A poor movie makes a great red herring.

Granted the movie is at best a C- plot-wise, but there is (at least) one element worth examining from a UA perspective. Strictly against cannon, but then, the players aren’t supposed to know which rumors are actually true, right? If you haven’t seen the film this will be a bit of a spoiler. Sorry, but there isn’t that much to the movie to begin with.

Part of the back-story is the existence of a “Black Zodiac” which serves as the “shopping list” of ghosts the evil guy needs to complete his machine (a house-sized clockwork). Specifically he needs demons which fit each of the signs as described in a very old book (written by a monk while demonically possessed. the machine is from the same book, is powered by the ghosts, and lets you see the future) The names of the zodiac signs are things like: The First Born Son, The Torso, The Bound Woman, The Withered Lover, The Torn Prince, The Angry Princess, The Pilgrimess, The Great Child, The Dire Mother, The Hammer, The Jackal, and The Juggernaut. Which screams for, all together now, demon archetypes!!

Yes yes, only the living can be avatars and ascend to the chorus, demons are the opposite of archetypes, etc. But, it does promise to be a doosey of a red herring for players and there are so many different points a group of characters in a global or even cosmic campaign might stumble into it: they find The Book or a copy of it or notes about it and decide to track it down, they go to quell an unquiet spirit and meet a duke who’s trying to trap it and he lets slip more than he ought, they’re investigating demons and keep hearing about “The Twelve” who will come together and overthrow the cruel ones, someone gets impatient tracking down ghosts and starts murdering people in order to fill out his/her 12 souls; #4 on the list was a friend/loved one/former player character who died mysteriously – etc.

In the movie a few of the ghosts are lame & fairly weak, while others have been around the block a few times and can kick some serious butt. All however are “free-ranging” spirits able to interact with physical things without first possessing a body, which (if you’re tossing cannon out the window) is the first channel of the Black Zodiac. The second would probably be manifesting themselves physically for a brief time. Third might involve manifesting things associated with the demon’s death or obsession, fourth-?? If they can reenact their death on a victim(proxy) the demon becomes corporal permanently?? Not alive, just no longer intangible. Or run with the “overthrow the cruel ones” theme. Or perhaps they *are* the cruel ones who keep the rest in line, and when a black zodiac god(devil?)-walker “descends” it kicks out the incumbent to oblivion.

In any case (however wrong the rumor mongers are) it ought to make for some interesting confusion for the players.