ZEITGEIST [Spoilers] On the Matter of Rings

arkwright · Jul 4, 2018

Heading into Book 4, one of my players has reached new heights of enterprise, requiring me to ask for clarification on a few ambiguities with regard to the Ob's rings and their ring-code. They're thinking of forging their own rings.

1. How do Obscurati members use the rings to recognize their fellow agents?
There are a few points in the book where characters are supposed to spot fellow agents by their rings. The trouble with that is that the only distinguishing feature, the inscription, is on the inside of the ring. While maybe they often take it off, is there something else one can use to identify an Ob ring? Some Detect Magic variation?

2. What happens if a Spirit Medium uses the Psychic History power on a ring?
Between books, my player is taking advantage of the time by spamming object reading on any and everything, including all the rings. Should the rings give up anything interesting, or would their anti-divination block anything critical?

Andrew Moreton · Jul 4, 2018

1) I can't remember any special power so I presume the agents have a rough description of the other agents and then check the ring for conformation. I presume that there is no general ability for Ob agents to recognise other agents but allowing wearing the rings to let you recognise junior members of the same cell would not be a bad thing but anything allowing recognition across cell boundaries would break the Ob's rules of secrecy.

2) Like any other divination it is defeated and won't reveal any information on the Ob. If you players have missed any clues you want them to have then you could let them learn something which gives them the clue but certainly don't let them learn anything which will break the plot from spamming a divination spell reserve that for brilliant ideas at a minimum

arkwright · Jul 5, 2018

1) 'Rough description' would seem to break the whole cell compartmentalization thing, as you say.
2) Looking at the divination-blocking description, I'm not really sure that's accurate. The ring anti-divination means are all about blocking scrying of an officer's current name, state of mind, and so on. Whereas reading the history of a ring... surely that's quite different.

Andrew Moreton · Jul 5, 2018

Nope. As far as I am concerned if it blocks scrying in the present it continues to block scrying at the past or it is a large hole in their security , I consider the Ob to be very competent so their anti divination rituals block precognition, current scrying and retrocognition. However if letting your player learn lots from the rings will make your game better then let him otherwise assume the Ob know what they are doing.

The rough description is something given when teams of agents should be meeting up otherwise none of them would no anything about anyone they are not working with. However there is some evidence of overconfidence in the Ob as no one has penetrated them so far, Caius working with Macbennin is a clear breach with Collosus and Golden cell working together and in fact that is one of the big mistakes which allows the pc's to penetrate the organisation, likewise Caius meeting with members of the Lantern cell on the train is a security breach which comes back to haunt the Ob. IIRC Caius was considered for taking over the Golden cell so he is more trusted and informed than most members at his level of the organisation , certainly he seems to know more than the Steelshaper or Macbennin despite being at the same level of the organisation as them

RangerWickett · Jul 5, 2018

Nicodemus, Kasvarina, and a Jierre are at the top, and the ghost council next. Nic gets a guy named Adam on board with the conspiracy, to run operations for, I dunno, ensuring that Drakran metallurgists invent a way to mass produce adamantine, and then to get that technique stolen so Risur can use it. Adam is tier 3, and might wear a ring, but doesn't need to.

Adam hires Bob (tier 4), and gives Bob a ring.

Bob recruits Carl (tier 5), and gives Carl a ring. He tells Adam.

Later on, Carl has stolen the technique and technology, and he's bringing it to Flint. In a joint-nation operation, he gets picked up by the RHC, and Saxby finds out. She was told to keep an eye out for folks with rings, so she casually inspects his and sees the inscription.

She holds him on a technicality while running the inscription up the chain of command. She tells Macbannin that they picked up a guy with an adamantine ring that says Orthogonal Bound Metal. Macbannin tells Stanfield, who gets it to Nic, who then gets in touch with Adam and figures out that Carl is unimportant, but the stuff he stole is critical. They'd concoct a way to get it to the people who need to get it.