Lifeweb

Monitors
Every wraith's existence, at least in her initial Restless years, hinges on her connections to the
living world. Early wraiths sought to understand or transcend their condition by studying these
links. Understanding the bonds preventing Transcendence, reincarnation, or passage to a
particular faith's promised afterlife has always been a common goal. Over millennia of
experimentation, scores of the Restless have rediscovered or spontaneously re-created Lifeweb,
the Arcanos that grants awareness of a wraith's ties to the living – and, with deeper study, enables
her to affect both her own connections and those of other wraiths.
Basic Lifeweb techniques focus on the links between a Monitor and her Fetters. Indeed, the
uninitiated tend to think of Lifeweb as dealing exclusively in Fetters. Subtler and less common
arts, however, allow the Monitor to peer deeper into another wraith's existence, perceiving
Haunts, mortal associates, and even the memories the Quick hold of the subject. Such insight
can provide early warning of threats to the things a wraith holds dear or unlock the self-
awareness necessary for the first steps toward Transcendence. It also can reveal an enemy's
dearest weaknesses.
Guildmarks
Monitors never close their eyes. Ever.
Some Monitors, enamored of their Arcanos' symbolism, affect styles in which webs and spiders
feature prominently. Older guildwraiths find this gauche, if not a foolhardy taunt for the many
Restless who hold prejudices against the guild.
The Guild
The Monitors' Guild has never distinguished itself by its claim to Lifeweb, but rather by the uses
to which it puts its signature Arcanos. Like Lifeweb itself, organizations similar to today's
Monitors have arisen and disappeared repeatedly throughout Stygia's recorded history. The
modern guild traces its origin to the early Byzantine Empire, when mortal turmoil reflected in the
Shadowlands made it difficult for many wraiths to personally watch over Fetters scattered by the
winds of change. The first Monitors offered their services exclusively to Stygian nobility's upper
ranks, but as the guild swelled with apprentices, it eventually welcomed the oboli of the average
wraith on the street.
Access to Imperial society's highest strata offered many opportunities. When combined with
ever-increasing refinements of Lifeweb's oracular arts, the temptation to intrigue proved
irresistible to many Monitors. The guild rapidly insinuated itself into every aspect of Stygian
politics. A faction without a Monitor on retainer to blackmail its opponents or threaten their
Fetters with destruction operated at a lethal disadvantage. From there, it was a short step for the
Monitors to apply such leverage for their own agendas, abandoning their ostensible masters for
the pursuit of personal or guild power.
In the end, the Monitors went too far. Centuries of duplicity, threats, and intrusion left them with
few friends in the guildhalls and fewer in the citadels. Many Stygian officials took the Breaking
as an invitation to escape blackmail or worse, and fugitive Monitors found every door barred to
them. Those who escaped the forges remained on the run far longer than most other
guildwraiths. Even today, the Monitors are a paranoid lot, as ongoing misdeeds and abuses of
Lifeweb perpetuate their historical reputation.
Factions
Before the Breaking, the Monitors were a multifaceted jewel of treachery and plotting, with the
occasional shining altruist or plodding tradesman standing aloof from the hundred shifting
factions. Survival imperatives erased many of these differences during the years of flight. The
modern Monitors' Guild maintains few orders or established lodges, though members tend to
coalesce around shared agendas, some of which they inherited from pre-Breaking factions.
Mentors work to locate and Reap new wraiths and acclimate them to the Shadowlands, either to
rebuild the guild's reputation through good works or to gain early leverage over fresh lemures.
Marmarans carry on the Monitors' unsavory tradition of political meddling, occasionally
coalescing into short-lived cabals that dissolve in frenzies of backstabbing. Spinners try to stick
to business, offering Lifeweb services and (rarely) instruction for hire. Tsuchigumo are Lifeweb-
empowed petty criminals, running protection rackets on other wraiths' Fetters or linking victims
to Fetters that are about to be destroyed.
Lifeweb Systems
Under normal circumstances Fetters reside in the Skinlands, so when a Lifeweb art affects a
Fetter, the difficulty is the Shroud rating at that Fetter's location. If the Fetter somehow wound
up in the Underworld, the difficulty is 7 if it's in the Shadowlands, 8 if it's in the Tempest, and 9
if it's in the Labyrinth, closest to Oblivion.
Even the subtlest Lifeweb uses can have an observer effect, potentially warning the target that
the Monitor is examining him. When a wraith is subject to any Lifeweb art that isn't
immediately obvious through other means, he may make a Perception + Awareness roll. One
success alerts him to the fact that someone's toying with part of his being; with three or more
successes, he identifies the Monitor as the source.
• Sense Strands (Modern)
The Monitor develops a constant intuitive awareness of her Fetters' surroundings. By
concentrating on one, she can extend her perceptions to its immediate vicinity.
System: Once the wraith learns this art, she always knows where her Fetters are. No roll is
necessary.
When the Monitor extends her senses to one of her Fetters, the player rolls Perception + Lifeweb.
Each success on this roll allows her to use one die of her normal Perception + Alertness pool to
survey the Fetter's location.
If the player spends 1 Pathos when activating this art, she also may assess the Fetter's location
with a Perception + Awareness roll, subject to the same dice pool limit.
• Vibrations in the Web (Ancient)
While Sense Strands focuses on the Monitor's own Fetters, this complementary art extends her
perceptions outward, enabling her to perceive the connections between other wraiths and their
Fetters.
System: When the Monitor examines another wraith, the player player spends 1 Pathos and rolls
Perception + Lifeweb. The target may resist with Willpower if he desires. Each net success
gives the Monitor one piece of information about one of the target's Fetters: location, physical
description, or emotional significance to the target.
The Monitor also may examine an object or person to determine if it is a Fetter. Again, the
player spends 1 Pathos and rolls Perception + Lifeweb. Each net success gives the Monitor one
piece of information about one wraith who has the target as a Fetter: location, physical
description, or emotional relationship with the Fetter. If the Monitor is trying to determine
whether the subject is a Fetter for a particular wraith, this is the first piece of information she
gleans.
•• Strand Channel (Modern)
The wraith can extend her presence to a Fetter, channeling her voice and Arcanoi as if she were
standing beside it.
System: The player spends 2 Pathos and rolls Intelligence + Lifeweb. For one turn per success,
the wraith may use any Arcanos art she knows as if she were at the Fetter's location (though she
may still use them normally at her own location if she so chooses). She also may speak through
the Fetter, with her voice seeming to originate from it.
If the wraith isn't already using Sense Strands to perceive her Fetter's location, every two
successes on the roll to activate Strand Channel count as one success for Sense Strands. This
applies even if the Monitor doesn't know Sense Strands.
•• Echoes in the Web (Ancient)
Once the Monitor learns to perceive the energy traces that bind the Restless to their Fetters, she
can refine this sense to uncover more subtle relationships between the wraith and the world of
the Quick. Movement in the Web reveals the emotional resonance between a given wraith and
the collective minds of humanity.
System: The player spends 1 Pathos and makes a resisted Perception + Lifeweb roll against the
target's Willpower. Each success reveals one key fact about one of the target's Backgrounds that
involves a connection to the living. Typically, these will be mortal Allies, Contacts, or Mentors,
a Haunt, a Legacy, a Grave, or Memoriam. If the scrutinized wraith has none of these
Backgrounds, that's useable information, too...
••• Splice Strand (Modern)
From sensing and using existing Fetters, the Monitor moves to building new connections to the
world of the Quick. Through intense concentration and physical contact with a person, place, or
thing, she can establish a temporary Fetter bond with it – or between it and another wraith.
System: The character first touches the living being, place, or material object that she wants to
make into a temporary Fetter. The player spends 3 Pathos and rolls Intelligence + Lifeweb.
With any successes, the target becomes a new one-dot Fetter for the Monitor.
During the same scene, the Monitor may transfer the temporary Fetter from herself to another
wraith, whom she must touch. The player spends 1 additional Pathos and rolls Intelligence +
Lifeweb (difficulty 7). If the subject wraith is unwilling, this becomes a resisted roll against his
Willpower, and the Monitor's Shadow gains 1 temporary Angst. If the Monitor succeeds, the
temporary Fetter transfers from her to the target wraith.
The effects of Splice Strand last for one day per initial success (use the worse of the two results if
the Monitor transferred the temporary Fetter). After that, the wraith holding the temporary Fetter
may pay 1 Pathos per day to maintain it. No wraith may have more than one temporary Fetter at
a time through this art.
The Monitor may use Splice Strand to repair the effect of Sever Strand. All difficulties increase
by 1, but success restores the Fetter at its full strength and permanence (and ongoing Pathos
maintenance is unnecessary).
••• Web Parasite (Ancient)
A Monitor who fully understands another wraith's reflections in mortal memories can attune
herself to those connections, siphoning off their power as if they were her own. In doing so, she
also assumes a portion of her victim's psyche. It's an unsettling metamorphosis, but one that's
necessary to deceive the Underworld's metaphysics. Oblivion, of course, is not so easily fooled,
and the Monitor's Shadow sometimes gains unpleasant insight into the victim – insight that the
victim's Shadow cheerfully shares when Web Parasite's effects lapse.
System: The Monitor must understand (through Movement in the Web or basic investigation)
another wraith's connection to a Legacy or Memoriam Background and must be in a place with
an actual or symbolic connection to the Background in question. The player spends 1 Willpower
and rolls Perception + Lifeweb (difficulty of the local Shroud rating). Each success transfers 1
dot of the Background from its rightful owner to the Monitor. The Monitor gains the target
wraith's strongest Passion at 1 dot.
The Monitor's Shadow gains 1 Angst per success. It also gains the strongest Dark Passion of the
target wraith's Shadow at 1 dot.
Web Parasite's effects last for one day (save for the Angst, which functions normally). The
player can extend it indefinitely at the cost of 1 Willpower per day, though each time she does
this, the Monitor's Shadow also gains 1 additional temporary Angst. This art is immediately
obvious, though the victim doesn't automatically know who's leeching his connections to the
Quick.
•••• Sever Strand (Modern)
This unwholesome art empowers the Monitor to tear wraiths away from their Fetters.
Unfortunate victims of Sever Strand suffer the usual effects of losing Fetters, plunging straight
into Harrowings. Sever Strand also closely resembles the dark arts by which some Spectres can
rend Fetters, a fact which some critics have used to question the Monitors' Guild's too-keen
interest in the Labyrinth.
System: The Monitor must touch the target Fetter. The player spends 2 Pathos and 1 Willpower
and makes a resisted Intelligence + Lifeweb roll against the Fetter owner's Willpower. Each net
success reduces the Fetter by 1 dot and grants the Monitor's Shadow 1 temporary Angst.
If a Fetter is reduced in power but not completely severed, it recovers one lost dot per hour. A
wraith whose Fetter is severed through this art (and who survives the subsequent Harrowing)
may reattach the Fetter by touching it and spending a permanent Willpower dot. Alternately, he
may use Splice Strand (or seek out a friendlier Monitor) to repair the damage.
•••• Walk the Web (Ancient)
Drawing on the spiritual tug of a Fetter, the Monitor can travel to it with breathtaking speed.
This allows not only convenient travel for ordinary business but a swift rescue of a threatened
Fetter. However, a wise Monitor looks before leaping – threatening a Fetter to lure a wraith into
ambush is a time-honored tactic.
System: The player spends 3 Pathos and 2 Corpus and rolls Perception + Lifeweb. Successes
determine travel time, regardless of distance:
1 success One hour.
2 successes 15 minutes.
3 successes One minute.
4 successes 15 seconds (5 turns).
5 successes One turn.
While traveling via this art, the wraith is a hazy, intangible presence in the Underworld. To her
perceptions, her surroundings are likewise a gray blur, save for a shining silver network of links
between wraiths and Fetters. She may take no other actions while traveling, including using
other Lifeweb arts.
The Monitor may bring along companions. All members of the group must hold hands. Each
"passenger" who lacks Lifeweb increases the difficulty of all associated rolls by 1 (maximum
10). In addition, the Monitor pays 1 extra Pathos per passenger, and each passenger must spend
1 Willpower or be left behind when the Monitor departs.
••••• Souls Interwoven (Modern)
A Monitor who masters the interplay of energy between wraiths and their Fetters may establish
her own new, permanent bonds. The wraith using this art takes on a willing mortal as a Fetter.
In return, the mortal can communicate with the Monitor at will. The mortal must enter into the
bargain voluntarily, though the Monitor is certainly free to make promises she has no intention of
keeping. That matter is between her and her Shadow...
System: The Monitor must touch the being she wishes to bond as a Fetter. The player spends 5
Pathos and 3 Willpower and rolls Intelligence + Lifeweb. The number of successes determine
the new Fetter's strength:
1-2 successes Fetter •
3-5 successes Fetter ••
6+ successes Fetter •••
As long as the wraith has the mortal as a Fetter, the mortal can spend 1 Willpower at any time to
communicate with the Monitor for the rest of that scene, regardless of location or distance. Each
party must speak aloud to be heard, and any supernatural power relying exclusively on speech
may pass over this link (in either direction).
The Monitor can use this art on a living (or undead) supernatural being, but doing so requires an
additional Pathos expenditure equal to the subject's Willpower. The subject also must spend 5
points of whatever supernatural energy it uses in lieu of Pathos (e.g., Blood, Rage, Quintessence,
and if all else fails, Willpower). Using Souls Interwoven on a vampire or other undead creature
also gives the Monitor's Shadow an amount of temporary Angst equal to half the deathless thing's
Willpower.
••••• Master in the Web (Ancient)
Each strand of a web runs in two directions. To an elder Monitor, every wraith is his Fetters and
every Fetter is every wraith who's bound to it. These relationships transcend distance and the
Monitor can exploit them to transmit Arcanoi or even injury.
System: When the Monitor uses any Arcanos on a wraith, the player may spend 2 additional
Pathos to apply that Arcanos' effects to one of the target's Fetters. Alternately, she may apply the
Arcanos to a location or object that is the focus of the target's Legacy or Memoriam background.
Alternately, when the Monitor uses any Arcanos on a Fetter or a focus of Legacy or Memoriam,
the player may spend 2 additional Pathos to instead apply that Arcanos' effects directly to the
wraith in question.
Additionally, whenever the Monitor inflicts damage on a wraith, the player may spend 1 Pathos
to transfer all that damage to one of the target's Fetters, or vice versa. Each time the player
invokes this effect, the Monitor's Shadow gains 1 temporary Angst.
Finally, whenever the Monitor or one of her Fetters suffers damage, the player may spend 1
Pathos to transfer all of that damage to the Monitor or any other of her Fetters. Each time the
player invokes this effect, the Monitor's Shadow gains 1 temporary Angst.