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The Threshold

Expression: The Threshold

AX.GHW.08.02.03

Step sideways. Not far. Just far enough.

The Threshold is the most dangerous and most powerful expression of Mediumship, and the one that most clearly marks the tradition as something Haunts carry in their bodies rather than learn from a book. A Haunt practitioner accessing The Threshold is not metaphorically standing at the edge between living and dead. They are physically stepping into the liminal layer, the space that overlaps physical reality but is not identical to it.

This expression has combat applications, but it is not primarily a combat tool. Its primary function is access: to spaces that are physically blocked, to vantage points that physical presence prevents, to the capacity to briefly not be where something dangerous is looking.

Non-Haunt practitioners who develop this expression are notable enough in the hidden world that other Mediums tend to know them by reputation.

The Threshold- Applications

Liminal Step (Primary Action, Threshold 3)

The practitioner steps partially into the liminal for one scene or until they choose to step back.

While Liminal-Stepped:

  • All physical attacks against them are made at Disadvantage (the attacker is striking at something not quite there)
  • They can pass through physical barriers that are not spiritually significant, standard walls, doors, locked vehicles. They cannot pass through consecrated ground, warded thresholds, or objects specifically designed to block liminal traversal.
  • They are visible to all entities with liminal perception. In a space with restless dead, they are immediately and obviously present to all of them.
  • They cannot physically affect the mundane world while Liminal-Stepped, no physical attacks, no picking up objects. Communication with other practitioners or liminal entities is available; communication with non-practitioners is muffled but possible for simple statements.

The practitioner may return to full physical presence as a Free Action.

Scaling: Excess successes allow the practitioner to maintain one physical interaction ability while Liminal-Stepped: either attacks or object manipulation (choose one).

Liminal Transit (Primary Action, Threshold 4)

A brief transit through the liminal layer, vanishing from the current position and reappearing at a confirmed point within Near range without crossing intervening physical space. This counts as movement for the Turn; the practitioner may still act.

Physical barriers between start and end point do not impede transit (unless spiritually significant). The practitioner cannot transit to a warded or consecrated point, or to a location occupied by an entity that is anchoring the liminal there.

Scaling: Each excess success extends transit range by one Band (Near → Far → Distant).

Backlash:

  • Minor: The transit doesn't complete cleanly. The practitioner arrives Staggered (−1D to all actions until end of next Turn) and is briefly visible from both sides, perceptible to all liminal entities within Far range for one round.
  • Moderate: The practitioner arrives displaced, not at the intended destination but at the nearest liminal anchor in the vicinity (a space where someone died, a haunted object, a ghost's attachment point). Within Far range, but not where they wanted to be. A hostile entity present in the space is immediately drawn to the arrival.
  • Severe: The practitioner is caught in the liminal. They do not arrive. They are Removed from the scene until the end of their next Turn, physically absent, unable to act or be targeted. On their Turn, they return at their point of departure (not destination), Strained if not already, and with one Major Condition from the incomplete transit (GM selects: Staggered, Bleeding, or Stunned).