PCs who buy more Path levels with XP can go beyond five levels in any Path. It is up to the player and GM to work together to determine the gameplay effects of having more than five levels. These can include:
•Extrapolation of existing plusses and abilities.
•Abilities and plusses from other Paths (for instance, a Seeker with 6 levels of -Self may gain some -Harmony abilities and plusses).
•Brand new plusses and abilities. These should be unique to that Seeker and his or her understanding of that Path.
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A Demon exerts influence on the people it has infected (and to others around them) in ways that tend to make it stronger. A Demon’s current strength is measured by Power, its only attribute.
A Demon is controlled by the GM just like an NPC.
A Demon has three ways of exerting influence:
•Creating feelings or desires in the Demon’s host. The host must make a roll of his or her WIL vs. the demon’s Power to resist these feelings or desires. Paths can be used to help a PC resist these impulses.
•Creating feelings or desires in other people the host encounters. This is harder for the Demon and the target, if he or she wants to resist, only has to beat half the demon’s Power (rounded down).
•Manipulating seemingly random circumstance to put the host in situations likely to force him or her to do something that will make the Demon stronger.
The listing for each demon will describe that which will make the demon stronger, and that which will make the Demon weaker. Depending on the severity of the circumstances it could take weeks or months for the Demon to grow noticeably weaker or more powerful, or it could take seconds. This is a decision made by the GM or the player controlling the Demon. The listed circumstances will raise or lower the Power of a Demon by one point at a time.
If a Demon is lowered to zero dots of Power, it is essentially unconscious, unable to exert any influence. A Demon never fully goes away, though. Should the right Demon- strengthening circumstances re-occur, even decades later, a zero-Power Demon will come back, at one dot of Power.
A Demon does not always harm a PC and can occasionally even be helpful. A Demon can help a PC by using its standard means of manipulating the PC at a time that helps the PC, e.g. a Demon of rage helping a PC fly into a rage to survive a desperate situation. A Demon may “decide” to help a PC of its own accord, or a PC may be able to force a Demon to do so with a WIL vs. the Demon’s power roll.
A Demon that infects a community follows the same rules, except instead of having one host it has several simultaneously.
Demon Example: Alberta starts play with
the demon of Rage. The demon starts at 3 Power. The write-up for rage lists the following:
Abilities: Can roll vs. the PC’s Will to make the PC lose his or her temper.
Strengthened By: Fear that the PC will hurt someone.
Weakened By: The PC being able to deal with frustration, disappointment, etc. in a way that helps people, rather than hurting them.
During the course of an adventure, Alberta is trying to use herbal medicine to aid a sick mother, who refuses, saying that the herbs are “witchcraft, the work of the Devil.” The GM decides that this will cause Alberta to become frustrated and forces her to make a save vs. anger. The roll is made with the
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Demons
In Brief: Demons can roll Power vs. hosts WIL, Power/2 vs. other nearby people’s WIL, can manipulate circumstance. Some things increase a Demon’s power by 1, others reduce it by 1. At 0 Power the Demon is unconscious. Demons can occasionally help (add Power to host’s AV).
PC’s WIL vs. the demon’s Power (3). Alberta wins the roll, and so does not lose her temper and do something she regrets. Yet Alberta is worried about becoming more frustrated and exits the room, leaving the sick mother untreat- ed. The GM decides to count this as the PC acting on fear of hurting someone and raises the demon’s Power by one.
Some time later, Alberta is in a barber shop lis- tening to a group of young men making plans to try to scare a new town resident, who is of Arabic descent, into leaving town because they think he “might be a terrorist.” Before the GM can make Alberta roll vs. anger, Alberta goes on the offensive, standing up and making an angry diatribe about how the young men are being stupid, ignorant, uneducated and preju- diced. This diatribe shames the men and they call of their plan of trying to frighten away the town’s new resident. The GM decides this counts as Alberta using her frustration to help people and reduces the Demon’s power by one.
Later, Alberta finds herself trapped in a cave with a bear. Knowing it is her only hope to survive, Alberta makes a roll of her WIL vs. the demon’s Power and wins, meaning the De- mon must now work on her behalf. She makes a CHM roll to try to frighten off the bear (by screaming at it, throwing rocks at it, stomping, baring her teeth and otherwise trying to act as mean, angry and dangerous as possible) and gets to add in the demon’s Power so that her AV is now her CHM + 3. Note that Alberta could not have added the Demon’s power to make friends with the bear because that is not among the Demon’s abilities.
Much later, Alberta has continued to use frus- tration to help people and has lowered the De- mon’s Power to zero. The demon is now “un- conscious” and can no longer make rolls to try to make Alberta lose her temper. However, Alberta can still lose her temper mundanely, given a strong enough frustration, and if she ever shows fear that she will lose her temper and hurt someone, the GM can bring the rage Demon back with 1 point of Power.
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The Humble One sat on a flat rock in the middle of a stream, his legs crossed and his eyes closed. Behind him, water cascaded down rocks, splashing into the stream. Tall trees rose up on either side of the stream, their canopies meeting overhead, letting through only sporadic shafts of sunlight. The Humble One wore a coarse brown cloth wrapped around him, covering one shoulder but leaving the other bare. The Humble One had long, wavy grey hair and a long beard. Maxie stepped into the stream. The legs of her jeans were rolled up so that they would not splash through the cold water. She stepped carefully, not wanting to slip on the rocks. Where she stepped, clouds of green-grey silt rose up and were carried away by the flowing water. When she came close to the rock, the Humble One’s eyes opened and a warm smile spread across his face. “Maxie,” she said warmly, “as always, seeing you brings me joy.”
Maxie smiled back. She wore no makeup and her only jewelry was a silver ring in her nose and another in her eyebrow. He hair was short, black and spiky. She wore a striped sweater in grey and black and jeans. Her eyes, usually curious and enthusiastic, seemed wary this morning.
“I sense something bothers you,” the Humble One said, “Please, share it with me. I will help however I can.”
Maxie thought and then spoke carefully. “I want to say... thank you. I have learned so much during my time with you. I have come to understand so much.”
“I only provide the opportunities,” the Humble One said. “You did the work of learning. Yet this is not what bothers you.”
“I...” Maxie said, biting her lip. “I have learned so much here, but I think I should move on, seek opportunities for learning elsewhere.”
The Humble One’s smile did not falter. “I know you have felt frustrated lately at what you see as a slowing of your progress. Great leaps of understanding are close for you. Just keep working at it and you will gain great rewards.”
“That may be true,” said Maxie, “but still, I would like to take a different path, see what else is waiting for me out there. I may return here someday, if you are still willing to give me more of your wisdom. Right now, though, I am going to try something else.”
For a long moment there was nothing but the rush and splash of water and birds sing- ing in the trees overhead. He stared at her compassionately and she stared at him with concern. Cold water continued to flow over the tops of Maxie’s feet, which were becom- ing painfully cold, close to cramping. At last he spoke. “You do not need to worry that your words will hurt my feelings. Nothing you say will injure me.”
She let out a relieved breath. “I’m glad to hear that.”
“But,” he continued patiently, “Your feelings deceive you. You cannot see the path that lies before you, but I can. I know that right here is where you should be, where you will find the wisdom you seek. Yes, you heave learned much, but you have also resisted many revelations. They frighten you and so you think ‘that’s not right, I don’t believe that, I will put it from my mind.’ Yet the truth does not go away just because you are not ready to accept it. It waits for you, and with my help you will find the courage to accept those truths that frightened you.”
Maxie sighed, putting her hands on her hips. “It comes down to this: I believe that everyone must have their own unique path. I believe everyone must find truths that mean something to them, and nobody can decide that for you. I believe everyone makes their own mistakes, and when they realize the nature of those mistakes they can learn from them, and that’s how they grow. I believe that when it comes down to it, this thing I’ve been doing, seeking out truth and wisdom and power and beauty, that’s something nobody can do for you. And that’s why I’m going to leave.”
The Humble One closed his eyes gently. He breathed deeply and several small birds dove from a tree, fluttering by on either side of him. He opened his eyes again. “This is a mistake too grave to your spiritual health for me to allow you to make it.”
Maxie stepped closer. She sunk down and put a knee on the Humble One’s rock. Her face was now only a few feet from his. “Are you saying you won’t let me go?”
“Spend more time, allow me a chance to convince you. I know you think your heart is telling you to leave. I know your rational mind has come up with what you think are compelling arguments why you should leave. Yet these are your weaknesses deceiving you, and the only way to defeat those weaknesses is to stand and fight them. You must stay.”
Maxie stood. “I understand that is what you want, but you can’t keep me here. You can’t stop me from leaving.”
“I know everyone in this valley,” he said, still calm, still smiling. “I have helped everyone who lives here in some way or another. Everyone trusts me. If I say I need help keeping you here, they will do whatever I ask.”
Maxie let anger seep into her voice. “You don’t have the right to keep me here against my will. You aren’t perfect and you don’t know everything. I’ve seen you act from selfish motives, I’ve seen you act from pride. When I first met you I was so overawed with what you had to teach me that I couldn’t see your prejudices, but now I can. If you think you’ve achieved perfection then you’re deluding yourself.”
“I am like a mirror. You look in me and you see your own pride, your own prejudice reflected back, because that is what you understand. In time you will see that only compassion and understanding has guided my decisions.”
“Please,” Maxie said, “If you acknowledge the possibility that you may be wrong, then you have to let me go. To do otherwise would be to risk stifling my progress. If you don’t acknowledge that you might be wrong, if you believe you are without a flaw, then I have to leave, I won’t be the student of someone who thinks they are perfect. Do you understand?” He only smiled.
She turned towards the bank of the stream, took a step away. Then she looked back at the Humble One and said “I’m going now. Call your friends in the valley if you want, have them try to stop me. I should warn you that I won’t be afraid to hurt them, so make sure you take that into consideration.”
Most mystical and religious systems are predicated on the idea that there is one fundamental truth about the universe, and that all other truths are either false, are unimportant, or follow logically from the one fundamental truth. Anyone who can grasp this fundamental truth, these systems say, need look no further.
Seeker is based on the idea that the universe is of infinite complexity. There is no fundamental truth, not even one definition of “truth” that all reasonable people would agree on. There are countless ways to understand how the universe works, and all of them are useful in their own way.
Anyone who claims that “everything you need to know” about the universe could fit in one book, or be taught by one guru, is absolutely wrong. If acquiring knowledge about the universe is a journey, then it is a journey with no right direction to go in and no ending.
Since there is no one true wisdom and thus no one true route to wisdom, it also means that all humans are equals, in that they all have equal capacity (whether they choose to use it or not) to improve themselves and gain useful understanding of the universe. A person who is born with greater capacity for abstract thought is better suited to learn wisdom and truths based on abstract reasoning, but a person born with less capacity can learn other truths and other wisdom not dependent on abstract thought. Thus truth can be found in anyone.
People who believe there is one path, one truth, can gain great things and can become powerful, but they are always limited. They can only go so far.
Since there is no higher truth, being wrong about one thing does not mean that someone is wrong about everything. Everyone is ignorant. The wisest, most powerful Seeker who ever lived is completely ignorant about some important things. And at the same time, someone can be a horrible, ignorant, petty, prejudiced failure of a person, but still have some valuable bit of wisdom or knowledge. The goal of most religions, philosophies and scientific systems is to not be wrong, but in the Seeker universe this is an impossible, counterproductive goal. A better goal is to always be ready to accept, and thus