Untitled - The Secrets of the Mind & Body Shaping

some levels are set aside for Penetration.
As the charms are built into the effect at
creation, the effect cannot affect a target
that is not covered by the charms, unlike
a spell using charms, which merely loses
the bonus. The trigger action must also
incorporate these charms, so the effect
cannot have an environmental or linked
trigger, though the maga may still restrict
who can use the device.
Example: Mari Amwithig’s parens builds
her an enchanted fl ute with several invested effects
using Symbolic Magic. One of them is an effect
that allows her to speak with animals (InAn20).
This incorporates three charms: “this animal can
fl y” (aspect), “dark” (aspect), and “one hears
only what one wants to hear” (adage), which
gives him a +10 bonus to his Lab Total (three
charms and two different categories, doubled).
This limits the effect to dark animals that can fl y,
and neither she nor the animal will hear something
they do not wish to hear. If she has an Arcane
Connection to the animal, she receives a +3 bonus
to her Penetration Multiplier. To activate the fl ute,
she must play a song about fl ying, darkness, and
hearing what one wants to hear.
A maga with this Virtue can also
add charm bonuses to her talisman. Like
attuning it to an effect associated with its
shape or material, the maga can modify
her talisman to act as a charm in particular
circumstances, increasing her Casting
Total whenever those circumstances
apply, as with Charm Magic. A talisman
may be attuned to as many charms as she
likes, but only one charm may be attuned
each season, and no more charms than
her score in Faerie Magic may be incorporated
into a single effect.
A maga with Symbolic Magic may
design permanent charms that other characters
may use, creating symbolic representations
or integrating the effects
of Arcadian Travel or Story Magic into
objects that characters without those
Mysteries can carry. The wielder activates
the charm instead of the maga who
designed it, and so must spend the necessary
Confi dence Point, or concentrate
upon the trod’s destination, when the
charm is used.
Finally, the maga gains the ability to
design ritual spells that use a new Symbol
Range, Duration, and Target, described
below. Each ritual requires that she make
a symbolic representation that identifi es
Mystery Cults
Symbol Range, Duration, & Target
Symbol (Range): You can affect
something represented by a symbol as
if you had an Arcane Connection to
it, essentially allowing you to create
an Arcane Connection to your target.
This spell must be a ritual, but is otherwise
equivalent to Arcane Connection
range. If the symbol does not uniquely
describe the target, the spell fails, since
an Arcane Connection must be specifi
c to a single target (unless cast with
Target: Symbol).
Symbol (Duration): The effect lasts
as long as the symbol does (and the symbol
must be a physical object, so that
a poem or song, for example, must be
written down). If the symbol is broken,
the target through at least three different
charms (this requires Faerie Magic 3 and
a Characteristic + Ability roll against an
Ease Factor of 12 to design the symbol).
For example, a portrait designed to affect
the Faerie Queen of Irencillia at Symbol
Range might include a “queen” (character)
charm, a “winter” (event) charm, and a
“faerie” (character) charm. To use Symbol
Range, Duration, and Target together in
one spell would require a total of nine
charms (requiring Faerie Magic 9).
If any of the charms do not apply
when the ritual is cast, the spell fails; if any
of the conditions associated with these
charms cease to apply while the spell is
still active, the effect ends immediately.
Each use of a symbol requires a
unique ritual spell. However, if the charms
are described broadly enough, the same
ritual can be used again in different circumstances.
For example, the ritual spell
described above could affect a human
queen with faerie blood when cast in
winter, so long as new “queen,” “winter,”
and “faerie” charms were fashioned to
identify her.
Heirs to Merlin
At the inauguration of House Ex
Miscellanea in 817, there was a great
party of non-Hermetic wizards from the
British Isles who accompanied Pralix to
99
erased, falls apart, dies, or is otherwise
damaged, the spell ends. If the target
changes so that any of the qualities of
the symbol no longer apply, the spell is
interrupted, but the effects return once
these qualities are true again — unlike
the Until (Condition) Duration, this
effect can outlive the caster. It is the
same level as Year, and requires a ritual
to cast.
Symbol (Target): You affect all targets
represented by the symbol within
range of the spell. It is calculated at
the same level as Boundary, though it is
essentially a large Group, and modifi ers
according to the size of the target apply.
It must be cast as a ritual.
the Rhineland and participated in her
welcoming ceremony as the thirteenth
House. Among these were a Welsh seer
named Emrys and his six-year-old son
Ambrosius. Emrys had forseen that his
son would die while still a child, but made
a pact with the faeries of his homeland to
trade his own life instead. He had long
served as a magical advisor to a faerie
court, and by order of the faerie king he
was granted a stay of seven years and a
day (the remaining time his son would
have lived) to see to the boy’s future
before taking his place in the Halls of the
Dead.
Emrys was interested in his son’s joining
House Merinita: at the same Tribunal
that Emrys swore the Oath, Quendalon
announced his House’s new dedication to
Faerie. The jewel-eyed Primus listened to
the seer’s story, accepted his charge, and
took the boy back with him to Irencillia.
Emrys went with them, remaining long
enough to see his son settled and formally
adopted as Quendalon’s apprentice, before
returning to Wales to face his end. It was
said that afterward, those with Second
Sight could sometimes see the spirit of
Emrys watching over the boy during the
summer months.
Ambrosius of Merinita obviously had
strong faerie heritage (his mother was a
faerie enchantress, or so it was said) and
had already demonstrated signs of potent
supernatural abilities before Quendalon