By Frank Torkel
Note: For a more recent version of Daemon, see the author's Web site at: http://www.albany.net/~diabolos/.
Daemons have three powers that allow them to work their evil. Boons, being the first of these powers, give Daemons the ability to channel Vim through their bodies and do many things, just like vampires use blood to empower their disciplines. Once there were many more Boons, although such knowledge has slowly been lost. Few Daemons still possess such knowledge, although there are some other Boons still in use. It is believed that some overlords possess such knowledge, teaching their direct followers these powers. Mephistopheles is in fact known to be able to kill mortals with but a thought, and send meteors tumbling down upon the earth.
The second power the Daemons have is their odd rituals, which allow them to basically do what their Boons cannot. Like Boons, few rituals are still widely known to the Daemons, since most were written in the Necronomicon.
The last set of powers are those powers which all Daemons instinctively know, automatic powers which they have at their disposal. These powers, although not extremely powerful do benefit the Daemon in a variety of ways.
Boons are those powers that make Daemon characters as powerful as they are. Boons are activated by means of one's Vim, the power Daemons receive from Hel itself. A detailed list of the Boon powers is explained below. For every level of Boon used, a Vim point must be spent; i.e. level five Investment = 5 Vim points.
Level (1): The Daemon may grow a tail to grasp or whip at opponents or objects. This tail does Str. + 1 damage.
Level (2): Razor talons and fangs may be grown doing +2 aggravated damage.
Level (3): The Daemon's jaws are remarkably powerful and can stretch to swallow small children and animals. Along with the fangs from level two, the Daemon does Str. + 3 damage.
Level (4): Body armor worth + 2 soak may be formed. A row of spikes down the Daemon's spine may also be grown.
Level (5): Short spikes protrude certain part of body which can be launched.
System: These gifts need only be activated by Vim, lasting for the remainder of the scene. Note that all such effects may be "ungrown" and the Daemon may revert back to her normal form. Also note that no projectile weapons may be created until achieving level five.
Level (1): The Daemon may learn up to a level one path.
Level (2): As above for a level two path.
Level (3): As above for as level three path.
Level (4): As above for a level four path.
Level (5): As above for a level five path.
System: For the respected path's level, only the required amounts of Vim must be spent.
Level (1): Predict the weather.
Level (2): Summon fog and water elemental.
Level (3): The Daemon can command lightning and rain. Air elemental may also be summoned.
Level (4): The Daemon can now control minor storms such as monsoons and summon earth elemental.
Level (5): Now hurricanes, floods, etc. may be controlled. Fire elemental may also be summoned at this point.
System: For every success, the influence lasts for one hour. Level one is automatic except for the Vim point. All rolls are E.I. + Strength. Level two is a difficulty of four, level three a difficulty of six, level four a difficulty of seven, and five eight a difficulty of eight.
Level (1): Buy a soul for your Ilk. Only minor powers may be sold, and they may only be sold to animals.
Level (2): Same as above, but now the souls of mortals may be bought as well.
Level (3): Now the Daemon may buy a soul for herself. Major powers may be granted but only to animals.
Level (4): Same as above, but the Daemon may now buy the souls of mortals and immortals alike.
Level (5): The Daemon may now purchase the souls of an entire bloodline, for extraordinary powers, above and beyond mere immortality. This is limited to the bloodline of ordinary mortals however.
Level (6): The Daemon may purchase whole bloodlines of souls from vampires and other supernatural creatures, and may extend his Investment skill to include entire groups of creatures.
System: Find a willing character and spend the required amount of Vim points. Characters receiving powers grow a "witches nipple," a small elevation on a chosen part of the skin where the powers of Hel are brought unto the person. Rules to actually "sell" the powers are described later on.
Level (1): The Daemon's land speed is doubled.
Level (2): The Daemon may swim at a speed equal to the running speed of the Daemon (without level one bonus.)
Level (3): The Shadowlands and any Umbral realm may now be entered from earth. The Daemon cannot yet travel to Hel in this manner.
Level (4): The Daemon can now travel to Hel in two turns when in the Umbra and vice versa. The Daemon is mystically pulled towards Hel when in the Umbra and travels at great speeds. No other Daemon may accompany him however. The Daemon may also sprout wings at will, and achieves the capability of full flight.
Level (5): The Daemon may now travel to Hel in one turn, taking two others with her. The Daemon may also teleport to any location within a 50 foot radius.
System: All rolls are automatic except for the Vim. At level three however, to enter a hidden or secret Umbral Realm, the Daemon must roll Itinerate + Wits, difficulty of seven, or the Realm's Gauntlet rating, whichever is higher. At level four, the Daemon needs to have in her possession a flask containing the Magickal fires of Hel which the Daemon stares into, making a Primal Urge + Wits roll, difficulty seven. At level five, the same roll is made to travel to Hel, but all that is needed is a reflective object such as a mirror that has been washed in the Magickal fires of Hel. Teleportation is done with a roll of Dexterity + Itinerate, difficulty eight.
Level (1): Organic materials may be reproduced; i.e. the eyes.
Level (2): Skin tones may be altered and changed.
Level (3): Flesh may be shaped.
Level (4): Bone structure can be altered.
Level (5): The Daemon can now fully alter her form, but no mass can be gained or lost. Flesh may however be converted into bone or other similar substances, and vice versa.
Level (6): Daemons with this power may shrink or increase their size by one cubic foot per success. Also, level five will now permit them to transmutate any of their matter to another substance, i.e., wood or silver.
System: All rolls require Metamorph + Body Alteration with a base difficulty of seven. Lost appendages and limbs may be regrown at level five with a base difficulty of eight. Otherwise, no mass may be gained or lost until level seven, known only to be possessed by the Keepers of the Luring.
Level (1): The Daemon may give simple orders or requests of one word. More words will confuse the victim however.
Level (2): The Daemon may now engrave ideas into another's mind, making them continually think about the request.
Level (3): An ordinary mortal may now be controlled as if the person was a small child.
Level (4): Many followers may be controlled by "stamping" a thought into their minds. A single supernatural may be controlled as well.
Level (5): At this point, a Daemon may make a regular person willingly sell part of their soul. More than one supernatural may also be controlled.
System: Ordain + Wits must be rolled against the following difficulties for each level, respectively; five, six, seven, eight and nine. At level five, one point worth of the soul may be bought per success. A botch renders the person immune to effects of Ordain for the remainder of the story. Also, just like Dominate, this power may not be employed on Daemons of a higher Dark Seed than the "caster."
Level (1): Incomplete possession; the characters voice and appearance seem distorted and evil
Level (2): The possession was successful, the victim seems normal.
Level (3): The Daemon can utilize the characters entire memory.
Level (4): The Daemon is capable of possessing supernatural creatures.
Level (5): The Daemon can now possess almost anything, including objects, allowing the Daemon to travel in a book or stone. The Daemon's dice pool may be split amongst more than one individual or object, possessing more than one thing at a time. No trait that had any dots in it may be below one for this to work, however.
System: For each possession, a roll of Possession + Perception must be made. For each success at a difficulty of the characters Willpower, the Daemon may inhabit the body for one hour. At the end of this time, the Daemon must reroll at a difficulty of the characters Willpower minus one. If the Daemon gets five successes or more, the Daemons Attributes and Abilities are added to those of the individual for as long as that possession remains in effect. Otherwise the Attributes and Abilities are taken from the victim.
Level (1): The Daemon can call forth the magical fires of Hel.
Level (2): The Daemon can exchange Quintessence for Vim.
Level (3): The Daemon can bring another creature to Hel.
System: All rolls are done with Wits + Primal Urge with a difficulty of six. For level one, each success allows the standard cubic foot to be summoned. For level two, each success allows one point of Quintessence to be altered into Vim and vice versa.
Level (1): The light in an area may be diminished. In an enclosed space, it will seem like night, and outside in the sun, it may seem like evening.
Level (2): The Daemon may summon a dark mass, pitch black like the ink of an octopus. Almost nothing can see through this mass, but other senses function normally.
Level (3): As level two, but whatever steps into this dark mass will "smell of the Wyrm" afterwards for one hour per success rolled.
Level (4): As level three, but all inanimate objects within the cloud will begin to crumble and decompose.
Level (5): As level four, but now all living creatures within the cloud will begin to take aggravated damage.
System: All rolls are Strength + Corruption, and one cubic foot of the mass is summoned per success. The cloud remains in effect per turn for every additional Vim point spent other than the required ones. If the level one effect is used outside in the sunlight, Kindred may survive within it without taking damage.
Level (1): Weak areas upon the physical body may be seen; i.e., organs for humans, heart for vampires, etc.
Level (2): Elements that hurt various creatures will be made knowledgeable to the Daemon; i.e., fire for vampires, silver for Garou, iron for Changelings.
Level (3): The desires of the one being "evilsought" is discovered by the Daemon, making the Daemon aware what the creature wants or desires.
Level (4): As level three, but the Daemon is made aware of what the "evilsought" does not want.
Level (5): The Daemon may try to summon the very things the "evilsought" wants or does not want; i.e., fire or silver may be summoned.
System: Perception + Corruption is to be rolled with a difficulty of eight. For level five, Strength + Corruption is rolled, with a difficulty of 10. Only inanimate objects may be summoned by these means, with one cubic foot of the substance being summoned per success. Therefore, the Daemon cannot summon the evil Marauder Mage the Daemon discovered the Brujah was afraid of with level four.
Level (1): The Daemon may seek out Wyrm minions by "sensing" them.
Level (2): The Daemon may control minor minions of the Wyrm.
Level (3): As above for average minions of the Wyrm.
Level (4): As above for major minions of the Wyrm.
Level (5): The Daemon may remove successes from an individual and may "curse" objects, causing them to remove successes from individuals holding them.
System: Roll Primal Urge+Corruption, difficulty seven. For levels two through four, the Daemon must have more successes than the Wyrm's minion does, and if not, the minion may still make willpower rolls. For level five, each success equals the amount of successes that may be removed from the victim. This lasts for as many rounds as the Daemon spends additional Vim, other than the Vim that must be spent. If this is done on an object, the extra Vim spent is used to tell how big the cursed object may be. Per Vim point spent, the object may be one cubic foot per success. The object remains cursed for as many years as equal to the Daemon's Vim pool. Note that the amount of extra Vim spent must be constantly led into the object per week, making huge objects undesirable to curse. Cursed objects have no effect on Daemons.
The Daemons do in fact have rituals much like other supernatural creatures. At one time there were many rituals used for many purposes. However, many of these ancient rituals have been lost by time and are only recovered when a fragment of the true Necronomicon is found. Souls are almost always used in the ritual process, as are the magical fires of Hel. Many rituals were even made to simplify the art of learning paths, and discovering Rituals is much easier than discovering lost Boons. Players and Storytellers should feel free to create their own Rituals, with the Storyteller's permission of course. A brief list of Rituals follows:
Vim, being the source of a Daemon's powers, fuel their appearance trait as well. Most Daemons other than the Rakshasas have two forms, their True Form, and their False Form. The True Form is the form of the Daemon when the appearance trait is zero, which a Daemon can revert to whenever she pleases. The False Form is the disguised form of the Daemon, which costs one Vim point to turn into. In Hel, all Daemons are expected to be in their True Form, as a human form is looked down upon when not used in manipulation tactics.
The art of shaping souls is another power of the Daemons. Shaping souls, the very things which give Daemons status and power among their peers, allow Daemons to improve their wealth greatly. Without the Investment Boon however, a Daemon cannot get a soul to shape, unless one is given to the Daemon.
Also, the Daemon has the power to heal like a Garou, in that every round the Daemon heals a health level. Also, Daemons only suffer aggravated damage from True Faith attacks. Daemons also receive physical advantages when in their True Form. Since most Daemons have fangs, claws, etc., their attacks can be more varied and lethal.
The last of these powers, is the power of immortality. Although Daemons are not actually immortal, they are in a sense. In Hel, Daemons age, although on earth and in some Umbral Realms they do not. When killed in such places, the Daemon does not actually die, rather they become incorporeal, as their body fades out of existence, only to reappear in Hel within their Lair. In Hel and many other Umbral Realms however, when killed, the Daemon is killed for good. If a Daemon has no followers or souls, and has not yet undergone the Lair of the Daemon Ritual, the Daemon is sent to her Ilk's Universal Lair, a place set up where "slain" Daemons reappear. This is humiliating for Daemons, and many are scorned if sent here. For this reason, few risky acts are done on the Daemons part when on earth or in the Umbra, until his own Lair has been set up.