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Old 07-07-2017, 11:32 AM   #1
Apollonian
 
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Shoreline, WA (north of Seattle)
Default Good Powers for Satanist Pirates/Spies?

I'm filling out some details on the Chevaliers de la Crane for my Victorian Cabal game, and I'd like to tap the hive mind for some ideas for cool powers - especially on the imagery & fluff side - to give individual Chevaliers. Key guidelines:
  • The power is granted by a powerful demon (Baphomet) that communicates with the Chevaliers through the Crystal Skull
  • Baphomet is pleased by murder and souls, and that's what he encourages and rewards by granting powers
  • The power should be fairly simple tricks - not full-fledged spell-slinging magic. More Assassin's Creed or Dishonored style.
  • Covert is nice, but not necessary

Anyway. Any ideas?
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Old 07-07-2017, 12:28 PM   #2
Gedrin
 
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Default Re: Good Powers for Satanist Pirates/Spies?

Given your Baphomet, I'd look at the cultist in question and give something along the lines of Detect:People That Deserve It. Frex: a character with a background/flaw that predisposes them to hate prostitution would be granted the power to see johns and hookers...always on.

Give them something cool, like the ability to blur their form. Power varies from making them hard to ID, to bonuses to stealth, to penalties to hit them in combat. Fuel power with points.

Points can only be filled by appropriate sacrifice. A chicken grant one point, but not if you already have two. A hooker 10/15. Infant... The idea is that you can do the little stuff on a chicken, but if you want -5 to hit in combat, human sacrifice is required.
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Old 07-07-2017, 05:45 PM   #3
Angle
 
Join Date: Jan 2013
Location: Lafayette, COlorado
Default Re: Good Powers for Satanist Pirates/Spies?

Well, for subtle you best bet is probably relatively normal advantages recast as supernatural abilities, maybe with some luck or serendipity thrown in.
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Old 07-07-2017, 06:29 PM   #4
mhd
 
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Location: Land of the Beer, Home of the Dirndls
Default Re: Good Powers for Satanist Pirates/Spies?

There's nothing wrong stealing from Tim Powers, so I'd make magic independent from any inborn gifts: Anyone can practise it, and a lot of people do. Most don't go beyond minor tricks, but those you'll encounter pretty often.

Minor mind control and reality influence, i.e. the aforementioned Luck/Serendipity advantages plus some social ones. Maybe combining impulse points with threshold based magic, leading into some kind of "angelic limit break" if people are overdoing it.

And lots of minor minionry, where physical manifestations, be they ever so small are actually already on the advanced scale, with big monsters being exceedingly rare.

That should make pirate havens quite chaotic.
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Old 07-07-2017, 11:30 PM   #5
Celjabba
 
Join Date: Sep 2006
Location: Luxembourg
Default Re: Good Powers for Satanist Pirates/Spies?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Apollonian View Post
I'm filling out some details on the Chevaliers de la Crane for my Victorian Cabal game, and I'd like to tap the hive mind for some ideas for cool powers - especially on the imagery & fluff side - to give individual Chevaliers. Key guidelines:
  • The power is granted by a powerful demon (Baphomet) that communicates with the Chevaliers through the Crystal Skull
  • Baphomet is pleased by murder and souls, and that's what he encourages and rewards by granting powers
  • The power should be fairly simple tricks - not full-fledged spell-slinging magic. More Assassin's Creed or Dishonored style.
  • Covert is nice, but not necessary

Anyway. Any ideas?
A small thing, but if you mean "Knight of the (cristal) Skull", it would be "Chevaliers du Crâne" in French, the word "crâne" is masculine.

-Perhaps a "Ghost Rider" like aspect; but with blue flame and a crystal skull ?

-Some awe/terror

-Temperature Tolerance
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Old 07-08-2017, 12:13 AM   #6
Varyon
 
Join Date: Jun 2013
Default Re: Good Powers for Satanist Pirates/Spies?

Murder and souls implies a method of assassination in which the worshipper harvests the target's soul.

Something I'm considering for one of my own settings was to have characters able to become essentially servants of death, wherein they gain a variety of powers (by killing more and more) that might be appropriate here. In this case, they might be fueled by harvested souls or something similar. They gain ETS, Detect (Sapient Life), Penetrating Vision, and a short-ranged Warp upon making a kill undetected, although this is only available for about a second. Essentially, they can use the large amount of energy released upon death by an unsuspecting target to basically "pause" the world, check out where all nearby targets/threats are - seeing through walls - and then Warp either somewhere safe or to set up their next kill.

If they personally kill an animal, they can then tan the leather and it will obey them to a limited extent. Leather armor is more resilient than a comparable weight of steel, and a favored trick of such characters is to have several long strands of leather attached to their hand (typically hidden up the sleeve) that can reach out and twist together into a rope. The threads at the end can function like fingers to grip - this is essentially used like a grapnel, and can also grab foes and pull the foe and character together. For some users, the leather armor functions like power armor, augmenting the character's strength.

Characters can also sense lingering "death energy" on people and weapons. This only lasts for a short while on people, but can be used to identify killers or witnesses to killings. It lasts a good deal longer on weapons, but only applies to those that were actually used for killing. The character can even get a sense, through careful observation, of when the weapon was last used to kill, how many people it has killed, and how often it has been used to kill. Probably not as useful for your pirate/spies, however (in the setting there are spells that can approximate this, and such characters often use the ability to figure out which of their weapons are likely to show up on such scans, discarding those to avoid being caught).

The characters also have an improved ability to blend into shadows and improved senses, including night vision - think Garrett from the Thief series of games. Their connection to death also extends their lifespans, which may also be appropriate for demon-worshippers. A lot will depend on how you envision Baphomet.
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Old 07-08-2017, 06:20 AM   #7
Anders
 
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Location: Gothenburg, Sweden
Default Re: Good Powers for Satanist Pirates/Spies?

Obscure, Silence and Single-Minded seem natural fits for a focused assassin.
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Old 07-08-2017, 06:42 AM   #8
Humabout
 
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Default Re: Good Powers for Satanist Pirates/Spies?

Kill for Me
17 points


With a simple touch, you turn a person into a ticking time bomb of murderous rage. You must touch your target's skin, clothing doesn't count! If your target fails an unmodified Will roll, he will, in one day, attempt to kill anyone he meets for 5 hours x his margin of failure. He won't show hesitation, mercy, or remorse - even if the person is his own wife or child - until the duration has elapsed, and there will be no sign of your influence on him. He simply becomes the perfect servant of Baphomet.

Statistics: Affliction 1 (Based on Will, +20%; Contact Agent, -30%; Delay, 1 day, +0%; Disadvantage, Compulsive Killing, No Control roll, -37%; Extended Duration, x300, +120%; Melee Attack, C, -30%; No Signature, +20%) [17 points).
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