Ferriscorp

By Corvus (corvus@eurekanet.com)

Ferriscorp's Origins

Ferriscorp, also known as the Agency of Winter, is an active, secret corporation formed from the ideals of one man, a Dauntain known as Ferris Steele. Steele, the son of a wealthy business magnate, was born with the soul of an industrious boggan but spent his entire life learning from his father how to crush opposition and free thought. Ferris' Chrysalis drew several changelings to find him; when the young man saw these horrible, alien beings reel back from the force of logic and conformity that filled the Steele home, Ferris dedicated himself to tracking down the monsters and destroying them.

The name of Ferriscorp is a double pun, playing both on its creator's first name and on that name's similarity to the adjective "ferrous," meaning "made of iron." The irony -- yet another pun -- was not lost on Ferris Steele.

Ferriscorp has made slow inroads into multinational corporations in order to fund its true projects. The Agency of Winter now controls interests through front companies in North and South America, Europe, Australia and Africa; among these interests are weapons manufacturing, mining, financial and educational institutions and mental hospitals.

The Agency's success rate in destroying fae and freeholds would be alarming if anyone knew of the company's existence. Numerous freeholds have been crushed, their balefires extinguished by Ferriscorp's cold ruthlessness, and rumors of disappearing fae mount in the cities and the countryside.

Ferris Steele himself may be said to have been too successful; he was "Integrated" -- forcibly Undone by torture and application of Banality -- by one of his own employees. Steele's Dauntain advisors assumed control of the corporation, and the Board of Directors remains in command to this day.

Ferriscorp's Goals

The Agency of Winter seeks nothing less than destruction of whimsical Glamour and the complete separation of the Dreaming from the mortal world. To this end, Ferriscorp employs Dauntain, Autumn Fae and Heavy Sleepers in a number of roles, both active and passive. Only the Board of Directors knows for sure what the company's plans are after their ends have been achieved, but there are those employees who are confident that they will soon have the opportunity to find out.

Ferriscorp's Structure

At the very top of Ferriscorp sit the five Directors. These Directors are each assigned a given sphere of control within the company. Together they oversee the corporation's progress and guide it toward the ultimate goal.

Beneath the Board of Directors are the Superintendent-governed Bureaus, where both Ferriscorp's control over its front companies and its activities against the fae are exercised. Bureaus will contain from two to four semi-autonomous, Supervisor and Coordinator-led Branches, each with a more specialized role within the Bureau.

Branch leaders direct teams of "field operative agents" known as Prohibitors and Interdictors against Kithain, Gallain and Prodigal threats as well as Accountants who have first-hand contact with front-company representatives (usually under assumed corporate identities). Each Branch maintains up to five Prohibitor squads and nine Interdictor agents capable of operating in teams or singly. Branch Supervisors control the Accountants and manage Ferriscorp's mundane matters.

Field operatives are organized into squads of five "normal" Prohibitors and an Interdictor or high-ranking Prohibitor leader. Squads report to the Branch Coordinator.

Field operatives working alone are always Interdictors. Prohibitors are officially proscribed from taking individual action (though those that show enough talent to break this rule without becoming hard to manage are often promoted to Interdictor status).

Ferriscorp Field Operatives

Prohibitors are the lowest ranking agents within Ferriscorp, the grunts and front-line cannon fodder. Their standard duties consist of tracking down, monitoring, harrassing, threatening and capturing changelings, and locating possible recruits for Ferriscorp. Not terribly dangerous singularly, Prohibitors can quickly become a changeling's worst nightmare if working in a team or acting on direct orders from a superior. A Prohibitor squad invariably consists of five agents and a leader.

Prohibitors can be recognized by the uniform they all wear. Each and every Prohibitor is dressed in a black suit from head to toe, including the shirt and tie underneath the suitcoat (the underwear, well, nobody's found out yet). Hairstyles are unimaginative and severe ("functional" according to them). Prohibitors all wear dark, black-framed sunglasses. The suit doesn't seem to hinder a Prohibitor on the fly; some have been seen to perform acrobatic maneuvers or run at high speed in pursuit of a fleeing changeling.

While most Prohibitors are nauseatingly mundane, some rare few show a twisted spark of creativity in their work, an ability to actually think for themselves; these extra-efficient Prohibitors move on to become squad leaders or Interdictors. Squad leaders can be marked by a slight departure from the all-black suit -- white socks.

Prohibitors are all Heavy Sleepers or Autumn Fae. Should one awaken to a fae nature, quick steps are taken to ensure this agent does not become a maverick or a traitor. Depending on the adaptability of the newly-transformed Prohibitor, he may become a higher agent of Ferriscorp or may be "cured."

Field operatives, private investigators, Ferriscorp's answer to the New World Order's Grey Men where the Prohibitors are so many MiB clones. These are the infiltrators and spies, the assassins and the special-forces. Interdictors work alone or in teams up to three far afield or under deep cover; rarely, one will be in temporary command of a Prohibitor squad when the time has come to eliminate a target the Interdictor has spent months getting close to. An elite team of Interdictors answering directly to the Board of Directors polices Ferriscorp for fae "contamination" in an in-house mini-Inquisition. Interdictors rank above all Prohibitors, and no longer can be spotted by the tell-tale black uniform.

Interdictors come from highly-talented Prohibitors, specially-skilled new recruits, or any Dauntain not involved in other Ferriscorp operations. Successful Interdictors may be promoted to Coordinator status, gaining control of a Branch.

Coordinators are the highest level of field operative, the "marshals" of the troops. They command the "military" forces of the Branches, the Prohibitor squads and Inderdictor agents. A Coordinator is semi-autonomous, answering to the local Superintendent independently of the Supervisors within the same Branch. There is only one Coordinator to a Branch.

Coordinators are frightening individuals, selected for their cunning and their ruthlessness. Heavy Sleepers and Autumn Fae rarely make it this far; the vast majority of Coordinators are Dauntain.

Bureau Operatives

These dreadfully boring number crunchers conduct the "business" of Ferriscorp, handling the day-to-day operations of its front-companies. Those unlucky enough to find themselves in this position are doomed to remain here for as long as they are with Ferriscorp. Accountants are chosen for their lack of creative thinking and are completely unsuitable for any other position.

Accountants can be recognized from their glassy-eyed stares, their droning voices, and their fascination with numbers and business functions. These poor souls are almost worth pitying. The actual Autumn Person at this level is rare; most Accountants are simply unfortunate people being crushed beneath Ferriscorp's banal heel.

The "officers" of Ferriscorp's business arm, the Supervisors are the thinking end of the operation. Supervisors do all the thinking, and the Accountants do the work. There will be one Supervisor for every ten Accountants at a Branch. This level consists of Heavy Sleepers and Autumn Fae; as with Prohibitors, any awakening fae are inducted as Dauntain agents or "cured."

Even more than the Prohibitors, Interdictors or even the worst Coordinator, the Integrators are the ones to be feared within Ferriscorp, for it is they who "cure" the fae, hammering at them with Banality's ice-cold weight until they are Undone in what they call "Integration." Integrators are one and all Dauntain; they work outside the authority of all but the Superintendent of their Bureau, and even then they are semi-autonomous. Integrators "rank" each other by a merit system that takes into account seniority and the number of "patients" one has "cured." Integrators theoretically can command Prohibitor squads or Accountants or demand service from an Interdictor, but most have no desire to roam afield. A Bureau will host between three and six Integrators who move from Branch to Branch.

Integrators take pride in their work, but not all of them are cackling, gleeful surgeons of Winter wielding chill scalpels of mundanity. Most are professional, going about their interrogation, torture and brainwashing with detachment. Their methods are more harsh by far than any independent Dauntain or Autumn Person, such as Dr. Anton Stark, and their success rate is much higher.

Integrators share a secret that not even the rest of Ferriscorp knows about -- the "trick of the trade" that makes them so successful is actual a form of Banal Epiphany that makes Tedium seem like so much child's play, which is also known as Integration. This Epiphany is blended with an Integrator's other methods in a seamless efficiency.

Each Bureau is commanded by a Dauntain Superintendent who answers directly to the Board of Directors in New York. A Superintendent has at her command all the resources of the Branches within her Bureau (from two to four Branches), and can take control of any team or project at any time, though most are content to sit back and enjoy the fruits of their banal labor. The Superintendent oversees most integrations to ensure their completion; theoretically, they can take control of the process if they so choose. Only Dauntain can come close to reaching this position.

There are five Dauntain on the Ferriscorp Board of Directors. Though their spheres of command overlap somewhat, one is nominally responsible for each of the areas of field operatives, business operations, "integration," recruiting and security.

New Agenda

Aversion

New Epiphany

This is a well-guarded secret among the Integrators of Ferriscorp. By using the name of this terrible method of harvesting Banality to refer to the entire process of destroying fae, they protect its hidden truths and prevent its power from being turned against them.

Integration is an advanced version of Tedium -- almost a Banal version of Rhapsody. It involves the destruction of a changeling's hope and self-worth by the Integrator, with a steady injection of Banality that festers and then explodes inside the subject.

Over successive days an Integrator can whittle a subject's Glamour into nothingness. No changeling has ever survived this process, but if one should, it is certain the event would haunt her for the rest of her existence.

Integration can be used on a free target in the field, but obviously its effects are most efficient when the subject is captured and bound. Used alongside various torture methods, Integration can quickly break all but the very strongest-willed of changelings.

System: The Integrator begins to berate his target, assaulting the changeling's self-worth and ideals with a relentless onslaught of derision and denial. For every hour of this tirade, the Integrator spends a point of Banality. No more than five points can be spent in this way. When he is prepared the Integrator rolls Banality (difficulty 8 minus the number of Banality points spent by the Integrator), resisted by a Willpower roll (difficulty 5 plus the number of Banality points spent by the Integrator). For each net success, the changeling loses one point of temporary Glamour and gains one point of temporary Banality, and the Integrator gains two points of Banality.

If the changeling gains more successes than the Integrator, no further Integration attempts by that Integrator will ever succeed on the changeling. Because of this, Integrators are careful to break their subjects' wills before attempting to harvest the Banality generated in the process.

New Dauntain Doom

Winterborn

Ferriscorp Agent Stats

These are some example stats for Ferriscorp agents. Included are Prohibitors, Interdictors and Accountants; Coordinators, Supervisors and their ilk are left up to Storytellers to flesh out, as are the Dooms, Courts, Kiths and Legacies of Dauntain Interdictors. Each agent is presented in two forms, Average and Competent, and can be modified as the Storyteller sees fit. Competent agents are, naturally, more dangerous than their Average peers and should only be used to represent the rare standouts of Ferriscorp.

Physical: Str: 2, Dex: 2, Sta: 2

Social: Cha: 1, Man: 1, App: 2

Mental: Per: 3, Int: 2, Wits: 2

Talents: Alertness 2, Brawl 2, Dodge 1, Intimidation 1

Skills: Drive 1, Firearms 1, Security 1

Knowledges: Computer 2, Investgation 1, Law 1, Science 1

Backgrounds: Contacts 1, Resources 1

Glamour: 0

Willpower: 3

Banality: 6

Physical: Str: 3, Dex: 3, Sta: 3

Social: Cha: 3, Man: 2, App: 2

Mental: Per: 3, Int: 3, Wits: 3

Talents: Alertness 3, Athletics 1, Brawl 2, Dodge 2, Empathy 1, Intimidation 1

Skills: Drive 1, Firearms 2, Leadership 1, Security 1, Stealth 1

Knowledges: Computer 2, Investigation 2, Law 2, Science 2

Backgrounds: Contacts 2, Allies 1, Resources 2

Glamour: 0

Willpower: 5

Banality: 7

Physical: Str: 2, Dex: 2, Sta: 2

Social: Cha: 1, Man: 1, App: 2

Mental: Per: 3, Int: 2, Wits: 2

Talents: Alertness 2, Persuasion 2, Subterfuge 1

Skills: Drive 1, Etiquette 1, Security 1

Knowledges: Computer 2, Law 2, Science 1

Backgrounds: Contacts 1, Resources 1

Glamour: 0

Willpower: 2

Banality: 6

Physical: Str: 2, Dex: 2, Sta: 3

Social: Cha: 3, Man: 2, App: 2

Mental: Per: 3, Int: 3, Wits: 3

Talents: Alertness 3, Dodge 1, Empathy 1, Persuasion 2, Subterfuge 2

Skills: Drive 1, Firearms 1, Leadership 1, Security 2

Knowledges: Computer 3, Investigation 2, Law 2, Science 2

Backgrounds: Contacts 2, Allies 1, Resources 2

Glamour: 0

Willpower: 4

Banality: 7

Physical: Str: 3, Dex: 3, Sta: 3

Social: Cha: 3, Man: 3, App: 3

Mental: Per: 4, Int: 3, Wits: 3

Talents: Alertness 3, Athletics 2, Brawl 3, Dodge 2, Empathy 1, Intimidation 2, Kenning 1, Streetwise 1

Skills: Drive 2, Etiquette 1, Firearms 3, Leadership 2, Security 1, Stealth 2

Knowledges: Computer 2, Enigmas 1, Investigation 2, Law 2, Lore (Kithain) 1, Science 2

Backgrounds: Contacts 3, Allies 1, Resources 3

Agendas: Burnout 1, Stultify 1

Arts: None

Realms: None

Stigma: None

Glamour: 3

Willpower: 5

Banality: 7

Physical: Str: 3, Dex: 4, Sta: 4

Social: Cha: 3, Man: 4, App: 3

Mental: Per: 4, Int: 4, Wits: 3

Talents: Alertness 3, Athletics 2, Brawl 3, Dodge 3, Intimidation 3, Kenning 2, Streetwise 2, Subterfuge 2

Skills: Drive 3, Etiquette 1, Firearms 3, Leadership 2, Melee 2, Security 2, Stealth 2

Knowledges: Computer 3, Enigmas 2, Investigation 3, Law 2, Lore (Kithain) 3, Science 2

Backgrounds: Contacts 4, Allies 2, Resources 4

Agendas: Aversion 3, Webcraft 3

Arts: Legerdemain 3

Realms: Fae 3, Prop 2

Stigma: None

Glamour: 5

Willpower: 7

Banality: 8

Using Ferriscorp in Your Chronicle

I've left many of the details about Ferriscorp intentionally vague in an effort to make the Agency as flexible as possible for Storyteller use. While what is presented here is perfectly useable, individual Storytellers may wish to further develop particular areas of Ferriscorp.

Ferriscorp can be presented in a number of ways, ranging from a megalithic shadow engendering paranoia and dread to a "Keystone Cops" or "Three Stooges" style antagonist whose Prohibitor teams spend more time bumbling than anything else. For serious chronicles, Storytellers should make use of the threats of the Interdictors and Integrators, as well as the terrifying sword of Integration itself. More light-hearted chronicles might see the monochromatic Prohibitor teams and singleminded Accountants hitting the streets and giving characters the runaround.

While I would find it highly peculiar, Storytellers could conceivably run a Ferriscorp chronicle, from entry into the company and training to hunting the fae. Storytellers are strongly encouraged to make full use of The Autumn People, especially in this case.

I hope that everyone will get as much enjoyment out of terrifying players with Ferriscorp as I got by putting these gleefully wicked ideas to form. This idea is far from complete; I welcome new thoughts, ideas and twists.