Embeds and Exploits

Embeds and Exploits

Before the Fall, demons wielded great spiritual power as the gift of the God-Machine. Everything that the God-Machine is able to grant, however, is due to existing laws and metaphysical subroutines of the world. If an angel can fly, it is because the God-Machine long ago built some law into reality allowing it. Over the eons, these laws have grown exponentially more complex than any living soul can hope to express. Arcane rules and precepts converge at strange nexuses, allowing mystical energies to pool and gather. Various supernatural forces make use of these laws, normally without ever understanding that the God-Machine had any part in it (or even exists).

When a demon Falls, she gives up her intuitive understanding of the God-Machine’s laws. She can no longer call upon Numina and must find other ways of expressing supernatural ability (this is part of the reason why demons manipulate Aether instead of Essence). What the demon can do, however, is call upon the preexisting mystical pathways and laws that she remembers from her time as an angel. By exploiting this knowledge, she is effectively using “back doors” into reality, changing it in subtle ways. An angel does this to facilitate its mission. A demon does it to follow her Agenda. These memories are called Embeds and Exploits.

Embeds An Embed is a rule or natural law already hard-coded into the workings of the world that a demon can tap for a specific effect. For a mundane example, consider a child who knows of a loose board in a neighbor’s fence. He can move the board, take a shortcut through the neighbor’s yard, and save himself the time of running around the block. Anyone could do that, provided they have the same knowledge the child does (that is, that the board is loose) and that they can fit through the opening thus created.

Embeds work much the same way. Any demon can learn any Embed. The demon simply has to remember that the groundwork is there. As angels, all servants of the God-Machine are aware of these pathways, but they make use of them differently. Angels do not make conscious effort to use Embeds, they are able to do so simply as part of their missions. Going back to the example of the loose board in the fence, consider a dog or a cat that simply noses the board aside to get through. The animal doesn’t think of the fence as a barrier or the loose board as an anomaly; for all it knows, that loose board was put there specifically to allow it passage. When a demon falls, she loses this instinctive, subconscious understanding of the world and must relearn these supernatural secrets. When she does, she is able to use Embeds in specific ways.

Embeds are not spells. They do not require ritual, sacrifice, or even specific knowledge or skill to use. A demon might justifiably liken remembering an Embed to a stroke victim re-learning how to walk or ride a bicycle. The neural pathways are already in place and the muscle memory is there, it’s just a matter of training the body to reactivate these things.

Angels have different capabilities based on their missions. An angel doesn’t normally think to question whether it can make use of mystical subroutines that it hasn’t specifically been instructed to use, both because most angels don’t question their missions and because, again, these subroutines aren’t something that angels generally think about. That said, an angel that does start to consider these subroutines — thinking about the framework of reality, rather than just using it — might be getting close to falling. Once an angel does fall, she finds that certain types of Embeds are easier to remember than others, depending on her Incarnation.

Systems Embeds fall into one of four categories, roughly corresponding to branches of the musica universalis, also called the “music of the spheres.” This Medieval concept referred to the movements of celestial bodies through space. It wasn’t thought to refer to actual, audible music, but rather to the mathematical or philosophical implications of those movements. The “music,” then, was the imperceptible system that guided the cosmos. Some demons with a bent for Medieval or Classical philosophy refer to the God- Machine’s mystical subroutines as the “music of the spheres.”

Embeds have two basic applications. They function on a literal level and a conceptual one. That is, a Mundane Embed might enable a demon to remain unremarked (the literal application), while a different Embed might enable the demon to remove focus on a topic of discussion (conceptual).

The four categories of Embeds are: Mundane: These Embeds help a demon stay unnoticed and incognito. Conceptually, they deal with the notions of concealing, obfuscation and forgetting. Psychopomps find these powers easier to learn.

Instrumental: These Embeds allow the demon to affect material objects and machines. On a conceptual level, they deal with timing, precision and utility. Guardians have an affinity for them.

Vocal: Demons use these Embeds to exert influence over people and other thinking beings. Conceptually, they relate to communication, revelation and realization. Messengers make easiest use of Vocal Embeds. Cacophony: The Embeds of chaos, violence and disharmony. Their concepts are destruction, renewal and entropy. Obviously, they are the purview of the Destroyers.

Cacophony Embeds Destroyers, angels tapped to kill, raze, and break, know well the truism that it’s easier to destroy than create. That isn’t to say, though, that destruction doesn’t have a certain art to it, particularly if collateral damage is to be avoided. Cacophony Embeds allow for selective, targeted destruction. The demon carefully chooses his focus and then introduces chaos, changing variables in the background equations of reality just enough to throw things out of balance … or to enable him to kill with surgical precision.

On a conceptual level, Cacophony Embeds all allow a demon to “destroy” ideas, causing doubt or inaction in the face of crisis. They can change entropy, making a situation more or less chaotic. And, although not all Destroyers want to admit it, destruction is part of a cycle that leads to renewal. Cacophony Embeds are therefore tied to that renewal, and demons that study them can make use of that.

Bystander Effect The bystander effect is a psychological phenomenon that states simply that the more people who witness an event, the less likely any particular person is to get involved. The reasons for this vary, but a demon can exploit this tendency to attack a target in full view of a group of people and escape unhindered. This Embed does not work on groups of people who know each other, however — a demon can’t stab one policeman in a cop bar and hope to get out with no repercussion. Bystander Effect is easier to use in crowds. If fewer than 10 people witness the demon’s action, apply a – 2 modifier to the roll to activate it.

Cause and Effect Most people are familiar in at least a cursory fashion with the “Butterfly Effect.” That is, every event, no matter how small, has effects on the world that often cannot be measured and can never be predicted or replicated. A demon with the right knowledge can capitalize on that principle, taking one action that leads to a completely different and unexpected (to everyone but the demon) outcome. This power, like several others that impact probability and causality, poses a risk to Cover by its very nature. A demon using it should proceed with caution.

Combustion Everything burns, but not everything burns easily. Despite what action movies tell us, a stray bullet is extremely unlikely to blow up a car. But the explosiveness or flammability of an object is a known value, and that means a demon with the right knowledge can alter that value, making an object more likely to burn or explode.

Cool Heads Prevail The best way to survive a fight is not to have one. With this Embed, the demon reduces the amount of chaos and destruction, taking the desire to fight away from the targets. It doesn’t make them like each other any better, but it does make them less likely to kill each other.

Deafen Taking “cacophony” to a literal extreme, the demon creates a persistent ringing in the ears of a target that prevents him from hearing anything at all. The sound is only audible to the target; physical examination of the victim while the power is active shows nothing physically wrong with his hearing apparatus.

Devil’s Advocate This Embed allows the demon to cause disagreement, even if the parties involved would normally see eye to eye. While Devil’s Advocate is useful as a diversionary tactic, a demon skilled in the use of reverse psychology can make truly impressive use of it. For instance, having been pulled over by a traffic cop, a demon might admit to the accusation in question and acknowledge that she deserves a ticket, then use the power to force the cop to disagree. This Embed only works on characters in physical proximity; it can’t be used online or over a phone.

Hesitation In a crisis situation, a second’s delay can make a huge difference. Using this Embed, the demon injects a momentary doubt or fear into a target’s mind, causing him to pause. By the time he regains his composure, the fight may already have been lost. This Embed can only be used before the intended target has taken his first action and before the demon has taken hers. As such, it is possible to use Hesitation on multiple targets in a turn if the initiative order favors the demon.

Hush A skilled Destroyer can kill or incapacitate a target without either of them ever making a sound. The demon strikes the victim’s throat or solar plexus, silencing him, and then continues the assault. This Embed does not silence the sound of a weapon, firearm or otherwise, so if the intended victim manages to produce a weapon to protect himself, the effect ends. Until then, though, no sound escapes the combatants and only muffled thuds result from them colliding with surfaces. A Destroyer can beat a man to death in kitchen with the people in the dining room none the wiser, provided he does it quickly.

Just Bruised Bodies are strangely resilient. Falling damage wreaks havoc on a human body, and yet recorded instances of people falling from impressive heights and walking away with only minor injuries exist. Gunshots can kill instantly, or they can result in flesh wounds and nothing more. With this Embed, a demon can prevent serious damage from a single attack or source.

Knockout Punch Despite what popular media would have people believe, getting “knocked out” usually indicates a serious injury, often with accompanying brain damage. If it doesn’t cause such damage, a sharp blow to the head is usually just painful. A demon operates under different constraints. With this Embed, a demon can knock a target unconscious and specify when the target will revive.

Left or Right? The classic thought experiment of Schrödinger’s cat raises the question of when two possibilities collapse into one reality. Angels of the God-Machine, of course, deal with this kind of multiple-reality problem frequently, but demons, having chosen one existence rather than a potential many, are better suited to answer the question. With this Embed, a demon can predetermine the result of a binary choice that he has no way to influence. A coin flip is a classic example, but whether a person glances left or right when entering a room, whether a light is on or off in a room that demon cannot see, and whether the safety of a gun is on or off before the demon picks it up are all also valid.

Lucky Break The most carefully constructed plan cannot account for the vagaries of chance. A mouse chews through the wiring on a security system, a freak lightning strike downs a power line, an assassin chooses to buy a sandwich from a particular shop and sees his target cruising by at exactly the right second — these are events that no one can anticipate and few have the wherewithal to capitalize on. The demon, however, can cause these strange “lucky breaks.” She should be advised, though, that fate is fickle, and relying too much on manipulating it will surely break her Cover sooner or later.

Merciless Gunman The demon calmly dispatches multiple targets with a gun. Using this Embed, the demon can easily clear a room of antagonists without endangering his comrades or risking a true firefight breaking out.

Note that this Embed’s primary function only works for Down and Dirty Combat (p. XX). If the Storyteller determines that, for whatever reason, the situation does not qualify for Down and Dirty Combat, then this Embed does not function. A demon can automatically sense whether Merciless Gunman would work; if the demon risks exposure by using it or the opposition has resources that the demon isn’t aware of (if they’re vampires, for instance), then the Embed doesn’t work and hopefully the demon realizes she needs to be more circumspect.

In a situation where Down and Dirty Combat does not apply, Merciless Gunman still makes the character more effective with his firearms, but does not confer the same level of lethality.

No Quarter A brawl can turn deadly in an instant. All it takes it someone picking up a brick or a pool cue, someone smacking his head against a solid surface, or a demon in the room using this Embed. With a glance, the demon can cause combatants to Go for Blood (p. XX).

On the Mend While Cacophony Embeds usually tend toward inflicting damage and chaos, they also have power over renewal. Demons can learn to manipulate the same forces of chaos that allow them to harm in order to heal.

Raw Materials Nature abhors a vacuum. With this Embed, the demon can break an object to “summon” an object of similar Size. The object that she breaks is destroyed, never to be repaired or made functional again. The object she summons isn’t created out of nothing, but is brought to her location by a seemingly coincidental series of events.

Sabotage It only takes one bent pin to throw a huge, complex machine out of joint. Angels, of course, are wellfamiliar with the concept — when they Fall, they become the bent pins. A demon capitalizing on the fragility of machines can cause one to shut down, be it a gun, a car, or a huge industrial device. All it takes is a touch.

Shatter Everything breaks. It’s just a matter of applying force in the right location. A demon who understands this principle can apply the force of entropy to an object and shatter it with a swift kick. The demon cannot affect an object with a Size greater than her own (usually size 5), meaning this Embed is good for kicking down doors and breaking weapons, but not useful for smashing cars (but see Exploits).

Shifty Eyes Human beings rely on their intuition to a great and probably foolish degree. “Just a hunch” or “it just felt right” are terrible reasons to make important decisions, but they feel important, and so a demon that can manipulate those feelings wields a great deal of power. This Embed allows the demon to do exactly that — inject a nagging feeling of doubt or unease in one target about another. Like many Embeds, proper use of Shifty Eyes requires thinking ahead; properly used, it can force a target to isolate himself. This power affects two people, the target and the subject. The subject is someone who interacts with and usually tries to get something from the target. If the Embed works as intended, it makes the target distrust the subject. The subject need not be present for the Embed to work, but the target and the subject must have interacted within the past 24 hours.

Special Someone An angel isn’t always given a specific target. A Destroyer sent to kill a person or a Guardian sent to protect one might simply be told to focus on the strongest or weakest in a group, or the most likely to be receptive to a particular task. The methods for finding this person are available to demons as well as angels by means of this Embed.

Instrumental Embeds As angels, Guardians had to be intimately aware of their surroundings, of the materials composing everything in their vicinity, and what effect those might have on their charges. As demons, they keep that highly analytical mindset, allowing them to make best use of the resources at their disposal. On the abstract level, Instrumental Embeds allow the demon to perceive and twist the passage of time. The demon can change expressions of precision, making his own efforts surgical and meticulous or making someone else’s laughably vague. Finally, the demon can alter the nature of utility, making all of a target’s possessions useless, even for their intended purposes.

Ambush Given even a few seconds, a demon can analyze a location and know precisely where to stand, where to hide, and what weapon to use in order to maximum the element of surprise. With a glance, the demon can plan a perfect ambush.

Check Backdrop A firefight is a fraught scenario at the best of times. People with training know to check their backdrops (that is, to be aware of what’s behind a target as well as the target itself) and not shoot unless they have a reasonable chance of hitting their target without hitting a bystander. A demon can use her control of precision to force the issue so that every shot that isn’t aimed misses.

Download Knowledge Does a collective unconscious exist? Demons, who might be expected to know the answer, disagree. They do know that with the proper understanding they can absorb knowledge from the very mystical subroutines of the universe that allow their Embeds. Whether that means they are taking the knowledge from a human collective consciousness or just the memory banks of the God-Machine is an open question.

Efficiency A demon can work faster than any person simply by applying knowledge of reality’s workings that no human being could hope to attain. Any task can be completed in a fraction of the time. This Embed affects the demon’s ability to perform a given extended action. Once the action has been completed (or abandoned), the effects of the Embed no longer apply.

Ellipses While the concept of “lost time” tends to go along with sinister or mysterious notions such as alien abduction or brainwashing, the truth of the matter is that anyone can lose time if they become too engrossed in something. A person sits down to a good book or starts playing a video game, and suddenly it’s dawn and the person is left wondering where the time went. Some demons claim that the God- Machine nudged human evolution in a precise way to create this tendency, others claim it’s just a useful coincidence, but any demon might learn to exploit it.

Freeze Assets An opponent with money can make all manner of obstacles go away. A rich individual can afford lawyers, security, weapons and assistants, but more than that, he can afford to live in such a way that those around him defer to him. Money is just one more tool, though, and that means it can be made useless. This Embed allows a demon to stop the target from using his resources, at least for a short time.

Fulcrum Point “Give me a place to stand,” said Archimedes, “and I will move the Earth.” He was referring, of course, to the fact that with the right lever almost any object, no matter how heavy, can be moved. A demon with this Embed takes this principle to extreme lengths. With a good shove, the demon can move any object, regardless of its weight, as long as it is not affixed to the ground. Buildings are built into the ground, for instance, and therefore not subject to this Embed, but vehicles, trash bins, and boulders can be moved just enough out of position to inhibit pursuers or give a demon something to climb.

Fungible Knowledge A demon can affect more than just the facts or skills that she knows. She can change her knowledge on the level of metacognition — that is, knowing what she knows and that she knows it. Having this kind of understanding of her own cognition, the demon changes the variable “what I know” in one area, and the variable “what I don’t know” in another. The result of this is that she temporarily loses expertise in one area but gains it in another.

Like I Built It With this Embed, the demon gains an intuitive understanding of an object or a structure, allowing her to make perfect use of it. This Embed does not function on natural objects or topographical formations (so it can’t be used to find her way out of a cave system), only on buildings and objects that have been deliberately crafted. While it might be possible to use similar principles to gain an understanding of natural phenomena (since they are “crafted” by time and physics), demons generally feel that doing so would be a good way to break Cover.

Miles Away Demons are nearly impossible to read. They control their emotional responses almost completely, which is a good thing considering how much of a demon’s existence requires hiding and remaining vigilant. But demons still feel pain, both emotional and physical, and they still crack under pressure. And despite their apparent stoicism, demons can still feel love, and can still fear for those they love. A Guardian has to be able to put fear and even love out of his mind and remained focused in a crisis. This Embed replaces fear, doubt, hate, love and other distracting emotions with a pleasing, all-encompassing sound. The demon hears whatever he finds soothing. It could be music, his lover’s voice, or even the static hum of the God-Machine. Whatever it is, it gives him the ability to resist pain and distraction.

Momentum Any action, no matter how small or how cerebral, sets matter in motion, creating energy. A demon can use this energy to fuel her own endeavors, regardless of whether or not the preceding action actually helps the demon on a literal level. For example, in combat, the demon can take a successful attack —even against her — and use it to fuel her counterattack. Or, she could take the Drive roll of her compatriot and use it to fuel a Firearms roll to shoot at a pursuer.

The demon must see the target action take place and be in physical proximity and line of sight to the person taking the action. It doesn’t matter if the action isn’t something that can physically observed (Social actions count), but the demon needs to be able to see the character.

Read Hostility A Guardian needs to be able to recognize a potential threat before it becomes an actual threat. One way of doing this is simply to attune oneself to the concept of hostility or intended harm. A demon with this Embed can do exactly that — anyone entering the area with meaning to hurt the demon or a chosen target finds that her baleful intentions betray her.

Right Tools, Right Job Tools will never supplant skill, it’s true, but even a genius mechanic might find herself unable to perform even a simple repair without a screwdriver. This Embed allows the demon to improve the tools she has at hand, even if those tools would normally be next to useless for the task she is trying to perform. She can use a penknife to perform delicate surgery or a wrench to fix eyeglasses. The tools themselves don’t change shape, they simply function much better than they have any right to. Witnesses usually find themselves wondering how this feat was accomplished, but if the demon is too closely observed, she might wind up blowing her cover. Better to use this Embed in secret.

Strike First No one likes to be sucker-punched, especially not a demon. With this Embed, the demon can always be prepared for a fight, no matter how cleverly the enemy sneaks up on him. The character can use this Embed even if he is surprised.

Synthesis As any crime scene investigator can tell you, any given area can say volumes about what has happened there. It’s just a matter of asking the right questions and having the right tools. A demon with this Embed can learn the truth of an area and its history by simply observing how it has changed recently. This Embed does not let the demon relive the past of the area or see visions of what has come before; the further back in time an event happened, the less information the demon can gain about it. However, this Embed makes a demon a detective par excellence.

Tag & Release Life as a demon is an exercise in patience. A demon needs to know when to approach a target, when to strike (for whatever value of “strike” is appropriate) and when to leave well enough alone. This Embed makes this kind of patience easier; the demon can mystically mark a target so that he can find it later. The demon must touch the target to mark it.

Tools Into Toys The demon mystically attacks the utility of tools, removing any assistance they provide to a task. Skillfully wielded, this Embed can make a task impossible.

Turn Blade A weapon is a tool, and demons who make use of Instrumental Embeds know how to affect a tool’s utility. With this Embed, the demon blunts a blade, softens a cudgel, or slows a bullet. He can’t make a weapon perfectly harmless, but he can make it much less deadly.

Mundane Embeds Can the power of a fallen angel truly be “mundane?” A demon that truly understands the nature of Embeds would have to answer in the affirmative, for what allows Embeds but the fundamental nature of the universe, and what could be more mundane? That said, Mundane Embeds allow the demon to fit in with the world a little better, enhancing Cover in subtle ways to let the demon to go about his business unnoticed by man or angel.

Conceptually, Mundane Embeds allow the demon to capitalize on the fact that, to humans, a thing or a word can have multiple meanings. A “shot” can be a small, powerful drink of alcohol, an injection or an attempt to kill with a gun — and with the right application of a Mundane Embed, the demon can cloud which of those options is immediately relevant. In addition, these Embeds deal with the concept of forgetting, and many a demon has reason to make a witness forget. Don’t discount, though, the power to make someone unable to forget something.

Alibi A person being in two places at once is generally a violation of the laws of physics, and yet demons manage. This power doesn’t actually enable the demon to duplicate himself, but rather to shift his Cover so that people see it in another place. If a demon has multiple Covers, he can choose which one establishes the Alibi (it doesn’t have to be the Cover he’s currently using). In either case, the “duplicate” can’t take meaningful action — nothing that would require a dice roll — but the power makes for a good way for a demon to establish plausible deniability or lose a tail.

Authorized People don’t generally enjoy confrontation, and most of them fold in the face of authority. With this Embed, the demon shows a symbol to a witness — it might be a costume sheriff’s badge or just a quick flip of the demon’s wallet — and the witness believes that the demon has the legal and societal right to be where she is, doing what she is doing.

Cuckoo’s Egg Obtaining an object is much easier if the owner of the object doesn’t realize it is missing. This requires some subtlety on the part of the demon, but with this Embed, the character leaves the target in possession of an object that is identical to the stolen one. This requires that the demon have an object of comparable size, function and mass to the targeted one, but once this Embed is activated, the “cuckoo’s egg” is indistinguishable from the stolen one.

Diversion Getting someplace that the one isn’t supposed to be, opening the right filing cabinet, or swiping something off a desk is very often a matter of the right person or people becoming distracted for a short amount of time. With this Embed, the demon can cause her targets to look away or otherwise be diverted just long enough to slip past them.

Don’t I Know You? Memory is a funny thing. The connections we make in our memories are often unconscious, but still very powerful. A person might be inclined to treat another with more kindness or deference than perhaps she deserves just because she reminds him of her uncle. That reminder might be visual, auditory, or olfactory (scent actually forms the strongest bonds of memory in the mammalian brain), but it makes the target predisposed to be favorable to the character. This Embed uses different systems based on whether the character is using the Social Maneuvering game mechanic (p. XX) or a simple Social action (for fast-talking, for instance).

Earworm It’s irritating to have a catchy but annoying song stuck in one’s head. A demon, however, can prevent a target from forgetting such an earworm, amplifying it to a degree that interferes with any attempted thought or problem solving.

Homogenous Memory The Rashomon effect, named after Akira Kurosawa’s film Rashomon, refers to the phenomenon of different perspectives coloring the same event. This effect sometimes works for demons trying to keep their Cover, since multiple perspectives of supernatural occurrences don’t make for credulous investigators. But just as often, a demon finds it more useful if all the witnesses tell the same story. People, cops included, take the path of least resistance, and if all the witnesses say a man jumped off the ledge, who would ever think that a winged being dropped him? This Embed, then, counters the Rashomon effect, making sure everyone tells the same story.

Identity Theft Becoming another person for purposes of using their money, insurance, or credit is simple enough for anyone with a computer and a little con artistry. A demon, however, can do so much more by playing on the notion of “identity” at a conceptual level. She can become someone else in more than just name, wearing her target’s face and seeing with her eyes. The effect doesn’t last very long, but a careful demon can build up a “stable” of identities that she uses frequently, allowing her to escape from pursuers quickly … or even to strike at her foes using her co-opted identity’s resources.

Idle Conversation When demons gather or meet with other supernatural beings, they might discuss battling angels, seeing werewolves hunt, or any of the violent or downright bizarre acts they committed in service to the God- Machine. But they enjoy having a cup of coffee or a pint of lager with such conversations as much as human beings do, which means that masking the conversation from nearby listeners is wise. A demon employing this Embed makes the conversation he is in sound like idle, nonspecific chatter, not worthy of listening to. If someone is actively trying to spy on the demon, she is unable to make sense of the conversation — she seems unable to focus on the words or adjust the volume on a listening device quite enough.

Note that since demons are able to speak any language they wish, it’s not at all difficult for a group of demons gathering in a diner in New York to speak in, say, Basque, and have little concern that anyone around will understand them. This Embed, then, makes more sense for a character who routinely deals with stigmatics, pactbound, and supernatural beings other than demons.

In My Pocket Having exactly what is necessary at exactly the right moment can be the difference between life and death (or Cover and angelic discovery). A demon’s pockets are a strange confluence of empty space and quantum possibility — that is, a demon might potentially have anything in his pockets that would reasonably fit, until and unless he turns out those pockets and proves that he doesn’t. As such, a demon’s pockets can be said to have any object that would fit in them.

Interference Demons must constantly be vigilant about their Covers. The God-Machine would love to reclaim (or destroy) demons and Cover is the only thing keeping its agents off the demon’s trail. That said, pursuit of an Agenda often forces the demon to become visible, even for a moment. A demon with this Embed can diffuse the distortion that a blown Cover roll causes, buying herself some time. This Embed is used after the demon (or another demon nearby) loses Cover or otherwise attracts angelic attention.

Last Place You Look The act of hiding something changes it. The gun is no longer just a gun. Once someone has concealed it for whatever reason, it is a hidden gun, deliberately placed somewhere that someone hopes it will not be found. Finding a hidden object by looking for the object is difficult, depending on how well the concealer did his job. Finding a hidden object by looking for the “hidden” part is much more effective, but it’s not an option for most people. Demons, of course, are not most people.

Living Recorder The best recorder of data is a human brain. While it suffers from limited visual angles, it also records information of a tactile, auditory, and olfactory nature and even has the ability to interpret that information. A demon with the right knowledge can use a target person as a living recording device, accessing the data at leisure. This is a very useful way to obtain someone’s password or case a building— simply turn someone into a recorder and let everyday life do the rest. The demon must touch the target to turn her into the Living Recorder.

Lost in the Crowd Every person is unique, with markers both physical and conceptual that makes him or her different than any other. And yet, put enough people together and they become a crowd, and the crowd is, in many ways, a homogenous mass of human beings. A demon can become part of that mass, losing any unique markers and blending in so thoroughly that even given a high-resolution photograph and a lot of time, no one can pick her out.

Meaningless Language is symbolism. A spoken word is just a blend of sounds, a written word is nothing more than a jumble of lines and squiggles. It is our ability to see or hear these random elements and inscribe them with meaning that allows for language. A demon can attack a target’s ability to draw meaning from language — or, with sufficient skill, from a situation.

Never Here It’s one thing to bribe or threaten a witness not to reveal that a demon was present, but a dedicated investigator has ways of making people spill their guts. Better for the demon simply to remove the knowledge that he was ever there. The demon forces one or more characters to forget that they shared a scene. The Embed doesn’t remove all memory of the demon, simply his presence in one particular scene. If the witness was with the demon for several contiguous scenes, use of this Embed might be extremely disturbing to the witness, if she stops to piece together the timeline of the demon’s activities (“He was with me during breakfast, and then we went to a movie … but we didn’t leave together?”).

Occam’s Razor Occam’s razor is a scientific precept that states that, all else being equal, the explanation for a phenomenon that requires the fewest assumptions tends to be the correct one. That is, the simplest explanation is usually true. Since demons often find themselves in situations that are not easily explicable and have the need to keep their Cover, a way to conceal their activities is useful. This Embed provides that, making witnesses inclined to believe whatever explanation occurs to them (as long as it is simpler than the truth).

Quick Change A change of clothes can make all the difference to a demon trying to fit (or stand out). With a moment’s concentration and isolation, a demon alters her wardrobe as she sees fit, change from grimy street clothes to an immaculate evening gown (or vice versa). This Embed allows for infiltration or impersonation, but the demon should take care — it doesn’t change her Cover, and violating that Cover can compromise it.

Unperson In 1984, George Orwell coined the term “unperson” to mean someone whose existence had been erased to the point that, for all practical purposes, that person never existed. Angels are occasionally called upon to perform this unsavory task, but the means to make such a sweeping change to reality don’t survive an angel’s fall. Even so, a demon with the right expertise can force a person into a kind of “identity blackout” for a short time, making her unrecognizable and unable to identify herself.

Without a Trace Modern forensics and crime scene investigations are incredibly sophisticated (presuming resources and expertise on the part of the local personnel). A demon’s best recourse if she wishes to avoid being detected after the fact is to make sure that scene itself forgets her. A demon with the right knowledge can do exactly that.

Vocal Embeds Vocal Embeds allow a demon to exert influence over thinking beings. Cognition level is fluid; some Messengers report that, in their angelic lives, they were instructed to give realizations to dogs or cats that their masters needed immediate assistance (or distraction). For demons, then, Vocal Embeds provide a way to make contact and change the tenor of an interaction. To understand this, a demonic mentor usually points out that the Embed enables influence over the interaction, not the target.

These Embeds allow influence of the concept of communication. In some ways this makes them the most powerful Embeds, because the whole of human civilization is based upon communication. Angelic missions must come from the God-Machine, meaning some kind of communication takes place — and though no demon has, of yet, figured out how to disrupt this, it is theoretically possible. Could a demon, then, trick an angel into Falling? Vocal Embeds also encompass the concepts of revelation and realization, which are two sides of a coin. The demon reveals and the target realizes, but either of those occurrences is subject to manipulation … which means enemies of a demon who studies these Embeds can’t trust what they see or what they learn.

Across a Crowded Room Remove volume and background noise from the equation and a whisper is just one more way to communicate. That means that a demon can use the same principles on such communication as he uses with any Vocal Embed. The demon whispers and any target or targets within his line of sight can hear it. This Embed is a useful way to communicate with allies without relying on technology, but it’s also possible to drive someone insane by constantly whispering their sins.

Animal Communication Animals are obviously capable of communication, but are they capable of language? Linguists and animal behaviorists have struggled with the question (and how to define language) for years, but demons know the truth — animals can, at the very least, understand language if it’s presented in a pure enough form. Demons, of course, can use that form.

Animal Messenger The demon can send an animal to a specified person with a message. The animal doesn’t speak and cannot produce writing, but even by barking, chirping or yowling, the animal communicates what the demon needs it to say. Once the animal has delivered the message, it reverts to its usual behaviors (meaning it probably runs off).

The animal has to be able to reach the target within a day; if it takes longer than that, the effect of the Embed wears off and animal reverts to normal behavior. The demon is therefore advised to choose fast, mobile, and socially acceptable animals. Collies are a popular choice.

Borrowed Expertise Granting information is just a short step from granting knowledge and skill. From a biological perspective, it’s all a matter of activating neurons anyway. So what’s to stop a demon from activating the neurons that would allow a person to perform surgery rather than the neurons that cause him to see a vision of the future? Nothing, as it happens, provided the demon recalls this Embed.

Common Misconception The hive-mind is wrong about almost everything. Human beings, for example, do not use only 10% of their brains. Bumblebee flight is not aerodynamically impossible, and cell phones stand virtually no chance of igniting gasoline fumes. The demon can bring “factual” information to bear (though it doesn’t have to be true in the slightest) and undercut a target’s actual knowledge or ability.

Eavesdrop Communication isn’t just spoken language. Body language, inflection, and facial expression can all carry meaning; a demon with the right knowledge can glean just as much information from these facets of language as with speech. The demon can eavesdrop on a conversation from anywhere in his line of sight, provided he can clearly see the faces of at least half the participants.

Everybody Knows Rumors take on their own lives, and a demon can spread rumor like a disease. The demon creates the rumor, the more general and destructive the better, and places it on a target. From then on, anyone the target speaks with “contracts” the rumor and starts acting on it — even if the character has never actually heard the rumor or even met the target. This Embed allows a demon to drive a target to ruin and loneliness, because by reaching out for help, the target just makes things worse.

Find the Leak Benjamin Franklin said that three can keep a secret if two of them are dead. Put another way, someone always wants to talk. This Embed facilitates communication by revealing the person with the greatest desire to communicate about a given matter. The demon then needs to make sure the communication goes well, of course.

Freudian Slip A Freudian slip is, of course, an unintentional moment of honesty when a person says exactly what they really feel — sometimes what they don’t even realize they feel. This Embed forces the issue, causing a target to blurt out their truest, most honest response to the situation at hand. While this can, in extreme situations, cause a fight to start, it’s much more likely to result in damaged relationship and breaches of the social contract. A clever demon can also use it to ask a sensitive question and then be assured of an impulsive, honest answer. This Embed doesn’t work on topics that don’t affect the target emotionally, though (asking “what’s your computer password?” and then using the power is likely to get the emotional response to that question, which is probably “None of your damn business”).

Heart’s Desire Demons are capable of granting people wishes (of course, the demons don’t come away empty-handed— see Pacts, p. XX). Before they can do that, though, they have to know what their targets want. This is a matter of revelation, which is a concept that a demon can manipulate. This Embed allows a demon to know, quite simply, what a target wants.

Marco Polo Many cultures make use of a “call and response” arrangement. Religious services, songs, children’s games — all have sections predicated on the simple notion of, “When I say something, you say something back.” That concept is ingrained deeply enough in humanity’s communication apparatus that a demon can force a response even when it would be the target’s best interest to stay quiet.

Mercury Retrograde In astrology, when “mercury is in retrograde,” communication supposedly goes awry. While this is generally used as an explanation (or excuse) for a spate of misunderstandings or bad attempts at communication, a demon can alter the ability of people to communicate, leading to misunderstandings that she can exploit. This Embed only works on real-time communication between people. As such, it functions on phone conversations and even instant messenger chats, but not on written letters.

Muse Where do ideas come from? Angelic visitations feature prominently in stories about inspiration, and Messengers remember orders to plant an idea or a vision or a dream in a person’s mind. After the fall, the ability to inspire is comparatively limited but a demon can still manage it.

Recurring Hallucinations An angelic visitation can be terrifying or maddening, but it is usually dramatic. While the God-Machine does sometimes require that a person be driven insane, it has faster methods at its disposal than the slow torture of hallucinations. Demons, however, sometimes find it useful to drive a victim to the edge of sanity, especially if the ultimate goal is to take the victim’s life as a Cover.

Social Dynamics People communicate in a thousand nonverbal ways. Body positioning, tone of voice, head inclination, and so on all provide clues as to what the social hierarchy of a group is. A demon with an intuitive understanding of the concept of communication can read these clues instantly, determining a social “map” of a group of people. While this Embed does allow the demon to determine the social dynamics of a group of supernatural beings, it has no effect on other demons.

Special Message A song, a painting, a novel even a bit of graffiti can have layers of meaning. One viewer might experience only the literal one, but someone with the right appreciation can get a great deal more out of the work. A demon manipulating the concept of revelation can encode a message in a piece of art, even one he did not create himself. When the target sees the art, she receives the message as though the demon was speaking to her directly. Some Messengers claim that they were sent to encode messages in centuries-old pieces of art whose recipients have not yet been born.

Tower of Babel This Embed can make a chaotic situation worse, which means it is superb for creating a diversion or cover a demon to get away. Demons understand all human languages; with a little manipulation of the concept of “language” in a given area, they can prevent a group from finding a common tongue. This results in a mass of people who can’t understand one another. Used in calm circumstances, this can create anxiety and some loud misunderstandings, but used in a crisis (such as, for example, the aftermath of a demon going loud), it can escalate things into a full riot. This Embed does not affect other demons.

Trick of the Light The human brain wants patterns. It wants to resolve random noise into voices, shadows into humanoid figures, burnt toast into the Virgin Mary. A number of biological and evolutionary reasons exist for this phenomenon, but these are incidental. The fact is that the human brain is hard-wired to interpret data in a way that makes sense, and a demon can easily take advantage of this. This Embed allows a demon to create a small, subtle visual illusion. It works best on a single target, but the demon can affect more than one person if he keeps things simple.

Trust No One Someone with a strong social support system is less likely to believe an angelic vision or prophecy. This is why Messengers understand how to cut those support systems, removing important or useful people from a target’s life, at least for a short time. The demon must touch the target in order to activate this Embed, but using it doesn’t require that the demon know the particulars of the social circle he is disrupting.

Voice of the Machine This is a dangerous Embed, but demons find it useful. All machinery carries with it the reflection of the God-Machine. This is why demons feel the strange attraction to mechanical apparatus that they do (p.XX). The hum of motors and the grind of gears is the voice of the God-Machine and carries hints of the Machine’s plans. A demon can listen to this voice and gain some insight into what is going on around him, but he must be careful that the machinery does not betray him.

The Cipher Embeds are based upon a metaphysical understanding of the nature of the reality. As that understanding grows, the demon is capable of modifying the equations, as it were, and joining those Embeds together. The Cipher — a complete series of four interlocked Embeds — enables a demon to work truly impressive, but still subtle, feats of magic.

Ciphers are personal. A given demon’s Cipher might include one Embed from each category, four from one category, or any other combination. The only way to discover the Cipher is to learn more Embeds and then try them in combination with the ones the demon already knows. When a demon discovers one of these Embeds (called Keys), she undergoes a transcendental, life-altering moment of awareness. This might be blissful, or it could be so shocking that the demon withdraws from all contact with others for a week. In any case, when a demon uses a new Key, she always knows it.

As demons progress, they learn how Embeds work and uncover more about the mystical subroutines put in place by the God-Machine. Some of these subroutines seem familiar or instinctive. These feelings, halfway between déjà vu and enlightenment, can lead a demon to her Keys. These pathways do not come from the God-Machine, though. The God-Machine is not a teacher attempting to help demons on their way, and neither is it trying to lead demons back into its services (though some demons believe\ exactly that). By investigating her own Keys, a demon is moving further away from the God-Machine on her very own Descent.

The fact that a complete Cipher always involve four Embeds is not lost on the Unchained, and demons often wind up superstitious about geometric and mathematical expressions involving the number. This isn’t always wise — the God-Machine is quite capable of exploiting a demon’s dependence on a pattern or confirmation bias about the number. Realizing this, some demons continue looking for a fifth Key to complete a circuit. Adding a fifth Embed to a Cipher, though, invariably causes it to fail spectacularly and break the demon’s Cover. In some Agencies, demons known to attempt to add a fifth Key are viewed as dangerous instigators.

Starting Key During character creation, the player determines the character’s first Key. This can be any Embed, whether from the category that resonates with the character’s Incarnation or not, but it has to be an Embed that the character begins the chronicle knowing. The First Key is probably a power that ties into the character’s catalyst, her reason for Falling, or is tied in some way to her Agenda. A Guardian Inquisitor who wants to entice people to protect themselves, perhaps by causing adversity, might have Bystander Effect as her First Key. A Messenger Tempter who believes in Sartre’s adage that Hell is other people might have Everybody Knows or Tower of Babel.

Breaking the Cipher The Storyteller determines the other three of the character’s Keys. He is encouraged to make this determination within the first few sessions of the chronicle so that he can start building the character’s Cipher. The Cipher for a character consists of three things:

The other three Keys for the character.

The bonus powers (called Interlocks) that the character receives for correctly turning these Keys.

The final secret of the Cipher, the one that will complete it and give the character insight into her own Descent.

The Storyteller should use the questions posed in the character creation section (p. XX) to build the Cipher. He shouldn’t choose the Key Embeds at random, but rather, put some thought into which Embeds work well for the character’s concept, history as an angel, Agenda, and understanding of Hell as a demon. He should choose the three remaining Keys as soon as possible. It might be helpful to work backwards from the final secret.

Final Secret The final secret of a Cipher is not the endgame or final fate of a character. Rather, it is a technognostic truth, a machine-based koan that teaches the character something about the true nature of reality and the God-Machine. It might be a revelation, a secret bit of code that the God-Machine never intended for anyone to see (or might not ever remember is there). It might be a pathway to lead the character to Hell

— or just shift her understanding of Hell. The final secret does not, in itself, allow the character to complete the Descent, but the final secret should confirm or clarify that character’s vision of Hell. The final secret is not necessarily personal to the character. The Agenda — and, of course, the Fall itself— are all external, difficult decisions that a demon makes. The God-Machine doesn’t construct the Ciphers for demons. Indeed, they seem to be nothing more than side effects. Some function of the Infrastructure of the world does not allow an angel to Fall without a Cipher for it to follow. Is that because, to the God-Machine, having a demon following the Cipher is preferably to having more Exiles (who don’t have Ciphers)? Or is it just a side-effect of the ability to Fall — the demon has some magical context in the world? These questions are above the level of most demons to answer. The final secret of a Cipher gives a demon a greater degree of what she wanted in the first place — freedom.

Interlocks Every time a demon learns a new Key, she also gains a new, unique power, bridging her Key Embeds —an Interlock. This power is usually a way to use the Key Embeds she has already learned together, creating a more powerful, but generally more specific, ability. The Storyteller should consider the Keys being combined, their systems, and the literal and conceptual underpinnings of the Embeds involved and design the Interlocks. These powers are not Embeds, and so can involve Aether expenditures and non-Finesse Attributes. However, they aren’t Exploits, either, and so don’t necessarily endanger Cover with every use.

Designing the Interlocks is one of the more challenging aspects of Storytelling Demon. More advice on this topic can be found in Chapter Four (p. XX).

Keys Once the Storyteller has designed the final secret and the Interlocks, choosing the Key Embeds should be easy (this assumes the Storyteller doesn’t decide the Embeds first and then design the powers around that combination; either works). You might choose to assume that the Embeds with which the character begins play have already been tested against the First Key, and are therefore are not part of the Cipher. You might also choose to assume (especially in the case of a demon that Fell very recently) that this is not the case, that any Embed that the character has at character creation might be part of the Cipher. In either case, the Storyteller should tell the player so that the player can decide to try the Embeds that the character starts play knowing against the Cipher if appropriate.

Keys in Play A player can use two Experiences to buy a new Embed for the character. A character can choose to apply that new Embed to the Cipher at any time. This is called “testing the Key.” The system for this is as follows:

The character activates the Embed that she suspects is her next Key, with the player making the usual roll for that Embed. The player also spends a point of Aether. If the character is trying to establish whether this Embed is the next Key, the Storyteller reveals that either it is (in which case the character gains a dot of Primum and activates the Interlock that the Storyteller has created for this part of the Cipher) or it isn’t (in which case the character immediately gains a Beat, but also rolls for a transient glitch (p. XX) and suffers lethal damage equal to the character’s Primum).

If the Embed that the character is testing is a Key but is not the next Key, the result is both more spectacular and more dangerous. The character gains three Beats, but suffers aggravated damage equal to her Primum. The character also rolls for a permanent glitch. On the plus side, the character knows that the Embed is a Key, just not the one she needs at the moment.

Finding the Keys How, then, does a demon determine which Embeds to choose and which ones to try in her Cipher? Every demon experiences the Descent in her own way. Her experiences with the World of Darkness, with angels, with other demons and, of course, with humans, provide her with the data to form her own conception of Hell. Is Hell, as the Inquisitors believe, a state of mind? Is it a physical place as the Tempters hope? The demon might never actually discover the truth, but in a sense the character is creating that truth as she goes. That experience, that journey through the World of Darkness, leads her through the Cipher.

The Storyteller should consider the character’s Incarnation, Agenda, Fall, compromise questions, and first Key when designing the Cipher. What the Storyteller cannot consider, of course, is how they events of the chronicle will shape the character, since those haven’t happened yet. As such, the choice of the other three Embeds in the Cipher should make sense based on how and where the character starts. The player shouldn’t choose the Keys, but the Storyteller can absolutely consult the players when creating the Cipher and choosing the Keys. If, for instance, a player has a distinct idea about how the demon might progress and what kind of endgame she envisions for the character, the Storyteller should take that into account. Likewise, if the player has specific Embeds that she knows she wants her character to learn, the Storyteller should at least consider making those Embeds Keys.

Throughout the course of the chronicle, every time the character gains a Beat in a scene involving angels, demons, stigmatics, or the God-Machine, the player makes a reflexive Intelligence + Wits roll. If she is following her Agenda at the time (and the player makes a convincing case for this to the Storyteller), the player can add her Primum to the roll.

Exploits In contrast to Embeds, Exploits are not subtle at all. While they use the same metaphysical subroutines as Embeds, they are not relearned or remembered abilities but rather gross applications of the knowledge that the character already has. If an Embed is a word, and a set of Key Embeds is a sentence, then an Exploit is a shouted expletive. As such, Exploits are effective but run the risk of drawing attention.

Consider once again the metaphor of the child using the hole in the fence to sneak through a neighbor’s yard. Applying that metaphor to Exploits, the child might kick the loose board free and use it to shatter the neighbor’s glass patio door. An Exploit takes the knowledge imparted by an Embed and uses it to better, or at least more dramatic, effect. Unlike Embeds, though, Exploits are obvious and flamboyant, and therefore a risk to a demon’s Cover. An Exploit relies on a demon’s knowledge of the world’s metaphysical subroutines, just like Embeds, but instead of gently applying this knowledge, the demon forces Aether into the system, overcharging it and directing the result. While learning to use an Embed is a matter of re-acquiring knowledge that the demon had as an angel, learning to use an Exploit is more a matter of application. Angels therefore do not use Exploits — even their more grandiose powers are perfectly in line with their missions and therefore the parameters laid down by the God-Machine. An angel that decides to emulate a demon, pushing energy through the world’s mystical framework just to see what will happen, is probably on the verge of Falling.

Learning a given Exploit requires that the demon has the knowledge base to do so. For example, in order to learn the Hellfire Exploit, the demon needs to understand how the subroutines work with regards to firearms. This means that the demon needs to know an Embed such as Check Backdrop or Merciless Gunman. Each Exploit lists a few potential prerequisite Embeds, but the demon need not know all of them in order to learn the Exploit. Indeed, if the player can make a convincing case for a why a given Embed enables the character to learn a given Exploit, the Storyteller should allow it. Demons are masters of lateral thinking — they had to be in order to Fall.

Systems Exploits do not fall into categories the way Embeds do, nor do they require conceptual underpinnings. They rely on the demon forcing the mystical power of Aether into the same subroutines that allow Embeds, and then keeping that burst of power under control. They are more overtly powerful than Embeds, but they draw attention.

Every use of an Exploit causes a roll to avoid breaking Cover. The Storyteller should add modifiers to this roll based on how blatantly the character is acting out, how many people (not demons) can see the action, whether any angels can see the action, and whether or not any other Exploits have taken place during the scene. The player can spend a point of Willpower to avoid this roll.

Addictive Presence The story of the succubus (or its male counterpart, the incubus) — a demon that feeds on sexual attention — is well-known. Demons aren’t above using sex as a means of enforcing or sealing bargains, a means of persuasion, or just for fun, but some demons perfect the art of eliciting pleasure from their victims with every glance, touch and movement. In this way, the demon can create an addict to her very presence, someone who will do almost anything for a few moments with her regardless of whether the relationship is sexual.

This Exploit only functions on living humans (vampires are dead and so don’t experience addiction the same way, and demons are not human). The demon might be able to addict other supernatural beings, but they add their Supernatural Tolerance trait to the number of successes required. Many of them also have ways to break addictions that are not available to humans.

Affliction The demon curses a target with boils, disease, madness, spiritual malaise, or any other malady he finds interesting. Some demons find this Exploit useful for revenge or punishment, others as a demonstration of power before a pact is finalized. The player must declare the particulars of the Affliction before rolling the dice. This determines the resistance roll; physical Afflictions are resisted with Stamina, mental Afflictions with Resolve. Example Prerequisites: Deafen, Recurring Hallucinations

Allies Into Gold What is the measure of a friend? What worth can be placed, not on a human being generally, but on human contact, of the ability to people to interact on a social level? A demon with this Exploit can shift what that human contact represents, changing a relationship that exists purely on the “exchange of information” level (Contacts) to one that brings in revenue (Resources), or one that induces the other party to level physical aid to the demon (Allies or even Retainer). This Exploit is riskier to a demon’s Cover than most. The compromise roll for Allies Into Gold suffers a negative modifier equal to the number of dots in Merits the demon is shifting.

Animate The demon can bring a facsimile of life to an inanimate object, provided that it has the apparatus to allow it to move. That is, the demon cannot animate something with no limbs or appendages, though he could animate a severed arm or an angel’s wing (though its movement would be severely limited). This means that the character can animate statues, sculptures, vehicles, and even corpses and call them to do his bidding. While animated, these objects emit occasional plumes of smoke or steam from joints and licks of fire or electricity sometimes emerge from their eyes.

Behind the Curtain This is a risky endeavor, but a useful one at times. The demon can call upon his memories of service to the God-Machine, enter a section of Infrastructure, then travel to another section of Infrastructure anywhere in the world. Since all Infrastructures are connected in the sense that they all use the same power sources, traveling between them is a simple metaphysical exercise (angels do it frequently). Unfortunately, doing so for a demon carries a greater-than-usual risk of compromise.

Demons can use the Spoof ability when entering Infrastructure and are well-advised to do so in this case. Spoofing is described on p. XX. Successfully Spoofing adds two dice to this Exploit’s roll.

Break to Heal The principle of “as above, so below” is one that demons understand well, as is the notion of conservation of energy. Every object in the world — in the universe — is made up of the same energy, and so transferring that energy from one form to another should be simple. In practice, demons can’t perform the metaphysical calculations necessary to performing world-altering feats of physics, but they can break one object and transmit that energy to living tissue, healing damage or illness. This Exploit requires that the demon touch the intended target and break an object at the same time.

Deep Pockets The demon can pull anything that he can lift out of his pocket, coat, suitcase or any other aperture he can fit his hand into. He doesn’t have to own the object that he is retrieving, but it does have to come from somewhere, so he has to be able to picture it. Since demons have perfect memories, however, even a moderately well-traveled demon has a wide range of objects to call upon. Demons with this Exploit often have a special room in their homes adorned with large objects that they can retrieve at will, seemingly from nowhere.

Disintegrate With a single touch, the demon can turn a solid object into dust and vapor. The object vibrates for a moment, and then cracks and disappears with a faint glow.

The object in question can be no larger than the demon herself (usually Size 5). This Exploit does not work on living or undead matter. It does function on magical or enchanted items, but the player subtracts the item’s rating from the dice pool. If the target object is being held by another character, the demon must make a touch attack against the character (p. 157 of the World of Darkness Rulebook). If the item’s Durability is higher than the demon’s Primum, the player must spend an additional point of Aether for the Exploit. The Demolisher Merit mitigates this effect.

Echoing Death The demon strikes a target dead and the death undoes the last action the character took. This requires the demon to warp time and causality, and as such it carries a greater risk of breaking the demon’s Cover (in game terms, the compromise roll for this Exploit carries a –2 penalty). If the Exploit is successful, though, the demon can erase the last few moments of the target’s life, perhaps saving the

life of someone that character killed. This Exploit can only affect the actions the target took in his last few minutes of life. Anything longer than that and the effects of the actions he took have already reverberated out into the universe too far to be undone.

Ephemeral Cover The demon can craft a Cover out of spirit-stuff, creating a mask that resembles a ghost or a spirit. In order to do this, the demon must harvest raw material — the Corpus of an ephemeral being. The demon needs four points of Corpus for every dot of Cover he wishes the new identity to have, and at least half of that Corpus must come from the type of spiritual entity he intends to impersonate (ghosts if he wishes to create a ghost Cover, spirits if he wishes to create a spirit Cover). He can harvest

Corpus using this Exploit; as such, Ephemeral Cover also functions as an attack against ghosts and spirits. Once harvested, the demon stores the Corpus on his demonic form. When the demon assumes this form, the Corpus is visible hanging on his body like a fleshy, translucent cloak.

Once the demon has accumulated enough Corpus, he can create the Cover.

Everybody Hates Him The value of a scapegoat is indisputable. Having someone for everyone to hate, a target for their collective frustrations, allows unification among people — and for a demon, it allows someone else to take the blame. This Exploit makes a human target into the person that everyone hates. It does so by changing the target, though, not the world at large. The person simply trips the parts of the brain that causes others to read him as the enemy. Depending on where and when the victim falls under this Exploit, he might not live out the day.

Extispicy The practice of extispicy is the art of reading the entrails of a slaughtered animal in order to divine the future or otherwise glean information. Demons can use this method to learn information about the world around them, but whether something intrinsic in the act of the slaughter or simply the random patterns formed in blood and tissue grant the information, none of the Unchained can say for certain. In any case, the result is messy and difficult to hide, but yields useful results.

Extispicy works on any living creature of Size 4 or greater. Killing an animal (or a person, for that matter) to read its entrails might constitute a separate compromise if doing so would be grossly out of character for the demon’s Cover. As such, some demons prefer to assume demonic form before gutting the sacrificial creature (the claws often make it easier anyway). If the character inflicts enough damage with her bare hands or a bladed weapon to kill someone in combat, she may immediately begin the process of using this Exploit (target number of successes is still the target’s Health, though).

Force Relationship The demon can change the connections between people, forging a kind of temporary Cover between them. She can make two people into lovers, enemies, friends, or family. This Exploit doesn’t actually change the targets physically, meaning that if the demon turns two people into “brothers,” they think of themselves as brothers but a DNA test will not show them to be related.

This Exploit allows a demon to get around the drawbacks of a low Cover, at least for a short while. This Exploit can be used to alter preexisting relationships, but this is actually more difficult than just creating a relationship out of nothing. This is because human relationships are a tangled web of past events, impressions, brain chemistry, and possibility, putting many more variables in play.

Four Minutes Ago The demon can warp time in a limited way, removing himself from the scene four minutes before the moment he activates this Exploit. The time change does not remove all of the effects of his presence in the scene, however. This would be too much risk of a paradox, and the mystical subroutines of the universe that allow this Exploit to function reflexively prevent this from happening. Instead, the events of the scene come to the same results without the character’s presence (at least, without his presence from four minutes before he used this Exploit). The character “appears” four minutes’ travel from his location in the scene. The player decides how they character traveled and in which direction. This Exploit is primarily useful as an escape method, but it can be used to escape not only the physical location of a problemtic scene but some of the personal consequences of the demon’s own actions.

Frozen in Time With a glance, the demon alters a target’s relationship with time. From the victim’s perspective, everything around her speeds up, passing by in a blur as she watches helplessly. To the demon (andanyone else), the victim stands stock-still, a living statue.

While the victim is frozen, she cannot be harmed. Her body does not interact with the rest of the world (rather, it does, but so slowly that she suffers no ill effects), which means the demon can use this Exploit to save a person who is dying from a poison or a wound. Gravity doesn’t affect the character, either, meaning a target frozen in time while falling does not travel through space.

Halo The demon creates a soft, soothing light that acts as a balm — and a soporific — to anyone in the area. The light emanates from the demon’s eyes, if she so desires, but could also simply appear around her with no discernible source.

Hellfire The demon forces Aether through her firearms, converting the bullets into magically charged flame. The fire thus created can incinerate victims or destroy material objects, but it does not start fires — nothing touched by the Hellfire ignites. In order to activate this Exploit, the demon must have at least one firearm already drawn and ready to fire. She can use Hellfire on allies’ guns, but must touch the firearm in question. When the Exploit is activated, the gun’s barrel warps slightly, growing wider, and a thin wisp of brimstone smoke drifts up from it.

Hellhounds The demon infuses an animal with Aether, turning it into a nightmarish mesh of biomachinery and flesh. The creature is not long for this world (unless the demon wishes to supply it with the Aether it needs to live), but while it lives, it obeys the demon unquestioningly.

Incendiary The demon summons up fire from nothing and hurls it at a target. This flame can ignite anything flammable it touches in addition to the harm it causes to a living creature. The demon can use her mastery over the fire to gain temporary immunity to it, but she must leave the area quickly or be consumed as well.

Inflict Stigmata Stigmatics (described in Chapter Four) are human beings that can see the workings of the God-Machine. Some of them wind up working directly for the God-Machine — hunting demons, facilitating Infrastructure, or performing whatever their unknowable master asks of them. Some of them don’t and wind up terrified of their newfound knowledge or form cults or religions based upon their visions.

Some stigmatics are born, but others come to their condition after witnessing the workings of the God-Machine. Demons are able to stimulate this condition as well, though once a human has been turned stigmatic the demon has no control over how he will react to this newfound enlightenment.

Living Shadow The demon changes her form into a self-aware shadow, able to follow a person anywhere so long as enough ambient light is around to let him cast a shadow. The demon can switch “hosts” as well, following on the heels of one person after another to gain entrance to heavily secured areas.

While in shadow-form, the character can see and hear normally, but cannot speak, feel or otherwise interact with the world.

Merge The demonic form is a terrifying weapon and one that demons recognize as a badge of their newfound freedom. But the form is just a physical change, one more state in the demon’s quantum reality, and that allows a demon to merge his Form with that of another demon.

With this Exploit, members of a ring of demons can loan each other their demonic form Abilities. The recipient does not have to know this Exploit, but all contributing demons and the one with Merge must touch the recipient. The abomination thus created cannot venture more than 20 yards from any of the contributing demons, or else the Form Ability he received from a given demon is ripped away, leaving a bloodied wound.

Murder by Improbability The universe has a million ways to kill, even without involving intent from others or infirmity of the human body. Freak accidents claim thousands of lives every day; a demon with the right mystical understanding can snatch some of that lethal improbability from the universe and aim it at a victim. The unfortunate victim might be struck by a falling chunk of blue ice, trip and fall off a platform in front of a train, or stumble through a Rube Goldberg-esque configuration of accidents that leaves him lying on a sidewalk with scissors between his ribs.

Against some targets, this Exploit kills instantly and surely. Against others, it makes the world more dangerous, but does not automatically result in death. Demons are unsure what the difference is, but note that the Exploit is useless against the Unchained and beings with strange, otherworldly natures are more resistant to it.

Play on Words A particular collection of sounds can have many different meanings in a language. For instance, /rait/ can be “write” (to produce a graphic representation of words), “right” (correct or just) or “rite” (aceremony or ritual). In French, the words “cent,” “sans” and “sang” all sound very much alike, but mean “100,” “without” and “blood,” respectively. In Spanish, the sentence “Está esposado can either mean “He’s married” or “He’s in handcuffs.” A demon using this Exploit can shift the meaning of such a word, and change the situation in the process.

Note: This Exploit is challenging to use. It requires that the player pay attention to what other characters are saying and jump on the opportunity to activate the power. It’s perfectly acceptable for a player whose character has this Exploit to have a list of multiple meaning words (do an online search for that phrase; teacher resource websites have them) to keep handy. The Storyteller should not allow players to use this power on phrases more than a sentence or two back in the conversation (though the player is allowed to ask for a “time out” in the conversation while she briefly considers whether and how to use this Exploit).

Possession A classic and widely publicized demonic trick is to possess an innocent person and cause havoc, rend the unfortunate person’s flesh, and insult the God-fearing people around the victim. Some demons are indeed capable of possessing human beings, though they can usually find better uses for the stolen body than bouts of profanity and terrorizing the victim’s family. In order to possess a person, the demon must abandon her Cover. The demon becomes insubstantial, flowing into the victim as energy. While possessing the target, none of the demon’s Covers are anywhere to be found.

Rain of Blood The demon raises her hands to the heavens and calls down rains of blood, hailstorms of teeth or tiny screws, lighting storms punctuated with the grinding sounds of gigantic gears or any number of bizarre and inexplicable weather phenomena. The residual effects of this weather evaporate into Aether within an hour after the storm stops, and people rarely believe that anyone actually saw a storm of blood —not without evidence, surely. The immediate effects of the storm can be incredibly damaging, depending on how powerful the demon is. The demon can, however, opt to minimize damage to living creatures, conjuring the storm for property damage alone.

Raise Dead Resurrection of the dead is one of the things that humans ask for most commonly when demons begin their blandishments. Many a grieving widow or mourning father would sell their soul for the return of their loved one. It is, in fact, within some demons’ capabilities to raise the dead — and it’s even easier for the demon if she herself was responsible for the death. From a metaphysical standpoint, raising the dead is just a matter of repairing damaged tissue to the point that it can sustain the processes of life, and then finding the target’s soul to put back into the body. If the target’s soul isn’t available, another will do.

Raze Infrastructure This Exploit might be the ultimate act of rebellion (next to Falling, of course). The demon stands in the midst of an Infrastructure and allows all of the Aether in the area to corrode, severing the connection between the God-Machine and the Infrastructure and reducing the false front to rubble and slag. This act is extremely cathartic, especially for Saboteurs. It is, of course, also a terrible risk, since the God-Machine can easily dispatch angels to collect or destroy the demon.

Reality Enforcement For whatever reason, the world generally regards angels and other agents of the God-Machine as “unreal,” and the powers they wield “impossible.” This is clearly untrue — the angels and the mystical subroutines of the universe were woven into the very fabric of reality and possibility, but as far as most humans, even very learned humans are concerned, that’s the end of it. A demon can enforce this limited perception of reality, shunting off the flow of Aether away from an area. This forces the demon to rely only on the Skills that his Cover gives him, but it also confuses and disempowers angels for a short time.

Riot The demon stands in the midst of a group of people and screams in defiance to the God-Machine (what words she uses are irrelevant). The people around her rise up in revolt, but it is a rebellion with no focus. They simply riot, attacking the world around them, breaking windows, tearing down statues, and looting whatever is nearby.

This Exploit can only be used in a group of 20 people or more. The demon herself is not safe if she remains in the group. While the rioters won’t go out of their way to attack her, they won’t spare her, either.

Rip the Gates The demon can tear open the fabric of reality, traveling to planes of existence unknown to most humans. The demon rips a literal hole in thin air, making a portal that anyone can travel through for as long as it remains open.

Demons with this Exploit can automatically open gateways to the Hedge, the Shadow, the Underworld and the Astral Realms (see sidebar). These planes of existence each pose their own particular challenges for demons, but one advantage they do have is that the God-Machine is much more limited in these places. As such, a demon with this Exploit can provide a safe place for demons to meet. Many Tempters believe that the path to Hell will be found in one of these strange realms.

Through the Gates The World of Darkness encompasses many different planes of reality, not all of which are accessible by demons and many of which are described in other games. In brief, the realms that demons can reach with the Rip the Gates Exploit are:

Astral Realms: The myriad worlds of the subconscious, within and connecting all souls. Every human has an inner world, in which his dreams, vices, hopes, and memories are manifest. Humanity as a whole shares the next layer, containing every concept shared between two people, and going even deeper involves increasingly fundamental concepts. Although most travelers in the Astral do so while meditating or sleeping, demons using Rip the Gates enter physically. They regain Aether normally in the Astral and can use Rip the Gates to escape.

The Hedge: The barrier between the mortal world and Arcadia, the strange home of the Fair Folk. Most humans only see the Hedge if they are being dragged through it to be enslaved by the Fae, and it is a decidedly unpredictable place. The biggest challenge for demons is that once they have entered the Hedge, they can’t use Rip the Gates to get out again. Changelings and other denizens can sometimes open gateways back to Earth, but they might demand bargains or services and some of them are just as shrewd at making pacts as any demon.

The Shadow: The spirit wilds, home of ephemeral beings and animistic representations of almost everything. Cars, trees, animals, even emotions have spirits (spirits are described in more detail on p. XX). Demons can regain Aether normally in the Shadow and can use Rip the Gates to escape.

The Underworld: The labyrinth “below” the living world. Psychopomps are often familiar with the Underworld, since many of them ferried human souls here before the Fall. The Underworld is home to the spirits of the dead and is relatively quiet, as far as demons are concerned — at least close to the surface. Descending, demons find odd sub-realms called Dominions, each with its own set of laws that even demons must obey. More information on ghosts can be found on p. XX. Demons can regain Aether normally in the Underworld and can use Rip the Gates to escape.

Sermon Calling upon intimate, metaphysical knowledge of the workings of trust and awe in the human brain, the demon can deliver a speech worthy of the Sermon on the Mount. Any humans who hear the demon’s words take them as, if not literal truth, then useful moral guideposts. If the demon delivers messages to the same group of people over time, he can use this Exploit to start his own cult. Longtime listeners are more than fanatically loyal — their moral framework is whatever the demon wishes it to be. This Exploit affects what actions a human sees as breaking points, allowing them to act with perfect moral clarity so long as their actions reflect the demon’s teachings.

Solitary Confinement The demon gestures at a target and opens a rift in reality — a black pit of nothing where the person remains trapped. The oubliette doesn’t keep a victim incarcerated indefinitely, but it creates a place of perfect sensory deprivation. The victim cannot hear, see or feel anything, even sound or sensation that he creates. Even if the target only remains in the oubliette for a matter of minutes, the experience saps his will and can drive him mad.

The target must be within the demon’s Primum rating in yards, and the demon must be able to see the victim for this Exploit to function.

Stalking Horse What is a demon’s greatest fear? Above all, the Unchained fear exposure. They fear being recognized by traitors to the Descent and by the still-loyal angels of the God-Machine. They fear that humanity — blind though it may still be to the truths of the universe — will find a way to see through their Covers and drive them back into their creator’s cold workings.

This Exploit, then, exposes another being. The demon chooses (or in some cases creates) the attribute he wishes to highlight, then then touches the target. Anyone who comes into contact with that person knows that he carries the attribute that the demon underscored. This might be met with indifference, fascination, or murderous rage, depending on the specifics.

Stimulus/Response The demon can manipulate the target’s brain’s ability to draw connections between actions, classically conditioning the target in seconds. The demon simply has to observe the target performing the behavior she wishes to train and then couple it to an external stimulus — one that she controls. After that, she can stimulate this response at any time.

Summon Some intrepid souls believe they can summon demons. What they probably don’t realize, though, is that demons can summon them. A demon with this Exploit can call upon any human being she has met, and that human finds that circumstances, snap decisions and luck bring her to the demon.

This doesn’t happen instantly; the farther apart the demon and the target are, the longer it takes. If they are in the same city, the target might find that that she chooses a new restaurant on a whim and finds the demon eating there as well. If they live in different regions, a missed flight or a rerouted train might be to blame.

This Exploit doesn’t make the target well-disposed to deferent to the demon; in fact, unless the demon tells her, the target probably has no reason to assume the demon was responsible at all.

Swarm Folklore is replete with stories of demons summoning up plagues of flies, worms and other horrible creatures. And, indeed, the Unchained are quite capable of doing so. With merely a gesture to the air, the little beasts appear, boiling out of holes in the earth, from underneath cars or porches, or out of the demon’s pockets or sleeves.

The swarm will obey the demon’s commands, but the commands can’t be any more complicated that “attack that target” or “fly into that window.” Depending on the creatures summoned, the swarm can inflict minor amounts of damage to living targets, but their true value is in their ability to distract or terrify. Demons, of course, consistently find other creative uses for this Exploit.

Swift Resolution Strange things happen, especially when demons are involved, but for the most part it’s not hard to figure out how a given confrontation will end. The bigger, stronger, or better trained combatant probably winds. The police probably break the suspect. The researcher probably finds what he is looking for. This Exploit allows the demon to cause such an action to happen quickly, by the numbers, and be over in seconds.

The Word The demon issues a short, simple command that must be followed. This Exploit does not allow simple mind control, however. The target responds on a metaphysical level. If the demon commands the target to “burn,” he will — he skin blisters and he drops to the ground in agony. Commanded to “sleep,” a target will not awaken until the demon permits it. The command must be a single word, but in that single word is contained the simple, potent power of the God-Machine.De,