Sorcery/GoldenCatSapphire
Sapphire Circle
The Dragon Spiral
Cost: 30 motes
Dragons can all muster a powerful breath of their element, pouring out like fire from heaven upon the enemies of the Celestial Hierarchy, a powerful bellow and a deadly weapon! Watching those impressive displays, Sorcerers of the Sapphire Circle have created a way to harness a similar power and pour it upon their enemies, ruling over the very essence of Terrestrial Forces with their unmatched power! With The Dragon Spiral, the Sorcerer is able to gather a certain pure quantity of an element... pure water from a secluded font, flames burnt in children's mementos, diamonds from a virgin veil, or splinters and sap of Heart Trees... and coalesce them into serpentine dragons that orbit in a spiral around the Sorcerer, striking at his will. They are manifestations of the Element, lesser elemental godlings chained and twisted by the Sorcerer into a single purpose, transfigured to his whims.
This spell lasts a full day from the moment it is cast. The sorcerer may have as many serpents spiraling around him as half his Permanent Essence(rounded up), all created as the Spell is cast(although he can create one from each element if he can). Each serpent adds 1 to the difficulty of striking the Sorcerer, and counterattacks any close-range attack on the Sorcerer with a pool equal to the Sorcerer's Perception+Occult and a raw damage equal to the Sorcerer's Willpower score. But the most powerful aspect of the Dragon Spiral is the ability to direct the Dragon's Breath! To use this ability, the Sorcerer must pay 2 motes and take a Simple Action, which makes all Dragons in the Spiral attack at once! This is a Archery or Thrown attack, using Perception in place of Dexterity, and can be enhanced with any Charm of those abilities which does not specify its weapon. The Sorcerer rolls only once, and applies it as an attack with each Dragon in the Spiral.
The Breath is a ranged weapon with an Accuracy equal to the Sorcerer's Permanent Essence, a range of 200 yards, Rate 1 and damage equal to the Sorcerer's Willpower+(Lore, for Air; Resistance, for Earth; Athletics, for Fire; Sail, for Water; and Medicine, for Wood). Moreover, each element has an unique ability upon connecting...
- Air Dragons knock those they strike off their feet, knocking them prone if they receive more damage than their Resistance.
- Earth Dragons throw sharp gem shards or cutting sands, making the damage of their attacks piercing.
- Fire Dragons leave terrible burns upon their strikes! Double any 10s rolled in damage.
- Water Dragons shower the enemy with terrible torrents of water, tripling the knockback upon their foes, throwing them back 1 yard per point of raw damage, increasing the difficulty of their Resistance roll to resist knock back to 2, instead of the standard difficulty!
- Wood Dragons poison their victims with the equivalent to Court Poison.
Gathering of Crystal Midnight
Cost: 50 motes
To enact this powerful spell, the Sorcerer must write the True Names of a number of entities(no greater than his Essence+Compassion) capable of dreaming on leaves, and burning those leaves and whispering each of the names as she begins the incantation. The leaves flower together in the fire, becoming gossamer and forming a disturbingly detailed miniature crystal palace little larger than a man's head. When the entities whose names were written on leaves sleep, they see themselves standing in front of a great pearlescent gate. Behind them lay their dreams, and through the gate is the road to the palace, the same as the sorcerer had conjured. If they wish, they may walk to the palace, and there meet any of the other dreamers named by the spell who chose to come. There, they may socialize for eight hours before waking up, with perfect recollection of the night afterwards. Any of the assembled may leave any time they wish.
Only their minds and souls are within the dreamscape, but they appear with the sort of gear they usually possess in Creation. Artifacts and Hearthstones harmonized with the user's essence will appear in his dream form, however. Any creature able to change their dreams, such as Fair Folk, can change their appearance and the world around them in the Dream. Social actions may be freely attempted within the Dreamscape. Physical ones as well, but damage taken in the Dreamscape does not carry to the body - those knocked unconscious in the dreamscape simply oversleep, and do not roll to recover willpower for the night. Those killed in the Dreamscape lose 4 temporary willpower, do not recover willpower for the night and wake up covered with sweat, disorientation giving them a penalty of -2 for all actions for a number of hours equal to the Essence of their assailant.
The palace and the shared dreamscape remains for Six Days, one for each of the Maidens, plus Luna, lady of Dreams, shining from within with a different maiden's color on each day, decorations shifting slightly for each color, both in the real and the dream-palace, turning chaotic silver on the sixth, with the blessing of Luna, eroding to dust at dawn. The miniature remains until then, and breaking it ends the spell, as does casting Sapphire Countermagic in the dreamscape. Breaking the spell affects all those within the palace the same as if they had been killed in the dreamscape.
Each Maiden blesses the palace differently on every day, adding a one-die enviromental bonus to certain actions within the castle...
- Mercury's Blessed Day adds a bonus to all attempts at planning journeys.
- Venus' Blessed Day adds a bonus to all attempts to make, change or strenghten relationships.
- Jupiter's Blessed Day adds a bonus to anything on the purview of Lore and Occult, and all attempts at breaking puzzles.
- Mars' Blessed Day adds a bonus to all combat abilities, and all rolls related to councils of war.
- Saturn's Blessed Day adds a bonus to all attempts to end relationships, alliances and allegiances.
- Luna's Blessed and Last Day adds a bonus to all artistic and creative endeavors.
Virtuous Jewel Conflagration
Cost: 40 motes
In a surge of power that warps all essence around him, the sorceror turns the path of his virtue into a Dragon Line, drawing power from Creation to ignite his nobility and flaws as pyres of great power that burn with the power and the heat of Demesnes. His body brings that light and power forth drawing forth a Hearthstone composed of Virtue from his body, in a different location for each Virtue. Temperance appears on his forehead. Compassion over his heart. Conviction over his stomach. Valor as twin gemstones on the back of both his hands.
Those work like normal hearthstones for all purposes, including essence regeneration, as if they were properly socketed in a Hearthstone Amulet in the sorceror's body. The Sorceror must choose four hearthstones that fit patterns of his Virtues, at the given Virtue's level or less(thus a Compassion of 3 would give a Hearthstone with a maximum level of 3). Those are Chosen when the spell is learned, and may not be changed short of a change in the character's direction, outlook in life, Nature of Virtues.
This spell may only ignite one such virtue-path at a time to remain burning until the Sun vanishes from the world in the next dusk with the coming of a serene night to subdue the character's virtue. The character must specify the Virtue he is igniting when he uses this spell, and may not shift it until it naturally ends and is cast anew. The Virtue, while ignited, burns more powerfully within the character than it did before - the character must spend 2 willpower to fight off their virtue compulsions instead of 1.
Imbue Amalgam
Cost: 15+ motes, plus Experience
To create an Amalgam, one bounds a creature that cannot already channel Essence to an item - something the capabilities of the Amalgam are worked around. Cards, Weapons, Artifacts, Paintings... something grand, of a certain legend, which becomes part of the Amalgam, and through it, the Sorcerer grants one legendary power. Besides the capabilities written Savant and Sorcerer, the Sorcerer can give the Amalgam combos at 1 mote per Charm in the combo. Those tend to have physical manifestations in the Amalgam. More importantly, the spell now has an Experience Cost. It costs One Third(rounded down) of the motes placed in the Amalgam's capabilities in Experience Points. Thus, dramatic balance is mantained, as main characters will usually only have one or two important creations which they for some reason never made more of, and antagonists, especially older ones, will have a cadre of unique, specialized servants.
Similar Spells would have similar Experience Costs.
Tomes Hidden to the Darkened Skies
Cost: 20 motes
Knowledge is power. And power must, sometimes, be kept very well-hidden. And there is little better to hide secrets than the edicts of the stars. In the constellations, are bound the mysteries of life, of death, of the destiny of nations and men. This spell mimics the stars, weaving the words of books. Gathering a colllection of volumes - diaries, novels, encyclopaedias, treatises - no greater than twice his Lore and spreading them over an astrological chart on a night of New Moon, under only starlight, the sorcerer recites one hundred secrets in an hour-long ritual, while pouring stardust over the volumes. At the conclusion, all volumes become one, all coded with the night sky. Their writing becomes a code that will always be simple to the sorcerer, and paragraphs and phrases lead arbitrarily to pages in other books. Fitting together, their covers flow like water, forming a diagram of the night and its constellations - and the code tells where, in those constellations, the text continues(Like in which page, side and paragraph in the book that has on its cover the constellation of the Sorcerer. The very position of the stars on the cover, reflected to the pages within, is also a factor. The actual words scramble on the page, backwards, fowards, in diagonals, filling the margins... as chaotic or as orderly as the caster's personality).
This has several effects.
First, one needs the full set of volumes to be able to piece a single story together. The more one has, the more one knows, but the information will still be fragmented. Even for those who know the code, piecing together information requires a Intelligence+Investigation or Lore roll, adding one to the difficulty for every volume missing. Attempts not enhanced by Charms miss outright.
For those that are not aware of the code, it is even worse - decoding it requires a Intelligence+Investigation or Lore roll, with a dificulty equal to (the Intelligence+Lore total of the casting sorcerer) plus one for every missing book. Each failure on this roll increases the difficulty by 4, instead of simply 2, as usual - the information hides itself from those that lack its knowledge. Attempts not enhanced by Charms miss outright. After the code has been cracked, one still has to roll, as usual.
A Chosen of Secrets, Twilight or Daybreak and No Moon caste can always roll with someone else, and add his roll to the total of successes. This spell is a favorite of Sidereal Exalted, who can easily scatter the volumes around the world and gather them via the Gates of Yu-Shan. There are different versions of this spell, with different names and codes, like maps of Creation or Varangian Clockwork.
