Technical Reality Hacks

(For context, see the Reality Hacking rules)

Technical Hacks

See The Membrane (Astronomy): This hack enables the Agent to judge local Membrane conditions by observing the stars. The Agent can tell how strong the Membrane is, and the safest direction back to ‘normal’ reality.

Magic Bullet (Ballistics): Activate this hack after missing with a Firearms attack, and spend enough Firearms points to make up the difference between your original rest and the target’s Hit Threshold.

Preservation Vat (Chemistry): Some chemical reactions only work in the Outer Dark. This hack allows the Agent to brew up a clear, viscous gel from common household chemicals. Living tissue submerged in the gel is preserved and doesn’t decay – or die. Stick a decapitated head or evil monster hand in there, and it’ll stay alive.

EVP (Cryptography): By means of this hack, the Agent is able to extract information from random noise. Static on a television or radio is the usual source, but analysing large amounts of numerical data also works. Information garnered in this fashion is not necessarily useful – you’re dependent on what the local ghosts want to talk about.

File Corruption (Data Retrieval): This is close to a literal hack – applied to an electronic storage device, it warps the stored data. The incantation doesn’t affect the functioning of the device, but does change whatever human-orientated information is stored on it. So, apply it to a security camera, and the camera now stores weird, distorted images and no faces can be made out. Apply it to an airline booking database, and suddenly a host of non-existent people have bookings on the plane. The hack’s best used for covering your tracks – instead of deleting data during the Veil-Out, you can just warp it.

Coffee Ghost (Document Analysis): You know how old documents have rings on them left by carelessly placed coffee cups of yesteryear. Well, this hack lets you taste that coffee. Do the mojo, and your mouth fills with the taste of ancient coffee. Or tea. Or whatever beverage stained the document. Look, these are unreliable hacks of a universe collapsing into darkness and suffering – they can’t all be useful.

Ghost Hunter (Electronic Surveillance): Enchants a camera or other surveillance device for one scene to detect invisible entities.

Psychometry (Evidence Collection): Gives the hacker a brief psychic flash of the strongest emotion connected with a particular object. Caution is recommended when using this hack; the emotions of ODEs can have severely deleterious effects on human sanity.

Reality Burn (Explosive Devices): Enchants an explosive device. The upside – the explosion now affects ghosts and other spiritual entities that would normally ignore a blast. The downside – the Membrane’s technically a spiritual entity. Using this hack to deal with a threat isn’t so much going from the frying pan to the fire, to burning a hole in the frying pan and setting the kitchen on fire. Still, needs must sometimes…

The Touch (Fingerprinting): Touch a fingerprint and use this hack – and for the rest of the scene, you’ve got the fingerprints (and other biological evidence, like skin flakes or secretions) of the person whose fingerprint you touched.

Dead Speak (Forensic Anthropology): Your classic Speak With Dead spell. Lets you converse with a corpse. Best used a short time after death – a corpse in a low-Membrane zone has a high probability of getting taken over by the Outer Dark equivalent of a hermit crab.

Parasitic Wasp (Forensic Entomology): Summons a parasitic wasp from the Outer Dark to inhabit a human host. The wasp isn’t under your control – but you can use this spell to eliminate a dangerous Esoterrorist or a corrupt pawn, as the wasp has its own agenda and will quickly take itself and its new host body out of the area.

Kirlian Photography (Photography): Enchants a camera to pick up on human auras, letting you spot possessed individuals or disguised monsters.

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