Bestiary

Blood Currencies are a new manifestation of the Wyrm’s corruption. They evolved from Blood Moneys, minor Banes that attach themselves to large denomination dollar bills. Blood Moneys feed on the crimes of those who handle those bills – drug deals, blackmail, assassination, and human trafficking of every kind – and inspire their victims to engage in more extreme forms of degradation. Blood Moneys seldom receive more than a few opportunities to feed before the bill makes its way into a bank vault or becomes so worn out that it is destroyed, and so they seldom present a threat except on a very local scale.

Blood Currencies, however, take advantage of the rise of virtual currencies — or cryptocurrencies. World governments do not monitor or regulate these mediums of exchange, and they afford considerable anonymity to those who use them. While these virtual currencies attract some perfectly legitimate business, they frequently facilitate commercial interests that range from distasteful to abominable. Users buy into a virtual currency either with mainstream currencies

(dollars, euros, pounds, etc.) or by providing goods or services to existing users and taking their pay in the virtual currency. A distributed network of computer servers tracks the virtual money and facilitates its exchange between users.

When a Blood Currency infects one of these servers, however, it feeds on all the misery that the virtual currency funds. For example, a single Silkbuck valued at approximately one hundred U.S. dollars moves from a snuff film maker to an assassin, from an assassin to a pimp, from a pimp to a kidnapper who “recruits” prostitutes, from a kidnapper to a drug dealer, and from a drug dealer to a weapons dealer. Each transaction carries the spiritual weight of the horrible deeds it funds as it passes through the Bane-infected server, and the Blood Currency grows fatter with each transaction. While users can sell most cryptocurrencies to other users for ordinary currency, the Blood

Currency discourages users from ever selling

any part of their stake. They instead feel

compelled to buy more misery-gen

erating goods and services with it.

To ensure a fresh supply of victims, the Blood Curren

cy’s server will occasionally

email ordinary people telling

them they’ve won a recently unlocked supply of the virtual

currency. Those who accept

the windfall find themselves

tempted to spend it on

things they might never

purchase — whether out

Rage: 4, Willpower: 7, Gnosis: 9, Essence: 20

Charms: Blighted Touch, Control Electrical Systems, Corruption, Possession

of fear of being caught or because it reflects a secret desire they are ashamed of. As their supply of the cryptocurrency dwindles, they seek ways to earn more, and many soon become purveyors of their own twisted goods and services.

Image: In the physical world, Blood Currencies are almost undetectable except by the traces of Wyrm scent they leave on the servers they possess and on those who have handled their virtual currency. In the Umbra, they resemble a mass of writhing serpents comprised of pure darkness.