Navigates the Spaces Between
Thresholds speak to you. Locked doors, sealed passages, the invisible seam between one place and another — you perceive these as clearly as others perceive walls. You can move through places others cannot reach, find routes that should not exist, and be present at crossroads where genuine choices are made.
Connection: Choose one of the following.
- Pick one other PC. You brought them through a threshold once and are responsible, in some sense, for whatever they encountered on the other side.
- Pick one other PC. They possess a key — literal or otherwise — that should, by rights, be yours. You have not pressed the matter yet.
- Pick one other PC. They always seem to be exactly where you are going, even when you did not tell them where that was.
- Pick one other PC. Their presence makes passages open more readily. When they accompany you, the first focus ability you use costs 2 fewer points.
Additional Equipment: A skeleton key that opens most ordinary locks without requiring a task roll.
GM Intrusion: A passage does not close properly behind you. Something was waiting on the other side. A door opens somewhere it should not. What you open, others can use.
Geas: Every passage opened is a debt. Thresholds used and left unsealed allow other things to use them — and you are responsible for what comes through. Unclosed passages accumulate. You have an inability on tasks involving concealing your presence from supernatural entities that track movement through liminal space.
Minor Effect Suggestion: You move through the threshold so cleanly that your passage leaves no trace — not even the door’s residual energy registers your crossing.
Major Effect Suggestion: You arrive not just through the threshold but ahead of it, gaining a free action before anyone else can react to your appearance.
Tier 1
Read the Threshold (1 Intellect point): You examine any passage, door, barrier, or boundary within immediate range and immediately know its level, whether it is locked or sealed, and whether anything waits on the other side. You can also sense hidden doors and passages within a room at short range — the GM tells you whether any exist, though not necessarily where. Action to examine a specific threshold; enabler for general sensing of hidden passages.
Trained Passage: You are trained in lockpicking, stealth while moving through enclosed or tight spaces, and any task involving the physical navigation of barriers or boundaries. Enabler.
No Trace: You leave no physical evidence of your passage through a space: no fingerprints, no disturbance to dust, no impression on soft surfaces. You are trained in tasks involving escaping restraints, and any attempt to track you through a space you have moved through is hindered. Enabler.
Tier 2
Find the Way (2 Intellect points): You locate the nearest usable passage, exit, or route through an area — even through spaces that appear to have none. In a building, this might mean finding a hidden door or a forgotten access. In a stranger space, it might mean finding the seam where this place touches another. The GM tells you the direction and approximate difficulty of using that passage. Action.
Tier 3
Ability Choice. Choose either Pass the Sealed or Carry Another as your tier 3 ability.
Pass the Sealed (2 Intellect points): You pass through a sealed or locked physical barrier — a bolted door, a bricked-up archway, a locked gate — by spending one full round in contact with it. You emerge cleanly on the other side. You cannot pass through energy barriers. Action.
Carry Another (3 Intellect points): When you move through a threshold, you may bring up to two willing creatures with you, provided they are within immediate range. Each additional creature beyond the first increases the difficulty of the passage task by one step. Enabler.
Tier 4
Remote Opening (4 Intellect points): You open, unlock, or unseal any door, gate, or passage within long range through will alone. The difficulty is based on the level of the lock or seal. You may also seal a passage you have previously opened with this ability, closing it behind you. Action.
Tier 5
The Crossroads (5 Intellect points): You create a temporary liminal space anchored to your current location, lasting up to one hour. Creatures inside cannot be detected or reached by anyone outside unless you allow it. The space fits a group of about six, is featureless and unsettling, and is functionally safe. While inside, you and all companions may make recovery rolls using one fewer action than normal. Action to create.
Tier 6
Ability Choice. Choose either The Way Between or Many Keys as your tier 6 ability.
The Way Between (6+ Intellect points): You instantly transport yourself to any threshold — door, gate, passage, or liminal space — that you have personally crossed before, regardless of distance. In addition to the normal options for using Effort, you may use Effort to bring others with you; each level of Effort affects one additional target you are touching. Action.
Many Keys: Every locked door, sealed barrier, and hidden passage in your vicinity functions as if it were two levels lower for the purposes of difficulty. Additionally, you may attempt to open conceptual thresholds — the barrier between life and death, the seal on a bound spirit, the locked door of a sealed bargain — with an Intellect task at the GM’s discretion. Enabler.