Strange, ancient, and evil, these legendary relics seek out the most corrupt beings of the cosmverse and grant them weird and wondrous abilities. The devices, sentient creatures in their own right with names like Heketon and Drakacanus, call to their potential masters and show them how to master reality and their own cosms. The strongest of the High Lords grow in power, served by cunning and devious Stormers and in command of great armies or insidious creatures. Once they conquer their own world they turn to others, invading other cosms to rob them of their Possibility Energy in a never-ending cycle of destruction. For powers and game statistics of the Darkness Devices.
But Darkness Devices serve their masters only so long as it facilitates their own desire to shred reality and feed it to the Void. This is why for all the phenomenal power they grant their owners, they often thwart them as well. Most encourage resistance in the realms they invade, for example, for it ensures conflict and violence, the raw tools of destruction. A cosm truly conquered, after all, offers little in the way of strife. If a High Lord should begin to fail in their acquisition of Possibility Energy, the Darkness Device may even look for a replacement.
Darkness Devices siphon, sort, and store Possibility Energy directly and through the stelae they created. Most of the energy is retained, but some is converted into powers and abilities it can use to its own nefarious ends. It can also grant abilities to whoever it’s “attuned“ to, including its High Lord and chosen underlings.
Darkness Device Common Profile
Each engine is different and detailed in their relevant cosm books, but the following information is a good baseline.
Attributes: Charisma 25, Dexterity 0, Mind 40, Spirit 40, Strength 0
Skills: Find 45, intimidation 45, persuasion 30, reality 50, taunt 30, trick 45, willpower 45
Possibilities: Untold thousands
Special Abilities
The following abilities are common to all Darkness Devices. Most also possess powers in addition to these that are specific to the reality of its High Lord. For example, Ebenuscrux, the Darkness Device of the Cyberpapacy, can control portions of the GodNet. Details on these unique powers can be found in each cosm’s sourcebook.
- Communication: A Darkness Device can automatically communicate with its High Lord, or any being within its High Lord’s home reality or its stelae network.
- Create Dimthread: The device can open a portal from anywhere within its High Lord’s reality or its stelae network to anywhere else. Dimthreads are very expensive and so rarely support more than a few travelers for a very brief time.
- Create a Hardpoint: Once per week, a Darkness Device can create a hardpoint anywhere within its range. The hardpoint can be up to the size of a small house.
- Grant Possibility: A Darkness Device can spend an extra Possibility on any of its High Lord’s actions. This is in addition to the High Lord’s own Possibility (much like a Hero or Drama card for the player characters).
- Immortality: The Darkness Device’s chosen High Lord is not affected by aging.
- Immovable: These incredible artifacts cannot be moved or destroyed by any known force in the universe.
- Negation: The calamitous engines can negate Possibilities spent by others. This works exactly like the Negation Perk.
- Transfer Possibility Energy: The device can grant two to four Possibilities per hour to any reality-rated character within its High Lord’s reality or within its stelae network.
- Transfer Skill: A Darkness Device may transfer one of its skills to any character within its stelae network, but no more than one skill may be “lent out“ at one time. The recipient must spend one Possibility to receive the skill (if the recipient is the High Lord, the device may spend the Possibility for him.) The transfer is instantaneous and the recipient receives the device’s full skill value, not its skill adds. Reality is never transferred—the machine needs that skill to manipulate Possibility Energy!
The Spoils of War
Darkness Devices gain additional abilities as they drain large areas of Possibility Energy. Each time its stelae are used to claim a new zone of substantial size and population, the engine gains any one of the boons below. These may be saved up and used at a later date as the construct desires.
- Create Stelae: The device can energize three ritually prepared stelae.
- Create Maelstrom Bridge: The device can create and land a new maelstrom bridge in any of the zones under its control.
- Flip Zone: The Darkness Device can flip a Mixed Zone to Dominant, or a Dominant to Pure.
- Soulstain: The device can scan the entire realm and temporarily mark every reality-rated character within it. The stain fades after about a month. During this time the prey may be tracked by minions of the High Lord. Ravagons are frequently dispatched to deal with particularly troublesome individuals.
Dimthreads
A dimthread is a small, temporary connection suitable for only a few individuals to use before it closes. Dimthreads are used for quick transportation, often to send spies or other agents across in advance of an invasion. This is how the High Lords infiltrated Earth and prepared the way for their assault.