Garden- Strange Object Generator

These objects are the most mysterious and secret treasures of Garden. Often hoarded by the rich, these incredible objects are only found within the lockers that line the walls in Garden's secret underground service tunnels, which no one truly owns or has fully mapped. The mysterious tunnels are dangerous and finding a locker with anything in it is rare, but whenever they are found, they can fetch a high price- if you can get it out of there in one piece.

Roll once for each table.

Physical Form – 1d20

[1] Guitar OR Saxophone

[2] Toaster

[3] Film Reel. Don't try to watch it.

[4] Unopened glass bottle of Coca Cola

[5] Martini Glass

[6] Origami folded from newspaper. The shape is a random animal.

[7] Really big book. It's an almanac for a city you've never heard of.

[8] Penny OR Single Bullet

[9] Steering Wheel.

[10] Pinstripe Suit. One size off.

[11] Fuzzy Dice. Like the kind you hang from your rear view mirror.

[12] Milk man's cap.

[13] Typewriter.

[14] Powder case. Mirror in the lid.

[15] Ceramic Lamp. Pink, with white lampshade.

[16] Rotary Phone. If you plug it in and try to use it, you just hear ominous whispers.

[17] Teddy Bear

[18] The object is something from the past of whoever opened the locker.

[19] The object is a bit old fashioned. Roll on the Random Item Table.

[20] Roll on this table again, but roll once on the Unusual Form table below.

Unusual Form – 1d12

The strange object gets to be extra strange. This unusual form modifies the object you roll on the physical form table.

[1] It's rusted, corroded, or moth-eaten very heavily. Still works otherwise.

[2] The object is warped, as though bent through a machine. Still works otherwise.

[3] The object is covered in stickers/patches, autographs, graffiti, etc.

[4] Made of paper mache. If Origami Shape- it's made of folded sheet metal.

[5] Made of metal. It looks like a perfect cast. If it's already metal- double in size.

[6] It's not an object, just a life-sized portrait of an object instead. Artist's skill is phenomenal.

[7] Normal appearance, glows in the dark. Random color.

[8] Normal appearance, hums ominously in quiet places.
[9] Normal appearance, but sepia tone. Like it was pulled out of a movie.
[10] The object grows little green mushrooms out of its cracks. Only if kept moist.

[11] The object grows fur, which can be pulled out easily. Sheds.

[12] The object grows metal spikes, which can be clipped with some difficulty. Be careful.

Abilities

Every Strange Object has an ability. There are six kinds of strange object abilities. In order to “get” the benefit or negative of any ability, the person must be the last one to touch it or currently holding/carrying it. Objects small enough to fit in the palm of your hand or pocket must be carried to have their effects, otherwise you must touch an object once a week and be the last person to touch it to have the effects. Large objects that cannot be carried grant their effects to its "owner"- usually the person who last touched it. You must touch the object once a week to continue its ability.

Very rarely, certain Strange Objects are found with incredible abilities- even for a Strange Object. For a Major strange object; roll on the special subtable. If you roll a Major Strange object with identical abilities to another one in your campaign; reroll. These are unique.

Basic Ability Table - 1d6

[1] Lucky

[2] Cursed

[3] Bane

[4] Boon

[5] Psychic Amplifier

[6] Psychic Blocker

Strange Object Abilities

Lucky items grant luck to their owner. This translates as a +1 to any d20 roll, once per night. This effect is usually passive but can be called upon by a character by stroking the amulet, affixing their “lucky” hat, etc. This power can only work on one person once per night; if you steal a lucky item after it's been used, you'll feel like its luck has been “used up” until tomorrow.

For objects that are small, they must be carried to have the effect. For larger objects, you simply need to touch it once a week. Large objects can also grant this effect a degree of separation away; if you order someone to do something for you, the 'luck' of this item can benefit whoever you are ordering around. There are crime lords who have “antiques” in their homes that are actually lucky items from the storage lockers; things just seem to go their way and their gang prospers.

Cursed items are the opposite of lucky items. If you touch a cursed item, you automatically fail the next saving throw that comes your way. Unlike lucky items, this has no limit on how many people or times it can harm you, but only one “curse” hangs over you at a time until it strikes. Wearing thin gloves when you touch it or brushing up against it still counts as touching it- you need a more secure or thicker case to protect yourself from its effects for transport.

Cursed items work if you touch it, if it be small or big. If you can trick or force someone into touching it, it could be used as a kind of weapon, but otherwise it's just a liability. However, even Cursed items are worth a fortune, as any Strange Object is very valuable.

Banes are Strange Objects that seem to be anathema to the psychic manifestations and unnatural beings of Garden. While carrying a Bane, you have +2 to hit and deal +2 damage to all psychic beings or constructs of unknown energies. Uniquely, carrying a Bane makes damage you deal against a reality warper not be able to healed by their normal regeneration.

Banes are uncommon, highly sought after items used to hunt down and kill Slashers, Reality Warpers, and other spooky threats that lurk in Garden's shadows. Note that these hunts fail just as often as they succeed, and the Banes are constantly being lost or destroyed, even among the Strange Objects, these are a rarity.

Boons are Strange Objects that are especially stable, and spread that stability to others. The Boon item will be especially hard to damage; ceramic or glass items are weirdly shatter proof, metal items bend back into shape if twisted, cloth and wooden items seem fire retardant. If you carry or have last touched a Boon item, your maximum Hit Points increases by +2. If you go with a week without touching the item, you lose this benefit (maximum, not current).

Boons are commonly seen among the more adventurous sorts of Garden's populace. While a small benefit, the ability to better survive a gunshot or a beating is extremely valuable. The Boon also has a unique ability- if touched by a person with an incurable or terminal illness they receive a saving throw. Upon success, the Boon loses its power permanently and the person becomes healed. If the saving throw fails, the item keeps its power and the person cannot try again on this item, though could have better luck with another Boon- you can imagine how desperate a sick person may be to collect these.

Psychic Amplifiers are the most highly sought after Strange Objects. They enhance waves of psychic energy and sharpen the mind of any psychics who carry it or who have lasted touched it. The psychic in question deals +1 damage with Psychic attacks, and their Psychic powers are boosted by a magnitude of about 10%. So if they could telekinetically shove a 200 pound man, they could now shove a 220 pound man and so on.

Psychic Amplifier are sought after and collected by rich and powerful psychics to boost their powers, but many of the ones who collect them can become too powerful and begin unlocking mind-bending, reality warping abilities instead. The Psychic Amplifers also have a unique ability- if touched by someone with psychic potential, they awaken their psychic powers over the next 2d6 weeks, and the item loses its charge. For this reason, Psychics are even more defensive about these items then one might imagine, and will stop at nothing to hide or keep others away.

Psychic Blockers are Strange Objects with the ability to confound psychic energies and break them apart, similar to interference with radio waves. If you carry a Psychic Blocker, you get +1 resistance to psychic attacks (and +1 to saving throws against psychic powers). If the psychic blocker is too large to carry, then it offers no benefit for touching it but instead “blanks” out the area around out, equal to an apartment or wing of a house, which blocks all attempts at psychic scrying or sensing abilities.

Psychic Blockers are very useful Strange Objects to get a hold of, especially if you're wanted or made a powerful rival in the psychic world. The resistance is also very useful for adventuring types, as it can help protect you against both psychic attacks, psychic traps, and psychic creatures or other negative manifestations of psychic energy and unsolved pathos. In Garden, negative psychic energy can bleed from the walls in some places, and this object acts almost like an anchor to the real world.

 

Major Strange-Object Ability - 1d12
[1] Roll on the basic ability table; triple effect.

 

[2] Roll twice on the basic ability table; combine effects. If you get luck + cursed, it makes YOU lucky, but curses EVERYONE else near you.
 

[3] If you tap, open, shake, or 'use' the object in a specific way; it can release a massive cloud of purple smoke. The smoke can fill up an auditorium. Breathing the smoke for more then three rounds means you must save or be knocked unconscious for a turn.

[4] If the object is small and carried or worn with you; you cannot be harmed by bullets. (Unless if the shooter possess a Bane). The bullets just miss you or hit you but don't "do anything"- the same applies to your own bullets however, and all your guns jam or fail. If the object cannot be carried with you, then all guns and firearms jam and fail within the range of a city block around it. The object's ability is nullified as long as it is kept in a thick, opaque case or hidden in a closet somewhere.

 

[5] This object transforms once per week- roll a new Physical Form every week. If the object had an Unusual Form, it will always have that same unusual form, otherwise it never gets one (reroll 20s). You cannot observe this object in mid transformation. Carrying or owning this object stops your from aging, but you slowly change into something else.

 

[6] Within pure darkness, this object becomes a horrible monster. If any light falls on it at all, it simply remains as an object. It will try to escape, and has inscrutable goals.

[7] If you carry this object with you, you can once per week walk through a door that leads somewhere else in the city- you'll appear through a door about three blocks away. If you own this object for at least four years you can begin to decide exactly what door to appear out of that you know, but it must be within the same borough of Garden as a maximum range.

 

If the object is too large to carry; it works differently. Instead, it allows you to create a semi-permanent portal. You can select a random door, such as an antique door leaning against a wall, a manhole, closet, etc. that will become your emergency portal. You can end up walking through your emergency portal by running blindly, getting lost, or closing your eyes and counting to ten. Maximum once a week.

[8] Somewhere on this object is a dial or knob. If you turn the dial, you can "adjust" how visible you are to others. All the way down makes everyone ignore you, able to walk right past armed guards. Where as all the way up makes you very popular and you can't even attempt stealth. 

 

This is a psychic or mental effect, not a physical one; you still show up on cameras and are still physical present. People who are hunting you can figure out to shoot where footprints appear as you run even if they can't actually "see" you. This object is also unique as someone can adjust the knob besides you to adjust your setting- it doesn't count as adjusting their own visibility unless they own it or carry it for at least a week.

[9] This object has a "care taker". Somewhere on the object is a name- speaking the name will cause a strange person to appear behind the nearest shadowy corner or from behind you. This person looks like a generic alien of whatever world this object came from. This person sees and hears everything the object can, and can be asked questions. They are generally helpful and know tons of secrets about the city and the previous owners, but cannot guarantee their loyalty to you (they serve whoever owns the item) and refuse to speak on anything about the underground service tunnels.

[10] This object produces money. If the object is small enough to be carried around in your pocket, then it produces a few crumbled dollar bills in it when you reach in. If the object is worn or carried around, then the money will be produced inside of the object, or spit out of a slot when turned on or shaken, etc. Objects carried in the pocket can produce a maximum of $5 per night, and are essentially there when you need them. Objects larger then that can produce a maximum of $20 per night, but don't have to be drawn out at once and can be stored up a while inside the object like a piggy bank.

 

Obviously, anyone who owns this object will gain a new source of income and be quite rich. The money is created by the object, but can't be detected as counterfit. If the Garden city council switches the currency over, the object will create strange "half dollars" or bills that look like a mix of both for up to a month until it gets it right, producing the right kind of legal tender again.

 

[11] This object acts as a bank for psychic energy. If you touch the object while you have Psychic stress, the object absorbs 1d6 points of Psychic stress. If you touch the object more then once a night, or if someone without any psychic stress touches it, they are blasted with 2d10 Psychic stress from its stored energy bank. If the object is destroyed, up to an entire city block will be overloaded with psychic energies, causing mass hysteria, unconsciousness, and psychic feedback. All psychic manifestations or creatures gain +1 HD and become more aggressive during this storm.

 

[12] Touching this object gives you 1d6 Psychic stress, but grants the user a random Psychic Power for about twelve hours. Even people with zero psychic ability can be bestowed a power. When this period ends, they take another 1d6 Psychic stress and one point of internalized stress. 

 

If a Psychic touches this, they gain a second psychic ability which combines with their first for the same period, but causes no stress. This item can create reality warpers; as few psychics can remain sane after experiencing such a rush of power. The exception are Blankers; touching this object permanently drains it of its charge and the Blanker's power remains unchanged. 

Garden- Reality Warpers + 8 Reality Warpers

Reality Warpers are psychics who have ascended beyond mastering a single power, and now have the ability to change reality. While many begin with only minor mental instability and only a few powers, in just a few weeks reality warper powers grow exponentially along with their insanity.

All Reality Warpers are crazy. Most are narcissists and many are homicidal. You can't play as these.

However, it may be possible to run into one as city explorers or as Garden Enforcers- the lay police force that tries to keep the anarchistic city running. Instead of a traditional stat line, all reality warpers instead have three stats, which are all measured from 1 to 10.

Potence is the measure of the warper's power level, mostly in relation to which reality warper wins if two try to change the world in opposite ways. Even a warper of power level 1 is omnipotent. The potence level is also the number of weeks any impossible changes or items made by the reality warper last until entropy brings it down to Earth again.

Awareness is the measure of the reality warper's passive perception of the surrounding world, including its range in city blocks. Reality warpers are all potent psychics as well as just being able to change anything, as such they can easily read the minds of everyone in their radius. This is how far you have to be away or else the reality warper instantly knows your plan to kill them and the special artifact you brought along to do it.

Lucidity is the sanity level of the reality warper. This is not the same as Awareness; Lucidity is the X in 10 chance that they process any given information in a way a sane person would. It is highly likely a reality warper will just ignore you if you walk up to them with a gun; they'll assume you're the milk man because of your hat and bag full of clinking ammunition.

When you first create a Reality Warper, roll 1d10 for each stat. Every year reduce their Awareness by one point. Every year, Reality Warpers also have a 1 in 4 chance of increasing their Potency by 1 point, and at the same time, reducing their Lucidity by -1 point. If a Reality Warper has a Potency of 10 and a Lucidity of 1 or 0, they have a 1 in 6 chance of disappearing from Garden forever every single week. Nobody knows where they disappear to, but many believe they create their own universe, or achieve a sort of advanced disassociation that causes them to erase themselves from existing.

What Reality Warpers are Capable Of

These are all the things a Reality Warper can do at a Potence level of 1;

• Change someone's species, features, or biological sex, permanently.
• Curse someone so every single dollar they try to find or spend is lost or wasted somehow. If this curse hits a millionaire they'll be dead from starvation in a few months.
• Give someone a distinct smell that makes everyone they meet want to fuck them.
• Noneuclidan connections between spaces; go through closet to visit neighbor's house
• Conjure any amount of any matter they want.
• Read any person's entire life story, including memories they have forgotten or things they have deluded themselves into believing and knowing about that, just by looking at them.
• Killing anything within their Awareness range, instantly.
• Bring back any dead thing, as long as they possess at least one molecule of their corpse.
• Fly or levitate at any height or speed. Themselves or anyone else they want.
• Create an engine of any horsepower that never runs out of fuel, or a gun that never runs out of bullets, or anything like that.
• Making a place x1000 times bigger on the inside then the outside.
• Make everyone within their Awareness radius forget they exist.
• Reverse time and go back 10xPotence minutes (or Turns equal to Potence). Only they and other Reality Warpers remember what happened in the “first” timeline.
• All of the above and anything else they want.

Whenever a Reality Warper tries to change reality in a way that violates a law of physics, it is ignored totally and the change just happens, that's of little concern. Whenever a Reality Warper tries to change reality in a way that violates logic, have them roll under their Potence level. If it rolls under, it succeeds. If it rolls over, they still succeed by there is a psychic backlash or unforseen consequences. Ie; they create a squared circle but every right angle within a few feet of them curves unnaturally into a circle shape, like bones or gun barrels.

Whenever a reality warper creates something plausible or within existence already; it is indistinguishable from the real thing. It IS the real thing. They can give people mutations or change their forms; from human to animal or alien to another, and these changes are totally permanent. Anything conjured by them that is a regular bit of matter is permanent and totally real; This is the reason why Garden uses paper money. Whenever a reality warper gets down and inflates a hundred million dollars of Garden's currency, the government just switch over the mint to use a new design and new dollar bill. It's happened enough times to be an issue. They can even create or resurrect living beings which are real and will live on to the rest of their biological lifespan, unless if they were created poorly. Impossibly strong monsters or beings made of unnatural materials may die soon after the reality warper is defeated or forgets about them; their biology cannot sustain a creature of the imagination.

When reality warpers create things that are impossible, supernatural, or highly psychically charged however; these things have a limitation. They begin to lose their power after a number of weeks equal to the warper's power score. This includes things like manipulations of luck or fate, localized distortions of the laws of physics, or anything involving extradimensional spaces or time. These gross manipulations of what is and what isn't correct themselves quickly; the blunt laws of reality snap back into place like rubber from the twisting hands of the warper.

Fighting a Reality Warper

You lose.

You can't beat a Reality Warper in a straight up fight. The only way to “beat” them is to destroy what little interests they have out of their zone and to avoid them and their territory at all costs. The sole exception is what happens when two Reality Warpers clash. If you could somehow convince a reality warper (who doesn't want anything) to reduce the powers of a weaker Reality Warper, then you might actually have a chance.

Any reality warper with a potency of 0 remains an incredible psychic and psychokinetic. At 0 Potence, a reality warper has the following stats;

• 10 HD
• Mastery of all unarmed, firearm, and melee martial arts
• Superhuman strength, speed, intelligence, and perception. Treat any stat modifiers as +5
• Can conjure any weapon it wants and use it once each round.
• Regenerates 2d6 Hit Points and 1d6 Psychic Stress per round
• Automatically deflects the first 1d100 bullets, shells, and cartridges fired at it each round.
• Kills anyone it can see, one per round. If you survive the first attempt, it kills you on the second round, regardless of the number of immunizes you've acquired.
• Total freedom of movement, levitates self at fast running speed, break free from all traps, containment, or snares in one round regardless of material or strength.

With enough firepower, it could be possible to defeat a Reality Warper through sheer force of arms and numbers. If so, the Reality Warper cannot revive itself from the dead as long as its body is sufficiently destroyed and ashes scattered to the winds.

What Reality Warpers actually Do

While all this above paints a pretty obvious picture; Reality Warpers are Gods. Something about Garden has awoken incredible power in some individuals. Reality Warpers don't exist on other worlds, even if psychics do, as whatever special feature makes Warpers here doesn't happen anywhere else.

However, Reality Warpers are Gods, but they don't act like it. They're all insane, and almost all of them are incredibly insular. Newly awakened Reality Warpers may be a bit more lucid and aware of the world then others. Many may get involved in local politics, conjure a few hundred kilos of high quality steel to build a new skyscraper, or slaughter entire gangs on their own. But as time goes on, they all become more and more withdrawn from the world. The vast majority of Reality Warpers stay in a single place; usually their old home or place of work, and just exist in a sort of dreamlike fairyland where all of their baggage is aired again and again. Perhaps their old apartment complex which has become like a utopia; the people there without control of their muscles or mouths and seeing everything they are doing and saying as little more then puppetry, a facsimile of kindness and neighborhood. Maybe the reality warper goes back to the job they hated, tormenting their coworkers and boss for years through mutations, constant humiliations, all of them unable to leave or find even the release of death; as they cannot die while the reality warper wishes them to live through his torments.

Once a Reality Warper has gone totally insane, lost their Lucidity, and gained more power and control over reality, they will eventually just leave. Everything inherently impossible they made will stop functioning after a number of weeks equal to their power score they had before they left.

Reality Warpers Table – Roll 1d8

[1] King Leo the First

Potence 4, Awareness 3, Lucidity 4

This lion-like alien is from another world. He lives in an apartment complex whose walls have been dissolved away, an artificial river runs through the floor, old couches and refrigerators turned to stones and sand on the floor. The area within is much larger then the area outside, though the ceiling is still the source of light, it stretches outwards. The various neighbors of all species have been stripped of all clothing and personal items except for loinclothes and primitive weapons. Guns don't work in his domain; everything is based on tribal warfare and primitive spears and shields.

King Leo is delusional and thinks himself as a King of a primitive empire. It has a Lion-King esque power structure, with the Lion and his family on top, noble beasts below, and those are above anything he views as a “cowardly scavenger” like anything resembling a hyena, vulture, or insect. At first, he may have created this “kingdom” simply to rule over his neighbors, but now he has started to fall into routine and may think that this Kingdom is his actual birthright, as he plans to give to his son when he is born.

Unconsciously, King Leo's wife has had her pregnancy extended and delayed for six years. She's still happily pregnant and thinks the baby will come any day, but doesn't know why it won't happen. She also doesn't know why she feels so tired and ready to die all the time. She goes along anyway. Leo's psychic powers are manifesting to keep his son from being born, perhaps as a subconscious desire to not accept Leo's own morality or desire to rule on his own, without sons or daughters or anything else to take it away from him or to share his prestige.

[2] Kamipo

Potence 5, Awareness 6, Lucidity 3

This is a female ice-skipper, a penguinoid race of aliens from a cold planet. Even they miss their weak, blue sun that gave the only life-sustaining heat in their icy world. Kamipo unlocked her psychic powers and currently lives within an underground subway station, part of an abandoned subway network that was built for mass transit. Doors along the train tracks lead off into the white-washed service tunnels of garden. The deeper you go through these tunnels, the colder it gets.

Kamipo is very aware of intruders within her lair, but has little grasp on reality. She views other beings as distractions, who she freezes in place and never lets leave her lair. She stays down here in absolute stillness and the cold. She manipulates the air around her body in a 10 ft radius to be almost absolute zero, but due to her psychic powers she can move and live in that environment. Needless to say, this will instantly freeze any body part coming close to her solid, even the air is sluggish and half liquid, though her reality warping means it doesn't react exactly as you'd expect.

Kamipo has become a bit of a “big game” label, somewhat more famous then some of the loose reality warpers in Garden and due to the many members of the population she has frozen in permafrost many wish to see her dead. This may also be the cause of some of her paranoia; the constant swirling of cold air around her body is to freeze bullets solid and slow them to a crawl before they touch her, not that she has let her skin and downy feathers retain their normal weakness from when she was a mortal. Regardless, there is a bounty of $100,000 on her head.

[3] Ozy

Potence 7, Awareness 2, Lucidity 2

His physical form is gone. Whatever species or type of being this once was, perhaps even female though now presents with a masculine and domineering voice, it is nothing but a spirit. His “body” is a shroud of fabrics that constantly fold and clean themselves ever moment, immune to being lit on fire and a dark mass where the face in the folds of the shroud would could speak to you.

Even as far as reality warpers go, Ozy is powerful. There is a great buzz of unreality when you are nearby his, thankfully, short range. He typically spends his time in the destroyed ruins of an old factory where he was “awakened” to his powers. Since then, a great fence has been erected around the place and people are warned heavily to stay away. He has not moved from that spot since then, and seemingly has no interest in the outside world or his continued gloomy self introspection. He spends all his time sitting on a half melted throne of chrome and iron, forged together from materials found in the factory, and staring at a wall while thinking to himself.

As a final note; there is a great number of rumors that people who climb the fence and visit this living god will be rewarded with a wish at random, if they go to him when he is in the right move or they have a righteous cause. There is seemingly no known origin for this myth, and as such it is believed to originate from the warper himself, perhaps to see how far people will go to chase an ideal. It is likely that within the next few years, Ozy will ascend to a higher plane of being or disappear from Garden as whatever is left of his sanity and universal awareness fade to nothing.

[4] Heavy Eyes

Potence 2, Awareness 1, Lucidity 8

This creature is a relatively new reality warper. They are from a genderless species of strange, doll-like people with set facial expressions from when they were born. “Heavy Eyes” looks like they're half asleep all the time, when in reality they have awakened to a cosmic level of being. However, for a reality warper they are quite weak, and are not in full control of their powers, requiring to be in the same room and taking a round to force any change on the world by staring at their target and concentrating while mumbling to themselves.

In exchange for their relative weakness, Heavy Eyes is much more sane and “awake” to the world then most reality warpers, and for the past few months has been trying to find ways to “help” people. Unfortunately, several warring factions such as an aggressive expansionist work union and a few street gangs have been trying to align Heavy Eyes against their enemies or make them fabulously wealthy by conjuring masses of money and gold for them, and as such the doll is soon going to be burnt out of trying to help people entirely. Social isolation is the eventual reality for all reality-warpers, but this will only speed up a loss of lucidity into mental decay.

Finally, Heavy Eyes as a person seems to be well meaning but idealistic. Those with sleeping psychic powers who speak to this being will find it moving to touch them; its touch unlocking their psychic powers and causing a few days of intense insomnia as their mind adjusts to the new powers. Heavy Eyes has also accidentally killed a few people this way, its touch having caused a sort of psychic resonance where the person turns inside out and dies pitifully. Heavy Eyes will always reach to their own eyes in shock and panic, and then within a moment, delete the memory from their own mind. It has no recollection of these events, and refuses to accept them even if you tried to prove it to the entity. While more sane then any other current known reality warper, it is still prone to bouts of irrationality to defend itself.

[5] Burnstar

Potence 5, Awareness 7, Lucidity 0

This reality warper is a strange exception. Having no “mind” left to speak of, it is merely a psychic manifestation that goes without thought or ending. Burnstar appears as a burning ball of plasma that falls in on itself each second, before billowing back out in fractal patterns. It has no understanding of the world or of sentient beings, but is aware of its surroundings and has a decent level of power.

Burnstar appears once every few hours randomly in the city, usually hovering over a building or interstate. For most people, they will see it in the distant as a bright street lamp and pay it no mind, but those who pass under the being may find themselves starting to sweat as it burns their skin through radiation. It may take an interest in something unusual, or strangely people wearing the color green, floating over them and following them around for a large distance. It is very difficult to lose the Burnstar once it has noticed you, usually only losing interest if you escape to the underground tunnels where it refuses to follow or you are dead and become a charred corpse.

It is highly likely that whatever psychic echo created the burnstar will wear off in the next few weeks as its lucidity means it has deleted itself from being.

[6] Cruise Malta

Potence 3, Awareness 1, Lucidity 6

Cruise was once a industrial worker turned rogue. Killing several of his coworkers after being laid off from his job, he developed a racially motivated killing urge against several species in Garden, as they made naturally better workers then his race. His rage and hatred seemed to also unlock his psychic potential, and with focus Cruise was able to transform his physical body.

Since those days, “Mr.Malta” as he is called is plastered with sheets of metal welded to his body, with rivets drilled into his skin and bones painfully to keep them together. Without his reality warping powers he would have died of infection or organ damage a long time ago, but as of now he's nearly indestructible. Unlike other reality warpers, he rarely uses his powers directly to change reality or emit energy, instead of he mostly just uses his supernatural physical strength and speed to destroy things in his own way.

In the past few years, Malta's mind state has deteriorated and he stalks an old trainyard. His mental state is such that several greedy conductors have been able to get him working for them; pushing train spikes into the ground, twisting sheet metal into place, loading and unloading cargo, even picking up and moving entire train cars. However it must be carefully monitored who goes near him, else if one of his hated races appears nearby he will fly off into another rage that may take weeks to die back down again. Unless Malta's creativity and intelligence increases over time, it is unlikely his potence stat will increase over time and as a result his lucidity will drop from it. It seems like being a reality warper means also needing a certain amount of creative force or imagination to power the changes, as Malta lacks most of those traits and mostly just judges things as they appear.

[7] Briers

Potence 9, Awareness 8, Lucidity 1

Among all the reality warpers, Briers is the most feared but well understood. She only cares about one thing; a single special object. This object is a pair of reading glasses with one lens removed. It is old and dusty, stained with a foreign yellow smear over the left rim, and despite this it is one of the most revered objects in Garden due to their reality warper's influence.

As far as everyone knows, this Reality Warper has no physical body, or her body remains asleep underneath the ground at all times. Any consciousness she has is abstract during this time, or perhaps instigating the psychic web of connections and fate that tie the city folk together, perhaps why these glasses keep being found again whenever lost. The reality warper is incredibly powerful and dangerous, but remains in this totally dormant state until someone touches the glasses. If you wear the glasses it grants a mystic sight in the remaining lens; you can see psychic energy in people and flowing through the air, and it also grants a +2 bonus to psychic attacks by anyone who wear them.

However, once someone has touched the glasses, Briers begins to look for them. Her psychic power has incredible range and perception, meaning that with each night it sweeps the city to find the person who touched the glasses, and homes in on them, hence her high awareness score. Once she has found them, several strange and unfortunate accidents beings to befall them, and plant life nearby them begins to become agitated and grow faster and stronger. Within a week, they are always found dead with their body being torn apart and decomposed by numerous brier-barbed plant tendrils growing through walls or mattresses, burrowing into their body and ripping them apart. It is almost impossible to hide from this entity once you have woken it up, even the mysterious service tunnels which most reality warpers seem to instinctively avoid she will reach to kill you with ther powers.

Strangely, while this reality warper has no known mind or personality, she seems to have enough lucidity and sanity left to spare exactly two people; the first is her great granddaughter who was the ones who found the cursed glasses and lost them the first time, and was never killed by her power. The second person was a museum coordinator, who after finding the glasses respectfully cleaned them, repaired them, took photographs, and kept it on display for a few months in a glass case until they were stolen. This person treated the glasses with such respect that the entity seemed to not have any ill will towards them, or it could be a long lost family or old friend who the entity knew back when they were a normal person. It is unknown how much longer this warper will remain in the city; most with high levels of power and low lucidity burn out shortly, but with Briers and her obsession with the pair of glasses she may remain until they are destroyed or lost forever.

[8] Gye Oceans

Potence 6, Awareness 4, Lucidity 4

Once a fairly standard musician down in his luck in Garden, he had since unlocked a great power inherent in the playing of his music. Around him now is a constant droning beat, which is muffled through walls and sounds very much like soft bar or speakeasy music, this noise somehow stretching for a city block or so around him in all directions. Those who live nearby it often question if a new place has opened up, just before it leaves the very next night. Gye is a mobile reality warper, which is not the standard for these beings.

Every few days, Gye will set up and move somewhere else. He will transform himself into different forms, different species and looks, and play music on the sidewalk to panhandle for music. This is not an uncommon sight in Garden. Those who do not provide coins for Gye will be cursed by his reality warping power- they will receive bad luck for a whole day. Treat all rolls of 2 as a roll of 1 instead.

The true terror of Gye is if he encounters another musician. If you carry an instrument, or claim to be able to play music to any level above an amateur, Gye will take interest and stalk you. When he has cornered or isolated the musician, he uses his power to strap them down and take off their skull and skin on their head; painless and gorelessly opening a hole into their body to examine their brain. He seems to have some kind of ability to psychically detach body parts and warp them to examine them closely, and can seemingly spot “talent” and “inspiration” inside his victim's brains. It is unknown how these abstract quantities actually exist in their brains, or if this is merely a delusional brought on by his reality warping abilities. He will then take away the “skill” of the player and seal their head back up. Unfortunately for the victims, this reality warping power doesn't stave off all of reality; losing skill in music usually means losing most fine motor control of the fingers, become illiterate, developing a mild form of epilepsy, and sometimes infections and death if bacteria enters the brain during his “surgery”. For this reason, Garden's Big Brass Band gang has a price on his head, and treat him a bit like a boogeyman, even though there is very little they can do against a reality warping demigod.

Mental Labyrinths

In the same way a realm of spirits can be thought of as a physical thing, a mind can be a physical thing too. Not on its own, of course, but one can enter it. One can use the gates of astral travel, or powerful spells, or shrinking powders, or a psychic bridge more powerful then most. Then, you step inside the head of a sleeping person and enter their dream as a passenger.

Of course, within a person's mind, things are unsteady. You are bombarded with memories, trains of thought, imaginations. People and objects become idealized- it is best if you only enter someone's mind if they do not know you, else you will be subtly changed by the experience. If the target of this intrusion thinks of you as an annoying braggart; you will become arrogant and useless as you sit back and take the credit for everything. Women grow extra cup sizes in the minds of men, and men become whimpering, doddering fools talking about their “emotions” in the minds of women. Such things are best avoided, and are simply troublesome for everyone involved. Every few minutes, the dream will shift again and again, following a train of thought to new destinations only partially connected.

But there is a deeper part to the mind. Beyond the surface level, beyond basic dreams and experiences. There is something called the Labyrinth. It resides inside everyone; it is a connection of the person's core beliefs, cherished memories, skills, self experiences and closest secrets and loves. Naturally it is a very attractive targets for thieves and explorers; you can find out anyone's secrets here. Within the mindscape of the labyrinth, you can even find and manipulate a person's skills and magic. It is more then possible to cut away a Fighting-Man's inbuilt reflexes and well oiled moves and turn him into a limp wristed pansy, barely capable of holding his sword anymore. Making a wise old wizard into a senile simpleton is just as obvious. But the Labyrinth is deep and dark- needless to say, it is an adventure to venture here. Within the mind, you are as real as a thought, and anything that you could imagine harming you could actually harm you here.

The Labyrinth seems to almost have an inbuilt defense against intruders like yourself; certain beings manifest from the thoughts and dreams of the person. The religious have statues of their most beloved Gods here within their mind- watching over even this place. Nightmares and negative emotions are actual beasts here. Traps in the labyrinth slide down into trauma from the past, hidden just beneath the surface. Their imaginary friend from childhood is still with them; it is the Minotaur that wanders the halls. The person whose labyrinth you explore is very much master here- if they become aware of your presence within their mind and are conscious; even a novice can make things even harder and could forcibly eject you. Masters of psychic warfare and psychology may well be able to trap you within their mind-maze at their own desire; letting them torment you further or even killing the intruders with the sheer force of their will and imagination. Of course- to the intruders, the ire of the owner of the mind they are invading will appear as black storms, or sudden hoards of jeering townsfolk in an angry mob; you are the unwelcome monster here.

The Mental Labyrinth

Each person has a unique maze within their mind. It can only be entered with specific spells and a magical journey. The maze has walls and floors that mimic the person's own life and personality- the labyrinth twists and turns along with their memories and thoughts. The traits of the individual make up the Labyrinth's details and the details of the mind.

The walls of the labyrinth are the place where the person feels at most most comfortable. This may well be a childhood home, the clean walls of a sanitarium, or it could be the rough hewn walls of stone, present in the masterful minds of dungeon crawlers and treasure collectors. It is where someone feels most “in their element”. The light of the Labyrinth is also based on the person's own nature and secrecy. Honest men have honest hearts; and in their Labyrinths the air is practically glowing. You won't even need to burn a torch, it may as well lit a summer's day. But most normal people with a few secrets, and especially those of criminal background or the guilty, will have darker and darker dungeons. The Labyrinths of spy masters, secret keepers, and dark people will have thick fog and heavy shadow that makes it even harder to navigate.

Depending on the creature's Intelligence score, the Labyrinth's details and interior spaces are changed. Creatures with a very high intelligence will have a mindscape which is well established in detail and landmarks. The layout of the Labyrinth will be relatively stable, you can map it out. You can look at the walls and see cracks. The monsters in their mind, memories or imaginings, have plausible biology and anatomy. If you are invading the mind of a creature with lower Intelligence however, the labyrinth will be vague. Instead of mapping on a grid- map the maze as a “point crawl”, with only the major things sticking out. Inbetween these points of interest the hallways lack any detail and are simply suggestions of forms. The creatures too are affected; blobby approximations. You can cut off a limb and the resultant stump will be a cartoon with a bone and generic pink flesh around it. Mouths end at the throat; no digestive system is needed for such cardboard stand-ins.

Depending on the creature's Wisdom score, the maze will denizens with their own goals, personalities, and factions. Those with high Wisdom will know the connections between people, and there will be a deeper level of interaction with the creatures of the maze. This does not necessarily equate to benevolence or neutrality- but more to a consistent and real “personality” to the place. Higher Wisdom scores also indicate a deeper level of religious and spiritual understanding; puzzles involving symbolism and the deeper cultural subtext will be created within the mind. Those with Higher Wisdom are also said to have a “rich inner life” and will have a more beautiful labyrinth, though this combines with Charisma as for artistic talents. Those with lower Wisdom will instead have a demographically barren labyrinth; few if any personalities will spawn within their mind, their motivations banal and pointless. Low Wisdom people may have Labyrinths that lack any kind of personal touch; any given part of it won't seem to be a part of “them”, as they lack that will. Those with Low Wisdom will even suffer from their own monsters and censor-beasts lacking somewhat in conviction; after all, only a very religious, empathetic man will truly know the full depth of evil a Balrog lives and breathes.

Depending on the creature's Charisma score, the maze with become more or less powerful and difficult to escape. This seems backwards; those with high Wisdom but low Charisma will have artistic, rich personal dungeons with talkative manifestations. This is because Wisdom and Charisma are used for different purposes; Charisma is however about force of will and personality as an OUTWARD force- and those factors bring great power to the mind-maze, where as Wisdom is more an INWARD force, the power of ones own convictions. Those with Higher Charisma are better apt to change the people who enter their mind, subconsciously or not, and will have higher walls, stronger creatures, and more vivid emotions. Those with powerful Charisma will have rolling waves of emotions or memories that intruders will feel grip them as though possessed by them. Those with weak Charisma, on the other hand, will have less passionate and less powerful labyrinths as a whole. The traps lack the sharp spikes of spite, the jokes and references to their personal life won't have the edge of a well timed joke. Escape a Labyrinth of a person with low Charisma is relatively easy, simply slip out and be forgotten, where as one with High Charisma will drag intruders in even deeper and harder to escape their innate magnetism.

The Alignment of the individual is also important to their mental labyrinth. Those with a more Lawful alignment will have tight right angles, well placed walls, and symmetrical layouts, where as those with a more Chaotic element will have organic walls that curve, chambers of varying sizes, randomly sized doors and so forth. The Good to Evil axis is more abstract, since everyone thinks they're at least a little bit good on the inside or justifies their behaviors- instead Good and Evil will manifest more as clouds of energy; positive if more Good, and negative if more Evil. Because this in the imagination, the fogs of positive energy will heal wounds and bolster holy and white magic, where as the mists of negative energy will degrade equipment, deal damage over time, drain levels with extended exposure, and empower undead. Of course, like-minded individuals exploring another person's mental maze will be more at home and rewarded for sharing the same alignment as the owner; but Evil creatures tend to be backstabbing and not work well with each other, so in this case it makes sense that the evil mists still hurt other evil creatures; but they COULD act as a force that is used to empower dark spells regardless, or act as healing mist for intelligent undead and evil-high priests and the like.

Finally the being's age and Experience level will indicate the size, depth, and complexity of their labyrinth. Children, simple races like goblins and kobolds, or a grown simpleton will have only a few turns, their whole labyrinth being no more then a few rooms of their most important features. Adults, adventurers, and monsters with a few HD will be more complex, at least those with minds and histories. The biggest, meanest purple worm isn't going to have a maze in their brain at all, because they don't really have one. The immortals, elves and ancient wizards, have massive, sprawling labyrinths. These beings may even have different “wings” of the labyrinth, each one representing a different period of their lives or where they reinvented themselves. The entire place is filled with lovers who died of old age, forgotten events from history, treasures that have long since been melted down back into gold and sold off in the real world from ages ago. This is probably the best way to talk to a dead man from a history book; but it will not be them as truly as they were, but how the individual whose mind you are sneaking around in saw that historical figure when they knew them.

Threats of the Labyrinth

Every exploration turn, you are faced with a Manifestation Roll, which is equivalent to a wandering monster roll. Instead of the roll being based on how encumbered, slow, or loud your party is moving; it is based on how aware the mind is of your intrusion. If you are wearing colors that go against their own personal tastes, are members of races they do not like or are unused to, if you are acting against the flow of their mind and so on you are making them more and more aware of your presence. This makes it more likely that a roiling manifestation of their mind reaches you.

Instead of using a normal 1 in 6 roll to determine wandering encounters, consider using a “roll a 18 or higher” on a d20. This equates to a 15%, close to a 1 in 6 at 16.66%

This way, you can add more modifiers for smaller breaches in conduct; add a +1 for each infraction.

It should also be noted here that the Labyrinth is at least partially in the “subconscious”, meaning it isn't quite as variable or easily as to control as the raw mindscape and imagination of the person. If the person becomes aware of you, they can't just immediately wipe you out by imagining you disappearing into nonexistence, as long as you are in the Labyrinth. Of course, if the person is aware of you inside their mind, they can focus to give you a manifestation roll every single exploration turn, with greater levels of control to those who have more Charisma and willpower. Of course, even this isn't fullproof- people sometimes find surprises within their own mind.

Manifestation Table- Roll 1d6

[1] Memory. There are memories in the form of portraits (to remember faces), maps (to remember places), and objects (to remember events) scattered all throughout the labyrinth. But sometimes specific memories manifest directly as snippets; glowing ghostly phantasms act out the memory. Disrupting the memory will cause awareness to grow from the Labyrinth's owner, but can also permanently alter their perception of an event. Also if anyone who has gone into the other person's mind to invade their Labyrinth was in this event in the memory; then the memory will not feature a clone of them but they must act out their role in that memory as the owner remembers it. This can also lead to clues about the invasion of their mind; you remember someone meeting you at the fancy dress gala, but in your memory they're wearing bloody armor with swords and rags. To the educated and powerful, jarring events like this in memory that nobody else seems to be remember is a very telling sign of someone sneaking around inside your brain.

[2] Imaginations. These are beings wholly created from imagination, and may be either supportive of the creator of the labyrinth (sharing alignment, protecting it, etc.) or may be against the creator, as though from a tortured psyche or moody artist. Imaginations are similar to illusions; you can make a saving throw modified by wisdom to disbelieve them, but in the mindscape everything is partially illusionary, and as such the illusions can still interact with the world but simply cannot hurt you unless you allow them to. This still requires a successful save, even though you know they are “fake”.

Imaginations can exist as any kind of creature, person with any equipment, or even made up and fictional creatures which cannot or do not exist in the “real” world of the fantasy space.

[3] Moods. Moods appear as colorful ghosts or spectral versions of the labyrinth's master themselves- they always act according to the mood. Moods are stated as spellcasters, and can shift the labyrinth around them based around their emotional states. Moods get reaction checks when encountered, which indicates how reasonable or clouded they actually are based on their mood or emotion. Very low rolls will make an anger elemental attack you out of habit, where as a high roll would indicate a bit more nuance and being able to actually have a conversation.

[4] Static. Strange half formed ideas, boiling emotions, or half-forgotten dreams struggling not to die among the eddies of the master's mind. They appear like flaming orbs or cubes of shapes, with suggestions of shapes and voices. Less of a creature and more of a hazard; flies down corridors in a haze of change. Make a save to duck out of the way or take 2d6 damage.

[5] Custodians. These are like spirit guides, memories of teachers and mentors, positive spirits or ideas, or other usually friendly beings inhabiting a person's mind. While they are usually of inner origin, some of them may be actual angels putting good ideas in their heads, or ancestral spirits granting old knowledge or magical power by realigning the stones of the mental labyrinth.

Roll a reaction check when interacting with a custodians. Only if you are obvious or a bad result is listed will they realize you are foreign to the mind maze, and will otherwise be helpful, granting advice or directions.

[6] Censors. These are among the dangerous threats in the Labyrinth, as they are specifically designed to hunt beings like yourself within a foreign mind. Everyone has Censor-Beasts inside their head, roving around to remove astral parasites or dark influencers. People sucked into another's mindscape count as foreign bodies in their heads, and the Censors have the innate ability to sniff you out. You must make a successful stealth check each time you encounter them, even if you defeat them in combat, and on a failure the alarm is raised and the person's whose mind you are within realizes something is wrong. This is another reason why delving a person's mind is much easier if they are willing to the procedure or otherwise knocked out so Censors don't awaken them to your plot.

Censor Beasts (2+2 HD, +3 to hit, Bite at 1d8, Erasure at 1d4, tracking, howl)

Morale: 17

Numbers: 2d3 in Labyrinth, 1d2 in Outer Mindscape, 2d8 near Labyrinth Center

The Censors are powerful psychically driven beings who appear as the individual's mind would perceive a ruthless, tireless hunter. For the vast majority of people, this would be a hunting dog or group of wolves, hence the name, but just as often they are monstrous looking city guards or patrolling orc justice-makers. Censors Beasts have two attacks; a “bite” which could also just as easily be a sword slash or short fire breath attack based on their manifestation, and their Erasure. Erasure only works on foes who stand still long enough for it to erase part of their being, and as such highly Dexterous fighters (+2 or better) avoid the erasure entirely.

Being erased is a lot worse then being harmed. If your character is actually physically present within another being's mind, such as through a portal or powerful spell, then when the Erasure move deals 4 damage on a hit, they take a level in level drain. Part of their being is deleted and they look and feel slightly transparent and wraith-like, which gets worse the more they are drained. If your character is not physically present in the Labyrinth, and are invading through magical and psychic manifestations or are otherwise using a proxy, then the Erasure beam deals 2d6 damage to their avatar instead.

Finally; Censor-Beasts are hunters. They exist to destroy rogue bodies like yourself within the very mind you are plumbing. They can track like dogs can by scent (though in this case, it's thought). The only way to avoid being tracked is to meditate and move without thought or leaving your 'mark' on anything mentally. Don't describe or interact with the environment. You'd have to move without mapping in order for you to lose a patrol of these beasts, which means you'll also be getting lost. Finally, Censor Beasts will 'howl' upon the death of their last, which forces another wandering monster check. If it succeeds, then the wandering monster encountered will always be another pack of Censor Beasts. In the unlikely event these Censor Beasts flee combat, then they don't howl and instead fall back to dissipate into the mind.

Treasures of the Labyrinth Table – Roll 1d6

[1] Secrets. Private memories, dirt, shameful things, and so on found in the Labyrinth. Sometimes found in memory snippets, sometimes find in abstract locked rooms or dusty corners, sometimes manifested as the prize to win in a highly defended “dungeon”. Can be used as blackmail against the person whose mind and privacy you are invading. Doesn't require anything special, just finding it and remembering it is is enough to learn their dirty secrets.

[2] Skill. The “well of experience” appears as a literal well with shimmering gold liquid. It may also appear as small piles of coins (such as coins won in successful duels) or little portraits with moments of success from the labyrinth owner's life. This is their abstract experience. Each “load” unit you find and take is equal to 500 experience points, which is lost from the owner and given to whoever absorbs it first. Stealing from monsters/NPCs will instead cause a lose in HD and related abilities. Characters who are in line with the archetype get the full experience value, but characters who are on a different path may only receive half experience as it doesn't help them learn as well.

Note that as an abstract item, it may not manifest in the real world correctly and may simply dissipate like a dream when you leave the Labyrinth, unless you have a special container that can keep something abstract like an idea in a physical form.

[3] Abilities. Similar to skills above, but this could be about entire specific abilities the person has instead. Magically or psychically you could take out a person's ability to speak a certain language, to pick locks, a blade art, or a specific spell or group of spells. When taken out of the person's mind, these will manifest as an item that can be worn to grant that ability to somebody else. Spells turn up as scrolls or can be transcribed on scrolls; which can then be cast or used to write in a spellbook as normal. While not totally realistic or in-line with the fiction, it may be possible to do things like steal a snake person's ability to create venom and forge it into a vial that refills itself with venom every new moon instead. Stealing or trading innate powers into magical items.

[4] Friends. The minds of people contain imaginary friends from their childhood, half forgotten faces of people they haven't seen for years, and even passengers and beings from the astral planes or shared through thoughts. While most of these beings will have a great deal of loyalty, even love, for the progenitor of the Labyrinth, they may also see a chance to leave as beneficial. Outside of a person's mind though, these beings are either like living illusions or ghosts without bodies in the physical world, but inviting them into your own mind could act a bit like a helpful custodian within yourself, acting as an extra guardian. In these cases, you can always speak to this being while its inside your own head just with a thought, letting you gain advice or companionship. Even while physically alone.

[5] Identities. Using the magic of names, or some kind of super Rogue-Disguise power, stealing the “faces” or “names “ from within the mind of a person could allow one to disguise themselves in real life. After all, the mask made from the memory of a dead man will pass much better then a second or third hand retelling of the man's appearance. Also speaking magically, stealing some bits of a person's mind could be a powerful method to create “proxies” of them; voodoo dolls weaved from cloth found in a person's own mind could create a very powerful method to control them or protect yourself from their arcane witchdoctory.

[6] Actual treasure. While uncommon, it is possible for certain things inside people's minds to be valuable in and of themselves. For example, a rush of positive emotions or a feeling of comfort could be taken from a mind and given to someone else for a payment. Certain creatures, like some fantasy versions of dwarves or nonhumans in general, may not be capable of “true” creativity and as such stealing the creative spark from inside a human brain will allow that being to become truly creative, but of course robbing these qualities from your first subject makes them incapable of them and leaves them permanently decreased in their quality of life. There is also always the chance of a fantasy wizard storing something valuable or like a pile of gold in someone's subconscious; this is why after a particularly good dream they find a gold coin on their pillow when they wake up. Must have slipped out of their ear.