. Each year
so you and your group can start playing right away; or if the structures built onto the outside of the city’s structure collapse
you’d like, you can play the campaign with characters of and fall away. The cursed tear in reality, the Heart, festers deep
your own creation. within the centre. Disorder and chaos are a natural part of daily
Unlike many pre-written adventures you might have read life for those on the edges of civilisation.
before, we haven’t given you a set series of events for the play- And yet: the brutal undercity of Red Row is more chaotic
ers to work through. Spire is an open-ended, character-led than ever.Where before gangs would pass each other with hol-
game by design, and we can’t predict what your players will stered weapons and wary glances, each keeping to their respective
do. Instead, we’ve given you a setup featuring several factions, territories, now they engage in open warfare, and spireblack gun-
all of whom are connected – tangentially or directly – to a smoke floats through the dark city. Families come apart, leaving
major new development in the city around which the game children without mothers, begging on the streets for sustenance.
focuses. Your city of Spire will be different from ours – at The Crimson Vigil, a group of violent anti-aelfir reactionaries,
least it will once the characters start changing things – so are openly recruiting soldiers for their forbidden cult. And a new
it’s up to you to use as much or as little as you want. play,The Weeping Maiden, is touring the district – and that’s all
To help you get started, though, we’ve suggested some anyone seems to talk about.
jumping-off points for the story – and all of our pre-gener- Things are coming apart, and ordinary people are getting
ated characters come with a reason to leap headlong into caught in the middle. Someone is behind this. The player char-
the plot, so most of them will start there. acters, all of them noted professionals in Red Row (and relative
novices in the Ministry) gather their resistance cell together and
start investigating.
[Stop reading aloud now!]
196 Blood and Dust

WHAT’S REALLY GOING ON? ADVENTURE SETUP

What’s really going on is that Councilman Drynn, the only GM, you’ll notice (hopefully) that each sample charac-
human member of the ruling cadre of Spire, noted retro- ter comes with a hook in their description that should get
engineer and mean drunk, is attempting to seize control of them involved in the adventure. Each hook gives the player
the city. But that’s way above the characters’ pay grade, so a little piece of information that connects to the wider mys-
what’s more important is how he’s doing it. tery at play, and gives them a lead to explore.
There is a cult, deep in Derelictus and close to the Heart, If your players are interested in making their own char-
called the Church of Absolution – a gang of burnt-out ma- acters rather than using the pre-generated ones, try to give
gicians, dead-eyed occultists, thieves, nihilists and defrocked their characters a similar background hook – or steal the
priests of failed religions. They worship something they call ones from unused pre-generated characters, instead.
the Hungry Deep – the very essence of decay, embodied (they The first scene you should play out is one where the
feel) in the writhing, nightmare energies of the Heart. Their characters meet up somewhere secure and discuss what they
elder magi can act as conduits for this decay, channeling it know, having agreed to come together beforehand. From
into particular targets to suit their needs. They can make here, the characters can share information and work out a
someone’s teeth rot out of their head, if they want, but they plan to try and get to the bottom of the situation in Red Row.
can also tear apart social structures and the minds of those (If a player isn’t interested in exploring the situation
who would dare stand against them in service of the Deep. in Red Row and wants to do their own thing just because
They are, every last one of them, deranged – driven mad they’re feeling contrary, politely explain to them that the
by the corrupting energies of the Heart – and so have not story is about the chaos in Red Row, so if they want to take
strayed far from their undercity den, content to rummage part in the story, they need to find a reason to get interested
around the broken remains of civilisation. or they won’t be able to take part in it. The fact that they
Drynn got wind of the cult, and wanted to exploit the work for the Ministry, and are therefore honour-bound to
ability to undo structures with a thought, and he got his defend the drow of Spire, is a useful motivation in a pinch.)
down-Spire retroengineering contacts to do some research. Once the players work out their plan of attack, there’s
They captured some cultists, strapped them into hellish no defined structure to the adventure; Spire isn’t the sort
memetic resonators, and attempted to use them to hex of game where you have maps and clearly-marked ranges,
Drynn’s fellow council members so he could replace them and it doesn’t lend itself well to the sort of GMs who try
with some malleable sympathisers to his cause. to predict every single action the players might take. It’ll
But – it didn’t work. The ground in Derelictus was dead, make for a far better experience for both you and your play-
the streets psychically fallow; without getting too close to the ers if, instead of trying to second-guess the actions of the
Heart to survive, they couldn’t harness enough raw discord characters, you stay flexible and react to what they do. The
to make the machines work. So they packed up shop, took factions outlined below are the power blocs at play – when
over a portion of the Endline Vermissian station, and opened the players do something, try to answer these questions to
their chaos siphons to soak up the murderous cacophony work out the next scene.
that is Red Row.
That worked. The devices – called dust machines for 1. Who’s going to try and stop the player characters, and
the way that they attracted dust, rot and fat pallid moths how?
both to their targets and to the area they occupied – were
functional, but there wasn’t enough power. So they made 2. What are they going to do if the player characters
Red Row worse. succeed at their aims?
The city guard pushed in, breaking heads and kneecaps
and arresting people for carrying guns, drugs, swords – basic 3. Who is going to view this as an opportunity and try to
day-to-day accessories for the populace. They hired Knights take advantage?
from the North Docks to provide security for their opera-
tions, knowing that it would piss off the gangsters no end.
They bribed the artist/occultists of the Sunlight Collective
to write a play that was magically-charged to create tension
and disharmony, and toured it round the seedy theatres of the
district. They even funded the Crimson Vigil, an anti-aelfir
terrorist organisation, to start recruiting and carrying out
assassinations and attacks in Red Row.
The dust machines are working overtime to absorb all the
chaos, and powering up for their first proper hex against a
fellow council member. Things are getting dangerous. Enter
the player characters.
Blood and Dust197

WHAT HAPPENS NEXT? Pick two of the factions and have them try to kill each
We don’t know! Odds are your players will want to follow other, or gang up on a third. (Maybe the third could be
up on the leads that they’re started play with, and from the player characters, if they’ve been obvious about what
there you’ll have to describe the world, the people and the they’re doing.) In the following game, tensions will come
events that unfold as they move through the story. to a head, and unless the players intercede then Red Row
They might want to shut down the play, or subvert it for will see tremendous loss of life or property – fires, mass
their own ends; they might ally with the Crimson Vigil and shootings, occult side-effects, subsequent sacrificial rituals,
lead an assault on the retroengineers in Endline; they might etc. Dealing with the crisis, and the fallout, should take up
infiltrate the police and divert them against their enemies; most of the final session.
they might fund and reinforce the burgeoning cults of the
Hungry Deep that are popping up around Red Row, and
attempt to control them; they might try to steal the dust ADVANCEMENT
machines for their own use. We can’t predict what your Remember – player characters can choose advances when
players will do, and it’s a waste of words trying to do so. they change Spire in some way, whether for good or ill,
Instead, we’ve done our best to set up a situation that you so be generous with them. You can expect to give out a
can throw them into and watch them go. low advance most sessions, and a medium advance at least
once during the linked series of games that make up Blood
and Dust.
ENDING THE STORY
As things progress, towards the end of session four you
should have an idea of which of the factions listed below AWARDING BONDS
are most important to your group – this will depend on When you feel like a player deserves a reward, or that their
which sample characters were chosen, which NPCs the character has formed a new relationship with an NPC, you
player characters have enjoyed interacting with, who’s still can give them a bond.
alive, etc. Don’t expect to use all of the material we’ve got
in here – just go with what your players find interesting.
198 Blood and Dust

FACTIONS
What follows is a list of the important people involved in the adventure who’ll react when the players take action. Don’t
feel like you have to use all of these NPCs – they’re just there to spark your imagination and help you tell the story.

THE RETROENGINEERS
Made up of mercenaries and human retroengineers who If a player has the opportunity and the inclination to use
couldn’t get employment anywhere legitimate, this disor- a dust machine, they roll Compel+Technology, and arrange
ganised group has moved into the twisted ruins of Endline the galvanic receptors around a representative symbol of your
station in an attempt to harness the raw disharmony of Red target. Names, portraits, maps of their location, iconography
Row. Most of them don’t know who they’re really working that represents them – it’s all good. On a success, the target
for, or what the machines actually do, but they know enough takes D6 stress at some point over the next D6 days, wherever
to keep quiet about their job when they go out drinking. they are, from events conspiring against them.
If you can get a vial of the target’s blood, one of their
NOTABLE MEMBERS teeth, or ten fingernail clippings and include them in the
Feldspar: Lead researcher, hooked on the cocktail of stim- ritual roll 2D6 and pick the higher when applying stress. The
ulants known as dagger, and in debt to several Red Row bodily components are consumed when the ritual is cast.
dealers. Once possessed a brilliant scientific mind, but Dust, moths and rust gather around the target, and the
has lost most of it to drug abuse. smell of damp and rot follows their footsteps. The area di-
Carys: Covered in a thick layer of oil, grease and grime. rectly around the machines is similarly degraded; the walls
Ex-military mechanic, dishonourably discharged for ig- crumble, dirty water bubbles up from the floor, and operators
noring orders and light arms trafficking. (Resistance 7, without the proper protection (which is all experimental in
Armour 2, carries an experimental galvanic rifle (D8, nature) report their hair and nails growing brittle and black
Ranged, Reload, Dangerous) that will break after a few then falling off. Using the machine has a D3 stress cost on
fights if anyone other than her attempts to use it). a failure or partial success.
Each dust machine can only curse a single target at once,
THE DUST MACHINES and it must remain switched on and focused until the stress
These sparking, unpredictable devices are an attempt to is marked. Acquiring multiple dust machines would theo-
technologically control the energies of the Hungry Deep. retically allow you to curse the same target multiple times
They collect and amplify ambient decay (of materials, so- simultaneously, assuming the building they’re housed in
cial structures, ideologies, minds – anything) in the sur- doesn’t collapse before the curse fires off.
rounding area and, through barely-understood divine en-
ergy hijacked using barely-understood ancient technology,
channel that decay into a target that the technicians spec-
ify. There are currently three of them in use, and a fourth USING THE DUST MACHINES
under construction. ON THE PLAYERS
Each machine houses a cultist from the Church of Abso-
lution, all of whom were abducted in a raid on their temple If the retroengineers get a handle on the player
about a month and a half ago. The cultist’s brain is respon- characters’ identities and what they’re up to, they
sible for channelling raw entropy into a usable hex, and the might use the dust machines against them. Treat this
process drives the already unstable unfortunate even deeper as a Resist+Occult roll with D3 stress on a success
into madness. The kinder retroengineers drug their victims and D6 on a failure.
into a coma, but the more heartlessly efficient ones say that
doing this reduces the output of the machines.
Blood and Dust199

THE SUNLIGHT COLLECTIVE

A group of bleeding-edge artists and occultists from all She finishes the murderous rite which summons the spirit
races who follow the shifting patterns of the sunlight cast of Lekolé, the Crimson Vigil, to her body. Charged with
on the roofs of the dusty, semi-abandoned mansions of violent power, she finally slays the Duke, but she receives
Ivory Row. Having perfected (in their opinion) the new her comeuppance when she goes on to be possessed by
play/ritual entitled The Weeping Maiden, they’re touring it Lekolé when she returns to her homeland, and the spirit
around the seedy tuppenny theatres of Red Row. shows her that even her friends and allies were involved in
They’re in on the scheme to destabilise Red Row, even her disastrous marriage. Broken beyond recognition, she
if they’re not all as devoted to the idea as Drynn would like slays what remains of her family, and is queen to a terrified
them to be. They’re not fighters, on average, and would rather and shadowy kingdom.
be left alone to smoke and work on whatever groundbreaking The desang style of the play influences the plot, which has
art they reckon is going to take Spire by storm next than several branching paths (although it always ends the same
get into much trouble. way) determined by fights. The most important is one be-
For more information on the collective, see p. 117. tween Lekolé and Limyé, two parts of the trinity that make
up the elven moon-goddess, fought out at the start of the
NOTABLE MEMBERS play. Fighters in elaborate ritual masks and costumes will take
Jessamyn, drow playright: Wanted to become an Idol but on the roles of the goddesses and brawl, often to knockout
not charismatic enough to pull it off, so is hopelessly bitter rather than first blood, to determine the tone of the play.
towards anyone with a magnetic personality. Keen occult- The play has been magically imbued as a ritual that en-
ist. Ivory-white skin and hair, favours aelfir-style masks. courages discord and upset amongst its audience; there have
Veronike, drow actress: Studied fight-dancing under a been eighteen brawls and three murders during performances
dishonoured aelfir skald; decent singer, dabbles in the in the month that the show has been running, and divorce
occult; social chameleon. Dyes her hair bright red. rates have skyrocketed. The other effect of the ritual is to
convince the viewer that the play is brilliant and that they
have to watch it again and again, and to vehemently disa-
THE WEEPING MAIDEN gree with anyone who tries to stop them. (This is a fairly
The Weeping Maiden is a play that contains various ritu- common trick amongst occultist playwrights, and anyone
als, enacted in the avant-garde style of desang (pronounced with the Occult domain can make a Resist+Occult check
“dessohn”). Desang theatre has actual violence in it, to see through the spell.)
fought to first blood, which determines a sort of branching,
semi-improvised narrative.
In this semi-historical morality play, the drow princess
Sibyla of Ys is married off to the cruel duke Starys, but she WHAT IF THE CHARACTERS ACT IN
concocts a plan to escape. She seduces and murders many
of the members of his court, and – unusually for the style –
THE PLAY?
dead characters are marked in strange symbols and remain All bets are off. The plot is largely up to them,
on-stage, often hanging from the rafters in arcane-looking although this will upset the playwrights and staff
support rigs. members watching from the wings; it’s safe to assume
that the magic side-effects, if not completely removed,
will be subverted and changed.

THE KNIGHTS OF THE NORTH DOCKS

Once upon a time the Knights were noble protectors NOTABLE MEMBERS
of traders and merchants, but over the centuries their “Handsome” Sally Grackler, knight/actor: Came out
organisation has shifted into a web of warring orders who of the burlesque scene and ended up in desang shows,
send gaudily-armoured legbreakers against one anoth- doing pretty well for themselves. Brash, androgynous,
er in an effort to maintain control of their portion of the maybe a little over-confident.
North Docks. They’ve been hired as protection for both Absolon, knight of the order of the Silver Star: Charged
the Weeping Maiden and the retroengineer operation in with keeping the peace around the plays. Suspected some-
Endline, mainly as a means of pissing off everyone in thing was up with them a while back but has been paid
Red Row. into silence, and will shut down arguments to the contrary.
For more information on the Knights, see p. 99.
200 Blood and Dust
THE CITY GUARD
While most city guard are just local boys and girls who are NOTABLE MEMBERS
working for a (semi-) honest living, the squads in Red Row Jonjak, overworked captain: Under tremendous pressure
are less stable, less reliable and much more prone to vio- from his bosses to clean up Red Row, and suspects some-
lence than the rest of them. Holed up in Voloren Standard thing fishy is going on.
Outpost, they’ve been pushed into cleaning up the district Hurk, grimy jailer: Enormous, powerful drow who loves
(an impossible and thankless task) from pressure up-Spire her job maybe a little too much. Favourite hobby is to
as Drynn leans on his contacts in the police force. Their eat massive meals in front of starving prisoners.
jails are overcrowded, their officers haven’t had a day off Paloma, gun-crazy constable: Carries a definitely-illegal
in three weeks, and they’re starting to get even more lais- shotgun with her everywhere; is secretly a member of both
sez-faire with justice than ever. Brother Hellion’s Church of the Gun and the Crimson
For more information on the City Guard, including stats Vigil. Probably not too long before she joins the Church
for an average member, see p. 139. of Absolution too, at this rate.

THE CHURCH OF ABSOLUTION

A cult of burned-out magicians and sages, destitute NOTABLE MEMBERS
oracles and defrocked priests, who worship the very Mother-ash-on-snow: Head of the cult, barely present,
essence of decay as a deity. unutterably strange (Resistance 6, her touch is a D8
The cult is understandably upset about having half of weapon that withers skin, she doesn’t like using it much).
their members abducted and tortured, and is out for revenge. Sonder: Builds homunculi from filth and carrion, gives
They lack the capacity to strike at the retroengineers direct- them names, dresses them.
ly, so they’re starting up minor pockets of entropy worship Kurtz: Fiercely nihilistic, ex-military, used to work with the
around Red Row and trying (unsuccessfully so far) to broker Crimson Vigil but found them too forgiving (Resistance
deals with other powers. They might approach the player 8, rusty shotgun (D6, Point-Blank, Reload, Unreliable)
characters for help, and make for unusual allies. and gruesome knife (D3, Brutal)).
For more information on the church, including stats for
an average member, see p. 125.

THE CRIMSON VIGIL

The Crimson Vigil are zealous devotees of the third, and NOTABLE MEMBERS
some would argue least prominent drow goddess, Lekolé. Matilde: mother of three, dangerously zealous in her be-
In Spire, their religion is entirely illegal – just like the Min- liefs. Has killed before and will do so again; her favourite
istry of Our Hidden Mistress. Driven underground and targets are drow who collude with aelfir.
radicalised, they preach a message of destruction and hate Ignaz: cell leader, secretive, duplicitous. Cover identity
against their oppressors that also includes anyone who col- as a merchant in the North Docks, siphoning off funds
ludes with them, and they are not averse to civilian casual- through clever accounting to his friends in the Vigil.
ties if their ends are met. Harcoeur: ex-Enlisted, unwilling conduit but managed to
They are primarily here to hold up a mirror to the player escape. Aelfir sorcery lets her see things, often things she’d
characters: they have similar goals in mind, but their means rather not see. Enforcer and gun-runner for the Vigil.
are – on average – much more destructive and brutal. (And
if their means aren’t too different, that’s a reason to drop a
load of Shadow stress on the player characters, or have the VIGILITE ZEALOT
Ministry rock up and give them a stern talking to.) Names: Lux Meridian, Ignacius, Matchlock
They might try and ally with the player characters, but Descriptors: Carrying devotional literature, Is currently
they might just as easily start to work against them, or simply on fire, Wears their manacles as penance
arrive in the middle of an already tense situation and push Difficulty: 0 – keen, but unskilled.
it over the edge into violence. Resistance: 5
For more information on the Crimson Vigil, including Special: For each other vigilite nearby, increase their
stats for an average member, see p. 175. resistance by 1
Equipment: Red-painted shotgun with overcharged rounds
(D6, Ranged, Point-Blank, Brutal, Reload,
Dangerous), serious-looking knife (D3, Bru-
tal)
PREGENERATED CHARACTERS LOZLYN DE VIRE
CLASS: FIREBRAND
DURANCE: ENLISTED
REFRESH: TAKE SOMETHING BACK FROM YOUR OPPRESSORS

RESISTANCES FREE SLOTS STRESS MARKED

BLOOD  
MIND  
SILVER  
SHADOW  
REPUTATION  
ARMOUR 

SKILLS KNACKS DOMAINS KNACKS

 Compel  Academia
 Deceive  Crime
 Fight  Commerce
 Fix  High Society
 Investigate  Low Society
 Pursue  Occult
 Resist  Order
 Sneak  Religion
 Steal  Technology

EQUIPMENT ABILITIES
Lead From the Front. You excel when you’re under pressure.
Brass knuckles (D3, Concealable) When you have 6 or more stress in Shadow, gain mastery
on all actions.
Buzzard Sawn-off (D6, Reload, Point-Blank)
Draw a Crowd. You can pull together a crowd at a moment’s
notice. Once per session, you can draw a crowd to you
BONDS in a matter of minutes. People will stop what they’re
doing, so long as it isn’t life-or-death, and listen to what
Jackson Crouch, disgraced human retroengineer, kicked you have to say.
out of Gywn-Enforr for heretical galvanic experimentation
Fight the Power. You channel your anger into fighting the
Athelmayas, city guard, agreeably bribeable, smokes awful police, soldiers, the solar guard – anyone who’d stand against
cigarillos you. Gain the Resist skill. When you engage in violence
against an enemy who is part of the Order domain (city
Another character (see reverse). guard, military, etc) you do so with mastery.

Always Outnumbered, Never Outrun. You are excep-

tional at getting the hell away from your problems. Gain the
Pursue skill. When you flee a superior force, you do so
with mastery.
LOZLYN DE VIRE, FIREBRAND
PLAY LOZLYN IF YOU WANT TO:
• Whip a crowd into a frenzy at very short notice
• Blow away cops with a sawn-off shotgun
• Get away before their backup arrives

BIO
“They can’t take us all on. Not all of us. Tonight, we show them
who’s really in charge.”

You are an ex-military revolutionary, a dangerous criminal

in the eyes of the authorities, who hangs out in the lawless
undercities of Red Row and Derelictus. You lend a helping
hand to other poor folk, doing your best to resist the rule
of the aelfir in any way you can. This is your city, not theirs.
SP RE I
The City Must Fall

You’ve noticed a rise in brutality from the city guard

who are pushing into Red Row, stamping down on local
businesses and rooting out insurrection; you get word that
they’re on their way to your flat now after a tip-off that you
have reams of seditionist texts hidden under your bed. Who
sold you out?

BONDS
• You have an Individual-level bond with Jackson Crouch,
disgraced human retroengineer, kicked out of Gywn-
Enforr for heretical galvanic experimentation
• You have an Individual-level bond with Athelmayas, city
guard, agreeably bribeable, smokes awful cigarillos
• You have a bond with one of the other PCs who you
recruited to the cause. Say who, and say what it was that
tipped them over the edge.

NOTES ON YOUR ABILITIES

Your brass knuckles has the Concealable tag: when you at-
tempt to conceal it, roll with mastery.

Your Buzzard Sawn-Off has the Reload tag: this weapon

can be used at range. It also has the Point-Blank tag: when
used at extremely close range, this weapon’s damage in-
creases by 1 dice size; at anything over medium range, it
decreases by 1.
PREGENERATED CHARACTERS ALEXANDRA LAURANT
CLASS: IDOL
DURANCE: FELL IN WITH A GANG OF THIEVES
REFRESH: SOMEONE FEELS DEEPLY MOVED BY YOUR ART

RESISTANCES FREE SLOTS STRESS MARKED

BLOOD  
MIND  
SILVER  
SHADOW  
REPUTATION  
ARMOUR 

SKILLS KNACKS DOMAINS KNACKS

 Compel  Academia
 Deceive  Crime
 Fight  Commerce
 Fix  High Society
 Investigate  Low Society
 Pursue  Occult
 Resist  Order
 Sneak  Religion
 Steal  Technology

EQUIPMENT ABILITIES
Life and Soul of the Party. People flock to be near you.
Several sets of flattering clothing Once per session, so long as there are people nearby and
a place to have it, you can create an instant gathering
Viola and reams of sheet music with dancing, games, drinking, eating and chatting. The
party gives you mastery to persuade, deceive, or distract
Small gifts and trinkets from your fans actions performed within it.

A knife (D3, Concealable) Glamour. Black magic and poise let you become whoever they
want you to be. Once per situation, choose an NPC. Using
a cocktail of charm, practiced poise and semi-legal black
BONDS magic, you change your appearance to represent their
ideal partner.You don’t get to determine what this looks
(Street-level) Your adoring fans, who will do most anything like – it’s entirely reliant on the person you’re targeting
for you, even if it gets them into a bit of trouble. – and you can end the spell by scrubbing off whatever
makeup you’ve applied and spending five minutes in front
Another character (see reverse). of a mirror remembering what you look like.
Whatever your target prefers, you’ll always look like
you. If they’re obsessed with tall people, you’ll look taller;
if they like aelfir, you’ll look as though there’s some aelfir
blood in you; if they’re mad about one particular person,
you’ll resemble them (but not enough to, say, pass as them).

Centre of Attention. When you stride into a room, people take

notice. Roll with mastery when you attempt to get everyone
in a situation to focus on you and you only. In addition,
describe three incredible outfits that you now own.

Grace. You try not to sully yourself with failure. You move with such
precision that fate herself gives you a lucky break now and
again. Once per situation, when you make a dice roll and one
or more of the dice shows 1, you can re-roll the entire pool.
ALEXANDRA LAURANT, IDOL
PLAY ALEXANDRA IF YOU WANT TO:
• Dabble in high society and forbidden magic
• Be the centre of attention, even when that’s not a great
idea
• Summon an instant party

BIO
“Truth? What is truth, when you have beauty?”

You are a beautiful artist and revolutionary, and your crea-

tions can reshape the world through bleeding-edge, half-un-
derstood sorcery.You dabble in sculpture and painting, but
your real passion is the viola – you’ve penned multiple songs
that you’ve gone on to sell to aelfir operatrices up-Spire,
SP RE I
The City Must Fall

which lets you pay rent on a decrepit top-floor studio in Red

Row. The landlord is an old accomplice of yours, from back
when you used to rob stagecoaches with a gang of thieves.
You’ve recently become aware of a new play that’s touring
Red Row: the Weeping Maiden, which doesn’t sound great,
but apparently it’s causing a stir.You’ve been… losing fans to
it. Time to work out what in the goddess’ name is going on.

BONDS
• You have a street-level bond with your adoring fans, who
will do most anything for you, even if it gets them into
a bit of trouble. Some sample fans: Brigands-March-
Unbecoming, bankrupt aelfir maven; Kline, who survives
on canapes and free wine alone; Molly, who views you
as a mentor.
• You have a bond with another PC who you know has
feelings for you, even if they wouldn’t admit it. Describe
the moment when you knew for definite.

NOTES ON YOUR ABILITIES

Your knife has the Concealable tag: when you attempt to
conceal it, roll with mastery.
 GANFORD SEIGER
CLASS: KNIGHT
DURANCE: CITY GUARD
REFRESH: ENGAGE IN RECKLESS EXCESS

RESISTANCES FREE SLOTS STRESS MARKED

BLOOD  
MIND  
SILVER  
SHADOW  
REPUTATION  
ARMOUR 

SKILLS KNACKS DOMAINS KNACKS

 Compel  Academia
 Deceive  Crime
 Fight  Commerce
 Fix  High Society
 Investigate  Low Society
 Pursue  Occult
 Resist  Order
 Sneak  Religion
 Steal  Technology

EQUIPMENT ABILITIES
Pubcrawler. You bear an encyclopedic knowledge of where to
Knight Quarter-Plate (Armour 3, Heavy) get drunk. Once per session, name a nearby bar, pub or
inn where you know the landlord (whether they like you
Greatsword (D8, Tiring) or not is up to the GM).

Pick a Fight. You’ve spent many an evening sizing up the other

BONDS patrons in search of a decent brawl. Once per situation, ask
the GM who is the best person in the surrounding area
Vennis, your squire, whose parents are trying to get her on to pick a fight with on one of the following conditions:
the straight and narrow. 1) you want to win 2) you want to make a good impression
3) you want to cause a distraction.
Another character (see reverse).
Braggadocio. You are an accomplished liar, especially when it
comes to exaggerating your own abilities. Once per session,
automatically convince an NPC that you can achieve
something (whether or not you’re able to do it is im-
material).

The Crowd Goes Wild: You’re used to fighting with the sup-
port – or ire – of the crowd to keep you going. When you have
a crowd watching you, your attacks have the Brutal tag. In
addition, when you win a fight in front of a crowd, refresh.
GANFORD SEIGER, KNIGHT
PLAY GANFORD IF YOU WANT TO:
• Pick fights, get drunk and cause trouble
• Wave a massive sword around
• Do all of the above with an audience

BIO
“I swear to Our Lady, this hangover could bring down a skywhale.
Did we win?”
You are a member of an ancient order of knights who
were given the rights to police the northern river docks of
Spire. Over the centuries, your order has splintered and
become ever more corrupt, and now you are little more than
heavily-armoured gangsters with a penchant for organised
fighting tournaments.
SP RE I
The City Must Fall

An order of Knights, the Silver Star, have left their prem-

ises with a skeleton staff to go and handle security for a
swish new play in Red Row called The Weeping Maiden.
That’s not Knight territory, and they know it, so there must
be something really interesting going on. You inform the
Ministry that you’re checking it out.

BONDS
• You have an Individual-level bond with Vennis, your
squire, whose parents are trying to get her on the straight
and narrow.
• You have a bond with another one of the PCs – you
and them used to go drinking, and still do on occasion.
Describe the wildest thing you two got up to on one of
your legendary nights out.

NOTES ON YOUR ABILITIES

You have these passive abilities:

Law of the Docks. You carry a mighty weapon. As a Knight,

you are permitted to carry a large bladed weapon (or a
lance) without getting in trouble with the city guard.
Using it is another matter.

Knightly Order: You are a member of the Order of The

Drowned Sailor, which is also the name of the pub in which
you are expected to perform occasional bartending shifts.
Other duties include light hustling, mild extortion and
extracting jumped-up “boat safety” fines from folk who
dock in the harbour.

Tags for your gear:

• Heavy: When wearing your armour, you may not use
the Pursue or Sneak skills to gain additional dice.
• Tiring: When you fail an action using this item, its
damage decreases in dice size by 1.
 DACIEN THEROUX
CLASS: LAJHAN
DURANCE: FOUGHT TO PROTECT YOUR COMMUNITY
REFRESH: HELP THOSE WHO CANNOT HELP THEMSELVES.

RESISTANCES FREE SLOTS STRESS MARKED

BLOOD  
MIND  
SILVER  
SHADOW  
REPUTATION  
ARMOUR 

SKILLS KNACKS DOMAINS KNACKS

 Compel  Academia
 Deceive  Crime
 Fight  Commerce
 Fix  High Society
 Investigate  Low Society
 Pursue  Occult
 Resist  Order
 Sneak  Religion
 Steal  Technology

EQUIPMENT ABILITIES
Rite of Respite. [Divine] You create a place of stillness and
Ceremonial robes, a set of wooden and silver jewellery healing. Once per session, lead your allies in a recuper-
including bracelets, anklets, earrings and circlets. ation session while you hold vigil. Describe how you
create a comfortable, healing environment and how you
Knife (D3, Concealable) help them. All allies present may restore 3 stress from
Mind or Blood.
Healer’s kit
Moonlight. [Divine] Limyé’s light shines forth from you.
Your forehead gem (or necklace, or bracelet, etc) glows
BONDS as brightly as the full moon, casting a calm light into the
darkness that cannot be extinguished unless you decide
Madame Cazanoux, failed Scryatrix of Our Lady, so just to snuff it, or you fall unconscious. The more ritualists
very religious and totally blind casting this spell simultaneously, the brighter the light
becomes.
Another character (see reverse).
Build Bridges. You sacrifice yourself for your allies. Before
you roll for fallout on a bond, you may mark stress on
yourself to remove it from the ally – each point you mark
removes 2 points of stress from them.

Our Lady’s Calm. [Divine] You shine the calming light of

Limyé over a situation, and tempers fade. Mark D6 stress
to Mind to cast this spell.You, and anyone nearby to you,
cannot fight, or engage in violent actions, or move above
a run, for the next minute or so – you can extend it for
another minute by marking another D6 stress to Mind.
DACIEN THEROUX, LAHJAN
PLAY DACIEN IF YOU WANT TO:

BIO
• Be the calm at the eye of the storm
• Heal your allies with divine ministrations
• Make friends and influence people

“Our Lady protects, sweetness. Hold her in your heart and she
will soothe your passing.”
You are a servant of Our Glorious Lady, the light side
of the moon, and the one part of the drow goddess trinity
that the aelfir allow the dark elves to worship in Spire. You
manage a small, run-down temple to Her in Red Row, a dark
and smokey criminal undercity, looking to provide comfort
and solace to the needy.
Your temple has been… strange, of late.You have uncov-
SP RE I
The City Must Fall

ered rot on the walls, found nihilistic scrawlings on grimy

pamphlets, broken up arguments in the lines at the soup
kitchen. Now, you’ve heard that the Crimson Vigil – a violent
pro-drow insurrection movement – have been recruiting in
your Lady’s house. This will not stand.

BONDS
• You have an Individual-level bond with Madame
Cazanoux, failed Scryatrix of Our Lady, so just very
religious and totally blind.
• You have a bond with a PC who you’ve helped
overcome sickness, injury or addiction in the past.
Say who it was, and what the problem was.

NOTES ON YOUR ABILITIES

Your knife has the Concealable tag: when you attempt to
conceal it, roll with mastery.
 PREGENERATED CHARACTERS ILLYRIA LOX
CLASS: VERMISSIAN SAGE
DURANCE: HID IN PLAIN SIGHT
REFRESH: UNCOVER HIDDEN INFORMATION

RESISTANCES FREE SLOTS STRESS MARKED

BLOOD  
MIND  
SILVER  
SHADOW  
REPUTATION  
ARMOUR 

SKILLS KNACKS DOMAINS KNACKS

 Compel  Academia
 Deceive  Crime
 Fight  Commerce
 Fix  High Society
 Investigate  Low Society
 Pursue  Occult
 Resist  Order
 Sneak  Religion
 Steal  Technology
EQUIPMENT ABILITIES
Back Door. You throw open a door and lunge through it into
Folding crossbow (D6, Ranged, Concealable, One-Shot) a twisted metallic nightmare: home. Once per session, you
can find an entrance to the Vault no matter where you are
 in Spire (whether it was there before you started look-
ing remains unclear). Inside, you’ll find a collection of
strange items and books, many of which relate or come
from alternate histories, and some of which tell the truth.
BONDS Any non-Sage character who enters the Vault should roll
Resist+Occult or suffer Mind stress.
Paige, shrine-building book hunter and Vermissian guardian.
Obsessive Researcher. You spend every quiet moment filling
your brain with knowledge – knowledge which is often fleeting.
Another character (see reverse). At the start of each session, gain a knack of your choosing
in any skill or domain, even if you don’t normally have
access to the skill or domain. At the end of the session,
you lose that knack. You can’t have the same knack two
sessions in a row; you get bored, and must expand your
mind in different ways.

Find Connection. [Occult] You use the unique capabilities of

theVermissianVault to unlock secrets about a target. Once per
session, declare that two NPCs are connected in some
way – ask the GM in what way.

Dead Drop. You are prepared for almost any eventuality. Once
per session, find a hidden stash of equipment that you,
another scholar, or a version of you from an anomalous
history has left in place to prepare for this eventuality.
The drop allows you to equip a small group of people
with generic equipment to perform a particular task (e.g.
lockpicks, dark cloaks, matches and lanterns, food, etc).
This equipment will never confer mastery.
ILLYRIA LOX, VERMISSIAN SAGE
PLAY ILLYRIA IF YOU WANT TO:
• Hunt for hidden information and clues
• Open up portals to a cursed mass transit network
• Manipulate reality to support your weird theories

BIO
“I reckon I’ve got just the book you need – problem is it’s eight
stations down and five across, so you might want to bring
provisions.”

The drow Home Nations are spiralling into internecine

conflict as the aelfir continue to occupy their cities, and you
do not know how long your culture will endure. You are a
scholar and occultist, and you hide the history of your people
SP RE I
The City Must Fall

within the walls of the Vermissian – a defunct, abandoned

mass transport network within Spire. It cuts through the
Heart, the rotten hole in reality at the centre of the city, and
acts as veins for the weird energies that bleed out of there.
Your study and workshop are in Red Row – the rent’s
cheap and it doesn’t catch fire too often – and your main
entrance into the Vermissian is Endline, a jangled mess of
broken carriages fought over by gangs of scavengers. Re-
cently, you’ve found your entrances barred or collapsed.
Someone’s trying to keep you out.

BONDS
• You have an Individual-level bond with Paige, shrine-
building book hunter and Vermissian guardian.
• You have a bond with another PC – one that you know
a secret about. Say who it is, and what the secret is, and
whether they know you know or not.

NOTES ON YOUR ABILITIES

You have this passive ability:

The Vault. You have access to the vast informational resources

of the sages. While inside the Vault, whether you accessed
it through a Back Door or by normal means, you have
access to equipment that will allow you to perform an
Investigate check on any subject. It won’t confer mastery,
but it will allow you to perform the check.

Tags for your gear:

• Ranged: This weapon can be used at range.
• Concealable: When you attempt to conceal this
weapon, roll with mastery.
• One-shot: You can only use this weapon once per
situation; it takes a very long time to reload.
212Appendices

APPENDIX 1:
RANDOM ITEMS AND
EVENTS IN SPIRE
The city is constantly changing and moving, and one way to reflect that is through
the use of random tables – like the ones below.You might find that throwing random
elements into a game can lead you and the players down unexpected, and exciting
paths – so don’t be afraid to use them!

WHAT DOES THE AELFIR HAVE IN THEIR POCKET? WHERE ARE WE GOING TO GET A DRINK AROUND HERE?
1. A compact hand mirror and razor blade 1. The Slot & Tackle
2. A small inlaid enamel box full of teeth 2. Parkers
3. Paper money 3. The Smoking Hole
4. A hip flask of sweet-smelling liquor 4. Beneferas’ Mount
5. A scented silk handkerchief 5. Cradle’s Arms
6. A beautiful set of keys 6. The Riven Bell
7. A dull and well-used working-man’s pocket knife 7. Sten’s End
8. A list of drow names they are trying to remember 8. The Stopwall
9. A dreadful romance novel 9. Witches’ Brew
10. Very slowly melting ice cubes 10. The Heathen’s Rest
11. Their own finger bone
12. A packet of blue, a drug that instills melancholy

WHO’S THIS GUTTERKIN, AND WHAT’S WHAT “SACRED ORDER” IS THIS KNIGHT A MEMBER OF?
WEIRD ABOUT THEM? 1. The Hogsback Accord
1. Scrut – A very young drow with no other friends 2. Order of Tempered Pugilism
2. Rhapsody – a bent-backed creature with the 3. Order of the Yssian Cross
widest smile 4. The Knights Crozier
3. Chillish – A raven with a broken wing 5. Covenant of Sullen Acceptance
4. But – Pale-skinned humanoid with too many 6. The Ancient and Honorable Order of the
bones and joints Knights of Our Resplendent Lady Limyé
5. Cricket – Found an aelfir mask and drags it 7. Order of the Reforged Bell
everywhere 8. Knights of the Sunken Vessel
6. Gruppy – Entirely too insectile 9. Knights of the Stopwall
7. Wipe – No legs 10. Grick’s Lads
8. Ghuss – Serpentlike facial features complete with
forked tongue
9. Bruck – Grotty little goblin, owns a gun
10. Roch – The most hideous of three siblings all
named Roch
Appendices213

WHAT’S STRANGE ABOUT THIS TAVERN? WHAT ART IS ON DISPLAY IN THE AELFIR’S MANSION?
1. The walls are covered in art 1. Wet-looking watercolour of a frozen landscape
2. The floor is bouncy and echoes slightly 2. 11 almost identical pictures of the same aelfir, but
3. It is a warren of smaller rooms in different masks
4. There is a watermark halfway up the wall 3. An anatomical drawing in incredible detail, but
5. The barman changes on a monthly basis not of a creature you recognise
6. They employ gutterkin to do the cleaning 4. Depiction of Spire before the war
7. It’s built on stilts over the water 5. The sun in thick oil paints
8. It looks like the bar was once a ballroom 6. A self-portrait, painted on a drow
9. It only stocks three different drinks and one of 7. Ice sculpture of a delicate six-fingered hand
them is “ale” 8. A goat, its organs splayed and stored in glass
10. The tables are high and there are no chairs cases, still somehow alive
9. An illustrated family tree, several stories high
10. A song, magically frozen in everfrost; you can
hear echoes if you put your ear to it
WHAT ELSE DOES THE EXPERIMENTAL
RETROENGINEERED TECH DO?
1. Drains power from lights whenever it’s used
2. Desiccates water WHAT HALF-STEN HORRORS DOES THE
3. Completely disassembles itself after use VENDOR HAVE IN THIS WEEK?
4. Statically charges the user 1. The Hound and the Human
5. Discharges with a crescent-shaped muzzle flash 2. The Witch and the Knight
6. Somehow works underwater 3. The Towers are Silent
7. Renders the users’ veins visible for a full minute 4. Enlisted Passions
8. Becomes powerfully magnetic for a while 5. Peccadilloes and Portents
9. Unsettles ghosts 6. The Mystery of the Vyskant: a Terror from
10. Increases localised barometric pressure to un- Outside of Time!
comfortable levels 7. Around the Spire in 80 Hours
8. The Ghoul with Sparkling Eyes
9. My Aelfir Prince: a Love Whodunnit
10. Lady Grendelmyn’s Lover
WHAT’S GOING ON TONIGHT AT THIS BAR?
1. The saddest song you’ve ever heard on a viola
2. The occupants singing ancient dock songs
3. Low-rent burlesque WHAT’S THE SPIREBLACK SENSATION
4. A sort of mini casino THAT EVERYONE’S TALKING ABOUT?
5. A darts tournament in full swing 1. I married a blood-witch!
6. Drinking competition with one competitor al- 2. The torture gardens of Amaranth!
ready on the floor, possibly dead 3. The Clarion call of the Carrion Cauldron!
7. A fighting pit in the middle of the saloon bar 4. She played dice… with Charnel!
8. Old Sloane on the sten-whistle 5. Unmasked!
9. Nothing – the place is deathly silent 6. It came… from the underspire!
10. A sort of dance-off 7. Sex-mad Lajhan priestesses – an expose!
8. Demonic orgies of the gnoll barbarians!
9. Caught in the love-webs of the midwives!
10. I survived the blood-slick streets of New Heaven!
WHAT’S THAT SCHOLAR READING?
1. Divine Linguistics, a Primer
2. Hereditary lines of the ruling families of Ys
3. Lords and Ladies of Amaranth
4. Whitecross & its Environs
5. The Middenmask and other folklore
6. A Precise and Internal Reckoning of the Lesser Races
7. The Myriad Arts of the Needle, being a treatise
on wound closure
8. The Gnoll: a study of genetic villainy
9. The Legend of St Beneferas (unredacted edition)
10. Goats of Spire: a taxonomy and recipe book
214Appendices

WHAT IS THIS PLANT, AND WHAT DOES IT DO? WHAT ARE THEY SINGING AT CHURCH?
1. Balmswort – Neutralises acidity 1. Moonlight Aria
2. Windflower – Grows in small crevices on the 2. Dance in the Moon Garden
spire wall, often found in Perch 3. Our Lady of Shrouded Light
3. Tumbledown – very mild anaesthetic 4. Far From Moonlit Home
4. Mothers-merry – brews into a sort of tonic wine 5. Be Thou My Eyes
5. Needlethorn – Thorns regularly used for sewing 6. As Fades the Sun’s Light
6. Cutvine – staunches minor bleeding 7. Be Thy Champion
7. Mistresses’ tear – snowdrop-like plant that grows 8. Righteous Radiance
in the dark 9. Mother Always Watch Us
8. Heartsbloom – grows near the Heart, or near 10. Damnou Exalted
sources of occult energy 11. As We All Revere
9. Needleflower – explodes into sharp thorns when 12. Mother of Mothers, Mistress of Light
disturbed, each bearing a seed
10. Lepis – white seed pods that catch on the breeze
and flutter like moths

WHAT DO WE FIND IN THE DEPTHS WHAT’S THE THEME OF THIS AELFIR PARTY?
OF THE VERMISSIAN? 1. The fall of house Balian
1. Rustweave spiders 2. Masquerade!
2. A huddled family trying to make a new life in the 3. Paladins and Deacons
tunnels 4. Imported entirely from Red Row
3. Half-crazed gangs of young drow 5. Scandalous mask party
4. A dotted line of books leading to a dark crack in 6. Summer God bacchanal
the wall 7. Winter Goddess mourning festival
5. A journal entitled “Things I Remember” with 8. An art party, in which guests are encouraged to
lists of mundane occurrences inside paint portraits of each other
6. A breeze that whispers 9. “Derelictus Chic”; dress as a pauper, watch some
7. A cave-in that smells strongly of meat dog fights
8. Half a station with no surface access 10. Spireside picnics
9. A tunnel bored straight through the sepulchre of
a cathedral
10. A wandering drow playing a violin, convinced
he’s the only thing keeping Spire standing

WHAT DOES THIS PILGRIM’S WALK WHAT “BEAUTIFICATION” SURGERY

PEDDLAR HAVE FOR SALE? HAS THIS AELFIR UNDERGONE?
1. Thumb bones of the saint of spiders 1. Subcutaneous thorn implants
2. Piece of the True Moon 2. Skin grafts in fashionable tones
3. Blood of Ishkrah 3. Subdermal everfrost, leading to steaming breath
4. Sheet music that pleases the small God of Wax 4. Silver or gold reboning
5. Sun-born spireblack amber, a good omen 5. Eye tattoos
6. The shell casing of the bullet that killed the high 6. Permanent weeping modification
priest of Stolz 7. Surgical removal of unbeautiful memories
7. A small bottle containing the breath of Charnel 8. Additional fingers
8. Devotional candles to Lombre 9. Larynx tuning
9. The wrappings of Mehror 10. Wrist-lengthening
10. Blood-witch tears
Appendices215

APPENDIX 2:
THE NEW GODS
THE NEW GODS
Each year, scores of new religions stream through the Blue
Port and into Spire, filling the streets of Pilgrim’s Walk and
New Heaven with sacred bells and howled prayers. The
following eight gods have arrived within the last decade, and
already secured a number of devoted worshippers.

PATRON SAINTS
These gods are our way of saying thank you to some
people who donated especially generously to our
Kickstarter campaign. We’ve included their names in
each entry, so you can tell which is which.
Many of these gods are human, or at least human
in origin, but drow can still worship them in exchange
for power.
216Appendices
Appendices217

ISHTUK, GOD OF PERSONAL DEMONS

(COMMISSIONED BY ALEX HOWARD WHITAKER)
In the rocky desert far to the south, in addition to worship Requirement: Forswear something that you love upon the
of the three goddesses – as is expected of all pious dark elves altar of Ishtuk, a bare-walled but well-swept temple in
– the drow of Aliquam worship a wide variety of gods that the depths of New Heaven.
they have collected as part of the passages of their roving
wagon-train. Ishtuk is one of these – the brother of Charnel, Refresh: Be tempted, and refrain at a cost to yourself.
whose Carrion-Priest cultists line the streets of New Heaven – Usually this involves a Resist roll of some kind.
and he is a grey and tired-eyed creature whose balm is sought
by grim, stone-faced drow. Theirs is a life of self-denial and
mastery, of gratification so delayed it never arrives.
The Ishtukian faith was the most dominant faith of all of
Aliquam, an age ago, until their fortunes changed and the
stern, conservative ruling elite were gradually replaced with
bon vivants and charismatic charlatans, whose laissez-faire
politics mark the stereotypical view of Aliquami politics today.
Ishtuk preaches the chaining of one’s demons – if kept on
a leash, it is argued, they can be of use to the afflicted. With
a dose of magical energy, the demons can quite literally be
expelled and chained, or sent off to do your bidding.

ADVANCES
LOW
The Stench of Vice. [Divine] You can smell the stink of desire Cast Out the Wantful. [Divine] You birth a homunculus of
coming off those around you. Mark D3 stress to Mind to want. Mark D6 stress to Blood or Mind to cast this spell.
cast this spell. Indicate an NPC that you have spent an As part of an hour-long purification ritual, you conjure
hour observing (or a few minutes chatting to). The GM forth from your innards a grim, animate manifestation
will tell you what their vice is, and how long it’s been of your desires. The appearance of the creature is up to
since they indulged it. you, but it will be no larger than a dog.
While the creature is outside you, you cannot be
tempted by your vice (but you cannot use this ability to
MEDIUM trigger your refresh ability). It will obey your commands
Noxious Expectoration. [Divine] You can cough and retch as best it is able. It is clearly magical and unpleasant to
up misfortune and longing. Once per session, you can cough look at, and probably speaks with a cracked, hoary version
up all accrued stress as a mouthful of noxious black tar. of your own voice. It is good at sneaking, watching and
This tar functions as a weapon with a different profile stealing, and its tarry, stinging grasp inflicts D3 damage
depending on the amount of Mind stress you cleared: in combat.
Before the next dawn, you must accept the horrendous
1–3 D6, One-Shot creature back inside yourself, or mark 1 stress to Mind
(but still be immune to your cravings). You must mark
4–7 D6, Penetrating, Ranged, One-Shot 1 additional stress to Mind for each dawn that passes.

8+ D8, Penetrating, Ranged, Spread D6, Glutton’s Curse. [Divine] You unveil the true nature of
One-Shot your target - a wanton beast, driven by dark impulses. Mark
D6 stress to Blood or Mind to cast this spell. The target,
The tar can also easily melt through most materials, but with whom you must lock eyes for a second, is driven to
it gives off waves of stinking vapour as it does. When you pursue their basest urges until the next dawn.
cast this spell, take the Shaken fallout to represent the
effects on your body.
218Appendices
Appendices219

LUXULYAN, THE DUKE OF AIR

(COMMISSIONED BY ANDY MOORE)
Followers of the human god Luxulyan build skyshrines: per- Driven out of New Heaven by the disciples of Grimaldi,
sonal powered flight units that allow them, with a mixture of the cult of Luxulyan now resides in the Sky Docks amongst
technological know-how and divine assistance, to fly. Though the knot of other foreign temples in the centre of the district,
their designs differ between the faithful – from feathered and makes a decent wage on the side assisting the transfer
cloaks hiding collapsible struts, to buzzing ultra-light metal of goods from docked skywhales to the city itself. They are
wings woven by steelweaver spiders, to great and unwieldy welcoming, if a little strange, and new members are greeted
contraptions of wood and taut linen – these are devotional with open arms – presuming they have the knack of building
altars as well as sacred instruments, so they are decorat- their own skyshrine and joining their brothers and sisters in
ed with dozens of gewgaws dedicated to the Duke of Air. the sacred act of flight.
Feathers, materials from the skyshrines of deceased faithful,
bottled air from particularly rare altitudes, pressure indicators Requirement: Gain the trust of the cult of Luxulyan through
and holy barometric scrying devices; a true Luxulyite makes taking part in their terrifying initiation ceremonies.
a jingling sound as they walk, and takes their skyshrine off
only when absolutely necessary. Refresh: Add something significant to your skyshrine and
sanctify it with flight.

ADVANCES
MEDIUM SKYSHRINE FALLOUT
Skyshrine. [Divine] You build a skyshrine: a device that channels Roll for fallout when you mark stress to the bond, rather
the energy of the divine into glorious flight. Your skyshrine than waiting until the end of the session to do so. It uses the
functions as an NPC bond, although it does not accrue following special fallout table:
stress in the same way as standard bonds. Whilst wearing
(or depending on its size, sitting in) your skyshrine, you MINOR
can mark stress to the Bond to use the power of flight: Inefficient [Skyshrine]
With all of the following powers, you can bring along as Something non-essential breaks, and it takes much more
many people as you can hang on to (or who can hang on power to keep you in the air. Until the end of the next session,
to you) at a cost of additional 1 stress per person carried. increase all stress marked to the skyshrine by 1.

Glide. [Divine] Mark 1 stress to your skyshrine to cast this MODERATE

spell. Until the end of the current situation, you will fall Inoperable [Skyshrine]
slowly, and safely, from any height. At the end of the current situation, your skyshrine ceases
to function until you take it back to the cult temple and
Leap. [Divine] Mark D3 stress to your skyshrine to cast this resanctify it with the help of your fellow believers.
spell. Until the end of the current situation, you can leap
a solid 30ft straight upwards, about 50ft horizontally, and SEVERE
land safely from any height. Crash [Skyshrine]
As Inoperable, but it ceases to function at the worst possible
Hover. [Divine] Mark D3 stress to your skyshrine to cast time, and you cause yourself great harm. Choose: either
this spell. Until the end of the current situation, you can sacrifice the skyshrine and mark D6 stress to Blood (and
hover at your current height without fear of falling. You be unable to cast spells through it until you spend another
can adjust your height up or down at a rate of about 3ft Medium advance to buy it again) or mark D8, Brutal stress
a second: it’s not especially fast. to Blood but save your skyshrine in the process.

Fly. [Divine] Mark D6 stress to your skyshrine to cast this

spell. Until the end of the current situation, you can fly
with the same speed and maneuverability as a heavy bird
– something like a goose or swan. Unless you also cast
Leap, you’ll need to get a run-up or jump off something
tall to gain enough speed to fly.
220Appendices
Appendices221

APASH, THE MARTYR OF WHITECROSS

(COMMISSIONED BY APOSTOLIS DOUSIAS)
Apash was instrumental in the overthrow of the tyrannical His symbols are: the pocketwatch, a piece of human tech-
Baron Graich, the despotic ruler of Whitecross, in an uprising nology that allows the bearer to carry the time around with
about a hundred and fifty years ago. Though he died in the them (which never caught on in Spire) which his followers
assault on Graich’s last stronghold deep within the gutted say symbolises the ticking clock of the people waiting to
arcology of Whitecross, he is popularly credited as a hero throw down their masters; and the trademark green waxed
of the revolution. Humans with a desire for justice and an coat of the Whitecross guard, which he famously wore dur-
anti-authoritarian streak pay homage to him in a run-down ing the final assault. It’s said that his bullet-ridden, stained,
temple in Pilgrim’s Walk. Sermons on his Three Days – the threadbare coat is still out there, somewhere, and anyone
length of time that he held out against the Baron without who wears it will be filled with his fervour and spirit.
resupply or aid, waiting for allied forces to arrive – are de-
livered daily, and believers are encouraged to examine their Requirement: Join up at the cult of Apash in Pilgrim’s Walk
own lives to see what sacrifices they can make to better the and donate something of value to the cause.
lot of their fellow humans.
Refresh: Donate something useful or valuable to the cause.

ADVANCES
LOW HIGH
Shared Domain. [Divine] Your enemies call you a rabble-rous- A Good Death. [Divine] Your ideals keep you standing where
er; you say you’re a hero of the people. Select a Low advance others would fall. As Die Trying, but you can defend a
from the Firebrand class (as with almost all advances, person, a group, a mission or an idea instead of an area.
you may only take this advance once).

Self-sacrifice. [Divine] Apash has taught you that the solu-

tion to all your problems can be found within. Once per
situation, when you take stress to Silver, Reputation or
Shadow, mark it to Blood or Mind instead.

MEDIUM
Die Trying. [Divine] You don’t stop until the bloody work is
done. Mark D6 stress to Mind or Shadow to cast this
spell. When you do so, indicate an area (roughly the size
of a house) that you’re defending against your enemies.
While you stand within this area, you do not need to eat
or sleep, and you do not need to roll for fallout when you
take stress to Blood or Mind. When the area is safe, or
when three days have passed, roll for fallout.

Righteous Rhetoric. You have a habit of delivering furious

sermons to your allies to keep them on-side, even when it might
make things worse. When a bond suffers fallout, you may
roll a D6; on a 3+, the fallout is ignored. On a 1 or 2, it
is upgraded to the next level.
222Appendices
Appendices223

CARABYS, THE CHAINED GOD

(COMMISSIONED BY CONAN JOHN FRENCH)
In the depths of Pilgrim’s Walk, through several hidden doors Those approaching Carabys, if they can find him, are
and trapped portals, the god known as Carabys is chained permitted by the whispering attendants to ask a question.
to the flagstones. His mouth is gagged with a sutured-on They are tied to a chair in front of him and drugged, and
plate of metal, for when he speaks, his words cause madness, they enter a dream-like realm in their own mind – or the
death, and sin. Around him, a cadre of devoted attendants mind of Carabys, or both – where Carabys tells them the
reinforce the sacred wards that keep his earth-bound form question they are about to ask him, because Carabys knows
contained, and whisper secrets and promises in his ears. all things. (He appears in an unchained form, in this world,
Amongst the truly desperate, or the truly curious, Carabys is and speaks politely if a little sternly to visitors.) The meeting
something of a legend; he has great knowledge of all things, is to determine a price, and his costs are steep.
and can see into the past, the future, and the hearts of those Those who petition him are lucky to be asked to sacrifice
who spend their lives in the city. material wealth or perhaps a finger or ear, or to perform
Carabys – or, at least, his avatar in Spire – was once a strange, seemingly random tasks at the behest of Carabys.
human mercenary who showed aptitude for demonology Those who want to know something truly special are asked
and applied aetherics, and as such was quickly whisked away to drag their loved ones to basements and murder them in
by the Special Tactics division of the army and implanted service of the bound god, or lose limbs, eyes, senses. But:
with an aelfir song that would let him act as a conduit – a he is not a liar, and always follows through on his promises.
living magic circle through which to summon demons at a It is up to the petitioner whether they wish to pay the price.
safe distance. However, the mercenary failed to unleash the Some of the secrecy around Carabys’ location is in order
full power of the demonic incursion when it was channeled to hide his avatar from the Special Tactics division, who are
through him, and instead it found purchase in his head. keen to recapture it and see precisely what happened when
Filled with unimaginable powers, he escaped his handlers, the conduit process went awry. They are close, but not quite
and came back to Spire in search of aid. there yet. Whether or not Carabys wants them to find him
He found none. Burned-out and half-insane at the things remains to be seen; he is enslaved, here, and forced to bargain
he had seen and wrought, he was abducted by a cult of with mortals for scraps.
demonologist-priests who saw him as a stable connection
with the divine – the roiling, unknowable sea of energy from
which demons are born. His hands were shackled, his mouth
stapled shut, and his body used as a channel for secrets
plucked from the aether. Carabys, whether demon or god
or something altogether different, has replaced his innards
almost entirely now, and he has become a thing of hidden
truths. He can survive for weeks off news of a single indis-
cretion; a fact written down in a single book which is then
burned is a fine wine to him.
224Appendices
Appendices225

THE MANY
(COMMISSIONED BY EVIL JON)
The Home Nations of Ys, last great stronghold of the drow, Thus they became the Many, ruled by the Two, and they
is at war with itself. It has been plagued with civil strife for a eschew names. They steal whatever scraps of faith they can
century, and many of the drow who choose a life of impov- find. They adore the drow, and they adore community, and
erished servitude in Spire are refugees, fleeing the burning they know that here, in the harsh grey world of Spire where
streets of wherever they once called home. the sun burns their skin, they can never ascend to the great-
With them, they bring fragments of their old faiths: ness they attained in the Home Nations. But: they are in the
snatches of scripture, half-remembered; a well-worn ivory business of small miracles, and they will take what they can get.
statuette of a nameless goddess; scraps of sacred robe woven
into their coats to repair damage. These are the old, old Requirement: Be accepted into a community by one of the
gods of the drow – gods of blood and darkness, gods that followers of the Many. The most common way drow are
never saw the sky. They are chthonic and ancient and scared accepted into such a community is through being born
and fragile, and together in the slums of derelictus and on into it, but the worshippers of the Many are happy for
the treacherous underground trail from Ys to Spire, they any support they can get.
formed a pact. Here, in this strange and distant and alien
world, they would come together as one. As the drow who Refresh: Do something self-sacrificing for the benefit of
worshipped them died away and their names were forgotten, your community.
they themselves became blurred and indistinct.

ADVANCES
Helping Hand. [Divine] You are adept at helping others achieve
LOW their aims. When you assist another character with an
Walk Unopposed. [Divine] The shifting forms of your gods action, you do not suffer stress as a result of their roll.
bring with them bargains and contracts older than the stone If you mark D6 stress, you can apply this blessing to the
of Spire itself. Gain the Religion domain. If you encounter rest of your group until the next dawn.
a ward or ban that has been wrought with divine magic,
mark 1 stress to Mind or Silver to ignore its effects un-
til the end of the current situation. You can extend this MEDIUM
protection to others at a cost of 1 stress per additional Divine Distribution. [Divine] Your gods work together to
character blessed. counteract misfortune; the bigger your group, the more they
can do. If you ever take stress equal to the number of
The Chorus. [Divine] As you sleep, your mind is filled with player characters who are in your current situation, that
the whispers of the Many, and they grant you power. At the stress is ignored.
beginning of each session, roll on the following table; you
gain the relevant abilities until the end of the session – if you
already possess the abilities, gain a knack in them instead. HIGH
Divine Protection. [Divine] Your gods are shadows of their
former selves, but they unite for one glorious moment, and
D10 their power is terrifying to behold. Once per session, cast this
1. The Spider. Gain the Fix skill and Academia domain. spell. It functions as Divine Distribution, but all stress
2. The Stone. Gain the Resist skill and +1 Blood. equal to or lower than the number of player characters in
3. The Tower. Gain the Investigate skill and the Order your party is ignored. This enhanced version lasts until
domain. the end of your current situation.
4. The Beast. Gain the Fight and Pursue skills.
5. The River. Gain the Pursue skill and +1 Mind.
6. The Soil. Gain the Fix skill and Low Society domain.
7. The Hearth. Gain the Compel skill and Low Society
domain.
8. The Shadow. Gain the Sneak and Steal skills.
9. The Scroll. Gain the Academia and High Society
domains.
10. The Hook. Gain the Deceive skill and Crime domain.
226Appendices

226
Appendices227

MIAH, GOD OF SECRETS LOST

(COMMISSIONED BY MIAH CLAYTON)
There is a place where burned secrets go. It is small, and quiet universe, and twist it into a different shape. These people
save for the phantom whisper of a thousand thousand sins, and are not aware that they are unreal, and it is probably just as
it is ruled over by Miah – faceless Miah, gentle Miah, who knows well: should they discover their origin, they are doomed to
all and sees all. Miah is a guardian of knowledge that would a short, miserable existence of pain and an explosive death.
otherwise be lost to time and flame, and their worshippers know But while they survive, their secret cannot be spoken aloud
of the power that is held in secrets; they can feel the potential or written down, and it is thanks to the acolytes of Miah that
impact of a hidden truth as though it were air pressure before a some of the most nightmarish demonic rites are locked away
thunderstorm, and taste it like pinpricks upon their tongues. from mortal eyes.
A treasured secret is held as a devotional mantra, or a relic;
it is pondered over, examined, luxuriated in. Requirement: Commit a secret of your own to Miah in
The most miraculous of Miah’s blessings is the ability the sacred flame.
to forge a secret into a living being – to take that potential
energy, that lead weight upon the rubber sheet that is the Refresh: Commit a valuable or noteworthy secret to Miah.

ADVANCES
LOW HIGH
Burn Secret. [Divine]You turn a secret to ashes, and it holds Bind Living Secret. [Divine]You can coalesce a living crea-
less power over you. Commit a secret to the fire and mark ture out of a secret. Mark D8 stress to Mind to cast this
D3 stress to cast this spell. The first time you suffer Minor spell, which takes a day to cast in full. At the culmination
fallout as a result of that secret coming to light, ignore it; of a dark and powerful ritual, you condense the essence
if you suffer Moderate or Severe stress as a result of the of a secret into a living being – a human, aelfir or drow,
secret coming to light, it is downgraded one step. chosen by yourself. While this person is alive, the secret
Only one secret at a time can be held in this way; if cannot be spoken (or written, or communicated at all)
you burn a second, it replaces the first. by anyone aside from the living secret.
Should they ever discover the nature of the secret
Weight of Knowledge. [Divine] Secrecy is a heavy burden; that forms their being, they will be wracked with pain;
it is best shared. When someone entrusts you with a secret, should they speak it aloud, they will become unmade in
gain them as a temporary bond. a violent burst of energy and viscera, inflicting D8 stress
to Blood or Mind to anyone nearby.

MEDIUM
Hide the Truth. [Divine] Miah’s touch smoothes over misfor-
tune and danger. If you or an ally suffers fallout to Reputa-
tion, Shadow or Silver, mark D6 stress to cast this spell; CAN I PLAY A LIVING SECRET?
the ritual takes an hour or so, during which the subject Yes! You won’t know what you’re the secret of,
communes with Miah and the events that lead to the and odds are at the start of the campaign, you
fallout are scribed and illustrated in chalk around them. won’t know you’re a living secret at all. If you ever
At the end of the ritual, the fallout is removed. discover your secret, take D3 stress to Mind at the
start of every scene (and D6 stress if you’re around
Sense Secret. [Divine] Everyone has a secret; with this rite, things related to your secret); if you ever speak
you can pluck it out of their head. Mark D6 stress to cast your secret aloud, you explode, as detailed in the
this spell whilst talking to someone for ten minutes or Bind Living Secret power.
so; they are aware that you are casting the spell while it In exchange for all this, you gain access to one
happens, and must be restrained in some way. After ten additional skill and one additional domain that
minutes have passed, you become aware of the biggest relate to your secret.
secret the person is harbouring, although you have no
means to prove it true. Using this power on a Living Secret
will not reveal their origin to them, but will allow you to
track them unerringly until the next sunrise.
228Appendices
Appendices229

GARRACK, THE STEEL-BONED

(COMMISSIONED BY SEPH STEEL)
No-one is quite sure why humans ascend to godhood more of interlocking components and the interplay of systems, a
than the other races. Indeed, all their own gods once walked fraction of the divine spark of creation can be witnessed.
among them as mortals – and Garrack is no different. A But doctors are few and far between in Spire, especially
skilled technician cursed with a failing body, Garrack used those willing to treat someone who tried to saw off their
their extensive knowledge of retroengineering to fashion own hand and replace it with a device of their own making,
replacement parts for themselves using experimental devices so life in the cult of Garrack is one of red-raw puffy skin,
dragged up from arcologies or jury-rigged from spare parts; of scabs and gristle, of blood and sawed-through bone and
first a leg, then a hand, then a lung, and further and further, pain. But, the followers claim, it is worth enduring the pain to
until Garrack’s once-living human parts had long since rotted understand the holy nature of the machine, and the chance
away beneath layers of machines and scores of attendants. to attain apotheosis and join Garrack in the heavens is too
(Whether the machine that is, and was, Garrack still exists good to pass up.
today, or whether its final function was to perform as their
ascension, is a matter of some debate.) Requirement: Modify your body in some way, implanting
Garrack’s followers crave to get closer to the divine example or augmenting it with technology.
set by their master, and seek to understand machines as best
they can, or build them into their bodies; in the complexity Refresh: Repair a machine that makes people’s lives better.

ADVANCES
Automate Process. [Divine] You carry a bundle of mul-
LOW ti-task machines that can do whatever you can do, as long as
Iron Constitution. [Divine] The bone in your ribcage is they don’t need to do it quickly. Mark 1 stress to Blood or
replaced with unyielding metal; your organs reinforced with Mind to cast this spell as part of an action that will take
strange silver splints. +2 Blood, gain the Resist skill. more than a few minutes to complete (searching a library,
staking out a bar, etc). You no longer have to be present
Steel Limb. [Divine] Your arms and legs are cut away, and for the duration, as your machines will do the work for
cold steel replicas are bolted to your bones. Purchasing this you, but you do have to return once they’re finished to
advance allows you to clear the Broken Leg or Broken collect the result.
Arm fallout instantly. For each steel limb you bear, gain
1 point of armour; you can purchase this upgrade up to
four times, but to do so on a healthy limb incurs Moderate MEDIUM
mind fallout. Creator and Destroyer. [Divine] Your skin spontaneously
generates katakos glyphs; disciples of Garrack believe these
Jury-rig. [Divine] You are adept at getting machines running, were the marks of the priest-caste in katakos society. Gain
or squeezing hitherto unexpected capabilities out of your in- mastery on the Fight and Fix skills when interacting
struments. You can fix something in a fifth of the time it with machines.
would take a normal technician to do so. In addition,
you can “improve” any weapon you’re carrying. Choose Galvanic Coils. [Divine]You implant experimental batteries
one of the following: in your body and wire them up to your heart and brain. Once
per session, when you have a minute or so to spare, remove
• If the weapon has the Reload tag, replace it with D8 stress from Blood or Mind as you let the glorious
Unreliable galvanic energies course through your body. The weight
• If the weapon has the Ranged tag, replace it with and noise of the galvanic coils mounted on your back
Extreme Range and Unreliable means that you are treated as wearing armour with the
• If the weapon has the Piercing tag, replace it with Heavy tag for the remainder of your life (wearing addi-
Devastating and Dangerous tional armour with the Heavy tag has no further effect).
• Add the Spread D3 and Dangerous tags to the weapon

It takes about half an hour of tinkering and prayers to

upgrade a weapon, and only you can use it; if anyone
else does, it functions for a scene and then degrades into
uselessness and must be discarded.
230Appendices
Appendices231

THE MASKED GOD

(COMMISSIONED BY TY YOUNG)
Who is the Masked God? This question forms the central will cover unrelated altars with shrouds and swear devotion
philosophy of the Masked God, and to their worshippers, to them; they will daub paint over the faces of devotional
the answer is: “The Masked God is the Masked God.” Their portraits of other gods; they will repeat sermons word-for-
existence is bound up within their masks: without them, they word with every reference to the name of a distinct god
are nothing, and with them, they are everything. redacted and replaced with silence. There is no single “true
The Masked God is a very recently discovered deity; only form” of the Masked God to which the faithful are privy –
in the last hundred years or so, as drow have been forced to all their forms are true.
wear face-masks and serve under their aelfir rulers in Spire, It would appear that the Masked God takes the form of
have the faithful been visited by the god. They come in dreams, a drow when they manifest in visions; but this is, of course,
or to the truly blessed, as a vision in a mirror when applying another mask.
their own mask before they leave the house; they whisper
truths to you, guide your hand, let you perfect your grace in Requirement: Live your life as another person for at least
presenting a different face from your own to the outside world. a month, never dropping the mask (even when alone).
Beloved by actors, liars, revolutionaries and spies, they form When you have done so, you become a beacon to the
an attachment to drow who must pretend they are something Masked God, and you must await their arrival.
they’re not as a profession or a matter of survival.
There are no temples to the Masked God, but followers Refresh: Successfully pose as a different person. The more
will meet beneath the floorboards of other churches. They people who are convinced by the disguise, the better.

ADVANCES
LOW HIGH
See Mask. [Divine] Granted divine insight by the Masked God, Perfect Copy. [Divine]You have the capacity to utterly become
you see lies coil like smoke out the mouths of those around you. another person; you have two selves, and can move between
Once per situation, ask the GM who’s lying. They have them at will. Pick someone who you have met and studied.
to tell you who, but not what about specifically. You can, at any point, become a perfect replica of them,
and everyone will treat you as though you are the per-
False Face. [Divine] Your face is just a mask, and one that son. Once you’ve taken this advance, you can purchase
can be changed in an instant. Mark D3 stress to change additional extra identities for a Medium advance each.
your face to resemble the face of anyone you’ve seen (in
person) in the past day, for the remainder of the situation. Perfect Self-Denial. [Divine] The boundary between
your true self and your projected identities dissolves until all
bad things that happen to you seem to happen to someone
MEDIUM else. Once per session, when you suffer fallout, ignore
Chosen of the Mask. [Divine] You weave a blessing over it entirely.
yourself, or another, that grants prowess in the arts of sub-
terfuge. Mark D3 stress to Mind to cast this spell. For Greatest Lie. [Divine] The greatest lies become the truth.
the remainder of the situation, you gain mastery on the Once, and only once, tell a lie. It is no longer a lie.
Sneak, Deceive and Steal skills.You can cast this spell on
another character, but you must mark D6 stress instead
of D3 to do so.

Little White Lies. [Divine] You channel the power of the

Masked God to blur the lines between truth and fiction, and
manifest something in the world. Mark D3 stress to cast
this spell. A minor lie you tell becomes the truth until the
next dawn: “You look pretty” actually makes the person
prettier, “I have a gun” means you have a gun, and so on.
The lies must be believable for the power to work, and
they cannot establish anything permanent.
232Appendices

APPENDIX 3:
DROW GLOSSARY
Most drow currently in Spire are third- or fourth-generation Spire-born, and so they use the same mishmash of languag-
es, patois and slang that the rest of the city uses (aside from the aelfir, who speak their own tongue and have difficulties
communicating with the average citizen). The drow tongue presented below is one that has been enforced on them by
the aelfir over hundreds of years of dominion, taking elements from the conquering language of aelfir and putting them
through the lens of the two nearest drow dialects: namely Aliqua, which is spoken in the the Duchy of Aliquam, and Ys,
which is spoken in the fractious Home Nations to the west.
There are also a few non-drow words in this list that are in common usage in Spire, for sake of completeness.

Sten: A low-denomination nail-like coin, used for trading when done so in conjunction with due deference to the
among the lower classes of Spire. Solar Pantheon.

Mesyé: Mr, or Sir – a formal title for male drow. Lekolé: The drow goddess of fury, swift reprisals and de-
struction. Veneration of Lekolé is forbidden by the council
Maji: Mrs, or Madam – a formal title for female drow. of Spire, but small pockets of worshippers exist.

Mette: Genderless term for a superior, also used as a formal Lombra: The drow goddess of secrecy, grace and power,
third-person plural pronoun. worshipped by The Ministry of Our Hidden Mistress
– the leaders of the resistance. Veneration of Lombra is
Fe: Archaic term for aelfir. forbidden by the council of Spire on pain of execution.

Shev: Archaic term for human. L’od Nansan: The Order of Blood, part of the active sects of
the church of Our Glorious Lady, who pride themselves
Malad: “Curse,” an archaic term used to refer to drow on healing, diplomacy and historical accuracy. Staunch
sensitivity to light. traditionalists.

Fanmi: Family, community, or neighbourhood. L’od Limyé-Ajan: The Order of Silver Light, a sect of the
church of Our Glorious Lady that offers support and
Shazin: A close friend or ally of the drow that is not them- protection to drow communities. The clergy of this sect
selves drow. Generally used for those who participate in carry moonsilver staves which they can use to channel
drow religious ceremonies but who aren’t of the race. their faith into brilliant, glowing white energy. They pos-
sess a reputation for hot-headedness and inconsistency.
Lajhan: A “silvered person;” a priest or priestess of the drow
goddess known as Our Glorious Lady. Ke-Deyez: “The Goddess’ Heart,” a popular oath. Refer-
ence to myth where the goddess plucked out her heart
Damnou: The old, or “proper” term for the drow moon to make the world come alive.
goddess that encompasses all her forms – the light side
of the moon, Our Glorious Lady, or Limyé; the dark side Anba-Deyez: “The Goddess’ Arse,” a popular profanity.
of the moon, Our Hidden Mistress, or Lombra; and the Used to describe something of tremendous quality or
blood-red eclipse moon, Our Crimson Vigil, or Lekolé. value.
Some drow view the forms of the moon as sister-goddesses
rather than separate parts of a whole, which has lead to Leyfré: Archaic insult for the aelfir meaning, literally: “peo-
a number of brutal holy wars – many of which are still ple who have icicles/ice-caves for genitals.”
ongoing in the Home Nations.
Darnarian: Coin from human lands, also known as “darna”,
Limyé: The drow goddess of community, healing and surviv- “darnari” and “queens”, which forms the primary trading
al. Worship of Limyé in her form as Our Glorious Lady is currency throughout the known world.
tolerated by the council of Spire, and indeed encouraged
Appendices233

APPENDIX 4:
RUMOURED GOATS OF SPIRE
Yssian Dark: Covered in wild, coarse, brown-black coats Deep Goats: Strange, egg-laying goats with unsettlingly hu-
that are woven into traditional winter gear in some parts man-like hands that gather in groups of exactly seven near
of Ys. Mainly reared for their milk and the way that they the Heart. They seem to have developed a rudimentary
don’t mind being underground for years at a time. method of literature, but upon closer inspection it looks
like they just like playing with books. Some Vermissian
Supravertical Bok: Wiry, mad-eyed, single-minded. Like scholars and wards have attempted to train them as guards
to get as high up as possible, often to the point of climb- for the Vault with varied degrees of success.
ing other goats. Have evolved to use tools, in as much as
they can build rudimentary levers to upend heavy bits Kabritikon: Mighty horned beasts that roam the plains
of masonry to drop on attackers. outside of Spire; barely worth hunting or farming on
account of the way they taste (also the way that the tallest
Hexitongue: Three-eyed, rare, absurdly magical. Prized by among them is easily taller than a drow). The Duchess of
occultists who use their polluted souls to power night- Aliquam insists on riding a “tame” one, draped in bronze
mare rituals. and silver jewelry, to all official functions.

Whitecross Red: Stocky, cantankerous, delicious, hard Hell Roarers: Given to yelling banshee-like wails whenever
to outwit. Worshipped by a cult in Whitecross known possible; rambunctious, exuberant and brightly coloured
as Caprinites, who have the ability to turn into goats at (depending on their ancestry, they vary from blue-green
will. Few turn back. to orange-yellow). In the avant-garde circles of Ivory Row,
having a hell roarer in your house is considered vital to
Lucky Myotonic: Faint at the drop of a hat, but while throwing a good party.
unconscious, seem to be impossible to harm due to a
protective brooch a distant ancestor ate in the mists of
time. The stolzian cult of Silver Quarter view them as
sacred animals and many high-ranking members keep
them as pets.

Latchkey Fiddler: Small, cheeky, often escape from cap-

tivity due to their unique ability to pick locks with their
tongue and horns. Fond of breaking into houses, eating
everything in the pantry then falling asleep in the sock
drawer.
234Appendices

APPENDIX 5:
KNOWN ARCOLOGIES, AND
DISCOVERIES FOUND THEREIN
Hundreds – perhaps thousands – of years ago, a technolog- Deepest Brazacott: Brazacott is the hardest-won arcology
ically advanced race lived in the lands in and around Spire. yet found by the humans, and they spent years trying
Known to humans as the Prokatakos, or more colloquially to infiltrate the caves through multiple layers of iron-
just “Katakos”, these long-lived people dug deep into the hard stone. In the depths of Brazacott, standing within a
ground and established cities, outposts and fortresses called thrumming network of wires and glass, beats the glowing
arcologies. It is in these arcologies that humans have found heart of what is theorised to be a node from a centralised
examples of the technology that the Katakos had mastered, system of exchanging information utilised by the Katakos.
and they have been used to propel their backwater civilisation The node was extracted and splintered into many pieces
into the forefront of a mechanical golden age. so it could be better understood by the scientists of the
humans, but it has since been lost.
Harmonious Summercourt: Located beneath the peaceful
village of Summercourt, this arcology stretches out for Four Winds: Here, in what scholars believe to be a distant
miles in strange, spiralling tunnels that sing and whistle outpost of the ancient civilisation that used to span these
at the behest of huge, magically-powered fans. Currently, isles, the humans discovered an intact rotary-fire rifle
a research team is experimenting with the effects of the strapped to the inert form of an ancient, many-eyed metal
songs on crystals in an attempt to harness the power of guardian. All attempts to open the guardian and examine
extradimensional vibrations. its inner workings have proven fruitless.

Magwan Porth: It was here, deep within the heart of a Horizon: Horizon provided the humans with one of their
mountain, that humans discovered the mysterious engines most fascinating discoveries yet – a device that draws
that powered the Vermissian; but in Magwan Porth, the air in through one end and propels it out of the other at
engines never tired, scoring their routes maze-like into great velocity. Though they have not been able to recreate
the rock despite their masters having died long, long ago. it or even build an inferior copy with much success, the
current Wanderer-King of the Eastern Domain – Rosevear
The Blessed Isle of Whitecross: Whitecross, once a the Ingenious – has built it into a broad-winged flying
sacred site to many humans, is an arcology situated far machine called The Eagle that he uses to tour his lands.
to the west where the race discovered stable gunpowder
deep in the ruins of a crystalline kingdom. Whitecross has Damned Saltash: Whatever happened in Saltash is too
since been all but mined out, and all the best and brightest cruel and horrendous to be repeated; the names of the
examples of humanity have left for better things – working explorers have been stricken from the records by Quintrel
in Spire, learning from the gnolls in the southlands, or the Kind, the most sympathetic of the Wanderer-Kings of
setting up shop in one of the many bustling trade ports the humans. Saltash, now sealed by rockslide and guarded
that line the Eastern Domain. It is a grim place, full of by a sacred order of masked fighters, gave the humans
monsters, that is home to a dour and sullen people. the Dose as well as a wide variety of other body-rewriting
chemicals, treatments and drugs.
Temple Head: Multiple delvers have entered the labyrin-
thine depths of Temple Head, and all of them have re-
turned empty-handed save for reports of rune-encrusted
doors blocking the shifting, unmappable paths within.
Appendices235

APPENDIX 6:
ANTAGONISTS
To add colour to any plot, roll once on the City-level table and twice on the Street-level table below to see who else is
involved in the situation – the City-level faction is in charge, and they (directly or indirectly) control the two Street-level
factions. If you do it twice, you could generate an entire campaign frame with a bit of work to figure out what they’re
fighting over.

City-Level Street-Level
D100 RESULT D100 RESULT
01–05 The Midwives 01–05 Red Row drug dealers
06–10 University of Divine Magic Professors Esoteric 06–10 Order of Knights of the North Docks
11–15 The Solar Basilica 11–15 Azurites
16–20 Arms dealers from the Works 16–20 An Idol with zealously loyal followers
21–25 Disillusioned army captain 21–25 The Crimson Vigil
26–30 The Special Tactics Corps 26–30 Gnoll refugees
31–35 High-ranking leader of an aelfir mystery cult 31–35 Cult of the Hungry Deep
36–40 Cult of the Machine God 36–40 A coven of blood-witches
41–45 City Guard captain 41–45 Jaeger mercs, out to make some extra cash
46–50 Cut-throat demonologist scholars 46–50 Hustlers from Hemlock Fruit Market
51–55 Aelfir noble attempting to get onto the Council 51–55 Priests of Our Glorious Lady
56–60 Debauched aelfir noble, looking for a thrill 56–60 Low-rate Silver Quarter Casino
61–65 The Intelligence, a crystalline prokatakos mind 61–65 Liberate! The Drow Independence Periodical
66–70 The Academy of Gywnn-Enforr 66–70 Struggling City Guard outpost
71–75 L’Enfer Noir club 71–75 The Furnace, a sensationalist gossip rag
76–80 The Cult of The Spire Ascendant 76–80 Gladiators from Arena
81–85 A dissatisfied Council member 81–85 Silver Quarter Hellfire Club
86–90 Ivory Row Landowner 86–90 Desperate Retroengineers
91–95 The Morticians 91–95 Ivory Row Sunlight Collective
96–00 A different cell of ministers, better-equipped 96–00 Concerned Citizens
than you
236Appendices

APPENDIX 7:
SUGGESTED MEDIA
Here are some sources that we drew inspiration from during the creation and playtesting of Spire, or that we feel evoke
similar themes.

MUSIC ROLEPLAYING GAMES

The best music for Spire, bar none, is located on Tabletopau- Unknown Armies
dio.com where you can find seven specially-made ambient Hunter: the Vigil
tracks designed to evoke different parts of the city. Failing Changeling: the Lost
that, though: Dark Heresy, with particular reference to hive worlds

FILMS
The Bloodborne soundtrack
The Only Lovers Left Alive soundtrack
Devil is Fine – Zeal & Ardour Dredd
Chalice Hymnal – Grails The Raid
Midnight Radio/ Gore Motel – Bohren & der Club of Gore Dark City
Blade Runner

BOOKS/COMICS
Hellboy 2

TV
Gormenghast
Neuromancer
Perdido Street Station The Wire
Iron Council Peaky Blinders
The Discworld series, especially the Watch books Blackadder
BLAME! Breaking Bad
Hellboy

OTHER
The Lies of Locke Lamora

Fallen London
Sunless Sea
Bloodborne
Necromunda
 237

THANKS TO:
Our playtesters, who include but are not limited to: Dylan Ford, Dylan Malenfant, McGravin, Luke Douglas,
Clare Jones, Wil, Pete, Jon Bent, Minerva McJanda, Chris Farnell, JP Bradley, Helen Gould, Elizabeth Si-
moens, Ben Sabin, Paul Gregory, Bel, Eoin, Gret, Mottokrosh, & Fanta (the person, not the drink).

Lisa Trott, both for playtesting and coming up with the advancement rules for Spire which are, let’s be honest,
hugely important to making the game function.

Frank Reding, for writing the Spire companion which allows GMs to track stress using a website optimised for
mobile internet. If you want to streamline your gamesmastering and leave more time for cooking up devious
plots, check out mottokrosh.com/apps

Some of the content in this book was commissioned by especially generous Kickstarter supporters. In addition
to the New Gods chapter, the following things were funded by our backers:

The Carmine Sceptre: Angharad Crossley

The Last Leg: Ian Porter

Civilisation: J Patrick Stebbins

The Wizened Weasel: Matt Johnson

Kowz-Udder: Grant ‘Psykokow’ Woolcott

Pao, of the University of Divine Magic: Mark Soloff

Teja, of the Order of St Perdita: Teja

Mataj Wall-the-Ice, of Arena: Matthew “J Wall” Wallace

George, of Pilgrim’s Walk: Torgeir Timenes Bell

The good folks at The Gauntlet, Modifier, Six Feats Under, The Literate Gamer and Blastropodcast for
having us on to swear at each other and plug our game.

All of our backers and supporters on Kickstarter, without whom this game would not exist.

Everyone who’s read, played, and enjoyed Spire since we first released it, and helped us to bring it to life in the
last five years. Seriously. Thank you.

For more on Spire, or to check out other games, go to rowanrookanddecard.com.

238
INDEX
Academia (domain) 17, 91–7 city druids 130, 183 occult 158
Academy of Gywnn-Enforr 97 City Guard (advances) 77; see also City removing 13
advancement 29 Guard severe 15
aelfir 5, 108, 115–7 City Guard 161–3, 200 Father Summer 179; see also Solar Pantheon
districts 108, 115–7 Civilisation (bar) 124 Firebrand (class) 49–51
gardens 116 clubs 119 fortune-telling 152
mask-wearing 115–6, 162 Collective, see Sunlight Collective o
religion, see Solar Church College of the Undying Light 92 gambling 121
temperature sensitivity 117 combat 24–7 game, the 121
traditions 5 Commerce (domain) 17, 99–108 Garden district 129–130
advice 186–7 Computational Division 97 General Snow-On-Stone 163
airlarks 105 cooking, see Grangou George 178
Allied Defence HQ 163–5 core mechanic 9, 10 ghosts 146, 148; see also Necropolis
Amaranth 115–7 Corpse Pit 143 plagues 146
ammunition 20 corpsefruit 123 speaking with 148
Arena 109 Corvid Court 104 Glorious Lady, see Limyé
armour 21, 25 Council, the 167 gnolls 91, 116, 141
army, see Allied Defence HQ Crime (domain) 17, 109–113 goats 233
Ashter and Quinn 178 Crimson Vigil 89, 137, 175, 200; see also godstreet 177
assisting another player, see groups Lekolé Grand Telescope, Inverted 95
assisting a non-player character, see bonds Crystal Temple 117 Grangou (advances) 85
auras 61 customs house 107 Greymanor Investigator (advances) 86
avatars 181 o Greymanor Services 133
Azurite (class) 33–5; see also Azurites Damnou 169; see also Cathedral of Our Grist 124
Azurites 108 Glorious Lady groups 11
o dark-farmers 129 guns 133
background, see durance dark elves, see drow Gutter, the 125
Ballistae (sky docks) 105 Deep Apiarist (advances) 79–80; see also bees Gutterkin 110, 131, 134
Barracks, the, see Allied Defence HQ Desang 100 parliament 134
Basilica, see Solar Pantheon demons 155, 157 o
Battlefield, The 96 Demonologist (advances) 82; see also Hall of Ancestors 148–9
Bazaar, Blue 107, 108 demonology hallows 171, 172
Beast of Vat A-67, see Vat A-67 demonology 91–2, 155–7, 164–5 Hanging Gardens 129
bees 143, 183 Derelictus 123–5 healing, see stress, removing and fallout, removing
Benevolent Order of Wisdom and Destera 3 Heap, The 100
Discovery 91–3 difficulty 9, 190 Heart, the 97, 139–44
Black Guard 116 domains 17 Hearts, The; see Mermaid, The
Blood-Witch (class) 37–39; Dovecote, the 127 Hemlock Fruit Market 123
see also blood-witches drow 3 Hellionite (advances) 87; see also Church of
blood-witches 39, 140 childbirth 152 the Gun
Blue Port 107–8 curse 5 Herald Corporation 130
bonds 22–3, 156 Home Nations 123 Hidden, the 118
demonic bonds 155–6 Houses 75 Hidden Mistress, see Lombre
Bound (class) 41–3; see also Bound, the and light sensitivity 129, 164 High Elven University of Divine Magic, see
small gods traditions 5 University of Divine Magic
Bound, the 127 drugs 112–3, 121 high elves, see aelfir
Brazacott Technical Institute 93 Duke, The 99 High Society (domain) 17, 115–121
Brook Street Bridge 137 durance 30–1 High Street 101
Brother Autumn 180; see also Solar Pantheon dust machines 198 Hive, the 163
Brother Hellion, see Church of the Gun o House, The 119
o eidolon, see demons how to play 1–2, 8, 24, 29
campaign play, see running the revolution enlisted drow 164 Hungry Deep, see Church of Absolution
Candlegate 137 equipment 19–21 humans 5, 97
Cannibals of Grist, 124; see also King Teeth Endless Bacchanal 144 hydroponic vaults 129
Carmine Sceptre, The 101 Endline 135 o
Carrion-Priest (class) 45–7; see also Charnel Enlisted (advances) 83 Idol (class) 53–5
Carter’s Expeditionary Force 143 everfrost 117 implants, see Intelligence, The
Castle, The 100; see also Duke, The Executioners 146; see also Morticians Infinite Library 95
Cathedral of Our Glorious Lady 169–71 o initiative 24
Cave, The 141; see also Vyskant, The Faithful of King Teeth, The (advances) 83; Instrumentalists 105
character classes 33–75 see also King Teeth Intelligence, The 93, 97
character creation 29 fae 104 Interview Rooms 96
Charnel 124, 181 fallout 12–5 Ivory Row 117–8
Choke 151 and bonds 14, 23 o
Chosen of the Hungry Deep (advances) 78; creating 15 King Teeth 83, 124
see also Church of Absolution and demonic bonds 156 knacks 16
Church of Absolution 125, 198, 200 minor 13 Knight (class) 57–9; see also Knights of the
Church of the Gun 87, 111 moderate 14 North Docks
  239
Knights of the North Docks 99–100, 101, Order (domain) 17, 161–7 street of the gods, see godstreet
102, 199 Order of Midwives 70 stress 9, 11-2, 20
Kowz-Udder 111 Order of the Last Leg, see Last Leg, The and bonds 22
kraken 100 Order of St Beneferas, see Knights of the North removing 11
o Docks and weapons 20, 25
L’Enfer Noir 110 Order of the Wizened Weasel, see Wizened sun-on-earth 181
Lady and Crow 125 Weasel, The Sun-On-Water 134
Lady of Vengeance, see Lekolé o Sunlight Collective 117–8, 199
Lajhan (class) 61–3 Paladins 180 Sundered Bell, The 100
Last Leg, The 101 Peace Street 140 o
Last Train, the 137 Perch 125–7 tags 20, 21
Lecture Hall, The 96 Pilgrim’s Walk 177–8 Technology (domain) 17
Lekolé 137, 169; see also Crimson Vigil Polaris Station 137 theme and tone 187
shrine 137 printing presses 131 Threadneedle Square 110–1
levelling up, see advancement prison, see Hive, the Three, the 118
Liberate! 131 prokatakos technology 97, 129, 131, 134, Tower Division 97
Library of Snuffed Candles 149–51; see also 234 o
Mehror Ptolemy Bay 133 Uplifted, see Intelligence, The
Limyé 169–71; see also Cathedral of Our pubs 101 Undying surgeries 144, 145, 149
Glorious Lady o playing an Undying 144
Little Whitecross 97 Queens of the Hive 80 University of Divine Magic 95–6
Living Spire, the, see city druids o o
Lombre 169, 172; see also Ministry of Our range 20, 25 Vanishing Point 144
Hidden Mistress Range, The 100 Vat A-67 130
Low Society (domain) 17, 123–134 Rats, the 139 Vermissian, the 111, 135–9
Low Wall, The 107 Red Goddess, see Lekolé Vermissian Sage 73–75
Luck-Priest of Stolz 87; see also Stolz Red Row 109–111 Vermissian Vault 139
Lunar Font 95–6 Religion (domain) 17 Vigilite (advances) 89; see also Crimson Vigil
o reloading 25 villains 191, 235
Machine Heart 134 retroengineers 198 virtues, see Damnou
malak 5, 112, 161 resistance slots 12 Volatility Research Department 97
Malrique 152 running the revolution 188–90 Vorloren Standard 110
Mansion, the 144 o Vyskant, the 90, 130, 141
Masked (class) 65–7 Sage, see Vermissian Sage Vyskant (advances) 90; see also Vyskant, the
masks 115–6 safety tools 186 o
map vi saints, see hallows Warrior-Poets 164
Maintainers 171 Sanderson’s Arms 101 weapons 20, 21
megacorvidae 102 secret police 162 reloading 25
Mehror 151 Silver Quarter 119–21 Whitecross 97; see also humans
mercenaries 108 Sister Spring 180; see also Solar Pantheon Works 131–4
Mermaid, The 121 Sisterhood of Illumination 92 Winter, Mr 109
Mesyé Só 119 Sisters, The 109, 110–1 Wizened Weasel, The 102
Midwife (class) 69–71; see also Midwives skalds 164
Midwives 152–3 skills 16
Minister (advances) 88 Sky Docks 102–5 NPC STATS
Ministry of Our Hidden Mistress, The 7, 88, skywhales 104 Black Guard 116
131, 171, 172–4 small gods 125, 127, 131, 215–31; see also Blood-Witch 140
cells 173 Pilgrim’s Walk Bound Vigilante 127
coded messages 131 graveyard 127 Charnel-Sworn Hyena Pack 183
hierarchy 174 Solace 100 City Guard 161
initiation 174 Solar Basilica 178–81; see also Solar Pantheon Cultist of the Hungry Deep 125
recruitment 173 Solar Devotee (advances) 89; see also Solar Executioner 146
Mister Alas 113, 118 Church Followers of the Gun 111
Mother Moon 109 Solar Church 89, 92, 178–81 Ghosts 140
Mother Winter 133, 180; see also Solar Pantheon avatars 181 Ghoul 124
Moon Garden 141 Solar Pantheon 133, 178 Gutterkin 110
moon goddess, see Damnou special tactics corp 164–5 Heap Denizens 100
Moonseekers of Grimaldi 183 Spiral Gardens 116 Knights 99
Morticians 129, 145–6; see also Necropolis Spire (city) L’Enfer Noir Staff Member 110
multiclassing 29 food and cuisine 129, 130 Mercenaries 108
o gates 107 Midwife 153
Necrofusimancy 151 graveyards 151–2 Mortician Guards 148
Necropolis 148–52 laws 162 Mother Moon’s Harem Member 109
New Heaven 181–3 origins and nature 7, 96, 105, 130, 134, Paladin 180
North Docks 99–102; see also Knights of the 165 Spirit Host 146
North Docks map iv Students 96
o variations in your campaign 192–3 Vigilite Firebrand 175
Obsidian Orrery 149 Spire Ascendant 96 Vigilites 175
Occult (domain) 17, 135–158 spireblack 131 Vorloren Standard Guard 110
opera, see Desang Stolz 87, 121
PLAYER NAME
CHARACTER NAME
CLASS
DURANCE

SKILLS KNACKS EQUIPMENT REFRESH

Compel
Deceive
Fight
Fix
Investigate
Pursue
Resist ABILITIES BONDS
Sneak
Steal

DOMAINS
Academia
Crime
Commerce
High Society
Low Society
Occult
Order
Religion
Technology FALLOUT

FREE SLOTS RESISTANCES CURRENT STRESS

Blood
Mind
Silver
Shadow
Reputation
Armour

TOTAL STRESS:
Spire RPG Character Sheet. Copyright Rowan, Rook and Decard. Permission to photocopy for personal use only.
YOU ARE A DARK ELF. YOU HAVE SWORN IN BLOOD AND SACRED SHADOW TO
DESTROY YOUR OPPRESSORS, THE AELFIR – HIGH ELVES FROM THE FROZEN
NORTH WHO HAVE CLAIMED YOUR HOMELAND AS THEIR OWN.

Spire is a mile-high metropolis and you hide in its crumbling temples,

its lawless undercity, its labyrinthine tunnels, the rotting hole in reality
that festers at its centre. Your masters while away their days in opulent
cruelty and glittering sunlight far above.

Spire is all the world you have ever known, and it must fall.

How far are you willing to go for the revolution, and what sacrifices
will you make to see the drow in control of Spire once more?

SPIRE: THE CITY MUST FALL

Spire is a fantasy-punk roleplaying game of intrigue, subterfuge and
sedition. You and your friends will become a cell of desperate drow
freedom fighters and claw back control of the city from your aelfir
overlords, no matter what it takes. It uses a simple rules system that
helps you to tell stories of brutal rebellion where life is cheap, alliances
are temporary, and magic is strange and perilous.

This book contains all the rules you need to run games in Spire, along with
a detailed breakdown of the districts and factions that make up the city.

First published in 2018, this fifth anniversary edition updates the Spire
RPG with additional art and new layout. It also includes the Black
Magic and Blood and Dust sourcebooks in their entirety, giving access to
plenty of occult character options and providing an easy-to-run scenario
focusing around magical theatre bloodsports.

For more about Spire, go to rowanrookanddeckard.com

RRP £40 GBP / $55 USD

SKU GQRRD-SPIRE5-HB

9 781913 032333
© Rowan, Rook and Decard, 2023