Among the Freemasons, the supernatural is not hunted with prayer or blade, but dissected, measured, and repurposed. They craft devices that harness energies others would fear, building weapons, wards, and machines that bend occult laws into human service. A Mason’s lantern may reveal what lurks in shadow; a clockwork talisman may disrupt a spell; a vial of distilled essence may power a relic or poison a creature of the veil. Freemasons use rational, scientific methods to understand and manipulate supernatural energy. Yet every invention carries risk—misfires, corruption, and consequences no calculation can predict. To the Freemason, progress demands daring, and the line between salvation and catastrophe is drawn by the steadiness of their hand.
“No great work was ever raised without both the mind to shape it and the hands to build it.” Master Architect Oglethorpe on discussions of the City Plan
Design is the intellectual cornerstone of every Freemason undertaking. Whether architectural, alchemical, or mechanical, this phase determines feasibility, cost, and collaborative clarity.
Freemasons are architects of the arcane, blending ancient blueprints, sacred geometry, and modern science to create specialized devices that interact with the unseen forces of the city. Known as Masonic Constructs, these tools must always serve a practical function. Each invention is designed to interact with Telluric energy, the latent, living current that flows through Savannah’s leyline network.
Steps to design a construct:
Define a problem or need: what is the device’s purpose? Is it protective, investigative, offensive, or utilitarian?
Draft a ritualized blueprint, often inscribed with runes, alchemical glyphs, or geomantic formulas.
Present to their mentor for approval and comment.
Mentor’s Role: Ensure the problem/need fits within the tone and power scale of the story. Mentors should challenge the character to explain how the concept fits within telluric logic. Constructs can also be created specifically for Hunters for their tasks.
Construct Core Functional Categories:
All constructs created or conceived by the Freemasons fall into one of the categories below.
Simple task: Stabilization & Destabilization
Devices used to repair, soothe, or restore equilibrium to locations or individuals affected by supernatural forces or Telluric surges. These include mind or physical health, and energy harmonizers (places). Such constructs are vital to contain spiritual corruption, mend breaches between realms, or recalibrate a leyline flow that has been tampered with.
Novice level success: +1/-1 Mind OR Physical Health OR Affect/Inspect environment for 1 posts
Intermediate level success: +2/-2 Mind OR Physical Health OR Affect/Inspect environment for 2 posts
Expert level success: +3/-3 Mind OR Physical Health OR Affect/Inspect environment for 3 posts
Difficult Task: Enhancement & Deficiency
Devices created to protect humanity, safeguard the balance, or neutralize supernatural and Telluric threats. This includes weapons, personal wards/barriers (energy/physical), traps, or constructs to sense, track, or monitor.
Novice level success: +1/-1 to any ability
Intermediate level success: +2/-2 to any ability
Expert level success: +3/-3 to any ability
Challenging Task: Automaton creation
Complex mechanical constructs engineered to operate independently or under direct command, serving as guardians, investigators, or specialized tools against supernatural and Telluric threats or in helping the Mason with construct creations
Novice level success: mundane tasks and construction
Intermediate level success: surveillance or knowledge gathering
Expert level success: combat or defence
Creative Freedom Within Functional Bounds:
While the appearance, method, and philosophy behind each construct may vary, every device must fall within one of these THREE Core Functional Categories. This ensures that Freemason craft remains aligned with its foundational ethos: to serve humanity by mastering the hidden forces that shape Savannah.
While the purpose of the construct must fall into the categories above, the form of what is constructed is up to the player and intended to allow for a diversity of items to be created for roleplaying.
This phase involves the material assembly or ritual arrangement of the planned construct. It may be done by the designer or delegated to a team. Includes resource acquisition, time management, and hands-on fabrication. The Mason constructs the object in a workshop or sacred space.
Note: Failure in the roll can result in unexpected side effects that are decided by the players or by the Mentor.
Novice level success: The Construct has to be repaired after one use.
Intermediate level success: The Construct has to be repaired after two uses.
Expert level success: The Construct has to be repaired after three uses.
This skill allows the Masons to be able to use their constructs, repair constructs, or dismantle a construct.
NOTE: If the items were not created by you, before you can use them, you need to use the Decipher Skill.
Simple Task: Use
Novice level success: Use a construct that you created
Intermediate level success: Use a construct that somebody created for you
Expert level success: Use a construct/relic that was not created for/by you and you decipher its mechanism
Difficult Task: Repair
Novice level success: Repair a construct that you created
Intermediate level success: Repair a construct that somebody created for you
Expert level success: Repair a construct/relic that was not created for/by you and you decipher its mechanism.
Challenging task: Dismantle
Novice level success: Dismantle an construct that you created
Intermediate level success: Dismantle an construct that somebody created for you
Expert level success: Dismantle a construct/relic that was not created for/by you and you decipher its mechanism.
Decipher hidden patterns in objects or places, language. Information for this skill can be found around the sim in notecards, given by storytellers by request, or by other players.
Simple Task:
Decipher hidden language codes or patterns created by a novice person
Difficult Task:
Decipher hidden language codes or patterns created by an intermediate person
Challenging task: Dismantle
Decipher hidden language codes or patterns created by an expert person or otherworldly entity