Gr e g S au n de r s

Esoterica

This world is a lie.

You must escape.

Design and Layout Greg Saunders

Cover art Barandash Karandashich, cover design Paul Bourne
Interior art George Cotronis, Barandash Karandashich, Wilqkuku
and Tithi Luadthong
Using the Mini Six game engine from AntiPaladin Games
 Contents
Descriptive Tags 40
Negative Tags 41
Life and Job Based Tags 41
Hobby or Sports Tags 42
What do Tags do? 42
Welcome to the Secret Skills 44
World 8 Skill Specialisations 45
Might Skills 46
The First Truth - Lies 8 Agility Skills 46
The Second Truth - Power 8 Wit Skills 47
The Third Truth - Escape 10 Charm Skills 48
The Secret World 10 Creating Specialisations and Skills 48
Ascension 10 Static Defences 49
The Mundane World 10 Perks and Complications 52
The Veil 11 Example Perks and 52
The Nature of Beyond 12 Complications 52
Otherworldly Beings 12 Perks 52
The Ascended Masters 14 Complications 53
Arts 14 Powers 56
Mysteries 14 Adepts and the Arts 56
Rituals 15 Domination 56
Soul Jars 15 Mastery 56
Cabals 15 Insight 56
Adepts and the Mundane World 18 Adept Archetypes 57
The Struggle 18 Magician 57
Rival Adepts 18 Ascetic 57
Government Agencies 18 Psychic 58
Hungers 19 Conduit 58
What is this Game About? 19 Sorcerer 58
What is role-playing? 20 Reveals 59
A Note on the Setting 20 The Tearing of the Veil 59
What do we Need to Play? 20 Societies and Cabals 62
A final comment… 22 Real Secret Societies 62
Name 63
Members 63
Sign or Sigil 63
Game Creation 24 Temple 63
Public front and Goals 63
Themes and Playing Styles 25 Belief 64
Common Themes 25 Equipment 64
Common Styles 27 Gear 65
Creating Characters 30 Signature Gear 66
Adepts 31 Creating Signature Gear 66
Steps in Character 32 We’re Done! 66
Creation 32 Narrator Involvement in
Concept 34 Character Creation 66
Name and Past 35 Creating a Picture 67
Attributes 35 Choosing Appropriate Values 67
Choosing the Values of Attributes 39 Don’t get Tied up Assigning Gear 67
Attribute Tags 40
The Cabal 68 Automatic Fire Options 97
Creating Adepts is Fun! 68 Burst Fire 98
Suppressing Fire 98
Other Common Actions in Combat 98
Core Rules of Movement 99
Full Dodge 99
Esoterica 70 Damage 99
Ranged Combat Damage 99
When do we Roll Dice? 70 Unarmed and Melee Combat
Scenes 71 Damage 102
Standard Tasks and Resisted Tasks 71 Resisting Damage and Wound
Timing 71 Values 102
Intent 73 Wound Level Effects 103
Intents to Cause Damage 74 Scaling 104
Consequence 75 Dangers 104
Standard Tasks 76 Asphyxiation 105
Tools and Difficulties 78 Falling 105
Reconsidering Intents in 78 Healing 105
Standard tasks 78 Vehicles 106
Standard Tasks, Attributes and Skills 79 Statistics for Vehicles 106
Which Skill or Attribute Makes the Vehicle Movement 107
Most Sense? 79 Vehicle Combat 107
Rolling Dice 80 Damage to Vehicles 107
Attribute Tags 81 Effects of Damage 108
Benefit of Tags 81 Multiple Weapons on Vehicles 108
Advice in Picking Appropriate Tags 84 Chases 110
Help 84 Ramming 110
Conflicts 85 Repairing Vehicles 110
Conceding During Conflicts 86 Adepts 114
Intent and Consequences in Conflicts 86 Experience 114
Re-initiating Conflicts 87 Spending Character Points 114
Interrupting Conflicts 87 Tiers 115
Timing 89 Adepts and Powers 115
Order of Actions in a Round 89 Arts 115
Acting Out of Sequence 90 Domination 117
Multiple Actions 90 Mastery 117
Resisted Tasks in Conflicts 91 Insight 118
Determining the Outcome of Boosting Rolls with the Arts 118
Resisted Tasks 91 Reveals 119
Unbalanced Conflicts 91 Arts and other Adepts 120
Negative Tags in Conflicts 92 The Limits of Arts 120
Violence in Esoterica 92 Arts and Stress 120
Minimal Violence 93 Refreshing Arts 121
Pulpy Violence 93 Mysteries 121
Resolving Violence 94 Mysteries and Force 124
Static Resistances 94 Limits and Refreshing of
Attacking a Target 95 Mysteries 124
Ammunition and Jamming 97 Defining Mysteries 125
Aiming 97 Adding Flavour to Mysteries 138
Grenades 97
Power 139 Esoterica in the Cthulhu Mythos 181
Stains 139 What is the Cthulhu Mythos? 182
Corruption 141 Esoterica and the Mythos 182
Hungers and Corruption 141 Aspects of the Mythos 183
Hungers 142 Good and Evil 183
Soul Jars 146 The Lone Protagonist 183
Removing Stains with Soul Jars 147 Horror 184
Draining Ritual 147 Doomed Heroes 184
Hallowing Ritual 149 Nameless Horrors 184
Rituals 149 Adapting Esoterica to the Mythos 184
Adding Flavour to Rituals 151 Mythos Themes and Goals 186
Researching Rituals 151 Mythos Setting Time-frame 186
Rituals as Solutions 152 The Cabal as a Cult 186
The Veil 155 Mythos Ascension 187
Effects of a Waxing or Waning Madness as Corruption 189
Veil 155 Mythos Mysteries 191
That’s it 156 Mythos Soul Jars 192
Mythos Hungers 194
Other Antagonists 195
Narrator Advice 158 A Final Thought… 196
Scaling Campaigns 196
Discuss the game first 158 Tying it all Together 196
Set Limits 158
The X Card 159
The mystery of Esoterica 159 The Secret World 198
The Drive Chain of Play 159
What do Players do? 161 Real World Esotericism 198
What does the Narrator do? 161 Rival Cabals 200
What is a scenario? 161 The Circle of Seven 201
Scenario forms 163 Thesperous Society 204
Scripted Versus Free-form People of Tomorrow 205
Scenarios 163 The Temple of the Hidden Sun 206
Typical Scenario Forms 164 Government Agencies 207
Stealing Soul Jars 164 Agency 32 208
Locating Lost Soul Jars 164 Operatives 208
Facing Adversaries 165 Headquarters and Leadership 209
A Note on Money 165 The Secretariat 209
Themes of Esoterica 165 Operatives 209
Key Elements of Play 168 Headquarters and Leadership 209
Hungers in Play 169 Bureau Nineteen 211
Other Otherworldly Entities 170 Operatives 211
Acquiring Soul Jars 170 Headquarters and Leadership 211
Rival Cabals 171 Hungers 212
The Government 173 The Hound 212
Ascension 173 The Fleshy Man 212
Creating NPCs 174 Gore Snake 213
Adept NPCs 179 The Horned People 213
Playing in Other Time Periods 181 The Flock 216
Playing in Another Mythos 181 Teeth 216
Otherworldly Threats 217 What’s Happenning? 238
The Black King 217 Possible Scenes 238
The Prince of Spears 217 The Manchurian Fan 239
The Fire 218 What’s Happenning? 240
The Maker 218 Possible Scenes 240
Known Soul Jars 219 The Scottish Stone 242
The Ebon Knife 219 What’s Happenning? 242
The Book of St. Lazarus 221 Possible Scenes 242
The Jaw of Saint Nye 221 The Fallen King 243
The Renishaw Scrolls 222 What’s Happenning? 245
The Sarcophagus of Itemotep 222 Possible Scenes 245
The Skull of John Dee 223 The Dark 245
The Itken Jaguar Claw 223 What’s Happenning? 246
The Marbles of Hericus 224 Possible Scenes 246
The Roswell Cylinder 224 The Pyramid of Tetla 247
The Scroll of Magus Knut 226 What’s Happenning? 247
The Pillar of Detithus 226 Possible Scenes 247
The Helios Stone 227 The Nusku Blade 248
Makalus’s Crown 227 The Story 250
The Sword of Morning 228 Hooks 250
The Bone Crucible 228 Searching the Library or Internet 251
The Brass Mechanism 229 Where is the Nusku Blade now? 252
The Concetas Instrument 229 Characters, Locations and Events 252
The Talygas Map 230 Brothers of the Silver Branch 252
The Occult Underground 230 Searching the Occult
Merchants of the Occult 231 Underground 253
Doctor Phelias 231 Daniel Carter, Adept Gone
Miriam’s Bizarre 232 to Ground 253
The Grotto 232 Finding Carter 256
Four winds 232 White’s House 256
Occult Informants 233 Sarah Hale, Bureau Nineteen 257
Reginald Black 233 Tom Whittle, Homeless Witness 257
Sigmus Olsen 233 Investigating the House 258
Jenny Coombe 234 The Newspapers 259
Periodicals 235 Questioning Whittle 259
The Raven 235 The Police Station 260
The Ascended Masters 236 James Tomkins, Psychotic Adept 260
Wyrm 236 Mary Tremell, Police Investigator 261
Master of Keys 237 The Scar, a Hunger 261
Thirteen 237 The Transfer 261
Scenario Ideas 238 The Temple 262
The Stolen Book 238

m
 Welcome to the
Secret World
T here are three great secrets which shape the true reality of our

n
world. These are hidden. If you know all these secrets, then you
are part of the Secret World.
Hidden Truths

The First Truth - Lies

E veryone with real power knows that the world is a lie. What you see
on TV, what you read on the internet. The news, the opinions in the
papers, everything. It is a fiction, a half-truth at best, that serves to shield
the ignorant mass of humanity from the truth. But you are different, you
know that there is a greater reality, a side to the universe that lies hidden
and concealed. Separating the mundane world from this greater reality is
the Veil.
hthis is the secret truth, magicians

T his is the first truth - the so-called real world is a lie. If you know
this then you know there is a greater reality beyond.

The Second Truth - Power

T he second truth is that leaking through this Veil is power. Power
that can be harnessed, shaped and coaxed, allowing those with the
gift to alter the dressing of the mundane world to their own liking. If you
can do this, if you can harness the powers of the hidden world, then you
may be known by many names - magician, mystic, seer, occultist. Yours is
the power over the vast majority of mundane, blind humanity.

T his is the second truth - power is for the taking. This is the route
to dominance over your fellow man, to riches and to fame, should
you wish it.
8
 The Third Truth - Escape
T he third truth is the greatest. If you know of the world beyond,
and you wield its power, then you know it is possible to escape the
drudgery of this existence, to pass through the Veil into the greater world,
to Ascend and take your place with the true powers of the universe beyond
the understanding of your fellow man.

T his is the third truth - this world is a lie, and you must escape. If
you know this, then you are one of the few. You are an Adept.
Hidden Truths

The Secret World

O ur world is not the true world. What the vast majority of humanity
see is just a portion of a greater reality, a higher truth, hidden from
the masses. Those who know the three secrets are said to be part of the
Secret World, a place hidden from the sight of mundane man.

Ascension
hthis is the secret truth, magicians

T he aim of all those in the Secret World is to Ascend, to pass

through the Veil and enter the world beyond. But what is beyond?
That is unknown, as those that do Ascend have no more dealings with the
mundane world except perhaps through mystic messages and dreams, if
you believe in the Ascended masters. All that is agreed is that the reality
beyond is orders of magnitude more glorious than the mundane world.

A depts inhabit this Secret World, a strange limbo between the

mundane world and the reality beyond. Trapped in the one but
aware that their destiny lies in the other, their life’s work is to pass through
the Veil and escape the shackles that bind them.

The Mundane World

10 T he mundane world is our world. Our countries, peoples and cities,
our politics, religions and wars. The world, just as we know it. For
the great majority of people this is all they know, and the struggles of
the Secret World is hidden. Instead, Adepts and Cabals are branded as
madmen and left on the fringe of society, a curiosity and nothing more.
Given that most who profess to have occult powers are charlatans and
madmen, it is a reasonable thing to assume.

The Veil
W hat separates the mundane world from the greater reality is the
Veil. This partition is like a gossamer shadow that falls across
the universe, dividing what mundane man can see from beyond, allowing
even Adepts only the vaguest glimpse of the whole truth. The nature of

Hidden Truths
the Veil has been a subject of occult debate for many years, with numerous
theories surfacing in mystical and religious literature since ancient times.
Some theories are...

The Veil is…

…a shroud cast over the Earth by God to shield the impious from His
glory.
…a fracture in reality caused by hermeticists releasing Lucifer during the
middle ages.
…a chasm separating godlings from mortals.

snaicigam ,hturt terces eht si sihth

…a way for Christ to divine those who are worthy from those who are
not.
…a cancer of the mind brought on by carnal lust.
…the natural separation between the lands of the living and those of
the dead.

W hatever the Veil is, all Adepts can perceive it as a shadowy,

billowing cloak within the mind that obscures the true shape of
things. To them it seems that the Veil limits their powers, and their occult
arts must be coaxed through the tenuous divide. In many ways to perceive
the Veil is to be an Adept.

T he Veil seems to wax and wane with seasons and locations. In some
places the Veil seems almost solid, and powers are less reliable. In
other places the Veil seems weaker or thinner, and it is almost possible
to perceive what lies beyond it. Adepts are often wary of these places,
reasoning that if they can see in one direction, other eyes may be watching
in return. Corruption also seems to effect the Veil, and around an Adept
showing physical manifestations of Corruption the Veil is especially
11
 weak and stretched, and may fracture if the correct pressure is applied,
something no Adept wishes to contemplate.

The Nature of Beyond

W hat lies beyond the Veil is the great mystery of the Secret World.
No Adept has truly seen beyond except for those who have
Ascended, and in general these beings have little interest in the lives of
those trapped in the mundane world. As with the Veil, interpretations of
what lies beyond the Veil are many and varied. Theories include...
Hidden Truths

Beyond is…

…a garden of delights reserved only for the most worthy.

…an alien civilization far in advance of the mundane world and capa-
ble of great miracles.
…a seat beside God and his angelic chorus.
…another dimension where the gods dwell, shaping reality at their
whim.
…a magical land of plenty where every whim is satisfied by an army
of willing slaves.
hthis is the secret truth, magicians

T here is only one matter that all Adepts agree on – whatever lies
beyond the Veil is far better than this mundane world, and getting
to that place is the goal of all who are part of the Secret World.

Otherworldly Beings
T hat power resides beyond the Veil is known to all Adepts – as they
use their Arts and Mysteries, they can see the occult energies
leeching through the barrier. What is also clear is that other things reside
beyond the Veil aside from Ascended Adepts – Hungers are known to
come from this place, as well as other otherworldly beings. How their
presence ties up to the paradisical conceptions of the beyond is another
of the great mysteries. The most common thought is these beings obey
the commands of the Ascended, who generally wish to stop others from
12 crossing over as they jealously guard their position. Given the greed and
selfishness of most Adepts, this is an easy thing to believe.
 The Ascended Masters
I t is orthodox belief among Adepts that those who Ascend are no
longer connected to the mundane world, and have no further influence
on everyday life. However, some hold that this theory isn’t quite true, and
whisper of a group known as the Ascended masters. These are Adepts
who have passed through the Veil and yet retain the ability to interact with
others in the mundane world, typically through dreams and visions. What
these masters wish to communicate is not known, but deeper secrets and
conspiracies cycle down from this belief.
Hidden Truths

Arts
T he most natural forms of occult ability that Adepts are able to
manifest are known as the Arts. These represent the innate ability
of the Adept to draw energy through the Veil and use it to bolster their
own capabilities. The Arts demonstrate an understanding of the greater
world and an ability to draw connections between events using information
from beyond. The Arts are what make Adepts such sure communicators
and persuasive personalities, and give them an understanding of things
which others cannot see.
hthis is the secret truth, magicians

D epending on the Reveal that the Adept has, their unique signature
of power, most people would not understand the Arts if they saw
them in use, but would just consider them as an example of the slightly
uncanny knack some people have over others. The Arts are subtle.

Mysteries
M ysteries are the truly mystical powers of Adepts, powers that defy
logical explanation. Mysteries are what most people would call
‘magic’, and are beyond the science of the mundane world. As Adepts gain
in power they learn new ways to manipulate the energies that permeate
the Veil, twisting and warping those streams from beyond into reality-
snapping constructs that allow them to speak with the dead, levitate, create
fires and perform all manner of other miracles.

14 M ysteries are kept hidden from the mundane world, as witnessing

a Mystery in action would leave the viewer with little doubt that
they had witnessed something strange and potentially paranormal. Adepts
jealously guard their Mysteries, as much to keep them from rivals as to
shield the mundane world from their existence.

Rituals
T he power of Mysteries can be re-created using Rituals. These are
the strange, mystical rites and instructions laid down in dusty
books or carved into ancient stones, and are what most people think of
when they consider what a secret, occult society might actually spend their
time doing. Rituals are powerful but they are dangerous, as the penalties of
using power are equally bestowed on each participant.

Hidden Truths
Soul Jars
P ower draws Corruption, and unless it is controlled this physical
manifestation of beyond will kill an Adept far more quickly than
they can gain enough power to Ascend. This is the hidden truth of the
Secret World, one that an Adept must understand quickly if they wish
to have any chance of joining the Ascended beyond. Luckily it is possible
to remove Corruption, by storing the Stains that warn of its coming in
mystical containers known as Soul Jars. The problem is that no one now
knows how to make Soul Jars, so they are in limited supply, and there are

snaicigam ,hturt terces eht si sihth

many Adepts that seek them. Finding and controlling Soul Jars is the
secret to Ascension, and most Adepts dedicate themselves almost wholly
to this pursuit.

Cabals
A depts rarely work alone, the dangers are too great – trying to hold
on to a Soul Jar alone against assailants from all sides would be very
foolhardy. Instead they form small groups of like-minded individuals. Such
a gathering is known as a Cabal. These mystical or hermetical groups
work together to acquire Soul Jars and defeat their enemies, often hiding

r
in seemingly harmless groups so as to be ignored by the mundane world.

15
 Adepts and the Mundane World
M ost people consider Adepts to be from the same place as
worshippers of strange religions, members of secret societies,
mystics and seers and all the other ‘alternative’ lifestyle individuals that
are common across the world and on the internet in particular. The outside
view of these individuals is on the whole correct – most on the fringe are
not Adepts and have no true understanding of the Veil. It is only a bare
few that can harness the powers of beyond that leech through the barrier.

A depts do their utmost to hide their abilities from the mundane

world, as drawing attention to themselves is a very bad idea. Instead
Hidden Truths

Adepts work in secret to further their goals, forming small Cabals hidden
in plain sight to increase their power and influence.

The Struggle
U nfortunately, The route to Ascension is not clear, and others block
your path either through jealousy, fear or greed. Your struggle
against these forces is a secret war, a war you must win to Ascend.
hthis is the secret truth, magicians

Rival Adepts
O thers know that the world we see is shaped by lies. Others understand
that power is available to those with the knowledge and courage to
grasp it, and that it is possible to pass through the Veil. Like you these rival
Adepts think themselves worthy of Ascension, and for this reason they are
your enemies. The resources needed to effect your Ascension, Soul Jars, are
limited, and if others claim them, you cannot. If you truly seek to escape,
you must defeat your rivals.

Government Agencies
T he government has secret and hidden Agencies that seek to stop
you. They know what you can do, and they know that you are
18 unafraid to use your powers, potentially undermining their control of the
mundane world. So they seek to stop you, seize you, and use their own
talents to glean what they can of your gifts. You must avoid, circumvent or
defeat these enemies, for they block your path to destiny.

Hungers
N ot everything from beyond the Veil is safe. Until you get there, you
are a target of forces beyond your understanding. They seek to
feed off your power, to taste your energies. These are the Hungers, and
they will end you if you are not careful. Your power draws them like flies
to a carcass.

Hidden Truths
hese are the facets of your struggle, the invisible and clandestine
war you wage for the right to Ascend. But luckily you are not alone.
You have gathered other like-minded Adepts to your cause and together,
you will prevail.

What is this Game About?

E soterica is a game about mystics, magicians and occultists in the
modern world. Called Adepts by those that know of their existence,

snaicigam ,hturt terces eht si sihth

these people have come to realise that the mundane world, the reality
as experienced by most of humanity, is just a facet of the true, greater
reality. Hidden by the Veil, the truth of the universe is separate from this
mundane existence. Adepts have discovered this secret, and have learnt to
master some of the energies that permeate through the barrier. However,
using these powers is fraught with danger. Entities called Hungers from
beyond the Veil seek out Adepts to feed on the Stains caused by channelling
esoteric powers through the mortal form. Only by finding and using
Soul Jars, ancient repositories for negative energy, can Adepts escape the
Hungers. Adepts are also hunted and persecuted by those that fear their
power, and would have them removed from society. Even more so Adepts
must fear others of their kind, who also seek the Soul Jars, the secret of
their manufacture being lost to time.

e
19
 What is role-playing?
A role-playing game is a type of free-form, collaborative game where
a group of Players create a story together using a set of rules
as a framework and take on the role of a set of characters in the story.
Esoterica is a narrative role-playing game, where creating and describing
an interesting story is far more important than the rolling of dice. In these
rules you won’t find lots of modifiers for different conditions, or complex
rules that attempt to model exactly how characters interact with their
environment. There aren’t any hard and fast rules on character movement
for example. Instead we rely on the judgement of Players and the Narrator
and common sense. The golden rule is let the story flow. The rules are
Hidden Truths

there just to aid game play, not to hinder it.

A Note on the Setting

A part from the Secret World, the world of Adepts and magic, the
world of Esoterica is identical to our own. Therefore, much of
what people are capable of doing, what technology is available, and the
geography of the world is the same as our own. However, saying that,
the Secret World is very real and has a profound impact on the globe. The
world of Esoterica is a mixture of the real and the mysterious. It is this
hthis is the secret truth, magicians

combination of the familiar and the terribly strange that will hopefully
make your games of Esoterica fascinating.

What do we Need to Play?

T here are a few things you will need to play Esoterica. The first is a
few friends – role-playing is a shared experience. Typically, between
three and six of you is ideal. You’ll also need some paper and pencils (you
can use pens, but a lot of the information you’ll be writing down will change
during play so pencils are better). You will need a character sheet such as
the one shown at the back of this book, although you can easily copy down
the relevant information onto a blank piece of paper should you wish to.
Also, you’ll need some normal, everyday six sided dice. Ideally, you’ll have
a handful, say ten dice in total, but as a minimum you’ll need four or five.
Preferably, one will be a different colour to the rest.
20
 E soterica is a role-playing game with a narrative emphasis, so you
won’t need miniatures or strategic maps. Saying that, if you want
to use them to enhance your experience of the game then feel free. Finally,
you’ll need your imagination, so bring along some fuel for the brain –
plenty of food and drink!

A final comment…
T his is a game, and should be treated as such. Esoterica deals with
some mature themes such as occultism, magic, coercion and the
baser human desires such as the quest for power, so always remember it’s
not real! If you and your fellow Players start touching on ideas that you’re
Hidden Truths

not comfortable with, bring it up straight away and work it out between
you. We’re just giving you an environment for an exciting adventure, and
you should always treat it that way, nothing more.
hthis is the secret truth, magicians

22 x
Game Creation
 Game Creation
this

B efore you can begin a game of Esoterica, there are several important
aspects of play that you’ll need to consider – the parts everyone will
play, the theme and style of your game and the characters you’ll use. Each
is equally important to ensuring an enjoyable game for everyone involved.
Plan to around one to two hours covering these aspects. Later after the
session the Narrator will build on this information to create interesting
scenarios for you all to enjoy. In this chapter we’ll look at the different
aspects of setting up a game of Esoterica, from describing the themes and
setting of the game to creating Player characters ready for play.

R oles within the game Esoterica, like many role-playing games,

involves two distinct sets of people: a Narrator who is the person
Game Creation

responsible for describing the world, judging to some extent the actions
of characters within that world and setting the challenges ahead; and the
Players who control the starring characters within the game and, with
the help of the Narrator, create the story. The game requires one person
to be the Narrator and at least one Player, although three or more Players
are better. You will need to decide from the start which of your group is
going to take on which role before you can proceed. Let’s look at them in
more detail.

◊ Narrator – This person is in charge of detailing the world of

Esoterica. They present the other Players with the facts of the set-
this is the secret truth, magiop

ting. They construct the challenges that the Player characters face
within the game. They also adjudicate the actions of other charac-
ters and play the roles of those characters. In a sense they are the
director and editor of the story being created. Narrating a game
can be a challenge but also immensely rewarding. One prerequi-
site is a clear understanding of the mechanics of the game, as it’s
the Narrator who has the job of making final rulings about any
aspects of the game system.

◊ Players – The Players take on the roles of the starring characters

in the story that they and the Narrator create. They are literally
the focus of the setting. Playing a character can be great fun, and
there is certainly less of a requirement to understand the game
system than that which lies with the Narrator. However, the chal-
lenge is to actually think about the character you are playing and
to act out that character to the other members of your group. This
24 isn’t as easy as it seems, but it’s the reason playing a character in a
game can be such fun.
 H ave a chat among yourselves as to who wants to take on each role.

siht
Perhaps you’ll alternate Narrators between several people as the
game continues, of perhaps one of you feels they are best suited to the role.
Either way, you need to make the decision about who does what before you
can proceed any further.

Themes and Playing

Styles m

Game Creation
T he next thing to consider is the themes and playing styles that will
influence your game. The theme of Ascension – moving to a higher,
better place – is key to Esoterica and provides the main focus of play, but
how this theme is presented in the game depends very much on the desires
of the Players. The setting of Esoterica can accommodate many different
themes, and it is not unknown for all to come up during play. However,
usually one or two will be dominant in the stories you tell. The world
of Esoterica can be presented in several different ways, depending on
which aspects of the setting come to the fore during play. Below are listed
three examples of common themes and play styles that fit well with the
background of Esoterica. poigam ,hturt terces eht si siht

Common Themes
T he following themes could all be present in a game of Esoterica. Of
course there are plenty of other themes which could be employed
in a game, so the themes listed below should in no way be considered an
exhaustive list.

◊ Magic – In Esoterica Magic and the occult is a fact. Those with

the ability to alter and shape magic, Adepts, are the focus of play,
and their quest for power is ultimately expressed through magical
prowess. The discovery of secrets dominates in this theme, as do
encounters with other-worldly beings and places. Magic as a theme
ties strongly to the theme of horror as in many works of literature
other worlds can be miraculous or perilous places. This theme focus- 25
this es on the Adepts and their interactions with others of their kind and
on Hungers and other supernatural creatures. Games that involve a
strong focus on magic might include investigations into the location
of lost Soul Jars, encounters with magical creatures and the revela-
tion of secrets regarding other Adepts.

◊ Horror – Esoterica is a game about horror in many guises. Adepts

express the basest desires of man – the quest for power. Terrors
stalk the world in the form of Hungers, spirits and other Adepts.
This theme focuses on the horror of the setting, concentrating on
power, the real world beyond the Veil, and the moral bankruptcy of
Adepts. There are plenty of horror novels and films that feature oc-
cultism and magic, or feature the quest for power at any cost. Games
that feature a strong horror theme might feature trips to decayed
ruins overrun with twisted beasts in the search for Soul Jars, the
defence of an Adepts from ravenous Hungers, or conflicts with dys-
Game Creation

functional Adepts from other Cabals who wish to steal Soul Jars.
Horror as a theme can also be used to concentrate on the corruption
that can result from the quest for power, and a theme that focuses on
the expression of human decay is a powerful story element.

◊ Mystery – the Secret World is a mysterious and strange place. Rival

Adepts practice rival schools of magic, using weird, esoteric rites
and rituals to gain power. Shadowy government agencies work to
their own mysterious agendas. The truth of what happens when you
Ascend and what exactly lies beyond the Veil is hidden. Manifes-
tations from beyond such as Hungers taking on strange and oth-
this is the secret truth, magiop

erworldly forms. This sense of hidden mysteries pervades Esoteri-

ca. It is the same sense of hidden knowledge just out of reach that
characterizes the secret societies and occult groups. Mystery should
always be a part of a game of Esoterica, and may form the backdrop
of any session.

◊ Bonds – Esoterica can be seen as a game of ‘us against them’. This

theme focuses on the Cabals of like-minded individuals who must
work together if they ever want to achieve their aim of escaping
this world, as only together can they combat the threats that they
face. A game featuring bonds might make heavy emphasis on the in-
teractions and support characters share, with this camaraderie being

q
a focal point to play.

26
 siht
Common Styles
A s with themes, the examples of styles of play below are merely
suggestions and the Players and Narrator are free to come up with
their own suggestions of what would make a good game that everyone
wants to partake in.

◊ Action/adventure – In this style of play, action and adventure dom-

inate the game. Similar to an action film, the characters are involved
heavily with combating threats such as other Cabals or government
agencies that seek to curtail them, and in combating Hungers and
other beings from beyond the Veil. Magic and mystical energies are
prominent, as are places where they might be used. Little emphasis
is placed on creating three-dimensional characters; instead it’s what
those characters actually do that’s important. Naturally it’s conflict

Game Creation
and confrontation that drives action games.

◊ Investigative/discovery – This style of play focuses on solving mys-

teries, be they as simple as who’s been seen spying on our Cabal or as
complex as the location of the Stone of Unwelcome, a Soul Jar lost
to antiquity. Here we are less concerned with conflict and confron-
tation and more with mystery and discovery, so aggressive action is
likely to be far less prominent.

◊ Survivalist – In this style of play, we focus on the survival of the

protagonists against everything that assails them as the main thrust poigam ,hturt terces eht si siht
of the game. Scavenging Soul Jars, building a base of operations
and defending it against attack become the main events of the game.
Here each Player character is likely to be an all-rounder, capable of
holding their own in many situations, but relying on the strength of
the group to make it through the big stuff.

W e’ve included only a few examples of theme and style here, so feel
free to expand on the list. Before play, the Players and the Narrator
should discuss their ideas and decide which themes and styles they would
like to have as the focus of their game. Review the options presented here
(as well as any others that come up) and order them in terms of their
importance in your game. It’s likely that all sorts of themes and styles of
play will come up in play, but usually one or the other will dominate. Doing
this helps the Narrator to create adventures that everyone will enjoy and
assure that Players are taking part in the kind of games they want to play.

27
this James, Tom and Nancy are going to play a game with Rich as their Nar-
rator. Before proceeding with character creation, they review the themes
and styles presented here. Looking at the list of themes Tom and Nancy
like the sound of a game that features bonds, suggesting that the game
focuses on their efforts to use their shared powers to oppose those that wish
to defeat them. James likes the idea of horror as a factor in the game,
pointing out that the Secret World is a scary, intimidating place, and
Rich agrees that a game with a focus on horror would be fun to Narrate.
Magic and mystery themes would be present, but as secondary, supporting
concepts. They therefore order the themes for their game as Bonds – horror
– Magic - mystery, with Bonds being the primary focus of play.

Looking at the play styles, they decide that the order survivalist – action –
investigation suits their game, as the idea of scavenging Soul Jars brings
home the shared experiences that they feel they all like. Rich now has an
idea of the kind of game they all want to play.
Game Creation
this is the secret truth, magiop

Creating Characters
N ow that everyone’s roles and the theme and style of your game
have been decided, the Players need to create their alter egos in
the game. Player characters (PCs, also just referred to as characters) are
the figures through which Players interact with the world of Esoterica.
The personalities of these characters are the roles Players adopt during
play, their focus within the game. It is the choices Players make for their
characters and how those characters interact that creates the story. Creating
characters can be a shared experience, and building from each other’s
ideas can help to create a more interesting group of people. Remember
30 to include the Narrator in the design process, as they have an important
part in creating the kind of game that everyone will enjoy being a part of.

siht
In this sense the Narrator is key to tying the Player’s concepts together,
weaving a coherent whole out of their individual concepts.

I n Esoterica characters are described by a series of words, phrases and

numbers that put into context what they can do and how they can
do it, all within the framework of the rules. Some of the terms used here
won’t be completely clear until you read the next section of this book that
describes game play, but you’ll find that most are fairly self-explanatory. It
is suggested that you read the whole book before you make up a character,
as some of the decisions you make here will strongly influence what your
character can do in the game.

T here is a character sheet at the end of this book. Take a look at it

now to see how a character is laid out in Esoterica. You don’t need
to use the character sheet if you don’t want to, just record the relevant

Game Creation
details on a piece of paper.

Adepts
A s previously discussed, all the characters portrayed by Players
are Adepts, the generic name given to anyone able to harness the
mystical or magical energies that leak through from the greater reality
hidden behind the Veil. These Adepts have access to special abilities that
are beyond the understanding of normal people and of science, and it is
poigam ,hturt terces eht si siht
these skills along with a recognition that the world as perceived by normal
people is nothing but a lie that sets Adepts apart.

I t’s important to remember that Adept Player characters are not great
heroes, just especially gifted individuals with incredible abilities
or Skills. Before they became Adepts they may have been computer
programmers, housewives, real estate agents or teachers. They might be
friendly, reserved, sporty or lazy. They are more or less normal people
thrust into the Secret World. Since the truth was revealed to them they
will have evolved significantly, but at their heart they are still just normal
people. Remember that when you are visualizing your character for the
first time. What were they, and what have they become?

T he rules here are for the creation of Adept characters. Creating

the other characters found in the game, the non-Player characters
(NPCs) controlled by the Narrator, follows pretty much the same steps, but
without much of the detail. 31
 Steps in Character
this

Creation
T here are a series of simple steps that should be followed when
generating a character for Esoterica. They are fairly straightforward,
and are outlined below.

I. Imagine your character – Picture them in your head. Who were they,
and where are they now? What are they like? Who were their par-
ents? Are they friendly or reserved, jovial or sober? This mental
image is your map to guide you in creating your alter ego.

II. Think of a name – Give someone a name and automatically the im-
Game Creation

age of them condenses into a person.

III. Define their past – Here we describe who the character was before
they discovered the truth reality and became an Adept. A short de-
scription will suffice, and we also create some relationships to the
past that may affect the Adept during play.

IV. Define their Attributes – Each character is defined by four Attrib-

utes, two of which are mental qualities and two are physical quali-
ties. These broadly describe the capabilities of the character, what
they can and cannot do. The four qualities are Might, Agility, Wit
this is the secret truth, magiop

and Charm. Each has a numerical value, but more on that later.

V. Define their Skills – An Adept’s Skills describe how their mundane

abilities work and how others perceive them, giving an angle on how
a character operates.

VI. Define the Static Defences - these are statistics that describe how
easily a character can avoid damage.

VII. Define their Perks and Complications – Perks describe little things
that help or hinder the Adept in certain situations, or just tell us a
little bit more about what they are like. A Complication is just that
– something that makes the character’s life just that bit more com-
plicated.

VIII. Define their Powers – Here we define the mystical abilities of the
32 Adept, what sets them apart from the rest of humanity. This is per-
haps the most important part of creating an Adept Player character,
this as here we truly describe what makes them special.

IX. Define what they own – Finally we describe only the most precious
of items that help to define a person, as well as a few mechanically
important devices they may own, such as tools that help them to use
their Skills.

A nd we’re done! It may seem a lot of work, but actually creating a

character is pretty simple. OK, now we’ve considered the overall
process, let’s look at the steps in detail.

Concept
F
Game Creation

irst we need to come up with a concept for our character. Picture

them in your mind. This is key to the process of character creation
so try to come up with a concept that interests you and represents the
type of person you would want to play. To help you along, here are some
examples of important questions to ask about your character.

◊ What do they look like?

◊ How old are they?

◊ What do they like?

this is the secret truth, magiop

◊ Where are they from?

◊ Why are they here?

◊ What were they?

◊ What have they become?

F rom questions like these you can draw up a mental image of your
character that can then act as a template for the rest of the character
creation process.

l
34 h
 Name and Past

siht
T he next thing to do is to give your character a name. This will help
to make your character more real – give something a name and it’s
automatically more solid. Any name that takes your fancy will do – a proper
name, a nickname, anything.

W hen thinking about the image of your character, give them a past.
Where did they come from? Describe in a few words what they
were before they became an Adept. Think of all the things that define us as
people: jobs, family, friends and roots. Think about your character and see
what fits your image. Next, give the character two relationships with their
past, things that the Narrator might introduce during play to bring the
character’s past to life. These could be people, organisations or family for
example. Jot these down as a few words or sentences. Finally, at the end of

Game Creation
the character creation process we’re going to think about how these Adepts
met each other and ended up working together, so have a think about that
now so you’re ready.

James is now making his first character for Esoterica. Thinking about
the setting, he thinks a young kid fresh out of university would be a fun
choice. So, picturing his character, he comes up with a geeky kid, tall and
slim with an stooped build, but with has cold, hard eyes. He is called John
Kane. Kane has family in the nearest big city, thinking about Kane’s rela-
tionships, James jots down ‘doting sister’ and ‘university fraternity’. Both
of these could be used during play by the Narrator to link to Kane’s past. poigam ,hturt terces eht si siht

Attributes
A character’s Attributes describe just what they are capable of doing.
There are four Attributes that describe four different areas of
expertise, each with an associated value. Attributes encompass the natural
physical ability of the Adept as well as giving a basis for any Skills or
knowledge they may have picked up throughout their life. Each is described
below, along with some examples of where it might be used. In every case,
the larger the value associated with Attributes, the more adept the Adept
is at doing things that involve that quality. There are two physical qualities
called Might and Agility, and two mental qualities called Wit and Charm.

35
this ◊
M ight – This Attribute describes the raw physical potential
of the character’s body. It is used in tasks that require pure
physicality for their success. High Might value – a sportsman, a
soldier or an endurance runner; low Might value – a weakling, a
disabled person or an elderly person.

Breaking down a door, lifting a heavy weight, punching someone, climb-

ing a wall, and running a long distance would use Might.

◊
A gility – This Attribute describes the Adept’s physical finesse,
including such concepts as balance, nimbleness, dexterity and
poise. It is used in tasks that require the careful and controlled
application of the physical form for their success. High Agility value
– a fencer, a gymnast or a musician; low Agility value – a clumsy oaf,
Game Creation

a thug or a small child.

Picking a lock, using a sword, balancing on a beam, tying an intricate

knot, playing most sports, and aiming a rifle are Agility actions.

◊
W it – The Wit Attribute describes the pure intellect and the
ability to think rationally and logically, and also gives an idea
of retained knowledge. It is used in tasks that require planning,
specialist knowledge, or just a lot of thinking. Remember that
this is the secret truth, magiop

sometimes the Narrator will rule that a character just won’t know
something if it’s really specialised, but Adepts are all natives of
the world and have some knowledge of their how the world works.
Bear in mind that a low Wit Attribute doesn’t mean that the Adept
is stupid; it’s just that they either aren’t very academic or perhaps
lack ‘common sense’. High Wit value – a professor, an accountant,
a military commander or a well-adapted and aware Adept; low Wit
value – an idiot, a school kid, an animal or a poorly adapted and
unaware Adept.

Arguing with someone, planning an engineering project, remembering

your route through the twisting sewer tunnels under the city, or fixing a
computer operating system would all rely on Wit.

38
 ◊
C harm – This Attribute is used in any task that involves influencing

siht
how another person or creature thinks feels or behaves. It is used
in tasks that rely on a Adept’s influence, leadership and standing.
High Charm value – your best friend, your mother, or a social worker;
low Charm value – a cold hearted person, a murderer, or your ex.

Persuading someone to help you, calming a restless animal, asserting your

leadership over a group, issuing orders, and acting all require Charm.

Choosing the Values of Attributes

W hen we create a Adept, we must assign values to each of the four

Game Creation
qualities, picking values that best suit our image of our character.
We do this by assigning dice (D) to each Attribute. Don’t worry exactly
what this means at the moment; suffice to say the higher the number of
dice assigned to an Attribute, the better the character is at tasks related to
that Attribute. The following table gives you an idea of what the values
mean for a human.

◊ 1D Below average Attribute

◊ 2D Human average for Attributes

poigam ,hturt terces eht si siht
◊ 3D Average impressive Attribute

◊ 4D Average exceptional Attribute

◊ 5D Highly trained Attribute, Olympic athlete

Y ou have 8D to split between each of the Attributes – spending on a

one to one basis – but an Attribute must always have at least 1D. It
is possible to split dice. Each dice is worth three ‘pips,’ a pip being a bonus
of +1, with the third pip moving the number of dice up to the next value.

Example progression is 1D, 1D+1, 1D+2, 2D, 2D+1, etc. An Attribute

may have dice only (no bonus pips), or +1 or +2 pips. Going to “+3”
advances the dice code to the next largest dice.

39
this
T he normal ‘human’ scale for Attributes is 1D to 4D. Higher values
than this represent exceptional ability and cannot be chosen without
the Narrator’s permission.

H eroic Adepts - the value of 8D to assign between Attributes leads to

the creation of Adepts similar to normal people. This might seem
counter-intuitive when Adepts are extraordinary people, but remember that
it is the mystical abilities of Adepts that mark them out. Also, it is possible
to up the number of Dice that can be assigned in character creation if you
want a more ‘heroic’ game, this is something to discuss with the Narrator.

Attribute Tags
T
Game Creation

ags are single words or short phrases that describe how an Attribute
value relates to a character. For example, if a character has a high
Might score, does that mean he’s big, strong but fat, or lean and muscular
like a high endurance athlete? Tags give us a way of picturing our character
and separating them from others with similar Attribute values, and they
are used in game play to help describe how a character achieves their goals.

F or each Attribute, look at the value associated with it and consider

the mental image you have of your character. For each Attribute we
assign a single tag apart from the highest Attribute, where we assign two
tags (if you have two equally high Attributes, pick one of them). Tags can
be: Descriptive, negative, related to the character’s past or job, or related
this is the secret truth, magiop

to hobbies or sports. For the tag, write down a few words or a short phrase
that describes how that Attribute value relates to your character, i.e. how
they display that Attribute. The only rule is one of the tags assigned to the
character must be negative. Let’s look at the different kinds of tag in more
detail.

Descriptive Tags
S o, your character has a high Might Attribute. Is that because they
are big, obese, extremely muscular, or whippet-thin with a toned
runner’s physique? This kind of tag can include negative tags (see below)
if appropriate.

A character with a high Might Attribute might be tall, stocky, and mus-
40 cular or toned.
 siht
Negative Tags
A negative tag doesn’t mean a useless tag; it just means something that
most people would say was a negative point. For example, a negative
Wit tag might be ‘ignorant’, meaning a bigoted, stuck-in-your-ways kind
of attitude. Although negative tags might not seem that useful, they are –
Players can use negative tags when another character tries to influence or
affect them in some way. Also, they are useful for the Narrator when they
are describing how and why a character failed to do something.

E very character must have a negative for one of their Attributes,

typically the lowest (if two are equally low, pick one of them).

For Greg’s character Alex, he has the negative Charm trait ‘bigoted’ list-

Game Creation
ed. This certainly isn’t going to help him appreciate other world views, but
if the leader of a rival group of Adepts was trying to persuade him to
join them and Alex doesn’t want to do this, Greg can point out that Alex
is bigoted and hates strangers as he considers them untrustworthy. The
Narrator would then allow Greg to use Alex’s bigoted tag in the conflict.

Greg now wants Alex to befriend a police officer who wants to search the
Cabal’s temple, but he failed the roll to persuade the stranger. Looking
over his tags, the Narrator states that the conflict failed because the police
officer is Asian and Alex couldn’t hide his bigoted nature.
poigam ,hturt terces eht si siht

Life and Job Based Tags

I f your character was trained to do a certain specialist profession, you
can tag it. Think about the job they had before they became a serious
occultist. What did they do for a living? Did that give them some useful,
positive abilities that they might be able to utilize later on? Use that as a tag
next to the most appropriate Attribute so you can bring it out in play. Past
and job-based tags should be fairly broad in their application.

A one-time doctor could have a ‘calm demeanour’ tag next to the Charm
Attribute, an old soldier could have an ‘tough’ tag next to the Might At-
tribute, and a social worker might have the ‘talk down’ tag next to their
Charm Attribute. 41
this
Hobby or Sports Tags
G ive your character a tag that tells us something about what they do
or did in their spare time. This might come in useful, and also serves
to flesh out the character and give them a little depth.

A character might have ‘endurance runner’ next to the Agility Attribute,

‘guitarist’ next to the Agility Attribute, or ‘philosopher’ next to the Wit
Attribute.

What do Tags do?

Game Creation

T ags help characters to achieve their goals by describing the

knowledge and store of experience that they have at their disposal.
Characters attempting actions for which they can involve an appropriate
tag gain a re-roll on one of the dice they roll for an action, including
negative tags. More on this later, but note you can’t re-roll any dice that
gave a result of 6 or 1 with Tags.

So James is creating Kane, a geeky university type. James assigns his 8D

worth of Attributes.
this is the secret truth, magiop

Might 1D+2 – Kane wasn’t in good shape after leaving university, he’s
pretty puny. Might tag (negative) - weakling

Agility 2D – however Kane was pretty quick and agile, with quick fin-
gers. Agility tag – dexterous.

Wit 2D+1 – Kane was always good at school, and stuck to his studies.
Wit tag – clinical and precise mind-set.

Charm 2D – most people find Kane pretty easy going, if rather forgetful.
Charm tag – chatty.

This adds up the 8D - 7D assign and an extra D in the +1 and +2 pips.

Already we have a good image of Kane in our mind.

42
 Skills
this

T he next step in Adept creation is to assign Skills to a character.

Skills are physical and mental abilities that describe a character’s
competence, and they may represent physical or mental proficiencies. Skills
are associated with an Attribute that acts as the Skills base or root, and each
Skill defaults to the level of the related Attribute. For example, a character
with a Might of 3D has 3D in all Skills under Might before allocating any
dice. If two Skill dice are added to Brawling it is recorded as 5D.

D uring Adept creation Players may allocate up to 7D extra on

Skills (also known as 7 ‘Skill points’ in character creation) to best
represent the unique talents of their character. When putting dice into
each Skill you can put whole dice in each, or use a mixture of whole dice
and pips (i.e. 1D can be split into three separate ‘+1’ pips or a ‘+1’ and
Game Creation

a ‘+2’ pip). No more than 2D may be spent on each individual Skill or

Specialisation (see below) during Adept creation. Unspent Skill dice can be
used to purchase Perks (see later). Overleaf gives a sense of the meaning
of Skill values for humans.

◊ 1D Below average Attribute

◊ 2D Human average for Attributes or untrained Skills

◊ 3D Average trained Skill

this is the secret truth, magiop

◊ 4D Average professional level of Skill training

◊ 5D Expert Skill training

◊ 6D About the best in a city or region, 1 in 100,000

◊ 7D Among the best on a continent, 1 in 10,000,000

◊ 8D Among the best trained on a planet, 1 in 100,000,000

◊ 9D+ Incredible level of expertise

44
w .
 siht
Skill Specialisations
S pecialisations represent just that – an area of specialisation within
the general area of a Skill. For example, Pilot specializations might
include aircraft and hover craft. They are narrower areas of expertise.

I n character creation one Skill dice can be spent to gain three specialty
dice for any Skill the Adept has, except combat Skills such as
brawling, melee, pistol and rifle, which don’t have specialisations. For ease,
Specialisations are listed as separate Skills from the root Skill but are of
course related, so a character is still limited to the 2D maximum spend on
to each Skill, i.e. you can allocate an 1D to Specialisations and 1D to the
base Skill.

Game Creation
A character with an Agility of 3D focuses on the Running Speciality of
Athletics.

He spends one Skill dice on it, but records it as Running 6D on his Adept
sheet. He still has an Athletics of only 3D and that is what he rolls for
any tasks that don’t involve running.

T he Skill list for Esoterica is shown below:

Might Skills: brawling, lift, intimidate, stamina, swimming

poigam ,hturt terces eht si siht

Agility Skills: athletics, dodge, drive, melee, pickpockets, pilot,

pistol, rifle, stealth

Wit Skills: bureaucracy, decipher, history, hunt, language, medicine,

repair, search, security, survival, technical

Charm Skills: bargain, command, diplomacy, persuasion, seduce,

streetwise

T he descriptions of the individual Skills are shown below. These

aren’t rigid in the definition, and should be used as a guideline to
what a Skill can be used for. As always let common sense prevail and the
Narrator have the final say in what is an appropriate use of a Skill.

45
this
Might Skills
◊ Brawling – the Adept’s ability to throw a punch or to kick in an
unarmed fight.

◊ Lift – the ability to lift heavy objects and weights and to successfully
manipulate them.

◊ Intimidate - the ability to force others to do your bidding by scaring

them into submission

◊ Stamina – the Adept’s ability to use the reserves of stamina to resist

fatigue and tiring situations.

◊ Swimming – everyone can swim these days, this is the ability of an

Game Creation

Adept to manoeuvre and avoid drowning in rough, dangerous water.

Agility Skills
◊ Athletics – the Adept’s Skill in performing adroit physical manoeu-
vres such as gymnastics.

◊ Dodge – the Adept’s Skill in avoiding damage by throwing himself

out of the way of attacks.
this is the secret truth, magiop

◊
◊ Drive – the physical Skill of the host in operating ground vehicles
such as cars and trucks.

◊ Melee – training of the Adept in the use of melee weapons such as

clubs, blades, machetes and the like.

◊ Pickpockets – the Adept’s ability in using sleight of hand to remove

small items from a target unnoticed.

◊ Pilot – the Adept’s Skill in piloting flying and water-borne craft

such as planes and boats.

◊ Pistol – the Skill of the Adept in hitting targets with small hand-
held pistols.

46 ◊ Rifle – the Adept ingrained ability to operate long-arm weaponry

such as conventional rifled guns and automatic weapons.
◊ Stealth – the Adept Skill in manoeuvring unobtrusively while mak-

siht
ing use of cover to remain unseen.

Wit Skills
◊ Bureaucracy – the Adept has developed an understanding of the
sometimes complex and Byzantine workings of human bureaucra-
cies, such as those of the government or police forces.

◊ Decipher – the Adept has some knowledge of deciphering codes and

texts, and of finding facts in large amounts of information (such as
skimming through a book for a fact).

◊ History – the Adept has knowledge of the history of the world, and

Game Creation
more typically of the place where they live.

◊ Language – the Adept has knowledge of, and ability to read, write
and speak fluently the various languages of the world. For every D
assigned to this Skill the Adept may gain a rudimentary understand-
ing of another language aside from their native language. 2D repre-
sents a higher level of competency, 3D represents fluency. Characters
may split their dice as they like, for example 3D could be assigned as
fluency in one language or rudimentary knowledge of three.

◊ Medicine – the Adept understands how to apply whatever is at hand

poigam ,hturt terces eht si siht
to heal wounds and repair physical damage.

◊ Repair – the Adept has some understanding of the workings of me-

chanical and electrical components that is required to repair damage
to such devices.

◊ Search - the Adept is accomplished at finding things that have been

physically hidden in any location.

◊ Security – the Adept is knowledgeable of the workings of security

systems required to break into or otherwise subvert secure areas,
including physical barriers.

◊ Survival – the Adept understands how to make the best use of avail-
able equipment to survive in hostile environments.

◊ Technical – the Adept has a general knowledge of technology, such

as computers.
47
this
Charm Skills
◊ Bargain – the Adept understands the worth of items and knowl-
edge, and can use that to bargain with others.

◊ Command – the Adept’s natural superiority allows them to issue

orders which few would refuse.

◊ Diplomacy – the Adept’s experiences have led them to successfully

navigate the social strata of society.

◊ Persuasion – the Adept can choose to be sympathetic with others,

and so manipulate them to its way of thinking.

◊ Seduce – the Adept is used to utilising sexual charms without re-

Game Creation

straint.

◊ Streetwise – the Adept has experienced enough of the seedier side

of life to know how to act in rougher areas, how to judge people and
how to find them.

Creating Specialisations and Skills

S pecialisations can be used to ‘create’ Skills which you might think
this is the secret truth, magiop

aren’t adequately represented in the Skill list. For example, if you

want your Adept to be really good at ‘writing prose’ you can add that as
a Specialisation under the most appropriate Skill, most likely Language.
Finally, you can of course create any additional Skills you want with the
agreement of the Narrator, but it’s advisable not to let the Skill list get
too long and unwieldy – Esoterica is meant to be a fairly rules light game
after all.

James needs to select Skills for Kane, a geeky university type straight
from school. He has 7D to split between his Skills, and comes up with
the following:

Might 1D+2 – brawling, lift, Intimidate, stamina, swimming 2D+1 –

total cost +2
48
 siht
Agility 2D – athletics, dodge, drive 3D, melee, pickpockets 2D+2, pilot,
pistol, rifle, stealth 2D+1 – total cost 2D

Wit 2D+1 – bureaucracy, history, language, medicine 3D, navigation,

repair, search 3D, security, tech, survival – total cost 1D+1

Charm 2D – bargain, command, diplomacy, persuasion 3D, seduce,

streetwise – total cost 1D.

Total spent on Skills – (+2) + 2D + (1D+1) + 1D = 5D (remembering

that +3 in pips equals 1D).

Static Defences

Game Creation
I n the combat system Adepts calculate their static defences of dodge,
block, and parry prior to the game. To calculate each, simply multiply
the number of dice a Adept has in the relevant Skill by 3 and add any pips
to the total. Use the associated Attribute if the character does not have
the Skill.

◊ Block = (Brawling Skill dice x 3) + pips.

◊ Dodge = (Dodge Skill dice x 3) + pips.

poigam ,hturt terces eht si siht
◊ Parry = (Relevant weapon Skill dice x 3) + pips.

◊ Soak = (Might Attribute dice x 3) + pips + armour value

z x
49
this
Perks and Complications
P erks and Complications are facets of the Adept that will either help
or hinder them as they interact with the Secret World. Unspent
Skill points can be used to purchase Perks, with the cost of each Perk in
Skill points being listed after its name. Up to two Complications can be
bought during Adept creation; these don’t cost or award Skill points but
instead award something called character points (CPs) when they come
into play – we’ll discuss what CPs are later.

I nteresting Perks and Complications can be created using any

relationships already created for the character in the earlier stages
of character creation. In some ways Perks, Complications and tags cross-
over somewhat – this is intentional, these are all tools to allow Players to
Game Creation

represent the Adept characters they want to play in the best way possible.
Generally, tags offer a way of affecting die rolls, whereas Perks and
Complications grant specialist abilities.

Example Perks and

Complications
T he following examples of Perks and Complications do not form an
this is the secret truth, magiop

exhaustive list, but are merely a springboard for discussion between

the Players and the Narrator for personalised versions. Players should be
encouraged to create their own Perks and Complications that define the
Adepts they wish to play. Complications earn Adepts character points
when they affect their lives, which can be used to improve Attributes and
Skills.

Perks
◊ Good looking (1): The Adept is exceptionally good looking. During
every gaming session, they can double the number of dice rolled for
any task that might involve appearance as a key component at the
Narrator’s discretion. Examples include persuasion and seduction.

◊ Uncaring (2): The Adept cannot grasp the concept of their mor-
52 tality, and sometimes they enter situations that more considerate
 individuals would avoid. Once per round of combat per session, the

siht
Adept may double the number of Might dice rolled in a physical
attack, but their reckless nature means that when they do, their
dodge, block, and parry static resistances are all reduced by half for
the rest of the round.

◊ Destiny (2): Adepts with destiny acutely feel more than most that
they transcend the physical world and are destined for something
greater. Once per game session, the Adept may declare a task they
attempted but failed as being directly related to their destiny and
can immediately attempt the task a second time. These results are
final.

◊ Lucky (2): The Adept considers they are lucky. Once per session,
the Adept can state that they feel lucky and then double the result
of their next roll.

Game Creation
◊ Observant (2): The Adept is very aware of their surroundings.
Once per session, their Player may announce that they are giving an
object or person very close scrutiny. The Narrator may then reveal
something secret or hidden from the rest of the Adepts. If nothing
is revealed, this Perk may be reused.

◊ Memory (1): The Adept recalls things of the real world with crys-
tal clarity. Once per session, the Player may ask the Narrator to
recall a scene or event that the Adept has witnessed. The Narrator
then describes the details of the scene as closely as possible.
poigam ,hturt terces eht si siht
◊ High class (1): The Adept obviously comes from a high class back-
ground, mixes well with those of a similar social class, and either
impresses or annoys those from a more moderate background.

◊ Rich (1): The Adept comes from a particularly rich background –

before the tearing of the Veil, they held a position that generated
wealth, or perhaps they inherited it. They Exile has money to spare
and can generally purchase what they want, even for other Cabal
members.

Complications
◊ Age: The Adept is either really old or really young. In addition to
all the issues that may be caused by age, the Narrator might choose
to impose a penalty to an action. Whenever your age causes you
53
 great difficulty, you receive one character point which may be spent

siht
as described later.

◊ Crazy: The Adept has trouble associating with the world since the
Event; it could be that they are really paranoid, or maybe just a
touch psychopathic. A fear of almost everything could also be a
problem. The Adept earns one character point any time their psy-
chosis really gets in the way.

◊ Enemies: Someone doesn’t like the Adept at all. And they are a cred-
ible threat. Maybe they have more friends than you. Maybe they’re
just bigger and meaner. Either way, you have your own personal
bully. The Adept earns a bonus character point every time the ene-
my complicates things.

◊ Gremlins: The Adept has a gift – specifically the kind that breaks

Game Creation
machines. They are no good with engines, electronics, or machines.
The Adept earns one character point whenever this Complication
makes life difficult.

◊ Personal Code: The Adept lives by a creed and they will not cross
that line. Maybe they won’t fight an unarmed opponent or maybe
they will never tell a lie. No matter how it is defined; the code has
to mean something. The Adept earns one character point whenever
the code complicates their success.

◊ Low social class: The Adept comes from a low social class and it
shows. Any time the Adept’s background inhibits their interactions poigam ,hturt terces eht si siht
with middle or higher class characters, they earn a character point.

◊ Poor: The Adept comes from a poor background. They get by, but
still obviously have little that they can call their own. Any time an
Adept’s obvious poverty makes like difficult for them, they earn a
character point.

Next, James picks some Perks for his character Kane. He decides that as
Kane is rather reckless, so daredevil is a good Perk at a cost of 2 Skill
points (i.e. 2D of Skills). He has enough Skill points left over to pay for
this.

Looking at the list of Complications, James chooses Enemies as a fun

Complication and, looking at what he decided for Kane’s past, notes
down ‘fraternity’. It seems that Kane left the college with some enemies.
55
 Powers
this

B efore the secrets of the Veil were revealed to Adepts, they were just
ordinary people going about a normal life. Here we’ll look at how
knowledge of the Secret World has given Adepts access to powers and
abilities beyond normal humanity.

Adepts and the Arts

A depts are not normal people – they have been exposed to the greater
truth and stark reality of the cosmos and have learnt to draw
power through the Veil into the reality that normal people exist within.
Game Creation

This ability is expressed as the Arts, three abilities that Adepts have that
allow them to influence the mundane world. The Arts are Domination,

o
Mastery and Insight.

Domination
D omination is the ability to impose your influence on others,
dominate minds and bend weaker personalities to your will.
Amongst Adepts Dominate is the principle Art of Magicians, who seek to
force their personalities onto brittle minds.
this is the secret truth, magiop

Mastery
M astery is the ability to master and control one’s own body and
mind, to push yourself beyond the norm for humans and become
something greater. Mastery is the principle Art of the Ascetic, whose
knowledge of themselves helps them to influence the world around them.

Insight
56 I nsight is the ability to gain knowledge of something beyond one’s
experience or understanding. The Veil that shrouds the greater reality
can be pierced and shifted, and some understanding that escapes ordinary
man can be gained by those who know the Art of Insight.

siht
E ach Adept has some ability in the three Arts. At character creation,
1D, 2D and 3D are assigned to the three Arts respectively. Players
are free to assign the values any way they like, however below are listed
some examples of different types of Adept archetypes that Players may
choose for their characters as a guide.

Adept Archetypes
A n Adept archetype gives an indication of how the occult abilities of
the Adept manifest. Each gives a suggestion of how dice should be
assigned to the three Arts at character creation. The following examples

Game Creation
of Adept Archetypes are only suggestions however, Players can also create
their own Archetypes and assign dice as they desire. Each Archetype also
has a refresh listed - this is what’s needed to refresh the Arts for reuse,
more on this later.

Magician
◊ Domination 3D, Mastery 2D, Insight 1D

◊ Refresh: study a tome of magic uninterrupted for at least two hours. poigam ,hturt terces eht si siht

M asters of domination, Magicians work their wills on weaker

minds, forcing and coercing others to do their bidding. They may
call this Magic, presence or a mind force, but whatever the source the
result is the same. Magicians all share a strong personality and a natural
presence which is hard to ignore.

Ascetic
◊ Domination 1D, Mastery 3D, Insight 2D

◊ Refresh: Spend at least two hours in peaceful, uninterrupted medi-

tation.
57
this
T he Ascetic is master of their body, able to step beyond the confines
of the mortal shell and perform the incredible. A ‘holy man’, a
tortured artist or a poet, the Ascetic is in perfect control of themselves
and able to bend the reality of their bodies.

Psychic
◊ Domination 2D, Mastery 1D, Insight 3D

◊ Refresh: Spend two hours training your mind with a crystal ball or
similar device

T he Psychic understands how to harness the world beyond the Veil.

Their ability to draw knowledge to dumbfound normal people
Game Creation

marks them out as extraordinary. Whether a medium, a mesmerist or a

fortune teller, the Psychic is in control of mystical knowledge.

Conduit
◊ Domination 1D, Mastery 2D, Insight 3D

◊ Refresh: Spend at least two hours in uninterrupted prayer in a holy

place.
this is the secret truth, magiop

T he Conduit opens their body to the energies beyond the Veil, and
acts as a conduit to otherworldly powers. The Conduit might be
a priest, a seer or a mystic, but their connection to the other remains the
same.

Sorcerer
◊ Domination 3D, Mastery 1D, Insight 2D

◊ Refresh: Spend two hours honing your will in the darkness of a

sealed room.

58 T he Sorcerer uses a mixture of coercion and knowledge to achieve

their ends, forcing those they dominate to accept a new view of
the world. Through coercion, potions and craft they create the reality they

siht
want within weaker minds.

James decides that Kane is a Conduit to otherworldly forces, and jots

down the Arts of Domination 1D, Mastery 2D, Insight 3D on his char-
acter sheet.

Reveals
O nce values have been assigned to the Arts, a Reveal must be chosen.
Reveals are subtle manifestations of the use of power. They are
never visible to the target of an action or conflict, but they are visible to

Game Creation
everyone else who is close enough to see or hear. Reveals are uncanny and
otherworldly and anyone who witnesses them knows that they have seen
something they cannot easily explain.

A flash of light, a sour smell, a drop of blood, momentary deafness, a

flash of monochromatic vision, a metallic taste, the sound of wings, a
thumping heart…

E ach Adept has a single Reveal which occurs when they use Arts –
Players should think up something suitable with the help of the
Narrator to fit their vision of their adept.
poigam ,hturt terces eht si siht

For Kane, James decides that his Reveal is a soft glow or radiance that
seems to come from around his hands.

The Tearing of the Veil

O ne final question to consider when considering an Adept’s mystical
abilities is the tearing of the Veil – when and how was the truth the
greater reality revealed to the characters? Was it a spiritual enlightenment
alone in the forest, or a near-religious experience of transcendence? Were
they introduced to the truth by another person? 59
this
T ake a moment to jot this down – it gives us an insight into where
the character comes from, and therefore what their drives might be
throughout the game.

Kane was initiated into the Circle of the Sun by a work acquaintance who
recognised his potential. During the initiation, the Veil was revealed by the
master of the Circle.

Societies and Cabals

A depts do not act alone. They form temples, covens and all manner of
gatherings, and the Adepts are the inner circle of that organisation.
Game Creation

In Esoterica we call these inner groups of Adepts Cabals. Once Adepts have
been created, it is time to create the organisation that the group belongs
to – typically a larger, generally secret, society.

T he Players and Narrator should discuss together the type of

organisation that the group belongs to, and come up with a
picture of them in their minds. The following details help to cement the
organisation for play. In Esoterica, these societies are small, often no more
than the Cabal, and typically have only one meeting place. Here we’ll also
define what the Adepts believe lies beyond, i.e. where they think they will
go after they Ascend.
this is the secret truth, magiop

Real Secret Societies

S ecret societies of a mystical, fraternal or political nature have been
recognised as a real part of our world. How much influence groups
of this kind have had on the course of history is open to debate, but their
existence is well known. Esoterica is a game, not a history lesson, and so
it is suggested that Narrators and Players steer clear of the politics and
religion that have always been a part of real secret societies. Make sure
you’re all comfortable with the Cabals and societies you create – you’re here
to have fun after all!

i
62
 Name

siht
W hat is the group called? Secret mystical societies might be Orders,
Temples or Fraternities. Try and think up a name which suits the
organisation to which your Cabal belongs.

…Order of Black Light, the Path of the Sublime, St. Thomas and Mi-
rabas, The Gold and Bronze, the Order of Subtle truth, the Metaphysi-
cal Society, Magicas, Asentis Aurum…

Members

Game Creation
A re there any members outside of the Cabal? Perhaps some lay
members or servants? Or is (as is most likely) the Cabal the sole
representation of the society?

Sign or Sigil
T he society usually has a sign or image to which it is associated.
Think up your sign and draw it! You might get inspiration for the
various mystical signs that are placed throughout this book... poigam ,hturt terces eht si siht

Temple
E ach organisation has a meeting place which might be called a
Temple, Lodge or something else entirely. Where is it and how is
it kept hidden? Is it disguised as something else, hidden from view, or
part of something greater like the cellars of a private mansion? How is it
defended?

Public front and Goals

D oes the society have a public front? Does the public face of the
society have goals such as charity work or spreading a message? 63
this Many secret societies are known by name, and spread disinformation to
hide their true purpose. Is this true of your society, or is it truly hidden
and secret?

Belief
F inally, Cabals all have some kind of belief or what lies beyond the
Veil, where they will go when they Ascend. This could be a view
or paradise, belief that aliens will pick them up, that they will return to
another dimension, anything. Talk with the other Players to come up with
a belief that you can all work with for your Adepts.

T he secret society your Adepts belong to give them a sense of

identity beyond each individual Adept, and can act as an anchor to a
Game Creation

campaign, allowing new Adepts to join or move on as the game progresses.

James decides (along with the other Players) that Kane and the other
Adepts are part of the Order of the Sun, a secret society with around
ten members besides the Cabal. Their sign is an open eye placed within a
burning sun. They meet in an abandoned church on the outskirts of town,
and have no public front to speak of. The belief is that when they Ascend
they will pass through the heart of the sun to a paradise.
this is the secret truth, magiop

Equipment
E soterica isn’t the sort of game where we rigidly define what Adepts
own, how much they can carry, and the like. After all, they are not
really concerned with the mundane articles of this world. All Adepts start
with a selection of suitable clothes and equipment. In Esoterica, we define
special items that characters own as either Possessions or Gear. Think
about how your Adept is going to be presented to the world. Is there
something that helps to define them?

P ossessions are defined as personal items that have no in-game

effects but are meaningful to the Adept. At character creation, each
character should have at least a couple of items that do nothing more than
define them as people.
64
 siht
A photograph of family, a handwritten letter from a mentor, a child’s
toy… or anything else that helps you picture what the character was like
prior becoming an Adept.

Gear
G ear is the name given to equipment that has a physical effect in
the game. Typically we define gear as small bits of equipment that
the Adept often has to hand - after all these are people existing in the
real world, with access to all the possessions that mark our society. As
described later in the rules, such items reduce the difficulty of tests or even
negate the need for a test completely. In character creation, each character

Game Creation
gets three points to spend on Gear. The cost of Gear is defined below.

◊ One point – a melee weapon, a ranged weapon with a single ‘clip’ of

ammunition, a tool that negates the need for a narrow type of Skill
test, or a tool that reduces the difficulty of a wide range of Skill
tests, an extra clip of ammunition.

An encyclopedia that reduces the difficulty levels of Wit-based attempts

to recall information would be a one point item. A lock pick that disables
the majority of locks would also be a one point item.
poigam ,hturt terces eht si siht

◊ Two points – a rare or specialist item of particular interest or value

that may be used in a wide variety of ways.

A police ID would be a two-point item, as it could be used in a variety

of situations to avoid making Skill tests (for example gaining access to
a building).

◊ Three points – any special item that isn’t covered by one or two point
Gear would be a three point item, as agreed with the Narrator.

h 65
this
Signature Gear
T he Adept’s Gear from character creation can be considered
‘signature Gear’ – it’s what makes the character what they are. The
Gear should also be personalised in some way to make it more interesting
and to allow it to fit into the Adept’s back story. For this reason, their own
signature Gear should stay with them, and if it’s lost it should be replaced
with something similar in the unfolding story of their adventures.

Creating Signature Gear

T he actual nature of the Gear Adepts have is up for the Player and
Narrator to decide. Given the huge array of equipment in the
Game Creation

world, and the variety of cultures, most Gear could take pretty much any
form. The Player and Narrator should work together to come up with a
description of the item, and what makes it special or unique such that it
becomes part of the Adept’s story.

Sarah has a rifle that she got from her father, with a carved stock. She
loses this when she’s arrested (don’t ask). The Narrator agrees that in
next session Sarah turns up with a new rifle, this one an antique stolen
from another Adept.
this is the secret truth, magiop

We’re Done!
O nce we’ve gone through these steps, our Adept is complete and
ready for adventure in the Secret World. Before we look at how to
actually play the game, let’s consider some points to bear in mind when
creating Adepts.

Narrator Involvement in Character Creation

66 O ne of the most exciting parts of any role-playing game for Players
is creating Adepts. These are the focal point of their experiences
of the game, and it is through them that Players get to act out their
part in the shared story they and the Narrator create. The Narrator isn’t

siht
responsible for creating Adepts, but they do have an important part to play
in the process; the Players turn to the Narrator for advice and adjudications
when creating their Adept. Here is some advice for the Narrator in helping
Players create Adepts that shine in the setting.

Creating a Picture
T he Narrator should try their best to make sure the Players really
focus on their Adept first and foremost. Picturing them in the mind
makes all the other choices easy, giving a smooth, hassle-free creation
process. Some Players will be better at this than others, so the Narrator is
encouraged to put a little work in here where needed, offering suggestions
and options to reticent Players.

Game Creation
Choosing Appropriate Values
A ssigning Attributes, Skills and mystical abilities can be a little tricky
if you don’t have an image of your character in your mind. The
Narrator needs to remind Players of the image they came up with at the
start of the process so that interesting and enjoyable Adepts can be created
ready for play.
poigam ,hturt terces eht si siht

Don’t get Tied up Assigning Gear

T he Narrator shouldn’t place too much emphasis on equipment.
Esoterica isn’t the sort of game where keeping track of what the
Adepts own should be of any real importance, except for a few key things.
Very personal items, weapons and ammunition are all worth noting down,
but most other possessions can be kept track of in a very general way as
a piece of narrative. Don’t get drawn into the details. If the items you’re
describing aren’t going to add to the drama of play, forget them.

67
this
The Cabal
U nless you have a single Player joining the Narrator for a game of
Esoterica, you’ll have a party of Adepts known as a Cabal. Initiating
the dynamic for the group is an integral part of the Narrator’s job in
character creation, and is vital to a fun and fulfilling game. Try to make
sure that the relationship between the Adepts is established, and if possible
work it into the back story of the characters. It will be more fun that way.

Creating Adepts is Fun!

M ake sure that, for everyone involved, the process of creating Adepts
is interesting and fun. If people aren’t enjoying the process, it’s
Game Creation

probably because they don’t understand exactly what they have to do. It’s
the Narrator’s job to make sure this doesn’t happen.
this is the secret truth, magiop

k
68
Core Rules
 Core Rules of
this is th

Esoterica
I n common with most role-playing games, Esoterica uses dice to
resolve situations during play. This introduces a level of uncertainty
to the game. Essentially, dice are rolled when Adepts attempt to impose
themselves on the environment or on other characters. From uncertainty
comes tension, and from tension comes drama – a requirement of any story.
In this chapter we’ll look at how to use dice to resolve actions and conflicts,
and how the numbers listed on the character sheet are used in play.
Core Rules

When do we Roll Dice?

D ice are used when Adepts attempt to shape the environment or
interfere with the actions of other characters. For example, a Adept
piloting a water craft might require a dice roll, or a Adept’s attempt to
persuade a stranger to give them information on a local fraternity might
also mean a dice roll.

W
this is the secret trutagitrep

hen dice are rolled it represents a split in the direction of the

story. One of those paths is that of success – what happens if
the character gets things their way. The other path is that of failure –
what happens if the character gets it wrong. If the paths resulting from
success and failure are the same, don’t roll the dice. This may seem a little
counter-intuitive, but think of it this way. If a mechanic is attempting to
fix a damaged car and has all the time in the world to do it, then – unless
there are mitigating circumstances – they are going to get the job done. We
could break the repair down into lots of separate dice rolls to see if they
successfully repair all the individual components, but there is little point.
If the mechanic fails to repair something the first time round, they can just
repeat the process. Eventually, they’ll successfully repair the car. In this
kind of situation the success and failure of all those rolls would lead to
the same overall result, so there is little point in rolling dice. Let common
sense prevail here. We want dramatic tension in the game, not just endless,
meaningless dice rolling. However, if the result of a character’s action
70 affects the direction of the story, then we want to roll the dice.
 ht si siht
A Player controlling a Adept that is attempting to discredit a rival in a
town meeting might describe how he uses rhetoric to make his opponent
look foolish. If he succeeds, his opponent backs down. If the Adept fails,
the Narrator describes how the rival ends up mocking the Adept and be-
littling him. With success or failure, the direction the story is taking will
change.

Scenes
P lay is divided into scenes, just like in a novel or film. Each scene
describes a different circumstance in which the Adepts find themselves.
Scenes can be further divided into action scenes and linking scenes. Any
scene that involves rolling dice to resolve actions and conflicts is called an
action scene. A linking scene provides colour, no dice are rolled, and the
scene is used simply to connect action scenes together. Action scenes are

Core Rules
the heart of the game.

Standard Tasks and Resisted Tasks

I n action scenes, a character is either attempting to shape their
environment or is interfering with the behaviour of another character.
These activities are called either standard tasks or resisted tasks respectively, pertigaturt terces eht si siht
and are generally described in the same way. The person controlling the
character describes their intent, i.e. what they want their character to
do. The Narrator then describes the consequence – what happens if the
character fails to do what they want? These are the paths of success and
failure as described earlier.

Timing
A s we have said, play takes place in scenes, and each scene describes
a different circumstance in which the Adepts find themselves. How
much fictional time passes in a scene depends greatly on the nature of
those circumstances. A fight may be over in a matter of minutes. A scene
where a party is foraging for supplies in a warehouse might represent
several hours (for example, trying to find a particular item). A journey to
another country might take days or weeks. The Narrator will determine
71
how much passage of time is appropriate for any given scene, although the

ht si siht
Players should feel free to suggest that time slows down for parts they’re
particularly interested in, or speeds up for parts they’d rather skip through
quickly.

Intent
T he first step in resolving an action or conflict is for a Player to state
what they are trying to get their Adept to do. What is the path of
success? This is called the intent, or in other words what the character
intends to happen if they succeed.

G enerally, the intent of a standard or resisted task should be

immediately obvious in the context of the scene. What is the
character trying to achieve in the scene? The intent should reflect the very
nature of the task or conflict taking place in the scene – it’s not appropriate

Core Rules
to give an intent that doesn’t bear any resemblance to what’s going on. The
intent must also be a single goal and shouldn’t include multiple objectives.
At its most basic, the intent of an action should make sense in the context
of the story being created.

H ow much a Adept can accomplish with a single roll and single

statement of intent can be highly variable. It depends on how much
an average person would be able to accomplish in the amount of time
available in a scene. The Narrator is always the final judge on how much
can be accomplished and how long it will take to accomplish it. If he feels
pertigaturt terces eht si siht
that the scale of a Player’s intent is too long, or that the scope seeks to
accomplish too much, the task can always be broken down into smaller
pieces.

A n effective technique is to ask the Player, “How are you doing that?”
as many times as necessary. This will help to break a large or long
project into several steps (or sub-steps) each of which can be a scene, task
and roll by themselves. For example, an intent to “infiltrate the settlement”
might be broken down into separate scenes and rolls for “finding a contact”,
“gaining their confidence”, “meeting the headman”, or possibly even an
entire adventure trying to make it work. Or, if that part of the story is
fast-forwarding through several months of time with a single scene, the
Narrator can also decide that “infiltrating the settlement” is a perfectly
reasonable intent on that scale. The most important standards are: what
makes sense within the fiction, and keeping all of the characters (those
controlled by the Narrator and Players alike) operating on about the same
scale within each scene.
73
this is th
T he Narrator has the final judgement on what is or is not acceptable
as a valid intent.

S ometimes, especially when multiple parties are acting at the same

time, it’s important to know how long tasks can take. The Narrator
always adjudicates this, and common sense should prevail.

I n the case of conflicts between characters, intents for both participants

can be very similar. In conflicts, consequences are also a little different,
but more on this later.

In a debate between Jason’s Adept and the leader of a rival Cabal, a poor
choice of intent would be persuading the woman to allow him into the
Temple, show him to the store and leave him to there for fifteen minutes. It
has too many objectives for a single conflict.

In an argument over the leadership of a Cabal between two Adepts, a

poor choice of intent would be stealing the opponent’s vehicle, as it’s not
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really related to what’s happening in the scene.

In a debate between Jason’s Adept and the leader of a Cabal, a good choice
of intent would be persuading the woman to let him into the Temple.

In an argument over the leadership of a Cabal between two Adepts, a

good choice of intent would be forcing the opponent to back down.
this is the secret trutagitrep

I f a character succeeds in achieving their intent, they get to narrate just

how they did it, and so adding a little colour to the story. This could be
one of the Players or the Narrator, depending on who is rolling the dice.

Intents to Cause Damage

A ny intent to cause harm is handled by the combat mechanics outlined
later in this section. In these cases the intent may be just to beat the
opponent and cause damage, but often inflicting damage is either incidental
to the actual intent, or just the means by which the intent is accomplished.
In either case, the magnitude of the damage is not pre-set but is determined
by the weapon or implement used.
74
 Mark is having a fight with a Hunger summoned by his own Corruption.

ht si siht
His intent is to kill the being, so this is a combat encounter. Only when the
dice are rolled will the extent of the damage be known should he succeed.

Consequence
T he Narrator then describes what happens if the task is unsuccessful.
What is the path of failure? This is called the consequence; what
will happen if the character fails?

T he Narrator also has the task of setting the consequences of failure

for the Adepts and for their own non-Player characters. These
are decided up front by the Narrator before any dice are rolled. In many
instances the consequences of failure are pretty obvious, and this step can
be rather quick, but this will not always be the case. This is part of the

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responsibility of the Narrator in the game – describing fairly what the
outcome of a situation might be. However, the Players may contribute to
the scene by suggesting to the Narrator possible consequences for Adepts
involved in actions and conflicts.

Rallying your comrades: consequence of failure – they remain dispirited

and fearful. Shadowing a rival Adept: consequence of failure – she hears
your approach. pertigaturt terces eht si siht

I f the character fails to achieve their intent it is the Narrator who

describes what happens. Generally, Players only narrate what happens
to their Adepts when they achieve their intent.

75
 Standard Tasks
this is th

W hen a character is attempting to perform an action which isn’t

directly opposed by someone else, we call it a standard task.
Usually, we don’t have to worry about who goes first, or how long it
takes. Instead, we just need to think about whether or not they succeed.
Standard tasks can become part of the greater framework of conflicts, but
we’ll come to that later.

I◊
n tasks, difficulty is assessed as being at one of five levels:

Very Easy: Nearly everyone can do it. These checks should only be
made if a success is critical to the scenario at hand.

◊ Easy: Characters will seldom have trouble with these standard

tasks, but an untrained individual may find them challenging.
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◊ Moderate: Characters of average ability have a reasonable chance

of failing at this level. Consistent success often requires training in
the Skill, or a high level of natural ability.

◊ Difficult: Standard tasks at this level are truly challenging. To suc-

ceed, a character needs to be well-Skilled or very lucky.

◊ Very Difficult: Challenges of this level fall into the domain of mas-
this is the secret trutagitrep

ters in the Skill being used; few others will succeed at them.

T he difficulty must reflect the intent – the more unlikely the intent is
to happen, the higher the difficulty. The Narrator should consider
the character and their abilities and try to assess how likely it is that they
will achieve their intent.

G enerally, most standard tasks at which characters have a reasonable

chance of success are going to be easy or moderate. Difficult
standard tasks are going to fail a lot of the time, whereas very difficult
standard tasks are very likely to fail. The Narrator should make sure that
the difficulty level they select is a fair reflection of the task.

76
this is th
Tools and Difficulties
E soterica doesn’t use lots of detailed rules for pieces of equipment,
instead they can be considered as tools that help a character perform
a task. When the Narrator is assigning difficulties, any tools the character
has should also be considered when assessing the difficulty level. Generally,
if the tool will be a significant aid to the task, the difficulty level will be
reduced by one step i.e. a difficult task would become a moderate task.

I n practice, the Narrator simply decides if the tool being considered

is useful for the task being attempted or not. This is usually quite
obvious, for example if a Adept was trying to spot the logo on the side of
a vehicle that was far away, that might be a difficult task. But if the Adept
had a pair of binoculars, an excellent tool for the task, the Narrator might
then assign the task as being of moderate difficulty.

O f course in some instances the use of a tool could be deemed to

negate the need to roll dice in the first place and the task be deemed
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an automatic success. For example, trying to put a nail into a piece of wood
would be a very difficult task, unless you had a hammer, in which case the
task would be an automatic success.

Jane’s Adept Jennifer is trying to alert a colleague inside a hotel to dan-

ger by hitting a small window gently with a stone. It’s dark, and windy.
Pulling off the shot is going to be tricky. Considering this, the Narrator
decides that the standard task is going to be Difficult.
this is the secret trutagitrep

Marcus, a huge guy with a Might of 4D and a lift Skill of 6D, is

attempting to move a fallen beam lodged in place with rubble inside an
ancient temple. The Narrator states that this task would be of Moderate
difficulty.

Reconsidering Intents in
Standard tasks

78
T he Player involved in the standard task now has a choice: they can
accept the difficulty assigned by the Narrator, or they can reconsider
their intent if they think the standard task is too hard or the consequences
too harsh. Only when they have accepted the difficulty that the Narrator
has assigned is their intent final. If a Player reconsiders their intent, the

ht si siht
Narrator or other Players involved in the conflict can reconsider theirs;
this can be done several times back and forth until everyone is happy with
the decisions.

After the Narrator told Jane how difficult it would be for her character
Jennifer to hit the window, she changes her intent. Now she’s just going
to try and approach the window without being seen. The Narrator con-
siders the new situation, - Jennifer can now reach the window, it’s now
about whether she is seen. The narrator considers the darkness and smoke
and decides that the difficulty level of staying hidden is Moderate.

Standard Tasks, Attributes and Skills

T

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he Player attempting the task then looks at their Attributes and
Skills and selects which are most appropriate for the standard task
in hand.

Which Skill or Attribute Makes the

Most Sense? pertigaturt terces eht si siht

F irst consider any of the Skills listed. If possible, pick one that
describes how the character is attempting to achieve their intent.
If there isn’t a Skill on the character’s sheet that adequately describes the
task, pick an Attribute instead.

Simonetta, Rochelle’s Adept, is attempting to infiltrate a locked down

complex with the aim of robbing it. In this case, the security Skill listed
on the Adept sheet makes sense. Later, Simonetta is trying to sketch an
adequate diagram of the complex for her colleagues. In this case, the Wit
Attribute would seem most appropriate as there is no ‘art’ Skill listed on
the character sheet.

S ometimes it will be difficult to decide which of multiple Skills or

Attributes reflects the Adept’s intent, especially if the task isn’t 79
this is th covered by a listed Skill, or if more than one Skill could be used. If this is
the case, pick the one you want to use (probably the one with the highest
value) and describe just why that quality is most appropriate. Assuming
your description makes sense, the Narrator should allow it.

Helena, Lea’s Adept, has a persuasion Skill of 3D and a seduce Skill of

3D+2. She’s trying to get a guard to accept that she’s supposed to be in the
library. She could feasibly reason with him logically, but that would mean
using her weaker persuasion Skill. Instead she describes how she tries to
use her femininity to her advantage. The Narrator agrees that this makes
sense and lets Lea use her seduce Skill.

Rolling Dice
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T hen it’s time to roll dice. If the character is using an Attribute with
no Skill, then we’ll roll dice based on the Attribute. If they have
an appropriate Skill, we’ll use those dice. A Skilled character always has
a better chance of success than a character relying on an Attribute alone.

T he number of ‘D’ associated with the Attribute or Skill is the number

of six-sided dice that are rolled. Roll them all once, and add up the
values. Keep one of the dice rolled separate from the rest, or ideally roll
this is the secret trutagitrep

one dice that is a different colour. This is called the Wild die. If this comes
up with a 6, roll another dice and add this to the result. If the added die
comes up a 6, roll another die and add it on to the total. Keep on rolling and
adding dice until a result other than 6 is obtained. Finally, add any ‘pips’.
The final result is a single value, the higher the better.

Simonetta is trying to infiltrate the facility, and she has the security Skill
at 3D+1, so she rolls three dice. One is a different colour to the rest – this
is the wild dice.

She obtains a 2, a 4 and a 6 on the wild dice, for a total of 12. She picks
up another die and rolls it, obtaining a 3, and adds this to the result for

e
15. Finally, she adds the +1 pip for a total of 16.

80
 C ompare the result to the value below associated with the difficulty of

ht si siht
the standard task:

Very Easy: 5
Easy: 10
Moderate: 15
Difficult: 20
Very Difficult: 30+

I f the result equals or exceeds the value associated with the difficulty
of the standard task, the task has been successfully accomplished. If
the result is less than the required value, the task has failed.

I f the Adept achieves their intent, their Player gets to describe the next
sequence of events, relating how the character achieved their goal and
tying in the quality and various tags used. If the Adept fails to achieve
their intent, the Narrator describes the consequences of the failure.

Core Rules
Attribute Tags
W hen a Player attempts a task with their Adept, they should have
a look at the character sheet and consider the tags listed with
the Attribute associated with the Skill selected. In consultation with the
Narrator, they can pick one that seems to help describe how the character
is attempting to achieve their intent. If the character doesn’t have a tag pertigaturt terces eht si siht
that would help, ignore the listed tags.

Jennifer is using her Might quality to attempt to break down a door.

Looking at the tags listed by her body, she has ‘bulky’ and ‘tall’ (body is
her highest quality so she has two tags). In this situation tall makes no
sense, so Rochelle decides that Jennifer is using her bulk to try to force the
door open. If Jennifer had tried to use the tag ‘tall’ instead of ‘bulky’,
she wouldn’t have a suitable tag for the task she’s attempting.

Benefit of Tags
I f the Player and Narrator can pick a tag which they agree matches the
task the Adept is attempting, then the Player can pick up any die except 81
this is th the Wild die and re-roll it before the die values are added up and the task
is resolved. However, the re-rolled value is final, even if it’s worse than
the original value, and dice showing a 6 or 1 can’t be re-rolled. Generally
this gives Adepts a slightly better chance at achieving their goals, and also
allows the Players and Narrator to visualise just how the Adept achieved
their goal.

Beth’s Adept Cherise is attempting to lift a heavy Soul Jar and get it
out of the building. This is a Difficult Lift test with a target number
of twenty, and she has a Might Lift Skill of 4D+1. She also has a tag
‘weight lifter’, which the Narrator agrees makes a lot of sense in this
situation. Beth describes how Cherise approaches the ornate plinth like a
dead lift, stretching her muscles as she does. Rolling the dice, Cherise gets
2, 4, 5, 5 with the +1 to make a total of 17, so she’s failed. But as her tag
was involved, she re-rolls one of the dice, the one that came up 2, and gets
a 5. Now her total is 20, and she manages to lift the Jar… just!
Core Rules

Advice in Picking Appropriate Tags

T ags are useful for helping us to visualise how characters go about
tasks. They are descriptive elements that add to the story. When
selecting tags, try to ensure that they make at least some kind of sense in
relation to the action being performed. This can be part of the fun of tags,
trying to think of how a character might involve a tag in a particular task.
this is the secret trutagitrep

However, if a character really doesn’t have a useful tag that will contribute,
then don’t try and shoehorn something in just for the sake of the numbers.

Help
S ome things are a lot easier with a little help. In certain instances,
another person can help a character achieve their intent by helping.
If one character elects to help another, look to reduce the Difficulty of the
task in accordance with the help offered.

Mark, a friend, finds Jennifer before her enemies and offers to help her
to break through the door to escape. This makes the task easier, Moderate
84 instead of Difficult.
 H elping another makes the assisting character vulnerable to the

ht si siht
consequences of failure. This will of course depend on the action or
conflict that is taking place, but often failure means both characters suffer
the consequences. The narrator should make this clear to the players of
both characters if a shared consequence is likely. This is the risk of helping
– you might succeed in helping a character achieve their intent, but you
might also have to suffer the consequences of their failure.

Mark is helping Jennifer to force the door. The narrator has ruled that
the consequence of failure is that the door won’t give and the characters
will reveal their location to their pursuers. In this case, the consequence is
shared regardless of whether Mark assists Jennifer – they are standing
together and anything that locates Jennifer through her actions is going
to find Mark as well.

S ome actions and conflicts won’t benefit from help. The narrator must
rule when help is appropriate and when it isn’t. Also, the narrator

Core Rules
and player should decide if it’s appropriate for another character to lend a
hand. The number of players that can help is limited to one. In bigger tasks
that require several pairs of hands – if it is dramatically important to roll
dice – split the task into several smaller sub-tasks.

Conflicts pertigaturt terces eht si siht

S ometimes Adepts are not attempting to influence their environment;

they are in direct conflict with an opponent. Typically this might be
a fight, a heated argument or an attempt to persuade another character to
take a different point of view. The method of determining who achieves
their intent in these situations is very similar to that described for standard
tasks, with the addition of a new type of task: the resisted task.

C onflicts are usually composed of one or more opposed or unopposed

tasks. They may be resolved in a single dice roll or may take multiple
rolls, depending on the nature of the conflict, the pacing of the scene, and
the context of the story being told. As usual, the Narrator is always the
final adjudicator of how a conflict is to be played out. The winner gains
their intent. There is no set consequence of losing a conflict; instead the
loser suffers the intent of the winner, and may also be damaged in the 85
process. Note that it’s not the presence of a directly resisted task that
this is th makes a conflict – it’s the fact that the intent of one of the participants is
directly opposed by another party. Conflicts can include resisted tasks and
standard tasks in their resolution. Note that combat is a special form of a
conflict, more on this later.

Conceding During Conflicts

P articipants may back out of a conflict at any time; they merely let
their opponent achieve their intent. Participants in any resisted tasks
that make up a conflict may concede at any point before the dice are rolled.
As soon as a character concedes, they automatically lose the conflict and
their opponent achieves their intent. No one in a resisted task may concede
once the dice have been rolled; at that point it is too late to back out.

Jim and Tom are playing Adepts that are arguing over the best route
Core Rules

to take through an ancient city, and Tom’s pushing Jim to resolve the
argument as a conflict. Jim could agree and roll the dice but instead he
concedes, giving Tom the victory and agreeing with his argument.

Intent and Consequences in Conflicts

I
this is the secret trutagitrep

n a conflict both participants state their intent. The intent can be

anything actively opposed by the other participant, such as the desire
to change someone’s mind or to gain some other advantage beyond mere
hurt. Importantly, in a conflict, the two intents of the participants will be
directly opposed and mutually exclusive: only one participant can achieve
their intent. However, consequences are not described in the same way
as actions because, in a conflict, the main price of failure for the loser is
suffering the intent of the winner.

Brace is wrestling with a guard. Brace’s intent is to force off the guard
with his nightstick, while his opponent’s intent is to knock Brace over and
pin him down. For Brace, failure in the conflict means being pinned by his
opponent. For the guard, failure in the conflict means being clubbed back
by Brace.

86
 P hysical damage is often the result of a conflict. We’ll talk more

ht si siht
about this later.

Re-initiating Conflicts
G enerally, a lot of conflicts that don’t involve physical combat can
be resolved by a single dice roll, as often one participant achieving
their intent ends the matter.

H owever, sometimes this isn’t enough, and one participant or the

other wants to push home the advantage. It is perfectly acceptable
for either participant to try to initiate a second conflict immediately
after the first with the same opponent, with the aim of achieving a more
comprehensive victory.

Core Rules
Markus is having an argument with a mercenary over the command of
a squad of soldiers. At the end of the conflict Markus shouted the mer-
cenary down, and the conflict is over – Markus is in charge. However,
Markus’s Player wants to really finish the upstart mercenary so he starts
another conflict, this time to eject the guy from the group. In response to
Markus’s attack, the Narrator expresses the mercenary’s intent to fight
Markus. Markus’s Player decides this is fair and changes his intent to
beat up the mercenary, and a new conflict begins.
pertigaturt terces eht si siht

Interrupting Conflicts
I f an outside party interrupts a conflict before sufficient time has passed
for it to be concluded – for example by shooting at one participant in
an argument – the conflict is cancelled and all intents are ignored. Assume
that they didn’t get a chance to finish what they started. A conflict can
only be interrupted before dice are rolled; after the dice are on the table,
the conflict is considered too close to resolution to stop.

Three Adepts, Tom, Bette and Rob, are trying to convince a museum’s
director to help them find a lost relic in the vaults, but the director is
reluctant to do so; he doesn’t trust people he doesn’t know well. The di-
rector’s intent is to get the Adepts to leave the museum immediately. After 87
 the Narrator tells Rob’s Player that it’s going to be very hard to convince

ht si siht
the director to help them out, Rob’s Player changes his intent to persuad-
ing the director to lend him some books from the library. The Narrator
says this will still be a difficult, resisted task, and changes the director’s
intent to getting the Players to accept that he has nothing to give them.
Everyone agrees this makes sense.

However, before the dice are rolled, Tom’s Player says, “Forget this, I’m
just shoving the jerk!” which interrupts the negotiation. Bette’s Player
reacts to this, saying, “No way, I’m going to try and get control of Tom
secretly so that no one notices the disturbance and the negotiations can
continue.” This conflict – controlling Tom before he can step in – is the
first in the narrative, and must be resolved first. The participants – Tom
and Bette – declare their intents: Bette wants to get hold of Tom, he
notices her trying, the Narrator assigns the difficulty levels, and the con-
flict is resolved. If Bette failed to hold Tom, he’d now be in a position to
interrupt the conflict with the director, therefore that conflict – shoving
the blabbermouth – is resolved next, and the initial attempt by Rob to

Core Rules
persuade the director to help them is abandoned.

Timing
I n many conflicts, it’s not important who acts first. In an argument for
example, both sides will have their say before the conflict is decided. In
some conflicts, however, it is important who acts first. In a gun fight, it’s
pertigaturt terces eht si siht
often the first to fire who wins the day. In play, situations where timing is
important are divided into rounds. Individuals involved in the conflict will
then act in a certain order during each round until the conflict is resolved.

Order of Actions in a Round

A round is considered to be approximately 10 seconds for real time,
enough to find an opening and throw a punch or let off a few rounds
from your gun.

F irst, during each turn, participants in the conflict declare their intent
and actions planned for the round. Then, the order in which each
participant acts is determined – their turn – is measured by their initiative.
Initiative is determined by each participant rolling their Agility Attribute, 89
this is th the participant with the highest total acting first, and the other participants
acting in descending order of initiative. For simplicity’s sake the order of
initiative from round to round remains the same.

D uring their turn in the round, participants make rolls for the actions
they declared at the start of the round.

Acting Out of Sequence

T here are two instances when a participant in a conflict is allowed to
act out of sequence. The first is if they are targeted by an attack.
In this case they may declare that they are going to resist the attack using
the appropriate static resistance (see later for details). This counts as their
action for the turn. If they have already acted during the turn, they may
still resist the attack, but the value of their static resistance is reduced by
3.
Core Rules

T he second instance where acting out of turn is allowed is when

delaying actions. In this case the participant states that they are
waiting for a trigger condition to occur before they act, such as firing a
gun at anyone who comes through the door. The trigger must be clearly
stated. The participant does not act when their turn occurs, but any one
time when the trigger condition occurs between their original turn and
their turn in the consecutive round they may perform their stated action.
If the trigger condition is not met, or they want to do something else, they
lose their delayed action and will have to wait until their turn in the next
this is the secret trutagitrep

round to act.

Multiple Actions
A depts may attempt to do more than one thing during a turn by
withholding one dice from every action they attempt for each
action beyond the first (i.e. reducing their Skill or Attribute values by one
D during that round). For instance, if a character tries to shoot twice, he
will subtract one dice from each attempt. Both actions may happen at the
same time, or the second may be later in the round - the Narrator should
adjudicate this using common sense.

90 B
 Resisted Tasks in Conflicts

ht si siht
I n resisted tasks, one participant is performing a task in an attempt to
affect another. One participant is active, the other passive. The passive
participant is resisting the active participant; if they weren’t, it would not
be a conflict. Often, this resistance takes the form of a Skill or Attribute
roll; this is how the passive participant is ‘resisting’ the active participant.
The Narrator must determine, with the help of the Players, which Skill or
Attribute is most appropriate using common sense.

Toby’s Adept, Mera, is trying to persuade a trader to let him have some
books ‘on tab’. In this conflict, Mera, the active participant, is using her
persuade Skill. The Narrator and Players agree that the trader will use
his Wit Attribute to resist.

Core Rules
Determining the Outcome of Resisted
Tasks
W hen a task is resisted, the active participant doesn’t compare their
rolled result with a difficulty level as in a standard task. Instead,
the target number required to succeed in the task is the rolled result of the
resisting Skill or Attribute. pertigaturt terces eht si siht

Continuing the example above, Mera has a persuade Skill of 4D, and the
trader a Wit of 2D+1. The Narrator rolls his dice for the trader, and
gets a result of 9. This is the target number for Mera – if Toby gets 9 or
more for his roll, Mera will succeed at his task.

T he conflict only ends when one of the participants gains his intent
through action, or his opponent concedes.

Unbalanced Conflicts
I t can sometimes happen that a conflict is unbalanced, for example
if one of the sides in a conflict overwhelms the other with superior 91
this is th numbers. In this situation the Narrator needs to assess if the conflict is
skewed toward one participant. If it is, then the Narrator can award the
participant with the advantage a bonus dice (+1D) to roll in the conflict.

Bruce is escaping a pack of natives - he stole their statuette. His intent is

to escape, while they attempt to bring him down and tear out his throat.
Although Bruce is a good runner, the natives, though undernourished,
severely outnumber him. The Narrator rules that this is an Athletics con-
flict, where one roll is made for the natives(they all have the same Skill
level). However, She also awards the natives an extra D to roll as their
numbers make it easier to hem Bruce in and catch him.

Negative Tags in Conflicts

T
Core Rules

he tags selected by participants in a conflict may actively help them

to achieve their own intent, as is the case with actions. However, it
is possible for a character to select their own negative tags to act as a shield
to prevent an opponent from achieving their intent. In this sense negative
tags might represent a character’s inability to accept a reasoned argument
or to connect emotionally with another character. The character with the
negative tag gets the re-roll, but in the fiction of the story their tag is
acting as a ‘shield’.
this is the secret trutagitrep

The leader of a group of Adepts is attempting to persuade Dave to

join them, something Dave is trying to avoid. The leader’s intent is to
persuade Dave to join whereas Dave’s intent is to persuade the leader to
leave him alone. Dave’s negative empathy tag ‘antisocial’ works in his fa-
vour in this instance as Dave’s player states how his character’s negative
attitude is putting the other guy off. Considering this, the narrator allows
Dave to use the negative tag as his tag choices in the conflict, granting
him a re-roll of one dice.

Violence in Esoterica
92 A s you’ll see this book contains reasonably detailed rules for violence,
damage and wounds. However, whether you choose to make violence
a significant part of your game depends on the tone you want to set. Below
are a couple of options of how you could present violence in a game of

ht si siht
Esoterica.

Minimal Violence
I n this tone of game, violence is very rare, instead it is the potential
threat of violence that takes its place. Such a game is set in an occult
version of our real world, where inflicting harm on another person is a
very serious act indeed. In these games fighting, wounding or killing is
going to have major repercussions, and is a life changing event. Instead
it is the potential of violence that is displayed, with Adepts getting their
way by for example using a gun as part of an intimidation attempt rather
than actually firing it. Adepts might own a gun, but the chances of them
using it in anger against another person is very low. The Narrator can
make violence even more chilling by increasing the damage statistics of
weapons (these are discussed later in this chapter), making violence that

Core Rules
bit more deadly.

I n this kind of game, why do we need combat rules at all? One word:
Hungers. Although Adepts might not come into violent conflict
with other people, Hungers are a different matter – many are essentially
unthinking monsters intent on feeding (more on Hungers later in this
book). This juxtaposition between the real-world abhorrence of violence
and the almost psychopathic violence of some Hungers can add a real
tension to the game, and make a conflict with Hungers all the more
memorable.
pertigaturt terces eht si siht

Pulpy Violence
I n this kind of game, armed clashes with Adepts, government agents
and other foes are more common but the repercussions are turned
down, just like in a pulpy film such as an Indiana Jones movie. Violence
is still terrible, but the bad guys deserve what they get, and the rules for
combat are likely to be used a lot more than in a more realistic game (if you
can say that about a game of warring magical Adepts!). Still, in Esoterica
as written combat should always be a last resort of Adepts, not the default
‘go to’ action. But it is your game, so play it how you want!

hk 93
 Resolving Violence
this is th

E soterica is in some ways an action orientated game, but not a combat

heavy game. It is set in the real world, where the use of guns and
excessive violence is not likely to have a positive outcome. However, it
could happen. To streamline combat, some of the difficulty numbers used
in resisted tasks that are common in fights are pre-determined. These are
still resisted tasks even though the passive participant isn’t rolling dice, as
the value of the resistance varies from individual to individual. Note that
these static resistances assume that the target is attempting to resist the
attack, i.e. their action for their turn is resisting the attack; if they aren’t
(i.e. a target is unaware that there is an assassin armed with a pistol behind
them), then the attack is resolved as a standard task with an appropriate
difficulty level based on range and the like, as determined by the Narrator.
Core Rules

Static Resistances
T he three static resistances are listed below, with details of how they
are used. The method of determining these values is described in
the character creation section and shown on the next page.

◊ Block: used for resisting any form of unarmed attack.

this is the secret trutagitrep

◊ Dodge: used for resisting ranged attacks by diving for cover, dodging
around and generally making it hard to be hit.

◊ Parry: resisting melee attacks with an appropriate parrying weapon.

I f they have already acted during that round, then invoking a static
resistance is considered a special instance of multiple actions during
the round, and 3 is subtracted from the value of the static resistance. Note
that if a character invokes a static resistance to resist an attack, they may
then resist all attacks of that type until their next turn on the following
round. For example, a character who dodges an attack is considered to be
dodging all in-coming attacks until the next act. This does not count as
using multiple actions.

94
 Attacking a Target

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T he target number required to successfully hit the target is based on
the appropriate static resistance. It is possible to use tags in combat
if the Narrator agrees they make sense.

Block = (Brawling Skill dice x 3) + pips

Dodge = (Dodge Skill dice x 3) + pips
Parry = (Relevant weapon Skill dice x 3) + pips

O ther factors may be involved depending on the situation; some of

these are listed below.

◊ Melee combat: the attacking character uses either the brawling or

melee Skill, depending on weather the attacker is armed. The block
or parry resistances are used as appropriate.

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◊ Ranged combat: Works in a similar way to melee combat, except we
add the range modifier to the dodge static resistance in all cases:

Point Blank -5 to dodge static resistance

Medium +5
Long +10

◊ If the target isn’t dodging, then the modifier for the range of the at-
tack is considered in the difficulty of the standard task. For example, pertigaturt terces eht si siht
hitting a small target with a pistol and close range might be a mod-
erate standard task; doing it at long range might be very difficult.
The Narrator should judge these difficulties based on common sense.

◊ Cover: If the target is behind cover, this also adds to their static re-
sistance:

50% cover +5 to dodge static resistance

75% cover +10

◊ Darkness can also be considered as cover at the Narrator’s discretion.

k/ 95
 Ammunition and Jamming

ht si siht
I n Esoterica we track the use of ammunition, with each ‘shot’, either
a single round or a burst on a semi-automatic weapon being noted. If
during a combat Skill test over half the dice rounding up that a character
rolls (i.e. one dice for a Skill of 1D or 2D, two dice for a Skill of 3D or
4D) come up with values of 1, then the weapon has jammed or broken
down and may not be used until it is fixed – if the proper tools to do so are
available. Note that this mean characters with higher Sills are less likely to
suffer weapon malfunctions – this is intentional, representing the fact that
unskilled characters are less likely to look after their weapons properly!

Aiming
U p to three rounds may be spent aiming prior to making a ranged

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attack. Each round grants a +1D Skill bonus to the attacker. This
assumes that the target remains in sight and isn’t actively dodging (in
which case they are moving too quickly to be aimed at)

Grenades
I n the unlikely event that an Adept has access to grenades, these rules
may be applied. If the thrower can’t see the target, increase the difficulty
by +5-10. If the roll misses, roll 1D for direction, 1-3 means a deviation
pertigaturt terces eht si siht

beyond the target, 4 to the left of target, 5 to the right, and 6 behind the
target (nearer the thrower). For distance off-target roll 1D/range level.
Damage is based on blast radius; all characters in the blast radius are hit
and can take damage. However, grenades can be dodged. They can either
explode on contact or be timed, allowing for re-throws.

Automatic Fire Options

S ome weapons are capable of automatic fire, in which case the attacker
can make use of the following two options if they wish. Note that
as Esoterica is based in the real world, wandering around with automatic
weapons is likely to be frowned on and result in arrest unless you are in
certain countries of the world.
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this is th
Burst Fire
S ome weapons are capable of firing multiple shots in quick succession,
such as a burst of fire from an automatic rifle or machine gun. This
doesn’t count as multiple actions, and adds +2D to the damage to the
weapon. However, aiming is always more difficult in such situations and
the dodge static resistance of the target (and therefore the difficulty of the
test) is increased by +5. Also, if any dice rolled in the attack (not half as
usual) come up with a 1, then the weapon runs out of ammunition.

Burst fire: +5 to dodge static resistance, +2D damage

Suppressing Fire
W ith automatic weapons, it is possible to attempt suppressing
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fire, where the aim is not to injure the target, but to fix them
in position. A weapon fired in suppression mode has the dodge static
resistance of the target (and therefore the difficulty of the test) decreased
by 5, and it is possible to target three characters in a single attack, as long
as they are separated by no more than a meter. However, the wound value
of the attack (i.e. the result of the damage roll for the weapon minus the
targets Soak, see below) is halved (round down). Damage is rolled once and
applied to each target individually. Additionally, if any dice rolled in the
attack (not half as usual) come up with a 1, then the weapon runs out of
this is the secret trutagitrep

ammunition or charge.

Suppressing fire: -10 to dodge static resistance, wound value

halved

Other Common Actions in Combat

T he following actions often come up in combat. Remember that a
round is ten seconds, so participants may attempt anything that
could reasonably be performed in that time.

98
u
 Movement

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P articipants in conflicts may move up to fifteen feet as a free action, or
move thirty feet at the cost of one action. If a character wishes to
run faster, they may attempt an athletic Skill standard task with a difficulty
based on the environment – if they are successful, they may add their
total rolled value to their movement. If the only action taken in a round is
running, the total move is doubled.

Full Dodge
I f a passive participant does nothing except dodge until their next
turn, they will add 10 to their dodge static resistance, and apply range
and cover as usual. This result is useful against any number of attacks.

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Damage
W hen a target has been hit, the attacker rolls damage dice and sums
them based on the weapon they are using, following the same
procedure as with Attribute and Skill dice.

Damage = sum of damage roll for the weapon, pertigaturt terces eht si siht
+2D if fired on automatic

Ranged Combat Damage

T he majority of ranged combat weapons that don’t rely on the user’s
strength to use do a set amount of damage as determined from a
die roll as shown in the table opposite. Also a typical number of ‘shots’
before reloading are listed for different weapons, factoring small bursts of
fire from automatic weapons. These are guidelines only, feel free to modify
the number of shots available to characters from a full ammunition load.

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this is th Damage Typical Shots
Crossbow 4D+1 1
Light Pistol 3D+2 6
Heavy Pistol 4D 8
Rifle 5D 5
Shotgun 4D+2 3
Machine gun 6D 10
Grenade 5D -

Unarmed and Melee Combat Damage

T he base amount of damage dealt in unarmed and melee combat is
calculated based upon the attacking character’s lift Skill under the
Might Attribute. Base damage is equal to one half the number of dice in
the lift Skill, ignoring pips and rounding down the result. For example,
a character with a lift Skill of 3D+2 would deal 1D damage in unarmed
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combat damage (3D after ignoring pips, halved to 1.5D, then rounded down
to one). Melee weapons will add to this base damage value as shown below

Additional to base damage

Axe +3D
Knife +1D
Bow +2D+2
Club +1D+1
Hatchet +1D+1
Mace +1D+1
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Staff +1D+2
Sword +2D+2

Resisting Damage and Wound

Values
T he target of an attack resists damage using their Soak Static
Resistance, plus any additional Soak from armour they are wearing:

Soak = (Might Attribute dice x 3) + pips

+ any additional Soak from armour value
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 T ypical armour values for modern armours that might be found in

ht si siht
the world are given below:

Biker leathers +2
Riot shield +4
Bullet proof Vest +3
SWAT body armour +5

T he wound value is then used to determine the wound level that

results.

Wound value Wound Level

0 or less: Unharmed
1 – 3: Stunned
4 – 8: Wounded
4 – 8: Severely Wounded**
9 – 12: Incapacitated
13 – 15: Mortally Wounded
16+: Dead

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R emember that the damage value of a suppressing fire attack is
halved (round down) before determining the wound level.

A ny additional wound level result less than or equal to the character’s

current level moves him up by one level, i.e. a stunned character
who receives a second wound result of ‘Stunned’ becomes Wounded.

N ote **A character is Severely Wounded if the wound value is pertigaturt terces eht si siht
between 4 and 8 and they are already at the Wounded level.

Wound Level Effects

W ound levels affect the actions of Adepts during play, as described
below.

◊ Stunned: -1D for all remaining actions this round and next round.

◊ Wounded: -1D to all actions until healed.

◊ Severely Wounded: -2D on all actions until healed.

◊ Incapacitated: The character is out of the fight and in a bad way. As 103
this is th a free action before losing consciousness, they may try to stay up by
succeeding at a moderate Stamina standard task. If successful, they
may continue to act, but with a -3D penalty. If they fail, they are
knocked out for 10D minutes.

◊ Mortally Wounded: The force of the attack renders the character

unconscious and near death, with little chance of recovering without
assistance. The character must roll their Might Attribute dice each
round; the character finally dies if the roll is less than the number of
minutes they’ve been at this level.

◊ Dead: The character has perished.

Scaling
N ot all objects are on the same scale. Humans and horses may be
Core Rules

close enough to be equals, but humans and tanks aren’t. When

dealing damage to a smaller scaled target or resisting damage inflicted by
it, the larger adds the difference in ‘Modifiers’ to their dice rolls or static
resistances. Smaller scaled targets attempting to dodge attacks from,
or actually attempting to attack, a larger scaled opponent will add the
difference to their dodge and attack rolls.

Scale Modifier
Character, Animals None
this is the secret trutagitrep

Car, Wagon +2D /+6 to dodge and soak

Ship, Tank +4D/+12 to dodge and soak
Fighter, Lt. Transport +6D/+18 to dodge and soak

Dangers
A s well as combat and violence, there are other sources of injury in
Esoterica. Some of the more common dangers that might be faced
are described below.

104 i
 Asphyxiation

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A ssuming a character has a requirement to breathe, they may ‘hold
their breath’ for a number of turns equal to the ‘D’ number of
their Might Attribute multiplied by 2. After this time, they will begin to
asphyxiate. Every turn thereafter, the character will suffer damage equal to
the number of turns they have been asphyxiating (1D for the first round,
2D for the second etc.).

Falling
A falling character suffers damage equal to the number of meters
fallen divided by two, rounding up (1D for up to two meters, 2D for
two to four meters etc.). The effects of high-pressure environments such
as deep underwater can be modelled in the same manner, with meters of

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descent equating to meters fallen for the purposes of the calculation.

Healing
C haracters may heal any physical damage they receive. pertigaturt terces eht si siht

◊Natural Healing: If a wounded character rests he may perform a

Might standard task and if successful heals a wound level. The
frequency of the check depends on the severity of the character’s
wounds, as shown on the opposite page.

Wound Level Frequency Difficulty
Stunned 1 minute automatic
Wounded 3 days 5
Severely Wounded 3 days 5
Incapacitated 2 weeks 8
Mortally Wounded 5 weeks 10

◊ Assisted Healing: Adepts with the medicine Skill can attempt to help
others heal more quickly. A medicine standard task may be attempt-
ed a maximum of once per day for each patient treated. On a suc- 105
this is th cessful roll, the patient heals one wound level. The higher Diffculty
represents how difficult accelerating healing with medicine can be.

Wound Level Frequency Difficulty

Stunned 1 per day automatic
Wounded 1 per day 10
Severely Wounded 1 per day 10
Incapacitated 1 per day 15
Mortally Wounded 1 per day 20

Vehicles
A ll vehicles from cars to planes are defined by a common set of
statistics, much like Adepts. The following rules are used to resolve
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actions related to vehicles, including combat and chases. These rules are
fairly light and narrative, but they should be enough for a Narrator to
handle using vehicles in their games.

Statistics for Vehicles

T he following statistics can be used to describe any vehicle in play.
this is the secret trutagitrep

◊ Skill: Which Skill is used to drive or pilot the vehicle.

◊ Scale: The size of the vehicle, used as a bonus when comparing ob-
jects of different sizes.

◊ Body: Used as an Attribute to resist damage. Body is a static resist-

ance, similar to soak for Adepts.

◊ Manoeuvrability (Man): How easy the vehicle is to handle. Manoeu-

vrability gives a bonus on drive and pilot Skill rolls.

◊ Move: How fast the vehicle can travel.

◊ Crew: The number needed to successfully operate the vehicle.

106
 ◊ Passengers (Psg): How many passengers beyond the crew that the

ht si siht
vehicle can carry.

◊ Weapons: Any armaments mounted on the vehicle.

Vehicle Movement
M ove dice represent the relative speed between vehicles of similar
types. Vehicles are divided into four broad categories including:
Primitive Craft/Muscle Powered, Motorized Ground and Water Craft and
Aircraft. If vehicles of different categories must compare speed – such as
a car chasing a tank – the faster vehicle is granted bonus move dice based
on the difference in speed factors in the following chart:

Speed Factor Modifier

Primitive Craft / Muscle Powered 0D

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Motorized Ground / Water Craft 2D
Aircraft 5D

Vehicle Combat
S ome vehicles have weapons; unless specified in their descriptions,
they are considered to be of the same scale as the vehicle. Attacks are
resolved in the same manner as character versus character combat with the
pertigaturt terces eht si siht
only difference being that the character rolls their drive/pilot Skill in place
of the dodge static resistance to avoid being hit.

Damage to Vehicles
S cale is another factor that must be borne in mind, as most vehicles are
considerably larger than humans.

O nce damage is determined for the attack, the body is subtracted to

determine the equivalent of a wound level, using the chart below.
Repair means that the damaged part is in need of repair, destroyed means

k q
that the part is completely destroyed and must be replaced.

107
this is th Damage Rolled Effect
Damage Roll ≥ Body Roll Temporary Effect (one round)
Damage Roll ≥ 2 x Body Roll Permanent Effect (repair)
Damage Roll ≥ 3 x Body Roll Permanent Effect (destroyed)

A lso, once the severity of the damage is determined, the Narrator

may roll randomly using the following chart, or common sense, to
determine which part is damaged.

Roll 1D Effect
1 Lose 1D from Manoeuvrability
2 – 3 Random System Damaged
4 – 6 Structural Damage

Effects of Damage
T
Core Rules

he flowing damage effects show what can go wrong when vehicles

find themselves under fire.

◊ Manoeuvrability: Each time this is affected, the vehicle loses 1D

from its Manoeuvrability value. This can become negative, resulting
in a penalty to the driver’s Skill roll.

◊ System Damaged: Randomly select a vehicle’s system and it either

becomes broken or loses 1D from its rating (if applicable). Examples
include: communications/radio, sail, rigging, armour, etc.
this is the secret trutagitrep

◊ Structural Damage: The vehicle receives one wound level. Treat

these like character wound levels. Mortally Wounded vehicles stop
running and Dead vehicles are considered destroyed.

Multiple Weapons on Vehicles

W hen vehicles have more than one weapon of a single type, they
can be fired as a single salvo. This requires a successful command
Skill standard task with the difficulty based on the number of guns being

g
combined. Each doubling of the number of weapons combined increases
the damage by one pip.

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 Chases
this is th

W hen attempting to overtake or outrun an opponent, firstly, the

Narrator determines what range the two vehicles are at: short,
medium or long. During each turn, each vehicle makes a drive/pilot check,
with the vehicle’s move dice granting a bonus. The higher roll either closes
or increases the range as desired. If reduced below short range, the two
vehicles catch up with each other; if increased beyond long range, the
vehicle escapes its pursuer.

Ramming
W hen vehicles are at short range, a pursuer may try to ram. To
successfully ram, the pilot needs to roll higher than the target’s
pilot Skill check. If successful, both vehicles suffer damage equal to the
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body of the attacking vehicle plus the difference in the move dice Attribute
of the two vehicles.

Repairing Vehicles
A depts may repair damage to their vehicles using the repair Skill,
assuming they have the required parts. The difficulty is determined
this is the secret trutagitrep

as shown below.

Dice lost due to damage Difficulty Time Needed

1D Easy 1 hour
2D Moderate 4 hours
3D+ Difficult 1 day

T his assumes that the character attempting the repair has access to
suitable tools and parts. Without these, the repair will be much more
difficult and time consuming and, at the Narrator’s discretion, may not
even be possible. Sample Modern Vehicles are shown on the page opposite.

w
110
 ht si siht
Car Sports Car

Scale +2D Scale +2D

Skill: Drive Skill: Drive
MNV: 1D MNV: 2D
Body: 2D Body: 2D
Move: 2D+1 Move: 3D
Crew: 1 Crew: 1
Psg: 4 Psg: 1
Cargo: 500 lbs Cargo: 200 lbs

Motorcycle Tank

Scale +2D Scale +4D

Skill: Drive Skill: Drive
MNV: 2D MNV: 1D

Core Rules
Body: 1D+2 Body: 6D
Move: 2D+2 Move: 2D
Crew: 1 Crew: 3
Psg: 1 Psg: 1
Cargo: None Cargo: 500 lbs
Weapons: Machine gun; Main
Gun (6D), range: 1/2 mile / 1
mile / 2 miles.
pertigaturt terces eht si siht

i r i 111
 Adepts
this is th

A depts have a few special rules that only apply to them. These include
the ability to improve their capabilities as the game progresses –
after all, they are the heroes of the story – and the effect of their special
powers on play.

Experience
D uring play Adepts and their Players are rewarded for the contribution
to the game by gaining experience, which can improve Attributes
and Skills. This is discussed in detail below.

A t the end of each session the Narrator awards each Adept a number
Core Rules

of character points (CPs). The number of points given per session

typically varies from 3 to 7 depending on drama, danger, success, and fun!
The more the character has contributed to the story, the greater the reward.

Spending Character Points

A ny Skill may be increased one pip by spending a number of character
this is the secret trutagitrep

points equal to its current number of dice. No Skill may be increased

more than one pip per session. Skill specializations cost only half as
much to increase, rounding up. Character points are also used to improve
Attributes. This costs 10 times the number of dice a character has in the
Attribute to raise it one pip. All Skills under this Attribute also improve by
one pip. Remember that increasing a Skill or Attribute above +2 pips leads
to an increase of one dice (D).

If an Adept has an athletics Skill of 2D+1, it would cost 2 character

points to increase the value by one pip to 2D+2, equal to the current num-
ber of dice associated with the Skill.

If an Adept had a Wit of 3D+1 and wanted to improve it to 3D+2 it

would cost 30 character points – ten times the number of dice associated
114 with the Attribute – in this case three.
 Tiers

ht si siht
T iers are used to indicate the level an Adept has in two key parameters
that determine the mystical abilities of an Adept - Power and
Corruption. All Adept characters start at Tier zero in both, and progress to
higher Tiers during play. The aim of the game for an Adept is to reach Tier
5 in their Power – at this point they are ready to Ascend. However, higher
Tiers in Corruption are very bad, and should an Adept ever reach Tier 5 in
Corruption they are consumed by the very powers that they wield.

I n play seven points of Essence gains you one Tier of Power, and Seven
points of Stains gains you one Tier of Corruption, as discussed later.

Total Essence/Stains Tier in Power/Corruption

0-6 0
7-13 1

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14-20 2
21-27 3
28-34 4
35+ 5

Adepts and Powers pertigaturt terces eht si siht

T he following rules describe special rules that govern the mystical

powers of Adepts, including their own individual abilities, those of
the tools they use and also of those that oppose them.

Arts
A depts can use their Arts to affect their reality – this is reflected
in the game of Esoterica by using the dice assigned to the Arts.
Whenever an Adept is attempting a task or resolving a conflict, they may
choose to use their Arts. They are free to assign any number of the dice
from a single Art to the roll – these are called ‘Arts dice’. To do so, they 115
must first explain how the use of a particular Art reflects the goal of the
action. This is typically fairly obvious, remembering that Domination is a

ht si siht
power over others, Mastery a power over one’s self, and Insight a deeper
understanding of reality. The Player and Narrator should discuss and
agree whether an Art is appropriate for an action.

Domination
T his Art is used when trying to get others to see your way, when
pushing people around, commanding them or intimidating
them. Most Skill tests that involve Charm Skills could be influenced by
Domination, and this is the most obvious of the Arts.

Black Taylor the Magician is trying to persuade a police officer to let him
enter the Temple of the Order of Typhus. He needs to get in, so he uses
his Dominate ability, assigning 2D of a possible 3D to the task, which

Core Rules
along with his Persuade Skill of 2D+1 means he’s rolling a total of
4D+1 to compete the task.

Mastery
M astery is the Art of pushing one’s body to the limits and beyond,
achieving almost the miraculous. Most tasks or conflicts that
involve the Adept using Might or Agility could be affected by Mastery,
pertigaturt terces eht si siht

typically if the action is to match the Adept’s physical prowess against

something else.

Once inside the Temple, Black Taylor attempts to force the door into the
inner chamber. This is a Might task using his physical prowess, so he
assigns 1D of his Mastery to the task, which with his Might of 1D+2
gives him a total of 2D+2 to roll.

b
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this is th
Insight
I f the task or conflict requires knowledge or understanding the Adept
does not possess, or involves a reliance on things in the physical world
rather than the Adepts body, then Insight may be the best Art – seeking
knowledge from beyond the Veil. Insight is a subtle power. Importantly, the
desired outcome must have some possibility of occurring before it can be
attempted even with the Art. Things that are outright impossible cannot
be attempted no matter the power of the Adept.

Later, Black Taylor is attempting to remove a chalice, a Soul Jar, from

the Temple, but it has been locked in a glass casket with an electronic lock.
He’d like to force the lock with his knife, but there are two problems with
this – he’s already used his 2D in Mastery today, and forcing the lock
like that is probably going to be very noisy. Instead he decides to use his
Insight, and tells the Narrator that he’s peering beyond the Veil to gain
knowledge on how to circumvent this type of coded lock. The Narrator
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agrees that this makes sense, and so Black Taylor uses his insight to assess
the lock.

A rts are about probabilities. The effect the Adept is attempting to

create must be possible, even if improbably. Arts cannot be used to
do the impossible – this is the domain of Mysteries, more on these later.
this is the secret trutagitrep

Black Taylor can attempt to leap between two roofs using his Mastery Art
as the leap is theoretically possible, but he cannot use any of his Arts to fly
to the top of a tall tower, as that is impossible.

Boosting Rolls with the Arts

W hen the Arts are assigned to a task they boost the capabilities of
the Adept, as extra Arts dice are added to the normal Attribute
or Skill dice rolled (one of which, as normal, is the Wild die). This could be
in a standard task, a resisted task or a conflict. In effect the Arts add to the
abilities of Adepts, making success more likely. However, when all the dice
are rolled, regardless of whether the test was passed or not, note whether
118 values of 6 or 1 were obtained on any of the dice (i.e. the normal Attribute
or Skill dice, Tag re-rolls, the Arts dice and any extra dice from Wild die

ht si siht
6s). Note that is it not possible to re-roll dice showing 1 or 6 with Tags.

◊ If at least one of the dice rolled had a value of 6 including the orig-
inal Wild die result, then the Essence of the Adept increases by one,
unless...

◊ One or more values of 1 were obtained on any of the dice, in which

case the Adept gains no Essence but instead acquires Stains. For each
1 obtained, add 1 to the Stains value of the Adept.

I t is only possible to gain one point of Essence from the use of Arts,
but it is possible to gain multiple Stains, and Essence and Stains cannot
be acquired during the same roll. Increased Essence represents the Adept
gaining occult strength, a good thing for the Adept. Stains are a reflection
of the influence of otherworldly power on the mortal form, damaging the
soul of the Adept, making the Adept more visible to those beyond the Veil
and more susceptible to the influence of Hungers. Assigning more Arts
dice to a task or conflict increases the chance of success and the chance of

Core Rules
gaining Power, but at a greater risk of acquiring Stains, and the higher the
Skill or Attribute before booting with Arts, the more likely Power or Stains
will be acquired.

Black Taylor is attempting to persuade the police officer using his Persua-
sion Skill of 2D+1. He has boosted this with 2D of Dominate. Rolling
the dice, he gets a 6, 1, 3 and a 6 on the Wild die which he re-rolls getting
a 1. That sums to 6+1+3+6+1+1 pip = 18. As he rolled at least one 6 pertigaturt terces eht si siht
normally his Essence would increase by 1, but as he obtained two 1s on the
other dice he gains no Essence and instead his Stain value increases by 2.

Reveals
A s well as Attribute Tags, Adepts have a Reveal tied to their Arts. This
is a manifestation of their power as previously described. Any time
that Arts are used in tasks or conflicts, the Reveal also occurs. Importantly,
any target of the Art does not witness the Reveal. Only those outside the
Adept’s influence experience the Reveal. This makes overt use of Arts in
crowded areas dangerous, as the Adept will be marked out by their use of
power.
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this is th
Arts and other Adepts
A rts may be used on other Adepts, they are in no way immune. Adepts
are not able to recognise each other unless a Reveal comes into play
or Corruption is evident – much game play in Esoterica may be devoted to
identifying rival Adepts.

The Limits of Arts

A rts can only be employed on targets that are in the presence of the
Adept. They don’t necessarily have to be in eye contact, but roughly
in the same room. It is not possible for example to Dominate someone
using a mobile phone.

D omination can be used in any task or conflict involving another

Core Rules

person or group of people. Mastery is used to affect tasks and

conflicts using the Adepts physical abilities, whereas Insight grants
specialist knowledge for a short period of time – importantly, once the
task is complete, the knowledge gained from Insight is lost.

Persuading a guard to let you past could involve the Dominate Art. Pull-
ing off a great shot could be done with Mastery, coding a computer
without programming knowledge could not – if you don’t know how
this is the secret trutagitrep

coding works, mastery won’t tell you. However, pulling on your Insight
to help you understand how to code is possible, but once the work is done
you’ll struggle to remember how you did it.

Arts and Stress

I t is only possible to gain Essence from the Arts when they are being
employed in a stressful situation, i.e. when there is something at stake.
But it is always possible to gain Stains. For example practicing Domination
on your cat won’t result in increases in Power, but could result in Stains
and inevitably Corruption.

120
 Refreshing Arts

ht si siht
E ach die in the Arts may only be used once a day at most, so an Adept
with 3D in Domination may use that to add 3D to one task, 2D and
1D to two tasks, or 1D to three tasks in one day. However, in order for the
dice to be available the next day, the Arts dice must also be refreshed. In
other words, Arts dice must be refreshed to use them again, but each dice
can only be used a maximum of once a day. Each Adept Archetype shows
what the character must do to refresh their Arts dice. If you are making
up your own Archetypes, then discuss with the Narrator how you want to
refresh those dice. In general, you’ll need to perform some activity that
matches with the nature of your Archetype.

Between eight hours of sleep an Adept with 3D in Mastery can assign

1D to three separate tasks of conflicts, or 1D to one and 2D to another,
or 3D to a single task or conflict. Regardless, once the three dice have been
exhausted the Adept needs to sleep for eight hours and perform the Refresh

Core Rules
action of their Archetype to refresh the Art.

Mysteries
T he unique and miraculous powers of Adepts as they increase in Tier
pertigaturt terces eht si siht
are known as Mysteries. Each Mystery is a miraculous ability that
an Adept who knows it may perform once between each night’s sleep. The
first Mystery is gained at Tier 1, and then each time an Adepts gain a new
Tier they may select a new Mystery.

Morgan gains sufficient Power to move from Tier 1 to Tier 2. Now he

selects a new Mystery to go with the one selected when he entered Tier 1.

M ysteries are miraculous powers that result from the Adepts tearing
away the Veil. They are powerful and dangerous…

…for around five minutes, your hands glow with an unearthly pale radi-
ance, enough to light a small room… 121
 …you can blend into the surroundings and become inconspicuous for a

ht si siht
few minutes…

..you can see in total darkness as if it were day for five minutes…

…you can create a small fire by sight within a few feet, similar to a can-
dle being knocked over, which will easily light combustible materials. The
fire itself will not cause damage to a person unless their clothing catches
light…

…you can move vertically around fifteen feet, appearing to drift upwards
or slither up a surface. Can also be used to land safely from a fall…

… you have the ability to disappear in shadows for five minutes, becom-
ing nearly invisible unless others are aware of your presence and actively
searching for you…

…you can cause excruciating pain in a target within sight. This is effec-

Core Rules
tively a stunned combat result that lasts for five rounds…

…you can converse with another person in the same building for around
five minutes…

…the power of the otherworld can be channelled by you to break, crack

or shatter one small object no larger than a person (for example a door or
a chest) by touch...

…you set a small crowd of people within sight alight, by combusting

pertigaturt terces eht si siht
their clothing…

…you can instantly move approximately one mile as if you had walked
the distance…

…you can manifest a flash of blinding light sufficient to light an area of

town and temporarily blind people within sight of you…

M ysteries can be chosen from the examples listed later or created

by the Player and Narrator when a Player’s Adept increases in
Tier. The use of Mysteries does not invoke the Adept’s Reveal, and their
deployment is not immediately obvious to other people or Adepts within
reason (for example telepathy is not outwardly obvious but levitation is).
Mysteries are rated by the amount of magical energy they require, their
Force. The higher the Force employed to perform a Mystery, the more 123
powerful but dangerous it is.
this is th Mysteries and Force
M ysteries can be performed at variable Force values, with the
maximum Force that an Adept can employ on one Mystery limited
to the sum of the Tiers in Power and Corruption (both Tiers combine to
indicate a weakening of the Veil and an ability to draw energy through the
barrier). The Player and Narrator then need to agree a Force cost for the
Mystery (examples of Force costs are given in the Mysteries that follow).

I mportantly, when the Mystery is used, the Adept rolls a number of

dice to see if they acquire Essence or Stains as with Arts. For a Force
1 Mystery, roll 3 dice. Then for every extra Force, roll an additional die (so
3D at Force 1, 4D at Force 2, 5D at Force 3 etc.

Jason’s Adept Thomas employs a Mystery of Force 2, as agreed with

the Narrator. As a result he’ll need to roll four dice to see whether Tom
acquires Essence or Stains. He gets a 6, 3, 3 and 2, so that’s one Essence
Core Rules

- a great roll!

Limits and Refreshing of Mysteries

T here are limits to the use of Mysteries. Once an Adept has employed
total Force in Mysteries equal to the sum of their Tiers in Power
this is the secret trutagitrep

and Corruption (either in a single Mystery use or over multiple uses), they
must be refreshed before Mysteries can be used again. This requires a
night of uninterrupted meditation on the nature of the Veil in either the
company of the entire Cabal or in the Adept’s Temple. Once this has been
done, the Adept has access to their Mysteries once more.

Samuel, an Adept, uses two Mysteries (psychokinesis and aura reading )

in one day, dedicating a single point of Force to each. His Tier in Power
is two and Corruption is one, for a total of three, so he has only one point
of Force remaining before he’ll need to refresh his Mysteries by spending
a night at the Temple or meditating with his Cabal.

124
 Defining Mysteries

ht si siht
E very Mystery can be used at different levels of Force, which
represents how powerful the effect is. Generally, each Mystery is
first defined as a ‘Force 1’ ability. The effect of the Mystery can then be
increased by adding Force to reduce some of the limitations of the ability or
to increase the Mystery’s scope. As Mysteries can be pretty much anything
extraordinary that Players and the Narrator agree on, some discussion and
common sense must be applied to their creation and the assignment of
Force to a Mystery. Below are what could be called ‘baseline’ parameters for
a Mystery – extensions beyond these limitations could require application
of additional Force.

◊ Range – touch or close

◊ Targets – a small area or single person

◊ Duration – instant or up to five minutes

Core Rules
◊ Effect – minor change to reality, otherworldly manifestation of a
natural effect

◊ Potential – no potential for increased effect

B elow are some examples of Mysteries that could be selected by

Adepts, with an indication of the Force requirements of different
additional effects or extensions. These are ‘typical’ Mysteries that may be pertigaturt terces eht si siht
selected, based on the powers that have often been associated with occultists
and mystics throughout history, but the Player and Narrator are free to
come up with anything they wish. Note that Force costs are cumulative for
every increase in scope of the Mystery.

Astral Projection or Mental Projection

The ability to leave the body in a dream-like trance and travel to and
view a remote location. The Adept travels by flight in their astral form
at around five miles an hour, and while projecting their body is totally
defenceless. The Adept’s astral self can move through walls and barriers.
The astral form is detectable by other Adepts although they will not be able
to locate it, but an astral Adept is automatically perceived by Hungers.

Force 1 – The Adept can project in a volume of space equivalent to a

large building, for a duration of five minutes, and can view all that they
pass. 125
this is th Increased range up to ‘across the city’ +1 Force.
Increased duration up to a couple of hours +1 Force.

Atrophy
The Adept is able to age materials that they come into contact with. This
can weaken materials or even decay them, depending on the nature of the
material. The Mystery does not work on living beings.

Force 1 – The Adept can age a material that they are touching by around
one hundred years. The area affected is approximately the size of a din-
ner plate.

Increased effect to one thousand years +2 Force.

Increased effect to larger surface area, around one square meter +2 Force.

Aura Reading
Core Rules

The ability to perceive the energy fields that surround people and other
living creatures, and determine something of their nature.

Force 1 – The Adept can detect the basic mood of a person they talk to
face to face, even if on the surface to mundane eyes they are hiding their
feelings well. The effect lasts five minutes and effects a maximum of
three people chosen by the Adept.

Increased range up to across a room +1 Force.

this is the secret trutagitrep

Increased duration up to one hour +1 Force.

Increased effect up to five people +1 Force.
Increased information such as surface thoughts +1 Force.
Increased information such as surface and deep thoughts +2 Force.

Channelling
The ability to communicate with spirits. This ability can be used to divine
a piece of hidden information, something that cannot be gained from the
Insight Art.

Force 1 – The Adept is able to ask the spirit a simple yes/no question, and
the Narrator decides upon the response. Typically the answer must be use-
ful but may be ambiguous or limited in scope and open to interpretation.

Reduce the ambiguity of answers, such that a brief explanation is re-

126 quired +1 Force, or +2 Force for deeper knoweldge.
this is th Clairvoyance
The ability to perceive objects and people that are hidden from sight. The
Adept does have to have a general idea of the appearance object or per-
son they seek. The Adept must be in a quiet location and able to concen-
trate. The difference between this Mystery and astral projection is that
the Adept does not leave their body and is aware of their immediate
surroundings, but is not moving as such, just gaining a snapshot of the
object they seek.

Force 1 – The Adept can seek targets in the same building, and can spend
five minutes looking as per astral projection. The Adept gains knowledge
of the general status of the target.

Increased range up to across the city +1 Force.

Increased effect to view the immediate surroundings of the object +1
Force.
Core Rules

Deaden Senses
The ability to deaden and weaken the senses of a target. This could be
sight, hearing, taste, touch or smell. The sense isn’t completely shut off,
instead it is reduced such that the target won’t sense something unless
it is very pronounced. The target is unaware that their senses have been
deadened.

Force 1 – The Adept can deaden a single sense of a target that they touch
for a minute. The dampening effect is powerful, for example a target with
this is the secret trutagitrep

their hearing deadened would hear the sound of a gun going off in the
same room as a click rather than a bang.

Increased duration to five minutes +1 Force.

Increased effect to two senses +2 Force.

Deathless Sleep
Using this ability the Adept is able to drift into a voluntary deathlike
state. During this time, the Adept does not need to eat or sleep, but they
must be able to breath. They have a fleeting understanding of what goes
on around them (i.e. they could tell when they were alone, but not who
was with them), and are able to recover back to full consciousness at will.

Force 1 – The Adept can feign death for up to a day, during which they
do not move at all. If investigated, they would pass all but the most strin-
128 gent exam as dead.
Increased duration to one week +1 Force.

ht si siht
Increased duration to a month +2 Force.
Increased effect such that the Adept is fully aware of what occurs in their
presence +1 Force.

Drowse
The Adept has the ability to make a target drift into a ‘waking sleep’, los-
ing the ability to concentrate or pay attention to their surroundings. After
the target recovers, they have little memory of what occurred during the
drowse unless it was shocking or very much out of the ordinary, but they
know that something strange happened to them.

Force 1 – The drowse lasts around five minutes, and only affects one tar-
get who must be in the same room as the Adept.

Increased range up to ‘in the same building’ +1 Force.

Increased duration up to one an hour +1 Force.

Core Rules
Increased effect to include another target +1 Force.

Encrypt
The Adept is able to write in an encrypted form, which cannot be deci-
phered. When writing, the Adept must nominate a target who can read
the script. The script exists until it is destroyed, and the target is always
able to read the script.
pertigaturt terces eht si siht
Force 1 – The Adept is able to write a message approximately one page
long, which one target is able to read.

Increased effect to ten or so pages +1 Force.

Increased effect to a handful of readers +2 Force.

Energy Medicine
The ability to repair physical damage using astral energy and coercion.

Force 1 – The Adept may immediately repair one Wound level.

Heal another person by touch +1 Force.

Heal the target by two Wound Levels instead of one +2 Force.

129
this is th Forget
This Mystery allows the Adept to selectively ‘wipe’ memories from a tar-
get. Short, precise memories can be removed, such as the memory of a
person walking past, a short conversation, or the presence of a vehicle. It
is not possible to wipe a deeper or more established memory (such as the
face of a partner or the fact that you have children).

Force 1 – The Adept can wipe the memory of a short event or happening
from one target. The memory must be something which at the time is in-
consequential to the target, i.e. something that the target is only casually
interested in.

Increased effect to a handful of targets +1 Force.

Increased effect to the memories of important events +2 Force.

Levitation
An Adept may levitate themselves upwards and effectively fly by mystical
Core Rules

means.

Force 1 – The Adept can levitate for a total of a minute, and may move
at running speed. They may not be burdened by heavy weight when they
do so.

Increased duration up to five minutes +1 Force

Increased effect to levitate up to three people with the Adept +1 Force
this is the secret trutagitrep

Mask
The Adept is able to either change the physical appearance of their face or
cloud the mind of a viewer so that they appear to be someone else.

Force 1 – The Adept can change their appearance as perceived by one

person, who the Adept selects when they activate the Mystery. The Adept
cannot appear as a particular person, and they remain of the same gen-
der and age. The effect lasts for five minutes, at which point the Adept
reverts to their normal features. After the event the target has difficul-
ty finding anything memorable about the person they met, except that it
clearly was not the Adept, unless of course they saw the transition.

Increased duration to fifteen minutes +1 Force.

Increased effect to a handful of people +1 Force.
Increased effect to appear as a particular person, or of a different gender
130 or age +2 Force.
this is th Pain
The ability to cause a target excruciating, debilitating pain. The target
feels the pain in a region of their body dictated by the Adept, and when
affected by the pain the target suffers -1D to all tests (to a minimum of
1D). After the effect ends, the target suffers no long term effects.

Force 1 – The Adept can cause pain in a single target in the same room,
and the effect lasts five minutes during which the Adept must concentrate
on the target and may not perform any other complex action, or the pain
dissipates.

Increased duration to one hour +2 Force.

Increased effect in that the target suffers long-lasting sickness that takes
a day or two to clear and inflicts -1D on all tests (to a minimum of 1D)
during that time +2 Force.

Precognition
Core Rules

The ability to perceive future events, typically as ‘flash forwards’, psychic

warnings or the like.

Force 1 – The Adept is able to ask the Narrator what is the most likely
outcome of an action they are taking. The outcome should cover the next
few minutes, i.e. the direct outcome, not something that may happen in the
next days or might rely on other influences.

Ask the Narrator the alternative most likely outcomes of doing/not do-
this is the secret trutagitrep

ing a specific act +1 Force.

Psychokinesis
The ability to manipulate, move or remove an object. The Adept must
be familiar with the object, and the Mystery does not work on psychi-
cally charged objects like Soul Jars. The object can be manipulated as
if the Adept were handling it themselves, and moved at walking speed,
although it can be thrown.

Force 1 – A small object up to the size of a book in the same room may be
moved through the air or temporarily vanished, for a maximum of five
minutes or as long as the Adept concentrates, whichever is shorter.

Increased range up to ‘across the city’ +1 Force.

Increased duration up to one day +1 Force.
132 Increased effect up to a 5Kg object +1 Force.
Pyrokinesis

ht si siht
The ability to manipulate, shape and control fire.

Force 1 – The Adept is able to start small fires by touch which will set
flammable substances on fire, similar to touching something with a light-
ed candle.

Create a larger fire similar to throwing a cup full of flammable, burning

liquid over a target within the same room +1 Force
Make something generally considered non-flammable, difficult to burn or
requiring a great deal of heat on fire, such as a wooden door +2 Force

Read
The Adept is able to read foreign languages, perhaps even obscure or
invented languages. The Adept chooses one appropriate language when
they activate the mystery. The Adept is not able to speak the language or
understand spoken words, only read them, to a level similar to an accom-

Core Rules
plished, technical reader. Only one language can be understood per use
of this Mystery, and only one instance of this Mystery may be in play
at any time.

Force 1 – The Adept is able to read one of the common languages spoken
of the world, and the effect lasts for around an hour.

Increased duration to one day +1 Force.

Increased duration to one week +2 Force. pertigaturt terces eht si siht
Increased complexity of language to obscure or dead languages +2 Force.

Root
The Adept has the ability to root a target to the spot, paralysing them in
place. The target cannot move any part of their body, but they are aware
of their surroundings and what is occurring around them.

Force 1 – The Adept may target one individual in the same room as them,
and they are paralysed for one minute. The target has no idea what has
happened to them or what might have caused it. The target may be moved
by others, and in this sense is similar to a body gripped by rigor mortis.
They are unable to speak but they can see and hear.

Increased range up to ‘in the same building’ +1 Force.

Increased duration up to five minutes +2 Force.
Increased effect to render the target unconscious +2 Force. 133
 ht si siht
Servant
The ability to make an animal become the Adept’s servant. It will obey
commands of similar complexity to ‘follow that man and come back when
he enters his house’, or ‘bark when anyone comes’. The animal needs to
be able to hear the Adept’s commands, so mammals and birds make good
servants.

Force 1 – The servant will work for the Adept for the duration of one
task or twenty four hours, whichever comes first. The adept must touch the
animal to get the effect to work.

Increased range up to ‘any animal within sight’ +1 Force.

Increased duration up to twenty four hours regardless of competed tasks
+2 Force.
Increased effect to make the servant willing to fight for you +1 Force.

Storm

Core Rules
With this Mystery the Adept can create a powerful storm that builds and
releases on their location with preternatural speed. The storm is a natural
one, but its appearance will baffle those who understand how weather
systems work.

Force 1 – The Adept is able to create a powerful rain storm centred on

themselves, with swirling winds and thunder and lightning. The storm
will soak anyone caught in it, and make activities relying on sight and
sound much more difficult. The storm has a diameter of around a mile. pertigaturt terces eht si siht
The storm will last ten minutes and then blow over.

Increased range up to ‘centred somewhere in the same city’ +1 Force.

Increased duration up to twenty minutes +1 Force.
Increased effect to a storm with golf ball size hail +2 Force.

Telepathy
The ability to transfer thoughts mentally with a target through extra-
sensory perception. This is akin to having a conversation with a target.
The Adept and their target do not have to know each other, the Adept can
locate them by name alone.

Force 1 – The Adept is able to have a telepathic conversation with one

target who does not have to be Adept themselves. They pair must be in the
same general area such as a building, but they do not have to be in line of
sight. The conversation lasts a maximum of five minutes. 135
this is th Increased range up to in the same city +1 Force
Increased duration up to one hour +1 Force
Increased effect up to five people in the conversation (in different places
in range) +1 Force

Timeless
The Adept is able to ‘freeze time’, allowing them to move while events
around them have ceased. Others in the presence of the Adept are able to
perceive them moving (or more like disappearing). The Adept is not able
to interact with objects not on their person when the Mystery takes effect,
as these are also frozen in time (so the Adept could not pick an object up,
but they could cover it with a cloth they were originally holding).

Force 1 – The effect lasts one minute, and the Adept is able to act as nor-
mal in that time.

Increased duration to five minutes +1 Force.

Core Rules

Increased effect to allow the Adept to manipulate a small (book sized)

object originally not on their person +2 Force.

Tongues
The Adept is able to speak and understand a foreign language, perhaps
even an obscure or invented language. The Adept is not able to read this
language, only speak and understand it. They have the accent and in-
tonation of a nature of whatever region they are in, and sound like
this is the secret trutagitrep

a native speaker. Only one language can be understood per use of this
Mystery, and only one Mystery may be in play at any time.

Force 1 – The Adept is able to understand and speak one of the common
languages spoken in the world selected when the Mystery activates, and
the effect lasts for five minutes.
Increased duration to one hour +1 Force.
Increased complexity of language to obscure or dead languages +2 Force.

Transference
The Adept is able to transfer their consciousness into a host body, effec-
tively taking it over. For the duration the Adept can act as they like in
the host’s body. While the Adept’s consciousness is elsewhere, they have
no idea what is happening to their own body, which lies in a seeming
slumber from which it cannot be awoken. After the transference ends, the
136 Adept’s consciousness rushes back to its own body. The target recalls the
events that took place while they were host, and that they had no control

ht si siht
over their actions.

Force 1 – The Adept can transfer into a host that they are touching, and
the effect lasts for one minute.

Increased duration to ten minutes +2 Force.

Increased effect in that the target has no recollection of what happened
during the transfer, only that they were not themselves +2 Force.

Watcher
This ability allows the Adept to place a watcher or ward in a room. The
object that they use for this purpose must be something connected to them,
such as a painting of them or an object they made. The watcher keeps a
vigil over the location and alerts the Adept should something unexpected
occur, such as a person entering a usually quiet room. At this point the
Mystery ends.

Core Rules
Force 1 – The Adept is alerted that something has happened, but not
what has occurred. The Adept must stay in the ‘same city’ as the watcher,
and can only have a single watch active at any time.

Increased range to ‘same country’ +1 Force.

Increased effect to a notification of what has occurred +2 Force.
Increased effect to having the watch give an audible alarm in the location
+1 Force. pertigaturt terces eht si siht

Worm
This ability allows the Adept to enter extremely constricted spaces, such
as pipes and openings. During this transition the Adept is in a trance-like
state, oblivious to their surroundings.
Force 1 – The Adept can pass through a shallow opening approximately
thirty centimetres in diameter, taking around five minutes to do so.

Increased effect to one minute to pass through +1 Force.

Increased effect to pass through a ten centimetre gap +1 Force.
Increased effect to the ability to pass through a length of pipe at the nor-
mal diameter in five minutes +2 Force.

137
this is th
Adding Flavour to Mysteries
M ysteries are the most obviously supernatural abilities of Adepts,
and represent the powers unlocked by a communion with the
realm beyond the Veil. As such, it is worth Players and the Narrator
spending some time thinking about these abilities, and considering how
to make them unique and flavourful. The easiest way to add flavour to a
Mystery is to add a secondary sensory effect (i.e. effecting the senses of
witnesses) that occurs when the Mystery manifests, something perhaps
related to the Adept’s Reveal, but much less obvious and unique to the
Mystery. Remember when designing such an effect that Mysteries don’t
trigger Reveals and may be very difficult for witnesses to spot, depending
on the nature of the Mystery. Adding a secondary sensory effect makes the
Mystery unique to that Adept.

Mystery – the ability to seemingly float up vertical surfaces to twice the

height of a man. Secondary sensory effect – streams of black drift from
Core Rules

the Adept, or a high pitched keening sound is heard as the Adept rises.

Mystery – the ability to telepathically talk to others in the same room. Sec-
ondary sensory effect – a shimmering of the air like a heat haze between
the two speakers.

I mportantly, the secondary sensory effect shouldn’t be obviously

supernatural – it should be something that a viewer could pass off
this is the secret trutagitrep

as a trick of the light, a coincidental sound etc., and it shouldn’t be more

obvious than the Adept’s Reveal – it is a side effect of the Mystery, nothing
more, but something that adds a little flavour to proceedings.

Power
A s adepts use their abilities, they may gain Essence, the Essence value
increasing by one if at least one value of 6 is obtained on Arts or
Mystery dice. Essence results in gaining Tiers in Power. Adepts start the
game at Tier 0 in Power. Once an Adept reaches Tier 5 in Power, they are

h
ready to Ascend.
138
 A n increase in an Adept’s Power Tier leads to an increase in their

ht si siht
abilities. At each Tier above 0, the Adept can assign an additional
1D to any of their Arts, illustrating their increased understanding of the
powers from beyond the Veil. The Adept has free choice of which Art
they assign their additional 1D to, it doesn’t have to be the predominant
Art of their Archetype if they chose one, or the same Art from Tier to
Tier. They are also able to select or define a new Mystery, increasing their
options in play.

Elspeth is at Tier 1 in Power with the Mystery Levitation. She gains

enough Essence to reach Tier 2. Her Player then selects another Mystery,
and chooses Clairvoyance, adding it to her character sheet.

Stains

Core Rules
A s well as gaining Power in play, Adepts will almost certainly gain a
great deal more Stains. Stains represent the damage to the mortal
form caused by the use of power, and are accompanied by an increased
awareness of the Adept by beings and forces that dwell beyond the
Veil. Stains are dangerous, as they have two effects. Firstly, they cause
Corruption, and secondly, the make the adept more susceptible to entities
from beyond the Veil, known as Hungers.
pertigaturt terces eht si siht

Corruption
A depts begin the game at Tier 0 in Corruption. Should an Adept
acquire 7 Stains, then they move to Corruption Tier 1 and acquire
a Corruption effect. This is a physical manifestation of the damage to their
mundane form and psyche resulting from their connection with the greater
reality. Typically, a Tier 1 Corruption effect is a small but permanent
illustration of the damage they have sustained. The Player and Narrator
together should design the Corruption effect for the Adept, something
that is unusual or unpleasant. Remember however that Corruption effect
at Tier 1 isn’t in and of itself something otherworldly, just something
strange and unsettling that effects the Adept.
139
 Tier 1 Corruption effect examples – A sore that won’t heal, bloodshot eyes,

ht si siht
a twisted foot, a loss of front teeth, a lazy eye, a stooped back, twisted
fingers, a patch of blackened skin…

S hould an Adept acquire a further 7 Stains for a total of 14, their

Corruption advances to Tier 2 and the Corruption effect also advances
becoming more pronounced.

Tier 2 Corruption effect examples – An open sore on the face that won’t
heal, bloodshot and weeping eyes, a twisted leg, a loss of most teeth, a
blind eye, a twisted spine, a crippled hand, a large patch of broken skin
on the face…

T his continues with their Corruption getting worse and worse. A

Tier 3 Corruption is very hard to hide, a Tier 4 is impossible to hide

Core Rules
and if the Adept gains sufficient Stains to reach Tier 5, they are consumed
by their physical corruption and die. If an Adept loses Stains (typically by
use of a Soul Jar), then they change Corruption Tiers as appropriate for
their new level of Stains, and any Corruption effects heal (even things like
lost teeth are recovered).

Miranda has 14 Stains, giving her a Tier 2 Corruption with a Cor-

ruption effect that her left eye weeps blood. Using a Soul Jar, Miranda pertigaturt terces eht si siht
removes 8 Stains. Her new Stains total is 6, so she moves from Tier 2 to
Tier 0 in Corruption and loses the Corruption effect.

Hungers and Corruption

T he greater an Adepts level of Corruption, the more visible they
are to Hungers, entities from beyond the Veil. These beings are
attracted to corrupted Adepts, and wish to feed on them. Furthermore,
for every Tier of Corruption an Adept has, they suffer a penalty of -1D to
all dice rolls in conflicts with Hungers to a minimum of 1D, making them
more susceptible to damage.

141
 Hungers
this is th

E ntities from the beyond the Veil of the mundane world are called
Hungers. They come in all shapes and sizes, being able to choose
a form when they pass through the Veil. Hungers seek one thing, to feed
on Power. They do this by targeting Adepts they become aware of and
draining their mystical energy. Corruption draws Hungers, as they mark
out Adepts to those that seek them beyond the Veil and form a mystical
link between the target and the Hunger. Some say that the Hunger is
nothing but a physical manifestation of the Adept’s greed for power, but
who can say for sure?

E very time an Adept gains a Tier in Corruption, they may become

the target of a Hunger, who gains an immaterial link to the Adept
in question. This doesn’t always happen – it’s a 50/50 chance, which can
be resolved by the roll of the dice in secret by the Narrator, with a 4, 5 or 6
Core Rules

meaning a Hunger has been drawn from beyond the Veil. Importantly, the
Adept doesn’t know if they have drawn the attention of a Hunger until
they come face to face.

Nancy moves from Tier 1 to Tier 2 in Corruption. The Narrator rolls

a dice in secret and gets a 5. Nancy has become the target of a Hunger,
but she doesn’t know it yet.
this is the secret trutagitrep

S hould the Adept draw the attention of a Hunger, it remains fixated

on the Adept, even if they then manage to remove Stains and the
associated Tier of Corruption through the use of a Soul Jar. Once the
Hunger is aware of the Adept, only destroying it or sating its hunger will
free the Adept from its attention. The Hunger is not interested in other
Adepts – it can only feed on the Adept to which it is linked.

W hen they pass through the Veil, Hungers assume a mortal form.
This could be a human, a creature or some kind of demon or
monster, but always with a marked, inhuman intellect. Hungers, once
manifested, will then hunt the Adept, studying them, and attempting to
isolate them away from friends and support. This is when the Hunger will
strike.

142
 Marcus moves from Tier 1 to Tier 2 in Corruption and draws the at-

ht si siht
tention of a Hunger. The Narrator makes a note and later creates the
Hunger – in this case, the being manifests as a huge black hound with a
twisted, human face that drools blood.

H ungers have the same Attributes and Arts as the Adepts they
hunt – they are dark mirrors of those that dabble in forbidden
powers – this is why some scholars believe that Hungers are created by
the Adept’s desires made manifest. They have whatever Skills the Narrator
feels fit their form, including a combat Skill which is typically +2D over
the Attribute, with a Damage value of 4D, representing claws, teeth or an
inhuman ability to drain life from a target. They also have an equal number
of Mysteries as the Adept they hunt, although these will be unique and
will match the form they take. The Narrator doesn’t need to write down
all these Mysteries when the Hunger is summoned, instead they can create
them ‘on the fly’ as the hunt unfolds. These Mysteries are uncanny occult
abilities of the Hunger, and typically the Hunger may only use a Mystery

Core Rules
once in an encounter, and does not roll any dice for Power or Stains.

The Hunger that targets Marcus matches his Attributes and Arts, but has
unique Mysteries – the Narrator decides that she will note them down,
and decides that the being can move through walls at walking pace, and
its shriek is a physical attack using the Wit Attribute that can wound.

H
pertigaturt terces eht si siht
ungers attack their targets physically, attempting to wound them.
Remember that Adepts suffer a -1D to any die rolls for each current
Tier of Corruption then have when in conflict (for example fighting) a
Hunger. During combat, if the Hunger manages to incapacitate the Adept,
they lose a Tier of Power as the Hunger feeds. This is a permanent loss,
and can only be recovered by gaining Power in the usual way. When the
Power is lost the Mystery and extra Arts D that the Adept gained on
reaching that Tier are also lost.

I f the Hunger is destroyed, the connection is broken and the Adept is

free from further attacks. Similarly, if the Hunger is driven off but not
before it drained a Tier of Power, the connection is severed. Otherwise,
the Hunger will return until one of these conditions are met. If faced with
overwhelming odds the Hunger will retreat, only to return once again in
an attempt to feed.

O nce a Hunger is destroyed the Adept is free, at least until they gain
another Tier in Corruption and become a target once again.
143
 Soul Jars
this is the sijh

T he generic name for any mystical object that can contain Stains
is a Soul Jar. These items come in all shapes and sizes and in a
variety of forms – the mundane shape of a Soul Jar has no relevance to its
mystical capabilities. The ability to create Soul Jars was lost in the middle
ages, although some think that Soul Jars could never be created, but
instead naturally came about in items of mystical or occult significance.
Either way, no one knows how to create Soul Jars now.

S oul Jars are like simple containers, but they hold mystical energy from
beyond the Veil in the form of the Stains that Adepts acquire from
using their abilities. They store this energy until the death or Ascendance
of the Adept, at which point the energy dissipates back to the otherworld.

S oul Jars are so important to Adepts and those that seek to rise to the
greater reality that they are among the most valuable possessions
of a Cabal. Without sufficient Soul Jars, Adepts are likely to succumb to
Corruption before they can gain sufficient Power to Ascend. Soul Jars
Narrator Advice

can be emptied of Stains at any time through the Draining Ritual, so

Adepts who acquire Soul Jars from their peers may empty and reuse them,
directing the Stains they once contained back to their original owners who
may gain Corruption as a result. Cabals guard their Soul Jars well.

S oul Jars are valuable and as such are often decorated to show this
value. They are often covered in mystical sign and symbols, and are
often stored under lock and key.

...the book of Naseth, a 16th century tome on black magic by Nastodemi-

cus; the reliquary of St. Knosus, made in the 12th century by Knights
from Aquitaine; the Tarot deck of the witch Simus, once of Munich; the
this is the sefet

dagger of Nazareth, said to have been dipped in the blood of Christ...

Removing Stains with Soul Jars

I t is possible for Adepts to remove Stains. This is done by attuning to
Soul Jars. Each Soul Jar can hold a variable number of Stains, depending
146 on their size and power, effectively removing them from the Adept. This
also removes Corruption if the resulting Stains remaining with the Adept
are lower than the current Corruption Tier. Sadly for Adepts, the mystery

hjis eht si siht

of creating Soul Jars is lost, and as such the acquisition of Soul Jars is one
of the major sources of conflicts between Adepts, and their discovery is a
driving force of game play in Esoterica. Should a Soul Jar be destroyed it
is emptied of Stains – these return to their original owner, and Corruption
is acquired as appropriate. It is also possible to empty Stains through the
Draining Ritual, with the Stains returning to their original owners.

A ll Soul Jars have a rating which shows how many Stains the Jar may
contain at any one time, revealed when the Soul Jar is first prepared
for use by a Cabal using the Hallowing Ritual. Soul Jar ratings are always
the result of a D6 multiplied by the number of Adepts taking part in the
first Hallowing Ritual (X) and a value between 1 and 4 relating to the
occult power of the Jar. So a small personal Soul Jar might have a rating
of 1XD6, a more typical example might hold 2XD6, a rarer example
might be able to hold 3XD6 Stains, while the most valuable might be able
to contain 4XD6 or more Stains. The physical size of the Soul Jar doesn’t
reflect what it can hold, it is instead a measure of the occult value of
the object. Adepts are innately aware in a qualitative way of the general
capacity of a Soul Jar they encounter, and how full it is. This ability has
a range of a few feet and the Jar must be in the same room as the Adept.
Soul Jars kept under lock and key behind walls and doors are effectively

Narrator Advice
screened from Adepts that seek them.

A Soul Jar with a rating of 2XD6 is Hallowed by four Adepts. At the

conclusion of the Ritual the Players roll (2 x 4 Adepts) x D6 = 8D6, ob-
taining 29. This is therefore the capacity of the Soul Jar for the Cabal.

Draining Ritual
S hould the Adepts acquire a Soul Jar from another source that is
tefes eht si siht

partially filled, it must be emptied and attuned before use with a

Draining Ritual. This is a Force 1 Ritual (as detailed later) that takes a day
and night to perform, with at least two Adepts involved. At the end of the
process any Stains the Jar contains are returned to their owners (who will
gain Corruption Tiers and Corruption effects from the returned Stains).

b
147
 hjis eht si siht
Hallowing Ritual
I n order to use a Soul Jar, the Adepts of a Circle must perform a
Hallowing Ritual. This is a Force 1 ritual that takes a day and a night
to perform, in the Cabal’s Temple, and requires the Soul Jar to be present.
At least two Adepts must be present. The Adepts focus their Arts on the
Soul Jar so that it is able to accept Stains. At the end of the Ritual, all those
that took place can deposit Stains to the capacity of the Soul Jar. If the
Jar holds an unequal number of Stains, then the Adepts get to decide who
deposits any extra Stains, to a maximum of one each. Any Stains acquired
by performing the Ritual may also be deposited into the Soul Jar (see later
below for how Rituals work). If the Adepts want to deposit more Stains at
a later date, then another Hallowing Ritual must be performed.

N ote that during the first Hallowing Ritual the total capacity of
Stains the Soul Jar will hold for this particular Cabal is determined
- note it down for future use. This depends on the number of Adepts
involved in the first Hallowing Ritual, as discussed.

Narrator Advice
The four Adepts performed a Hallowing Ritual on a Soul Jar with a
capacity of 29. They each could deposit up to 7 Stains, and one Adept
could deposit a further Stain.

Rituals
A s Adepts move up in Tier, they have access to more Mysteries.
At each Tier a Player chooses or creates with the Narrator an
tefes eht si siht

appropriate Mystery – but these are the only Mysteries they can perform.
However, there is another way to create the same effects as Mysteries,
which is by using Rituals. A Ritual allows a group of Adepts to create and
use a new Mystery as a ‘one-shot’. Rituals are defined in the same way as
normal Mysteries, except for the following limitations and extensions.

◊ Force – Rituals performed with a Force that is equal or less than the
Cabal’s Power Tier (i.e. the average Power Tier of the members)
are treated like normal Mysteries – dice are rolled as determined by
the Force when determining acquisition of Power or Stains. If the 149
 this is the sijh Force of the Ritual is greater than the Tier of the Cabal, twice as
many dice as normal are rolled - high Force Rituals are dangerous!.

◊ Essence – As with Mysteries and the Arts, it is only possible to gen-

erate one Essence when performing a Ritual. As a result, Essence is
only assigned to one individual. If the Adepts can’t agree who gets
the Essence, no one gets it.

◊ Stains – Stains generated from the Ritual are assigned to all partic-
ipants, i.e. if two Stains occur, every Adept who took part gets two
Stains. Rituals are dangerous!

◊ Time – Rituals take a number of hours equal to twice their Force

to perform.

◊ Participants – at least two Adepts are required to perform a Ritual.

◊ Duration – Mysteries can be ‘stored up’ and used later by any of the
Adepts that took part in the Ritual. For example, a Ritual to cause
a blinding flash of light can be performed and the effect ‘stored’. At
any time any of the Adepts involved could release the flash of light
as if they had just performed the Mystery. The Ritual can only be
Narrator Advice

used once however. Whether a Mystery from a Ritual is suited to

being ‘stored up’ is up to adjudication by the Narrator.

R ituals must be learnt, they cannot be ‘made up’. This is the esoteric
knowledge that is found in old books and scrolls, items which may
also be Soul Jars. Adepts wishing to discern if a occult item contains a
Ritual need to use the Decipher Skill, with the Narrator setting the
difficulty of the test based on the nature of the item.

T his may be handled in play by Players describing the Mystery that

they would like to perform as a Ritual, and stating that their Adept
is searching for the instructions. They could be looking in Soul Jars that
their Cabal owns (assuming they are books for example), or the Narrator
this is the sefet

could state that they will have to research the Ritual in an occult book,
perhaps in a well-known library. Finding the right book and getting the
chance to read the Ritual could become an adventure all in itself !

e
150
 hjis eht si siht
Adding Flavour to Rituals
R ituals allow groups of Adepts to perform Mysteries that they don’t
ordinarily have access to. Rituals represent secret rites dug from
grimoires, dusty tomes of magic, and are rare and potentially dangerous.
Extra flavour and uniqueness can be added to Rituals by including
secondary requirements that need fulfilling when the Ritual is performed.
Ingredients, actions and tools may all be introduced to add flavour to
the ceremony. Importantly the extra requirement shouldn’t as a rule be
so complex to do or perform that it makes the Ritual considerably more
difficult – the potential Stains are penalty enough. The requirement is
just in place to remind Players that they are performing an occult and
mysterious act, not just an exercise in dice rolling.

…requires the blood of a virgin….needs mistletoe, cut fresh…requires a

lock of hair from the target…the words must be spoken in Arabic…only
works when the moon is full…needs a human skull…requires a wolf
pelt…

Narrator Advice
T hematically, these strange requirements represent the fact that
Rituals are not innate to the Adepts that are performing them,
but instead are imprecise, complex and esoteric instructions left by other
practitioners. After all if the Ritual notes say that the Adepts must slice
their forearms open and bleed into a goblet to power the words, who is to
say it’s not correct?

Researching Rituals
R ituals are generally discovered cyphered into grimoires, mystical
tefes eht si siht

tomes of magic that are also typically Soul Jars. Player Character
Adepts can uncover the Rituals they require by studying these books, and
below are some ideas for the Narrator of how this might be handled in
play. These examples presuppose that the Cabal have decided that they
wish to do something that is best described as a Mystery – i.e. they want
to achieve something that is impossible without supernatural intervention.

151
 this is the sijh Mike, Jenny and Claire are discussing how their Adepts will steal a Soul
Jar from a rival Cabal called the Circle of Fire. The Adepts believe
that the Soul Jar is stored in the house of the head of the Circle, John
McMannus. They want to break into the house without setting off the
alarms. During the conversation, Jenny remarks that if they could pass
through the windows without breaking them, it would make their lives
easier. The Narrator, Tom, points out that a Mystery might be able to
achieve that, so perhaps there is a suitable Ritual. The Players agree their
Adepts will start researching the problem.

Rituals as Solutions
O ne way to make Rituals part of the game is for the Narrator to
occasionally suggest them as a possible solution to a particularly
tricky problem. Doing so allows the Players to consider something
supernatural in their list of solutions, and reinforces the supernatural
element of Esoterica. The Narrator shouldn’t overplay this option, but
if used sparingly it can add to the theme of the game. The Narrator can
do this by occasionally asking ‘do you think a Mystery might allow you to
Narrator Advice

do that?’ If the Players think yes, it’s possible a Mystery could help, that
leaves the Narrator a couple of options.

I f the Narrator wants play to move along at a fast rate, he could

suggest that a suitable Ritual has already been mentioned in one of the
grimoire Soul Jars the Adepts already own, assuming they have one. This
allows the Adepts to go research the Ritual and play to speed along. The
Narrator can design the Ritual, perhaps as a slightly twisted version of
what the Players want, and the story continues from there. Remember that
using Rituals risks Corruption, so they are never something that should be
undertaken lightly. The alternative option is for the Narrator to use this
Ritual as a way of sending play in another direction. For example, perhaps
the Narrator reveals that one of the Adepts has heard of a legendary
this is the sefet

Magician called Terinas of Wutzberg who reportedly had a similar Ritual

to that the Adepts seek – if the Adepts could find some of his writings,
perhaps they could discover the Ritual… This allows the Narrator to send
the play in a new direction, and add complexity to the adventure, should
they so desire.

152
 The Veil

hjis eht si siht

T he Veil is mysterious and seemingly waxes and wanes of its own
accord. Sometimes the Veil seems thicker, more robust, and the
view of Beyond is strongly hidden. At such times it is difficult to draw
power through the Veil, but the benefit is that corruption is weakened and
less damaging. Other times, the Veil seems to wane, to become thinner
and more nebulous. At these times power comes through the barrier
more readily. When the Veil is thinner, the other side of the Veil becomes
almost visible, and it is possible to make out vague suggestions of what
lies beyond.

E xamples of places and times when the Veil seems to wax or thicken
include:

◊ When in full, bright sunlight...

◊ In a very crowded place...
◊ In a very built up and unnatural area...

E
Narrator Advice
xamples of places and times when the Veil appears to wane or thin
include:

◊ At night when the moon is full...

◊ In very wild or abandoned places...
◊ In ancient buildings or ruins, especially places of worship or ritual
practice...

Effects of a Waxing or Waning Veil

W hen the Veil is waxing, it is harder to gain Essence or Stains.
tefes eht si siht

When any dice are rolled which may generate Essence or Stains,
two values of 6 on separate dice are needed to acquire a point of Essence.
Similarly, one point of Stains is acquired for every two values of 1 obtained
on the dice.

W hen the Veil is waning, it becomes easier to gain Essence and

Stains. When any dice are rolled which may generate Essence
or Stains, any value of 5 or 6 obtained will generate a point of Essence.
Similarly, one point of Stains is acquired for every value of 1 or 2 obtained
on the dice 155
 That’s it
this is the sijh

E verything that Adepts try to do in the game can be resolved using

the basic system presented here, and once you get the hang of the
mechanics, the game is very straightforward. The way that Essence, Power,
Stains and Corruption interact is the driving force behind the game, so
Narrators should think hard before making any changes to these rules.
Narrator Advice
this is the sefet

156
Narrator
Advice
 Narrator Advice
this is the sijh

T he job of the Narrator is to create the Secret World of Adepts,

Hungers and secret societies, of magic, mysticism and power, that
overlays the world we know. This can seem a daunting task, so here is some
advice about how to create a game of Esoterica.

Discuss the game first

I t’s a good idea to discuss with the Players the type of game you all
want to create before going any further. As discussed at the start of
this book, touching on themes, play styles, and what Players are expecting
from the game as part of the first session of play is a really useful way of
making sure everybody knows what they want to do. There’s nothing more
disappointing for a Player than creating an Adept focussed on horror and
investigative play only to discover that everyone else, Narrator included,
Narrator Advice

is playing a game of mystery and action, or for the Narrator to create a

horror scenario that no one wants to act out. The Narrator should try to
ensure that during these discussions everyone has equal say in the type of
game they want to play.

Set Limits
E soterica as a game about the occult and horror can have some pretty
mature themes, and the last thing anyone wants is for a Player or the
Narrator to feel uncomfortable about something that comes up in play. It’s a
good idea before the game begins for everyone involved to have a chat about
this is the sefet

what they don’t want to see come up in the game, i.e. to set some boundaries
for play. This will hopefully ensure that everyone is on the same page when
play begins, and no one is going to feel uncomfortable about where the
game is heading.

c
158
 The X Card

hjis eht si siht

A good system to ensure that the game doesn’t drift into areas that
Players or the Narrator are uncomfortable with is known as the X
card. It’s a card placed on the table during play with a large X drawn on
it. During the game, if anyone feels that the game is heading in a direction
that they feel uncomfortable with, they reach out and touch the X. That’s
a signal that the game needs to change track away from the direction it is
heading. Importantly, no one need to explain themselves or justify why
the felt the game was heading somewhere they weren’t comfortable with.
Touching the X is all that’s required.

The mystery of Esoterica

O ne thing you won’t find in this section is a description of just what
is beyond the Veil, what Hungers are, what Ascending really means,
etc. This is deliberate. It is up to the Narrator and, to some extent, the
Players to decide these things; what may be the truth of the setting for
one game will not be the case for another. Mystery is part of what makes

Narrator Advice
Esoterica an interesting and dynamic game; if you remove the mystery
then you take away part of the setting. You may choose to explore the
mystery of Esoterica in your games, for example by having them encounter
other Cabals with rival views, or you might ignore this aspect of the game
and simply deal with the System as it is. As always the choice remains with
the Narrator and Players to decide on the type of game they wish to play.

The Drive Chain of Play

E soterica as a game is driven by a conflict. The player characters
wish to Ascend through the Veil to the wonder and beauty of the
tefes eht si siht

realm beyond, their destiny. To do this, they need to increase their Power,
weakening the Veil’s hold on them. This in turn is achieved by utilising
the Arts and Mysteries that mark Adepts as different to ordinary people.
However, as well as increasing in Power, using these abilities is much more
likely to generate Stains, manifestations of unworldly power, and in turn
Corruption, drawing the attention of the mundane world through physical
manifestations as well as potentially drawing the ghastly attention of
Hungers. The only way to remove these accumulated Stains is through
complex rituals involving the use of Soul Jars, mystical artefacts of lost
manufacture. Where are these Soul Jars? Typically either lost to antiquity,
159
or held by other Adepts and Cabals, who jealously hoard them for like

hjis eht si siht

purpose.

What do Players do?

P layers take on the roles of Adepts, those that know the truth of the
greater reality. They seek to Ascend, to pass beyond the Veil into this
magical realm. That is the core premise of Esoterica, and the driving force
in play. The Narrator should discuss this concept with the Players before
setting up a game – if the Players don’t buy into this, then they are playing
the wrong game!

S o what are player characters typically doing in Esoterica? Using their

Arts and Mysteries fighting other Cabals and mystical organisations
for the ownership of Soul Jars, which they then use to store up Stains
while they increase their Power enough to eventually Ascend. In the
meantime, there are all sorts of other conflicts that run secondary to the
story – fighting off Hungers, trying to avoid the attentions of government
organisations that seek Adepts, and seeking out hidden artefacts that may

Narrator Advice
be Soul Jars before other Adepts can find them.

What does the Narrator do?

T he Narrator has three really important jobs in the game. Firstly,
they are responsible for adjudicating the rules and describing them
to the Players, so they need to have a firm understanding of the mechanics
of the game. Secondly, they are responsible for creating the stories that the
Players take part in, and populating them with interesting locations and
characters. Finally, they create, describe and control the scenes that make
up each scenario. These are tough jobs, so let’s look at them in more detail.
tefes eht si siht

What is a scenario?
A t its simplest, a scenario is a story or plot line that describes a series
of events that will take place within the setting of the game. The
Adepts then take part in this plot and interact with the various elements
of the story. The difference between a scenario and the script of a film or
play is that nothing is set in stone – the Players get to decide how their 161
characters act during the story. The Narrator assesses and reacts to the

hjis eht si siht

Players’ actions and describes the events that unfurl as a result; the Players
react to each new revelation and, in doing so, direct the path of the story.
It is this that makes role-playing games so interesting; those playing get
to create a story collaboratively that involves all the characters, themes
and ideas they find most interesting in the setting. Unfortunately, this
places a great responsibility on the Narrator. They must create the basis
of the story – the scenario – and then they must react to the actions of the
Players and alter the flow of the story accordingly to create a smooth game.
Luckily, the focus of the game for Players is very clear: gaining Power and
Ascending beyond the Veil. This makes the creation of scenarios an easier
proposition for the Narrator.

Scenario forms
O nce the themes have been established with reference to the ideas of
the Players at the start of play, and a suitable inspiration has been
considered, the Narrator can begin to create a scenario that features some
of the concepts outlined above. Scenario construction is key to playing

Narrator Advice
Esoterica and is worth considering in more detail.

Scripted Versus Free-form Scenarios

S ome Narrators like to script their scenarios, going into detail regarding
the scenes that take place and writing out the major events, locations
and characters involved. Purchased adventures fall into this category.
This can be very useful, as going into detail gives the Narrator a sense of
comfort that they’ve covered every eventuality. However, there are a few
things to be aware of with this approach. Writing detailed scenarios is
extremely time consuming and Players will more than likely deviate from
tefes eht si siht

well-constructed plot lines, which often means that no matter how much
time the Narrator has spent crafting their scenario, the story might end up
somewhere else completely. Also, it can be difficult not to railroad Players
when using scripted scenarios, restricting their choices and giving the
game a forced feel.

T he alternative is the free-form approach, which you might also

call winging it! Here, the Narrator starts with a rough idea of the
plot and the direction of the story and perhaps some of the characters
and locations involved, but then makes up the rest on the fly as the game 163
 this is the sijh progresses. This technique has the advantage of allowing the Narrator to
react to the ideas and plans of the Players, but does put a lot of emphasis
on the skills and ideas of the Narrator. It can also cause problems if it
becomes apparent that the Narrator is acting off the cuff, as Players can
lose focus on the game world and the story if they think the Narrator is
‘making it up’.

I deally, a combination of these approaches to scenario construction is

best, combining the detail and forethought of a planned scenario with
the flexibility and reactive nature of a free-form game. Narrators should
consider these two approaches before play to see which better fits their
style.

Typical Scenario Forms

T here are many ways to play Esoterica, but the following three
scenario forms would most likely make the backdrop of most games
Narrator Advice

Stealing Soul Jars

I n this form of scenario, the Players’ Adepts have discovered another
group that may have a Soul Jar in their keeping. The Adepts want to
obtain the Jar, and this is the basis of the scenario. Perhaps they scope
out their rivals before breaking into the temple and trying to steal it.
Perhaps they try and infiltrate the enemy Cabal, or call the authorities
down on them once they have ‘proof ’ of a crime. Such a scenario could be
carefully scripted or completely free-form, as suits the group of Players
and the Narrator. How do Adepts discover where rival Cabals are based?
That’s research - reading newspaper stories, searching on the internet,
following who buys certain items at auctions, all the investigative work of
this is the sefet

a journalist digging up a good story.

Locating Lost Soul Jars

L ocating and acquiring Soul Jars doesn’t have to be from rival Cabals.
Many have been lost to time, or are only known through myths,
164 hints and legends. Trying to acquire such lost artefacts could be the source
of many adventures – locating the information required to find the Soul
Jar, travelling to the location of the search, locating the Jar and no doubt

hjis eht si siht

fighting off others who have had the same idea. Such scenarios could run
the gamut from pulpy Indiana Jones style adventures in the jungles of
South America through to digging up lost secrets of the Templars or
hidden treasures of the Biblical world. Such adventures are more likely to
be scripted due to their scope, but could easily be created ‘on the fly’ by like
minded Narrators and Players. How do Adepts know where to search for
such items? That’s research once again, looking for clues in dusty tomes in
storied libraries, or finding hidden ciphers in the margins of a scroll from
ancient Persia.

Facing Adversaries
A depts in Esoterica have a lot of adversaries – rival Cabalists intent
on their Soul Jars, government agents with their own agendas, and
Hungers from beyond the Veil who feed on Power. Fighting off moves
from these groups is another common scenario type in Esoterica. Such
adventures often form the interlude between the Cabal’s own quests for
Soul Jars, and act as a nice way to change the pace and show the Players

Narrator Advice
that they have to be wary.

A Note on Money
E soterica is set in the real world, so money is sadly important.
However, it isn’t that interesting. It’s assumed that the Adepts all
have sufficient funds from old jobs etc. to maintain a normal lifestyle, have
somewhere to live etc., and can get by without the Players and Narrator
having to track what they spend. However, if you want more resources to
be available, or to have an Adept at the other end of the social scale, you
can use the Rich Perk and Poor Complication respectively. It’s a good idea
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if you want to have adventures that include global travel in the hunt for
Soul Jars that at least one of the Adepts has the Rich Perk.

Themes of Esoterica
C onsidering the drive chain of play, there are several concepts which
are likely to be common in any game of Esoterica to a greater or
lesser extent, and play might focus on one or another in the game.
165
 this is the sijh ◊ Secrets – Esoterica is about secrets. Secret knowledge of the Veil and
what it represents, the secret use of powers beyond mundane reck-
oning, secret Cabals, and the hunting of secret artefacts and hidden
relics of a past, more magical world. These secrets aren’t necessarily
answered or even explored in play, but they act as a backdrop to the
game, permeating everything that takes place.

◊ Magic – Esoterica is about magic. Not the fireballs and lightning bolts
of other games, but a subtle, secret power such as many attribute to
mystics from the ancient world and occultists from the present. Power
is omnipresent, but always hidden, and always has a cost. Reveal too
much, draw too much attention, and all is lost.

◊ Horror – Hungers are embodiments of nightmares made real. They

hunt their prey with an otherworldly intensity. Rival Cabals desper-
ately seek Soul Jars, and will do anything to get them. Adepts stave
off a terrible spiritual corruption that can spread whenever they risk
using their abilities. Horror is very much a part of Esoterica.

◊ Immorality – Adepts know that this world is a lie. So who cares if

someone gets hurt in your quest for power? Most who know the truth
of reality care little for this world, only seeking to escape at any cost.
Narrator Advice

◊ Violence is not the answer – Adepts exist in the mundane world, our
world. Obvious acts of great violence or destruction will bring down
the wrath of the authorities, and deny an Adept access to their Cabal
and to Soul Jars, condemning them to remain in this world. Unlike in
many roleplaying games, in Esoterica violence is rarely the answer.
Subtly, secrecy and cunning are more likely to win out.

Key Elements of Play

T
this is the sefet

he following unique elements of Esoterica are tools for the Narrator

to use to direct play.

168
w i
 hjis eht si siht
Hungers in Play
T he threat of Hungers is a very real menace that drives Adepts to try
to limit their Corruption. Hungers feed off Power, so it is possible
for a Hunger to seriously reduce the advancement of Adepts toward
Ascension. They also inflict real, physical wounds, and can kill an Adept.
The Narrator should try to remind Players that too much Corruption is
very bad for them indeed.

W hen an Adept gains a Tier of Corruption, the threat of a Hunger

should always hang in the air. They will not know for sure
whether they have caught the attention of something from beyond, and
that should put them on edge. The Hunger will hunt slowly, cautiously,
always looking to isolate the Adept, and when it attacks there should
be real danger of a loss of Power and serious wounding. However, the
Narrator shouldn’t make interactions with Hungers commonplace – they
are there as a deterrent to Players who gain Corruption too fast rather
than a common part of the game.

Narrator Advice
Example Hungers include a man with a blackened, cracked face, who
always seems to be on the edge of the Adept’s vision; a dog with a shaggy
dark-red coat and one crippled, broken leg, that appears in the dark cor-
ners of rooms when an Adept is alone in their home at night; a winged
serpent whose leathery wings can sometimes be heard by the Adept when-
ever they are under an exposed sky.

T he Narrator should feel free to present Hungers as truly terrible,

alien beings. They should be horrifying or disturbing, and their
capabilities unknown. The Narrator should certainly feel free to assign
them Mysteries as and when they desire to fit the scene of play. Who’s to
say a Hunger can’t walk through a wall, or rot living things with its mere
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presence? In some ways Hungers are the most overt expression of the
world beyond the Veil that occurs in play, and so their appearance should
be very memorable indeed.

F or more examples of different Hungers, see the section entitled ‘The

Secret World’.

169
 this is the sijh
Other Otherworldly Entities
S imilarly, Hungers can also be used ‘outside’ of the framework of
Corruption. Perhaps otherworldly spirits or beings guard a Soul Jar
or can be summoned by a particular dusty tome. Hungers can be used in
this way too to add a sense of the supernatural to a game. However, they
should be used sparingly, as too much exposure weakens the impact these
creatures can have on Payers when they are revealed.

I deas for such creatures are presented later in this section and in the
section entitled ‘The Secret World’.

Acquiring Soul Jars

T he acquisition of Soul Jars is the driver for most games of Esoterica,
as without them Adepts have no chance to Ascend before they
succumb to Corruption. The secrets of making these occult items is long
lost, and there is a limited number in the world, so those Soul Jars that
Narrator Advice

are not lost to history are jealously guarded by those that use them. This
means in play Adepts might plot to ‘relieve’ a Cabal of a Soul Jar, or might
uncover clues to the location of a possible Soul Jar hidden somewhere on
the globe. Seeking these artefacts is what drives Esoterica.

S oul Jars come in all shapes and sizes, but all are mystical, secret and
unique. Books, reliquaries, candlesticks, scrolls, tombs, weapons,
staffs, wands, chalices, sceptres, in fact any ancient object with a mystical
connection could be a Soul Jar.

Soul Jars could include the skull of Sarah More, a Magician, etched with
runes; the headstone of the grave of Thomas Batterly, a known war-
lock; the book of Nephus, a cryptic tome never deciphered; the Arbitellum,
this is the sefet

a scientific device of unknown operation; the scroll of Essen, a vellum

parchment said to contain the secret to eternal life.

S oul Jars are the most valuable assets of Adepts, so they are guarded
well. Cabals keep them hidden under lock and key, only bringing
them out when they need to use them, and never store all of their Soul Jars
in the same location. Even if rival Adepts locate one of the Soul Jars of a
170 Cabal, it doesn’t mean they will find all of them. Learning what Soul Jars
a rival Cabal might have and where they are kept is a scenario all to itself.
 T he number of Stains that a Soul Jar can hold is between 1XD6 and

hjis eht si siht

4XD6 depending on its size and occult significance and the number
of Cabalists that first Hallow it. The use of the ‘X’ term in determining the
size of Soul Jars is a scaling mechanism that means that even small Soul
Jars are useful in campaigns with larger groups of Players. However, the
Narrator should feel free to scale back the capacity of Soul Jars, or increase
it if necessary to alter the pace of the campaign.

F or more examples of Soul Jars, see the section entitled ‘The Secret
World’.

Rival Cabals
A s the player characters seek Ascension, so do all the other Adepts of
the world. And with only a limited number of Soul Jars to contain
Stains and combat Corruption, competition is fierce. Just as the player
characters are members of a Cabal that plots to acquire Soul Jars, so every
other Cabal looks to take them back. This mystical, secret war is reality for
Adepts, and trying to thwart the endeavours of other mystics is a constant
activity.

Narrator Advice
A rival Cabal sends agents to infiltrate the society around the players’ Ca-
bal, to see if they have access to Soul Jars; a rival Cabal locates a lost Soul
Jar at the same time as the player characters, and races them to its location;
a rival Cabal breaks into the players’ temple and steals a Soul Jar.

R ival Adepts work the same way as Player characters - they have Arts
and Mysteries, and roll dice in the same way. Don’t worry about
tracking Power gains and Stains however, these are long term elements of
play that are unlikely to manifest immediately. It’s absolutely OK to just
decide when a rival Adept gains a Tier of Power or Corruption as fits the
story you are telling.
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F or examples of rival Cabals, see the section entitled ‘The Secret

World’.

p 171
 The Government

hjis eht si siht

R ival Cabals are not the only ones who seek what the player
characters have. The government is watching, trying to root out
secret societies, many of whom have political ambitions. The government
also knows that there is something ‘more’ going on, something secret
that seems to confound reality. They know that the artefacts held by these
groups seem to hold some kind of power, and for that reason agencies of
the government want them too. Should a Cabal be too overt in its actions,
it may find itself under study from the powers that be.

Player characters notice that a car seems to be following them when they
go about their business; a stranger enters the lodge building and asks to
see the fire records, demanding an immediate inspection; the player char-
acters learn that someone has been asking about their members.

F or examples of government agencies, see the section entitled ‘The

Secret World’.

Narrator Advice
Ascension
F inally, player character Adepts may find themselves with sufficient
Tiers of Power to Ascend, tearing aside the Veil sufficiently to pass
through and beyond. This requires a special ritual that takes around a day,
and involves the whole Cabal. It should be memorable and impressive,
perhaps requiring a special location. Finally, all Soul Jars that contain
some of the Ascending character’s Stains must be present, as they will be
drained of those Stains as the character departs. Of course, this makes the
Cabal especially vulnerable to other groups who may attempt to thwart
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the ritual by stealing the Soul Jars…

W hen a Player’s Adept Ascends, they get to tell everyone else (the
Narrator included) a little of what is beyond the Veil as their
character sees it - a parting vision of what is to come. This is a key time
for a Player as they have achieved the goal of the game, so the Narrator
needs to give them some time in the limelight. Then it’s time to make up a
new character and continue play, or maybe switch to a new Cabal if that’s
what the group decides to do.
173
 Creating NPCs
this is the sijh

P art of the job of the Narrator is to create and play the part of the
various NPCs, non-Player characters, that are encountered in the
game. These range from mundane people, police and reporters, to Adepts,
Hungers, and all the other people that make up the world of Esoterica. We
can divide these characters into two types depending on their relevance to
the story being told.

I ncidental non-Player characters are just that – incidental to the main

story. They act to support the Player characters and may oppose them,
but they are incidental to the real focus of the game. Animals, mundane or
otherwise, will be incidental characters, as will many humans.

O ften incidental characters don’t require any in game statistics, they

are just there as part of the fiction of the story. However if you
do need statistics for a character, perhaps because a Adept has initiated a
conflict with them, they are defined in the same way as Player characters
using Attributes and Skills. The simplest approach is to take the statistics
for an average human.
Narrator Advice

Average Human
Scale: 0D
Might: 2D
Agility: 2D
Wit: 2D
Charm: 2D
Skills: Any three at +1D each.
Gear: As needed by the story
Static: Dodge 6, Soak 6

A lter up or down any Attributes that fit the mental image you have of
the character. For Skills, you can either assign them straight away
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or leave that bit blank, and just assign Skills as they come up in the story.
For example, if a Adept attacks an incidental character, it would be good
to know that they have a Melee Skill of 3D, but other Skills they might
feasibly have such as Repair aren’t really relevant to the scene. Remember
that you might have to adjust the Static resistances as you alter Attributes
and assign Skills.

174
F inally, assign the incidental character any extra equipment or natural
abilities it may have, so that you can take these into account when
assigning difficulties.
 F or Hungers, most encountered have the same Attributes as the

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Adepts they target. For other mystical creatures, use the statistics for
an appropriately sized animal as a starting point and then add any bonuses
or Skills as you see fit. All otherworldly creatures have Mysteries, so give
them some though as well. A small, weak creature might have access to one
Mystery, a larger creature perhaps two or three mystical abilities.

Shop keeper
Might: 2D
Agility: 2D+1
Wit: 3D+1
Charm: 3D+1
Skills: Dodge 3D+1, Bargain 5D+2, Persuasion 5D
Static: Block 6, Dodge 10, Parry 7, Soak 6

Police
Might: 2D+2
Agility: 2D+1
Wit: 2D
Charm: 2D
Skills: Brawling 3D, Pistol 3D, Search 3D
Gear: Bullet proof vest, light pistol, handcuffs.

Narrator Advice
Static: Block 9, Dodge 7, Parry 7, Soak 10 (including +2 from armour)

Ex-Soldier
Might: 3D+1
Agility: 2D+1
Wit: 2D
Charm: 2D
Skills: Dodge 3D+1, Rifle 4D+1
Gear: Bullet proof vest, rifle.
Static: Block 10, Dodge 10, Parry 7, Soak 12 (including +2 from ar-
mour)

Hunter
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Might: 2D+2
Agility: 2D+1
Wit: 1D+2
Charm: 1D+1
Skills: Brawling 3D, Pistol 3D
Gear: Crowbar, heavy pistol, ski mask.
Static: Block 9, Dodge 7, Parry 7, Soak 8

175
 this is the sijh Bear
Might: 5D+1
Agility: 2D
Wit: 0D+1
Charm: 1D
Skills: Brawling 6D (6D+1 damage)
Static: Block 18, Dodge 6, Parry 6, Soak 16

Elk
Might: 4D+2
Agility: 1D+2
Wit: 0D+1
Charm: 1D
Static: Block 14, Dodge 5, Parry 5, Soak 14

Elephant
Might: 5D+2
Agility: 1D
Wit: 0D+1
Charm: 1D
Static: Block 17, Dodge 3, Parry 3, Soak 17
Narrator Advice

Monkey
Might: 1D
Agility: 4D+2
Wit: 0D+1
Charm: 2D+1
Skills: Acrobatics 6D+2, Dodge 6D+2
Static: Block 3, Dodge 20, Parry 14, Soak 3

Horse
Might: 4D+2
Agility: 2D+2
Wit: 0D+1
Charm: 1D
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Static: Block 14, Dodge 8, Parry 8, Soak 14

Tiger
Might: 4D
Agility: 3D+2
Wit: 0D+1
Charm: 1D
Skills: Brawling 5D+1 (6D+1 damage), Stealth 4D+2
Static: Block 16, Dodge 11, Parry 11, Soak 12
178
 Wolf

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Might: 3D+2
Agility: 2D+1
Wit: 0D+1
Charm: 1D
Skills: Brawling 4D+2 (3D+1 damage), Dodge: 4D+1
Static: Block 14, Dodge 13, Parry 7, Soak 11

Dog
Might: 2D
Wit: 0D+1
Agility: 2D+1
Charm: 1D
Skills: Brawling 3D (3D damage)
Static: Block 9, Dodge 7, Parry 7, Soak 6

Snake
Might: 1D+2
Agility: 3D+1
Wit: 0D+1
Charm: 1D
Skills: Brawling 3D, Stealth 4D

Narrator Advice
Special: Target’s bitten by a snake must pass a Moderate Might task or
be poisoned. Poisoned victims suffer 2D to 4D damage.
Static: Block 9, Dodge 10, Parry 10, Soak 5

Adept NPCs
A dept NPCs are generally more persistent than incidental NPCs,
with access to occult abilities. This can be handled in two ways.

T he first option is to treat the Adept NPC like a Player Character

and build them using the character creation rules. It isn’t necessary
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to go through the process step by step, and you can ignore the parts that
aren’t relevant. Also, for an Adept be sure to assign Arts and if greater
than Tier 0, Mysteries. In play these Adepts act like Player Adepts,
earning Essence and Stains as they use their abilities. This works well
for persistent antagonists in a game. If the Adept is less likely to be a
recurring character, quickly assign Attributes and Skills and then give
them Arts and Mysteries as fits their Tier. Don’t bother keeping track of
Essence and Stains, and assume that the Adept can use their Mysteries
once in any given scene. 179
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Playing in Other Time Periods
T he default time period for Esoterica is the modern age, but there’s
absolutely nothing in the rules that ties the game to that specific
period. It could just as easily be the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, or
the turn of the twentieth century. How much globe trotting etc. that the
Adepts do might change drastically in different eras, but that’s about it.

F eel free to discuss this with the Players - maybe they have a good
idea of a fun period in which to set the game. The only thing you as
the Narrator might have to do is modify the Skill list slightly (for example
replace the firearms Skills with bows and crossbows for a Renaissance
game), but that is easily done. As always, it’s your game so play as you
want.

Playing in Another Mythos

L

Narrator Advice
ikewise, the default ‘mythos’ for Esoterica is the Western Hermetic
tradition. But there’s nothing tying the game there beyond the
flavour text of the Soul Jars. You can easily transport the game to another
mythos as long as the basic theme of the game is the same.

Esoterica in the
Cthulhu Mythos
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A s an example of Esoterica set in another mythos, here we shall

discuss playing a game based in the Cthulhu Mythos of H.P.
Lovecraft.

E soterica is a game that focuses on Occult practitioners seeking to

Ascend beyond the Veil to a better life in a greater reality beyond.
181
 this is the sijh Inherent in this conceit is an understanding that Adepts, the characters
Players portray, are aware that there is a whole facet of existence beyond
the mundane, and are part of the Secret World – the name given to the
group of Adepts and cabals that know of the existence of beyond.

A lthough designed to exist within the occult traditions of the real

world, Esoterica as a concept does mesh well with some of the
concepts of Cthulhu Mythos, the imaginary world of H. P. Lovecraft. The
following details ways in which Esoterica can be adapted to fit within the
framework of the Mythos, allowing Players and the Narrator to establish
exciting games of Esoterica within Lovecraft’s world.

What is the Cthulhu Mythos?

I t is hard to imagine that for a long time the ‘Cthulhu Mythos’ was
pretty much unknown apart from the readers of obscure weird fiction
and the players of ‘Call of Cthulhu’. However, so popular has the Mythos
since become that most people interested in gaming will be very familiar
with the Mythos and its figurehead, Cthulhu himself. Part of this is a
Narrator Advice

continuation of referencing and linking between stories, games and films

that Lovecraft himself began, with such linkages serving to bed what in
many cases are quite disparate stories and concepts in a shared universe.
Indeed despite the name ‘Cthulhu Mythos’, there is no set framework for
the core of stories by Lovecraft that most consider to be the basis of the
world. Indeed, there isn’t much to connect the stories beyond a scattering
of names and artefacts.

T his expansion assumes that the reader has some understanding of

what is meant by the Cthulhu Mythos, so we won’t go into details
here. There are certainly plenty of places on the internet where details
can be researched, and the core stories themselves are now in the public
domain.
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Esoterica and the Mythos

T he core concepts of Esoterica – hidden knowledge, a desire for
power and a world outside that understood by mortal man – are
very well suited to the themes of the major writings of the Cthulhu
182 Mythos. The idea of a secret occult world, of beings from some kind of
greater, hidden reality, and of mystical objects imbued with power is part

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and parcel of pretty much every Mythos tale. As such, adapting Esoterica
to work within the framework of the Mythos is relatively straightforward.

Aspects of the Mythos

B elow are detailed some of the themes from Lovecraft’s work and
some discussion on how well they mesh with the core concepts of
Esoterica. These are all aspects that the Narrator will need to consider
when creating a Mythos inspired game.

Good and Evil

P robably the biggest difference between the core conceits of Esoterica
and that of a typical Mythos story is the nature of the protagonists.
In the Mythos, most of the major protagonists in the stories are neutral
in outlook, or what might be called ‘good’. In Esoterica, the protagonists

Narrator Advice
are power-hungry Adepts, more likely to be described as evil than good. In
this sense, Esoterica characters are more like the Cultists so prevalent in
Mythos games and stories than the heroes of those stories – people driven
by a hunger for power, in service to dark gods but at the same time wary
of the powers they serve.

The Lone Protagonist

A nother key difference between Esoterica and at least Lovecraft’s
stories is that often in the latter the protagonist is a lone individual.
In Esoterica the Player Characters are part of a Cabal, a group of like-
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minded individuals with the same goals and agenda. This is mainly because
roleplaying games are social affairs so larger groups of players are the
norm, and certainly surviving as a lone Adept would be difficult. Again in
this way the Adepts in Esoterica are more like Cultists than the traditional
Mythos protagonists.

y 183
 this is the sijh
Horror
T he Mythos is built around the idea of invoking a particular type of
horror, encapsulated by the idea of the futility and insignificance
of humanity in a cruel and uncaring universe. This is a core theme of
Esoterica as well – the greater reality beyond the Veil is hidden and by
its very nature renders the mundane world insignificant. Adepts seek to
Ascend beyond the Veil, but they really don’t know what lies there, and
paradoxically the only beings they meet from that world are Hungers and
the supernatural beings that Adepts whisper of. Adapting these sources of
terror with a Lovecraftian re-skin is a very simple job, as discussed below.

Doomed Heroes
T he protagonists of most Lovecraft stories are doomed, either to
madness or a grizzly end. Of course in Esoterica Players want their
characters to succeed in their goals and Ascend, but in reality many will
succumb to Corruption, Horrors or any number of other dangers before
Narrator Advice

they do so. In this way Esoterica and the Mythos are very much in synch.

Nameless Horrors
H owever Lovecraft’s writings are now so popular and part of pop-
Culture that most of the major creatures and entities that he created
are very well known. However, the Mythos is at its most powerful when
the beings and monsters encountered are unknown. This is very much
the same with Hungers, which have no fixed form or nature. Remodelling
Hungers with a Mythos twist is a simple as thinking of an appropriate
concept or modelling an existing beast, as discussed later.
this is the sefet

Adapting Esoterica to the Mythos

T he most common way for a Mythos protagonist to meet their end is
through madness. Exposing themselves to increasing horrors and
184 sanity blasting experiences is not good for mental stability. Typically the
character’s mind is slowly and gradually unhinged by their experiences,
 this is the sijh until in the last revelation they are blasted out of their mind. This kind of
gradual damage is also a core part of Esoterica, where Corruption of the
physical form takes place throughout the Adept’s journey to Ascension,
and finding a way to limit this damage is the key driver for play. With some
simple changes as discussed later it is very easy to adapt the core concepts
of Esoterica to the Mythos.

Mythos Themes and Goals

C onsidering the themes and goals of Esoterica and of a typical
Mythos story, there follows a description of one way that Esoterica
could be modified to play a Mythos themed game.

I t is advisable that if a game is to be set in the Mythos that the Narrator

and Players spend some time setting out the parameters of the game
they want to play. Make sure that everyone is clear on what the themes
of the game will be and what kind of story is or isn’t acceptable is a good
idea from the start. It is also recommended that the X card discussed in the
core Esoterica rules is also employed to make sure that all participants are
Narrator Advice

happy with the game concepts.

Mythos Setting Time-frame

T he classic time in which to set a game of Mythos-inspired Esoterica
is the 1920s, as this was the time in which the core books that make
up the Mythos-cycle were written. Esoterica as-written can easily be
adapted to this period, with a few simple and obvious changes to the Skills
(i.e. Technology such as computers don’t exist). Given the rules-light
nature of Esoterica and the lack of focus on equipment and kit, the game
plays well in the 1920s as is.
this is the sefet

The Cabal as a Cult

T he easiest way to create a Mythos inspired story with Esoterica is to
consider the Player Characters’ Cabal as a Mythos Cult. They are
seeking to draw power from beyond to aid their own selfish aims, but at the
same time like the Cultists in Mythos stories they are in grave danger from
186 the powers they court. They may be worshippers of one of the Mythos
entities such as the great old ones or other gods, or be magicians that seek

hjis eht si siht

their own path, believing that blindly following one of the dark beings of
the Mythos is a sure way to lead to your demise and should your efforts
bring forth one of those powers, the end of the Earth itself.

C onsidering the Cabal as a Cult also leads to considerations of good

and evil. Most players won’t want to play outright ‘evil’ characters,
but in many Mythos stories, the antagonists aren’t ‘evil’ as such, they are
just incredibly selfish and single minded in the pursuit of their goals. After
all, in many of the Mythos stories it is the uncaring and cruel nature of the
universe that is the real horror, rather than the outright evil activities of
antagonists. In any case, the Cult needs to have a patron or focus entity, a
being that gives them their power and to whom they pay respect or worship,
as this will be manifest in the act of Ascension in a Mythos-inspired game.
A simple search of the internet or perusal of Lovecraft fiction will easily
furnish a large number of entities which the Cultists could be following.

Mythos Ascension
I

Narrator Advice
n a Mythos-themed game of Esoterica, Ascension works a little
differently. In the Esoterica standard setting, Ascension is the time
at which the Adept manages to break through the Veil into the beyond.
However, in the Mythos Ascension is something different. In these games,
the point of Ascension means that the Cultist has gained sufficient power
and knowledge to draw the attention of their patron and allow the entity
to break through the walls into our reality. What they do then is entirely
up to the Narrator and Player to decide – perhaps the entity takes the
Cultist through to their reality, or perhaps the being simply destroys all it
encounters in a short but devastating orgy of destruction. Let the Player
whose character is Ascending make the final decision on what the entity
does – after all, they earned the right.

I t is worth mentioning that in the Mythos of Lovecraft very little about

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his various god-like beings is described – what most people think of

regarding these beings is a result of the writings of others and of popular
gaming and film that has followed. It is very much a case of in your game,
your Shub-Niggurath may vary from other accounts.

B elow are some examples of what might happen when a Cultist

invokes one of the well-known Mythos deities, feel free to change
these as the Player and Narrator see fit.

◊ Cthulhu – most likely to result in the destruction of the Earth, or at

187
 least of a sizable area in it. Whether this destruction would be attrib-

hjis eht si siht

utable to some vast extra-planar entity or attributed to a natural dis-
aster for example is something for the Players and Narrator to decide.

◊ Yog Sothoth – this entity is described as associated with magicians

and magic, so perhaps the transportation of the Cultist to some other
dimension (as happens in the core Esoterica game) is more likely here.

◊ Azathoth – this mindless god writhes at the centre of the universe,

and gives two options to Players who successfully evoke it. Azathoth
has a court, and perhaps it is through Ascension that worthy subjects
are brought to that place of worship. Or alternatively, should Aza-
thoth manifest in the mundane reality, destruction and chaos is likely
to follow.

◊ Nyarlathotep – the crawling chaos, this entity is another that seems

to favour magicians, and also seems ready to interact with humans, so
perhaps summoning this entity could have much more complex and
unforeseen circumstances than simple destruction.

◊ Shub-Niggurath – in the core Mythos, very little is said of this fe-

male entity, most of what gamers know has been added in subsequent

Narrator Advice
years. Invoking Shub-Niggurath is a great opportunity for the Player
and Narrator to do what they like unshackled by previous descrip-
tions and attitudes.

T here are plenty more god-like beings in the Mythos of Lovecraft or

the derivative works that followed, so Players should in no way feel
confined to these examples when creating their Cultists.

Madness as Corruption
tefes eht si siht

M echanically, there is one change to Esoterica to accommodate

this kind of play, and that is using Madness as a replacement for
Corruption. In Esoterica, Corruption is a result of Stains gained from
using abilities and powers that originate from beyond the veil. Corruption
is a physical manifestation of beyond, typically a malady of the body that
effects how the Adept interacts with the normal world. In the Mythos
version of Esoterica, Corruption is replaced by Madness. Suggested rules
for Mythos games are described below.
189
 this is the sijh
C ultists begin the game at Tier 0 in Madness. Should a Cultist acquire
7 Stains, then they move to Madness Tier 1 and acquire a Madness
effect. This is a mental manifestation of the damage to their mundane
form and psyche resulting from their connection with the greater reality.
Typically, a Tier 1 Madness effect is a small but permanent illustration
of the damage they have sustained. The Player and Narrator together
should design the Madness effect for the Adept, something that is unusual
or unpleasant. Remember however that the Madness effect at Tier 1 isn’t
in and of itself something otherworldly, just something strange and
unsettling that effects the Cultist.

Tier 1 Madness effect examples – a pronounced stutter, wild eyes, nerv-

ous twitching, occasional muttering…

S hould a Cultist acquire a further 7 Stains for a total of 14, their

Madness advances to Tier 2 and the Madness effect also advances
becoming more pronounced.

Tier 2 Corruption effect examples – outbursts of uncontrollable anger,

Narrator Advice

nervous laughter at the strangest time, picking at the skin of the hand to
product sores, muttering in a weird language under your breath…

T his continues with their Madness getting worse and worse. A Tier
3 Madness is very hard to hide, a Tier 4 is impossible to hide and
if the Cultist gains sufficient Stains to reach Tier 5, they are consumed by
insanity and are no longer a playable character.

I f a Cultist loses Stains (typically by use of a Soul Jar), then they

change Madness Tiers as appropriate for their new level of Stains.
this is the sefet

Mera has 14 Stains, giving her a Tier 2 Madness with a Madness effect
that she constantly blasphemes at wildly inappropriate times. Using a
Soul Jar, Mera removes 8 Stains. Her new Stains total is 6, so she moves
from Tier 2 to Tier 0 in Madness and loses the Madness effect.

190 A s with Corruption, Madness attracts Hungers, in this case Mythos

creatures, and the dice penalty when dealing with these beings
applies as it does with normal Hungers. As with Hungers in a normal
game of Esoterica, Madness weakens the Veil between the Cultist at the

hjis eht si siht

greater reality, allowing other denizens from beyond to cross over.

Mythos Mysteries
S pells and magic (or is that some form of science?) are a staple of
the Mythos. So in games of Esoterica, Mysteries become spells and
incantations. They work in exactly the same way as in the core game,
only the name changes. In the Mythos, certainly in many popular-culture
derivatives, spells are often very destructive. This can be modelled in
Esoterica be replacing some of the more subtle Mysteries with more
overtly aggressive Spells that wither limbs, blind and otherwise directly
damage others. Other Mysteries relate to the Mythos beings themselves,
modelled in Esoterica as Hungers. Overleaf are some examples of
Mysteries that may be suitable for a Mythos inspired game.

Wither body
The Cultist touches an opponent and causes their flesh around the point

Narrator Advice
of contact to wither, crack and blister, causing excruciating pain.

Force 1 – An area of flesh the size of a dinner plate is effected, and the
target may suffer a secondary effect depending on the position of the
affected area (i.e. a person with a withered leg may limp heavily, a person
with a withered hand may not be able to hold anything). The pain is so
debilitating that the target suffers -1D to all die rolls (to a minimum of
1D) for a numbers of hours equal to the Power Tier of the Adept.

Make the damage semi-permanent (i.e. equivalent to a Wound, heals with

natural healing) +1 Force
Increase range to same room +1 Force
Double the size of the wound +1 Force
tefes eht si siht

Withering Ritual – Works the same way, and allows one of the partici-
pants to ‘store’ the withering effect to unleash at a later date. The Ritual
requires the blood and sweat of a child in its preparation.

Commune with the Darkness

The Cultist is able to force a target to commune with beings from the outer
dark, distracting them and driving them towards mental instability.

Force 1 – The Cultist touches the target to begin the communion, which
191
 this is the sijh begins around five minutes later. At this point the target becomes distract-
ed and confused as the whispers begin. After half an hour the whispers
fade.

Make the whispers last a day, potentially unhinging the target +2 Force
Increase the number of people that may be effected to the Adept’s Power
Tier +1 Force

Communing Ritual – Works in the same manner, and like the withering
Ritual, may be stored for future use. Requires the Adept storing the Ritual
to drip hot wax into their ears during the ceremony.

Summon Hunger
The Adept is able to summon a creature from beyond, a Hunger. This
being takes a form determined by the Narrator. Its attitude to being sum-
moned is at the discretion of the Narrator.
Force 1 – The Hunger has Attributes of 2D and a couple of Skills at
3D (including the Attribute). They also have access to one Mystery. The
Hunger is not under the control of the Adept, and will manifest for
around five minutes.
Narrator Advice

Control the Hungers to obey a simple command (find, attack, carry) and
then disappear +2 Force
Summoning Ritual – Works in the same way, except that the summoning
cannot be stored for later use. Instead the Hunger may be contained with-
in a summoning circle, and will stay for a day and a night. In order for
the Ritual to work, each of the Adepts must injure themselves to supply
blood (equivalent of taking a Wound).

R emember that the use of massively damaging Mysteries in front of

others reveals the otherworldly nature of Cultists, and is certainly
not something to be done lightly.
this is the sefet

Mythos Soul Jars

I n a Mythos themed game of Esoterica, Soul Jars are used to help
mitigate the madness of Cultists. These items are predominantly
tomes of dark and hidden knowledge, which allow those that possess them
to assuage their mental unravelling. To all intents and purposes these
192 Soul Jars work in exactly the same way as in the core Esoterica game,
 this is the sijh absorbing Stains through dark rituals to allow Cultists to keep a pretence
of normality as they seek their ultimate goal – Ascension.

B ooks of hidden knowledge have been a staple of Lovecraftian lore,

and Lovecraft himself encouraged others to reference his deadly
tomes just as he himself made reference to those created by others. The
Necronomicon is perhaps the most famous of these fictitious books.
A simple search on the internet or reading of almost any Mythos tale
will turn up a number of dark grimoires that could be used in a game of
Esoterica. These Soul Jars could also contain Rituals, after all they are
books of magic in the main.

A s Cultists, the Player Characters are likely to have access to other

devices that could be Soul Jars. Knives, religious paraphernalia,
scientific devices etc. could all be employed in a game.

Mythos Hungers
T he Hungers are perhaps the easiest to recreate in a Mythos game,
Narrator Advice

as Lovecraft created a whole range of alien and bizarre creatures

which would be interpreted in Esoterica as Hungers. Lovecraft mentions a
whole range of strange beings in only a fleeting or ambiguous way, so as
a Narrator you are free to furnish these creatures in any way you please.
Similarly, relations between certain creatures and the god-like entities
of the Mythos are almost entirely the creation of later writers, so there
is plenty of leeway to add your own twist to these creations. Lovecraft
mentions many such beings, some of which are described below. Remember
like normal Hungers these beings have equal Attributes to the Adepts they
hunt.

W hen a Hunger is required, the Narrator may choose to select the

particular being they used based on their relative strength - for
example, a Tier 1 Adept may encounter a Man of Leng or Deep One, while
this is the sefet

a Shoggoth, seemingly from Lovecraft’s writings a much more dangerous

Hunger, might be best used with a Tier 4 Adept for example.

◊ Men of Leng – passing as normal if somewhat awkward men, espe-

cially when wearing loose fitting clothing, the movements of the men
of Leng reveal hints of their backwards articulated legs and horns.
Intelligent and cunning opponents, these creatures may hide in plain
site as they close in on a Cultist suffering Madness.
194 ◊ Deep Ones – strange man/sea creature hybrids, Deep ones are dis-
 turbing and unnerving beings. Many display only superficial chang-

hjis eht si siht

es from humanity, and may pass as normal if somewhat ugly peo-
ple. Deep Ones are often worshippers of higher powers, and may be
Adepts in their own right.

◊ Mi-Go – Bizarre creatures resembling a cross between an insect and a

crustacean, the Mi-Go are alien intellects from a distant world. They
seem interested in interacting with humanity, and experimenting
with flesh and machine. As inhuman as they appear, the ultimate mo-
tivations of Mi-Go are inscrutable.

◊ Flying Polyps – Terrible entities that phase between realities, drifting

through the Veil at will, Flying Polyps are incredibly destructive. The
arrival of such a powerful alien entity is likely suitable for only the
most powerful Cultists, and is unlikely to go unnoticed.

◊ Shoggoth – Another deadly and hideous being, a Shoggoth is a pul-

sating mass of fleshy material able to manifest mouths, eyes and other
appendages at will. Suitable as an opponent for only the most pow-
erful of Cultists, the appearance of a Shoggoth is likely to be a high
point of any Mythos inspired campaign.

Narrator Advice
I t is worth remembering that the invention of some kind of system
to the Mythos is almost entirely the work of others. In Lovecraft’s
writings there was no intent to impose order on the Mythos, so the
Narrator should follow the great man and not feel that they have to treat
their own creations or interpretations of Mythos classics according to
anything else apart from their own unique visions.

Other Antagonists
E soterica is about the subtle, hidden skirmish between Adepts
tefes eht si siht

seeking to Ascend. Typical antagonists in a game of Esoterica are

rival Adepts, Hungers and supernatural beings, and government agencies
as described in the standard Esoterica rules. This doesn’t really change
in a Mythos inspired game, except that it is likely that the forces arrayed
against the Player Characters are going to be tougher, more overt and
more aggressive – after all, it is potentially the end of the world that the
characters are working toward, and one thing is always true of Mythos
Cultists, they are one hundred percent committed to their goals.
195
 this is ethis is thei
A Final Thought…
T he Mythos of H.P. Lovecraft is a rich vein of horror that can be
mined in Esoterica. Many gamers are well aware of a lot of aspects
of the genre, and that can make playing Esoterica less challenging for
some as it places the game within a familiar framework. The final thought
is don’t let complacency into your game! The Players may think they
know the Mythos, but it is up to you as Narrator to rectify that view. The
unknowable nature of the Mythos is a core of Lovecraft’s creation that is
all too often forgotten.

Scaling Campaigns
I t is fairly easy to scale how long a campaign might take to play by
altering the amount of Essence needed to go up a Tier of Power. By
default this value is 7, but for a quicker campaign this number could be
reduced to 5 or 4. It is not recommended to go to 3 or below however, as
this would lead to a very truncated game experience.

Tying it all Together

The Secret World

T he Narrator has the task of taking the scenario, the scenes, the
location of the action and the participants, then tying it all together
to make a story with the aid of the Players. This might seem like a huge
task, but once you get the hang of it, it’s not too daunting. The main
advice for a novice Narrator is to let the story flow. Don’t inhibit the
Players’ creativity just because their desires don’t fit with the original plan
of the scenario. Instead, try to react to their actions and adapt the scenes
as required. Finally, remember that playing Esoterica is supposed to be fun
for the Narrator and the Players. As long as you keep that in mind, you
should be OK.
this is e

k h
r
m
196
The Secret
World
 The Secret World
this is ethis is thei

T he mundane world is the world that we know, full of people, cars

and mobile phones. A world of disinformation and tribalism, of war
and segregation, and of love and justice. But Adepts know that this isn’t
the real world, and that beyond the Veil is a deeper reality. This secret and
those that know it and traffic that knowledge are part of what is termed
the Secret World. It is here that Adepts exist, and other forces work to
hinder them. The Secret World is bound by two truths – those who display
power can Ascend and pass through the Veil to the true world beyond, and
that anyone who knows this will do anything they can to make this happen.

Real World Esotericism

I n the standard setting of Esoterica, the Secret World is in many
ways a reflection of esotericism, also known as the Western mystery
tradition. Before we detail some of the factions and proponents of the
Secret World, it is worth a quick discussion of the real world concept of
The Secret World

esotericism as general background.

T he word ’esoteric’ is derived from the Greek esôterikós meaning

‘belonging to an inner circle’ and first appeared in the second
century AD. Under this term scholars of mysticism have grouped all
manner of loosely related ideas and philosophies that are distinct from
the Christian tradition and from the scientific ideals of the enlightenment
– esotericism and occultism were often considered synonyms by many
scholars. The concepts wrapped up in esotericism have become pervasive
in modern culture, and popularised by fiction, film and media. Esotericism
itself is an overflowing category of belief, with a huge spectrum of
adherents, authors and works. Most scholars now agree that esotericism
includes such concepts as ancient Gnosticism, the Hermetism of Hermes
Trismegistus, Rosicrucianism and the Kabbalah, and then more modern
concepts such as the New Age movement and Chaos Magic.
this is e

A t its inception, Western esotericism originated in the Mediterranean

area during Late Antiquity, where Hermetism, Gnosticism, and
Neoplatonism developed. These schools of thought were very distinct
198 from what became mainstream Christianity. Later, in the European
Renaissance, interest in alternatives to the Christian tradition increased
 this is ethis is thei and ‘pagan’ religions were combined with Christianity and the Kabbalah,
creating esoteric movements which would evolve concepts such as Christian
Theosophy. The 17th century saw an explosion of initiatory and often
secret societies professing esoteric knowledge such as Rosicrucianism
and Freemasonry, the scientific enlightenment brought on new forms
of esoteric thought. The 19th century saw the emergence of occultism
developed from Esoteric thought. Groups such as the Theosophical Society
and the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn influenced perhaps the most
well-known occultist of all, Alistair Crowley and his religion of Thelema.
From esoteric concepts modern Paganism such as Wicca developed.
Continuing to the modern day, esoteric ideas were prevalent in the 1960s
and the later New Age movement.

E sotericism as a container for philosophical thought can be divided

into three schools. The first is the perennialist view that all existent
doctrines, religions and philosophies relate to a single hidden truth. The
second is that esotericism represents an enchanted view of the world,
opposed to the typical disenchanted standpoint of the modern world.
The third is that esotericism is a receptacle of ‘rejected knowledge’ –
knowledge that is not accepted by modern scientific establishment or
orthodox religions, such as the existence of Atlantis. In Esoterica, all of
these concepts are true, and games can be built around exploring each.

T here is plenty of reading available on all these subjects on the

The Secret World

internet, and the ideas expressed are now so common in popular

culture that most Narrators will have no trouble thinking up suitable
subjects for their own Cabals and Adepts. It should be noted that for
many in the real world esotericism and the ideas it contains are a serious
philosophical and religious movement. The aim of Esoterica as a game
is not to mock or make light of these traditions, but rather to borrow
liberally and somewhat flippantly with the aim of creating fun. In no way
should Esoterica be taken as a criticism of those traditions. None of the
Cabals and groups presented in this book exist.

Rival Cabals
this is e

A mongst all the jaded new age mystics, fraternal societies, secret
political groups and countless conspiracy theorists and groups that
seek to keep their activities hidden, there are a few true Cabals of Adepts
200 that truly know of the Veil. These groups seek Ascension and use Soul Jars
to aid their efforts, just like the player characters. Locating and identifying
such groups amongst all the fakers is a major task for the player characters.

ieht si sihte si siht

N ote that each of the groups have their own idea of just what
Ascension is, and what might lie beyond the Veil. All they agree
upon is that this world is a lie, and that they must escape.

T he following Cabals are rivals to the player characters, and may be

encountered through play. They may take an active role, seeking to
steal Soul Jars from the players’ Cabal, or a passive role, themselves targets
of the player characters. Most of these Cabals follow some form of magical
tradition, such as hermetic, eastern magic or another ancient practice, or the
new age magical approaches such as chaos magic. These Adepts understand
the Veil, but they couch that understanding in one of the traditions that
have endured since ancient times.

The Circle of Seven

The Circle of Seven are hermeticists, who embrace traditional western
view of magic in their rituals and workings, who use their impressive
resources to seek lost Soul Jars.

◊ Size: Seven members.

The Secret World

◊ Location: The Cabal’s library is located on the top floor of the Mont-
gomery Skyscraper, New York. This is the headquarters of the
Hydell Corporation, and is where Alain Tailor lives and works. He
rarely leaves the upper floors let alone the building.

◊ Key Members: Alain Tailor, the grand master, Rebecca North, Estella
Colombine. Tailor has the ability to move through walls and to far see
distant locations, as long as he sees a photograph beforehand. Tailor
is in his eighties and rarely leaves the tower, whereas the other Cabal
members often travel on ‘company business’.

◊ Resources: The full backing of the Hydell Corporation, New York.

Mainly financial, but the organisation does have a ‘security’ division.
e si siht

◊ Activities: The Seven seek knowledge, hoping to root out the location
of Soul Jars hidden in history. They actively search out such artefacts
and use all the resources available to secure them. Tailor himself is
ruthless. He has a long term cancer, and desperately seeks to Ascend
before his body dies. 201
 this is ethis is thei ◊ Soul Jars: Fourteen Jars secreted about the city, including the Book
of Mist, the Amulet of Locan and the Spear known to medievalists
as Neezal.

N otes: The Circle of Seven is an aggressive organisation run by

Alain Taylor, a mystic and occultist from England. Backed up
by the finances of the Hydell Corporation, a mining and manufacturing
conglomerate of which Tailor is the CEO, the Seven actively seek out
hidden, lost Soul Jars, travelling around the globe to find them. The intellect
of the organisation, Tailor runs things, while North and Colombine are
the muscle. They travel around the globe following up stories and hints of
occult activity, rooting out any opposition they encounter.

Thesperous Society
T he Thesperous Society are to all appearances a new age study group,
benign and harmless. This hides a ruthless organisation that seeks
to steal Soul Jars from other Cabals.

◊ Size: Around thirty members, but only five in the inner Cabal. Some
lay members in other cities.
The Secret World

◊ Location: The main location the Cabal uses is an abandoned factory

on the outskirts of the town of Billington. They have three other
‘Study centres’ located in other nearby towns, where lower members
of the Cabal live.

◊ Key Members: The group has two heads, a married couple called
Alfred and Alice Moreau. The society is to outward appearances a
study group, dedicated to typical ‘new age’ mumbo jumbo, but this
hides their secret goal – Ascension. The heads of the society scour
libraries and literature seeking clues to the whereabouts of Soul
Jars. Once located, they send the lay members to acquire them. Al-
fred and Alice are able to work shadows, melding them into illusions
and masking their movements.

◊ Resources: The society has three buildings under their control, and
this is e

make revenue selling pamphlets and books on new age teaching. All
of the inner Cabal dedicate themselves to the society, and seek new
members in order to bolster their reach.

204 ◊ Activities: The society spends much of its time seeking out other
Cabals. Once it finds a potential target, the society sends ‘agents’ to
 break in and rob, stealing Soul Jars in lightning raids. For the society,

ieht si sihte si siht

long, protracted battles with rival Cabalists are to be avoided. Instead
they seek to ‘smash and grab’, using the front of a new age study
group to hide the Cabal’s true goals.

◊ Soul Jars: The Thesperous society have six Soul Jars distributed
among the members, including a helmet once owned by a Templar
Knight called Julius Aquisus and a book of spells thought to have
been written in Salem.

N otes: The Thesperous Society masquerade as a harmless collection

of new age mysticism, selling books and pamphlets to fund their
two study centres. In truth the organisation hides a Cabal that preys on
other Cabals, leading smash and grab raids for Soul Jars, relying on secrecy
and their harmless front to hide from possible revenge. The couple that
head the Cabal, the Moreau husband and wife, seem pleasant and polite on
the surface, if a little strange, but in reality they are powerful Adepts and
far more cunning than they appear.

People of Tomorrow
A new age group that preach escape to a new existence on the planet

The Secret World

Aleph, the People of Tomorrow aggressively seek new members to
push their agenda and find new members to bring in to the Cabal.

◊ Size: Around one hundred members, ten in the Cabal, the rest as lay
members or aspirants seeking access to the ‘higher planes’.

◊ Location: the meeting house of the People of Tomorrow is a drop in

centre in town, usually reserved for drug addicts and others in need
of assistance. When funding for various social programs fell short,
the People moved in – their payments help to keep the centre open.

◊ Key Members: The People are led by a ‘council’ – five Adepts that
form the inner circle. These are all members of the Richmond family,
from granddad down to youngest daughter. The organisation seems
like a democracy, but in reality Norman Richmond, the grandfather, is
e si siht

in charge. There are sixteen other lay members of the People, mainly
reformed addicts and the like who made the centre their home before
the People moved in.

◊ Resources: Under the floor of the centre in the cellar is the temple
proper, and here the People have their texts on alien civilisations, an-
205
 this is ethis is thei cient Lemuria and such, and the clothing they use in their rituals.
The various members don’t have much money, except for the Rich-
mond family themselves, who come from ‘old money’.

◊ Activities: The People of Tomorrow are firm believers in aliens,

lost continents and other ‘alternative facts’. They spread their ser-
mons of hidden knowledge, while simultaneously trying to locate
Soul Jars in the various museums and libraries of the country. The
younger siblings Judith and Tom are charged with getting these
artefacts any way they can, including making good use of stealing,
bribery and violence.

◊ Soul Jars: The People of Tomorrow have access to three Soul Jars
– all stolen from museums over the last few years. The largest is a
book from the sixteenth century which purports to reveal the loca-
tion of a lost alien city. The Richmond family study this book in the
hope of finding the city and the lost wonders it is said to contain.

N otes: The Richmonds are a strange bunch, intent on Ascending to

the alien realms where they believe they belong. They seem fairly
warm and welcoming, and help some of those most in need to regain a
footing in the society. But they aren’t what they seem. Norman Richmond
is passionate about his possible Ascension to alien worlds, and his altruistic
front is a cover for a driven need to Ascend.
The Secret World

The Temple of the Hidden Sun

A group that claims ancient Egyptian masters as their lineage, the
Temple of the Hidden Sun is a cautious group that slowly looks to
tread the paths to Ascension.

◊ Size: There are six members of the higher orders of the Hidden
Sun, the true Cabal. Around thirty lay members make up the Tem-
ple, mastering the ‘degrees’ of the ancient sect said to have been
passed down from Egypt.

◊ Location: The Temple is based in the old church of St. Joseph, an

this is e

abandoned Baptist church that was bought by the founder of the

Temple in 1926. To all appearances the church is still abandoned,
and members of the Temple are careful to keep their comings and
goings as low profile as possible.
206 ◊ Key Members: The Horus or head of the Temple is Miranda Keller,
 a self-professed mystic and seer, who guides the Temple. She is gifted

ieht si sihte si siht

at astral projection, and uses this ability to hunt for Soul Jars. All the
rest of the Cabal of the Hidden sun are women, as Keller will only
accept female members. She teaches them astral projection, as long
as they contribute to the Temple’s coffers. The youngest member is
Joanne Tate, a domineering sorcerer who has eyes on leading the
temple, and has become more vocal in opposition to Keller’s mone-
tary needs.

◊ Resources: The Temple raises funds by teaching lay members the

ancient Egyptian degrees of the Hidden Sun, supposedly construct-
ed by Cleopatra as a method of meditation. The Cabal is funded by
donations from the members, with Keller taking most of the money
to fund her life.

◊ Activities: The Temple of the Hidden Sun keeps itself to itself, re-
lying on the powerful astral projection of Keller to locate new Soul
Jars. Still they are cautious in making moves against other Cabals.

◊ Cabals – the Temple is well aware that some of the other Adepts in
the world are much more ruthless in their acquisition of mystical
relics than Keller is comfortable with.

◊ Soul Jars: The Temple has three Soul Jars, including the Rod of Cy-

The Secret World

press, a staff of iron, and the Sarcophagus of Nethritus, one of the
larger Soul Jars.

N otes: The Temple of the Hidden Sun is a secretive group that teaches
a form of ancient meditation as a cover for the activities of an all-
female Cabal. Carefully seeking new Soul Jars to continue their quest for
Ascension, the group follows the lead of the capable astral mystic Miranda
Keller. However her cautious approach, and tendency to demand payment
for her guidance from the other Cabal members, has begun to anger some
of her colleagues. Joanne Tate heads up this rising opposition, preaching
a more aggressive attitude to other Cabals, and the clash between her and
Keller is threatening to come to a head.

d f
e si siht

207
 this is ethis is thei
Government Agencies
A s well as rival Cabals, the player characters may well face government
agencies that seek what they have. The following groups all have an
interest in secret and mystical societies and the artefacts they hold. These
groups spend their time trying to weed out real Cabals from the charlatans,
imposters and fakes that litter the occult world, and infiltrating their
organisations. Their ultimate aims vary, but all work to their own agenda
which is naturally contrary to the needs and desires of true Cabals.

Agency 32
T he organisation known as Agency 32, or just the Agency, is charged
with rooting out secrets that the government may be able to adapt
to create new weapons. Unsurprisingly, the abilities of Adepts have been
noted by the Agency, and now Adepts, their Cabals and their Temples have
become the sole focus of the organisation. The Agency believes that to fully
use such resources, the Agency needs to understand them, and that means
infiltration and assessing.
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T o further its plans, the Agency places agents into many of the
organisations that claim occult or other hidden knowledge, and
tries to move them into positions of influence. Some whisper that there are
nearly as many Agency representatives in Cabals as there are true Adepts.
Although as you need to display power to be considered for the inner circle
of a Cabal, the line between an agent and an Adept is increasingly blurred.

Operatives
T he Agents employed by Agency 32 are nearly always ex-military,
and very capable of handling themselves in most situations. They
generally act alone, with a ‘handler’ directing their operations and selecting
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their targets. Most Agency 32 operatives seek to enter secret societies from
the ‘ground up’ – joining as junior members and hoping that their keenness
and dedication makes it more likely that they will be admitted to higher
circles. Although a fair few do have some occult skills, many try to use their
military skills and willingness to do things that perhaps others would not
208 to advance. Agency 32 does try to operate within the law – theft is about
as severe an act they would officially recognise, but as their operatives are

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ex-military, few have qualms about exercising their darker skills.

Headquarters and Leadership

A gency 32 is believed to originally been a Russian operation, but now
it seems that the organisation is global and cross-agency in scope.
The headquarters are officially in the Kremlin, but many believe that this is
a front and that the real organisation is based in the research laboratories
rumoured to exist in northern Sweden.

The Secretariat
I t is unclear if the Secretariat is an individual or an organisation, and who
or what it reports to. What is known is that the Secretariat tenaciously
seeks out Adepts and Cabals and then marks them for assassination.
Unusually, the Secretariat announces the coming attack in a polite letter
to the individual Adept or Cabal in question. It seems that the Secretariat
does not seek Soul Jars, as these are often left in place, it just wishes to kill

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Adepts, nothing more. Why is anyone’s guess.

T he Secretariat likes to keeps things clean and simple. One of the

rules that the Secretariat follows is that if an Adept survives an
attack, they are then left alone, at least until something else occurs that
significantly raises the Adept’s profile.

Operatives
T he Secretariat employs operatives that work in pairs, known as twins.
Typically one of the twins is more suited to investigative work
such as locating true Cabalists among the many charlatans and digging up
information about their activities, while the other is much more focused on
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.
the final ‘wet work’ of the operation.

n 209
 Headquarters and Leadership

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N o one knows where the headquarters of the Secretariat are, or even
if the organisation has such a thing. Rumours connect the group
to the infamous ‘Black Grotto’ of Southern Germany, but how or why
the organisation and the site of a notorious Adept massacre should be
connected is anyone’s guess.

Bureau Nineteen
U nlike the other government agencies, Bureau Nineteen is staffed
exclusively by Adepts. Supposedly working with other agencies to
control the spread of sedition and secret societies, in truth Bureau Nineteen
is really just a Cabal itself, albeit one with powerful backing. Why does the
government allow Bureau Nineteen to act in this way? Because if there are
such things as ascended masters, those in the government who understand
the secret world want to make sure our men and women are represented
and if possible, in control.

B ureau Nineteen seek out Soul Jars. But they have to be careful,
they don’t want too much exposure, as even most agencies in their
own governments would not look kindly on their activities. So they use

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subterfuge, cunning and guile to get what they want.

Operatives
B ureau Nineteen operatives work alone. Powerful Adepts, they realise
that most Cabalists would consider them rivals and so act to maintain
as discrete a profile as possible. They seek Soul Jars, just like other Adepts,
with the intention of putting as many of their operatives into the world
beyond as possible. Generally the Bureau works to avoid confrontation
with Adepts they know this could be dangerous and are keen not to reveal
themselves to the authorities.
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Headquarters and Leadership

B ureau Nineteen is based out of the Pentagon, or so the rumours go.
Whether those in control of US intelligence services know of the 211
 this is ethis is thei Bureau and its activities is another matter, and the President is thought to
have no inkling of the work of this secret Cabal.

Hungers
H ungers represent the forces from beyond the Veil drawn into
mundane reality. This is most often due to the Corruption of Adepts,
but some Hungers have been known to cross the Veil for other reasons.
Many Hungers are as individual as the Adepts they seek, but others seem
to have common forms that have reoccurred in occult literature. In game
terms Hungers may match the Attributes of the Adepts they hunt, but
their forms are many and varied. Below are some examples of Hungers
that have been reported in occult literature throughout history, and may at
the Narrator’s discretion hunt player character Adepts.

The Hound
◊ Possible Mysteries: Able to shift through walls, able to walk on verti-
cal surfaces and upside down, able to spit acidic saliva.
The Secret World

T he Hound resembles a large dog, hence the name, however in most

reports it could only pass as a mundane creature in poor light. The
thing’s skin is broken and rough, almost scaly, with tufts of hair sprouting
here and there. The most obvious and disgusting difference between a
Hound and a real dog or wolf is the creature’s head. Instead of a head,
some creatures have been reported to have nothing more than a neck that
ends in an ugly, gaping maw. Others have a head of sorts, but with broken,
weeping skin, and always a large and horrific mouth with too many teeth.

R eports of these creatures claim that Hounds favour a direct approach

to their targets, using speed and horrible aggression to claim the
Power they need for sustenance.
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The Fleshy Man

◊ Possible Mysteries: Able to disappear in shadows, able to pass off as
212 an ordinary person in public, able to use the senses and speak through
 the mouth of people that it touches, no matter the distance.

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T he Fleshy Man is an abomination, as much for the fact that it almost
passes for a normal if horribly deformed person as anything else.
Fat and bloated with stretched skin beaded with sweat, the Fleshy man
almost looks normal - almost. Dirty yellow eyes, clawed fingernails and a
tendency to lick its lips with a white tongue reveal its abnormality.

T he Fleshy Man poses as a person, wearing clothes and hiding its

strange eyes behind dark glasses. Surprisingly, the creature can
move very fast when it wants to, usually at the moment when it reveals
itself as a Hunger.

Gore Snake
◊ Possible Mysteries: Able to enter the body of victims and use them
as hosts, able to exude sticky slime, able to burn as bright as the sun
for a few moments.

T unnelling through flesh, the Gore Snake seizes a host in a horrific

fashion, and then lies in wait. The hosts themselves have no
recollection of the violation, only a memory of being tremendously unwell

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for a few days. Now they feel almost normal, except for a very upset stomach.
The Gore Snake chooses a host that is likely to come into contact with the
Adept it has targeted, and then bides its time, waiting for a moment to
attack. When it does so it bursts from its hosts mouth in a shower of blood
and vomit, before seizing and attempting to strangle its target. The host
survives the encounter, but the memory of the Hunger’s exit is seared onto
their mind.

The Horned People

◊ Possible Mysteries: Able to move from host to host by touch, able to
sprout bony growths as weapons, able to inject a poison with these
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growths.

A mong the many people that an Adept may encounter, the Horned
People are Hungers of a most insidious nature. This Hunger is
seemingly an infection, a disease that transports itself between hosts,
rendering anyone that the Adept interacts with a possible Hunger. These 213
hosts are always apparently normal people going about their daily tasks,.
 this is ethis is thei
T he presence of the Hunger is only evidenced by the small horn that
protrudes from some part of the persons head. This is how the
being hunts, moving from host to host, and closing in on the Adept until it
is ready to strike.

T he people that the Hunger uses as hosts mostly seem to survive the
encounter intact, with no memory that anything was wrong during
the time they carried the Hunger. However, they often befall strange
accidents not long after, as if the cosmos is working to remove the remains
of the Hunger’s influence from the mundane world.

The Flock
◊ Possible Mysteries: Able to swarm a target and blind them, able to
tear flesh with a hundred tiny beaks, able to force other birds to do
their bidding.

T here are stories from the late middle ages of a Hunger that appears
as a flock of individual bird-like creatures. They swirl through
the air like a twisting murmuration of birds, wheeling and diving in an
intertwining mesh of creatures, and appear quite normal from a distance.
Only when they finally descend on their victim does their nature become
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apparent. Formed like crows, the heads of these ‘birds’ are bare of feathers
and beakless. Instead, each face is slashed with a jagged mouth replete with
teeth and a tiny, questing tongue.

T he Flock have been encountered several times throughout history,

and seem to favour feasting on the most corrupted of Adepts. Their
targets are especially susceptible outside, and often Adepts that the Flock
seek fear the open skies.

Teeth
◊ Possible Mysteries: Able to speak the target’s tongue, able to exhale
this is e

a noxious gas, able to sound like any human it hears.

T his Hunger manifests on animals, and again seems able to transfer

itself from one to another. The outward appearance of the creature
is unchanged, at least from a distance, but when such a beast comes close
216 to the Adept the Hunger targets, a transformation takes place. A large,
jagged mouth opens in the side of the creature just as it approaches close
enough to attack. The mouth mutters and chatters to itself, and even calls

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the Adept by name, seeming to whisper secrets even as it attacks.

Otherworldly
Threats
T here are rumours among occult circles that not all the forces from
beyond are contained by the Veil. Hungers are known entities, drawn
by a lust for Power, but some say that other more powerful beings native
to beyond (i.e. not Ascended masters) sometimes deliberately cross the Veil
for reasons of their own. Needless to say, most Adepts try their very best
to avoid the attention of these beings, rightly believing that anything that
comes from beyond is best avoided.

The Black King

A The Secret World
blackened skull, grinning and terrible, is all the description anyone
in occult circles has of the dreadful being known as the Black King.
Apparently this being occasionally crosses the Veil, seeking out Soul Jars
and destroying them, sending Stains back to their owners with catastrophic
results. Whether the King does this to stop others from crossing the Veil or
for other more arcane reasons isn’t known, but given the value of Soul Jars
to Adepts the Black King would be a very unwelcome guest indeed.

M ost mystics believe that the Black King is a myth and no more, but
others aren’t so sure, and recent accounts from Western Germany
seem to give credence to the apparition.
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The Prince of Spears

T he entity known as the Prince of Spears is described as a beautiful
man around twenty years old, with a forked tongue that is only
revealed when he speaks in a sibilant voice. What the Prince offers is secrets,
217
 this is ethis is thei rituals and mysteries, and all he wants in return is blood. How much blood
is usually the sticking point, but the Prince is said to not take rejection well.
Rumour has it that the government agency called the Chalice had a run in
with the Prince of Spears in 1989, and the entire field operative team went
missing. What they did to upset the Prince isn’t known.

T he Prince was last documented in Western Australia when Chalice

was dismantled. It hasn’t been seen since.

The Fire
T he dreadful entity known as the Fire is terrible to behold. Burning
with an iridescent, multicolour flame of furnace-like heat, the Fire
sweeps through buildings destroying all it can. When not active, the Fire
appears as a young girl around twelve years old. The Fire seems to want
to destroy Temples – not Adepts or Soul Jars as such, just Temples. Why
is anyone’s guess.

T he Fire was rumoured to be responsible for the destruction of the

Temple of the Inner Light in Boston is 2013, and so far hasn’t been
reported since.
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The Maker
T he Maker makes Soul Jars, and is therefore one of the most
interesting beings from the point of view of Adepts. Those that
believe in the Maker even go so far as to say that all Soul Jars are the
result of the its activities, though that is hard to prove. Either way, having
something capable of making Soul Jars as opposed to having to go out and
find them is a very attractive proposition indeed. There’s only one problem
– the Maker has a price, and it is usually terrible. What the Maker looks like
is the topic of much debate among those Adepts that believe in it, as all seek
to locate and bargain with this entity.

T
u
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he Maker was last rumoured to be located in London around twenty

years ago. No one has managed to find evidence of a further visit
from the being since then.

218
 Known Soul Jars

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S oul Jars are items that have the ability to contain Stains, the influence
of beyond that leads to Corruption. As such, Soul Jars are incredibly
valuable to Adepts seeking to Ascend. Some occult scholars believe that
any item that has been in contact with powerful Adepts for a long period
of time and has become a relic will slowly become a Soul Jar, others feel
that each item has been constructed, using a relic as its base. In either
case how Soul Jars were made is now lost, so the supply is limited, placing
even greater value on those in circulation. Remember X is the number of
Adepts who perform the initial Hallowing Ritual, where the capacity of
the Soul Jar is first determined.

The Ebon Knife

◊ Stain capacity: 1XD6

T he Ebon Knife is a foot long serrated blade, sharpened on both sides,

with a plain black hilt carved from ebony. The silvered metal of
the blade is etched with hieroglyphs, the meaning of which are now lost.

The Secret World

The blade is very old, and was rumoured to have been made by the wizard
Tenebrae of Munich in the twelfth century from iron mixed with a melted
down scrap of the grail, which according to the same legend was broken
to pieces and spread about occultists of Europe. In any event the blade
was used as part of the rituals of Tenebrae, which were known to contain
sacrifice as a key element.

T o use the Ebon Knife as a Soul Jar, the Adept must slice the flesh
of their hand as part of the Hallowing Ritual. Sometimes the knife
seems blunt, forcing the Adept to push harder, until the edge suddenly
sharpens and the blade cuts deep. The Ebon knife is thought to be in the
United Kingdom under the care of the Bodleian Museum in Cambridge,
although it does not appear on any catalogues.

w h
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/ 219
 The Book of St. Lazarus

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◊ Stain capacity: 2XD6

T he book is an ancient sheaf of papers clamped in a hide cover of

unknown providence. Some say it is goat skin, others human skin.
The book was bound by Mother Estebelle, a nun from the nunnery of St.
Agatha in southern France. The papers inside are much older, a cracked
and stained collection of vellum covered in script in a scrawling, unknown
tongue. According to the records kept by Estebelle, she was given the
papers by an old, blind and deaf monk she met on pilgrimage. He told
her that the papers held the secret of Lazarus’s resurrection, and pleaded
with her to use the knowledge of the papers on him when he died, which
happened just a few days later. Unfortunately she couldn’t read the papers
and so she bound them for the nunnery’s library. Stories of the human skin
covering to the book stem from the destruction of the nunnery by Count
D’llion, a known black magician.

T he book is very old, and to be used correctly must be opened to

page sixty-two, which shows an elaborate drawing of a man with a
horse’s head. The book is reputed to be in the hands of Algernon Pierce,
the noted Satanist, but this has yet to be confirmed.

The Jaw of Saint Nye

◊ Stain capacity: 1XD6
The Secret World
S t. Nye was a noted orator, who according to legend was much travelled
and was one of the few Christians to meet with Vlad the Impaler
and survive the meeting. Unfortunately, such was the fame of Nye that
when he was killed by pirates his head was removed and his jaw extracted.
The pirate lord believed that when he wore the jaw strapped to his face it
rendered him impossible to deny, allowing him to dominate friends and
foes alike. He was killed in the thirteenth century by the Knight Bernardo
Giles, and the jawbone of the now sainted Nye was recovered and kept in
a reliquary.
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T o make use of the Soul Jar’s properties, the jaw of St. Nye must be
worn strapped to the face of one of the Adepts who takes part in the
Hallowing ritual. During the ceremony the jaw bone blackens and burns,
leaving a stain on the skin of the Adept that takes several weeks to fade.
The jawbone was last seen in the treasury of the Vatican.
221
 this is ethis is thei
The Renishaw Scrolls
◊ Stain capacity: 2XD6

H idden in a tube carved from ivory, the Renishaw scrolls have been
an enigma since their discovery in the tomb of a Saxon king in
1923. Initial research by the archaeologist who discovered them, Simon
Renishaw, found them to be vellum sheets containing fantastical drawings
and descriptions of bizarre birds, animals and people, written in a tongue
that though indecipherable seemed similar to modern day Basque. What
was most intriguing was the names written in the margins. Here, in another
hand and in Latin, someone had transcribed seven names. These Renishaw
claimed were the names of the Ascended masters – those Ascended mystics
who now controlled the world. He was murdered in a street brawl three
days later, and the scrolls went missing.

T he scrolls are activated in the Hallowing ritual by pronouncing

the names of the masters inscribed in the margins. Legend has it
however that doing so brings the attention of these astral beings upon the
Adept who does so, with often dire consequences. The scrolls turned up in
1983 in the collection of the hermeticist Rosaline Cliffe, before disappearing
again. Rumour has it they are to be found in North America.
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The Sarcophagus of Itemotep

◊ Stain capacity: 3XD6

N ot everything found in the Tutankhamen tomb was revealed to the

public. Several items went missing almost as soon as they were
discovered, and one such item is the sarcophagus of Itemotep. A priest of
a hitherto unknown god, Itemotep was interred with his master at the time
of his death. The sarcophagus itself is a large ornate wooden box, shaped
like a man with a jackal’s face. Dark stains across the surface indicate where
blood was splashed across the sarcophagus at the time the box was closed,
apparently as part of a ritual to keep the container sealed. What exactly is
in the box isn’t known, but rumours abound among knowledgeable Adepts.
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T he sarcophagus is used by Adepts splashing some of their own blood

across the surface, apparently the greater the volume the better.
Sources suggest that when this is done the blood seeps into the casket as
222 if drawn inside, but that is just conjecture. The sarcophagus was in the
museum of antiquities in Baghdad, but was lost in the Iraq war.
 ieht si sihte si siht
The Skull of John Dee
◊ Stain capacity: 2XD6

J ohn Dee, Queen Elizabeth’s mathematician, astrologer and magician,

was a powerful Adept who is responsible for many writings and studies
on the hermetic arts. He was said to have one of the largest collections of
mystical objects of the time, many of which were no doubt Soul Jars. Much
was pilfered from his library while Dee travelled Europe with Edward
Kelley, and what little remained was sold off when the returning magician
found himself penniless. He died in the care of his daughter a poor man.
This is the standard belief. Adepts know otherwise, for Dee is known to
have Ascended, and is rumoured to be one of the Ascended masters. His
Ascension was witnessed by his daughter, and she claimed he left his body
behind. When the corpse was buried the skull was taken.

T he skull of John Dee is spiralled with Enochian script, supposedly

from the angel Uriel. The top of the skull has a heavy silver skull
cap, again marked with Enochian symbols. During the Hallowing ritual,
the skull is placed in a prominent situation in the temple in order to survey
the rituals. Apparently, moving the skull from the place after Stains have
been deposited results in a loss of efficacy, as if Dee himself disapproved
of being moved from his position of oversight.

The Itken Jaguar Claw The Secret World

◊ Stain capacity: 2XD6

A pparently looted from a temple in the jungles of Mexico, this artefact

is a short, arm length staff topped with a jaguar’s claw carved from
luminous green stone. The claw was apparently held by the priests of
the Mexican civilisation, and used to dole out punishments to those who
committed infractions against God. The claw ends in sharpened points
with silver coverings – dried blood can still be seen on the claw if it is
studied carefully. The story goes that the location of the claw was revealed
to Audrey Simmons, a US housewife who also had a knack at automatic
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writing. Her husband, one time head of the Church of Synos, used the claw
in ceremonies until 1945. He died of a wasting disease and the claw was
donated to the Smithsonian, where it can still be found.

T he claw requires blood in order to bestow its gifts, although animal

blood will suffice. Some say that Adepts that make use of the claw
223
 this is ethis is thei take on the characteristic mannerisms of the creature who donated the
blood, but that is mere conjecture.

The Marbles of Hericus

◊ Stain capacity: 3XD6

T hese large marble sculptures purported to have been carved by the

legendary Hericus show various rituals believed to have been part
of the Dionysian mysteries, which have long since been lost. Originally
the marbles were dug up from ruins in the deserts of Iraq, where they had
been taken after the destruction of the original Dionysian temple. Soldiers
first uncovered the marbles in 1889, and used them as the basis for a new
Dionysian cult which briefly flourished in London before the main driving
force, Lewis McDonnell, Ascended in 1908. The marbles were taken to the
British Museum, but were lost in 1973 after a suspicious fire in the wing in
which they were housed.

T he marbles contain ancient scripture which must be read during

the Hallowing ritual, requiring at least some understanding of
Latin pronunciation. Thought lost for some time, rumours have begun to
surface that the marbles are in the hands of a Cabal located in the Palace
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of Westminster.

The Roswell Cylinder

◊ Stain capacity: 1XD6

T he Roswell cylinder is an enigma. Found in the wreckage discovered

at Roswell, the cylinder appears as a thick, heavy tube of dull greyish
metal around a foot long, covered in a linear set of markings much like the
Ogham script. The cylinder has no known purpose, cannot be opened, and
has resisted attempts to identify manufacture. The only known activity the
device has is to hum in a modulating tone when brought near to bright
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light sources such as full sunlight or a lamp. Scientists who studied the
Roswell incident believe that the cylinder is of unrelated origin, but they
have no further details.

224 T he cylinder when used as a Soul Jar becomes very cold, building up
a layer of frost by condensing moisture from the air no matter the
temperature. The cylinder is currently in the hands of the Secretariat,
 this is ethis is thei
The Scroll of Magus Knut
◊ Stain capacity: 2XD6

P enned by the lunatic occultist Magus Knut in the thirteenth century,

this simple vellum scroll is said to hold the locations of three lost
golden cities of ‘Ascended beings’. Unfortunately, although written clearly
in old English, the locations are coded into a set of rhyming couplets that
make allegorical reference to several other works for their full deciphering.
To date the only person who has claimed to have decoded the writings is
Miles Prost, the French mystic and explorer, who died in central Mali on
an expedition to the first city.

T he scroll is held in a black hardwood case, which Adepts must grasp

in the left hand during the Hallowing ritual. Currently, rumours
abound that the scroll is in the possession of the Knights of Eight, a
mystical brotherhood on Malta with purported links to the Templars.

The Pillar of Detithus

◊ Stain capacity: 3XD6
The Secret World

A n ancient artefact much revered by the Freemasons, the pillar of

Detithus was constructed by the famed Roman architect to hold
within the scriptures of the Jewish tribes. These documents supposedly
traced back the lineage of the tribes all the way down to Adam and Eve.
The pillar is constructed of iron but shows no signs of rust despite its
great antiquity. If the pillar could originally be opened, that secret is lost,
and it now looks like a smooth pillar of iron, however the weight would
indicate that the pillar is hollow.

T he pillar when used as a Soul Jar must be placed in the centre of the
Temple, and once Hallowed cannot be moved. It is very heavy, so
moving it is some feat in any regard. For many years the pillar was held
by the Freemasons, but during a fire in one of the lodges the pillar went
missing. Some scholars believe that a shadowy group called the Fathers
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now hold the pillar, somewhere in central Germany.

226
 ieht si sihte si siht
The Helios Stone
◊ Stain capacity: 1XD6

C apturing the fires of the sun, the Helios stone burns with a bright
light like an inner flame, but only on certain occasions such as the
solstices. At other times the stone resembles a large piece of smooth,
clear amber, flecked with silver. There is some debate whether the stone
is a natural mineral or not – many scholars claim that it was created by
Paracelsus as part of his hermetical workings, others postulate that the
stone was discovered by Arabian tomb robbers in the ruins of Ur and
eventually sold to Paracelsus after making its way to Europe. The light
of the stone is said to be bright enough to read by, and quite beautiful to
behold.

T he stone is activated by introducing it to a burning brazier, at which

point it glows with an inner flame greater than that of the sun. At
this point the stone can be Hallowed. The current location of the stone
is unknown, apparently it was stolen from the home of Sir Edward Tyne
along with several paintings and other occult paraphernalia in the late
nineteenth century.

The Secret World

Makalus’s Crown
◊ Stain capacity: 2XD6

M akalus was a king of Mali, credited with being one of the first
African kings to meet with Prester John. He was known as a
just and peaceful lord, and his realm prospered until his death, when his
children managed to wreck his legacy and lose the kingdom. The crown of
Makalus was fashioned from gold and silver, inlaid with gems and semi-
precious stones. The metalwork is inscribed with abstract sketches of
African animals, real and mythical. The crown of Makalus was taken from
Mali in the sixteenth century and brought to the Vatican as a gift for the
Pope, who considered that it must be European.
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D uring a Hallowing ritual, the crown must be worn in turn by all

Adepts who wish to use it, who must speak the Mali word for
‘welcome’ when they don the artefact. Once Hallowed in this way, the
crown must not be worn by any except the Adepts to which it is attuned, or
the connection is broken. The Crown is currently in the hands of a mystic 227
and seer called Jacob Brown, a resident of New York.
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The Sword of Morning
◊ Stain capacity: 2XD6

T he ancient British revered the sword of morning as a light bringer

and a tool to defeat the Picts. An old, worn short sword around
two feet long made from bronze, the sword of morning was so named for
the poetry that adorned the surface. Despite the softness of the metal, the
sword retains a keen edge and legend has it that Charlemagne himself cut
his finger on the sword as a demonstration of its sharpness. According to
the secret history of the weapon, no army could be routed if the sword
was at its head, something that drew Nazi occultists to search for its
whereabouts.

T he sword is held aloft during the Hallowing ritual, and must be

illuminated by natural light to reveal its keen edge. The last location
of the sword is not known, other than it lies in the hands of a private
collector. The Nazis never did get hold of the weapon.

The Bone Crucible

The Secret World

◊ Stain capacity: 2XD6

T he bone crucible is a large metal bowl or cauldron blackened on the

inside and shiny on the outside. The inside has been darkened by
the use of the crucible as a place to burn bones to ash. Part of the mystery
rites of a sect of Catholics from the fourteenth century, the crucible was
used to burn the bones of executed heretics as a way of denying them
the blessings of heaven. It is said that over two hundred heretics were
rendered to the finest ash within the crucible. The last heretic to be so
destroyed was John Clement of Auvergne, a gnostic and occultist. Shortly
after his death the crucible was stolen by crusaders and taken to the Holy
land, whereupon its location was lost.

I n order to use the crucible, Adepts must burn a part of themselves

within the cauldron. Luckily for them, hair is a suitable sacrifice. The
this is e

bone crucible was lost for several centuries before coming to light after
the mysterious disappearance of Nathan Wright, the astral Magician at
the turn of the nineteenth century. Since then it has been sold to a private
collector from France and its location is again unknown.
228
 ieht si sihte si siht
The Brass Mechanism
◊ Stain capacity: 1XD6

A Greek device of great complexity, the brass mechanism is a machine

of unknown purpose supposedly constructed by Pythagoras.
Approximately the size of a large book, the mechanism sports a large
number of wheels and cogs, and three dials – one shows phases of
the moon, the other astrological symbols, and the third symbols of an
unknown nature. Strangely, the dials seem to be inputs to the device rather
than outputs. Pythagoras claimed in his writings that the mechanism was
a counting machine, but despite the fact that much of the mechanism
remains intact, no one has been able to work out how it would work. The
great occultist Alastair Crowley claimed to have divined the meaning of
the third set of symbols, but if he did, he never wrote it down.

T o use the mechanism as a Soul Jar, Adepts must each choose a

symbol set. This then relates to them, and must be selected when
they wish to deposit Stains. Failure to select the right symbol set results
in a shutdown of the system. The brass mechanism is currently in the
Louvre, Paris, but rumours abound that this is not the true mechanism,
but a forgery.

The Concetas Instrument The Secret World

◊ Stain capacity: 2XD6

T he Concetas instrument first appeared in Italy in the seventeen

hundreds. Owned by the mercurial occultist and virtuoso musician
Fausto Bombarda, this long wooden horn instrument was used by Bombarda
to lead orchestras across the country. When Bombarda was questioned
about the instrument, he said he found it in a tomb he uncovered to a lost
noble called Concetas which he stumbled upon high in the Pyrenees, but
the accuracy of that description is unknown. Bombarda was killed in a
duel over a spurned lover, and the instrument went to his sister Isabella
Bombarda. It then remained in that family for several hundred years, left
e si siht

in a box in the family mansion.

T he instrument must be played (at least to some degree) in the

Hallowing ritual to activate the Soul Jar. It plays like a clarinet.
The instrument is currently in Rome, where it was gifted by the last of 229
the Bombardas, and it now forms the centrepiece of the museum of music.
 this is ethis is thei
The Talygas Map
◊ Stain capacity: 2XD6

T he Talygas map is a relic out of time. Painted onto animal hide, this
large pictographic map shows the European continent in great and
surprising detail, especially considering its age. It has been noted by some
who have seen the map that the contours of Europe seem to change and
shift from one viewing to the next, but this has yet to be confirmed and
what these ‘alternative’ views represent is anyone’s guess. The map was
found in Iceland by the first Danish settlers, but according to them it was
already ancient when they discovered it. For many years the map changed
hands between the kings of Denmark and Sweden, either as spoils of war
or a marriage dowry, until it finally ended up in Copenhagen with the
Danish royal family, where it was hung above the throne on state occasions.
The map remained there until the infamous (in occult circles) Barghest
incident, where the map and several other relics were stolen.

W hen used as a Soul Jar the map must be laid out on a large table
during the Hallowing ritual. The noted occultist known as
Blackstaff, leader of the Brothers of Light is rumoured to have the map in
his Temple, but the whereabouts of the brothers remains a mystery.
The Secret World

The Occult
Underground
T he Secret World is known only to a select few, but there are many on
the periphery who dabble in the mysterious without ever knowing
the truth. These people make up the occult underground. They don’t know
the truth of the universe, but they can be useful to Adepts all the same as
this is e

sources of information and suppliers of occult goods. These people are

good to know as like other Adepts the Player Characters will need to have
allies around the periphery of the Secret World who can help and support
them when they need assistance. For the Narrator, these allies can be used
to provide information, clues and plot hooks that help to bring Adepts into
230 scenarios and adventures.
 Merchants of the Occult

ieht si sihte si siht

T here are plenty of individuals who trade in occult items, some
running shops and trading sites, others working alone with lists
of clients. These merchants may have some inkling of the Secret World,
but they could equally be totally ignorant of the powers that Adepts have
at their command. However one common thread that links them is that
while they don’t know of the real significance of Soul Jars, they recognise
the value of occult objects to certain clientele. All Adepts who take their
progress seriously will have some allies of this kind they can rely on
to supply occult artefacts of various potencies and just as importantly
provide information about occult items of interest. For the Narrator, these
individuals provide possible plot hooks – Player Characters mostly try to
avoid contact with other Adepts, but perhaps they rely on these merchants
to provide news of Soul Jars worth following up.

T he following examples of occult merchants could be dropped into a

campaign to provide information and assistance and to act as more
persistent characters in a game of Esoterica, helping to bring a long-
running campaign to life.

The Secret World

Doctor Phelias
T he good Doctor was a medical professional, until he was struck off.
However, he still calls himself a Doctor. James Phelias now works
in the shadows around the Cabals and occultists. He’s an informant and a
fence – someone who peddles occult secrets and mystical items. He isn’t an
Adept, and he doesn’t really know exactly what the Secret World is or what
Adepts are trying to do, but he does know that people value information,
especially about certain types of occult objects, and that such people are
often willing to pay for information on others that share their passion. A
shabby and unkempt man, Phelias is a hard man to like. But he’s useful, and
so many Adepts know him or at least know of him, and turn to him when
they need a little information or a little assistance. For his part he’s often
out and about touting what he knows.
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p
m 231
 this is ethis is thei
Miriam’s Bizarre
M iriam is an old lady of Indian origin, small and slight. She runs the
Bizarre, a well-known shop of esoteric nick-knacks, books and all
sorts of strange paraphernalia. Most of Miriam’s clientele are everyday
people with some interest in old books and strange bits and pieces, but
some are Adepts. The Bizarre doesn’t really have any items of worth on
its shelves, but Miriam is a mine of knowledge about the occult world,
especially Cabals and Adepts of days gone by. She also knows a lot of lore
regarding Soul Jars. Miriam is in many respects like a favoured aunt – she’s
warm, kind and open, and just wants to see the best in people. She offers
her information for free to those she likes, which is why so many Adepts
know her. In a world of occult greed and in-fighting, Miriam is an example
of a better kind of person.

The Grotto
I n the basement of an old warehouse on the west side of the city is The
Grotto. Ostensibly a club, most of those that come throughout the
evening are here to relax and dance in the somewhat gothic atmosphere
that permeates the place. However, in the backrooms of The Grotto many
The Secret World

a shady deal is done, and The Grotto is seen by many Adepts as a kind of
‘neutral ground’ where they can meet and discuss without the cut-throat
occult aggression that typifies the Secret World. Items are traded in the
depths of The Grotto to the thumping beats of the dance floor. The
proprietor, Suzy Six, is well-known and somewhat fearsome – some say
she’s an Adept herself.

Four winds
T he Four winds is a bar. It’s clean and modern, and attracts a young
and hip demographic. It is also the primary hang out of occult
merchants from across the area, who come here to barter information and
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goods. Why they choose this place where they seem so incongruous is as
much a mystery as who really owns the bar. But it’s here that Adepts can

r
meet a wide number of traders in one go, and find out a little of what’s
going on in the occult underground, as long as they dress well and can
afford to buy a few drinks.
232
 Occult Informants

ieht si sihte si siht

A s well as the merchants who deal in occult paraphernalia and
information, there are some people who make it their business to
find out secrets that they can sell. These informants aren’t part of the
Secret World, but they recognise that some people will pay good money
for information about others of their kind. Most Adepts don’t like these
people despite how useful they are – if they find out something about you,
they’ll happily sell it to the highest bidder.

Reginald Black
B lack is a scholar, a man of letters, or so he styles himself. In reality
he’s a gossip who loves a secret, and loves showing off how much
he knows to those he feels appreciate him, i.e. willing to pay his price. Tall,
thin and permanently dressed in black, Reginald spends his time studying
books and other repositories of ancient law, digging up what he can about
the occult underground. This he then sells to his clients, ‘consulting’ for
them. If you want to know the history of a Soul Jar, or where it might be
found, Black could be your man.

Sigmus Olsen The Secret World

W hen it comes to occult informants, Olsen is in a league of his own.
He’s a businessman pure and simple, and he uses a network of
his own to find out what he knows. Business-like and professional, Olsen
collects what he can through his spies, creates dossiers, and then presents
them to the client he feels is most suited to the information. He also works
on commission, scouting out targets for clients willing to pay the price.
Given the dangerous nature of many Adepts, the price can be quite high.
Who his spies are isn’t known, but everyone agrees that Olsen has an
efficient and active network and that you don’t want to end up the subject

t
of one of Olsen’s studies.

k
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233
 ieht si sihte si siht
Jenny Coombe
W hen you think of occult informants, Jenny Coombe is about as far
away from the stereotype as you can imagine. In her mid-twenties,
bubbly, pretty and sociable, Coombe has zero interest in the information
she sells. What she is though is a great researcher, with a knack of finding
what she needs, especially online. The fact that she sells occult secrets is
just that the work pays quite well for what is required. A lot of Adepts like
Jenny for the lack of interest she has in their secrets – it can make her seem
a ‘safe’ partner. Don’t take advantage of her though, she has two brothers
who spent time inside and are not nice people.

Periodicals
T here are many occult periodicals, either in print or online. Most are
full of misinformed rubbish and are suitable only to the charlatans
and fools that make up most of the occult underground. Still, there are
some that provide genuine information about things that lie on the edge of
the Secret World.

The Esoteric Path

The Secret World
P roduced by a small company in England and only available in
print, the Esoteric Path is a journal of the mysterious and occult.
It is full of all sorts of information, a lot of it rubbish, but the authors
sometimes print stories of real interest to Adepts, and the histories of
occult organisations and famous (in occult circles) Soul Jars can sometimes
make illuminating reading. Many Adepts secretly subscribe to the Esoteric
path – the circulation list is a closely guarded secret.

The Raven
e si siht

O n the internet The Raven is the name given to a dark web

message board frequented by Adepts, occultists and (some believe)
supernatural entities. The threads on the board range from informative
to bizarre – it’s not uncommon to have one thread asking about details of 235
where a certain Ritual may be found alongside another where an apparent
 this is ethis is thei madman curses an enemy to dust and death, or practical discussion about
Soul Jars followed by warnings of the most recent activities of government
agencies. Despite the strange nature of many of the posts, The Raven is
the one place where Adepts can discuss things amongst their peers with no
fear of their identities being revealed. Here there are all sorts of revealing
discussion among occultists that would normally be at the least distrustful
and more often than not out and out enemies. For many The Raven is their
only outlet outside of their Cabal, and the only place to actually gossip with
other Adepts about what’s happening in the Secret World. Unsurprisingly,
the members list is a great secret, and it is an unwritten rule among Adepts
not to pry about membership too deeply – they value The Raven too much
to risk damaging its integrity.

The Ascended
Masters
The Secret World

S ome believe in the Ascended Masters, some do not. Those that believe
say that these great Adepts, once they have passed through the Veil,
cling on to some interest in what’s happening in the mundane world,
and send messages through dreams back to Adepts striving to Ascend.
Whether these are messages of hope and encouragement, practical
suggestions from those in the know, warnings or other acts of guidance
is a topic of hot debate. Some even suggest that the Ascended Masters
are in fact not Adepts but beings like the supernatural entities known to
walk the mundane world, and that their words are just lies that lead to
destruction or the fulfilment of whatever strange goals such beings might
have. Still, only a fool would completely discount the existence of dreams

.
and premonitions from some outside source. The question is, do you follow
their advice and guidance or ignore it?
this is e

Wyrm
236 I t seems that many of those occultists who whisper of the Ascended
Masters speak of the Wyrm. This being, whatever it may be, often
seems to appear in the dreams of Adepts, manifesting as a shifting mass

ieht si sihte si siht

of snakelike coils that writhe and contort as then insinuate into the mind.
The Wyrm seems to be most associated with warnings – delivering cryptic
clues as to events that may be about to unfold. However, amongst those
who claim to have received messages from the Wyrm it is unclear whether
these warnings have proved useful or not, or what the Wyrm really is.

Master of Keys
T he Master of Keys purports to help Adepts Ascend. In visions and
dreams the being appears as a bright light, vaguely human in shape,
with a whispering female voice. The Master tells Adepts secrets that might
help a listener to Ascend, such as the location of Soul Jars or the nature of
Rituals the Adept may find useful. However, just like in the mundane world,
everything has a price. Each helpful message comes with instructions that
must be followed before the Master will return. These tasks often start in a
very mundane but somewhat bizarre manner, such as ‘leave bread and wine
on your doorstep tonight’ or ‘leave money with a beggar today’. But they
soon change in tone and nature, moving through painful, difficult tasks
such as ‘kill your dog’ or ‘never speak to your brother again’ to downright
horrific acts such as ‘kill Jane Tillhurst’ or ‘cut off a finger’. The compulsion
to complete these tasks is hard to resist, and the Master’s gifts are valuable.

The Secret World

Rumour has it that at least three Adepts have committed suicide after
courting the Master of Keys too long.

Thirteen
U nlike the other Ascended Masters, the being called Thirteen doesn’t
offer advice or secrets, it gives dire warnings against Ascension
itself. Some say that it is because the Masters don’t really want other Adepts
to follow in their footsteps, others whisper that Thirteen isn’t an Ascended
Master at all, but something else. However, all who believe in Thirteen
say one thing about the being – it is the best authority on supernatural
entities available in the mundane world, and unlike other Masters it is
e si siht

willing to entertain a dialog, that is to say it is possible to question it in

dreams. The difficult part is getting the being’s attention in the first place,
and all manner of suggestions have been made about how to summon the
Thirteen. In dreams the being has no shape or form, instead its presence
is heralded by a draining of colour, sound and joy from any dream scene.
The voice of Thirteen is sibilant and choral, as if the being is composed of 237
many parts – some surmise this is where its name originates.
 Scenario Ideas
this is ethis is thei

T he following adventure hooks give the Narrator starting points

to craft their own games of Esoterica. They can be elaborated on
as written, modified to suit the groups taste in play, or simply used as a
springboard for the Narrator looking to create their own scenarios.

The Stolen Book

O ne of the Adepts is contacted by an old school friend, Edward Smith.
One of their relatives has passed away, and left them some items in
an inheritance. One of the items is an old book in Latin. Edward says that
the book might be of interest to the Adept ‘as they are into all that kind of
stuff ’. He promises to meet the Adept and hand it over. But at the meeting
place Edward is a no-show…

What’s Happening?
The Secret World

B efore Edward told the Adept of the book, he took it to a curio shop
to try and get a value for it. Unknown to Edward, the shop was run
by an Adept, Hillary Parker, from a Cabal called the Secret Voice. She tried
to buy the book off him, but he wouldn’t sell and left. When Hillary told
the rest of the Cabal about the find, they resolved to get the book by any
means … They did some leg work to find out where Edward lived, and
then turned up one evening when Edward was out and ransacked the place
in search of the book. When Edward later returned with the book, they
took the book and rather rashly him as well, as he recognised Hillary from
the shop. Now he’s at the shop, and the Cabal are wondering what to do
with him…
this is e

Possible Scenes

238
E dward makes an appointment to meet the Adept at a place they both
know, but he doesn’t show. The Adept knows where he lives, so the
most likely action from this point is to check out Edward’s home. Back at
Edward’s place the door is ajar. Inside, the rooms have been ransacked,

ieht si sihte si siht

although nothing obvious has been taken. A careful investigation of the
front door reveals what appears to have been a struggle. Edward’s coat
lies on the floor – he was carrying it when he was ambushed. In the inner
pocket is a card for Parker’s shop ‘the Cave’. If the Players miss this clue,
then there’s also a note on the fridge that says ‘take the old stuff to the
Cave.’ As the Characters investigate, the police arrive. How the scene ends
could very much depend on how the characters interact with the police.

T he Cave is a shop downtown. The Adepts are likely to want to

investigate. Hillary is inside – she’s a helpful, friendly woman, but
she’ll do her best to put the Players off spending any time at the shop.
The shop itself is stuffed through with occult paraphernalia, but Adepts
can see that it is all junk. At the back of the shop is a door however, and
there’s the faintest trickle of something coming through it that sparks
the senses… Behind the door is an old stair leading to the Temple of the
Secret Voice, where a badly beaten but very much alive Edward is trussed
up in a cupboard while the rest of the Cabal try to work out what to
do with him. The book is also here, on the lectern in the main hall. The
underground Temple of the Secret Voice is half ruined, dark and dirty,
and seems to echo to the faintest of whispers that permeate the dark. Some
of the Adepts have Mysteries that focus on the voice and communication.

H ow the adventure plays out depends very much on the actions of

The Secret World

the Characters. The Cabalists of the Secret Voice are Adepts, and
dangerous, but they aren’t killers, and they made a big mistake bringing
Edward here. There are four Adepts in the Secret Voice, so taking them on
in a direct confrontation is risky, and guile might be a better option. If the
Adepts do nothing, the Cabalists eventually take Edward and dump him on
the outskirts of town, threatening that worse will follow if he speaks to
anyone about what has happened… It is very likely that at the end of the
adventure, unless they are careful, the Adepts will have made enemies of
the Secret Voice, and they could be used as recurring foes in a continuing
campaign.

The Manchurian Fan

e si siht

A local newspaper runs a story about a nearby university

money in an archaeological dig in Manchuria on the
Russian border. Apparently the team have uncovered the tomb
investing
Chinese/
of a lord
of the Jin dynasty. Several artefacts have been uncovered, and an image 239
 this is ethis is thei clearly shows a bone fan covered with carved script. An Adept reader gets
a strong feeling that this object may be a Soul Jar. The expedition is due
to return in three days’ time, and the artefacts are to be displayed in the
University after some conservation work before returning to China.

T he expedition was a success and the fan is indeed a Soul Jar. Found
by Martha Pickering, it is due to return with her to the University
for conservation and study. However, the newspaper doesn’t reveal all
that happened on the expedition. Three members died, apparently from
dehydration, and an air of despondency hangs over the team when they
return…

What’s Happening?
T he fan and the other more mundane treasures of the tomb were
not left unguarded. An otherworldly being known as the Thirst was
bound by the priest of the original lord to watch over their dead master. Now
that entity is also being brought home, as it is bound to a small wooden box
originally used to hold incense which now makes up part of the collection.
The Thirst cannot manifest except in the dark, and opens the box when it
does so. When it is released, the Thirst drains the moisture from its victims,
engulfing them and effectively dehydrating them. The Thirst is bound to
The Secret World

ensure that all the grave good remain together – it only seeks victims if the
collection is broken up in some way. Currently it is dormant on the plane
with the rest of the team. Of course, the fact that other Cabalists may have
read the newspaper article is an added complication.

Possible Scenes
T his adventure could play out in a variety of ways. No doubt the
Player Characters would be keen to try and get to the University
and possibly see the fan and the rest of the collection before it goes on
show. Here they might hear details of the strange occurrences on the
expedition, and the pall of gloom that hangs over the team. During this
this is e

investigation at least one further member of the team dies – a scientist

who took part of the collection to the laboratories to begin the assessment.
This brings the police to the scene, and perhaps a government agency like
Agency 32. Unsurprisingly, the Player Characters aren’t the only Adepts
who also show up looking for the fan…
240
 this is ethis is thei
T he Thirst will attack anyone who tries to break up the collection,
doing so after dark and preferably when they are alone. Strong light
holds the being at bay. Written in ancient Chinese on the inside of the
lid of the box where The Thirst is bound is a Force 1 Ritual that can be
used to banish it. Can the Adepts translate the Ritual and dispel the entity
before it kills them, all the while avoiding confrontation with other Cabals
who seek the fan?

The Scottish Stone

W hile researching occult practices, one of the Adepts uncovers
a link to a supposed Soul Jar in Scotland whilst reading some
obscure poetry. The dusty tome speaks of The Ending Stone, a mystical
object with the power to end suffering and pain, and to grant mystical
abilities to those that touch it. Corroborating with several other histories
in the library, the Adept finds that the Stone was apparently integrated
into the upper battlements of Castle Drumbeagh, the ancestral home of
the Clan McConnald. Searches on the internet find that the castle still
stands, but is currently up for sale. Worth a visit, surely?
The Secret World

What’s Happening?
T he Stone really is in the battlements of the castle, high above the
main entrance, and the castle is for sale. But the asking price of
£2.6 million is high. The reason is that the current occupant of the castle,
Lord Hugh McConnald, is seriously in debt to some rather unscrupulous
individuals and needs cash fast. Unfortunately, he’s not aware that one of
the remaining staff, the groundskeeper John Havelock, is an Adept, part of
the Thrice Blessed Brotherhood that use some of the abandoned cellars of
the castle as their lodge house. Needless to say Havelock and his associates
are not happy about the sale, and are pressuring McConnald to stop.

Possible Scenes
this is e

T his adventure supposes that the Adepts make their way to Scotland
to try and secure the Stone of Ending. Assuming the travel is
242 uneventful, the opening scenes would involve the Adepts arriving in
the UK and making their way to Scotland. Certainly the easiest way to
see the Stone would be to enquire at the estate agents carrying the sale.

ieht si sihte si siht

McConnald is eager to sell, so he will happily see any viewers if they can
assure the agents that they have the wherewithal to make a purchase.

A t the castle, the Adepts are shown around the building but not up to
the battlements – McConnald says that they are not safe for causal
visitors. He also gets his groundskeeper Havelock to show the Adepts
around the estate. Havelock will do his best to dissuade the Adepts from
interest in the castle. He’ll also try and ascertain what their motives for
the ‘purchase’ are. At the end of the visit, the Adepts will be shown the
exit and escorted to the nearby village of Bothy. At this point, the Thrice
Blessed Brotherhood will set an animal servant to watch the Adepts.

W here the adventure then heads is dependent on the actions of the

Player Characters. If the Brotherhood feel that there is something
more to the visitors than they let on, or if the servant reveals something
of the Adepts’ power, the Cabal at the castle will move to try and free the
stone. Unfortunately, this will knock off part of the battlement but leave
the Stone in place. At the same time, the Russians who are owed gambling
debts from McConnald will show up and try to claim what is theirs.

C an the Player Characters remove the stone, a fist-sized piece of rock

and spirit it away without the Brotherhood or McConnald learning
of their actions? What will the Russians do? And what will McConnald

The Secret World

do, desperate for cash and with apparently a group of wealthy potential
buyers staying in the village?

The Fallen King

A Soul Jar known as the Fallen King, once the property of reclusive
billionaire Toby Judd, has come up for sale at auction. A statue
recovered from an Iron Age tomb, the Fallen King depicts a god of fertility
and war. It is not known for certain in occult circles whether Judd himself
was an Adept, but those that believe whisper that his disappearance
was Ascension. At the auction are several interested parties, looking to
purchase or acquire the Fallen King for themselves, or watching those that
e si siht

do. This gives the Adepts plenty of opportunities…

g 243
 ieht si sihte si siht
What’s Happening?
T he Auction has brought out a range of Adepts and their enemies.
Some wish to purchase the Fallen King, others wish to see who else
might be purchasing the Fallen King. At least two government agencies,
the Secretariat and Bureau Nineteen are in attendance, each pursuing their
own agendas. Finally the Dead Stars, Judd’s own Cabal, are also present,
annoyed that they didn’t manage to secure the Fallen King before Judd
Ascended, and knowing that some of their own Stains are present in the
Jar. How can the Player Characters profit from this collection of occultists?

Possible Scenes
I t is unlikely that the Player Characters have the wherewithal to purchase
the Fallen King – several of the other Cabalists present (which could
be any from the Secret World section of this book) could outbid them.
Instead, if they are present at the auction, they could see exactly who is
bidding. Importantly, others could note the Adept’s presence as well.

T he first scene of such a scenario would be the auction room itself.

Do the Adepts have a way of disguising themselves, or do they
stand in plain sight? How many attend? It is here that the other players in

The Secret World

the drama will be revealed. Where the adventure goes after that is really up
to the players. Several of the Cabalists present will descend on the winner
of the auction, eager to acquire the Fallen King however they can, but you
can be sure that the winning bidder has ways to protect themselves. The
Secretariat agents will be looking to identify Adepts before beginning their
grisly work, while Bureau Nineteen along with many other Adepts will be
trying to find out what they can about those who attend, eager to locate
other Adepts that they can target in their acquisition of Soul Jars. How
such a complex web plays out is up to the players to some extent – will
they risk the danger of discovery to identify rivals they can overcome?

The Dark
e si siht

T he Adepts find out about another Cabal relatively near to them (an
on-going antagonist perhaps) that has been seemingly destroyed –
apparently the building that housed their temple was set on fire and the
occupants died of smoke inhalation. It seems that one survived the attack,
and the area has been shut off while the police do their work. There’s
245
 this is ethis is thei no mention of what might have happened to any objects in the temple,
so perhaps they are still in situ... If the Adepts could get a chance to
investigate, maybe they would be able to find something…

What’s Happening?
U nbeknownst to the Player Characters, the rival Cabal was destroyed
by the Dark, a supernatural entity from beyond. It takes the shape
of a tall man in an old brown suit, who is able to change into a living,
moving black smoke at will, and it attacks by suffocating its victims. It
was drawn to the Cabal when they recovered the Scrolls of Baphomet, a
set of writings on the Templars from Malta. The Dark seeks out Templar
relics and hides them, trying to keep them from the eyes of Adepts – why
is not known. The Dark was inactive while the Scrolls were in the library
of the Yale University, but when they were stolen by the Cabal, the Dark
became active once more. If the Player Characters recover the Scrolls,
they will unwittingly become the focus of the Dark’s attention. But not all
the rival Cabalists died, and the police can’t understand why everyone died
of smoke inhalation but there appears to have been no fire…

Possible Scenes
The Secret World

T he first scene in the adventure is most likely to take place at the rival
Cabal’s headquarters as the Player Characters go to investigate.
They will find the structure surprisingly intact with no signs of fire
damage, although cordoned off by the police. Snooping around is likely
to draw the attention of the police who’ll want to know what the Adepts
are doing here. However they deal with the police, if they get inside the
building, they will find no Soul Jars except for a set of Scrolls (the others
were not stored here). These are the Scrolls of Baphomet, and the Adepts
will no doubt steal them.

O nce they do, they will become the focus of the Dark, which will
begin to hunt them. As it does, the Adepts will begin to snatch
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glimpses like waking dreams of the Dark, and eventually of the Scrolls.
The being is trying to communicate, and to tell the Adepts that they must
abandon the Scrolls. At the same time one of the rival Cabalists who
survived the attack, perhaps someone they have met before, will make their
move. They are unaware of the connection between the Scrolls and Dark,
246 assuming the entity was a Hunger, so they will seek to recover the Scrolls
themselves. The Dark has no intention of letting the Player Characters
keep the Scrolls. The Dark cannot handle the Scrolls, but it does not kill for

ieht si sihte si siht

pleasure, it simply wishes the Scrolls out of Adept hands, and it seeks to
convince the Adepts through dreams, eventually showing them glimpses
of the fate of their rivals. At this point if the hints have not been enough,
the Dark attacks. Will the Dark manage to persuade the Adepts to give up
the Scrolls, or will it attack them? Will the rival Adept manage to steal the
cursed items before the Player Characters suffer this fate?

The Pyramid of Tetala

I n the arid depths of America lies the Pyramid of Tetala. Who made
it isn’t known, but inside the pyramid is said to house a staff of gold
holding the spirits of the makers. However, the location of the Pyramid is
lost. Until now. A helicopter pilot called Herb Green found the site while
on a recreational flight. Now the secret is out, and the mystical loot of the
Pyramid’s builders is possibly up for grabs. Can the Player Characters beat
the competition, the locals and the guardians to claim the reward?

What’s Happening?

The Secret World

T he Pyramid lies in the middle of a Native American Reservation.
Green has sold his discovery to a local archaeologist, and the
news is spreading through occult circles. Unfortunately, the locals are
exceptionally protective of the site, and keep the place hidden from tourists
and the authorities. They’ve also rigged the Pyramid with traps and other
deterrents to keep people out, and there are otherworldly guardians as
well. Will anyone get inside and if they do, what will they find?

Possible Scenes
T his adventure could see the Player Characters making their way to
the desert to investigate the Pyramid. Perhaps an occult connection
e si siht

gives them the news of its discovery before the information becomes
widespread. Making their way to the reservation, the Adepts will first
be confronted with the locals. Taciturn in the extreme and downright
belligerent if the Pyramid is mentioned, the Native Americans will do
their best to get rid of the Adepts. They won’t resort to physical violence,
but they will threaten it. Assuming the Adepts get past these guards, they
247
 this is ethis is thei can find a guide desperate enough for cash to take them across the desert.

T he Pyramid itself is large and heavily decayed, much is buried in

the sand, but there is a way in. There the Adepts will find they
aren’t the first to enter the Pyramid, another Cabal, the German Seekers
of Thurms, have also discovered the Pyramid and gained access, and even
now are exploring the dusty passageways. Both the Seekers and the Player
Characters seek to penetrate the Pyramid and discover its secrets, but to
do so they must avoid the traps both ancient and modern installed by the
Native Americans.

O nce the Adepts have survived the traps and the Seekers, they’ll have
to get past the Spirit Snakes, the otherworldly guardians that seek
the souls of those who dare to disturb their slumber. Six of these beings
are present in the throne room of the Pyramid, and rise to attack the very
souls of those that would tresspass or deign to claim the staff.

I f the Adepts manage to best the rival Cabal, avoid the traps and then
the Spirit Snakes, they can claim the staff and escape. But once they
are outside, the Native Americans are waiting…
The Secret World

The Nusku Blade

T his scenario is an introduction to the world of Esoterica, and is
designed to showcase some of the themes of the game. It also
introduces some of the groups and individuals outlined in the ‘The Secret
World’ section. The scenario centres on a murder with a very peculiar
twist – it was committed with a Soul Jar, the so-called Nusku Blade. News
of the murder has spread into the occult underground, and now there are
a number of interested parties circling the crime and looking to gain the
blade for themselves. Rather than just being a series of predefined scenes
the scenario is instead a sandbox – a collection of characters, locations and
this is e

events related to the murder and the Nusku Blade. The Narrator can use
these details to flesh out their own adventure as the scenario progresses,
giving the Narrator great latitude to direct the adventure in response to
the actions and desires of the Players.

248
 this is ethis is thei
The Story
T he scenario is presented as a number of characters, investigations,
locations and scenes that can be intermixed and linked as the
Narrator sees fit. Most relate to parties that have an interest in the Soul
Jar, or an interest in the kind of people that might do. The Nusku Blade, a
weapon reportedly made in ancient Assyria, has been for some considerable
time in the hands of the Brothers of the Silver Branch, a Cabal with just
three members. Just two weeks ago, one of those members Ascended, and
the other two in their shock have taken to bickering over their Cabal’s
goods. In a fight that resulted, one of the Adepts was killed with the Nusku
Blade. Now the police have the murderer, but the blade is missing, and no
one seems to know where it is.

T he scenario is based on the assumption that the Players will recognise

that there is a high possibility that the murder weapon used was a
Soul Jar and would want to get their hands on it. Acquiring it should be
high on their agenda. The adventure is set out as a sandbox – there are
numerous factions, locations and clues that the Player Characters could
interact with to locate the missing Nusku Blade

T he scenario consists of a few ‘main’ locations, scenes and characters,

which are mostly necessary to complete the adventure and uncover
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the Nusku Blade, and while some of these might be evaded, that will mean
the players won’t discover the Soul Jar. Then we have the ‘secondary’
locations, characters and scenes, which are different encounters or
challenges that Player Characters will need to overcome and that might
help or harm them in the rest of the scenario. The secondary scenes are
not presented in any particular order and you don’t have to play them all
to complete the adventure; it’s up to you and your players to decide where
they are going next and how to tackle each challenge. So, every time you
play this scenario it can turn out differently.

Hooks
T here are a few ways the Adepts might get drawn into the scenario.
this is e

They could be contacted by one of the peddlers of occult knowledge

mentioned in the ‘Secret World’ – either sold the information, or passed it
on as a favour. If this is the case then although the murder victim isn’t
known (he was new to the Secret World), the weapon involved in the
250 murder, the so called ‘Nusku Blade’ is interesting and their contact thinks
it’s an old item of occult value. Alternatively, the Player Characters could
read something of the crime on the Raven dark website, or even in the local

ieht si sihte si siht

papers, where mention of a murder with a strange, ritualistic knife might
get their attention. The Narrator can chose the opening that they think
suits their game and the expectations of the Players.

T he aim of the hook is to get the Players interested in acquiring

a potential Soul Jar, or considering that where one Soul Jar has
appeared, there may be more. If the Narrator finds that the Players are
reluctant to get involved, have one of the characters see a sketch of the
Nusku Blade from one of the papers (Tom Whittle described it to them)
– it sends a shiver down the spine. The Player Characters are certain the
Nusku Blade is a Soul Jar.

Searching the Library or Internet

T he only thing that can be discovered at the library or through internet
research is some of the history of the Nusku Blade, as outlined in
the description of the item. Any Adept reading this information will feel it
most likely that the artefact is a Soul Jar, almost without question.

The Secret World

◊ The Nusku Blade – 1XD6

T he Nusku Blade is a curved single-edge knife around a foot long.

The blade is made of steel and has script set into it – so far this
script has defied translation, although it resembles some of the early
writing of Assyria, where medieval texts say the Nusku Blade was made.
Stories connect the blade to Nabu-musis, one of the famed astrologers to
the Assyrian king Ashurbanipal. It has been proposed that the blade was
used as part of a ritual to ‘reveal the heavens’ – but if that was the case,
the ritual is now lost.

T o use the Nusku Blade as a Soul Jar, the Adept must perform the
Hallowing Ritual when the stars are favourable. This occurs around
once a month, but relies on understanding celestial movements as well as
access to translated Assyrian star charts, first deciphered in the middle

p
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ages.

r 251
 this is ethis is thei Where is the Nusku Blade now?
T he Nusku Blade is in the Temple of the Brothers of the Silver
Branch, underneath White’s house. The kicker is that the only
person that knows this is Daniel Carter, who picked up the knife after the
murder and rushed into the mansion to hide it. The scenario will culminate
with a scene at the Temple where the Nusku Blade will be revealed, but by
who? That depends on what the Player Characters do…

Characters, Locations and Events

T he following characters, locations and events make up the scenario,
and may be encountered by Player Character Adepts. Some of the
characters may end up as allies, some as enemies, and some the Adepts
will hope they never have to encounter again… the various main locations
are also key in the unfolding story, and the events listed could happen at
various times depending what the Player Characters do.

Brothers of the Silver Branch

The Secret World

A small Cabal of four members, the Brothers were strange in that the
difference in power between the Cabalists was huge. One member,
Jonas White, was close to Ascending. The others, James Tomkins, Silas
Wayne, and Daniel Carter, were relatively weak. Two previous members
of the Cabal had died, one from Corruption, the other after running afoul
of another Cabal – he tried to steal a Soul Jar. So White was forced to
acquire some new members… When White Ascended, he left the rest of
the Cabal behind. Carter disappeared, and Tomkins and Wayne, leaderless
and somewhat terrified, were left to their own devices. In an argument in
their temple about what to do next, the violent and somewhat psychotic
Tomkins stabbed Wayne with the Nusku Blade. The wounded man ran
from the building out onto the road, clutching the Nusku Blade, before
collapsing and dying. Tomkins, in a state of shock, sat with the victim
and it wasn’t long before the police picked him up along with the body, and
this is e

cordoned off the building. However, when the police arrived the Nusku
Blade was not discovered, and has gone missing.

252 T he Cabal’s headquarters was in White’s house – now sealed up.

Although it looks empty, it isn’t – Bureau Nineteen have moved an
agent in. She’s moved the other Soul Jars belonging to the Cabal out of the
building, only the Nusku Blade remains out of her control. As to Carter,

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he’s disappeared…

Searching the Occult Underground

A bit of research in the occult underground, especially if any of the
names of the antagonists are mentioned, reveals that they were
deeply into the occult, especially White. Bureaucracy or Search would be
appropriate skills if the Narrator wants to involve dice rolls. There are
rumours that White was head of a group and that some of his associates
had died (the two members that proceeded Tomkins and Wayne). It seems
no one knows what happened to White, although there is some insinuation
that he has ‘moved on’. If a merchant of the underground is questioned,
they will be able to say that White had some interesting ancient curios, but
not exactly what they were. He also hung around with a black kid, sort of
his protégé, but no one knows who he is – this is Daniel Carter.

Daniel Carter, Adept Gone to Ground

C arter was White’s favoured Adept – someone he saw as ‘after his

The Secret World

own heart’. After the Ascension of White (which Carter missed),
Daniel witnessed the breakdown in the sanity of Tomkins and Wayne.
When the murder took place Carter was in the Brotherhood’s temple,
and he fled the scene before the police arrived. He’s now hiding out at
his sister’s house, trying to work out what to do next. Carter is a young
black man, intelligent looking with round glasses. He’s quite distinctive in
appearance – he always wears rather bright and garish shirts.

D aniel Carter knows the Nusku Blade is a Soul Jar, but he has no idea
how to use it. However, he does know of the Temple and the hiding
place within, which is where he left the knife. He’s currently at his sister’s
house, plotting how to get back to White’s mansion. The temple is in the
basement, Carter thinks there’s a good chance the police will have missed it
and he can get back to search it. He has no idea that Sarah Hale of Bureau
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Nineteen is in the house, waiting for such a move. In this turn of events,
Carter is just like any other Adept – cunning, ruthless and dedicated to his
own advancement. It is possible the Player Characters could persuade or
coerce Carter to tell them of the Temple and the hiding place, depending
on how they interact with him.
253
 this is ethis is thei Might 1D+2, Agility 2D, Wit 3D, Charm 1D+2; two key Skills: Tech-
nical 3D, Security 3D; Gear: knife; Static: Dodge 6, Block 5, Parry 6,
Soak 5, Arts: Dom 1D, Mas 2D, Ins 3D, Mystery: None

Finding Carter
T he easiest way to find Carter is by observing him checking out
White’s house. He can then be followed back to his sister’s place.
Failing that, the Player Characters could get tipped off by an associate in
the occult underground, giving them a debt that they’ll have to pay in later
adventures.

C arter is scared, but he’s also curious – he knows someone else is at

White’s house. So depending how the Player Characters approach
him, he will talk to them. What he reveals is dependent on what the Adepts
say. He’ll take their words at face value – if they appear to be Adepts, he
won’t question that. What he’s looking for is for someone to help him get
into the house and the temple – he hopes to get the Nusku Blade while
whoever he is with deals with whoever else is at the house. To that end,
he has a key to the house and can let everyone in, where Hale will be
waiting. If this is the first action of the Player Characters, it might be
worth suggesting that they scope the house out first before moving in.
The Secret World

H e won’t talk to the police, or say anything about Tomkins, although

he obviously knows him. Carter knows nothing of Whittle apart
from the fact that someone blabbed to the papers.

White’s House
T he house of Jonas White is large and grand. He was a well-heeled
banker who came late to the Secret World, and made the majority
of his money before he became an Adept. The house is pretty nondescript
inside and out – just another somewhat gentrified town house, furnished
in a style that suggests the owner was following instructions in a style
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magazine rather than their own sense of taste. White never married and
lived alone, so much of the house has an air of never being used.

256
S ince the murder the house has been cordoned off. The police have
been trying to locate White, but obviously with no success. They
have no idea what lies in the basement. Also in the house is Hale, trying to
stay out of sight and waiting for the Cabalists to return. If anyone other

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than the police try to gain entry, she poses as White’s housekeeper and
tries to shoo them away.

Sarah Hale, Bureau Nineteen

T he agent of Bureau Nineteen is Sarah Hale. She’s a competent
Adept, and her mission is clear – obtain any Soul Jars that are
available. She’s not prepared to fight other Adepts, and will retreat from
any encounter that endangers her or threatens to reveal her activities.
She’s a late middle aged woman, tall and thin, who constantly pulls on
cigarettes. She’s inconspicuous and sassy. The Narrator can give her
whatever Mysteries seem appropriate to keep her out of trouble – Hale
is a good example of a long running antagonist to the Player Characters.

H ale has been part of Bureau Nineteen for years, quietly collecting
Soul Jars for her official Cabal. When she heard about the murder
through her contacts she made her way to the house of White. The police
had already been to the scene and carried out their investigation, but they
didn’t find the Nusku Blade. After the murder Carter hid the Blade in
the house, in the hidden temple, before fleeing to his sister’s house. Hale
doesn’t know it, but the Soul Jar is hidden under the floorboards of the

The Secret World

temple. Hale’s waiting for any of the Cabalists to come back, not knowing
that she’s feet away from her goal already….

Might 2D+2, Agility 2D, Wit 2D, Charm 1D+2; two key Skills (applies
to all): Seduce 3D, Persuade 3D; gear: knife; Static: Dodge 6, Block 8,
Parry 6, Soak 8, Arts: Dom 1D, Mas 3D, Ins 4D, Mystery: Narrator
choice

Tom Whittle, Homeless Witness

A
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lthough the Nusku Blade is missing, the description of it that came

into the papers via Tom Whittle, who saw the murder take place.
He was the only witness, and he spoke to the police and the newspapers. He
saw the Nusku Blade, but he didn’t see where it ended up – after seeing the
dying man burst from the house pursued by Tomkins he ran, only coming
back to collect his meagre collection of things some hours later, which is 257
when the police questioned him. Since then, Sarah Hale has been trying
 this is ethis is thei to find him, but to no avail – he sold his story to the papers and has since
moved into a boarding house he uses on the other side of town. Several of
the other homeless in the area know him, and could say where he probably
is, if they could be persuaded to talk. Whittle is an old man with an alcohol
problem. He has a friendly if somewhat wild demeanour, and is very dirty
and unkempt. He was once a computer analyst before alcohol claimed him.

U nfortunately, Sarah Hale from Bureau Nineteen suspects that

Whittle has the Soul Jar, and the police suspect he has the murder
weapon, so he’s being watched. Eventually he’ll return to the White house
– he knows the place is empty and he’ll be looking for something to sell
for cash.

Might 1D+2, Agility 2D, Wit 1D, Charm 1D; two key Skills: Survival
3D, Pickpockets 3D; gear: none; Static: Dodge 6, Block 5, Parry 6, Soak
5

Investigating the House

I f the Player Characters go to White’s house to snoop around, then
The Secret World

they will see that it is a fairly nice building that has been closed off by
the police. There are a few noticeable things about the place, depending on
what the Adepts do.

A Moderate search success will find the remains of blood on the

street from where the murder took place. Faint traces lead to the
back door of the house. Hanging about and observing the house using
a Moderate Stealth test will reveal that the front of the house is being
watched (the police), and a twitch to the curtains at the back reveal that
there may be someone in the house (this is Hale). Don’t let the Player
Characters enter the house at this point – if they try to, Hale will open
the door, feigning to be the housekeeper, and threaten to call the police.
She will only do this if the Adepts try the back door (the front door is
on a busy street so breaking and entering isn’t an option). Hale will say
she knows nothing of the murder, and has only just returned from her
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vacation. She’ll do everything she can to get the Adepts to leave, even
threatening to call the police.

258 I nside the house, a trail of blood leads from the back door down to the
cellar, where it stops. Hale hasn’t removed it in case the police show
up again (she doesn’t want to alert them that someone’s been in the place
since their last visit). However, unlike the last time the police were here,

ieht si sihte si siht

Hale has left the door to the Temple slightly ajar, so she can hide down
there if they do come back.

I f the Player Characters investigate the house later in the scenario,

they may with a successful Difficult Stealth roll notice a black man
appearing to watch the place from several angles as if considering whether
it is safe to approach. This is Carter, and he’s easily followed from here
back to his sister’s house.

The Newspapers
T he story from Tom Whittle is in the local paper – ‘man killed with
sacrificial knife’. It has most of the details right, but it doesn’t name
James Tomkins. Whittle saw the crime take place, but what happened to the
Nusku Blade after that depends on which of the alternatives the Narrator
has chosen. If the Adepts investigate at the newspaper office they can find
that the story came from a homeless person. Further investigation with
any of the homeless people lubricated with a little cash will reveal that
Tom Whittle was the man that sold the story.

The Secret World

Questioning Whittle
T he Player Characters could find out about Whittle by enquiring at
the newspaper or asking around the homeless people, requiring a
use of any Charm skill that seems appropriate. Once the Adepts know of
Whittle, he’s not that hard to find – just ask the homeless people around
the area. The hostel he’s staying in is on the other side of town, but easy
to find. Whittle is happy to tell his story again if the Plater Characters
pay him (or use an appropriate Charm skill, but he’s really after money).
The big difference is that in the hostel Whittle has to stay sober, so he
can remember more of what happened. Specifically, he can remember ‘the
other guy’, the one who came out of the house, stooped over the body and
then rushed back inside. This wasn’t Tomkins – this guy was black.
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l
r 259
 this is ethis is thei
The Police Station
T he police station is going to be a tough place to get any information.
Tomkins is being held in a cell, but getting any access to him will
be difficult unless the Player Characters have access to a Mystery or Ritual
(unlikely if this is the first game of Esoterica). The only way that the
Player Characters are likely to get to see Tomkins is if they have a medical
or police background and can call in a few favours. Tomkins has little to
reveal in any case, as detailed in his description. Asking questions at the
police station is likely to draw the attention of Mary Tremell. She is not
going to push the Player Characters too hard, but she will want to know
what they are up to. One thing that is interesting at the police station is the
officer with a vivid red scar running down the side of his face. Any Adept
who sees this man will feel a little tingle of something down the back of
their neck.

James Tomkins, Psychotic Adept

T omkins is unhinged, that much is obvious – he watched White’s
Ascension, and it has damaged him. He’s also suffering from
Corruption – his left eye is yellowed and sticky with mucus that runs down
The Secret World

his cheek. He won’t talk, just mutters to himself. The police are going
through the process of getting a psych evaluation for him. At the moment
he’s in the cells. Tomkins has a Mystery that allows him to insinuate
compulsive suggestions into the minds of others, but he’s saving it for
when it can be the most effective. It is possible for the Player Characters
to see Tomkins, especially if they have some kind of medical background.
They could also say that they know him, although that might be dangerous.
There are some suggestions later about how such an interaction might take
place. But when Tomkins escapes from custody, the situation will be very
different. Eventually Tomkins will break free using his Mystery, but at
that point the Scar will strike. How the scene plays out and where Tomkins
goes next, assuming he survives, depends on the actions of the Player
Characters.
this is e

Might 2D+2, Agility 3D+2, Wit 3D, Charm 1D+2; two key Skills (ap-
plies to all): Intimidate 3D, Persuasion 3D; Gear: none; Static: Dodge
11, Block 8, Parry 11, Soak 8, Arts: Dom 3D, Mas 2D, Ins 3D, Mystery:
Suggestion
260
 ieht si sihte si siht
Mary Tremell, Police Investigator
T he investigating detective in the case is Mary Tremell. She’s
completely confused as to what’s going on. She has a psychotic who
apparently murdered an associate with some kind of antique knife, in the
house of a missing person. She has no idea how the three are linked, or
what the cause of the falling out may have been. She does think they are
working alone however, so she’s not expecting to find anyone else linked to
the murder. She’s hard working, conscientious and has a family.

Might 2D+2, Agility 3D+1, Wit 3D, Charm 1D; two key Skills: Pistol
4D, Search 3D; gear: pistol; Static: Dodge 10, Block 8, Parry 10, Soak 8

The Scar, a Hunger

U nknown to Tomkins, he is being hunted by a Hunger, the Scar. This
being runs like an infection through human hosts, skipping from
one to another through physical touch as it circles its prey. The sign of the
presence of the Scar is a long, virulent red scar that appears on the face

The Secret World

of the host. The Scar has the ability to push the hands of its host through
the skin of a victim, causing terrible wounds, but it can only do this to the
Adept it is attuned to.

Might 2D+2, Agility 3D+2, Wit 3D, Charm 1D+2; key Skills Brawl-
ing 4D+1 (damage – 4D+2, terrible wounds); Static: Dodge 7, Block
13, Parry 7, Soak 8, Special: Tomkins at -2D in conflict with the Scar

The Transfer
A
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fter two days, the police will transfer Tomkins to another station.
If the Player Characters have been talking to the police, they’ll
mention this will happen. Otherwise the Adepts might miss this scene
and perhaps only hear about it afterwards from an occult underground
acquaintance. The police plan is to drive Tomkins in a van with two guards
to another station across the city. 261
 this is ethis is thei
I t’s during this move that Tomkins will make his move to escape. He
will use his Mystery, the ability to implant powerful compulsions in
the mind of victims. He’ll use this ability to get the driver to stop the
vehicle and the guard to unlock him. He’ll then step out of the van, free. If
the Adepts witness this, they’ll see the guards apparently release the man
– however, a close look will show that the faces of the guards appear blank.

D epending on what the Players do when Tomkins goes free, the Scar
will strike. Another guard, previously unseen, will step from the
car. This man appears to be a normal police officer, except for a vivid
red scar running down his face. Any Adept who has been at the police
station will immediately know that this man is not the same scarred man
who they saw previously. He’ll walk up to Tomkins, very deliberately, and
attack by pushing his hands ‘into’ Tomkins’s back, and the former prisoner
will scream in pain, staggering forward. Clearly, this kind of attack is not
normal!

W hat happens next depends on whether the Player Characters

intervene. If not, the Scar will kill Tomkins within a minute or
two, while the rest of the guards stand in stupid surprise. The Hunger will
then dissipate – the host guard will step back, and the scar will drain off
his face, leaving a normal if terrified man behind. If the Player Characters
get involved, the Hunger will break off its attack and dissipate as above,
and the guards will step forward to restrain Tomkins and the possessed
The Secret World

man. The Player Characters will probably want to leave the scene quickly
otherwise they risk being drawn in to the police investigation.

A fterward, Tomkins is finished – the Hunger’s attack and the terrible

injuries have broken his mind. If he escaped he’ll head for White’s
house and could lead the Player Characters there if the Narrator is ready
for the final scene.

T omkins will then flee the scene, heading for White’s house. The
Narrator should allow him to escape, but reveal his possible
destination, setting up a scene at the Temple.

The Temple
this is e

T he temple of Brothers of the Silver Branch lies under White’s

house, and is accessed from the basement. One of the cupboards
set against a wall has a false back, when it is emptied and two small knobs
262 are turned the back can be removed, leading into the temple.
 T he Temple of the Brothers of the Silver Branch is a small,

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domed space. The floor is floorboards, swinging lights cast
some illumination. A riot of roots twist through the walls, making the
chamber seem like the bole of some huge tree. A close inspection shows
that the roots are marked by intricate script, cut in with a knife. One of
the floorboards in the corner of the room is loose, and underneath is the
hiding place of the blade. The normal occult resonances of the Blade are
hidden – the box it rests in has been linked to the Temple through a Ritual
of White’s to hide the signature of the knife.

D epending on how the adventure has panned out, the Adepts should
eventually find themselves in the Temple. When they arrive, they’ll
find the door open – Hale is inside, searching for the Nusku Blade. She’ll
find it eventually. Tomkins will also make his way here if he survives the
Scar’s attack – he’ll be wounded and bleeding, so if the Player Characters
work out he is on his way here, they’ll arrive as he enters the building. The
Scar will be close behind, wearing another body… Carter will also make
his way here, as he knows it is the place where he hid the Nusku Blade.
Finally, if the police see anyone enter the building, they will also be in
attendance…

T his is the chance for the Player Characters to seize the blade for
themselves. This scene should be more of a negotiation rather
than a fight. The Adepts will probably outnumber anyone else, so they

The Secret World

should have the upper hand. What happens to everyone else is really up
the Players.

H ales will try and claim the Nusku Blade, but she’ll avoid conflict
if possible, instead slipping away if she can. The Adepts will have
made a powerful enemy here. Carter will also try to take the knife, but
the Adepts should be able to overpower him depending on their actions.
Tomkins, if he gets here, is in big trouble, and the Scar (maybe possessing
the police man who has been watching the place) is close behind…

T he most likely outcome if all of these characters are in attendance

is a standoff between occultists until the Scar arrives and attacks
Tomkins. Hale, seeing things are not in her favour, disappears, and Carter
runs into the night. The Player Characters can then claim the knife for
themselves. In any event the Adepts have had a brush with several factions
e si siht

of the Secret World, and the Players have hopefully had a taste of what an
adventure in Esoterica can be like!

263
Name: Sex:

Archetype: Height:

Weight:

Might: Agility:
Tag: Tag:
Skills: Skills:

Wit: Charm:
Tag: Tag:
Skills: Skills:

Arts Mysteries:
Dominate:
Mastery:
Insight:

Very Easy: 5
Easy: 10
Moderate: 15
Difficult: 20
Very Difficult: 30+

Essence: Power Tier: Rituals:

Stains: Corruption Tier:
Corruption:
Wound Level Gear:

Stunned
Wounded
Serverely Wounded Perks:
Incapacitated
Mortally Wounded Complications:

Notes, Connections and History:

Cabal: Sign and Sigil:

Members: Temple:

Public front and Goals: Belief:

Soul Jar Location Capacity Stains Deposited by...

h
y
 Esoterica
Difficuly Target Rolling Dice
Numbers ◊ Roll all dice from Skill or Attribute, one
is Wild die
◊ Very Easy: 5 ◊ If Wild die shows a 6, roll and add an-
◊ Easy: 10 other die
◊ Moderate: 15 ◊ For each 6 add another die
◊ Difficult: 20 ◊ Tag allow re-rolls of dice, but not those
◊ Very Difficult: 30+ showing 6 or 1

Tiers Arts
Essence/Stains Tier ◊ Add Arts die to the dice from the
Skill or Attribute
0-6 0 ◊ Roll extra dice from Wild die
7-13 1 and use Tag re-rolls as normal
14-20 2 ◊ After rolliong dice, if any die
21-27 3 shows a 6, gain one point of
28-34 4 Essense, unless...
35+ 5 ◊ One or more dice show a 1, in
which case gain no Essence but
gain one Stain per 1 obtained
Rituals
◊ Determine Force for each use
with the Narator Mysteries
◊ To determine Essence and
Stains roll dice as in an Arts ◊ Determine Force for each use
test, rolling 3D for Force 1 + with the Narator
1D per extra point of Force ◊ To determine Essence and
◊ However if Force is greater Stains roll dice as in an Arts
than the average Cabal Pow- test, rolling, 3D for Force 1, +
er tier, double number of dice 1D per extra point of Force
rolled
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d j
o
 Welcome to the Secret World

E soterica is a game about conflicts between mystics, magicians and occultists

in the modern day world. Called Adepts, these people have come to realise
that the mundane world is just a facet of the true, greater reality, hidden by a
barrier called the Veil.

They seek to ascend through the Veil to a better life in the beyond, and to
this end have learnt to master some of the energies that permeate through the
barrier. But power comes at a great cost - a corruption of the mortal form.

Only Soul Jars, mystical objects imbued with power, can keep this corruption at
bay. But the secret of their construction is lost, so they must either be recovered
from the past or stolen from those that hoard them.

Do you have what it takes to ascend?