Spells and Rituals

A Technique used to produce an immediate effect is a spell. Casting a spell is a simple action in combat and requires the Sorcerer to invoke a Motif to do so. Some spells call for a Sorcery skill roll. As with Knack skills, the player and Storyguide agree on the appropriate skill. The Storyguide then chooses the Arena and the player chooses the Approach. By default, the skill for Sorcery rolls is determined by how the character is casting the spell, not the desired outcome. It might be Culture for a prayer or song, Academics to recite an incantation in a dead language, Science when concocting potions, and so on. If the skill roll fails, the spell has no effect, no Legend cost (if there is one), and can be tried again next round.

If the spell has a Legend cost, the character pays it when it succeeds. Spells that require a Sorcerer to imbue Legend keep that Legend invested at least until the end of the scene or until he spends a point of Momentum and makes a Sorcery skill roll to recover it.

RITUAL SORCERY

A Sorcerer can go far beyond his normal limits by turning a Working into a ritual. When people tell stories of curses that last for generations, armies of spirits rising from the Underworld, or forests coming to life to defend their inhabitants, they’re describing rituals that can take Sorcerers weeks or months to perform. Casting a ritual is like crafting an item: each step in the process is a Milestone that the Sorcerer’s player and the Storyguide agree to, usually requiring a Short-term Deed to accomplish. The more powerful the final effect, the more Milestones the character needs to complete.

The first Milestone always involves researching or creating the ritual, which might require the Sorcerer to get access to an occult tome, consult with a mentor, or busy herself with experimentation in an alchemical laboratory. Afterward, add one Milestone for each of the following effects:

• Spend Legend instead of imbuing to make an effect last for the duration of the current arc or until dispelled by any ability that can remove supernatural Conditions


• Allow the Sorcerer to cast a spell on a target at any distance so long as he possesses something with a strong sympathetic connection (a lock of hair, some blood, a clear photograph, etc.) to the target.


• Allow the Sorcerer to share the effect of a spell that would normally only affect herself with her allies.


• Spend Legend to apply a Feat of Scale to one feature of the spell.

The Milestones after the first one can involve locating components for the ritual, undergoing purifications, performing sacrifices, waiting for the proper alignment of stars, gathering helpers to aid in the final rite, or anything else that the player and Storyguide agree upon. Because it’s usually not fun for a character to be taken completely out of play in order to prepare for a ritual, choosing Milestones that allow fellow players to help or ones that drive the Sorcerer to start a subplot that’s still connected to the main story is better than asking him to meditate in a cave for a month while his friends are on an adventure.

Example of a ritual: Josh’s Sorcerer, Ayta, must descend into Tamu to speak with her dead mentor by using the Secret Paths Technique. Knowing that Erlik’s Underworld can be dangerous, she wants to bring her companions with her for support, and so must perform the spell as a ritual requiring the completion of two Milestones (one to make it a ritual, one to extend the effect) and the normal cost of 1 Legend. For the first Milestone, Josh tells the Storyguide that Ayta is going to reach out to the local Tengri community to find shamans and storytellers who know the best route to take on the journey. For the second, her plan is to construct the ritual space and tools she will need: a thatch-roofed hut in the wilderness built around a central pole, an animal-skin drum painted with a rough map of the Underworld, and a potion for herself and her companions to drink to induce their shared trance. By dividing up the work between herself and her friends, she completes this part in a few days, and the entire group begins their descent.

LIFTING SPELLS

When mortals go to visit their local Sorcerer, it’s almost always for the same reason: to break a spell that’s been placed on them. Some people might ask for a divination first to make sure that their sickness or streak of bad luck is, in fact, the work of magic, but if they’re paying for a Sorcerer’s time, it’s easier to go straight to asking him to lift whatever curse they think they’re under. Fortunately, lifting supernatural influence is something any Sorcerer can do through ritual.

Lifting a supernatural effect requires ritual Sorcery that generally takes one scene per Milestone to complete. The first Milestone is used to determine whether or not the subject is under magical influence, and will always produce a yes or no answer without requiring any skill rolls. (A Sorcerer with the Divining Working can accomplish this in one round instead of one scene.) Removing the spell then requires the Sorcerer to complete one Milestone if it was cast by someone of her tier or lower, or two Milestones if cast by someone of one tier higher. Spells cast by beings two more tiers higher than the Sorcerer cannot be broken through this ritual.

A character can reduce the time necessary to lift a spell by spending one point of Legend per Milestone bypassed. At the end of the ritual, he makes a Clash of Wills (Sorcery skill + Legend vs. Integrity + Legend) to determine success.