Spells & Toys
Spells
Ball of Flame
- Source: Angel 5.22 Not Fade Away
- Quick Cast: Yes
- Power Level: 4
- Requirements: The caster only has to concentrate slightly and form the fireball in his hand.
- Effect: The caster builds a small ball of flame into his hand, that can be held safely, that he can then project towards his intended target. It strikes the target equal to for Willpower double damage per Success Level.
- Aspect Analysis: Instant +2, noticeable scope (one being) +1, short duration -1; severe effect +2
Flashy Thing
- Source: New
- Quick Cast: Yes
- Power Level: 6
- Requirements: a brief incantation to the Fates, burning powder made of lethe's bramble and sulfur
- Effect: With a flash of burnt powder, the caster erases the subject's memory 10 seconds per Success Level. It does no lasting damage, but is great when you need to do something like dust a vampire in front of your unsuspecting mother and not want to deal with her paradigm trying to shift without a clutch.
- Aspect Analysis: Recitation (few minutes) +1, Noticeable Scope (1 being) +1, Permanent Duration +3, Noticeable Effect +1
Fulfilled Potential
- Source: New
- Quick Cast: No
- Power Level: 8
- Requirements: A seven-hour ritual beseeching All-Father Odin and the entire Aesir, making offerings of animal blood.
- Effect: This spell takes a single living being and actualizes any unrealized or latent talents or abilities, whether the ability to paint or make people spontaneously combust. This is a very powerful and dangerous spell and its side effects have not been fully charted.
- Aspect Analysis: Lengthy Ritual (several hours) -1, Noticeable Scope (1 being) +1, Permanent Duration +3, Awesome Effect +5
Hollywood Bullet
A firearm loaded with ammo upon which this spell's been cast doesn't need to be reloaded as often. A basic success (1 Sucess Level) doubles the number of shots the user can get before he needs to reload the weapon, with each SL adding another complete set of rounds to the clip. (For example, a revolver which is loaded with ammo enchanted to four Sucess Levels can fire 24 times before the user has to reload his gun.)
- Source: New
- Quick Cast: No
- Power Level = 3-5 (3 for a single clip, 4 for a single infantryman's ammo load, 5 for an entire fire-team's ammo load)
- Duration: Variable (1 hour: +0; until the next sunset or sunrise: +1 Power Level; one full day: +2 Power Levels)
- Requirements: -2 Power Levels (A ceremony requiring a few easily-obtained ingredients. The text invokes various "American Gods" (ref. Neil Gaiman) esp. Spirits of the Silver Screen... The ceremony takes ~2 hours normally, though an experienced Witch can knock it out in about 20 minutes.)
- Drawbacks: -1 Power Level ("Use 'Em or Lose 'Em": When the spell duration expires, all unexpended ammo enchanted with Hollywood Bullet vanishes. The same goes also if the spell is dispelled by an opposing spell-caster, making this dangerous if a team has covered every round with the HB enchantment.)
Know Thy Enemy
- Source: New
- Quick Cast: No
- Power Level: 3
- Requirements: This spell requires the blood of a Seer and can only be cast on during the 2nd night of the Full Moon, and a brief invocation to the Fates.
- Effect: A short incantation allows the the caster to briefly scry on the activities of an enemy, even if the identity of that enemy is not fully known.
- Aspect Analysis: Recitation (couple minutes) +1, Normal Scope +2, Medium Duration, Unusual Ingredients (blood of a Seer)-1, Noticeable Effects +1
No Shoes, No Soul, No Service
- Source: New
- Quick Cast: No
- Power Level: 4
- Requirements: This spell takes a three-hour ritual calling upon the goddess Hestia, and requires the spreading of salt from the waters of the Aegean Sea.
- Effect: When cast on a public building, it prevents a vampire from entering without permission, just as if it was a private residence.
- Aspect Analysis: Lengthy Ritual (3 hours) -1, Severe Scope (large building) +2, Permanent +3, Unusual Ingredients -2, Severe Effect +2.
Pocket Full of Sunshine
- SOURCE: Storm Front by James Butcher. (A Harry Dresden Novel)
- QUICK CAST: No
- POWER LEVEL: 4
- REQUIREMENTS: The caster needs a silk handkerchief, a mirror and four small, white prisms (something you can get at any “earth/science store”), all of which are re-useable. The caster places the mirror reflective side up, laying the handkerchief on the mirror and the four crystals at the four coroners of the cloth to hold it down under the midday sun for three hours, chanting and calling upon Ra’s blessing all the while. The spell will not work unless the sky is mostly cloudless and the sun can continually shine upon the cloth and mirror. Once the cloth has gone through this process, the caster folds the cloth in a very specific manner.
- EFFECT: The caster, when he has the need simply pulls the handkerchief from his pocket allowing it to unfold. At that moment the sunlight trapped within the cloth comes forth, bathing the room (big enough to encompass a small house) in bright sunlight. There are two effects, those who are vampires (or creatures susceptible to sunlight) and those who are not. The radiance doesn't last but a moment but that's often enough.
Vampires and other sunlight hating kinds that take damage from exposure to the sun receive damage on scale to the Witch’s Willpower per Success Level rolled at the time of the casting of the spell. This is Burn damage, and heals accordingly.
Those not of the sunlight fearing races, and not having any sense of what is coming makes a Willpower (singled) roll. If they fail the roll they are disoriented and blurry-eyed for a number of rounds equal to the Success Level rolled at the time of the casting of the spell. If they are aware of the spell they get to roll Willpower (Doubled) versus the same effect. (The caster who crafted the item adds his Sorcery Level (Doubled) to the Willpower Roll.)
- ASPECT ANALYSIS: One witch (0); ritual that lasts a few hours (-1); creates a semi-permanent magical item (+1); common or easy to get items (0); Noticeable scope (+1); instantaneous Duration (0); Noticeable Harm (+1); Noticeable Conjuration/Summoning (+1); Noticeable Summery Effects (+1)
True Name of the Chosen One
- Power level: 3
- Quick Cast: No
- Description: A 60-minute incantation in ancient Egyptian that invokes the god Thoth is undertaken by a circle of casters, who must comprise a mystically significant number (7 preferred, although the spell has been successfully cast by as few as 3). At the end of the incantation, each caster learns information about the current Slayer, as follows (successes past Power Level on Will+Occ+Sorcery roll):
- 1-3 successes: Casters receive a mental picture of her face, indistinct with a few significant features more clear than others.
- 4-6 successes: The picture is much clearer (photographic rather than sketch-quality), and her name is learned. [Note: this would be the name she was born with. If her name has been legally changed, or if she calls herself something else, that information won’t be learned.]
- 7+ successes: her location is learned, in addition to the information above.
Complications:post-Season 7 of Buffy, the spell targets the geographically nearest Slayer to the casters. This spell cannot be cast in a virtual circle
Magic Items & Gadgets
The Slayer Scythe
This mythical weapon wascreated by a coven of powerful mystics to assist the Slayer in her chosen duties, but did not surface until recently. Despite its name, the Scythe is actually designed along the lines of a battle-axe. The blade is forged of an unknown metal and gleams like silvery chrome with sections of matching red accentuating its form. The end of the hilt tapers into a wooden stake, allowing a skilled wielder to instantly switch between both modes of attack as needed. It’s imbued with the power of the Slayer and can onlybe brought to its full potential in the hands of a Slayer. To a normal person, it is simply a well-crafted battle-axe with a wooden pointy end. However, when a Slayer wields it, she immediately gains +2 to her Dexterity and +1 to Getting Medieval. The axe-blade does Strength x (3 + Success Levels) against vampires and demons, and halves the armor of anything it’s wielded against. The stake end doesn’t get any additional damage, but it does force vampires to take an additional -2 penalty to their Survival Test to avoid dusting on a Through the Heart maneuver.
Tsalmaveth
This name, translated from the original Hebrew, means literally "the shadow of death." These plain steel bracelets are a unique weapon apparently left for a chosen undead warrior spoken of in the prophecies of the ancient Methuselah. Once put on, they bond, rather painfully, with their wielder and can never be removed, except upon death. Yet this item is far more than jewelry. With a thought and the cost of an action, the bracelets extend two light, yet unbreakable blades that can slice through almost anything, halving the armor value of anything it touches, doing (Strength +1) times 4 slash/stab damage (times 5 versus evil creatures). An additional benefit of becoming bonded with Tsalmaveth is that the skin of the wearer becomes more resistant to damage. The character gains a Natural Armor value of 8 against all damage inflicted, before any multipliers are applied.
Umbra Inlucesco
The Slayer Scythe and the Tsalmaveth bracelets became a single item of great power with the fulfillment of Methuselah’s prophecy concerning Dahlia and Lexa Townsend and their role in thwarting the machinations of the First. The text refers to it as Umbra Inlucesco, or Shadow Becomes Light. Now a set of elegantly engraved silver bracelets, they can only be put on or removed by a Slayer. At the wearer’s command, they extend into a pair of long, curved blades made of the same material as the red-and-chrome Slayer Scythe, complete with a set of handles for finer control.
A new feature of this weapon truly unique is that the wielder can also call forth a set of armor, in the form of overlapping leather strips, either with the blades or separately. Any clothes being worn seemingly disappear as the armor forms, but reappears intact once the need for the armor passes. Boris Vallejo fans will be disappointed to learn that it does in fact cover most of body except for the face and a few thin gaps where the straps don’t quite cover. These areas vary as the exact layout of the leather seems to be unique every time.
The Slayer wearing the bracelets gains +1 to Strength and Constitution, a +2 to Dexterity, and a +1 to Getting Medieval. The blades reduces all armor values by half, and inflicts massive damage to evil beings in the form of Strength x (5 + Success Levels). Against normal humans and soulless automatons like zombies, they inflict (Strength + 1) x 4. Also, the blades count as silver against any creature vulnerable to that metal, and even count as a wooden stake, for the purposes of staking vampires through the heart. The armor acts as Armor Value 10 against blunt and slash/stab attacks. Trying to hit one of the few thin spaces of exposed skin is a -5 penalty to the roll.
Satellus Dextera
Meaning “the Sentinel’s Right Hand” in Latin, this weapon can only be wielded by a Sentinel. Appearing a simple crystal rod about a foot long and only a few inches in diameter, when activated it extends into a crystalline quarterstaff. It bonds with its wielder, granting an increase to speed and strength when activated, and can parry incoming fire, be it bullets or laser blasts.
When activated as a Defense Action, the character gains a +2 to Strength and +4 to Dexterity, but only while the weapon is in hand. Its base damage is (Strength + 1) times 4. By declaring Full Defense for a turn, the character can deflect a number of incoming ranged attacks equal to the Success Levels of a Dexterity + Getting Medieval roll. Also, if disarmed, the Sentinel can call the weapon back to his hand as an attack action.