SORCERY
This chapter describes the rules governing sorcery.
Sensing the target
In order to use sorcery against a person or object, the user must be able to sense the subject in some way. This usually means being able to see or touch the target; however, a sorcerer can affect anyone who is currently using sorcery on him even if he has no way to sense his attacker.
Foci
Sorcerers often use a focus to channel supernatural energy. A focus is an enchanted object covered with runes that glow when energy is channelled (the runes must be uncovered for the focus to work). This is usually a wand or staff, but it can also be a place of power, such as a church, a tower, or a circle of stones. Such enormous foci must have a focal point, such as an altar or a pentagram, where the runes are inscribed. This is where the sorcerer must stand in order to use the focus. If this focal point is damaged or desecrated, the place of power ceases to function.
A focus is not required for the use of sorcery any more than a weapon is required for a warrior to hit an enemy - it simply makes the act more effective.
Power and Energy
Every sorcerer has a power level that represents how much supernatural energy he can channel in a single action. This is based on his Command trait and any focus he uses:
Every sorcerous spell has an energy level. To cast a spell of a certain energy, the sorcerer must channel that amount of energy and make a Sorcery roll vs a challenge level based on the range. If a spell is resisted by Defiance or Seheru Sorcery, the Sorcery check is made against that trait plus the range modifiers.
Using sorcery of an energy level less than or equal to one's power level is safe. Failure means only that the target is unaffected.
The energy required by a spell is based on its intensity, area, and duration.
Intensity
Intensity is the raw force of a spell. For attacks, this translates into damage.
Each level of intensity adds one to the energy level to a spell.
Area
By default, spells are directed at a single individual or location. A sorcerer may choose more targets: adding two to the energy level of a spell doubles the number.
| +Energy | Area |
|---|---|
| 0 | 1 |
| 2 | 2 |
| 4 | 4 |
| 6 | 8 |
| 8 | 16 |
| 10 | 32 |
| 12 | 64 |
| etc... | |
The caster makes only one Sorcery roll. Each target defends separately.
Duration
By default, sorcery is fleeting - spells are thrown, defended against, and endured instantaneously. Sorcerers may cast spells of longer durations: adding two to the energy level of a spell doubles the duration.
| +Energy | Actions |
|---|---|
| 0 | 1 |
| 2 | 2 |
| 4 | 4 |
| 6 | 8 |
| 8 | 16 |
| 10 | 32 |
| 12 | 64 |
| etc... | |
The caster makes only one Sorcery roll. Targets defend against this roll twice per round for the duration of the spell.
Alternatively, the sorcerer may choose to cast a spell continuously rather than choose a set duration ahead of time. With this option, the caster must constantly supply the proper amount of skill and energy - trait rolls are made every round. This is functionally the same as casting individual spells on each round for most types of sorcery, but can be useful for Amelatu, Sabatu, and Seheru. Such spells are interrupted if the caster is injured.
Example Spells
| Energy | Intensity | Area | Duration |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10 | 10 | 1 | 1 |
| 10 | 6 | 4 | 1 |
| 10 | 6 | 1 | 4 |
| 10 | 6 | 2 | 2 |
| 12 | 4 | 4 | 4 |
| 12 | 2 | 32 | 1 |
| 12 | 2 | 2 | 16 |
| 16 | 16 | 1 | 1 |
| 16 | 10 | 8 | 1 |
| 18 | 10 | 1 | 16 |
| etc... | |||
Players should name the spells they use most often. This way, the player can tell the Master "I'm casting Lightning Fork" instead of having to say "I'm casting a Mahasu spell of Intensity 10, Area 2, and Duration 1" every time.
Defiance
Sorcery cast at an unwilling target may be resisted. Defiance is used to evade sorcery much like Defense is used to evade physical attacks. To make the spell work, the sorcerer must roll higher than the defiant target. If successful, the Dos of this roll is added to any damage done by the spell.
For destructive spells (those that use Mahasu or Sabatu), the formula goes like this:
The formula is similar for Nekelmu attacks, but replace Health with Sanity.
Though damage to Health and Sanity is cumulative, players should keep track of each injury separately. Note the amount of Health or Sanity done by each attack, adding them together only to determine if the character is dead or catatonic. This is important for later healing (recovering from ten minor injuries is easier than recovering from one serious injury. See Pain and Suffering).
Other types of sorcery do not use this formula. Details below.
Extra Power
A daring sorcerer can cast spells beyond his power level. He must take extra time to channel the additional energy. Each +2 energy beyond his power level requires a doubling of the time required to cast the spell.
Wielding sorcery beyond one's power level is dangerous.
When a sorcerer pushes himself this way, the Master should roll the amount of extra energy channelled as if it were a trait. If this roll is greater than the caster's Sorcery roll for the spell, the sorcerer takes a hit of Stamina and Sanity for every level of the Dos (the degree by which the spell defeated him).
There is no defense against this damage - it could even leave the sorcerer catatonic.
Example: Nik the Wise has a Command of 4 and a staff of power 8. His total power level is 12 (will + focus power).Nik wants to cast a spell of energy 4. With his Command of 4, he can cast this spell in one action even without his staff. With the staff, he can cast a spell of energy 12 in a single action. Failure has no secondary consequences.
If Nik wants to throw a spell of energy 18, it will take him four rounds - one action for 12, two actions (one round) for 14, two rounds for 16, four rounds for 18. The Master then rolls 2d6 + 6 and compares this to the Sorcery roll.
If this roll is higher than Nik's, he takes an amount of Stamina and Sanity equal to the Dos.
Extra Time
If a sorcerer is not confident in his ability to complete a spell successfully, he may choose to take extra time to gain bonuses to his Sorcery roll (as with any other trait). +2 for taking twice as long as required, +4 for taking four times as long, +6 for taking eight times as long, etc.
A caster may take as long as is necessary to complete a spell, even hours or days (at least, until the Master rules that he collapses from exhaustion). The trait roll for the spell is performed at the end of the casting.
If Nik wants to cast a spell of energy 18 but is not confident that he will succeed, he can gain a +6 bonus by taking eight times as long as required: 32 rounds. If he takes 64 rounds, he will get a +8 bonus.For Nik to cast a massive spell of energy 24 would take a minimum of 32 rounds (over 3 minutes). This would require him to roll vs a challenge level of 12 on his Sorcery - a daunting task for the most learned master.
If he opts to take 2048 rounds (nearly 4 hours) to cast the spell, he will have a bonus of +12 for six doublings of the required time.
Physical effects of sorcery
The defense against direct supernatural attacks is always mental, but such attacks may have physical side effects that require physical defenses. A fireball created by Mahasu could be evaded by the Defiance of a character, yet turn the forest around that character into a very physical inferno. A telekinetic Sabatu attack can be evaded by Defiance, destroyed by Seheru, or endured by Willpower and negation; but if the attack were made against a nearby boulder instead, the target would have to use Defense or Constitution and armor.
Magical forces do not allow for fine control, however. A physical phenomenon created as the result of a magical force cannot be aimed at a character with any sort of precision. Most should be easier to avoid than a direct assault, having a challenge level of 0 to 5 except in unfortunate circumstances (such as the caster using Sabatu to drop a big rock down a well where a character is hiding).
Group Rituals
It is possible for multiple sorcerers to cooperate in the casting of a single spell. This is uncommon, as it requires all of the spellcasters to voluntarily subordinate their will to that of the leader. This causes the subordinates to be entranced and helpless until the leader relinquishes command or has his concentration broken. In addition, any spell failures cause damage to everyone involved. To engage in a group ritual is an act of faith and trust.
Needless to say, this activity is more common among hierarchical religious orders or restless cults than among individualist scholars or adventurers.
When conducting a group ritual, the leader will receive a +2 to his power level for each doubling in the number of followers - one follower gives +2, two followers gives +4, four followers gives +6, etc.
Group rituals give the leader access to vast amounts of power, but add nothing to the leader's skill. Thus, leaders must be cautious in their casting - a particularly bad failure could kill the leader and all his followers.
For this reason, group rituals are often scheduled as full day (or night) events.
Blood Sacrifice
In addition to the ability possessed by every character to sacrifice Stamina for temporary boosts, a sorcerer may choose to sacrifice his Health or Sanity for extra energy. Each point of Health or Sanity sacrificed will give the caster +1 to the energy of a spell.
Health and Sanity can be sacrificed at the same time. The amount sacrificed is counted as one "wound" for healing purposes.
Types of Sorcery
Below is the list of the branches of sorcery, with details on the things that can be done with each kind.
Amelatu
This sorcery allows the user to open mystical doorways to other realms.
Portals are elliptical or circular in shape. The amount of energy required to create a portal is determined by the size of the portal and the duration for which the portal will stay open.
An energy level of zero can create a portal one space in diameter that lasts for one round. Each +2 energy can be used to double the area or the duration of the portal.
| Power | Area | Diameter |
|---|---|---|
| 0 | 1 | 1 |
| 2 | 2 | 1.5 |
| 4 | 4 | 2 |
| 6 | 8 | 3 |
| 8 | 16 | 4 |
| 10 | 32 | 6 |
| 12 | 64 | 8 |
The size of a portal must be large enough for whatever the sorcerer wishes to transport. Sights and sounds require only small portals. Normal humans can squeeze through a portal of size 1 or walk upright through a portal of size 4.
Upon casting, the sorcerer chooses the size of the portal and the realm that it will connect to. If the caster chooses to keep the portal open continuously, he can vary its size from round to round. The worlds connected, however, are fixed when the spell is cast.
The difficulty of an Amelatu spell depends on the "distance" between the two worlds. This distance is chosen by The Master, as he must decide how much otherworldly travel He wishes to allow in his campaign.
A sorcerer can connect a portal to any world with which he is familiar (i.e., he has been there). To connect the portal to a realm that he has never visited will increase the difficulty - the less familiar the realm, the higher the challenge. In order to shift the farside of a portal to a completely unfamiliar place, the caster may have to first seek answers through research or mysticism.
Amelatu portals are symmetric. When a portal is created, individuals in both worlds will see a glowing gateway and a glimpse of what lies on the other side. Anyone who can reach the portal, in either world, can go through it. Not only that, but the portal in each world is two-sided - this means that if a portal is opened from dry land to a place that is underwater, water will begin to spew in two opposite directions, not one.
Portals can be affected from either world. Sorcerers on either side may try to take control of it with Sorcery if they have the Amelatu gift. Whoever rolls the highest on any given round gains control of the portal and can decide its size the next round, but they are then required to supply the trait rolls and supernatural energies necessary to maintain the gateway.
The plane of a portal is always perpendicular to the controlling sorcerer; that is, one of the portal's two apertures directly faces the caster. If a one sorcerer takes control of a portal from another, the portal will rotate to face the new master.
Portals can be dispelled from either side by Seheru.
Amelatu can be used to gather allies from other worlds. The ability to locate exotic creatures, however, does not automatically allow the sorcerer to make friends with them. One who wants an otherworldly servant should be prepared to bribe, bully, or beg - and things from another world may not speak the sorcerer's language.
Amelatu portals are less useful for travelling from place to place within a single world. If a sorcerer steps through a portal into another world, walks ten miles, then steps through another portal to get back to the first world, he will find himself ten miles from the spot where he stepped through the first portal, in the same direction that he was walking in the other realm. Thus, Amelatu may be used to avoid certain physical barriers or known dangers of our world, but it will not save much time - and other worlds have barriers and dangers of their own.
Note also that this sorcery does not confer any special life support upon a traveller - if the user opens a portal to a place filled with a harmful substance (lava, acid, or the pressurized water at the bottom of an ocean), he will probably destroy himself and his immediate area.
There untold numbers of parallel realms. The sorcerer who plans on exploration ought to have some knowledge of the place to be reached (gained from books, fellow travellers, or mysticism) before attempting to travel there - to open a portal to a random world that the caster knows nothing about is suicidal.
Mahasu
Mahasu is the art of manipulating the energies of the world, such as heat, light, sound, and lightning. It allows the sorcerer to unleash destruction with a thought.
This can be used to blast a foe from afar. This can come in the form of heat, cold, lightning, or anything else that the caster can come up with, so long as it is only a change in energy - Mahasu can not be used to create matter.
Mahasu can also be used to create blinding light or deafening noise to distract and terrorize opponents. The "damage" of such a spell is applied as a penalty to the targets' Initiative on the following round.
Nekelmu
Nekelmu is the art of manipulating minds. It can be used to read minds, to project thoughts, and to control lesser beings.
The user can read the surface thoughts of intelligent creatures with a successful trait roll. The challenge level depends upon how familiar the mind is to the mentalist.
| Familiarity | Challenge Level |
|---|---|
| friend | 0 |
| acquaintance | 5 |
| stranger | 10 |
| alien | 15+ |
Anyone who is aware that his mind is being read may try to use Defiance to stop it from happening. The challenge level should be added to the target's Defiance roll.
The user can read surface thoughts - thoughts that the target is having at the present moment - without the subject being aware of the intrusion. Reading deeper, like into the subject's memory or subconscious, is more intrusive and instantly makes the subject aware that his mind is being probed.
The user may also project thoughts into the minds of others with a successful trait roll (determined and resisted much like mind reading). This allows the sorcerer to communicate things to others without speaking. The recipient knows that he is being contacted by another mind, but does not automatically know who the mind belongs to. Only the use of his own Nekelmu or Mysticism can tell him who sent the message.
Users of Nekelmu may charge up their thought projection to a level that causes pain and damage to their subjects mind. This can knock someone unconscious or drive them insane.
The use of Nekelmu to cause suffering is far less subtle than using it to read minds. The penalties for using it against an unfamiliar subject do not apply.
Finally, Nekelmu can be used to control mindless automatons. If more than one user is vying for control of the same automaton, the higher roll wins for the round.
It is not uncommon for two enemy Nekelmu masters to resolve their hatred by an honorable duel - the two sit down across from one another and simply stare until one of them is unconscious or catatonic. The average person would not notice that anything was happening unless the masters used foci in their duel.
Sabatu
Sabatu lets a sorcerer move things with his mind. It functions like Strength, but can be used at a distance.
In addition to direct attacks, Sabatu can be used to paralyze. This requires the spell to be cast continuously or with an extended duration. A character so held cannot move or perform any physical actions until freed. Freedom can come from Defiance, from Seheru, or because the sorcerer has to stop the spell.
Note that being held by Sabatu does not prevent a character from using sorcery of his own.
A user of Sabatu may also attack a foe indirectly by hurling a big rock, tipping over a pillar, or something similar. If target is a sorcerer, he may try to prevent the attacker from succeeding via Seheru. Otherwise, the target must try to avoid the physical danger with the Defense trait. The first case is resolved as a normal sorcerous contest. In the second case, the defensive roll required of the victim is independent of the trait roll made by the attacker. The Master should simply assign a challenge level based on the size of the incoming object (usually fair to moderate).
Such indirect attacks are widely considered by sorcerers to be foul, like a swordsman kicking sand in an opponent's face. An honorable sorcerer will not use them.
Seheru
Seheru is anti-sorcery. It allows the user to nullify spells and create magical wards.
Seheru cannot be used to negate the physical effects of spells that have already taken place. If a magical fire has roasted a character, Seheru will not heal the burn. If a sorcerer has blinded a foe with Mahasu, Seheru will not restore the person's sight.
To nullify an existing magical spell, a sorcerer must make a Sorcery roll vs that of the other caster. If successful, the spell is nullified.
Seheru can be used as a defensive action, the mental equivalent of a block. If the sorcerer sees a supernatural attack in progress, he can attempt to dispel it before it takes effect. The attack need not even be aimed at the sorcerer himself. Range penalties apply if the sorcerer is trying to dispel something aimed at a distant target.
Seheru can be used to set up magical wards. This is nothing more than a normal dispel with additional area and duration. Any supernatural spell or entity that enters the area will be hit with the dispel. The trait roll, made when the spell is first cast, is then compared to the trait roll of whatever sorcery has entered the area. If the Seheru roll is higher, the other magic is nullified - at least for the duration of the Seheru spell or for as long as the invading sorcery remains in its area. Instantaneous spells disappear, but entities or spells with high duration may exist after the ward ends.
The Master may wish to rule that Seheru can only be used to dispel magic that is of roughly equal in power to, or less powerful than, that of the user. This is similar to the limitations placed on melee fighters when blocking - The Master may allow a fighter to block a massive sword with a small dagger, but will probably not let the fighter block a catapulted boulder even with a large shield.
Alternatively, He may rule that larger spells are weakened by an amount equal to the energy of the Seheru. This option should be used only when the sorcery in question is far greater than that of the Seheru caster.
Talamu
This sorcery gives the user control over the forces of life and death. It allows the transfer of Health or Sanity between living creatures.
The individuals to be affected must be within touching distance of the sorcerer. He need not actually touch them; he just needs to be close enough to run his hands through their supernatural auras.
Such transfers may be voluntary or involuntary. Those who transfer their own lifeforce to willing recipients are regarded as compassionate healers. Those who steal the lifeforce of others for their own purposes are seen as vile necromancers.
Voluntary transfers happen automatically. The sorcerer can transfer an amount of Health or Sanity (or some of both) equal to the energy level of the spell plus his Sorcery.
Involuntary transfers are resolved as follows:
Nothing can absorb more Health or Sanity than it normally has. If a completely healthy and sane sorcerer drains life from a victim without transferring it to a suitable beneficiary, the extra lifeforce is lost to the winds.
A Talamu user must be cautious when taking lifeforce from others. If the provider of the lifeforce is not healthy, any illnesses or infections possessed are transferred to the sorcerer and to any other beneficiary of the transfer. The same goes for mental illnesses.
Transfers of lifeforce between sentient and non-sentient beings are not possible. Beasts do not possess the same type of life force as intelligent beings. Talamu is useless against such creatures.
Talamu also allows the user to feel the emotions of creatures that are near, human or not. This is a sense, like Perception or Mysticism; it has a range increment of 2.