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.
Skill
Skill at sorcery is based on Intellect. The character rolls this trait to determine if a spell succeeds.
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 an Intellect roll vs a challenge level based on the range. If a spell is resisted by Defiance, the sorcery check is made against that trait plus the range modifier.
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 (minimum is zero).
Area
By default, spells are directed at a single individual or location. A sorcerer may choose more targets: adding 3 to the energy level of a spell doubles the number.
| +Energy | Area |
|---|---|
| 0 | 1 |
| 3 | 2 |
| 6 | 4 |
| 9 | 8 |
| 12 | 16 |
| 15 | 32 |
| 18 | 64 |
| etc... | |
The caster makes only one Intellect roll. The dx may be different for different targets.
Duration
By default, sorcery is fleeting - spells are thrown, defended against, and resisted in one action. Spells may last longer: adding 3 to the energy level of a spell doubles the duration.
| +Energy | Actions |
|---|---|
| 0 | 1 |
| 3 | 2 |
| 6 | 4 |
| 9 | 8 |
| 12 | 16 |
| 15 | 32 |
| 18 | 64 |
| etc... | |
The caster makes only one roll. Targets are affected based on the dx of the initial 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.
Example Spells
| Energy | Intensity | Area | Duration |
|---|---|---|---|
| 6 | 6 | 1 | 1 |
| 6 | 3 | 4 | 1 |
| 6 | 3 | 1 | 4 |
| 6 | 0 | 2 | 2 |
| 9 | 3 | 4 | 1 |
| 9 | 0 | 8 | 1 |
| 9 | 0 | 2 | 4 |
| 12 | 12 | 1 | 1 |
| 12 | 3 | 8 | 1 |
| 12 | 0 | 1 | 16 |
| 12 | 6 | 2 | 2 |
| 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 in the same way Defense is used to evade physical attacks. To make an attack spell work, the sorcerer must roll his Intellect versus the Defiance of the target. If successful, the dx of this roll is added to the intensity of the spell.
Subtract the victim's Willpower from the intensity of the spell. If the target is a sorcerer who applied his focus to Willpower on this round, subtract that value as well. The final result is the intensity that affects the target (minimum of 1 if the dx is greater than zero).
For destructive spells, this means a number of stuns equal to the intensity. Nekelmu sorcery attacks sanity rather than health; it does shocks rather than wounds if the victim has 10 or more stuns.
Example: Vunata, a Kephite priest, has the initiative and wishes to make Juk and Tam suffer. He has a Command of 6 and a focus of power 8, giving him a total power level of 14. He likes fire, so he decides to attack with Mahasu sorcery; he chooses a spell of intensity 8, area 2 (to hit both enemies), and duration 2 (he wants them to suffer longer).Vunata rolls a seven and adds this to his Intellect (5) for a total of 12. Juk has an Intellect of 2, giving him a Defiance of 9 - the dx is 3, so the spell affects him with an intensity of 11. Tam has an Intellect of 6, giving her a Defiance of 13 - she is unaffected.
Juk subtracts his Willpower (6) from the intensity of the spell (11) to get 5. This would cause 5 stuns, but Juk opts to forego one action this round in order to concentrate, improving his Willpower by 2 and reducing the damage to 3. Had he foregone both actions, he could have improved his Willpower by 4 and reduced the damage to 1.
Juk will continue to be affected by the intensity 11 spell for the next three actions unless the spell is nullified.
Frustrated by failure, Vunata uses his second action to cast a spell of intensity 14 at Tam alone. He hits with a dx of 1. Fortunately, Tam has her focus applied to resistance rather than sorcery at the moment; she adds her focus power (8) to her Willpower (7) and subtracts this from the attack's intensity, leaving zero. Because the attack had a dx greater than zero, however, she still takes 1 stun.
Extra Power
A daring sorcerer can cast spells beyond his power level. He must take extra time to channel the additional energy. Each +3 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, he must roll greater than the amount of extra energy channelled plus seven. If he fails, the spell fails and he takes a number of stuns equal to the dx (the amount by which the spell defeated him). There is no defense against this - 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 21, it will take him four rounds - one action for 12, two actions (one round) for 15, two rounds for 18, four rounds for 21. He has channelled 9 more points of energy than his power level, so must roll greater than 16 on his Intellect roll.
Nik rolls a 7. Adding this to his Intellect (6) gives 13 - 3 less than was needed. The spell fails, and Nik takes 3 stuns. If he had 9 stuns when he cast the spell, he would take 2 shocks as well.
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 Intellect roll. He gets +2 for taking twice as long as required, +4 for taking four times as long, +6 for taking eight times as long, up to a maximum of +10.
A caster may take as long as is necessary to complete a spell, even hours or days (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 21 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 30 would take a minimum of 32 rounds (over 3 minutes). This would require him to roll vs a challenge level of 25 on his Sorcery - a daunting task for the most learned master.
If he opts to take 1024 rounds (nearly 4 hours) to cast the spell, he will have a bonus of +10 for five 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; but if the attack were made against a nearby boulder instead, the target would have to use Athlete or Constitution and armor.
Supernatural 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 8 or less 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 +3 to his power level for each doubling in the number of followers - one follower gives +3, two followers gives +6, four followers gives +9, etc.
Harnessing such power is difficult. The leader must roll greater on his Intellect check than the extra energy channeled plus seven. Failure has the same consequences as Extra Power above - the leader and all of his followers take a number of stuns equal to the dx.
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 destroy the leader and all his followers. For this reason, group rituals are often scheduled as full day (or night) events.
Blood Sacrifice
A sorcerer may choose to sacrifice his health or sanity for extra energy. He may add an amount of energy equal to the number of stuns he inflicts upon himself. If he inflicts a number of stuns to give him 10 or more, he causes himself to faint unconscious. If he inflicts enough to give him greater than 10 stuns, he also inflicts wounds or shocks upon himself (player's choice). Health (wounds) and sanity (shocks) may be sacrificed at the same time.
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 +3 energy can be used to double the area or the duration of the portal.
| Energy | Area | Diameter |
|---|---|---|
| 0 | 1 | 1 |
| 3 | 2 | 1.5 |
| 6 | 4 | 2 |
| 9 | 8 | 3 |
| 12 | 16 | 4 |
| 15 | 32 | 6 |
| 18 | 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 walk upright through a portal of size 1.
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 Intuition.
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 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.
The topography of different realms is not the same. When opening a portal at an unfamiliar location, a sorcerer will often find that his portal is high above the ground, underground, or underwater in the world he desires to visit.
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 Intuition) 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 intensity of such a spell is applied as a penalty to the targets' Initiatives. If a target has not yet acted, the penalty is applied on the current round; if the target has acted, the penalty is applied to 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 | 6 |
| acquaintance | 9 |
| stranger | 12 |
| 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.
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 Intuition 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 Athlete 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.
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 spell, a sorcerer must roll his Intellect vs the other caster's Defiance. 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. Using Seheru in this way takes an action.
Talamu
This sorcery gives the user control over the forces of life and death. It allows the transfer wounds and shocks 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 a number of wounds and/or shocks from himself or another volunteer equal to intensity level of the spell.
Involuntary transfers are resolved as follows:
Like heals like. Wounds can not be used to heal shocks and shocks can not heal wounds.
Nothing can absorb more health or sanity than it has naturally. 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. The sorcerer may drain a foe without risk, but transferring the lifeforce to himself or another is dangerous. 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.
Transferring lifeforce between beasts and thinking creatures is begging for trouble. Such acts create monsters.