Places of Power

Agents of The Board advance independent of leveling (though they do that too, by recovering treasure or earning money as normal). But to improve their Service Weapon and preternatural powers, they must follow The Board’s prime directive and take control of Places of Power (or Power Sites). Most major complexes in the Underground have at least one and sometimes more Points of Power in them, for whatever reason, often tapped into by the inhabitants, knowingly or unknowingly, which is often one of the reasons a faction becomes a power player in the politics of the Occult Underground. Places of Power are usually connected to others via ley lines. 

Controlling a Place of Power grants agents involved a measure of, well, power, boosting the deadliness of their service weapon and the strength of their preternatural powers. Depending on the magnitude of the Place, a variable number of agents may bind themselves to it and each agent will gain some measure of power in the form of Rank unlocks and upgrades for their Service Weapon forms and special powers. 

As part of generating the map of the Undercity, the referee should put a Place of Power in each complex. To generate the Place’s magnitude, roll a 1d8. Results of 1 through 7 mean the Place is that magnitude. If you get an 8, reroll for that PoP’s magnitude, and then put another Place of Power in the complex as well, rolling for it too. Each 8 rolled means another Place of Power in the complex. The more and higher magnitude PoPs in a complex, the larger it will be and the more numerous and capable the inhabitants should be, particularly occultists, mystics, and magical beings with access to the Become the Sanctum spell or another way to bind themselves to wells of magic.

Place of Power Magnitude and Advancement Table

PoP Magnitude	Bound Preternatural Entities	Weapon / Power Ranks	Weapon / Power Upgrades	Spell Slot Levels	Mystic Auto Successes
1	3	1	2	5	1
2	5	1	3	7	3
3	7	2	4	11	5
4	11	2	5	13	7
5	13	3	6	17	9
6	17	3	7	19	11
7	19	4	8	23	13

Bound Preternatural Entities. This column shows the number of preternatural entities, including agents, occultists, mystics, and spooks, which can bind themselves to a Place of Power of a given magnitude. Spooks, monsters, and mystics can generally just bind themselves to the Place of Power with a ten minute ritual and a Translation test against each mental attribute. Any failures mean a failure to bind and one flesh damage per failure. An agent may use their Service Weapon in a ten minute process which binds them automatically. An occultist must know the Become the Sanctum spell and cast that to bind to the PoP. Most entities may only bind themselves to a single site at a time. Bees and Board agents are exceptions to this, as when they bind they are actually binding the site to The Buzzing and/or The Board, and then drawing more power from them. 

The Board considers a Place under their control if more agents than any other type of entity are bound to it. Agents who are also occultists (or, rarely, spooks) may bind both their agent powers and their other powers to the Place, but each counts as a separate entity. 

Weapon / Power Ranks and Upgrades. Agents that bind to a Place of Power gain the indicated number of rank ups and upgrades. They do not gain this until they actually control the Place; unlike for other occult entities, it is not sufficient to merely bind to it. 

Ranks can be applied to either the Service Weapon or a Power, either unlocking a new form or power, increasing a power's by one, or gaining another enhancement for the weapon, chosen from the available options at the Place of Power. The GM should place one option for available weapon forms and one for available powers to choose from at each power site equal to its magnitude. The GM is advised to vary options enough from site to site that the players cannot rank up any single power or form too fast.

Upgrades improve weapons, powers, or the agent in general, and can be distributed within the selection available at a Place of Power; only upgrades for available weapon forms and powers should be available at a power site. The GM can limit the upgrade types available, or not, as they see fit.  

A mystic, spook, or monster NPC bound to the Place may gain a number of extra Spook powers or Grit Dice equal to the Power Ranks column.

Spell Slot Levels. An occultist, spook, or monster NPC bound to the Place of Power may gain this many levels worth of extra spell slots per day for memorization purposes, distributed in any manner they choose, with the exception that they can’t create slots higher than their level would grant. If the spook or NPC do not already have spellcasting powers based on occultist spellcasting, they gain that feature, but only get spell slots from the Place of Power slots, and must assemble their own spellbook. 

For example, an occultist bound to a magnitude 1 PoP could memorize 5 extra first rank spells, 3 first rank and 1 second rank, a second and a third rank, and so on up to 1 fifth rank, assuming they already have at least one slot of the given rank.

A spook or monster may not gain spell slots and Spook powers from the same PoP. They must choose one or the other. 

Mystic Auto Successes. Any mystics or cultists bound to the PoP may automatically succeed on this many Charm rolls to cast spells per day. Gods very much want their mystics and cultists binding Places of Power.