Demonologist

Overtly curious and overly confident, a demonologist is someone who’s learned how to summon, contain, and negotiate with demons. ‘Contain’ being the operative word. Demons are dangerous and hostile magical entities; creatures which want the worst for others; but creatures which are bound to their word. By summoning a demon within a threshold, a demonologist has an opportunity to make an exchange and ‘hire’ a demon to do their bidding. 

Demonologists are dangerous. They deal with creatures that want to harm others. However, more than that, demonologists are the foremost experts on thresholds, barriers to magic. As such, their knowledge not only helps them deal with demons, but also with most magical creatures and effects. The demonologist is mistrusted and respected, if only due the danger they carry with them.

The LARP variation of this legacy can be found HERE

Playstyle

Similar to the Fae, demonologists have a core interest in social interactions. However, unlike the Fae, demonologists are perhaps more accustom to antagonistic interactions. Expect to create antagonists, sometimes played by the GM, sometimes by another player. Expect to summon creatures that will follow your direction to the letter in malicious compliance.

A demonologist with a reliable demon has simply found a way to redirect the demon’s hostility elsewhere onto someone else.  A demon which doesn’t mind being summoned is a demon who’s learned to trust the demonologist’s ability to cause suffering.

Playing a demonologist involves balancing help with potentially more trouble. A demonologist expects to be on the losing side of a deal, if only to mollify the maleficence of the demon they deal with. Demons are very willing to assist, if only to put you in greater trouble later, but they two have fine line to toe – a careless demonologist offers lots of potential to a demon after all. A demon wants their summoner to suffer, but not so much that they can’t summon again; not unless the demon is greatly insulted or threatened by the summoner.

Play a demonologist if you enjoy the constant threat of danger, if you have friends eager to roleplay the demons you summon, and if you enjoy finding out what characters and demons want, or don’t want. Play a demonologist if you want a character who can dive into the magical warding of thresholds, and thus provide a unique way of protecting themselves and others in a magical world.

References: Constantine, Hellboy, Harry Dresden, 

Visual Identity

Demonology is a learned talent. Lessons leave marks. When creating a demonologists consider what they’ve learned and how they’ve learned it. Some of these traits could be in the form of a studious bookworm or in the attire of a field researcher, but the field is dangerous. What scars has the character gained? What habits have they adjusted to? What have they traded away? How have they been branded?

Signature Ability: Threshold Summoning

Demonology focuses on two fields of research; thresholds and demons. First a summoner finds or creates a threshold to contain the demon, and then they summon it and try to make a deal. Lastly they deal with the repercussions.

Demonologists can touch a location or circle to create a reinforced threshold, or commandeer an existing threshold to reinforce it. However, all barriers have a limit, and any magical high or massive effects to force through a barrier require the demonologist to make a resolve check to maintain them.  Old and rare thresholds provide a bonus to resolve checks to maintain them, reducing any cut by 1. 

With a maintained threshold, a demonologist can summon a demon of any rank. Items used in the evocation process help determine the Demon’s skills, and if the summoner knows one of a demon’s names then they can summon it specifically.

Thresholds and Demons

Thresholds are magical barriers confined by a physical location, such as a house or ritual circle. These barriers completely prevent magic from crossing; a magical creature cannot intrude or exit while a partially magic creature can not use their magic while intruding. Only major effects have a chance of breaking through a threshold without the owner’s will. The owner of a threshold can invite magic or magical creatures through the barrier.  Natural thresholds occur at locations that have a strong emotional resonance with them; consider an old family home, well attended church, or a cemetery. Unnatural thresholds, those created for the specific intent of making a threshold, require an unbroken barrier; if a nonmagical force breaks the barrier, then the threshold itself weakens or disappears.  (For gameplay purposes, most thresholds have a track of a single box).
Thresholds using circles create a spherical barrier, while thresholds used on an entrance to a location cover the entire location, including other and open entrances.

Demons are are magical creatures with a natural antagonism, yet great capacity of civility. They always, discretely or openly, wish to cause suffering, normally to the summoner. However, they also must follow any deal to the letter. They can understand the language of the summoner and are often eager to make a deal. Demons not trapped by a threshold can return to their home instantly at anytime unless prevented by a deal. The GM does not need to tell a player any of a demon’s merits and skills unless the summoner has a merit to provide that knowledge. Otherwise, the summoner learns the demon’s capabilities when the demon performs an action, whereby the GM (or player) will tell them to what level skill the demon has for that action so the player can roll.
Demons can die, but when they do they simply return to where they were summoned from.
Demons come in three Ranks, as determined both by their natural capability and antagonism, with higher ranked demons with the most to offer, but posing the most danger.

• Rank 1: A small or lanky demon with a single 4 track Merit “Demonic Underling” and 1 specialized level 2 skill related to the items of its summoning.
• Rank 2: A medium sized demon. The demon has a 5 Track merit “Demonic Physique” and 1 GM or Demon-Player created merit. It also has 2 specialized level 2 skills. 
• Rank 3: A large and powerful demon. It can mark its merit to attempt to break a threshold with a major physical attack. The demon has a 7 Track merit “Demonic Physique” which lets it bend 2 inch iron bars without needing a roll. It also has the 3 Track “Hellish Resistance” merit which gives it immunity to Flame. It has 1 other GM or Demon-Player created merit and 3 specialized level 3 skills.

Demons made and ran by players:
As intelligent creatures that appear at a player’s whim, a GM may choose for another player to roleplay as a demonologist’s summon. This is especially useful in a LARP whereby a GM might otherwise be busy. In those cases, the player roleplaying that demon gets to determine the demon’s skills and merits. They simply need to stick to the letter of any deal made with the summoner, and seek to cause suffering as they work on the deal. Players acting as a demon namely need to remember, a demon wants their summoner to suffer, but not so much that they can’t summon again; not unless the demon is greatly insulted or threatened by the summoner.

Disadvantage: Stigma

Demons are selfish and want what’s worse for the summoner, though they may dull their ill-intention in attempt to be worthy of a secondary summon. A demonologist’s trade is inherently dangerous.

Merits

Merits represent the core characteristics, traits, gear, and companions that a character has at their disposal.  Merits Tracks represent a form of character health, merits help make actions easier to perform, and many merits provide unique powers and abilities for a character to take advantage of.
Each legacy has 1 signature merit (underlined below), a powerful and complex merit that provides the core ability characters within that legacy are known for. Signature merits can be further enhanced with the meta merits of the same legacy, up to the number of Meta Slots the signature merit has (see the following list after regular Merits). 

Signature Merit	Effect	Track	Meta Slots
Threshold Summoning	Mark to touch a location or circle and establish a threshold, or commandeer an existing threshold. You can only maintain 1 threshold at a time, but doing so does not require your concentration.  When a major effect attempts to force magic across the barrier make a Resolve action check to prevent it. Summoning: You can take a lengthy task to summon a demon of any rank into a threshold you maintain.	2	2
A large and complex series of hellish runes tattooed and burned upon the body.

Demonologist Merits	Effect	Track
Borrow Stone	Touch a creature and either mark this merit or spend 1 esoteric to add a 2 box temporary merit version of a random one of that creature’s merits. If you already have a borrowed merit, you must mark an additional box or discard the older borrowed merit	3
A black palm-sized stone with a faintly pulsing, red and runic gate carved into it.
Exorcist Salt	Mark to banish one creature within a threshold you  are maintaining or inside of, shunting the creature to an unoccupied location outside the threshold.	4
Knuckle-sized chunks of salt that have marinated in your own blood.
Cursed Dusts	Mark to spread dusts around a nearby area, corrupting the ground for the remainder of the scene. Any esoteric used within that area acts as though it has the cursed tag.	5
Shifting dust of nauseating colors held in a small glass jar.
Observation Glass	Mark to learn a weakness or vulnerability of a creature within a threshold that you are maintaining.	4
A short telescope with layered lenses. When used a lens will crack in an image of the target’s weakness.
Hellfire Gauntlets	Summon hellish fire to attack foes at range. Deals an additional mark of flame harm. Empower your attack with an additional mark of blast harm by adding the cursed tag to one of your esoterics.	4
A pair of leathery, iron-covered gloves with sharpened ridges jutting out of its metallic palms.
Confession Injections	Mark to force a target to learn of and witness, with complete conviction, a tragic or antagonistic action you have performed.	5
Needled syringes covered in holy symbols and containing an unholy concoction mixed with your dried blood.
Slip up Eraser	Mark to retract a sentence or phrase you’ve said in the last few minutes, making anyone who heard it forget it.	4
An opalescent, rectangular slab of soft stone.

META Merits

Meta Merits alter or enhance a legacy’s signature merit and automatically extend that merit’s track with their own. Meta merits are unique to their legacy and cannot enhance any merit other than the signature merit of the same legacy.

Meta Demonologist Merits	Effect	Track
Sacrificial Thresholds	While maintaining a threshold barrier, you may spend 1 esoteric to automatically succeed a failed Resolve check that was needed to maintain the barrier.	–
Hold the Door	You may handoff control of a threshold barrier to another individual who then takes responsibility for any Resolve checks needed to maintain the barrier. That barrier no longer counts against the number of barriers you are maintaining.	–
Homesteads	While maintaining a threshold barrier and attempting to maintain another one, you can mark your threshold summoning merit to increase the number of thresholds you can maintain by 1.	1
Insightful Summoning	When you summon a demon you learn what merits and skills it has.	–
Offer a Friendly Escape	When you summon a rank 1 demon, spend 1 esoteric to mollify the demon’s hellish and antagonistic nature. The demon will not instinctively try to cause suffering.	–
At-Will Contracts	When you summon a demon you can choose to make any deal with it “At-Will.” The demon can choose to exit the deal and return to where it came from at any time. Likewise, you may mark your threshold summoning merit to cancel the deal and send the demon back.	1

Alternative Concepts

Demons are classic antagonists, but not all antagonists have to be as inherently evil. Fae creatures can be tricky and whimsical, causing more trouble than their worth. Otherworldly entities may have desires that are so alien that to deal with them is maddening, if unintentionally so. Angels may seem opposite to demons, but through trials and the pursuit of justice, may be more demanding.