Invoke: Rank 2: Spells

Rank 2 Invoke

(Difficulty 19)

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[details of how to use rank 2 of the Invoke Attribute go here.]

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Spells

A spell is magic in structured form. Thus a blizzard spell, which conjures up a blizzard or some element of winter, is a spell — but so is a knife that can cut anything, a martial arts stance that is as immovable as a mountain, a smile that can win any heart, and a rune that you can draw to engage various effects.

Each spell is symbolic. That is, it does not have one specific effect; rather, it has a symbolic meaning that a fairy can channel to various ends. The blizzard spell is also a spell that can ice over a walkway, conjure snow into a friend or enemy's pants, and bring a crisp stillness to the air. An immovable martial arts stance is generally just used for fighting without being knocked out of place, but if it's, say, Mountain Style Kung Fu, then you'll explain your specific moves and the GM will judge their quality based on mountain imagery — "he exhausts himself fighting me, it's like punching a mountain" or "I'm using the Oxygen Exhaustion substyle — the longer she fights me, the harder it is to breathe!" That means that it's also OK to have very generic spells like the ability to draw things and have them come to life (that's what drawing is symbolically all about), or a flexible healing spell that can handle anything from physical and mental wounds to spackling a wall.

Characters have access to a number of spells equal to their Invoke Attribute, and can change which spells these are over time. There's a couple of ways in which you can create and temporarily maintain new spells in play, which doesn't fall under this rule — even somebody with Invoke 0 can do magical research and make a spell to solve some specific problem — and sometimes if circumstances allow you can draw on the spells of other fairies around you. However, your "arsenal" of spells, the effects you'll use repeatedly, is that set you maintain based on your Invoke.

Invoking a spell requires rank 2 Invocation, so the standard difficulty is 19. Each has a set of callings associated with it, e.g.,

• Chalk of Living Forms:
• What I draw is made manifest;
• This chalk embodies the tendency of true things to define themselves with form.

"What I draw is made manifest; I summon up an army from the chalk figures on the ground."

• Endless Mountain Stance:
• I am vast, like the mountains;
• I am unmoving, like the mountains;
• I am strong as the stones.

"I am vast, like the mountains. Your water style crashes against me and fades away!"

• Knife that Cuts Anything:
• This knife, it severs;
• This knife, it wounds;
• This knife, it divides two forms.

"This knife, it severs. I cut the wall apart."

• Knife that Embodies Good:
• This knife is virtue;
• This knife is the triumph of the good and right;
• This knife brings an end to sorrow.

"This knife is the triumph of the good and right. I stab the vending machine slot and it gives me the drink I paid for."

• Rune of the Raven:
• I draw raven's rune on [something] [to imbue it with raven's power];
• I find wisdom with raven's rune;
• I call ravens with raven's rune;
• I free the mind to fly on raven's wings.

"I draw raven's rune on this textbook so that my homework can learn subtlety."

• Snow Spell:
• I weave the spell into coldness;
• I weave the spell into wetness;
• I weave the spell into winter;
• I weave the spell into slipping on ice;
• I weave the spell into bundling up warm;
• I weave the spell into the icicle and the avalanche;
• I weave the spell into the concealing blizzard.

"I weave the spell into the concealing blizzard; I step into it and I am gone from their sight."

• Winning Smile:
• I enchant with my smile;
• I brighten with my smile;
• I change the flow of events with my smile;
• I radiate warmth and gladness. Ting!

"I enchant with my smile, and the hungry wolf realizes that it isn't so hungry after all. Then we frolic!"

To invoke a spell, use one of its callings. Then name your action — something you are doing by calling on that power. Finally, make an Invoke roll (against, typically, the standard difficulty of 19.)

The GM first judges your calling. If you're using a standard calling for the spell then this is not an issue. If you're needing to embroider things a bit, because none of the standard callings quite fit, then it's up to the GM to decide whether the calling works at all. The usual answer is yes, but if it's no, then you have wasted your action — at best, the whole thing flows into the might have been.

Then the GM determines whether your action is reasonable or excessive. If you push the boundaries of your spell too far, your action can fail on those grounds: essentially, you call up the power, and channel it towards your end, but your end is not accomplished. It's also possible for someone to interrupt you, e.g. with the Mist Attribute, to block an action that the GM would otherwise have allowed.

If you succeed on the roll, and the GM allows your action, and nothing actively intervenes, then your action instantly becomes a part of what is. If you fail on the roll, but everything else checks out, or if you succeed on the roll but the GM decides that it doesn't work (possibly due to another player's intervention), then it becomes part of the would have been. If you fail and it wouldn't have worked anyway, it falls into the might have been.

So if you are using your snow spell in a fairly standard fashion — to cover the campus with ice — and you succeed on the roll, your invocation succeeds. You've covered the campus with ice. If you fail the roll or if someone counters your spell in some fashion, then you don't quite manage it — you would have covered the campus with ice. If you're trying to use your snow spell to warm things up ("heat transfer, don't you know") and the GM finds that excessive, and you roll an 18 to boot — well, practically nothing happens at all. Maybe you might have been able to heat things up, you know, maybe, if you were a better mage?

If you need to change your selection of spells, you have two options. One is to seek the GM's permission to trade out one spell you know for another you want to master or create, and wait until something the GM considers to be a good time — often, "between stories." The other is to find or create a new spell in the course of the game; at this point, you can abandon one of your old spells in the new spell's favor. Developing new spells and maintaining access to spells that are outside your typical portfolio are under the aegis of the Magic Attribute and are a certain specialty of the watch-fey.