The House that Jack Built

By Todd Weaver (olafred@nb.net)

Prelude

"This used to be a good neighborhood," Alley-Walker grumbled to himself as he stalked the dark streets of what, in a matter of weeks, had become one of the area's most corrupt dens of drugs and crime. The transformation just didn't seem natural; that's why he was here, to see what happened to turn this once proud area into a string of crack houses and brothels. As he neared the largest building he could practically feel the corruption oozing from the very bricks themselves. As he ventured closer he could almost make out facial features on the building itself, almost as if it were alive. The pale yellow eyes glared at him from the dirty windows and the boarded up doorway yawned like a massive maw of crooked teeth.

Then the sounds started.

From every doorway people glared at him, their features misshapen and corrupt. Clubs, knives, and firearms of all types were clutched in their hands as they emerged. As Alley-Walker turned to face this new problem he could practically hear the building laughing at him.

It was going to be a long night.

Description

The House that Jack Built has only recently emerged from the depths of Malfeas, but in its short time it has gained a reputation as a truly problematic force of corruption. The House is a spirit that inhabits businesses, homes, even parks or apartment complexes. Any area within the weaver web is fair game. Once in place the House begins its process of corruption; this can take weeks or even months, making it difficult to tell that there really is a problem until it's too late.

The First stage is the Beckoning; using this power the House attracts banes and other wyrm creatures to the area. Since the house cannot defend itself it uses these as its sentries and guardians. The Beckoning also spreads to the physical world, calling gang members, drug lords, cults or any other undesirable group to further spread its influence. As the corruption grows so does the spirit's power. The second stage is the Infestation; once it's gained enough power the house actually creates its own banes and begins to make fomori of the inhabitants of the area it has inhabited. Once the house has performed enough corruption, it will move on to another area. These Spirits are very hard to remove because short of destroying the umbral building it takes a rite of cleansing to remove them, and should it sense that rite being performed it will try to use its transit power to move to another location.

Statistics

Willpower: 8
Gnosis: 10
Power: 100^*

^*For every successful use of the Beckoning power, the Spirit gains 20 Points of Power.

Charms: Inhabit (costs 25), Beckoning (no cost), Infestation (50 per fomori created), Transit (20 per mile).