SpellRelay/War
The Eighth theme is War.
When combat involved a few people, Dawn caste warriors and their ilk rule the field. Yet, when armies march, it is the sorcerers who are most feared. An Exalted sorcerer wields power to destroy armies and devastate fortresses unequalled in all of Creation. Show us some examples of the spells that give these mages their well-deserved reputation.
Insidious Gesture - Terrestrial Circle Sorcery - by Paincake
Cost: 10 motes to cast
Self-Targeting. This battle-spell channels all your natural (or unnatural) defensive might into the most casual of motions. 10 motes for initial Target. 5 for each further target. When attacked by target(s) for the rest of the scene you may choose to benefit from this spell's effects. Whatever impressive effect or usual mode of defense is rolled as normal, but the spell makes all the effort of Heavenly Guardian Defense or your Dex + Dodge manifest itself as effortless or 'easy'. When you successfully defend after choosing to 'show off' this way the target currently attacking you loses one success (to hit) from his next attack against you. These penalties remain until any of your targets(or any beings obviously weaker than your targets) successfully deals you damage, at which point YOU gain a +1 difficulty penalty to any physical effort from the strain of the spell's interruption. Any extras or mortal NPCs will need a + 1 difficulty valor check to attack you throughout the spell's duration; Opponents with greater than mortal (2+) essence roll their wits+valor against your willpower. Beings of equal essence ignore the effect.
Fluff: Your successful defenses are expedited by this spell and your body glides smoothly to outwardly display your facility. All onlookers will see a lazy flick of the wrist or a sneer-accompanied brush-off send any unsuccessful attacks spinning away uselessly. Your opponent's dismay at your apparent lack of difficulty in dealing with his/their attacks will lead them to lose confidence in themselves, further weakening any future attacks against you. As their attacks become easier to deflect, their dismay can only increase, until retreat or defeat is their only option. Any lesser beings will require a courageous heart to even approach your mighty countenance. The drawback to this spell is its drain on your body should it be interrupted; you will find yourself struggling to lift your weapon, let alone make snide comments, should your target or any opponent of lesser strength bring their weapons to bear and thus shatter your mantle of power.
Monsoon in Wood and Feathers - Terrestrial Circle Sorcery - by Darloth
Cost: 20 motes(committed) to cast, 1 mote per turn (3m per long turn, none committed) to sustain
The sorceress chants for a few seconds, gathering the power and weaving it into a lambent green ball, spitting out sinuous contrails of green essence as it writhes and condenses in her hands. Then, at the culmination of the spell, she shouts a great Word, and hurls the orb into the sky. It travels with the speed of a comet, but moments after leaving her hands it shatters, unravelling and twisting, sending trails and lines of green energy coursing across the sky. It unfolds into a vast complex mandala above the sorceress which hangs there until she stops spending essence on the spell (as a reflexive non-charm action).
From then onwards, any arrow fired into the air by the sorceress pierces this mandala at a critical point, and ripples flow along from that nexus, shattering fragments of essence into the sky at every other crossing of lines, of which there are hundreds. Every one of these shards forms into an identical duplicate of the arrow and hurtles towards whatever it was originally fired upon. Even worse for the unfortunate target, when the ripples reach the edge of the mandala, they do not stop, but rebound and course inwards again, reverberating and materializing arrows for some time to come.
Mechanically, any arrow the sorceress fires into the mandala is applied to everyone within (Essence * 50) yards of the original target on the turn AFTER it is fired. The spell will not affect direct attacks, so the arrows must be fired upwards incurring this extra turn. However, this attack will be repeated with cumulatively half(round down) the number of successes every turn. Any further arrows fired into the mandala will reset the number of successes and/or change the target, depending on where the arrow is aimed. Charmed shots which modify the arrows to-hit roll apply as normal, but the magic strips any charms which boost or alter the arrow itself (usually the damage) and so these have no effect. If people can get out of the area of effect within the 1 turn of grace, they are of course safe, but everyone will know to duck for cover. The spell's only limit on range is that of the sorceresses bow. This spell has no effect on incoming projectiles, only outgoing ones specifically fired by the sorceress herself. However, although it is very rare to see someone using anything else, this charm's effects are not limited to arrows. Any projectile the sorceress could fire/propel by herself with enough force to reach the mandala and come down on top of an enemy is multiplied. Slingstones and throwing knives suggest themselves, but stunts could have it applying to almost anything. Hurled circle-members may or may not be duplicated, depending on the tone of the game, but should certainly dematerialize on impact. Normal projectiles remain however, giving a carpet of shafts or knives or whatever it was was used. Other spells are never duplicated, only mundane or mostly-mundane (phantom arrow, not solar spike) projectiles.
(If using mail and steel... multiply successes by the sorceresses Essence? Apply it that many times? Do something. Mail and steel interacts weirdly with everything. Although, being able to swarm arrows on your own is kinda handy. Someone may wish to try and use the arrow swarm rules also.)
Deployment of the Martial Weather - Celestial Circle Sorcery - by GregLink
Cost: 20m for the first mile radius, plus 5m per additional half-mile radius
One of the most common and well-known sorceries used in seige campaigns, Deployment of the Martial Weather is nothing if not awe-inspiring. During the next 18 rounds (1 minute) after the spell is cast, the skies darken, birds flee, and all feel the onrush of wind. After this minute has elapsed, a small ribbon of light appears near the caster, and extends to anywhere in the sky the caster can see within (Essence*(Awareness+1)) miles. This light, having reached its destination, shimmers and pulses, slowly spreading outward like the ripples in a lake, eventually creating a circle with radius equal to one mile + one-half mile per additional 5 motes spent at the time of casting. In the ripples' wake, the very forces of nature are distorted and twisted, resulting in weather patterns that can only be called "cataclysmic". Blizzards, Hail, Lightning storms, and hurricane-force winds are all possible effects generated by the caster, wreaking havoc on the area below. Outside the effected radius the effects quickly drop off, with the caster's allies often standing calmly dozens of feet from violent lightning strikes, waiting for the order to charge. These effects last for up to (Essence) hours after the spell is cast, ruining crops, morale, supplies, and even drowning the poor soldiers told to hold their ground in trenches. The effects of this weather are left up to the storyteller, but for reference, see page 244 of the core book, which notes that such environmental damage is treated in a fashion similar to poisons, with a "Severe Sandstorm" (quite possible with this spell) allowing a Stamina+Resistance roll for Exalts, at difficulty 2. If the roll is successful, no damage is taken, otherwise, 1L damage is soaked with their Stamina. For those who cannot soak lethal damage with their stamina, there is no resistance roll, and they automatically lose 1 lethal health level. This continues every minute until the poor sap finds a way to avoid the environmental hazard. Another listed effect is the "Supernatural Ice Storm", also diff 2 to resist for Exalts, dealing 1L if resisted, and 3L if not.
Pyre of Armies - Celestial Circle Sorcery - by Darloth
Cost: 35m for the first half-mile radius, plus 10m per additional quarter-mile radius
Similar in scope and effect to the Deployment of the Martial Weather, and indeed formed from similar sorcerous principles (some claim they were even developed by the same sorcerer), the Pyre of Armies differs in two respects: Duration, and Intensity. Wheras the Deployment is a seige-spell, lasting many hours and drumming the dull inevitability of defeat into the sorcerer's foes, the Pyre of Armies is a battlefield support spell, specialized for breaking legions and immolating any who stand in his path.
After the completion of the (normal, 2 turn duration) casting, black, ominous clouds begin to gather at sorcerous speeds. A hot, dry, scouring wind begins to blow, and as with the previous spell, animals flee the area and all know by the shivering in their bones that their fate is now sealed. However, it is not a minute's grace that the victims are granted, but a variable length of time dependant on current weather conditions. If the sky is already stormy or the weather is harsh, the effects of this spell begin on the turn after casting is complete. If the weather is mildly unpleasant, then those in the targetted area have only three turns to flee to safety, and if the weather is calm and mild, then the period of grace is 15 seconds (approximately 5 turns).
The clouds that gather are clearly not natural, darker than any normal weather has the right to be. They rumble and groan ominously, and flicker from within as if lit by burning coals. Embers and cinders blow from their depths like rain from a monsoon, and coarse black ash drifts over the target as if a volcano had erupted nearby. In sooth, few can tell the difference once the spell comes to its ruinous fruition, as the clouds begin to pulse with the cherry-red glow of worked steel. With every pulse, a roaring gobbet of liquid fire is cast forth to smash on the ground below, and within seconds of the first such droplet falling, thousands are pouring from the skies in a seemingly endless rain of fire. The droplets range in size from pea-sized splatters of incendiary oil to watermelon sized meteors of boiling lava, and they fall for the sorcerer's (Essence) in minutes. During this time, the damage is applied as environmental damage to anyone not under cover or utterly heatproof. The resistance difficulty is 3, and the successful damage is 2L, with the failed damage being 4L, and the interval is every three turns, with the first roll being made immediately upon exposure. Remember that non-fireproofed building materials are not immune to this, and it will likely burn through most things except thick stone given enough time. It is perhaps of great relief that the fire hurled by this spell is not of sufficient quantities to form actual pools or flows of liquid flame larger than a few inches across, and so there is little problem with runoff. In actual fact, the ash spat out by this spell is as fertile as natural ash tends to be, and given enough time to recover, an area smote by this magic may well become more fertile than it was to begin with.
While it is a devastating spell for the unprepared and will surely spell doom for any army caught without cover or with wooden fortifications, it is of relativly short duration, and hard to operate in for the sorcerer's allies. Even the laziest of soldiers can often be motivated to dig a foxhole with remarkable alacrity when the skies darken and burn above them, so most sorcerers expect and plan for survivors, and while most buildings will be aflame and collapsing, canny troops have been known to emerge from far worse. It should be noted that this spell and Deployment of the Martial Weather are explicitly incompatible, and with the right parameters, may even cancel each other out to some extent. This is left up to the storyteller - in addition, I imagine that the Bureau of Weather will look badly on anyone abusing weather-magic.
Insidious Whispers - Celestial Circle Sorcery - by Paincake
Cost: 15 motes for a small population. 20 motes for a large city. 30 motes to affect a region. 5 more is committed for the 1st two, 10 for the last.
15 Motes (Small pop.) 20 Motes (Large City): 5 investment. 30 Motes (Entire Region): 10 investment. Two targets; Original person, plus Organization or well-known figure. Original target is single individual; Extras and average mortal NPCs become automatically 'infected', (Or, as with any other target, roll your Manipulation + Occult (Occult here used to display your knowledge and facility with incorporating magic into your actions) against their Essence+Temperence. (Potentially very easy to inflict)) The 1st target will now become a 'carrier,' causing your Essencex2 "Contagion checks" (If you must, roll 1d6 each time the target interacts with another being to determine if the spell attempts to infect someone.) The contagion check is a contested essence roll. If they tie, re-roll. (Exalts, god-blooded, etc, far more contagious than mortals. especially to mortals) After 1 resistance to contagion, the lucky resisters are immune. If the ST wishes the particularly discerning/spiritually aware/beings with 'Awakened Essence' can detect a certain strangeness to the infected populous when they themselves resist infection. (Those that do not resist are unaware of any strangeness.) STs may allow whichever means of discernment they deem appropriate to reveal the spell's effects, though not necessarily their target or final motive. After a ST determined period of time, (when many people in the tagreted area are infected) the invested essence becomes active (spent, returns to owner) and any small agressive, oppressive, or even annoying action on the part of the 2nd target drives the people infected by the spell into a frenzy of violence against them. It lasts until there is either a crippling rout on either side, (with sacking and looting resultant from the victory of the ensorcelled) or enough days have passed in a standstill battle or siege that any average man would lose morale. This spell will not raise an army for a particular cause, though the people wronged in the brief battle may find it in their best interests to choose sides afterwards. During the rise of infection the people infected become steadily more aggressive to all representatives of the 2nd target as the spell nears its climax. Even reasonable individuals or loyal servants find themselves at least passive-aggressively taking out an unknown anger on the named target. The appropriate countermagic affects the entire region and dispells all effects of this spell; however, it must be cast in the area where the spell was originally cast, or upon its ritual circle, or upon a totem you've imbued with the spell to act as its locus. FLUFF:
This spell is not a weapon to be used during war. This spell is war.
The caster finds a point of light in the heart of the target he chooses, be it a mortal commoner, wealthy patrician, Dynastic scion, or fellow Solar. Using this magic and uttering a single whispered word, he defines the exactitude of all the target's pain and suffering, and then he speaks a name.
This name must be a person or organization well-known to them and to any future people they come into contact with for this spell to be effective. There has to be some real (even if 'imagined') involvement or investment; a celebrity for instance, or a local government. At the end of the name's whispered mention the target of this spell appears physically unaffected, but inside them the point of light festers with the knowledge implanted into it. At first they may try to deny it or hide their feelings, especially if particularly loyal to the person/organization named. (People also hide their true feelings unless they feel like they are not the only ones involved.) ..but they are always unaware that anything is wrong. For a while afterwards when the afflicted speaks with another person, the dark whisper hisses out between their teeth as they speak and breathe, clawing at the spirit of the friend or stranger for entry. If it finds a home there this person becomes a new conduit for the corruption, spreading it onwards like a virulent plague. Exalts and god-men will be resistant to this affliction but if they become enmeshed they are as any other, and their high spirit is twisted to the purposes of the whisper in their soul. All these people have one thing in common afterwards; a subtle but growing hatred for the perceived oppressor who rides their heart; the one whose name makes it heavy and sits like oil in their bellies.
One man who hates a tyrant is an execution. 10 men who hate the tyrant are conspirators. 100 men who hate a tyrant are foolish. 10,000 men who hate the tyrant are an army. After many days have passed the divergence becomes clear between those infected and those unaffected. People congregate where they can freely give vent to their feelings of ill will and like a powder keg may soon burst with violent force against their percieved oppressor. While all people are different, through this spell the hotheads and fools are tempered while the weak and the discerning are fostered in bitter flame. When all are made ready their whisper-ridden minds are sharpened to daggers; a time when every heartbeat is like a hammer on a gong in their ears, when their rage overwhelms their good sense, their compassion, their loyalties lie in ruin; full of ugly, bitter hate that comes like a wind in the night their eyes are filled with the thirst for blood. One name rings in their head and heartbeat, one whispered word curdles in their minds, the pall of War rides their spirit and their palms are wetted with the blood of their oppressor, that name that haunts their sleep and steals the light from their eyes.
Cast for 30 motes, 10 invested, by a 4 Essence Solar.
EXAMPLE 1: Cast against a Dragon Blood household (Tepet Adani) upon Adani's loyal servant. The servant walks down the hall and meets... Wind Rose, Adani's wife. He speaks briefly to her about the linens in need of restocking.. (CHECK: rolled a 6)! (Roll 1 Die for the servant's essence: Success!) Wind Rose rolls 3 and gets 2 successes, resists the roll. Wind Rose feels the strange flicker pass between herself and the servant. The servant is unaware of anything wrong and is free to continue spreading the other 7 attempts at contagion. Unless Adani investigates.. EXAMPLE 2: Cast upon the fishmonger Leos in the small village of Grotto, against the Guild's merchant-General Daeron who is the new Mayor of the capital city of Greensborough. He controls the region's commerce with a favorable eye to Guildsmen and panderers, and has a taste for torturing slaves in private. This place bereft of any spiritual resistance becomes a hive of contagion.( Leos gets 3 out of his 8 people. They each get 3, 2, and 4, etc.) The town is soon rampant with dissatisfaction; note that good portion of the populace has become immune to its spread. Despite a lack of new bodies to infect in Grotto, traveling merchants spread the whispers in their idle gossip and this friendly chatter quickly turns mutinous.. Soon all over the region people are hissing his name between their teeth with distaste. Rumors abound about his dark tastes and soon a Guild mercenary detatchment is called in to help defend his home from rocks and drunks. ..these mercenaries sometimes desert mysteriously. After a month of this, a larger detatchment is sent in, and this invasion from the Guild's armed men coincides with a certain dirty torturous secret being spilled out into the open.. chaos insues. The guild men retreat to his home, and are slaughtered by the throng of stone-throwing, club-weilding madmen, who lynch Daeron and murder his family, drag him on horses through the city, loot his home.. and who the next day, horrified by their actions, attempt everything in their power to remedy the destruction caused in their once-beautiful capital city.
Releasing the Wings of Light - Solar Circle Sorcery - by Darloth
Cost: 60 motes
Over the three turns of this spell's casting, a glowing ring forms behind the sorceress, and arcs of essence continually flare from it to ground painfully on her shoulders, growing and crackling into two maelstroms of cascading essence only barely bound within her frame. The sorceresses face grows more and more contorted as the words of the spell are spoken and the power temporarily stored within her gets harder and harder to bear. Finally, when it seems she can stand no more, the spell is complete, and with a sigh, she releases it. Her anima expands and flares outwards to merge with the ring, forming (Essence*2) amazingly beautiful angelic wings of solid sunlight that tower out to 30 feet in height and 20 feet to either side, brushing aside all obstacles as if they were made of fragile glass.
There is a single perfect chime as the sorceress floats a few inches off the ground, supported by the wings and sublime in the moment of release, and then they are gone, each feather arcing out as a graceful beam of light which curves delicately around to smite a foe in the chest, searing like a thunderbolt even as it steals the breath of onlookers with its simple beauty. The entire battlefield is covered in a multitude of intersecting glowing trails, and every foe that the sorceress could potentially see or has explicit positional knowledge of is smote with an attack dealing her (Essence+Appearance)*2 in lethal piercing damage. That damage is the base, and successes are added on top. No pool is rolled for this attack, but the sorceresses (Essence+Appearance)*2 simply apply as the number of successes to beat if an opponent attempts to defend. Characters who fail a temperance roll may not even attempt to defend, too astounded at the deadly beauty rushing before them to take any action, and all extras automatically fail. This spell ignores all cover, environmental effects and non-magical shields and deals aggravated damage to undead, demons, and the 'forces of darkness' et al.
Comments
Erk. If you let people use charms like that, make them explicitly only apply to the first iteration. Otherwise, a Solar could use AWD and have an idefinitely iterating perfect area-effect attack. Or else, make maintaining the spell a charm action which can be put in a Combo, so it would require a Combo to pull that off. I wouldn't have a problem with the latter, since it doesn't differentiate between friend and foe. Also, does the spell keep raining arrows even when it runs out of successes? This could be important not only for an AWD situation, but also for stunts. - IanPrice
AWD doesn't change the number of successes, and this spell strips the charms from all arrows that pass it. If you had some sort of 'don't roll, you get (diepool)*2 successes' charm, that would be fine, but nothing that affects the arrow after the initial roll works. Basically, immediate accuracy boosters work, but nothing else. Once the arrow has been duplicated, it's just a mundane arrow with X successes to hit, no special effects at all.
On your other point, I would rule it slowly settles down after it runs out of successes... let's say a rain of gentle and non-threatening arrows for (Sorceress's Essence score) in turns after it reaches 0, becoming less heavy towards the end few turns. That help things?
-- Darloth
- It does help me see your intent. I don't think that it's clear from the spell's text that perfect effects like AWD (or the undodgeability of CoCT for that matter) are stripped. I recommend a change, since that's what you want, to say: "all charms are stripped when the arrow passes through the spell, but charms which add accuracy dice or accuracy successes have their full effect on the attack roll before the charms are stripped." That makes the specific limitation to "number of successes" clear. What it says right now is "charms that modify the arrow's to-hit roll," and AWD definitely does modify the to-hit roll, by making it a moot point.
- The other thing, that's fine by me, just put it in the spell's text. I just wanted it clarified, whatever the answer. - IanPrice
- Okies. I'll edit later, probably. Or you can do so, I'm fine with those. But AWD does -not- make the to-hit roll moot, by any stretch. a 1 success perfect attack is still wimpy if it's uncomboed, wheras a 20 success perfect attack is no different from a 20 success unperfect attack.
-- Darloth quibbles
- Okies. I'll edit later, probably. Or you can do so, I'm fine with those. But AWD does -not- make the to-hit roll moot, by any stretch. a 1 success perfect attack is still wimpy if it's uncomboed, wheras a 20 success perfect attack is no different from a 20 success unperfect attack.
Yes! I can Deploy the Martial Weather! Finally! ^_^ -- Trithne
No comments yet.. I hope my spells don't stink *that* bad. =( I wrote up these to originally be Terrestrial and Celestial Circle, but apparently they're just too evil. =D I think they could both use tweaking, and I welcome suggestions to improve them. -- Paincake
Weird, I didn't notice them at all until now. Did you minor-edit them, or was I just slow?
-- Darloth
As to comments, I like both of them... I -think- they're necromancy, but they don't have that much to do with the dead. You could make arguements for them to be sorcery, there's a ton of nasty spells in there too, as well as some evil ones. Still, they're nice and obviously thematically appropriate for somewhere, so good work. If you could clean up the description of what happens and when, that'd be good, currently they're both a little vague on actual effects and what happens when.
-- Darloth
Oops! Yeah, I did actually minor edit them.. I browse very late at night on little sleep, so I sometimes get goofy and form habits to expedite simple tasks. (Like: "always remember to press minor edit" Because I was making lots of minor edits.) Did you happen to see my artifact in the Artifact relay? I don't know if I actually posted that one correctly either. XD As to the spells, you know, the topic of this whole page, thanks! I'm glad you like them.. I think I will make them sorcery, simply because there's no reason for them to be necromancy. The waning days of the Solar Deliberative are a perfect setting for the fall of sorcery to evil ends. (I can imagine an Abyssal Exalt using that first spell on a group of newborn Solars or uppity Terrestrials. Oooh, sweet majestic evil.) I do want to mention one thing, though; I remember Solar Circle sorcery being rumored to be the stuff of Legend, feared and called upon at the highest need. I note that we seem to lack here the epic proportion of these spells, as if afraid to be "too powerful," or game breaking. Is there a proper place to bring this opinion to light? Start a sorcerous revolution! =D Anyway, how do you like the revisions? I think I likes me mein fluff too much. XD
We do? I've seen some pretty 'game-breaking' epic solar sorceries around here myself. None in this relay. I might add one... perhaps you like your epic even bigger, though? ^_^. I like your spells, and no, i havn't seen the artifact. I'll go look, maybe comment more here and there
-- Darloth
There. How's that? Kill an army. Epic enough for you? ^_^
-- Darloth decrees that the next theme should be Flowers
P.S. - This spell is dedicated to any and all of the Touhou games by Team Shanghai Alice. It looks very much like any number of the special attacks in that.
- omigod, Mokou? - sssssz
NOW THAT'S WHAT I'M TOLKIEN ABOUT! Great job, I can imagine it so wonderfully.. a chaos of Raiders of the Lost Ark magnitude XD. Nice choice for the new theme; flowers. I will work something up this very night! Got something half decent here, but er.. I don't know how to make the next page. Ehe, ehehe.. p.s. I murdered all seventy-million commas in my entries. Are they slightly better now?
-- paincake
Hmm... While I think exalted -is- missing a rain of fire, and it clearly should be a level below Rain of Doom... This might still be a little powerful for celestial. I'd love opinions on it. I could extend the interval, or reduce the duration, or both... what says the wiki?
-- Darloth
