Page 216 - Chronicles of Darkness

The Mirror Vulture’s traits can be found on p. 260.

Magical Realism Methods
The intended feel of Wake the Dead is a genre Occult: How many different cultures talk about the dead
called magical realism, a style of fiction in which returning to life? Actually, almost all of them. How many of
the fantastic or magical is presented in a straight- those cultural tales have useful information on how to put
forward manner, alongside more realistic or mun- the dead back down? That might take some research. Start
dane events. Much of Tom Robbins’ work (Skinny with Intelligence + Occult; it’s probably an extended action.
Legs and All, Another Roadside Attraction), Van Science: This feather bears all the marks of use — it’s got
Gogh’s Bad Café (Frederic Tuten) and The Time- dust particles between the barbs, individual barbules, and it
Traveler’s Wife (Audrey Niffenegger) are literary clearly fell from a wing. So how in the world can it be made of
examples. Cinematic examples include Midnight
in Paris (2011, dir. Woody Allen) and Like Water mirrored glass? Roll Intelligence + Science to run some analyses.
for Chocolate (1992, dir. Alfonso Arau). Stealth: When you met dead-Nancy at the bar, she’d been
back six months and dead three years before that. She’s pretty
The genre isn’t widely associated with horror, sure if you want to see the “things” that brought her back,
largely because of the disconnect between what you’re going to have to hide out at the cemetery at night.
the protagonists in horror movies believe is real Come nightfall, you realize you aren’t alone. Roll Composure
and what the antagonist of a horror movie reveals
to be real (that is, one of the big scares in vampire + Stealth to stay still enough to go unnoticed while you wait
movies is often the revelation that vampires exist for the other lurking figures to reveal themselves.
at all). Several of the films based on Stephen Survival: The miles between towns seem to stretch on
King’s work (including It; 1990), The Serpent and forever, and it may be time to admit everyone is too tired
the Rainbow (1987, dir. Wes Craven), The Craft to keep traveling. The temperature has dropped; roll Wits +
(1996, dir. Andrew Fleming) and Practical Magic Survival to set up a warm, safe camp for the night and hope
(1998, dir. Griffin Dunne) include elements of you can ignore the sound of beating wings.
magical realism. For purposes of this Tale, howev- Persuasion: Turns out the local sheriff isn’t too keen on
er, the best cinematic source of inspiration is prob- people poking around his town, especially since he’s got more
ably Cemetery Man (1994, dir. Michele Soavi), in than a few things to hide now that the dead may be talking.
which Rupert Everett plays a gravedigger who has He’s got the shotgun and the power to make bodies disappear
to cope with the dead rising from their graves.
(assuming the damn things stay dead). Roll Manipulation +
The walking dead in Wake the Dead might behave Persuasion to convince him you’re on his side in all this.
like the flesh-eating zombies we’re so familiar with, Socialize: The party started out as a wake, but then the de-
but they might just as well try to pick up their lives ceased stood up and quaffed a beer, and now it’s gone all weird.
where they left off. That the world doesn’t come to Roll Presence + Socialize to get everybody celebrating again.
a screeching halt as word of this instance spreads is Medium (p. 57): The disembodied dead stand as silent
where the magical realism comes in. If that’s not a
paint you want in the box, then keep the focus of this witnesses to the horrific mutilation of the natural order. They
story local and assume that even if people do spread are mostly impotent in their rage, except that you can hear
the word, no one outside the community believes it. them. You can hear just how very angry they are.
Indomitable (p.45): When you find Lucien McJack, he’ll
probably be angry, since you killed him. Being strong of mind
will help you resist his fear-enhancing powers.
Linchpins Escalation

Anyone brought back from the dead bears the mark of
the God-Machine or its servants. Burn scars, which look like The end of this story might see the characters leaving the
a giant raptor put its talons into the victim, and the smell region with a feeling of “what the hell just happened?” and
of rust that won’t quite go away are common to many of the heading into an area where things are a little more…normal.
returned dead (though not all). While “normal” isn’t a term that applies to events in any
Early on, the characters hear tell of uncommonly-big car- God-Machine chronicle, it might underline the mood of this
rion birds near affected locations. Someone else describes metal Tale to step things back a bit, perhaps using a more accessible
angels with lists of names for judgment sparkling across the Tale like The Key (p.208) or The Hatching (p. 226). Note
mirrored surface of their wings. Witnesses don’t realize they’re that “accessible” is a highly relative term.
talking about the same being, but the angel in question — called On the other hand, maybe Wake the Dead forms a transi-
the Mirror Vulture — isn’t here to feast on the dead. It’s only tion into some truly strange Tales. From here, your characters
here to check each of the returned dead and see if the one the might wish to enter other dimensions (Missing Persons, p.
God-Machine wants has returned. Its mission says nothing 210) or encounter celestial beings (This is Hell, p. 231).
about putting the dead back down again, so it doesn’t bother.

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