COINMANCER

"Yes, it hurts. Everything worth having does."

— Lena Voss, financial architect of the Pale Meridian

The Coinmancer long ago stopped pretending that Corruption was an affliction. It is simply another currency — one that buys what ordinary money cannot.

The Coinmancer may choose to accept Corruption voluntarily.

For each point of Corruption accepted this way, gain 1,000 Credits.

There is no upper limit to how much Corruption the Coinmancer may accept in a single use, beyond the risks of accumulating Corruption itself.

"Everything I touch turns to gold. That stopped being a metaphor a long time ago."

— A Coinmancer, counting the cost of a golden corpse

Some debts are paid in flesh. Others are paid in the fundamental transmutation of matter itself — and the Coinmancer has long since learned which is cheaper.

"Power isn't given. It's purchased. And I have very deep pockets."

— Cassius Vane, Coinmancer of the Obsidian Exchange

Every Coinmancer learns early that the Void does not answer prayers — it answers invoices.

The Coinmancer may spend Credits before triggering a VoidCall to increase its damage output.

Every 1,000 Credits spent adds +1 damage to the VoidCall.

The maximum bonus damage from this ability cannot exceed the Coinmancer's Willpower Modifier.

Credits spent this way are consumed regardless of whether the VoidCall hits.

"You want it gone? Then pay. Absolution has always had a price."

— Auditor Sabel Rhyne, senior ledger-priest of the Void Exchange

Corruption is not a wound — it is an outstanding balance. And every outstanding balance can, in theory, be settled.

"Every credit I spend on you is an investment. Try not to die before I see the return."

— Overheard from a Coinmancer field commander, three seconds before a frontal assault

Capital is never idle. The Coinmancer has learned to redirect the momentum of expenditure into a living buffer — coin spent in the field becomes resilience, briefly but undeniably. The body accepts the conversion. The market is not sentimental about the mechanism.

It is not generosity. It is liquidity management. The distinction matters only to people who have never had either.

Whenever you spend credits using any Coinmancer ability in combat, gain temporary HP equal to the credits spent divided by 2,000 (round down, minimum 0).

The maximum temporary HP you can hold from this ability at any one time equals your Willpower Mod.

Temporary HP from this ability lasts until the start of your next turn, then expires entirely.

Multiple expenditures in a single turn do not stack beyond the Willpower Mod cap — only the highest value applies.

"Your weapon isn't worth what you paid for it. Neither, as it turns out, are you."

— Coinmancer negotiator, final offer

Value is not inherent. It is assigned, maintained, and — if you know how — revoked. The Coinmancer injects targeted devaluation into a target's armaments and protection, rewriting the fundamental worth of the materials mid-engagement. Steel that was worth something is, briefly, worth considerably less.

The target feels no incantation. No warning. Their blade simply hits softer. Their armour stops less. The ledger was corrected, and they weren't consulted.

"The bet was placed before the blade moved. The outcome was never really in question."

— Coinmancer duelist's post-match statement

Risk is not the enemy of profit. Risk, properly managed and correctly priced, is the engine of it. The Coinmancer commits capital before the strike lands, binding intent to outcome through the Void's own accounting. Success amplifies the wound. Failure costs exactly what was wagered — nothing more, nothing less.

The universe does not forgive reckless bets, but it respects large ones. There is no ceiling because there was never meant to be one.

"I'm not taking anything from you. I'm offering you a deal. Whether it's a good one depends entirely on how long you plan to live."

— Coinmancer, before combat, to a desperate ally

The Void accepts collateral of all kinds. The Coinmancer has learned to broker arrangements between willing parties and the dark economy that underlies all things — converting soul-depth into temporary enhancement, and taking a reasonable commission in the process. The ally chooses the terms. The Coinmancer simply facilitates the transaction.

No one is forced. That is the part they always remember later, when they are sitting with the Corruption and wondering what, exactly, they agreed to.

"You didn't think touching me was free, did you?"

— Coinmancer, mid-combat, mildly amused

The Coinmancer's body has been so thoroughly reconditioned by the Void's economic logic that violence against them functions as a commercial transaction. Every blow landed carries an implicit invoice. Most creatures cannot pay it. The Void is not interested in payment plans.

The surcharge is not retribution. It is simply correct pricing. Access to the Coinmancer's person has always had a cost — it is merely, finally, enforced.

Whenever an enemy deals damage to you, they must immediately pay 500cr or take 1 Void damage.

For creatures that do not possess credits — which includes most enemies — this automatically and unavoidably deals 1 Void damage per hit.

This triggers on every instance of damage, including multi-hit attacks. Each hit is a separate transaction.

This effect cannot be avoided through saves or contested rolls. The surcharge is structural.

"Every blow you land on me is a liability you're accruing. Keep swinging. I'll collect at the end."

— Cassius Vane, to a creditor who chose violence

The Coinmancer does not merely survive punishment — they commodify it. Pain is just another ledger entry, and the interest is compound.

Whenever an enemy deals damage to you, they must pass a Mental Defence check (tn12 + Willpower Modifier) or gain a Debt Mark.

Marked enemies suffer −1 to all damage rolls per Debt Mark they carry (maximum 3 Debt Marks per target).

As an Action, the Coinmancer may remove all Debt Marks from a single target within line of sight, gaining 1,000 Credits per mark removed.

Debt Marks expire at the end of the encounter if not collected.

"You all entered this room with something to lose. I just made it official."

— Coinmancer, opening statement

Debt does not require consent. It requires only a creditor willing to enforce the terms and a mechanism sufficient to impose them. The Coinmancer floods a zone with economic reality — a sudden, systemic recognition that everyone present owes more than they have. The marks appear without ceremony. The consequences accumulate with interest.

This is not an attack. It is a reclassification. They were already in debt. The Coinmancer simply made it visible.

"You think the rot is a warning. It isn't. It's a dividend."

— Coinmancer field report, recovered from a Void-touched operative

Most practitioners of the void arts regard Corruption as a liability — a mounting cost with no redemption. The Coinmancer has read the fine print. The Void does not inflict corruption as punishment. It inflicts it as interest accrued on an investment. The Coinmancer simply collects the return.

The deeper the marks go, the sharper the mind becomes. The universe rewards those willing to pay in advance.

For every 2 points of Corruption you carry, gain +1 to all Willpower-based checks and attack flips.

At 2 Corruption: +1

At 4 Corruption: +2

At 6 Corruption: +3

The maximum bonus from this ability is +3, regardless of total Corruption carried.

This bonus recalculates automatically whenever your Corruption total changes.

Odd Corruption values round down (e.g., 3 Corruption = +1, 5 Corruption = +2).

"The first mark was a warning. The second was a promise. The third is collection."

— Coinmancer, before triggering the extraction

Interest compounds. That is its nature — it grows on top of itself, accruing in silence until the debtor cannot remember a time before the weight of it. The Coinmancer's Debt Marks have always been a form of extractable value. Compound Interest ensures the extraction costs the debtor more than they budgeted for.

The credits flow in. The damage flows out. The Weakened state that follows is not cruelty — it is simply the body's response to having something fundamental removed from it.

When you collect Debt Marks using Debt Spiral's collection action, in addition to the 1,000cr per mark already gained:

The target takes 1 Void damage per mark collected.

The target becomes Weakened until the end of their next turn.

The Weakened condition applies once per collection action, regardless of how many marks are collected simultaneously.

This upgrade applies automatically whenever Debt Spiral's collection action is used. No additional action or cost is required.

"You can stop struggling. I own the space you're standing in."

— Coinmancer, watching a target fail their second save

The wealthy have always understood that the most elegant prisons are the ones the occupant cannot see. The Coinmancer extrudes a cage of transmuted Void-gold around a target — not metaphorically, but structurally, in the seams of reality itself. The cost scales with what is being contained. Larger threats require a larger investment. The market is rational about this.

They can feel the bars. They simply cannot move past them. Money has a weight that ordinary materials cannot match.

"You mistake refinement for weakness. That is, I find, a very common and very expensive mistake."

— Coinmancer, to an opponent who thought the pause meant hesitation

The Void does not simply wound those it touches. It also sharpens them — or rather, it sharpens those with the acumen to convert exposure into advantage. The Coinmancer has learned to direct this refinement deliberately, routing the dark current of accumulated power into the channels most likely to return value.

The body improves. The ledger reflects it.

Increase any one Statistic by +1

You may not exceed the stat cap of 6

This increase reflects physical, mental, or cybernetic growth—interpret freely during character development

"I don't care what caused it. I care what it costs to fix it. Those are different conversations."

— Coinmancer field medic, which is not a title they would accept

Healers pray. Surgeons cut. The Coinmancer pays. The mechanism is not explained to the recipient — only the result is relevant, and the result is the immediate dissolution of whatever condition was impairing function. The Void maintains certain markets that conventional medicine cannot access. The Coinmancer has the account credentials.

Severe conditions cost more because they are worth more to remove. This is not a moral calculus. It is a pricing structure.

"Three marks. Look at them. You can feel it now, can't you? That's what owing everything actually feels like."

— Coinmancer, watching a maximally-marked target attempt an attack

There is a threshold past which debt is no longer a financial condition — it becomes a physical one. The Coinmancer's marks, when accumulated to their limit, achieve a critical mass of Void-weight that the body cannot ignore. The debtor moves slower. Their strikes land wrong. Their instincts, usually reliable, begin to second-guess themselves.

The marks do not lie. Maximum debt has always felt exactly like this. The Coinmancer simply made it legible.

While a creature carries the maximum of 3 Debt Marks, they suffer the following additional penalties on top of the −3 damage already imposed by the marks themselves:

−1 to all attack flips.

−1 to all saves.

These additional penalties apply only at the maximum of 3 marks. Creatures with 1 or 2 marks do not gain the extra penalties.

Removing any Debt Mark from the creature (by any means) immediately removes these additional penalties until they reach 3 marks again.

This passive requires no action to activate and cannot be suppressed by the marked creature.

"Your body is a company. I've just acquired a controlling interest."

— Coinmancer, after a successful [[Willpower]] contest

Autonomy is a resource. Like all resources, it can be purchased, at sufficient price, from someone who does not understand its value until the moment it is gone. The Coinmancer routes ten thousand credits through the Void's intermediary systems and emerges as the temporary majority shareholder of another creature's decision-making apparatus. The creature remains aware. That is, functionally, the point.

They watch themselves stand still. They understand the transaction perfectly. They simply cannot outbid it.

"Today I'm not spending [[Void Energy]]. I'm spending money. The Void can invoice me."

— Coinmancer, declaring the singularity before a devastating turn

At a sufficient level of integration with Void economics, the distinction between psionic reserve and liquid capital becomes administrative rather than fundamental. Both are stores of potential. Both convert to output. The Coinmancer has stopped pretending the Void cares which account is drawn from, provided the ledger balances by the end of the turn.

The Void will accept payment in credits. It has always been open to the arrangement. No one bothered to ask until now.

"You'll notice your arms feel heavier. Your feet, slower. That's not exhaustion. That's economic conditions."

— Coinmancer, watching a zone settle over a battlefield

Markets contract. When they do, everyone inside them contracts with them. The Coinmancer has learned to induce a localised economic collapse — a region of the battlefield where the abstract weight of a failing market becomes a physical drag on those caught within it. Attacks slow. Movement becomes costly. The invisible hand, in this instance, pushes down.

The zone is invisible. It does not announce itself. Enemies feel the downturn before they identify the source, and by then the Coinmancer has already moved on to the next position.

"I've already used that move once today. I know. I'm using it again. The Void and I have an arrangement."

— Coinmancer, mid-negotiation with the universe

The Void does not forgive limitations — but it does, for a price, waive them. The Coinmancer has identified an intermediary layer in the cosmic ledger where spent potential has not yet fully resolved into history. For double the original cost, it can be unwound and redeployed. The Void charges a premium. The Coinmancer pays it without flinching.

Running the same play twice in a single engagement is not desperation. It is a business decision. The math has already been done.

"You've already taken damage. Good. That means you're affordable."

— Coinmancer, calculating the cost of a wounded target

Golden Cage was an opening position. Gilded Prison is the mature version — refined, more efficient, and considerably more punishing to those foolish enough to remain inside it. The cost now tracks not what the target was worth at full health, but what they are worth now: injured, bleeding, and cheaper by the wound. The cage is the same. The invoice is revised.

The marks accumulate while they stand there, unable to act. The debt compounds. The extraction, when it comes, is merely the conclusion of an arithmetic that was inevitable the moment the cage closed.

"I removed the ceiling. The floor is still there. That's the only concession the Void was willing to make."

— Coinmancer, reviewing their own ability notes before a major engagement

Price of Power was always a controlled instrument — a measured exchange with a hard limit built in by the body's tolerance for Corruption. Infinite Leverage dissolves that limit. The exchange continues past what the flesh was meant to accommodate. The Void accepts the excess. The Coinmancer's soul provides the collateral.

The ceiling is gone. The damage climbs as high as the wallet allows. The soul cost climbs with it. These facts are not in conflict. They are the same fact, stated from two different perspectives.

The Willpower Mod cap on Price of Power is permanently removed.

You may now spend any amount of credits to boost a VoidCall's damage, beyond the previous cap of Willpower Mod × 1,000cr.

For every 5,000cr spent beyond the original cap (calculated as your current Willpower Mod × 1,000cr at the time of spending), gain 1 Corruption.

The Corruption gained this way follows all normal Corruption rules and triggers immediately upon spending.

Credits spent within the original cap function exactly as Price of Power always did — no Corruption is gained for those credits.

"I don't celebrate kills. I log them."

— Coinmancer, after a teammate's finishing blow

Nothing leaves the Void's economy without generating a final entry. Every death within the Coinmancer's proximity is a closed account — residual value, unrealised at the moment of termination, bleeding off into the ambient field. The Coinmancer has installed the infrastructure to capture that bleed. The credits arrive without effort. The Void settles automatically.

It does not distinguish between allies and enemies. Life has a residual value regardless of whose side it was on. The Coinmancer finds this morally irrelevant and financially elegant.

Whenever any creature within 30ft of you dies, gain credits equal to their remaining HP at the moment of death × 200.

This triggers for any death — enemies, neutral creatures, creatures killed by allies, and allied deaths.

You do not need to take any action. The credit gain is automatic and instantaneous.

"Remaining HP" refers to the creature's HP at the moment they reach 0 HP or die — not their maximum HP.

This ability cannot be suppressed or blocked by the dying creature.

"Bankruptcy isn't a process. It's a moment. You'll know it when it arrives."

— Coinmancer, spending 25,000 credits on a single target

There is a version of debt accumulation that takes months — the slow erosion of resource and credit until nothing remains. And then there is the version the Coinmancer delivers: instantaneous, total, catastrophic. Twenty-five thousand credits buys the right to skip the erosion entirely and deliver the ending directly. The marks appear all at once. The weight arrives without warning.

If Compound Interest is active, the extraction follows immediately. Three marks. Three thousand credits. Three Void damage. The Weakened state. All of it, in a single transaction. Bankruptcy, as it turns out, can happen in under a second.

"It was always going to end up in better hands. I simply accelerated the timeline."

— Coinmancer, catching a repossessed weapon

Ownership is a social contract. The Void does not recognise social contracts. It recognises only which entity has the stronger claim, and the Coinmancer's twenty thousand credits constitute a claim that most legal frameworks would find difficult to challenge — largely because the Void does not have a legal framework, only a ledger. The item moves. The former owner watches it go.

Permanently. There is no appeals process. The Void is not a court.

"Existence in this room, as of thirty thousand credits ago, has become very expensive. You'll feel the adjustment shortly."

— Coinmancer, 0.3 seconds before the ability resolves

At sufficient scale, economic collapse does not merely slow commerce — it breaks cognition. The Coinmancer invests thirty thousand credits into a single catastrophic market-wide event, flooding every hostile mind in the encounter with the full, sudden comprehension of their own financial annihilation. The successful resist and are merely disoriented. The rest are stopped entirely.

There is no position in this room that isn't inside the Coinmancer's market. The cognitive economy collapses for everyone but you. That was always the intended outcome.

"I have not changed. I have optimised. The difference is that optimisation compounds."

— Coinmancer, in response to a comment about their demeanour

A decade of Void exposure, credit manipulation, and systemic self-refinement does not leave the practitioner unchanged — it leaves them sharper, in the precise ways that matter. The Coinmancer at peak discipline has converted their accumulated experience into measurable, permanent enhancement. The Void does not give gifts. It acknowledges investments.

Two points. Any distribution. The ledger closes with a surplus.

Increase two different Statistics by +1

No individual stat may exceed the cap of 6

"You think mastery is about power. It isn't. It's about overhead. Mine is very, very low."

— Coinmancer, reviewing their ability costs after reaching peak discipline

Efficiency is the final frontier. The Coinmancer who has operated at this level for long enough has negotiated standing arrangements with the underlying structure of the Void economy — bulk discounts, preferred rates, the kind of deal that only becomes available after years of reliable volume. The universe, it turns out, rewards loyalty with margin.

Every credit saved is a credit redirected. At this scale, a twenty-five percent reduction compounds into something that makes previously impossible expenditures trivially achievable. The market was never closed. It simply required a qualified buyer.

All Coinmancer abilities that have a credit cost have that cost reduced by 25% (round down to the nearest 500cr).

This discount applies universally — ability activation costs, Golden Cage / Gilded Prison scaling costs, Hostile Takeover, Leveraged Strike bets, and all other credit expenditures from Coinmancer abilities.

The 25% reduction is calculated at the moment of spending and applied before any other modifiers.

This passive is always active and requires no action to maintain.

"I stopped thinking of them as different things a long time ago. The Void agreed with me eventually."

— Coinmancer, when asked about their [[Void Energy]] reserves

At the apex of Coinmancer discipline, the boundary between psionic reserve and liquid capital is revealed to have always been a convenient fiction — a conceptual partition maintained by practitioners who lacked the confidence to collapse it. The Coinmancer collapses it. Credits and Void Energy flow through the same underlying ledger. The Void does not resist this. It was, in retrospect, waiting for someone to notice.

If you have the money, you have the power. If you have the power, you have the money. At this level, the distinction has stopped existing.

Credits and Void Energy become fully interchangeable for you.

You may spend 1,000cr as if it were 1 Void Energy on any ability that costs Void Energy, at the moment that cost is incurred.

You may also convert Void Energy to credits at any time as a Free Action: 1 Void Energy = 1,000cr. This conversion is instantaneous.

There is no limit to how many conversions you may perform per turn.

The credit-to-Void Energy conversion does not trigger additional costs or Corruption unless the ability being powered normally would.