Spirits

The Planes
Called spirits and spirits bound to our world (like Nature Spirits) usually inhabit a parallel world called Ethereal Plane or Astral Plane. It shares its space with the Physical Plane containing all other creatures and objects, but objects and characters in one plane can't directly interact with the other. All living creatures (or at least the ones with some magical talent) have some "feeling" for the Ethereal Plane that can be trained further with the Conjuring Skill. For example, they feel a cold shiver whenerver an ethereal creature passes through them. There are other Planes (like the Elemental and Demonic Planes) that contain uncalled spirits. Most of them are, however, hostile enough that any attempt at travelling there would be foolhardy.

Conjuring
Conjuring is linked to Magic (F+C+I)/3 and is used for all tasks concerning spirits. The GM may decide that the Skill has to be learned separately for each type of spirits, that some Schools only train the summoning of specific spirits, or even prohibit conjuring some completely. The Skill has these applications:

Summon

Summoning spirits is a complex ritual requiring a lot of time and expensive materials like gems or rare herbs. The ritual can take as long as the conjurer has materials left and can stay awake. Each hour consumes materials worth 100$; after the hour, a Conjuring Check is rolled, and the Successes of all checks are added. The ritual fails if one of these Checks rolls no Successes, and all materials used to that point are lost. Every six hours the ritual takes reduce the conjurer's effective Skill by one. Summoning a spirit takes one Success for the first level and each additional level one more than the last, or (level)*(level+1)/2 Successes in total. Additional Successes may be used to remove negative optional Properties or add positive ones. Multiple conjurers may take part in the same ritual; they have to finish at the same time and add their Successes. Each conjurer uses his own materials. A conjurer dropping out or failing one of his Checks contributes no Successes, but does not cause the whole ritual to fail.

Bind
A spirit needs to be bound before it can be given instructions. The conjurer rolls a Contest against the spirit's level; each Net Success grants him one Service. The spirit will become free if it wins the Contest. In any case, the conjurer may try to negotiate with the Spirit for Services. Each costs about 100$ multiplied by the spirit's level; a free spirit may decline. The result of failed negotiations depend on the spitit. Nature Spirits will usually leave, while Elementals and Demons tend to run amok. Services must be used within a year and a day (exactly until midnight of the day the spirit was bound in the previous year). Each Service allows the conjurer to give the spirit an order (like "stay close to me and protect my group"), which may take no longer than 24 hours to complete. It is also possible to have the Service triggered by conditions (like "Attack anyone passing through this door without my permission."). The time is counted from the point the condition is triggered.

Detect

Conjuring can also be used to detect spirits on the Ethereal Plane, or to find out whether a creature or object is possessed by a spirit. For this, use Conjuring the same way as Awareness.

Banish

For banishing a spirit, roll a Conjuring Contest against the spirit's level. Each Net Success for the mage reduces the spirit's level by one, each Net Success for the spirit costs the mage as many FP as the spirit's level. If the spirit's level reaches zero, it is banished. Its current Service ends and it is unable to interact with the Material Plane for the next 24 hours. The spirit regains its full level if the mage breaks of the banishing (voluntarily or not). After banishing, the mage may try to bind the spirit himself. If the spirit still has Services left to another conjurer, he must instead roll a Conjuring Contest against him. The original conjurer knows when someone tries to bind one of his spirits. Each Net Success reduces Services to the Version 1.00 EN

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original conjurer by one. Once they are reduced to zero, additional Successes grant one Service each to the attacker. It is not possible to negotiate with banished spirits for Services. It is also possible to banish a spirit bound to oneself. This is the only way to permanently destroy a spirit. It is impossible to order a spirit not to resist its banishing, and if the attempt fails all remaining Services are lost.

Protection Circle

A conjurer may create barriers impassable to specific spirits. Each type has its own protection circle. Creating a temporary circle requires one Round and materials worth 5$ per m and level of the barrier. It is usually drawn on walls and floors with special paint or chalk. This circle will lose its effect if disturbed, but the creatures it protects against can not come close enough to do it themselves. It is also possible to create permanent circles. This takes one hour and materials worth 100$ per m and level. They are usually made from precious metals and gems and are integrated into architecture (like temples). Spirits will avoid passing protection circles when feasible. Their level is reduced by the circle's level for the Round after passing through. If it drops to zero or below, they are instantly banished. Otherwise, a present conjurer can use their reduced level to "finish them off" easily.

Attributes of Spirits
Spirits have a level replacing all of their Attributes and Talents. They only differ in their Properties. Most spirits are intelligent and use the whole set of mental Attributes. Some simple spirits replace them with Instinct (see "Monsters"). These tend to take orders literally and are quickly confused by complex tasks. Usually, spirits do not have FP or HP. The only way to fight them is to banish them.

Property Allergy Armor Camouflage Elemental Aura Fast Home Horror Immunity Infection Innate Spell Paralysis Paralyzing Gaze Phobia Regeneration Skill Vulnerability

Cost/Successes -1 per level and condition 2 per Hardness/Absorption 2 per level 1 per level 2 for x4, 5 for x5 5 per object/place 2 per level 1 per level, 5 for immunity 5 for 24h, 10 for instant 1 per Impact 2 per level 5 per level -1 per level and condition 1 per level for /hour, 2 for /minute, 5 for /Round 2 per level -5 per type

Properties

Like monsters, spirits have specific Properties. They can use the same Properties monsters have. They may be bought (or bought off) with additional Successes during summoning. A Property's level can't exceed the spirit's level. Non-optional and negative Properties start with the same level as the spirit. The list below contains some new Properties as well as some changes to old ones to adapt them to spirits.

Armor
The spirit has additional protection when using Materialization or Possession. Each level increases Absorption or Hardness by one; Hardness may not exceed Absorption.

Gas Form
The spirit is immune to attacks with solid objects (like melee weapons or firearms), even when materialized, and can slip through small gaps. However, its attacks only deal Stun Damage.

Home
The spirit's life is tied to specific objects or places. It can not be permanently destroyed as long as they exist; once the objects/places are destroyed, banishing the spirit will destroy it - no need to bind it first. The spirit can only be bound if the conjurer is close to one object or place. Version 1.00 EN

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Manifestation

The spirit can become visible and audible on the physical plane. It appears as a glowing, transparent shape and is still immune to damage.

Materialization

A spirit can materialize to interact with the Physical Plane. This gives it a melee attack with a Penetration of one third of his level, a Damage of his level and a Range of zero. It also becomes vulnerable to physical attacks and has five times its level as HP. A materialized spirit that loses all its HP is banished. (De-)Materialization takes a full round during which the spirit is vulnerable but unable to attack.

Possession
The spirit can take control of living creatures, corpses or inanimate objects (usually only one of these). It adds its level to the host's physical Attributes and replaces its mental Attributes with its level. Living creatures may roll a Focus Contest against the spirit to resist being possessed. The spirit is banished if its host gets destroyed. Bound spirits have their host assigned by their conjurer and are unable to leave it until it is destroyed, while free spirits can switch at will.

Skill

The spirit may use a specific Skill, but only during Manifestation, Materialization or Possession.

Vulnerability
The spirit is especially vulnerable to attacks of a specific type when using Materialization or Possession. Attacks of that type have double Damage, its Armor is halved againtst them, and it can even be hit by them in Gas Form. A successful attack of that type against the spirit in manifested form reduces its level by the number of Net Successes for the next round. If its level is reduced to zero, it is banished.

Spirit Types
Spirits are divided in types with different Properites. All types named here can be conjured normally unless noted otherwise. All spirits can move in total darkness without penalties and are immune to disease, poisons and Open Wounds.

Demon
Spirits that may possess living creatures are referred to as Demons in this Module. A creature possessed by a Demon is so similar to the monster of the same name that these terms may be regarded as synonymous. Properties: Possession (Living Creatures) Optional (+): Armor, Elemental Aura (Fire), Fast, Horror, Immunity (Fire), Regeneration, Skill (Elemental Magic, Fire/Smoke) Optional (-): Allergy (Sunlight/Holy Water), Phobia (Holy Symbols), Vulnerability (Silver)

Elemental

Elementals are personifications of specific Elements and usually take the shape of humans or animals made from this Element. Every Elemental has two of the Elements (picked by the summoner) on the opposing side as Weakness, which determine its Allergies and Vulnerabilities: Air/Storm, Smoke, Thunder Earth/Stone, Metal, Energy Fire, Lightning, Light Water, Ice, Acid Elementals on the left side have Gas Form, while these on the right side have Armor equal to their level, with the exception of Water and Acid, which get Immunity (Normal Weapons) on their level, complete from level five on, instead. The Elementals at the beginning of each group are quite common and well-known while the later ones are rare. Properties: Gas Form, Armor or Immunity (Normale Weapons), see above, Materialization Optional (+): Elemental Aura (Type), Fast (only with Gas Form), Immunity (Type), Innate Spell (Type only), Regeneration, Skill (Elemental Magic, Type) Optional (-): Allergy, Vulnerability (see above) Version 1.00 EN

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Golem

Material Hardn. Golems are statues shaped like a human or animal that are Loam, Wood 1 animated by a spirit. They weigh up to level*50kg and have level*5 HP. Their armor has an Absorption equal to their level Limestone, Clay 2 and a Hardness depending on the material used. Some examples Granite, Bronze 3 are listed on the right. The material for the statue costs about Quartz, Steel 4 level*Hardness*100$. Golems may also animate empty armors as long as they could cover the whole body; they keep their Hardness and Absorption. Golems are not intelligent and tend to take instructions literally. Properties: Armor (see above), Possession (Objects) Optional (+): Home, Regeneration, Skill (Technics or Melee)

Nature Spirit

Nature Spirits inhabit specific places. Most are found in nature, like forests, rivers and mountains, but places created by humans, like fields, houses, streets and parks may also have their spirits. They do not need to be summoned, but are always present on the Ethereal Plane near their Home. The GM decides level and Properties for the Nature Spirit of a specific place, which usually depend on its size and type. Each Nature Spirit can only be be bound by one mage. If another wants to take control, he needs to banish and bind it himself. Nature Spirits must always keep within sight range of their Home; otherwise they are banished. Properties: Home (Place), Materialization Optional (+): Camouflage, Fast, Horrot, Immunity (Normal Weapons), Regeneration, Skill (Stealth, Perception or Magic) Optional (-): Allergy (Pollution), Vulnerability (Acid, Fire, Metal, Smoke)

Projection
A Projection (sometimes called Poltergeist) is the spirit of a person that left its body and wanders the Ethereal Plane. It keeps its mental Attributes and all Talents and Skills; its level equals its Magic Talent. Projections may be created if a person dies without completing a task that was very important to them. A mage can also learn to project himself. This takes one Round and requires at least one Success in a Conjuring Check. If his Projection is banished, he returns to his body and loses all FP. The body dies if a mage fails to return to it within 24 hours; the Projection may still live on the Ethereal Plane, however. It is also possible to give a Projection a new body; this is handled like summoning a Golem or Shade, but the resulting creature is, unlike these spirits, intelligent and keeps its mental Attributes, Skills and memories. Projections can not be summoned or bound. Properties: Home (own body or object of sentimental value), Manifestation

Shade

Shades are spirits that can possess corpses. The result is often referred to as Undead. They have the same amount of HP the corpse had when alive, but all weapons are treated as if they dealt Stun Damage: Only Damage exceeding its Strength is subtracted from HP. The physical Attributes are generally the same as the body's plus the spirit's level, but heavily damaged or poorly conserved corpses have them reduced by one. Shades are not intelligent and tend to take instructions literally. It is possible to summon multiple Shades in one ritual, as long as enough corpses are available. Simply split the Successes between them. Properties: Possession (Corpses) Optional (+): Horror, Home (Object), Infection, Paralysis, Regeneration Optional (-): Allergy (Light, Holy Water), Phobia (Fire, Holy Symbols), Vulnerab. (Light, Fire)

Wisp

Wisps are spirits commonly used by mages for simple tasks like searches, sending messages or as magical alarm system. Wisps do not require materials to summon. They are not intelligent and tend to take instructions literally. Properties: Manifestation Optional (+): Fast, Skill (Language, Perception or Stealth)

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Conjuring with Blood

For the conjuration of some spirits, especially Demons and Shades, the materials may be substituted with blood from living creatures. Each HP worth of blood from a non-sapient creature replaces 100$ of materials. The worth of blood from sapient creatures is multiplied by the creature's highest mental Attribute. These practices are illegal in pretty much any civilized society and contribute to the bad reputation of Demonists and Necromancers. The GM may also decide that some types of spirits may only be summoned with blood.

Movement on the Ethereal Plane

Spirits not using Materialization or Possession may move on the Ethereal Plane. This doubles their Running Speed and allows them to ignore gravity and pass through walls and obstacles, as long as the distance to pass is not larger than them - which is slightly less than two meters for most spirits. The Ethereal Plane also allows movement with ten times the Running Speed, but this makes it impossible to see anything in detail; it is just enought to find the direction.

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