Knacks: Oracle, Poison Eater, Poisonous Sweat, Shadow Cloak, Shadow Sight

Apprentice Degree: Thrall
Adept Degree: Lieutenant
Master Degree: Overlord

The wicked Mwanga that rule the Island of Shadow possess great power, but it comes with some great limitations. Severely weakened by daylight, dependent on human blood to keep themselves from aging into dust, and unable to pass for “normal” people in society, they have come to rely on their mortal servants.

Or rather, mostly-mortal servants. The men and women the Mwanga initially selected to deliver their edicts and harvest victims to be fed upon were quickly overwhelmed and stoned to death by the masses. If the Mwanga were going to survive, they needed to empower their representatives to defend themselves from their subjects (read: food supply). The immortal creatures poured over their vast library of scholarly texts, some dating back to the early days of Numa, and found a cabalistic ritual that allowed them to infuse their most trusted followers with a shred of the Mwanga’s powers over darkness, poison, the future, and even death.

The Sorcery that the Mwanga shared with their followers is called Soroka. It is a hybrid Sorcery in many ways: it is not really a “Bargain” per se, but neither does it require Drama Dice to activates its Knacks or abilities. It does not immediately affect a practitioner’s appearance, but some of its powers bring physical changes when they manifest. Infused with the essence of death, and corrupted by the power of the Mwanga, a Soroka Sorcerer is no longer truly alive in any traditional sense, but neither is he dead (or, for that matter, undead). The Sorcery is not really understood by anyone other than the Mwanga, and they obsessively guard its secrets from outsiders.

Apprentice Degree
A fledgling Soroka Sorcerer is of no use to his Masters if he falls prey to the toxic plants or venomous reptiles that flourish on the Island of Shadow. As an Apprentice, the Sorcerer may select one poison to which he is completely immune. The Sorcerer may select three more poisons (for a total of four) as an Adept, and five more (for a total of nine) as a Master. These poisons also serve as fuel for the Sorcerer’s Poison Eater Knack. The Sorcerer may select any poison to which he has been exposed, and he can “save” the selection of a poison until after he has been subjected to its effects.

Adept Degree
At this stage of corruption, a Soroka Sorcerer gains the Undead Trait of Claws and Fangs, increasing the Sorcerer’s Damage Rating for his Attack (Dirty Fighting) Knack to 1k2, in addition to any extra damage inflicted by his Poisonous Sweat Knack. Furthermore, the Adept has access to increased power from his Sorcerous Knacks.

Master Degree
Once a Soroka Sorcerer has attained the highest level of power, his eyes burn with unholy light, giving him the Undead Trait of Demon Eyes and a Fear Rating of one. The Master’s Sorcerous Knacks are even more powerful than when he was an Adept.

Sorcerous Knacks

Oracle. A Soroka Sorcerer has the ability to infect a small creature such as a bird, snake, or mouse with his Poisonous Sweat Knack (typically by having the creature bite him, inflicting at least one Flesh Wound). As the creature dies, the Sorcerer may study its death throes and the life energy escaping from the dying creature, allowing him to divine information about the future.

As an Apprentice, the Sorcerer may make a Wits + Oracle roll against a TN of 15 to divine the general outcome of a proposed course of action. The Sorcerer may attempt to determine whether it is good (if the likely outcome of the action is favorable), bad (if the likely outcome of the action is unfavorable), or neither good nor bad (if the likely outcome of the action will have mixed results).

As an Adept, the Sorcerer may make a Wits + Oracle roll against a TN of 30 to ask a single yes/no question of the Game Master regarding a proposed course of action, which the Game Master must answer truthfully. The Sorcerer may ask one additional question (about the same course of action or a different one) for each Raise taken on the Wits + Oracle roll.

As a Master, the Sorcerer may make a Wits + Oracle roll against a TN of 45 to ask one direct question of the Game Master regarding any topic. The Game Master must answer truthfully (though he may be cryptic, if he wishes), using a single word, plus one additional word for each Raise taken on the Wits + Oracle roll.

Poison Eater. When a Soroka Sorcerer encounters a poison to which he is immune as a result of this Sorcery, he may consume the poison (by drinking it, if it is a liquid, by eating it if it is, say, a poison dart frog, and so on). For the duration of the poison, every time the Sorcerer would have suffered damage of any kind from the poison (Flesh Wounds, Dramatic Wounds, Trait loss, etc.), he instead heals a number of Flesh Wounds equal to his Mastery Level times his Rank in this Knack, to a practical maximum of fifteen Flesh Wounds per interval.

This healing can reduce the number of Flesh Wounds the Sorcerer has suffered, or if he has a Flesh Wound total of zero, he may make a “Wound Check” against the number of Flesh Wounds that would have been healed by this ability. If he fails the Wound Check, he heals one Dramatic Wound, plus one additional Dramatic Wound for every full twenty points by which he failed to meet his Target Number. If he passes the Wound Check, these phantom Flesh Wounds carry over to the next poison interval (if any), and he may attempt another faux Wound Check against the increased Flesh Wound total.

Should a Sorcerer sustain damage amounting to some number of actual Flesh Wounds, the number of Flesh Wounds he sustains from the attack is reduced by the amount of phantom Flesh Wounds he has “banked”, and his phantom Flesh Wound total is likewise reduced by that amount. So, if a Soroka Adept is carrying over sixteen phantom Flesh Wounds and suffers twelve Flesh Wounds from an attack by an enemy, the damage from the attack is reduced to zero and his “banked” Flesh Wound total is reduced to four. Banked Flesh Wounds last until the end of the Scene, or until the poison consumed has run its entire duration, whichever comes first.

Poisonous Sweat. A Soroka Sorcerer with Ranks in this Knack continuously secretes an oily poison from his pores. This gives the Sorcerer a perpetually “shiny” appearance, and he may administer the poison in one of two ways: by spending an Action to rub the point of a dart or the edges of an arrowhead on his exposed skin (the secretions are insufficient to coat a larger weapon), or by making a successful Finesse + Attack (Dirty Fighting) roll against an opponent. In either case, the victim suffers the usual damage from the attack, plus any additional damage from this Knack.

The poison inflicts damage equal to the Sorcerer’s Mastery Level times his Rank in this Knack, to a practical maximum of fifteen Flesh Wounds. The poison has an interval of one Round, and a duration of a number of Rounds equal to the Sorcerer’s Mastery Level in Soroka.

Shadow Cloak. Because of his connection to the darkness, a Soroka Sorcerer in Dim Lighting may spend an Action to warp the shadows around him, twisting them into a sheltering cloak. While shrouded by a Shadow Cloak, the Sorcerer gains a bonus equal to his Mastery Level times his Rank in this Knack to all Stealth and Shadowing rolls he attempts, and a bonus equal to his Rank in this Knack to his TN to be hit. This ability lasts for a number of Rounds equal to the Sorcerer’s Mastery Level in Soroka, and the number of times it may be used in any given Scene is also equal to the Soroka Sorcerer’s Mastery Level.

Shadow Sight. Because of his connection to the darkness, a Soroka Sorcer with Ranks in this Knack gains the ability to see normally in any level of Darkness. The range of this ability is equal to ten feet per Mastery level for every Rank he has in this Knack, to a practical maximum of 150 feet.

Game Master’s Secrets
Soroka is a truly unique Sorcery, as it is not received from a mysterious source like the Bargainers or the Sidhe, but passed on directly from a Mwanga itself by draining enough of a follower’s blood to leave him in a near-death stupor, then feeding him the Mwanga’s own blood to bring him back to near-life. To say the Sorcery does not carry a physical hallmark (other than the lengthening of the Adept’s teeth and nails and the unnatural glow of a Master’s eyes) is not technically true. Rather, the sign of Soroka is a set of puncture marks from the Mwanga’s teeth in the fleshy part between a Sorcerer’s shoulder and neck; scars that never fully heal. Virtually all Soroka Sorcerers keep these marks hidden from the masses to protect the secrets of the Mwanga.

The Sorcery itself truly has no effect on the Barrier. In the case of Soroka, the Mwanga take the role of the Bargainers, granting power to a mortal in exchange for his service in meeting the needs of the Mwanga. Unlike the Bargainers, they are not seeking to bring down the Barrier, nor are they attempting to maintain it like the Sidhe, Matushka, or the Dragons of Cathay. However, they are (like each of these powers) seeking to advance their own interests, to wit: subjugating the human cattle on the Island of Shadow and maintaining their own potential immortality.