Urban legends

[Neepling]

Hi all.
I'm thinking of having a group of sessions based around various urban legends, ie 'Bloody Mary', 'he was inside the house all along'etc.
I'm just try in to think of a connecting story where someone/thing is causing the Urban Legends to come real. I have a few ideas but there's nothing so twisted as a communal internet mind... ...

Cheers
John

[Sanctaphrax]

I'm thinking phobophages, like in Proven Guilty.

[Quantus]

I'm thinking phobophages, like in Proven Guilty.

Cosplaying Malvora who inadvertently attract the attention of Phobophages...   


...Is the plural of Malvora just Malvoras"?  Malvori?

[Neepling]

I like the bait and switch of Malvori (?) then phobophages

[Quantus]

It would make a lot of sense.  If, for example, the Malvori were using their innate Wampire ability to traverse the NN to points associated with Fear as a way to be more spooky and/or ghostly, then something followed them back, or took issue with them intruding on their territory and/or hunting grounds, or some such.  It would make for a great moment where the players think they have the villain cornered, only for something bigger and scarier to pop up and gobble them up.  You can actually play that several levels, like the proverbial fish getting eaten by a bigger fish, then a shark, then the kraken.   

[Neepling]

Odd question, other than Proven Guilty, does anybody know where I could find some game stats for phobophages/fetches

Cheers

John

[Sanctaphrax]

Our World, pages 43-45.

Not my favourite statblocks, but they're there.

[Neepling]

Cool. Thanks for that. I was being lazy and just using the index in YS.
Another question - if they can enter through mirrors does that mean that they aren't worried by thresholds?
I always tend to think that fae are a little odd when it comes to some rules

[Sanctaphrax]

Fae can be a bit odd. But I don't think they're ever said to be able to bypass thresholds, and in the absence of an explicit statement I'd say they can't.

[Neepling]

Thanks for all your help so far.
No I'm thinking, why would a fetch come through a mirror if it's going to be nearly powerless due to the threshold? Do they spend a lot of time hanging out in public toilets? :-)

[Quantus]

I don't think there is any statement in the RPG rules, but in the novels the Fae can walk pass a threshold without effect, provided they legitimately have no hostile intent.  While in the are bound by the same rules as a Guest of the house. 

(click to show/hide)

“Beings out of Faerie don’t necessarily need to be invited over a threshold,” I said. “If they’re benevolent to the inhabitants of the house, they can pretty much come right in.”

“While I am here, I am bound by the same traditions as would apply were I your invited guest,” he said. “I will offer no harm to anyone you have accepted into your home, nor take any action which would be considered untoward for a guest. I will report nothing of what I see and hear in this place, and make every effort to aid and assist your household and other guests while I remain.”

[Second Aristh]

I don't think there is any statement in the RPG rules, but in the novels the Fae can walk pass a threshold without effect, provided they legitimately have no hostile intent.  While in the are bound by the same rules as a Guest of the house. 

Also, thresholds don't really cover entrances via the NN.  That's why Lea set up her garden to defend the NN side of Harry's apartment.  The same reasoning holds for Evil Bob's fortress in GS for Corpsetaker.

[Quantus]

Also, thresholds don't really cover entrances via the NN.  That's why Lea set up her garden to defend the NN side of Harry's apartment.  The same reasoning holds for Evil Bob's fortress in GS for Corpsetaker.

eh, Im not as sure about that one.  I think in both those instances it had more to do with a lack of /strong/ threshold, and providing stronger wards and defenses on top if it.  I mean, a demon Hammered through Harry's threshold in SF, so additional defenses were probably prudent. Same with GS, they had other wards set up. 

But Ive never been 100% on whether the threshold is a barrier at the edges of the home, or a field throughout, so if you can manage to bypass it somehow are you in the clear, or would it still drag on you?

[Second Aristh]

eh, Im not as sure about that one.  I think in both those instances it had more to do with a lack of /strong/ threshold, and providing stronger wards and defenses on top if it.  I mean, a demon Hammered through Harry's threshold in SF, so additional defenses were probably prudent. Same with GS, they had other wards set up. 

But Ive never been 100% on whether the threshold is a barrier at the edges of the home, or a field throughout, so if you can manage to bypass it somehow are you in the clear, or would it still drag on you?

Even with strong thresholds, mostly physical beings can typically cross them with some effort.  They just lose a lot of magical mojo which is why the toad demon only used brute force inside.

even if there HAD been a threshold, it wouldn't have done diddly to stop any number of supernatural baddies.  The fetches in PG hammered down the /Carpenters'/ front door, and that's a threshold like the rock of frickin' Gibraltar.  The loup-garou sneered at such things.  A threshold wouldn't slow down a Denarian for a moment, nor would it stop ghouls, ogres, or any number of largely physical (as opposed to manifested spiritual) beings.  And even if the skinwalker had been something summoned from the Nevernever into a manifested physical body, the toad demon was one of those too, and IT stomped through Harry's pathetic threshold in the very first book.

I picture thesholds as a screen at the boundary of a home.  When a wizard walks in, it screens out most of their magic.  Similarly ghosts get screened out completely, and most of a spell's potency gets stopped at the door.  Lea mentions something about Harry's enemies conjuring snakes in his shoes as one thing she protects against, so it seems that spells going through the NN aren't weakened beyond the usual weakening of crossing over.