The Psychopomp Purview comprises every aspect of conducting subjects from one place to another, whether the destination is across town or in the deepest pits of the Underworld, and whether those subjects are dead souls or snot-nosed preschoolers.
Associated With: Agwe, Baron Samedi, Hermes, Izanagi, Legba, Manannán mac Lir, Odin, Persephone, Ptah, Nüwa, Quetzalcoátl, Susano-o, Tsuki-yomi
| 1 | Unerring Orientation |
| 2 | Where Are You? |
| 3 | Unbarred Entry |
| 4 | Come Along |
| 4 | Spirit Lamp |
| 5 | Terra Incognita |
| 5 | Storm the Gates |
| 6 | Marathon Sprinter |
| 6 | Heart of the Maze |
| 7 | Rainbow Bridge |
| 8 | Ride Along |
| 9 | Otherworldly Portal |
| 10 | Co-location |
| 11 | Avatar of Psychopomp (The Way) |
Unerring Orientation
Dice Pool: None
Cost: 1 Legend
In a locale she knows well, such as her hometown or a national park she visits every autumn, the Scion knows how to get from any point within to any other point. In an unfamiliar locale, her sense of direction defaults to a standard compass rose. Should someone give her correct directions in an unfamiliar locale, she retains them thereafter. If she studies a map of an unfamiliar city for five minutes, that information remains imprinted on her mind until she leaves that city for longer than a week.
For the cost of one Legend, the Boon can also reveal to a Scion how far away and in what direction the location she considers home lies. Alternatively, if the Scion finds herself in a strange place—if she’s been drugged and kidnapped, for instance—this Boon can tell her how far she is and in what direction she traveled from the last place she wasn’t lost.
Where Are You?
Dice Pool: Intelligence + Awareness
Cost: None
If someone makes remote contact with a Scion (by telephone, instant messenger, telepathy…), the Scion gets a sense of how far away he is and in what direction. She might not be able to direct the person to her location, but she can follow her nose right to the location whence the contact originated. The sensation remains even after the period of contact ends, but it doesn’t follow the person around if that person moves. It can only lead a Scion to where the communication ended.
Unbarred Entry
Dice Pool: None
Cost: 1 Legend
The Scion can pass through a solid surface as if either she or it were intangible. She can pass through only as much space as she could cross in a single step— through a wall or a locked door, for instance—and doing so is a simple action. All the Scion’s clothing and items make the transition with her, but she can’t pull anyone else along behind. If the solid surface is too thick for her to be able to pass through, it remains as solid to her as it does to everyone else. This Boon doesn’t literally make the Scion intangible, however, so she can’t use it in combat to avoid damage or to step through a ring of fire without being burned.
Come Along
Dice Pool: None
Cost: 1 Legend per person
Most Psychopomp Boons that allow for supernatural travel apply only to the Scion who uses them. With this supplemental Boon, however, the Scion can bring other people or ghosts whose presence she’s aware of along with her when she uses those Boons as if those others both had and used the Boons in question themselves. She need only spend one Legend per person she intends to bring along, and the person for whom she spends the point must follow the Scion willingly. While the effect lasts, each follower moves in whatever supernatural way the psychopomp does. Only the first two Boons of the Psychopomp Purview (Unerring Orientation and Where Are You?) and this one cannot be conferred on others with this Boon. The others are all fair game unless otherwise noted.
Spirit Lamp
Dice Pool: Charisma + Occult
Cost: 2 Legend
The Scion tunes up her mystic resonance and unleashes her Legend energy to become a beacon to ghosts, spirits and strange wandering energies. For a range of miles equal to the threshold successes times the Scion’s Legend, she stands out to everything in the spirit world. Spirits come and cluster around her, and ghosts seek out the Scion for guidance.
While the Scion may not necessarily have any special control over ghosts (that’s the function of the Death Purview) nor does the power compel the attendance of spirits (also a function of the Death Purview), her role as a Psychopomp becomes clear: Any spirit can tell with a glance that the Scion serves as an intermediary between the World and other realms, with the power to guide people on their journeys. Spirits and ghosts that see the Scion’s radiance can choose how to respond, but the Scion’s glow is clearly visible to them, even through barriers.
Better still, if the Scion happens to be in the Underworld, her radiance is visible to everyone there, including herself, although its range drops to feet instead of miles. Anyone in the Scion’s radiance in the Underworld gains a bonus equal to the Scion’s Legend rating on any roll to notice hazards or pitfalls and to avoid the deleterious effects of hanging out in the land of the dead, such as the gray leaching effect that mythically strikes inhabitants of Hades. Thus, the Scion can serve as a guide for her Band, illuminating the way through the Underworld and helping them to avoid the pitfalls therein.
Terra Incognita
Dice Pool: Perception + Awareness
Cost: None
With a traveler’s sixth sense, the psychopomp can mystically feel her way to the nearest terra incognita, Touchstone or other strange place to her location. If she’s standing in the ruins of the Minoan palace at Knossus, she can feel the way to the entrance to the True Labyrinth. If she’s on an icebreaker headed toward Antarctica, she can feel the path to the gates of Atlantis. If her journey is carrying her toward the threshold of any of the many mythic realms connected to the World and the character puts her mind to finding that threshold, she can find it with this Boon. (Any mythic realm is fair game, as are any such realms the Storyteller might create.)
When the character arrives, she gets a sense of what she has to do to enter (if some special requirement must be met). If she has to make a sacrifice to some hidden guardian, she understands that a sacrifice must be made. If she has to answer some riddle to gain admittance, she gets a sense to that effect. This Boon won’t tell her the specifics required for entry—it won’t give her the riddle’s answer, for instance—but it will give her enough information to put her search on the right track.
In addition, this Boon will help a character find the center of a Touchstone when she’s in its vicinity. It can also point the way to the entrance to any mythic realm she’s already visited, regardless of where she is in relation to it. If she’s never been to the mythic realm in question but she’s actively searching for it, this Boon specifically directs her once she gets within one mile of the entrance per dot of Legend she has.
If the character is in the vicinity of and looking for some gateway to the Overworld or the Underworld, this Boon can also help in locating such a place. Unfortunately, every gateway to the Overworld is impermeably blocked off to mortals, to most titanspawn, and to Scions who are not themselves Gods. As for the Underworld, most such gateways are also blocked, though not by doors or barred gates. What blocks off those Passages is rubble thrown up as if by great explosions or tectonic upheavals. This debris was strewn about by the Titans’ escape from their ancient prisons, and most of it is thick with confused titanspawn and lost ghosts who don’t realize how much time has passed since they died. Yet not every Passage into the Underworld is blocked off, so if a Scion’s Band dares the dangers that lie beyond the World, great adventures and unimaginable rewards await.
Storm the Gates
Dice Pool: Intelligence + Command
Cost: 1 Legend per 2 units
This Boon allows a Psychopomp to open an Axis Mundi connection point to those who might not normally be able to pass through it. The user of this Boon must first be in the immediate presence of an active Axis Mundi connection point and must meet all the criteria for moving through the gate. If the Psychopomp would normally need to use another Boon to pass through the connection, the cost of that Boon is added to the cost of using Storm the Gates.
When activated, this power opens a rippling portal through which even mortals and vehicles can pass into the Overworld. For each success rolled, the gate is wide enough for one unit to cross over. A "nut" may consist of either eight fully-equipped soldiers or 2 points of vehicle Mass. Thus, if a Scion with Epic Intelligence rolled 15 successes, she would open the way for 120 foot soldiers, or 5 tanks, or potentially even one small battleship. A vehicle may carry its full compliment of crew as it crosses over. The Scion may repeatedly use this Boon as long as she can continue to pay the Legend cost for each unit sent through, but may not send through any vehicle with a Mass exceeding the number of successes on a given roll—you can't send half a B-17 through one minute and half the next.
This power does not alter in any way where the connection point opens in the Overworld, so troops may still need some other way to scale the vast mountains, climb the cosmic tree, navigate the celestial oceans or deal with whatever other environment awaits them at the other side.
Marathon Sprinter
Dice Pool: None
Cost: 1 Legend + 1 Willpower
The Psychopomp’s Dash rate increases dramatically when the character does nothing but run. The player spends a point of Legend and Willpower, and the character starts running. For as long as she keeps going, her Dash increases by a factor of five after any bonuses or additions from Epic Dexterity or the like. The character can run across calm water like a skipping stone or traverse loose snow or deep mud without sinking into it. When she gets to where she’s going, the character can simply stop on a dime, defying inertia.
Running through unfamiliar territory at such an insane speed can be… tricky to say the least. Navigating between such obstacles as trees or buildings or crowds of people requires a successful (Wits + Athletics) roll with a difficulty equal to the character’s (Epic Dexterity + 1). Failure on the roll doesn’t send the character crashing into anything, it just means she’s stymied by obstacles and has to stop running. (It’s up to the Storyteller where this occurs.) If this roll should botch, however, the character can’t quite stop in time. She crashes into some obstacle hard enough to inflict one automatic level of bashing damage per dot of Legend she has. (The same goes for anyone following the Scion via Come Along.)
If the player wants, the character can use this Boon to zip around in one location at high speed. That’s fine, but the character can do nothing else but dash while this Boon is active. If she wants to take any other action, she has to stop running first.
Heart of the Maze
Dice Pool: Charisma + Presence
Cost: 3 Legend, +3 Legend per additional scene (see below)
The demigod need only handle an item somehow connected to a particular person and picture that person in his mind. He then invokes Heart of the Maze, and the player marks off 3 Legend and rolls (Charisma + Presence). The demigod’s image suddenly appears within the mind of the chosen target, along with intuitive knowledge of how to reach the demigod from wherever the target is located. The instructions to reach the demigod are clear and automatically update as the subject changes location, always in a set of directions that the subject could conceivably complete.
Heart of the Maze has a maximum range of 100 miles times the successes scored times the Scion’s Legend. The player must score at least 15 successes in order to use this power across the boundaries of the World to another place, such as the Overworld or a Touchstone. The directions remain in the target’s mind for the rest of the scene, although the duration can be extended if the Scion’s player expends another 3 Legend points per additional scene.
If the Scion or the subject moves out of the range of the power, it ends immediately. Note also that Heart of the Maze in no way compels the subject to come to the Scion; it simply provides directions.
Rainbow Bridge
Dice Pool: Intelligence + Awareness
Cost: 1 Legend per 200 miles
The psychopomp can magically teleport almost anywhere from wherever she is. The only limitation is that this Boon does not allow travel across the borders that separate otherworldly realms from each other or from the World. She can cover an amount of distance equal to 200 miles per point of Legend she spends upon activating the Boon. When she activates the Boon, a multicolored aurora similar to the Northern Lights twists outward and around her before it and she both disappear with a faint pop. Five seconds later, the same thing happens in reverse in the place the character wants to go (be it inside or outside).
The character need only be able to see her destination from her current position or work out the general area’s latitude and longitude, which is much easier the more detailed a map she has. (The more detailed the map is, the more bonus dice it can offer to the activation roll, at the Storyteller’s discretion.) Fate makes sure the traveler doesn’t drop down into some immediately harmful circumstance, such as a pool of lava or sticking halfway through a wall, but not landing in immediate danger does not mean the character automatically lands in a safe place. (It is from the effect’s rainbow aurora that the Boon takes its name. Bifröst, the actual bridge that leads to Asgard, is still blocked to demigod, hero and mortal traffic.)
Ride Along
Dice Pool: None
Cost: 5 Legend + 1 Willpower dot
With this Boon, the God can alter the nature of a vehicle such that it can receive the benefits of his other Psychopomp Boons. Anyone who rides, willingly or otherwise, on or in a vehicle so altered also receives the benefits of those Boons. Spending five Legend points and one Willpower dot makes one discrete vehicle capable of receiving the benefits of the character’s Psychopomp Boons. Anything that is not part of the vehicle by design—such as a detachable trailer, a life raft, the ejector seat—is not part of the effect. If the God wants add-ons to be included in the effect, he must use the Boon on each discrete add-on separately. This Boon automatically confers the benefits of Come Along (Psychopomp 4) on passengers in or on the vehicle, even if the God doesn’t have that Boon.
If the vehicle has some sort of onboard guidance system or automatic pilot, the character’s Unerring Orientation (Psychopomp 1), Where Are You? (Psychopomp 2) or Terra Incognita (Psychopomp 5) Boons express themselves through those systems. If the character uses Marathon Sprinter (Psychopomp 6) through the vehicle, either the vehicle’s top speed increases by a factor of five, or the vehicle’s top speed increases to the character’s own top movement speed granted by Marathon Sprinter and any Epic Dexterity he might have. (Whichever makes the vehicle go fastest.) The roll to navigate at that new top speed is now (Wits + Control).
The character can confer the benefits of his other Psychopomp Boons on his vehicle only when he is at the controls. Otherwise, the vehicle retains only its normal capabilities. If the God has the Come Along Boon, he can confer his other Psychopomp Boons on the vehicle while someone else is operating it, but only while he himself is riding on or in the vehicle.
Otherworldly Portal
Dice Pool: Intelligence + Awareness
Cost: 5 Legend or 10 Legend
The God with this Boon has the ultimate key between planes of existence. He can open doorways between the World, the Overworld, the Underworld and any terrae incognitae connected to any of those. The only proviso is that he must travel from one realm to another when he uses this Boon. (Traveling instantaneously within the same realm is what Rainbow Bridge is for.)
When the God uses this Boon, he appears in his chosen realm just inside the nearest gate or doorway that leads there from his current location—if, that is, more than one gate leads in. Doing so costs five Legend points. If the God also has Rainbow Bridge and uses it at the same time, he can appear anywhere within the realm of his choice that he knows how to find. Doing so costs 10 Legend.
Co-location
Dice Pool: None
Cost: (1 Willpower + 5 Legend) per duplicate
The character can be in several places at once. He need only think of a place he has been as his player spends one Willpower and five Legend points. When he does so, the character remains in his current location but is also in the other location. Each version of himself is fully real and physical, with access to all of his traits and powers. Anything one version of him can do, all of them can do wherever they are. If one is killed but more remain, it simply ceases to exist as if it were never there. (It does not automatically become the out-of-control avatar of a Purview.) If two or more of them come together in the same place, they can all coordinate their activities perfectly, since they’re all operating on the same wavelength.
A few catches restrict the use of this power. First, every duplicate character has but one shared Legend pool from which to draw. Regained Legend points go back into the communal pool but cannot exceed the standard maximum. Likewise, only one of the active duplicates can become the avatar of any Purview at any given time. Any active duplicate can use any Ultimate Attribute in the character’s repertoire, but the more who do so simultaneously, the quicker the character’s single Legend pool will run dry. The most important proviso about using this power is that a character can pay attention to only one duplicate at a time. Put another way, the player can act through only one duplicate at a time. Unless, that is, the character has the Parallel Attention Knack or the Multitasking Knack. If the character has only Parallel Attention, he is aware of what’s going on around each duplicate no matter how far flung they might be, but he can act through only one at a time. If he has the Multitasking Knack, he can act through all of his duplicates simultaneously, but only as many as are all in line of sight of each other (and up to a limit equal to his Legend rating). If the God has both Knacks, he can act through as many duplicates as he has dots of Legend simultaneously (performing separate actions and everything), no matter how far apart they might be. And if he has more duplicates than that active, he can tell what’s going on around them all.
Please do bear in mind, though, that keeping up with so many characters (who are all the same character) going through so many separate simultaneous independent actions in far-flung locales all over the various realms of reality can be a tremendous hassle. And not just for you, but for your Storyteller as well. Also note that a God cannot use Come Along (Psychopomp 4) with this Boon to co-locate his comrades. He can use Ride Along (Psychopomp 8) to co-locate himself inside several duplicate vehicles, but doing so does not co-locate anyone who might be inside the first vehicle with him. Just himself and the vehicle.
At any time, a God using this Boon may decide that he is not actually where one of his duplicate selves is. When he does so, the duplicate ceases to be there, as does anything the duplicate might have had on him. If the God wants to take something from that location with him when he is no longer there, he must first take action there long enough to get control of that thing. Only when he has it can he decide that he and that thing are actually somewhere else. The God can take something from a scene in this way to only one other place. He can’t pick something up, put it in his pocket and find that suddenly all of his duplicate selves have it. Duplicates last for as long as A.) the God remembers where he left them and/or B.) they survive.
Avatar of Psychopomp (The Way)
Cost: 1 Willpower + 30 Legend
For one scene, the character becomes The Way—who carries a staff and consists solely of a map’s contour lines. The Way overcomes or surpasses all obstacles, going to any place from any place. As many people as know The Way can follow it to a destination. To The Way, no destination is unreachable. The Way keeps every traveler safe until journey’s end, no matter where it goes. Characters can even follow The Way into the deepest, darkest hearts of the Greater Titans undetected. If The Way is treacherous, the Titans can also follow The Way into the hearts of mortals and the strongholds of the Gods.
