Deep Dive Sneak Peek: PIETA (Patreon)

For this week's global conspiracy, I'm sharing PIETA (a.k.a., Animal Control), which has been vaguely canon since the Manticore Companion art in the core and features prominently in the fiction for Black Vans. Its concept (a conspiracy other conspiracies hire to catch hard-to-catch Renegades) dates all the way back to one of the first playtests of Deviant - even before the Kickstarter. This was the playtest that showed me the necessity of introducing what would become the Myriad and Uplift Forms.

This version is updated significantly, with a slightly higher Standing (6 instead of 5) and a more fleshed out history, Nodes, and Icons.

PIETA (a.k.a. Animal Control)

PIETA is an organization of mercenaries and bounty hunters who specialize in capturing hard-to-catch Deviants. Most of their clients are other conspiracies in the Web of Pain, but they’ve been known to take jobs from law enforcement, organized crime, and even Renegades looking to settle a score with another Deviant.

The conspiracy’s early history, and the origin of its name, are shrouded in mystery. Some claim it was founded by the friends of the grieving mother of a conspiracy agent killed by a cohort of Renegades; as she cradled her son’s lifeless body, she resembled the grieving Mary of the Pietá. Others say its name is meant to mock People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, although no one agrees on what the letters would mean in such an acronym. Perhaps the most common theory is that the letters refer to five of the conspiracy’s founding members, but even then, there is disagreement on whether they refer to first, last, or code names.

The conspiracy received the dismissive moniker “Animal Control” due to the combination of its near-PETA name, its heavy use of Manticores and Chimerics, and its role as the metaphorical dogcatchers of the Web of Pain. Invoking that nickname earns a disapproving tightening of the lips from the conspiracy’s agents, but it rarely rises to the level of a spoken objection. After all, everyone knows that when your invisible saber-toothed tiger eludes your capture teams for the tenth time this week, or your lead scientist who knows enough about your operations to destroy you completely goes rogue, or the host of the occult parasite so prolific that it could take over the world in a month if it broke containment breaks containment, or any of the other worst case scenarios you didn’t anticipate comes to fruition, PIETA is the one you’re going to end up calling. And you won’t be throwing “Animal Control” in the face of their sales rep when you do.

The conspiracy has come a long way in the last 40 years. At the start, it focused on search-and-destroy missions – whether it was the cohort of Renegades that had burned down one too many laboratories or a Feral in the throes of End Stage who needed someone to stop her. Over time, its jobs have expanded to include reconnaissance, DNA harvesting, capture, and even the recruitment of a particularly elusive Deviant.

Conspiracy Traits

Standing: 6

Principles: Train animals to catch animals; hunting the most dangerous of game; satisfaction guaranteed

Virtue: Professional

Vice: Curious

Attributes: Power 9, Finesse 3, Resistance 6

Conspiracy Actions: 3

Association: 9

Hierarchical Node: Business Office, Strategy

Temporal Node: Beast Squad, Takedown, Transport

Exploitative Node: Law Enforcement, Organized Crime, Special Allies

Structural Node: Containment Unit, Gossip, Medical Waste, Obedience School, Occult Library

Icon: Hard Counter, Menagerie, Remade Database

Nodes

Business Office (Hierarchical): Sales of PIETA’s services are its lifeblood, and this Node is the focal point of the organization’s business interests. Its agents are sharp-eyed accountants who project the expenses associated with any job the organization takes and smooth negotiators who ensure PIETA receives compensation well in excess of estimated costs.

Privileges: +2 to Manufacture Complication

Strategy (Hierarchical): Although the sales folk often dismiss the conspiracy’s scientific research as a necessary evil, its chief scientists and Divergence scholars have grown to wield just as much influence as its business office types. These thinkers plot a careful course to ensure that every hunt is successful so that PIETA’s reputation in the Web of Pain remains close to spotless.

Privileges: +2 to Focused Action

Remade Database: PIETA has assembled an extensive database of dossiers that allows its agents to identify and manipulate the weaknesses of those they encounter. One Baseline conspiracy agent (and all its Devoted) in any scene involving witting PIETA agents has a means of imposing a Persistent Scar on others, whether it involves a compact gadget or a particular way of getting into the head of a Deviant through insinuations. This functions as the Cursed Flesh 3 Variation entangled with either the Preparation (either Elaborate, Staged, or with the Catalyst Deviation) 3 Scar. The exact details of the Scar it imposes varies from agent to agent, but no target can be subjected to more than one Scar imposed by this Icon at a time, regardless of the number of agents he encounters.

Beast Squad (Temporal): The largest of PIETA’s Temporal Nodes is also the one that them the nickname Animal Control. It consists of a large number of Manticores and their trainers/handlers, as well as a significant number of Chimeric Devoted, some of whom are Uplifts. They engage in a mix of reconnaissance and Deviant hunts, relying more on numerical superiority and animal strength than on tactical nuance.

Menagerie: +4 to the Hounds effect of Send Agents actions that originate from this Node.

Takedown (Temporal): When the conspiracy encounters (or anticipates) an intractable problem, they send in agents of this Node or set its Divergence scientists to the problem. Their preferred tactic is a single probing strike to identify weaknesses and potential counters to the prey’s powers followed by a second strike that captures or kills (as the client prefers) the target. They rarely require a third strike but regard any problem that requires one as a special challenge they will pursue to the ends of the Earth.

Hard Counter: As a Project requiring 3 Effort, the conspiracy develops a single-use counter to the Variation, Adaptation, or Form of an enemy Deviant. Once the requisite amount of Effort has been invested, the conspiracy may invoke it during any scene involving its agents (including unwitting patsies). Due to some specialized counter or narrative twist, the target loses the benefit of the power until the end of the scene as though he didn’t have it (regardless of the Magnitude or Merit dot cost). Each additional 1 Effort doubles the number of powers this shuts down or the number of Deviants of the same cohort it affects. The conspiracy can invest 2 additional Effort to extend its effect until the end of the chapter or 4 additional Effort to extend it until the end of the story.

Transport (Temporal): PIETA operates a fleet of black vans and several armored private jets that it uses to move captured Deviants to holding facilities or deliver them to clients. The agents who operate these are every bit as serious about preventing targets from escaping in transit as their colleagues in Beast Squad and Takedown are about bringing them in in the first place.

Law Enforcement (Exploitative): Renegades often commit crimes, and PIETA delivers evidence of them to law enforcement to put them on the trail of Remade. Although the average city police force doesn’t have the reach or resources to take on the conspiracy’s typical targets, they can flush Broken into the open or force them to waste their energy eluding police, thus distracting them from the approach of PIETA’s agents.

Organized Crime (Exploitative): Many Renegades run afoul of (or resort to participating in) criminal enterprises to meet their needs. As criminals, their unnatural powers and often quick advancement to prominent roles make them natural targets for rival gangs (and jealous members of their own). As meddlers thwarting the bosses’ goals, they merit quick and thorough elimination.

Special Allies (Exploitative): Broken have large personalities and make enemies easily – even among their own kind. When the conspiracy takes a contract to capture or kill a Deviant who has made many Broken enemies, it will often feed news of the target’s whereabouts to Renegades who mean her harm and allow those rivals to do their dirty work.

Containment Unit (Structural): The conspiracy maintains facilities that specialize holding Deviants prisoner for short periods – less than a week and preferably only the day or two it takes for a client to take custody of the prisoner. Although heavily reinforced cells are a component, most of PIETA’s methods are considerably more heavy-handed and include medically induced comas or, for the truly unkillable, encasement in concrete or immersion in liquid steel or super-durable alloys. In addition to their obvious purpose, the conspiracy uses these facilities to harvest DNA and gather other data on their targets in a minimally invasive way so that their scientists can further PIETA’s understanding of Divergence science.

Privilege: +2 to the Suppression effect of Send Agents

Gossip (Structural): PIETA gathers intelligence on Deviants to identify each one’s place in the web of rivalries and grudges between Remade. While they collect what information they can from online sources, the conspiracy relies heavily on HUMINT and employs many spies to observe and interview Renegades.

Privilege: +2 to Patsy effect of Send Agents

Medical Waste (Structural): PIETA offers discreet and thorough disposal of any Remade killed as part of a contract, but this is the one promise on which it rarely delivers, instead transporting the remains to one of its medical waste facilities where scientists dissect and analyze them and potentially incorporate their brain matter and Deviant traits into future Manticores and Chimerics. For clients so concerned about proprietary assets falling into the hands of a rival that they demand to watch, PIETA puts on a dog-and-pony show of incinerating the corpse convincing enough to fool even the most paranoid of clients.

Privilege: +2 to Hounds effect of Send Agents (see below)

Obedience School (Structural): This sprawling campus in a remote forest is a combination of a boot camp for the conspiracy’s Devoted and a training ground for its more exotic animal experiments. The trainers and drill sergeants who work here condition Chimerics and Manticores alike to obey their handlers without hesitation.

Privilege: +2 to Shock Troops effect of Send Agents

Occult Library (Structural): In addition to the substantial body of knowledge about the Divergence they have gathered, PIETA collects unrelated occult lore that it stores in a midsized data center.

Privilege: +1 to Manufacture Complication

New Send Agents Effect: Hounds (-0 or more)

The conspiracy sends Manticores (whether animals or other things) instead of Baseline agents. By default, these are Size 0-2 Manticores with up to 2 Magnitude of Variations that replace one Baseline agent produced by Send Agent. If multiple Manticores appear, they are mechanically identical but may have some features that distinguish them from one another (different colors of fur, serial numbers, etc.). Increase Size to 3-5 (-2), 6-10 (-4), 11-15 (-6), or more (-2 per additional 5 Size beyond 15). Swarms (+0), Biting Swarms (-2), and Lethal Swarms (-4) are also possible (Clades Companion, p. 8). Manticores may instead have up to 3 (-1), 4 (-2) or 5 (-3) Magnitude of Variations. Different arrays of Variations in the same group are also possible at a -1 penalty per doubling of Variation arrays.

Optional Nodes

For each additional player connected to this conspiracy, add one of the following Nodes:

Reeducation Camp (Temporal): Building on methods developed at its obedience school, PIETA sets up a reeducation camp to turn Renegades into Devoted. At first, it uses this to supplement its own stable of Broken servants, but it soon begins selling it as a new service to clients who want to bring disobedient Remade to heel.

Trait Increases: +1 Power, +1 Finesse

Wildlife Services (Temporal): PIETA embraces its dismissive nickname in a limited way by introducing a service that pursues Manticores and other non-sapient targets – one with armored trucks, tranquilizer guns, and humane traps.

Trait Increases: +1 Power, +1 Resistance; +1 Association

Private Zoos (Exploitative): The conspiracy begins selling some subjects of its experiments to private zoos as scientific curiosities. This includes less tractable Chimerics, and being sent to the zoos becomes a threat PIETA wields to frighten their Devoted into renewed obedience. The conspiracy conditions clients to ignore any pleas for freedom or claims of sapience by assuring them that these are mere animal mimicry – no more proof of intelligence than a parrot repeating the words it has overheard.

Trait Increases: +2 Finesse

Insurance (Structural): The Web of Pain has long regarded Animal Control as a kind of insurance against unthinkable situations, but they begin offering insurance plans to their clients that cover their services in narrow situations. Several large conspiracies pay a large retention fee to ensure PIETA’s troubleshooters will clean up any little mess the client can’t be bothered with. Even small conspiracies are usually willing to pay into a pool with other conspiracies to protect themselves from catastrophic situations that threaten them all. And if it sometimes strays into a protection racket? Well, the agents of this Node are at least more forgiving of constant complaints about Animal Control from their customers as long as they keep paying their invoices.

Trait Increases: +1 Finesse, +1 Resistance; +1 Association

Privilege: +2 to the Resource Denial effect of Manufacture Complication

Regulars (Structural): PIETA develops lasting relationships with several conspiracies for which it performs regular jobs. This provides a predictable revenue stream at the expense of a little less discretion to refuse jobs that are boring or impossible, or that don’t involve Renegades as targets.

Trait Increases: +1 Finesse, +1 Resistance; +1 Association

Privilege: +2 to Armory effect of Send Agents