메멘토 모리

MEMENTO MORI

You wake up on your bed once again. A new day ahead. Time to get up and start things again. Gray clouds block out the sky, a recurring event in this place.

Strange things happen in this City, you know of it. Yet few believe in you… As you get up you recall the events that led you to this predicament.

SHADOW:

Shadow represents your trauma and your pains. The more shadow you have, the more unhinged and perturbed you are. Keep track of these points.
Origins and some Supernatural Perks tied to the supernatural give you shadow.
Some Mundane Perks can lower your shadow.

SHADOW THRESHOLDS:

Getting too much shadow will give you drawbacks and problems, keep track of your shadow.

The Average Joe (0-30 S): You are a normal person in all that counts, maybe with some quirks and mannerisms but nothing too far from the ordinary.

The Abnormal (31-50 S): You are… not wholly normal at this point. You have some insanity inside of you, maybe aggressive tendencies or urge to do self harm. You are a weirdo but can still function in society and by yourself.

The Unhinged (51-70 S): You are insane, threading on the line of barely functional and deluded. You can still function in society to a degree, but your mind is scarred to say the least. You are still there but twisted and crazy. Expect people to call the police on you and often shun you. They are right, you are not normal.

The Insane (71-90 S): Your mind is not fully there anymore, you are barely yourself. You are no longer functional in society. Your mind is not fully in control anymore, keeping track of the most basic actions borders the impossible, needing outside help most of the time to be able to do even the simplest of actions. In the lower end, you are someone insane that sees the world as distorted and lacks the fine control of your body, barely able to force your mind to work. At the higher end, you are a borderline vegetable.

The Silence (91-100+ S): Your mind is no longer there, you are a vegetable without recovery. Your ego is totally gone, maybe this is for the best…

Your Shadow cannot go under 0, but it can go beyond 100 with no limit.

Alongside the shadow you may gain “Trauma”. Trauma is used to buy supernatural powers and perks. Beware: most supernatural powers raise your shadow.

You also have Life Skills, which are used to buy mundane perks and experiences. More often than not Mundane Perks and experiences decrease your shadow.

Where do you live?

The slums (+5 Shadow, +6 Trauma): You live in the rougher side of the City. Through your life you have seen a lot. Mundane things people shouldn’t see, and maybe even some “true supernatural stuff”. Either way, your life has not been an easy one and you live in the shadier area of the City.

The Neighborhood (+5 Life Skills): You live in one of the “normal” neighborhoods of the City. Your life has been mostly mundane besides the event that triggered your trauma. A nice place to live in.

The Central City of Dunwich (-3 Trauma, -5 Shadow, +10 Life Skills): You live in the richer areas of Dunwich. You have been sheltered most of your life, living in the nicest and most developed zone of the City. At least that gave you the money to cope with your trauma and problems.

Dunwich Town
The town you are currently in. It is fairly urban, but still holds some rural and very undeveloped areas due to a rushed modernization. Many strange movements are happening right now, and you are set on investigating them. Be it to end them, or just to help them come to fruition

Around Dunwich Town:

The slums:

A satellite town around Dunwich with more marginalized people and higher criminality rate. It is a labyrinth due to poor planning and being left unfinished for years. There are many entrances leading to the sewers, some even in broad daylight. As well as being full of superstitious people who tell tales about the “things” that lurk in the sewers. From giant Crocodiles to mutants and demonic beings. As the night goes on, it slowly becomes pitch black around 22:00 to 4:30, the people living there have an unwritten rule of “not going out” at these hours, and if they do, they shall search for shelter in local stores, since the darkness refuses to enter such areas…
Despite the dangers of the dark, always keep an eye out for people, since here the monsters are not the only threat to you, as thugs and criminals also are.

The Abandoned Buildings:

A set of abandoned buildings all around the slums, home to the poor who can’t afford proper houses, gangs or cartels, and maybe… something more.
Some buildings have direct access to the sewers or the derelict metro system. Be cautious
+Dangers: Mundane dangers like homeless people or street thugs. Some buildings lead to the old metro system.

Local Cartels:

The local gangs, more organized with some income, be it drug dealing, or other means to get money.
+Dangers: They are a more organized set of criminals with more money to afford better equipment.
+Pros: They will at least put up a fight against the unnatural should it get in their turf.

Solidarity:

+Due to the danger of the darkness, people are more willing to shelter others when night comes or if someone needs help in the middle of the night. An unspoken rule is that you shall not harm nor rob someone in those hours if they shelter you during the night.
+24 Hour Stores: Due its own unique circumstances, the slums have a great amount of 24/7 stores, making them safe places in the dark. Most of these stores have firearms for the use of their own personnel for safety. They will shoot down anything supernatural or suspicious around their stores.

+Old Man’s Death Shop:
+Relic Shop: A shop run by a local old man, not quite in the slums but not in Dunwich either. He sells all sorts of relics and strange stuff, from talismans to old relics from places far away, to even guns.
+Protection: The Relic Shop has an aura of protection around it, keeping the darkness and monsters away at any time of the day, even when it is close.

The darkness:

When the night reaches its peak around 22:30, the skies become pitch black and all natural light sources vanish until 4:30. You do not want to be out in the dark when 22:30 draws near.
+Dangers: The darkness. Have a light source on you or be near a light source.

The Apparitions:

Some strange things appear in the night, always at the corner of your vision. If they are real or not is another question entirely but being overly cautious never killed anyone.
+Danger: can be some sort of cryptid or weirdo.

Rural Area:

A relatively rural and untouched area. Kilometers of green plains and little to no changes made by man. Beware that the moment the sun goes down you will become the darkness’ prey. You will need some sort of vehicle to survive the darkness when the sun goes down if you wish to study this place.

The derelicts:

Around the slums and the more outer areas of Dunwich lies the corpse buildings of a failed urban expansion attempt. The buildings left forgotten, to be withered by the weather and time.
+Dangers: Darkness lurks strongly in this place, even in broad daylight the failed urban area is dim at best and too dark to explore without potent flashlights at worst.
Creatures lurk around in this place, going here unarmed is ill advised.
+Truth: If you explore enough, you may find old documents from decades ago in abandoned camps and some buildings.

The plains

+Day safety: No kind of supernatural event happens during the day.
+Danger: When the sun goes down, darkness comes. The darkness here is at its strongest and the creatures that lurk inside of it feel free to come out. It is advised to have some sort of vehicle to shelter you when the sun goes down. You will not survive until dawn otherwise.

Dunwich Town:

The Neighborhood:

A nice area with the bulk of Dunwich’s population, being the dedicated residential area where most people in the city live. Arguably is the most secure area in the city, as well as having less “strange occurrences” than anywhere else.

+Protection: The police are more active in this area of the Dunwich, making it one of the safest.

+Neighborhood watch: The people of the neighborhood are keen to see problems and report, amongst themselves and to the police. If something follows you to this place, you can rest safely, the people will soon call the police to take care of what is following you.

Special Areas Dunwich:

Special buildings and zones of Dunwich, may be of your interest.

Arkham Asylum:

An asylum for the mentally deranged. Somehow the Asylum always has “too many patients” but still can house many more. Many whispers and hushed rumors are said about the asylum, like how they perform inhuman experiments upon the patients, how brutal they are. Despite all of those rumors and urban legends, they are always up to house and capture dangerous and mentally disturbed people.

Schools:

In february’s 29th in the 60’s, there was a massive collective suicide in almost all schools of Dunwich. This led to many rumors to be born, about how many ghosts haunt these schools and the spirits of the deceased lingering on in this plane. How much of it is the truth is up to interpretation but there is no way to deny the darkness that takes hold of Dunwich’s schools in the nights alongside strange whispers coming out of nowhere…

The Police Station:

As surprising as it is, the Police of Dunwich is surprisingly reasonable, believing and investigating most “bullshit” or “supernatural cases”. Somehow they still are an effective police force.

Central Area of Dunwich:

The center of the City, and the most advanced and urbanized point as well. Having towering skyscrapers and dozens of crowds walking around. It makes it harder for the supernatural to act unhampered due to the sheer amount of people.
Most, if not all, the richer or capable of achieving high standard living people live here, as well as having hotels, a Shopping Center and the best stores in town.
Although the City lacked a subway system, it was attempted to be made once, but left incomplete. Most entrances to the incomplete subway system are located in this area. The old subway system is interconnected with the sewers, making it very hard to be researched. Beware of dangers.

The Center:

+Shops: The center of Dunwich is filled with many Malls and shops of all kinds, perfect to spend money on.
+Nightless: Due to the sheer amount of people has at any given time of the day, there are always crowds in the Center, as well as many bright lights and vehicles, making it always a busy area. Perfect to lose a stalker or seek protection in the crowd.
+Danger: Entrance to the subway systems: Many entrances to the derelict and abandoned subway systems and by proxy the sewers are found in the heart of Dunwich. It is strongly advised if you get in the derelict subway system, to get out immediately.
+Danger: Phantoms: The biggest and mayhaps most stubborn rumor of Dunwich. Even before the start of the Cold War there were many rumors of government agents coming to Dunwich and disappearing mysteriously without any explanation or trace left behind. Alongside the rumor of federals disappearing without a trace comes the rumor of black phantoms resembling federals. Black and traceless ghosts that appear on the edge of your vision. As the legend goes: If you see a ghost resembling a federal agent, do not turn your back, retreat with careful steps, never taking your eyes out of the apparition, go to the nearest light source, and wait there until it disappears or more people appear.
They are more actively in the darkest corners of the Central Area, as another rumor says.
However, they can appear in any given area in the surroundings of Dunwich.

The Derelict Subway:

What was once an ambitious and overachieving project now lies broken and forgotten by its planners. A subway system to connect all the areas and closer cities around Dunwich. Due lack of foresight and a massive tragedy in retaliation against the project, the subway system was left forgotten and abandoned, even when it was almost done and ready to start working. Now, it was used to build up the sewers of Dunwich, or maybe it was interconnected with it at some point…

+Danger: Darkness: Darkness is omnipresent inside of the Derelict Subway. Despite being always present with an oppressive glaze inside of the Subway, it is not as aggressive or powerful here. Although it blocks your vision, it cannot harm you, not directly.
+Creatures: Otherworldly creatures and cryptids are said to inhabit the subway system, there is no confirmation if it is true or not or what inhabits the subway, however sights of giant crocodiles are at least confirmed by a substantial number of inhabitants, both of the slums and of Dunwich.
+The Black Ghosts: The black ghosts of governamental officers swarm the place sometimes, appearing as a horde of black apparition but contrary to other areas, they are mostly “pacified” if you do not interact with them.

Rubbing your eyes, you get up to carry on your day, relieving that fateful moment where everything changed.

DEATH OF LOVE

Peaceful Demise (+5 Shadow, +15 Trauma, +75 Life Skills):
Someone you loved dearly died, at least it was a peaceful demise but despite being peaceful, their absence left a vacant space in your heart, wounding it deeply.

Untimely Demise (+10 Shadow, +25 Trauma, +70 Life Skills):
Someone you loved passed away before their time was up. It was sudden and painful, no preparation to harden you against their passing. This left a gaping wound in your heart, a shadow that fests this wound that may never heal…

Traumatic Demise (+25 Shadow, +46 Trauma, +60 Life Skills):
A loved one passed away rather brutally before your very eyes. Their faces before their death still haunt your dreams and awake life. You will never heal from this, as their death will forever stalk you, no matter where you go.

DEATH OF SELF

Accidental Death (+10 Shadow, +20 Trauma, +65 Life Skills):
You almost died in an accident, you had no control over it, it was all so sudden… you barely made it out alive and the lack of control over your own mortality still haunts you.

Intentional Death (+20 Shadow, +35 Trauma, +60 Life Skills):
Someone tried to kill you, their very intention was to kill you. You barely made it out alive, be it because of external help or you escaping your aggressor. The trauma of the attempted assassination is always creeping in your mind, feeling it with paranoia and fear that someone will try to hurt or kill you.

TRUE DEATH (+40 Shadow, +55 Trauma, +50 Life Skills):
You attempted to kill yourself, and failed. In that attempt an essential part of you was lost, to be forever forgotten in the darkness. You are not fully yourself anymore and you can feel it.

MODIFIERS:

Modifications to enhance your main trauma. Keep moderation since they also enhance your Shadow. You can only take two modifiers, the second modifier will have its benefits halved while its drawbacks will stay the same.
Betrayal (“Peaceful Demise”, “Accidental Death” and “True Death” cannot take this modifier. Add half the total amount of your “Cause of Death” Shadow and Trauma): Someone you trusted, someone you thought you could rely on betrayed you and they are the cause of your trauma. Be it them killing a loved one or trying to kill you, they are the cause of all of your hurt and pain.
Worse still, they somehow managed to avoid legal action against them. Be it for lack of evidence or bribery, they are away from the hands of the law until you gather enough proof that they are the criminal behind the crimes.
Beware, if you try to end them with your powers or mundane means and anyone discovers, you will be thrown in jail or worse, into the Arkham Asylum.

Mass Death (Cannot be taken with “Peaceful Demise”, add 15 Shadow and 20 Trauma): More people died near you. Maybe it was a terrorist attack or a weirdo with a gun assaulted your school, or maybe, you were part of a collective suicide not unlike the one of the 60s. Either way, you were around an event that killed many people at once, enhancing your trauma to great lengths.

Diseased (Cannot be taken by any “Death of Love”, add 10 Shadow and 10 Trauma): You have a disease. This disease has put you near death's door multiple times but you still carry on. Sadly, there is no cure in sight for this disease, and it will probably kill you. You cannot avoid this disease forever and it shows in your demeanor. You are deeply afraid of other diseases, having a severe case of hypochondria and a bit of neatfreak streak.

Stained Hands (add 30 Shadow and 20 Trauma): You have killed someone, there is no denying it. You have stained your hands with blood. This fact weighs in your conscience deeply and haunts your mind, the faces of the one you killed still fresh in your mind.

Additional Trauma (add 10-25 Shadow and 5-20 Trauma): Your Cause of Death is accompanied by an additional trauma. Something bad happened to you in the same time period or at the same time as your Cause of Death. Something almost as bad too.
The worse the trauma is, the more points it gives. For a minimum of 5 points to a maximum of 20.

SHIP OF THESEUS:

"Memorandum 5#: An event known amongst those who underwent the Cause of Death is the fitting named “Ship of Theseus”. Great changes inside the brain of the patient, as well as in the whole body in some cases, happens after they cross the threshold.

Those who undergo the Cause of Death start to change inside out, developing great differences in their mindset and overall demeanor, sometimes changing completely from their past selves.
In most cases registered by the Arkham Asylum, most people are unrecognizable from their past selves but this is not only all.
Their demeanor changes for cruel and most of the time negative, having great emphasis on traumas and phobias.
Alongside the psychological changes there are physical changes in some cases, as well as the awakening of trauma based supernatural abilities.

Arkham Asylum has contained and stopped most of the dangerous survivors of the Cause of Death event. As of now, their director is doing their best to hold back and nail down the dangerous subjects inside the Asylum but as things stand right now, their life time is expiring faster due their advanced age.

If the director dies, Arkham’s doors will be open without any guard. Governmental intervention is advised. First Sergeant Henderson has also expressed concern over the situation.”
“Excerpts of Memorandum 6#: The Arkham Asylum classifies the Ship of Theseus changes into four major categories:

Rage: Classified as the most violent type of change. Most of their supernatural abilities are focused on violence and combat, some with insidious types of violence like curses and jinxes.
Delusion: Changes and powers focused on mental and psychic abilities. They tend to be very egocentric and control freaks, trying to make everything around them as “perfect as they should” be, making them delusional, believing in their own version of reality instead of what is true, controlling other people to back up their own views.They tend to be very insidious and hard to pinpoint.
Fear: Classified as the most docile and reasonable type, those of this type are generally afraid of most things, especially death, making them easy to handle as long as they are not startled. Their powers revolve against types of protection and locomotion, in general to run away or protect themselves from danger. The most powerful of these types as seen by Arkham’s files are able to use some type of pocket dimension.
Most people of this type have the green light to normally function in society, as most are not aggressive and keep a low profile.
Paranoia: Alongside those of the Delusion Archetype, Subjects of this type are dangerous, paranoid and afraid of social interaction, trying to control everything around them. Their powers are very hard to notice, as they are able to use a type of supernatural stealth ability.
There are more types of powers that those who went through Cause of Death can awaken, but those four types are the most common.”

“As noted by Arkham files, the use of those supernatural powers drains the body and stamina most of the time, or have strange and bloody requirements.
Normal humans untouched by the shadows are unable to perceive the supernatural powers in its majority, taking cognitive damage upon seeing the use of supernatural powers or creatures of ectoplasm also does cognitive damage to your average bystander.
Everyone who went through the Cause of Death also has an innate resistance of varying efficacy against all supernatural powers and even cryptids.”

Choose one between Rage, Delusion, Fear and Paranoia. You will gain the first ability of their type for free and a Trauma Token.
In your chosen line, you gain 10 Shadow on the fourth purchase in your type.
In other types, you will gain 15 Shadow on your third purchase in the type.

• Example:

  Main Type:

  1st Ability, 2nd Ability, 3rd Ability, 4th Ability (+10 Shadow)

  Other Types:

  1st Ability, 2nd Ability, 3rd Ability (+15 Shadow)

Mark of Trauma: Composes the first line and second line abilities. The first line costs 1 Trauma, the second line costs 2 Trauma.
Mark of Trauma: Composes the first line and second line abilities. The first line costs 1 Trauma, the second line costs 2 Trauma.
Traces of Wither: Composes the third line abilities. Cost 3 Trauma.
Remembrance of Death: Fourth line cost 1 Trauma Token. You gain Trauma tokens by gaining a Trauma Type. Trauma Types are gained by buying three abilities on an Archetype. Converting 9 Trauma and 1 Trauma Type into 1 Trauma Token, gaining +15 Shadow in the process.
Remembrance of Death counts towards the purchase count.
The first ability of Mark of Trauma of your chosen line and your first Remembrance of Death ability are free, not giving any shadow nor counting towards your purchases.

• TRAUMA OVERCLOCK:
  By buying an ability for 2x their price, you can get an overclocked version of it. A stronger, more unique version of said ability, suited towards your other abilities or theme.

RAGE ABILITY TREE:

Enraged: A deep anger and spite has rooted itself in your heart towards the world and the circumstances that led to your Cause of Death. You have more stamina and strength than the average person, being comparable to a trained athlete. You may lack skill but you have a headstart with your innate strength. You have trouble keeping your violent tendencies and thoughts in check, if you lose control you can become violent quickly.

Catharsis: You are able to manifest your trauma and pain in a physical manner, making your body stronger and more durable. You are able to shrug off blows from metal pipes and even of bricks being thrown at you, as well as able to resist shallow stabs and cuts.

Chrysalis: Building up your anger now has a purpose. You are able to store your anger and spite to fuel your strength in times of need. When you unleash your stored anger you become stronger, able to damage and bend metal with your punches and kicks, as well as becoming extremely durable, needing firearms or specialized melee weapons like combat knives or heavy blunt weapons to hurt you. In your state of released anger, you may show some inhuman traits, like black sclera, animal ears, claws, etc.
Even in your normal state, you are now stronger, able to damage brick walls with your bare hands without crushing your hand and boasting enhanced stamina, making you able to run a short marathon without tiring yourself out.

Metamorphosis: Your anger is a sight to behold. You can build your anger faster and have greater control over it, needing less emotional outburst to go to our state of released anger.
However if you let your anger and wrath reach their boiling points, you can enter a greater state of it. Acquiring more inhuman or outright devilish traits, gaining a supernatural power ability like flying or throwing up fireballs and even some sort of self healing.

In this state you are overwhelmingly strong, able to bend steel with your bare hands and resist great quantities of damage, being unfazed by small calibers of weapons and most mundane melee weaponry, needing hunting rifles and bigger calibers to damage you. You are by no means slow, being able to run an average of 36 km/h on average.

When you exit this state, your body will be tired and you will be unable to tap into your anger and release it, only being able to do so when you rest your body. Make no mistake, by no means you are defenseless, even without releasing your anger. You are able to shrug off most improvised melee weapons, needing military grade melee weapons to hurt you, like swords, combat knives and so forth, as well as having greater stamina and lung capacity, making choking and tiring out very hard, even after you release all of your anger.

Flagellation: You can manifest your anger as a weapon. By focusing on your anger, your trauma and sacrificing some of your own blood, you may manifest it as a physical weapon. Beware that by doing that, you are enhancing your own emotions to boiling point, making you prone to emotional outbursts. This weapon has a supernatural power of some kind, being able to make cuts that bleed more than normal ones, the ability to conjure fire upon its blade, healing minor wounds using the hurt you inflict upon others, etc.
Ranged Weaponry needs physical ammunition to shoot but using such methods is inefficient for your weapon, doing only a substantial amount of its full power. By using your blood as ammunition, your weapon can cause the full extent of damage to your enemies.

The Longinus: Your weapon has evolved, becoming a full crystallization of your trauma given physical form, no longer needing to be summoned by your concentration over your plies and your blood.

It is "alive" now, due to the fact that it is a full manifestation of your trauma, thus a part of you. It is able to correct its path against most foes but now that it is now that your weapon is now "alive", it can be fooled too with mind trickery and have a personality of its own, feeding and expanding on your inner darkness. Albeit the loss of its weakness in needing to be summoned by your trauma and blood, it still needs blood to use its full power. It does not care where the blood comes from, as long as you sacrifice it for your weapon, it will serve for it to achieve its full strength.

The power your weapon had before now is evolved and stronger, being a true piece of the supernatural upon this world. If it could make wounds bleed more, not your weapon can cause hemorrhages, if it could unleash a fireball, now it is a flamethrower, if it could heal minor wounds, now it can heal most wounds using the pain inflicted upon others.
Ranged Weaponry needs physical ammunition to shoot but using such methods is inefficient for your weapon, doing only a substantial amount of its full power. By using your blood as ammunition, your weapon can cause the full extent of damage to your enemies.

Schadenfreude: You are able to manifest your anger outwardly, able to hurt people with an aura of anger, it is not able to do fatal injuries with a few blows, yet. However, death by a thousand cuts still is possible.

Scorn: This world has wronged you, and you know deep in your bones that you are right. You will show them, those who wronged you, those who didn't believe you, you will make them suffer, you will make these insects know their place.
You are capable of controlling one element to cause harm to others or cause destruction. Fire to cause grievous burns, lightning to knock a normal person out of cold with electricity, or use water to make water blades to cut people or stab them. However, you are not able to make it ex-nihilo, needing a source of your element to control it.
You cannot control an element inside of a living being, like the air in their lungs or the water in their gullet if they drank it.

Superbia: This world is below you and you are completely sure of it. You no longer need a pre-existent source of your element to control it, now able to summon it freely, at a price. By using blood, stamina or other bodily fluids, not necessarily yours, you are able to summon your element at will and control it with greater finesse than before.
Your element now is stronger, evolving to a new form to suit your mindset and traumas, making it a pure elemental manifestation of your disorders, gaining supernatural properties as well as becoming way stronger than the normal variants. Using your element from other sources is more draining if you want to use this evolved state.
You cannot control an element inside of a living being, like the air in their lungs or the water in their gullet if they drank it, nor the blood in their veins or their bones.

Salem: The word is unfair, and you know that. You want to get back at the world, pay back your misfortune, right these wrongs. You are able to store and use your anger and spite to generate “curses”. The curses you are capable of making are “minor” curses at worst, “medium” ones at most.
Minor curses are nigh untrackable and undetectable but they are also very weak, being broken easily by just stepping inside holy grounds or a heartfelt prayer. However due the fact that they are nigh untrackable, they are good for other uses rather than cause direct harm.

By cursing an object you may see through it to spy on other people, or cursing a door so you may hear what is happening inside a room you cannot enter. You can also use it to cause minor strokes of misfortune, like making someone stumble or fall. Even if they are minor, a stumble in the right place at the right time can still kill someone.

Medium Curses consist of the more habitual stuff, hypnotizing people like zombies or voodoo magic, as well as curses that start to actively harm someone, like attracting rabid dogs to them or make cuts through their body. Contrary to minor curses, priests can detect this type of curses and trace it back, as they are no longer untrackable due to their power.
Those who went through the Cause of Death have an innate resistance to curses, so hypnotism and voodoo doesn’t work as intended on them.

Basque: You are capable of making greater curses. Greater Curses are able to put people's health at risk with the supernatural alone. Traceless diseases or curses that invoke a compulsion of your choice upon someone. You don't need to use only your repressed rage and spite to fuel your curses, being now able to feed off the negativity of others to fuel your own powers as your curses can become more complex.

Making multiple triggers for the activation of a curse or being able to see through cursed objects at a greater area. You can even "collect" shards of normal people's souls or their negative emotions to put inside of dolls (stuffed dolls being the best for this type of curses) to make loyal and unsuspecting minions, despite lacking in physical power, they can act as vessels of your will and spread curses on your behalf. You can see through their eyes (if they have an equivalent of one), hear through them and even communicate.
Take caution due how strong these types of curses are, they shine like glaring beacons to priests and mediums, who can see how nasty and nefarious they are.
Those who went through the Cause of Death are able to resist influences of your curses and become aware of your Greater Curses. Another note, it is a bad idea to make minions out of the negativity of those who went through Cause of Death, specially who went through True Death. The same logic applies to cryptids and monsters.

DELUSION ABILITY TREE:

This Illusion: You are able to deceive people around you with subtle influence, making them mellow out towards you and be more open to obey and act on your suggestions.

Narcissism: Your capacity to bend people to your whims is stronger, you have an aura that makes people more gullible around you, able to control and implant surface level thoughts in people without them realizing. Normal people won't question it, going on with the new thoughts in their mind as if they were normal. Dead Men have a stronger resistance and are able to suppress such thoughts if they become aware of them.

Masquerade: You aren't satisfied with yourself, you are not okay with who you are right now. You want to be someone else, someone more successful, someone better. With enough concentration you are able to possess someone else' body in your field of vision or if you are aware of their current location in space. Take care because your body is going to go limp without yourself inside of it.
This possession lasts until you break your own concentration or something hits your physical body. If your body is hit, the connection is instantly lost.

While you are possessing someone's body, you have access to their memories, being able to read them, possessing all of their skills too while you are possessing them. Using your other supernatural bodies through the possessed is possible.
If the possessed body dies while you are in it, you will be simply sent back to your own body.
If you try to possess another owner of supernatural powers, a struggle will happen between your conscience and theirs, if you lose the battle, you will be sent back to your own body. Beware that after the possession ends, they will be aware of your presence.

Impostor: To call you a body snatcher would be an understatement. Your capacity to possess people is stronger, you are now able to mark up to five people you can possess at will without needing to concentrate or keep focus. You also can see and hear what they are doing but beware, if their minds are damaged by mental powers so will yours. In case you are near death or dying, you can possess one of them, cheating death.
The cost is that you will lose your supernatural powers in the event of your body dying. You cannot mark someone who underwent a Cause of Death without defeating their will in a battle while you try to possess them. If you fail, they will be immune to your possession permanently

Histrionics: Your ego is massive and so are your delusions of grandeur. You are able to manipulate people's emotions, forcing emotions you want into them, be it sadness, happiness, fear or anything else. Your power of manipulation is also greater, making you able to use subtle hypnosis to control people, as well as their emotions. Those affected by your manipulation will see you as charismatic and great.
You cannot control people like machines, but your charisma makes up for it, manipulating people to worship you and the ground you walk upon.
Controlling people who went through Cause of Death is harder and their emotions more volatile, be careful with what you do, otherwise you may have someone hitting a meltdown instead.

Idol: You have all the qualifications to be a cult leader. Your emotional manipulation is at a greater level, being able to suppress or provoke extreme emotions upon people around you, as well as being able to turn up to 25 people into true slaves to you. Binding them completely to your will and being unable to disobey it.
They are functional members of society until you order them around and even then, they would be just slightly aloof. Using such power against those who underwent Cause of Death is ill advised, more so if they are of the Paranoia and Rage types, which can lead them to become berserk, binding them permanently is impossible, so beware of possible backstabbing.

Carrie: You possess a degree of supernatural psychic power. You are able to move objects a couple of meters ahead of you with enough concentration, opening doors and windows, as well as moving small objects like forks and small electronics with your mind. You have visions of the future, the past or the present periodically as well.

The Strange: Your small psychic ability has evolved. You are now able to move bigger objects like footballs with relative ease, as well as using small shockwaves to attack and throw people around.
Beware that the bigger an object is and with more resistance they exert, the harder it is to manipulate them. Things that require bigger use of your psychic strength may cause nosebleeds and bleeding through your orifices up to a blackout.

Psychic: Your psychic strength has reached its maximum. You are now able to throw people around and choke them while raising them in the air. You are also able to make psychic shockwaves that damage cement walls, even able to break them with enough attacks and pressure. You are also now able to exert your strength to greater lengths with your psychic ability, being capable of stopping a moving car on its tracks with your total concentration alone at the price of having some nose and eye bleed.

Psychometry: You are able to get visions of places and people by getting close to emotionally charged objects and places, able to view their past and what "truly happened" there with some margin for error, as well as get visions of events that may happen in the future in your dreams. You possess the capacity to briefly speak with the departed souls of the dead to get information or aid.
Your very presence also can damage and cause harm to ectoplasmic creatures.

Otherside: You are now able to "jump into the past'', reliving events that you see through your psychometry. It is not true time travel, but you can see in first hand and every detail that happened in the events you see through your ability, able to get details that wouldn't appear before or were simply shrouded.
Your visions are now more clear and precise, albeit not always being 1:1 with that will truly happen and you can get them more frequently.
You can now harm ghosts with anything you have at hand, be it a gun or a metal pipe, as well as having greater resistance to their supernatural abilities. You can now speak more clearly with the dead for longer periods of time and asking for aid or help is easier, with the right curses and tools you may also purify the dead and haunted places.

FEAR ABILITY TREE:

Phobia: You are able to be less noticed by others, as if people had a problem noticing you. You have ease in blending in crowds. You have a second ability, the power to absorb emotions, especially negative ones, making your surroundings colder, as well as making you less visible to normal folk.

ESCAPE: Your power to blend in is significantly increased as people seem to dismiss you more and more, needing to actively search for you. In night time or dim places you become even less noticeable as long as you don't interact or make rash actions, as well as moving faster in the dark.

Agoraphobia: You developed a strange power. You are able to store objects in a pocket dimension, they cannot be bigger than a basketball. This pocket dimension is untrackable and cannot be invaded by most beings, even ectoplasmic ones.
The space of your pocket dimension is roughly that of a modern sports car.

Enochlophobia: Your power has achieved an interesting turn. Your pocket dimension is now the size of an average living room (The standard living room is over 300 square feet and 16 feet by 22 feet), and you can enter it at any time you see fit and itno longer has the a "maximum size" of what you can fit inside of it, as long as it isn't bigger or larger than the room.
You can enter at will inside of it, deciding if it has light or not to illuminate things. Any electronic device that enters the room can work without being plugged into any electric source, not running out of battery or energy.
You can bring along people to your pocket dimension, as long as they consent to enter it but beware, it can only have a maximum of five people simultaneously inside of your pocket dimension, not even one more person inside of it.
If you try to bring someone when the pocket dimension is already full, they will be forcefully sent backwards. You can appear outside of your pocket dimension anywhere you consider "safe" inside of Dunwich.

Solitude: You can blend in the darkness more, being faster inside of it, as well as being able to "skip" some meters to the nearest shadow. Beware, your power doesn't work fully at midday.
For the former, while being in the darkness, you have increased speed and reaction time, up to an athlete level.
You have a secondary power, of being intangible for a couple dozen of seconds, able to pass through walls and obstacles and materialize at will or when the time runs out.
You cannot materialize inside objects or people. When your time runs out or you leave the intangibility form, you must wait for it to recharge, equal to the amount of time you stood intangible.

Fall in the Dark: You can leap across shadows hundreds of meters away, despite it being very tiring to do so and needing great concentration on your part. Your speed is greatly increased in the shadows and darkness, up to a pro athlete level. You can now solidify shadows or darkness to a degree, able to make shields out of it, or weapons of your choice. Making hands and tentacles to hold down someone, or spears of shadow that you control with your will.
Beware that despite being made of shadows, they can still be broken by enough physical or supernatural force and light sources can weaken and even destroy them. You can now use your intangibility power for minutes without an issue. When your time runs out or you leave the intangibility form, you must wait for it to recharge, equal to the amount of time you stood intangible.

HURT: You can absorb emotions faster, as well as making your surroundings even colder, able to direct it towards a specific target if you concentrate on them.

Frigophobia: The air around you feels cold naturally, as you can convert emotions into cold. You can chill out rooms to almost near zero temperatures if you concentrate enough and you are able to cool or freeze any specific target if you concentrate or act with strong enough emotion and instinct.
Not only that, you can concentrate to be able to make dry ice structures out of thin air. Know that they still obey gravity, be creative.

Septophobia: You can now convert emotions, more so negative ones, into something far nastier than just cold. By concentrating on a target, you can now start to make it freeze and decay at the time, able to corrode walls into frozen dust or turn people into mummified ice statues with your power. More complex and aggressive uses require more concentration and emotion to be used, beware of your own emotional spikes. Your ice now has a "withering effect", making living things avoid it naturally and things to decay slowly around it, until it melts.

VAMPIRISM: You are what people would call a "social vampire". You can absorb emotions at an alarming fast rate and store them for future use.
You can heal wounds like cuts and stabs, faster than any medic could, as well as getting rid of inconvenient diseases. Another use is to invoke these emotions as a materialization of some kind, like shields and barriers.
Things that enter in contact with the physical materialization are weakened for a few moments, material and supernatural alike.

STRIGOI: You are an emotional parasite, able to suck people dry off their emotions rapidly, making them be like zombies for days or maybe weeks. You can store more emotional energy now, as your constructs and healing power using them is far greater. You can now heal deep cuts and even internal damage like muscles and bones being fractured or broken, if you store enough energy, even limbs can be restored in the course of weeks.
Your barriers are stronger now, as you can summon them and decide how "physical" they are, being able to stop blows or make things go past through it, you can selectively choose what it stops and what goes through.
Things that go through your barriers are severely weakened, even supernatural ones. You also can make "cages" with your power, where all things inside of it are affected by this power.
Beware, you cannot cripple a Dead Man or suck them dry of their emotions with only this, but you can weaken them. Sometimes just weakening is the difference between life and death.

PARANOIA ABILITY TREE:

Propaganda: You are paranoid, afraid that the world is watching you, something in your shadows. You have a sixth sense, a gut feeling that warns you when danger is coming, or if there is something unfavorable coming your way. Getting information on you is hard, as you have an uncanny ability to blend in crowds or avoid cameras. You also possess an enhanced defense against mental tricks, mundane or supernatural greater than the other three main types of Dead Man.

Their Crafted Lies: You are adept at the game of smoke and mirrors. Covering your tracks and digital information. Possessing an ability to make people hear and see things when they are around you, to scare them or drop their attention for long enough for you to get out of your predicament.

Looming Dread: Your ability to fool people is worthy of note. You can make realistic illusions to fool those around you or in your line of sight, fooling their mind to see demonic creatures or ghastly visages. You can decide what people will or not see.
This power is more effective on targets you are familiar with. Beware that something "unrealistic" will still be unrealistic with your illusions.

Inferno: The most devastating punishment is not burning for eternity or death but facing your own sins. For five minutes, you are able to make targets in your line of sight see hell. A hell manifested from their sins, insecurities and worst fears, a punishment tailored by hand to hurt them.
This hell is but an illusion, however it is such an illusion of great proportions that leads the target to believe that what they are experiencing is real. If they die in this hell, so does the mind of their body.
Beware that some opponents may have the will or the methods to counter attack the hell they see, be it with wit or supernatural powers.

No One: Getting information on you is a real chore. You are more than a master at covering your tracks, you are more akin to a ghost at this point. Your social media is private if you have any and most of your physical tracks like digitals, hair and so forth are hard to come by.
Even your official documentation is hard to search for and forgotten in some old gabinet or locked way, somehow.

N/A: To say you are a nobody would be an understatement. There is "no real information" on you unless you let people know of it. Government cannot trace anything back to you and there is not much of a file over your name.
Any information about yourself you do not want other people to know will mysteriously vanish without as much as a warning. For all intents and purposes, you are a true dead man and a ghost.
Beware that you do not cease to physically exist, people that see you doing something will remember you and what you did.

Fright of the Known: Your mind is dangerously sharp and aware of the government, aware of what is happening to you and your surroundings. Your mental resistance is commendable, being able to withstand pain and fear to do what it needs to do.
You have an uncanny ability to uncover old plots and information, even if they are buried in a hidden grave on a hill. Clues and odd bits of equipment related to your current obsession or plot appear oddly where they need to be to.

Imaginary Ghost: A strange shadow follows you around, akin to a ghost or an apparition. This shadow relationship depends on what it is, and what it wants with you, going from ultimately helpful to dangerous helpful.
Like being a shadowy helper, or a shadow that wants to kill you and everything that stands between you and it. You have a minor control over this figure, being able to keep it bay when needed or to directly take control over it for a few minutes.
This shadowy figure has great strength, able to tear a car's door off or break a wall. It has a supernatural power to boot, like being able to summon blood blades from the ground or bring ghostly white fire in their wake.
They may as well not be real and just a set of coincidences you attribute to their presence. What do you think?
If they are real, they may act like an ectoplasmic creature like a ghost or poltergeist, normally not being perceived by normal people but visible to Dead Man. However it lacks immunity against physical blows. If they are not, they may be phenomena like a distorted magnetic field or heat wave, or supernatural rain.
If this event is dissipated or killed, they will reform in the next few hours.

Artificial Angel: This presence is stronger, being a fully fledged supernatural phenomenon on its own. Its supernatural power is empowered, being able to summon blood weapons in the air or a burning inferno of ghost fire in its wake.
Its presence being strong enough to be perceived by those around you and even normal citizens feeling something amiss around it.
It has great intelligence and sharp intellect if you wish so, or has a strength great enough to smash through concrete and wrestle down supernatural creatures.
If it is somehow dissipated or killed, it will reform in the next hour or so. It also boasts great regenerative power, needing substantial firepower to bring it down.

Modern Phantom: You are a pain in the ass to deal with. You are able to vanish from people's vision on a whim, escaping their senses. As long as you don't interact with them, they will be unable to sense you, even going as far as to fool a dog's smell temporarily, you will be undetected by a supernatural creature, even fooling the Darkness for a few minutes if you move slow enough.

Ghost in the Streets: You are more akin to the ectoplasmic creatures than a normal person. Your presence even if you aren't actively hiding from someone is shunned, needing extensive concentration and awareness to detect you. When you actively use your power, you may move freely without being detected, avoiding the senses and awareness of almost all physical creatures and even fooling ectoplasmic ones and the Darkness itself.
As long as you do not actively interact with any other creature or aren't detected by one, you can stay in the darkness for hours.
If you attack someone, you will be detected to varying degrees of success.

LIFE SKILLS

Mundane life skills and experience, sometimes with no ties with the supernatural.
Shadow Deduction does not stack if you buy the same Life Skill multiple times.

Allowance/Part-Time Job/Job (-15 Shadow, 5 Life Skills): You have means to get income. Maybe you work in your free time or have a full-time job, either way you have means to get money.
If you are a child, your parents have enough money to spare to give you a sizable allowance, if you are old enough to properly work, you gain more money. Due to working, you might have less time to think or spend reminiscing about the supernatural or your traumas, being too tired to think about such things.
You have to put the bread on the table next morning, after all.

Savvy (-5 Shadow, 5 Life Skills): You are quite knowledgeable about making bootleg stuff, from a bootleg flame thrower to improvised weapons. You are skilled at scrapping things and reorganizing them into useful equipment, even if they are rough and literally made from scraps. You also have some knowledge related to engineering, metallurgy, chemistry and electronics.

Embraced by the Flames (-10 Shadow, 6 Trauma, 10 Life Skills): Religion is a solace against pain and a closure for uneasy minds. Religion is a shelter against the unnatural, against the darkness.
You are religious, verily so. You are able to channel your faith to affect the supernatural, being able to sense curses and dispel them with the right rituals, as well as use of exorcism to cleanse places and spirits of the deceased who refuse to pass on.
As long as you are knowledgeable about your religion and believe in your faith, you have a small but unyielding flame inside of you.
With the right tools and materials, you are able to make talismans for defense or attack against the supernatural, those talismans able to hurt ectoplasmic creatures as well.

Martial Arts (Variable): You are adept in a martial art of your choice. Requires the previous levels to buy the next one.
First Level (5 Life Skills): You are above average in your chosen martial art, you aren’t going to get bodied by a no-one but you aren’t in the level of masters yet.
Second Level (5 Life Skills): You have a great degree of mastery in your Martial Arts, being up there the nation’s best. Few can match your ability on a good day.
Third Level (3 Trauma, 10 Life Skills): You are something else in your art, being closer to a perfect machine in your martial art than a normal person. Become the action movie protagonist you’ve always dreamed of but, do not try to parry bullets or stand before an automatic rifle, it won’t end well.

Athletics (-10 Shadow, 5 Life Skills): You are someone with a healthy exercise schedule, diet or both, having an athletic frame and muscles above your average athlete, being very fit.

Parkour (-5 Shadow, 5 Life Skills): You are quite adept at acrobatics, being able to maneuver quickly while running or flying, jumping across obstacles without many problems.

Awareness (+5 Shadow, 10 Life Skills): Sometimes, excessive wittiness is a problem. Your mind is sharper than of your normal peers, being able to draw lines between events easily and find proof to sustain your theories.
With a sharp mind you can solve mysteries by yourself and find clues where others would see nothing. Beware: Not everything is elementary, my dear.

Lock Picking (5 Life Skills): A bit of an old fashioned skill but useful nonetheless. You are good at picking up locks, doors and if you get the chance, safes. With the time and tools you can lockpick most locks, with only the most advanced and secure locks being able to stop you.
Oh well, hitting a rock against a lock still works.

Cyber Skills (5 Life Skills): You have an ability to use the internet in your favor. Hacking and doxxing are well within your domain, as well as obtaining information from less than savory places with minimum risk. Breaking in governamental networks may be harder but still manageable with the right amount of preparation.

Spider’s Web (+5 Shadow, 10 Life Skills): To say that you have friends all over the place would be an understatement. You have a sizable amount of influence in your local community, going as far as having links with the local organizations that reside in it.
The nature of your influence is up to you, but it is undeniable that it exists.
You have a great well of information at arm’s reach, despite the fact that some things would be better left unknown…

Social Butterfly (-5 Shadow, 5 Life Skills): Most people would envy your social awareness. You have a great ability in seeing and understanding small social clues, like body language and hidden messages in the words someone spells.
You have a silver tongue, able to say the right word for the right situation most of the time, as well as being able to defuse/escalate situations with words as well.

Weapon Mastery (-5 Shadow, 10 Life Skills): You know how to use a specific type of melee weapon, like knives of many types, or stranger/outdated weapons, like a certain type of sword (longswords, zweihander, dao, katana), polearm, etc.
Your ability is on the same level of a master in the handling of these weapons. (Can be bought multiple times)

Firearm Training (-10 Shadow, 5 Life Skills): You know how to properly handle firearms of a certain type. You can go by type of weapon (Handguns, shotguns, etc) or specific caliber. (Can be bought multiple times)

Outdoors Survival (-10 Shadow, 5 Life Skills): Surviving on your own most of the time isn’t easy, you know this more than most. Be it on the wild plains beyond the Dunwich or its surroundings, or inside the urban environment of it, you know how to survive on your own with the bare bones of society or what it can give.
From scavenging for food in urban or wild environments, hunting your food and making the most you can out of the resources you have, you can survive in most environments as long as they are not outright deadly/out to kill you.

Beholder (+5 Shadow, +3 Trauma, 10 Life Skills): You are aware of the evil around you, able to sense the supernatural easier than most. You always know the general location of creatures in your surroundings, as well as being able to see their faint shadows and silhouettes through walls and obstacles.
However they can also see you. While they may not always detect your presence if you do not make yourself known to them, the moment they notice you, they will also be able to sense you like you sense them.

POSSESSIONS:

Your life skills have not only brought out abilities. What properties do you have assigned to your name?
All possessions can be bought multiple times unless stated otherwise.

Safe-House (10 Life Skill): You have a safe house, a place few people know of. This safe-house is stocked with food, a generator and batteries. You may alter it by buying more possessions.
If you buy firearms, you may upgrade your Safe-House to have an armory for 2.5 Life Skills.

Vehicle (Varies): You own a vehicle of some kind.
Light (2.5 Life Skill): This is a vehicle like a motorbike, being compact and fast, but not offering much in the way of protection nor cargo capacity. Cannot an airborne vehicle.
Medium (5 Life Skill): You have a car or some kind of small helicopter. It offers protection against the darkness but not much in a way against creatures.
Heavy (10 Life Skill): You have a big and heavy vehicle, like an armored car, truck or a bigger helicopter. This vehicle offers great protection against the mundane and creatures have problems dealing with its defenses.
None of these vehicles can hold mounted weapons by default. Exceptions may exist.

Gadgets (2.5, 5, 7.5 Life Skills): You have gadgets of some kind, binoculars with infrared and nocturnal vision, grappling hooks, you name it. They may be completely mundane, but are very useful in the right hands.
With each purchase you gain three normal gadgets or one technological advanced binoculars. By 2.5 Life Skills you get a relatively normal quality gadget. 5 denotes a specially made one, or customized to suit your tastes. By paying 7.5 you get a gadget of great quality and probably custom made for you.

Melee Weapon (2.5 Life Skills): You have some sort of melee weapon with you. Maybe a tactical knife for close quarters combat or something more unusual like a mace. Beware that concealing a mace would be way harder than concealing a knife and would bring more questions.

Firearm (Varies): You own a modern firearm of some kind. Beware that it is not a military grade one, but civilian grade. Older firearms are sold by a different person in the Dunwich surroundings, as well as less than legal modifications, if you can afford it.
Light Firearm (2.5 Life Skills): It is a small firearm or/of a small caliber. Like a 9mm pistol or a .38 revolver.
Medium Firearm (5 Life Skills): Those are in the likes of a 12 gauge shotgun and 5.56, 7.62 calibers.
Heavy Firearm (7.5 Life Skills): Calibers and firearms on the grade of Big Hunting Game rifles (30-06, .308, and .300 Win Mag calibers)

Consecrated Silver (5 Life Skills): You have an unreasonable quantity of silver blessed in the Vatican. This silver can be used in a myriad of ways, making ammunition to use against supernatural creatures, making talismans and sigils to protect a place, or being sold.
Despite its great quantity, it still is finite. Use it frugally

Protective Suit (Varies): You have a protective suit.
Light Protection (2.5 Life Skills): A suit that can be passed as a casual attire. It does not offer much in the protection against nasty stuff, but can stop some casual shanking, bruises and cuts with relative ease.
Medium Protection (5 Life Skills): A suit more in line like a budget military uniform. It can stop most knives from piercing it through plates underneath the cloth, as well as small calibers.
People would raise their eyebrows and be confused as to why you are wearing it, for your luck it can be brushed off as part of protection attire of a hobby like airsoft and wargames in general. Or you are a cosplayer.
Heavy Protection (7.5 Life Skills): Now this is some heavy stuff. You are more geared towards war than a “peaceful” urban environment. Even with the excuse of wargames it would be hard to brush off, being too far equipped for anyone’s liking.
Most knives are useless and you can stop pistol’s bullets with your suit with ease as well as rifle rounds on its hardest spots. Just have the proper licenses and documentation on you to explain to authorities why you are wearing such equipment.

Investigation Kit (2.5 Life Skills): Somehow you got access to an interesting set of equipment. In your place or safehouse you have a room full of equipment meant to be used for professional detectives. With Safe House it may be upgraded to be a bigger room with more advanced and precise equipment.

Garage Workshop (5 Life Skills): You have a workshop somewhere. It has chemistry, electronics and some small metallurgy equipment. Despite not being much, it can be used to manufacture your own budget equipment and weapons to fight the mundane and the supernatural.

OLD MAN’S DEATH SHOP:

You walk in the old and strange shop in the outskirts of the slums and the main city.
It is less of a shop and more akin to a garage sale or those buildings that sell strange Chinese “artifacts”.
The Old man who runs the shop, Henderson, stares at you. “What are you going to buy, mate?”
Time to see what old trinkets this place sells.

Old Firearms (5 Life Skills): An old weapon, or a very damn close replica of one. Its caliber may vary depending on the type and model of firearm it is. The most advanced weapon you can get through this is around the time of World War I. Can be Haunted. Cannot be an Elephant gun or other weapons close to its caliber.

Alchemy Equipment and Guide 101 Vol.1, 3 and 4 (3 Trauma, 10 Life Skills): An honest to God Alchemy Kit and with guides to how to properly work it too. Despite the many gibberish written across the book, you can make out most of its instructions on how to perform simple and crude alchemy. You cannot transmute anything you want into gold, or uranium, or any of those fancy things, yet, but you can transmute some materials into their base elements to make your chemistry easier. Volume 4 has a detailed guide on how to make homunculi, knowing that making one will be very resource and time consuming and your first attempts may end in failure.

Knight Armor (-10 Shadow while wearing it, 6 Trauma, 15 Life Skills): A knight armor in perfect state, it is inscribed with many runes against the darkness, having protection against the supernatural and ectoplasmic creatures. It is surprisingly light and can stop small caliber bullets with the power of its runes. Better use it only when needed, otherwise you would be called a weirdo at very least.
Alternatively it can be a Victorian style set of leather armor and clothes, although having slightly less defense than a suit of knight armor.

Sorcery Book (+10 Shadow, 6 Trauma, 10 Life Skills): A book guiding on how to use basic sorcery and magic, different from curses born of a Ship of Theseus event. Sorcery can be used by anyone as long as they fulfill the requirements for a spell, be it a sacrifice of something, some kind of material requirement or the spellcasting to channel the power of it.
It only has simple spells, like being able to summon a ghostly light, a fireball capable of grave injury should it hit someone, or minor clairvoyance of a certain person or location. It may evolve into something greater should you get more books and learn more of the secrets of the occult.
There isn’t such a thing as “Mana”, only the requirement of the spell you are using, stronger spells have more serious, hard or devastating requirements to be used.

Anomalous Trinkets (3 Trauma, 5 Life Skills): Those gadgets are strange. Instead of being something technological, they appear from being out of the Victorian era, maybe even earlier. Crude and strange pieces of equipment with minor abnormal powers.
For example, maybe one can be able to stop an object in time, avoiding its degradation at the cost of the trinket’s life, or monocle able to see the past “shadows” of the past people who walked the earth. They are highly specialized, often having one just that they do well.
You get one with each purchase.

Strange Book (6 Trauma, 10 Life Skills): A strange book with a strange hard and rugged leather cover. It isn’t the full book, but a collection of torn pages stitched together in another book. Many pages are in unknown pages, although there are translations of what is said on some of them.
The book details gruesome rituals and otherworldly creatures who appear to be straight out of hell. How to summon some of them, and how to destroy or banish them. Finding more pages of it may be a worthwhile endeavor.

Special Ammunition (3 Trauma, 5 Life Skills): Not everything can be killed with normal bullets, sometimes you need more kick, maybe piercing or explosive rounds to bring something down for good.
Fret not, for Old Man Henderson has you covered. Everytime you need one, he will supply you. Some ammunition are mundane like explosive rounds or piercing ones, others are on the “other side” of things, maybe they are made with silver blessed by the Pope, or other similar holy materials.
More “esoteric” ammunition are also on sale, like shells that explode into strange rays able to damage creatures of darkness and the “Black Phantoms” or acid filled ones that cover the target with said acid.
Beware to not get caught with most of the esoteric or more “quirky ones”, many are illegal.

Baroque Weapon (6 Trauma, 10 Life Skills): Vintage melee weapon of the past, a very old one. It has been kept in an almost perfect state, with no stains or rust or glaring damage on it. It has some kind of special/supernatural ability, maybe because it was forged in a special way or acquired due to how old it is.
A haunting in this weapon costs -3 Trauma.

Hey! You! Listen! (1 Trauma, 2.5 Life Skills): A strange object, even in this shop that sells strange objects. In a bottle, there is a fairy, you cannot discern its shape besides the fact that it shines brightly and has four butterfly-like wings.
Going with Henderson’s word, the fairy inside of it has been bound and enslaved with sorcery decades ago, and somehow ended in his possession alongside some others of its kin equally binded.
If you free it from the bottle, it is undetectable to most mundane methods of detection, cameras, night vision, ultra-violet, radar, the only way to detect its existence being with thermal vision.
Normal people cannot see, and the fairy is able to pass through abysmally small crevices as well as understanding human language. Due to the fact it cannot be seen or detected by normal humans, it can only speak with fellow Dead Man.
Worry not if it gets hurt, for it is unkillable, only being exposed in the pitch black darkness can kill it for good.

HAUNTINGS:

Hauntings are powerful supernatural abilities given to an object at a price. Objects can only hold one haunting, Safe House can hold as many as you can afford.
Haunting are double edged swords, hurting their foes as much as the wielder of the objects, being dangerous to anyone in their range.
Wielding haunted objects or being in haunted properties gives you Shadow that slowly disappears after you stop wielding it or exit the property.
If you cross a threshold due to a haunted object, you may go berserk depending on what threshold you crossed and the effects of the shadow in your mind will take more time to disappear, going from days, to weeks, to months.
Hauntings are divided in three categories of power:
Cursed: The first level costs 6 Trauma, being roughly equal to Overclocked Traces of Wither. Wielding an object with this level of haunting gives 10 Shadow.
Tormented: The second level costs 9 Trauma, being roughly equal to a Remembrance of Death, an object with this level gives 20 Shadow, A property gives 10 Shadow to everyone inside of it.
Stigmatized: The third level and a curse of great power. It costs 12 Trauma and gives 30 Shadow to the one wielding it, if it is a property, it gives 15 Shadow to everyone in its grounds.
Haunting’s drawbacks take precedence over Ship of Theseus.

“Excerpts of Memorandum 9#: Not only people are able to hold on to their traumas and experiences, so can places and objects.
Places and objects with a lot of history tend to develop their own curses, or were cursed by previous owners or creatures.
Hauntings are powerful curses, made by great sorcerers of the past, more powerful than most of their modern counterparts.
We suspect that the Thing that inhabits below the city attracts haunted objects and creatures from beyond the veil, to haunt the place where the City and its surroundings were built upon.
Haunted objects tend to have stronger and greater esoteric properties than the Dead Man for reasons yet unknown. We suspect it may have to do with the time period they were made, or how close they are to the other side of the veil.
Sergeant Henderson and the director of Arkham have said that an old catacomb exists below the subway train, possessing an abnormal amount of haunted objects.”
“Excerpts of Memorandum 10#: After a long search through Arkham and Governamental files, we have confirmed the existence of the catacombs below the Subway system, our scouts revealed the existence of haunted objects along the way, with the path decorated with the bones of animals, humans and cryptids.
With the current information at hand, I have come to the conclusion that making an incursion towards the darkness below the city is the best course of action.”

Example of Hauntings:

Cursed:
Bloodlust: Your haunting is obsessed with blood, seeking it like a starving hound. Wounds made with it bleed more, as well as being sucked by it, enhancing its power and aggressiveness.
It can manipulate spilled blood to great degrees, making blood creatures to fight in your stead or blood weaponS. Beware that it will drink your spilled blood as it will drink the blood of anyone else, even turning it on you if it sees that it is easier to drink your blood than the blood of the other party.

Shadows past: This haunting allows you to access a “shortcut” between places, making you access a shadowy realm temporarily, going to point A to B way faster than normally. However, this “shortcut” is inhabited by the Darkness and Black Phantoms, requiring a bright source of light to keep you safe… or else.

Tormented:
Prison of Self: A nasty and evil haunting. By freezing someone to death, you may “capture” their soul and summon them as frozen zombies to fight in your stead. The haunting seeks to kill and capture more souls to its collection, freezing everything it can reach with impunity if you do not reign it in.
If you are weakened enough, or it sees a breach in your guard, it will kill you and capture your soul, making you another of its thralls.

Stigmatized:
Ultimate Fate: A powerful cursed sword of destruction. It naturally attracts mayhem and massacres towards itself, feeding off the bloodshed, pain and the trauma it brings. As it feeds, it warps the terrain around itself to be more bloody, slowly warping into flesh maw pits and carnivorous flowers of bones. As it feeds, it can summon waves of blood of those who fell around it, making highly pressured blood blades and even blood minions. However, as one clings and uses it, the sword will slowly start to devour the wielder, eating them as a meal as it would do with anyone else.

LIFE EVENTS

Not everything that happens in your life has to do with the supernatural. What are some of the mundane events that left a mark on you?
Choose 4.
Deep Drive: Some events have a better and/or enhanced version of themselves that requires you taking the same event twice. Deep Drive does not give additional Shadow reduction.

School Trip (-5 Shadow): Your school has taken you and your class on a trip somewhere. It was a marvelous experience, away from the darkness that may lurk in your life, and the darkness in Dunwich.

Meteor Shower (-10 Shadow): You saw shiny rocks fall from the sky, a beautiful, unique and ethereal visage.
Deep Drive: In fact, some of the meteors fell near Dunwich and with some help, you went to the crash site, finding some metal like stones. It shines with otherworldly light and can be heated until it becomes malleable. It cannot be melted.
It has supernatural properties akin to a Trace of Wither.

Summer Vacation (-10 Shadow): You had quite a nice vacation, away from Dunwich and its surroundings. Sometimes just being away from the Darkness of the Dunwich is enough to be happy.

Psychological Help (-20 Shadow, -10 Trauma, +10 Life Skills): Someone in your family or closest friends, or maybe even yourself, acknowledged that you have issues, and you need professional help. You have appointments and medical help from Psychologists to make coping with your traumas easier.

Mall Inauguration (-5 Shadow): A big mall opened in Dunwich and you were there in its inauguration, being amongst the first to experience the new things the mall introduced and some Grand Inauguration promotions.

Survive the Night (+10 Shadow, +6 Trauma): You got yourself in a tough situation. Maybe you were left stranded in the slums at night, or entered the dreaded old subway system. Or worse, entered one of the abandoned schools. Either way, you were left in a situation with direct confrontation against the Supernatural, somehow you survived by hiding and escaping the supernatural menace.
Deep Drive (+3 Trauma): Or, you chose to fight back and succeed in driving the creature off. You know the Supernatural exists, and know that it can be fought. If it can be fought, it can be killed.

WEE MEN QUEST (-5 Shadow): For some reason or another, the Old and senile Henderson thought it would be a good idea to ask you to “retrieve” his Wee Men, 2ft tall garden gnomes. He even went with you to help you find them! Sadly, you didn’t manage to find them, but despite the Old Man’s eccentricity it was a good and enjoyable search.
Deep Drive: Or maybe, you did manage to find some of them. Thanks to your help, the Old Man rewarded you with a high caliber revolver or hunting rifle, to bring down beasts like Buffalos and even Elephants.

Old and Dusty Library (-10 Shadow): Well, maybe you are more interested in the history of Dunwich. You spent a lot of time in the Old Libraries of Dunwich, reading decades olds articles, newspapers and books, detailing the history of the City, as well as some of the strange occurrences that happened in Dunwich across the decades.
Deep Drive: You jumped in a rabbit hole of great proportions. Through your skills, guile or supernatural methods, you managed to get your hands on confidential files detailing the most gruesome events of Dunwich, like the mass suicides in the 60s and the “dissapearing” of many Federal Agents through the decades, as well as the claim of Old Miners of old dismantled settlements about “creatures Beyond the Veil” in a newspaper almost a century old.
You know that something is wrong in this city. The archives do not lie or contradict themselves about something “supernatural” in the City.

Helper of the Asylum (+3 Trauma, +5 Life Skills): You assigned yourself to help the Arkham Asylum in your free time due to needing some bucks. Despite the wrongness and madness of its inhabitants, the payment is good enough.
Deep Drive (+10 Life Skills, only for Possessions): Or maybe, you are a full time employee of the Asylum, this grants many benefits. You have first hand access to the archives of the Dead Man across the city, as well as a budget of equipment to help hunt them.
The greatest benefit is a “Knight’s Serum”, a super soldier serum based on the Knights, hunters of the Supernatural spread across the planet.
It makes you superhuman, able to crack brick walls with your fists and resist small calibers, they will still hurt you, but not give serious injury. It is not close to the real power of Knights, but is close enough for the duties of the hunters of Arkham.
Beware, that you will be amongst the first called to hunt the supernatural down, and if you go rogue… let’s just say the Asylum have more than enough power to put you down for good.

Chilling with Friends (-10 Shadow): You went to a big party with your friends once, maybe it was at your graduation or similar event, enjoying the night to its fullest, without a worry in mind. You still think fondly of this event.