This campaign setting merges the gritty, street-level horror of Wretched Darkness with the occult conspiracy and "True Magick" of The Invisible College. This blog post picks right up from here on the blog.
In this world, the 1990s aren't just an era of flannel and dial-up; they are the front lines of a secret war for reality. The Player Characters (PCs) are "Awakened" individuals caught between the soul-crushing weight of the Demiurge’s mundane world and the terrifying, transformative power of the Invisible College.
Campaign Title: Static & Sigils
Theme: Survival Horror meets Occult Espionage.
Tone: Paranoia, grim determination, and the high cost of enlightenment.
1. The Core Conflict
The world is a prison designed to keep humanity asleep. The "Archons" (represented by the brutal mechanics of Wretched Darkness monsters and human cults) enforce a status quo of misery.
The Invisible College offers a way out—through ritual, transgression, and ancient knowledge—but they are not "the good guys." They are a cell-based resistance of sorcerers, hackers, and heretics who are often just as dangerous as the entities they fight.
2. Character Archetypes
Using the Wretched Darkness framework, players choose a "Day Job" (their mundane cover) and an "Occult Path" (their College specialty):
| Archetype | The "Day Job" | The "Magick" |
| The Infiltrator | Corrupt Detective | Uses sympathetic magic to "link" to suspects and hear their thoughts. |
| The Tech-Gnostic | Phreaker / Hacker | Views the internet as the new Astral Plane; traps demons in server racks. |
| The Escapologist | Underground Boxer | Physical alchemy; uses pain and endorphins to ignore the laws of physics. |
| The Librarian | Rare Book Dealer | Summons "Tulpa" entities from the pages of forbidden manuscripts. |
3. Key Setting Locations: The "Liminal City"
The campaign takes place in a decaying metropolitan sprawl (think 1992 Newark or London) where the veil is thin:
The Black Site: A local police precinct secretly run by a "Servant of the Demiurge." They don't just arrest people; they erase their souls.
The Dial-Up Node: A secret BBS (Bulletin Board System) where the Invisible College leaves coded instructions for the PCs.
The Gray Market: An alleyway that only appears at 3:33 AM where players can trade "Essence" (Wretched Darkness XP/Resource) for illegal artifacts.
4. Mechanics Integration
To blend these two systems, use the following house rules:
The Sanity Spiral: Use the Wretched Darkness Stress/Sanity mechanics to represent "The Weight of the Veil." As characters learn more True Magick (Invisible College), their mundane life falls apart.
Magickal Backlash: In Wretched Darkness, failure is deadly. If a PC fails an Occult check, they don't just miss—they attract the attention of an Interceptor, a faceless entity sent to "delete" anomalies.
The Ritual Ritual: Magic isn't "fire and forget." To cast a spell from the Invisible College list, characters must gather components (stolen blood, a specific 90s pop song, a cursed floppy disk) and survive a Wretched Darkness combat encounter while the ritual completes.
5. Starting Hook: "The Dead Drop"
The PCs are all contacted via a cryptic pager message. They meet at a laundromat where a dying man hands them a Polaroid camera. He tells them: "The world you see isn't the one that sees you. Take a picture of the man in the suit at the bus stop. Do not look at his face with your eyes."
When they develop the photo, the man has no face—just a void of static. Now, the PCs are "on the radar," and the only way to survive is to find the local cell of the Invisible College before the "Cleaners" find them.
In the world of Static & Sigils, Archons aren't just monsters; they are the "Program Managers" of our reality. They represent the concepts that keep humanity small, fearful, and predictable.
Here are three specific Archon villains tailored for a Wretched Darkness and Invisible College crossover:
1. Overseer Vance (The Archon of Bureaucracy)
Vance appears as a middle-aged man in a cheap, ill-fitting polyester suit. He smells of ozone and stale coffee. He works out of the Department of Records, but he can be found in any basement office or DMV.
The Horror: Vance doesn't kill you with claws; he kills you with Obsolescence. He can "edit" a PC's legal existence. Suddenly, their bank cards don't work, their keys don't fit their front door, and even their family members treat them like a total stranger.
Wretched Darkness Ability: The Red Tape. Any PC attempting a violent action against Vance must first succeed on a high-difficulty Willpower/Sanity check. If they fail, they are overcome by a crushing feeling of futility and lose their turn.
Invisible College Weakness: He is bound by the very rules he enforces. If the PCs can find a "Legal Paradox" (an ancient scroll or a contradictory city ordinance), Vance is forced to vanish for one lunar cycle.
2. Sister Malice (The Archon of Shared Trauma)
She manifests in the flickering shadows of hospital wings and 12-step programs. She appears as a nurse whose face is obscured by surgical gauze that is constantly weeping black ink.
The Horror: She feeds on Regret. She can manifest a PC’s worst memory as a physical entity. If a character killed someone in their "Wretched" past, that person crawls out of a nearby drain to whisper accusations.
Wretched Darkness Ability: Psychosomatic Hemorrhage. Sister Malice can inflict physical damage by speaking a PC's secret shame aloud. The damage isn't from a wound, but from the character's own body turning on itself.
Invisible College Weakness: She is a creature of the past. If a PC performs a "Ritual of New Identity" (a key Invisible College concept of shedding the ego), she loses her tether to them and cannot perceive them.
3. The Signal-Man (The Archon of Information Overload)
The Signal-Man doesn't have a permanent physical form. He moves through the 1990s infrastructure—television static, radio frequencies, and the early internet. When he must manifest, he appears as a tall, spindly figure composed entirely of copper wiring and broken glass.
The Horror: He represents the Death of Truth. He broadcasts "The Static," a psychic frequency that makes it impossible for PCs to communicate. They might try to say "Run!" but their friends hear "Obey."
Wretched Darkness Ability: Data Corruption. He can "glitch" the environment. He can turn a solid floor into a liquid or make a PC’s weapon fire backwards by warping the local laws of physics.
Invisible College Weakness: He is vulnerable to "Silent Sigils." Magic drawn in blood or carved into wood (non-electronic media) is invisible to him, allowing the PCs to set traps in his blind spots.
Comparison of Archon Domains
| Archon | Domain | Mundane Front | Tactical Challenge |
| Overseer Vance | Conformity | Government/Legal | Social/Legal combat |
| Sister Malice | Guilt/Pain | Healthcare/Church | Mental/Psychological endurance |
| The Signal-Man | Distraction | Media/Tech | Environmental/Perception hazards |
In the Invisible College, magick is "Transgressive Alchemy." It requires taking mundane items from the world of the Demiurge and polluting them with intent to create a "Breach."
To keep the Wretched Darkness grit, these items shouldn't be shiny wands or crystal balls. They should be dirty, dangerous, or illegal. Here are four starting ritual items for your players:
1. The "Black Box" Pager
A modified Motorola pager with a cracked screen. It doesn't receive phone numbers; it receives "Static Coordinates."
The Use: When a PC inputs a specific mathematical sequence (derived from the Invisible College texts), the pager emits a high-frequency pulse.
The Effect: For 60 seconds, it jams all "Archon Surveillance." In game terms, it grants a massive bonus to Stealth or allows the party to bypass electronic locks, but it causes $1d4$ points of Stress to the user as their ears begin to bleed from the psychic feedback.
2. The Polaroid of the "Un-Person"
A photo of a person whose face has been violently scratched out with a needle. The photo feels unnaturally cold.
The Use: By burning the corner of this photo and inhaling the smoke, a PC can perform a "Veil Walk."
The Effect: The PC becomes invisible to mundane humans and cameras for 10 minutes. However, the Wretched Darkness cost is high: the PC "loses" a piece of their own identity. For the rest of the session, NPCs will forget the PC's name or mistake them for someone else.
3. A Jar of "City Sweat"
A Mason jar filled with a gray, oily liquid collected from the condensation of a subway tunnel during a lunar eclipse.
The Use: It is used to draw protective sigils on doors or windows.
The Effect: It acts as a physical barrier against low-level entities (like the "Cleaners" or "Shadow Hounds"). Any entity of the Demiurge trying to cross the line must succeed on a Hard Toughness Check or be physically repelled/burned. The jar contains enough for three applications.
4. The 13th Tarot (The "Broken Tower" Circuit Board)
A circuit board pulled from a proprietary 1980s mainframe that was involved in a fatal industrial accident. Solder has been used to etch occult symbols over the microchips.
The Use: The Tech-Gnostic can plug this into any computer terminal to "Hack the Demiurge."
The Effect: It allows the player to cast a spell from the Invisible College list without spending "Essence," but they must roll on the Magickal Backlash Table. If they roll poorly, the circuit board explodes, dealing physical damage and permanently scarring the user's hands with binary-shaped burns.
Starting Item Distribution
| Player Role | Recommended Item | Why? |
| The Face/Leader | The Polaroid | To get the team into places they don't belong. |
| The Muscle | City Sweat | To hold the line when things get violent. |
| The Tech | The 13th Tarot | To bridge the gap between code and ritual. |
| The Investigator | The Black Box | To find the "cracks" in the city's architecture. |
To banish an Archon like Overseer Vance, Sister Malice, or The Signal-Man, a simple "exorcism" won't work. You are fighting the fabric of reality itself. You don't just kick them out; you have to create a "Logic Fault" that forces the Demiurge to recall them for "debugging."
In the Invisible College, this is known as the Ritual of the Severed Cord.
The Signature Ritual: The Severed Cord
This ritual is designed to strip an Archon of its "Authority." By proving that the Archon is failing its job to keep humanity controlled, the PCs trigger a celestial "Performance Review" that drags the entity back into the Void.
Phase 1: The Components (The "Scaffolding")
To cast this, the players must acquire three "Transgressive Trophies" specific to the Archon they are targeting:
A Symbol of Office: (e.g., Vance’s stapler, a needle from Malice’s kit, or a motherboard from a server the Signal-Man inhabited).
The "Sin of Neglect": An item representing a human who escaped the Archon’s notice (e.g., a birth certificate for someone who "doesn't exist," a recovered memory, or a handwritten letter sent via "Snail Mail").
Blood of the Awakened: 1 point of permanent Health or 5 points of temporary Stress from each participating PC to power the "Breach."
Phase 2: The Performance (The "Glitch")
The ritual must be performed in a Liminal Space (an elevator stuck between floors, a vacant lot at dawn, or a dial-up chatroom during a power outage).
The PCs must create a Feedback Loop. They chant the Archon’s hidden name (found through investigation) while destroying the symbols of its power. In Wretched Darkness terms, this requires three successful Occult/Willpower checks in a row while the Archon is actively attacking or manifesting horrors to stop them.
Phase 3: The Result (The "Banishment")
If successful, the ritual produces one of the following effects based on the target:
| Target | The "Banishment" Manifestation |
| Overseer Vance | Reality "redacts" him. Black ink pours from his eyes and mouth until he collapses into a pile of shredded, blank paper. |
| Sister Malice | Her bandages unravel, revealing there is nothing underneath. She implodes into a vacuum of silence, leaving only the scent of antiseptic. |
| The Signal-Man | Every screen in the vicinity displays a "404 Not Found" error. He dissolves into a shower of harmless sparks and copper dust. |
The "Wretched" Cost: The Aftermath
Banishing an Archon is a heavy blow to the Demiurge, but the universe hates a vacuum.
The Paradox Burn: The lead caster must roll on the Magickal Backlash Table.
The Heat: For $1d6$ days after the ritual, the PCs are "Synchronicity Magnets." They will see the Archon's symbols everywhere—on billboards, in dreams, and in the patterns of birds. This adds a +2 Difficulty to all Stealth checks as the world is "looking" for them.
In the world of Wretched Darkness, magick is an infection. When you use an Invisible College ritual to tear a hole in reality, the Demiurge tries to "clot" that hole using your soul as the bandage.
The following table uses a 2d6 roll. Add the number of participants beyond the first to the roll (making higher, more "explosive" results more likely with larger groups).
The Magickal Backlash Table: "The Price of Hubris"
| Roll (2d6) | Result | Effect (Mechanical & Narrative) |
| 2-3 | Static Haze | The caster’s eyes turn to grey television static for $1d6$ hours. They are blinded to the physical world but can see "glitches" (spirits/magic) clearly. |
| 4-5 | The Echo | Every word the caster speaks is repeated by a phantom voice 3 seconds later. This makes Stealth or Social checks Hard (+2 Difficulty) for 24 hours. |
| 6-7 | Aura Leak | The caster smells of ozone and rotting meat. Animals grow hostile, and mundane NPCs feel an instinctive, "Wretched" urge to avoid or shout at them. |
| 8-9 | The Redaction | A piece of the caster's history is deleted. A contact, a gear item, or a memory of a loved one vanishes. Everyone remembers it except the world itself. |
| 10-11 | Synchronic Collapse | Objects near the caster begin to break. Glass shatters, lightbulbs pop, and guns jam. All physical rolls are at -1 die until the caster sleeps for 8 hours. |
| 12+ | The Interceptor | The ritual was too "loud." A Cleaner (a faceless, blade-wielding enforcer of the Archons) manifests within $1d10$ minutes to "sanitize" the area. |
How to Handle a "12+" (The Interceptor)
If the players trigger an Interceptor, the campaign shifts from "Occult Mystery" to "Slasher Horror" instantly.
The Appearance: A man in a seamless, grey rubber suit with no face, carrying a rusted surgical saw.
The Goal: It does not speak. It simply moves toward the person who cast the ritual with relentless, slow-motion speed.
The Escape: Killing an Interceptor is nearly impossible for starting characters; they usually just dissolve and reform. The PCs must flee across a "threshold" (running water, a consecrated circle, or a different city ward) to lose it.
Mitigating Backlash
Players can "ground" the energy to avoid rolling on this table, but the cost is grim (true to the Wretched style):
The Scapegoat: If they have a captive (human or entity), they can transfer the backlash to them. The captive takes $2d6$ damage and the ritual succeeds safely.
The Sacrifice: A player can choose to take a permanent scar (physical or mental) to automatically treat a roll of 10+ as a 6.
In the Wretched Darkness system, an Interceptor (often called a "Cleaner" by the Invisible College) functions less like a standard NPC and more like a relentless environmental hazard. They are the "Antibodies" of the Demiurge.
Entity: The Interceptor (Rank: Lesser Archonic Agent)
Interceptors look like humans seen through a low-resolution lens. Their clothes (always a grey suit or janitorial coveralls) appear to be part of their skin. They don't breathe, and they move with a jerky, stop-motion gait that is deeply unsettling to watch.
Attributes & Vitals
Health: 30 (They don't feel pain; they only stop when the physical shell is destroyed).
Defense: 12 (They don't dodge; they simply walk through fire and lead).
Speed: 20ft (They are slow but never stop. If you lose sight of them, they "teleport" to the next street corner you turn).
Combat Actions
Monofilament Saw: Melee Attack. +6 to hit. Deals 1d10+2 damage. On a critical hit, the target loses a finger, ear, or piece of gear as the saw "deletes" the matter.
The Hollow Stare: Ranged Psychic. The Interceptor tilts its head. The target must make a Sanity/Willpower Save. Failure results in the target being Paralyzed with existential dread for 1 round as they see the "source code" of the universe.
Static Burst: Area of Effect. If surrounded, the Interceptor emits a burst of white noise. All electronic devices within 30ft are fried, and PCs take 1d6 Stress damage.
Special Traits (The "Invisible College" Twist)
Non-Euclidean Relocation: If a PC moves more than two rooms away or drives out of sight, the Interceptor does not "chase." The next time a PC looks into a mirror, a dark window, or a puddle, the Interceptor is standing exactly 50 feet behind them in the reflection.
Atemporal Body: Standard weapons (knives, pistols) do minimum damage (1 or 2 points) because the Interceptor isn't "fully there."
The Workaround: Weapons "consecrated" with Invisible College Magick or items of "Significant Entropy" (a rusted blade from a graveyard, a gun used in a suicide) deal full damage.
Tactical Behavior: "The Sanitization Protocol"
An Interceptor does not use cover. It walks in a straight line toward the person who caused the "Glitch" (the ritual caster). It ignores other players unless they physically stand in its path.
How to Beat It:
Overkill: Reducing its Health to 0 causes it to dissolve into a puddle of black, oily mercury. It will reform in $2d6$ hours.
The Paradox: If a player can force the Interceptor to break a "Rule of Reality" (e.g., tricking it into a room with two mirrors facing each other), it becomes trapped in an infinite loop and vanishes.
Desecration: Splashing the Interceptor with "City Sweat" or human waste insults its "purity," lowering its Defense to 8 for the remainder of the fight.
The "Wretched" Loot
If the players manage to "kill" one before it dissolves, they can harvest a Glitch Shard:
Item: Glitch Shard. A jagged piece of "solidified shadow." It can be consumed to instantly regain all Magick/Essence points, but the player must roll on the Permanent Mutation table as their DNA begins to rewrite itself.
This mission is designed to introduce the players to the core loop of Static & Sigils: investigating a mundane tragedy to find the occult "glitch" beneath it.
Mission Briefing: The 404 Apartment
The Hook: A contact within the Invisible College—a paranoid shortwave radio enthusiast known as "Static Jack"—sends the PCs a clipped obituary from yesterday’s newspaper. It describes the death of Arthur Phelan, a shut-in who lived in Apartment 404 of the Blackwood Heights complex. The cause of death: "Natural causes," despite Arthur being only 26.
The Reality: Arthur was a "Grey-Level" initiate of the College who was trying to map the local Archon network using a pirated satellite dish. He didn't just die; he was deleted.
Part 1: The Investigation (Wretched Darkness Focus)
The apartment complex is a decaying brutalist concrete block. The air smells of wet cardboard and ozone.
The Police Line: A single beat cop (Officer Miller) sits outside the door. He is under a "Clouding" spell cast by the Archons—he is glassy-eyed and will let the PCs in if they give him any vaguely official-looking excuse.
The Room: Apartment 404 is physically impossible. The hallway is 100 feet long, but the apartment is only 5 feet deep from the outside. Inside, however, it expands into a sprawling, multi-room labyrinth of stacked monitors and discarded pizza boxes.
The Clue: Arthur’s body is still in his chair, but he has no face—just smooth, tanned skin where eyes and a mouth should be. His hands are fused to his keyboard.
Part 2: The Breach (Invisible College Focus)
To find out what Arthur discovered, the PCs must interact with his equipment. This requires a Tech/Occult check.
The Discovery: The monitors aren't showing code; they are showing live feeds of the PCs' own homes from six months in the future.
The Item: Hidden inside Arthur’s hollowed-out PC tower is one of the Starting Ritual Items (e.g., The 13th Tarot Circuit Board).
The Trigger: As soon as a PC touches the circuit board, the room's "Logic" begins to fail. The wallpaper starts peeling off in digital strips, revealing a void of white light behind the walls.
Part 3: The Threat (The Encounter)
The Demiurge has noticed the "404" error is being tampered with.
The Sound: The building’s fire alarm begins to scream, but the sound is actually a distorted voice saying: "Access Denied. Access Denied."
The Manifestation: A Cleaner/Interceptor (as detailed previously) begins to manifest in the hallway, physically merging through the door.
The Twist: The "Apartment 404" is beginning to fold in on itself. The PCs have 3 Rounds to grab Arthur’s research notes and the Ritual Item before the room becomes a "Dead Zone" (instant death/soul deletion).
Objectives & Rewards
Primary: Recover Arthur's encrypted floppy disks (Research).
Secondary: Recover the 13th Tarot Circuit Board.
Wretched Cost: Anyone who stays in the room for the full 3 rounds must make a Sanity Save or lose a "Good Memory," replacing it with the image of Arthur’s faceless head.
XP Reward: 2 Essence (XP) for surviving; +1 if they manage to wound the Interceptor before fleeing.
How would you like the players to start?
Option A: Arriving at the apartment complex in a beat-up van, dodging the rain.
Option B: Already inside the apartment, just as the walls start to "glitch."
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