Class: Book Club Witches

Lin Jin

Monsieur came up with a template for GLOG witches, thought I'd give it a spin.

The Book Club

The story of Book Club goes something like this:

In the late 18th or early 19th Dynasties of Egypt's Middle Kingdom (That is, in the time between Akhenaten and Ramses the Great), there emerged a certain mystery religion devoted to Thoth and his consort Ma'at. The women of that order devoted themselves to unveiling the secret mystic and scientific knowledge of the universe. They sought to use it as a tool against isfet, the crawling chaos at work beneath and behind the world.

It was too late to turn back when the priests finally realized the scope of that undertaking. Isfet nibbled away at the pillars of the earth, it seeped through the foundation walls of the universe, it wore a thousand thousand masks and brought ruin in its wake wherever it was made manifest. It couldn't be stopped, only turned away for a time. They pressed on regardless.

The order endured up until Julius Caesar got his book-burning on and the cult was scattered to the winds and shadows. Practitioners would gather in twos and threes all the way from Londinium to Samarkand, keeping the art alive.

Cut to today: the ancient priesthood has transformed into a loose confederacy of paranormal investigators, fronted primarily by the academic sorority Theta Omega Theta. The religious practices and secrecy are mostly gone now, but the magic is still there.

The modern Book Club serves as a point of contact and intermediary with the preternatural world - government's not much help, and there's only so much the neighbors can do. They'll deal with most things, crawling chaos or no.

When there's something that can't be explained and discretion is advised, call a friend in Book Club. Paperback trades go without saying.

Bookworm

The boots on the ground, called together and sent out when and where they're needed. A lone Bookworm means a pretty unexciting investigation is afoot, or it's just typical inter-species disputes that need settled, or some other known-unknown. For anything dangerous or truly uncertain, they will move in covens.

Perk: You're familiar with the language and culture of one of the mythos peoples. You gain a +1 to reaction rolls with them, and have a 3-in-6 chance to answer difficult questions about them.

1. Deep Ones
2. Ghouls
3. Tcho-Tcho
4. K'n-Yani 
5. Sand Dwellers
6. Cats

Signs:

• You can ping the presence (general distance and direction) of your coven-mates.
• Can memorize a single page of text; new input overwrites old.
  

Librarian

The heart of Book Club. They call together meetings, gather covens of Bookworms, train new members, wrangle the Ibises, and maintain the network of connections and contacts. Most Librarians have settled down after colorful careers as Bookworms, though they'll go back out into the field if things get heated.

Perk: You have a network of contacts to pull on for aid and information. Roll 2d6: on a 10+ they're able to help you out no problem. On 7-9, there is some sort of cost involved (information is spotty, you owe them a favor in return, etc). On 1-6, no one can help you. You may use this ability [Template] times per session.
Drawback: 25% of income goes towards maintaining the Club.

Signs:

• You can send a secret message to the home of anyone you have shared a meal with. Messages must be less than 20 words and will vanish after being read, of if read by the wrong person.
• You have a familiar (cat, dog, crow, rat-thing) and can assign it simple tasks.

Ibis

You've been in the Club for far too long. It's all you've got left. You've torched your outside relationships and most of your social standing. People rightfully call you crazy, but crazy has kept you alive. You spite the crawling chaos just by existing.

Drawback: You've gone batshit. You have developed an obsessive phobia or a mania from your interactions with the Mythos. It has served you well and kept you alive, but its hold on your life has become absolute.

Signs:

• You can create a hideous droning piping noise at will.
• You can remove an eye and roll it around like a marble. It still works.
  

Works  

Dream-Key
R: Touch T: Person D: [dice] hours.
Sends a willing target (caster can target self) into a deep sleep. This lasts for [dice] hours in the waking world, and [sum] x2 hours of dream-time.If cast as a coven, the casters may pool or split their WD among as many targets as desired.
Craft: "Silver Key" potion.

Contact
R: 100 miles / Varies T: Magical being D: Until dispelled.
Caster makes contact with a magical / extraterrestrial / extrauniversal being. If used in the Dreamlands, there is no range limit. If [sum] > 10, non-magically-sensitive individuals may be contacted. For entities existent outside normal space, the spell must be cast at a location of some power or significant to that entity.
Craft: A small engraved or painted icon of the target.

Sign of Thoth
R: N/A T: Entryway D: Until dispelled.
By inscribing the sign of Thoth (Θώθ), the caster may invest [dice] to bar the way of any supernatural being of [sum] HD or less.  Invested dice do not return until the spell is dispelled.
Craft: Drawn upon the doorframe in chalk.


Reveal Invisible
R: 20' T: Area D: 1 hour
Any entities, pigments, or objects that are normally invisible to the human eye are revealed. If 4+ [dice] are invested, the effect is permanent.
Craft: A bag of fine, silvery dust.

Warp Spasm
R: 15' T: Being D: Instant
Target must make a save vs magic or be wracked with powerful seizures for [dice] turns. If [sum] > 12, they will gain a permanent mutation.
Craft: Wishbone charms, ready to be snapped.


Memory Fog
R: Touch T: Being D: Permanent
Target's memories of the last [dice] hours are muddled. They will not be able to recall faces, names, exact conversations, and all but the most obvious details. If [sum] > 25, this spell can effectively blank-slate an individual.
Craft: Tattoo of an eye with an X pupil on the palm.


Burning Cloud
R: 20' T: Area D: [sum] turns
Does [dice] damage / turn to all beings within the cloud.
Craft: A rough red-gold powder, warm to the touch.


Hypergeometry
R: Touch T: Self  D: Instant
Caster jumps into hyperspace and can move through walls, doors, objects, individuals etc, without detection, for [sum] x 5'.
Craft: Effigy of the caster, twisted out of shape.

Bookworm Emblem Work - Friends in Low Places

R: N/A T: Being D: Session
The Bookworm may summon aid from the mythos people she has familiarity with. Barring any usual circumstances (finding oneself in another plane, for example), help will arrive in d6 hours and will remain until the end of the job, the session, or it becomes too dangerous. Caster gets only one free use of this spell: a further favor must be fulfilled before it can be cast again

Librarian Emblem Work - Shielded from their Eyes

R: Touch T: Object D: [sum] hours
The target object (and anything inside it) is shielded from preternatural detection and the attentions of the Old Ones or Crawling Chaos for as long as the spell is active. If this spell is cast with 10+ [dice] during the Witching Hour, the effect will last for a full year and can be extended to the size of a house.

Ibis Emblem Work - Artifact Destruction

R: 5' T: Magical Object or Being D: Instant
This spell will only work if all Work Dice are burnt. The targeted item or possessed individual is immediately and completely consumed in fire and will be destroyed instantly with no save. This spell only affects material targets; the enchantment has a blowback chance as it dissipates (save vs. magic).

Wyrd Transports 

1. Shantak - Horse-headed, bat-winged, elephant sized. Smells of salt and slime.
2. Possessed Bicycle - Will never conspire to throw you off.
3. Bookmobile - Shelves full of well-thumbed paperbacks and extra ammo.
4. Nightgaunt - The tickling isn't that bad, you get used to it after a while.
5. Solar Barge - More of a canoe, really. Shiny and gold.
6. Gigantic Cat - A tabby the size of a tiger.

You Have Captured the Attention Of...

1. The Haunter in the Dark
2. The Bloody Tongue
3. The Faceless Pharaoh 
4. The Bloated Woman
5. The Crooked Man
6. The Thousand Eyes

To Shake the Attention of Chaos...

1. Pound of flesh - sacrifice 1d6 HP.
2. Lay low, lay low - You may not cast at above 1 WD for the rest of the day.
3. Fast and meditate - regain no HP or spells tonight.
4. Snuff the candle - burn off all WD used for this spell.
5. Show of Strength - all spells require an additional WD to cast.
6. Keep your cool - WD spent today are rolled with disadvantage.

Losing Your Grip

1. The magnitude of what you're attempting to do hits you like a lead brick. The spell fizzles out, and the strain of blooming existential crisis prevents you from casting again for d7 days.
2. Isfet strikes back at you. Roll d6 to select a horrible wound table, then roll d6 for the wound.
3. A horrible wound as above, but this time it heals wrong; you bear a cursed branding mark of isfet. Dogs and cats hate you. Humans know something is very wrong with you at a moment.
4. There's nothing left to be done, and there's nowhere else to go. You've reached fail-state. You have two options: taking your life, or throwing yourself into the embrace of isfet as its servant.

Tyler Crook

Callsigns and Operations

Callsign	Operation
1) Tanith Lee	"Dark Dance"
2) Margaret St. Clair	"Sign of the Labrys"
3) Shirley Jackson	"Haunting of Hill House"
4) Gertrude Barrows Bennet	"The Heads of Cerberus"
5) Mary Shelley	"The Last Man"
6) Charlotte Perkins Gilman	"Yellow Wallpaper"
7) K.J. Bishop	"The Etched City"
8) V.H. Leslie	"Bodies of Water"
9) Anne VanderMeer	"The Big Book of Science Fiction"
10) Priya Sharma	"All the Fabulous Beasts"
11) Farah Rose Smith	"Eviscerator"
12) Autumn Christian	"A Gentle Hell"
13) Betty Rocksteady	"Like Jagged Teeth"
14) Tiffany Scandal	"Shit Luck"
15) Leza Cantoral	"Cartoons in the Suicide Forest"
16) Gwendolyn Kiste	"Hardened Hearts"
17) Elizabeth Hand	"Prince of Flowers"
18) Margret Cavendish	"The Blazing World"
19) Molly Tanzer	"Creatures of Will and Temperament"
20) Silvia Moreno-Garcia	"Love and Other Poisons"