As with Shadow Sculpting, above, but the mage can now cause the darkness to move, even causing it to travel from its naturally occurring place to somewhere darkness could not possibly exist, such as beneath the direct glare of a lamp.
Practice: Ruling
Action: Instant
Duration: Prolonged (one scene)
Aspect: Vulgar
Cost: None
The Speed at which the darkness can flow (directed by the caster as a reflexive action) is equal to the caster’s Gnosis + Death + the spell’s Potency.
The mage can force a ghost to perform an action. A single, simple command (“Attack!” “Flee!” “Stand there!”) can be issued per success.
Practice: Ruling
Action: Instant ; target rolls Resistance reflexively
Duration: Prolonged (one scene)
Aspect: Vulgar
Cost: None
Complex commands require multiple successes. For example, “Go to the Contessa’s mansion and steal the Borgia Diamond!” might require three successes.
If the ghost has not completed the action by the time the Duration expires, it does not have to finish the job. It must, however, work to complete the command as soon as possible.
The mage alters the appearance of death by adding or subtracting features from a corpse. The mage could, for example, make the small pile of ashes left behind by a person killed by fire look as though she died from a stab wound to the neck. In this fashion, mages have turned murder most foul into seeming accidents or the product of natural causes, or taken a perfectly innocent circumstance (quiet heart failure in the night or a tumble down a flight of stairs) and used it to frame someone for a killing she never committed.
Practice: Veiling
Action: Instant
Duration: Lasting
Aspect: Covert
Cost: None
The mage can add or subtract one feature per success. A feature represents a single wound or disease condition, such as a laceration caused by a knife, burns caused by exposure to a conflagration, or a cancerous tumor in the target’s liver.
The mage can cause a material object to corrode, rust or become rotten.
Practice: Ruling
Action: Instant
Duration: Lasting
Aspect: Covert
Cost: None
This spell lowers the object’s Durability by one point per success, but it does not affect the object’s Structure (for that effect, see “Destroy Object,” p. 139). The degraded Durability cannot be repaired by normal (non-magical) means.
The mage mystically attacks an ephemeral object.
Practice: Fraying
Action: Instant
Duration: Lasting
Aspect: Vulgar
Cost: None
Successes in excess of the object’s Durability (most ephemeral items have Durability 1) inflict aggravated damage on its Structure. This spell does not affect animate ephemeral beings such as ghosts (or anything with a Corpus trait rather than a Structure trait).
The mage can destroy Mana.
Practice: Unmaking
Action: Instant
Duration: Lasting
Aspect: Covert
Cost: None
One point of Mana, no matter how it is stored (as tass, within an artifact, or a mage’s own personal Mana points), may be destroyed per success.
The mage mystically attacks a material object, causing it to decay instantly.
Practice: Fraying
Action: Instant
Duration: Lasting
Aspect: Covert
Cost: None
Successes in excess of the object’s Durability inflict aggravated damage on its Structure.
The mage consumes a healthy life-force or ghost. Just as he is able to do with an ailing person under the shadow of death, the mage can now consume a fully healthy soul, one not touched with the taint of the grave, revitalizing his stores of Mana or stealing the victim’s will. Likewise, he may devour any nearby ghost for its spiritual energies, augmenting himself in a similar manner.
Practice: Unraveling
Action: Instant
Duration: Lasting
Aspect: Vulgar
Cost: 1 Mana
This spell is handled in exactly the same way as “Devouring the Slain,” p. 139, save that the mage may now perform the spell upon a healthy subject (one not currently suffering from aggravated damage) or a nearby ghost (damaging the spirit’s Corpus). The mage must still grab hold of the target first, however (unless he has Death 6, allowing him to cast the spell within sensory range as an instant action).
While any mage can commit a living sacrifice to gain Mana (see p. 78), this spell is an act of sorcerous cannibalism that allows a willworker to regain strength from the souls of the dying without necessarily killing them (although it certainly harms them).
A mage can restore her resolve or “burn out” a living human Pattern for its Mana, drawing this energy directly into her own stores to use as she will. The spell does not work if cast upon an animal; if it is, nothing happens. If used on a vampire or other form of walking dead, the spell provides no benefit to the mage. In general, the spell is meant for use upon a normal human being, and any attempt to diverge from that procedure is not apt to go well for the caster.
Practice: Fraying
Action: Instant ; subtract target’s Stamina
Duration: Lasting
Aspect: Vulgar
Cost: 1 Mana
The mage must first grab hold of the target, with a Strength + Brawl roll, subtracting the target’s Defense. If successful, he can cast this spell as an instant action in the following turn. (With Death 4, he can cast this spell at sensory range as an instant action. He needs Death 5 before he can add Space 2 for a sympathetic casting.) Each success allows the mage to replenish one of his spent Willpower points by harvesting it from a person who has suffered at least one aggravated wound during the current scene (including one who has lost all of his Health to lethal damage and now suffers aggravated damage as his body dies), up to a maximum of the victim’s remaining Willpower points.
Alternatively, the mage may burn out a person’s Pattern for points of Mana, converting the ephemeral energies that make up his idealized form into raw power. Each success inflicts one lethal Health wound onto the victim and gives the caster one Mana point. If the victim is a mage, his own Mana points are unaffected; this spell steals energy directly from his Pattern. The caster must use the Prime 5 “Siphon Mana” spell (see p. 231) to directly tap an Awakened person’s Mana. Direct siphoning requires a separate casting from the Willpower-harvesting version of this spell, although both effects can be combined using the normal rules for combining spells (see “Combined Spells,” p. 128).
Devouring the Slain can be used only on a given individual once, after which a new level of aggravated damage must be inflicted upon him before he can again be a target.
The mage can create ectoplasm from one of his orifices (usually his mouth or nostrils) or the orifice of a corpse. This opaque, white, slick material can be molded to form whatever shape the mage desires, although it cannot be disguised to look like some other substance (unless the mage adds Matter 2 to the casting). The mage could use it as a mirror to allow anyone (even Sleepers) to see ghosts or objects that are present in Twilight.
Most often, it is used to allow a Twilight ghost to manifest without suffering any dice modifiers for location or the presence of mortals. The ectoplasm takes the shape of the ghost’s own image.
Practice: Ruling
Action: Instant
Duration: Prolonged (one scene)
Aspect: Vulgar
Cost: None
Successes are allocated between the ectoplasm’s Size (base 5 or less, plus one per allocated success) and its solidity. Its base solidity is like a spider web’s, but allocated successes can make this denser and thicker, giving the ectoplasm some weight and increasing detail. A ghost that manifests through ectoplasm with one success of solidity has only vague features. With two successes, its face can be recognized by those who knew it in life. Five successes make it look almost real (except for its uniform white color). Even with five successes (the maximum solidity), a material being or object can pass through the ectoplasm with little resistance. A manifesting ghost is not affected by damage to its ectoplasmic “body”; it merely becomes harder to make out its features.
The ectoplasm remains for one hour or for the rest of the scene.
The mage can alter the form of an ectoplasmic manifestation (see “Ectoplasm,” p. 136), shaping it with his will into whatever form he desires. He must contend with the will of the mage who conjured the ectoplasm or the ghost who manifests through it.
Practice: Compelling
Action: Instant ; target reflexively rolls Resolve + Gnosis (mage) or Resistance (ghost)
Duration: Prolonged (one scene)
Aspect: Vulgar
Cost: None
Successes are used as Potency to wrest control of the ectoplasm from the mage or ghost who currently controls it.
The mage can draw the vigor of life from a person’s body, leaving him weak and helpless, so that a weight-lifting champion is rendered barely able to lift a child’s toy.
Practice: Unraveling
Action: Instant
Duration: Prolonged (one scene)
Aspect: Covert
Cost: None
The mage must first grab hold of the target, with a roll of Strength or Dexterity + Brawl – the target’s Defense. If successful, he can cast this spell as an instant action in the following turn. (With Death 5, he can cast this spell at sensory range as an instant action. He needs Death 6 before he can add Space 2 for a sympathetic casting.)
Each success subtracts one dot from the target’s Strength Attribute, down to a minimum of 1. The maximum amount by which Strength can be lowered is equal to the mage’s dots in the Death Arcanum. (Lowering Strength also lowers the target’s Speed trait.)
By stealing vigor from incoming attacks, a mage guards himself against harm. Effectively, the mage’s shield attacks the vitality of an incoming assault, eroding its forcefulness with a primal decay.
Practice: Shielding
Action: Instant
Duration: Prolonged (one scene)
Aspect: Covert
Cost: 1 Mana (optional)
The mage gains one point of armor per dot he possesses in the Death Arcanum. By spending one Mana, the Duration can be made one day. Most mages cast such a shielding spell at the beginning of the day, as part of their morning rituals. Successes are used to combat attempts to dispel the ward.
Note that this magical armor does not apply against an opponent’s attempts to achieve a grappling hold on the mage (Fate, Mind, Space and Time Arcana provide shielding spells to accomplish that). This spell will, however, work to steal vigor from a grappler’s Strength + Brawl rolls to overpower the mage.
The mage can cast the “Entropic Guard” spell (p. 136) on others, protecting them with a field of entropic decay.
Practice: Shielding
Action: Instant
Duration: Prolonged (one scene)
Aspect: Covert
Cost: 1 Mana (optional)
The target gains one point of armor per dot the caster possesses in the Death Arcanum. The caster can increase the Duration to one day with the expenditure of one point of Mana.
There are times when the most useful thing one can find out about a given dead body is how it got to be that way. An ability that most crime-scene inves- tigators would give their eyeteeth for, this spell enables a mage to discern at a glance exactly how a creature died and how long ago. Thus, the mage might be able to realize that a cause of death obvious to all modern forensic evidence is in fact a ruse designed to distract from the subject’s true cause of death. Because of the limitations of the Death Arcanum, Forensic Gaze re- veals only cause of death and not mitigating circumstances. If used upon a human skeleton, for example, it can reveal that the individual died as a result of damage to the carotid artery two months ago to the day, but does not tell the mage that the victim also had a lethal dose of strychnine in his system at the time of his demise. This limitation on the sense can come in quite handy, however (such as find- ing a mutilated body and learning that it was a deliberate stab to the heart, rather than the obvious manic rending of flesh, that resulted in the person’s death). Even if physical evi- dence of the cause of death is absent (as with a body reduced to ash), this spell reveals what killed the be- ing in question and how much time has passed since it died.
Practice: Knowing
Action: Instant
Duration: Concentration
Aspect: Covert
Cost: None
The mage peers at a corpse to ascertain the cause of death. He does not need to touch, prod or cut into the corpse; he merely stares at it. Fairly obvious causes such as a knife wound or heart attack levy no penalties, but obscure causes such as a rare neuro-toxin might cause a –2 or greater penalty. Likewise, deaths that took place more than a year ago suffer –1 dice. Deaths older than a decade suffer an additional –1 dice per decade. It is possible to detect a vampire with this spell, although the cause of death (the Embrace) is extremely obscure (–3 penalty). The caster also suffers the usual penalty of –1 die per decade that the vampire has been dead. Zombies, too, can be detected, although their state is usually obvious even to those without this spell.
The mage creates a gateway that transforms anyone who steps through it into a Twilight state of existence. They become Twilight beings until they exit the gateway. While Twilight, they can touch ghosts, pick up ghostly objects or read tomes hidden there. They can also engage in physical or magical combat with ghosts, damaging their Corpus. Conversely, wrathful shades might physically lash out at visitors, causing them harm.
Practice: Weaving
Action: Extended
Duration: Prolonged (one scene)
Aspect: Vulgar
Cost: None
One person of Size 5 or less can pass through the gate per turn (larger people can spend two turns squeezing through). Each success on the casting allows the mage to widen the gate so that one additional person can pass through per turn.
With Death 4, the mage can cast this spell as an instant action and can also limit who can enter (or exit) the gate.
The mage calls a specific ghost or sends out a general call to the nearest ghost within sensory range. He may either call one or more ghosts personally known to him, or he may specify any type of ghost of his choosing (male ghosts or child ghosts, for example), or even send out a general summons to all restless shades within his sensory range (in which case, the closest one to him responds). The ghost comes to the caster with as much speed as it can muster, although it cannot be made to go farther than the maximum distance it is allowed to travel from its anchor.
Practice: Ruling
Action: Instant ; target rolls Resistance reflexively
Duration: Prolonged (one scene)
Aspect: Covert
Cost: None
In the case of a general summons among multiple ghosts, the spell targets the closest one. A curious ghost will usually answer a general call or personal summons, but a reflexive, contested Resistance roll is made if it does not wish to come. It must remain near the summoning mage for the Duration of the spell, unless the caster allows it to leave.
The mage creates a ghostly item by turning a real material object into a Twilight object. To do so, he must destroy the real object, eliminating all its Structure points, and then cast this spell upon its remains. The subject then becomes a ghost of itself within Twilight, allowing the mage to manipulate it with Death 2 (see the “Touch of the Grave” spell, p. 138).
Practice: Weaving
Action: Instant
Duration: Lasting
Aspect: Covert
Cost: None
The mage can give another supernatural being Mage Sight. This is as the Death 1 “Grim Sight” spell, p. 134, except that the mage casts it upon another mage or even a supernatural being such as a ghost or werewolf. If this spell is cast upon a Sleeper, it invokes Disbelief immediately, even if its Duration is less than one scene.
Practice: Unveiling
Action: Instant ; reflexive, contested Resolve + Gnosis
Duration: Prolonged (one scene)
Aspect: Covert
Cost: None
If the target is unwilling, a reflexive, contested Resolve + Gnosis roll is made.
The mage gains the Mage Sight (see “Mage Sight,” p. 110), perceiving the supernatural through the lens of Death. He sees the weight of death around a person — not his likelihood of death (unless the subject has a terminal illness), but how often he has rubbed shoulders (knowingly or not) with the dead or dying. Those who have suffered the loss of many loved ones or who have killed many people tend to bear heavy burdens. This sight also applies to things or places.
Practice: Unveiling
Action: Instant
Duration: Prolonged (one scene)
Aspect: Covert
Cost: None
See “Resonance,” pp. 277-280, for rules for scrutinizing magic with this sight. A +1 dice bonus is gained on perception and scrutiny rolls to sense vampiric Disciplines, Devotions and rituals.
The mage causes a recently dead (within the past hour) or dying Sleeper to cling to a physical anchor rather than move on to whatever afterlife awaits. (The dying Sleeper begins haunting immediately upon physical death, so long as he dies within the Duration of the spell)
Practice: Patterning
Action: Instant ; target rolls Resolve (Sleeper) or Resistance (ghost) reflexively
Duration: Prolonged (one scene)
Aspect: Vulgar
Cost: 1 Mana
A point of Mana must be spent for the mage (above and beyond any other expenditures) to create an anchor for the ghost, which in this case need not be something precious to the subject.
Excess successes can increase Duration:
| Successes | Duration |
|---|---|
| 2 successes | Two hours (or 24 hours with Death 5) |
| 3 successes | 12 hours (or two days with Death 5) |
| 4 successes | 24 hours (or one week with Death 5) |
| 5 successes | Two days (or one month with Death 5) |
| 6 successes | Four days (or indefinite with Death 5; only against ghosts, not the dying) |
With Death 5, a mage can create a haunting with a recently dead or dying mage or with a ghost who has been long dead.
This spell reveals themes and interconnections between people, places and things. In other words, the caster can read the degree of sympathetic connection between subjects. The mage can also sense manipulations of destiny and their causes. This ability extends to any supernatural effect that will or might result in a person’s destiny unfolding in a manner different from that in which it is “meant” to.
Practice: Knowing
Action: Extended
Duration: Concentration
Aspect: Covert
Cost: None
Success allows the mage to examine anyone in sensory range to determine the interconnections they might have with each other (or even with things and institutions, such as corporate brands or fashions). On each turn following the casting of this spell (so long as the mage continues to concentrate), an extended Wits + Empathy + Fate roll can be made for the mage to scrutinize people. Each success yields some information, with more successes yielding more powerful or secret connections. The mage cannot tell exactly what the connections mean, just their intensity. See “Sympathetic Range,” p. 114, for details on what each degree of connection means.
| Successes | Interconnection |
|---|---|
| 1 success | The caster can identify Unknown and Described connections between people and/or things. The caster can also detect an oathbreaker, one who has violated an oath or geas. |
| 2 successes | The caster can identify Encountered connections between people and/or things. The caster can read an individual’s dots (if any) in the Destiny Merit (up to two dots, with one additional dot per additional success). |
| 3 successes | The caster can identify Acquainted connections between people and/or things. The caster can also detect direct supernatural mind control, spiritual possession or alterations of destiny. |
| 4 successes | The caster can identify Known connections between people and/or things. The caster can also detect indirect supernatural mind control, spiritual possession or alterations of destiny. |
| 5 successes | The caster can identify Intimate connections between people and/or things. The caster can also detect interconnections of destiny, such as if one person viewed (or depicted nearby) is destined to be the mentor or apprentice of another person viewed or depicted — or is destined to be his murderer |
If the target has any form of supernatural occlusion (such as the Occultation Merit) that would hinder the mage’s perception, the caster’s dice pool is modified by the dots or Potency of that protection.
The mage can dispel any spell, regardless of what Arcana were used to create it — he does not need Prime 1 or any other Arcana lore. The mage must first have Mage Sight so that he can perceive the spell to be affected.
Practice: Unmaking
Action: Instant
Duration: Lasting
Aspect: Covert
Cost: None
Successes are compared to the target spell’s Potency. If they equal or exceed it, the spell is dispelled.
Sometimes, it isn’t enough to have loyal and steadfast living servants. A normal human being, no matter how trustworthy, has the capacity for betrayal. Whether his lips are loosened by seemingly sincere companionship, mystic compulsion or even torture, he can be induced to fail his master’s trust. Where, then, does an enterprising necromancer turn for assistance? Quicken Corpse animates one or more corpses to serve as unfailing, devoted slaves. What such servants lack in wits and motiva- tion, they more than make up for in dogged determination and sheer, tireless pursuit of the tasks they are set.
Generally speaking, such ambulatory corpses possess a level of reasoning just above that of a rather intelligent dog. They understand certain visual cues (such as the opening of the door they are meant to guard) and auditory commands (“Defend me!”), but cannot perform feats requiring abstract intellect. They have a limited memory, but cannot make even basic correlations or inferences. (While they can, for example, dimly recall that their master has changed their clothes once a day, they cannot determine that he is likely to do so again tomorrow.) They have no individual initiative.
These corpse-slaves are not really any stronger than they were in life, but they are tireless and completely without the ability to sense or respond to pain. They need not eat or sleep and do whatever chore they are set to until told otherwise, even if it requires them to tear their own bodies apart in the attempt. They experience neither fear nor the desire for self-preservation and have no minds, per se, for others to control. They can, however, be wrested away from their master through the casting of this spell by another necromancer.
Practice: Weaving
Action: Instant
Duration: Prolonged (one scene)
Aspect: Vulgar
Cost: None
Only one success is required to animate a corpse. Additional successes determine the strength of the mage’s control. Someone attempting to wrest control of the walking dead with another casting of this spell must exceed the original caster’s successes. Additional success can instead be used to boost the corpse’s Physical (but not Mental or Social) traits, at a rate of one success per additional dot in any trait.
Zombies
Each zombie created by the “Quicken Corpse” spell (one per Target factor) has the following base traits:
Attribues: Power 1, Finesse 1, Resistance 2
Size: 5 (or less if the corpse is small)
Speed: 1*****
Initiative: 1*****
Defense: 1****** These traits begin at 1, regardless of Attribute scores; the caster must spend successes on a one-success-per-dot basis to raise them.
Zombies do not suffer wound penalties and cannot heal damage naturally. Bashing, lethal and aggravated wounds are marked normally, but zombies never suffer incapacitation — they just keep going until their last Health point is lost to aggravated damage. When a zombie’s final (rightmost) Health box is marked with bashing damage, no roll is required to remain conscious. When its final Health box is marked with lethal damage, it does not collapse and begin bleeding to death — it keeps going. Any damage suffered after that is upgraded to aggravated. Once this happens, the corpse loses body parts with each new upgraded wound until it is completely pulverized or disintegrated (the Storyteller decides which parts fall off with each wound).
A zombie continues to rot. It suffers one lethal point of damage with each passage of a number of days equal to its Resistance. A zombie with a Resistance of 3 therefore suffers one lethal point of rotting damage every three days.
In addition, zombies created by this spell have a vulnerability to one specific type of attack, such as fire, damage to the brain or carving a mystic sigil on one’s body. If a zombie suffers at least one lethal or aggravated point of damage from an attack to which it is vulnerable, it is destroyed instantly. The caster chooses the zombie’s vulnerability during spellcasting, unless he devotes a success (over and above the simple success needed to animate the corpse) to make it Indestructible. Indestructible zombies can be destroyed only when their final Health box is marked with aggravated damage.
The mage quickens a ghost, restoring mindless shades to a semblance of the personality they had in life, and turning ancient ghosts into more potent specters.
Practice: Making
Action: Instant
Duration: Prolonged (one scene)
Aspect: Vulgar
Cost: None
Each success raises one of a ghost’s three Attributes by one or provides it with one Essence (this bonus cannot cause a ghost to possess more Essence than it can normally hold).
The mage can heal a ghost’s Corpus.
Practice: Perfecting
Action: Instant
Duration: Lasting
Aspect: Vulgar
Cost: None
One Corpus point of damage is restored per success.
The mage prevents a recently dead Sleeper’s spiritual release. The casting of this spell must begin within an hour of the target’s death. This spell creates what some mages call a revenant, forcing the soul to inhabit a body that does not decompose for the duration of the spell.
The caster inculcates the revenant with one or more driving Passions related to achieving a certain goal — revenge, salvation — that strengthen it for its trials.
Practice: Patterning
Action: Extended ; target rolls Resolve reflexively
Duration: Prolonged (one scene)
Aspect: Vulgar
Cost: None
Only one success is required to animate a corpse and instill it with a Passion. Additional successes are added to the target number to boost the revenant’s traits, at a rate of one success per additional dot of any trait.
Although the target is dead, the Resolve Attribute it had in life is used to contest the magic.
With Death 5, the caster can make a recently dead mage into a revenant, although the revenant can no longer cast magic. (It contests with Resolve + Gnosis.)
Revenants
This undead being possesses all the same Attributes and Skills as in life, but subtract one dot each from the revenant’s Composure (due to its obsessive nature) and Wits (because of its disconnection between body and spirit). The revenant cannot regain Willpower points by any means.
The revenant has a pool of Essence points equal to its Resolve +5, and it can hold a maximum amount of points equal to 10 + Resolve. It loses one Essence per day.
Instead of his former Virtue and Vice, the revenant has a Passion (the caster can add one additional Passion per success added to the spell’s target number). This could be “avenge a murder” (including its own), “protect Sarah,” or “steal the Ebon Grimoire.”
Whenever the revenant performs an action that promotes the achievement of its Passion, roll a number of dice: one die is rolled for actions that only weakly benefit the Passion, while five dice (the maximum) are rolled for actions that are directly relevant to the Passion. Each success gives the revenant one Essence.
Finally, the revenant has one spirit Numen, a power it can use to help achieve its Passion. The caster can imbue the being with additional Numina, one per every two successes added to the spell’s target number.
One of the most vicious direct mystic assaults known to the Awakened world, Rotting Flesh rends and destroys the physical form of a living being, riddling it with corruption and putrefaction. This assault is brutally effective, but is the metaphysical equivalent of using a club rather than a scalpel. Flesh corrodes and rots, bones twist, crack and turn to ash, and blood thickens with globs of corrupted tissue and rivulets of pus. While each component of this assault, taken on its own, looks to be perhaps some effect of natural decay, taken together, they cannot be mistaken for anything but unnatural. Certainly, any that witness such a spell know the magic for what it is, as the victim is afflicted with the rot of the grave.
Practice: Unraveling
Action: Instant
Duration: Lasting
Aspect: Vulgar
Cost: 1 Mana
The mage must first grab hold of the target, with a roll of Strength or Dexterity + Brawl – the target’s Defense. If successful, he can cast this spell as an instant action in the following turn. (With Death 5, he can cast this spell at sensory range as an instant action. He needs Death 6 before he can add Space 2 for a sympathetic casting.)
Each success inflicts one Health point of lethal damage to the target. With Death 5, the mage can inflict aggravated damage instead with the expenditure of one Mana.
In addition, each success levies a –1 die penalty on all the victim’s Social rolls, due to the horrible appearance (and stench) of his wounds. (This penalty is not cumulative with successive wounds from successive castings of this spell; use the highest penalty from either the newest wound or the previous wound.)
Inanimate objects and places within Twlight or the Shadow Realm are made from a substance called ephemera. The mage can shore up or degrade the Durability of such ephemera, and the item can be reshaped, changing a heap of metal into a bicycle frame or a stick into a spear. The mage cannot affect animate ephemera, such as a nature spirit or a fetch. Doing that requires Spirit.
Practice: Perfecting
Action: Instant
Duration: Lasting
Aspect: Vulgar
Cost: None
Only one success is needed to reshape an object (if the new shape is very complex, the Storyteller might levy dice penalties to the casting). Or, one point of Durability is added per success. In the case of weapons or armor, successes can also be assigned to a weapon’s equipment bonus or to armor’s protection.
The mage severs a soul from a Sleeper. While the soul is separated from the body, the subject suffers all the normal afflictions of soullessness. See “Soul Loss,” p. 276.
Practice: Fraying
Action: Extended ; target rolls Resolve reflexively
Duration: Lasting
Aspect: Vulgar
Cost: 1 Mana
The mage must touch the target for the entirety of the spellcasting. If he loses contact, he loses all accumulated successes. (With Death 5, he can cast this spell at sensory range. The spell cannot be cast sympathetically.) Needless to say, the victim must be rendered incapable of moving or escaping for the full length of the spellcasting. Relying on a grappling hold for a conscious victim is unwise, since the victim gets a chance to throw off the hold each turn, while it might take hours to complete the extended casting.
The target number is equal to the subject’s Willpower. Only a limited number of rolls are allowed for the caster, however, before his attempt is deemed a success or failure. A number of rolls may be made equal to his Resolve + Composure. If the spell fails, it cannot be recast on the same target until at least one day (24 hours) has passed.
A reflexive and contested Resolve roll is made for the target against each of the spellcaster’s rolls. If the target’s rolls succeed at any point during the extended casting, the casting fails.
While the soul is free of its body, it exists in Twilight. The mage who severed the soul can see and touch the Twilight soul. Mages who use this dread magic usually store their soul bounty in a Soul Jar (see p. 137) to prevent its escape. See “Soul Handling,” p. 276, for more details about unmoored souls.
A soul can be restored using Spirit 3 (“Restore Lost Soul,” p. 250), and it can be protected with Prime 4 (“Armor of the Soul,” p. 223) and reclaimed with Fate 4 (“Destroy Bindings,” see p. 156). With Death 5, the mage can sever an Awakened soul.
While the Forces Arcanum teaches a mage how to ignite or snuff out a light, it gives no power over the quality of darkness. In Atlantean cosmology, darkness was not merely the absence of light, but an active force. An initiate of Death learns how to manipulate that force, giving form to existing shadows or thickening them. Mages use this spell to hide themselves from easy scrutiny, literally hiding in shadows, and even sculpting shadows to best cover themselves or an awkwardly shaped object that otherwise might jut out into the light under natural conditions
Practice: Compelling
Action: Instant
Duration: Prolonged (one scene)
Aspect: Covert
Cost: None
A simple success allows a mage to shape a one-yard radius area of shadows or darkness into shapes of his choosing, or he can thicken its gloom, making shadows deeper even under bright light. The Storyteller assesses the quality of existing shadows, categorizing them into three degrees: from light to dark to complete darkness. Each success deepens the darkness by one degree. Once complete darkness is achieved, additional successes impose dice penalties to perception rolls on a one-for-one basis for anyone peering into the area. With Death 2, the mage can give shadows animation, while Death 3 allows him to conjure them.
The mage destroys all sign of his own aura. This destruction permanently removes all signature of the mage’s current aura, such that it cannot be read by any magic.
Practice: Unraveling
Action: Instant
Duration: Lasting
Aspect: Covert
Cost: None
The mage develops a new aura by the end of the week as his soul takes on new resonance based on his actions and character. (See “Resonance,” pp.277-280.) This new aura cannot be recognized by anyone who has not examined it before, giving the mage a new mystical “fingerprint.” In the meantime, mages who use aura-perception spells to view the mage are unnerved by the target’s complete lack of an aura — an unnatural occurrence.
The mage can attach a stolen soul to himself or another, but only if he or the target currently has no soul.
Practice: Patterning
Action: Extended
Duration: Lasting
Aspect: Vulgar
Cost: None
The target number is equal to the recipient’s Gnosis, or simply one success if the target is a Sleeper. The soul then belongs to the recipient. See “Soul Handling,” p. 276, for more details on handling unmoored souls.
Certain ancient cultures such as the Egyptians recognized that a soul could be placed within a container to prevent its release back into the cycle of birth and death. This spell creates such a receptacle.
Practice: Ruling
Action: Instant
Duration: Prolonged (one scene)
Aspect: Covert
Cost: None
Any receptacle that can be used to seal liquid can serve as a soul jar, whether it’s a wine bottle, a preserve jar or even Tupperware. Success on the spellcasting enchants the receptacle so that a soul placed within the jar cannot escape.
The jar’s lid is usually held fast by a metal bar or is coated with wax. The soul is protected from attack by the object. If the jar is opened or broken, the soul can flee. See “Soul Handling,” p. 276. With Death 3, the mage can attempt to cast this spell with indefinite Duration.
This sense enables a mage to perceive a soul’s health. He can discern the presence of derangements, but not necessarily their kind (that might require a period of study with an extended Intelligence + Empathy roll). Other kinds of soul marks can also be detected, such as the telltale signs of a mage who has created a soul stone (see “Soul Stones,” p. 277). Some soul marks (such as serving as a vampiric vessel) are sufficiently rare and insidious as to penalize rolls made to perceive them.
Practice: Knowing
Action: Instant
Duration: Concentration
Aspect: Covert
Cost: None
The mage can see, hear and speak with ghosts within Twilight. He can also detect their unseen presence, if they are hiding or have chosen not to reveal themselves. He can see spirits within Twilight, too, but they appear hazy and indistinct and he cannot hear them, unless he also uses Spirit 1 while casting this spell. He cannot perceive mental projections unless he adds Mind 1 to the casting.
Practice: Unveiling
Action: Instant
Duration: Prolonged (one scene)
Aspect: Covert
Cost: None
This spell’s successes must equal or exceed the Potency of any power (if any) used to conceal the ghost.
The mage steals years of life from a Sleeper to extend his own life. Each person is allotted a set span of years, a single thread of existence that is snipped with each passing year, the thread growing shorter and shorter. A person’s actions in life can fray the thread or stretch it. This spell allows a mage to snip a portion of a Sleeper’s thread and sew it to his own. This spell cannot be cast upon supernatural beings, including the Awakened.
Practice: Unmaking
Action: Extended ; target rolls Stamina reflexively
Duration: Lasting
Aspect: Vulgar
Cost: 1 Mana
The target number of successes equals the number of years sought from the target, although the mage may not steal more years with a single casting than his total dots in Death. The mage can cast this spell on the same target only once a year.
This effect is largely in the hands of the Storyteller. It is a means mages can use to live beyond a normal mortal life span, although it does not prevent the effects of aging nor death by calamity.
As with “Shadow Sculpting,” p. 135, and “Animate Shadows,” p. 136, but the mage now creates darkness from nothing. In addition, he gives it a semi-substantial form so that it can touch things and even provide a weak barrier.
Practice: Weaving
Action: Instant
Duration: Prolonged (one scene)
Aspect: Vulgar
Cost: None
The mage creates a one-yard radius patch of darkness or five-cubic yard volume of darkness. Each success gives the shadow Strength 1 (used to lift objects) or Durability 1. It is not a material object, so it has no Structure. Attacks directed through it (if it is being used for cover) must deal with its Durability, but they don’t damage the shadow barrier.
The mage can summon a ghost from the Underworld, making it appear next to him within Twilight. The Underworld is a dread place where, according to most mages, ghosts without anchors are banished. The caster can use other spells to compel the ghost to manifest, or can provide ectoplasm for its manifestation. This spell is most often cast to learn the secrets of the long-de- parted, such as the locations of lost treasures or the existence of lost heirs.
Practice: Making
Action: Instant ; target rolls Resistance reflexively
Duration: Special
Aspect: Vulgar
Cost: None
The mage can ask one question of the ghost per success. After it has answered it departs, returning to the Underworld. (The mage cannot delay for more than five turns between questions, or else the ghost departs.) The entity’s answers are truthful and straightforward, although if a question is not clear and concise, the ghost might misinterpret it and give a misleading answer.
The mage suppresses his own or another’s personal aura. Effectively, he causes the aura to lapse into slumber, smoothing the telltale ripples it creates in the Tapestry and rendering it more difficult (or virtually impossible) to detect, save by the most puissant of sensory abilities.
Practice: Veiling
Action: Instant
Duration: Prolonged (one scene)
Aspect: Covert
Cost: None
Each success levies a –1 penalty on any attempts to scrutinize the target’s aura.
The mage can suppress life in others temporarily. The effects are the same as the “Suppress Own Life” spell, p. 142.
Practice: Veiling
Action: Instant ; target rolls Composure + Gnosis reflexively
Duration: Prolonged (one scene)
Aspect: Covert
Cost: None
The mage must first grab hold of the target, with a Strength or Dexterity + Brawl – the target’s Defense. If successful, he can cast this spell reflexively. (With Death 5, he can cast this spell at sensory range. He needs Death 6 before he can add Space 2 for a sympathetic casting.)
If the target is attacked or harmed in any way during the time in which he appears to be dead, the spell is immediately broken and the target awakens. While “dead,” the target experiences nothing, as if he were merely in a deep sleep.
The mage can temporarily suppress his own life. While in this state, the mage is well and truly dead. The physical symptoms of death, other than decomposition, set in (the onset and passing of rigor mortis, the receding of the gums and the skin of the scalp and fingertips, the pooling of blood at the bottom of the body). The mind and spirit are absent.
Practice: Veiling
Action: Instant
Duration: Prolonged (one hour)
Aspect: Covert
Cost: None
The mage determines a trigger that will wake him from this state (such as being struck or having a dog bark within earshot). Otherwise, he is dead until such time as the spell’s Duration runs out. Once awake, his Social rolls are penalized by –1 for every four hours he was under the spell’s effects (up to a maximum of –5). A character who looks like a walking corpse likely causes terror and repugnance. Penalties are reduced by one per hour after waking, as the mage regains his natural complexion.
This spell is most often cast as covert magic, made to appear as if the mage dies of natural causes or an accident. By spending a Willpower point, the mage can reflexively cast the spell as soon as something happens that he can use as an excuse for his demise, such as if a foe strikes him.
The Death 1 “Grim Sight” spell (p. 134) allows a mage to detect that a seemingly dead body is not actually dead, although that spell’s Potency must equal or exceed the Suppress Own Life spell’s Potency.
Through the casting of this spell, the mage gains the power to physically interact with ghosts and ghostly things in Twilight state. (“Ghostly things” are usually parts of a spectre’s anchors, which often exhibit ephemeral existence even after their material counterparts have crumbled to dust). She could, for example, pull a ghostly hammer out of a Twilight room in order to pound a nail into a wall. She could take the spectral reflection of a key out of the lock in which it was broken, pull it through into materiality, and use it to open the material lock barring her from entering a room she wishes to access.
She can also touch ghosts and be touched (or attacked) in return by any nearby shade. Such beings tend to be, at best, cold and clammy and many have other disturbing and not entirely tactile sensations associated with physical contact. Some spectres have been known to long for physical contact with the living in ways most unhealthy or inappropriate.
The caster cannot damage ghosts, or affect non-dead spirits such as fetches (see p. 82) or mental projections, including vampires using the Twilight Projection Discipline (she needs the Spirit and Mind Arcana, respectively, for those effects).
Practice: Ruling
Action: Instant
Duration: Prolonged (one scene)
Aspect: Covert
Cost: None
Objects drawn from Twilight possess Durability 1 and crumble into a fine ash if broken, regardless of their original consistency. Nothing really makes these items superior to (or even the equal of) those a mage could acquire normally in the material world, but being able to snatch the revolver from the nearby ghost of a police officer when the mage is attacked can be a lifesaver.
Note that objects found in Twilight are only infrequently the same as those found in the material world, as only lost or broken objects tend to manifest in that state. Objects that serve as anchors (or even those that once served as anchors but are now missing from the material world, either through decay or destruction) also often appear in Twilight. Some Twilight objects are made by magic; see “Ghostly Object,” p. 140.
The mage can personally transform himself into the Twilight state of existence without needing to pass through a gateway.
Practice: Patterning
Action: Instant
Duration: Prolonged (one scene)
Aspect: Vulgar
Cost: 1 Mana
All the mage’s clothing and equipment is likewise transferred into an ephemeral state, as long he touches it during casting. The mage can restore himself to a material state at anytime by dismissing the spell.