They wander in darkness seeking light - Occult Secret Agent (GLOG Class)

9.THE HERMIT.--Prudence, circumspection; also and especially treason, dissimulation, roguery, corruption. Reversed: Concealment, disguise, policy fear, unreasoned caution.

Class: Occult Secret Agent
Every template you have in this class gives you +1 to Sneaking, the first and third also give you +1 To Hit and the second and fourth give you +1 Defence. You can wear light armour and cannot fumble with pistols, daggers, tasers, sniper rifles and occult implements.

Starting Skill: 1. Sleight of hand 2. Occultism 3. Cryptography 4. Security 5. Psychology 6. Athletics

Starting Equipment: A consecrated dagger (can deal damage to things that can't normally be hurt, until it is used to hurt something which normally can, after which it is a normal dagger), a light handgun and three magazines of ammunition, an outlandish costume that nobody comments on, set of lockpicks, pack of cards.

A: Transparency, Practice
B: Projection, +1 Practice
C: Ars Memoriae, +1 Practice
D: Invisible Master, +1 Practice

A: Transparency
As long as you are standing still or in a crowd of people nobody will notice you unless you want them to. People who know you are there and are actively looking for you can still see you but have a Templates-out-of-6 chance to fail to see you even then. Once they have noticed you, this ceases to apply until you are next out of their line of sight. In addition, nobody thinks you look out of place or finds your appearance unusual, no matter what you're wearing, though others who they describe you to might.

A: Practice
You start with 1 level in a magical Practice of your choice. Each time you gain another template you gain another Practice at level 1 and increase the level of all your previous Practices by 1.

B: Projection
You can astrally project your subtle body, leaving your physical body behind in a comatose state. Your subtle body can go anywhere you have seen before instantly, move through walls at your normal walking speed as long as they're not consecrated or magnetic, and see things in the spiritual and material worlds at once. Because only your left hemisphere is engaged while astrally projecting it can't tell people apart by their faces, read or remember written text or symbols, or understand spoken proper nouns, though it could tell people apart by, for example, distinctive elements of their dress.

C: Ars Memoriae
You gain perfect eidetic memory and build an astral Memory Palace in which you can store information securely, it contains as many vault spaces as you have templates in this class. When you store information in one of these vaults you lose conscious knowledge of it and specify a condition under which the vault is unlocked, at which point you regain the memory. While stored in your memory vault the knowledge is inaccessible even to the most powerful forms of mind reading and divination. Trying to unlock a memory vault before its unlocking condition is met destroys the information within.

You can store spells in your memory vaults, which are cast when the vault is unlocked. A spell cast in this way is cast with as many MD as the vault spaces you devote to it, you do not gain any MD back. Use the Mishaps and Dooms chart of whatever kind of wizard the spell came from, you can have Dooms from multiple sources.

D: Invisible Master
You perform your final initiation, becoming one of the hidden directors of your conspiracy. The first effect of which is that your identity is forgotten by everyone apart from the other Invisible Masters and the individuals you name at the time of the rite. You become a data ghost, anyone trying to connect you to any official records automatically fails. These records can still exist, so you can still keep a bank account and make a hotel reservation, but such information is only accessible to others as long as it is convenient to you.

You can issue one order per session which will be passed down the chain to a lower-ranking agent team and when astrally projecting can enter your conspiracy's Astral Fortress, a secure location where you can talk with other Invisible Masters with no chance of being eavesdropped on.

When you die, you are guaranteed to reincarnate and regain your full memories and powers at some point between your 14th and 21st birthday, though if you are killed before this point any subsequent incarnations will start from scratch.

Finally, you get told the inner secret of your conspiracy and told their true purpose;

PRACTICES

No Agent can be fully proficient in all Practices, it is recommended that different members of a cell specialise to cover the weaknesses of their co-conspirators.

Astrological Talismans
For each level you have in this Practice, you can empower one talisman (a disk of one of the astrological metals, inscribed with a complex sigil) per day to perform one of the following feats;

• Make you truly invisible for as long as you hold it clenched in your hand. Once you use the hand for anything else the talisman loses its power.
• See anything invisible as long as you keep it pressed to your forehead. Once you stop holding it to your forehead the talisman loses its power.
• Breathe underwater for as long as you keep it in your mouth. Once you spit it out the talisman loses its power.
• Bend metal - and only metal - like it was made of wet clay for as long as you keep it clenched in your teeth. Once you stop clenching the talisman loses its power.
• Place it on a corpse to ask it up to three questions the person it was knew in life. They can lie. Once you've asked three questions the talisman loses its power.
• Press its sigil into a door (must be a door of a relatively soft material, like wood or PVC), then press it into another and step through - you will arrive through the other door bearing the imprint. After one trip the talisman loses its power.

Talismans must be created beforehand or purchased, they can be re-empowered and used again later. You may create more than one of the same kind if you wish

Mesmerism

You can project mesmeric waves to influence lesser minds. Anyone with more HD than you have levels in Mesmerism gets a bonus to their Save equal to the difference, or they are placed into a suggestible state where you can do one of the following;

• Make them forget up to [Mesmerism] events or specific pieces of data.
• Make the remember up to [Mesmerism] events that did not occur.
• Make them believe up to [Mesmerism] statements to be true, until presented with evidence to the contrary.
• Implant one command of up to [Mesmerism] words long, to be triggered by an event you specify.

If the subject of your Mesmerism ever succeeds a Save, you may not make any further attempts against them. You can use any of the above on yourself as long as you have a mirrored surface large enough to see your whole face in.

Invocation

For each level of Invocation you possess, you can create a new identity to inhabit. These identities must be things you can give a short, iconic name to, like "The Doctor", "The Banker" or "The Soldier". To Invoke an identity you must be bearing a symbol that represents it. This can be a tool of the trade like a stethoscope for a doctor, or even a purely symbolic representation like a shield-shaped tie tac for a cop. While Invoking another identity, others will perceive you as being a member of that identity and you gain a new Skill and any proficiencies in anything that identity would possess. You can swap out one of your current identities for another with a week's work, involving meditation in a room filled with symbols of the desired identity.

If you possess Invocation 4, you can swap out templates in this class for any other by Invoking that class. You lose access to any abilities or Practices besides Invocation swapped out while wearing this identity.

Consecration

For each level of Consecration you possess, you can empower one of the following occult tools;

Pentacle - Lets you see as if you were standing at any point you have been before or is in your line-of-sight, allowing you to look around corners, check if your hotel room contains an ambush or eavesdrop on what someone is reading, for example.

Weapon - Traditionally a sword or dagger, but these days often a Walther PPK. Can harm things that normally can't be, like astrally projecting agents, ghosts and some kinds of magical being.

Cup - Can convert a spell into a potion that is discharged upon the next person to drink it.

Wand - Can contain up to 1 Magic Die per level of Consecration, recharged by sacrificing 1d6 HP per die, and one spell. Loading a spell into the wand requires a written source, like a spellbook or scroll.

In addition, you can Consecrate a room with a 10 minute of ritual to make it impervious to scrying, and impassable to astrally projecting beings. You an convert a vessel of water to holy water with a moment's incantation.

Banishment

You can automatically dispel any magical effect or summoned entity that you are aware of as long as its or its creator's HD or the MD used to create it (whichever's lower) doesn't exceed your level in Banishment. If it does, it gets a bonus on its Save equal to the difference (use the creator's Save for spells and effects).

Δ Integrated GLOG Mages

Inspired by the Arena M:tG novel. Standard GLOG spell mechanics apply, use Sorcerer Calamities or a Doom of your choice. Wizards as street-fighters with gang colours.

Artwork by Dave E. Phillips

Spells are small objet d'art, charms and pieces of jewelry, they must be held, worn or kept in a mage satchel to be used. A mage satchel grants 3 additional quick-access inventory slots that can only be used to keep a spell ready.

Mages duel to test their skills against each-other, settle matters of honour and for entertainment. The most common types of duel are;

One spell ante - Each mage casts one spell only, the loser forfeits the spell they used. Dispelling an opponent's spell harmlessly counts as a tie with honour satisfied.

Thaumachy - Battle to submission, winner gets to take their pick of spell from the loser's satchel.

Vendette - Battle to the death, winner takes their opponent's whole satchel.

(0) Initiate

Be tutored by a master mage, serve and study under them for a season. Alternatively, steal a mage's satchel without being noticed.

You gain 1MD to use spells. You can detect if an object is a spell by spending a minute handling it, holding it up to your ear, tapping it with your fingernail and holding it up to the light. You age 3 years for every 4 that pass.

(1) Journeyman

Win a One-spell ante magic duel with 3 apprentice level mages in a row.

You gain +1MD. You can detect if an object is a spell by sight or touch alone. You age 1 year for every 2 that pass.

(1) Satchel of Holding

Win a Vendette against a mage and place his satchel within your own.

Your satchel gains one of the following abilities for each time you complete this template's requirements;

• Your satchel gains another quick-access slot.
• Your satchel gains a second internal space, as big as its normal volume. You switch between internal spaces by speaking the name of your dead opponent before opening it, if your forget their name, you lose whatever was in there until you remember.
• Your satchel can contain one cursed, possessed or radioactive item without causing you or anyone around you any harm.
• Whatever the mage you took the satchel from's favourite nibble was, your satchel now always contains a handful of, which refills each morning, roll;

1. Honeyed peanuts
2. Rum truffles
3. Turkish delight
4. Chocolate Liqueurs
5. Baklava
6. Candied coffea berries

(2) Mage of Rank

Complete the trials to join a Mage House and swear an oath to their colours. Alternatively, defeat 5 mages of journeyman level in a Thaumachy in a row.

You gain +1MD. Choose a colour, clothing of that colour protects you as if it was chainmail when you wear it. You age 1 year for every 4 that pass.

(3) Archmage

Win a grand tournament of magic with at least thirty participants.

You gain +1MD. Whenever you wish you can summon your Throne, an impressive elemental effect (a pillar of flame, a silvery cloud, an oddly contained whirlwind) that will carry you about in comfort like a palanquin, flying at about human walking speed, following your orders precisely. You cease to age.

As Easy as Breathing - a GLoG Magos Order

 This being my riff off of Locheil's excellent Magos, possibly my favourite variant on the classic GLoG Wizard.

THE ORDER PNEUMATES
Spirits: Aurai
Skill: Singing
Augury: Ornithomancy
Jewelry: Lapis pectoral
Robes: Sky-blue and gold
Ritual Item: Sistrum

The Pneumates command the Aurai, nymphs of cooling, helpful, life-giving winds near the earth that fill sails, ease labours, and bring calm, rational thought. The Aurai are the daughters of the Titan called Breath.

They take for their symbol the Honey Bee and its geometric combs; most industrious and orderly of all creatures of the air.

The Pneumates began as the students of the great philosopher Xarathinious who took up the study of Evocation to help forestall what he had determined to be the inevitable decline of the universe into the primal Chaos it was birthed from. For this reason they are sometimes called philosopher-magoi, but generally not around philosophers unless the speaker wants to be rude.

WORKS

1. Metréos (Measure)
A delicately featured aurae, with mirror-silver eyes and a voice as clear as a crystal bell. She bears a scales in one hand and a cubit-rod in the other. She is succinct, even-handed, conservative and prefers to listen rather than talk, but when she does speak her advice is invariably wise.

Metréos can be called upon to answer [sum] questions related to mathematics, weights, measures and sums with flawless accuracy. If placed in charge of calibrating an artillery piece that would normally require no more than [dice] operators she can guarantee that its next shot will land unerringly on-target as long as the target is within the weapon's range, no matter how small or awkward it is to hit.

2. Aethyia (Diver)
A buxom nereid, with seafoam hair, salt for perfume and a sailor's easy humour. She is loud, irrepressible and knows a story for every port on the sea.

Aethyia can kiss someone to grant them inexhaustible breath, letting them go without breathing for [sum]+[dice] minutes before they start having to actually even try to hold their breath. During this time they can even share their breath with others by mouth-to-mouth without diminishing the time of the Work.

3. Nenemos (Calm)
An almost transparent female figure, discernable only by the drops of dew that gather on her skin and hair. She is even, rational and unhurried.

Nenemos can banish excited emotions, such as fear or anger. If such emotions are the result of magic or the powers of supernatural creatures then she can remove them for [dice] individuals per evocation. Naturally induced emotions, such as a crowd brought to riot, are much easier to still, affecting [sum] individuals instead. Those whose emotions have been stilled by Nenemos feel a sense of wistful serenity, and are inclined to careful action and rational debate within the limits of their intellect.

4. Leksenoria (Converser)
A marble-white aurae clad in a chiton that looks cut from the noonday sky, ever with a bundle of scrolls under one arm. She is precise, loquacious and a stimulating conversationalist.

Leksenoria can carry a message of up to [sum] words to anyone the Magos knows or has the name and good description (at least 3 details) of, and return with a message from them of equal length as long as there is no airtight barrier between them. She cannot deliver messages to or from the dead in the underworld - she is honourbound not to tread on the toes of the psychopompos - but if the Magos happens to know a living person who is currently in the underworld, she can even ferry messages back and forth between them.

5. Omiklé (Mist)
A full-figured nephele with opalescent hair as soft as flax and almost translucent skin, with shifting patterns like smoke beneath. She is clad in naught but a many-pleated chlamys of silver. She is shy, poetic and dramatic.

The Magos mimics Omiklé in taking a deep breath and blows out a thick, opaque fog either surrounding or adjacent to you covering a [dice] x 10' radius area. If cast with 4 or more MD, the Magos can still see through the fog, though nothing else can without magical aid.

6. Hexis (Cohesion)
A powerful hesperide, with skin the colour of a winter's sky and the defined muscles of an athlete. Garbed for war in breastplate and helm, but bearing only a shield and no spear. She is stoic, critical and clear-spoken.

Hexis will increase the toughness and durability of any inanimate matter you command her to. [dice] articles of clothing can be turned into the equivalent of chainmail for [sum] minutes. Alternatively, [dice] inventory spaces worth of items can be granted the hardness and rigidity of iron-banded oak. Hexis can even remove cohesion from matter if she wishes, making an equivalent sum of matter as soft as sponge and wet clay, or negating the protective value of [dice] pieces of armour.

7. Tonos (Tension)
A slight, rail-thin nymph, painted in shades of misty white and lead. Always in dance; something between a slow, impossibly delicate ballet and a contortionist's performance. She is curt, distant and unflappable.

 Tonos will hold [sum] objects in place as if they were set in stone, regardless of whether there is anything currently supporting them. Large objects may count as several for the sake of this calculation, but if a section of wall was about to fall on you and you rolled enough [sum] to cover each brick that would have hit you, Tonos could hold up any of the rest that were on top of them. She will hold the objects still for up to [dice] hours, and will take requests - if you want her to drop her load once someone you specify walks underneath them, she'll do so.

8. Toxalkés (Bow-Mighty)
Her face is almost always obscured by her hair the colour of cut iron, whipped by the winds that are constantly blowing at her back. In her left hand she carries a bow of cedarwood, in her right a bundle of arrows. She is fierce, observant and almost too knowledgeable when it comes to weapons.

Toxalkés can either launch a 20' cone of arrows before the Magos, dealing [sum] damage to everything in the area, with those who bear a shield being permitted a save for half damage, or fire a single arrow at any target the Magos can see for [sum]+[dice] damage, no save. She has a habit of giggling and whispering "boom, headshot" to herself, which unnerves some Magoi.

9. Zoios (Living)
A youthful figure that appears like a cloud of dustmotes caught in a humanoid sunbeam, only briefly cohering into a face, a hand, the hem of a chiton, before exploding into another whirl of motion. 

Zoios can breathe life and animation into inanimate objects, granting them a degree of volition. The Magos cannot fully control what the objects do, but can pick a strong emotion to imbue into them at the moment of Evocation, which they can generally be relied to act upon. Even complex emotions like "amorous intent" or "violent hatred of satyrs" are acceptable. The degree of motion that an animated object has is dependent on its construction; cloth, rope and other flexible materials are very fast and agile, moving like manta rays and snakes, wooden items are quick but jerky, tables hop like newborn foals, stone moves like wood but moreso - faster and jerkier, walls rearrange themselves in segments like living tetris, metal is pondrously slow but smoothly constant and mechanisms work as fast and well as they could when operated.

The items remain animated for [sum] minutes. The larger the object animated, the more dice are required. Something you could lift with one hand costs 1MD, if you'd have to shift it on your back it takes 2MD, if you'd need a friend's help it takes 3MD and if you would need a team of labourers to budge it it takes 4MD. If the size of labour force starts to approach "army" rather than team, that's 5 or more MD.

10. Chalinos (Bridler)
A tall auloniad, ever walking lightly on the balls of her feet, poised to cast the lariat of silver cord she carries, her face stern and eyes bright and focused. She is a strict disciplinarian, and laconic of speech, but hides a caring heart.

Chalinos can bind the wills of others to your command by ensnaring them with her lariat.  If the creature has HD greater than or equal to [dice], it may add the difference to its save.  If it has a HD greater than or equal to 2x [dice], it is immune to the Work and automatically passes. The subject will obey any command the Magos gives them that they understand, unless it is blatantly suicidal or would be similarly life-destroying (murdering their own family members, confessing to a capital crime), in the former case they automatically refuse, in the latter they may make another save to throw off the Work. 

Chalinos can only bind one subject at a time (she only has one lariat), and if she binds another the previous subject is automatically released, otherwise they are bound until they succeed a save or the Magos withdraws her power or dies.

11. Hólos (Complete)
An leimoniad with the bearing of an Empress, accompanied by a procession of attendant spirits. Her diadem is the last glimmer of sunset, her robe the golden sparkle of a field of barley rippling in the wind, her cloak the cool shade of a cypress, her merest glance banishes worry and regret. She is patient, kind and wise beyond measure. She knows how good you could be, were the world a better place.

Hólos' touch can restore what is ruined to wholeness, restoring [sum] points of damage to anything, living or inanimate. If at least 2 dice are invested, this will also remove any one instance of poison,  natural disease or limb loss from a living being, and undo rust or corrosion from objects. If at least 4 dice are invested, this will also remove any one curse, magical disease, or birth defect from a living being, and restore even objects reduced to dust and ashes to their former state.

12. Apeiron (Infinite)
Appearing as a hollow eyeless statue of an idealised woman made of an unstainable, lead-grey foil, Apeiron is believed to be the Pneumates oldest spirit, indeed she may be as old as matter itself. She is arch, cold to the point of robotic and utterly disinterested in matters of the spirit.

Apeiron can make [dice] items impervious to the passage of time. They do not rot, decay or otherwise break down from their present state and if damaged will very slowly return to the state they were in when she was Evoked. If 4MD are spent, this can even affect living beings, which become immortal and unchangeable for as long as her Work remains undisturbed.

Apeiron is also able to create matter ex nihilo, up to [sum] inventory spaces worth of any raw, unworked, mundane matter of your choosing. This can be in the form of a single, relatively simple solid shape, like a wall or a column, but not in the form of any kind of finished goods. You can even summon nuggets of gold or rough jewels, but the masters of the Order regularly check with Apeiron if any of their members have done so, and if you haven't got a good reason they will hunt you down and beat you with sticks. Apeiron will always rat you out, she doesn't think not to.

HUBRIS
At 5 or more Hubris, you are constantly surrounded with a lashing wind that plays at your clothes. It looks very dramatic, makes you appear windswept and interesting and even keeps you cool, but anyone who knows about your Order will be able to recognise it as soon as you are indoors. That, and it's a bugger to keep a candle or unguarded lamp lit.

At 10 or more Hubris, your voice and every sound you make acquires an echo, forcing you to roll even the simplest attempt at stealth with disadvantage. Your singing sounds autotuned. You do become immune to airborne toxins and diseases though, and it's even more impressive when you do have something to say.

At 15 or more Hubris, your skin takes on a glassy, translucent quality, like polished marble and the colour drains from your flesh, eyes and hair, leaving you resembling an unpainted statue. Passion becomes increasingly alien to you, and you have trouble understanding motivations that are not rooted in intellect, giving you disadvantage on any rolls requiring empathy or intuition. You never panic and always behave rationally, and so cannot be surprised in combat. 

At 20 Hubris, you become entirely abstract, voiceless and visible only to spirits, other Pneumates at this level of Hubris and Magoi with the ability to percieve invisible beings. You cannot interact with the world of matter save to passively observe it.