Voodoo Games
Shadowsouls
The Chantry of Shadowsouls is a quiet base for the Nine Traditions in New Orleans. Here pursuit of one’s own Path is paramount, and while it is not against policy to help outsiders, it is not in the spirit of the chantry. Those who bring trouble to the chantry’s doorstep because of external benevolence would certainly be punished. Considering Shadowsouls’ fascination with New Orleans’ death-related resonance, it is no surprise that Euthanatoi and Hollow Ones dominate the chantry, but so do Cultists of Ecstasy and a scattered number of other Traditions.
Chantryhouse
In the heart of New Orleans’ downtown Garden District, located to the southwest of the city and not far from the Mississippi, lies a famous nightclub called the Shaded Path Club. It is an extragavant building complete with a walled-in courtyard and three stories of varying levels of entertainment. The Tradition mages didn’t just stake this club out when they came to town, they built the place about 75 years ago. The design was meant to attract Sleepers to study, offer some sleight defense in the midst of the city, and conceal the presence of a small but potent Node. In all three intentions, the Awakened succeeded, deflecting even the waters of the Mississippi when flooding struck the town.
The walls surrounding the courtyard are old limestone blocks rising ten feet high, and moss hangs from many a stone. There are gates but they are only closed when the club is closed to the public (from 4 AM until 4 PM), and the old iron gates are more secure than they appear. The courtyard itself includes lovely greenery and gardens, through which flagstone paths wind, and a number of benches and stone tables allow visitors to relax and enjoy the enclosure. The great oaken double doors lead one into the first floor of the club, where the wood paneling soon gives way to a ring of tables and a broad dance floor. All kinds of music is played here, and all kinds of musicians perform here, and the club’s visitors are people who like all sorts of music, since there is usually little warning as to what kind of tunes will be heard in the Shaded Path Club today.
The second floor is a dimly lit dining area, with many tables available to visitors, and a full kitchen and bar to serve them. Stairs in the kitchen are off-limits to all but “leasees of expensive apartments above”. Of course, those stairs actually lead to a grand meeting hall of the chantry, as well as several apartments set aside for the mages who wish to live at the club.
Nodes
The chantry’s Node is located beneath the club actually. A small wine cellar was built below, but the narrow timber-held corridors lead to a small rear chamber – ostensibly the sump pump or some other plumbing necessity. Dampness pervades the entire basement, yet the wood and stone do not crumble and rot due to the pervasive magic emanating from the Node. In that rear chamber a small waterhole exists. This is a natural spring, a rare thing to find in the heart of a city these days, but one long preserved by Awakened members of the New Orleans community. Though it appears brackish, even filthy, the water is worse than that: it contains tiny remains and ashes of all those who were buried in the area, washed through by underground water sources. It is quite unpleasant to drink, but the right magick can stabilize this Node’s Quintessence and make it drinkable Tass.
Defenses
Most of the club is non-magickal. Wards against Correspondence and scrying, as well as a locked Gauntlet/Shroud, keep the third floor and basement off-limits to spies of all sorts. Physical intruders are punished far more severely, for when non-approved mages trespass on the third floor or into the basement, a terrible curse is triggered, insuring their ruin (if not death) within a day. Trespassers can feel the curse about to be triggered as they intrude, and that turns most back before they suffer.
Backgrounds & Characters
All characters gain the Chantry Background **. All other Backgrounds must be purchased and acquired normally. The chantry commands a communal Level 3 Node of entropic Death.
Custos
The employees of the Shaded Road Club are oblivious to the real nature of the club’s masters. True custos in general are frowned upon, because it asks for trouble being brought to the chantry’s doorstep. Some Acolytes would be approved if their sponsors can prove that they are not just weak links in the chain. Consors are the same way, though regarded as loose cannons instead; wraiths are the most commonly approved Consors.
Breath of Badé
Beneath the French Quarter district of New Orleans which is only about ten minutes east of the Garden District, and perhaps the most famous ward in the city, the Bata’a are the powers-that-be. Enough Créoles believe and enough mundane voodoo is practiced here that the Orage Family has claimed it all as their territory, and their rangi colors can be told by the blues that dominate local decor and attire. Their paradigm commands enough influence in the area, too, that none can oppose their claim, not even the (un)dead. Generally, the Bata’a mind their own business, their own ways, and their own people. They don’t give a damn about the rest of the city, unless something is happening that threatens their own. Hurricane Katrina wrought some ruin on the French Quarter, but it is whispered that these Bata’a had a hand in the cyclone’s devastation. After all, their chantry is named after the loa of storms.
Chantryhouse
Down a hidden back alley lies a door in the cement that leads into the cellar at the base of an old, crumbling apartment building. The door opens to a set of stairs that leads far deeper and into an abysmally dark corridor than one might imagine, or want to imagine. Throughout this staircase and beyond, the whispers of les invisibles can be heard on the fringe of the consciousness, terrifying the uninitiated.
Once down the steps, a broad tunnel was bored through the city’s foundations, leading one southerly. Damp stone provides the walls and floor and ceiling. The scent of blood and wine, ash and herbs, grows stronger the further one proceeds. Eventually, the stone tunnel opens into an earthy chamber – the hounfour -- with dirt floors and a tiny underground stream running behind a grand, blood-soaked altar of lime. Well-hidden in the earthy walls are crevice-like portals that lead into other chambers. Some serve as resting places for weary conjure men (and women), others as storing rooms for the strange and exotic tools of the Bata’a trade, and at least one as a bone-shivering graveyard that still feels…alive. If not alive, it at least feels…animated.
Nodes
The stream that runs behind the altar is a geological unlikelihood, and it is thanks to ancient Bata’a magicks that it is even possible. Once it was merely an underground run-off from the Mississippi. But now waters from Lake Pontchartrain and the Gulf of Mexico were diverted to flow through this stream, which the Bata’a have named la petite artére. When the waters of the land blend with the blood of sacrifice (animal…usually) from the nearby altar, which through small stone canals feed the stream, a quiet hum fills the chamber and recharges every invisible present and, of course, the mages’ bon-anges (Avatars) with plenty of aché (Quintessence).
Defenses
From the hidden basement door to the furthermost chamber of the hounfour, the Breath of Badé chantry keeps dimensional spaces of all sorts, including the Gauntlet, locked save for approved persons (namely Orage Family Bata’a and a number of friendly spirits and ghosts). Physically intruding in this place first triggers a horrific curse the Bata’a call the Withering, which ages the victim mercilessly and swiftly, until he crumbles to dust. Even if the intruder can deflect that curse, it is likely he will be possessed by les invisibles that freely roam the chantryhouse.
Backgrounds & Characters
All characters gain the Chantry Background ****. All other Backgrounds must be purchased and acquired normally. The chantry commands a communal Level 4 Node of entropic Sacrifice.
Custos
Acolytes are commonly accepted but never allowed in the chantry. Mostly, they are family members who help protect the Bata’a and their ways on the streets above. Consors are quite common, and include wraiths, Umbrood, and hedge mages (who are voudoun themselves, and considered Bata’a, just not as talented as the full-blown Awakened Bata’a that dominate the chantry). Most of les invisibles allied to this chantry dwell all the time within it. Those Consors that enjoy more liberty are typically considered ogÃ: respected outsiders that can watch but not participate.
