Maple Shade Dark Room

The Dark Room is a room that exists outside of known space. It is a place with an interior, but no exterior, as far as anyone can determine. Once, it was the pitch-blade and gore-soaked lair of the demon Bune, shackled within by some kind of mystic restraints, and finally slain by the Maple Shade Cell.

Appearance

Now, it is a room with a red, always polished hardwood floor, walls covered in rich wallpaper in jeweled tones, and chandeliers that seem to hang in nothingness, as its ceiling is not visible in the darkness beyond them. It has furnishings that seem to be well-cared-for antiques from the turn of the century, which have been organized into a pattern useful to the cell. Unused pieces of furnishings (those shoved off to one side) tend to disappear overnight, though they occasionally make a re-appearance somewhere in the room, along with the occasional piece of new furniture.

The Dark Room has neither windows nor doors, and is marked by a circle of black smudge in the center of the room, which contains one sigil for each of the people who bear the Mark. The widest part of the room has tall bookcases that stand some twelve feet high, just shy of the height of the chandeliers.

The Maple Shade Cell has organized the room's furnishings to provide the following functions:

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Merits

The Dark Mark (• or ••• or •••••)

Each of the hunters who took part in the slaying of Bune and the freeing of Natalie's ghost now bear a mark in a strange shape on their bodies (Matthew has determined that this is a binding sigil that incorporates part of Bune's goetic sigil). Though it is indelible as a tattoo, this mark appears to be smudged black coal-dust or graphite.

Effect: At one dot, the bearer of the Mark may transport themselves into the Dark Room in the following fashion:

• By touching any wall in the Maple Shade;
• By spending a point of Willpower;
• By not being seen by anyone who does not bear the Mark.

Those who do this black out for a moment, and come back to their senses just before they topple over. Snapping back to their senses, they are within the strange circle of sigils in the center of the Dark Room. Returning to that circle allows them to leave the room again. Those departing may choose to not spend a Willpower, which causes them to appear right where they departed originally (although if someone is there watching, they fail to depart), or they may spend another Willpower and appear touching any wall in the Maple Shade they wish.

Those who possess the three dot version gain the following benefits:

• They no longer need to spend a point of Willpower to enter the Dark Room from the Maple Shade;
• They may remain in the Dark Room even while sleeping or unconscious (such time is not restful, however, and prevents the recovery of a daily point of Willpower);
• By spending a point of Willpower, they may peer into the room as though from a height just above the chandeliers, effectively granting them the ability to see who is within, and to hear any non-whispered conversations being held therein.
• From within the Dark Room, they may spend a point of Willpower to send a short whispered message to everyone who bears the Dark Mark.

Those who possess the five dot version gain the following benefits:

• They no longer need to spend a point of Willpower to peer into the Dark Room or whisper to others from within it.
• By spending a point of Willpower, they may now whisper to anyone who bears the Dark Mark, even if they are not within the Dark Room.
• Using their own blood, they may make the Dark Mark upon any wall or other vertical surface. This is an extended Wits + Occult test, at an interval of one turn per check, requiring 5 total successes. Each turn, the creator must take 1 lethal health level worth of blood to create the sigil. Once it is created, any bearer of the Dark Mark may spend one Willpower point to touch it and be transported to the Dark Room as though they were touching a wall of the Maple Shade. This transportation does not work in reverse, however, and the power of that sigil (and the sigil itself) fades when the sun next crosses the horizon.

Dark Warden (Style; •• to •••••)

Requirements: Apportation and Sojourner Merits; only one person may have this Merit at a time.

The Warden of the Dark Room has a stronger connection to this strange place for some reason. It might even be fairly assumed that these strange abilities are tied to the connection the Warden has to the Dark Room. This Merit reflects abilities gained by exploring that connection.

• A Whisper Away (••): You may use your Apportation power to move things and people to and from the Dark Room. For the purposes of using your Apportation, the Dark Room is always considered to be two yards away from the Warden. Thus moving a target that is three yards away to the Dark Room is moving it five yards: three for its distance from you, and another two to place it within the Dark Room. Items and people damaged by this manifest sooty "burns".
• Touch of Darkness (•••): You can summon a small mote of the hungering darkness the Room once held. As an action, spend 1 Willpower and roll Resolve + Occult. Each success grants one use of the ability to imbue an attack (which may be barehanded or with a weapon) with a wisp of shadow. If this attack hits and inflicts, it inflicts 2 points of lethal damage, which causes sooty burns around the otherwise normal injury. Any uses of this ability that remain at the end of the scene are lost.
• Summon Darkness (••••): You can spend a point of Willpower and fill an area equal to your Resolve + Occult in yards across with sooty, impenetrable darkness. Those within it are blinded and feel as though they are inhaling fine particles with each painful breath. The sudden cold and pain can cause panic in humans and some supernaturals, forcing them to make a Resolve + Composure check at a penalty equal to your dots in this Merit. Those who fail take the Beaten Down Tilt. Those with the Dark Mark Merit may add their dots in that Merit to their resistance check.
• Body of Darkness (•••••): You can turn your body into a sooty shadow by spending one point of Willpower. You lose the ability to physically interact with objects, people, or the environment, save to pass through them (which leaves a sooty smear mark on them - if you use this to pass through something larger than yourself, this is in the shape of your body). Passing into areas of bright light in this form can not only inflict lethal damage equal to the Intensity of the light (Flashlight 1; ambient sunlight 2; car headlight 3; floodlight or direct sunlight 4; stadium light 5), but can also cause a Breaking Point (at a penalty equal to the Intensity of the light) as the experience of being unravelled by light is too much for the human psyche to experience without damage.