Page 174 - Chronicles of Darkness

people and materials into the proper configuration before Defense Infrastructure: Sometimes concealment just
wielding them like a precision tool. It appears not to respond isn’t enough. Supernatural beings and curious mortals spot
quickly to problems and setbacks. Its projects can be thwarted, the patterns of the God-Machine’s project and start poking
and on those occasions when one is, the God-Machine tends around looking for answers or, even worse, a way to thwart
to draw back from the experience to consider its next move. that part of the plan. That’s when the God-Machine has to
Rarely does the God-Machine try the thwarted gambit twice rely on more overt means of getting rid of these nuisances.
in the same place, and even then only after taking some time From mortal cultists and terrestrial supernatural creatures to
to analyze the data it collected during the failed attempt. spirits, monsters, and mechanical servants, the God-Machine
While the God-Machine’s scale and machine nature has armies of allies at its disposal to get rid of inquisitive
are its strengths, they also make it slow, and that slowness humans. It still tries to do so quietly, but when the God-
can be exploited by the mere mortals it thinks are so far Machine faces a real threat to its Infrastructure “quietly” is
beneath it. Of course, that may also be merely a comfortable more likely to involve a sniper on a roof or some nightmare
superstition. Just because the God-Machine seldom moves creature waiting in the backseat of the troublemaker’s car.
quickly doesn’t mean it can’t, and most of its servants lack Logistical Infrastructure: Most of the God-Machine’s proj-
the meticulous patience of the being they serve. A single ects involve moving people and materials into position — the
mad cultist’s knife brings just as sure a death as an elaborate creation of the occult matrix that produces the output that is
defensive subroutine does. the God-Machine’s objective for that project. This requires its
own Infrastructure. The gluttony spirit can only be drawn into
Infrastructure the world if offered the flesh of a hundred humans? The God-
Machine creates logistical Infrastructure to locate, collect, and
In human terms, infrastructure is a basic organizational
structure in a complex system that serves as a foundation transport all that meat. An ancient relic lost millennia ago is
needed to open a gateway to another world, with inhabitants
for the rest. You can’t have an electrically-lighted city of mil- who must be subjugated to mine an occult mineral, native only
lions without power plants and a means of transporting that to that planet? The God-Machine creates logistical Infrastructure
electricity to buildings. And you can’t have those unless you to locate the desired artifact and bring it to the right place.
have a source for the parts that are needed to construct an Elimination Infrastructure: Some types of Infrastructure
electrical grid. Every layer of complexity depends on a simpler are meant to be temporary, such as an occult matrix built
layer that makes it possible, which depends on another layer to take advantage of a particular conjunction of the planets
until we’re ultimately reliant on three things: knowledge, that won’t recur for a millennium. Less commonly, mortal
natural resources, and manpower. or supernatural investigators disrupt a project before all the
The God-Machine’s Infrastructure is just as critical to
its ability to bring its projects to fruition. Each piece of necessary Infrastructure is in place. The God-Machine em-
ploys scrubbing Infrastructure to eliminate all evidence that
Infrastructure serves a specific purpose and is in itself a part any other Infrastructure existed in a place. The method of
of a more complex piece of Infrastructure. The God-Machine elimination can be as crude as acts of arson or demolitions, or
employs several kinds of Infrastructure in its projects: as subtle as a loyal wizard or spirit that causes the entire town
Concealment Infrastructure: This is the God-Machine’s
first defense against interference with its plans. Despite its to forget about that night all the frogs in the lake gathered in
a circle at the center of town and croaked out an arcane song.
power, it prefers to be subtle and so employs a great deal of It can be widespread (burying an entire city beneath the ash
security through obscurity. Concealment Infrastructure is of a nearby volcano) or targeted (the mysterious death of a
intended to do just that — allow the God-Machine’s projects single mortal who saw too much).
to remain undetected. Command and Control Infrastructure: The God-Machine
Some of this is purely mundane. The God-Machine will
set up a front at the site of more important Infrastructure — is a machine, and any machine as complex as it is has parts
that are responsible for setting the overall strategy of the God-
such as a fake restaurant, nightclub, or shop. Mortal dupes Machine. The God-Machine needs some means of gathering
attend this front, never realizing that their actual job is to information and making decisions — the equivalent of a com-
keep up appearances so no one thinks to open a particular mand and control center or a central processing unit. So far no
closet or explore the basement. one has located any such command and control Infrastructure,
It can be supernatural, too. Why mortals can’t see the
God-Machine’s gears isn’t clear, but it likely has something to but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist. Considering the lengths
to which human militaries go to protect command and control
do with concealment Infrastructure. Some mortals can see the centers, it is likely that any comparable Infrastructure the God-
gears, though. A few are born with the talent, but most gain Machine has would be similarly well defended.
the ability after their first encounter with the God-Machine.
A mortal who sees a gear for whatever reason is forever able Occult Matrix and Output
to see the gears anywhere in the world. (In game terms, a
mortal with Merit Unseen Sense: God-Machine can see the The God-Machine doesn’t spend all this time creating
gears, and can see through concealment Infrastructure. See increasingly-complex layers of Infrastructure without reason.
p. 60 for more on this Merit.) The goal of Infrastructure is to bring the right materials to

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