Orion_MagnusWith the advent of texting, the Significant Proxy Ritual “Mirror of Lies” has become almost childishly easy.
Just get access to someone’s cell phone (by hook or by crook) long enough to text “Hey” or something similar to 7 people in its memory, spend two significant charges and make your Magick Roll. Bam! Say hello to your shiny new significant proxy.
Any reason it wouldn’t work most of the time?
WrattsWell, no. You would have to engage in some kind of text message convo (the ritual does necessitate some communication). But this could be as simple as: “Hey, wanna go grab a bite in 30?” Other than that, yeah, it’s childishly easy. Except for needing 2 sig charges, but yeah.
Orion_MagnusDoesn’t even require that much, after all, E-mail works. Two-way communication is not required. As long as they believe it came from the ritual’s target, it counts.
I’d consider increasing the cost to 3 or even 4 Sig Charges when using this technique to represent the difficulty of magically bridging the extremely impersonal nature of the communication. As well as to hinder players who decide to make a game of collecting as many Proxies as possible.
I can completely picture the players adopting a policy of trying to deal non-lethally with most Mook-level enemies, merely beating them unconscious so they can grab their phones and turn them into proxies.
Doktor Anon…at least until TNI or the Sleepers show up. Few PCs are subtle enough to evade notice for very long.
Orion_MagnusSince I can’t see how creating Proxies particularly attracts notice(or risks waking the Sleeping Tiger), can I assume that you’re saying PCs tend to invoke the wrath of these Big-Brother-type organizations with their actions otherwise?
Because yes, I’d agree the Power-Gaming Mentality inherent to the Players most likely to pull something like this virtually guarantees conflict with some of the giants of the Occult Underground, eventually.
Smart Dukes do it in the Dark.
Doktor AnonIn general, the sort of power-mad duke who would generate an army of proxies probably attracts unwanted attention.
Though it seems like a fool-proof plan, having a ton of proxies brings its own problems. Each proxy using this method is another two significant charges you have to accumulate and spend — the steady stream of unnatural phenomena surrounding this hypothetical duke might lead others to his location. In addition, divination, Aura Sight, and simple deductive reasoning (albeit with an unlikely set of circumstances) might lead dukes to determine that someone is acting as a proxy. Finally, wily dukes can use the proxy relationship to forge a sympathetic connection to the caster. As such, having too many proxies is as much a liability as anything else, increasing the odds of detection. Of course, somebody who notices weird phenomena or lots of people operating under the influence of a ritual still has to find the one responsible, but isn’t it better to never prompt the question?
Try to find a happy medium between the subtlety of one proxy and the safety of several.
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