Gangs of Iskadar

 In the City of Cities, many people fall through the cracks. Aclas’ underworld is a mirror reflection of its society, like a puddle far deeper than you expect. The mobster of Aclas lives in a moonlit shadow of the world, with their own kings, priests, nations… 

Especially in Iskadar, City of Cities, where the continents meet and everyone in the world stares each other in the face.

1820 has been a bad year - perhaps the worst since 1808, when what was left of the volunteers and the expeditionary force came trudging home from the war in Zymech, missing most of themselves. 

A month or so ago, to rescue a man claiming to be a part of god, who had been “dead” in the form of a statue at the harbour bottom (a long and sordid story), the Adavoran navy has shelled the City - the first such attack in over a century. There’s panic in the air. Words like “total war”, “rationing”, “alcohol prohibition” and “divine retribution” are thrown around carelessly in the Senate.

It’s a good time to look out for oneself.

Iskadar is five or six cities stacked atop each other, a walled-city style architectural babel which goes beyond even the comprehension of its inhabitants. Down, underneath the mass, in the damp, in the coal-dust and the phoslamp glow, are the city’s Guts - and the Guts are gang territory. 

The criminals live a life of relative extravagance compared to the honest poor, but also ones of extreme danger. Sure, they can eat caviar instead of squid-ink noodles, but what good’s that when you’re fucking dead? 

Gangs work a little like Domains, except your numbers are counted in the tens instead of population in the hundreds, and you have access to the entire gang as goons, not just a percentage as levies. 

Instead of Law, you have Armaments, instead of Trade, you have Racket, instead of Temple, you have Reputation. 

Esoteric is now Fucked-Up - you’re mobsters, not academics.

“What kind of magic is this, Tony?” 

“Iunno, man, it’s… Fucked-Up.”

Gangs, unlike Domains, don’t make money - so you only get income if you have Racket, or you do Heists. I think Heists would be a big part of this game. 

Gangs garner Heat when they do a heist, a robbery, what have you. At the end of each season you lose [reputation] Heat. You have a… what, [Heat]-in-6 chance of the Iskadar City Watch trying to fucking get you each Season? I don’t know. This is the first draft. 

Picking a gang, you play all of its members. You, the player, are playing the gang, not a PC and their domain. The gang has a boss, but they’re just one face of the thing. The boss starts with the first level of a class for free, but any dipshit that gets 50XP can graduate from Level 0.

The Gangs of Iskadar 

1. Red Tooth - A big, nasty gang full of shitheads, punks, toughs and good old fashioned thugs. Famous for their custom vehicles - loud, plated, spiked and heavy. Originally a gang made up exclusively of Zarumaan immigrants and their families, they’ve expanded to include anyone who finds the idea of an autocar with a ram or a chain hidden inside your coat exciting
• Level 2: Armaments 1, Racket 2 (Mechanics and Scrap)
• Assets: Control over Hawthorne Autocar Works, a disused factory with attached garages, and the adjoining scrap yard. 15 customised autocars. One extremely armoured autohaul.
• The boss of the Red Tooth must be a Zarumaan human related to the previous boss, Vengen “Haunted” Ilmaar, who has “retired” - such as criminals in the Guts ever do. 
  
  
2. The House de Stroza - Once a house of the Verdaran peerage, they were exiled here for treason. They cling to the trappings of nobility, and their innermost family still occasionally receives invitations to attend Upper-City events, at private clubs frequented by Senators. Until last year, the don was Aldovico de Stroza, their 101-year-old patriarch, living on spite, extremely expensive longevity medicine, and gin. He was killed by a horrible malfunction (or assassination?) involving a piece of medical equipment at a warehouse on the docks. Every Stroza dresses in green when “on business”. 
• Level 2: Racket 1 (Smuggling), Reputation 2 (Old-Money Class) 
• Assets: A mansion on the docks and a theatre in the guts. 10 autocars. 
• The don (or dona) of the Strozas must be a Verdaran human with two siblings: Lauranne (psychotic, competent) and Piet (drunk, lethargic). Aldovico was their grandfather, their mother and father died in an airship crash. 
• Problem: Lauranne and Piet. 
  
  
3. Courtesan’s Union - Iskadar’s brothels are old and noble institutions (according to certain Iskans, at least), with some stretching back into centuries of continuous operation. As the Guts worsened, they banded together - mutual interest. Become a gang, or get taken over by one. They look after their own with famous efficiency: unpleasant guests turn up dead in canals days later with silk stockings tied round their necks. 
• Level 2: Racket 2 (Brothels), Reputation 2 (Guess Why)
• Assets: A string of sixteen brothels throughout the Guts, the most famous of which is the Kind Attention, an establishment that clears the threshold for “classy”. 4 autocars. 
• Any kind of person could be head of the Union. It’s likely they have professional experience in the field, as well. 
  
  
4. The Pulps - They’re named after the disused pulp-mill next to Mud Canal where they hide out. A broad collection of ex-war-wizards, failed mage-graduates and dropout apprentices (of the wizards who use Iskadar to hide from their manifold crimes). They’re funded by a rich collector called Ialanna Merce, for no clear reason save that she seems to find them funny. 
• Level 1: Racket 1 (Cheap Magic), Fucked-Up 1 (Shitty Wizards) 
• Assets: Their fortified pulp-mill, and definitely the best grasp on the actual mechanisms of magic among anyone on the list. Also, the… “patronage” of the Upper-City bigshot. 2 autocars. 
• The boss of the Pulps must be a wizard. They won’t be led by some fuckin’ no-spark mundane jagoff. 
• Problem: Whoever runs the Pulps must deal with Mosca and the Kookaburra, two former members of the outfit who were kicked out and want to run it themselves. Mosca’s a (highly, highly illegal) biomancer, albeit a very polite one, and the Kookaburra is a complete asshole who is classed as a limimancer (ooze wizard). 
  
  
5. The Starving Rats - A gang of snarling, hungry shitheads who have a decent claim to being the oldest gang in the City. The Rats were (technically) founded by “Starving Sveya”, the so-called ‘Queen of Iskadar’. She’s long dead, but the sons and daughters of her scum are still around. Their usual haunts are Salvaro Bridge and the Battery Tent Village far under it, the narrow switchbacks of the Snickets, and the city sump at Gin Tip. They’re in with the spirits of the City, most especially the awful little creature referred to as the Vermin Supreme. 
• Level 1: Armaments 1 (Stolen Guns and Bad Manners), Fucked-Up 1 (Spirit Favour)
• Assets: Contacts among the homeless people of the city, 
• The Rats would prefer to be led by a speaker, a sworn or a fighter - someone who can deal with spirits, or someone tough, or maybe even both.
  
  
6. The Disciples of the Stilled Tongue - Exiled here from the isle of Uvar, famous for its hundred cults, after choosing the wrong side in an intercultinental struggle. They are, to be clear, a cult - a mystic one, in the “union with the cosmos sense”. They started doing crime to get capital to buy more psychotropic drugs. Every member of the cult is magically voiceless, and in exchange, has short-range telepathy (it’s not that much better than speaking, but at least it’s unaffected by language barriers).  
• Level 1: Racket 1 (Psychotropics), Fucked-Up 1 (Telepathy) 
• Assets: A secret sanctum-sanctorum that apparently allows their members to astrally project (dubiously true). 
• The Disciples would only allow themselves to be led by someone with some enlightenment on their side - a wizard, a speaker or a psychic of some sort. 
  
  
7. The Gutter Worms - This lot haunts the Old Coal Pit, the absolute stygian bottom of Iskadar - pitch dark, poorer than wild pigs, filthy with coal and runoff from the gutters. They wrap their heads in bandages, cover their eyes in goggles, and wear heavy, dark coats - surplus from the Iskadar Expeditionary Force. They move together and fight with unusual co-ordination. Sometimes, their made men and higher ups stand up from being shot dead. 
• Level 1: Armaments 1 (Military Surplus), Fucked-Up 1 (Something Vile).
• Assets: Knowledge of the Old Coal Pit and its twists and turns. A hideout in a disused processing plant. 1 autocar and some ancient mining equipment (including some possibly out-of-date explosive stockpiles). 
• The boss of the Gutter Worms can be any kind of person, but must be afflicted with something vile to be in charge. 
• Problem: Something Vile. 
  
  
8. The Iron Company - A mercenary company that has slowly collapsed into a straight-up protection racket, running a small corner of the Guts between the Snickets and Bullet Street. They fought in the Spits War, and the War of the Ruins, but nobody called on them for mobilisation after the shelling this year. They’re finally just criminals. They still wear their charcoal-coloured coats and wear dog tags, but it only helps the Watch pick them out. 
• Level 2: Armaments 2 (Actual Military Gear), Racket 1 (Protection Money)
• Assets: 4 autocars, 4 motorbikes, 1 autohaul, 2 armoured cars, 2 pieces of small artillery. 
• Anyone of sufficient toughness could lead the Company, but they’d prefer a fighter, tactician or an apparatus. 
  
  
9. The Bellwether Sheep - A cricket club that’s become a gang, but is still inexplicably considered a club by the Watch. As such, they get away with a lot of shit in Bellwether, which is perhaps the least deprived part of the Guts. Whatever they do, they seem to be in with the multitudinous little spirits of the City - at least, the ones that don’t like the Rats. Most notable among these spirits is the so-called Queen of Cats.  
• Level 1: Reputation 1 (Mistaken for Harmless), Fucked-Up 1 (Spirit Favour) 
• Assets: A clubhouse in Bellwether, a part of Iskadar’s old town that isn’t considered a slum. 4 autocars. 
• The boss of the Bellwether Sheep can be any kind of person, though a speaker would be most popular. 
  
  
10. The Stouts - A nasty little gang of lowbrow legbreakers, most usually found haunting a stretch of disused warehouses between the Green Hundred and the docks. They’re led by an honest-to-goddess animated scarecrow, by the name of Blackthorn Stout. They’re armed with nothing more persuasive than cricket-bats and gold clubs, and so far haven’t nicked anything more valuable than a motorcycle - and yet, they never seem to get caught. On the rare occasion someone tries to whack one of them, they’re coincidentally out of town. 
• Level 1: Fucked-Up 1 (Amazing Luck)
• Assets: A hideout in an abandoned storage warehouse and 1 motorcycle (nicked). 
• The boss of the Stouts has the unique opportunity to be Blackthorn Stout, an animated, deranged scarecrow who has decided he wants to be a gang boss. Blackthorn is most likely some kind of thief or fighter. Blackthorn’s ongoing goal is figuring out how a man with straw guts can learn to drink alcohol. 
  
  
11. The Faceless - The famous masked criminal syndicate of the Etran continent. Truly, out where the Faceless are, there is a shadow society of thief-kings and robber-aristocracy, and the so-called-law fear to go alone in the dark. So, being in Iskadar is the Faceless equivalent of being reassigned to the ends of the earth to keep you out of trouble. 
• Level 2: Racket 2 (Illegal Alchemy), Reputation 2 (Robber-Barons) 
• Assets: Every member of the Faceless has a unique brightly coloured animal mask they can summon with a fingersnap. The names of members of the Faceless cannot be written down. 12 Autocars, 6 motorbikes, and connections back east. 
• The Faceless are traditional criminals, and would prefer a thief or an acrobat as a boss, but really, they’ll accept anybody who proves themselves competent. 
• Problem: The Faceless back east expect great things from you. 
  
  
12. The Memorials - A minor gang of nobody thugs that have experienced a sudden, anxious spike in wealth and success. Wear carnations on their lapels, drink botanical gins, polish their shoes and pretend at class. Take their name from the Spits War Memorial, right in the middle of their usual haunts around Bullet Street and Gin Tip. 
• Level 1: Armaments 1 (Just the Right Bullets), Racket 1 (Drug Trade) 
• Assets: 10 autocars, connections in the press, and an apartment in the Upper City. 
• The boss of the Memorials could be any kind of shithead, though they’ll be one with unpaid debts of a vague and serious nature.
• Problem: The aforementioned unpaid debts. 
  
  
13. The M.T.s - Glass-eyed people with no empathy and a sick sense of humour. Found associating with the newly opened Dead Dog Casino out in the northern side of town. It has a lovely view of the ugly Vis-refinery and the sea out west, across which the core of their outfit sailed. They were sent here by some mysterious figure back west - a man whose written orders they follow without question. 
• Level 1: Racket 1 (Numbers Racket), Fucked-Up 1 (Glassy and Cold) 
• Assets: A rich benefactor, a casino, 10 autocars, a seaworthy ship. 
• The boss of the M.T.s is in contact with their real boss out west. Whoever they are, they’ve got to be cold and heartless like everyone else in the outfit. 
• Problem: Everyone can tell there is something seriously wrong with you. 
  
  
14. The Polite Enterprise - The real Polite Enterprise are a fractious mass of crime families based in Astera, out at the north-eastern edge of the world. These guys are a little local branch, a feeler for expanded interests. They’ve got a little base in the wedge of streets between the docks, the train-station and Kardat, and they don’t have much expansion beyond that. The real Polite Enterprise is feared and respected. These guys? Well….
• Level 1: Reputation 1 (Asteran Friends) 
• Assets: A penthouse apartment right next to the city train station. 4 autocars. A fast little cigarette-boat in the Lesser Harbour. One (1) illegal automatic machine gun. 
• The boss of the Enterprise is probably Nevechi or Zymani in culture. 
• Problem: None of the members of this gang are even remotely local. They’ve got weird Asteran accents, and eat too much beetroot, probably. 
  
  
15. The Kardats - Hailing from the riotous little district of Kardat (it’s not a very imaginative name for a gang.) Kardat also gets called Little Myr, because almost all of the citizens are Myrish goblins. This gang are local weirdoes, with local accents and local addresses. They look out for the little old ladies, and perform policing duties according to their own values (while also not policing themselves). 
• Level 1: Armaments 1 (Homeland Guns), Reputation 1 (Local Support)
• Assets: A variety of addresses all around Little Myr. People that will happily hide them from the watch. 10 motorcycles. 
• The leader of the Kardats must be a maglath (or “goblin”, in common parlance), like almost all of its members. 
  
  
16. The Eels - The folk under the waterline call the city Oscioda. Like everyone else, they’re just trying to get by - not letting the bastards grind them down, as it were. Sometimes, you snap and you say “fuck all that. I’m going to steal for a living.” In Triton culture, that’s a religious rite - you cover your thick hide in blood red tattoos and swear to always bite the hand that feeds - it’s only trying to keep you placid. Eat the motherfucker that hand is attached to with your big fucking teeth. 
• Level 2: Racket 1 (Nautical Protection Racket), Reputation 2 (Living Like Sharks)
• Assets: Fanatical devotion. Every member of the gang is amphibious. Each and every member would rather be torn up by a ship’s propellers than spill a single secret to the Watch. 
• The boss of the Eels must be a triton - they won’t countenance being led by some fuckin’ airbreather. 
• Problem: Members of the Eels are sworn off honest work and will only live by plunder and hunting. 
  
  
17. The Boots - A little gaggle of do-nothing fuckups in Green Hundred. Broadly and accurately considered harmless, they spend most of their time stoned out of their buckets on weed (perfectly legal in Iskadar), growing weird little plants for whoever wants them. Who knew all those poisonous plants were illegal?
• Level 1: Racket 1 (Botanicals), Reputation 1 (Who?)
• Assets: Twenty greenhouses in a walled complex, a literal ton of weed, one rifle none of them really know how to use. If you’ve ever seen Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, you’ll get the sort of guys I mean. 
• The boss of the Boots could be anyone so long as they were harmless until approximately yesterday. 
• Problem: Every Boot is an idiot down to the last stoned botanist. 

Now, fight.

Of course, these aren’t the only groups running around in Iskadar’s shadow: 

1. The Stubbs Outfit - The bigshot kings of Iskadar’s underworld. Run the Coal Club, the unofficial neutral ground for any Iskan criminal, dead in the middle of the Guts. They’re a higher-class of criminal - sharply dressed, classy, fine whiskey types. Most of Iskadar’s less successful and worse-dressed gangs despise them passionately, but it’s mostly out of envy. 
• Level 3: Armaments 2 (Serious Guns), Racket 2 (Drugs, Drink and Contraband), Reputation 2 (Kings of the Underworld), Fucked-Up 1 (The Boss).
• Assets: The Coal Club, an unclear but high number of autocars and autohauls, and rumours of much worse stashed away in the myriad, tangling cellars of the coal club. Also, they’re friends with “Drastic Action”, a group of deranged “adventurers'' who keep showing up in the newspapers.
• The boss of the Outfit is Sensible Stubbs, a man who looks 22 and talks casually about events from centuries ago. He is completely, exquisitely deranged. He gets drunk by drinking milk, dresses in the most expensive shirts and slacks, and considers himself the petty God of Iskadar. He obeys different laws of physics from everyone else (his are rubbery, goofy and far more forgiving). He’s like a cartoon character, except very physical, full of cheerful malice, heavily armed and - apparently - unstoppable. He never blinks. 
  

An example of Stubbs Behaviour

1. The Church of Torc - Why is there an Aspect of Thieves? It’s a thorny question for any Makerite interested in the rule of law. Perfection isn’t necessarily peaceful, they say. The gangs say it means the Maker wants them to lie, steal and kill. They offer spit-and-tobacco prayers to the great old Torc in his glittering vault - and, when Lord Law puts them in the gutter with new ventilation, the black-clad priests tiptoe out to bury the dead. 
• Level 3: Reputation 3 (Literally the Church of the Maker)
• Assets: A sacred temple to Torc and the Maker which the Watch would have to have a really good reason to attack, which serves as perfect neutral ground. 
• The man in charge is Bishop Stilts - he’s called that because surely he’s not that tall normally? Nobody has ever seen his face. Nobody knows where he came from - all anyone knows is that he’s not kidding about being a mighty cleric. 
  
  
2. The Vox Populi - The voice of the people. They would be offended at the assertion that they’re a gang. They’re an anarchist cell. The Iskan Vox Pop are historically of the “precise gunshots to the back of bankers’ heads” type, more than the “firebombing a public space” or “socially conscious activism” type. They have no strict territory, but they’re definitely a force in the underworld.
• Level 2: Armaments 2 (Mainland Connections), Reputation 2 (In The News) 
• Assets: Total secrecy.
• Nobody’s in charge, you fucking dolt, that’s the point!
  
  
3. The Docker’s Union - The strongest union in the world. Control the Great and Lesser Harbours with an iron fist and a warm smile. They’d resent being lumped in with everyone else on this list - but, all the same, they control territory on Iskadar’s lowest level, they square off with the watch, and they patrol their territory. Their uniform is sleeveless yellow hooded garments, worn by stevedores and accountants alike. 
• Level 4: Racket 4 (The Docks), Reputation 3 (Honest Moral Good) 
• Assets: Four ships capable of cross-oceanic travel, hundreds of autocars and autohauls, five giant cranes, and more besides. 
• The head of the Union is Anya St. Zizek, an elven woman somewhere in her 40s who chain-smokes menthols and has the second-most-piercing death glare in Aclan history (and I literally mean piercing). 

Not to mention the Watch and their employers, the Senate and the Expedtionary Force, who want everyone mentioned in this post dead. Deader than dead. Shot in the head and dumped in a canal if the usual ways don't work.

It's a good time to look out for oneself.  

WHO DOES NOT UNDERSTAND? (Class: Angelologist)

 For BUCKETS OF BLOOD.

Here’s a little secret tip. It’s you - you don’t understand. Walking in a straight line towards divinity doesn’t actually work. 

No Enoch are you, though someday, hopefully, you might reach your destination. 

THE ANGELOLOGIST

A - Sigils, Power

B - Seeing-Stone

C - Guardian Angel

D - Two at Once

Sigils

You’re familiar with the sigils and methods which will invoke angels to come to this world. 

Roll 3d12 on the list below, to see who you know. 

You can summon new angels if you find their Sigils out in the world. The list below isn’t exhaustive. 

You must inscribe a circle of chalk, salt, gold, silver or holy water. 

Angels refuse to leave their circles. By their very natures, they’re sticklers for the rules. If you suggest you might try and free them from the circle, they’ll leave immediately, or lecture you about the importance of following the instructions. 

Unlike every other player class in a Buckets of Blood game, you actually have a chance of going to Heaven when you die. 

Power

You have [templates + 1] points of Power. When you summon an angel, choose how much Power you give to them to bring them into this world. This number is [power]. Each time you use an Angel’s abilities, the value of [power] reduces by 1. 

You have this much power, and no more. 

Most angels will keep your [power] until you next do a good deed or participate in a religious service (any faith is fine). 

If you give it to an Angel and you don’t fulfil their standards, they won’t give it back until you do. It would be irresponsible of them, wouldn’t it? Like giving a child a loaded gun. 

If you fail to meet an angel’s standards, they’ll keep it indefinitely, and you’ll be fucked until you propitiate them (luckily, angels never stay angry for long. They might have a little job for you to do to patch things up). 

No angel will give Power back to a murderer. If you kill anyone, or have killed anyone, your Power is one use. 

Your spirits are, by and large, avuncular and/or materteral, easily-worried and invested in your safety. They have a habit of putting out your cigarettes, or vanishing alcoholic drinks while you aren’t looking - those things are bad for you, you know!

If you wanted cool spirits you should’ve gone the way of Cutty-sark or Solomon and become a demonologist. 

It’s possible, if you seek out powerful Heavenly artefacts, read the right books, or save somebody’s soul, that you might gain more Power. 

Seeing Stone 

With a reflective surface that isn’t metal, you can choose a location anywhere within 10^[power]km and see it as if looking through a window. The Seeing Stone shows the view until you reclaim your Power by the touch of your right hand. 

“Ten to the power of the power kilometres” is fun to say. Try it. 

Guardian Angel

You can use your power to protect people, assigning a very minor angel to hover by their shoulder. You do this by patting them on either shoulder with your right hand. You can’t use this power on yourself. 

The Angel will deflect fatal attacks, rescue them from the consequences of failed saves, shove them out of the path of a moving car, pull them out of the sea, etc, [power] times, before getting all tuckered out and having to sit down somewhere and drink a juice box. 

If it comes up, a Guardian Angel has 1HD and 6HP - (but surely it wouldn’t. 🥺)

If you meet the person again (or at least see their dead body and/or final resting place), you can choose to reclaim the Power you invested, as the Guardian Angel scoots over like a child who has found a weird bug and would like to show you it. 

Two at Once

You can now summon two angels into the same circle. They each have an individual [power] value, which is equal to however much you spent to summon them both. 

So, if you spent 5 Power, you have a total of 10 angelic boons! Wow! 

Angels react to this, broadly speaking, like a divorced couple who haven’t seen each other in ten years, on a long elevator ride together - i.e., with discomfort, awkwardness, tapping of feet, and possibly an argument that nobody would enjoy spectating. 

You have to fulfil both of their conditions to get your [Power] back. 

1d12 Angels from Heaven

1. Shamsiel the Dominion 

An athletic, attractive man, his face and hair hidden behind branches bearing apple-tree leaves that seem to grow from the air behind his head. He wears a cream-coloured shirt, a maroon waistcoat, and maroon suit-trousers. His wings are warm, downy white, and his halo is like the dawn, casting beams of light through the leaves and branches of his head. His shoes are black, polished to reflectivity. He carries a burning longsword of pure flame in his right hand. On the same wrist is a watch with seven hands. Irritable and charming. 

Shamsiel will guard a location you direct him to for [power] hours, preventing any human from entering or passing by. He does this with persuasion and, if need be, his blade. He will always let past innocents, people fleeing danger, or people you command him to.

Shamsiel will give you [power] blessed apples that cure bacterial diseases and restore 2d6HP when bitten into. 

Shamsiel will make sure everyone you meet knows who you are for [power] days. 

Shamsiel will keep your Power if you’ve trespassed anywhere you weren’t meant to within the last month. (It ticks him off.) 

2. Sahaquiel the Virtue 

A tall, nude, sexless figure with sky blue skin and a head made of clouds. They have four huge white wings like an albatross’, and have golden thread wound tightly round their ankles and wrists. Their halo is like sunlight. Cool, sweet ozone seems to flow from and into them, as if they’re not a person at all, but a silhouette-shaped hole to the highest part of the sky. Soft-spoken and kind. 

Sahaquiel will give you precise, sensitive and selective hearing for [power] hours, allowing you to choose exactly what you hear among all the sounds within [power]*100 metres  - hear a whisper hidden under an ambulance siren. 

Sahaquiel will, in exchange for 2 power, let you climb through them, putting you ten-thousand feet above anywhere in the world. Bring a parachute. 

Sahaquiel will cause a wind of [power + 2] on the Beaufort scale to blow through your location in a direction of your choice for [power] days. 

Sahaquiel will keep your Power if you’ve used a machine powered by fossil fuels in the last month. Riding as a passenger counts as using it. 

3. Baraqiel the Power

A tall man, dressed like you’d expect a member of the RAF to dress, circa WW2. He has a handsome face made of some silvery metal, and hair made of flames. He hovers in the air, lounging slightly against bright, gleaming wings of golden feathers. He carries a glowing spear wrapped in black cloth covered in golden Arabic writing. Friendly and lethargic. 

Baraqiel will make anything metal on your person indestructible for [power] days. 

Baraqiel will summon a shining car of any model made before 1970, with enough fuel in it for 20*[power]km of travel. 

Baraqiel will strike [power] buildings within 100km with the most powerful of lightning, regardless of the weather. Unfortunately, many modern buildings are lightning resistant. 

Baraqiel will keep your Power if you own any guns. 

4. Rampel the Dominion 

A large, muscular figure, as pale and well-proportioned as an unpainted classical statue. He preserves his modesty with his large, dark wings, and carries a shining silvery hammer. His halo is like the sun reflecting off of the sea. Stoic and encouraging. 

Rampel will lift any one object within 100m and place it down [power]*20 metres from where it started. He will try his best not to damage the object in question. He’s pretty proud of this gig, he’s done some famous things with it. 

Rampel will increase your strength score by [power]*2 points for 24 hours. 

Rampel will turn you into a fox, a golden eagle or a barracuda for [power] hours. 

Rampel will keep your power if you’ve ever mistreated the meek or powerless. 

5. Bezaliel the Virtue 

A tall human figure, a silhouette of total darkness. He wears a pair of old-fashioned 3D-glasses, one plastic lens red, the other green. He has broad black wings, lightless and dotted with tiny stars. His halo, too, is darkness. He carries a book full of indecipherable symbols. He communicates in single words and expansive gestures. Timid and gentle. 

Bezaliel will place a black door with an indecipherable symbol on it anywhere within [power]*2km of the place you have summoned him. The next [power] times that door is opened, it leads to the place you summoned Bezaliel. After that, the door vanishes harmlessly. 

Bezaliel will make you invisible in darkness for [dice] hours. 

Bezaliel will make you immune to cameras of all kinds for [dice] hours. 

Bezaliel will keep your Power if you are famous in any way. 

6. Phanuel the Seraph

A burning golden light concealed behind six lustrous red wings. Smoke pours out constantly from behind the wings, smelling like myrrh and cedar. Her halo is like lightning suspended in motion. Occasionally, she will project a form resembling a woman made of smoke with candle-flame eyes to speak with her summoners. Calm and hopeful.

Phanuel will suspend hatred, feuds or rivalries between two people or two groups for [power] days. 

Phanuel will give you immunity to fear, anxiety and despair for [power] days. 

Phanuel will render [power] explosive, flammable, poisonous or toxic objects inert and harmless. 

Phanuel will keep your Power if you have ever denied the needy charity. 

7. Sandalphon the Principality

An incredibly tall man, at least eight feet in height, thin like a spider. In place of his head hovera a rose-gold mirror, and he is dressed in a dark blue suit, fine gloves and shiny shoes. His wings are large and umber-coloured, and his halo is soft, diffuse rosy light. He speaks never above a whisper. Reasonable and honest. 

Sandalphon will produce [power] perfect duplicates of you with 6HP each. They’re all perfectly friendly and piloted by cheerful minor angels who are just happy to be here. If their physical forms are destroyed they burst into sweet grey smoke, a flash of golden light, and a brief section of a Gregorian chant. 

Sandalphon will calm the emotions of the next [power] people or animals you gently ask to calm down. Being calmed by Sandlphon is faintly euphoric, and will probably cause a fit of giggles. 

In exchange for 2 Power, Sandalphon will change or adjust your biological sex perfectly and painlessly. 

Sandalphon will keep your Power if you haven’t donated to charity recently. He changes the definition of “recently” often to keep you from gaming it. 

8. Raziel the Ophanim 

A portly fellow, whose head appears to be a softly spinning spiral of loose paper pages. His halo is of fuzzy lamplight. He has two soft, downy wings, like an owl’s. Besides that, a dusty brown tweed suit, with moths fluttering here and there. He carries a briefcase and a grey golf umbrella, which he’ll open for you if you summon him during inclement weather. Professorial and perceptive.

Raziel will make you forget up to [power] facts of your choosing, storing them in his briefcase. He will return them for an equal exchange in power or in good books. 

Raziel will translate up to [power]*1000 words of text from any language, even dead, obscure, or non-functional ones. 

Raziel will reveal [power] secrets kept by cruel people. 

Raziel will keep your Power if you’ve ever hurt someone by revealing a secret. 

9. Armaros the Virtue 

A broad shouldered man with pitch black skin and no facial features, dressed in a red-and-orange hawaiian shirt, grey cargo shorts, and iron-age leather sandals. He maintains that humans don’t make good sandals anymore. Sometimes he carries a bottle of beer conspicuously marked 0% ALCOHOL. His wings are huge, dark and ragged, always discarding burnt feathers. His halo is a dull orange glow, like a sodium streetlight. You can tell he’s trying to force himself to relax. Cynical and painstakingly polite. 

Armaros will seal off [power] rooms or doors in a building, preventing anyone but you from accessing them. He’ll only do this to one building at a time. 

Armaros will end [power] spells, enchantments, curses or hauntings with a wave of his hand and the faint smell of napalm.

Armaros will produce a +[power] gun of any model, with any company logos replaced with “Army Surplus” (get it?). He’d like it back after you’ve fired it forty nine times, or within a week, whichever happens first. 

Armaros will keep your Power if you’ve never participated in politics or activism. You have to be involved, you know! PLEASE VOTE! (He’ll also keep your power if you steal one of his guns.)

10. Zagzagel the Ophanim

A long-limbed woman wreathed in bright fire and fragrant smoke. Her skin is all the colours of sunset. She is clad in burning leaves and branches, and nothing else. Her long hair also burns, and her halo is fire. She carries a shining, reflective disk of gold. Talkative and curious. 

Zagzagel will show you a vision of the future which will happen if our course remains the same, answering [power] questions in a visual form. 

Zagzagel will totally burn up and destroy [power] slots of cursed, demonic, haunted, or vile items presented to her. 

Zagzagel will make you immune to mundane fire for [power] days. 

Zagzagel will keep your power if you’ve ever hurt or killed an animal without good reason. The only good reason, in her eyes, is if it was that or die of starvation. 

11. Agiel the Seraph

A blazing light obscured behind lustrous black wings, orbited by a ring of floating silver spheres. The wings are covered in blinking, searching eyes with golden irises and deep white pupils. His halo is pure white light. His voice is deep, sonorous and inexplicably Welsh. He can’t stand pedants. Genius and erudite.

Agiel will instantaneously repair up to [power] electrical devices brought before him, making them better-than-new. 

Agiel will answer [power] questions accurately on engineering, science, chemistry, mathematics or lacrosse. He likes lacrosse. 

Agiel will increase your intelligence score by [power]*2 for 24 hours. 

Agiel will keep your power if you have ever mistreated someone for being less informed or intelligent than you.

12. Wormwood

A little man wearing a green hazmat suit and a black gas-mask. He has large fine red-feathered wings, and wears heavy black boots. His halo is a ring of glowing dust. He carries an unopened bottle of absinthe (he doesn’t mind if you drink around him. It doesn’t matter too much). If you look very closely, you might be able to see his eyes through the mask - but I don’t recommend it. Soft-spoken and fatalistic. 

Wormwood will completely annihilate [power] objects presented to him by sending them back in time to the centre of Castle Bravo. This works on anything at all.

Wormwood will cause an asteroid to strike a location of your choice, causing a massive explosion [power]km in diameter. That’s a taste of things to come, buddy. 

Wormwood will transform [power] gallons of water into a vile spiritual poison that tastes and smells exactly like good absinthe. Humans drinking it must save vs. death and save vs. condemnation to Hell (separate saves). 

Wormwood won’t ever give your Power back. He needs it for the Last Judgement.