GAUNT LEGION

By Dave and Kim Seward (sewaka67@telenet.net)

Prelude

He sat there on the edge of the bed, like some great guardian. Watching the girl, watching, and waiting. He could feel her last breath escape from her chest. He stood, hands before her face, looking for her marks. Her eyes blinked, she folded over. Her body trembled and a new body rolled off the bed. He ripped the caul from her face and she arched, taut as a rope.

"Good, I've been waiting for you Cynthia."

"Jerry?" she asked almost timidly.

"Oh yes, Cindy, so glad you remembered my voice."

"What do you want?"

"An explanation. You knew didn't you. You knew and yet you didn't tell me. I could've been alive today, Cindy!"

"You knew the risks! You should have -- Omigod!" she said realizing her situation.

"Yes, you're dead, and believe me there are worse things than death. But I'm getting ahead of myself."

Description

Aids, ebola, cancer, they know no boundary. We fear disease, for it is an invasion of the body. An invasion that is ultimately fatal, and intimately painful.

Disease is everywhere and the relative size of this legion proves just that. The Gaunt legion is one of the largest, second only to the Grim. These wraiths, no longer debilitated by their illness, relish the strength of their new bodies.

Common Archetypes (Ranked by frequency)

Conniver, Avant-garde, Bureaucrat, Bon-Vivant, Bravo, Follower

Common Shadows(Ranked by frequency)

Hypochondriac, Parent, Leech, Teacher

Common Arcanos

During their sickness, nothing so concerned them than their bodies. Through the use of drugs, exercise and study, these people gained great knowledge of their bodies. Moliate comes easy to these wraiths, who learn it to hone that, which in life, was flawed.

*** Coin

With this art a wraith can give another a small piece of himself, and keep track of that wraith. The piece need be no bigger than a fingertip.

System: Roll Perception+Moliate diff 7 to know where the wraith is. The giver will not "see" the other, but will know direction and distance. To end this connection the giver can spend a pathos point. This art costs two pathos per piece.

Rarest Arcanos

Because of their disease, many of the Gaunt Legion are afraid of going back for fear of feeling the effects of their illness. Embody is the hardest to use for these wraiths. All pathos, willpower, and angst costs are increased by one.

Merits & Flaws

Contested over: 2pt Merit. Your death crosses the boundary of two of the legions. This puts you into a very good light as far as they are concerned. All social rolls are at a +1.

Carrier: 4 pt flaw. The disease you died from is still apart of your corpus. Any time you use Puppetry, or Pandemonium, you must be careful not to infect the quick.

Famous Circles

The Liberte`: This circle, founded in Paris, works secretly to stop the spread of disease, and experiments on humans. Many of these wraiths were experimented on by their governments and they harbor a deep resentment.

The Cardinals: This circle is more of an inquisition. They are handpicked by the Deathlord to ferret out any political dissident in his legion. They are not very popular, but they are very powerful.

The Skeletal Lord

Those of the Gaunt Legion can tell when they have a new Deathlord, simply by who they are allies with. For each lord has changed his legion's political faction to coincide with his own. The past two hundred years, however, they have been allied with the Grim.

History: Once he was dead he felt his political ambitions were over. When he crossed over he saw new ambitions arrive and he set out to fulfill them. He served well, and began meeting with those who felt the current Lord had to be removed. He agreed with them and when the timing was right, he led them to the Deathlord's tower. That night, he and his followers defeated the Skeletal lord and he took his place. His first act was to have his followers destroyed. He then threw his lot in with the Grim legion.

The Skeletal Lord Cardinal Richelieu

Life: religious advisor
Death: Influenza
Regret: Mission Possible
Nature/Demeanor: Conniver/Driven
Backgrounds- Memoriam 3, Notoriety 3, Status 9.

The Deathlord knows just who is in power right now, and is along for the ride. He fears the the Quiet Lord and is secretly trying to learn his identity. He is in secret communications with the Laughing Lady and is trying to vie for her support.

Relations with others

Allies: Grim, Penitent (?)
Opposed: Silent, Pauper
Neutral: Emerald, Iron, Fate

Views on the Others

Silent: They view us as weak, but our weakness is our strength. They are sore losers because they are not in the lime light anymore.

Pauper: The forgetfull ones ally themselves against us. Why? They have not the experience to understand us, much less hate us.

Emerald: They are unsure of who to support. That is fine with us, because the decision is simple.

Iron: Every government has its fence sitters. They are ours. They will not choose, but their choice will be made for them.

Penitent: They understand the value of power. It will not be long before they too will join us.

Grim: Our allies. We agree on so many things. We lead the Hierarchy and it has never done better.

Fate: Our spies have told us that they are looking for something. We will have to find it for them.

Renegades: They would take our power away from us. They must be crushed.

Heretics: Religious thought and practice are fine, if they coincide with ours.

Transcendence: Please, talk of pipe dreams and fairy tales to someone else.