WARNING: This may contain some word choices and concepts that some readers may find offensive.
Again, with special thanks to Francesca, and to others too numerous to list.
Before one can truly understand the Parlor of Twilight, one must explore the other freaks within the Cabaret. One must see through their warped and inhuman eyes to truly grasp the sights of the Parlor.
The Bottled Child
Tradition: Dreamspeaker Essence: Dynamic
Nature: Conniver Demeanor: Loner
STR: 1 CHA: 1 PER: 3
DEX: 1 MAN: 1 INT: 1
STA: 2 APP: 0 WIT: 1
Abilities: Alertness 3, Awareness 5, Cosmology 3, Intuition 4, Meditation 4
Backgrounds: Avatar 2, Destiny 1, Dream 4
Spheres: Correspondence 2, Entropy 1, Forces 1, Life 2, Mind 2, Matter 1, Prime 1, Spirit 2, Time 1 (meditation as a focus for all)
Arete: 2 Willpower: 3
Quintessence: 2 Paradox: 5
Image: A small, hideously deformed midget, with small patches of hair on her lice ridden head. The Bottled Child sits in a large, one-piece bottle, with a small opening for food and water. She always smiles at everyone, while at the same time trying to hide herself inside an old, worn-out dress.
Background: Cassandra Kays no longer remembers her name or how she was an ally to a Cult of Ecstasy cabal. She has forgotten her entire past, including the moment she and her allies lost a battle with the Cabaret. Harding took it all away from her.
Now all she recalls is her "father" Harding, smiling to her from outside the bottle. The stage hands bring her food and water, pouring it into the opening of her bottle between shows, before they return her to the closet where she sleeps. Occasionally the stage hands will clean out her bottle, and then she must be careful or else she may drown. Not that she thinks her "adoptive family" would ever be that cruel.
Role-Playing Notes: You love your family, and you'd do anything they asked you to. Your father, Harding, usually just has you watch out for anything special, like magick or monsters or anything else. You hope that someday he'll let you out of the bottle.
Special Rote: The Bottled Child is usually used as a surveillance device by the Cabaret, and in order to better fulfill this role, Harding helped her to learn the following rote. The Bottled Child opens her mind to the voices of the spirits surrounding her, listening to everything they have to say. The Bottled Child then tells Harding of any interesting things she hears.
[By combining the sensory effects of Corr 2, Entropy 1, Forces 1, Life 1, Matter 1, Prime 1, Spirit 1, and Time 1 the Bottled Child perceives the entire spectrum of information simultaneously. She uses Mind 1 to be able process the huge multitude of information at once. The Correspondence of 2 is used to allow her to survey entire city-sized areas at once, looking for threats.]
Cabaret Show: The Bottled Child is displayed as an oddity and a freak. Audience members observe her, trying to hide inside of her bottle, covered in her own filth. Some may feel squeamish, but Morlock, the Masochist, or Harding will allay their fears, saying that she chooses to live this way, and the audience is strangely reassured.
[Of all the shows the Cabaret performs, this one has proven to be the most challenging for the Cabaret to use as a source of corruption. As it is, the empathic suggestions provided by Mind 2 effects have only been able to make others indifferent to the plights of children and the retarded. Harding still tries to intensify the effect into a suggestion of child abuse and neglect, but to little success.]
The Trinity
Tradition: Son of Ether (barabbi) Essence: Pattern
Nature: Visionary Demeanor: Architect
STR: 3 CHA: 2 PER: 3
DEX: 1 MAN: 2 INT: 5
STA: 5 APP: 0 WIT: 3
Abilities: Alertness 1, Expression 4, Intimidation 4, Research 5, Technology 5, Computer 3, Enigmas 3, Linguistics 4 (English, French, Russian, German), Medicine 5, Science 5
Backgrounds: Arcane 4, Avatar 4, Destiny 5, Dream 4, Mentor 5
Spheres: Correspondence 4 (Map), Entropy 4, Forces 4, Life 4, Matter 4, Mind 4, Prime 4, Spirit 4, Time 4 (Chronometer)
Arete: 8 Willpower: 8
Quintessence: 3 Paradox: 12
Image: The Trinity consists of three identical twins joined along the spine and sides. Caucasian, with blue eyes and brown hair, the Trinity has a total of three arms (all left) and three legs (all right) jutting from the center body. Wearing specially tailored brown suits, the Trinity looks like a hideous coat rack out of nightmare.
Background: Kyle Peterson was a Son of Ether Disciple, assisting a SoE known as Professor Vorstead in an experiment to duplicate and splice human bodies in order to reassemble them as a cure for cancer and other ailments. While Vorstead saw enormous medical benefits in his research, Kyle sought only glory. In an attempt to steal the Professors blueprints and prototypes, Kyle accidentally initiated the splicing sequence. The creature that would become the Trinity was Professor Vorstead's best attempt to save Kyle from death.
Nearly insane from his new state of being, and finding himself having to deal with three voices in his head(s), Kyle was soon discovered by the Bottled Child, and recruited into the Cabaret. Shortly after joining, the personality known as the Trinity began to develop and his powers began to grow rapidly. Within the Cabaret, the Trinity is considered to be a Jack of-All-Trades, assigned to whichever role he is most useful in at the moment. Unknown to all, including Trinity himself, is that his great power is due to the machinations of a being hidden deep beyond the Parlor.
Role-Playing Notes: We are one, and it is our unity that gives us such great power. Our destiny is great, and our Ascension inevitable. We aid those among the Cabaret because we feel that they hold the key to our destiny, but we feel no love or loyalty and we won't stay forever.
Special Note: The Trinity can do a total of three actions per turn, provided that the body can compensate. One part could fire a gun, another could cast a rote, while a third performs surgery.
Cabaret Show: The Trinity is the Midnight Cabaret's version of Siamese twins, only one step further. Audiences are astounded by the nature of the joinings between the various sections of the Trinity, and how the three heads simultaneously quote scripture referring to the Holy Trinity of Christianity.
[The Trinity uses his body and Mind 2 effects to make individuals curious as to the nature, the design, and the insides of the human body. The audience will feel compelled to explore and learn and, most importantly, dissect other humans in an overwhelming compulsion. The Trinity finds the entire concept humorously ironic.]
Gertrude
Affiliation: Nephandi Type: Malfean
Nature: Deviant Demeanor: Bon Vivant
STR: 2 CHA: 4 PER: 2
DEX: 3 MAN: 5 INT: 2
STA: 2 APP: 4 WIT: 3
Abilities: Alertness 2, Athletics 4, Brawl 3, Dodge 3, Expression 3, Firearms 3, Seduction 5, Subterfuge 4, Torture 4, Stealth 2, Wyrm Lore 1
Backgrounds: Mentor 1 (Masochist)
Demonic Investments: Emotion Projection, Path of Lust 4 (all Rituals), Path of Torture 4 (all Rites)
Arete: N/A Willpower: 8
Quintessence: N/A Paradox: N/A
Image: Gertrude is a lovely middle-eastern girl, barely sixteen. Gertrude usually dresses in Goth punk fashion for off stage, and a two-piece bikini for her performances. She always wears a gold ring in her nose. Standing almost 5' 8", every inch of her flesh is covered in tattoos depicting erotic and sado-masochistic scenes. Strangely, the tattoos across her dark skin merely accentuate her beauty.
Background: Gertrude's (she's never revealed her true name) parents moved from India to America while she was still a baby, and enrolled her in the best private schools they could find. She did an average job in school, but her father demanded more of her. As she grew older, her father continued to demand more and more, and finally Gertrude ran away at the age of fourteen. She soon ran into Masochist, fell in with him, and began her collection of tattoos. It was Masochist who convinced her to join the Cabaret.
Since joining the Cabaret, Gertrude has learned of demonic pacts and made several with the assistance of Morlock. Gertrude finds herself drawn to him, in a purely physical lust, and bored with Masochist. She hopes to orchestrate a drama whereby Morlock will destroy the Masochist for the "honor" of tasting her flesh. Something that would make Harding very unhappy if he ever found out.
Role-Playing Notes: You like sex. You like power. You like the power you get from sex. Occasionally you'll plot some dark betrayal or deceit in between "fuck fests," but you haven't got any real hobbies or interests besides. Masochist, Morlock, Knight Errant, all they are "vibrator life supports" to keep you happy.
Yeah you're mean and cold. That's what it takes if you want to have your way.
Cabaret Show: Gertrude does little as far as a show is concerned. While she does display her body as a living canvas, she is also willing to inscribe small tattoos on others for a modest fee. However, the tattoos she carves into others always depict some form of intensely erotic act.
[The tattoo needles Gertrude uses have been specially enchanted by Morlock as a gift. Whenever Gertrude tattoos a person, the tattoo is charged with the spirit of a lust bane. The spirit in the tattoo becomes a part of the person, slowly overwhelming him or her with all manners of carnal urges and cravings as well as making him or her extremely attractive to members of both genders. However, the lust banes also infect their host with several venereal diseases to which the tattoo recipient is immune, making him or her an irresistible carrier of plague.]
Knight Errant
Tradition: Orphan (barabbi) Essence: Primordial
Nature: Caregiver Demeanor: Bravo
STR: 3 CHA: 3 PER: 3
DEX: 3 MAN: 2 INT: 3
STA: 3 APP: 2 WIT: 4
Abilities: Alertness 3, Athletics 2, Awareness 3, Brawl 4, Dodge 3, Drive 2, Firearms 3, Intimidation 4, Melee 4, Stealth 4, Streetwise 3, Subterfuge 4, Survival 3, Throwing 5, Occult 4
Backgrounds: Arcane 5, Avatar 3, Destiny 3, Dream 4
Spheres: Correspondence 4, Forces 4, Life 4, Mind 4, Time 3
Arete: 4 Willpower: 10
Quintessence: 5 Paradox: 3
Image: The Knight Errant is a young man who always dresses in spikes and leathers. The Knight has only recently taken up the habit of bathing, a source of joking amongst the stagehands, and the Knight's skin seems almost stained and very odious from all the years of poor hygiene and diet.
While performing, the Knight Errant will wear nothing but a pair of trunks and a blindfold.
Background: Jacob never knew his parents or his last name. He grew up in an orphanage in New York, suffering regular abuse from the older boys and repeated rapes from the warden of the orphanage. As Jacob grew older, he became fascinated with Dungeons and Dragons, heavy metal, and black magic. It was his fascination that led him to sneak into a performance by the Midnight Cabaret, and join as a stagehand after the performance.
Harding sensed the power within the boy, and allowed him to undergo the Awakening during a showing of the "Prophecy," an act Jacob relished. Soon after, Jacob began experimenting with Mind and Life magicks to create a cornucopia of anatomical changes to a person, rewiring their brain to release endorphins whenever they committed evil acts. Jacob kept the secret to himself, and Harding only discovered it after Jacob's relevation during a bout of Quiet.
Sometimes the impossible happens. Jacob wants out of the Cabaret, and wants to redeem his soul. During a prolonged bout of Quiet, Jacob was confronted with every evil act he had ever committed, and the realization of his darkness nearly unhinged him more than the Quiet itself. He felt true, unconditional love from somewhere... else. Jacob knows he's done bad, and he wants to settle the score. Something Xane secretly suspects, and does not like.
Role-Playing Notes: Keep cool, keep cool, keep cool. Repeat forever. Don't think about the things you've done, or that you still have to do, just try to get out! Then make amends for as long as you possibly can and try to clean yourself of all the filth on your hands. Until then, keep cool, play bad-guy, and try not to spread any more corruption than you have to survive.
Cabaret Show: Jacob is labeled as "the Knave of Swords," and during his act Jacob juggles and swallows swords, while doing trick shots with knives. However, Jacob also will blindfold himself and offer a knife to an audience member. With a little calm talk, the member will take the knife and throw it across the stage where Jacob will catch it with his teeth.
[The knife catch is actually done with coincidental magick. Correspondence to both sense and move the knife, and Forces to control the flight of the knife more subtly, and Time to perceive the future flight path. Jacob uses Mind and Life however to cause the thrower to not only think of throwing knives at people as good, but also to rework the person's body to release pleasure creating endorphins whenever the person uses weapon. Harding intends to shortly rework as much of the act as possible to include the anatomical changes in the audience. If Harding does this Jacob's guilt will only increase at what he's done.]
Tiger Warrior
Affiliation: Nephandi Type: Malfean
Nature: Bravo Demeanor: Loner
STR: 4 CHA: 0 PER: 4
DEX: 6 MAN: 0 INT: 1
STA: 5 APP: 0 WIT: 3
Abilities: Alertness 4, Athletics 5, Awareness 2, Brawl 5, Dodge 4, Intimidation 5, Stealth 4, Survival 5
Backgrounds: Mentor 3 (Harding)
Fomori Powers: Berserker (Rage 5), Claws and Fangs, Hide of the Wyrm, Roar of the Wyrm
Arete: N/A Willpower: 10
Quintessence: N/A Paradox: N/A
Image: A tall, well built woman-beast, covered with fur. The Tiger is always frantically pacing around in her cage, switching from all fours to her hind legs as needed. The Tiger continuously growls and snarls, but only unleashes her Roar when the Cabaret is attacked.
Background: Harding made the Tiger Warrior from one of the captured Acolytes left over after the failed Cult of Ecstasy cabal's attack. Harding warped the life pattern of the poor woman, and bonded a minor bane to her as well. The end result was the "Tiger Warrior, mated from woman and tiger in the heart of Africa."
Harding uses the Tiger in two roles. Either as a show performer, or as an assassin. When sent to assassinate a person, the Tiger is always sen with a partner (such as Masochist), to better keep her under control.
Role-Playing Notes: GROWL! SNARL! (Bite, eat, then kill.)
Cabaret Show: During shows, the Tiger simply snarls and growls menacingly while one of the mages cast Mind rotes to make the audience feel anger and fear towards all animals. After seeing the Tiger, many people feel strangely compelled to remove if not kill their pets. After undergoing all of the other mind alterations performed by the Cabaret, people usually end up killing the innocent animals as a stepping stone to human murder.
Window on the Human Machine
Tradition: ?? Essence: ??
Nature: ?? Demeanor: ??
STR: 8 CHA: 1 PER: 12
DEX: 5 MAN: 1 INT: ??
STA: 12 APP: 0 WIT: ??
Abilities: Assume all at 6
Backgrounds: ??
Spheres: All at least at 4
Arete: ?? Willpower: ??
Quintessence: ?? Paradox: ??
Note: those attributes listed are the absolute MINIMUM. Harding suspects the Window to be capable of MUCH more.
Image: A bizarre, madness inducing form that can not exist in normal three dimensional space. The Window appears as a photo negative, with dark areas light and light areas dark. The Window's body seems to shift through space as well as in form, so that a person will watch as the Window's head grows into a huge male's face while the chest shifts into minuscule size with even smaller breasts and the one arm seems impossibly long while the other can't be seen. The Window's dimensions and personal features never stop shifting.
Background: Before Harding ever thought of the Cabaret, he found the Parlor of Twilight, and within it was an entity Harding named the Window on the Human Machine. Harding began to study the Window, tried to learn what it was, why it was, but to no avail. During his research, Harding learned that the Window was sentient and aware, but in ways no human mind could begin to comprehend. After years of intensive study, Harding simply gave up. The biggest breakthrough came when a small armada of Marauders tried to attack the Parlor. Harding watched as the Window single handedly destroyed the attacking force in but a matter of moments. Harding was certain that this was a sign from elsewhere, that he was meant to have the Parlor, and the Window was it's guardian.
Harding knows nothing else as to the nature of the Window, and even less about the Parlor itself.
Notes: The Window on the Human Machine is meant for both atmosphere and use as a plot device. It never speaks, and seldom reacts. The only time the Window reacts, is when the best interests of the Parlor are directly at risk. In such an event, you may safely assume that the Window can and will do ANYTHING needed. Also, the Window seems to determine when the Parlor is at risk by using logic that is incomprehensible to the residents of the Parlor. It will NOT attack Awakened individuals unless they directly attack the Parlor.
Special Note: Anyone who looks upon the Window directly, must make a Willpower roll Difficulty 10, scoring three successes or more. If the person succeeds, no future rolls need be made when looking upon the Window. Those who fail, immediately gain a permanent Derangement. A Botch means the player slips into a state of catatonia from which he never recovers.
Hidden deep within the darkest parts of the Umbra lurks the Parlor of Twilight, home to the wandering Midnight Carnival, and other forces of even greater darkness.
Background: Near the end of the nineteenth century, a small cabal of Hermetics in England were experimenting with powerful Cult of Ecstasy narcotics and Dreamspeaker rituals under the leadership of Phillip Harding, a highly respected member of the Order. While some scoffed at his combination of magicks, many were impressed with his devout convictions that such experiments would lead to realms of existence undreamed of by the Order.
Phillip needed assistants to aid him in his research and possible explorations. Fearing the amount of physical, psychological, and spiritual damage his experiments might cause, Phillip was careful to only chose those mages who were willing and strong enough to withstand the possible rigors of the experiments. Four men, including Phillip, injected heavy doses of enchanted fluids into their veins as they lay down for sleep inside of specially prepared ritual circles as Acolytes stood ready.
Two minutes later one magi's skull imploded, collapsing in upon itself. The Acolytes rushed to awaken the other three. Two began screaming, clawing bloody rivers into their face and chest. Phillip Harding refused to awaken at first, but when he did he merely babbled about "the dark dancer" and "pillars to eternity." While Phillip survived, the other two mages were later found to have slit their throats and with strange smiles on their faces.
After weeks of nursing and rapid progress Phillip seemed to reach a small level of normalcy. He still babbled, but he also began asking the remaining mages and even the Acolytes and Consors if they would return with him to a place he called the Parlor. He pleaded, threatened, and even tried to force a few people to return with him. It was after killing two Consors and a new disciple to the cabal in a successful attempt to recreate his experiment that the cabal ordered Harding's death.
Phillip's second voyage restored much of his mind, and he knew better than to try and defeat the others of the cabal. Instead, he fled on a boat to America. But before leaving, he drained a Silver Fangs caern dry, leaving clues that pointed to his cabal as the criminals. Neither Hermetic nor Silver Fang managed to survive the conflict he started, to the best of Phillip's knowledge.
Phillip spent many decades studying the Parlor of Twilight as he called it, and the being he called the Window on the Human Machine. Phillip rapidly dived deeper into the corruption of the realm, and in so doing Harding spread his corruption into the Gaia realm. It was during a particularly powerful epiphany that Harding realized the astounding truth. The Parlor of Twilight was also the Qlippothic Shard Realm of Mind. It was the realm of every twisted, seductive, vile, abusive, tormenting, devouring thought ever made. And Phillip was its master.
Or so he thought.
Phillip soon after became determined to discover mastery over the Shard Realm, to make its power his eternally. However, Harding also desired to increase the power of his realm, but he needed to do so secretly, for he knew that both Traditions and Technocracy would be after a Nephandi such as he. And of course other Nephandi would want to usurp his position as master of the Realm. So Harding created the Midnight Cabaret, a traveling show of subtle, seductive corruption. A show full of mages weaker than he, whom he could easily control or... remove as needed.
But hidden inside the realm, inside the Window, the Aswadim of Mind chuckled in glee. For as Philip corrupted Gaia, and increased the power of the Shard Realm, so to did the Aswadim's power grow.
Image: The Parlor of Twilight is a bizarre realm of illusions and twilight. It appears as a giant rolling expanse of plains, or forest, or ocean, or moon rock, or anything else. And whatever the person sees becomes real, but NEVER instantly fatal. Whenever a person blinks the terrain changes form in a random manner, so that one moment a person was walking along a highway and the next he is drowning in a marsh while a never-blinking onlooker sees a man drowning in solid rock.
Colors are non-existent as everything is bathed in a soft gray light underneath a featureless black sky. There is no such thing as weather, except for a soft, constant breeze that carries horrible whispers on it. People can almost hear the whisper to them that they are worthless and vile. Smells, however, vary from moment to moment and include everything from roses and apple pie to feces and rotted flesh. But no source can ever be found for any of the scents. The Window on the Human Machine can also be found here, motionless until needed. Even when moving though, the Window is unaffected by the changes in terrain.
Floating throughout this maelstrom of sights and scents and dark whispers is a large tower of marble, slowly twisting and spinning through the Parlor. Harding claims to have built it, but almost all in the Cabaret doubt him due to comments from Morlock and Wells. The exterior of the tower appears as if new, but no windows or doors can be seen. To enter the tower, one must merely touch the exterior and find themselves inside standing on a staircase (all incomers appear in roughly the same area along the staircase). Inside the tower are seemingly infinite numbers of rooms, all decorated in styles from periods throughout history. Each floor has several unique rooms and a spiral staircasegoing up for infinity and down for infinity. To leave one must merely close his eyes and open his hands, appearing on the area outside of the tower which he touched to enter.
Unknown to all but Harding, Morlock and Mr. Wells, is that each room represents an evil thought, and as new darkness is created in human minds so to are new rooms, each based on the thought. Harding recognizes many rooms created by his fantasies of rape, torture and murder, including illusions of the women he fantasized about brutalizing.
The tower houses all the goods of the Cabaret, and hundreds of its rooms are used by the Cabaret for practice, study, and recreation. A small collection of prisoners and animals are also kept, for members who happen to feel "kinky" once in a while or who need a subject for magickal experimentation. However, the Cabaret has only claimed several dozen floors along the entrance area of the staircase, and infinite numbers of floors remain unexplored and unknown.
Morlock and Mr. Wells now that the tower represents the seduction of the mind, but they also suspect that the madness outside the realm represents the destruction of the human mind. Harding outwardly scoffs at their theory, but he knows they are right.
Denizens: besides the Window, and the Midnight Cabaret, there are no other natives. The Parlor repulses any attempts for others to enter, and those who do are soon eradicated by the Window. Strangely enough, the Window will NOT attack Awakened beings unless they directly attack the Parlor itself.
Sphere Effects: The Parlor of Twilight has strange effects on magick, aiding some forms while others generate Paradox. All bonuses and penalties affect both vulgar and coincidental magick.
| Correspondence: | -3 All attempts at using Correspondence have three dice less in their rolls. |
| Entropy: | Special Entropy is only affected at level 5, which can be used to damage the tower and even the terrain of the Parlor and gains three bonus dice whenever used.. However, any attacks on the Parlor will attract the Window immediately. Only attacks on the tower or terrain will gain the Window's attention. |
| Forces: | 0 No change (but see below). |
| Life: | 0 No change (but see below). |
| Matter: | 0 No change (but see below). |
| Mind: | +3 All mind magicks have three dice added to them. |
| Prime: | Special NO use of Prime is possible in the Shard Realm, a fact many mages (including the Cabaret) find uncomfortable and hard to explain. Also, all attempts to siphon Quintessence/Pathos/energy from the Parlor will attract the attention of the Window, who will attack. |
| Spirit: | -3 All attempts at using Spirit have three dice less in their rolls. |
| Time: | Special Time magicks may be used normally, except for level 2 effects, which can NOT be used. Another feature that disturbs the mages of the Cabaret. |
| Special Note: | Forces, Life, and Matter can NOT affect any native portion of the realm. Only imported creatures and items can be affected by these three spheres. |
Purpose: While the leaders of the Cabaret know a little about the Parlor, even they don't know everything. The Parlor was constructed centuries ago, when the Aswadim of Mind, Jerbal, claimed the Qlippothic Shard Realm of Mind as his own domain. By linking the realm to various parts of the Dream Zone and corrupting them, Jerbal created destructive nightmares which caused the sanity of mankind to become corrupted or destroyed. As the individual's mind was overcome, Jerbal would gain more power from the darkened thoughts, and his control of the Dream Zone would expand. As more people fell under his sway, they spread their darkness to others through abuse and madness, creating a horrible cycle that is still growing to this day.
Jerbal has never controlled the Parlor of Twilight; instead, he allows others to take control, summoning them in their dreams. Some have used wars and insanity, others (like the Midnight Cabaret) use seduction and deception as a stepping stone to madness. But all seek to destroy the mind, whatever their methods may be.
Jerbal drifts in and out of awareness, using the Window (an extension of himself) as an anchor back to the Parlor. Jerbal no longer possesses a physical form, having merged with the maelstrom of the Parlor long ago; when he wishes to take physical form however, he will take control of the Window and use its body. Jerbal knows that the Midnight Cabaret will soon fall apart and most will be destroyed. But he knows that the Maggot King will survive. Already Jerbal works to turn the madman into a dark herald of Jerbal's triumph, sending messages to the King in the form of a great worm.
And if the Maggot King proves too useless, the Trinity will still be available. Jerbal is ready for any outcome, carried along a wave of murder and rape into Descent for all.