Sorcery/GreenLantern
Back to Sorcery Or perhaps GreenLantern
Display of Unbridled Power - Celestial Circle Sorcery -- GreenLantern
Cost: 15+ motes
Sorcerers, as any lay person can tell you, are an impressive lot. Able to bind malicious demons, call forth waves of obsidian death, and even control the very weather itself, sorcerers are more than one step away from 'normal'. The sorcerer, on the other hand, recognizes the true weaknesses inherent in their work. With nearly a year of study spent devising a single incantation, and possibly dozens of sacrifices along the way, a sorcerer is often limited by the few spells they've managed to learn. While the ability to summon and bind the many types of demon is quite a help, as there are nearly as many types of demon as there are problem, it's often rather inconvenient to summon a demon in the middle of a heated battle, or at a perfectly polite social event suddenly turned sour. In those situations, a more generalized magic can prove quite appropriate indeed. This weaving is one such spell.
Devised during the early First Age, this spell used to be one of the most commonly wielded magics of the time. Useful in dozens of situations, taught almost as soon as a student learned to counter magic, almost any Exalt dabbling in the Occult knew this spell, or at least some variant on it. Now, in the intellectually weakened Second Age, only a few Sidereals and Lunars remember its workings, and are hesitant to give up its power. During the time the spell is woven, the player must designate a general scope of effect, such as "Create whips of fire from my hands", "Give the appearance of a Celestial event (such as Eclipse)", "Mimic the Terrestrial Spell Death of Obsidian Butterflies" or even just "Create a scene similar to that of a haunting, replete with screams, moans, flickering images, and moving objects". Once this basic objective is decided upon, the character rolls Manipulation+Occult to shape the magic. Relatively 'simple' effects such as obviously magical illusions, basic magical effects such as fires, rushes of wind, and the mimicing of simple mortal thaumaturgy can be generated with one success. More complex effects, such as mimicking a weakened version of a Terrestrial sorcery can be done with 3 successes. If 5 or more successes are rolled, the effect can be similar in scope to Terrestrial sorcery, though usually an observer familiar with the mimicked spell can tell the difference between an actual spell and an imitation.
The 'base' version of this spell costs 15 motes to cast, and can generate relatively weak effects. More powerful effects, such as mimicking other spells, costs noticeably more - mimicking an existing Terrestrial spell requires 10 mores more than casting the actual spell would. Due to the way the magic is woven for this spell, it can only be used to imitate short-term weavings, and those otherwise not requiring 'ritual' components. Thus, while this spell can easily mimic the Death of Obsidian Butterflies, or Terrestrial Countermagic, it cannot be used to summon demons or for other long-casting spells.
Comments
The limits of this are fuzzy enough that it can range from overly potent to rather weak depending on how broadly the Storyteller allows it to work, and it seems overly useful--being able to cast ANY Terrestrial Circle spell for only 10 motes over the normal cost. It's like having the first volume of the Book of Three Circles in your pocket. --JohnBiles
- Well, it's 10 motes and a Willpower, and an extra turn of casting. And there's the chance of failure, which knowing the spell doesn't have; those 5 successes could easily not show up unless you use more Charms and more Essence to get them for certain. And it doesn't work on ritual magic. I think it's okay. - FrivYeti
