A 3e update of the Mask Wearer.

Perhaps you would have been a damn good Personamancer, if you hadn’t gotten stuck on the masks. While masks form a core part of Personamancy, they still just regard them as a tool, as one of many expressions of identity. They’re wrong. When you wear a mask, it is your face. It frees you to be yourself; to be anyone really. Who is behind the mask becomes irrelevant; the mask is you and you are the mask.

Since COVID, people have become more comfortable around masks. It used to be that wearing a mask outside of Halloween or Mardi Gras would have everything thinking you’re about to commit a crime. Now, they just think you’re some kind of weird; which, I mean, fair enough. Still you live through the eyes of your mask, and all everyone sees is the face you want them to.

Prosoponurgy is a Minor School offshoot of Personamancy. Its parent school considers it a heretical dead-end composed of morons who couldn’t put in the hard work to do real magick. Someday, they’ll get together and wipe the embarrassment that is Prosoponurgy from the face of the planet. When they get organized. It’s on the list.

In the meantime, Prosoponurgy toddles on its own odd little way, making new masks, and finding a toehold in the Underground, especially in places that have a history of mask culture, like New Orleans and Venice.

Ω: 0

Domain: Anonymity, expression and imitation.

Generate a Minor Charge: Work on a mask for an hour, with the resultant charge applied toward the completion of that mask. Your face must be naked during this time, or the charge is voided.

Taboo: Your naked face must never be seen by others; at least 30% of it must be obscured (large sunglasses and COVID masks are useful). If your face is exposed, then all the masks you currently have with you permanently lose their power. In addition, if anyone sees you put on or switch a mask then the mask remains dormant, until removed and reapplied.

Starting Charges: 8 charges already invested into masks

Minor Spells

All of your spells are performed through your prepared masks. You can – theoretically – start with a base mask that you bought from Party City, instead of lovingly constructing one from scratch, but most Prosoponurgists wouldn’t be caught dead in a mask like that. Unless otherwise specified, only you can wear the masks you create. You can only have a number of prepared masks equal to the tens digit of your Prosoponurgy Identity, though you may a number of unfinished masks up to your Prosoponurgy rank. Once charges are invested in a mask, they can’t be transferred elsewhere; at least, not through Prosoponurgy, but some other schools may be able to leech charges from a mask.

Some masks require an initial cast made from someone else’s face. If the donor is willing – or dead – that’s not usually a problem. For those who don’t want to coorperate, Adepts have resorted to a variety of methods, from simply drugging the donor beforehand, to offering spa treatments with a complimentary face mask. Tying the donor up and forcibly mashing their face into a bowl of plaster of paris also works. Each face cast can only be used for a single mask.

When you complete a mask, make a Prosoponurgy check to see how it turned out. On success, the mask functions as designed; a Matched Success grants the mask an additional number of uses equal to the lower of the casting result digits; and on a Critical the mask’s becomes an artifact with its effect a permanent feature. A Failure means you must add another charge to the mask; a Matched Failure causes the loss of half the mask’s current charges; and a Fumble indicates that the mask detonates all of its charges in a maelstrom of unexplained phenomena.

Behind the Mask
Cost: 1 minor
Many Prosoponurgists consider this mask blasphemous and refuse to craft it. A freeform design, the mask enables you to see clearly through any barrier deliberately intended to obscure, such as smokescreens, blinding lights, image pixelation, sunglasses, mundane disguises, privacy screens, and actual masks. The effect lasts for a number of minutes equal to the creation check, or until it’s removed. Since it can be weaponized against other Prosoponurgists to cause them to taboo, possession of one is grounds for a thorough ass-kicking.

Best Face Forward
Cost: 1 minor
These masks are often constructed to be as small and inoffensive as possible, such as a colorful domino, quirky fabric COVID mask or bandana. When creating the mask, you must choose whether to imbue the mask with honesty (Connect), duplicity (Lie) or authority (Status). Whichever you choose, while you wear the mask you gain +20 to the relevant Ability (and associated Identities) for a number of minutes equal to the casting result, or until it’s removed.

Eyes Without a Face
Cost: 2 minor
To create this mask, you need to start with a face cast from a living person. The external form of the finished mask isn’t important, so express yourself. When you wear the mask, you see through the eyes of the person the mask was made from (and lose your own sight). There’s only vision, so you might have to learn to read lips. You can reuse the mask, but once you have logged a number of hours equal to the units digit of the creation check, the mask loses its power. There is a caveat: if the donor looks into a mirror (or other highly reflective surface) while you’re looking through their eyes, the mask shatters and both you and the donor suffer an Uncanny-4 check.

Fright Mask
Cost: 2 minor
This mask is traditionally constructed to be creepy, but it’s not actually required. When you wear it and lock eyes with a target, they suffer a Rank 4 Stress Check to their lowest Gauge, as they see whatever it is that they’re most afraid of, after which the mask loses its power.

Melpothalia
Cost: 2 minor
One of the simpler masks that you can create, this mask induces a particular emotion. The actual decoration of the mask will vary depending on the intended emotion, as you need to incorporate iconic aspects of the emotion into the design. Each mask can only be used once, for a number of minutes equal to the creation result, or until it is removed. Anyone who see the mask on your face experiences the intended emotion for the remaining duration. The emotion is not potent enough to have any serious mechanical effect, and you have no control over just how any viewer will react to it.

Rings a Bell
Cost: 2 minor
Create a blank white mask for this. While you wear it, you’ll appear to be someone that each onlooker is sure they know, but just can’t place or remember the name of (and will likely be too embarrassed to ask). This won’t get you into any area that requires positive identification, but people usually won’t question why you’re there. The effect doesn’t do anything other than make others sorta-kinda think they’ve met you before, and lasts for a number of minutes equal to the creation result.

Visage
Cost: 3 minor
You’ll need a cast from a person – living or dead – to create this full face mask. While you wear the mask, you look and sound exactly like the donor, down to their speech pattern and mannerisms. Unfortunately, the mask doesn’t duplicate anything else about their body, so while it’ll probably fool their work colleagues and get you past retinal and voiceprint scanners, it doesn’t change your height and build or fingerprints. You can reuse the mask until a number of active hours have elapsed equal to the tens digit of the creation result. However, if the donor is living and you come face-to-face with them while wearing the mask, then the mask shatters and both you and they suffer a Self-4 check.

Who Was That Masked Man?
Cost: 3 minor
Many masks are far more well-known than their actual wearers. The number of people who know about Bruce Wayne is a fraction of those who can instantly recognize Batman’s mask. There’s power in the familiar.
For this, you need to prepare a culturally recognizable mask, such as a plague doctor mask, a bloody hockey mask, superhero mask, or the like. It must be a mask itself, though; a mask of a face, even a well-known one like Dracula just doesn’t work for the magick. The mask must also resonate with the local culture, otherwise it won’t function. For example, a domino mask in the U.S.A. brings to mind the Lone Ranger, while in Mexico they’ll think of Zorro, and of Arsène Lupin in France. Basically, if half the local population wouldn’t associate the mask with the identity to impressed into it when you created it, it won’t function.
When you don the mask, you gain +20 to an Ability (and associated Identities) associated with the mask’s targeted persona, as well as the removal of any associated Difficulty and penalties. For example, a plague doctor mask might grant the bonus to Knowledge (along with the Medical feature), while a luchador mask would add the bonus to Struggle. The mask functions until for a number of hours equal to the units digit of the creation casting result, or until it’s removed, at which point it loses all power.

Identity Theft
Cost: 4 minor
You need a cast from a living person to create this mask, but may finish it as you please. When you take the cast, choose one of the donor’s non-mystical Identities or Abilities to embody within the mask. While you wear the mask, you may use the selected Identity or Ability at the donor’s rank, with a maximum rank equal to your Prosoponurgy identity. You may do so a number of times equal to the tens digit of the creation result. If you Fumble a use of the borrowed talent, the mask shatters and your suffer injuries to your face equal to the lowest digit of the creation check.

Death Mask
Cost: 5 minor
Prosoponurgy has resurrected the old tradition of making death masks. The initial cast of the mask must be taken from the face of someone who died within 12 hours. The mask is then constructed to look like the deceased. When you wear the mask, you may ask the GM a question relevant to the deceased. The number of questions that you may ask is limited to the tens digit of the creation result, and it doesn’t count against the quota if the deceased can’t answer a question. You can remove the mask and it will retain its potency, until after the final question is answered, at which point it will crack and become powerless.

Face in the Crowd
Cost: 5 minor
During COVID, Prosoponurgists dodging Personamancers found this mask invaluable, as it enables you to disappear into a crowd. Create a mask that mimics your own features and which covers your entire face; when you put it on, anyone looking for you finds that all the people within 100 meters of you who have at least 30% of their face obscured (by masks, sunglasses, etc.), look exactly like you. This imposes a -50 penalty to any Notice or Pursuit check to find you, whether by mundane or magickal means. The effect moves with you and last for a number of minutes equal to the creation result.

Masquerade
Cost: 5 minor
People – not Prosoponurgists, of course – tend to get a bit weird while wearing masks. The freedom granted by anonymity can lead them to try things that they’d never even consider with their faces exposed. This mask is often created in a Mardi Gras or Carnivale style, but it’s not required. When you wear it, everyone within a number of meters equal to 10 times the tens digit of your Prosoponurgy Identity, that meets the general criteria of having their face masked, has their inhibitions lowered. You don’t have any control over their actions, but an atmosphere of hedonism and debauchery usually pervades; basically, if it’s one of the seven deadly sins, it’s probably going to make an appearance. This inflicts a -10 penalty to the actions of anyone affected, unless they doing something that fits the prevailing atmosphere. If the local area has a high percentage of mask-wearers, then it’s possible that things spiral out of control into a Riot, in which case +10 is added to the base roll. The effect moves with you and lasts for a number of minutes equal to the creation result, or until you remove the mask, though any Riot will have to run its course normally.

Celestial Facade
Cost: 10 minor
To create this mask, you’re going to need a cast from a living Avatar’s face. The mask must be created in symbolic representation of the Archetype that the Avatar represents and incorporate appropriate symbols. The actual power of the mask depends both on the power of the donor Avatar and your Prosoponurgy Identity, and grants you access to the first two Avatar channels, limited to the lower of the two ranks. You can use the channels a number of times equal to the lower of casting result digits – subject to the channels’ usual restrictions, after which the mask crumbles to dust. If you’re ever within sight of an Avatar of that Archetype while wearing the mask, both you and they instantly become aware of the other, and they must do their utmost to destroy the mask (which may include destroying you), or else they will taboo.