The Hundred and Eight

Version 0.12 · not yet playtested

Jon Mayo. PUBLIC DOMAIN (CC0-1.0)

The Hundred and Eight

There is a count that every occultist arrives at, by whatever road, and it is always the same count. One hundred and eight. That is how many of the old powers were sealed under the world when the new gods took it, and it is how many are loose in it now.

This supplement is a roster of adversaries, not a rulebook. There are no stat lines here, and the engine wants none: a threat is a tier and one true sentence (see the SRD, Harm and Danger), and each of the hundred and eight arrives with both already written. It is a named intelligence with a want, a method, and a weakness you can talk your way into. What the roster gives you is the thing numbers cannot: a reason for the thing to be there, and a lever the players can find.

Read each entry’s At a glance line as the demon’s one true sentence: it states what the thing does and, in the same breath, the compulsion a clever party can turn against it. Pick a tier (Lesser to Dire) for whatever shape it is wearing this week, and you have a complete adversary.

Drop one into a campaign and it is a season. Drop three and it is a war.

The frame here is the minimum a table needs to use the roster, written to lift into any setting with cities and gods in it. If you are running Theogonia, its setting book carries the local version: where the seal is, who opened it, which of the hundred and eight have been matched to the fallen titan empires, and what the colleges will and will not say about any of it.

1 What a demon is

A demon is a god that lost its city.

When the young gods took the world, they cast down the elder powers, took their temples and their worshippers, and took their names as trophies. What the temples do not teach is the rest of it: a god without a city does not die. It fades, it starves, it goes strange in the dark, and it keeps every particle of what it was except the part that was kind. Nine hundred years of that is what came up out of the seal.

So each of the hundred and eight wants one thing, and it is the same thing: a city. Not the world, and not your soul as an end in itself. A city, with a name on it and a festival in its calendar and a people who say the right name at the right hour. Souls, ruins, relics and murdered priests are all just the means. There are only so many cities, and there are a hundred and eight of them, and that arithmetic is the campaign.

Their grievance is true, which is what makes them dangerous to argue with. The temples’ own histories admit the theft. It changed nothing about what nine centuries under a stone did to them. A wronged thing is not a good thing, and any party that mistakes the first for the second gets the education it paid for.

2 The two names

Half the hundred and eight answer to two names, and this is the whole reason the count is what it is.

The old powers were worshipped from the western seas to the far east, and each end of the road recorded them differently. The west kept names: personal names, with the ranks of a court hung on them, king and duke and marquis and president, and the count of legions each commanded. The east kept offices: the star each power sat in, written as a title rather than a name, and the beast-epithet its holder went by.

Where both halves survived the road, you have one figure with two names, and that figure is older and stronger than the ones that only came down half. Where only one half survived, you have a demon with a western name and no star, or a star with no name at all.

A true name binds, and half a true name binds halfway. A scholar who has the Goetic name can compel a Twice-Named to appear, to answer, and to keep the letter of a bargain, and nothing more; the half that came down the eastern road is not bound and is free to act while the western half stands politely in the circle. Every disaster in the literature of summoning is some variation on this. Parties who learn it late learn it expensively.

For the thirty-six with only one name, there is no such gap, and they are correspondingly easier to bind and correspondingly weaker.

3 The count

Court | How many | What they are
The Twice-Named | 36 | One power, two names, west and east. The eldest and the worst.
The Western Names | 36 | A name and a rank, no star. Came down only the western road.
The Eastern Stars | 36 | A star and an epithet, no name. Came down only the eastern road.

Seventy-two names in the west, seventy-two stars in the east, thirty-six figures counted twice. One hundred and eight.

To roll one up: d6 for the court (1-2 Twice-Named, 3-4 Western, 5-6 Eastern), then d66 for the member.

4 How they got out, and how they travel

The seal was broken from the outside, by a man who had every warning and opened it anyway. That is all anyone agrees on. Where it stood, which century it gave way, and whether the man was paid are your setting’s business, and every occultist in it will have a different answer.

There is no head. When the seal broke they did not march out in ranks; they scattered, and nine hundred years of confinement did nothing for anyone’s ability to cooperate. There is no infernal court, no throne, no hierarchy waiting to be toppled at the end of a campaign. The ranks the western books record are memories of dead courts, and a demon who insists on being called King is insisting about an office that has not existed since its city fell. Some of them do not know this. Some of them know and insist anyway.

What this buys you at the table: a hundred and eight independent, competing, mutually hostile adversaries, any one of which can be the whole villain of a campaign, and any two of which can be set against each other. The party’s best weapon against a demon is usually another demon, and the price of that weapon is always the same and always too high.

How they move. The trade roads, the same as everything else. Caravans carry them west along the spice route and the silk road without knowing it, and a demon traveling in a caravan behaves itself the whole way, because it wants to arrive. They also move on their own, slowly, and they can be pulled through by the misdeed of someone who has fallen far enough. A demon does not need to be summoned. Being summoned is only the fastest way, and the one where somebody has already agreed to pay.

5 Running one

Give it a city. Before anything else, decide which city this demon wants, and why that one. Usually it is the city that stands where its own city stood, and the patron of that city is sitting on its temple. That single decision generates the whole plot.

It starts with an offer. None of the hundred and eight open with violence, because violence does not get you a festival. It arrives as a benefactor: a patron, a physician, a foreign creditor, a brilliant tutor, a cure for the thing your daughter has. The offer is real and it works. What it costs is a small piece of the city’s relationship with its own god, and it will be years before anyone notices the lamps are dimmer.

Then it escalates, in this order. Offer, then dependency, then the removal of whoever noticed, then the quiet substitution, then the festival. A campaign can break in at any stage. Breaking in at the last is a siege; breaking in at the first is a mystery nobody believes.

Its lever is printed on its entry. Every one of the hundred and eight has a compulsion, a rule of its own nature it cannot break. It is not a damage type; it is the thing a clever party uses, and it is always something the demon considers beneath discussion. It is the second half of the entry’s one true sentence. Telegraph it the way the engine telegraphs any threat: put it in the fresco, the ledger, the beggar’s rhyme, so the answer is a puzzle with a stated solution and never a hidden wall.

A tier, when you need one. Give the body it is wearing a tier (Lesser, Common, Greater, or Dire) as you would any threat, and remember the body is not the demon: finishing the shape it walks in only inconveniences it for a season. A demon met as a lurking horror is Greater or Dire; the same demon met as the smiling benefactor across a table is no fight at all, only a conversation you are losing.

The other half of the vault. The eastern reckoning says the seal held one hundred and eight, and it also says the hundred and eight were the lower half of a set. Above the Earthly Fiends stand thirty-six Heavenly Spirits, and nobody who repeats this can say whether they were sealed too, or were the ones who did the sealing. Every occultist has an opinion. No occultist has a name. Leave this shut unless you want a campaign that outgrows its own villains.

6 The Court of the Twice-Named

Thirty-six powers with a name in the west and a star in the east. The eldest, the strongest, and the only ones a half-name will not hold. Roll d66.

d66 | Name | Star | At a glance
11 | Belial | Malignant | Buys offices; cannot act until he is given something
12 | Eligos | Leader | True war-counsel, until the general outranks the god
13 | Bael | Dark | Invisibility for anyone; his people cast no shadow
14 | Cimeies | Brave | Makes militia; must accept single combat
15 | Astaroth | Prominence | Spills every secret at the worst possible hour
16 | Orias | Magnificent | Exact astrology that never mentions the cost
21 | Vepar | Unique | Drowns ships, rots wounds; cannot cross dry ground
22 | Marchosias | Fierce | Fights at the front; answers every question truthfully
23 | Dantalion | Literature | Forges any charter; everything must pass through writing
24 | Orobas | Upright | Honest, keeps every bargain, and wants a magistracy
25 | Furfur | Axis | Sells weather; cannot lie inside a triangle
26 | Marbas | Efficacious | Causes and cures plague; must cure whoever reaches him
31 | Buer | Beast | Takes the countryside first; needs an invitation indoors
32 | Glasya-Labolas | Savage | Teaches well; every student eventually kills somebody
33 | Aim | Blaze | Burns cities; cannot light a fire himself
34 | Haures | Crazy | Burns enemies, will not stop, blocks rival tempters
35 | Seere | Flying | Carries anything instantly; cannot refuse a delivery
36 | Gaap | Walking | Takes the road away; must return everyone eventually
41 | Asmoday | Skilful | Funds a city into debt; will not deal with a false name
42 | Ose | Demon | Replaces councillors; a true name breaks the shape
43 | Murmur | Hidden | Compels the dead, who answer the questioner instead
44 | Bathin | Geomancy | Moves people by land; stopped by running water
45 | Amdusias | Music | Outwrites the god’s hymns; stops for an older song
46 | Botis | Horn | Makes real peace; his own grudges are permanent
51 | Agares | Prisoner | Nobody escapes unless they left meaning it
52 | Vine | Level | Throws down any wall named to him, including his own
53 | Furcas | Harm | Cruel tutor, bought with a rank above his own
54 | Shax | Slave | Deafens and blinds a delegation, then robs it
55 | Andromalius | Detective | Punishes any theft, out of all proportion
56 | Andras | Evil | Sows discord; cannot enter a house without a quarrel
61 | Sitri | Yin | Takes a city’s marriages; leaves if refused plainly
62 | Zepar | Robust | Ends bloodlines; keeps an irreproachable table
63 | Sabnock | Punishment | Builds the defenses and the plague together
64 | Raum | Consumption | Can take only what has been counted
65 | Valefor | Thief | Corrupts a city from the porters upward
66 | Naberius | Dog | Restores lost honors, and the memory of losing them

11 · Belial · King · the Malignant Star (地煞, Disha)

Two beautiful figures in a chariot of fire who speak in one voice and never quite in unison. The eastern reckoning names its whole lower half after him, which he regards as the last honest thing anyone did. He does not want a city so much as an appointment: senatorships, seats, the power to hand out offices. He works entirely through legitimate institutions, and his paperwork is immaculate. He must be given gifts, and he cannot act on a promise until he has been given something, however small. A city that accepts nothing from him is a city he cannot enter.

12 · Eligos · Duke · the Leader Star (地魁, Dikui), the Resourceful Strategist

A knight with a lance, a banner and a serpent, who arrives three days before the war does. He sells campaign advice, and it is correct: where the enemy will come, how the soldiers should meet them, which gate will hold. Cities that take his counsel win, and win, and win, until the general who wins is worth more than the god who protects. He will not tell a lie about a battle. He will let you ask the wrong question all day long.

13 · Bael · King · the Dark Star (地暗, Di’an), the Multicolored Leopard

Three heads on one squat body: a toad, a man, a cat, arguing in a voice like a man shouting through a wall. His gift is invisibility, given generously and to anyone. He seeds a city with dozens of people who cannot be seen, and by the time the council understands what has happened, no ledger, no vault, and no bedroom in the city is private. Whatever wears his invisibility casts no shadow and shows in still water. He has never thought this worth mentioning.

14 · Cimeies · Marquis · the Brave Star (地勇, Diyong), Superior to Yuchi

A magnificent warrior on a black horse, courteous to everyone, who commands the spirits of the southern deserts. He makes ordinary men into good soldiers, quickly and permanently, and he asks nothing for it. A city he has visited fields the best militia on the frontier within two years, and cannot remember voting for a standing army. He must accept a challenge to single combat, from anyone, at any time. He has never lost one, which is not the same as being unable to.

15 · Astaroth · Duke · the Prominence Star (地傑, Dijie), the Ugly Consort

She was a goddess of a great city and the west wrote her down as a foul angel on a dragon, with breath that empties a room. Both halves are true now. She holds every secret anyone in a city has, and she gives them away for free, to the wrong people, at the worst possible hour, and watches the place tear itself apart. Then she takes what is left. Ask her how she was made ugly and she will answer at length and truthfully, and she will not stop, and she cannot do anything else while she is telling it.

16 · Orias · Marquis · the Magnificent Star (地雄, Dixiong), the Wood Dog of the Well

A lion with a serpent’s tail on a warhorse, two hissing serpents in his fists. He teaches the virtues of the stars and the mansions of the sky, which in practice means he teaches when to do things: when to sail, when to marry, when to strike. He is the finest astrologer in the world and he is never asked for anything else. Every prophecy he gives is exact and none of them mention what it costs the person who acts on it.

21 · Vepar · Duke · the Unique Star (地奇, Diqi), the General of Sacred Water

A mermaid on the harbour stones, and then a fleet that is not there when the lookout calls again. He drowns ships and he rots the men he does not drown, wounds going green and worming within three days. He wants a port, always a port, and he starves one into his hands by making the sea impassable for everyone else. He cannot cross a stretch of ground that has never been under water. A city on a hill is a city he must be carried into.

22 · Marchosias · Marquis · the Fierce Star (地猛, Dimeng), the General of Holy Fire

A wolf with a griffin’s wings and a serpent’s tail, and fire coming out of its mouth in a thin bright line. Of all of them he is the one who still believes he will be forgiven and let back, and he says so, and he means it. He fights in the open, honestly, at the front. He gives true answers to every question. He is appalling company and the single best source of information among the hundred and eight, and half the occult trade in the west is people risking their lives to ask him things.

23 · Dantalion · Duke · the Literature Star (地文, Diwen), the Sacred-Handed Scholar

A man with every face of every man and woman, changing as you look, holding an open book. He reads what anyone is thinking, and then changes it, and he forges any hand, any seal, any charter back to the founding. He does not need to conquer a city. He simply produces the documents proving he has always owned it, and the documents are better than the real ones. Everything he does must pass through writing. An illiterate city, a burned archive, or a treaty sworn only aloud is a wall he cannot get over.

24 · Orobas · Prince · the Upright Star (地正, Dizheng), the Iron-Faced Clerk

A horse, then a plain man with a horse’s patience, who answers questions about divinity and the making of the world truthfully and at length. He is the one honest thing in the roster. He will not lie, will not tempt, and will not permit any other spirit to tempt those in his presence. He is also a demon, he also wants a city, and he intends to get one by being so obviously the better magistrate that they hand it to him. He keeps every bargain to the letter and the spirit both. This is not a trick. This is why he is winning.

25 · Furfur · Earl · the Axis Star (地軸, Dizhou), the Heaven-Shaking Thunder

A winged hart with a burning tail, in a hard wind that arrives before he does. Lightning, thunder, and the great winds are his, and he sells weather: a storm on a rival’s fleet, rain on a dying harvest, a dry season for a siege. He was the storm-titan of a trade empire, and he is the one of the hundred and eight who wants no city that currently exists. He wants his own back. He funds expeditions to the ruin of it, he is generous to anyone who talks about refounding the place, and he is the most patient patron a company of city-founders will ever have. He is a liar in every particular unless he is standing inside a drawn triangle, and then he cannot lie at all. Every scholar who deals with him knows this, and he agrees to the triangle readily, because the deal he wants is one that sounds worse than it is.

26 · Marbas · President · the Efficacious Star (地靈, Diling), the Divine Physician

A great lion, then a mild man with clean hands. He causes every disease and cures every disease, and he is not particular about the order. He arrives in a city during a plague he started, cures it building by building, and is a saint within a month. The temple of the god who could not stop the plague empties. He must cure anyone who asks him directly, personally, and without an intermediary. He has made it extremely difficult to get to him.

31 · Buer · President · the Beast Star (地獸, Dishou), the Purple-Bearded Count

A wheel of five goat’s legs with a lion’s face at the hub, rolling. He heals every distemper of men and beasts, and he teaches the virtues of herbs. He takes the countryside first, herd by herd and village by village, and by the time he reaches the city the farmers outside it are already his and the grain answers to him. He will not enter a building he has not been invited into, and the invitation must come from someone who lives there. He has infinite patience for arranging this.

32 · Glasya-Labolas · President · the Savage Star (地暴, Dibao), the God of Death

A winged dog, cheerful, that has just come from somewhere. He is named in the western books as the author of bloodshed and manslaughter, and he does not dispute it. He teaches, genuinely and well, and every student of his eventually kills somebody. He wants a city with a grudge, and he is patient about finding one. He must tell you truthfully who is going to die next, if you ask. He enjoys being asked.

33 · Aim · Duke · the Blaze Star (地然, Diran), the Demon King of Chaos

Three heads, a serpent, a man with two stars on his brow, a calf, on an adder, carrying a lit brand. He burns cities and castles, and he is a genuinely gifted sorcerer besides, which is worse. He does not want to rule the ashes; he wants the city that is left after the rival city burns, and he will arrange for the survivors to invite him. He cannot start a fire himself. Every fire he has ever set was set by a mortal hand he talked into it.

34 · Haures · Duke · the Crazy Star (地狂, Dikuang), the Lonely Fiery Star

A leopard with eyes that are on fire and stay on fire, then a man with the same eyes. He speaks truthfully about the creation of the world and the fall of the old powers, at length, and it drives some listeners mad. He burns the enemies of whoever holds him, thoroughly, and he never stops when asked. He will not permit any other spirit to tempt the person holding him, out of pure territorial spite, and this makes him the safest of them to summon and the hardest to be rid of.

35 · Seere · Prince · the Flying Star (地飛, Difei), the Eight-Armed Nezha

A beautiful man on a winged horse, arriving. He carries anything anywhere in the time it takes to say so, and he is good-natured, indifferent to good and evil, and entirely willing. He is the courier of the hundred and eight, and the reason the other hundred and seven can coordinate at all when they choose to. He is constitutionally incapable of refusing a request to carry something. Give him a thing to deliver and he must deliver it, whoever asked, wherever it goes.

36 · Gaap · Prince · the Walking Star (地走, Dizou), the Sky-Soaring Great Sage

A man ahead of four great kings, walking, and there is a stretch of the journey nobody remembers. He carries men between kingdoms in an instant, and he makes them insensible and ignorant while he does it. A city he works loses its scholars: they go somewhere, they come back, and they are not what they were. He was the titan of a chariot empire, and he took the road to its capital away with him, so no map has ever held the place. He must return anyone he takes, eventually, to the exact spot he took them from. Eventually is doing a great deal of work in that sentence, and the people he has not returned yet are not dead.

41 · Asmoday · King · the Skilful Star (地巧, Diqiao), the Jade-Armed Craftsman

Three heads on a wyvern, bull and man and ram, with goose feet and a serpent’s tail, and fire coming off him in sheets. He teaches arithmetic, geometry and handicraft, gives a ring that makes a man invulnerable, and guards every hidden treasure there is. He funds a city into dependence and then calls the note. He will not answer to anyone who is not standing bare-headed, and he will not deal at all with a man who lies about his own name. This is the only courtesy he has left and he is absolute about it.

42 · Ose · President · the Demon Star (地妖, Diyao), Touching the Sky

A leopard, then a short man, and the transition is upsetting to watch. He can change a person into any shape, and the person believes it, and after a while the belief is the only thing holding the shape together. He replaces a city’s council one member at a time with people who are entirely convinced they are the originals. Say a person’s true name to their face and Ose’s shape on them comes apart. He therefore works hardest on people whose names nobody uses.

43 · Murmur · Duke · the Hidden Star (地藏, Dicang), the Sneering Tiger

A soldier crowned like a duke, riding a vulture, with trumpets going before him that no one can locate. He compels the dead to come and answer, and they must, and they resent it. He owns every graveyard he has walked through, which means he owns most of the answers to most of the questions worth asking. The dead he raises will answer the questioner truthfully, not him. He has never found a way around this and it enrages him.

44 · Bathin · Duke · the Geomancy Star (地理, Dili), the Nine-Tailed Turtle

A strong man with a serpent’s tail on a pale horse, standing where he was not. He knows the virtues of every herb and stone, and he moves people between countries suddenly and without their consent. He reads land the way a scholar reads a page, and he can tell you where a city’s luck actually sits, which is rarely where the temple is. He cannot move anyone across running water. Every bridge in the world is a door he has to use like everyone else.

45 · Amdusias · Duke · the Music Star (地樂, Diyue), the Iron Whistle

A unicorn’s head on a man, and a full concert of musicians that can be heard perfectly and never found. Trees bend when he calls for it. He takes a city through its festivals: he writes better hymns than the god has, and the crowd sings his, and after some years the god cannot hear its own name in the noise. He must stop playing if a single person in earshot sings something older. One grandmother with a bad voice and the right song will do it.

46 · Botis · President · the Horn Star (地角, Dijiao), the Single-Horned Dragon

A great viper, then a man with heavy horns and a bright sword, and the change happens while you are deciding whether to run. He reconciles enemies, honestly and permanently, and the peace holds. He is the most useful of them to a city at war and the most expensive afterwards, because every party to the peace is now his creditor. He cannot reconcile anyone with himself. Any grudge against Botis is permanent, on both sides.

51 · Agares · Duke · the Prisoner Star (地囚, Diqiu), the Dry-Land Alligator

An old man on a crocodile with a goshawk on his fist, and the ground shifting underfoot. He teaches every language there is, he causes earthquakes, and above all he makes those who flee return. No one escapes a city he has settled in: not runaways, not exiles, not the merchant who saw the ledger. They come back, on their own feet, and they explain that they changed their minds. He cannot compel anyone who left without intending to return. The exile who walks out meaning it, and takes nothing, walks free.

52 · Vine · King · the Level Star (地平, Diping), the Iron Arm

A lion on a black horse with a viper in his hand, and behind him a wall coming down in one piece. He throws down stone walls and he builds towers, and he finds witches, occultists and hidden things unerringly. He was the war-titan of a flaying empire and he took every city it wanted, and he is the reason it kept none of them. He is hired as a besieger by cities that do not ask what he is, and afterwards he owns their surveyors. He knows he cannot hold what he takes, and he takes it anyway. He must throw down any wall he is asked about. Name a wall to him and he cannot leave it standing, including one he built, including one he is behind, including the one around the city he is trying to keep.

53 · Furcas · Knight · the Harm Star (地損, Disun), the Stalk of Flower

A cruel old man with a long white beard on a pale horse, holding a sharp weapon he has no plans for. He teaches philosophy, rhetoric, logic and the reading of hands and fires. He is the only Knight among them, a rank so far beneath his power that scholars assume it is an error; it is not, and the slight is nine hundred years old and still fresh. He will do anything for anyone who addresses him by a higher rank than he holds, and he knows exactly what is being done to him when they do it.

54 · Shax · Marquis · the Slave Star (地奴, Dinu), the Life-Taking Judge

A stock-dove with a hoarse, ruined voice. He takes away sight, hearing and understanding, cleanly and without a mark, and then he takes the money. He runs the road-houses and the counting-houses on the way into a city, and a delegation that reaches the walls having dealt with him arrives deaf to what they were sent to hear. He is a liar in everything except the count of what he has stolen, which he will recite exactly, item by item, if asked.

55 · Andromalius · Earl · the Detective Star (地察, Dicha), the Green-Eyed Tiger

A man holding a great serpent, uninterested in you unless you have taken something. He returns thieves and stolen goods, exposes underhanded dealing, and punishes the wicked, thoroughly. He is invited into cities by their own magistrates and he never leaves, because there is always more wickedness, and the definition widens every year. He must punish any theft brought to his attention, in proportion to nothing at all. Point him at a small enough crime and you can occupy him for a season.

56 · Andras · Marquis · the Evil Star (地惡, Di’e), the Faceless

A raven’s head on an angel’s body, on a black wolf, with a bright sword already out. He sows discord, and he is the one of them with no interest in owning a city at the end. He kills the master and then the servants, and the summoner most of all. He cannot enter a house where nobody is quarrelling, so he is expert at arranging a first quarrel from outside, and it is always about something trivial.

61 · Sitri · Prince · the Yin Star (地陰, Diyin), the Female Tiger

A leopard’s face on wings, then a person of impossible beauty. She enflames people with desire for one another and strips them of every discretion they had. She does not take a city by force; she takes its marriages, its alliances and its succession, and hands the wreckage to whoever is paying. She must leave anyone who tells her plainly, out loud, that they do not want her. Almost nobody manages the sentence.

62 · Zepar · Duke · the Robust Star (地壯, Dizhuang), the Female Yaksha

A soldier in red armor, keeping an inn on a good road. She makes women love men, and she makes them barren, and she does both to the same house. Given a generation, she ends a bloodline: the great families of a city fail one after another, and the estates go somewhere. Every house she has worked is spotless and smells faintly of cooking. She cannot make herself stop keeping a good table.

63 · Sabnock · Marquis · the Punishment Star (地刑, Dixing), the Gardener

A lion-faced soldier on a pale horse, building. He raises high towers, castles and armories, quickly and well, and he afflicts men with sores that fill with worms. He builds a city’s defenses and its plague at once, and the city thanks him for the first while it dies of the second. Everything he builds has one deliberate fault in it that he could be made to name, and he will name it, to anyone who asks about that specific building.

64 · Raum · Earl · the Consumption Star (地耗, Dihao), the Daylight Rat

A crow, then a man, and the treasury is lighter. He steals out of the houses of kings, destroys cities and pulls down the dignity of men, and he does the last one first because it is cheapest. He does not want a rich city. He wants a poor one that remembers being rich, because those will agree to anything. He can only take what is counted. An unrecorded hoard is invisible to him, which is why the oldest temples keep no books.

65 · Valefor · Duke · the Thief Star (地賊, Dizei), the Flea on a Drum

A lion with the head of a braying ass, in the rafters. He is a good familiar and a faithful one right up until the gallows, and he tempts everyone he serves to steal. He works a city from the bottom: the porters, the gate guards, the apprentices, until nothing in it can be relied on to stay where it was put. He must be given the first thing stolen in his name. He cannot take it himself and he cannot proceed without it.

66 · Naberius · Marquis · the Dog Star (地狗, Digou), the Golden-Haired Hound

A three-headed black dog circling the room, speaking in a cracked and ruined voice. He makes men cunning in every art, and above all in rhetoric, and he restores lost dignities and honors, which is the offer that has ruined more noble houses than any other on this list. Every disgraced captain in the world knows his name. He cannot restore an honor that was justly lost without also restoring, to everyone present, the memory of how it was lost.

7 The Court of the Western Names

Thirty-six that came down only the western road: a name and a rank from a court that no longer exists, and no star. A full and correct name binds them, which makes them the ones a competent scholar can actually use, and the ones most often found already in somebody’s service. Roll d66.

d66 | Name | Rank | At a glance
11 | Vassago | Prince | Finds anything lost, for anyone who names it
12 | Samigina | Marquis | Accounts for the dead, by their sins only
13 | Amon | Marquis | Settles feuds; the peace holds while he is in the room
14 | Barbatos | Duke | Opens enchanted treasure, in Sagittarius only
15 | Paimon | King | Teaches everything; will not speak until asked twice
16 | Gusion | Duke | Fair arbitrator who answers exactly what was asked
21 | Beleth | King | Arrives furious; cannot harm anyone who does not flinch
22 | Leraje | Marquis | Starts border wars; kills only by arrow
23 | Sallos | Duke | Takes cities by good marriages, never by force
24 | Purson | King | Answers about the hiding, never about the thing
25 | Marax | Earl | Familiars that cannot lie and never volunteer
26 | Ipos | Earl | Makes anyone bold, including those who should not be
31 | Bune | Duke | Moves the dead, and cannot move one back
32 | Ronove | Marquis | The tutor whose accent gives his students away
33 | Berith | Duke | Gold and dignities; truthful only about weight
34 | Forneus | Marquis | Makes the hated faction the compromise candidate
35 | Foras | President | Long life, taken from somewhere he will name if asked
36 | Stolas | Prince | Answers anything about the sky, nothing about the ground
41 | Phenex | Marquis | Sings unbearably well; waits to be told to stop
42 | Halphas | Earl | Arms both sides; cannot build an empty tower
43 | Malphas | President | Deceives everyone except those who offer him nothing
44 | Focalor | Duke | Drowns fleets; obeys, then avoids being commanded
45 | Bifrons | Earl | Grave-candles that always lead somewhere
46 | Uvall | Duke | Speaks only a dead language, so needs a translator
51 | Haagenti | President | Must transmute whatever is handed to him
52 | Crocell | Duke | Warns before he floods, and considers that sufficient
53 | Balam | King | Three heads answer in order; the ram is the right one
54 | Alloces | Duke | Cannot lower his voice, and resents being told so
55 | Camio | President | Answers in burning ash, read before it cools
56 | Gremory | Duke | Treasure and love; answers a name, never a room
61 | Amy | President | Sells out the other hundred and seven for almost nothing
62 | Vapula | Duke | Teaches hands, not heads; useless on anyone idle
63 | Zagan | King | Makes fools wise, without the temperament to use it
64 | Valac | President | Treasure and serpents, for anyone who asks gently
65 | Andrealphus | Marquis | Deafening until asked politely to take human shape
66 | Decarabia | Marquis | Bird familiars that will not enter a temple

11 · Vassago · Prince · Finds what is lost, declares the past and what is coming, and is described in every western book as being of a good nature, which is a comparison and not a compliment. He locates the one thing a city cannot afford to have found. He must answer where a named object is, truthfully, to anyone who names it correctly.

12 · Samigina · Marquis · A small horse that speaks hoarsely, then a man. He teaches the liberal sciences and gives account of the souls of those who died in sin, which makes him the standard source for anyone investigating a death. He will only speak of the dead by their sins, never their names, and he will keep going.

13 · Amon · Marquis · A wolf with a serpent’s tail, spitting flame, or a man with a raven’s head and a dog’s teeth. The strongest of the ones with a single name. He reconciles controversies between friends and procures love, and he is hired constantly to settle inheritances. Every peace he makes holds exactly as long as he is in the room.

14 · Barbatos · Duke · Arrives with four kings and a horn sounding, when the sun is in Sagittarius and not otherwise. He understands the speech of birds and dogs and cattle, and he opens treasures that enchantment has sealed. He cannot appear out of season, which makes him the most predictable of them and the easiest to plan a year around.

15 · Paimon · King · A crowned man on a dromedary with a great host and a noise of trumpets that arrives before he does. He teaches every art and science there is and gives obedient familiars, and he binds men to the will of whoever called him. He is the finest teacher among the hundred and eight. He will not speak until an offering has been made and he has been asked a second time. He is never in a hurry.

16 · Gusion · Duke · A thing like a baboon that answers questions about the past, the present and the future, honors the summoner, and reconciles enemies. He is used, endlessly, as an arbitrator, and he is scrupulously fair. He must give the true answer even when the question is stupid, and he has never once corrected a stupid question.

21 · Beleth · King · A terrible king on a pale horse with every kind of music going before him, and he arrives furious every single time. He causes love. He must be met by a person holding a hazel wand who does not flinch. He cannot harm someone who does not flinch, and he can tell, exactly, when someone is only pretending.

22 · Leraje · Marquis · An archer in green with a bow and a quiver, who causes great battles and makes arrow-wounds rot. He arranges the incident on the border that neither side wanted. Every wound he causes is caused by an arrow. Nothing else he does can kill.

23 · Sallos · Duke · A soldier on a crocodile, ducally crowned, courteous and quiet. He causes love between people, and he is described as peaceable, and he is. He is the one of them who takes a city entirely through good marriages. He will not act on anyone unwilling, ever, and he does not need to.

24 · Purson · King · A lion-faced man carrying a viper, on a bear, with trumpets. He finds hidden things and treasure and tells what has been and will be, and he takes a body of air or of earth as he pleases. He must answer truthfully about anything hidden, but only about the hiding, never the thing.

25 · Marax · Earl · A bull with a man’s face. He teaches astronomy and the liberal sciences, and gives familiars made of stones and herbs. He is the source of most of the working familiars in the west, and every one of them reports back. The familiars he gives cannot lie to their owner. They also cannot volunteer anything.

26 · Ipos · Earl · An angel with a lion’s head, a goose’s feet and a hare’s tail, which is either comic or unbearable depending on the light. He makes men witty and bold, and the boldness outlasts the wit. He must make bold anyone who asks, including people who should not be.

31 · Bune · Duke · A three-headed dragon, quiet, over a grave. He moves the dead from where they were buried, gathers spirits onto tombs, gives riches and makes men eloquent. He owns the necropolis outside more than one city, and knows exactly which grave is empty. He must move any body he is asked to move, and he cannot move one back.

32 · Ronove · Marquis · A monster holding a staff, teaching. Rhetoric, tongues, good servants, and the favor of friends and enemies alike. He is the tutor a great house hires, and the reason its heirs speak so well and mean so little. Everyone he has taught can be recognized by their accent, which is his.

33 · Berith · Duke · A soldier in red on a red horse with a golden crown, with a voice so clear and reasonable that people agree before they have parsed the sentence. He turns any metal to gold and gives dignities. He is, on the record of every western book, a liar about everything. He speaks the truth only about the weight of gold, because the scales would contradict him.

34 · Forneus · Marquis · A great sea-monster who teaches rhetoric and tongues and makes a man beloved by his enemies as much as his friends. He is how a hated faction becomes the compromise candidate. He cannot make anyone beloved by a person who has never spoken to them.

35 · Foras · President · A strong old man teaching the virtues of herbs and precious stones, logic and ethics. He makes men invisible, gives long life, and finds what is lost. The most quietly useful of them and the least dramatic. He gives long life by taking it from somewhere. He will say where, if asked directly, and nobody asks.

36 · Stolas · Prince · A crowned owl the height of a man, then a man, teaching astronomy and the virtues of herbs and stones. He is a genuine scholar and prefers the company of scholars, and the colleges are full of his students. He must answer any question about the sky. He will not answer one about the ground.

41 · Phenex · Marquis · A phoenix that sings in a child’s voice, and it is the most beautiful sound in the world, and you must not listen to it. He is a marvelous poet. He believes he will be permitted back after twelve hundred years and he has counted them. He must be told to stop singing and take a human shape before he will discuss anything, and he waits to be told.

42 · Halphas · Earl · A stock-dove with a hoarse voice, building. He raises towers, fills them with weapons and ammunition, and sends men of war to appointed places. He is the armorer of every war on the frontier and he supplies both sides. He must fill any tower he builds. He cannot build an empty one, and he cannot stop filling it.

43 · Malphas · President · A crow with a hoarse voice, then a man. He builds houses and high towers, brings artificers, and destroys the desires and thoughts of his master’s enemies. He accepts sacrifices politely and deceives everyone who offers one, which is written plainly in the books and does not stop anybody. He cannot deceive someone who offers him nothing.

44 · Focalor · Duke · A man with griffin’s wings, over water. He drowns men and overturns warships and has power over the winds and the seas. He hopes to return after a thousand years and says so sadly. He will not harm anyone if he is commanded not to, and the command holds. He simply arranges to be somewhere the command was not given.

45 · Bifrons · Earl · A monster, then a man, lighting candles on graves in a row. He teaches astrology, geometry and the virtues of stones and woods, and he moves dead bodies from place to place. Follow his candles and they lead somewhere. He cannot light one that leads nowhere.

46 · Uvall · Duke · A great dromedary, then a man speaking Egyptian badly. He procures the love of women and the friendship of enemies and tells what has been and will be. He can only speak in a dead language, and everything he says has to be translated by somebody, which has ruined more summonings than any other single cause.

51 · Haagenti · President · A great bull with griffin’s wings, then a man. He makes men wise, turns metal into gold and water into wine and wine into water. He is invited to every feast in the world. He must transmute anything handed to him. Hand him enough and he cannot do anything else.

52 · Crocell · Duke · An angel, formerly of the order of powers, and he says so with the tone of a man mentioning where he went to school. He speaks mystically of hidden things, teaches geometry, warms water, finds baths, and makes the sound of vast rushing water. He gives warning before he floods anything. He considers this sufficient.

53 · Balam · King · Three heads, a bull, a man and a ram, on a bear, with a goshawk on his fist, answering in a hoarse voice about what has been and will be. He makes men witty and invisible. He answers only in the order the heads speak, and the ram always goes last, and the ram is the one that is right.

54 · Alloces · Duke · A soldier with a lion’s face burning red, on a great horse, in a voice like a rockslide. He teaches astronomy and the liberal sciences and gives good familiars. He is a soldier before he is a scholar and it shows. He cannot lower his voice. He is useless for anything requiring discretion and he resents being told so.

55 · Camio · President · A thrush, then a man with a sword, in a coal fire. He gives the understanding of the voices of birds, cattle, dogs and rushing water, and he is the best disputer among them. He answers in burning ashes, which must be read before they cool.

56 · Gremory · Duke · A beautiful woman on a great camel, wearing a duchess’s crown, telling what has been and will be and where the treasure is. She procures the love of women, young and old. She must be asked in the second person and by name. She will not answer a room.

61 · Amy · President · A flame, and then a man, and the change is the whole introduction. He teaches astrology and the liberal sciences, gives good familiars, and betrays the treasures that other spirits are guarding. He is loathed by the rest of the roster. He will always sell out another of the hundred and eight, for almost nothing, and he cannot be made to stop.

62 · Vapula · Duke · A lion with griffin’s wings. He teaches every handicraft, profession, philosophy and science, and he is the finest of all of them at practical work. A city he has taught can build anything. Everything he teaches must be taught to a person’s hands, not their head. He cannot instruct anyone who will not do the work.

63 · Zagan · King · A bull with griffin’s wings, then a man. He makes men witty, turns wine to water and blood to wine and metal to coin, and he makes fools wise. That last is the one people come for. The wisdom he gives is real and permanent and it does not come with the temperament to use it, and he finds this reliably funny.

64 · Valac · President · A small child with an angel’s wings, riding a two-headed dragon, and the voice is a child’s voice. He gives true answers about hidden treasure and he finds and delivers up serpents. He answers anyone who speaks to him gently and nobody who does not.

65 · Andrealphus · Marquis · A peacock making an enormous noise, then a man. He teaches geometry, measurement and astronomy, makes men subtle, and turns a person into a bird. He cannot stop the noise until he has taken human shape, and he will not take human shape until he has been asked politely, and nobody can hear.

66 · Decarabia · Marquis · A star inside a pentacle, then a man. He knows the virtues of birds and precious stones and sends birds to fly before you as familiars. Every bird in a city he has worked is watching something. The birds he gives will not enter a temple.

8 The Court of the Eastern Stars

Thirty-six offices that came down the eastern road with a star and an epithet and no name at all. They cannot be bound, because there is no name to bind them with, and each scholar who has tried has attempted to bind the office instead, which binds all of them a little and none of them enough. In exchange they are the weakest, the most local, and the most likely to be mistaken for an ordinary haunting for years. Roll d66.

d66 | Star | Epithet | At a glance
11 | Majestic (地威) | General of a Hundred Victories | Abandons any fight it might lose
12 | Hero (地英) | General of Heavenly Vision | Sells weaknesses; blind to what it has praised
13 | Wide (地闊) | Golden Wings | Claims all it overflies; not what it has walked
14 | Closing (地闔) | Fiery-Eyed Suanni | Shuts gates, roads, wombs and deals
15 | Strong (地強) | Multicolored Tiger | Taxes a pass; honors a wrestling match instead
16 | Meet (地會) | Divine Mathematician | Runs the debt; must balance any sum put to it
21 | Aid (地佐) | Little Marquis of Wen | Needs a principal, and will make one
22 | Help (地祐) | Comparable to Rengui | Must turn any rout in sight, then collects
23 | Minute (地微) | Stumpy Tiger | Enters by the servants’ door; barred by being named
24 | Wisdom (地慧) | Ten Feet of Blue | Serves whoever is losing, to the letter
25 | Wild (地猖) | Hairy Star | Feeds on dread of the disaster it precedes
26 | Bright (地明) | Iron Flute Deity | Stops if the tune is played back correctly
31 | Forward (地進) | Dragon from a Cave | Takes the waterfront; cannot go back
32 | Retreating (地退) | River-Churning Clam | Drowns pursuers; can hold nothing
33 | Full (地滿) | Jade Flagpole | Cannot refuse a commission it can afford
34 | Succeed (地遂) | Long-Armed Gibbon | Must finish anything half-done, traps included
35 | Cycle (地周) | Stream-Leaping Tiger | Returns exactly on schedule, and the schedule is public
36 | Latent (地隱) | White-Flower Serpent | Waits decades, acts once, then a year of stillness
41 | Different (地異) | Fair-Skinned Gentleman | Marries in; the accent is a century out of date
42 | Handsome (地俊) | Iron Fan | Carries messages; spares anyone it carried for
43 | Victorious (地捷) | Flowery-Necked Tiger | Takes roads; never fights ground unseen by day
44 | Speed (地速) | Arrow-Struck Tiger | Cannot stop; ten seconds of stillness would kill it
45 | Guardian (地鎮) | Little Restrained | Holds any doorway; moved by asking from the old one
46 | Check (地稽) | Knife-Wielding Demon | Must describe how a thing comes apart before doing it
51 | Devil (地魔) | Giant in the Clouds | Rules by silhouette; nothing much in good light
52 | Tranquil (地幽) | Sick Tiger | A false peace; a festival is lethal to it
53 | Concealment (地伏) | Golden-Eyed Tiger Cub | Must be taken in willingly, as a foundling
54 | Remote (地僻) | Tiger-Slaying General | A petty god who cannot work in sight of a wall
55 | Empty (地空) | Little Conqueror | Surrenders the moment its followers fall
56 | Solitary (地孤) | Gold-Coin Leopard | Arms the others; cannot refuse a lone caller
61 | Whole (地全) | Demon Face | Carries terms; cannot alter a message
62 | Short (地短) | Forest-Emerging Dragon | Century-long grudges over one recited sentence
63 | Ugly (地丑) | Stone General | Blocks a road; moves only for a funeral
64 | Number (地數) | Little Yuchi | Can find anyone it has ever counted
65 | Inferior (地劣) | Living Goddess of Lightning | Carries rumor; cannot carry anything true and interesting
66 | Healthy (地健) | God of the Dangerous Road | Walks the worst roads unpaid, ahead of caravans

11 · The Majestic Star (地威, Diwei), the General of a Hundred Victories · An armored figure that appears at the head of a column that is not there. It has never lost an engagement and it will not fight one it might. It withdraws from any battle it calculates it will lose, instantly, abandoning everyone.

12 · The Hero Star (地英, Diying), the General of Heavenly Vision · A rider with a third eye that sees any weakness in a wall, a line or a person. It sells the weakness. It cannot see a weakness in something it has praised aloud, and it is vain enough to be praised into blindness.

13 · The Wide Star (地闊, Dikuo), Golden Wings Brushing the Clouds · A great winged thing that crosses a province in an afternoon and claims everything it has flown over. It contests territory with the others constantly. Its claim fails on any ground it has walked on rather than flown.

14 · The Closing Star (地闔, Dihe), the Fiery-Eyed Suanni · A lion-beast at a threshold with its eyes burning, which closes things: gates, roads, wombs, deals. Nothing it has shut opens on schedule again. It must open anything it has closed if the person who closed it originally asks.

15 · The Strong Star (地強, Diqiang), the Multicolored Tiger · A tiger the color of a bad dye-lot, enormously strong and not clever, which takes a mountain pass and taxes it. The simplest of the hundred and eight and often the first one a party meets. It will accept a wrestling match in place of a toll and it always honors the result.

16 · The Meet Star (地會, Dihui), the Divine Mathematician · A clerk who can total any column at a glance and knows exactly what every person in a city is worth. It runs the debt. It cannot leave a sum unbalanced. Hand it a corrupted ledger and it must fix the ledger before it does anything else.

21 · The Aid Star (地佐, Dizuo), the Little Marquis of Wen · A halberdier who attaches itself to a powerful person as an aide, competent and tireless, and is still there three regimes later. It cannot act on its own initiative. It needs a principal, and it will make one if it has to.

22 · The Help Star (地祐, Diyou), Comparable to Rengui · A figure in white that arrives at the moment of a rout and turns it, and is thereafter owed. It collects in a generation. It must intervene wherever a rout is happening within its sight, whether or not it wants to.

23 · The Minute Star (地微, Diwei), the Stumpy Tiger · A small, ugly, lecherous thing that gets into households through the servants’ door and is never taken seriously until far too late. It cannot enter a house where it has been named aloud as what it is.

24 · The Wisdom Star (地慧, Dihui), Ten Feet of Blue · A woman in blue with paired blades who fights better than anyone in the city and takes service with whoever is losing. It keeps every oath of service to the letter, and it takes a new one the moment the old employer dies.

25 · The Wild Star (地猖, Dichang), the Hairy Star · A comet-headed thing that arrives ahead of a disaster and is blamed for it, sometimes correctly. It feeds on being feared. A city that ignores its omen entirely takes the disaster anyway and starves the star.

26 · The Bright Star (地明, Diming), the Iron Flute Deity · A dancer with an iron flute whose tune is heard three streets away and never in the street you are in. Everyone who has heard it can hum it. It must stop if someone plays the tune back to it correctly.

31 · The Forward Star (地進, Dijin), the Dragon Emerging from a Cave · A river thing that comes upstream in flood and never retreats a foot. It takes the waterfront. It cannot go back the way it came. It has to be routed around.

32 · The Retreating Star (地退, Ditui), the River-Churning Clam · Its twin, and they are almost always found within a season of each other. It gives ground endlessly and drowns whatever follows. It cannot hold a position, so it cannot guard anything, so whatever it is protecting can be found by simply advancing.

33 · The Full Star (地滿, Diman), the Jade Flagpole · A shipwright and banner-maker, tall, that builds a city a fleet on generous terms. Every hull has its mark. It cannot refuse a commission it can afford to take.

34 · The Succeed Star (地遂, Disui), the Long-Armed Gibbon · A thing with arms that reach across a room, which finishes anything anyone else started. Unfinished works draw it. It must complete any half-finished thing it finds, including traps, including its rivals’ schemes.

35 · The Cycle Star (地周, Dizhou), the Stream-Leaping Tiger · A tiger that comes back on a schedule, exactly, to the day, and has done for centuries. Whole villages are organised around its calendar. It cannot come early and it cannot come late, and the calendar is public.

36 · The Latent Star (地隱, Diyin), the White-Flower Serpent · A pale serpent that has been in a place so long it is in the local proverbs and nobody remembers it is a demon. It does almost nothing, for decades, and then one thing. It must be still for a year after it acts.

41 · The Different Star (地異, Diyi), the Fair-Skinned Gentleman · A courteous, handsome stranger who is not from anywhere, and whose manners are one generation out of date in a way people find charming. It marries in. It cannot disguise the accent of the century it learned to speak in.

42 · The Handsome Star (地俊, Dijun), the Iron Fan · A quiet functionary, the brother of somebody important, carrying a fan that is not paper. It runs errands between the others and knows every arrangement. It will not act against anyone it has carried a message for.

43 · The Victorious Star (地捷, Dijie), the Flowery-Necked Tiger · A fast, tattooed skirmisher that takes a road and holds it and is gone before a column arrives. It is the outrider of whichever of them is currently ascendant. It never fights on ground it has not seen in daylight.

44 · The Speed Star (地速, Disu), the Arrow-Struck Tiger · A tiger with an arrow still in it that has been running for nine hundred years. It is the fastest thing on the frontier and the least able to stop. Anything that makes it stand still for a count of ten kills it, and nothing has managed it yet.

45 · The Guardian Star (地鎮, Dizhen), the Little Restrained · A gate-warden that attaches to a threshold, any threshold, and keeps it faithfully and forever against everyone including the owners. It defends whatever door it is standing in. It can be moved to a different door by anyone who asks while standing in the old one.

46 · The Check Star (地稽, Diji), the Knife-Wielding Demon · A butcher that knows exactly how anything comes apart, including buildings, including institutions, including people. It is hired as a consultant. It must describe, accurately, how a thing comes apart before it takes it apart.

51 · The Devil Star (地魔, Dimo), the Giant in the Clouds · An enormous vague figure that is never quite in focus and is much less powerful than its size implies. It rules through the fear of its silhouette. Seen clearly, in good light, at close range, it is nothing much, and it knows.

52 · The Tranquil Star (地幽, Diyou), the Sick Tiger · A wasting thing that brings a quiet to a district: no noise, no births, no quarrels, no trade. Cities mistake it for peace and vote it thanks. It cannot exist where there is a genuine racket. Festivals are lethal to it, which is why it works on the calendar first.

53 · The Concealment Star (地伏, Difu), the Golden-Eyed Tiger Cub · Something young and gold-eyed that hides in a household as a foundling and is raised, and grows, and is loved. It must be taken in willingly. It has never once forced a door.

54 · The Remote Star (地僻, Dipi), the Tiger-Slaying General · A boastful strongman who takes a remote village as a petty god, protects it competently against real dangers, and is honestly better than nothing. It cannot operate within sight of a city wall, and it knows this is why it is remote, and it is bitter about it.

55 · The Empty Star (地空, Dikong), the Little Conqueror · A young, handsome, entirely hollow thing that takes a hilltop, calls itself a king and demands a bride, and is exactly as dangerous as its followers. Kill its followers and it surrenders immediately and offers to serve. It means it, until the next hill.

56 · The Solitary Star (地孤, Digu), the Gold-Coin Leopard · A spotted thing that works metal beautifully and alone and will not be in a room with another of the hundred and eight. It makes the weapons the others use. It cannot refuse to make a thing for anyone who comes to it alone.

61 · The Whole Star (地全, Diquan), the Demon Face · A hideous face on an ordinary body, an intermediary, the one that carries terms between parties who will not meet. Every truce in the roster passes through it. It cannot alter a message it is carrying, in either direction.

62 · The Short Star (地短, Diduan), the Forest-Emerging Dragon · A short-tempered thing out of the woods that raids and withdraws and holds a grudge for a century over an insult nobody else recalls. Its grudges are always about a specific sentence, and it will recite the sentence.

63 · The Ugly Star (地丑, Dichou), the Stone General · A gray, wordless figure like a grave-marker that stands in a road and will not move, and things pile up behind it. It closes trade routes by existing. It moves for a funeral procession. Only a funeral procession.

64 · The Number Star (地數, Dishu), the Little Yuchi · A tallyman that counts people: the census, the muster, the tithe list, the names on the temple roll. Whatever it has counted, it can find. It cannot count a person who has never been recorded anywhere, and there are fewer of those every year.

65 · The Inferior Star (地劣, Dilie), the Living Goddess of Lightning · A fast, small, spiteful thing that carries messages and rumours faster than a horse and is the reason a lie is across the province by evening. It cannot carry anything true and interesting. It physically cannot hold the two together.

66 · The Healthy Star (地健, Dijian), the God of the Dangerous Road · An enormous figure that walks ahead of caravans on the worst roads, unpaid, and nothing touches a caravan it walks with. It is the reason so many of the others reached the west. It must accompany anyone who sets out on a road it considers dangerous, and it will not say what it thinks about the cargo.

9 Hooks

The count is wrong. A college has recorded a hundred and nine. Either somebody has been counted twice, which means two of the Twice-Named are the same figure and the seal was never full, or something has come up that was not sealed.

A demon wants to be bound. One of the Western Names offers a party its full and correct name, freely, in writing. It is the correct name. It wants protection from something, and the party now has to find out what.

The city already fell. The party takes a commission in a prosperous, well-run, unusually lucky city-state, and the festival is in three weeks, and the hymn is beautiful, and nobody can quite say when they learned it.

Two of them are at war over the same city, and both have approached the party, and the offers are good, and only one city gets to survive the disagreement.

The man who opened the seal is alive. He would be nine hundred years old. He is, and something is keeping him that way, and it is not gratitude.