Shadow Scryers, A Homebrew Mage: The Ascension Spirit

Official supplements are great, but they're not comprehensive. Sometimes you need a creature or NPC that doesn't exist in available books, or you need to tweak something that exists to fit your chronicle better, or maybe you just want to throw something unexpected at your players. In that case, you might just need to build something new to drop into your game.

That's how I ended up with the Shadow Scryers.

Below is the information I wrote up for the homemade spirit I created for my latest Mage chronicle. Feel free to use it in your own games, or tweak it for your own purposes. Enjoy!

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"Look, shut up a second and listen to me. I'm not safe here. Call it paranoia or whatever, but I swear, when I left Blake's hidey-hole with the relic, something followed me and I can't seem to-"

Malcolm whirled, certain he saw something moving at the edge of his vision. The motel room was empty of anything that shouldn't be there, other than himself, the cell phone he was using to check in with his pal, and his bag by the door, but he couldn't shake the feeling that someone or something was watching him.

"...I have to go. If you don't hear back from me in one hour, get to the chantry and get help."

He hung up his cell phone, then opened up his custom camera app and scrolled through the different filters. First Material, then Flora/Fauna, and on and on. When he cycled to Spiritus, Malcolm nearly dropped his phone. Standing in the far corner was a tall, slender, shadowy humanoid figure staring at him with milky white eyes.

Swallowing his fear, Malcolm moved slowly, cautiously, toward the door, silently praying that whatever that thing was, it wasn’t easily provoked. He glanced away only for a second to grab his bag, the one hiding the stolen relic, the spirit's empty eyes following him all the while.

Unlocking the door made the spirit's head tilt ever so slightly, but it made no movement to intervene. That was fine by Malcolm. He opened the door just wide enough to slip through, then sprinted the rest of the way to his car and peeled out of the parking lot.

And still he felt as though he was being watched.

Much like their close Sendings cousins, Shadow Scryers are spirits compelled to serve a specific purpose. Where Sendings are messengers – disembodied communications with images and voices but no set form to speak of – Shadow Scryers are spies, intended to quickly locate and quietly observe a person or place and report back their findings.

Spotted easily enough by mages well-versed in the spirit ways, those with only a heightened awareness of their surroundings might catch fleeting glimpses of movement in their peripheral vision. When discovered, a Shadow Scryer continues observing until action is taken against it. When attacked, it defaults to the flight category of "fight or flight" reactions, sometimes instilling sudden and crippling terror prior to fleeing, to better avoid being pursued.

Shadow Scryers vary in appearance, taking the form of urban legends, mythical creatures, ghostly figures, even aspects of long forgotten gods and mages. Despite their name, they are not formed from shadow, although they do prefer darkened corners when spying. Although these entities appear to have some form of sentience and survival instincts, their silence makes discerning their true purpose all but impossible.

In game terms, Shadow Scryers can be summoned and compelled to act by any mage as per the Spirit/Dimensional Science Spheres. These spirits make ideal eyes and ears for those who wish to avoid direct attention, but still want to gather information from afar. It should be noted that these entities are not fighters, but their instincts strongly deter those from following the spirit back to its mage master.

Willpower 3, Rage 4, Gnosis 10, Essence 25
Charms: Flee, Influence, Soul Reading, Terror, Track