Spellcasting, Altered and New Spells

[Lyahdan]

Spellcasting

Modern shugenja have their prayers inscribed on holoslates that can display the desired prayer with a few finger swipes. In game terms this means that shugenja can ready a holoslate and select a spell as a Free Action. Additionally, shugenja using holoslates can change the spell they are looking at as a Free Action, so long as they are holding nothing in their other hand.

If holding something in their other hand, it requires a Simple Action to change the spell shown on the slate.

Spell scrolls used by Traditionalist shugenja require two hands to use. Withdrawing a scroll is a Free Action, while putting it back is a Simple Action

*********
Banned Spells

The following spell is banned for the game, and thus may not be accessed through Importuning the kami.

Altering the Course

***********
Altered spells

The following spells have been altered for the game.

Striking the Storm
Ring/Mastery: Air 3 (Defense)
Range: Personal
Area of Effect: Self
Duration: 5 rounds
Raises: Duration (+1 round)
The most powerful winds can turn aside blows. You may summon a buffet of winds that surrounds you in an unrelenting cocoon of swirling air. Your Armor TN is increased by +20 against melee attacks. The force of the winds surrounding you prevents you from hearing others if they speak to you, however.

Mental Quickness
Ring/Mastery: Fire 2
Range: Touch
Area of Effect: One target
Duration: 1 Hour
Raises: Increase Intelligence (+1 per 2 Raises)

Fire kami can be imbued into physical objects, allowing them to remain present for longer periods of time. Shugenja have devised many ways to use this technique to aid themselves and others. This spell, one of the most basic of this kind, imbues a target with the cleverness and wit of fire. The target's Intelligence Trait increases by 1 for the duration of the spell.

Silent Waters
Add this line: "The stored spell consumes one of your spell slots of the appropriate element until it is cast (at which point the character may rest to recover the expended spell slot as normal)."

Commune
Ring/Mastery: All/1
Range: 20’
Area of Effect: Self
Duration: Concentration
Raises: See below

This spell can be cast in any element save Void. It allows the caster to speak with one of the local elemental kami, asking it a few questions, which it will answer honestly to the best of its ability. Typically this spell will invoke the most active and energetic spirit of the chosen element in the area of effect; if all of the local spirits are quiescent, the GM may require the caster to call 1 or 2 Raises to “wake up” a local spirit enough to answer questions.

A spirit reached with Commune will answer two questions. The caster may Raise to get more questions (one per Raise). The caster may also Raise for clarity, to get a more accurate and informative answer to the questions. (Kami are notorious for their inability to fully comprehend human behavior, and asking questions without Raises for clarity can often result in confusing, enigmatic, or incomplete answers.) Spirits do not forget anything, so theoretically a shugenja can ask a spirit about something that happened decades ago; however, they also do not experience time in the same way as mortals, so trying to ask about something from long ago will usually require Raises in order to make the caster’s wishes clear to the spirit. The nature of the information which spirits can impart varies by element.

Additionally, this prayer can be used to commune with spirits inhabiting the mundane spirit-machinery the Empire relies on. While communing with a sword might reveal a little, communing with the spirits of a communicator or a computer could reveal more. Bound to their circuits, the spirits of the machines are notoriously difficult to rouse and thus any shugenja wishing to commune with them has to call one Raise to gain their attention.

Communing with the ghosts in machines
It is possible to commune with spirits bound to machines. For example, one might ask for details about who has used a given piece of equipment or what the device has been used to do. However, most devices have been programmed to make a log entry for each such inquiry the system processes, making it likely that someone will notice people have been questioning the spirits there.

***********
New Spells

Sap the Inner Fires
Ring/Mastery: Fire 2 (Craft)
Range: Touch
Area of Effect: One target device
Duration: Instantaneous
Raises: Special

While the prayer known as Extinguish calms down the Fire kami, the spirits within radiant materials and spirit machines are immune to this effect due to the power infused into them by the manufacturing rituals. However, this does not mean that spirit-machinery cannot be influenced by a skilled shugenja. By using this prayer the shugenja may, by touching the machine, short-circuit the spirits responsible for its function. As the spell is favoured by spies and saboteurs, few shugenja would ever admit to possessing it. In game terms, the affected device is broken and rendered useless, though it can be repaired, if suitable tools are available, by rolling Engineering(Spirit Machinery) / Intelligence against TN of 15 + 5 for every raise called when this spell was cast.

Stoke the Inner Fires
Ring/Mastery: Fire 2 (Craft)
Range: Touch
Area of Effect: One target device
Duration: Instantaneous
Raises: Target (+1 target per two Raises)

This prayer restores power to any depleted spirit machine that relies on Fire kami to function, invigorating the spirits within. For example, any depleted battery of a ranged radiant weapon can be instantly recharged with the use of this spell. Additionally, Stoke the Inner Fires also automatically undoes the damage done by the Sap the Inner Fires spell.

Opening the Way
Ring/Mastery: Water 3 (Travel)
Range: 1.000.000 miles
Area of Effect: One target Spaceship
Duration: Instantaneous
Raises: Range

A complex ritual created by Unicorn and Phoenix shugenja in the late 28th century that allows a spacecraft to traverse vast distances in a relatively short time. Drawing power from Elemental Water, this ritual immerses the vessel into weave of probabilities, allowing the ship to exist, at least in theory, at multiple places at the same time. This weave-space is commonly known as the Path Not Taken as it assumed to represent all that could have been. Skilled navigator can guide the vessel through the probability weaves, allowing the vessel to emerge into reality at the desired location. While there are no absolute relations between real-space and weave-space distances, the longer the journey is in real-space, the more time the ship has to spend in the Path Not Taken. Additionally, only the most skilled navigators can keep their ships in the weave for prolonged times, meaning that most journeys are made in a series of shorter jumps. The accuracy of the exit also varies greatly, and most navigators are taught to bring their ships into the real world near the rim of the destination system rather than trying to emerge near the actual destination.

This spell can only ever be cast with the support of the Navcom of the vessel as no shugenja could ever hope to harness the powers required on their own. For each Raise called during casting, the distance traveled grows a hundredfold. Unless the shugenja intimately knows the location they are travelling to, they cannot exit the Path at exactly the desired location. The use and effects of this spell should be discussed with the GM. Additionally, this spell cannot be learned without GM’s permission unless the Navigator Priest path is taken.

Machinemeld
Ring/Mastery: Void 3
Range: Touch
Area of Effect: One target object
Duration: 10 rounds / 1 Minute
Raises: Duration (1 minute per two Raises)

This spell creates a link between a the caster and a spirit-machine device that they are in physical contact with, giving each an understanding of the other. As long as the two remain in contact, the caster is endowed with knowledge of how to operate the device, increasing his ranks in the Skill needed to use the device by one (effectually giving them Rank 1 in the needed skill if they have none). Additionally, the caster gains a Free Raise on all relevant Skill Rolls made with the device for the duration of the spell.

Note that this spell only functions on spirit-machinery (vehicles, computers, communicators, firearms) but not with merely mechanical objects (swords, simple tools). This spell does not work on nemuranai as the sentient items will not allow the shugenja to join their mind with them. The effects of this spell upon alien devices are poorly documented, with most shugenja refusing to expose their minds to such a foreign influence.