A Word on Powers
While Sable PCs are as a rule non-Family, there are exceptions, and there will occasionally come a point where those individuals are given the opportunity to walk the Pattern or Logrus, or possibly the Technocracy Nexus or the Symphony. The following partial powers system is used in those cases.
Pattern
Pattern is administered as per the ADRPG, with the difference that 50pt is not required at the outset: Pattern can be bought in stages, like the other powers within the Sable system (see Trump, Shapeshift). Costs are as follows:
| Item | Cost | Comments |
|---|---|---|
| Basic Shadow Walk & Pattern Defence ("Walked It") | 25 | This is the power which results from one's first Pattern walk. It is necessary to have bought this before any other abilities can be bought, and as part of the package you gain the basic ability to walk in Shadow (albeit not too quickly) and use the Pattern as an active defence. |
| Find Objects & Places of Desire | 5 | The ability to search for something in shadow, the exact location of which is not yet known. |
| Follow Trail through Shadow | 5 | This lets you follow someone who has been moving through shadow. |
| Hellriding | 5 | It takes that bit of extra ability to manage to Hellride, but allows for faster travel through Shadow than simple walking. You have to be careful not to lose anyone travelling with you. |
| Lead Others Through Shadow | 5 | If you try and take more than two or three people with you when you walk through shadow, you will eventually lose them, unless you have this ability. |
| Manipulate Local Probability | 5 | That handy knack of being able to make things happen the way you want in Shadow: the right horse, the right small change, the convenient turning in the road, etc. |
| Timesense | 5 | This is the ability to sense the time flow of shadows. Without it, fast or slow time shadows cannot be found. |
To buy all the options costs 55pts, but once you have bought the basic Shadow walk you can choose to take any or all of the rest. To buy full basic Pattern in one go costs the standard 50pt.
Logrus
The Logrus split as follows:
| Item | Cost | Comments |
|---|---|---|
| Basic Logrus Initiation Defence ("Walked It") |
15 | This means that you have walked into the Logrus, had the particularly individual experience that was your initiation, and survived to find your way back out again. Doing this confers the ability to use the Logrus as an active defence, and enables you to learn the abilities below. |
| Arcane Shield | 5 | The Logrus can be used as a shield against all kinds of arcane attack (e.g. Sorcery, Trump, other Logrus or Pattern), with the amount of damage the shield can take is limited by the wielder's endurance. Relative psyches and endurance of the wielders are the key factors in a Pattern/Logrus clash. |
| Combat Tendrils | 5 | The ability to make physical attacks in proximity to your current position, using Logrus tendrils. The resulting attacks are as though made with a strength equal to the initiate's psyche, and such attacks may be kept up for a time governed by the initiate's endurance. |
| Locate in Shadow | 5 | A tendril of the Logrus can be sent forth through Shadow to locate a person, item or place which is specified by the initiate, in a similar way to casting a fishing line. When it finds its target, the initiate will feel a tug on the line. |
| Physical Shield | 5 | The Logrus can also be used as a shield against physical attacks. This can be flat, curved, even spherical, but its overall size is limited by the psyche of the wielder, and its eventual toughness by the endurance of the wielder. |
| Transport Tendrils | 5 | When the initiate has sent a
tendril to some place or thing, using this ability he has the option to
either transport the thing to himself, or to transport himself to it.
If the initiate brings an item to himself, or sends an item away, without going with it, the mass limit is 50lb. If the initiate wishes to go with his cargo, he can transport up to 10 tonnes mass of materiel with him, as long as it is all in a contiguous unit (eg inside a vehicle or shipping container) and he is touching it. The limit includes the weight of the container. |
| Vision Tendrils | 5 | The initiate can bring the Logrus to mind and extend forth a tendril of it through which he can see. The tendril can go forth across shadow boundaries, but cannot instantly jump to a point. It must travel out over the distance. |
Once you have bought the basic initiation you can choose to take any or all of the rest. It should be noted that Logrus users can use more than one of these abilities at once, although - of course - this is more tiring. Also, dividing your effort like that means that the psyche power behind any one action is less. To buy it all at once costs 45pt.
Nexus
The Nexus is the Power of the Technocracy. There are both basic and Family-specific levels of Nexus initiation, although the non-Family levels require certain stat minimums as well. Rough costs are as follows:
| Item | Cost | Comments |
|---|---|---|
| Magical Interface (non-Family) (Minimum Chaos in Psyche/Endurance, plus the Talent) |
25 | The candidate must have undertaken the magical training involved in communicating with the Core, and must be physically and mentally capable of assimilating the knowledge to be gained from the process. It imbues the candidate with Level 2 mental/magical communication with the Core, and the ability to operate the vehicles which can travel between Shadows, and other Technocracy systems. |
| Advanced Magical Interface
(non-Family) (Minimum Chaos+5 in Psyche/Endurance plus the Talent) |
30 | Access to information in the
Core is quicker, and an AMI can process and analyse information,
rather than just retrieve it. Gives Level 3 access to the
information in the Core. It is possible to upgrade from MI to AMI for 5pts |
| Prime Interface Assisted (Minimum Amber in Psyche/Endurance) This is the minimum level of initiation required to potentially become a full Nexus initiation. |
35 | For PIA initiation, magical training is unnecessary, as part of the
initiation process forces the specific knowledge of magical communication (but not a full magical education) into the mind of the candidate. However,
it is a risky process, and is therefore rarely undertaken: if the candidate's mind or body are not strong enough to assimilate the information
and knowledge received, the candidate will either die, or go hopelessly and
incurably insane. It also requires the co-operation of the Prime
Interface. The PIA has the equivalent of AMI abilities, with Level 4 access to the Core, as well as some additional control over Nexus-based systems and the ability to use the Nexus as a defence. This level of initiation does not confer Shadow travel without a Technocracy vehicle. |
| Additional Family/PIA abilities | ||
| Edge walking | 5 | The ability to move through Shadow in a manner more akin to normal Shadow walking. It uses a co-ordinates system along the edges of Shadow rather than walking through it in the normal way. As PIAs travel Shadow, co-ordinates are automatically transmitted back to the Core for future reference, and can be downloaded by any other person accessing the Core. |
| Calculating and affecting probability | 5 | Slightly more complex than normal Pattern-based probability manipulation, as it also gives the PIA the opportunity to calculate the probability of something occurring. |
| Locating items in Shadow | 5 | Allows for locating generic places, items or a kind of person, but does not allow you to find a specific person unless you know them very well, or have some other focus (eg you could find a decent general but not specifically the Duke of Wellington). |
| Level 5 data access | 5 | Instantaneous Level 5 access to the Nexus data stream for data retrieval and processing, etc. |
To achieve the equivalent of full Basic Nexus therefore costs 55pt if bought in segments (versus 50pt for full Basic Initiation if bought on its own), but once you have bought PIA you can choose to take any or all of the rest.
Hellriding is not available at Basic level.
The Symphony
The Symphony is a neutral Power containing elements of both Pattern and Logrus, which is primarily based on the Outside, rather than the Inside. However, as its Keeper is from the Inside, there is the possibility that Sable characters may be able to initiate to it:
| Item | Cost | Comments |
|---|---|---|
| Basic Symphony Initiation/Defence | 15 | This means you have walked the Symphony, and have learned to use it as an active defence. It enables you to learn the abilities below. |
| Vision Tendrils | 5 | The initiate can bring the Symphony to mind and extend forth a tendril of it through which he can see. The tendril can go forth across Shadow boundaries but cannot instantly jump to a point. It must travel out over the distance. |
| Location Tendrils | 5 | A tendril of the Symphony can be sent forth through Shadow to locate a generic item or place, or a person known to the caster. It does not allow the initiate to seek for an unknown but specific person or concept. |
| Internal Transport Tendrils | 5 | When the initiate has sent a
tendril to some place or thing within the same continuum (Inside or
Outside), using this ability he has the option to either transport the
thing to himself, or to transport himself to it. If the initiate brings an item to himself, or sends an item away, without going with it, the mass limit is 50lb. If the initiate wishes to go with his cargo, he can transport up to 10 tonnes mass of materiel with him, as long as it is all in a contiguous unit (eg inside a vehicle or shipping container) and he is touching it. The limit includes the weight of the container. |
| External Transport Tendrils | 5 | This allows the initiate to transfer between continuums with the abilities and restrictions of an Aurellis Courier Pilot. |
| Manipulate Local Probability | 5 | That handy knack of being able to make things happen the way you want in Shadow: the right horse, the right small change, the convenient turning in the road, etc. |
| Timesense | 5 | This is the ability to sense the time flow of shadows. Without it, fast or slow time shadows cannot be found. |
| Weave Shadow Elements | 5 | This allows you to build somewhere which pulls elements of a number of different Shadows together, much like a Chaos Ways. The initiate can bind together a number of elements equal to his psyche. The minimum psyche required to be able to weave elements is Amber +2. |
Once you have bought the basic initiation you can choose to take any or all of the other elements. To buy it all at once costs 50pt.