Lore of Patterns

• Sense Congruence

This evocation allows a Fiend to sense localities or people that are at the heart of a convergence of consequential forces. By reading the forces at work in the great design, the Fiend can use this power to always be in the right place at the right time.

System: Your character must specify what kind of event she tries to detect (e.g., the invocation of a summoning ritual, a car accident), and you roll Perception + Intuition. Your character can sense the pattern a number of days into the future equal to her Faith score. The number of successes determines how much information the Fiend receives. One shows the location where the event will occur, but not when or where. Two successes show the location and give an idea of when it will happen. Three successes show where and when the event will occur, as well as images of the people involved.

Torment: Monstrous demons are able to use this evocation to search only for impending events of violence and destruction.

•• Trace Pattern

This evocation allows the Fiend to view a particular event and analyze the various forces that caused it to occur. This insight comes in the form of vague impressions that sharpen into detailed images the demon devotes her unblinking attention to them.

System: Your character must be at the location where the event in question occured to work this evocation. Make a Perception + Intuition roll. The number of successes rolled determines how detailed the picture of a particular event is. One success depicts the immediate circumstances surrounding the event. Two reveal a few minutes preceding the event. Three successes might take the demon back a quarter of an hour to give a broader idea of the forces leading up to the event.

Torment: Monstrous Fiends can attempt to trace any pattern they wish, but hey can focus on only sources of violence or injury that pertain to the event.

••• Foresee

This potent evocation allows the Fiend to read the tides of fate in her immediate area and predict events and actions that are about to occur.

System: Roll Wits + Intuition. The evocation takes effect for a number of turns equal to the successes rolled. This evocation protects the Fiend from being taken by surprise and takes the character out of the normal initiative system. As the other players and the Storyteller announce actions in Intiative order, you can interject your character's actions at any point during the turn.

Torment: Monstrous demons are less interested in viewing the subtle shifts of patterns as they are in inflicting misery on their victims. The duration of the high-Torment version of this evocation is a single turn, but each success gives the demon a free dodge action that can be used against any attacks directed at the Fiend regardless of her own initiative.

•••• Casual Influence

A Fiend can use this powerful evocation to gain insight into events up to several days into the future, and depending on her intentions, she can home in on which casual threads she must affect to achieve a desired result. It's worth nothing that this power provides the demon with information only; it's up to her (or her pawns) to shift fate in her favor.

System: This evocation can be focused on a specific person (difficulty 6), place (difficulty 7), or upcoming event (difficulty 9). Spend one Faith point and roll Perception + Intuition. The number of successes rolled determines how many days into the future the Fiend can view regarding her subject. It also determines how many questions the player can ask the Storyteller about what the character sees.

The evocation fills the Fiend's mind with a torrent of images, showing the most likely fate of a specific person, place, or event, barring any outside interference. The Storyteller describes the course of events as though the demon were an outside observer. She isn't privy to the thoughts of the individuals involved, and she must decide the context and meaning of relationships and actions herself. As the player listens to the Storyteller's description, however, she can ask specific questions about why a particular action happens the way i does. This can provide clues to the demon that she can use to influence the situation.

For example, say a demon wants to observe the fate of one of her thralls. The player rolls Perception + Intuition and gets one success. She sees the vents of the next day in the thrall's life and sees that he will be hit by a bus. Since the player rolled one success, she can ask one question of the Storyteller: Why does the bus hit the thrall? She then gets an image of the bus driver moments before the accident and sees that he is distracted by one of the passengers. Armed with this information, the demon can decide how she wants to try to affect the outcome according to her desires.

Torment: Monstrous demons use this evocation to gain insight into the dangers surrounding an individual, and how to manipulate these risks to cause injury or misfortune. The high-Torment version of this evocation shows the Fiend where the subject (be it person, place, or event) is at risk of suffering an accident or other misfortune, and it shows the best way to cause the tragic circumstances to occur.

In the example with the thrall and the bus, above, the high-Torment version of the evocation provides the same images, but the vision of the distracted driver indicates what must happen for the tragedy to occur. Because it's often difficult to tell the difference between a viewing that warns of a tragedy or that hints at causing one, the Storyteller has the option of making a Perception + Intuition roll on the player's behalf, presenting the information and letting the player decide what to do with it.

••••• Twist Time

This powerful evocation allows the Fiend to alter the flow of time within a small area, shifting it out of phase with the rest of the cosmos. The Fiend and anyone else within this bubble of distorted time may act faster or slower than the normal flow of the universe.

System: Spend one Faith point and roll Stamina + Intuition. The difficulty is determined by the effect the Fiend wishes to achieve. If she wants to speed time up (everything within the bubble moves faster than the world around it), the difficulty is 7. If she wants to slow time (everything within the bubble moves slower than the world around it), the difficulty is 8. If she wants to stop time (the outside world freezes in relation to the bubble) the difficulty is 9. The number of successes determines how many turns the evocation lasts. When the evocation is in effect, nothing and no one inside the bubble can interact with the world beyond, and vice versa. To the outside world, the demon and everyone within the bubble simply disappears. Within the bubble, actions may be taken as normal. Objects and individuals can exit the bubble (or be forced out), in which case they return to the normal time stream. If the FIend herself exits the bubble, it collapses, returning the time stream to normal. Outsiders who enter the bubble's space do not join its altered time unless your character wishes it.

The maximum amount of temporal distortion is determined by a multiple or factor of the character's Faith score. For example, if the Fiend performing the evocation has a Faith of 5, she could choose to the distortion to be as great as five to one: five turns for every one turn spent in the bubble, or vice versa. The bubble is centered on the Fiend and has a diameter in yards equal to the character's Faith score. once created, the bubble does not move.

Torment: Monstrous demons use this evocation to hurl unsuspecting victims out of phase with the time stream. To the victim, the experience is instantaneous and horrifying, a momentary brush with the void between realms that leaves terrible scars on a person's sanity. The evocation affects every individual within a number of yards equal to the character's Faith score. Demons can resist the effects by making a resisted roll using their Willpower, with the difficulty equal to the Fiend's Torment. Victims knocked out of phase disappear for a number of turns based on how fast or slow time passes in the bubble compared to the outside world. When they return to the normal time flow, victims lose one temporary Willpower for each turn they were out of phase. If this loss reduces their Willpower to zero, victims suffer a permanent derangement.