Tina and the Gnolls

Despair and helplessness nearly crushed Mrs. Hilgaf. Stronger than a man and no stranger to hard work, she had faced hardship after hardship since her husband's death, yet now she could see no way forward. She had sometimes thought her scrawny husband was useless. Only now did she understand what that man, who weighed less than two-thirds as much as she did, had carried on his shoulders.

That was when Freya appeared...

Mrs. Hilgaf and her two daughters prayed devoutly. Before them hung a tapestry bearing an abstract symbol. Green had given it to Freya and the others; the symbol represented Divinity. Faith Power generated by prayers to it would gather around Green.

The symbol was, in fact, a "signal booster." It let believers of weak or false faith channel their Faith Power to Green.

Having founded the Shadow Trade Association, Green intended to treat business as business. He would not make a losing deal. No matter how gifted a new believer was, he would not spend Psychic Energy to grant them transcendent abilities outright. Of course, under present circumstances, most such talents had already been discovered and recruited into Transcendent organizations or the Knights Academy. Few had truly slipped through the net.

Besides, the Shadow Trade Association recruited foolish men and women from the bottom of society. After a lifetime of poverty, who knew what they might do if they suddenly gained transcendent abilities? Before Green spent dozens of points of Psychic Energy on them, he had to make them pray every day and strengthen their faith in him.

This both trained their bodies, minds, and wills, and turned their faith into Psychic Energy. Once they had accumulated enough, Green would grant them abilities. Even if they immediately went mad and attacked the Anomalies Bureau, neither he nor the