AGENT 5 (15)

The Strange

Agents are practiced professionals who often put their oath before their own well-being, regardless of which agency, faction, or kingdom is employing them.

• Operative (Earth): Whether working for OSR, the Estate, or another agency (foreign or domestic) with no knowledge of the Strange, an operative is cool under fire, competent, and quick to fix problems, one way or another.
• Envoy (Ardeyn): Most temporal powers in Ardeyn employ envoys that have a public face, which they use to hide secret operations.
• Faction Agent (Ruk): Anyone without an obvious job in Ruk might well be a faction agent. Then again, an agent could be posing as a biomechanic or an All-Song communal repair person as part of an operation.

Motive: Accomplishing the goals of employer

Health 15

Damage Inflicted: Moderate wound (5 points)

Armor: 2

Movement: Short

Modifications: Tasks related to disguise and deceiving as level 6.

Combat: Agents use weapons appropriate to their recursion. They may also carry a couple of items useful for hiding, monitoring, attacking, or defending, and if the agent in question works for an agency that knows about the Strange, those items could be cyphers.

Interaction: Agents succeed best when they spend a lot of time prior to a mission laying the groundwork, studying the target, and sniffing out leads, which gives agents an air of distance and self-absorption even when they're not conducting an operation. On the other hand, agents under cover may seem just the opposite if it serves the role they have taken on, making it seem as if they are amenable to negotiation. In truth, they might actually be willing to dicker if their mission goals can still be accomplished.

Use: As allies, agents can guide PCs to their next mission, fill in gaps in knowledge, and warn of dangers that PCs should prepare for. If the PCs encounter agents as adversaries, randomly determine at least one useful artifact for each agent (if anywhere but Earth) and add it to that agent's abilities. Enemy agents usually present themselves as friends.

Loot: Agents typically have 3d6 units of appropriate currency, a couple of cyphers, possibly an artifact, and a few tools useful for spying.

GM Intrusion: The agent produces a cypher that, for the rest of the day, modifies all tasks by two steps to her benefit.