7 Grimoires and Lost Texts

Libri Pontificales

Latin, ~290 BCE

A record of the names, prayers, and sacrificial rites of every god known to republican-era Rome. This copy contains 2155 entries, many of which are written in shorthand and contain nothing beyond name(s), altar type, sacrifice, and holy day. Language is obtuse and archaic, with some older passages lapsing into Etruscan.

• Make Contact - Regardless of deity, the rituals follow the same transactional outline of sacrifice and request. The difficulty lies in deciphering the procedures, procuring the correct offering, and correctly identifying the subject.

Monster Manuela

English, 1977

A copy of the Monster Manual for Advanced Dungeons and Dragons. "Happy 12th birthday, Manuella!" is written on the inside front cover in faded blue pen. Book contains copious marginal notes and annotations, most of which are the mundane but enthusiastic commentary of a teenage dungeon master.

• Door to the Roots of Zan - It works best on cellar doors, basement doors, on doors unused or long-locked. Doors to rooms that have no windows. The passage was always there, you just lacked the means to see it.

The Dzyan Dissection

English, ~1990s

A 3-ring binder containing several hundred pages of the writings of Helena Blavatsky; the text has been annotated with terse, matter-of-fact commentary pointing out every contradiction, inconsistancy, unsubstantiated claim, logical fallacy, historical untruth, and theological misconception in the text, leading to a commentary several times longer than the source text itself.

• Null - Fully laid bare by the anonymous redactor, the combined ontological weight of the source text's inaccuracy will dissipate any true occult workings it comes in close contact with. Rituals will fail, enchantments will fizzle out, the anomalous will be rendered mundane. Mild effects will occur within 3 meters, substantial effects at 1 meter, and total obliteration of the unnatural elements when touched.

Last Great Dangerous Visions

English, 2037 (alleged); 1985 (first documented copy)

Short story collection of trangressive science fiction. 28/47 authors are extant individuals, though none have any record or memory of writing the stories contained within. The remaining 19 authors are of unknown ontological status.

Only the copyright page, index, and titles are readable: the rest has been redacted. Still, those who have come into contact with the book or learned of its existence will vouch for the contents' status as haunting, grotesque, transgressive, taboo, and other such adjectives. When pressed about the contents, reponses will be vague; those that contain any meaningful description of the contents will bear no correlation with any other account. Reconstructions of the stories remains unlikely.

• Anomalous properties unknown. 

Book of the Waters

Ge'ez, ~1410s

Fragmentary apocryphal text regarding a vision delivered to an unnamed hermit, wherein an angel elaborates in great detail the spirits of the abyssal oceans. The hermit, not believing these claims, demands that the angel show him; the angel does so, again in great detail. Multiple sections of the text are repeated word-for-word. The hermit comes to deeply regret his descision, a repentence that the angel has no intention of acknowledging (not while there are yet more varieties of horrific snaggletoothed fish to catalogue)

• Abyssal Familiar - A spirit not entirely unlike a gulper eel is bound to the text. It will act as typical for a bound familiar, though its cunning and appetite are a measure more than most.

 

Itadakimasu, Kyoko-chan!

Japanese, 2019

A slice-of-life story about teenagers starting a cooking club which, upon close reading, contains detailed subtextual directions on the creation of a philosopher's stone. Only known copy is an omnibus edition of the first three volumes, leaving the remaining nine steps unknown.

• The Great Work (Partial) - The first three steps are sufficient to create a lesser homunculus. It can only follow basic commands, and will dissolve into a slurry of its component materials within hours, but it will suffice.

Meat and Honey

Akkadian, ~1600s BCE

Series of clay tablets containing an incomplete translation of the Homestuck epilogues. Creative liberties have been taken with the text, including a diatribe by Karkat about his negative experiences with the copper merchant Ea-Nasir and a lengthy aside describing an argument between scribes over Vriska's moral status, inserted in a section that did not contain the character in question.

• Anomalous properties unknown.

The Ogdoad

VonCricket

There are nine levels of spells because there are nine levels of the cosmos: the earth, the seven archons of the heptomad, and the numinous realm of the fixed stars beyond. Thus there are nine and no more; nine are the circles of the concentric path, nine the initiations and nine the revelations.

To follow the ninefold path of the mystic is to open the soul to the influence of the divine again and again. As the mystic ascends towards the truth, the balance of their spirit and body will shift towards ever-closer alignment with their god; the spirit grows vast and the self diminishes.

As revelations are granted and the mystic ascends towards the truth, the the illusions cloaking their god will fall away; a new aspect will be revealed,

Below all revelations are those magics derived from the earth-bones, called cantrips or the Craft and so far removed from the divine source that they are more material than spirit. Workings of this most distant emanation belong to no aspect of deity, diffused as they are among the matter of the cosmos. We will concern ourselves no further with them.

 

NINE CONCENTRIC CIRCLES

The first circle is that of ANTHROPOS and the lay disciple - those who participate in the worship practices of a god but who have not yet been inducted into the mysteries. At this step alone the mystic might turn and walk away to walk a new path - they have had no true knowledge revealed, and thus they are free from its bindings.

The second circle is that of ECCLESIA and the initiated member, who has been shown what lies beyond the publicly-seen aspect of their god. From this point on there is no going back - the mystic might leave the path and abandon their pursuit of revelation, but they are bound to their god forever.

The third circle is that of LOGOS and it resembles the second. They may be called deacons, for they are not full priests yet. They will instruct and guide initiates of the first two circles, as well as lead worship ceremonies, but they cannot officiate advancement initiations on their own. Deacons make up the bulk of the cult's leadership and its connections with the outside.

The fourth circle is that of ZOE and the teacher and priest. A community of the faithful might only have one or two mystics of this circle, and it is their duty to sustain and guide the community as a whole, as well as officiating all advancements within the community.

The fifth revelation is that of NOUS and marks a turning point, where the mystic has no further need of the faith community - all that came before now seems quaint and parochial, a thing that brought joy in one's youth but no longer satisfies. Entry to this circle has no guide, no rite - it is invoked by the god themself. From this point on, the influence of the god is now the greater part of the spirit; the electrochemical reaction of the self will begin to fade.

Still, those of the fifth circle might still be sought out by those of the outer rings looking for aid along the path, and the mystic is not so far along as to be deaf to these pleas. Thus the fifth circle is that of the sage.

The sixth revelation is that ALETHIA and of the adept. Here the god's power is no longer so restrained that it might be guided by the mystic - the adept is swept along in the current of this power.

At the seventh revelation is that of BYTHOS and of the avatar. Here is the last circle where the human spirit might exist in union with its body.

At the eighth revelation is that of SIGE and of the vessel - the body strains under the weight of the numinous. This is the most dangerous circle, for if the mystic's body or spirit fails now the ninth shall never be reached and the accumulated divine spirit will be consumed by spirits of the world and metastasize into a new greater demon.

At the ninth and final revelation, which is that of the PLEUROMA, the mystic has achieved full unity of spirit with the divine. The will is subsumed, ego-death is achieved, the soul has returned to its source and all divisions have been healed. The mystic no longer exists except as a manifestation of their god: The shell of flesh and bone, having served long and well, is put aside. 

 

 

**

 

 This all came about as a building-upon of Emily Allen's mystic from back in Esoteric Enterprises, which remains a favorite framework of mine for clerics.

The Devil's Arts: Magic for Mothership

Kill Six Billion Demons, obvs

Her hands weave back and forth, a wriggling red thread looped around her fingers, spooling out from her mouth. She bites it off like an umbilical cord, grips the twitching string in her sharp-toothed grin, snorts gritty black smoke from her nostrils that falls in a roiling cloud around her shoulders and down to the floor.

[ Į ʂɦầŕể ṯḥįṣ ɼőőɱ ɰịṯħ þîĝś ẳʼnḍ ɗẽâɖ ḿệṇ ]

Guns clatter on concrete. Panicked squeals are snuffed one by one with catastrophic aneurysm.

Children of the Hot Black Flame

The core world governments like to say that devils are an issue under control. That they've been chased off to the Rim or sent back to Hell. That well-trained hunters clean up the ferals that show up earthside of the Margin. Those that come to parlay with the core powers wouldn't dare step out of line, cowed into obsequience by our superior firepower.

This is a lie, and everyone knows it.

Devils are the chaos that consumes the universe. They exist in their most base state without shape or form, deep in the Void, working away at the engine of entropy that eats away at the universe. [UNKNOWN ANTECESSOR] was able to bind them, giving them shapes and names and faces and drawing them into realspace for wars long ended and forgotten. They strain against these limits, desiring as always to devour the flame eternal cast out into the void during the [DIVINE SUICIDE], to take all matter and energy and reduce it down to a state of [VOID]. They are always looking for ways to loosen their bindings, to shed names and channel more power from the hot black flame - and always, always hungry for more atum.

Hungry enough that they are willing to make contracts with humans in order to get more of it.

 

The Facts as We Know Them

• The power of a devil is displayed by the color of their mask - pale devils are the weakest, ebon the strongest.
• Pale devils are manual laborers, blue devils are cunning imps, red devils are made for war, verdant devils are solitary and territorial, gold devils are the nobility, and ebon devils are beyond all that.
• There are regions of the Rim where, if it can't be called peaceful coexistance, there is at least an equilibrium of violence.
• Devils can be shaped after their binding by the unconscious fears of mankind. Some are shaped sufficiently to wear it as a sort of title: the Shark Devil, the Power Devil, the Chainsaw Devil etc.
• The creation of a new mask is a very difficult and time consuming process.
• The corpo will never call them devils. They're High Entropy Entities, full stop.

Rumors About Devils

• Devils are evil (False: they are only egomaniacal, sociopathic and naturally inimical to human life)
• Some devils will wear false masks, hiding how strong or weak they are (False, we all hope)
• Hell is just what you get when the Void is consciously observed (Uncertain, but makes sense)
• The core world governments are sitting on vaults filled with hundreds of bound devils for their own purposes (Definitely true)
• It's impossible to form a relationship with a devil (False; it is merely incredibly difficult)
• The core worlds' devil hunter teams can keep us all safe [TRUE]

The Contract

Any devil will do, and there are plenty to choose from. Devils can be found on the Rim, in the enclaves of sorcerous corpo-nobles, in the vaults of the core world governments and their hunting agencies, in Hell and in the Spaces Between.

Payment is simple: atum, that flickering wisp of the eternal flame that is called the soul, paid in installments for services rendered and the remainder upon bodily death. They assure you that Hell isn't as bad as it sounds; considering your state in life, it's probably an improvement.

With the agreement sealed and signed, the devil will incite the growth of a devil tumor in the contractee's brain and go about their own devilish business. They might check in at some point in the future. Probably not, but they might.

The Tumor

A tiny horned and hoofed homunculus, curled up in a fetal position and burrowed deep into the frontal cortex. Its growth is excruciatingly painful (player must make a SANITY save to avoid a Panic roll, a BODY save to avoid passing out, and will likely be out of commission for a couple days in bed. If you are starting a new character with a tumor already implanted, skip this step and just bear in mind that it was a horrible time.)

But, if all goes well and the neural connections hold out, the sorcerer may now generate black smoke and practice the Art of Lying to the Face of God.

Black Smoke

The byproduct of sorcery; clouds of thick, dark particulate. A pollutant of air and water. Will fuck up your lungs first, then your stomach, and after a while it'll fuck up your bones and blood as well. Carcinogenic, if it wasn't already bad enough.

The Art of Lying to the Face of God

Characters who have signed a devil contract and received their tumor gain a new stat: POTENCY

The higher the rank of devil the more power they will be able to give you, and the more difficult it is to find one. (The % of finding a given rank is provided in parentheses)

• Pale - 6d10 Potency (01-45)
• Blue - 10+5d10 Potency (46-70)
• Red - 20+4d10 Potency (71-85)
• Verdant - 30+3d10 Potency (86-95)
• Gold - 40+2d10 Potency (95-99)
• Ebon - 50+1d10 Potency (100)

When you wish to use the Art, roll a Potency check. Success means that the spell goes off without a hitch. Failing the check leaves two options for the sorcerer.

• Let the spell fizzle out entirely, gaining Stress according to the spell's rank.
• Force the spell, reducing your Potency according to the spell's rank.

If a sorcerer loses all Potency, they are dragged to hell for the collection of their debt.

What You Have Wrought

The Art is lying with such skill that the universe itself shifts so that you have spoken the truth. It is neither request nor demand: it is stating a lie that will become a fact.

There are four methods of applying the Art, listed here in increasing complexity and rarity.

• The Red Art - The transformation of inanimate matter. Available to all sorcerers.
• On failure: Stress 3 or POT 1d5
• The Red-White Art - Transformation of living matter by overpowering the target's atum. Rolled at [-] for Pale and Blue contracts.
• On failure: Stress 5 or POT 5+d5
• The White Art - Division, annihilation. The continuous cutting motion of time/space/matter/energy. Unavailable for Pale contracts, rolled at [-] for Blue and Red.
• On failure: Stress 7 or POT 10+d5
• The Black Art - Creation ex nihilo. The rarest and most difficult. Unavailable for Pale, Blue, Red, rolled at [-] for Verdant and Gold.
• On failure: Stress 10 or POT 15+d5

Since the Art is effectively freeform, some guidelines.

• Spells should be clear, specific, and direct. "This pane of glass is mist" is better than "I want to get rid of that window".
• Transforming something into something close to it is easier than radical change (ie, easier to turn water to alcohol than it is to turn water into gold.)
• The larger, more complex, or fine-tuned a transformation is, the harder it is.
• Apply [+] and [-] according to your gut, circumstance, and the devil you contracted with.

Unlike other skills, you always have to roll a check when trying the Art. Even for a learned sorcerer there will always be a struggle to it (those who do not struggle against the universe, while they exist, are most certainly not the sorts of people who become MoSh PCs)

 

Staving off the Inevitable

Potency can be regained by:

• Drinking demon liquor - Restore 1d10 Potency, gain equal amount of Toxicity.
• Can be found wherever there are sorcerers. 500cr.
• Imbibing black smoke - Gain one free use of the Red (1d5 Toxicity) or Red-White (1d10 Toxicity) Art.
• Highly regulated by the sorcerers crime families. 2000 cr.
• Inhaling a dried, powdered devil tumor - Grants +20 Potency for your next attempt at the Art. Addictive
• Banned by the families. Black powder will get you strung up on the wall no questions.
  
• Consuming a fresh devil tumor - Restores Potency to maximum. If the sorcerer to got it from had a higher Potency than you, that's your new Potency score. Gain Toxicity equal to the Potency you have gained.
• Has to be fresh. Putting it on ice won't do you any good. Has to be fresh.
• Making a new contract - Roll 6d10 according to devil rank and gain a second POT track. It will decrease separately from your original one. For each additional contract you make, gain +1 Stress and +1d5 Toxicity whenever you fail a spell or regain POT.
• Another line of credit? Sure! 

Eating Seeds Is A Pastime Activity

Toxicity measures the amount of sorcerous pollutant that has built up in your body. It decreases at a rate of 1 point / day. It does not metabolize in cryosleep.

• TOX < BODY - No effect.
• TOX > BODY - You grow horns and a arrowhead tail. Your eyes change. Even if you hide these (and the psychological changes taking hold make it unlikely that you will), people will immediately know that something is off about you. Strangers won't trust you, and if something goes wrong you will be the first to be blamed.
• TOX > 2x BODY - The physical and mental changes become more pronounced. You become obsessive about your own desires. it is difficult to consider others at all. The core government has put out a kill order for you: 4 devil-hunters (Hits 2/25, Speed 50, Instinct 60, Devil Contract) begin seeking you out.
• TOX > 3x BODY - You have become a devil in your own right. It's not all that bad, phenomenal power and immortality and all, but you certainly aren't human any more. The character is lost.

The Devils We Know

• HEE-Epsilon-4094 "C█████" - Book-keeper for crime syndicate. Rumored to have once been ebon and fallen from power. 
• HEE-Delta-554 "P████" - BEST DEVIL POWER
• HEE-Alpha-003 "U████████" - Possessing of a hunger so great that the ebons of the Heretic's Court effected a total banishment. Current state uncertain, might very well have consumed itself.
  
• HEE-Zeta-15702 "P██████" - Oldest devil with a confirmed date of binding. Claimed to have served the kings of Akkadia, though has been non vocal for several centuries since that statement.
• HEE-Epsilon-1666 "C██████" - In long-term romantic relationship with [LOW ENTROPY ENTITY]. Noted resemblance to famous early-Anthropocene television actor. Possesses a conscience, or convincing simulacrum of one.
• HEE-Gamma-047 "S████" - Boring, litigious and utterly without humor even by the incredibly low standards of verdant devils. Typically attaches self to most powerful individual around and then does paperwork.
• HEE-Beta-071 "P█████ N███" - Slave-trade magnate on the Rim, currently engaged in overt warfare with rival syndicates and unions. A rare instance of a devil possessing a living being for long periods of time.
• HEE-Alpha-016 "K█████" - Human-made devil utilizing organic metamaterial scavenged from [REDACTED] in conjunction with harvested tumors. Truly vile little shit, this one. Tends to think of things on a much bigger scale than most.
• HEE-Delta-326 "O████" - Leader of "Badstar" syndicate, mastermind of the heist of Yre, will "definitely not" stab you in the back the moment it is convenient.
• HEE-Zeta-22655 "B███" - God fucking dammit. Who the fuck let B███ in here. Shoo! Get the fuck out of here B███.
• HEE-Omega-001 "C████████" - Claims A) have self-bound B) to be the original devil C) to have created sorcerers as a joke. Typically interacts with humanity with the express purpose of fucking around for personal enjoyment
• HEE-Alpha-008 [DATA EXPUNGED] - DO NOT CONTRACT DO NOT CONTRACT

Do N nn N NOT C ONtrAC t

 

Magical Languages (Sept Patreon Post)

Heaven's Vault

Magical Languages

One of the most ancient and more common folk magics, it is near impossible to find a community without at least one interpreter of magical tongues.

A character may know one magical language for each point of WIS bonus that they possess. (For games with higher modifiers, one language for every two points). A character who knows a language may always hear and respond to it, but may only successfully begin conversation with a successful WIS check LVL times / day. Human magical languages are the exception to this, requiring no roll.

Natural Languages

• Of Birds and Beasts - A means of communication with all creatures typically lacking the ability of speech. some traditions split this further, so it is common to hear of the Language of Birds alone, or of The Language of Crawling Things or Of Fish and Sea Creatures.
• Of the Deeps and Waters - Oldest, but fickle and forever changing.
• Of the Earth and Stones - Slowest of all. The stones recall everything that has occurred upon them, but the recollection of even a single moment might take multiple days.
• Of Fire and Coals - Flickering and short lived. Fire is swift and remembers little of what it devours
• Of Tree and Flower - In many ways similar to the beasts, though much slower.

Human Languages

• Of Wizarding Ways - A secret shorthand, either written so as to be invisible or incomprehensible to the untrained eye, that wizards use to guard their arcane secrets. Was once a mundane language, long dead, that the early unions of mages decided upon as the language of writing about magic.
• Of Swords and Boots - The language of soldiers, trenches, and battles. A clipped, simple language, easy to speak and understand in times of chaos, but lacking a lot of depth beyond the scope of war.
• Of Streets and Roofs - The language of the city, the means of speaking to its buildings and roadways.
• Of Infants - Through this art, the smallest of infants can be spoken to as if a well-learned adult.
• Of Taboos - Containing all the words we dare not say and ideas we dare not bring to light. A language of secrets and confessions.
• Of Soft Touches - The language of intimacy. Practiced by lovers and lovers-for-hire.
• Of Lies - Where everything said has a double meaning, and truth has no foothold.
• Of Babel - The rare taproot of all human languages, which may be understood by anyone. 

Spiritual Languages

• Of the Gods Above and Below - To speak with gods directly, without the need for a ritual intermediary.
• Of the Spirits of the Dead - Speaking with ghosts, and to a lesser extent the material animated dead.
• Of Good and Evil Spirits - To speak with spirits without the need of leaving a ritual offering.

Ten Magical Items

Crown of the Damned Mooncalf

A braided milk-silver circlet. Owned by a changeling prince who rejected his fae parentage and dove instead into the study of heresies and heterodoxies, culminating in his embrace of the Malthusian Emanations and Twined Demonic Dance, an experiment of disastrous consequences for him and his kingdom.

• Wearer may view all invisible (purposefully or naturally) signs and beings.
• May transform into a beam of moonlight (moon must be visible) at will.

Scepter of the Last Dwarven King

A diorite scepter engraved with scenes of dwarves at war against beasts of the deep and crowned with a ruby the size of a child’s skull and carved into the semblance of such. Held last by King Uristagar VII (“The Mad”) and thought lost with the majority of his corpse.

• Possessor may command up to 10 maggot-men servitors.
• Possessor is recognized, legally, as a member of the High Oricalcum Warren regardless of origin.

Cat’s Tenth Life

A tiny figurine of a kitten curled up asleep, carved out of carnelian.

• After the possessor dies, the figurine will crumble into powder. A living kitten carrying the soul and memories of the dead player will then claw itself out of the corpse’s stomach.
• The becatted player can talk and cast magic, but is a cat in all other ways. Their class is now Magic-User.

Tyrant’s Bell

A silver bell, engraved with excerpts from the ancient laws of Hagranna and depictions of the grotesque punishments.

When rung, it will have one of the following effects:

• If underground, it will summon a redcap executioner - they have no obligation to be friendly, but they cannot directly harm the wielder.
• In the presence of a violator of the Code - Target will be painfully and visibly branded with whatever violation they committed (note: the Code is thousands of years divorced from modern laws so the target might not have committed any criminal or immoral act.)
• Over an execution - Target’s ghost is bound to the bell, summoned when it is rung in a certain pattern.
• Over a construct - will awaken and animate it.
• Over an altar - the god worshipped there must make a sign that it has heard the request made.

Seraph’s Feather

A long flight feather, shimmering with the glow of golden sunset, moving like a tongue of flame. It warms your hands as you hold it.

• Source of light and heat.
• If used as a quill, no lies may be written with it.
• May cast a searing beam of light (d8 damage, double damage to evil spirits and demons)

Book of the Gorgon

An anonymous, first-person account of a gorgon’s life, covering a period of about fifty years. The pages are snakeskin and the cover consists of thin sheets of marble. It is written in Classical Aegean.

Within it, besides the meditations of a solitary creature cursed to predation, are the following spells and topics of note:

• Flesh to Stone
• Stone to Flesh
• Kranat’s Killer Kidney Stone
• Mold Stone
• Sculpt Flesh

Brass Bull’s Anchor

A ship’s anchor fashioned in the shape of a bull with curving horns. Tarnished with age and spotted with barnacles. It was upon this anchor that the Maritime Savior was tied and tossed into the deeps to die.

• Those in physical contact with the anchor can breathe underwater.
• Sprinkling your blood over the anchor will allow you to carry it deftly. It does 2d12 damage.
• Bovines of all sorts will be rendered agreeable in its presence and defensive of the anchor.

Balm of Blindness

A thick, pale green paste in a lacquered bamboo vessel.

• When applied to the eyes, it will either cause or cure blindness, as appropriate.
• Those who have been blinded gain prophetic visions - once per session they may enter a trance to see something that will occur:
• 1-5: Within a few hours
• 6-10: Within a few days
• 11-15: Within months
• 16-20: Within years

Events will not be directly related to anyone present at first, but will always be something players might interact with.

Helm of the Ironbroker

Little more than a bucket with eye slits and engraved runes. Crudely made and bordering on useless, it seems the practice work of a distracted, untalented smith.

• This item will open the cannon-scarred doors of the Vault of the Star-Eyed God, high in the mountains. These chambers have never been opened before, and contain all the riches the Ironbroker accumulated in his extended life.

Emanations of the Demiurge

A long parchment scroll, beautifully illuminated, containing a treatise on the movement of the celestial bodies, the spiritual powers thereof, and the secret nature of all the hump-backed sky.

• Contains directions on the (lengthy, expensive, difficult) process of building a golden barge.
• Contains a map of nearby spheres as well as a path to Troika.
• Contains directions on how to brew space-mead.

An Evening at the Jasmine Dragon

VirusGarura

Owned and run by the man once called the Dragon of the West (and now known to all just as Uncle), the Jasmine Dragon is an upscale tea shop tucked deep in the city center. The shop has a much broader clientele than what would be typically be expected for the neighborhood - Uncle throws the doors open to friends old and new and certainly isn't above helping folks out when they need it.

"Have you heard? Judge Dee is in town to investigate..."

1. The brutal murder of a gifted young painter.
2. A newlywed bride, dead of poison.
3. Theft of expensive silks bound for the capital.
4. A break-in desecration at the local shrine.
5. Three men claim the child is theirs.
6. A reclusive scholar found strangled in a locked room.

The old man at the pai sho table...

1. Has two teeth and cataracts, is half deaf, and he keeps winning.
2. Has gone 0 - 45 today, but he's still sitting there with a smile.
3. Has a buffalo-snake tattooed on his face. Always pauses before responding.
4. Has been gambling away a fortune without a care in the world.
5. Has a beard that reaches his ankles and claims to be 140 years old.
6. Is some nondescript scholar with glasses. Certainly cheating, but how?

 Special brews on the menu include...

1. Iron Goddess of Mercy
2. Monkey's Elixir of Immortality
3. Dragon's Dance Oolong
4. Yu Yan Special
5. Camel-Yak Milk Tea
6. Air Monk's Breakfast Blend

Urgent News! Great Aku, Master of All Darkness, is...

1. Unleashing unspeakable evil!
2. Tearing open a portal in time!
3. Flinging his enemies into the future!
4. Telling stories to a group of children!
5. Hiring even more bounty hunters!
6. In a slump and depressed! He is simply too good at winning!

Class: Elemental Bender

HD: d6
Armor and Weapons: Varies by specialization.

• Water - No armor, simple weapons. Add Level/2 to AC. Bending attacks do d6.
• Earth - Light and medium armor, light and medium weapons. Bending attacks do d10.
• Fire - Light and medium armor, light and medium weapons. Bending attacks do d8.
• Air - No armor, staffs. Add Level/2 to AC. Bending attacks do d4.

Elemental Arts:

Minor use of bending can be done without a roll. Attacks and skill checks are made with the addition of a deed die, as featured in the DCC fighter. When 3 or higher is rolled on a successful attack or check, the deed succeeds.

• Level 1: d3
• Level 2: d4
• Level 3: d5
• Level 4: d6
• Level 5: d7
• Level 6: d8
• Level 7: d10

Each discipline has an advanced form learned at level 3 and a master form learned at level 7. Advanced forms use a deed die one step lower than normal. Master forms use a deed die three steps lower.

Optional: If you want to add chi dice (they work like glog dice, burn out on a 6) and get a good idea of how much can be manipulated at once, I shall steal from Mateo.

• Level 1: (1d6) Palm
• Level 3: (2d6) Bucket
• Level 5: (3d6) Truckbed
• Level 7: (4d6) Bedroom
• Level 9: (5d6) Barn

Water

• Advanced - Healing
• You may use Cure Wounds as a cleric two levels below you.
• Master - Plants 
• You may control the water inside plants. Works best in wet environments.
• Master - Blood 
• You may control the blood inside another human being. Requires a full moon.

Earth

• Advanced - Tremorsense
• You can detect vibrations within 50 feet if you have bare-skin contact with stone or earth.
• Master - Metal
•  Becomes more difficult the more refined the metal is.
• Master - Lava
•  I shouldn't have to mention how excessively dangerous this is.

Fire

• Advanced - Breath Control
• You can create flame and adjust the intensity of fire through breath alone.
• Master - Lightning
• You may generate and redirect lightning bolts.
• Master - Combustion
• You may fire an explosive projectile from your forehead.

Air

• Advanced - Flight 
• So long as you have something to glide with, you're a leaf on the wind.
• Master - Sound
•  You can create and muffle sounds.
• Master - Vacuum
•  You can create bubbles of vacuum, centered on yourself.

pugbytes

Soul Magic and the Soul Cycle

All magic comes from the soul. From burning it, specifically. In severing its ties to material reality and releasing it back to the Sea of Souls from whence it came. This makes it somewhat difficult to use magic with your own soul without great personal danger, so the Cunning Arts have been built upon using the souls of other being.

Universal: The strength of a soul is equivalent to the number of HD the creature has. Spells are a limited resource with usage die.

Method 1: Knave
Each HD of the soul increases the usage die of the spell by 1 step (ex. 1 HD = d4, 2 HD = d6, etc). Use Maze Rats spell generation of Beloch's magic words for more fun.

Method 2: Typical OSR
As above, but in reverse: the die size decreases with the level of the spell. Spell level is determined by target HD (Level 1 = d20, Level 2 = d12, etc)

Method 3: GLOG
Each soul has spell dice equal to its HD. These dice burn out on a 6 as normal, and are not replenished.

A soultrap is a sort of lantern built of celestial bronze and finely-shaped lenses. It costs 1000 sp to purchase and is only available in urban areas.To capture a spell, simply open up the trap as the target dies. When a soul is fully burned, a new one may be trapped in its place.

I just learned about draw.io and it is well overdue.

Stages of the Soul Cycle

The Sea of Souls

The source of all souls, and thus of all magic. Numinous and unimpeachable in its existence without form or place. Saints and scholars have yet to come up with anything but illustrative metaphors to define its relationship with the material world.

Embodiment

A soul that has been integrated into a material form. All living organisms have some sort of embodiment, though not all are suitable for usage as a spell (it would be difficult to do anything with the soul of a bacteria, after all). The soul-bearing properties of non-living matter are a still a matter of debate and study - do all stones have a soul, or only those worked by human hands? Do cities have souls? Do rivers? What if you move water from one river to another? So on and so forth.

Working magic from non-living souls is difficult, so most thaumatologists will focus on the living.

Undead

The end result when a soul is removed from an organism before its death. Biological functions continue apace, but without the soul's guidance its behavior may become errant, spiraling out into bizarre and inexplicable repetitive actions.

Ensouled

An experimental form of undeath where a soul is removed from an organism and then returned to it. Most are returned to their original bodies, but transference of a soul to a different body. The souls used in liches do not integrate as in normal embodiment, but are more akin to inhabiting a shell.

Weak Embodiment

An embodied soul that has been tapped for power without death. The targets of tapping are made pale and listless by the process, and recovery may take months or years if it occurs at all.

Strong Embodiment

A soul that has absorbed other souls, generally through consumption of a freshly-removed heart. There is something innately corruptive about this process, and those who practice it are monstrous indeed. No material form, it seems, is meant to hold more than one soul.

Ghost

Most ghosts contain nothing of the original being: the ba often evaporates instantaneously upon death. Those of potent charisma in life are able to maintain continuity into death, however, and even act independently of the typical repetitions of their actions in life.

Weak Ghost

The ghost of a weak embodiment. At this stage ghosts cease to have any individual traits at all, appearing only as misty, vague forms incapable of all but the most basic manifestations. 

Demon

The ghost of a strong embodiment, a roiling gestalt of misshapen and corrupt souls. The means of its creation has made it monstrous, and it will not submit to a soultrap without a fight.

Shade

An ashy smear of a soul - a ghost that has been burnt away to near-nothing, the last vestiges of a spell. The natural decay of a shade leaves it unstable and dangerous - the nuclear waste of the soul.

Clerical Relics

Fun fact: St. Anthony's chapel in Pittsburgh contains
the second largest collection of Catholic relics in the world.

The D&D cleric spell list is, as +Skerples  has pointed out, rooted in Sunday School miracles and Hammer horror movies. This is fine and good if you want to play as Peter Cushing (and let us be fair, that is hardly ever a bad thing), but it perhaps does not get you the most bang for your buck in the field of religious fun-times in your games.

Now, there won't be any new mechanics here, just a method to provide some extra flavor. As such, it should be compatible with whatever cleric variant you are using. (For alternate clerics, see  +Lungfungus' hierophant, +Skerples  generic cleric, or Logan Knight's mystic.) 

Sacraments

First level spells are sacraments. These are the rites and outward signs sacred to your god and the basic building block of the religion. DMs, this is the easy way to change the ground-level flavor of your clerics. Swap out spells, give them some kind of spiritual / symbolic purpose, backronym till your heart is content.  (A single sentence will get you by. Dark Souls away!)

Relics

Mechanically, relics are just scrolls and wands. (But don't tell the wizards that, they'll have a fit. There are three categories of relics, courtesy of the Catholic Church (providing quality gameable material since AD 325.)

First-Class Relics are the physical remains of a saint. Items of direct divine influence or origin would also fall under this category. 

Second-Class Relics are possessions and other objects notable within the saint's life or work. If they belonged to a central figure of the religion, they may classify as first-class.


Third-Class Relics are items touched to a first-class relic, and so have inherited some of the mojo through the commutative property of holiness. Game Usage: treat these as scrolls - a single cast, then it's all used. Note: the wording here might indicate that you could make thousands of third class relics with a single first-class. For game purposes I would say limit it to 1d4, unless you want the big mess.

Based on this, what is to follow is geared towards a pretty standard not-Catholic fantasy church, for the sake of making a baseline example. It's also what I'm more familiar with, so don't be beholden to it on my account - relic classes can easily be swapped out for whatever hierarchy or lack thereof you wish, they all cast the same.

Die-Drop Relic Generator

d4: What Kind of Relic Is it? 

1. First Class (see d12)
2. Second Class (see d10)
3. Third Class (see d8)
4. Fake (roll 2d6)
   

d6+1: What Level Spell Does it Hold?

• Roll on whatever spell table you happen to use for the spell in question.
• Optional: for second-class relics, only count 1-4. For first-class relics, only count 4-6.

d12: First-Class Relics

1. Blood
2. Bone
3. Skin
4. Flesh
5. Hair
6. Head
7. Limb
8. Organ 
9. Tongue
10. Eye
11. Other bodily fluids
12. Entire body

d10: Second-Class Relics

1. Walking stick
2. Book of psalms
3. Prayer beads
4. Sandals
5. Item associated with their trade
6. The means of their execution
7. Original manuscript of a theological treatise
8. Piece of artwork
9. Holy symbol
10. Mark of office

d8: Third-Class Relics

1. Piece of cloth
2. Jar of oil
3. Medallion
4. Holy symbol
5. Prayer card
6. Icon
7. Vial of holy water
8. Incense

d20: Who is This Relic From?

1. Minor, obscure saint
2. Companion to a martyr
3. Popular local saint
4. Warrior saint
5. National patron
6. Martyr
7. Foreign convert
8. Amalgamation of several historical individuals and local folklore
9. Noted scientist or artist
10. Developer of important doctrine
11. Spearheaded reform movement
12. Founder of notable religious order
13. Origin and deeds hidden by time
14. Famous debater of heterodox factions
15. Doctor of the church
16. Figure of legend
17. World-traveling missionary
18. Potent hierarch
19. Prophet
20. Angel or equivalent celestial being

d20 alternate version: Who is This Relic From?

1. Argrabahd, who would preach until he turned purple and passed out.
2. Lox, who could read a man's heart like a book.
3. Shejen, who was almost entirely unmartyable (not for lack of trying, mind).
4. Brother Coal, who ministered to the Russet Country miners for forty years.
5. Altook, who was cooked up in a stew and eaten by yetis.
6. Quen-Liu the Pirate Queen, who bought her canonization alongside amnesty from the government.
7. Elia, who decided that being a virgin martyr wasn't all it was cracked up to be and escaped her captors. Died at 104 after the birth of her fifth great-great-grandchild.
8. Percival Tuckett, who survived thirteen nights of goblin pranks in a failed attempt to convert the warren on Puckawanakee Hill.
9. Anne of Redrosen; gambler, cheat, patroness of the out-of luck. Had her fingers cut off for trying to con the House of Silver Dreaming.
10. Henry Parson, the first priest to come to Tin Jacobstown; chartered the first agreement with the Black Amazons.
11. [Redacted], who has been stripped from the record for posthumously-revealed crimes.
12. The Sable Maid of Orlei, who led the campaign against the Dukes of Hell, and challenged Darvatius himself before the walls of Dis.
13. Orichus Alm, tender of the Angelic Engine and wise teacher of technical theology.
14. Stossisan, who oversaw the building of the  Obsidian Cathedral on the slopes of Mt. Kathualo.
15. Hauteliwika, who lived on nothing but the morning mist and a single acorn a day.
16. Bogab the Ogre, who held the gates of Dunson shut against the invaders with one hand and blessed the soldiers' weapons with the other.
17. Iridalus, one of the rare wizard-converts and author of a masterful catalog of spirits.
18. Grey, who forsook his name and tended to the ghoul-lepers of Janashkut.
19. Kaeltophe, who is said to have fought off ten thousand demons with his enchanted spear, and ridden a gigantic bristleback boar.
20. Navima, who crossed a sea a neophyte, and returned from unknown lands wise beyond all telling.

I am an Idiot and Bought a Fake Relic, What Happens? (2d6)

1. Your knowing and unrepentent blasphemy has called down doom upon you. 
2. Horrific spell backfire! Gain 1d4 mutations.
3. Normal spell backfire. Gain a mutation.
4. You are blocked from intoning the gods for 24 hours
5. You are blocked from intoning the gods for 1d6 days.
6. Nothing happens. Save vs fear, as your faith has failed in time of need.
7. Nothing happens. A spell die is burnt / a spell slot is lost until tomorrow.
8. Nothing happens. There is a sense of relief.
9. Take 1d4 damage from the relic melting in your hands.
10. It works, but the spell's effects (duration, range, damage, etc) are halved.
11. It works, but casts a different spell of 1d4 levels lower.
12. Well what do you know? It was actually real.

20 Spells From My Playlist

Not much to see here, folks, just a practice run at making GLOG spells using the ever-effective Araki Method of Power Naming. 

1) Knights of Cydonia

R: 20’ T: Point D: [sum] rounds

You summon [dice]-HD worth of rust-armored warriors from distant Cydonia and Tharsis. The rounds of activity are shared among all knights summoned.

2) Toxicity

R: Touch T: A container of liquid D: [dice] hours

You turn the liquid murky and foul for the appointed time: anyone drinking or touching it must save vs. poison. If [sum]>8, the change is permanent.

3) Get a Hold of Yourself

R: Touch T: Person D: [sum] rounds

Breaks target out of fear. They will resist fear for [sum] rounds.

4) Gold on the Ceiling

R: 50’ T: Gold and all other valuables D: [sum] minutes

Any item within range worth at least 1 gp will fly up into the air and become stuck on the ceiling. If no ceiling is present, the items will hover 30’ in the air until the effect expires.

5) Get Along Gone

R: 50’ T: [dice] persons D: 1 minute

[Dice] people are enveloped in a cloud of smoke, accompanied with a bright light and loud bang, permitting escape from combat.

6) Landsick

R: 20’ T: Person D: [sum] rounds

Target is overcome with powerful nausea, vomiting if 2 dice or more are invoked. Effect will only take place if the target is on solid ground; they will be immune if in the water or on a water.

7) Destroy the Past

R: Self T: Self D: As long as you can hold your breath

You are transported to the same location at a specified point in time within a range of [sum]x10 years. This will last as long as the player can hold their breath – breathing will result in returning to the present. All changes to the present will be applicable after the caster returns.

8) Promises of Sanctuary

R: Sight T: House or other shelter D: Until dawn

Target building is protected against evil intrusions of up to [dice] HD. If [sum] > 6 there will be fresh firewood, if >8, warm bedding, if >10, a hot meal, if >16 the Sanctuary Nymph will reveal herself.

9) Walk like an Egyptian

R: Self T: Self D: [Sum] rounds

You are rendered two dimensional upon a surface you are touching. You cannot move between adjacent objects unless 3+ dice are invested.

10) Whiteout Conditions

R: 15’ x [dice] T: Person D: [dice] minutes

Target is enveloped in a blinding snowstorm, centered on their body. The storm will follow them, though anyone else trapped in it will be able to escape normally.

11) Burn Burn

R: 20’ T: Book D: Instant

The targeted book goes up in flames. This fire is limited to the book and will not spread elsewhere. If a spellbook is burned, the caster has a [dice]-in-6 chance of learning a new spell if the ashes are eaten.

12) Obey the Beard

R: Touch T: Beard D: [sum] minutes

The target’s facial hair is awakened, and those listening it will be compelled as if under a Command spell. The awakened hair will always have the same identity, being that of Big Jimbo Holhms, a lumberjack known for his over-excitable imagination and love of activities that cause concussions.

13) Body

R: 30’ T: Person D: [dice] hours

Target’s body is separated into component parts, organ systems, and other structures. These might be safely moved about without causing harm to the target. Target will be aware of what is going on, but will feel no pain. There is a [sum] in 10 chance of summoning 1d4 alternate-universe versions of the target’s mother as observers.

14) Hang ‘Em All

R: Touch T: [dice] corpses D: Until released or decomposed completely.

The corpses, if strung up from gallows, will act as an oracular chorus to passersby: delivering warnings, compliments, advertisements, musical numbers and trivial information.

15) Word Crimes

R:10’ T: Visible Text D: 1 hour

Affected text will be changed so as to reference significant criminal behavior (usually of a humorous nature. If 2+ dice are invested, any individual of a criminal profession (thieves, assassins, drug peddlers, lawyers) will give great respect to the individual possessing altered text, for as long as the effect holds. After that, it’s up to smooth talk.

16) Fly Me To The Moon

R: Touch T: Person D: Instant

Target is instantly transported to a visible location on the moon. Any additional items beyond clothing and small objects requires an additional die of investment. Don’t use it on a new moon.

17) Way Down We Go

R: 30’ T: Multiple Persons D: [dice] combats

All effected persons have advantage for checks against fear, morale, or stress (as applicable) for [dice] combat encounters. This spell is only effective the first time a specific dungeon is entered.

18) Ventricide

R: Touch T: Person D: Instant

If 4+ dice are invested, the target’s heart explodes.

19) Coalescence

R: 20’ T: Corpse of ooze D: Permanent

The caster will create a rainstorm within the effect area, which will wash the remnants of the ooze to the space in front of the caster, ready for harvesting.

20) Hallelujah Money

R: 30’ T: Person D: [sum] rounds

Target is beset by seizures as an angel appears and showers them with [dice] x1000 false gold pieces, and scraps of paper bearing the visages of long-dead kings. The target must pass a WIS check to resist the urge to cease their current activities and founding a religion with a healthy appreciation for tithing.

The Old School

You walk now on sacred ground. Go lightly, and do not speak.

There’s magic out there older than books, older than bricks, older than bread. Magic so old it’s hardly magic anymore. Magic woven of golden savanna mornings when the apes looked up to the sky and named the sunlight itself. It is the magic of a master’s hands, the burning breast of the journeyman before his test, the tottering steps of the infant.

When you’re four years old and step into your grandmother’s kitchen, it is the old magic you feel.

Wizards hate talking about it: the old magic strips them of their star-spangled hats and gold-leaf diplomas and forces them to admit that there was a time before wizards, and that those poor unenlightened souls of the past weren’t so ignorant and superstitious after all, and that when wizards and all their universities have passed from the world the old magic will remain.

The old magic breathes and lives and burns in mankind – there is no one among Mother’s children, no matter how wretched or ignorant, who could not learn these arts. The wizards sneer and the moralizers wring their hands and the hateful spit bile, but the old magic lives.

The spells listed below are the most common expressions of the Humble Art. The majority of practitioners are ordinary common folk (making the old magic fairly unpopular with kings and tyrants), and they can be found in all but the most remote pickets of the world. Those who make a profession of the old magic go on to become hedge mages and witches.

Several of the following spells are less common or less popular in the modern era, and several more have been co-opted by mainstream magical traditions, but all are still known.

It is important to note that the old magic is significantly more hands-on than academic magic, and the lines between magic art and mundane craft can become blurred.

by Zdenek Burian

Spells of the Old Magic

Call upon the Folk

The Folk are always out there in the wild places: watching, waiting, listening. A man who shows the proper respect can call upon them for aid through the old magic, and they will answer.

Detection

The mind opens up, and there is a moment of awareness beyond what the senses can normally grasp. The spell can be amended to nearly any specialized end, but the old forms tend towards animals, evil, the Folk, people, place, poison and disease, time, and weather.

Identify

A spell to reveal enchantments and hidden names. In the basic form, it might reveal the components of a simple spell, or the common name of an unknown thing. If performed by a master, or by the aid of sympathetic components, it may reveal hidden identities or even true names.

Hunter’s Mark

Each hunter has a sign, used to mark a beast as sacrosanct. No hunter will touch a creature bearing another hunter’s Mark, for fear of a curse falling upon their interference. It is reserved for beasts deemed worthy adversaries, and is not to be wasted on simpler game.

Locate

The position of an item, person, place, or beast is burned into the mind as long as the spell remains. This art is dependent upon maintaining sympathy, and will not work at all without the appropriate components.

Manhood

A boy is charged with a task and sent out. If he succeeds, his geas is fulfilled and his father welcomes him home. If he fails, a boy he remains. Some die before their task is done, and the mantle of manhood remains unclaimed.

Mending

One of the three most common spells in the world (the others being Produce Flame and Women’s Work), and friend to housewives, craftsmen, and busybodies. But, be warned: Mend a thing too much and it will stop mending right. Consequences are not meant to be dodged, no matter how well one can recover from an accident.

Purify Food and Water

Wizards love to decry this spell as simply boiling water and cooking meat. They are correct to a point: beyond that point the practitioner might draw out disease and poison, even rot and heavy metals. Doing so will result in dry meat, limp vegetables, and rotball sprites that must be dealt with, but the food is safe.

Produce Flame

Mother stole fire from the dragons and led us through the snows by its light. All it takes is a snap of the fingers or a soft breath into cupped hands.

Spare the Dying

One cannot delay death, but the pain of the dying might be lessened by a measure. The pain must go somewhere, however. Without release it becomes a poison worse than death.

Women’s Work

A collection of skills, spells, medicines, and clever tricks that form the basis of witchcraft. There are many parts to women’s work, but the four central pillars are easing birth, menstrual maintenance, contraceptives, and proconceptives.

by E. Irving Couse

Rituals 

Augury

Omens are notoriously difficult to wrangle at the best of times. Haruspicy and nephomancy are the most reliable methods (+10% chance of a relevant answer for every HD of the creature sacrificed or hour spent watching the sky)

Contact other Plane

There are worlds besides our own, invisible and overlapping like grease on water or a smell on the air. Like children tapping on the aquarium glass, we are, attempting to glean the fish in the dark water beyond.

Control Weather

A misnamed spell. Even with magic, weather can only be guided. This ritual requires at least a dozen practitioners and a ritual taking up at least a full day. Wizards have generally taken over most of modern meteorology, but the rain dances continue. It's a good excuse for a party, if nothing else.

Magic Circle

Runes traced in dirt, written in salt, or carved into mighty standing stones – boundaries are laid out, blocking who may enter and who may leave. Most common as a defense against evil spirits and malicious Folk, most useful around the places where the space between planes is rubbed thin. Some circles are never broken, and what remains inside them has lasted to this day.

Passing the Torch

A ritual a lifetime in making. This is the greatest power of mankind: not even the dragon lords considered that they might pass on their fire.

Skywrite

There are several languages still spoken and read whose alphabets had their beginnings in cloud-hieroglyphs. It is an essential skill for those living on the plains. Settlements will often have permanent cloud-signs above them, offering hospitality or warning.

Speak with Dead

The dead we have loved cannot speak, but for a few moments, they can listen. There is time left.

Weave Tale / Weave Song

The translation of reality into fiction into reality again. The creation of that which fills the mead halls, of what muses sing and bards dream. Old stories grow heavy, grow strong, pull life along in their wake. What is history, but a story? What is life, but a song?

Artist unknown

The Oldest Trick in the Book

For those wondering, the oldest trick in the Book is Gassy Lass, a cantrip that makes the target fart. The second oldest is Agharan’s Copper Spike, which is a method of keeping someone alive for several days after impaling them from anus-to-mouth on a copper spike.

The Book itself is doing quite well for itself, though it is about ready to outgrow its second library. It might have also recently eaten a graduate student.