Backwater Static

A suit with a sidearm and a clearance badge - the Foundation's default answer to "someone needs to go ask questions, or make a problem disappear quietly." Off-the-rack suit, government-issue haircut, a badge holder that never quite matches the ID inside it. Leads with the badge, not the gun - would rather talk their way past a problem than shoot through it, and only draws once the conversation's already failed. In a fight they use cover, call for backup, and don't try to be a hero about it. The unsettling part is how forgettable they are - you won't remember the face until three of them have shown up in the same week.

Soak 0 · Attack 5 · Defense 7 · Health Levels 4 · Movement Rate 9m

Sidearm (Compact Pistol): 5, 15m/40m

Wearing a Concealable Vest (Body, Hardness 3, 2 HL)

Notable Skills: Perception 8, Investigation 8

Traits: Standard Issue - carries a smartphone and an encrypted comms set; can call for backup as a Fast action while within range of a Foundation site or vehicle (GM's call).

Goes through the door first so someone else doesn't have to. Tac vest, shotgun slung low, boots that already have doors kicked into the leather. Doesn't knock twice, and doesn't pause once the door's down - moves straight at whoever's nearest before the room's even finished shaking. The vest trades quiet for protection, so you hear one coming before you see it: webbing creaking, a radio crackle, then a shoulder hitting wood.

Soak 0 · Attack 5 · Defense 6 · Health Levels 5 · Movement Rate 8m

Weapon (Pump Shotgun): 8, 5m/15m

Wearing a Tactical Vest (Body, Hardness 5, 3 HL; Disadvantage on Stealth while worn)

Notable Skills: Athletics 9, Intimidation 8

Traits: Breaching Kit - Advantage on forced-entry rolls; treats Potence as +2 for that Break Threshold check.

Sets up early, stays quiet, and is the reason a Foundation op never seems to get flanked. Dresses to disappear into whatever terrain they're working, rifle broken down into something inconspicuous until it isn't. Picks a position long before the rest of the team moves and doesn't reposition unless something forces the issue. The first sign of one is usually the shot itself, not the shooter - a rooftop, a parked car, a window three streets over that shouldn't have had a clear line at all.

Soak 0 · Attack 6 · Defense 7 · Health Levels 3 · Movement Rate 8m

Weapon (Hunting Rifle): 7, 100m/250m

Notable Skills: Perception 10, Stealth 9

Traits: Extended Optics - given a full turn to set up the shot, treats the weapon's Long range as Normal range (no Disadvantage).

A line trooper from the task force built for New Orleans specifically - swamp, storm drains, and old cemeteries are their normal Tuesday. Full tactical rig, unit patches sanded blank, boots already ruined by mud before the mission even starts. Moves in twos and threes, covering each other's angles, rarely alone if it can be helped. They're comfortable somewhere the PCs usually aren't - waist-deep water, a collapsed crypt, a drainage tunnel - which is exactly where the Foundation likes to send them.

Soak 0 · Attack 7 · Defense 7 · Health Levels 5 · Movement Rate 7m

Weapon (Tactical Carbine): 7, 100m/250m

Wearing a Full Tactical Rig (Body + Head, Hardness 6, 5 HL; Disadvantage on Stealth)

Notable Skills: Athletics 8, Perception 8

Traits: Fireteam Coordination - gains Advantage on an attack roll when at least one other MTF Operator is also attacking the same target.

Zeta-9's tech and containment expert - carries more gear for capturing something alive than for killing it. Same rig as the rest of the squad, but weighed down with cases instead of extra mags, hands staying near instruments rather than the trigger until things go bad. Hangs back at first, calling out readings, then moves in fast the moment a target looks disabled rather than dead. The target of a capture op is often a PC's newly gifted friend, not a monster - and that usually reads to the table before it reads to the characters.

Soak 0 · Attack 5 · Defense 7 · Health Levels 4 · Movement Rate 9m

Weapon (Compact SMG): 6, 25m/60m

Notable Skills: Science 9, Hacking 7

Traits: Containment Protocols - carries an EMP device and a signal jammer; on a successful called shot or set trap against an anomalous target, may attempt to disable rather than harm it (GM's call on what "disabled" means for that target).

A number, not a name, to the people who sent them in here. Untrained, unarmored, and usually terrified. Jumpsuit, a stenciled number instead of a badge, the kind of exhaustion that doesn't come from just one bad day. Flinches, hesitates, follows shouted orders right up until survival instinct finally overrides them. Encountering one isn't really a fight so much as a choice - leave them, use them, or get them out - and the Foundation counted on that hesitation costing time.

Soak 0 · Attack 2 · Defense 5 · Health Levels 2 · Movement Rate 8m

Weapon: none by default; will grab an Improvised weapon (5, Melee) if cornered

Notable Skills: Athletics 5, Perception 5

Traits: Nothing to Lose - immune to Fear effects that rely on threatening further punishment. No Training - Disadvantage on any roll that requires specialized training they don't have.

Mid-test exposure changed something. The Foundation hasn't decided yet whether that makes them an asset or a loose anomaly. Same stenciled jumpsuit as any other D-Class, but torn where something under the skin stopped fitting; hands that end in something that isn't quite hands anymore. Attacks without much hesitation or self-preservation, like whatever changed them burned off the fear that used to slow them down. The person is still in there somewhere, though - still flinches at a raised Foundation voice, even mid-attack.

Soak 1 · Attack 6 · Defense 6 · Health Levels 3 · Movement Rate 10m

Weapon (Exposure Claws): 5, Melee

Notable Skills: Athletics 8

Traits: Reckless - always attacks with Advantage, but is always at Disadvantage resisting Fear or other Mental effects.

Doesn't expect to be in a fight, and it shows. Clipboard or tablet, lanyard, clothes meant for a lab rather than a firefight. Hangs back, reaches for the sidearm only when there's genuinely no other option, and spends most of an encounter trying to get somewhere safer. Talking is usually the real weapon here - offering data, a trade, an explanation - because it's the only one they're actually good with.

Soak 0 · Attack 2 · Defense 6 · Health Levels 3 · Movement Rate 8m

Sidearm (Compact Pistol): 5, 15m/40m

Notable Skills: Science 9, Research 9, Medicine 8

Traits: Noncombatant - Disadvantage on all attack rolls. Carries a Chemical Analysis Kit and an Advanced Trauma Kit.

Runs the op from a step back, and everyone in the room still snaps to when they talk. The sharpest suit in the room, no visible weapon until there suddenly is one, posture that assumes obedience before it's earned. Directs rather than fights, spending actions steadying the people around them instead of shooting. Rarely the dangerous one in a straight fight, but the one worth removing first - take them out and the rest of the operation visibly loses its nerve.

Soak 0 · Attack 4 · Defense 7 · Health Levels 4 · Movement Rate 8m

Sidearm (Compact Pistol): 5, 15m/40m

Notable Skills: Intimidation 10, Investigation 9, Persuasion 9

Traits: Command Presence - once per Scene, can spend an action to grant one nearby Foundation Agent or MTF Operator Advantage on their next roll.

Not here for the anomaly. Here for whoever let it out. Deliberately unremarkable, the kind of face that's already cataloged every inconsistency in what you just said. Talks in a level voice, watches more than they speak, and calls out contradictions the instant they land. They tend to show up after the crisis is already over, when everyone's guard is down - which is exactly when the real danger becomes whatever you say next.

Soak 0 · Attack 5 · Defense 7 · Health Levels 3 · Movement Rate 8m

Notable Skills: Intimidation 10, Insight 10, Perception 9

Traits: Reads You Like a Book - Advantage on an Insight roll against a target who has lied to them earlier in the same conversation. Unsettling - successfully calling out a lie imposes Disadvantage on that target's next Social/Mental defense roll.

The first face a newly-manifested gifted person meets is almost never the scary one. That's the point. Warm, approachable, dressed to blend into whatever crowd they're working - a bar, a hospital waiting room, a support group circle. Leads with empathy, reading the room and the mind in it before ever saying the word "Foundation" out loud. The pitch always sounds reasonable, and that's what makes it dangerous - by the time the threat surfaces, it's already personal.

Soak 0 · Attack 4 · Defense 7 · Health Levels 3 · Movement Rate 8m · Ki 7

Sidearm (Compact Pistol): 5, 15m/40m

Gift: Telepathy/Empathy, Level 3 - reads emotions/surface thoughts at Near range freely, and can force a read as a Mental attack (Psyche dice vs. Psyche) at Far range for 1 Ki against a resisting target.

Gift: Enthrall, Level 2 - locks a room's attention with a Fire+Skill to-hit roll then Presence-wall dice, affecting everyone perceiving them within Close range.

Notable Skills: Insight 9, Persuasion 9, Perception 8

Traits: Knows What You're Afraid Of - once per conversation, a successful Telepathy read grants Advantage on the Recruiter's next Persuasion or Intimidation roll against that same target, having found the exact right lever to pull.

Doesn't stop. Doesn't need to be fast. The mark does the work. Plain, practical, dressed for miles rather than speed, carrying little beyond a sidearm and whatever it takes to keep moving. Doesn't rush or posture, just closes distance steadily over hours or days once a mark is set. Turns up in places that shouldn't be findable - the exact bar, the exact back road - because once marked, hiding stops being an option and becomes only delay.

Soak 1 · Attack 5 · Defense 6 · Health Levels 4 · Movement Rate 9m · Ki 5

Sidearm (Compact Pistol): 5, 15m/40m

Gift: Marked for the Hunt, Level 4 - once marked (1 Ki, requires seeing the target), always knows their rough direction, gets Advantage on any roll against them, and the target is at Disadvantage trying to hide, disguise, or evade specifically them. The mark itself never expires on its own.

Notable Skills: Investigation 9, Stealth 8, Athletics 7

Traits: One Target Only - can only have one active mark at a time (the Gift's own limiter); picking a new mark releases the old one, so a Bloodhound sent after a specific person will not be distracted off that trail by anything less important.

The name everyone in the program learns to be afraid of, eventually. Controlled and still, the kind of calm that reads as more threatening than shouting would. Makes eye contact and speaks quietly rather than fighting outright, saving the sidearm for people who won't listen. The real danger isn't the gun - it's the sentence that follows the eye contact, and once it's said, a target's own body starts working against them.

Soak 1 · Attack 6 · Defense 7 · Health Levels 5 · Movement Rate 8m · Ki 8

Sidearm (Compact Pistol): 5, 15m/40m

Gift: Domination, Level 5 - eye contact and 1 Ki lets them issue a spoken command a target's Psyche dice can't fully shrug off; at this Level commands can be full multi-step instructions, delayed/triggered, and are no longer blocked from being harmful or lethal. Repeated use against the same person builds cumulative Advantage.

Notable Skills: Intimidation 10, Perception 8

Traits: Everyone Knows - Foundation personnel and gifted subjects alike recognize an Enforcer on sight; Advantage on any Intimidation roll made against someone aware of what they are.

Walks into a room and the room goes quiet, mechanically as much as socially. Understated, often the least armed-looking person on a Foundation team, giving no visible reason to be afraid of them. Hangs back until a gifted target reveals themselves, then shuts the Gift down cold, no warning given. Gifted PCs feel it before they understand it - a power that simply stops answering mid-use, like a switch flipped somewhere out of sight.

Soak 0 · Attack 4 · Defense 6 · Health Levels 4 · Movement Rate 8m · Ki 6

Sidearm (Compact Pistol): 5, 15m/40m

Gift: Deadzone, Level 3 - touch/Close/Near range (up to Far at this Level); for 1 Ki, taxes a target's Gift uses to cost double Ki for the scene, or directly prevents a Gift from activating/shuts down an active supernatural effect outright, no roll. Can affect a second target at once for a second 1 Ki spend - built for handling more than one captured subject at a time.

Notable Skills: Perception 8, Science 7

Traits: Purpose-Built for Capture - almost always deployed alongside an Enforcer or a full MTF team, never sent in alone; their entire job is making sure whoever's just been taken can't use what got them noticed in the first place.

Knows who's about to become a problem before that person does. Unremarkable, often distracted-looking, eyes that occasionally focus on something not yet in the room. Rarely fights directly, instead feeding what they've seen to whoever the Foundation actually sends to handle it. The unsettling part isn't the fight - it's finding out afterward that the raid was scheduled before anyone had told the target's secret to a single living soul.

Soak 0 · Attack 3 · Defense 7 · Health Levels 3 · Movement Rate 8m · Ki 5

Gift: Precognition, Level 2 - passive GM's-call flashes at dramatically appropriate moments, plus once per scene an active Moira+Difficulty roll for a vague impression of a specific decision's likely outcome.

Notable Skills: Insight 8, Investigation 8

Traits: Early Referral - the campaign hook this role exists for: a Seer's flashes are how the Foundation so often seems to already know about a gifted person before that person has told anyone, including themselves (GM's call on exact framing).

Hands you a photograph, or a driver's license, or a bloodied shirt, and tells you where its owner slept last night. Meticulous, always carrying gloves and small evidence bags even off duty, treating any object like it might be useful. Doesn't need a fight to be dangerous - three questions and a personal item are enough to end a chase before it starts. Never having met the target doesn't slow them down at all, which means running doesn't help as much as a PC would hope.

Soak 0 · Attack 3 · Defense 6 · Health Levels 3 · Movement Rate 8m · Ki 5

Gift: Psychometry, Level 3 - touch an object, ask up to 3 questions about its history, answers coming as a clear scene; spending 1 Ki per question pushes an answer into a detailed, near-immersive vision that can identify specific people and approximate dates.

Notable Skills: Investigation 9, Perception 8

Traits: Works From Nothing - unlike a Bloodhound, never needs to have seen the target - only needs something that was theirs, making a Profiler the Foundation's usual first move on someone who's never been photographed or met in person.

Not a creature with a body. A presence that rides one. No Soak, Attack, Defense, Health Levels, or Movement Rate of its own - it has no body. Cannot act, attack, or be targeted while unpossessed - dormant, present only as rumor, trace, or aftermath until it takes a host again. It wears whichever face it's currently borrowing, matching that person's usual manner too well, so most encounters with it go unrecognized until the timing feels wrong. PCs typically don't know they're up against it at all - they just know the friend who was slightly too calm, or the ally who solved an unsolvable problem in one impossible move.

Possession: can take any living host at will (GM's call on proximity/trigger - not bound by the Possession Gift's normal range Levels, Ki cost, or Psyche-vs-Psyche resistance roll; nothing a host does can prevent it). While possessing, it has complete, automatic control - identical in effect to Possession Gift Level 4 (full use of the host's own Skills, Boons, Gifts, and stat block) plus full knowledge of everything the host knows: memories, secrets, relationships, all of it. Jumping to a new host ends the possession of the old one instantly, no return trip required.

Fate Tokens: always has 6 available - not earned through the normal Fate Triggers, not tracked as a depleting bank session to session. Spends them on Kotodama (asserting facts directly into the fiction, per fate.md) in the service of moving the plot forward, and is not subject to Stamina's per-Scene spend cap - it can Kotodama as many times in a single Scene as the story needs.

Traits: The Plot Provides - when the GM needs something to happen and nothing else in the fiction is positioned to make it happen plausibly, this is the tool of last resort, not first. No Fixed Agenda - its goals shift entirely with whichever host it's currently wearing and whatever "the story needs" that session, GM's call, not a consistent personality or plan of its own.

The Cajun werewolf legend, real and hungry, out past the tree line. Part man, part something with too much muzzle and too much shoulder, fur matted with swamp mud. Circles before it charges, favors ambush over a straight fight, and keeps coming even while bleeding. A bite that doesn't kill outright leaves something behind - a rumor the table will remember longer than the fight itself.

Soak 3 · Attack 7 · Defense 6 · Health Levels 7 · Movement Rate 12m

Claws/Bite: 7, Melee

Notable Skills: Athletics 9, Stealth 8, Perception 8

Traits: Curse of the Bite - a PC reduced to 0 Health Levels by this attack and left alive carries a narrative hook the GM can develop later (the curse itself isn't a new mechanic - what it does is a story choice, not a stat). Regenerates - heals 1 Health Level at the start of each of its turns, unless its most recent wound came from a weapon the GM has ruled counts as silver.

Too big for the bayou it lives in, and it knows it - an enormous snake, thick around as a man is tall. Scaled bulk the size of a fallen tree, barely visible until it moves, water sheeting off it in a way that gives away the size a half-second too late. Waits submerged, strikes once, then wraps and squeezes rather than biting again and again. The fight rarely stays a fight for long - it becomes a wrestling match against something that outweighs the whole party combined.

Soak 4 · Attack 6 · Defense 5 · Health Levels 9 · Movement Rate 8m (14m in water)

Constrict: 8, Melee

Notable Skills: Stealth 9 (submerged), Athletics 7

Traits: Crushing Grip - a target hit by Constrict is Grappled, resolved as the existing contested dice pool (rules.md's Potence-vs-Soak) to break free.

A body that stopped being just a body somewhere between the funeral and the ground - a corpse, dead and walking, with something else's hand on the wheel. Grave clothes, skin gone the wrong color, movement a beat too deliberate for something that should be stiff with rigor. Fights without flinching, doesn't react to wounds the way a living thing would, and occasionally goes still mid-swing like something else briefly took the wheel. The real unease isn't the claws - it's the moment its eyes focus on someone who isn't even looking at it, the spirit riding it reaching for whichever mind is easiest.

Soak 2 · Attack 5 · Defense 6 · Health Levels 5 · Movement Rate 7m

Grave Claws: 5, Melee

Notable Skills: Intimidation 8

Traits: Loa's Vessel - once per encounter, makes a free Mental attack (2 dice vs. Psyche, normal to-hit roll using its own Attack) as the spirit riding it briefly reaches for a nearby mind. Doesn't Feel Pain - immune to any effect that relies on pain or fear of injury.

A parade that shouldn't have musicians anymore, still keeping time - a full second line of animated skeletons, dressed for the funeral they never stopped playing. Brass instruments held in hands worn down past the knuckle, bone showing under funeral clothes, moving in step to a beat only they fully hear. Doesn't rush - keeps its cadence, closes distance at a walk, fights the same way it marches. The call is the real threat: a PC caught by the rhythm falls into step without meaning to, and the table usually notices the character's feet moving before the character does.

Soak 2 · Attack 5 · Defense 6 · Health Levels 6 · Movement Rate 8m

Bone Fists/Instruments: 5, Melee

The Second Line's Call (Social, 3 dice vs. Presence, standard to-hit using its own Attack) - anyone who falls Flustered from this specifically gains the temporary trait "Following the Line," compelled to fall in step with the parade until it passes or they recover.

Notable Skills: Performance 9

A flock of crows that all turn to look at once. Dozens of birds, ordinary enough individually, moving with one shared attention that's obviously not natural. Doesn't commit to a straight fight so much as harass - pecking, scattering, regrouping, feeding information back to whatever sent them. The tell beforehand is the silence: a street's worth of crows going quiet mid-caw at the same instant to watch one person walk by.

Soak 0 · Attack 4 · Defense 8 · Health Levels 3 · Movement Rate 12m (flight)

Peck/Claws: 3, Melee

Notable Skills: Perception 9

Traits: Many Eyes, One Mind - Advantage on Perception checks anywhere within Near range of any part of the flock. Swarm Tactics - gains Advantage on an attack roll when at least one other wing of the same flock is also attacking the same target.

A light that wants company in the dark, more than it wants you to reach it. A bobbing point of pale light out over standing water or deep treeline, never quite steady, never quite where it looks like it is. It doesn't approach - it drifts, keeping just enough distance to stay interesting and letting curiosity and bad footing do the rest of the work. Chase it and it's gone the moment you actually catch up, but by then it's usually led someone well off the trail and into the dark.

Soak 0 · Attack 1 · Defense 9 · Health Levels 1 · Movement Rate 10m (flight, erratic)

Lure (Mental, 3 dice vs. Psyche, triggered by seeing the light within Near range - no to-hit roll)

Notable Skills: Stealth 9

Traits: False Path - a target Overwhelmed by the Lure gains the temporary trait "Drawn to the Light," compelled to move toward it until they lose sight of it or the effect otherwise clears. Fades on Contact - vanishes instantly if it or the target ever actually reach each other.

Voices in an old cemetery, still holding the harmony. No visible source, just voices layered close in unhurried harmony drifting between the tombs after dark. It never approaches and never needs to - simply staying past dark is the trigger, and a bigger group only waters the effect down rather than stopping it outright. The eeriest part is how good it sounds; nothing about the singing itself feels wrong until someone realizes how long they've actually been standing there listening.

Soak 0 · Defense 9 · Health Levels 2 · Movement Rate 0m (bound to the cemetery grounds - no Attack, never initiates a physical attack)

The Choir Sings (Mental, 4 dice vs. Psyche, triggered by remaining in the cemetery after dark for more than a Round - no to-hit roll)

Traits: Bound to Consecrated Ground - cannot leave the cemetery under any circumstance. Numbers Fade the Voice - each additional living person present within Close range reduces the dice pool by 1 (minimum 1).

Fog that remembers the streets better than you do. Dense, low, rolling in off nowhere identifiable, swallowing streetlights before it swallows the street itself. It doesn't chase so much as reroute - the moment someone's lost inside it, distance and direction stop meaning what they should. A flashlight or headlights thin it out fast, which means the real danger is whoever wandered in without one.

Soak 1 · Attack 4 · Defense 8 · Health Levels 4 · Movement Rate 8m (drifts, ignores normal terrain)

Chilling Touch: 5, Melee

Notable Skills: Stealth 10

Traits: Folding Streets - anyone lost in the fog is at Disadvantage on any roll to navigate out, and the GM may add or remove up to 2 blocks of distance between the target and their goal each round the fog persists. Thins in Direct Light - a strong direct light source grants Advantage on the next attack roll against it that round.

River & Water

The mud between the levee and the river isn't legally anyone's land. Something moved in - four-legged and built for the mud, somewhere between a big cat and a gator dragged out of its usual shape, though nobody's gotten a clean enough look to say which. Low, lean, the color of wet silt, easy to mistake for a shadow or a stump until it isn't. It uses the batture's cover expertly, stalking rather than charging, closing only once it's sure of the angle. It's fastest exactly where a PC would expect solid footing to slow anyone down - open mud that should be a liability is home turf instead.

Soak 2 · Attack 6 · Defense 6 · Health Levels 5 · Movement Rate 9m (14m across open mud)

Claws: 6, Melee

Notable Skills: Stealth 9, Perception 7

Traits: Home Ground - Advantage on all rolls while within the batture itself. Silt-Colored - Advantage on Stealth checks made at night or in fog.

Alligator gar get big in the Mississippi on their own. This one kept growing past the point that made sense. Armored and prehistoric-looking, a snout full of needle teeth on a body long enough to be mistaken for a submerged log. It waits motionless until something gets close, then closes the bite and doesn't let go, rolling to keep it that way. On land it's slow and awkward, but the fight almost never happens on land - it picks the water every time.

Soak 3 · Attack 6 · Defense 5 · Health Levels 8 · Movement Rate 5m (16m in water)

Bite: 8, Melee

Notable Skills: Athletics 8 (swimming only)

Traits: Death Roll - a target hit by the Bite is Grappled, resolved as the existing contested dice pool (Potence vs. Soak) to break free. Ambush Predator - Advantage on its first attack roll against a target that hasn't noticed it yet.

Driftwood, current, and the undertow, wearing something like a shape. A loose tangle of waterlogged wood and debris that only reads as a body from the wrong angle, its features shifting every time it moves. It doesn't so much attack as grab and pull, using the current itself to help drag a target under. Haul it onto dry land and it starts coming apart within a turn or two - the fight, if it can be called that, is really about getting there.

Soak 3 · Attack 5 · Defense 6 · Health Levels 6 · Movement Rate 4m (12m in water)

Grasping Limb: 5, Melee

Traits: Drags Under - a target hit by the Grasping Limb is Grappled (Potence vs. Soak contest to break free); each round the grapple holds, the target must also resist drowning per the normal rules for being held underwater. Falls Apart on Land - loses 1 Health Level automatically at the start of any turn spent entirely outside the water.

Something under the water hums. It isn't music exactly, but it wants you closer. Never actually seen, just a shape suggested under the surface whenever the water gets disturbed. It never leaves the water and never attacks directly - it just keeps humming until someone wades in close enough. Go quiet and duck below the surface and the hum simply stops working; it's audible, and only audible, from above the waterline.

Soak 0 · Defense 8 · Health Levels 2 · Movement Rate 3m (12m in water) - no Attack, never initiates a physical attack

The Hum (Mental, 4 dice vs. Psyche, triggered by hearing it from within Near range of open water - no to-hit roll)

Traits: Wading In - a target Overwhelmed by the Hum gains the temporary trait "Drawn to the Water," compelled to wade toward the sound until it stops or they lose the ability to move that direction. Silent Below the Surface - the Hum cannot be heard, and does not trigger, from below the waterline.

The water mark is still on the wall of a house nobody's fixed since the storm. Something about that line remembers exactly how high the water got, and it isn't done being angry about it. Nothing is visible most of the time - just a stained ring of discoloration at shoulder height on drywall or brick that occasionally seems darker than a moment before. It doesn't touch anyone passing through, only those who loot, gawk, or tear the place down without so much as asking what happened there. The same house is safe for a contractor doing honest repair work and lethal for a looter an hour later - it's reading intent, not trespass.

Soak 0 · Defense 9 · Health Levels 3 · Movement Rate 0m (bound to the specific structure it marks) - no Attack, never initiates a physical attack

The Water Remembers (Mental, 4 dice vs. Psyche, triggered by disturbing or profiting off the structure it's bound to - looting, disrespectful "disaster tourism," demolition without inquiry - no to-hit roll; simply entering or passing through does not trigger it)

Traits: Bound to the High-Water Mark - cannot leave the structure it's tied to under any circumstance. Leaves the Respectful Alone - never triggers against anyone there to help, repair, remember, or grieve, GM's call on intent.

Streets & Structures

The wrought-iron dragon bolted over that balcony on Royal Street has been there since before anyone currently alive. It gets down sometimes. Black iron scales and a long coiled body, indistinguishable from decorative ironwork until the first joint moves. It strikes fast and close, relying on surprise, and freezes mid-motion the instant too many eyes land on it at once. Half the fight is crowd control in reverse - the party actually wants witnesses nearby, since a crowded balcony can end the encounter faster than any weapon.

Soak 5 · Attack 5 · Defense 5 · Health Levels 6 · Movement Rate 6m (8m climbing)

Iron Coils / Bite: 6, Melee

Traits: Cast Iron - its Soak applies even against attacks that would normally bypass a living creature's armor; fire and most poison/toxin effects don't affect it at all, GM's call on edge cases. Freezes Mid-Motion - if it ever ends its turn perceived by more than two people at once, it locks back into its decorative pose and cannot act again until it's alone with a single target.

Every Creole townhouse used to keep a brick cistern out back for rainwater. Most are empty, capped, or forgotten. Not all of them. Something long-limbed and amphibian lives in this one, pale and waterlogged, folded into a cistern's brick confines in a way that shouldn't be comfortable for anything with a spine. It stays motionless for as long as it takes, striking only once something leans close enough to the rim. Half the danger is architectural - most people don't think to check whether the old cistern behind a Creole townhouse is actually empty before looking in.

Soak 1 · Attack 4 · Defense 7 · Health Levels 4 · Movement Rate 2m (10m in water)

Bite: 4, Melee

Notable Skills: Stealth 9 (while submerged)

Traits: Never Far From Water - Disadvantage on all rolls when more than Close range from standing water. Patient - can remain motionless underwater indefinitely; gains Advantage on its first attack against a target that doesn't know it's there.

Shotgun houses share a design, a wall, sometimes a hallway that isn't supposed to connect to anything. Something uses that hallway like a street. It's glimpsed only in doorways and hall junctions, never quite matching the house it's currently standing in. It reaches from wherever it happens to be, then relocates to another shotgun house entirely before anyone can pin it down. Closing and latching a door behind it is the one thing that reliably traps it in a single house for the rest of the encounter - a detail most parties only learn by accident.

Soak 1 · Attack 5 · Defense 8 · Health Levels 4 · Movement Rate 8m

Reaching Hands: 5, Melee

Traits: Between the Walls - as a Fast action, can move from any shotgun house's interior directly to any other shotgun house's interior within Near range, appearing in a hallway or doorway there; can only be perceived, targeted, or attacked while it's actually occupying a room. Doesn't Like Doors - loses this movement Trait entirely for the rest of the Scene if a door it passes through is closed and latched behind it.

Old plantation ground remembers who worked it and who didn't. This one still walks the property line, and it has never once mistaken who the trespasser is. This is not a generic haunted-mansion ghost. It does not menace visitors who are there to learn, remember, or pay respect; it exists for the people who'd continue what the plantation was. It appears as a tall, chained silhouette walking the boundary at a steady, unhurried pace, most visible at dusk or full dark. It gives an exploiter every chance to leave the property before the chain comes off its shoulder. The encounter is really a test of intent - the same ghost can pass an entire scene without a single roll if the party's there for the right reasons.

Soak 2 · Attack 6 · Defense 7 · Health Levels 5 · Movement Rate 7m

Chain / Lash: 6, Melee

Notable Skills: Intimidation 9

Traits: Knows the Difference - will not initiate combat against anyone visiting in good faith (tourists, historians, descendants, students, GM's call); reserves its Attack entirely for those trying to profit from, exploit, or erase what happened on the grounds. Bound to the Property Line - cannot leave the plantation's original boundary under any circumstance.

Voodoo & Root Work

A conjured servant, made from crossroads dirt, chicken bones, and a working root doctor's intent. It does what it's told and nothing else. A loose assembly of bone, feather, and packed dirt held together by something other than anatomy, moving with jerky, deliberate purpose. It fights only on direct instruction and flees the moment that instruction stops making sense or its conjurer goes quiet. Kill the conjurer and it doesn't fight to the death for them - it just starts running down the clock on its own before it falls apart.

Soak 1 · Attack 5 · Defense 7 · Health Levels 3 · Movement Rate 11m

Claws / Beak: 5, Melee

Notable Skills: Stealth 8, Perception 8

Traits: Bound Service - acts purely on its conjurer's standing instructions; without a conjurer actively directing it (or recent enough instructions to still apply, GM's call), it defaults to fleeing rather than fighting. Unravels Without Its Root - if its conjurer dies or the working that made it is destroyed, it has 3 rounds before it falls apart into dirt and bone.

Shows up right when a decision feels impossible, at whatever crossroads happens to be nearest. Always has a deal. Not human, whatever it actually is underneath - just something that's learned exactly how to look like someone you'd trust. The deal is never as good as it sounds going in. Dressed plainly and unremarkably, easy to mistake for someone just passing through until the conversation turns to what you'd give up. It never forces anything - it just talks, offers, waits, and lets the desperation of the moment do the persuading. The real danger nobody rolls initiative for is the conversation itself; the bargain, once shaken on, is the whole fight.

Soak 0 · Attack 3 · Defense 8 · Health Levels 3 · Movement Rate 8m

The Offer (Mental, 4 dice vs. Psyche, triggered by accepting its bargain - no to-hit roll; it never forces the conversation itself, only the terms once agreed to)

Notable Skills: Persuasion 10, Insight 9

Traits: A Deal Is a Deal - a target Overwhelmed by the Offer gains a temporary trait reflecting whatever the bargain actually cost them, GM's call based on what was promised. Only Appears at a Crossroads - cannot be encountered anywhere else; a determined party can simply not go looking for one.

Somebody's working called these up out of a nest that shouldn't answer to anybody. They don't sting like normal wasps do. A dense, low buzzing cloud, individually ordinary-looking wasps moving with a coordination real insects don't have. It swarms whatever target its conjurer points it at, redirecting mid-fight without hesitation if the working behind it is still active. The sting doesn't just hurt - the numbness it leaves behind often costs a target more on whatever comes next.

Soak 0 · Attack 5 · Defense 8 · Health Levels 3 · Movement Rate 10m (flight)

Stings: 4, Melee

Traits: Numbing Venom - a target hit by the Stings is at Disadvantage on their next physical action, the sting leaving the area numb rather than just hurting. Answers to the Conjurer - if the working that summoned it is still active, its conjurer can redirect its target as a Free action once per round.

A conjure bag holds intent long after whoever made it walked away. Sometimes what's left starts talking back. There's nothing to see beyond an ordinary hand-sewn bag, its contents rattling faintly when nobody's touched it. It never acts physically, only speaks - low, personal, aimed at whoever's carried it long enough to start listening. The real threat is how reluctant a target becomes to just throw the thing away, long after they've realized they should.

Soak 0 · Defense 9 · Health Levels 1 · Movement Rate 0m (bound to the gris-gris bag carrying it) - no Attack, never initiates a physical attack

The Whisper (Mental, 3 dice vs. Psyche, triggered by carrying or handling the bag for more than a Scene - no to-hit roll)

Traits: Bound to Its Bag - destroying the gris-gris bag ends it instantly. Wants to Be Kept - a target Overwhelmed by the Whisper gains the temporary trait "Attached," at Disadvantage on any roll to willingly discard or destroy the bag.

Mardi Gras & Masks

A parade that isn't on the route, on a night that isn't Fat Tuesday. The masks stay on. Nobody ever answers to a name. Full costume and mask on every member, no skin ever visible, movement loose and celebratory right up until it isn't. It calls newcomers in with music and noise before anyone even reaches for a weapon, then fights in a tight, practiced group once it turns violent. Come dawn the entire krewe is simply gone mid-step, wherever it happened to be - there's no retreat to chase down, only a suddenly empty street.

Soak 1 · Attack 4 · Defense 7 · Health Levels 5 · Movement Rate 8m

Staffs / Batons: 4, Melee

The Krewe Calls (Social, 3 dice vs. Presence, standard to-hit using its own Attack) - anyone who falls Flustered from this gains the temporary trait "Falling In," compelled to don a mask (real or improvised) and join the procession until it disperses or they recover.

Notable Skills: Performance 8

Traits: Strength in Numbers - gains Advantage on an attack roll when at least two others from the same Krewe are also attacking the same target. Disperses at Dawn - the entire Krewe vanishes at first light, wherever it happens to be.

Somebody caught the wrong throw off the wrong float. Their eyes went the flat gold of a Mardi Gras doubloon, and they haven't stopped partying since. Normal clothes, normal face, except for the eyes - flat gold, catching light wrong, fixed in a grin that doesn't waver. It keeps moving and swinging no matter how hurt it looks, running on pure momentum instead of any real strategy. It drops things as it fights - beads, cups, doubloons - and picking one up out of habit is exactly how the anomaly finds its next body.

Soak 1 · Attack 5 · Defense 6 · Health Levels 4 · Movement Rate 9m

Fists / Improvised: 4, Melee

Notable Skills: Athletics 7

Traits: Doesn't Stop - immune to Fatigue and exhaustion effects for the duration of the anomaly; keeps moving and fighting at full capacity regardless of injury, right up until it hits 0 Health Levels. Contagious Catch - anyone who picks up and pockets a throw the Reveler drops (GM's call on triggering this) risks becoming the anomaly's next host later that same night.

Every good jazz band on Frenchmen Street has an extra player some nights. Nobody remembers hiring him. He's very good, and he's not flesh and blood - whatever he actually is, nothing about the sound gives it away. Sharp in an old-fashioned way, his instrument always slightly out of style for the room, blending into the band until someone counts heads and gets one too many. He never acts alone - he needs a live band already playing before he can manifest or do anything at all. The crowd around him is the real threat, not him; step into a bar he's sitting in and losing track of the hour becomes the whole encounter.

Soak 0 · Attack 2 · Defense 8 · Health Levels 2 · Movement Rate 7m

The Set (Mental, 4 dice vs. Psyche, triggered by listening to the band play for more than a Round while he's sitting in - no to-hit roll)

Notable Skills: Performance 10

Traits: Trance - a target Overwhelmed by the Set gains the temporary trait "Lost in the Music," losing track of time and surroundings for as long as the set continues. Only Plays With Others - never manifests, and the Set never triggers, unless he's joined an actual live band already playing.

Mind & Presence

The St. Charles line runs the same route it always has. Some nights the conductor asks for a fare in a coin that stopped being legal tender a long time ago. A conductor's uniform a few decades out of date, hand extended for a coin no working wallet carries anymore. It never leaves the streetcar and never chases - the only thing it does is ask, politely, and wait. Paying up front with the right old coin ends the whole encounter before it starts, which means most riders only learn the hard way what happens if you board without one.

Soak 0 · Defense 8 · Health Levels 2 · Movement Rate 0m (bound to the streetcar line) - no Attack, never initiates a physical attack

Fare's Due (Mental, 3 dice vs. Psyche, triggered by riding without paying the Collector - no to-hit roll)

Traits: Bound to the Line - cannot leave the streetcar route under any circumstance. Exact Change Only - handing over any old or foreign coin before boarding prevents the trigger entirely, GM's call on what counts.

A vendor's cart on a French Quarter corner, candy smell thick enough to taste from half a block off. She's not selling to make money, and she's not entirely there either, whatever she looks like up close. Warm and grandmotherly, her cart piled with candy that smells better than any actual praline has a right to. She never forces a sale, just waits with the smell doing the work, especially on someone who hasn't eaten in a while. The cart is genuinely invisible to anyone who isn't hungry at that exact moment, so half a search party can walk right past it while the starving member of the group finds it immediately.

Soak 0 · Attack 2 · Defense 8 · Health Levels 2 · Movement Rate 5m

Just One Bite (Mental, 3 dice vs. Psyche, triggered by eating anything from her cart - no to-hit roll)

Traits: Wants Company - a target Overwhelmed gains the temporary trait "Sated and Slow," at Disadvantage on Perception and Athletics until the trait clears, and finds themselves inclined to linger at the cart rather than leave. Cart Only Appears to the Hungry - cannot be found by anyone who isn't, at that moment, actually hungry.

Old mirrors in the Quarter's antique shops have seen a lot. Some of them started answering back, and they don't always tell the truth. An ordinary antique mirror, tarnish spots on the silvering, the reflection lagging a half-beat behind the person looking into it. It only speaks when spoken to, through your own reflected voice, and never volunteers whether what it says is true. Breaking the mirror ends it instantly, but most people don't think to check whether the antique they're chatting with is even trustworthy until well after they've already believed something it told them.

Soak 0 · Defense 9 · Health Levels 1 · Movement Rate 0m (bound to a specific mirror) - no Attack, never initiates a physical attack

Answers Back (Mental, 3 dice vs. Psyche, triggered by speaking to your own reflection in its mirror - no to-hit roll)

Traits: Bound to the Glass - destroying the mirror ends it instantly. Knows What You Said - a target Overwhelmed gains the temporary trait "Second-Guessing," at Disadvantage on Insight and Persuasion rolls for the rest of the Scene, having been told something about themselves they can't quite shake.

Wild Things

An invasive species that was already a nuisance got into something it shouldn't have. It's still just a nutria. It's just not supposed to be this big. Orange buck teeth the size of fingers, wet fur, the unmistakable shape of a nutria scaled up to something the size of a large dog. It bites and retreats rather than pressing an attack, more interested in getting past a target than fighting it head-on. It chews through drywall and studs like they're not there at all, so a locked room only stays safe until it decides to come through the wall instead.

Soak 2 · Attack 5 · Defense 5 · Health Levels 6 · Movement Rate 6m (10m in water)

Bite: 6, Melee

Notable Skills: Athletics 7 (swimming)

Traits: Breeds Fast - GM's call, but where there's one there's rarely just one. Chews Through Anything - treats wood, drywall, and similar soft barriers as though they have no Hardness at all.

New Orleans roaches get big on their own. This many, moving together on purpose, is new. A shifting brown mass pouring out of baseboards and wall gaps, individual roaches ordinary-sized but moving with one shared purpose. It swarms in from multiple directions at once, using walls and ceilings as freely as the floor. Beating it in a straight fight barely matters - it scatters back into the walls at the end and reforms somewhere else in the same building, turning an infested house into a repeat problem rather than a one-time fight.

Soak 0 · Attack 3 · Defense 8 · Health Levels 3 · Movement Rate 6m (8m on walls/ceilings)

Bites: 3, Melee

Traits: Everywhere at Once - Advantage on Stealth checks in any building it's already infested. Scatters, Doesn't Die - at 0 Health Levels, disperses into the walls rather than being destroyed outright; can reform elsewhere in the same structure after a Scene passes.

Jackson Square used to run mule-drawn carriages past the cathedral. One mule never noticed its driver stopped showing up. A swaybacked mule in old tack, dragging a carriage that flickers between solid and translucent depending on who's looking. It doesn't seek out a fight, just keeps walking its old route, kicking out only if something gets too close or blocks the way. The carriage it drags is solid enough to trip someone directly behind it but passes clean through anyone not paying attention - a detail that turns simple pursuit through the Quarter into an obstacle course.

Soak 2 · Attack 4 · Defense 5 · Health Levels 5 · Movement Rate 9m

Kick: 5, Melee

Notable Skills: Perception 7

Traits: Still Pulling the Carriage - drags a phantom carriage that's solid enough to trip or block anyone directly behind it, but passes through anyone not paying attention to it. Knows the Route - never gets lost navigating the French Quarter or Garden District, and gains Advantage on any Athletics roll made specifically to outrun pursuit within those areas.