​

​

SPOOKS

ARCANOI

A Spook  can learn the following Arcanoi at initiate and common level

OUTRAGE             PANDEMONIUM                 PUPPETRY

Any other Arcanoi a Spook  learns is common level only

​

Wraiths are creatures of their Passions — even, perhaps especially, the darker ones. Outrage may be the Arcanos that expresses a wraith’s will as kinetic energy, but every Spook knows that anger is the key to mastering it. Indeed, some wraiths spontaneously manifest Outrage’s basic arts in times of stress, particularly when the object of their wrath lies across the Shroud and seemingly out of their reach. This makes Outrage’s lesser arts relatively common, though dabblers rarely attain great proficiency in the Arcanos. Wraiths who dismiss Outrage as a mere thug’s weapon do the Arcanos and Spooks alike a disservice. Anger is the gateway to Outrage, but the Spook who masters his darker emotions can unlock higher arts which are tools of surprising precision and subtlety. Still, even refined applications of Outrage can feed the Shadow if used for wanton destruction, so wise Spooks learn to throw their weight around sparingly.

​

Guildmarks

Outrage’s raw physicality transposes itself onto the Corpus of its students. Novice Spooks display uneven, anatomically unlikely muscle development. More experienced Outrage users take on hulking, ‘roided-out physiques.

​

The Guild

Long before the Breaking, the Spooks’ Guild built its reputation on unwholesome work. Spooks hired themselves out as muscle and worse, dirtying their Corpus with jobs the other Guilds couldn’t or wouldn’t touch. Their resemblance to mortal organized crime didn’t stop there, as Spooks had their fingers in every Necropolis’ black markets, trading dangerous
Artifacts and Pathos bottled from large emotional events. Cross-Shroud damage and leverage were Spook specialties, too. Careful cultivation of mutually beneficial relationships with corrupt officials avoided Stygian sanctions against the Guild as a whole,but many individual Spooks clashed with Imperial law, to both sides’ detriment. Vice, agitation, and demolition kept the Guild’s casual associates busy, but Spooks who yearned for something greater found purpose in their organization’s roots as a breakaway Haunter sect . Early Haunters shared frustration with the Shroud, but pursued a wide array of methods to overcome it. To some, the Shroud was primarily an obstacle to protecting the things that anchored them against Oblivion’s pull: Fetters, Haunts, Memoriam, and ties to the Skinlands. This rejection of the Haunters’ greater goals led to a passionate but ultimately non-destructive split. As part of this schism, early Spooks turned away from Pandemonium and its unpredictable evocations. They found a more reliable tool in Outrage, then a commonplace but unrefined art, and set to studying its potential — and its ties to Oblivion. Already pragmatists with a penchant for direct action, the Spooks saw Oblivion itself as a greater challenge and a more immediate threat than the Shroud. Experts in protecting their own connections to the Skinlands, the Spooks became Stygia’s go-to Guild when other Restless needed immediate intervention to defend a loved one or rescue a former possession. This aspect of the greater battle against Oblivion became the Spooks’ ostensible purpose and the public face of their identity as a Guild. The Spooks’ goals were noble. Their methods, however, brought them into immediate conflict with the Dictum Mortuum. Two factors kept the Legions from their throats: their willingness to join any fight against a creature of Oblivion and the number of Stygian functionaries who secretly benefitted from their work. For many, the price of saving a Fetter was a promise to look the other way in the future. Calling in these debts during the Breaking spared the Spooks the worst of the Hierarchy’s attention. Today, business continues much as it has for centuries.

​

Factions

Centuries of recruiting among practical-minded wraiths who are “good with their hands” has made Spook organization a cross between a labor union and a crime family. At the top is the Commission of Five, an elected body that sets policy and regulates conflict within the guild. Commissioners come from the 99 Bosses, who oversee regional activities. Local action within a Necropolis is the responsibility of a Controller, who manages the fractious business of his “made men” Armadars. Most Armadars run a circle of Defenders, with whom they share a philosophy and business model. Lifeliners work to protect other wraiths’ Fetters and are the loudest voicesfor the Spooks’ original purpose. Defending death-related remembrance as a whole is the Mementomorians’ agenda, and they support their efforts through trade in rare distillations of Pathos. Ties to the Haunters are strongest among the Shroudbreakers, who also combat mortal ghost hunters. The Spooks closest to street-level Stygian crime fill out the Gray Gangs and rarely get involved with more sensitive guild activities.

​

 

​

​