Warding
The Art Of Warding
(Occult •)
Roll: Manipulation + Occult (Perception + Occult
to detect weaknesses in an existing ward, Intelligence + Occult to determine
the specific warding ritual required)
Cost: 3 motes per attempt
Aspects: Ghosts, demons, elementals, gods, Exalts, animals,
mortals, the Wyld, Fair Folk, divination, bad magic
Warding is the simplest of Arts, and in
nearly every community, there will be a handful of people who at least know its
basics. Wards are barriers against intrusion or contamination. They seal an
area off from the presence of the being or influence the ward is designed to
defend against. This Art is spread throughout Creation. In the west, witches
craft talismans and sing spell-songs to keep away the Sea and to remind islands
of their name and history. In Chiaroscuro, barriers of salt fend off the dead, while
in the East, glyphs carved into door lintels and windowsills keep the Fair Folk
at bay.
Wards come in two types: generic and
specific. Generic wards are proof against an entire class or type of creature —
a barrier of salt protects against the dead. A specific ward is particular to a
given type of creature — hungry ghosts are terrified of lily blossoms, a dreamcatcher can defend against certain types of
night-wandering spirits, and so on. There are hundreds of different warding rituals,
and knowing the correct ward to use can make a great difference.
Wards nearly always have a physical
component to them — a line of salt or ash for the dead, sigils of warding, woven
dreamcatchers, statuary. In some cases, these can be
living things — cats are trained in the East to keep away breath-stealing
spirits and certain types of hostile magic, for example. The time and effort
spent in preparing a ward’s physical components can impact how long it lasts and
how powerful it is. A pouch of salt carefully circled around the thaumaturge will provide only temporary protection, while
salt carefully wetted and caked into pre-carved grooves in the pavestones in
Chiaroscuro lasts for years — unless someone steals it.
For each day or portion of a day spent
preparing the ward, add one success to the ward’s durability, and add one success
to the ward’s strength for every two days spent. This should be adjusted
downward for particularly large wards — the most basic of wards to protect a
small city from the dead take far longer to prepare than the best of wards to
protect a small house.
The materials necessary to ward an area
typically have a Resources cost of 2 to protect a decent-sized home. Each increase
in Resources covers a larger area. Resources 3 will ward a large mansion, 4 a
small town, and 5 a small city.
Long-term wards require maintenance —
glyphs must be recarved to keep the edges sharp,
lines of salt and ash must be repaired, etc. This need for maintenance is more common
in larger wards — more work must be done to keep the wards active and
protecting the entire area equally, or weak spots or even gaps develop,
allowing the powerful or the cunning to slip through the cracks in the wards.
Maintenance is normally cheap. Resources costs equal the original costs - 3 per
year (so a mansion can be maintained for almost no money, while a city might
cost Resources 2 to maintain). The downside is that it is manpower intensive.
Maintaining the wards on a mansion will take one person a week’s labor, while
keeping the wards of a city strong might take 100 men the same time, spread
throughout the course of a year. Wards that are not maintained lose both
Strength and Durability more rapidly, losing one dot of each per year.
Additionally, large wards may develop weak spots or gaps in the protection. Weak
spots typically halve the Strength of the ward, while gaps allow unlimited
travel through the wards.
Once the ward has been researched and
prepared, the thaumaturge’s player rolls his
character’s Manipulation + Occult (along with appropriate specialties and
bonuses) and divides the successes up between the ward’s two attributes:
strength and durability. The difficulty for a warding is based on size. One
success is sufficient to protect a good-sized room, and three successes will
protect a decent-sized house, while five successes will protect a small town.
Strength: Strength determines how powerful the ward
is. Strong wards can keep out even the most voracious of hungry ghosts, turn
away Fair Folk lords or repel even puissant gods. A minor ward will have
problems keeping away even the slightest ghosts or keeping servant fae out of the cupboards. Anything trying to pass an
appropriate ward subtracts 1 from the ward’s Strength for each dot of Permanent
Essence up to 4 it has, and by 2 for each dot it has over 4 (so a god with
Essence 6 would subtract 8 from the ward’s strength). Exalted of any kind,
demons of the
(Strength Results - Essence)
Less than 0 Target walks through the ward
without noticing it.
0 Target tears through the ward, but it takes
two turns.
1 Target can approach the ward and might even
be able to reach through it (up to the range of its arm), but it can activate no
magics through the ward, nor attack anyone not in arm’s
reach (nor drag them through the ward).
2 Target can approach the ward, but cannot penetrate
it.
3 Target can only reach the edge of the ward
by spending a dot of temporary Willpower. This expenditure lets the target stay
in proximity of the ward for a number of turns equal to her permanent Essence +
Willpower. Actual contact — touching surfaces the warding sigils are inscribed
upon, attempting to pass over a ward’s physical manifestation (salt line, etc.)
or stepping through doorways or windows that have been warded — delivers
bashing damage equal to the thaumaturge’s permanent Essence
each turn. This damage may be soaked with Stamina and other natural soak only.
4 Target will not willingly approach within
10 feet of the barrier, nor remain within 50 feet of it for more than a few minutes.
Target suffers twice the thaumaturge’s permanent
Essence in lethal damage (soakable only by Stamina
and other natural soak) each turn it is in contact with the barrier.
5 Target will not approach within bowshot
of the ward and approaches within sight of it only with reluctance. If driven
into contact with the ward through some act of insane desperation, the target
suffers unsoakable lethal damage equal to the thaumaturge’s permanent Essence each turn.
6+ Target will never consider trying to approach
or cross the ward, under any circumstances, fearing death less than the erected
wards.
Durability: Durability is a measure of how tough the ward
is — how long it will last. Wards with high durability resist tampering
(through counterspell or Charm — sorcery can remove
wards without effort) and can last for centuries. Wards with low Durability may
last only a short time (minutes or even turns) and quickly succumb to any attempt
to bypass them. When a thaumaturge tries to unweave a
warding, or someone else attempts to tamper with it, durability can be used as
an extended difficulty — a number of successes equal to the durability must be acquired
in order to defeat the warding. The ward’s durability also determines how long
the ward will hold power.
Durability
Results
0 A
few seconds — a number of turns equal to twice the thaumaturge’s
permanent Essence.
1 Minutes
equal to twice the caster’s permanent Essence.
2 A
full scene. (About 20 minutes).
3 One
day.
4 One week.
5 One
month.
6
One year.
7 One
decade. Each success beyond seven adds two decades.