Many Faerie Knights make personal sanctuaries in the Dark Forest, carved out of the thorns and made habitable, often represented by the Safe Place merit. While the Guardians have no normal way to get into or out of the Dark Forest, they often learn “Keys” to open Dark Gates into it. Usually these are objects or short gestures, as long as an Instant action, but other places are Keyed to more obscure, intricate rituals.
The Unseelie are everywhere because the Dark Forest is everywhere. They poison dreams and snatch away innocents. Many a Faerie Knight was born when she found herself dragged from their bed through, a window and into a world of biting thorns, only to be rescued by an upperclasswoman—clad in fanciful armour in the form of her cheerleading uniform and whose natural aloofness gave way to battle-hardened cool—or even one of the Seelie who saw a potential pawn.
All but the most naïve of the magical girls realizes that their benefactors are potentially as dangerous as the things they Hunt, and the conspiracy recognizes two major groups of faerie: The Seelie, who while potential threats are mostly willing to work with Hunters, and the Unseelie, who are dangerous creatures of nightmare that haunt dreams, snatch away children, and sow chaos. The strongest of the Seelie often claim to be exiles of great wars—though none ever seems to have been from the same war—or otherwise dispossessed of their noble lands.
The magical girls can rarely directly harm the Unseelie nobles—and many come to find themselves repeatedly dealing with foes they thought they defeated—but they do their best to throw wrenches into their plans when they can. More often they find themselves dealing with the repercussions of the Unseelie machinations, like the Fetches they leave behind after an abduction. Many of the Faerie Knights have had personal experiences with these doppelgangers, having found friends or loved ones replaced by them. Changelings are another result of the Unseelie messing with mortals, but the Senshi are torn on how to approach them. Some are clearly suffering and in need of the very same support that the Pretty Guardians give each other. Others are vicious monsters that sell innocents into captivity. And both types are dangerous.
Sometimes things are easy, and some scuttling horror without a moral quandary is spitted out of the Dark Forest or someone’s dreams, and it can be safely destroyed without a second thought.
Beyond fae creatures, the Guardians are likely to come into contact with vampires, dream-poisoning witches, and other beasties, but the Seelie who give them their powers are often most interested in having their rivals struck down or harassed.
College was a big change. You were on the other side of a break up, away from home, and on your own for the first time. At first you were alright, but then your dreams became nightmares, all the loneliness and fears amplified. That all came to a head when you were dragged by the ankles out your dorm window by a woman on horseback, her hair—her head—wreathed in flames. Your flannel gown was torn to shreds and covered in blood from the thorns, but before you were lost forever you were saved. Now you keep what happened to you from happening to anyone else.
You absolutely adored Pretty Guardian Faerie Knight as a kid. You had all the toys and games and even wrote fanfic. You still keep a plushy of Hitomi, and when you’re sad or scared you talk to it, but as you grew older you pretended not to be interested and called it “kid’s stuff”. That was before you were walking in the park one night and got attacked by something out of an anime. A little white cat offered to make you a magical girl and you accepted. You know your twelve-year-old-you would cream herself in excitement, but you wonder if it’s worth waking up screaming in the middle of the night.
You ’re a guy. Not a manly guy or anything, but you always thought it was weird that guys your age were obsessing over a cartoon for little girls. Then your girlfriend convinced you to do cross-play as Hitomi and you wandered into the Dark Forest and were drafted. Now you’re obsessing over the cartoon, hoping it gives you better insight into all this faerie crap so that you don’t get yourself killed. Your mom was right, you really should have cut your hair.
Ever since you were little, you knew about the Dark Forest. You’ve been able to see them ever since your dad came home and wasn’t your dad. No one believed you until your real dad came back and killed your fake dad. You kept loving him, even if he was a gargoyle. So after years of watching a show that was so real to you, you walked up to Yuzuki at a convention and told her you wanted to help.
Unlike most conspiracies, the Senshi are both monster Hunters and a fandom. Some of the fans are aware of what goes on behind the curtain, while others are oblivious. The various groups that consider themselves Pretty Guardians are known as “Circles”, after the term for a group of doujinshi artists.
Big Sisters, Little Sisters is a circle dedicated not to directly stomping out the monsters of the Dark Forest, but healing their damage. They act openly as fans of Bishoujo Senshi Yousei Kishi, dressing up in cosplay, visiting sick children, putting on inspirational skits at elementary schools, and helping the less fortunate. Though they rarely directly fight, they are invaluable in giving a shoulder to lean—or cry—on, acting as a release valve for pent up emotions. It’s not unusual for members of other Circles to have a friend or girlfriend who’s a Big Sister.
Spreading information through doujinshi and fanfic—some of it used by other Hunters as well—Starlight Projekt can help get the word out on tactics and chronicle the exploits of the magical girls; some girls even draw doujinshi of their own cell, and hope to work with Kagome Yuzuki herself on the animated series (or one of it’s several media spin-offs). They honour living and fallen Guardians, but have a tendency to “ship” their friends. As a production focused circle, they also provide monetary aid to other Guardians.
The largest circle within the Guardians is The Pretty Soldiers, who dedicate their lives to fighting the creatures of darkness. Many do it out of a sense of justice, regret at having failed someone, or even a suicidal drive to take out as many enemies as they can (these are the ones who most need Big Sisters), but there are a surprising number of Guardians who are in the Pretty Soldiers Circle in the hopes that they’ll end up immortalized in the comic books and anime that first inspired them.
Status as a Pretty Guardian Faerie Knight is often a very informal thing. There are no ranks or initiation ceremonies, and it can come through making an impact defeating monsters or for a well received fan comic. Ultimately it measures the impact that the Senshi has on the fandom.
● You know the truth about the fandom, and have probably made a few Pacts with the Seelie. You may purchase the Pactio Endowment.
●●● You’ve seen terrible nightmares and may never sleep again, but you’ve also caused a fair share of nightmares among those who threaten the innocent. You gain the Unseen Sense merit for Faeries. Like the God-Machine specific version, it allows you to see through the Mask. If you already have it, an existing Ally is upgraded to a True Friend.
●●●●● Creatures of Darkness tremble when they hear your name, and hope is brought to the hopeless. You likely have fandoms within the fandom dedicated to you. You gain three dots to distribute among Mixed Blessings merits, as per the Dread Power (the Willpower must be paid over three turns before the power is rolled), and may purchase the Dread Power as a Merit. You’re the one giving out bargains now.
Network Zero: There was this guy who seemed like your typical con creeper. I thought he was trying to get upskirts or something and when I went to give him a piece of my mind he showed me the video he recorded. You’d think I’d have realized by now looks can be deceiving. Still not gonna let him put video of me on his little conspiracy theory Youtube page.
The Long Night: I don’t know what would upset these guys more: seeing me kiss my girlfriend or knowing I work with faeries. Uh… other kind of faeries. I always expect them to be picketing something, or complaining about gay marriage.
Taskforce VALKYRIE: Like my dad, in all the worst ways. Gruff, demanding, never answers questions, and expects to be obeyed completely. These guys have great toys, but don’t let them push you around.
Lucifuge: I know how tempting a brooding boyfriend is, and it’s freakin’ awesome watching a guy in a leather jacket burn a demon to cinders, but there’s always too much baggage. Don’t even think about getting serious, keep it to the Vigil and try to find someone in a mask and formal wear.
Ascending Ones: I’ll admit I’ve made some bad decisions. I turned to this guy I met on a Hunt, and he hooked me up with some really good stuff. It wasn’t worth it. I understand what it takes to hold the Vigil, but we sell comics and they sell drugs. I’ll take capitalism any day.
By making deals and bargains with the more benign creatures of the Dark Forest, Guardians are able to call upon a measure of supernatural power to defeat their foes. Every time a member of the Faerie Knights gains a new dot of Pactio, she chooses one of the following powers. Each power can be exchanged for another provided the Senshi performs an oblation for one of the Seelie and is granted a new one (these are rarely very difficult, but can often be uncomfortable, time consuming, or both; for Storytellers who care more about how long it takes than playing it out, assume an extended action requiring successes equal to 10 minus Pactio, with each roll being a day).
Any physical component of a Pactio bargain is summoned into reality from dream-stuff with a point of Willpower. This summons together all of the dream-woven regalia that a Senshi might have, though some abilities can be held back. If they are, they’ll need to be summoned on their own with another point of Willpower.
Each Pactio bargain also comes with a minor Ban (as a Rank 1 ephemeral being, God-Machine Chronicle pg. 221), representing the chiminage paid and favours performed in return for being able to use the Pactio, and through performing the Ban, or avoiding it’s restrictions, the magical girls provide their benefactors with tithes of supernatural energy. Once the power is given, the Seelie who bestowed it upon the Faerie Knight isn’t able to unbestow it, but failing to uphold the agreement results in a fixation that subtracts one die from all rolls and otherwise functions as the Deprived Condition (God-Machine Chronicle pg. 181). As the Guardians gain more Pactio, they risk becoming drawn into the same stories that govern the fae.
Storytellers should decide the Ban that needs to be heeded when the Pactio bargain is struck, and each power has a list of suggestions, though they aren’t comprehensive.
Action: Reflexive, as regalia
No magical girl is complete without a magical weapon, and with this Pactio, you gain the use of an ostentatious weapon. It has the weapon profile of an existing melee weapon (chosen when the power is taken), but even the most reserved Senshi will always have a Costume Weapon that looks like exactly that: an over-dramatized weapon like something out of a comic book. Big Sisters are known to have Costume weapons that look like they’ve been peacebonded, perfect for the convention floor.
The weapon has one less initiative penalty compared to it’s mundane equivalent, has a Strength requirement of 1, and can be summoned from thin air as regalia. If desired, you can do bashing damage instead of lethal, but it’s considered a magical weapon when dealing with anything with supernatural resistances. If the you ever get disarmed, the weapon returns to your hand as a Reflexive action at the top of the initiative. Costume Weapon lasts for one scene.
Suggested Bans: Must declare a challenge verbally, must practice an hour each day, must use the weapon in combat once a week.
Action: Reflexive, as regalia
While up close and personal is the favoured style of many Senshi, it never hurts to have a ranged weapon. Much like Costume Weapon, this Pactio allows you to summon a fanciful weapon for a scene by spending a point of Willpower. The Starlight Shooter can take any form, but uses Dexterity + Firearms. It has a short range of Presence + Resolve + Pactio in yards, a damage rating of 2, and a clip size equal to your Resolve + Composure + Pactio, which can be refilled with another point of Willpower. As long as you have three dots of Pactio, you can full autofire.
The Starlight Shooter can be anything, from a crystal scepter or cartoon musket to a winged bow with energy arrows that form when the bowstring is drawn. If you have Starlight Shooter and Costume Weapon, they can both be the same object (a sword swing sends out blasts of energy, a bow has spikes or blades, magical staffs are just as good for hitting as shooting lightning bolts).
Suggested Bans: As with Costume Weapon.
Action: Reflexive, as regalia
Magical girling is tough work, and evil isn’t going to pull it’s punches, even against a teenage girl. It takes thick skin to keep going. Literally. With this regalia Pactio bargain, energy crystalizes around a Senshi and forms into a lightweight but protective piece of armour. It gives a general armour rating equal to dots in Pactio, and half that in ballistic armour, despite having the appearance of a stylized uniform of some sort—seifuku is common, but candy striper uniforms and cheerleader outfits are possible; any costume that might be associated with young women—it protects even uncovered limbs, midriffs, or faces.
Suggested Bans: Handwashing clothing, sunbathing or sleeping naked, wearing the same outfit twice in a row.
Action: Instant
Dice Pool: Presence + Expression
There are a lot of beasties and monsters that lie as easily as they breathe, and wear false faces. With this power, you can see through that, whether it’s the Mask that fae wear or the way that some vampires make themselves seem invisible. As an instant action you raise your hand, a symbol of your faith, or light simply emanates from your heart. A number of yards equal to your Integrity are illuminated as if lit by a flickering candle.
In addition to lighting things up, it becomes harder for anything to be obfuscated, whether it’s the truth or an enemy. Anyone who would speak falsely is unable to do so without spending a point of Willpower, and any rolls for subterfuge or trickery are at -2. Mundane means of stealth are instantly revealed, and anyone using supernatural methods must roll Composure + Potency to stay hidden.
Hidden nooks and crannies are also faintly illuminated, granting +3 to any attempts to uncover them, but using this power requires concentration, and means giving up your Defense.
Suggested Bans: Hide something in plain site and keep it hidden, use mundane means to find something in the Dark Forest, choose one object and keep it unhidden.
Sometimes an enemy won’t stay down. This power fixes that. When you first bargain for this Pactio, choose a Personal Tilt other than Beaten Down or a Grave Tilt. Whenever you make a successful melee attack, you may spend a point of Willpower to treat your damage rating as 0 and apply that tilt. The use of the power is always obvious.
Suggested Bans: an hour of physical training each day, outdoor meditation, calling your attack
Unlike other Pactio bargains, a Mascot (sometimes called a Shikigami or for the stuffy and serious a Familiar) isn’t just a Seelie bestowing the Senshi with a vestige of power in exchange for fulfilling a contract. The Mascot is the Seelie, and the contract tends to be caring for it. Mascots are small creatures from the Dark Forest, never bigger than a dog and often taking forms like cat-rabbit hybrids or monkeys with strange fur. They have a Mask, but it’s weak, and anyone making sustained contact with them can roll Wits + Composure - 2 to notice something “off” about them (or Wits + Occult, if they have a relevant specialty, to notice telltale signs of fae creatures).
Attributes: 5/4/3 (divided among Mental, Physical, and Social)
Skills: 9/6/3 (divided among Mental, Physical, and Social); the Mascot receives a free dot in Brawl, Larceny, or Stealth
Willpower: Equal to Resolve + Composure
Glamour: 10 (10 max)
Initiative: Equal to Dexterity + Composure
Defense: Equal to lower of Dexterity or Wits, plus Athletics
Speed: Strength + Dexterity + “species factor” (based on animal type).
Virtue and Vice: Any, though they often share their Senshi’s Virtue and Vice.
Integrity: A Mascot has no Integrity rating.
Size: 5 or less (based on it’s animal type)
Health: Equal to Stamina + Size
Dread Powers: One dot each of Absorb Energy, Dark Gate, Dream Seeing, and Revelation as described on Mortal Remains pp. 46-47; Mascots don’t inherently have Mixed Blessings. In addition, choose three dots of Dread Powers.
Bane: All creatures of the Dark Forest have a Bane of Cold Iron
Innocuous: Mascots are very good at not being noticed by others. Anyone but it’s bonded master suffers a -2 penalty on perception rolls to notice the Mascot, unless it does something to draw attention to itself.
Conditions: The Senshi is considered to have the Bonded Condition with her familiar, and she is considered tagged with the Fettered Condition, preventing Glamour Bleed outside of the Dark Forest. Whenever a Mascot would resolve a Condition placed on it, instead of taking a Beat it gains a point of Glamour.
Mascots function in most ways similar to a Lucifuge’s Embodied Familiar Castigation. It uses Glamour instead of Essence or Willpower (regained through it’s Absorb Energy Dread Power), is emotionally linked to it’s master, and doesn’t need to have commands spoken. You may learn Merits such as the Falconry or K-9 Fighting Styles, but lose them if your Mascot dies or you switch it out; the dots still fall under Sanctity of Merits.
Suggested Bans: Taking care of a non-magical creature is a task of it’s own to begin with.
Action: Reflexive
The Big Sister is a common stock character in many stories. Faeries too are known for being implacable. It’s befitting then that with the power of justice—or at least gifts granted by the Seelie—you’re able to channel that older sister allure. You always draw eyes towards you when you want to be seen. You suffer no social penalties and double any Striking Looks bonuses.
By spending a point of Willpower you may treat yourself as having a Good Impression towards someone for the purposes of Social Maneuvering, and characters who choose to Go With The Flow take an additional Beat. In combat if you haven’t acted with hostility or drawn a weapon, anyone who wants to engage you violently must first spend a point of Willpower and roll Resolve + Composure.
Suggested Bans: Always listen to your cell’s problems, care for a child or animal.
Action: Instant or Extended, each roll is one turn
Something of a last resort power, this ability allows one of the Senshi to heal the most grievous of injuries, provided you get to them in time. By spending a point of Willpower and rolling Presence + Resolve you can heal others injuries. Each success heals one point of lethal or bashing damage that was incurred during the scene. This use of the power can’t be used to heal Aggravated damage, but can downgrade it, though wounds that were originally Aggravated can’t be healed any further.
If an ally completely falls in battle, it isn’t the end for them. Provided you manage to reach them in a number of turns equal to their Willpower, you can return them to life, at a cost. Spend a dot of Integrity as well as a point of Willpower and make an Extended Integrity + Pactio roll, with a target number of 15 minus the subject’s Integrity.
Roll Results
Dramatic Failure: You fail, but subtract one from the maximum number of rolls you can make. If you do manage to succeed, your ally gains a Persistent Condition, such as Broken, Fugue, or Madness. If you fail, you gain the Guilty Condition. Either way the psychic backlash causes you a point of aggravated damage.
Failure: You don’t make headway, and may take a minor Condition or give up.
Success: You make headway, and the body stirs, letting out a ragged gasp or twitching as the soul struggles not to release itself. Once the target number is met, the previously dead ally violently wakes up, convulsing and shivering and usually crying. Both girls are treated as if they got a Dramatic Failure on a Breaking Point roll, but the subject’s aggravated damage is made lethal, and her rightmost health box is cleared.
Exceptional Success: As above, but you manage to heal damage equal to your Presence and both of you are treated as if you only had a normal failure on a Breaking Point roll.
Suggested Bans: Must kiss those you heal, can’t refuse a sincere gift
Action: Instant
Sometimes people love you all on their own. Sometimes they need a little help. With a subtle display of confidence and a contested roll of Presence + Expression + Striking Looks versus Composure + Potency you give someone you make eye contact with a suitable Condition, chosen when the power is taken.
Roll Results
Dramatic Failure: You gain the Condition towards the target instead, or the target gains the Informed Condition towards you.
Failure: Nothing happens. You can use the power on the same target again after 24 hours.
Success: You can impart the chosen condition on the target. Conditions like Swooning, Inspired, or Leveraged give this bargain it’s name, but Conditions like Shaken and Spooked are also acceptable.
Exceptional Success: You can give the target the Addicted or Obsessed Condition focused on yourself. They can’t help but want to jockey for your attention and affection.
Suggested Bans: ten minutes spent in front of a mirror admiring yourself each night, must kiss the target, cannot turn down flattery
Action: Passive
Fighting monsters and evil faeries isn’t easy. They have ways of causing searing pain, like the Agonize Dread Power (Hunter: the Vigil pg. 276-277) or blows that target limbs to cripple. With this Pactio, you’re completely able to ignore Tilts and combat penalties that are inflicted on you during battle with the forces of darkness up to your Pactio dots. Any Persistent Conditions that might result from them the attacks take effect after the end of combat as normal.
Example: Akemi has Pactio ●●●. During a fight with a powerful yokai, she has her arm and leg hit with powerful blows, leaving her with the Arm and Leg Wrack Tilts. On top of that, the nightmare’s claws Sickened her and through supernatural means it forced her to accept the Beaten Down Tilt. She still notes that she has the Arm and Leg Wrack Tilts, as well as Sickness, but doesn’t suffer any ill effects from them (at least so long as she continues to fight). Because of the Beaten Down Tilt, which puts her over three ignored Tilts, she’ll still have to spend a point of Willpower to keep on fighting, but it’s a small price to pay to keep her friends safe.
When she finally defeats the monster that’s been plaguing her neighborhood’s dreams, she collapses in pain and vomits all over herself before struggling to get back to her Safe Space, where she can rest. During the battle she was able to ignore her Wound Penalties, but now that the danger is over, her injuries are hampering her.
In addition, you don’t take any physical indications of damage, and your Regalia remains untorn. After all, Pain Isn’t Pretty, but magical girls are.
Suggested Bans: Subject yourself to injury or conditions that would cause a Tilt outside combat (a thumbtack in the thigh, cold or inclement weather), keep a candle lit, go without sleep for 24 hours a week.
Action: Passive
All that it takes for evil to succeed is for good girls to do nothing. The senshi know this, and know that the hope that what they’re doing is right is a powerful force. Called Hope’s Curse by more jaded Guardians, this ability allows you to shrug off debilitating injuries and continue fighting so long as you continue to hold out hope for a better world. All healing times are cut in half: Bashing heals in fifteen minutes, lethal in a day, and aggravated in only three days.
Any Conditions resulting from crippling injuries that are otherwise mundane (not the result of a direct magical curse, like a sorcerer blinding you) are resolved after a week. So long as you survive a fight, you can—and likely will—continue fighting until you finally can fight no more.
Suggested Bans: three hours or intense physical training, prayer, or volunteer work a week.
Action: Passive
In both Japanese and western cartoons, characters will often pull objects out of nowhere, seemingly from behind their backs (or out of their asses). With this Pactio bargain—called the Handy Haversack in one Starlight Projekt doujin game—you have that ability as well. When you take this power, you gain the ability to store objects in a pocket dimension. The dimension has a total space of twice your Pactio + Resolve.
No single object stored in Hammer Space can have Size larger than the lesser of Resolve or Pactio, and you’re considered to have the Quick Draw merit for any objects within your Hammer Space. If another character with Pactio dots (not necessarily the Hammer Space bargain) is close enough to reach into your clothing and knows you well enough, they can even share your Hammer Space, removing objects but not being able to store them (for mechanical purposes, assume two characters that know the same version of a Tactic are able to use Hammer Space together, even if taking from the Hammer Space of an unconscious character). The total weight of Hammer Space is never more than one pound, and you must be wearing at least some type of clothing or in reach of an enclosed space to benefit. You can’t actually pull things from your ass, even if it might seem that way.
Example: Realizing that her powers aren’t strong enough on their own, Akemi decides to store heavier armaments inside of her Hammer Space. After tracking down and assaulting a man who sold illegal weapons from the trunk of his car, Akemi takes his guns for herself. With her Pactio ●●● and Resolve ●●●● she has a total Hammer Space of 14, she takes two assault rifles (Size 3), a riot shield (Size 3), a gas mask (Size 2) and three heavy pistols (Size 1). She couldn’t, however, store a grenade machine gun in her Hammer Space because it’s Size (4) is larger than her Pactio dots (If her Pactio was ●●●● and her Resolve ●●●, she couldn’t, but if both were ●●●● she could).
Later, when fighting a strange robotic angel, she’s knocked unconscious. Knowing about her Hammer Space, Takamichi, one of Akemi’s cellmates who knew about her hidden armoury, reaches into Akemi’s shirt and pulls out an assault rifle to finish off the monster and get her friend to safety.
Suggested Bans: Only storing a specific type of item (weapons, first aid supplies, clothing), carrying a specific item on you at all times outside of your Hammer Space, wearing a specific article of clothing.
