Page 152 - Chronicles of Darkness

building can become aware and malevolent through some
unknown process. Different occultists have different theories,
but the manifestations seem to have enough commonality “Just Move Out!”
to suggest that they’re all linked. Typically, the first time
anyone in the neighborhood notices the House That Hates It’s a common refrain leveled at haunted-house
is when a For Sale sign appears in the yard. The House always stories: why don’t the characters simply leave the
sells for way less than market value, which seems to attract place where the haunting is happening and never
prospective buyers despite the state of the structure and the look back? Particularly with genre-savvy players,
creepy vibe it gives off. (The rising trend of “house flippers” the first unexplained footsteps or slammed door
who buy cheap, dilapidated houses in order to renovate and may have them reaching for the kerosene and
matches.
resell at a significant profit has been a great boon to the
House That Hates.) If you’re kicking off a chronicle with a location-
Once a new tenant has moved in, the House begins its based story like the House That Hates, you can
slow torments. It works subtly at first, with minor manifesta- bake a solution into the premise of the chronicle:
tions that startle, unsettle, and stress, but it gradually ramps maybe all the players have to create members
up to violent assaults, terrifying visions, and grisly phenomena of an extended family with the restriction that no
one can have more than two dots in Resources
like bleeding walls and manifest “spirits” of its previously — when the alternative is living on the streets, it
tortured victims. Once all of its inhabitants are dead or becomes harder to justify abandoning a house at
insane, the House folds in on itself and vanishes — or else it the first sign of strangeness.
simply goes dormant, waiting for a new buyer or perhaps an
inheritor to show up. If that solution is untenable and players insist on
Description: The House typically appears as a dilapidated, playing “genre aware,” that can be fine, too.
but otherwise unremarkable, house in whatever architectural Destruction of property is a crime, and even if you
own the House you can bet that police will look
style is predominate in the area. It might be one or two into any suspicious fires or unplanned demolition.
stories, but it usually appears big enough for a family of five Arson investigation techniques are very sophisti-
to live in comfortably. Though the house itself is never in cated these days, and good luck convincing the
anything other than a state of disrepair, it manifests at least insurance adjustors that you burned your house
one feature tailored to the tastes of its focal victim (see below). down to destroy the spirits within rather than col-
For example, if the House fixates on a chef, it might boast a lect a payout. You can spin an entire chronicle out
spacious and surprisingly modern kitchen, while if it chooses of dealing with the fallout of destroying a mani-
a kid that loves to explore it might boast secret tunnels, hid- festation of the House, and that’s before taking into
den rooms, and a cavernous basement. account the fact that the House itself might come
The House’s interior floorplan is infinitely configurable looking for revenge.
and is not limited to its apparent exterior dimensions.
Sometimes the House manifests stairs to a second story,
despite seeming to be a single-level ranch home, or buds hunters, most of whom are woefully unprepared to deal with
off rooms where no rooms were before. Part of the House’s a malevolent building. In some cases, the House has actually
magic keeps its inhabitants from thinking of this as strange, chosen one such investigator as its focal victim. This usually
at least until the House has progressed to full-on supernatural involves the House tailoring its “haunting” manifestations
manifestations. to attract the ghost hunter.
Storytelling Hints: Each time the House That Hates Destroying a particular manifestation of the House
welcomes new inhabitants, it chooses one (very rarely two, That Hates isn’t difficult; it is, after all, just a house. Fire, a
and only if they share a strong bond) as its “focal victim.” backhoe, in extreme cases sledgehammers and crowbars are
This person is the target of most of the House’s torments, enough to dismantle the building’s shell, but all that does
with the specific goal of driving him or her mad with terror. is force the House to manifest somewhere else. The House
The House is quite content to kill — usually in a spectacular, has been known to take revenge on those who destroy its
bloody fashion — but always in service of inflicting breaking manifestations, choosing loved ones as new focal victims.
points on the focal victim. The House seems to feed on the The only way to actually destroy the House is for the focal
psychological trauma, and its entire activity cycle is devoted victim themselves to find the “core” of the House and destroy
to reducing the focal victim to 0 Integrity. Focal victims who it. The nature of the House’s core is dependent on the fo-
lose their last Integrity dot to the House That Hates are cal victim and the specific manifestation of the House, but
consumed, never to be seen again, at which point the House it always involves dredging up the victim’s deepest traumas
chooses a new focal victim. and personal failings.
Because it’s so easily mistaken for a haunting, The House
That Hates tends to attract paranormal researchers and ghost

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Horrors