Timeless Threats: Occultist

Introduction

Faced with a harsh, prosaic world, some minds rebel. They latch onto unsubstantiated beliefs about past lives, ghosts, Bigfoot, global conspiracies, psychic powers, a flat Earth, a hollow Earth, mythical civilizations with mystical powers, astral projection, extraterrestrials, ultraterrestrials, or worlds beyond their own.

Sometimes, by sheer accident or mysterious design, they happen to be right.

There are Timeless, beings who live a thousand lives in a thousand parallel worlds. There are Phantoms, remnants of worlds that have been erased from existence. There are Aberrations, and Devourers, and time travelers, and ways to bend reality one could call “magic”. There is an Astral Plane.

These “true Occultists” somehow find each other and form small societies of believers. Some perceive them as “cults”, but Occultists are free to join or leave any time they like. They band together against a consensus reality that denies their experiences, and against Revisionists that would hide all evidence of what they know to be true.

Not everything an Occultist believes is true. Some cling to falsehoods and half-truths perpetuated by the conspiracy industry.

Appearance

Occultists look like ordinary people, although they may dress oddly: clothes from another era, overly “practical” clothes, or simply unfashionable. Some are solitary, but many gather in groups: clubs, covens, “societies”, and entire conventions.

Tactics

Occultists are mostly harmless eccentrics. Some, however, have become bitter and paranoid; they may fortify their homes or compounds against “the man” and, in some countries, stockpile weapons. Even unarmed ones practice evacuation drills or, if armed, home defense.

Occultists have become very sensitive to ridicule, so one must tread very carefully with them. The more paranoid among them may insist on elaborate “security” procedures, mostly learned from mass media and dubious guidebooks.

Occultist Characters

Extra Dice Needed: 10d6 or 10d10

Build an ordinary person, perhaps with bookish or conspiratorial leanings, in the host system, then apply Occultist abilities.

An Occultist can be a valuable resource if handled wisely. Otherwise they can become a minor, or major, annoyance: a fanboy or stalker who wants to use the Timeless as proof of everything they believe.

The Occultist Sheet

• Name: Occultist’s personal name, which may or may not be their birth name or legal name.

• Group: name of the group to which the Occultist belongs.

• Aura: paranormal ability, especially potent against or for the Timeless. To generate, roll 2d10 and choose the lower die.

• Lore: knowledge about the truth of the Timeless and other paranormal entities. To generate, roll 2d10 and choose the lower die.

• Beliefs: what the Occultist believes to be true. It may not match what the Referee decrees to be true of their World.

Special Abilities

Ability Checks

When an Occultist makes a “check” against one of their abilities, roll a number of dice equal to the Occultist’s ability. Every 5 or 6 on a d6, or 8. 9, or 10 on a d10, is worth one success.

Aura

In the presence of a hostile Occultist, a Timeless finds bending reality even harder. Make an Aura check; every success is an additional Bane on a bend reality attempt.

On the other hand, a friendly Occultist can ease bending reality attempts. Make an Aura check; every success removes a Bane from the attempt. Excess successes do not create Boons, only remove Banes.

An Occultist can also make an Aura check to sense the presence of the Timeless or one of their many Threats, or to sense imminent danger.

Lore

An Occultist can answer any question about “fringe” science or the occult. The Referee should rate every question on a 1 to 5 scale, with 1 being the simplest and 5 being the most complex or obscure. If the question’s Difficulty lies under ⅓ of the Occultist’s Lore ability, they can answer it right away. Otherwise they will need to do research. At the end of each in-game week, make a Lore check against the question difficulty; if the number of successes equals or exceeds Difficulty, the Occultist has an answer.

Ritual Magic

Groups of Occultists can perform ritual magic. It takes a successful Lore check to research or devise a ritual for a specific purpose.

Once the group has a ritual, they must perform it. They require an uninterrupted hour, reusable ritual implements, consumable ritual supplies (including an animal to sacrifice for darker rituals), and a successful Aura role from the leader of the group, with an additional die for each extra participant, up to ten dice total.

Effects of the ritual depend on the Referee, but here are some basic guidelines: