Shadow Chorus
The Shadow Chorus
Heirs to the lore and traditions of the previous local Guardians of the Veil, the Shadow Chorus plays its hand close to its vest. Its members mask themselves in any Awakened dealings, save perhaps (if rumor is to be believed) when dealing with the leadership of the Consilium, or maybe just when in the presence of the Nemean himself. The Chorus is the most roundly distrusted of the cabals associated with the Consilium. The masks certainly do little for the Chorus’ trustworthiness, as do the (mostly short-lived) Sleeper cults, fortified with subtle feats of Awakened magic, that crop up around causes seemingly important to the cabal. Also, the Chorus is known to offer its aid cheaply or (apparently, at least) free as well as giving unsolicited clues to other cabals regarding such things as the whereabouts of lost Hallows or Artifacts.
At times, unmasked individuals claiming to be members of the Shadow Chorus (and offering knowledge and advice) appear to willworkers in and around the city. Of course, no name has the same face attached to it more than once, and there are those who wonder if these people truly are the mages of the Chorus, or even people at all. For their part, the Shadow Chorus says nothing either to confirm or deny the suppositions.
Sanctum: The Oubliette
Sanctum Size ••••; Security •••••; Hallow •••••
The creation of Februs’ Space Arcanum Portal magic, this hidden stronghold of the Shadow Chorus can normally only be accessed through the personal residences of the cabal’s members. Naturally, the locations of these points of access are unknown to the Awakened community at large, though sometimes a doorway (always a pair of double doors) is opened elsewhere — usually in a graveyard, under a bridge or somewhere beneath the earth. These doors are invariably elaborate, of shining black metal — though the designs upon them vary from manifestation to manifestation. The doors are always set into the ground, and a long, shadowed flight of stairs descends from them, eventually culminating in the convoluted morass of corridors that encompasses the sanctum. Most visitors claim to have seen a dimly lit chamber in which the Shadow Chorus was seated high above them, although one or two have described some manner of cavernous scriptorium.
Allegedly, deep within the Oubliette lays the corpses of willworkers long dead (a 5-point shared Hallow). According to the rumor, each night at moonrise, the gaping mouths of the desiccated bodies must be filled with a mixture of wine, rare herbs and blood — tass, which becomes saturated with Mana. None who speak of this have ever seen the Shadow Chorus’ Hallow, however, so the story remains just that. The library of the Oubliette is said to be adjacent to the scriptorium, accessed through a secret passage. The subjects referenced therein are: The Abyss, Ghosts, Local Awakened History, Monsters and Thanatology.
