The Circle
Of Oynx
Only the
darkest Solar necromancers grew powerful and learned enough to touch upon the
powers available in the
Baneful Sun
Cost: 22 motes
Target: One creature
It is within the power of the
Mechanically, the affected individual is
at a one-die penalty when in Creation, for it is inimical to him. For every
month that he remains there, he is struck with an unsoakable
level of aggravated damage that will not heal by any means. Eventually, this
will kill even the most resolute of heroes. Should the victim retreat to the
Underworld, he at once feels at ease. His unhealable
wounds fade at the rate of one every month, and they can be healed no faster.
If this spell is cast upon a heroic
character, the necromancer’s and the target’s players may both roll their
characters’ Essence and compare successes. If the necromancer is victorious,
the target is struck with the effects of the spell until tended by countermagic or until the necromancer chooses to lift the
curse.
Baneful Sun was used originally near the
end of the First Age. The sorcerer-kings had begun wielding necromancy with
abandon and cursed those who offended them to wander the Underworld or die
slowly. Today, the Deathlords use it to bind ghosts
away from their worldly Passions, punishing them. Some use the reverse spell,
Baneful Shadow, to curse ghosts to forever wander Creation where they can
regain no Essence or to banish heroes from the Underworld so they can do no
harm.
A being cursed by either spell can travel
the shadowlands without penalty.
Clamoring
Shackles
Cost: 21 motes
Target: Two creatures
Holding his hands cupped as through around
an invisible sphere, tiny motes of darkness flow from the necromancer’s palms
to slowly form a thin black shaft between his shaping hands. As the spell
concludes, the shaft sprouts fletching and a dangerous point that glints in the
available light. The caster then chooses a target, and the arrow fires itself
with the speed of his dark thought.
The necromancer’s player rolls Wits +
Archery for his attack roll. The arrow inflicts a base damage of (Occult x 3)
lethal and ignores the effects of Arcanoi or ghostly
artifacts that increase the target’s soak. If the target is reduced below
Incapacitated by the arrow, she is assaulted by a swarm of dark spots, until
she appears only as a miniature storm of flickering light and dark. Then, black
chains of soulsteel burst from the tempest, locking
around the wrists, ankles and neck of another ghost of the necromancer’s
choice. Treat these shackles as Artifact •• grave-prison chains.
The necromancer can spend 6 experience
points at the moment of casting to make the resulting grave-prison chains permanent
and to strengthen the spell to shatter only when struck by Obsidian Countermagic. Otherwise, the chains created by Clamoring
Shackles remain for one day per point of the caster’s permanent Essence. The
shackles made by this spell are shaped by the will of the caster, and
necromancers who use this spell repeatedly may have their handiwork recognized.
There is a
The grave-prison chains created by Blackstorm Wagon cannot be made permanent, but they last
until they are removed or until a month has passed, whichever occurs first,
before dissolving into the same acrid smoke as arrows on the battlefield.
The arrows created by either spell inflict
only half damage, before soak, on living targets.
Crystal Ghost
Shard
Cost: 15 motes (committed)
Target: Caster
Taking a step into the air as the spell is
completed, the necromancer’s body becomes encased in a blackly opaque crystal
as the air freezes around him. The darkness crystallizes around him, and as it
crawls over his face and eyes, he sends his higher soul from his body. There is
a moment of blackness before the caster regains consciousness. He is standing
before himself as a ghost. He appears as a simple spirit, utterly unremarkable.
The necromancer’s loosed spirit has
Appearance •• and cannot be recognized as himself by visual inspection alone.
All other Attributes and Abilities remain the same. While wandering as a ghost, the caster cannot
access any of his natural Charms. Martial Arts Charms beyond the Form Charm are
similarly unusable. The necromancer recovers Essence as a ghost does and may
learn Arcanoi as a ghost if he has experience
available. These Arcanoi cost normal experience to
purchase and Essence to use, but they may not be used except while the
necromancer has encased himself in the Crystal Ghost Shard. Those of the Moonshadow or Eclipse Castes may use any Arcanoi they have learned outside of the use of this spell
at this reduced cost.
The necromancer may remain outside his
body as a ghost indefinitely. As long as he does, the Essence used to power
this spell remains committed, and his body continues to float, the cocoon
lightly shedding a dark smoke and protecting his body from averse spiritual and
physical intrusions. No spell of the Terrestrial or Shadowlands
Circles can penetrate the crystalline shell, and when attacked physically, it
has a 30L/20B soak — any attack that deals raw damage under half of these
values does no damage. If over 20 levels of damage are dealt to the ghost
shard, it cracks. A full 40 levels will shatter the crystal to pieces, pulling
the necromancer’s spirit back into his body violently and dealing two levels of
unsoakable aggravated damage to the caster.
If the necromancer’s spirit is slain while
projected from his body, his consciousness snaps back into his body in a blur,
the raw Essence of the world around him tearing bits and pieces of his
awareness off until he is only raggedly seeing, and he is bleeding through his
thoughts. His cocoon shatters as he awakes, bereft of one dot of permanent
Willpower.
Dead Man’s Voice
Cost: 18 motes
Target: One creature
Requires an arcane link
There are more effective, and more disturbing,
ways to communicate in the Underworld than merely speaking, though some
weak-hearted mortals grow faint enough at the thought of being addressed by a
ghost. When this spell is cast into the joyless night, the necromancer sends
his consciousness aloft and buoys it with the dark Essence of the least wakeful
Malfeans. In short order, guided by the arcane link
the caster holds, his mind hovers over his target. The necromancer can view all
that goes on around her, and he may choose a single mortal or ghost nearby to
seize and use as his mouthpiece or may simply dive into his target and steal
her will.
The above is a form of scrying
and can be blocked by normal wards. If the subject or the area around the
subject is warded, the necromancer may only attempt to control the creature
whose arcane link he holds.
Once the necromancer has a secure hold on
his chosen victim’s mind, he may begin to communicate. He can see and hear with
the victim’s faculties and speak with her mouth, but he may not manipulate her
motor skills or make her move in any way. This spell is used for effective
real-time communication between powerful necromancers and their henchmen or
their enemies.
This harsh use does not treat the vessel
well. The victim’s eyes burn with black power and soon begin to bleed. As the
palaver continues, her skin turns pale, even as she begins to involuntarily
shudder with chills and sweat blood. After half an hour, the victim’s hair has
become thin, her teeth and fingernails have yellowed, and her muscles have
withered beneath her skin. The force of the necromancer’s will is eating her
alive and decaying her from within. Most mortal creatures die shortly after the
half-hour mark, but at this point the will of the necromancer keeps their bones
locked and mouths moving until the spell wears thin and snaps as the hour
turns. Ghosts fare no better, but as they grow nearer to dissolution, their
forms lose cohesion, melting and flowing like hot butter before their plasm boils away when they die.
Necromancers utilizing this spell must
decide: If they cast it through an arcane link with the person to whom they
wish to speak, wards may waste their efforts. On the other hand, bearing a link
to a patsy means that it will be more difficult to use — one must be sure the victim
is in the right place at the right time — but it allays any worries about wardings.
Only living creatures of Essence • or
ghosts of Essence no greater than •• may be forced to speak with the Dead Man’s
Voice. Neither have any ability to resist the intrusion of the necromancer’s
consciousness. While bound by the spell, the victim suffers a single unsoakable level of lethal damage for every five minutes of
discussion. Treat extras as though they have seven health levels for this
purpose.
Denying The Call
Cost: 24 motes
Target: One creature, recently dead
Closing her fists, the necromancer grasps
tightly the strings of the Underworld’s fate. Pulling them as a master
puppeteer, she can draw out of the sunless lands a soul that has recently died.
Tying it tightly with cords of necrotic energy into its old body, death is
temporarily averted.
The dead creature arises immediate and
resumes its life — it remembers its death only briefly. As invisible bands of
necromancy are all that bind it to life, the creature gains a single health
level above Incapacitated (usually at the -4 penalty), which can only be harmed
by aggravated damage. Charms and weapons that inflict aggravated damage against
creatures of darkness will inflict aggravated damage against a creature revived
by this spell, despite any previous immunities or protections. Note that a
subject of this spell is not an animated corpse; the spell truly returns
it, albeit briefly, to its original life. The creature remains “alive” for a
number of turns equal to the Essence of the caster.
This spell is very harsh on the spirit,
which wants nothing so much as to leave its dead body. The target’s mind is
very much aware that it was briefly dead, and reactions vary. Creatures of
animal intelligence generally return to whatever they were doing before death,
as do loyal minions and those canny enough to recognize an opportunity for
revenge.
An individual cannot be affected by this
spell more than once, nor will it work if the target has been dead for longer
than one minute. There is an extent to how far a soul may go and still be
called back. The rough treatment that the spirit is forced to endure under the
spell’s yoke causes it to appear in the Underworld, when finally allowed to
die, at half the normal health levels.
There exists a Void Circle variation of
this spell, called Barred Tomb, which places a recently departed soul back in
its body for up to an hour with a number of health levels equal to the caster’s
Essence, binding it to obey the necromancer’s will for the duration. Like
Denying the Call, these health levels can only be lost to aggravated damage,
and this spell cannot be cast upon a target who has already been affected by
Denying the Call or Barred Tomb. Once a spirit is released by Barred Tomb, it
appears in the Underworld with only a single health level.
The spells Denying the Call and Barred
Tomb represent the utmost limit that can be reached in the eternal attempt to
deny death. Even the Obsidian Circle cannot return the dead to life.
Exquisite Undead
Aide
Cost: 20 motes
Instead of raising a mindless shambling
horde, a necromancer with this spell can create a single powerful servant to
act as a lieutenant or majordomo. The creature begins with the same statistics
as a common zombie, with the following modifications: All Attributes save for
Appearance have a minimum rating of 2. The creature gains a number of Ability
dots equal to its creator’s Intelligence + Occult, which may be allocated to
any Abilities the caster knows. No Ability can exceed the necromancer’s own
rating, however. The zombie never decays any further, although it exudes a
distinctive musty reek that clearly marks it as one of the undead. The creature
may speak in clipped rasping phrases, although it only speaks in response to
questions from its master or in fulfillment of her orders. It is not considered
an extra and has a full complement of health levels.
Zombies created with this spell typically
serve one specific function: housekeeper, bodyguard, porter, etc. Powerful
necromancers are even known to create meticulous undead laboratory assistants
to assist them in the creation of more monsters.
Golden Shadows
Cast In Frieze
Cost: 30+
Target: One spectre
This spell was practiced only by those Twilight
sorcerers before the fall of the First Age who were dark enough to teach
themselves the Labyrinth Circle and influential enough to allay the suspicions
of their peers. While often worked in the laboratory upon a captive spectre, it can as easily be cast in less ideal conditions
against such a spirit in the wilds of the Labyrinth or the Underworld.
The necromancer forms from the stuff of
shadows a palm-sized ball of golden mist and, with the completion of the spell,
crushes it between her hands, casting a golden light out upon her target.
The player of the target of this spell is
allowed a Willpower + Essence roll against a difficulty of 7 while scenes from
the spectre’s life before becoming tainted play out
in shadow. The caster may purchase additional successes for him at a rate of 3
motes per, up to a maximum of her Essence. If the roll is a successful, the spectre has been separated from the whispers of the Malfeans and is freed of his obsessive obligations toward
the Labyrinth, other specters and Oblivion. He could, if he desired, return to
his previous afterlife in the Underworld.
A spectre so
severed from the Void retains all the memories and skills from his time as a
servant of the Malfeans, and he will always after
have a frightening insight into the minds of the dead gods. He retains the
alterations made to his ghost flesh, and most rescued servants of the Void find
operating in the societies of the Underworld difficult, at best, before severe
reconstructive moliation.
When cast upon a ghost suffering from the
taint of Oblivion’s Whisper, this spell completely expunges from him that black
shadow upon his soul. All his tainted Passions are cleansed.
The Twilights of the First Age utilized
this spell to learn the secrets of the Labyrinth and of the Malfeans,
using what secrets they could glean to develop further spells of necromancy.
The most kind-hearted would occasionally enter the Labyrinth on missions of
kindness, freeing as many spectres as possible before
returning to Creation. In the Age of Sorrows, Deathlords
have sent ghostly agents into the Labyrinth to become spectres
with the knowledge that they can be recovered using Golden Shadows Cast in
Frieze. This sort of reconnaissance against the masters of the Void is rare,
even for the most paranoid and scheming, for most believe that the Malfeans can sense the loss of a spectre
in this way.
Gray Eyes Shield
And Shell
Cost: 25 motes
Target: Varies
The necromancer crouches, and when she
arises, she is rubbing her hands with the gray dust that is everywhere in the
Underworld. Mixing it with a dash of spit and blood from her lip, she dabs her
eyes with the concoction. When she next opens them, her eyes are both a dull
gray in color, entirely unremarkable. More so, her entire image is struck by a
pallor, anything vivid about her becoming less exciting, more drab.
Her shield of gray eyes bars a ghost from
affecting her with any manner of Arcanoi. Skinriders cannot grasp a hold of her, the phantasms of the
dead appear transparent and listless to her bored gaze, and ghosts cannot steal
her Essence. A ghost’s self-moliation is the only
thing that can affect her, and even then, she is immune to any mental effects.
It is only the great claws and teeth that can pull at her flesh. Ghosts who
peer at the necromancer with the Arcanos Aura-Reading
Technique see only a dull gray aura, meaningless and unreadable.
Alternatively, as the spell is completed,
the caster may choose to instead expend its power in an instant. She casts her
gaze upon a single pitiable ghost, and her gray eyes flash, glowing with the
pearly gray light of the spell. Her player rolls Wits + Occult with an
additional three successes — if the necromancer’s victim fails to dodge, he is
struck unable to use his Arcanoi. Any effects
currently operating cease, and he is unable to begin new ones.
Either effect lasts until the Calendar of Setesh next marks midnight.
Hundred Shade
Breath
Cost: Varies
The necromancer inhales and concentrates,
building the spell inside her lungs. When the magic is ready, she opens her
mouth wide and a glowing blue fog rushes out in dozens of curling tendrils as
she exhales. Over the next turn, these wisps coalesce into hungry ghosts — one
for every 2 motes of Essence spent. These ghosts have normal statistics and are
all extras. Obviously, this spell is of no use during the day, as sunlight
would instantly burn the assembled horde to ash. At the end of the scene in
which they were summoned, any “surviving” ghosts dissolve to mist and flow back
into the necromancer’s mouth. Motes spent on this spell remain committed only
so long as the ghosts exist. Every ghost that perishes frees 2 motes from the
committed total.
Infinite
Footsteps
Cost: 26 motes
Target: One journey
Standing within the edge of the dead gods’
dreams, the necromancer throws out her arm and splays her fingers wide. The
Labyrinth around her bends and stretches, a small portion of the Malfeans’ slow nightmares bending to her will. From her
outstretched arm flies an infinite hallway of the Labyrinth’s black stone,
shored up by the shining white ribcages of long-dead giants.
The passageway is broad enough for seven
of the animate dead to stagger abreast, and the echoes of footfalls disappear
into the distance. This passage, carved by necromantic influence, directly
connects any two points of the Labyrinth that the caster has previously visited
or scried.
No matter where they may be relative to
the Underworld above, travel between the two points takes one full day of
travel. Speedier methods of transport will not alter this time. The tunnel will
remain for a number of days equal to the necromancer’s Essence, after which it
is as likely to disappear as any other portion of the Labyrinth. It may remain
for a second or a century before it dissolves to make room for a new dream.
This spell causes a sizable rearrangement
of the Labyrinth’s physical and temporal representations. Although the effect
avoids running through existing inhabited locations, it often comes shockingly
close. The nephwracks and mortwights
who call such places home may, at the Storyteller’s discretion, take offense at
such actions and attempt to make passage difficult.
Ivory Razor
Forest
Cost: 25 motes
The necromancer gestures in the direction
of his enemies, and a shockwave of Essence skims the earth toward them. The
wave is invisible except as a rippling distortion in the air and causes no
injury. However, in its wake, dozens or even hundreds of great spines of
gleaming bone tear up through the earth at great speed, to a maximum height of
the caster’s permanent Essence in yards.
The razor-edged blades cut through
everything in their path, inflicting 8L damage that cannot be blocked, only
dodged. The spell affects a total area of (the necromancer’s Charisma + Occult
x 10) square yards, although this area can be divided into any shape or
configuration as the caster sees fit. Some prefer to break apart troop
formations with long narrow swaths, while others grow the bones into impassable
fences or ramparts. The spikes shatter into dust after a number of days equal
to their creator’s Essence, but have the durability of a brick wall until that
time. The blades are densely packed enough that nothing larger than a rabbit
can slip through the cracks, and being thrown against them also inflicts 8L.
Joyless Spirit’s
Corruption
Cost: 30 motes
Target: One god
This spell is a ritual that completes a
corrupt spirit’s transition from being a god of the world of the living to a
god of the land of the dead. Only the most foul and base spirits of decay or
death ever choose to follow this route, but there are some exceptions who have
made that choice: Fou Tung,
Transcendence of Brigands’ Passing, is the most notable spirit to make this
journey. Only a willing spirit can partake of this ritual, and each that does
is fully aware that it means turning away from the Celestial Bureaucracy and
the light of Creation and the Unconquered Sun for all time.
The ritual lasts six hours and must be
timed to end when the sun of Creation and the sun set in motion by the Calendar
are at equal declinations from the zenith. Among other foul actions, a mortal
ridden by a possessing ghost must be sacrificed and the blood sipped by both
necromancer and spirit.
Once the ritual is completed, the spirit
has forsaken Creation and becomes a part of the Underworld’s bare ecology. It
regains Essence at normal rate in the Underworld and at half-normal rate in shadowlands. In addition, the spirit and necromancer
maintain a link. Once per year, as marked by the Underworld’s Calendar, the
necromancer may approach and request a task of the spirit. This task may
require up to a month of the spirit’s time and have nearly any object. Only if
the request would demand more than a month of time or require the spirit to
take an action inimical to its being may the spirit refuse.
Links Born Of
Tumult
Cost: 22 motes, 1 lethal health level
Target: Caster
Although usually cast in privacy, an
observer to the hour-long ritual that Links Born of Tumult requires would see
the caster appear to grow smaller and weaker, while his shadow swells and grows
almost tangible.
The caster must use a silver wire forged
from pyre flame and quenched in blood to draw out his lower soul, or po. Lowering the wire down his throat, hooking the po and pulling it up through his throat, the necromancer
coughs up spirit and blood. It is a uniquely excruciating experience. Once
done, the necromancer has placed his lower soul into his shadow. The shadow
then has the statistics that the caster’s hungry ghost would.
The shadow will obey simple commands given
by its master. The necromancer can also choose, at any time, to send his
consciousness into the shadow to control it himself. When doing so he can use
his Charms, Combos and spells through the shadow without complication, but his
body lies powerless and vulnerable until he chooses to return to it.
Links Born of Tumult has no set duration.
The spell ends when the caster voluntarily devours his shadow and lower soul,
returning each to its rightful place. If the shadow is destroyed, the
necromancer’s lower soul returns to him in a blurred tatter and rips through
his consciousness in a fury. The necromancer loses a permanent Willpower as a
result. If he is actively controlling the shadow when it is destroyed, the necromancer
is stunned for an hour while he recovers from the shock.
Rattled Bones Of
War
Cost: 22 motes (committed)
Target: Caster
The center of the necromancer’s chest
begins to glow with a glistening white light. Bones, one by one, burst forth from
the ground around her, encased in the same luminescence. The bones, all shapes
and sizes, fly through the air toward her and begin to surround her in a
whirlwind of increasing size. The necromancer is soon deep within a storm of
ivory bones and light, which lifts her from the ground. The hundreds of bone
fragments lock together around her, forming greave and cuisse, vambrace and gauntlet, helm and visor and a cuirass that
bears, in its center, the necromancer’s personal sigil. The last of the bones
come together to form an enormous dire lance.
When the necromancer casts this spell, she
may choose whether to form a scout or a common warstrider.
Whichever her choice, once encased in the massive construct of bone and iron,
she is attuned to it as she would be to a normal warstrider
— it responds to her actions, and attacks that pierce its thick armor will
wound her spirit, manifesting as woundless injury. The warstrider
remains for one hour or until the necromancer lets her commitment lapse, at
which point, the assembled bones fall to pieces around her, leaving her on the
ground, as she was before the spell was cast — although perhaps worse for the
wear. This deadline can be extended at any time the warstrider
is active if the necromancer spends 11 motes per additional hour. Wounds and,
more importantly, fatigue gained while in the warstrider
do not magically disappear with the machine’s integrity.
An alternate Labyrinth-circle version of
this spell, Walking Gore Titan, costs only 16 motes (committed). But before it
can be cast, a number of sentient beings possessing a cumulative permanent
Essence of at least 10 must be ritually sacrificed with an obsidian knife. Once
the spell is cast from the center of the massacre, a crimson warstrider rises from the pooled blood of the slain and
congeals around the caster. The Walking Gore Titan wields a dripping fighting
chain of bile-black, steel-hard entrails. Apart from its garish design and
slick, disturbingly organic semblance, the war machine conjured by this spell exactly
duplicates one raised by Rattled Bones of War.
Void Cocoon Warrior is a Void Circle
version of this spell. When cast, a burgeoning black nothing grows out of the
necromancer’s chest and slowly wraps itself around her legs, her arms, her
chest and, finally, her head. Growing still, she pilots a towering 20-foot-tall
machine made of black steel and the Void: a mighty noble warstrider
or a massive juggernaut. Should the necromancer desire, she can sacrifice a
lethal health level to the Void as the machine forms around her — the black warstrider takes on a ruddy red color and swells, until it
is quite possibly the tallest thing on the battlefield, becoming a royal warstrider. The health level cannot be healed until the
spell ends.
Void Cocoon Warrior is more flexible than
Rattled Bones of War: It costs a minimum of 28 motes (committed), and the warstrider appears with a grand daiklave
that hums softly as it sucks the air near it into Oblivion. It has the option
of being summoned adorned with ancient artifacts of war. Any weapon that can be
mounted on a warstrider can be summoned with a Void
Cocoon for an additional cost (and commitment) equal to the amount of Essence
that would normally be required to attune the weapon. Expendable ammunition for
such weapons can be created out of dull-gray Oblivion for a single mote apiece.
The Void Cocoon Warrior remains for only
two hours, but the duration can be extended for an additional hour for a number
of motes equal to half the originally cost.
Reaping The
Fallen
Cost: 25 motes
With this spell, a necromancer opens her
soul to draw power from death. Her anima erupts to its full iconic glory
regardless of whether she spent Personal or Peripheral Essence, while her face
contorts into a mask of inhuman rage and hunger. For the rest of the scene, the
character gains 1 mote for every sentient living being that dies within a
league of her, up to her usual maximum. Obviously, this spell is only useful in
the presence of mass carnage, such as a massacre or a military battle. In such
settings, the Storyteller should assign how many motes the character gains each
turn instead of awarding Essence on a per death basis.
A Void Circle version of this spell, Blood
from the Slaughter, instead allows the necromancer to supplant his own life
force with the energy released by carnage. At the end of each turn, the
character regenerates one level of bashing or lethal damage for every living
sentient killed within one league, but the character cannot regenerate more
levels per turn than his permanent Essence. Blood from the Slaughter costs 35
motes to invoke.
Rebirth Into
Darkness
Cost: 25 motes
Target: One ghost
As this spell is cast, the ghost who finds
himself its victim feels an invisible collar fasten around his neck. The
sensation fades after a moment, and the ghost can continue with his regular
habits. The next time the ghost is slain or suffers some other loss of form,
the spirit feels the collar again, tightening around his neck to the point of
suffocation. The strangling sensation persists until the ghost reforms. There
is no opportunity for him to enter Lethe nor any danger of Oblivion, and when
the spirit returns to consciousness, he finds himself in the presence of the
necromancer who laid this spell upon him. Despite his best efforts, the ghost
cannot manage to pass on. He will always return to his second existence only to
find himself before she who cast the spell. Ghosts who suffer dissipation while
possessing a permanent Essence of • do not lose that Essence if under this spell.
Instead, the necromancer must immediately pay 10 motes to keep the ghost from
dissipating forever. If a necromancer does not or cannot forfeit the cost
necessary to maintain the ghost’s existence, the ghost’s collar drags him into
Oblivion.
Deathlords and Abyssals
commonly use this spell to repeatedly torture ghosts to “death” while ensuring
that it is not an escape. It has proved to be a less costly method than seeking
out and guarding the victim’s Fetters. The collar remains for two days as
marked by the Calendar of Setesh.
Seven Visions
Wisdom
Cost: 34 motes
Target: One ghost
The necromancer holds his hand flat in
perspective so it appears to him that his target is resting in his palm. He
closes his hand and focuses thin flows of hot Essence upon the ghost now
captured within. Short minutes later, he opens his palm to reveal a small
medallion of soulsteel. The ghost’s name is etched
into the front.
Seven Visions Wisdom can capture any ghost
within 100 yards and bind her into a medallion. This medallion qualifies as
Artifact •• and requires a commitment of 2 motes to be used. Any person wearing
it with such a commitment can choose to substitute any one of the captured
spirit’s Ability ratings instead of his own while performing a relevant task.
Someone who “borrows” a rating in an Ability he does not himself possess (i.e.,
his rating is 0) still suffers the two-die penalty — his muscles and his mind
are simply unable to perform with the familiarity the ghost’s would have. Any
Ability the ghost possessed may be used.
This spell can only be cast upon a ghost
with an Essence less than that of the necromancer. The medallion loses its
integrity when struck by countermagic or after a
number of months equal to the necromancer’s Essence. It blossoms over the next few
seconds into the form of the ghost it once was, who is again in command of her
own facilities. She remembers all actions that her Abilities were used to
assist during her imprisonment, but little else. The necromancer may, at the
casting of the spell, spend six points of experience, making the enchantment
permanent and rendering the spell immune to all but Obsidian Countermagic. Only one such medallion can offer its bearer
wisdom at one time. If any more are worn simultaneously, the different
intuitions and skills contradict with one another. These silent arguments cause
all actions attempted by the one who wears them to suffer a two-die penalty,
whether or not he intends to use the skill of either.
Shadow Stones
Travel
Cost: 24 motes
Target: Area of effect
As she completes the spell, the
necromancer cuts her palm and lets a splash of blood paint the ground at her
feet. Immediately, a stiff breeze blows outward from the stain of red. A few
seconds later, a gust of wind that carries with it the scent of grave rot
billows forth from the center. Scant seconds disappear before the breath of
decay dies down, and as it does, the world ripples out from the center of the
spell. Where the ripple passes, grasses become dead and black, stones grow
chalky, bright colors pale to near gray, and the sky becomes drained of all
color.
The necromancer has opened a temporary shadowland around herself, encompassing a small portion of
Creation with it. Its borders waver uncertainly as far out as the necromancer’s
power can hold it. After a short time, the borders snap shut about their center
as Creation reasserts itself — but all sentient beings within the boundaries of
the spell find themselves in the Underworld, their positions analogous to where
they stood in Creation.
The spell takes a short time to affect the
stability of Creation. The turn in which the spell is concluded lets through a
breath of the wind that travels between worlds and Elsewhere. The next turn
casts out the odor of the Underworld, and in the next, the wind dies away, and
the world changes. In the third turn after the spell is cast, the shadowland spreads outward up to 50 yards, and the caster
can keep the portal open for a number of turns equal to her Essence or let it
snap closed after the first. The shadowland always
becomes fully open on the same initiative as when the spell was cast and closes
on the same. When it closes, everyone within the shadowland
will be in the Underworld — so the necromancer must take care of whom she
allows within its borders.
This spell, when cast in the Underworld,
has similar but inverse effects. The wind between worlds smells sweet, and when
the shadowland disappears, all within its borders
find themselves in Creation.
Shield Of
Shattering Bones
Cost: 18 motes
Target: Caster
A common tactic for a necromancer to take
when in battle is to divert the damage inflicted upon him into the enduring
bodies and frames of the animate dead who fight for him. This spell enables
such behavior.
Upon completion of the spell, the caster
is momentarily surrounded by a blood-red halo that then bursts out onto the
field of battle around him. Each skeleton or zombie touched by the expanding
ring glows with a brief red cast of its own before the light fades. Thereafter,
until the sun next rises in Creation, the necromancer can reflexively spend 3
motes to shunt the damage from a successful attack onto one of his targeted
undead. The motes are spent before any damage is rolled but after soak. No more
than (the necromancer’s Essence x 5) dead are so marked, and all must be within
(the necromancer’s Essence x 5) yards at the time of the casting. Only these
may be called upon to take a blow for the necromancer, and the target must be
within line of sight.
The effects of this spell are plainly
visible. A blow to the necromancer’s chest with a goremaul
results in the collapse of a nearby skeleton’s ribcage, and the cut of a
scimitar closes up as the blade passes, opening instead in a grinning zombie.
All health levels of damage done to the necromancer are instead afflicted upon
the unfortunate walking dead. Once the last marked zombie falls, the spell must
be recast for it to have any further effect.
Silenced
Whispered Prayers
Cost: 27 motes
Target: Varies
As the necromancer casts this spell, the
whispered prayers of all who give her target worship and obeisance becomes
audible, rising to a deafening pitch at the apex of the spell before the
caster’s eyes flash with white light and the prayers are cut off, replaced only
with silence.
Victims of this spell find themselves
severed from their followers, unable to dip into the flow of Essence provided
by worship. Any Cult rating a ghost possesses, Underworld or Ancestor, drops to
zero for the duration of this spell. Those who offer worship feel no difference
and continue to give their prayers as always.
This spell may also be cast into an area.
As the spell is released, all ghosts within 45 yards of the necromancer find
the prayers upon which they draw grow audible before sharply dropping in
volume. Each ghost affected loses one dot in any Cult he possesses.
Living creatures affected by the focused
version of the spell lose half of their Cult rating, round down. The
area-effect version does not affect living creatures at all.
This spell lasts until the sun has risen
in the Underworld seven times.
Spiteful Passing
Cost: Special
Faced with the bitterness of his own
demise, a necromancer with this spell may unleash his hate in a final blast of
power. Although he must still spend a turn concentrating, the character need
only speak one word to cast this spell. He may scream in defiance or weakly
cough his last syllables from blood-flecked lips, but the effects remain the
same. His body arches in pain and expires as searing light erupts from its
opened mouth, eyes and wounds. All living beings and Fair Folk within a number
of yards equal to the necromancer’s Stamina suffer his permanent Essence in
dice of lethal damage, plus one additional die for every mote remaining in his
pool. This damage bypasses armor. It is soaked only with the victim’s own
natural soak, and it inflicts no physical trauma — victims killed by the spell
simply drop where they stand, while survivors feel a terrible cold grip them.
All plants within range wither and die. The necromancer’s corpse rots to dust
within moments of the blast.
Stealing The
Gathered Breath
Cost: 15 motes
The necromancer opens his mouth and
inhales, drawing energy from every sentient living being within (the
character’s permanent Essence x 5) yards. All victims within range suffer one
die of lethal damage that can only be soaked with Stamina. Each level of damage
actually inflicted by this spell restores 1 mote of Essence to the necromancer.
Energy harvested with this spell can be seen by all onlookers as streams of
pale light rushing from its victims to the necromancer’s maw.
Striking Spectre Lash
Cost: 15 motes + 2 motes per attack
Upon casting this spell, a long tendril of
solidified darkness grows from the necromancer’s wrist or palm. This serpentine
appendage undulates and coils of its own volition, striking more like a darting
snake or an octopoid tentacle than any mundane whip.
The lash has a Speed, Accuracy and Defense rating equal to its master’s Essence
score and a length in yards of four times this value. Its base damage equals
its creator’s Strength + Essence. In addition to inflicting normal damage and
permitting grappling attacks at range, the whip can kill ordinary mortals and
animals outright. If the necromancer reflexively spends 2 motes before making
his attack roll and successfully hits, the victim’s player must make a
reflexive Essence roll. If this roll fails, the victim falls dead with a look
of horror frozen in her face. Exalts, spirits, Fair Folk, and other magical
beings are immune to this effect. Non-magical creatures that are notably larger
than humans are immune to this effect so long as their Stamina exceeds the
necromancer’s Essence rating.
Sweet Voice
Familiar
Cost: 32 motes
Target: Area of Effect
Crafted by the first Abyssal necromancer
of the Labyrinth Circle, he created this spell to share with the world the
words of Oblivion as they echoed in the back of his head. When a necromancer
casts this spell, all his conscious motor control ceases. His body slumps
downward, his legs bend, and he balances impossibly on the balls of his feet.
His head lolls back and his jaw drops open, and from his unmoving mouth issue
all the unending and mad words of the Malfeans,
hideously magnified by the spell’s power.
All ghosts within the caster’s Essence in miles
hear these maddening whispers, and the players of all who do must make a
Willpower roll against a difficulty of (the caster’s Whispers rating + 5). Any
whose players fail have been poisoned by the sweet spell of Oblivion with all
its black-honey promises — their minds will soon belong to the Abyss. Players
of mortals who hear this seducing insanity must roll their characters’
Willpower against a difficulty of the caster’s Whispers rating. For every
success by which they fail, their characters lose a point of temporary
Willpower. Mortals severely or repeatedly affected by this spell are more
likely to become mortwights upon death.
If cast within the Labyrinth, the Sweet
Voice Familiar echoes through the twisted passages and is repeated by the black
stone there, effectively doubling the radius of the spell. If cast in Creation,
the lively Essence of the world there inhibits the unsound and psychotic
whispers of the dead gods, and the area of effect is reduced to 250 yards.