Going Down The Dark Path

Sorry about the gap in my posting. I was pretty much either tied up or burnt out. To make it up to you a little, here’s something to sink your teeth into.

Interviewer: Have you read the book by Comus, I think the title was “What We Give to Hate?” It got a lot of people onto The Dark Path.

McCall: Yeah, I read that one. Funny as all hell, really.

Interviewer: Why is that funny?

McCall: I was first introduced to it by my friend warning me that I should stay away from it, because he was afraid it could corrupt me into evil.

Interviewer: So of course you read it.

McCall: Yes, and I was almost insulted that my friend actually thought such boneheaded manipulation could work on me.

Interviewer: Comus did not tempt you?

McCall: Please. Have you actually read that fucking crap? “Blah blah blah, other people are keeping you down, blah blah blah, you’re special and the rules don’t apply to you.” It’s kid shit.

Interviewer: So how did you start walking The Path, then?

McCall: [sighs] Well, I caught wind of the whole “awareness” thing…

Interviewer: Oh my.

McCall: Yeah. Ironic that I turned to the Dark Path for enlightenment, no?

– Excerpt from the website Occult True Crimes Examiner, 2023 Interview with Convicted Dark Magician Victor McCall

Introduction

Magical Styles is one of my favourite GURPS subsystems, it delightfully weds mechanical depths with thoughtful flavour, allowing tight customisation of Magic for a setting. The special sauce for good world-building and crafting a dynamic story out of that constructed world is specificity, and magical styles are a wonderful tool for fleshing specific elements that add to characterisation, background and plot devices.

So you can guess that combining this subsystem with horror (one of my favourite genres) resulted in one of my most beloved GURPS books; Magical Styles: Horror Magic (https://www.sjgames.com/gurps/books/horrormagic/).

This blog article will focus on my attempts to expand upon one of the styles introduced in the book (and what I thought was a highlight of the work); The Dark Path. (The style is fully detailed on pages 8-10 of the book, check it out before you read this article so we have a mutual starting point.)

New Spells for the Style

“POWEEEEERRRRRRRR! UNLIMITED POWEEEEEEEEEERRRRRRRRRR!”

— Chancellor/Emperor Palpatine (a.k.a. Darth Sidious), Revenge of the Sith

Let’s begin with adding appropriate spells to the style. It’s quite possible that most Dark Path stylists do not learn these additional spells (maybe only NPCs in your setting have managed, for any number of reasons) and only certain rare or even unique spellbooks of the style teach one of them. Any spells added to the style probably change their prerequisites to fit into the RUM levels rather requiring knowing spells, unless the “normal” spell prerequisites are already available to Dark Path stylists. The GM may disallow any of the following suggestions.

First, let’s see what previous issues of Pyramid, GURPS supplements and other such sources have to offer.

The spell Ghost Wind from Banestorm: Abydos page 27 can be added to the style at the RUM 3 level.

From Magic: Death Spells, we can add Mortal Malefice (page 12) at RUM 6 plus requiring a Secret Spell perk and Malefice, Death’s Banquet (page 13) at RUM 4, Forbidden Wisdom (page 15) at RUM 4, Mind-Killer (page 17) at RUM 5, and Dread Curse (page 17) at RUM 6 plus requiring a Secret Spell perk and Curse.

From Magical Styles: Dungeon Magic, I would suggest Sovereign Countermagic (page 28) at RUM 4 and requiring a Secret Spell perk and Dispel Magic or Magic Resistance, and Mass Invisibility (page 32) at RUM 6 (perhaps also a Secret Spell perk, Invisibility and IQ 13+).

Looking to Pyramid 4/1: Fantasy/Magic 1, we can find Apply Poison (page 5) for RUM 3, and Obscure Poison (page 7) for RUM 2.

The Eidetic Memory: Bibliomancy article from Pyramid 3/48: Secret Magic gives us the spells Bedtime Reading (page 20) for RUM 3, Book Binding (page 20) for RUM 2, Speed Reading (page 22) for RUM 4, and Writer’s Block (page 22) for RUM 2.

The spell Trap Magical Essence, described on page 37 of Dungeon Fantasy Companion 2, can be added to the style at RUM 5 (secret masters may not have or need Radically Unstable) and probably requiring a Secret Spell perk and Steal Skill.

And last but not least, I can offer a new secret spell I made myself for particularly ghoulish Dark Path stylists.

Secret Spell: Devour Memories (VH)

Special/Information; Resisted only by spell

This lets the caster either eat the brain or drink the spinal fluid of a reasonably recent and intact (not embalmed, for example) corpse to retrieve its memories. This can be either a quick (one-paragraph) summary of everything the target knows or believes about one person, place, or thing relevant to a particular issue, or the answer to a specific question (provided that the individual knows, or thinks he knows, the answer). The target corpse does not usually resist this spell, unless an appropriate spell (such as Scryfool) is cast upon the remains. (A protective spell cast upon the person when they were still alive and whose duration has not run out after death will still protect the remains from this spell.)

This is both a Necromancy and Communication & Empathy spell.

Duration: The caster can forget (or remember) the information learned from this spell like it was gotten “normally.”

Cost: 10.

Time to cast: 1 minute plus however much time it takes to consume the corpse part.

Prerequisites: Magery 5 (Radically Unstable or not), Death Vision, Steal Skill or Steal Vitality, History or Recall, and Secret Spell (Devour Memories).

Tomes of The Dark Path

“The book shrieks horribly until its cover is opened, granting the spirit inside a moment’s rest from the painful stirrings of the book’s contents.”

— Geth’s Grimoire, Magic: The Gathering

What exact books teach the forbidden lore of this style? Aside from the typical “written in blood, bound in human skin”, it’s quite possible that even distinctly modern-made books with no known history of ancient infamy could teach The Dark Path. If they do not teach the required skills (Hidden Lore (Magical Writings), Research, Speed-Reading, Thaumatology) of the style itself, it may instead require the would-be reader to successfully use those skills (or/and the skills noted under Optional Traits) to make sense or decode the contents well enough before the spells within can be learned. It’s likely that very few if any Dark Path books teach ALL of the style’s spells in just one tome. Learning most of them should likely require seeking out multiple obscure books – a series of disturbing and perilous adventures, to be sure.

The physical books of The Dark Path may have anomalous properties such as;

• glowing with faint lights
• flashes of heat or cold to the touch
• producing muffled sounds of screams or menacing threats from no physical mouth
• the writings within inexplicably changing in-between readings
• awful smells wafting off the text
• being bizarrely fireproof despite superficial fragility
• “mottled scars” in the cover or pages as if it were injured
• being made of a material unknown to modern science

Tracing a book back to its author may be worthwhile (or get you killed). The writer of a Dark Path tome could be;

• a demon
• an undead creature who knew the style in life
• one of the original masters who created the style in the first place
• a mere protege of a master
• a depraved and jaded aristocrat from medieval or Victorian times
• a brilliant historian or other once-respected academic who was corrupted by The Dark Path’s power
• a tragic poet who joined a mystery cult
• a reclusive billionaire who collected rare books
• an obscure and crazed hermit who possessed twisted esoteric wisdom or received wild religious visions
• an insane asylum patient who spent decades isolated in a padded cell
• a serial killer who tried to share his knowledge of horrid unnatural power in writing simply to cause chaos
• a collection of researchers and university students who worked together to piece together certain magical truths
• a malevolent deity

The history of a book may be pockmarked by mentions of riots, public burnings, outbreaks of disease or madness, murders, thefts, persecution by government or religious authorities, unsolved disappearances, suicides, supposed monster sightings, and conspiracy theories.

Naturally, any Dark Path tome could be dangerous or mentally harmful in various ways;

• the book may cast any hostile spell found in the Dark Path style (for example, Strike Blind, Nightmare, Madness, Pain, etc.) upon the reader, the base skill of this spell is at level 12+1d
• reading the book may cause an evil demon/spirit (perhaps the ghost of a Dark Path master) to attempt Possession (p. B75) on the reader, in the same manner as The Tome of the Sorcerer from Horror page 111
• reading the book and/or learning its contents inflicts a Fright Check, the modifier usually varies from +0 for tomes that merely teach mundane Research and Speed-Reading skills to -5 for the most advanced and deadly spells taught by the style
• a grimoire of the Path Dark style can have any of the modifiers (Corrosive, Maddening, Toothed) from the Dangerous Books sidebar in Locations: Hellsgate page 10
• a mostly intangible demon (see Template Toolkit 4: Spirits, Dungeon Fantasy 9: Summoners and Horror for examples of such creatures) may be bound to the book, and reading it will summon it into manifestation right in front of you, see stats for an example monster below

Monster: Vampire Vapour

Some masters of The Dark Path have discovered or invented hideous necromantic processes that will allow their cruel and wilful minds to continue on past death in the form of an alien nucleus focused within their corpse but capable of action in hyperspace or other higher dimension tangent to our own. In our local reality, it can operate along lines of force established by Dark Path magics. It will magically animate attenuated matter from its corpse, which usually begins to seep into the groundwater, vegetation, fungi, and even the woodwork or stones around its burial site. In this form – powdery spores and rot cohering to projected energies – it resembles a column of unhealthy light or mist. The monster keeps itself “alive” by draining the vital energies of other lifeforms that it either interpenetrates or possesses. As these drainings continue, the corpse increases in mass and grows into an enormous cancer of semi-putrid congealed jelly (attacking this corpse with fire or acid harms the monster and will eventually slay it). X-Rays can harm it in spirit form, but destroying it for good requires melting or burning the physical remains.

ST:	12	HP:	12	Speed:	6.00
DX:	12	Will:	12	Move:	6/12
IQ:	12	Per:	12
HT:	12	FP:	12	SM:	+0
Dodge:	9	Parry:	N/A	DR:	0

Traits: Callous; Dark Vision; Doesn’t Breath; Doesn’t Eat or Drink; Energy Reserve (Magical) 10; High Pain Threshold; Immunity to Metabolic Hazards; Injury Tolerance (Semi-Tangible Diffuse, Infiltration (see Powers, p.53), Misty (see Horror page 15), can use magic while mist), Corpse immune to injury except from fire or acid); Insubstantiality (Affect Substantial; Difficult Materialisation; Projection (Horror page 16)); Invisibility (Substantial Only; Switchable); Lifebane; Loner (9); Radically Unstable Magery 6 (Can’t cast spells above effective level 15, All failures are Critical Failures, -30%); Selfish (9); Temperature Tolerance 10 (spirit form only); Magical Style Familiarity (The Dark Path); Unaging; Uncontrollable Appetite (Life Energy) (12); Unkillable 2 (Achilles’ Heel, fire and acid to corpse); Vulnerability (Fire and acid, corpse only, x3); Weakness (X-Rays; 1d/minute).

Magic Perks: Frightening Side Effects (Steal Vitality); Magical Analysis; No Gestures (Sleep, Steal Vitality); Sanctum 2; Spell Bond (Steal Vitality +1).

Skills: Archaeology-14; Cryptography-14; Hidden Lore (Magical Writings)-15; History-14; Linguistics-14; Literature-14; Occultism-14; Research-15; Speed-Reading-14; Stealth-15; Thaumatology-18.

Spells: Agonize-16; Analyze Magic-16; Apportation-16; Astral Vision-16; Aura-16; Blight-16; Choke-16; Curse-16; Dancing Object-16; Daze-16; Death Vision-16; Detect Magic-16; Dispel Magic-16; Dullness-16; False Aura-16; Fear-16; Fireproof-16; Foul Water-16; Forgetfulness-16; Fumble-16; Hide-16; Hinder-16; Identify Spell-16; Invisibility-16; Lockmaster-16; Madness-16; Mage Sense-16; Mage Sight-16; Mage-Stealth-16; Magic Resistance-16; Master-16; Nauseate-16; Nightmare-16; Pain-16; Panic-16; Pestilence-16; Poison Food-16; Recover Energy-20; Seek Magic-16; Sense Mana-16; Sickness-16; Silence-16; Sleep-16; Steal Energy-16; Steal Health-16; Steal Vitality-17; Stench-16; Terror-16; Weaken Blood-16; Weaken Will-16.

Notes: Affected by Astral Block, Banish, Pentagram, Repel Spirits, and Turn Spirit. Can be turned by True Faith. Materialising costs 1 FP per minute. Can become visible effortlessly. Sterile. Nasty versions may be capable of Possession (p. B75) and other vicious magical powers. Injury done to both spirit form AND the physical corpse counts towards HP. If spirit form is hit by magical attack or anything else that would affect an Insubstantial being, the damage limits for Diffuse do not apply and instead treat the monster as if Homogeneous.

Example Books: The Road to Greatness Volumes 1 to 6

“The timid and the envious will of course question your hard won wisdom. They will not appreciate your expanded perspective, instead demanding you cleave to their rigid views. They will disguise their resentment of your development as concern for your life and moral objection to your power. Do not be fooled! The road to greatness is a path out of enslavement, so it is naturally most often denounced by slave-masters.”

— The Road to Greatness, Volume 1

This six-part series of spellbooks is titled “The Road to Greatness.” Each volume of the series is dedicated to teaching The Dark Path. Each Volume number corresponds to its contents; the in-style spells of the RUM level matching the Volume number. (Volume 2, for instance, teaches RUM 2 spells.) Attempts to destroy the spell books only sometimes work without something horrible happening into the bargain – the books are often cursed. The series’ author is unknown, so is its publisher. The books simply show up here and there, just in time to be discovered by the unwary and the desperate. The books look to be professionally made and modern, with leather bindings, a plain blue cover with the title in gold lettering and a simple font. All of the Volumes are sturdy hardbacks, with thick covers. Their size and thickness varies from Volume to Volume, the thinnest being Volume 2 (about 250 pages) and the thickest being Volumes 3 and 4 (approximately 520 pages). Each Volume is about 12 inches tall and 7 inches wide, give or take 1.3 inches. At first glance, the writing in the Volumes is in a common language, albeit phrased strangely in places and concerning an outré subject matter. None of the Volumes teach Secret Spells, but one can glean in-style Magic Perks off them with a lot of study (working out the meanings of bizarre allusions and decoding hidden messages in obtuse chapters). None of the Volumes contain any Secret Spells or any spells not found in the original Magical Styles: Horror Magic list. They are “generic” spell books for The Dark Path.

The first volume teaches the style’s required Skills, all the first level Spells and Radically Unstable Magery 1, thus eventually allowing its reader to buy the Magic Style Familiarity perk and begin their journey into evil and disaster. There’s loads of copies of Volume 1 everywhere, by the standards of authentic grimoires. (Indeed, a GM may make a dark running gag of having Volume 1 show up in big piles with occasional frequency.) In spite of this, the style is still uncommon thanks to its well-deserved bad reputation and its practitioners dying off quick.

The later Volumes of the series are much rarer than One, with each consecutive Volume getting harder and harder to find. And each Volume steadily gets more and more disturbing and menacing in tone as the number increases. Volume One has no illustrations, just simple text in a plain font on white paper. The latter Volumes feature complex occult diagrams and…”vivid” printed drawings.

“From time to time those who walk the path will be set upon by the envious, the book- bound and the coward, and you shall know them by these signs: they shall attempt to turn thou away from the path, extolling loudly that the methods are unreliable, dangerous, that their function twists the fabric of magic and reality in ways that bend both and threaten to do so permanently, or worse to cause them to buckle or break. They are wrong, for this lore lays bare the truth, far simpler and yet more devastating a revelation for them: that reality itself and those laws they cling to are mere constructs, malleable in the face of true power, and all desires require only the will to mold it so.”

— The Road to Greatness, Volume 2

TO BE CONTINUED