ANDERS MAGE PAGE 2.0

New World Order Operative Handbook

The handbook is a pocket-sized black book, bearing the logo of the NWO and its motto "One World. One Truth. One Reality." in silver on the plastic cover (it is surprisingly resilient and will not be damaged by even rough handling). Inside are the rules for NWO operatives, general Technocracy policy and useful advice in the field.

This handbook is a very useful Talisman for the Men in Black, since in any situation it is easy to look up the official policy that applies. Even in very weird circumstances the handbook has provided crucial advice, and no Man in Black will ever be without his copy (it is rumored that even John Courage keeps his handbook).

Paradigm Bomb

This device is the result of the crazed genius of a group of Etherites who wanted to prevent the Technocracy or competing mages from finding their most dangerous secrets. They reasoned that since some things are possible in some paradigms but not in others, it would be quite possible to build a device that is completely safe in one paradigm but very destructive in another.

Their initial experiment was made in reverse. They forced a captured Progenitor to build a wild contraption from their blueprints to compress ether and run it. Of course nothing happened, since the Progenitor knew that the device was obviously ineffectual. But when brought into the presence of a Son of Ether the extreme ether-pressure made it blow up (hurting the participants rather badly).

The next design was offensive. It consists of a simple tank of hydrogen, fluorine and catalyst held stable by a field of polarized neutrinos. In the presence of someone who doesn't accept the polarized neutrinos the stabilization weakens and the tank explodes in a fine Paradox backlash, spreading shrapnel and hot fluoric acid over the surroundings.

Paradigm bombs have to be built in sanctums, and are usually kept at the entrance (leaving them outside will lead to an eventual explosion). Unfortunately, they are a bit unpredictable, since they are primed by belief instead of physical events. It was found the hard way that some of the Acolytes were too sceptical of the whole idea.

Some hotheads plan to go on with loading a truck with plutonium and sending it by remote control to a Technocracy construct "just to watch the sparks fly", but more reasonable voices have so far prevailed.

Doldr

This curious device looks like a scarred, heavy metal ball, weighing a few kilograms. The material is harder than anything known and it is impervious to most kinds of radiation. If someone or something tries to look inside, Doldr will defend itself by causing a distraction or preventative event. If an X-ray device is used, the power will fail. Mages suddenly suffer Paradox backlashes. A technomancer attempt caused a major electrical breakdown in Scandinavia.

Its origin is unknown, but it has been the property of many prominent mages. It seems to be the result of very mighty, possibly Oracular magick. Sometimes Doldr gives advice, usually appearing as messages printed on computers in the vicinity, in letters with no sender or as brief phone calls when a metallic voice firmly tells the listener to do or (more often) not do something. It is believed that Doldr perceives everything that is going on around it (and perhaps everything that happens on Earth), using all Spheres.

Master Carrera of the Order of Hermes says that Doldr is tied to the forces of Paradox, and seeks to minimize the total amount of Paradox in the world. It often warns mages away from acts of hubris or suggest acts that may help limit future Paradox (sometimes at very remote times and places). It might be an intelligent entity, but it is not certain.

Dragon Pearl

According to legend, it was their shining magickal pearls that gave Chinese dragons their power. Their whole existence was concentrated into these pearls. According to some stories, knowledgeable dragons could remove their pearl and become human, but if they lost the pearl they remained human. Later generations of mages have learned their secret: these fabulously rare objects are portable Nodes, sources of raw energy. The dragons are the manifestation of power, the pearls are the power.

Many Chinese stories tell how dragon pearls could bring abundance. If one was placed in an urn with a little rice the next morning the urn would be filled to the brim — and the same thing went for money. Actually, this was due to the flow of Quintessence from the pearl that manifested as Tass and bountiful patterns.

The greatest and most dangerous power of the dragon pearl is it can transform a human into a dragon if swallowed, at least according to the myths. The transformation is quite painful. The person feels a burning sensation and a horrible thirst that forces him to seek out water to slake his thirst. As he drinks, he will grow to tremendous size and turn into a dragon.

Poisoned Time

This kind of Marauder artifact is very, very rare but highly praised by the Euthanatos Masters (who will pay fabulous amounts of Quintessence for it). Some Marauders apparently travel through time, drawing future and past Paradox with them causing irrevocable paradoxes. It seems that some entity collects this Paradox, concentrates and bottles it into small hourglasses. Each hourglass is very small and fragile, just a few centimeters high and with elaborate ivory, jade or ebony frames. Inside the hourglass poisoned time exists as a kind of viscous smoke-liquid instead of sand.

If an hourglass with poisoned time is broken, it will quickly dissipate and poison time itself in the vicinity. By just being present, everything will be hurt. The passage of time is like invisible barbed wire passed through each cell, each moment. Fragile objects shatter, living beings suddenly begin to bleed and stable objects begin to erode noticeably. The effect lasts for a while in the area, and will spread forward in time while dissipating. Time mages can often recognize its effects a long time afterwards.

Adepts of Time can also pour the contents over an event, poisoning the event so that anyone involved in it will be hurt. The damage done depends on how close they are to the event causally, and how many other victims there are. Poisoning an election result will have almost no effect whatsoever, while poisoning a business meeting will hurt those present and poisoning the theft of an artifact will probably just hurt the thief.

The Chains of Slavery

These Nephandi Talismans are very prized by the dark mages, since they help them manage those unfortunates they plan to sacrifice to their masters or otherwise use in their vile amusements.

The chains are black and cold, numbing to the touch and quite heavy. Some versions come with manacles or leg irons, but most are simply long chains which bind a victim. Anyone bound by them will become docile and have a hard time taking initiative. Thinking about breaking or escaping the chains becomes impossible, and orders given by someone holding the other end of the chain (or just orders in general) are instantly obeyed.

As long as the victim is bound, his effective Willpower is five less than normal, reducing most people to docile slaves. The difficulties of initiating new actions increase by 3, while resisting a given order requires a Willpower roll.

The Götterdämmerung Device

This extraordinary techno-Talisman was built in the 1910's by Professor Gottfried Hauf, during the last years of cooperation between the Sons of Ether and the Technocracy. Professor Hauf had been involved in a joint Void Engineer-Etherite project of sanitizing or destroying tainted or dangerous Nodes, a very dangerous challenge. He decided to invent something to simplify the process, and developed the Götterdämmerung Device (originally known as the Reinigung (Cleaning) Device).

Hauf had realized that Nodes could be turned against themselves by converting free Quintessence into energy. Drawing upon his friend von Neumann's ideas about self-replicating machines, he developed a self-replicating magickal pattern. When put into a Node, the pattern would absorb some quintessence, make a number of copies of itself and then begin to transform free quintessence into energy. Quickly, the replicating patterns would spread and begin to drain the Node, which would explode as the patterns shifted to energy conversion mode. The Device simply projected this pattern into the Node from a safe distance.

The first attempt in September 1915 on a captured Nephandi Labyrinth was a total success. Standing on a hill a kilometer away, Professor Hauf and his team directed the antenna of the device towards the Node (hidden in what, on the outside, looked like a normal farm) and activated it. At first nothing happened, and even Hauf began to look worried. Then light began to shine through the windows, the ground began to tremble and suddenly the entire building exploded into a blinding cloud of energy and whirling patterns. The following Paradox backlash completely eradicated any trace of the Labyrinth.

Hauf was happy, but not content. The device could destroy a Node, but what if its abilities were extended? He began to work on a more advanced version, which would drain quintessence from all patterns into the replicating force converters. This way its strength could be increased a millionfold, and it could even be used against targets other than Nodes.

It was his student Laura von Graunstein who pointed out the danger: if used carelessly the replicators would drain all normal patterns and spread across the universe like wildfire, turning everything into a tempest of wild energy. A true doomsday weapon. Hauf wanted to dismiss the whole idea, but his calculations convinced him. His new Device was potentially able to destroy all of creation at the press of a button.

As the Sons of Ether broke free from the Technocracy, Hauf destroyed his laboratory using his Device and fled. But he coudn't bear to destroy the Götterdämmerung Device, so he hid it — somewhere. Records still exist, and it is rumored that some technomancers want to find it to once and for all destroy the Traditions in their realms. The Nephandi would love to get their hands on this Device, for obvious reasons.

The Device is unassuming. It's just a black box with a telescope antenna and three red buttons beneath a cover marked 'I', 'II' and 'III'. It sends out a replicator along the antenna, and if it hits a Node or other strong concentration of Quintessence (like an overcharged mage or Talisman) it will begin to replicate, destroying the target. II is more sensitive, and will follow ley lines like fuses to other Nodes, easily destroying a whole Chantry or a realm. III is final. It will annihilate the universe.

The first turn, the device will do 1 die of Aggravated damage to the target (Node, mage or Talisman). The next 2, then 4, 8, 16... until all Quintessence points have been drained (this can be "soaked" with antimagick). When used on a Node the resulting explosion, quintessence drain and Paradox backlash will destroy it utterly.