Occultist Entities for Los Tronos
Los Tronos is a setting that keeps flip-flopping between modern occult horror and weird fantasy adventure, always colored with a bit of Blasphemous. Since I'm sick and someone asked me recently to play a wizard, here are some Entities (see this) for the elfgame version of Los Tronos. These are the Eight Worldly Powers.
And no, I didn't stat up the Summons.
1. MEADOWSWEET
She lives in stories and sweet poetic prose. She lives in a meadow, just over there, in a magical kingdom that awaits a lost princess. She came from a distant land, hidden away in a good book, pressed between two pages like a dried nightshade.
Tool: Scribe your circle with pages torn from books and poetry.
Sacrifice: Someone's most beloved possession.
Signs: Impossible flowers bloom. Giddy exhilaration.
Wants: Awful deeds spun into wondrous tales that become matters of public discourse and, eventually, live performance.
Hates: Pragmatism, blatant truth-telling, overt violence.
Boons: It can teach you how to capture the attention and eventual obsession of anyone you choose. This, of course, has many downsides; rest assured it will make a fantastic tale.
Woes: It knows what you crave, and thus what you fear. With slow, insidious patience, it will see your nightmares come to pass.
Summoned: THE BRAMBLE GODDESS.
2. MOTHER VALKYRIE
She is Justice, Boundary, and Righteous Wrath. She is the burnished one, the brazen one, She-of-Flaming-Wings. She is the Door and its Guardian. Now she has come for you, wicked thing!
Tool: Scribe your circle from weapons that have tasted blood.
Sacrifice: The life of an unrepentant monster.
Signs: Eyes appear where they ought not. Watchful presence.
Wants: Justice for those who no longer care, typically the dead. Violent bastards brought to heel.
Hates: Escape from consequence. Iniquity. Stolen valor.
Boons: It can fill your limbs with the strength of a righteous angel. You will be fleet of foot, tireless, and able to bend steel with your bare hands. Swords will flee rather than strike you.
Woes: Authorities and dogs now react with instinctive hostility.
Summoned: THE HIGH ANGEL.
3. THE CHITTERING FEAST
There is a phenomenon that occurs when you get enough short-horned grasshoppers in one place. Have you ever heard of the locust plague that devoured all the farmland in Exarchia? The famine lasted so long that men ate their brothers, and kings declared a cannibal tax.
Tool: Scribe your circle with bug juice and crushed carapace.
Sacrifice: A measure of milk, a measure of honey, and a queen bee.
Signs: Within every wall, behind every door, the chittering.
Wants: Vermin must feast and be plentiful, ancient structures that have stood the test of time must crumble, plague must spread.
Hates: Stability, stasis, regrowth, aiding your fellow man.
Boons: It will give you sharp claws and rending teeth. It will thicken your pathetic skin into a proper carapace. It will give you buzzing wings to carry you faster than a falling hawk. When you are done with what you must do, you will molt all this away.
Woes: Flies gather around your wounds, mites infest your pillows, and rats hold fierce debates within your walls; they are planning your demise, but how and when to strike?
Summoned: THE MONARCH.
4. THE SLEEPING KING
Entombed within the deep earth, where natural stone gives way again to man's artifice, lies the Sleeping King. It is said He is the greatest of the Powers, so great that he cares little to intervene in the affairs of the others. Dismal is the day that he awakens.
Tool: Scribe your circle with molten metal, or scribe it however you want within a palace or cathedral.
Sacrifice: A drop of royal blood.
Signs: An aura of inevitable malice fills the space. You feel as if you must tread lightly and speak softly, lest you awaken something.
Wants: More authority, more respect, more trepidation; not for itself, necessarily. Let sleeping dogs lie.
Hates: Stirring the pot, upheaval and overthrow, willful upending of the status quo. Also, very specifically, the absence of monarchy.
Boons: You become beautiful and terrible and unapproachable. Heads instinctively bow toward you, hands go limp as dead fish when they grip you. Your will is burnished to a keenest shine, and others dread to speak against you. Very helpful in court.
Woes: You become drowsy, but when night comes you cannot sleep. You endure night after restless night, until the paranoia sets in. Behind your back, they are mocking you. Behind your back, they are planning something. You are no fool; you will strike first.
Summoned: THE CHAMBERLAIN.
5. THE NIGHTMARE BOX
A heart, beating | beating | beating, then silence
Tool: Don't fret; simple chalk will do. If you don't scribe the circle perfectly, never you mind, I'll stay right here regardless.
Sacrifice: Oh, any old thing really. Something precious might be nice. But don't worry too much, I'll be there.
Signs: Lights dim until, before you know it, you are alone in the dark. THE NIGHTMARE BOX is here, just like I told you I would be.
Wants: I'll make the deal, really, whatever you need. While I wait, tell me about a treasured memory. Tell me everything.
Hates: Dishonesty.
Boons: You have an enemy, don't you. Why else would you be here? Just give me their name. Say it three times. Good. I will take care of it for you. Don't mention it. Really. Don't.
Woes: You don't want to tell me. Fine. I can wait. I'm great at waiting. I'll stay right here, like I promised. Give me their name when you're ready. I'm not going ANYWHERE...
Summoned: This was a mistake...
6. THE PRINCE OF FOG
It is a lover of many things, which surprises even its adherents. It loves a good ending, and it thinks all stories deserve them. Hasn't the story of your world overstayed its welcome? The Prince laughs scornfully, and his heart drips poison hate, but why not be merry? The end is coming soon, and he wouldn't want to miss it!
Tool: Scribe your circle however, but do so in the dark by the sea.
Sacrifice: Something once considered lost.
Signs: A chill mist rolls in, tasting you with delicate swirling fingers. Shapes move in the mist, shapes like a lattice of blades.
Wants: Great deeds forgotten and unsung. Apathy. Man turning his back on man. Removal without destruction.
Hates: Heroes, storied kings, the pious and the worldly alike. Attachment and the creation of meaning. Stories.
Boons: It can make you silent, if you like. Dead silent. You will vanish from the world like you've been struck from a painting; still there, indelible, able to return, but gone for now. As such, the world will hold you only lightly; gravity eases off, for one. And your touch will bring endings, even to things that should continue.
Woes: You begin to fade from the memories of others. You slide into a perceptual void. You can feel yourself forgetting too. Soon, you do not recognize the face in the mirror. Soon, there is no face.
Summoned: THE FROZEN GHEIST.
7. THE LOB
There is something in the woods. The children are drawn to it. The young men who venture in to rescue them are gone. The elders are terrified, and make the Sign before they walk under cobwebbed archways. It is all going according to plan. There is something in the woods.
Tool: Scribe your circle however, but set loose arachnids while you work. If they crawl on you, you are fortunate; if they bite you, you are blessed; if their bite is poison, twice blessed.
Sacrifice: Blood of the innocent.
Signs: Breath comes unsteady and shallow. Pain sprouts in your fingers, your toes. Strings nearby twist into knots. The spiders begin to spin their webs...
Wants: Complication and intrigue. Backroom deals must be struck, quick quick. There is so little time to act. Get your scheme underway, before it is too late! Pull strings, unravel threads.
Hates: Blunt speech. Bold action. Straight lines.
Boons: It can twist things in your favor. It can nudge events here and there, make "fortune" bend over backwards for you. Enemies will start falling off of boats while drunk, only to come down with pneumonia before the election. Friends will suddenly see a sign that you were right, that they should follow your plan. Naturally, people will begin to question your grace and good luck.
Woes: Your life becomes tangled, messy, infested with bad luck. Every coin turns up tails. Every balcony you pass under dumps a bedpan over your head...and on the big day, when you needed your good looks?! No time to go to the cleaners now...
Summoned: THE WEAVING DEVIL.
8. MARKET GOBLIN
Toss us a coin, whydontcha? Toss us a coin, dearie, and we'll see you get what's yours. Oh no, we're not like Old Nag Valkyrie! We gotcher thing right here, don't we? You been needin' this, eh? Well it's yours...for a price, anyhow...
Tool: Scribe your circle with coins, as many different ones as you can get your hands on, and polish them to a shine.
Sacrifice: All your trinkets, gold, weapons, into the pile, quickly!
Signs: A rollicking song in the distance, drawing closer.
Wants: Bargaining, haggling, hawking, filching, upselling.
Hates: Boring problems, boring solutions, boring requests.
Boons: It will not make you this or that, that's for the others. It will give you the thing, the shiny thing, the one you don't need, not really, but covet so earnestly. It is impressed by your covetousness for the shiny things it offers, and would like to work with you in the future. What can it do to get you to buy, TODAY?
Woes: Magpies steal all your coins, waterfowl shit on your feet, and storks try to take your puppy at midnight.
Summoned: BOY DO I HAVE A DEAL FOR YOU!